From 8fbac492887fc9a87c53e1d4c7254cd62e628c38 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2022 17:17:59 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 01/25] Added DemoApp2 --- DemoApp2/DemoApp2.csproj | 33 + DemoApp2/MainForm.Designer.cs | 231 + DemoApp2/MainForm.cs | 137 + DemoApp2/MainForm.resx | 120 + DemoApp2/Program.cs | 14 + DemoApp2/WordPosition.cs | 36 + ...ures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt | 12361 ++++++++++++++++ TrieNet.sln | 17 +- 8 files changed, 12946 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) create mode 100644 DemoApp2/DemoApp2.csproj create mode 100644 DemoApp2/MainForm.Designer.cs create mode 100644 DemoApp2/MainForm.cs create mode 100644 DemoApp2/MainForm.resx create mode 100644 DemoApp2/Program.cs create mode 100644 DemoApp2/WordPosition.cs create mode 100644 DemoApp2/texts/Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt diff --git a/DemoApp2/DemoApp2.csproj b/DemoApp2/DemoApp2.csproj new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4bc3e83 --- /dev/null +++ b/DemoApp2/DemoApp2.csproj @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ + + + + WinExe + net6.0-windows + enable + true + enable + + + + + + + + + PreserveNewest + + + PreserveNewest + + + PreserveNewest + + + PreserveNewest + + + PreserveNewest + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp2/MainForm.Designer.cs b/DemoApp2/MainForm.Designer.cs new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9441982 --- /dev/null +++ b/DemoApp2/MainForm.Designer.cs @@ -0,0 +1,231 @@ +namespace DemoApp2 { + partial class MainForm + { + /// + /// Required designer variable. + /// + private System.ComponentModel.IContainer components = null; + + /// + /// Clean up any resources being used. + /// + /// true if managed resources should be disposed; otherwise, false. + protected override void Dispose(bool disposing) + { + if (disposing && (components != null)) + { + components.Dispose(); + } + base.Dispose(disposing); + } + + #region Windows Form Designer generated code + + /// + /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify + /// the contents of this method with the code editor. + /// + private void InitializeComponent() + { + this.textBox1 = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox(); + this.directorySearcher = new System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher(); + this.buttonBrowse = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); + this.listBox1 = new System.Windows.Forms.ListBox(); + this.richTextBox1 = new System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox(); + this.groupBox1 = new System.Windows.Forms.GroupBox(); + this.progressText = new System.Windows.Forms.Label(); + this.progressBar1 = new System.Windows.Forms.ProgressBar(); + this.btnLoad = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); + this.label1 = new System.Windows.Forms.Label(); + this.folderName = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox(); + this.groupBox2 = new System.Windows.Forms.GroupBox(); + this.groupBox3 = new System.Windows.Forms.GroupBox(); + this.groupBox1.SuspendLayout(); + this.groupBox2.SuspendLayout(); + this.groupBox3.SuspendLayout(); + this.SuspendLayout(); + // + // textBox1 + // + this.textBox1.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) + | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); + this.textBox1.BorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.BorderStyle.FixedSingle; + this.textBox1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(10, 31); + this.textBox1.Margin = new System.Windows.Forms.Padding(4); + this.textBox1.Name = "textBox1"; + this.textBox1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(867, 22); + this.textBox1.TabIndex = 0; + this.textBox1.TextChanged += new System.EventHandler(this.textBox1_TextChanged); + // + // directorySearcher + // + this.directorySearcher.ClientTimeout = System.TimeSpan.Parse("-00:00:01"); + this.directorySearcher.ServerPageTimeLimit = System.TimeSpan.Parse("-00:00:01"); + this.directorySearcher.ServerTimeLimit = System.TimeSpan.Parse("-00:00:01"); + // + // buttonBrowse + // + this.buttonBrowse.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); + this.buttonBrowse.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(754, 21); + this.buttonBrowse.Margin = new System.Windows.Forms.Padding(4); + this.buttonBrowse.Name = "buttonBrowse"; + this.buttonBrowse.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(41, 28); + this.buttonBrowse.TabIndex = 1; + this.buttonBrowse.Text = "..."; + this.buttonBrowse.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true; + this.buttonBrowse.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.buttonBrowse_Click); + // + // listBox1 + // + this.listBox1.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom) + | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left))); + this.listBox1.BorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.BorderStyle.FixedSingle; + this.listBox1.FormattingEnabled = true; + this.listBox1.ItemHeight = 16; + this.listBox1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(10, 21); + this.listBox1.Name = "listBox1"; + this.listBox1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(581, 226); + this.listBox1.TabIndex = 2; + this.listBox1.SelectedIndexChanged += new System.EventHandler(this.listBox1_SelectedIndexChanged); + // + // richTextBox1 + // + this.richTextBox1.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom) + | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) + | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); + this.richTextBox1.BorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.BorderStyle.None; + this.richTextBox1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(597, 21); + this.richTextBox1.Name = "richTextBox1"; + this.richTextBox1.ScrollBars = System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBoxScrollBars.Vertical; + this.richTextBox1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(270, 218); + this.richTextBox1.TabIndex = 3; + this.richTextBox1.Text = ""; + // + // groupBox1 + // + this.groupBox1.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) + | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); + this.groupBox1.Controls.Add(this.progressText); + this.groupBox1.Controls.Add(this.progressBar1); + this.groupBox1.Controls.Add(this.btnLoad); + this.groupBox1.Controls.Add(this.label1); + this.groupBox1.Controls.Add(this.folderName); + this.groupBox1.Controls.Add(this.buttonBrowse); + this.groupBox1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(13, 13); + this.groupBox1.Name = "groupBox1"; + this.groupBox1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(884, 110); + this.groupBox1.TabIndex = 4; + this.groupBox1.TabStop = false; + this.groupBox1.Text = "1: Load files "; + // + // progressText + // + this.progressText.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) + | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); + this.progressText.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(12, 66); + this.progressText.Name = "progressText"; + this.progressText.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(865, 22); + this.progressText.TabIndex = 6; + // + // progressBar1 + // + this.progressBar1.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) + | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); + this.progressBar1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(10, 91); + this.progressBar1.Name = "progressBar1"; + this.progressBar1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(868, 13); + this.progressBar1.TabIndex = 5; + // + // btnLoad + // + this.btnLoad.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); + this.btnLoad.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(802, 21); + this.btnLoad.Name = "btnLoad"; + this.btnLoad.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(75, 28); + this.btnLoad.TabIndex = 4; + this.btnLoad.Text = "Load"; + this.btnLoad.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true; + this.btnLoad.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.btnLoad_Click); + // + // label1 + // + this.label1.AutoSize = true; + this.label1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(7, 27); + this.label1.Name = "label1"; + this.label1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(52, 17); + this.label1.TabIndex = 3; + this.label1.Text = "Folder:"; + // + // folderName + // + this.folderName.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) + | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); + this.folderName.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(65, 24); + this.folderName.Name = "folderName"; + this.folderName.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(682, 22); + this.folderName.TabIndex = 2; + // + // groupBox2 + // + this.groupBox2.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) + | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); + this.groupBox2.Controls.Add(this.textBox1); + this.groupBox2.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(13, 129); + this.groupBox2.Name = "groupBox2"; + this.groupBox2.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(884, 63); + this.groupBox2.TabIndex = 5; + this.groupBox2.TabStop = false; + this.groupBox2.Text = "2: Type a search string (more then 3 chars)"; + // + // groupBox3 + // + this.groupBox3.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom) + | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) + | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); + this.groupBox3.Controls.Add(this.richTextBox1); + this.groupBox3.Controls.Add(this.listBox1); + this.groupBox3.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(13, 198); + this.groupBox3.Name = "groupBox3"; + this.groupBox3.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(884, 258); + this.groupBox3.TabIndex = 6; + this.groupBox3.TabStop = false; + this.groupBox3.Text = "3: Click on items to see occurance"; + // + // MainForm + // + this.AutoScaleDimensions = new System.Drawing.SizeF(8F, 16F); + this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font; + this.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.White; + this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(909, 469); + this.Controls.Add(this.groupBox3); + this.Controls.Add(this.groupBox2); + this.Controls.Add(this.groupBox1); + this.Margin = new System.Windows.Forms.Padding(4); + this.Name = "MainForm"; + this.Text = "Trie Data Structure Demo"; + this.groupBox1.ResumeLayout(false); + this.groupBox1.PerformLayout(); + this.groupBox2.ResumeLayout(false); + this.groupBox2.PerformLayout(); + this.groupBox3.ResumeLayout(false); + this.ResumeLayout(false); + + } + + #endregion + + private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox textBox1; + private System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher directorySearcher; + private System.Windows.Forms.Button buttonBrowse; + private System.Windows.Forms.ListBox listBox1; + private System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox richTextBox1; + private System.Windows.Forms.GroupBox groupBox1; + private System.Windows.Forms.Button btnLoad; + private System.Windows.Forms.Label label1; + private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox folderName; + private System.Windows.Forms.ProgressBar progressBar1; + private System.Windows.Forms.GroupBox groupBox2; + private System.Windows.Forms.GroupBox groupBox3; + private System.Windows.Forms.Label progressText; + } +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs b/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0c68716 --- /dev/null +++ b/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs @@ -0,0 +1,137 @@ +// This code is distributed under MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 George Mamaladze +// See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php +using Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch; +using System; +using System.Collections.Generic; +using System.Drawing; +using System.IO; +using System.Linq; +using System.Text; +using System.Windows.Forms; + +namespace DemoApp2 { + public partial class MainForm : Form { + private readonly ITrie m_PatriciaTrie; + private long m_WordCount; + + public MainForm() { + InitializeComponent(); + m_PatriciaTrie = new PatriciaSuffixTrie(3); + //m_PatriciaTrie = new FakeTrie(); + folderName.Text = + Path.Combine( + Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(), + "texts"); + } + + private void LoadFile(string fileName) { + //var word = File.ReadAllText(fileName); + //m_PatriciaTrie.Add(word, new WordPosition(0, fileName)); + Tuple[] words = GetWords(fileName).ToArray(); + foreach (var word in words) { + string text = word.Item2; + WordPosition wordPosition = word.Item1; + m_PatriciaTrie.Add(text, wordPosition); + } + } + + + private IEnumerable> GetWords(string file) { + using (Stream stream = File.Open(file, FileMode.Open)) { + var word = new StringBuilder(); + while (true) { + long position = stream.Position; + int data = (char)stream.ReadByte(); + { + if (data > byte.MaxValue) break; + var ch = (Char)data; + if (char.IsLetter(ch) || word.Length < 50) { + word.Append(ch); + } else { + if (word.Length != 0) { + var wordPosition = new WordPosition(position, file); + yield return new Tuple(wordPosition, word.ToString().ToLower()); + word.Clear(); + m_WordCount++; + } + } + } + UpdateProgress(position); + } + } + } + + private void UpdateProgress(long position) { + if (position % 1024 != 0) return; + progressBar1.Value = Math.Min((int)position / 1024 * 2, progressBar1.Maximum); + Application.DoEvents(); + } + + private void textBox1_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { + string text = textBox1.Text; + if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(text) || text.Length < 3) return; + WordPosition[] result = m_PatriciaTrie.Retrieve(text).ToArray(); + listBox1.Items.Clear(); + foreach (WordPosition wordPosition in result) { + listBox1.Items.Add(wordPosition); + } + } + + private void listBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { + var item = listBox1.SelectedItem as WordPosition; + if (item == null) return; + using (FileStream file = File.Open(item.FileName, FileMode.Open)) { + const int bifferSize = 300; + long position = Math.Max(item.CharPosition - bifferSize / 2, 0); + file.Seek(position, SeekOrigin.Begin); + var buffer = new byte[bifferSize]; + file.Read(buffer, 0, bifferSize); + string line = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(buffer); + richTextBox1.Text = line; + + string serachText = textBox1.Text; + int index = richTextBox1.Text.IndexOf(serachText, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase); + if (index < 0) return; + richTextBox1.Select(index, serachText.Length); + richTextBox1.SelectionBackColor = Color.Yellow; + richTextBox1.DeselectAll(); + } + } + + private void buttonBrowse_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { + var folderBrowserDialog = new FolderBrowserDialog(); + folderBrowserDialog.SelectedPath = folderName.Text; + DialogResult result = folderBrowserDialog.ShowDialog(); + if (result != DialogResult.OK) return; + folderName.Text = folderBrowserDialog.SelectedPath; + } + + private void btnLoad_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { + LoadAll(); + } + + private void LoadAll() { + m_WordCount = 0; + string path = folderName.Text; + if (!Directory.Exists(path)) return; + string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(path, "*.txt", SearchOption.AllDirectories); + progressBar1.Minimum = 0; + progressBar1.Step = 1; + for (int index = 0; index < files.Length; index++) { + string file = files[index]; + progressText.Text = + string.Format( + "Processing file {0} of {1}: [{2}]", + index, + files.Length, + Path.GetFileName(file)); + + var fileInfo = new FileInfo(file); + progressBar1.Maximum = (int)fileInfo.Length / 1024; + LoadFile(file); + progressBar1.Value = 0; + } + progressText.Text = string.Format("{0:n0} words read. Ready.", m_WordCount); + } + } +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp2/MainForm.resx b/DemoApp2/MainForm.resx new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1af7de1 --- /dev/null +++ b/DemoApp2/MainForm.resx @@ -0,0 +1,120 @@ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + text/microsoft-resx + + + 2.0 + + + System.Resources.ResXResourceReader, System.Windows.Forms, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089 + + + System.Resources.ResXResourceWriter, System.Windows.Forms, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089 + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp2/Program.cs b/DemoApp2/Program.cs new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b0c568 --- /dev/null +++ b/DemoApp2/Program.cs @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +namespace DemoApp2 { + internal static class Program { + /// + /// The main entry point for the application. + /// + [STAThread] + static void Main() { + // To customize application configuration such as set high DPI settings or default font, + // see https://aka.ms/applicationconfiguration. + ApplicationConfiguration.Initialize(); + Application.Run(new MainForm()); + } + } +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp2/WordPosition.cs b/DemoApp2/WordPosition.cs new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e07ca4 --- /dev/null +++ b/DemoApp2/WordPosition.cs @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +// This code is distributed under MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 George Mamaladze +// See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php +using System.IO; + +namespace DemoApp2 { + internal class WordPosition + { + private readonly long m_CharPosition; + private readonly string m_FileName; + + public WordPosition(long charPosition, string fileName) + { + m_CharPosition = charPosition; + m_FileName = fileName; + } + + public string FileName + { + get { return m_FileName; } + } + + public long CharPosition + { + get { return m_CharPosition; } + } + + public override string ToString() + { + return + string.Format( + "( Pos {0} ) {1}", + CharPosition, + Path.GetFileName(FileName)); + } + } +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp2/texts/Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt b/DemoApp2/texts/Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a366dc0 --- /dev/null +++ b/DemoApp2/texts/Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12361 @@ + + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Complete +by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost +no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use +it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this +eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + +Title: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Complete + +Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +Release Date: August 20, 2006 [EBook #76] + +Last Updated: October 20, 2012] + +Language: English + + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUCKLEBERRY FINN *** + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +ADVENTURES + +OF + +HUCKLEBERRY FINN + +(Tom Sawyer's Comrade) + +By Mark Twain + +Complete + + + + +CONTENTS. + +CHAPTER I. Civilizing Huck.—Miss Watson.—Tom Sawyer Waits. + +CHAPTER II. The Boys Escape Jim.—Torn Sawyer's Gang.—Deep-laid Plans. + +CHAPTER III. A Good Going-over.—Grace Triumphant.—"One of Tom Sawyers's +Lies". + +CHAPTER IV. Huck and the Judge.—Superstition. + +CHAPTER V. Huck's Father.—The Fond Parent.—Reform. + +CHAPTER VI. He Went for Judge Thatcher.—Huck Decided to Leave.—Political +Economy.—Thrashing Around. + +CHAPTER VII. Laying for Him.—Locked in the Cabin.—Sinking the +Body.—Resting. + +CHAPTER VIII. Sleeping in the Woods.—Raising the Dead.—Exploring the +Island.—Finding Jim.—Jim's Escape.—Signs.—Balum. + +CHAPTER IX. The Cave.—The Floating House. + +CHAPTER X. The Find.—Old Hank Bunker.—In Disguise. + +CHAPTER XI. Huck and the Woman.—The Search.—Prevarication.—Going to +Goshen. + +CHAPTER XII. Slow Navigation.—Borrowing Things.—Boarding the Wreck.—The +Plotters.—Hunting for the Boat. + +CHAPTER XIII. Escaping from the Wreck.—The Watchman.—Sinking. + +CHAPTER XIV. A General Good Time.—The Harem.—French. + +CHAPTER XV. Huck Loses the Raft.—In the Fog.—Huck Finds the Raft.—Trash. + +CHAPTER XVI. Expectation.—A White Lie.—Floating Currency.—Running by +Cairo.—Swimming Ashore. + +CHAPTER XVII. An Evening Call.—The Farm in Arkansaw.—Interior +Decorations.—Stephen Dowling Bots.—Poetical Effusions. + +CHAPTER XVIII. Col. Grangerford.—Aristocracy.—Feuds.—The +Testament.—Recovering the Raft.—The Wood—pile.—Pork and Cabbage. + +CHAPTER XIX. Tying Up Day—times.—An Astronomical Theory.—Running a +Temperance Revival.—The Duke of Bridgewater.—The Troubles of Royalty. + +CHAPTER XX. Huck Explains.—Laying Out a Campaign.—Working the +Camp—meeting.—A Pirate at the Camp—meeting.—The Duke as a Printer. + +CHAPTER XXI. Sword Exercise.—Hamlet's Soliloquy.—They Loafed Around +Town.—A Lazy Town.—Old Boggs.—Dead. + +CHAPTER XXII. Sherburn.—Attending the Circus.—Intoxication in the +Ring.—The Thrilling Tragedy. + +CHAPTER XXIII. Sold.—Royal Comparisons.—Jim Gets Home-sick. + +CHAPTER XXIV. Jim in Royal Robes.—They Take a Passenger.—Getting +Information.—Family Grief. + +CHAPTER XXV. Is It Them?—Singing the "Doxologer."—Awful Square—Funeral +Orgies.—A Bad Investment . + +CHAPTER XXVI. A Pious King.—The King's Clergy.—She Asked His +Pardon.—Hiding in the Room.—Huck Takes the Money. + +CHAPTER XXVII. The Funeral.—Satisfying Curiosity.—Suspicious of +Huck,—Quick Sales and Small. + +CHAPTER XXVIII. The Trip to England.—"The Brute!"—Mary Jane Decides to +Leave.—Huck Parting with Mary Jane.—Mumps.—The Opposition Line. + +CHAPTER XXIX. Contested Relationship.—The King Explains the Loss.—A +Question of Handwriting.—Digging up the Corpse.—Huck Escapes. + +CHAPTER XXX. The King Went for Him.—A Royal Row.—Powerful Mellow. + +CHAPTER XXXI. Ominous Plans.—News from Jim.—Old Recollections.—A Sheep +Story.—Valuable Information. + +CHAPTER XXXII. Still and Sunday—like.—Mistaken Identity.—Up a Stump.—In +a Dilemma. + +CHAPTER XXXIII. A Nigger Stealer.—Southern Hospitality.—A Pretty Long +Blessing.—Tar and Feathers. + +CHAPTER XXXIV. The Hut by the Ash Hopper.—Outrageous.—Climbing the +Lightning Rod.—Troubled with Witches. + +CHAPTER XXXV. Escaping Properly.—Dark Schemes.—Discrimination in +Stealing.—A Deep Hole. + +CHAPTER XXXVI. The Lightning Rod.—His Level Best.—A Bequest to +Posterity.—A High Figure. + +CHAPTER XXXVII. The Last Shirt.—Mooning Around.—Sailing Orders.—The +Witch Pie. + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Coat of Arms.—A Skilled Superintendent.—Unpleasant +Glory.—A Tearful Subject. + +CHAPTER XXXIX. Rats.—Lively Bed—fellows.—The Straw Dummy. + +CHAPTER XL. Fishing.—The Vigilance Committee.—A Lively Run.—Jim Advises +a Doctor. + +CHAPTER XLI. The Doctor.—Uncle Silas.—Sister Hotchkiss.—Aunt Sally in +Trouble. + +CHAPTER XLII. Tom Sawyer Wounded.—The Doctor's Story.—Tom +Confesses.—Aunt Polly Arrives.—Hand Out Them Letters    . + +CHAPTER THE LAST. Out of Bondage.—Paying the Captive.—Yours Truly, Huck +Finn. + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + +The Widows + +Moses and the "Bulrushers" + +Miss Watson + +Huck Stealing Away + +They Tip-toed Along + +Jim + +Tom Sawyer's Band of Robbers   + +Huck Creeps into his Window + +Miss Watson's Lecture + +The Robbers Dispersed + +Rubbing the Lamp + +! ! ! ! + +Judge Thatcher surprised + +Jim Listening + +"Pap" + +Huck and his Father + +Reforming the Drunkard + +Falling from Grace + +The Widows + +Moses and the "Bulrushers" + +Miss Watson + +Huck Stealing Away + +They Tip-toed Along + +Jim + +Tom Sawyer's Band of Robbers   + +Huck Creeps into his Window + +Miss Watson's Lecture + +The Robbers Dispersed + +Rubbing the Lamp + +! ! ! ! + +Judge Thatcher surprised + +Jim Listening + +"Pap" + +Huck and his Father + +Reforming the Drunkard + +Falling from Grace + +Getting out of the Way + +Solid Comfort + +Thinking it Over + +Raising a Howl + +"Git Up" + +The Shanty + +Shooting the Pig + +Taking a Rest + +In the Woods + +Watching the Boat + +Discovering the Camp Fire + +Jim and the Ghost + +Misto Bradish's Nigger + +Exploring the Cave + +In the Cave + +Jim sees a Dead Man + +They Found Eight Dollars + +Jim and the Snake + +Old Hank Bunker + +"A Fair Fit" + +"Come In" + +"Him and another Man" + +She puts up a Snack + +"Hump Yourself" + +On the Raft + +He sometimes Lifted a Chicken + +"Please don't, Bill" + +"It ain't Good Morals" + +"Oh! Lordy, Lordy!" + +In a Fix + +"Hello, What's Up?" + +The Wreck + +We turned in and Slept + +Turning over the Truck + +Solomon and his Million Wives + +The story of "Sollermun" + +"We Would Sell the Raft" + +Among the Snags + +Asleep on the Raft + +"Something being Raftsman" + +"Boy, that's a Lie" + +"Here I is, Huck" + +Climbing up the Bank + +"Who's There?" + +"Buck" + +"It made Her look Spidery" + +"They got him out and emptied Him"   + +The House + +Col. Grangerford + +Young Harney Shepherdson + +Miss Charlotte + +"And asked me if I Liked Her" + +"Behind the Wood-pile" + +Hiding Day-times + +"And Dogs a-Coming" + +"By rights I am a Duke!" + +"I am the Late Dauphin" + +Tail Piece + +On the Raft + +The King as Juliet + +"Courting on the Sly" + +"A Pirate for Thirty Years" + +Another little Job + +Practizing + +Hamlet's Soliloquy + +"Gimme a Chaw" + +A Little Monthly Drunk + +The Death of Boggs + +Sherburn steps out + +A Dead Head + +He shed Seventeen Suits + +Tragedy + +Their Pockets Bulged + +Henry the Eighth in Boston Harbor + +Harmless + +Adolphus + +He fairly emptied that Young Fellow + +"Alas, our Poor Brother" + +"You Bet it is" + +Leaking + +Making up the "Deffisit" + +Going for him + +The Doctor + +The Bag of Money + +The Cubby + +Supper with the Hare-Lip + +Honest Injun + +The Duke looks under the Bed + +Huck takes the Money + +A Crack in the Dining-room Door + +The Undertaker + +"He had a Rat!" + +"Was you in my Room?" + +Jawing + +In Trouble + +Indignation + +How to Find Them + +He Wrote + +Hannah with the Mumps + +The Auction + +The True Brothers + +The Doctor leads Huck + +The Duke Wrote + +"Gentlemen, Gentlemen!" + +"Jim Lit Out" + +The King shakes Huck + +The Duke went for Him + +Spanish Moss + +"Who Nailed Him?" + +Thinking + +He gave him Ten Cents + +Striking for the Back Country + +Still and Sunday-like + +She hugged him tight + +"Who do you reckon it is?" + +"It was Tom Sawyer" + +"Mr. Archibald Nichols, I presume?" + +A pretty long Blessing + +Traveling By Rail + +Vittles + +A Simple Job + +Witches + +Getting Wood + +One of the Best Authorities + +The Breakfast-Horn + +Smouching the Knives + +Going down the Lightning-Rod + +Stealing spoons + +Tom advises a Witch Pie + +The Rubbage-Pile + +"Missus, dey's a Sheet Gone" + +In a Tearing Way + +One of his Ancestors + +Jim's Coat of Arms + +A Tough Job + +Buttons on their Tails + +Irrigation + +Keeping off Dull Times + +Sawdust Diet + +Trouble is Brewing + +Fishing + +Every one had a Gun + +Tom caught on a Splinter + +Jim advises a Doctor + +The Doctor + +Uncle Silas in Danger + +Old Mrs. Hotchkiss + +Aunt Sally talks to Huck + +Tom Sawyer wounded + +The Doctor speaks for Jim + +Tom rose square up in Bed + +"Hand out them Letters" + +Out of Bondage + +Tom's Liberality + +Yours Truly + + + + +EXPLANATORY + +IN this book a number of dialects are used, to wit:  the Missouri negro +dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect; the +ordinary "Pike County" dialect; and four modified varieties of this +last. The shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion, or by +guesswork; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and +support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech. + +I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers +would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and +not succeeding. + +THE AUTHOR. + + + + +HUCKLEBERRY FINN + +Scene:  The Mississippi Valley Time:  Forty to fifty years ago + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +YOU don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The +Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter.  That book was made +by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly.  There was things +which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.  That is nothing.  I +never seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt +Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary.  Aunt Polly—Tom's Aunt Polly, she +is—and Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told about in that book, which +is mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I said before. + +Now the way that the book winds up is this:  Tom and me found the money +that the robbers hid in the cave, and it made us rich.  We got six +thousand dollars apiece—all gold.  It was an awful sight of money when +it was piled up.  Well, Judge Thatcher he took it and put it out +at interest, and it fetched us a dollar a day apiece all the year +round—more than a body could tell what to do with.  The Widow Douglas +she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was +rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular +and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand +it no longer I lit out.  I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead +again, and was free and satisfied.  But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and +said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I +would go back to the widow and be respectable.  So I went back. + +The widow she cried over me, and called me a poor lost lamb, and she +called me a lot of other names, too, but she never meant no harm by +it. She put me in them new clothes again, and I couldn't do nothing but +sweat and sweat, and feel all cramped up.  Well, then, the old thing +commenced again.  The widow rung a bell for supper, and you had to come +to time. When you got to the table you couldn't go right to eating, but +you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little +over the victuals, though there warn't really anything the matter with +them,—that is, nothing only everything was cooked by itself.  In a +barrel of odds and ends it is different; things get mixed up, and the +juice kind of swaps around, and the things go better. + +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 didn't care no more about him, because I don't take no stock in +dead people. + +Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me.  But she +wouldn't.  She said it was a mean practice and wasn't 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 don't 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 couldn't stood it much longer.  Then for +an hour it was deadly dull, and I was fidgety.  Miss Watson would say, +"Don't put your feet up there, Huckleberry;" and "Don't scrunch up +like that, Huckleberry—set up straight;" and pretty soon she would +say, "Don't gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry—why don't you try to +behave?"  Then she told me all about the bad place, and I said I wished +I was there. She got mad then, but I didn't mean no harm.  All I wanted +was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change, I warn't particular. + She said it was wicked to say what I said; said she wouldn't say it for +the whole world; she was going to live so as to go to the good place. + Well, I couldn't see no advantage in going where she was going, so I +made up my mind I wouldn't try for it.  But I never said so, because it +would only make trouble, and wouldn't 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 didn't 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 warn't 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 couldn't 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 that's on its mind and can't make itself understood, and so +can't 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 didn't 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 hadn't no confidence.  You do that when you've lost a horseshoe that +you've found, instead of nailing it up over the door, but I hadn't ever +heard anybody say it was any way to keep off bad luck when you'd 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 wouldn't +know. Well, after a long time I heard the clock away off in the town +go boom—boom—boom—twelve licks; and all still again—stiller than +ever. Pretty soon I heard a twig snap down in the dark amongst the +trees—something was a stirring.  I set still and listened.  Directly I +could just barely hear a "me-yow! me-yow!" down there.  That was good! + Says I, "me-yow! me-yow!" 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 widow's garden, stooping down so as the branches wouldn't 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 Watson's 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: + +"Who dah?" + +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 warn't a sound, and we all there so close +together.  There was a place on my ankle that got to itching, but I +dasn't scratch it; and then my ear begun to itch; and next my back, +right between my shoulders.  Seemed like I'd die if I couldn't scratch. + Well, I've noticed that thing plenty times since.  If you are with +the quality, or at a funeral, or trying to go to sleep when you ain't +sleepy—if you are anywheres where it won't do for you to scratch, why +you will itch all over in upwards of a thousand places. Pretty soon Jim +says: + +"Say, who is you?  Whar is you?  Dog my cats ef I didn' hear sumf'n. +Well, I know what I's gwyne to do:  I's gwyne to set down here and +listen tell I hears it agin." + +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 dasn't scratch.  Then it begun to itch on the inside. +Next I got to itching underneath.  I didn't 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 couldn't stand it more'n 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 snore—and then I was pretty soon +comfortable again. + +Tom he made a sign to me—kind of a little noise with his mouth—and 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 they'd find out I +warn't in. Then Tom said he hadn't got candles enough, and he would slip +in the kitchen and get some more.  I didn't 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 Jim's hat off of his head and hung it +on a limb right over him, and Jim stirred a little, but he didn't 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 wouldn't 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, "Hm!  What you know 'bout witches?" 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 wouldn't touch +it, because the devil had had his hands on it.  Jim was most ruined for +a servant, because he got stuck up on account of having seen the devil +and been rode by witches. + +Well, when Tom and me got to the edge of the hilltop we looked away down +into the village and could see three or four lights twinkling, where +there was sick folks, maybe; and the stars over us was sparkling ever +so fine; and down by the village was the river, a whole mile broad, and +awful still and grand.  We went down the hill and found Jo Harper and +Ben Rogers, and two or three more of the boys, hid in the old tanyard. + So we unhitched a skiff and pulled down the river two mile and a half, +to the big scar on the hillside, and went ashore. + +We went to a clump of bushes, and Tom made everybody swear to keep the +secret, and then showed them a hole in the hill, right in the thickest +part of the bushes.  Then we lit the candles, and crawled in on our +hands and knees.  We went about two hundred yards, and then the cave +opened up. Tom poked about amongst the passages, and pretty soon ducked +under a wall where you wouldn't a noticed that there was a hole.  We +went along a narrow place and got into a kind of room, all damp and +sweaty and cold, and there we stopped.  Tom says: + +"Now, we'll start this band of robbers and call it Tom Sawyer's Gang. +Everybody that wants to join has got to take an oath, and write his name +in blood." + +Everybody was willing.  So Tom got out a sheet of paper that he had +wrote the oath on, and read it.  It swore every boy to stick to the +band, and never tell any of the secrets; and if anybody done anything to +any boy in the band, whichever boy was ordered to kill that person and +his family must do it, and he mustn't eat and he mustn't sleep till he +had killed them and hacked a cross in their breasts, which was the sign +of the band. And nobody that didn't belong to the band could use that +mark, and if he did he must be sued; and if he done it again he must be +killed.  And if anybody that belonged to the band told the secrets, he +must have his throat cut, and then have his carcass burnt up and the +ashes scattered all around, and his name blotted off of the list with +blood and never mentioned again by the gang, but have a curse put on it +and be forgot forever. + +Everybody said it was a real beautiful oath, and asked Tom if he got +it out of his own head.  He said, some of it, but the rest was out of +pirate-books and robber-books, and every gang that was high-toned had +it. + +Some thought it would be good to kill the _families_ of boys that told +the secrets.  Tom said it was a good idea, so he took a pencil and wrote +it in. Then Ben Rogers says: + +"Here's Huck Finn, he hain't got no family; what you going to do 'bout +him?" + +"Well, hain't he got a father?" says Tom Sawyer. + +"Yes, he's got a father, but you can't never find him these days.  He +used to lay drunk with the hogs in the tanyard, but he hain't been seen +in these parts for a year or more." + +They talked it over, and they was going to rule me out, because they +said every boy must have a family or somebody to kill, or else it +wouldn't be fair and square for the others.  Well, nobody could think of +anything to do—everybody was stumped, and set still.  I was most ready +to cry; but all at once I thought of a way, and so I offered them Miss +Watson—they could kill her.  Everybody said: + +"Oh, she'll do.  That's all right.  Huck can come in." + +Then they all stuck a pin in their fingers to get blood to sign with, +and I made my mark on the paper. + +"Now," says Ben Rogers, "what's the line of business of this Gang?" + +"Nothing only robbery and murder," Tom said. + +"But who are we going to rob?—houses, or cattle, or—" + +"Stuff! stealing cattle and such things ain't robbery; it's burglary," +says Tom Sawyer.  "We ain't burglars.  That ain't no sort of style.  We +are highwaymen.  We stop stages and carriages on the road, with masks +on, and kill the people and take their watches and money." + +"Must we always kill the people?" + +"Oh, certainly.  It's best.  Some authorities think different, but +mostly it's considered best to kill them—except some that you bring to +the cave here, and keep them till they're ransomed." + +"Ransomed?  What's that?" + +"I don't know.  But that's what they do.  I've seen it in books; and so +of course that's what we've got to do." + +"But how can we do it if we don't know what it is?" + +"Why, blame it all, we've _got_ to do it.  Don't I tell you it's in the +books?  Do you want to go to doing different from what's in the books, +and get things all muddled up?" + +"Oh, that's all very fine to _say_, Tom Sawyer, but how in the nation +are these fellows going to be ransomed if we don't know how to do it +to them?—that's the thing I want to get at.  Now, what do you reckon it +is?" + +"Well, I don't know.  But per'aps if we keep them till they're ransomed, +it means that we keep them till they're dead." + +"Now, that's something _like_.  That'll answer.  Why couldn't you said +that before?  We'll keep them till they're ransomed to death; and a +bothersome lot they'll be, too—eating up everything, and always trying +to get loose." + +"How you talk, Ben Rogers.  How can they get loose when there's a guard +over them, ready to shoot them down if they move a peg?" + +"A guard!  Well, that _is_ good.  So somebody's got to set up all night +and never get any sleep, just so as to watch them.  I think that's +foolishness. Why can't a body take a club and ransom them as soon as +they get here?" + +"Because it ain't in the books so—that's why.  Now, Ben Rogers, do you +want to do things regular, or don't you?—that's the idea.  Don't you +reckon that the people that made the books knows what's the correct +thing to do?  Do you reckon _you_ can learn 'em anything?  Not by a good +deal. No, sir, we'll just go on and ransom them in the regular way." + +"All right.  I don't mind; but I say it's a fool way, anyhow.  Say, do +we kill the women, too?" + +"Well, Ben Rogers, if I was as ignorant as you I wouldn't let on.  Kill +the women?  No; nobody ever saw anything in the books like that.  You +fetch them to the cave, and you're always as polite as pie to them; +and by and by they fall in love with you, and never want to go home any +more." + +"Well, if that's the way I'm agreed, but I don't take no stock in it. +Mighty soon we'll have the cave so cluttered up with women, and fellows +waiting to be ransomed, that there won't be no place for the robbers. +But go ahead, I ain't got nothing to say." + +Little Tommy Barnes was asleep now, and when they waked him up he was +scared, and cried, and said he wanted to go home to his ma, and didn't +want to be a robber any more. + +So they all made fun of him, and called him cry-baby, and that made him +mad, and he said he would go straight and tell all the secrets.  But +Tom give him five cents to keep quiet, and said we would all go home and +meet next week, and rob somebody and kill some people. + +Ben Rogers said he couldn't get out much, only Sundays, and so he wanted +to begin next Sunday; but all the boys said it would be wicked to do it +on Sunday, and that settled the thing.  They agreed to get together and +fix a day as soon as they could, and then we elected Tom Sawyer first +captain and Jo Harper second captain of the Gang, and so started home. + +I clumb up the shed and crept into my window just before day was +breaking. My new clothes was all greased up and clayey, and I was +dog-tired. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +WELL, I got a good going-over in the morning from old Miss Watson on +account of my clothes; but the widow she didn't scold, but only cleaned +off the grease and clay, and looked so sorry that I thought I would +behave awhile if I could.  Then Miss Watson she took me in the closet +and prayed, but nothing come of it.  She told me to pray every day, and +whatever I asked for I would get it.  But it warn't so.  I tried it. +Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks.  It warn't any good to me without +hooks.  I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I +couldn't make it work.  By and by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to +try for me, but she said I was a fool.  She never told me why, and I +couldn't make it out no way. + +I set down one time back in the woods, and had a long think about it. + I says to myself, if a body can get anything they pray for, why don't +Deacon Winn get back the money he lost on pork?  Why can't the widow get +back her silver snuffbox that was stole?  Why can't Miss Watson fat up? +No, says I to my self, there ain't nothing in it.  I went and told the +widow about it, and she said the thing a body could get by praying for +it was "spiritual gifts."  This was too many for me, but she told me +what she meant—I must help other people, and do everything I could for +other people, and look out for them all the time, and never think about +myself. This was including Miss Watson, as I took it.  I went out in the +woods and turned it over in my mind a long time, but I couldn't see no +advantage about it—except for the other people; so at last I reckoned +I wouldn't worry about it any more, but just let it go.  Sometimes the +widow would take me one side and talk about Providence in a way to make +a body's mouth water; but maybe next day Miss Watson would take hold +and knock it all down again.  I judged I could see that there was two +Providences, and a poor chap would stand considerable show with the +widow's Providence, but if Miss Watson's got him there warn't no help +for him any more.  I thought it all out, and reckoned I would belong +to the widow's if he wanted me, though I couldn't make out how he was +a-going to be any better off then than what he was before, seeing I was +so ignorant, and so kind of low-down and ornery. + +Pap he hadn't been seen for more than a year, and that was comfortable +for me; I didn't want to see him no more.  He used to always whale me +when he was sober and could get his hands on me; though I used to take +to the woods most of the time when he was around.  Well, about this time +he was found in the river drownded, about twelve mile above town, so +people said.  They judged it was him, anyway; said this drownded man was +just his size, and was ragged, and had uncommon long hair, which was all +like pap; but they couldn't make nothing out of the face, because it had +been in the water so long it warn't much like a face at all.  They said +he was floating on his back in the water.  They took him and buried him +on the bank.  But I warn't comfortable long, because I happened to think +of something.  I knowed mighty well that a drownded man don't float on +his back, but on his face.  So I knowed, then, that this warn't pap, but +a woman dressed up in a man's clothes.  So I was uncomfortable again. + I judged the old man would turn up again by and by, though I wished he +wouldn't. + +We played robber now and then about a month, and then I resigned.  All +the boys did.  We hadn't robbed nobody, hadn't killed any people, but +only just pretended.  We used to hop out of the woods and go charging +down on hog-drivers and women in carts taking garden stuff to market, +but we never hived any of them.  Tom Sawyer called the hogs "ingots," +and he called the turnips and stuff "julery," and we would go to the +cave and powwow over what we had done, and how many people we had killed +and marked.  But I couldn't see no profit in it.  One time Tom sent a +boy to run about town with a blazing stick, which he called a slogan +(which was the sign for the Gang to get together), and then he said he +had got secret news by his spies that next day a whole parcel of Spanish +merchants and rich A-rabs was going to camp in Cave Hollow with two +hundred elephants, and six hundred camels, and over a thousand "sumter" +mules, all loaded down with di'monds, and they didn't have only a guard +of four hundred soldiers, and so we would lay in ambuscade, as he called +it, and kill the lot and scoop the things.  He said we must slick up +our swords and guns, and get ready.  He never could go after even a +turnip-cart but he must have the swords and guns all scoured up for it, +though they was only lath and broomsticks, and you might scour at them +till you rotted, and then they warn't worth a mouthful of ashes more +than what they was before.  I didn't believe we could lick such a crowd +of Spaniards and A-rabs, but I wanted to see the camels and elephants, +so I was on hand next day, Saturday, in the ambuscade; and when we got +the word we rushed out of the woods and down the hill.  But there warn't +no Spaniards and A-rabs, and there warn't no camels nor no elephants. + It warn't anything but a Sunday-school picnic, and only a primer-class +at that.  We busted it up, and chased the children up the hollow; but we +never got anything but some doughnuts and jam, though Ben Rogers got +a rag doll, and Jo Harper got a hymn-book and a tract; and then the +teacher charged in, and made us drop everything and cut. + + I didn't see no di'monds, and I told Tom Sawyer so.  He said there was +loads of them there, anyway; and he said there was A-rabs there, too, +and elephants and things.  I said, why couldn't we see them, then?  He +said if I warn't so ignorant, but had read a book called Don Quixote, I +would know without asking.  He said it was all done by enchantment.  He +said there was hundreds of soldiers there, and elephants and treasure, +and so on, but we had enemies which he called magicians; and they had +turned the whole thing into an infant Sunday-school, just out of spite. + I said, all right; then the thing for us to do was to go for the +magicians.  Tom Sawyer said I was a numskull. + +"Why," said he, "a magician could call up a lot of genies, and they +would hash you up like nothing before you could say Jack Robinson.  They +are as tall as a tree and as big around as a church." + +"Well," I says, "s'pose we got some genies to help _us_—can't we lick +the other crowd then?" + +"How you going to get them?" + +"I don't know.  How do _they_ get them?" + +"Why, they rub an old tin lamp or an iron ring, and then the genies +come tearing in, with the thunder and lightning a-ripping around and the +smoke a-rolling, and everything they're told to do they up and do it. + They don't think nothing of pulling a shot-tower up by the roots, and +belting a Sunday-school superintendent over the head with it—or any +other man." + +"Who makes them tear around so?" + +"Why, whoever rubs the lamp or the ring.  They belong to whoever rubs +the lamp or the ring, and they've got to do whatever he says.  If he +tells them to build a palace forty miles long out of di'monds, and fill +it full of chewing-gum, or whatever you want, and fetch an emperor's +daughter from China for you to marry, they've got to do it—and they've +got to do it before sun-up next morning, too.  And more:  they've got +to waltz that palace around over the country wherever you want it, you +understand." + +"Well," says I, "I think they are a pack of flat-heads for not keeping +the palace themselves 'stead of fooling them away like that.  And what's +more—if I was one of them I would see a man in Jericho before I would +drop my business and come to him for the rubbing of an old tin lamp." + +"How you talk, Huck Finn.  Why, you'd _have_ to come when he rubbed it, +whether you wanted to or not." + +"What! and I as high as a tree and as big as a church?  All right, then; +I _would_ come; but I lay I'd make that man climb the highest tree there +was in the country." + +"Shucks, it ain't no use to talk to you, Huck Finn.  You don't seem to +know anything, somehow—perfect saphead." + +I thought all this over for two or three days, and then I reckoned I +would see if there was anything in it.  I got an old tin lamp and an +iron ring, and went out in the woods and rubbed and rubbed till I sweat +like an Injun, calculating to build a palace and sell it; but it warn't +no use, none of the genies come.  So then I judged that all that stuff +was only just one of Tom Sawyer's lies.  I reckoned he believed in the +A-rabs and the elephants, but as for me I think different.  It had all +the marks of a Sunday-school. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +WELL, three or four months run along, and it was well into the winter +now. I had been to school most all the time and could spell and read and +write just a little, and could say the multiplication table up to six +times seven is thirty-five, and I don't reckon I could ever get any +further than that if I was to live forever.  I don't take no stock in +mathematics, anyway. + +At first I hated the school, but by and by I got so I could stand it. +Whenever I got uncommon tired I played hookey, and the hiding I got next +day done me good and cheered me up.  So the longer I went to school the +easier it got to be.  I was getting sort of used to the widow's ways, +too, and they warn't so raspy on me.  Living in a house and sleeping in +a bed pulled on me pretty tight mostly, but before the cold weather I +used to slide out and sleep in the woods sometimes, and so that was a +rest to me.  I liked the old ways best, but I was getting so I liked the +new ones, too, a little bit. The widow said I was coming along slow but +sure, and doing very satisfactory.  She said she warn't ashamed of me. + +One morning I happened to turn over the salt-cellar at breakfast. + I reached for some of it as quick as I could to throw over my left +shoulder and keep off the bad luck, but Miss Watson was in ahead of me, +and crossed me off. She says, "Take your hands away, Huckleberry; what +a mess you are always making!"  The widow put in a good word for me, but +that warn't going to keep off the bad luck, I knowed that well enough. + I started out, after breakfast, feeling worried and shaky, and +wondering where it was going to fall on me, and what it was going to be. + There is ways to keep off some kinds of bad luck, but this wasn't one +of them kind; so I never tried to do anything, but just poked along +low-spirited and on the watch-out. + +I went down to the front garden and clumb over the stile where you go +through the high board fence.  There was an inch of new snow on the +ground, and I seen somebody's tracks.  They had come up from the quarry +and stood around the stile a while, and then went on around the garden +fence.  It was funny they hadn't come in, after standing around so.  I +couldn't make it out.  It was very curious, somehow.  I was going to +follow around, but I stooped down to look at the tracks first.  I didn't +notice anything at first, but next I did.  There was a cross in the left +boot-heel made with big nails, to keep off the devil. + +I was up in a second and shinning down the hill.  I looked over my +shoulder every now and then, but I didn't see nobody.  I was at Judge +Thatcher's as quick as I could get there.  He said: + +"Why, my boy, you are all out of breath.  Did you come for your +interest?" + +"No, sir," I says; "is there some for me?" + +"Oh, yes, a half-yearly is in last night—over a hundred and fifty +dollars.  Quite a fortune for you.  You had better let me invest it +along with your six thousand, because if you take it you'll spend it." + +"No, sir," I says, "I don't want to spend it.  I don't want it at +all—nor the six thousand, nuther.  I want you to take it; I want to give +it to you—the six thousand and all." + +He looked surprised.  He couldn't seem to make it out.  He says: + +"Why, what can you mean, my boy?" + +I says, "Don't you ask me no questions about it, please.  You'll take +it—won't you?" + +He says: + +"Well, I'm puzzled.  Is something the matter?" + +"Please take it," says I, "and don't ask me nothing—then I won't have to +tell no lies." + +He studied a while, and then he says: + +"Oho-o!  I think I see.  You want to _sell_ all your property to me—not +give it.  That's the correct idea." + +Then he wrote something on a paper and read it over, and says: + +"There; you see it says 'for a consideration.'  That means I have bought +it of you and paid you for it.  Here's a dollar for you.  Now you sign +it." + +So I signed it, and left. + +Miss Watson's nigger, Jim, had a hair-ball as big as your fist, which +had been took out of the fourth stomach of an ox, and he used to do +magic with it.  He said there was a spirit inside of it, and it knowed +everything.  So I went to him that night and told him pap was here +again, for I found his tracks in the snow.  What I wanted to know was, +what he was going to do, and was he going to stay?  Jim got out his +hair-ball and said something over it, and then he held it up and dropped +it on the floor.  It fell pretty solid, and only rolled about an inch. + Jim tried it again, and then another time, and it acted just the same. + Jim got down on his knees, and put his ear against it and listened. + But it warn't no use; he said it wouldn't talk. He said sometimes it +wouldn't talk without money.  I told him I had an old slick counterfeit +quarter that warn't no good because the brass showed through the silver +a little, and it wouldn't pass nohow, even if the brass didn't show, +because it was so slick it felt greasy, and so that would tell on it +every time.  (I reckoned I wouldn't say nothing about the dollar I got +from the judge.) I said it was pretty bad money, but maybe the hair-ball +would take it, because maybe it wouldn't know the difference.  Jim smelt +it and bit it and rubbed it, and said he would manage so the hair-ball +would think it was good.  He said he would split open a raw Irish potato +and stick the quarter in between and keep it there all night, and next +morning you couldn't see no brass, and it wouldn't feel greasy no more, +and so anybody in town would take it in a minute, let alone a hair-ball. + Well, I knowed a potato would do that before, but I had forgot it. + +Jim put the quarter under the hair-ball, and got down and listened +again. This time he said the hair-ball was all right.  He said it +would tell my whole fortune if I wanted it to.  I says, go on.  So the +hair-ball talked to Jim, and Jim told it to me.  He says: + +"Yo' ole father doan' know yit what he's a-gwyne to do.  Sometimes he +spec he'll go 'way, en den agin he spec he'll stay.  De bes' way is to +res' easy en let de ole man take his own way.  Dey's two angels hoverin' +roun' 'bout him.  One uv 'em is white en shiny, en t'other one is black. +De white one gits him to go right a little while, den de black one sail +in en bust it all up.  A body can't tell yit which one gwyne to fetch +him at de las'.  But you is all right.  You gwyne to have considable +trouble in yo' life, en considable joy.  Sometimes you gwyne to git +hurt, en sometimes you gwyne to git sick; but every time you's gwyne +to git well agin.  Dey's two gals flyin' 'bout you in yo' life.  One +uv 'em's light en t'other one is dark. One is rich en t'other is po'. + You's gwyne to marry de po' one fust en de rich one by en by.  You +wants to keep 'way fum de water as much as you kin, en don't run no +resk, 'kase it's down in de bills dat you's gwyne to git hung." + +When I lit my candle and went up to my room that night there sat pap his +own self! + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +I had shut the door to.  Then I turned around and there he was.  I used +to be scared of him all the time, he tanned me so much.  I reckoned I +was scared now, too; but in a minute I see I was mistaken—that is, after +the first jolt, as you may say, when my breath sort of hitched, he being +so unexpected; but right away after I see I warn't scared of him worth +bothring about. + +He was most fifty, and he looked it.  His hair was long and tangled and +greasy, and hung down, and you could see his eyes shining through +like he was behind vines.  It was all black, no gray; so was his long, +mixed-up whiskers.  There warn't no color in his face, where his face +showed; it was white; not like another man's white, but a white to make +a body sick, a white to make a body's flesh crawl—a tree-toad white, a +fish-belly white.  As for his clothes—just rags, that was all.  He had +one ankle resting on t'other knee; the boot on that foot was busted, and +two of his toes stuck through, and he worked them now and then.  His hat +was laying on the floor—an old black slouch with the top caved in, like +a lid. + +I stood a-looking at him; he set there a-looking at me, with his chair +tilted back a little.  I set the candle down.  I noticed the window was +up; so he had clumb in by the shed.  He kept a-looking me all over.  By +and by he says: + +"Starchy clothes—very.  You think you're a good deal of a big-bug, +_don't_ you?" + +"Maybe I am, maybe I ain't," I says. + +"Don't you give me none o' your lip," says he.  "You've put on +considerable many frills since I been away.  I'll take you down a peg +before I get done with you.  You're educated, too, they say—can read and +write.  You think you're better'n your father, now, don't you, because +he can't?  _I'll_ take it out of you.  Who told you you might meddle +with such hifalut'n foolishness, hey?—who told you you could?" + +"The widow.  She told me." + +"The widow, hey?—and who told the widow she could put in her shovel +about a thing that ain't none of her business?" + +"Nobody never told her." + +"Well, I'll learn her how to meddle.  And looky here—you drop that +school, you hear?  I'll learn people to bring up a boy to put on airs +over his own father and let on to be better'n what _he_ is.  You lemme +catch you fooling around that school again, you hear?  Your mother +couldn't read, and she couldn't write, nuther, before she died.  None +of the family couldn't before _they_ died.  I can't; and here you're +a-swelling yourself up like this.  I ain't the man to stand it—you hear? +Say, lemme hear you read." + +I took up a book and begun something about General Washington and the +wars. When I'd read about a half a minute, he fetched the book a whack +with his hand and knocked it across the house.  He says: + +"It's so.  You can do it.  I had my doubts when you told me.  Now looky +here; you stop that putting on frills.  I won't have it.  I'll lay for +you, my smarty; and if I catch you about that school I'll tan you good. +First you know you'll get religion, too.  I never see such a son." + +He took up a little blue and yaller picture of some cows and a boy, and +says: + +"What's this?" + +"It's something they give me for learning my lessons good." + +He tore it up, and says: + +"I'll give you something better—I'll give you a cowhide." + +He set there a-mumbling and a-growling a minute, and then he says: + +"_Ain't_ you a sweet-scented dandy, though?  A bed; and bedclothes; and +a look'n'-glass; and a piece of carpet on the floor—and your own father +got to sleep with the hogs in the tanyard.  I never see such a son.  I +bet I'll take some o' these frills out o' you before I'm done with you. +Why, there ain't no end to your airs—they say you're rich.  Hey?—how's +that?" + +"They lie—that's how." + +"Looky here—mind how you talk to me; I'm a-standing about all I can +stand now—so don't gimme no sass.  I've been in town two days, and I +hain't heard nothing but about you bein' rich.  I heard about it +away down the river, too.  That's why I come.  You git me that money +to-morrow—I want it." + +"I hain't got no money." + +"It's a lie.  Judge Thatcher's got it.  You git it.  I want it." + +"I hain't got no money, I tell you.  You ask Judge Thatcher; he'll tell +you the same." + +"All right.  I'll ask him; and I'll make him pungle, too, or I'll know +the reason why.  Say, how much you got in your pocket?  I want it." + +"I hain't got only a dollar, and I want that to—" + +"It don't make no difference what you want it for—you just shell it +out." + +He took it and bit it to see if it was good, and then he said he was +going down town to get some whisky; said he hadn't had a drink all day. +When he had got out on the shed he put his head in again, and cussed +me for putting on frills and trying to be better than him; and when I +reckoned he was gone he come back and put his head in again, and told me +to mind about that school, because he was going to lay for me and lick +me if I didn't drop that. + +Next day he was drunk, and he went to Judge Thatcher's and bullyragged +him, and tried to make him give up the money; but he couldn't, and then +he swore he'd make the law force him. + +The judge and the widow went to law to get the court to take me away +from him and let one of them be my guardian; but it was a new judge that +had just come, and he didn't know the old man; so he said courts mustn't +interfere and separate families if they could help it; said he'd druther +not take a child away from its father.  So Judge Thatcher and the widow +had to quit on the business. + +That pleased the old man till he couldn't rest.  He said he'd cowhide +me till I was black and blue if I didn't raise some money for him.  I +borrowed three dollars from Judge Thatcher, and pap took it and got +drunk, and went a-blowing around and cussing and whooping and carrying +on; and he kept it up all over town, with a tin pan, till most midnight; +then they jailed him, and next day they had him before court, and jailed +him again for a week.  But he said _he_ was satisfied; said he was boss +of his son, and he'd make it warm for _him_. + +When he got out the new judge said he was a-going to make a man of him. +So he took him to his own house, and dressed him up clean and nice, and +had him to breakfast and dinner and supper with the family, and was just +old pie to him, so to speak.  And after supper he talked to him about +temperance and such things till the old man cried, and said he'd been +a fool, and fooled away his life; but now he was a-going to turn over +a new leaf and be a man nobody wouldn't be ashamed of, and he hoped the +judge would help him and not look down on him.  The judge said he could +hug him for them words; so he cried, and his wife she cried again; pap +said he'd been a man that had always been misunderstood before, and the +judge said he believed it.  The old man said that what a man wanted +that was down was sympathy, and the judge said it was so; so they cried +again.  And when it was bedtime the old man rose up and held out his +hand, and says: + +"Look at it, gentlemen and ladies all; take a-hold of it; shake it. +There's a hand that was the hand of a hog; but it ain't so no more; it's +the hand of a man that's started in on a new life, and'll die before +he'll go back.  You mark them words—don't forget I said them.  It's a +clean hand now; shake it—don't be afeard." + +So they shook it, one after the other, all around, and cried.  The +judge's wife she kissed it.  Then the old man he signed a pledge—made +his mark. The judge said it was the holiest time on record, or something +like that. Then they tucked the old man into a beautiful room, which was +the spare room, and in the night some time he got powerful thirsty and +clumb out on to the porch-roof and slid down a stanchion and traded his +new coat for a jug of forty-rod, and clumb back again and had a good old +time; and towards daylight he crawled out again, drunk as a fiddler, and +rolled off the porch and broke his left arm in two places, and was most +froze to death when somebody found him after sun-up.  And when they come +to look at that spare room they had to take soundings before they could +navigate it. + +The judge he felt kind of sore.  He said he reckoned a body could reform +the old man with a shotgun, maybe, but he didn't know no other way. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +WELL, pretty soon the old man was up and around again, and then he went +for Judge Thatcher in the courts to make him give up that money, and he +went for me, too, for not stopping school.  He catched me a couple of +times and thrashed me, but I went to school just the same, and dodged +him or outrun him most of the time.  I didn't want to go to school much +before, but I reckoned I'd go now to spite pap.  That law trial was a +slow business—appeared like they warn't ever going to get started on it; +so every now and then I'd borrow two or three dollars off of the judge +for him, to keep from getting a cowhiding.  Every time he got money he +got drunk; and every time he got drunk he raised Cain around town; and +every time he raised Cain he got jailed.  He was just suited—this kind +of thing was right in his line. + +He got to hanging around the widow's too much and so she told him at +last that if he didn't quit using around there she would make trouble +for him. Well, _wasn't_ he mad?  He said he would show who was Huck +Finn's boss.  So he watched out for me one day in the spring, and +catched me, and took me up the river about three mile in a skiff, and +crossed over to the Illinois shore where it was woody and there warn't +no houses but an old log hut in a place where the timber was so thick +you couldn't find it if you didn't know where it was. + +He kept me with him all the time, and I never got a chance to run off. +We lived in that old cabin, and he always locked the door and put the +key under his head nights.  He had a gun which he had stole, I reckon, +and we fished and hunted, and that was what we lived on.  Every little +while he locked me in and went down to the store, three miles, to the +ferry, and traded fish and game for whisky, and fetched it home and got +drunk and had a good time, and licked me.  The widow she found out where +I was by and by, and she sent a man over to try to get hold of me; but +pap drove him off with the gun, and it warn't long after that till I was +used to being where I was, and liked it—all but the cowhide part. + +It was kind of lazy and jolly, laying off comfortable all day, smoking +and fishing, and no books nor study.  Two months or more run along, and +my clothes got to be all rags and dirt, and I didn't see how I'd ever +got to like it so well at the widow's, where you had to wash, and eat on +a plate, and comb up, and go to bed and get up regular, and be forever +bothering over a book, and have old Miss Watson pecking at you all the +time.  I didn't want to go back no more.  I had stopped cussing, because +the widow didn't like it; but now I took to it again because pap hadn't +no objections.  It was pretty good times up in the woods there, take it +all around. + +But by and by pap got too handy with his hick'ry, and I couldn't stand +it. I was all over welts.  He got to going away so much, too, and +locking me in.  Once he locked me in and was gone three days.  It was +dreadful lonesome.  I judged he had got drownded, and I wasn't ever +going to get out any more.  I was scared.  I made up my mind I would fix +up some way to leave there.  I had tried to get out of that cabin many +a time, but I couldn't find no way.  There warn't a window to it big +enough for a dog to get through.  I couldn't get up the chimbly; it +was too narrow.  The door was thick, solid oak slabs.  Pap was pretty +careful not to leave a knife or anything in the cabin when he was away; +I reckon I had hunted the place over as much as a hundred times; well, I +was most all the time at it, because it was about the only way to put in +the time.  But this time I found something at last; I found an old rusty +wood-saw without any handle; it was laid in between a rafter and the +clapboards of the roof. I greased it up and went to work.  There was an +old horse-blanket nailed against the logs at the far end of the cabin +behind the table, to keep the wind from blowing through the chinks and +putting the candle out.  I got under the table and raised the blanket, +and went to work to saw a section of the big bottom log out—big enough +to let me through.  Well, it was a good long job, but I was getting +towards the end of it when I heard pap's gun in the woods.  I got rid of +the signs of my work, and dropped the blanket and hid my saw, and pretty +soon pap come in. + +Pap warn't in a good humor—so he was his natural self.  He said he was +down town, and everything was going wrong.  His lawyer said he reckoned +he would win his lawsuit and get the money if they ever got started on +the trial; but then there was ways to put it off a long time, and Judge +Thatcher knowed how to do it. And he said people allowed there'd be +another trial to get me away from him and give me to the widow for my +guardian, and they guessed it would win this time.  This shook me up +considerable, because I didn't want to go back to the widow's any more +and be so cramped up and sivilized, as they called it.  Then the old man +got to cussing, and cussed everything and everybody he could think of, +and then cussed them all over again to make sure he hadn't skipped any, +and after that he polished off with a kind of a general cuss all round, +including a considerable parcel of people which he didn't know the names +of, and so called them what's-his-name when he got to them, and went +right along with his cussing. + +He said he would like to see the widow get me.  He said he would watch +out, and if they tried to come any such game on him he knowed of a place +six or seven mile off to stow me in, where they might hunt till they +dropped and they couldn't find me.  That made me pretty uneasy again, +but only for a minute; I reckoned I wouldn't stay on hand till he got +that chance. + +The old man made me go to the skiff and fetch the things he had +got. There was a fifty-pound sack of corn meal, and a side of bacon, +ammunition, and a four-gallon jug of whisky, and an old book and two +newspapers for wadding, besides some tow.  I toted up a load, and went +back and set down on the bow of the skiff to rest.  I thought it all +over, and I reckoned I would walk off with the gun and some lines, and +take to the woods when I run away.  I guessed I wouldn't stay in one +place, but just tramp right across the country, mostly night times, and +hunt and fish to keep alive, and so get so far away that the old man nor +the widow couldn't ever find me any more.  I judged I would saw out and +leave that night if pap got drunk enough, and I reckoned he would.  I +got so full of it I didn't notice how long I was staying till the old +man hollered and asked me whether I was asleep or drownded. + +I got the things all up to the cabin, and then it was about dark.  While +I was cooking supper the old man took a swig or two and got sort of +warmed up, and went to ripping again.  He had been drunk over in town, +and laid in the gutter all night, and he was a sight to look at.  A body +would a thought he was Adam—he was just all mud.  Whenever his liquor +begun to work he most always went for the govment, this time he says: + +"Call this a govment! why, just look at it and see what it's like. +Here's the law a-standing ready to take a man's son away from him—a +man's own son, which he has had all the trouble and all the anxiety +and all the expense of raising.  Yes, just as that man has got that +son raised at last, and ready to go to work and begin to do suthin' for +_him_ and give him a rest, the law up and goes for him.  And they call +_that_ govment!  That ain't all, nuther.  The law backs that old Judge +Thatcher up and helps him to keep me out o' my property.  Here's what +the law does:  The law takes a man worth six thousand dollars and +up'ards, and jams him into an old trap of a cabin like this, and lets +him go round in clothes that ain't fitten for a hog. They call that +govment!  A man can't get his rights in a govment like this. Sometimes +I've a mighty notion to just leave the country for good and all. Yes, +and I _told_ 'em so; I told old Thatcher so to his face.  Lots of 'em +heard me, and can tell what I said.  Says I, for two cents I'd leave the +blamed country and never come a-near it agin.  Them's the very words.  I +says look at my hat—if you call it a hat—but the lid raises up and the +rest of it goes down till it's below my chin, and then it ain't rightly +a hat at all, but more like my head was shoved up through a jint o' +stove-pipe.  Look at it, says I—such a hat for me to wear—one of the +wealthiest men in this town if I could git my rights. + +"Oh, yes, this is a wonderful govment, wonderful.  Why, looky here. +There was a free nigger there from Ohio—a mulatter, most as white as +a white man.  He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the +shiniest hat; and there ain't a man in that town that's got as fine +clothes as what he had; and he had a gold watch and chain, and a +silver-headed cane—the awfulest old gray-headed nabob in the State.  And +what do you think?  They said he was a p'fessor in a college, and could +talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything.  And that ain't the +wust. They said he could _vote_ when he was at home.  Well, that let me +out. Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to?  It was 'lection day, +and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn't too drunk to get +there; but when they told me there was a State in this country where +they'd let that nigger vote, I drawed out.  I says I'll never vote agin. + Them's the very words I said; they all heard me; and the country may +rot for all me—I'll never vote agin as long as I live.  And to see the +cool way of that nigger—why, he wouldn't a give me the road if I hadn't +shoved him out o' the way.  I says to the people, why ain't this nigger +put up at auction and sold?—that's what I want to know.  And what do you +reckon they said? Why, they said he couldn't be sold till he'd been in +the State six months, and he hadn't been there that long yet.  There, +now—that's a specimen.  They call that a govment that can't sell a free +nigger till he's been in the State six months.  Here's a govment that +calls itself a govment, and lets on to be a govment, and thinks it is a +govment, and yet's got to set stock-still for six whole months before +it can take a hold of a prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free +nigger, and—" + +Pap was agoing on so he never noticed where his old limber legs was +taking him to, so he went head over heels over the tub of salt pork and +barked both shins, and the rest of his speech was all the hottest kind +of language—mostly hove at the nigger and the govment, though he give +the tub some, too, all along, here and there.  He hopped around the +cabin considerable, first on one leg and then on the other, holding +first one shin and then the other one, and at last he let out with his +left foot all of a sudden and fetched the tub a rattling kick.  But it +warn't good judgment, because that was the boot that had a couple of his +toes leaking out of the front end of it; so now he raised a howl that +fairly made a body's hair raise, and down he went in the dirt, and +rolled there, and held his toes; and the cussing he done then laid over +anything he had ever done previous.  He said so his own self afterwards. + He had heard old Sowberry Hagan in his best days, and he said it laid +over him, too; but I reckon that was sort of piling it on, maybe. + +After supper pap took the jug, and said he had enough whisky there +for two drunks and one delirium tremens.  That was always his word.  I +judged he would be blind drunk in about an hour, and then I would steal +the key, or saw myself out, one or t'other.  He drank and drank, and +tumbled down on his blankets by and by; but luck didn't run my way. + He didn't go sound asleep, but was uneasy.  He groaned and moaned and +thrashed around this way and that for a long time.  At last I got so +sleepy I couldn't keep my eyes open all I could do, and so before I +knowed what I was about I was sound asleep, and the candle burning. + +I don't know how long I was asleep, but all of a sudden there was an +awful scream and I was up.  There was pap looking wild, and skipping +around every which way and yelling about snakes.  He said they was +crawling up his legs; and then he would give a jump and scream, and say +one had bit him on the cheek—but I couldn't see no snakes.  He started +and run round and round the cabin, hollering "Take him off! take him +off! he's biting me on the neck!"  I never see a man look so wild in the +eyes. Pretty soon he was all fagged out, and fell down panting; then he +rolled over and over wonderful fast, kicking things every which way, +and striking and grabbing at the air with his hands, and screaming and +saying there was devils a-hold of him.  He wore out by and by, and laid +still a while, moaning.  Then he laid stiller, and didn't make a sound. + I could hear the owls and the wolves away off in the woods, and it +seemed terrible still.  He was laying over by the corner. By and by he +raised up part way and listened, with his head to one side.  He says, +very low: + +"Tramp—tramp—tramp; that's the dead; tramp—tramp—tramp; they're coming +after me; but I won't go.  Oh, they're here! don't touch me—don't! hands +off—they're cold; let go.  Oh, let a poor devil alone!" + +Then he went down on all fours and crawled off, begging them to let him +alone, and he rolled himself up in his blanket and wallowed in under the +old pine table, still a-begging; and then he went to crying.  I could +hear him through the blanket. + +By and by he rolled out and jumped up on his feet looking wild, and he +see me and went for me.  He chased me round and round the place with a +clasp-knife, calling me the Angel of Death, and saying he would kill me, +and then I couldn't come for him no more.  I begged, and told him I +was only Huck; but he laughed _such_ a screechy laugh, and roared and +cussed, and kept on chasing me up.  Once when I turned short and +dodged under his arm he made a grab and got me by the jacket between my +shoulders, and I thought I was gone; but I slid out of the jacket quick +as lightning, and saved myself. Pretty soon he was all tired out, and +dropped down with his back against the door, and said he would rest a +minute and then kill me. He put his knife under him, and said he would +sleep and get strong, and then he would see who was who. + +So he dozed off pretty soon.  By and by I got the old split-bottom chair +and clumb up as easy as I could, not to make any noise, and got down the +gun.  I slipped the ramrod down it to make sure it was loaded, then I +laid it across the turnip barrel, pointing towards pap, and set down +behind it to wait for him to stir.  And how slow and still the time did +drag along. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +"GIT up!  What you 'bout?" + +I opened my eyes and looked around, trying to make out where I was.  It +was after sun-up, and I had been sound asleep.  Pap was standing over me +looking sour and sick, too.  He says: + +"What you doin' with this gun?" + +I judged he didn't know nothing about what he had been doing, so I says: + +"Somebody tried to get in, so I was laying for him." + +"Why didn't you roust me out?" + +"Well, I tried to, but I couldn't; I couldn't budge you." + +"Well, all right.  Don't stand there palavering all day, but out with +you and see if there's a fish on the lines for breakfast.  I'll be along +in a minute." + +He unlocked the door, and I cleared out up the river-bank.  I noticed +some pieces of limbs and such things floating down, and a sprinkling of +bark; so I knowed the river had begun to rise.  I reckoned I would have +great times now if I was over at the town.  The June rise used to be +always luck for me; because as soon as that rise begins here comes +cordwood floating down, and pieces of log rafts—sometimes a dozen logs +together; so all you have to do is to catch them and sell them to the +wood-yards and the sawmill. + +I went along up the bank with one eye out for pap and t'other one out +for what the rise might fetch along.  Well, all at once here comes a +canoe; just a beauty, too, about thirteen or fourteen foot long, riding +high like a duck.  I shot head-first off of the bank like a frog, +clothes and all on, and struck out for the canoe.  I just expected +there'd be somebody laying down in it, because people often done that +to fool folks, and when a chap had pulled a skiff out most to it they'd +raise up and laugh at him.  But it warn't so this time.  It was a +drift-canoe sure enough, and I clumb in and paddled her ashore.  Thinks +I, the old man will be glad when he sees this—she's worth ten dollars. + But when I got to shore pap wasn't in sight yet, and as I was running +her into a little creek like a gully, all hung over with vines and +willows, I struck another idea:  I judged I'd hide her good, and then, +'stead of taking to the woods when I run off, I'd go down the river +about fifty mile and camp in one place for good, and not have such a +rough time tramping on foot. + +It was pretty close to the shanty, and I thought I heard the old man +coming all the time; but I got her hid; and then I out and looked around +a bunch of willows, and there was the old man down the path a piece just +drawing a bead on a bird with his gun.  So he hadn't seen anything. + +When he got along I was hard at it taking up a "trot" line.  He abused +me a little for being so slow; but I told him I fell in the river, and +that was what made me so long.  I knowed he would see I was wet, and +then he would be asking questions.  We got five catfish off the lines +and went home. + +While we laid off after breakfast to sleep up, both of us being about +wore out, I got to thinking that if I could fix up some way to keep pap +and the widow from trying to follow me, it would be a certainer thing +than trusting to luck to get far enough off before they missed me; you +see, all kinds of things might happen.  Well, I didn't see no way for a +while, but by and by pap raised up a minute to drink another barrel of +water, and he says: + +"Another time a man comes a-prowling round here you roust me out, you +hear? That man warn't here for no good.  I'd a shot him.  Next time you +roust me out, you hear?" + +Then he dropped down and went to sleep again; but what he had been +saying give me the very idea I wanted.  I says to myself, I can fix it +now so nobody won't think of following me. + +About twelve o'clock we turned out and went along up the bank.  The +river was coming up pretty fast, and lots of driftwood going by on the +rise. By and by along comes part of a log raft—nine logs fast together. + We went out with the skiff and towed it ashore.  Then we had dinner. +Anybody but pap would a waited and seen the day through, so as to catch +more stuff; but that warn't pap's style.  Nine logs was enough for one +time; he must shove right over to town and sell.  So he locked me in and +took the skiff, and started off towing the raft about half-past three. + I judged he wouldn't come back that night.  I waited till I reckoned he +had got a good start; then I out with my saw, and went to work on that +log again.  Before he was t'other side of the river I was out of the +hole; him and his raft was just a speck on the water away off yonder. + +I took the sack of corn meal and took it to where the canoe was hid, and +shoved the vines and branches apart and put it in; then I done the same +with the side of bacon; then the whisky-jug.  I took all the coffee and +sugar there was, and all the ammunition; I took the wadding; I took the +bucket and gourd; I took a dipper and a tin cup, and my old saw and two +blankets, and the skillet and the coffee-pot.  I took fish-lines and +matches and other things—everything that was worth a cent.  I cleaned +out the place.  I wanted an axe, but there wasn't any, only the one out +at the woodpile, and I knowed why I was going to leave that.  I fetched +out the gun, and now I was done. + +I had wore the ground a good deal crawling out of the hole and dragging +out so many things.  So I fixed that as good as I could from the outside +by scattering dust on the place, which covered up the smoothness and the +sawdust.  Then I fixed the piece of log back into its place, and put two +rocks under it and one against it to hold it there, for it was bent up +at that place and didn't quite touch ground.  If you stood four or five +foot away and didn't know it was sawed, you wouldn't never notice +it; and besides, this was the back of the cabin, and it warn't likely +anybody would go fooling around there. + +It was all grass clear to the canoe, so I hadn't left a track.  I +followed around to see.  I stood on the bank and looked out over the +river.  All safe.  So I took the gun and went up a piece into the woods, +and was hunting around for some birds when I see a wild pig; hogs soon +went wild in them bottoms after they had got away from the prairie +farms. I shot this fellow and took him into camp. + +I took the axe and smashed in the door.  I beat it and hacked it +considerable a-doing it.  I fetched the pig in, and took him back nearly +to the table and hacked into his throat with the axe, and laid him down +on the ground to bleed; I say ground because it was ground—hard packed, +and no boards.  Well, next I took an old sack and put a lot of big rocks +in it—all I could drag—and I started it from the pig, and dragged it to +the door and through the woods down to the river and dumped it in, and +down it sunk, out of sight.  You could easy see that something had been +dragged over the ground.  I did wish Tom Sawyer was there; I knowed he +would take an interest in this kind of business, and throw in the fancy +touches.  Nobody could spread himself like Tom Sawyer in such a thing as +that. + +Well, last I pulled out some of my hair, and blooded the axe good, and +stuck it on the back side, and slung the axe in the corner.  Then I +took up the pig and held him to my breast with my jacket (so he couldn't +drip) till I got a good piece below the house and then dumped him into +the river.  Now I thought of something else.  So I went and got the bag +of meal and my old saw out of the canoe, and fetched them to the house. + I took the bag to where it used to stand, and ripped a hole in the +bottom of it with the saw, for there warn't no knives and forks on the +place—pap done everything with his clasp-knife about the cooking.  Then +I carried the sack about a hundred yards across the grass and through +the willows east of the house, to a shallow lake that was five mile wide +and full of rushes—and ducks too, you might say, in the season.  There +was a slough or a creek leading out of it on the other side that went +miles away, I don't know where, but it didn't go to the river.  The meal +sifted out and made a little track all the way to the lake.  I dropped +pap's whetstone there too, so as to look like it had been done by +accident. Then I tied up the rip in the meal sack with a string, so it +wouldn't leak no more, and took it and my saw to the canoe again. + +It was about dark now; so I dropped the canoe down the river under some +willows that hung over the bank, and waited for the moon to rise.  I +made fast to a willow; then I took a bite to eat, and by and by laid +down in the canoe to smoke a pipe and lay out a plan.  I says to myself, +they'll follow the track of that sackful of rocks to the shore and then +drag the river for me.  And they'll follow that meal track to the lake +and go browsing down the creek that leads out of it to find the robbers +that killed me and took the things.  They won't ever hunt the river for +anything but my dead carcass. They'll soon get tired of that, and won't +bother no more about me.  All right; I can stop anywhere I want to. +Jackson's Island is good enough for me; I know that island pretty well, +and nobody ever comes there.  And then I can paddle over to town nights, +and slink around and pick up things I want. Jackson's Island's the +place. + +I was pretty tired, and the first thing I knowed I was asleep.  When +I woke up I didn't know where I was for a minute.  I set up and looked +around, a little scared.  Then I remembered.  The river looked miles and +miles across.  The moon was so bright I could a counted the drift logs +that went a-slipping along, black and still, hundreds of yards out from +shore. Everything was dead quiet, and it looked late, and _smelt_ late. +You know what I mean—I don't know the words to put it in. + +I took a good gap and a stretch, and was just going to unhitch and start +when I heard a sound away over the water.  I listened.  Pretty soon I +made it out.  It was that dull kind of a regular sound that comes from +oars working in rowlocks when it's a still night.  I peeped out through +the willow branches, and there it was—a skiff, away across the water. + I couldn't tell how many was in it.  It kept a-coming, and when it was +abreast of me I see there warn't but one man in it.  Think's I, maybe +it's pap, though I warn't expecting him.  He dropped below me with the +current, and by and by he came a-swinging up shore in the easy water, +and he went by so close I could a reached out the gun and touched him. + Well, it _was_ pap, sure enough—and sober, too, by the way he laid his +oars. + +I didn't lose no time.  The next minute I was a-spinning down stream +soft but quick in the shade of the bank.  I made two mile and a half, +and then struck out a quarter of a mile or more towards the middle of +the river, because pretty soon I would be passing the ferry landing, and +people might see me and hail me.  I got out amongst the driftwood, and +then laid down in the bottom of the canoe and let her float. + + I laid there, and had a good rest and a smoke out of my pipe, looking +away into the sky; not a cloud in it.  The sky looks ever so deep when +you lay down on your back in the moonshine; I never knowed it before. + And how far a body can hear on the water such nights!  I heard people +talking at the ferry landing. I heard what they said, too—every word +of it.  One man said it was getting towards the long days and the short +nights now.  T'other one said _this_ warn't one of the short ones, he +reckoned—and then they laughed, and he said it over again, and they +laughed again; then they waked up another fellow and told him, and +laughed, but he didn't laugh; he ripped out something brisk, and said +let him alone.  The first fellow said he 'lowed to tell it to his +old woman—she would think it was pretty good; but he said that warn't +nothing to some things he had said in his time. I heard one man say it +was nearly three o'clock, and he hoped daylight wouldn't wait more than +about a week longer.  After that the talk got further and further away, +and I couldn't make out the words any more; but I could hear the mumble, +and now and then a laugh, too, but it seemed a long ways off. + +I was away below the ferry now.  I rose up, and there was Jackson's +Island, about two mile and a half down stream, heavy timbered and +standing up out of the middle of the river, big and dark and solid, like +a steamboat without any lights.  There warn't any signs of the bar at +the head—it was all under water now. + +It didn't take me long to get there.  I shot past the head at a ripping +rate, the current was so swift, and then I got into the dead water and +landed on the side towards the Illinois shore.  I run the canoe into +a deep dent in the bank that I knowed about; I had to part the willow +branches to get in; and when I made fast nobody could a seen the canoe +from the outside. + +I went up and set down on a log at the head of the island, and looked +out on the big river and the black driftwood and away over to the town, +three mile away, where there was three or four lights twinkling.  A +monstrous big lumber-raft was about a mile up stream, coming along down, +with a lantern in the middle of it.  I watched it come creeping down, +and when it was most abreast of where I stood I heard a man say, "Stern +oars, there! heave her head to stabboard!"  I heard that just as plain +as if the man was by my side. + +There was a little gray in the sky now; so I stepped into the woods, and +laid down for a nap before breakfast. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE sun was up so high when I waked that I judged it was after eight +o'clock.  I laid there in the grass and the cool shade thinking about +things, and feeling rested and ruther comfortable and satisfied.  I +could see the sun out at one or two holes, but mostly it was big trees +all about, and gloomy in there amongst them.  There was freckled places +on the ground where the light sifted down through the leaves, and the +freckled places swapped about a little, showing there was a little +breeze up there.  A couple of squirrels set on a limb and jabbered at me +very friendly. + +I was powerful lazy and comfortable—didn't want to get up and cook +breakfast.  Well, I was dozing off again when I thinks I hears a deep +sound of "boom!" away up the river.  I rouses up, and rests on my elbow +and listens; pretty soon I hears it again.  I 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.  And there was the +ferryboat full of people floating along down.  I knowed what was the +matter now.  "Boom!" I see the white smoke squirt out of the ferryboat's +side.  You see, they was firing cannon over the water, trying to make my +carcass come to the top. + +I was pretty hungry, but it warn't going to do for me to start a fire, +because they might see the smoke.  So I set there and watched the +cannon-smoke and listened to the boom.  The 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. Well, 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.  So, says I, I'll keep a lookout, and +if any of them's floating around after me I'll give them a show.  I +changed to the Illinois edge of the island to see what luck I could +have, and I warn't disappointed.  A big double loaf come along, and I +most got it with a long stick, but my foot slipped and she floated out +further.  Of course I was where the current set in the closest to the +shore—I knowed enough for that.  But by and by along comes another one, +and this time I won.  I took out the plug and shook out the little dab +of quicksilver, and set my teeth in.  It was "baker's bread"—what the +quality eat; none of your low-down corn-pone. + +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 ain't no doubt but there is something in that +thing—that 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. + +I lit a pipe and had a good long smoke, and went on watching.  The +ferryboat was floating with the current, and I allowed I'd have a chance +to see who was aboard when she come along, because she would come in +close, where the bread did.  When she'd 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: + +"Look sharp, now; the current sets in the closest here, and maybe he's +washed ashore and got tangled amongst the brush at the water's edge.  I +hope so, anyway." + +I didn't 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 couldn't see me.  Then the captain sung out: + +"Stand away!" 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 they'd a had some bullets in, I reckon they'd +a got the corpse they was after.  Well, I see I warn't 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 didn't 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 didn't 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 couldn't 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 ain't no better way to put in time when you are lonesome; you +can't stay so, you soon get over it. + +And so for three days and nights.  No difference—just 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 warn't +far from the foot of the island.  I had my gun along, but I hadn't 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 couldn't 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 warn't feeling very brash, there warn't much sand +in my craw; but I says, this ain't 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 year's camp, and then clumb a tree. + +I reckon I was up in the tree two hours; but I didn't see nothing, +I didn't hear nothing—I only _thought_ I heard and seen as much as a +thousand things.  Well, I couldn't 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 bank—about 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 people's 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 hadn't got far when I +hear a man say: + +"We better camp here if we can find a good place; the horses is about +beat out.  Let's look around." + +I didn't wait, but shoved out and paddled away easy.  I tied up in the +old place, and reckoned I would sleep in the canoe. + +I didn't sleep much.  I couldn't, somehow, for thinking.  And every time +I waked up I thought somebody had me by the neck.  So the sleep didn't +do me no good.  By and by I says to myself, I can't live this way; I'm +a-going to find out who it is that's here on the island with me; I'll +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 hadn't no luck somehow; I couldn't 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 Watson's Jim!  I bet I was glad to see +him.  I says: + +"Hello, Jim!" 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: + +"Doan' hurt me—don't!  I hain't ever done no harm to a ghos'.  I alwuz +liked dead people, en done all I could for 'em.  You go en git in de +river agin, whah you b'longs, en doan' do nuffn to Ole Jim, 'at 'uz +awluz yo' fren'." + +Well, I warn't long making him understand I warn't dead.  I was ever so +glad to see Jim.  I warn't lonesome now.  I told him I warn't 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: + +"It's good daylight.  Le's get breakfast.  Make up your camp fire good." + +"What's de use er makin' up de camp fire to cook strawbries en sich +truck? But you got a gun, hain't you?  Den we kin git sumfn better den +strawbries." + +"Strawberries and such truck," I says.  "Is that what you live on?" + +"I couldn' git nuffn else," he says. + +"Why, how long you been on the island, Jim?" + +"I come heah de night arter you's killed." + +"What, all that time?" + +"Yes—indeedy." + +"And ain't you had nothing but that kind of rubbage to eat?" + +"No, sah—nuffn else." + +"Well, you must be most starved, ain't you?" + +"I reck'n I could eat a hoss.  I think I could. How long you ben on de +islan'?" + +"Since the night I got killed." + +"No!  W'y, what has you lived on?  But you got a gun.  Oh, yes, you got +a gun.  Dat's good.  Now you kill sumfn en I'll make up de fire." + +So 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. I catched a good big catfish, too, and Jim cleaned him +with his knife, and fried him. + +When breakfast was ready we lolled on the grass and eat it smoking hot. +Jim laid it in with all his might, for he was most about starved.  Then +when we had got pretty well stuffed, we laid off and lazied.  By and by +Jim says: + +"But looky here, Huck, who wuz it dat 'uz killed in dat shanty ef it +warn't you?" + +Then I told him the whole thing, and he said it was smart.  He said Tom +Sawyer couldn't get up no better plan than what I had.  Then I says: + +"How do you come to be here, Jim, and how'd you get here?" + +He looked pretty uneasy, and didn't say nothing for a minute.  Then he +says: + +"Maybe I better not tell." + +"Why, Jim?" + +"Well, dey's reasons.  But you wouldn' tell on me ef I uz to tell you, +would you, Huck?" + +"Blamed if I would, Jim." + +"Well, I b'lieve you, Huck.  I—_I run off_." + +"Jim!" + +"But mind, you said you wouldn' tell—you know you said you wouldn' tell, +Huck." + +"Well, I did.  I said I wouldn't, and I'll stick to it.  Honest _injun_, +I will.  People would call me a low-down Abolitionist and despise me for +keeping mum—but that don't make no difference.  I ain't a-going to tell, +and I ain't a-going back there, anyways.  So, now, le's know all about +it." + +"Well, you see, it 'uz dis way.  Ole missus—dat's Miss Watson—she pecks +on me all de time, en treats me pooty rough, but she awluz said she +wouldn' sell me down to Orleans.  But I noticed dey wuz a nigger trader +roun' de place considable lately, en I begin to git oneasy.  Well, one +night I creeps to de do' pooty late, en de do' warn't quite shet, en I +hear old missus tell de widder she gwyne to sell me down to Orleans, but +she didn' want to, but she could git eight hund'd dollars for me, en it +'uz sich a big stack o' money she couldn' resis'.  De widder she try to +git her to say she wouldn' do it, but I never waited to hear de res'.  I +lit out mighty quick, I tell you. + +"I tuck out en shin down de hill, en 'spec to steal a skift 'long de +sho' som'ers 'bove de town, but dey wuz people a-stirring yit, so I hid +in de ole tumble-down cooper-shop on de bank to wait for everybody to +go 'way. Well, I wuz dah all night.  Dey wuz somebody roun' all de time. + 'Long 'bout six in de mawnin' skifts begin to go by, en 'bout eight er +nine every skift dat went 'long wuz talkin' 'bout how yo' pap come over +to de town en say you's killed.  Dese las' skifts wuz full o' ladies en +genlmen a-goin' over for to see de place.  Sometimes dey'd pull up at +de sho' en take a res' b'fo' dey started acrost, so by de talk I got to +know all 'bout de killin'.  I 'uz powerful sorry you's killed, Huck, but +I ain't no mo' now. + +"I laid dah under de shavin's all day.  I 'uz hungry, but I warn't +afeard; bekase I knowed ole missus en de widder wuz goin' to start to +de camp-meet'n' right arter breakfas' en be gone all day, en dey knows +I goes off wid de cattle 'bout daylight, so dey wouldn' 'spec to see me +roun' de place, en so dey wouldn' miss me tell arter dark in de evenin'. +De yuther servants wouldn' miss me, kase dey'd shin out en take holiday +soon as de ole folks 'uz out'n de way. + +"Well, when it come dark I tuck out up de river road, en went 'bout two +mile er more to whah dey warn't no houses.  I'd made up my mine 'bout +what I's agwyne to do.  You see, ef I kep' on tryin' to git away afoot, +de dogs 'ud track me; ef I stole a skift to cross over, dey'd miss dat +skift, you see, en dey'd know 'bout whah I'd lan' on de yuther side, en +whah to pick up my track.  So I says, a raff is what I's arter; it doan' +_make_ no track. + +"I see a light a-comin' roun' de p'int bymeby, so I wade' in en shove' +a log ahead o' me en swum more'n half way acrost de river, en got in +'mongst de drift-wood, en kep' my head down low, en kinder swum agin de +current tell de raff come along.  Den I swum to de stern uv it en tuck +a-holt.  It clouded up en 'uz pooty dark for a little while.  So I clumb +up en laid down on de planks.  De men 'uz all 'way yonder in de middle, +whah de lantern wuz.  De river wuz a-risin', en dey wuz a good current; +so I reck'n'd 'at by fo' in de mawnin' I'd be twenty-five mile down de +river, en den I'd slip in jis b'fo' daylight en swim asho', en take to +de woods on de Illinois side. + +"But I didn' have no luck.  When we 'uz mos' down to de head er de +islan' a man begin to come aft wid de lantern, I see it warn't no use +fer to wait, so I slid overboard en struck out fer de islan'.  Well, I +had a notion I could lan' mos' anywhers, but I couldn't—bank too bluff. + I 'uz mos' to de foot er de islan' b'fo' I found' a good place.  I went +into de woods en jedged I wouldn' fool wid raffs no mo', long as dey +move de lantern roun' so.  I had my pipe en a plug er dog-leg, en some +matches in my cap, en dey warn't wet, so I 'uz all right." + +"And so you ain't had no meat nor bread to eat all this time?  Why +didn't you get mud-turkles?" + +"How you gwyne to git 'm?  You can't slip up on um en grab um; en how's +a body gwyne to hit um wid a rock?  How could a body do it in de night? + En I warn't gwyne to show mysef on de bank in de daytime." + +"Well, that's so.  You've had to keep in the woods all the time, of +course. Did you hear 'em shooting the cannon?" + +"Oh, yes.  I knowed dey was arter you.  I see um go by heah—watched um +thoo de bushes." + +Some young birds come along, flying a yard or two at a time and +lighting. Jim said it was a sign it was going to rain.  He said it was +a sign when young chickens flew that way, and so he reckoned it was the +same way when young birds done it.  I was going to catch some of them, +but Jim wouldn't let me.  He said it was death.  He said his father laid +mighty sick once, and some of them catched a bird, and his old granny +said his father would die, and he did. + +And Jim said you mustn't count the things you are going to cook for +dinner, because that would bring bad luck.  The same if you shook the +table-cloth after sundown.  And he said if a man owned a beehive +and that man died, the bees must be told about it before sun-up next +morning, or else the bees would all weaken down and quit work and die. + Jim said bees wouldn't sting idiots; but I didn't believe that, because +I had tried them lots of times myself, and they wouldn't sting me. + +I had heard about some of these things before, but not all of them.  Jim +knowed all kinds of signs.  He said he knowed most everything.  I said +it looked to me like all the signs was about bad luck, and so I asked +him if there warn't any good-luck signs.  He says: + +"Mighty few—an' _dey_ ain't no use to a body.  What you want to know +when good luck's a-comin' for?  Want to keep it off?"  And he said:  "Ef +you's got hairy arms en a hairy breas', it's a sign dat you's agwyne +to be rich. Well, dey's some use in a sign like dat, 'kase it's so fur +ahead. You see, maybe you's got to be po' a long time fust, en so you +might git discourage' en kill yo'sef 'f you didn' know by de sign dat +you gwyne to be rich bymeby." + +"Have you got hairy arms and a hairy breast, Jim?" + +"What's de use to ax dat question?  Don't you see I has?" + +"Well, are you rich?" + +"No, but I ben rich wunst, and gwyne to be rich agin.  Wunst I had +foteen dollars, but I tuck to specalat'n', en got busted out." + +"What did you speculate in, Jim?" + +"Well, fust I tackled stock." + +"What kind of stock?" + +"Why, live stock—cattle, you know.  I put ten dollars in a cow.  But +I ain' gwyne to resk no mo' money in stock.  De cow up 'n' died on my +han's." + +"So you lost the ten dollars." + +"No, I didn't lose it all.  I on'y los' 'bout nine of it.  I sole de +hide en taller for a dollar en ten cents." + +"You had five dollars and ten cents left.  Did you speculate any more?" + +"Yes.  You know that one-laigged nigger dat b'longs to old Misto +Bradish? Well, he sot up a bank, en say anybody dat put in a dollar +would git fo' dollars mo' at de en' er de year.  Well, all de niggers +went in, but dey didn't have much.  I wuz de on'y one dat had much.  So +I stuck out for mo' dan fo' dollars, en I said 'f I didn' git it I'd +start a bank mysef. Well, o' course dat nigger want' to keep me out er +de business, bekase he says dey warn't business 'nough for two banks, so +he say I could put in my five dollars en he pay me thirty-five at de en' +er de year. + +"So I done it.  Den I reck'n'd I'd inves' de thirty-five dollars right +off en keep things a-movin'.  Dey wuz a nigger name' Bob, dat had +ketched a wood-flat, en his marster didn' know it; en I bought it off'n +him en told him to take de thirty-five dollars when de en' er de +year come; but somebody stole de wood-flat dat night, en nex day de +one-laigged nigger say de bank's busted.  So dey didn' none uv us git no +money." + +"What did you do with the ten cents, Jim?" + +"Well, I 'uz gwyne to spen' it, but I had a dream, en de dream tole me +to give it to a nigger name' Balum—Balum's Ass dey call him for short; +he's one er dem chuckleheads, you know.  But he's lucky, dey say, en I +see I warn't lucky.  De dream say let Balum inves' de ten cents en he'd +make a raise for me.  Well, Balum he tuck de money, en when he wuz in +church he hear de preacher say dat whoever give to de po' len' to de +Lord, en boun' to git his money back a hund'd times.  So Balum he tuck +en give de ten cents to de po', en laid low to see what wuz gwyne to +come of it." + +"Well, what did come of it, Jim?" + +"Nuffn never come of it.  I couldn' manage to k'leck dat money no way; +en Balum he couldn'.  I ain' gwyne to len' no mo' money 'dout I see de +security.  Boun' to git yo' money back a hund'd times, de preacher says! +Ef I could git de ten _cents_ back, I'd call it squah, en be glad er de +chanst." + +"Well, it's all right anyway, Jim, long as you're going to be rich again +some time or other." + +"Yes; en I's rich now, come to look at it.  I owns mysef, en I's wuth +eight hund'd dollars.  I wisht I had de money, I wouldn' want no mo'." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +I wanted to go and look at a place right about the middle of the island +that I'd found when I was exploring; so we started and soon got to it, +because the island was only three miles long and a quarter of a mile +wide. + +This place was a tolerable long, steep hill or ridge about forty foot +high. We had a rough time getting to the top, the sides was so steep and +the bushes so thick.  We tramped and clumb around all over it, and by +and by found a good big cavern in the rock, most up to the top on the +side towards Illinois.  The cavern was as big as two or three rooms +bunched together, and Jim could stand up straight in it.  It was cool in +there. Jim was for putting our traps in there right away, but I said we +didn't want to be climbing up and down there all the time. + +Jim said if we had the canoe hid in a good place, and had all the traps +in the cavern, we could rush there if anybody was to come to the island, +and they would never find us without dogs.  And, besides, he said them +little birds had said it was going to rain, and did I want the things to +get wet? + +So we went back and got the canoe, and paddled up abreast the cavern, +and lugged all the traps up there.  Then we hunted up a place close by +to hide the canoe in, amongst the thick willows.  We took some fish off +of the lines and set them again, and begun to get ready for dinner. + +The door of the cavern was big enough to roll a hogshead in, and on one +side of the door the floor stuck out a little bit, and was flat and a +good place to build a fire on.  So we built it there and cooked dinner. + +We spread the blankets inside for a carpet, and eat our dinner in there. +We put all the other things handy at the back of the cavern.  Pretty +soon it darkened up, and begun to thunder and lighten; so the birds was +right about it.  Directly it begun to rain, and it rained like all fury, +too, and I never see the wind blow so.  It was one of these regular +summer storms.  It would get so dark that it looked all blue-black +outside, and lovely; and the rain would thrash along by so thick that +the trees off a little ways looked dim and spider-webby; and here would +come a blast of wind that would bend the trees down and turn up the +pale underside of the leaves; and then a perfect ripper of a gust would +follow along and set the branches to tossing their arms as if they +was just wild; and next, when it was just about the bluest and +blackest—_FST_! it was as bright as glory, and you'd have a little +glimpse of tree-tops a-plunging about away off yonder in the storm, +hundreds of yards further than you could see before; dark as sin again +in a second, and now you'd hear the thunder let go with an awful crash, +and then go rumbling, grumbling, tumbling, down the sky towards the +under side of the world, like rolling empty barrels down stairs—where +it's long stairs and they bounce a good deal, you know. + +"Jim, this is nice," I says.  "I wouldn't want to be nowhere else but +here. Pass me along another hunk of fish and some hot corn-bread." + +"Well, you wouldn't a ben here 'f it hadn't a ben for Jim.  You'd a ben +down dah in de woods widout any dinner, en gittn' mos' drownded, too; +dat you would, honey.  Chickens knows when it's gwyne to rain, en so do +de birds, chile." + +The river went on raising and raising for ten or twelve days, till at +last it was over the banks.  The water was three or four foot deep on +the island in the low places and on the Illinois bottom.  On that side +it was a good many miles wide, but on the Missouri side it was the same +old distance across—a half a mile—because the Missouri shore was just a +wall of high bluffs. + +Daytimes we paddled all over the island in the canoe, It was mighty cool +and shady in the deep woods, even if the sun was blazing outside.  We +went winding in and out amongst the trees, and sometimes the vines hung +so thick we had to back away and go some other way.  Well, on every old +broken-down tree you could see rabbits and snakes and such things; and +when the island had been overflowed a day or two they got so tame, on +account of being hungry, that you could paddle right up and put your +hand on them if you wanted to; but not the snakes and turtles—they would +slide off in the water.  The ridge our cavern was in was full of them. +We could a had pets enough if we'd wanted them. + +One night we catched a little section of a lumber raft—nice pine planks. +It was twelve foot wide and about fifteen or sixteen foot long, and +the top stood above water six or seven inches—a solid, level floor.  We +could see saw-logs go by in the daylight sometimes, but we let them go; +we didn't show ourselves in daylight. + +Another night when we was up at the head of the island, just before +daylight, here comes a frame-house down, on the west side.  She was +a two-story, and tilted over considerable.  We paddled out and got +aboard—clumb in at an upstairs window.  But it was too dark to see yet, +so we made the canoe fast and set in her to wait for daylight. + +The light begun to come before we got to the foot of the island.  Then +we looked in at the window.  We could make out a bed, and a table, and +two old chairs, and lots of things around about on the floor, and there +was clothes hanging against the wall.  There was something laying on the +floor in the far corner that looked like a man.  So Jim says: + +"Hello, you!" + +But it didn't budge.  So I hollered again, and then Jim says: + +"De man ain't asleep—he's dead.  You hold still—I'll go en see." + +He went, and bent down and looked, and says: + +"It's a dead man.  Yes, indeedy; naked, too.  He's ben shot in de back. +I reck'n he's ben dead two er three days.  Come in, Huck, but doan' look +at his face—it's too gashly." + +I didn't look at him at all.  Jim throwed some old rags over him, but +he needn't done it; I didn't want to see him.  There was heaps of old +greasy cards scattered around over the floor, and old whisky bottles, +and a couple of masks made out of black cloth; and all over the walls +was the ignorantest kind of words and pictures made with charcoal. + There was two old dirty calico dresses, and a sun-bonnet, and some +women's underclothes hanging against the wall, and some men's clothing, +too.  We put the lot into the canoe—it might come good.  There was a +boy's old speckled straw hat on the floor; I took that, too.  And there +was a bottle that had had milk in it, and it had a rag stopper for a +baby to suck.  We would a took the bottle, but it was broke.  There was +a seedy old chest, and an old hair trunk with the hinges broke.  They +stood open, but there warn't nothing left in them that was any account. + The way things was scattered about we reckoned the people left in a +hurry, and warn't fixed so as to carry off most of their stuff. + +We got an old tin lantern, and a butcher-knife without any handle, and +a bran-new Barlow knife worth two bits in any store, and a lot of tallow +candles, and a tin candlestick, and a gourd, and a tin cup, and a ratty +old bedquilt off the bed, and a reticule with needles and pins and +beeswax and buttons and thread and all such truck in it, and a hatchet +and some nails, and a fishline as thick as my little finger with some +monstrous hooks on it, and a roll of buckskin, and a leather dog-collar, +and a horseshoe, and some vials of medicine that didn't have no label +on them; and just as we was leaving I found a tolerable good curry-comb, +and Jim he found a ratty old fiddle-bow, and a wooden leg.  The straps +was broke off of it, but, barring that, it was a good enough leg, though +it was too long for me and not long enough for Jim, and we couldn't find +the other one, though we hunted all around. + +And so, take it all around, we made a good haul.  When we was ready to +shove off we was a quarter of a mile below the island, and it was pretty +broad day; so I made Jim lay down in the canoe and cover up with the +quilt, because if he set up people could tell he was a nigger a good +ways off.  I paddled over to the Illinois shore, and drifted down most +a half a mile doing it.  I crept up the dead water under the bank, and +hadn't no accidents and didn't see nobody.  We got home all safe. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +AFTER breakfast I wanted to talk about the dead man and guess out how he +come to be killed, but Jim didn't want to.  He said it would fetch bad +luck; and besides, he said, he might come and ha'nt us; he said a man +that warn't buried was more likely to go a-ha'nting around than one +that was planted and comfortable.  That sounded pretty reasonable, so +I didn't say no more; but I couldn't keep from studying over it and +wishing I knowed who shot the man, and what they done it for. + +We rummaged the clothes we'd got, and found eight dollars in silver +sewed up in the lining of an old blanket overcoat.  Jim said he reckoned +the people in that house stole the coat, because if they'd a knowed the +money was there they wouldn't a left it.  I said I reckoned they killed +him, too; but Jim didn't want to talk about that.  I says: + +"Now you think it's bad luck; but what did you say when I fetched in the +snake-skin that I found on the top of the ridge day before yesterday? +You said it was the worst bad luck in the world to touch a snake-skin +with my hands.  Well, here's your bad luck!  We've raked in all this +truck and eight dollars besides.  I wish we could have some bad luck +like this every day, Jim." + +"Never you mind, honey, never you mind.  Don't you git too peart.  It's +a-comin'.  Mind I tell you, it's a-comin'." + +It did come, too.  It was a Tuesday that we had that talk.  Well, after +dinner Friday we was laying around in the grass at the upper end of the +ridge, and got out of tobacco.  I went to the cavern to get some, and +found a rattlesnake in there.  I killed him, and curled him up on the +foot of Jim's blanket, ever so natural, thinking there'd be some fun +when Jim found him there.  Well, by night I forgot all about the snake, +and when Jim flung himself down on the blanket while I struck a light +the snake's mate was there, and bit him. + +He jumped up yelling, and the first thing the light showed was the +varmint curled up and ready for another spring.  I laid him out in a +second with a stick, and Jim grabbed pap's whisky-jug and begun to pour +it down. + +He was barefooted, and the snake bit him right on the heel.  That all +comes of my being such a fool as to not remember that wherever you leave +a dead snake its mate always comes there and curls around it.  Jim told +me to chop off the snake's head and throw it away, and then skin the +body and roast a piece of it.  I done it, and he eat it and said it +would help cure him. He made me take off the rattles and tie them around +his wrist, too.  He said that that would help.  Then I slid out quiet +and throwed the snakes clear away amongst the bushes; for I warn't going +to let Jim find out it was all my fault, not if I could help it. + +Jim sucked and sucked at the jug, and now and then he got out of his +head and pitched around and yelled; but every time he come to himself he +went to sucking at the jug again.  His foot swelled up pretty big, and +so did his leg; but by and by the drunk begun to come, and so I judged +he was all right; but I'd druther been bit with a snake than pap's +whisky. + +Jim was laid up for four days and nights.  Then the swelling was all +gone and he was around again.  I made up my mind I wouldn't ever take +a-holt of a snake-skin again with my hands, now that I see what had come +of it. Jim said he reckoned I would believe him next time.  And he said +that handling a snake-skin was such awful bad luck that maybe we hadn't +got to the end of it yet.  He said he druther see the new moon over his +left shoulder as much as a thousand times than take up a snake-skin +in his hand.  Well, I was getting to feel that way myself, though I've +always reckoned that looking at the new moon over your left shoulder is +one of the carelessest and foolishest things a body can do.  Old Hank +Bunker done it once, and bragged about it; and in less than two years he +got drunk and fell off of the shot-tower, and spread himself out so +that he was just a kind of a layer, as you may say; and they slid him +edgeways between two barn doors for a coffin, and buried him so, so +they say, but I didn't see it.  Pap told me.  But anyway it all come of +looking at the moon that way, like a fool. + +Well, the days went along, and the river went down between its banks +again; and about the first thing we done was to bait one of the big +hooks with a skinned rabbit and set it and catch a catfish that was +as big as a man, being six foot two inches long, and weighed over two +hundred pounds. We couldn't handle him, of course; he would a flung us +into Illinois.  We just set there and watched him rip and tear around +till he drownded.  We found a brass button in his stomach and a round +ball, and lots of rubbage.  We split the ball open with the hatchet, +and there was a spool in it.  Jim said he'd had it there a long time, to +coat it over so and make a ball of it.  It was as big a fish as was ever +catched in the Mississippi, I reckon.  Jim said he hadn't ever seen +a bigger one.  He would a been worth a good deal over at the village. + They peddle out such a fish as that by the pound in the market-house +there; everybody buys some of him; his meat's as white as snow and makes +a good fry. + +Next morning I said it was getting slow and dull, and I wanted to get a +stirring up some way.  I said I reckoned I would slip over the river and +find out what was going on.  Jim liked that notion; but he said I +must go in the dark and look sharp.  Then he studied it over and said, +couldn't I put on some of them old things and dress up like a girl? + That was a good notion, too.  So we shortened up one of the calico +gowns, and I turned up my trouser-legs to my knees and got into it.  Jim +hitched it behind with the hooks, and it was a fair fit.  I put on the +sun-bonnet and tied it under my chin, and then for a body to look in +and see my face was like looking down a joint of stove-pipe.  Jim said +nobody would know me, even in the daytime, hardly.  I practiced around +all day to get the hang of the things, and by and by I could do pretty +well in them, only Jim said I didn't walk like a girl; and he said +I must quit pulling up my gown to get at my britches-pocket.  I took +notice, and done better. + +I started up the Illinois shore in the canoe just after dark. + +I started across to the town from a little below the ferry-landing, and +the drift of the current fetched me in at the bottom of the town.  I +tied up and started along the bank.  There was a light burning in a +little shanty that hadn't been lived in for a long time, and I wondered +who had took up quarters there.  I slipped up and peeped in at the +window.  There was a woman about forty year old in there knitting by +a candle that was on a pine table.  I didn't know her face; she was a +stranger, for you couldn't start a face in that town that I didn't know. + Now this was lucky, because I was weakening; I was getting afraid I had +come; people might know my voice and find me out.  But if this woman had +been in such a little town two days she could tell me all I wanted to +know; so I knocked at the door, and made up my mind I wouldn't forget I +was a girl. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +"COME in," says the woman, and I did.  She says:  "Take a cheer." + +I done it.  She looked me all over with her little shiny eyes, and says: + +"What might your name be?" + +"Sarah Williams." + +"Where 'bouts do you live?  In this neighborhood?' + +"No'm.  In Hookerville, seven mile below.  I've walked all the way and +I'm all tired out." + +"Hungry, too, I reckon.  I'll find you something." + +"No'm, I ain't hungry.  I was so hungry I had to stop two miles below +here at a farm; so I ain't hungry no more.  It's what makes me so late. +My mother's down sick, and out of money and everything, and I come to +tell my uncle Abner Moore.  He lives at the upper end of the town, she +says.  I hain't ever been here before.  Do you know him?" + +"No; but I don't know everybody yet.  I haven't lived here quite two +weeks. It's a considerable ways to the upper end of the town.  You +better stay here all night.  Take off your bonnet." + +"No," I says; "I'll rest a while, I reckon, and go on.  I ain't afeared +of the dark." + +She said she wouldn't let me go by myself, but her husband would be in +by and by, maybe in a hour and a half, and she'd send him along with me. +Then she got to talking about her husband, and about her relations up +the river, and her relations down the river, and about how much better +off they used to was, and how they didn't know but they'd made a mistake +coming to our town, instead of letting well alone—and so on and so on, +till I was afeard I had made a mistake coming to her to find out what +was going on in the town; but by and by she dropped on to pap and the +murder, and then I was pretty willing to let her clatter right along. + 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 murdered.  I +says: + +"Who done it?  We've heard considerable about these goings on down in +Hookerville, but we don't know who 'twas that killed Huck Finn." + +"Well, I reckon there's a right smart chance of people _here_ that'd +like to know who killed him.  Some think old Finn done it himself." + +"No—is that so?" + +"Most everybody thought it at first.  He'll never know how nigh he come +to getting lynched.  But before night they changed around and judged it +was done by a runaway nigger named Jim." + +"Why _he_—" + +I stopped.  I reckoned I better keep still.  She run on, and never +noticed I had put in at all: + +"The nigger run off the very night Huck Finn was killed.  So there's a +reward out for him—three hundred dollars.  And there's a reward out for +old Finn, too—two hundred dollars.  You see, he come to town the +morning after the murder, and told about it, and was out with 'em on the +ferryboat hunt, and right away after he up and left.  Before night they +wanted to lynch him, but he was gone, you see.  Well, next day they +found out the nigger was gone; they found out he hadn't ben seen sence +ten o'clock the night the murder 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 boo-hooing to Judge Thatcher to get money to hunt for the +nigger all over Illinois with. The judge gave him some, and that evening +he got drunk, and was around till after midnight with a couple of mighty +hard-looking strangers, and then went off with them.  Well, he hain't +come back sence, and they ain't looking for him back till this thing +blows over a little, for people thinks now that he killed his boy and +fixed things so folks would think robbers done it, and then he'd get +Huck's money without having to bother a long time with a lawsuit. + People do say he warn't any too good to do it.  Oh, he's sly, I reckon. + If he don't come back for a year he'll be all right.  You can't prove +anything on him, you know; everything will be quieted down then, and +he'll walk in Huck's money as easy as nothing." + +"Yes, I reckon so, 'm.  I don't see nothing in the way of it.  Has +everybody quit thinking the nigger done it?" + +"Oh, no, not everybody.  A good many thinks he done it.  But they'll get +the nigger pretty soon now, and maybe they can scare it out of him." + +"Why, are they after him yet?" + +"Well, you're innocent, ain't you!  Does three hundred dollars lay +around every day for people to pick up?  Some folks think the nigger +ain't far from here.  I'm one of them—but I hain't talked it around.  A +few days ago I was talking with an old couple that lives next door in +the log shanty, and they happened to say hardly anybody ever goes to +that island over yonder that they call Jackson's Island.  Don't anybody +live there? says I. No, nobody, says they.  I didn't say any more, but +I done some thinking.  I was pretty near certain I'd 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 nigger's hiding over there; anyway, says +I, it's worth the trouble to give the place a hunt.  I hain't seen any +smoke sence, so I reckon maybe he's gone, if it was him; but husband's +going over to see—him and another man.  He was gone up the river; but he +got back to-day, and I told him as soon as he got here two hours ago." + +I had got so uneasy I couldn't 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 interested—and I was, too—and says: + +"Three hundred dollars is a power of money.  I wish my mother could get +it. Is your husband going over there to-night?" + +"Oh, 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.  They'll go over after +midnight." + +"Couldn't they see better if they was to wait till daytime?" + +"Yes.  And couldn't the nigger see better, too?  After midnight he'll +likely be asleep, and they can slip around through the woods and hunt up +his camp fire all the better for the dark, if he's got one." + +"I didn't think of that." + +The woman kept looking at me pretty curious, and I didn't feel a bit +comfortable.  Pretty soon she says, + +"What did you say your name was, honey?" + +"M—Mary Williams." + +Somehow it didn't seem to me that I said it was Mary before, so I didn't +look up—seemed 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: + +"Honey, I thought you said it was Sarah when you first come in?" + +"Oh, yes'm, I did.  Sarah Mary Williams.  Sarah's my first name.  Some +calls me Sarah, some calls me Mary." + +"Oh, that's the way of it?" + +"Yes'm." + +I was feeling better then, but I wished I was out of there, anyway.  I +couldn't 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. You'd 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 wouldn't 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 she'd wrenched her arm a day or two ago, and didn't +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 +"Ouch!" 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 didn't let on.  I got the thing, and the first rat that showed his +nose I let drive, and if he'd a stayed where he was he'd 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 husband's matters.  But she broke off +to say: + +"Keep your eye on the rats.  You better have the lead in your lap, +handy." + +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: + +"Come, now, what's your real name?" + +"Wh—what, mum?" + +"What's your real name?  Is it Bill, or Tom, or Bob?—or what is it?" + +I reckon I shook like a leaf, and I didn't know hardly what to do.  But +I says: + +"Please to don't poke fun at a poor girl like me, mum.  If I'm in the +way here, I'll—" + +"No, you won't.  Set down and stay where you are.  I ain't going to hurt +you, and I ain't going to tell on you, nuther.  You just tell me your +secret, and trust me.  I'll keep it; and, what's more, I'll help +you. So'll my old man if you want him to.  You see, you're a runaway +'prentice, that's all.  It ain't anything.  There ain't no harm in it. +You've been treated bad, and you made up your mind to cut.  Bless you, +child, I wouldn't tell on you.  Tell me all about it now, that's a good +boy." + +So I said it wouldn't be no use to try to play it any longer, and I +would just make a clean breast and tell her everything, but she musn't +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 couldn't 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 daughter's 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. + +"Goshen, child?  This ain't Goshen.  This is St. Petersburg.  Goshen's +ten mile further up the river.  Who told you this was Goshen?" + +"Why, 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." + +"He was drunk, I reckon.  He told you just exactly wrong." + +"Well, he did act like he was drunk, but it ain't no matter now.  I got +to be moving along.  I'll fetch Goshen before daylight." + +"Hold on a minute.  I'll put you up a snack to eat.  You might want it." + +So she put me up a snack, and says: + +"Say, when a cow's laying down, which end of her gets up first?  Answer +up prompt now—don't stop to study over it.  Which end gets up first?" + +"The hind end, mum." + +"Well, then, a horse?" + +"The for'rard end, mum." + +"Which side of a tree does the moss grow on?" + +"North side." + +"If fifteen cows is browsing on a hillside, how many of them eats with +their heads pointed the same direction?" + +"The whole fifteen, mum." + +"Well, I reckon you _have_ lived in the country.  I thought maybe you +was trying to hocus me again.  What's your real name, now?" + +"George Peters, mum." + +"Well, try to remember it, George.  Don't forget and tell me it's +Elexander before you go, and then get out by saying it's George +Elexander when I catch you.  And don't 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 don't hold the +thread still and fetch the needle up to it; hold the needle still and +poke the thread at it; that's the way a woman most always does, but a +man always does t'other 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 don't 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 I'll 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 road's a rocky one, +and your feet'll be in a condition when you get to Goshen, I reckon." + +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 didn't 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 clear—eleven.  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: + +"Git up and hump yourself, Jim!  There ain't a minute to lose.  They're +after us!" + +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 didn't 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 couldn't see it, for stars and shadows +ain't good to see by.  Then we got out the raft and slipped along down +in the shade, past the foot of the island dead still—never saying a +word. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +IT must a been close on to one o'clock when we got below the island at +last, and the raft did seem to go mighty slow.  If a boat was to come +along we was going to take to the canoe and break for the Illinois +shore; and it was well a boat didn't come, for we hadn't ever thought to +put the gun in the canoe, or a fishing-line, or anything to eat.  We +was in ruther too much of a sweat to think of so many things.  It warn't +good judgment to put _everything_ on the raft. + +If the men went to the island I just expect they found the camp fire I +built, and watched it all night for Jim to come.  Anyways, they stayed +away from us, and if my building the fire never fooled them it warn't no +fault of mine.  I played it as low down on them as I could. + +When the first streak of day began to show we tied up to a towhead in a +big bend on the Illinois side, and hacked off cottonwood branches with +the hatchet, and covered up the raft with them so she looked like there +had been a cave-in in the bank there.  A tow-head is a sandbar that has +cottonwoods on it as thick as harrow-teeth. + +We had mountains on the Missouri shore and heavy timber on the Illinois +side, and the channel was down the Missouri shore at that place, so we +warn't afraid of anybody running across us.  We laid there all day, +and watched the rafts and steamboats spin down the Missouri shore, and +up-bound steamboats fight the big river in the middle.  I told Jim all +about the time I had jabbering with that woman; and Jim said she was +a smart one, and if she was to start after us herself she wouldn't set +down and watch a camp fire—no, sir, she'd fetch a dog.  Well, then, I +said, why couldn't she tell her husband to fetch a dog?  Jim said he +bet she did think of it by the time the men was ready to start, and he +believed they must a gone up-town to get a dog and so they lost all that +time, or else we wouldn't be here on a towhead sixteen or seventeen mile +below the village—no, indeedy, we would be in that same old town again. + So I said I didn't care what was the reason they didn't get us as long +as they didn't. + +When it was beginning to come on dark we poked our heads out of the +cottonwood thicket, and looked up and down and across; nothing in sight; +so Jim took up some of the top planks of the raft and built a snug +wigwam to get under in blazing weather and rainy, and to keep the things +dry. Jim made a floor for the wigwam, and raised it a foot or more above +the level of the raft, so now the blankets and all the traps was out of +reach of steamboat waves.  Right in the middle of the wigwam we made a +layer of dirt about five or six inches deep with a frame around it for +to hold it to its place; this was to build a fire on in sloppy weather +or chilly; the wigwam would keep it from being seen.  We made an extra +steering-oar, too, because one of the others might get broke on a snag +or something. We fixed up a short forked stick to hang the old lantern +on, because we must always light the lantern whenever we see a steamboat +coming down-stream, to keep from getting run over; but we wouldn't have +to light it for up-stream boats unless we see we was in what they call +a "crossing"; for the river was pretty high yet, very low banks being +still a little under water; so up-bound boats didn't always run the +channel, but hunted easy water. + +This second night we run between seven and eight hours, with a current +that was making over four mile an hour.  We catched fish and talked, +and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness.  It was kind of +solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying on our backs looking +up at the stars, and we didn't ever feel like talking loud, and it +warn't often that we laughed—only a little kind of a low chuckle.  We +had mighty good weather as a general thing, and nothing ever happened to +us at all—that night, nor the next, nor the next. + +Every night we passed towns, some of them away up on black hillsides, +nothing but just a shiny bed of lights; not a house could you see.  The +fifth night we passed St. Louis, and it was like the whole world lit up. +In St. Petersburg they used to say there was twenty or thirty thousand +people in St. Louis, but I never believed it till I see that wonderful +spread of lights at two o'clock that still night.  There warn't a sound +there; everybody was asleep. + +Every night now I used to slip ashore towards ten o'clock at some little +village, and buy ten or fifteen cents' worth of meal or bacon or other +stuff to eat; and sometimes I lifted a chicken that warn't roosting +comfortable, and took him along.  Pap always said, take a chicken when +you get a chance, because if you don't want him yourself you can easy +find somebody that does, and a good deed ain't ever forgot.  I never see +pap when he didn't want the chicken himself, but that is what he used to +say, anyway. + +Mornings before daylight I slipped into cornfields and borrowed a +watermelon, or a mushmelon, or a punkin, or some new corn, or things of +that kind.  Pap always said it warn't no harm to borrow things if you +was meaning to pay them back some time; but the widow said it warn't +anything but a soft name for stealing, and no decent body would do it. + Jim said he reckoned the widow was partly right and pap was partly +right; so the best way would be for us to pick out two or three things +from the list and say we wouldn't borrow them any more—then he reckoned +it wouldn't be no harm to borrow the others.  So we talked it over all +one night, drifting along down the river, trying to make up our minds +whether to drop the watermelons, or the cantelopes, or the mushmelons, +or what.  But towards daylight we got it all settled satisfactory, and +concluded to drop crabapples and p'simmons.  We warn't feeling just +right before that, but it was all comfortable now.  I was glad the way +it come out, too, because crabapples ain't ever good, and the p'simmons +wouldn't be ripe for two or three months yet. + +We shot a water-fowl now and then that got up too early in the morning +or didn't go to bed early enough in the evening.  Take it all round, we +lived pretty high. + +The fifth night below St. Louis we had a big storm after midnight, with +a power of thunder and lightning, and the rain poured down in a solid +sheet. We stayed in the wigwam and let the raft take care of itself. +When the lightning glared out we could see a big straight river ahead, +and high, rocky bluffs on both sides.  By and by says I, "Hel-_lo_, Jim, +looky yonder!" It was a steamboat that had killed herself on a rock. + We was drifting straight down for her.  The lightning showed her very +distinct.  She was leaning over, with part of her upper deck above +water, and you could see every little chimbly-guy clean and clear, and a +chair by the big bell, with an old slouch hat hanging on the back of it, +when the flashes come. + +Well, it being away in the night and stormy, and all so mysterious-like, +I felt just the way any other boy would a felt when I see that wreck +laying there so mournful and lonesome in the middle of the river.  I +wanted to get aboard of her and slink around a little, and see what +there was there.  So I says: + +"Le's land on her, Jim." + +But Jim was dead against it at first.  He says: + +"I doan' want to go fool'n 'long er no wrack.  We's doin' blame' well, +en we better let blame' well alone, as de good book says.  Like as not +dey's a watchman on dat wrack." + +"Watchman your grandmother," I says; "there ain't nothing to watch but +the texas and the pilot-house; and do you reckon anybody's going to resk +his life for a texas and a pilot-house such a night as this, when +it's likely to break up and wash off down the river any minute?"  Jim +couldn't say nothing to that, so he didn't try.  "And besides," I says, +"we might borrow something worth having out of the captain's stateroom. + Seegars, I bet you—and cost five cents apiece, solid cash.  Steamboat +captains is always rich, and get sixty dollars a month, and _they_ don't +care a cent what a thing costs, you know, long as they want it.  Stick a +candle in your pocket; I can't rest, Jim, till we give her a rummaging. + Do you reckon Tom Sawyer would ever go by this thing?  Not for pie, he +wouldn't. He'd call it an adventure—that's what he'd call it; and he'd +land on that wreck if it was his last act.  And wouldn't he throw style +into it?—wouldn't he spread himself, nor nothing?  Why, you'd think it +was Christopher C'lumbus discovering Kingdom-Come.  I wish Tom Sawyer +_was_ here." + +Jim he grumbled a little, but give in.  He said we mustn't talk any more +than we could help, and then talk mighty low.  The lightning showed us +the wreck again just in time, and we fetched the stabboard derrick, and +made fast there. + +The deck was high out here.  We went sneaking down the slope of it to +labboard, in the dark, towards the texas, feeling our way slow with our +feet, and spreading our hands out to fend off the guys, for it was so +dark we couldn't see no sign of them.  Pretty soon we struck the forward +end of the skylight, and clumb on to it; and the next step fetched us in +front of the captain's door, which was open, and by Jimminy, away down +through the texas-hall we see a light! and all in the same second we +seem to hear low voices in yonder! + +Jim whispered and said he was feeling powerful sick, and told me to come +along.  I says, all right, and was going to start for the raft; but just +then I heard a voice wail out and say: + +"Oh, please don't, boys; I swear I won't ever tell!" + +Another voice said, pretty loud: + +"It's a lie, Jim Turner.  You've acted this way before.  You always want +more'n your share of the truck, and you've always got it, too, because +you've swore 't if you didn't you'd tell.  But this time you've said +it jest one time too many.  You're the meanest, treacherousest hound in +this country." + +By this time Jim was gone for the raft.  I was just a-biling with +curiosity; and I says to myself, Tom Sawyer wouldn't back out now, +and so I won't either; I'm a-going to see what's going on here.  So I +dropped on my hands and knees in the little passage, and crept aft +in the dark till there warn't but one stateroom betwixt me and the +cross-hall of the texas.  Then in there I see a man stretched on the +floor and tied hand and foot, and two men standing over him, and one +of them had a dim lantern in his hand, and the other one had a pistol. + This one kept pointing the pistol at the man's head on the floor, and +saying: + +"I'd _like_ to!  And I orter, too—a mean skunk!" + +The man on the floor would shrivel up and say, "Oh, please don't, Bill; +I hain't ever goin' to tell." + +And every time he said that the man with the lantern would laugh and +say: + +"'Deed you _ain't!_  You never said no truer thing 'n that, you bet +you." And once he said:  "Hear him beg! and yit if we hadn't got the +best of him and tied him he'd a killed us both.  And what _for_?  Jist +for noth'n. Jist because we stood on our _rights_—that's what for.  But +I lay you ain't a-goin' to threaten nobody any more, Jim Turner.  Put +_up_ that pistol, Bill." + +Bill says: + +"I don't want to, Jake Packard.  I'm for killin' him—and didn't he kill +old Hatfield jist the same way—and don't he deserve it?" + +"But I don't _want_ him killed, and I've got my reasons for it." + +"Bless yo' heart for them words, Jake Packard!  I'll never forgit you +long's I live!" says the man on the floor, sort of blubbering. + +Packard didn't take no notice of that, but hung up his lantern on a nail +and started towards where I was there in the dark, and motioned Bill +to come.  I crawfished as fast as I could about two yards, but the boat +slanted so that I couldn't make very good time; so to keep from getting +run over and catched I crawled into a stateroom on the upper side. + The man came a-pawing along in the dark, and when Packard got to my +stateroom, he says: + +"Here—come in here." + +And in he come, and Bill after him.  But before they got in I was up +in the upper berth, cornered, and sorry I come.  Then they stood there, +with their hands on the ledge of the berth, and talked.  I couldn't see +them, but I could tell where they was by the whisky they'd been having. + I was glad I didn't drink whisky; but it wouldn't made much difference +anyway, because most of the time they couldn't a treed me because I +didn't breathe.  I was too scared.  And, besides, a body _couldn't_ +breathe and hear such talk.  They talked low and earnest.  Bill wanted +to kill Turner.  He says: + +"He's said he'll tell, and he will.  If we was to give both our shares +to him _now_ it wouldn't make no difference after the row and the way +we've served him.  Shore's you're born, he'll turn State's evidence; now +you hear _me_.  I'm for putting him out of his troubles." + +"So'm I," says Packard, very quiet. + +"Blame it, I'd sorter begun to think you wasn't.  Well, then, that's all +right.  Le's go and do it." + +"Hold on a minute; I hain't had my say yit.  You listen to me. +Shooting's good, but there's quieter ways if the thing's _got_ to be +done. But what I say is this:  it ain't good sense to go court'n around +after a halter if you can git at what you're up to in some way that's +jist as good and at the same time don't bring you into no resks.  Ain't +that so?" + +"You bet it is.  But how you goin' to manage it this time?" + +"Well, my idea is this:  we'll rustle around and gather up whatever +pickins we've overlooked in the staterooms, and shove for shore and hide +the truck. Then we'll wait.  Now I say it ain't a-goin' to be more'n two +hours befo' this wrack breaks up and washes off down the river.  See? +He'll be drownded, and won't have nobody to blame for it but his own +self.  I reckon that's a considerble sight better 'n killin' of him. + I'm unfavorable to killin' a man as long as you can git aroun' it; it +ain't good sense, it ain't good morals.  Ain't I right?" + +"Yes, I reck'n you are.  But s'pose she _don't_ break up and wash off?" + +"Well, we can wait the two hours anyway and see, can't we?" + +"All right, then; come along." + +So they started, and I lit out, all in a cold sweat, and scrambled +forward. It was dark as pitch there; but I said, in a kind of a coarse +whisper, "Jim!" and he answered up, right at my elbow, with a sort of a +moan, and I says: + +"Quick, Jim, it ain't no time for fooling around and moaning; there's a +gang of murderers in yonder, and if we don't hunt up their boat and set +her drifting down the river so these fellows can't get away from the +wreck there's one of 'em going to be in a bad fix.  But if we find their +boat we can put _all_ of 'em in a bad fix—for the sheriff 'll get 'em. +Quick—hurry!  I'll hunt the labboard side, you hunt the stabboard. You +start at the raft, and—" + +"Oh, my lordy, lordy!  _raf'_?  Dey ain' no raf' no mo'; she done broke +loose en gone I—en here we is!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +WELL, I catched my breath and most fainted.  Shut up on a wreck with +such a gang as that!  But it warn't no time to be sentimentering.  We'd +_got_ to find that boat now—had to have it for ourselves.  So we went +a-quaking and shaking down the stabboard side, and slow work it was, +too—seemed a week before we got to the stern.  No sign of a boat.  Jim +said he didn't believe he could go any further—so scared he hadn't +hardly any strength left, he said.  But I said, come on, if we get left +on this wreck we are in a fix, sure.  So on we prowled again.  We struck +for the stern of the texas, and found it, and then scrabbled along +forwards on the skylight, hanging on from shutter to shutter, for the +edge of the skylight was in the water.  When we got pretty close to the +cross-hall door there was the skiff, sure enough!  I could just barely +see her.  I felt ever so thankful.  In another second I would a been +aboard of her, but just then the door opened.  One of the men stuck his +head out only about a couple of foot from me, and I thought I was gone; +but he jerked it in again, and says: + +"Heave that blame lantern out o' sight, Bill!" + +He flung a bag of something into the boat, and then got in himself and +set down.  It was Packard.  Then Bill _he_ come out and got in.  Packard +says, in a low voice: + +"All ready—shove off!" + +I couldn't hardly hang on to the shutters, I was so weak.  But Bill +says: + +"Hold on—'d you go through him?" + +"No.  Didn't you?" + +"No.  So he's got his share o' the cash yet." + +"Well, then, come along; no use to take truck and leave money." + +"Say, won't he suspicion what we're up to?" + +"Maybe he won't.  But we got to have it anyway. Come along." + +So they got out and went in. + +The door slammed to because it was on the careened side; and in a half +second I was in the boat, and Jim come tumbling after me.  I out with my +knife and cut the rope, and away we went! + +We didn't touch an oar, and we didn't speak nor whisper, nor hardly even +breathe.  We went gliding swift along, dead silent, past the tip of the +paddle-box, and past the stern; then in a second or two more we was a +hundred yards below the wreck, and the darkness soaked her up, every +last sign of her, and we was safe, and knowed it. + +When we was three or four hundred yards down-stream we see the lantern +show like a little spark at the texas door for a second, and we knowed +by that that the rascals had missed their boat, and was beginning to +understand that they was in just as much trouble now as Jim Turner was. + +Then Jim manned the oars, and we took out after our raft.  Now was the +first time that I begun to worry about the men—I reckon I hadn't +had time to before.  I begun to think how dreadful it was, even for +murderers, to be in such a fix.  I says to myself, there ain't no +telling but I might come to be a murderer myself yet, and then how would +I like it?  So says I to Jim: + +"The first light we see we'll land a hundred yards below it or above +it, in a place where it's a good hiding-place for you and the skiff, and +then I'll go and fix up some kind of a yarn, and get somebody to go for +that gang and get them out of their scrape, so they can be hung when +their time comes." + +But that idea was a failure; for pretty soon it begun to storm again, +and this time worse than ever.  The rain poured down, and never a light +showed; everybody in bed, I reckon.  We boomed along down the river, +watching for lights and watching for our raft.  After a long time the +rain let up, but the clouds stayed, and the lightning kept whimpering, +and by and by a flash showed us a black thing ahead, floating, and we +made for it. + +It was the raft, and mighty glad was we to get aboard of it again.  We +seen a light now away down to the right, on shore.  So I said I would +go for it. The skiff was half full of plunder which that gang had stole +there on the wreck.  We hustled it on to the raft in a pile, and I told +Jim to float along down, and show a light when he judged he had gone +about two mile, and keep it burning till I come; then I manned my oars +and shoved for the light.  As I got down towards it three or four more +showed—up on a hillside.  It was a village.  I closed in above the shore +light, and laid on my oars and floated.  As I went by I see it was a +lantern hanging on the jackstaff of a double-hull ferryboat.  I skimmed +around for the watchman, a-wondering whereabouts he slept; and by and +by I found him roosting on the bitts forward, with his head down between +his knees.  I gave his shoulder two or three little shoves, and begun to +cry. + +He stirred up in a kind of a startlish way; but when he see it was only +me he took a good gap and stretch, and then he says: + +"Hello, what's up?  Don't cry, bub.  What's the trouble?" + +I says: + +"Pap, and mam, and sis, and—" + +Then I broke down.  He says: + +"Oh, dang it now, _don't_ take on so; we all has to have our troubles, +and this 'n 'll come out all right.  What's the matter with 'em?" + +"They're—they're—are you the watchman of the boat?" + +"Yes," he says, kind of pretty-well-satisfied like.  "I'm the captain +and the owner and the mate and the pilot and watchman and head +deck-hand; and sometimes I'm the freight and passengers.  I ain't as +rich as old Jim Hornback, and I can't be so blame' generous and good +to Tom, Dick, and Harry as what he is, and slam around money the way he +does; but I've told him a many a time 't I wouldn't trade places with +him; for, says I, a sailor's life's the life for me, and I'm derned if +_I'd_ live two mile out o' town, where there ain't nothing ever goin' +on, not for all his spondulicks and as much more on top of it.  Says I—" + +I broke in and says: + +"They're in an awful peck of trouble, and—" + +"_Who_ is?" + +"Why, pap and mam and sis and Miss Hooker; and if you'd take your +ferryboat and go up there—" + +"Up where?  Where are they?" + +"On the wreck." + +"What wreck?" + +"Why, there ain't but one." + +"What, you don't mean the Walter Scott?" + +"Yes." + +"Good land! what are they doin' _there_, for gracious sakes?" + +"Well, they didn't go there a-purpose." + +"I bet they didn't!  Why, great goodness, there ain't no chance for 'em +if they don't git off mighty quick!  Why, how in the nation did they +ever git into such a scrape?" + +"Easy enough.  Miss Hooker was a-visiting up there to the town—" + +"Yes, Booth's Landing—go on." + +"She was a-visiting there at Booth's Landing, and just in the edge of +the evening she started over with her nigger woman in the horse-ferry +to stay all night at her friend's house, Miss What-you-may-call-her I +disremember her name—and they lost their steering-oar, and swung +around and went a-floating down, stern first, about two mile, and +saddle-baggsed on the wreck, and the ferryman and the nigger woman and +the horses was all lost, but Miss Hooker she made a grab and got aboard +the wreck.  Well, about an hour after dark we come along down in our +trading-scow, and it was so dark we didn't notice the wreck till we was +right on it; and so _we_ saddle-baggsed; but all of us was saved but +Bill Whipple—and oh, he _was_ the best cretur!—I most wish 't it had +been me, I do." + +"My George!  It's the beatenest thing I ever struck.  And _then_ what +did you all do?" + +"Well, we hollered and took on, but it's so wide there we couldn't +make nobody hear.  So pap said somebody got to get ashore and get help +somehow. I was the only one that could swim, so I made a dash for it, +and Miss Hooker she said if I didn't strike help sooner, come here and +hunt up her uncle, and he'd fix the thing.  I made the land about a mile +below, and been fooling along ever since, trying to get people to do +something, but they said, 'What, in such a night and such a current? +There ain't no sense in it; go for the steam ferry.'  Now if you'll go +and—" + +"By Jackson, I'd _like_ to, and, blame it, I don't know but I will; but +who in the dingnation's a-going' to _pay_ for it?  Do you reckon your +pap—" + +"Why _that's_ all right.  Miss Hooker she tole me, _particular_, that +her uncle Hornback—" + +"Great guns! is _he_ her uncle?  Looky here, you break for that light +over yonder-way, and turn out west when you git there, and about a +quarter of a mile out you'll come to the tavern; tell 'em to dart you +out to Jim Hornback's, and he'll foot the bill.  And don't you fool +around any, because he'll want to know the news.  Tell him I'll have +his niece all safe before he can get to town.  Hump yourself, now; I'm +a-going up around the corner here to roust out my engineer." + +I struck for the light, but as soon as he turned the corner I went back +and got into my skiff and bailed her out, and then pulled up shore in +the easy water about six hundred yards, and tucked myself in among +some woodboats; for I couldn't rest easy till I could see the ferryboat +start. But take it all around, I was feeling ruther comfortable on +accounts of taking all this trouble for that gang, for not many would +a done it.  I wished the widow knowed about it.  I judged she would be +proud of me for helping these rapscallions, because rapscallions and +dead beats is the kind the widow and good people takes the most interest +in. + +Well, before long here comes the wreck, dim and dusky, sliding along +down! A kind of cold shiver went through me, and then I struck out for +her.  She was very deep, and I see in a minute there warn't much chance +for anybody being alive in her.  I pulled all around her and hollered +a little, but there wasn't any answer; all dead still.  I felt a little +bit heavy-hearted about the gang, but not much, for I reckoned if they +could stand it I could. + +Then here comes the ferryboat; so I shoved for the middle of the river +on a long down-stream slant; and when I judged I was out of eye-reach +I laid on my oars, and looked back and see her go and smell around the +wreck for Miss Hooker's remainders, because the captain would know her +uncle Hornback would want them; and then pretty soon the ferryboat give +it up and went for the shore, and I laid into my work and went a-booming +down the river. + +It did seem a powerful long time before Jim's light showed up; and when +it did show it looked like it was a thousand mile off.  By the time I +got there the sky was beginning to get a little gray in the east; so we +struck for an island, and hid the raft, and sunk the skiff, and turned +in and slept like dead people. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +BY and by, when we got up, we turned over the truck the gang had stole +off of the wreck, and found boots, and blankets, and clothes, and all +sorts of other things, and a lot of books, and a spyglass, and three +boxes of seegars.  We hadn't ever been this rich before in neither of +our lives.  The seegars was prime.  We laid off all the afternoon in the +woods talking, and me reading the books, and having a general good +time. I told Jim all about what happened inside the wreck and at the +ferryboat, and I said these kinds of things was adventures; but he said +he didn't want no more adventures.  He said that when I went in the +texas and he crawled back to get on the raft and found her gone he +nearly died, because he judged it was all up with _him_ anyway it could +be fixed; for if he didn't get saved he would get drownded; and if he +did get saved, whoever saved him would send him back home so as to get +the reward, and then Miss Watson would sell him South, sure.  Well, he +was right; he was most always right; he had an uncommon level head for a +nigger. + +I read considerable to Jim about kings and dukes and earls and such, and +how gaudy they dressed, and how much style they put on, and called each +other your majesty, and your grace, and your lordship, and so on, 'stead +of mister; and Jim's eyes bugged out, and he was interested.  He says: + +"I didn' know dey was so many un um.  I hain't hearn 'bout none un um, +skasely, but ole King Sollermun, onless you counts dem kings dat's in a +pack er k'yards.  How much do a king git?" + +"Get?"  I says; "why, they get a thousand dollars a month if they want +it; they can have just as much as they want; everything belongs to +them." + +"_Ain'_ dat gay?  En what dey got to do, Huck?" + +"_They_ don't do nothing!  Why, how you talk! They just set around." + +"No; is dat so?" + +"Of course it is.  They just set around—except, maybe, when there's a +war; then they go to the war.  But other times they just lazy around; or +go hawking—just hawking and sp—Sh!—d' you hear a noise?" + +We skipped out and looked; but it warn't nothing but the flutter of a +steamboat's wheel away down, coming around the point; so we come back. + +"Yes," says I, "and other times, when things is dull, they fuss with the +parlyment; and if everybody don't go just so he whacks their heads off. +But mostly they hang round the harem." + +"Roun' de which?" + +"Harem." + +"What's de harem?" + +"The place where he keeps his wives.  Don't you know about the harem? +Solomon had one; he had about a million wives." + +"Why, yes, dat's so; I—I'd done forgot it.  A harem's a bo'd'n-house, I +reck'n.  Mos' likely dey has rackety times in de nussery.  En I reck'n +de wives quarrels considable; en dat 'crease de racket.  Yit dey say +Sollermun de wises' man dat ever live'.  I doan' take no stock in +dat. Bekase why: would a wise man want to live in de mids' er sich a +blim-blammin' all de time?  No—'deed he wouldn't.  A wise man 'ud take +en buil' a biler-factry; en den he could shet _down_ de biler-factry +when he want to res'." + +"Well, but he _was_ the wisest man, anyway; because the widow she told +me so, her own self." + +"I doan k'yer what de widder say, he _warn't_ no wise man nuther.  He +had some er de dad-fetchedes' ways I ever see.  Does you know 'bout dat +chile dat he 'uz gwyne to chop in two?" + +"Yes, the widow told me all about it." + +"_Well_, den!  Warn' dat de beatenes' notion in de worl'?  You jes' +take en look at it a minute.  Dah's de stump, dah—dat's one er de women; +heah's you—dat's de yuther one; I's Sollermun; en dish yer dollar bill's +de chile.  Bofe un you claims it.  What does I do?  Does I shin aroun' +mongs' de neighbors en fine out which un you de bill _do_ b'long to, en +han' it over to de right one, all safe en soun', de way dat anybody dat +had any gumption would?  No; I take en whack de bill in _two_, en give +half un it to you, en de yuther half to de yuther woman.  Dat's de way +Sollermun was gwyne to do wid de chile.  Now I want to ast you:  what's +de use er dat half a bill?—can't buy noth'n wid it.  En what use is a +half a chile?  I wouldn' give a dern for a million un um." + +"But hang it, Jim, you've clean missed the point—blame it, you've missed +it a thousand mile." + +"Who?  Me?  Go 'long.  Doan' talk to me 'bout yo' pints.  I reck'n I +knows sense when I sees it; en dey ain' no sense in sich doin's as +dat. De 'spute warn't 'bout a half a chile, de 'spute was 'bout a whole +chile; en de man dat think he kin settle a 'spute 'bout a whole chile +wid a half a chile doan' know enough to come in out'n de rain.  Doan' +talk to me 'bout Sollermun, Huck, I knows him by de back." + +"But I tell you you don't get the point." + +"Blame de point!  I reck'n I knows what I knows.  En mine you, de _real_ +pint is down furder—it's down deeper.  It lays in de way Sollermun was +raised.  You take a man dat's got on'y one or two chillen; is dat man +gwyne to be waseful o' chillen?  No, he ain't; he can't 'ford it.  _He_ +know how to value 'em.  But you take a man dat's got 'bout five million +chillen runnin' roun' de house, en it's diffunt.  _He_ as soon chop a +chile in two as a cat. Dey's plenty mo'.  A chile er two, mo' er less, +warn't no consekens to Sollermun, dad fatch him!" + +I never see such a nigger.  If he got a notion in his head once, there +warn't no getting it out again.  He was the most down on Solomon of +any nigger I ever see.  So I went to talking about other kings, and let +Solomon slide.  I told about Louis Sixteenth that got his head cut off +in France long time ago; and about his little boy the dolphin, that +would a been a king, but they took and shut him up in jail, and some say +he died there. + +"Po' little chap." + +"But some says he got out and got away, and come to America." + +"Dat's good!  But he'll be pooty lonesome—dey ain' no kings here, is +dey, Huck?" + +"No." + +"Den he cain't git no situation.  What he gwyne to do?" + +"Well, I don't know.  Some of them gets on the police, and some of them +learns people how to talk French." + +"Why, Huck, doan' de French people talk de same way we does?" + +"_No_, Jim; you couldn't understand a word they said—not a single word." + +"Well, now, I be ding-busted!  How do dat come?" + +"I don't know; but it's so.  I got some of their jabber out of a book. +S'pose a man was to come to you and say Polly-voo-franzy—what would you +think?" + +"I wouldn' think nuff'n; I'd take en bust him over de head—dat is, if he +warn't white.  I wouldn't 'low no nigger to call me dat." + +"Shucks, it ain't calling you anything.  It's only saying, do you know +how to talk French?" + +"Well, den, why couldn't he _say_ it?" + +"Why, he _is_ a-saying it.  That's a Frenchman's _way_ of saying it." + +"Well, it's a blame ridicklous way, en I doan' want to hear no mo' 'bout +it.  Dey ain' no sense in it." + +"Looky here, Jim; does a cat talk like we do?" + +"No, a cat don't." + +"Well, does a cow?" + +"No, a cow don't, nuther." + +"Does a cat talk like a cow, or a cow talk like a cat?" + +"No, dey don't." + +"It's natural and right for 'em to talk different from each other, ain't +it?" + +"Course." + +"And ain't it natural and right for a cat and a cow to talk different +from _us_?" + +"Why, mos' sholy it is." + +"Well, then, why ain't it natural and right for a _Frenchman_ to talk +different from us?  You answer me that." + +"Is a cat a man, Huck?" + +"No." + +"Well, den, dey ain't no sense in a cat talkin' like a man.  Is a cow a +man?—er is a cow a cat?" + +"No, she ain't either of them." + +"Well, den, she ain't got no business to talk like either one er the +yuther of 'em.  Is a Frenchman a man?" + +"Yes." + +"_Well_, den!  Dad blame it, why doan' he _talk_ like a man?  You answer +me _dat_!" + +I see it warn't no use wasting words—you can't learn a nigger to argue. +So I quit. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +WE judged that three nights more would fetch us to Cairo, at the bottom +of Illinois, where the Ohio River comes in, and that was what we was +after.  We would sell the raft and get on a steamboat and go way up the +Ohio amongst the free States, and then be out of trouble. + +Well, the second night a fog begun to come on, and we made for a towhead +to tie to, for it wouldn't do to try to run in a fog; but when I paddled +ahead in the canoe, with the line to make fast, there warn't anything +but little saplings to tie to.  I passed the line around one of them +right on the edge of the cut bank, but there was a stiff current, and +the raft come booming down so lively she tore it out by the roots and +away she went.  I see the fog closing down, and it made me so sick and +scared I couldn't budge for most a half a minute it seemed to me—and +then there warn't no raft in sight; you couldn't see twenty yards.  I +jumped into the canoe and run back to the stern, and grabbed the paddle +and set her back a stroke.  But she didn't come.  I was in such a hurry +I hadn't untied her.  I got up and tried to untie her, but I was so +excited my hands shook so I couldn't hardly do anything with them. + +As soon as I got started I took out after the raft, hot and heavy, right +down the towhead.  That was all right as far as it went, but the towhead +warn't sixty yards long, and the minute I flew by the foot of it I shot +out into the solid white fog, and hadn't no more idea which way I was +going than a dead man. + +Thinks I, it won't do to paddle; first I know I'll run into the bank +or a towhead or something; I got to set still and float, and yet it's +mighty fidgety business to have to hold your hands still at such a time. + I whooped and listened.  Away down there somewheres I hears a small +whoop, and up comes my spirits.  I went tearing after it, listening +sharp to hear it again.  The next time it come I see I warn't heading +for it, but heading away to the right of it.  And the next time I was +heading away to the left of it—and not gaining on it much either, for +I was flying around, this way and that and t'other, but it was going +straight ahead all the time. + +I did wish the fool would think to beat a tin pan, and beat it all the +time, but he never did, and it was the still places between the whoops +that was making the trouble for me.  Well, I fought along, and directly +I hears the whoop _behind_ me.  I was tangled good now.  That was +somebody else's whoop, or else I was turned around. + +I throwed the paddle down.  I heard the whoop again; it was behind me +yet, but in a different place; it kept coming, and kept changing its +place, and I kept answering, till by and by it was in front of me again, +and I knowed the current had swung the canoe's head down-stream, and I +was all right if that was Jim and not some other raftsman hollering. + I couldn't tell nothing about voices in a fog, for nothing don't look +natural nor sound natural in a fog. + +The whooping went on, and in about a minute I come a-booming down on a +cut bank with smoky ghosts of big trees on it, and the current throwed +me off to the left and shot by, amongst a lot of snags that fairly +roared, the currrent was tearing by them so swift. + +In another second or two it was solid white and still again.  I set +perfectly still then, listening to my heart thump, and I reckon I didn't +draw a breath while it thumped a hundred. + +I just give up then.  I knowed what the matter was.  That cut bank +was an island, and Jim had gone down t'other side of it.  It warn't no +towhead that you could float by in ten minutes.  It had the big timber +of a regular island; it might be five or six miles long and more than +half a mile wide. + +I kept quiet, with my ears cocked, about fifteen minutes, I reckon.  I +was floating along, of course, four or five miles an hour; but you don't +ever think of that.  No, you _feel_ like you are laying dead still on +the water; and if a little glimpse of a snag slips by you don't think to +yourself how fast _you're_ going, but you catch your breath and think, +my! how that snag's tearing along.  If you think it ain't dismal and +lonesome out in a fog that way by yourself in the night, you try it +once—you'll see. + +Next, for about a half an hour, I whoops now and then; at last I hears +the answer a long ways off, and tries to follow it, but I couldn't do +it, and directly I judged I'd got into a nest of towheads, for I had +little dim glimpses of them on both sides of me—sometimes just a narrow +channel between, and some that I couldn't see I knowed was there because +I'd hear the wash of the current against the old dead brush and trash +that hung over the banks.  Well, I warn't long loosing the whoops down +amongst the towheads; and I only tried to chase them a little while, +anyway, because it was worse than chasing a Jack-o'-lantern.  You never +knowed a sound dodge around so, and swap places so quick and so much. + +I had to claw away from the bank pretty lively four or five times, to +keep from knocking the islands out of the river; and so I judged the +raft must be butting into the bank every now and then, or else it would +get further ahead and clear out of hearing—it was floating a little +faster than what I was. + +Well, I seemed to be in the open river again by and by, but I couldn't +hear no sign of a whoop nowheres.  I reckoned Jim had fetched up on a +snag, maybe, and it was all up with him.  I was good and tired, so I +laid down in the canoe and said I wouldn't bother no more.  I didn't +want to go to sleep, of course; but I was so sleepy I couldn't help it; +so I thought I would take jest one little cat-nap. + +But I reckon it was more than a cat-nap, for when I waked up the stars +was shining bright, the fog was all gone, and I was spinning down a +big bend stern first.  First I didn't know where I was; I thought I was +dreaming; and when things began to come back to me they seemed to come +up dim out of last week. + +It was a monstrous big river here, with the tallest and the thickest +kind of timber on both banks; just a solid wall, as well as I could see +by the stars.  I looked away down-stream, and seen a black speck on the +water. I took after it; but when I got to it it warn't nothing but a +couple of sawlogs made fast together.  Then I see another speck, and +chased that; then another, and this time I was right.  It was the raft. + +When I got to it Jim was setting there with his head down between his +knees, asleep, with his right arm hanging over the steering-oar.  The +other oar was smashed off, and the raft was littered up with leaves and +branches and dirt.  So she'd had a rough time. + +I made fast and laid down under Jim's nose on the raft, and began to +gap, and stretch my fists out against Jim, and says: + +"Hello, Jim, have I been asleep?  Why didn't you stir me up?" + +"Goodness gracious, is dat you, Huck?  En you ain' dead—you ain' +drownded—you's back agin?  It's too good for true, honey, it's too good +for true. Lemme look at you chile, lemme feel o' you.  No, you ain' +dead! you's back agin, 'live en soun', jis de same ole Huck—de same ole +Huck, thanks to goodness!" + +"What's the matter with you, Jim?  You been a-drinking?" + +"Drinkin'?  Has I ben a-drinkin'?  Has I had a chance to be a-drinkin'?" + +"Well, then, what makes you talk so wild?" + +"How does I talk wild?" + +"_How_?  Why, hain't you been talking about my coming back, and all that +stuff, as if I'd been gone away?" + +"Huck—Huck Finn, you look me in de eye; look me in de eye.  _Hain't_ you +ben gone away?" + +"Gone away?  Why, what in the nation do you mean?  I hain't been gone +anywheres.  Where would I go to?" + +"Well, looky here, boss, dey's sumf'n wrong, dey is.  Is I _me_, or who +_is_ I? Is I heah, or whah _is_ I?  Now dat's what I wants to know." + +"Well, I think you're here, plain enough, but I think you're a +tangle-headed old fool, Jim." + +"I is, is I?  Well, you answer me dis:  Didn't you tote out de line in +de canoe fer to make fas' to de tow-head?" + +"No, I didn't.  What tow-head?  I hain't see no tow-head." + +"You hain't seen no towhead?  Looky here, didn't de line pull loose en +de raf' go a-hummin' down de river, en leave you en de canoe behine in +de fog?" + +"What fog?" + +"Why, de fog!—de fog dat's been aroun' all night.  En didn't you whoop, +en didn't I whoop, tell we got mix' up in de islands en one un us got +los' en t'other one was jis' as good as los', 'kase he didn' know whah +he wuz? En didn't I bust up agin a lot er dem islands en have a turrible +time en mos' git drownded?  Now ain' dat so, boss—ain't it so?  You +answer me dat." + +"Well, this is too many for me, Jim.  I hain't seen no fog, nor no +islands, nor no troubles, nor nothing.  I been setting here talking with +you all night till you went to sleep about ten minutes ago, and I reckon +I done the same.  You couldn't a got drunk in that time, so of course +you've been dreaming." + +"Dad fetch it, how is I gwyne to dream all dat in ten minutes?" + +"Well, hang it all, you did dream it, because there didn't any of it +happen." + +"But, Huck, it's all jis' as plain to me as—" + +"It don't make no difference how plain it is; there ain't nothing in it. +I know, because I've been here all the time." + +Jim didn't say nothing for about five minutes, but set there studying +over it.  Then he says: + +"Well, den, I reck'n I did dream it, Huck; but dog my cats ef it ain't +de powerfullest dream I ever see.  En I hain't ever had no dream b'fo' +dat's tired me like dis one." + +"Oh, well, that's all right, because a dream does tire a body like +everything sometimes.  But this one was a staving dream; tell me all +about it, Jim." + +So Jim went to work and told me the whole thing right through, just as +it happened, only he painted it up considerable.  Then he said he must +start in and "'terpret" it, because it was sent for a warning.  He said +the first towhead stood for a man that would try to do us some good, but +the current was another man that would get us away from him.  The whoops +was warnings that would come to us every now and then, and if we didn't +try hard to make out to understand them they'd just take us into bad +luck, 'stead of keeping us out of it.  The lot of towheads was troubles +we was going to get into with quarrelsome people and all kinds of mean +folks, but if we minded our business and didn't talk back and aggravate +them, we would pull through and get out of the fog and into the big +clear river, which was the free States, and wouldn't have no more +trouble. + +It had clouded up pretty dark just after I got on to the raft, but it +was clearing up again now. + +"Oh, well, that's all interpreted well enough as far as it goes, Jim," I +says; "but what does _these_ things stand for?" + +It was the leaves and rubbish on the raft and the smashed oar.  You +could see them first-rate now. + +Jim looked at the trash, and then looked at me, and back at the trash +again.  He had got the dream fixed so strong in his head that he +couldn't seem to shake it loose and get the facts back into its place +again right away.  But when he did get the thing straightened around he +looked at me steady without ever smiling, and says: + +"What do dey stan' for?  I'se gwyne to tell you.  When I got all wore +out wid work, en wid de callin' for you, en went to sleep, my heart wuz +mos' broke bekase you wuz los', en I didn' k'yer no' mo' what become +er me en de raf'.  En when I wake up en fine you back agin, all safe +en soun', de tears come, en I could a got down on my knees en kiss yo' +foot, I's so thankful. En all you wuz thinkin' 'bout wuz how you could +make a fool uv ole Jim wid a lie.  Dat truck dah is _trash_; en trash +is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren's en makes 'em +ashamed." + +Then he got up slow and walked to the wigwam, and went in there without +saying anything but that.  But that was enough.  It made me feel so mean +I could almost kissed _his_ foot to get him to take it back. + +It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble +myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it +afterwards, neither.  I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I +wouldn't done that one if I'd a knowed it would make him feel that way. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +WE slept most all day, and started out at night, a little ways behind a +monstrous long raft that was as long going by as a procession.  She had +four long sweeps at each end, so we judged she carried as many as thirty +men, likely.  She had five big wigwams aboard, wide apart, and an open +camp fire in the middle, and a tall flag-pole at each end.  There was a +power of style about her.  It _amounted_ to something being a raftsman +on such a craft as that. + +We went drifting down into a big bend, and the night clouded up and got +hot.  The river was very wide, and was walled with solid timber on +both sides; you couldn't see a break in it hardly ever, or a light.  We +talked about Cairo, and wondered whether we would know it when we got to +it.  I said likely we wouldn't, because I had heard say there warn't but +about a dozen houses there, and if they didn't happen to have them lit +up, how was we going to know we was passing a town?  Jim said if the two +big rivers joined together there, that would show.  But I said maybe +we might think we was passing the foot of an island and coming into the +same old river again. That disturbed Jim—and me too.  So the question +was, what to do?  I said, paddle ashore the first time a light showed, +and tell them pap was behind, coming along with a trading-scow, and +was a green hand at the business, and wanted to know how far it was to +Cairo.  Jim thought it was a good idea, so we took a smoke on it and +waited. + +There warn't nothing to do now but to look out sharp for the town, and +not pass it without seeing it.  He said he'd be mighty sure to see it, +because he'd be a free man the minute he seen it, but if he missed it +he'd be in a slave country again and no more show for freedom.  Every +little while he jumps up and says: + +"Dah she is?" + +But it warn't.  It was Jack-o'-lanterns, or lightning bugs; so he set +down again, and went to watching, same as before.  Jim said it made him +all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom.  Well, I can +tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, +because I begun to get it through my head that he _was_ most free—and +who was to blame for it?  Why, _me_.  I couldn't get that out of my +conscience, no how nor no way. It got to troubling me so I couldn't +rest; I couldn't stay still in one place.  It hadn't ever come home to +me before, what this thing was that I was doing.  But now it did; and it +stayed with me, and scorched me more and more.  I tried to make out to +myself that I warn't to blame, because I didn't run Jim off from his +rightful owner; but it warn't no use, conscience up and says, every +time, "But you knowed he was running for his freedom, and you could a +paddled ashore and told somebody."  That was so—I couldn't get around +that noway.  That was where it pinched.  Conscience says to me, "What +had poor Miss Watson done to you that you could see her nigger go off +right under your eyes and never say one single word?  What did that poor +old woman do to you that you could treat her so mean?  Why, she tried to +learn you your book, she tried to learn you your manners, she tried to +be good to you every way she knowed how.  _That's_ what she done." + +I got to feeling so mean and so miserable I most wished I was dead.  I +fidgeted up and down the raft, abusing myself to myself, and Jim was +fidgeting up and down past me.  We neither of us could keep still. + Every time he danced around and says, "Dah's Cairo!" it went through me +like a shot, and I thought if it _was_ Cairo I reckoned I would die of +miserableness. + +Jim talked out loud all the time while I was talking to myself.  He was +saying how the first thing he would do when he got to a free State he +would go to saving up money and never spend a single cent, and when he +got enough he would buy his wife, which was owned on a farm close to +where Miss Watson lived; and then they would both work to buy the +two children, and if their master wouldn't sell them, they'd get an +Ab'litionist to go and steal them. + +It most froze me to hear such talk.  He wouldn't ever dared to talk such +talk in his life before.  Just see what a difference it made in him the +minute he judged he was about free.  It was according to the old saying, +"Give a nigger an inch and he'll take an ell."  Thinks I, this is what +comes of my not thinking.  Here was this nigger, which I had as good +as helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would +steal his children—children that belonged to a man I didn't even know; a +man that hadn't ever done me no harm. + +I was sorry to hear Jim say that, it was such a lowering of him.  My +conscience got to stirring me up hotter than ever, until at last I says +to it, "Let up on me—it ain't too late yet—I'll paddle ashore at the +first light and tell."  I felt easy and happy and light as a feather +right off.  All my troubles was gone.  I went to looking out sharp for a +light, and sort of singing to myself.  By and by one showed.  Jim sings +out: + +"We's safe, Huck, we's safe!  Jump up and crack yo' heels!  Dat's de +good ole Cairo at las', I jis knows it!" + +I says: + +"I'll take the canoe and go and see, Jim.  It mightn't be, you know." + +He jumped and got the canoe ready, and put his old coat in the bottom +for me to set on, and give me the paddle; and as I shoved off, he says: + +"Pooty soon I'll be a-shout'n' for joy, en I'll say, it's all on +accounts o' Huck; I's a free man, en I couldn't ever ben free ef it +hadn' ben for Huck; Huck done it.  Jim won't ever forgit you, Huck; +you's de bes' fren' Jim's ever had; en you's de _only_ fren' ole Jim's +got now." + +I was paddling off, all in a sweat to tell on him; but when he says +this, it seemed to kind of take the tuck all out of me.  I went along +slow then, and I warn't right down certain whether I was glad I started +or whether I warn't.  When I was fifty yards off, Jim says: + +"Dah you goes, de ole true Huck; de on'y white genlman dat ever kep' his +promise to ole Jim." + +Well, I just felt sick.  But I says, I _got_ to do it—I can't get _out_ +of it.  Right then along comes a skiff with two men in it with guns, and +they stopped and I stopped.  One of them says: + +"What's that yonder?" + +"A piece of a raft," I says. + +"Do you belong on it?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Any men on it?" + +"Only one, sir." + +"Well, there's five niggers run off to-night up yonder, above the head +of the bend.  Is your man white or black?" + +I didn't answer up prompt.  I tried to, but the words wouldn't come. I +tried for a second or two to brace up and out with it, but I warn't man +enough—hadn't the spunk of a rabbit.  I see I was weakening; so I just +give up trying, and up and says: + +"He's white." + +"I reckon we'll go and see for ourselves." + +"I wish you would," says I, "because it's pap that's there, and maybe +you'd help me tow the raft ashore where the light is.  He's sick—and so +is mam and Mary Ann." + +"Oh, the devil! we're in a hurry, boy.  But I s'pose we've got to. + Come, buckle to your paddle, and let's get along." + +I buckled to my paddle and they laid to their oars.  When we had made a +stroke or two, I says: + +"Pap'll be mighty much obleeged to you, I can tell you.  Everybody goes +away when I want them to help me tow the raft ashore, and I can't do it +by myself." + +"Well, that's infernal mean.  Odd, too.  Say, boy, what's the matter +with your father?" + +"It's the—a—the—well, it ain't anything much." + +They stopped pulling.  It warn't but a mighty little ways to the raft +now. One says: + +"Boy, that's a lie.  What _is_ the matter with your pap?  Answer up +square now, and it'll be the better for you." + +"I will, sir, I will, honest—but don't leave us, please.  It's +the—the—Gentlemen, if you'll only pull ahead, and let me heave you the +headline, you won't have to come a-near the raft—please do." + +"Set her back, John, set her back!" says one.  They backed water.  "Keep +away, boy—keep to looard.  Confound it, I just expect the wind has +blowed it to us.  Your pap's got the small-pox, and you know it precious +well.  Why didn't you come out and say so?  Do you want to spread it all +over?" + +"Well," says I, a-blubbering, "I've told everybody before, and they just +went away and left us." + +"Poor devil, there's something in that.  We are right down sorry for +you, but we—well, hang it, we don't want the small-pox, you see.  Look +here, I'll tell you what to do.  Don't you try to land by yourself, or +you'll smash everything to pieces.  You float along down about twenty +miles, and you'll come to a town on the left-hand side of the river.  It +will be long after sun-up then, and when you ask for help you tell them +your folks are all down with chills and fever.  Don't be a fool again, +and let people guess what is the matter.  Now we're trying to do you a +kindness; so you just put twenty miles between us, that's a good boy. + It wouldn't do any good to land yonder where the light is—it's only a +wood-yard. Say, I reckon your father's poor, and I'm bound to say he's +in pretty hard luck.  Here, I'll put a twenty-dollar gold piece on this +board, and you get it when it floats by.  I feel mighty mean to leave +you; but my kingdom! it won't do to fool with small-pox, don't you see?" + +"Hold on, Parker," says the other man, "here's a twenty to put on the +board for me.  Good-bye, boy; you do as Mr. Parker told you, and you'll +be all right." + +"That's so, my boy—good-bye, good-bye.  If you see any runaway niggers +you get help and nab them, and you can make some money by it." + +"Good-bye, sir," says I; "I won't let no runaway niggers get by me if I +can help it." + +They went off and I got aboard the raft, feeling bad and low, because I +knowed very well I had done wrong, and I see it warn't no use for me +to try to learn to do right; a body that don't get _started_ right when +he's little ain't got no show—when the pinch comes there ain't nothing +to back him up and keep him to his work, and so he gets beat.  Then I +thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on; s'pose you'd a done right +and give Jim up, would you felt better than what you do now?  No, says +I, I'd feel bad—I'd feel just the same way I do now.  Well, then, says +I, what's the use you learning to do right when it's troublesome to do +right and ain't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same? + I was stuck.  I couldn't answer that.  So I reckoned I wouldn't bother +no more about it, but after this always do whichever come handiest at +the time. + +I went into the wigwam; Jim warn't there.  I looked all around; he +warn't anywhere.  I says: + +"Jim!" + +"Here I is, Huck.  Is dey out o' sight yit?  Don't talk loud." + +He was in the river under the stern oar, with just his nose out.  I told +him they were out of sight, so he come aboard.  He says: + +"I was a-listenin' to all de talk, en I slips into de river en was gwyne +to shove for sho' if dey come aboard.  Den I was gwyne to swim to de +raf' agin when dey was gone.  But lawsy, how you did fool 'em, Huck! + Dat _wuz_ de smartes' dodge!  I tell you, chile, I'spec it save' ole +Jim—ole Jim ain't going to forgit you for dat, honey." + +Then we talked about the money.  It was a pretty good raise—twenty +dollars apiece.  Jim said we could take deck passage on a steamboat +now, and the money would last us as far as we wanted to go in the free +States. He said twenty mile more warn't far for the raft to go, but he +wished we was already there. + +Towards daybreak we tied up, and Jim was mighty particular about hiding +the raft good.  Then he worked all day fixing things in bundles, and +getting all ready to quit rafting. + +That night about ten we hove in sight of the lights of a town away down +in a left-hand bend. + +I went off in the canoe to ask about it.  Pretty soon I found a man out +in the river with a skiff, setting a trot-line.  I ranged up and says: + +"Mister, is that town Cairo?" + +"Cairo? no.  You must be a blame' fool." + +"What town is it, mister?" + +"If you want to know, go and find out.  If you stay here botherin' +around me for about a half a minute longer you'll get something you +won't want." + +I paddled to the raft.  Jim was awful disappointed, but I said never +mind, Cairo would be the next place, I reckoned. + +We passed another town before daylight, and I was going out again; but +it was high ground, so I didn't go.  No high ground about Cairo, Jim +said. I had forgot it.  We laid up for the day on a towhead tolerable +close to the left-hand bank.  I begun to suspicion something.  So did +Jim.  I says: + +"Maybe we went by Cairo in the fog that night." + +He says: + +"Doan' le's talk about it, Huck.  Po' niggers can't have no luck.  I +awluz 'spected dat rattlesnake-skin warn't done wid its work." + +"I wish I'd never seen that snake-skin, Jim—I do wish I'd never laid +eyes on it." + +"It ain't yo' fault, Huck; you didn' know.  Don't you blame yo'self +'bout it." + +When it was daylight, here was the clear Ohio water inshore, sure +enough, and outside was the old regular Muddy!  So it was all up with +Cairo. + +We talked it all over.  It wouldn't do to take to the shore; we couldn't +take the raft up the stream, of course.  There warn't no way but to wait +for dark, and start back in the canoe and take the chances.  So we slept +all day amongst the cottonwood thicket, so as to be fresh for the work, +and when we went back to the raft about dark the canoe was gone! + +We didn't say a word for a good while.  There warn't anything to +say.  We both knowed well enough it was some more work of the +rattlesnake-skin; so what was the use to talk about it?  It would only +look like we was finding fault, and that would be bound to fetch more +bad luck—and keep on fetching it, too, till we knowed enough to keep +still. + +By and by we talked about what we better do, and found there warn't no +way but just to go along down with the raft till we got a chance to buy +a canoe to go back in.  We warn't going to borrow it when there warn't +anybody around, the way pap would do, for that might set people after +us. + +So we shoved out after dark on the raft. + +Anybody that don't believe yet that it's foolishness to handle a +snake-skin, after all that that snake-skin done for us, will believe it +now if they read on and see what more it done for us. + +The place to buy canoes is off of rafts laying up at shore.  But we +didn't see no rafts laying up; so we went along during three hours and +more.  Well, the night got gray and ruther thick, which is the next +meanest thing to fog.  You can't tell the shape of the river, and you +can't see no distance. It got to be very late and still, and then along +comes a steamboat up the river.  We lit the lantern, and judged she +would see it.  Up-stream boats didn't generly come close to us; they +go out and follow the bars and hunt for easy water under the reefs; but +nights like this they bull right up the channel against the whole river. + +We could hear her pounding along, but we didn't see her good till she +was close.  She aimed right for us.  Often they do that and try to see +how close they can come without touching; sometimes the wheel bites off +a sweep, and then the pilot sticks his head out and laughs, and thinks +he's mighty smart.  Well, here she comes, and we said she was going to +try and shave us; but she didn't seem to be sheering off a bit.  She +was a big one, and she was coming in a hurry, too, looking like a black +cloud with rows of glow-worms around it; but all of a sudden she bulged +out, big and scary, with a long row of wide-open furnace doors shining +like red-hot teeth, and her monstrous bows and guards hanging right +over us.  There was a yell at us, and a jingling of bells to stop the +engines, a powwow of cussing, and whistling of steam—and as Jim went +overboard on one side and I on the other, she come smashing straight +through the raft. + +I dived—and I aimed to find the bottom, too, for a thirty-foot wheel +had got to go over me, and I wanted it to have plenty of room.  I could +always stay under water a minute; this time I reckon I stayed under a +minute and a half.  Then I bounced for the top in a hurry, for I was +nearly busting.  I popped out to my armpits and blowed the water out of +my nose, and puffed a bit.  Of course there was a booming current; and +of course that boat started her engines again ten seconds after she +stopped them, for they never cared much for raftsmen; so now she was +churning along up the river, out of sight in the thick weather, though I +could hear her. + +I sung out for Jim about a dozen times, but I didn't get any answer; +so I grabbed a plank that touched me while I was "treading water," and +struck out for shore, shoving it ahead of me.  But I made out to see +that the drift of the current was towards the left-hand shore, which +meant that I was in a crossing; so I changed off and went that way. + +It was one of these long, slanting, two-mile crossings; so I was a good +long time in getting over.  I made a safe landing, and clumb up the +bank. I couldn't see but a little ways, but I went poking along over +rough ground for a quarter of a mile or more, and then I run across a +big old-fashioned double log-house before I noticed it.  I was going to +rush by and get away, but a lot of dogs jumped out and went to howling +and barking at me, and I knowed better than to move another peg. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +IN about a minute somebody spoke out of a window without putting his +head out, and says: + +"Be done, boys!  Who's there?" + +I says: + +"It's me." + +"Who's me?" + +"George Jackson, sir." + +"What do you want?" + +"I don't want nothing, sir.  I only want to go along by, but the dogs +won't let me." + +"What are you prowling around here this time of night for—hey?" + +"I warn't prowling around, sir, I fell overboard off of the steamboat." + +"Oh, you did, did you?  Strike a light there, somebody.  What did you +say your name was?" + +"George Jackson, sir.  I'm only a boy." + +"Look here, if you're telling the truth you needn't be afraid—nobody'll +hurt you.  But don't try to budge; stand right where you are.  Rouse out +Bob and Tom, some of you, and fetch the guns.  George Jackson, is there +anybody with you?" + +"No, sir, nobody." + +I heard the people stirring around in the house now, and see a light. +The man sung out: + +"Snatch that light away, Betsy, you old fool—ain't you got any sense? +Put it on the floor behind the front door.  Bob, if you and Tom are +ready, take your places." + +"All ready." + +"Now, George Jackson, do you know the Shepherdsons?" + +"No, sir; I never heard of them." + +"Well, that may be so, and it mayn't.  Now, all ready.  Step forward, +George Jackson.  And mind, don't you hurry—come mighty slow.  If there's +anybody with you, let him keep back—if he shows himself he'll be shot. +Come along now.  Come slow; push the door open yourself—just enough to +squeeze in, d' you hear?" + +I didn't hurry; I couldn't if I'd a wanted to.  I took one slow step at +a time and there warn't a sound, only I thought I could hear my heart. + The dogs were as still as the humans, but they followed a little behind +me. When I got to the three log doorsteps I heard them unlocking and +unbarring and unbolting.  I put my hand on the door and pushed it a +little and a little more till somebody said, "There, that's enough—put +your head in." I done it, but I judged they would take it off. + +The candle was on the floor, and there they all was, looking at me, and +me at them, for about a quarter of a minute:  Three big men with guns +pointed at me, which made me wince, I tell you; the oldest, gray +and about sixty, the other two thirty or more—all of them fine and +handsome—and the sweetest old gray-headed lady, and back of her two +young women which I couldn't see right well.  The old gentleman says: + +"There; I reckon it's all right.  Come in." + +As soon as I was in the old gentleman he locked the door and barred it +and bolted it, and told the young men to come in with their guns, and +they all went in a big parlor that had a new rag carpet on the floor, +and got together in a corner that was out of the range of the front +windows—there warn't none on the side.  They held the candle, and took a +good look at me, and all said, "Why, _he_ ain't a Shepherdson—no, there +ain't any Shepherdson about him."  Then the old man said he hoped I +wouldn't mind being searched for arms, because he didn't mean no harm by +it—it was only to make sure.  So he didn't pry into my pockets, but only +felt outside with his hands, and said it was all right.  He told me to +make myself easy and at home, and tell all about myself; but the old +lady says: + +"Why, bless you, Saul, the poor thing's as wet as he can be; and don't +you reckon it may be he's hungry?" + +"True for you, Rachel—I forgot." + +So the old lady says: + +"Betsy" (this was a nigger woman), "you fly around and get him something +to eat as quick as you can, poor thing; and one of you girls go and wake +up Buck and tell him—oh, here he is himself.  Buck, take this little +stranger and get the wet clothes off from him and dress him up in some +of yours that's dry." + +Buck looked about as old as me—thirteen or fourteen or along there, +though he was a little bigger than me.  He hadn't on anything but a +shirt, and he was very frowzy-headed.  He came in gaping and digging one +fist into his eyes, and he was dragging a gun along with the other one. +He says: + +"Ain't they no Shepherdsons around?" + +They said, no, 'twas a false alarm. + +"Well," he says, "if they'd a ben some, I reckon I'd a got one." + +They all laughed, and Bob says: + +"Why, Buck, they might have scalped us all, you've been so slow in +coming." + +"Well, nobody come after me, and it ain't right I'm always kept down; I +don't get no show." + +"Never mind, Buck, my boy," says the old man, "you'll have show enough, +all in good time, don't you fret about that.  Go 'long with you now, and +do as your mother told you." + +When we got up-stairs to his room he got me a coarse shirt and a +roundabout and pants of his, and I put them on.  While I was at it he +asked me what my name was, but before I could tell him he started to +tell me about a bluejay and a young rabbit he had catched in the woods +day before yesterday, and he asked me where Moses was when the candle +went out.  I said I didn't know; I hadn't heard about it before, no way. + +"Well, guess," he says. + +"How'm I going to guess," says I, "when I never heard tell of it +before?" + +"But you can guess, can't you?  It's just as easy." + +"_Which_ candle?"  I says. + +"Why, any candle," he says. + +"I don't know where he was," says I; "where was he?" + +"Why, he was in the _dark_!  That's where he was!" + +"Well, if you knowed where he was, what did you ask me for?" + +"Why, blame it, it's a riddle, don't you see?  Say, how long are you +going to stay here?  You got to stay always.  We can just have booming +times—they don't have no school now.  Do you own a dog?  I've got a +dog—and he'll go in the river and bring out chips that you throw in.  Do +you like to comb up Sundays, and all that kind of foolishness?  You bet +I don't, but ma she makes me.  Confound these ole britches!  I reckon +I'd better put 'em on, but I'd ruther not, it's so warm.  Are you all +ready? All right.  Come along, old hoss." + +Cold corn-pone, cold corn-beef, butter and buttermilk—that is what they +had for me down there, and there ain't nothing better that ever I've +come across yet.  Buck and his ma and all of them smoked cob pipes, +except the nigger woman, which was gone, and the two young women.  They +all smoked and talked, and I eat and talked.  The young women had +quilts around them, and their hair down their backs.  They all asked me +questions, and I told them how pap and me and all the family was living +on a little farm down at the bottom of Arkansaw, and my sister Mary Ann +run off and got married and never was heard of no more, and Bill went +to hunt them and he warn't heard of no more, and Tom and Mort died, +and then there warn't nobody but just me and pap left, and he was just +trimmed down to nothing, on account of his troubles; so when he died +I took what there was left, because the farm didn't belong to us, and +started up the river, deck passage, and fell overboard; and that was how +I come to be here.  So they said I could have a home there as long as I +wanted it.  Then it was most daylight and everybody went to bed, and I +went to bed with Buck, and when I waked up in the morning, drat it all, +I had forgot what my name was. So I laid there about an hour trying to +think, and when Buck waked up I says: + +"Can you spell, Buck?" + +"Yes," he says. + +"I bet you can't spell my name," says I. + +"I bet you what you dare I can," says he. + +"All right," says I, "go ahead." + +"G-e-o-r-g-e J-a-x-o-n—there now," he says. + +"Well," says I, "you done it, but I didn't think you could.  It ain't no +slouch of a name to spell—right off without studying." + +I set it down, private, because somebody might want _me_ to spell it +next, and so I wanted to be handy with it and rattle it off like I was +used to it. + +It was a mighty nice family, and a mighty nice house, too.  I hadn't +seen no house out in the country before that was so nice and had so much +style.  It didn't have an iron latch on the front door, nor a wooden one +with a buckskin string, but a brass knob to turn, the same as houses in +town. There warn't no bed in the parlor, nor a sign of a bed; but heaps +of parlors in towns has beds in them.  There was a big fireplace that +was bricked on the bottom, and the bricks was kept clean and red by +pouring water on them and scrubbing them with another brick; sometimes +they wash them over with red water-paint that they call Spanish-brown, +same as they do in town.  They had big brass dog-irons that could hold +up a saw-log. There was a clock on the middle of the mantelpiece, with +a picture of a town painted on the bottom half of the glass front, and +a round place in the middle of it for the sun, and you could see the +pendulum swinging behind it.  It was beautiful to hear that clock tick; +and sometimes when one of these peddlers had been along and scoured her +up and got her in good shape, she would start in and strike a hundred +and fifty before she got tuckered out.  They wouldn't took any money for +her. + +Well, there was a big outlandish parrot on each side of the clock, +made out of something like chalk, and painted up gaudy.  By one of the +parrots was a cat made of crockery, and a crockery dog by the other; +and when you pressed down on them they squeaked, but didn't open +their mouths nor look different nor interested.  They squeaked through +underneath.  There was a couple of big wild-turkey-wing fans spread out +behind those things.  On the table in the middle of the room was a kind +of a lovely crockery basket that had apples and oranges and peaches and +grapes piled up in it, which was much redder and yellower and prettier +than real ones is, but they warn't real because you could see where +pieces had got chipped off and showed the white chalk, or whatever it +was, underneath. + +This table had a cover made out of beautiful oilcloth, with a red and +blue spread-eagle painted on it, and a painted border all around.  It +come all the way from Philadelphia, they said.  There was some books, +too, piled up perfectly exact, on each corner of the table.  One was a +big family Bible full of pictures.  One was Pilgrim's Progress, about a +man that left his family, it didn't say why.  I read considerable in it +now and then.  The statements was interesting, but tough.  Another was +Friendship's Offering, full of beautiful stuff and poetry; but I didn't +read the poetry.  Another was Henry Clay's Speeches, and another was Dr. +Gunn's Family Medicine, which told you all about what to do if a body +was sick or dead.  There was a hymn book, and a lot of other books.  And +there was nice split-bottom chairs, and perfectly sound, too—not bagged +down in the middle and busted, like an old basket. + +They had pictures hung on the walls—mainly Washingtons and Lafayettes, +and battles, and Highland Marys, and one called "Signing the +Declaration." There was some that they called crayons, which one of the +daughters which was dead made her own self when she was only +fifteen years old.  They was different from any pictures I ever see +before—blacker, mostly, than is common.  One was a woman in a slim black +dress, belted small under the armpits, with bulges like a cabbage in +the middle of the sleeves, and a large black scoop-shovel bonnet with +a black veil, and white slim ankles crossed about with black tape, and +very wee black slippers, like a chisel, and she was leaning pensive on a +tombstone on her right elbow, under a weeping willow, and her other hand +hanging down her side holding a white handkerchief and a reticule, +and underneath the picture it said "Shall I Never See Thee More Alas." + Another one was a young lady with her hair all combed up straight +to the top of her head, and knotted there in front of a comb like a +chair-back, and she was crying into a handkerchief and had a dead bird +laying on its back in her other hand with its heels up, and underneath +the picture it said "I Shall Never Hear Thy Sweet Chirrup More Alas." + There was one where a young lady was at a window looking up at the +moon, and tears running down her cheeks; and she had an open letter in +one hand with black sealing wax showing on one edge of it, and she was +mashing a locket with a chain to it against her mouth, and underneath +the picture it said "And Art Thou Gone Yes Thou Art Gone Alas."  These +was all nice pictures, I reckon, but I didn't somehow seem to take +to them, because if ever I was down a little they always give me the +fan-tods.  Everybody was sorry she died, because she had laid out a lot +more of these pictures to do, and a body could see by what she had done +what they had lost.  But I reckoned that with her disposition she was +having a better time in the graveyard.  She was at work on what they +said was her greatest picture when she took sick, and every day and +every night it was her prayer to be allowed to live till she got it +done, but she never got the chance.  It was a picture of a young woman +in a long white gown, standing on the rail of a bridge all ready to jump +off, with her hair all down her back, and looking up to the moon, with +the tears running down her face, and she had two arms folded across her +breast, and two arms stretched out in front, and two more reaching up +towards the moon—and the idea was to see which pair would look best, +and then scratch out all the other arms; but, as I was saying, she died +before she got her mind made up, and now they kept this picture over the +head of the bed in her room, and every time her birthday come they hung +flowers on it.  Other times it was hid with a little curtain.  The young +woman in the picture had a kind of a nice sweet face, but there was so +many arms it made her look too spidery, seemed to me. + +This young girl kept a scrap-book when she was alive, and used to paste +obituaries and accidents and cases of patient suffering in it out of the +Presbyterian Observer, and write poetry after them out of her own head. +It was very good poetry. This is what she wrote about a boy by the name +of Stephen Dowling Bots that fell down a well and was drownded: + +ODE TO STEPHEN DOWLING BOTS, DEC'D + +And did young Stephen sicken,    And did young Stephen die? And did the +sad hearts thicken,    And did the mourners cry? + +No; such was not the fate of    Young Stephen Dowling Bots; Though sad +hearts round him thickened,    'Twas not from sickness' shots. + +No whooping-cough did rack his frame,    Nor measles drear with spots; +Not these impaired the sacred name    Of Stephen Dowling Bots. + +Despised love struck not with woe    That head of curly knots, Nor +stomach troubles laid him low,    Young Stephen Dowling Bots. + +O no. Then list with tearful eye,    Whilst I his fate do tell. His soul +did from this cold world fly    By falling down a well. + +They got him out and emptied him;    Alas it was too late; His spirit +was gone for to sport aloft    In the realms of the good and great. + +If Emmeline Grangerford could make poetry like that before she was +fourteen, there ain't no telling what she could a done by and by.  Buck +said she could rattle off poetry like nothing.  She didn't ever have to +stop to think.  He said she would slap down a line, and if she couldn't +find anything to rhyme with it would just scratch it out and slap down +another one, and go ahead. She warn't particular; she could write about +anything you choose to give her to write about just so it was sadful. +Every time a man died, or a woman died, or a child died, she would be on +hand with her "tribute" before he was cold.  She called them tributes. +The neighbors said it was the doctor first, then Emmeline, then the +undertaker—the undertaker never got in ahead of Emmeline but once, and +then she hung fire on a rhyme for the dead person's name, which was +Whistler.  She warn't ever the same after that; she never complained, +but she kinder pined away and did not live long.  Poor thing, many's the +time I made myself go up to the little room that used to be hers and get +out her poor old scrap-book and read in it when her pictures had been +aggravating me and I had soured on her a little.  I liked all that +family, dead ones and all, and warn't going to let anything come between +us.  Poor Emmeline made poetry about all the dead people when she was +alive, and it didn't seem right that there warn't nobody to make some +about her now she was gone; so I tried to sweat out a verse or two +myself, but I couldn't seem to make it go somehow.  They kept Emmeline's +room trim and nice, and all the things fixed in it just the way she +liked to have them when she was alive, and nobody ever slept there. + The old lady took care of the room herself, though there was plenty +of niggers, and she sewed there a good deal and read her Bible there +mostly. + +Well, as I was saying about the parlor, there was beautiful curtains on +the windows:  white, with pictures painted on them of castles with vines +all down the walls, and cattle coming down to drink.  There was a little +old piano, too, that had tin pans in it, I reckon, and nothing was ever +so lovely as to hear the young ladies sing "The Last Link is Broken" +and play "The Battle of Prague" on it.  The walls of all the rooms was +plastered, and most had carpets on the floors, and the whole house was +whitewashed on the outside. + +It was a double house, and the big open place betwixt them was roofed +and floored, and sometimes the table was set there in the middle of the +day, and it was a cool, comfortable place.  Nothing couldn't be better. + And warn't the cooking good, and just bushels of it too! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +COL.  Grangerford was a gentleman, you see.  He was a gentleman all +over; and so was his family.  He was well born, as the saying is, and +that's worth as much in a man as it is in a horse, so the Widow Douglas +said, and nobody ever denied that she was of the first aristocracy +in our town; and pap he always said it, too, though he warn't no more +quality than a mudcat himself.  Col.  Grangerford was very tall and +very slim, and had a darkish-paly complexion, not a sign of red in it +anywheres; he was clean shaved every morning all over his thin face, and +he had the thinnest kind of lips, and the thinnest kind of nostrils, and +a high nose, and heavy eyebrows, and the blackest kind of eyes, sunk so +deep back that they seemed like they was looking out of caverns at +you, as you may say.  His forehead was high, and his hair was black and +straight and hung to his shoulders. His hands was long and thin, and +every day of his life he put on a clean shirt and a full suit from head +to foot made out of linen so white it hurt your eyes to look at it; +and on Sundays he wore a blue tail-coat with brass buttons on it.  He +carried a mahogany cane with a silver head to it.  There warn't no +frivolishness about him, not a bit, and he warn't ever loud.  He was +as kind as he could be—you could feel that, you know, and so you had +confidence.  Sometimes he smiled, and it was good to see; but when he +straightened himself up like a liberty-pole, and the lightning begun to +flicker out from under his eyebrows, you wanted to climb a tree first, +and find out what the matter was afterwards.  He didn't ever have to +tell anybody to mind their manners—everybody was always good-mannered +where he was.  Everybody loved to have him around, too; he was sunshine +most always—I mean he made it seem like good weather.  When he turned +into a cloudbank it was awful dark for half a minute, and that was +enough; there wouldn't nothing go wrong again for a week. + +When him and the old lady come down in the morning all the family got +up out of their chairs and give them good-day, and didn't set down again +till they had set down.  Then Tom and Bob went to the sideboard where +the decanter was, and mixed a glass of bitters and handed it to him, and +he held it in his hand and waited till Tom's and Bob's was mixed, and +then they bowed and said, "Our duty to you, sir, and madam;" and _they_ +bowed the least bit in the world and said thank you, and so they drank, +all three, and Bob and Tom poured a spoonful of water on the sugar and +the mite of whisky or apple brandy in the bottom of their tumblers, and +give it to me and Buck, and we drank to the old people too. + +Bob was the oldest and Tom next—tall, beautiful men with very broad +shoulders and brown faces, and long black hair and black eyes.  They +dressed in white linen from head to foot, like the old gentleman, and +wore broad Panama hats. + +Then there was Miss Charlotte; she was twenty-five, and tall and proud +and grand, but as good as she could be when she warn't stirred up; but +when she was she had a look that would make you wilt in your tracks, +like her father.  She was beautiful. + +So was her sister, Miss Sophia, but it was a different kind.  She was +gentle and sweet like a dove, and she was only twenty. + +Each person had their own nigger to wait on them—Buck too.  My nigger +had a monstrous easy time, because I warn't used to having anybody do +anything for me, but Buck's was on the jump most of the time. + +This was all there was of the family now, but there used to be +more—three sons; they got killed; and Emmeline that died. + +The old gentleman owned a lot of farms and over a hundred niggers. +Sometimes a stack of people would come there, horseback, from ten or +fifteen mile around, and stay five or six days, and have such junketings +round about and on the river, and dances and picnics in the woods +daytimes, and balls at the house nights.  These people was mostly +kinfolks of the family.  The men brought their guns with them.  It was a +handsome lot of quality, I tell you. + +There was another clan of aristocracy around there—five or six +families—mostly of the name of Shepherdson.  They was as high-toned +and well born and rich and grand as the tribe of Grangerfords.  The +Shepherdsons and Grangerfords used the same steamboat landing, which was +about two mile above our house; so sometimes when I went up there with a +lot of our folks I used to see a lot of the Shepherdsons there on their +fine horses. + +One day Buck and me was away out in the woods hunting, and heard a horse +coming.  We was crossing the road.  Buck says: + +"Quick!  Jump for the woods!" + +We done it, and then peeped down the woods through the leaves.  Pretty +soon a splendid young man come galloping down the road, setting his +horse easy and looking like a soldier.  He had his gun across his +pommel.  I had seen him before.  It was young Harney Shepherdson.  I +heard Buck's gun go off at my ear, and Harney's hat tumbled off from his +head.  He grabbed his gun and rode straight to the place where we was +hid.  But we didn't wait.  We started through the woods on a run.  The +woods warn't thick, so I looked over my shoulder to dodge the bullet, +and twice I seen Harney cover Buck with his gun; and then he rode away +the way he come—to get his hat, I reckon, but I couldn't see.  We never +stopped running till we got home.  The old gentleman's eyes blazed a +minute—'twas pleasure, mainly, I judged—then his face sort of smoothed +down, and he says, kind of gentle: + +"I don't like that shooting from behind a bush.  Why didn't you step +into the road, my boy?" + +"The Shepherdsons don't, father.  They always take advantage." + +Miss Charlotte she held her head up like a queen while Buck was telling +his tale, and her nostrils spread and her eyes snapped.  The two young +men looked dark, but never said nothing.  Miss Sophia she turned pale, +but the color come back when she found the man warn't hurt. + +Soon as I could get Buck down by the corn-cribs under the trees by +ourselves, I says: + +"Did you want to kill him, Buck?" + +"Well, I bet I did." + +"What did he do to you?" + +"Him?  He never done nothing to me." + +"Well, then, what did you want to kill him for?" + +"Why, nothing—only it's on account of the feud." + +"What's a feud?" + +"Why, where was you raised?  Don't you know what a feud is?" + +"Never heard of it before—tell me about it." + +"Well," says Buck, "a feud is this way:  A man has a quarrel with +another man, and kills him; then that other man's brother kills _him_; +then the other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the +_cousins_ chip in—and by and by everybody's killed off, and there ain't +no more feud.  But it's kind of slow, and takes a long time." + +"Has this one been going on long, Buck?" + +"Well, I should _reckon_!  It started thirty year ago, or som'ers along +there.  There was trouble 'bout something, and then a lawsuit to settle +it; and the suit went agin one of the men, and so he up and shot the +man that won the suit—which he would naturally do, of course.  Anybody +would." + +"What was the trouble about, Buck?—land?" + +"I reckon maybe—I don't know." + +"Well, who done the shooting?  Was it a Grangerford or a Shepherdson?" + +"Laws, how do I know?  It was so long ago." + +"Don't anybody know?" + +"Oh, yes, pa knows, I reckon, and some of the other old people; but they +don't know now what the row was about in the first place." + +"Has there been many killed, Buck?" + +"Yes; right smart chance of funerals.  But they don't always kill.  Pa's +got a few buckshot in him; but he don't mind it 'cuz he don't weigh +much, anyway.  Bob's been carved up some with a bowie, and Tom's been +hurt once or twice." + +"Has anybody been killed this year, Buck?" + +"Yes; we got one and they got one.  'Bout three months ago my cousin +Bud, fourteen year old, was riding through the woods on t'other side +of the river, and didn't have no weapon with him, which was blame' +foolishness, and in a lonesome place he hears a horse a-coming behind +him, and sees old Baldy Shepherdson a-linkin' after him with his gun in +his hand and his white hair a-flying in the wind; and 'stead of jumping +off and taking to the brush, Bud 'lowed he could out-run him; so they +had it, nip and tuck, for five mile or more, the old man a-gaining all +the time; so at last Bud seen it warn't any use, so he stopped and faced +around so as to have the bullet holes in front, you know, and the old +man he rode up and shot him down.  But he didn't git much chance to +enjoy his luck, for inside of a week our folks laid _him_ out." + +"I reckon that old man was a coward, Buck." + +"I reckon he _warn't_ a coward.  Not by a blame' sight.  There ain't a +coward amongst them Shepherdsons—not a one.  And there ain't no cowards +amongst the Grangerfords either.  Why, that old man kep' up his end in a +fight one day for half an hour against three Grangerfords, and come +out winner.  They was all a-horseback; he lit off of his horse and got +behind a little woodpile, and kep' his horse before him to stop the +bullets; but the Grangerfords stayed on their horses and capered around +the old man, and peppered away at him, and he peppered away at them. + Him and his horse both went home pretty leaky and crippled, but the +Grangerfords had to be _fetched_ home—and one of 'em was dead, and +another died the next day.  No, sir; if a body's out hunting for cowards +he don't want to fool away any time amongst them Shepherdsons, becuz +they don't breed any of that _kind_." + +Next Sunday we all went to church, about three mile, everybody +a-horseback. The men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept +them between their knees or stood them handy against the wall.  The +Shepherdsons done the same.  It was pretty ornery preaching—all about +brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness; but everybody said it was +a good sermon, and they all talked it over going home, and had such +a powerful lot to say about faith and good works and free grace and +preforeordestination, and I don't know what all, that it did seem to me +to be one of the roughest Sundays I had run across yet. + +About an hour after dinner everybody was dozing around, some in their +chairs and some in their rooms, and it got to be pretty dull.  Buck and +a dog was stretched out on the grass in the sun sound asleep.  I went up +to our room, and judged I would take a nap myself.  I found that sweet +Miss Sophia standing in her door, which was next to ours, and she took +me in her room and shut the door very soft, and asked me if I liked her, +and I said I did; and she asked me if I would do something for her and +not tell anybody, and I said I would.  Then she said she'd forgot her +Testament, and left it in the seat at church between two other books, +and would I slip out quiet and go there and fetch it to her, and not say +nothing to nobody.  I said I would. So I slid out and slipped off up the +road, and there warn't anybody at the church, except maybe a hog or two, +for there warn't any lock on the door, and hogs likes a puncheon floor +in summer-time because it's cool.  If you notice, most folks don't go to +church only when they've got to; but a hog is different. + +Says I to myself, something's up; it ain't natural for a girl to be in +such a sweat about a Testament.  So I give it a shake, and out drops a +little piece of paper with "HALF-PAST TWO" wrote on it with a pencil.  I +ransacked it, but couldn't find anything else.  I couldn't make anything +out of that, so I put the paper in the book again, and when I got home +and upstairs there was Miss Sophia in her door waiting for me.  She +pulled me in and shut the door; then she looked in the Testament till +she found the paper, and as soon as she read it she looked glad; and +before a body could think she grabbed me and give me a squeeze, and +said I was the best boy in the world, and not to tell anybody.  She was +mighty red in the face for a minute, and her eyes lighted up, and it +made her powerful pretty.  I was a good deal astonished, but when I got +my breath I asked her what the paper was about, and she asked me if I +had read it, and I said no, and she asked me if I could read writing, +and I told her "no, only coarse-hand," and then she said the paper +warn't anything but a book-mark to keep her place, and I might go and +play now. + +I went off down to the river, studying over this thing, and pretty soon +I noticed that my nigger was following along behind.  When we was out +of sight of the house he looked back and around a second, and then comes +a-running, and says: + +"Mars Jawge, if you'll come down into de swamp I'll show you a whole +stack o' water-moccasins." + +Thinks I, that's mighty curious; he said that yesterday.  He oughter +know a body don't love water-moccasins enough to go around hunting for +them. What is he up to, anyway?  So I says: + +"All right; trot ahead." + +I followed a half a mile; then he struck out over the swamp, and waded +ankle deep as much as another half-mile.  We come to a little flat piece +of land which was dry and very thick with trees and bushes and vines, +and he says: + +"You shove right in dah jist a few steps, Mars Jawge; dah's whah dey is. +I's seed 'm befo'; I don't k'yer to see 'em no mo'." + +Then he slopped right along and went away, and pretty soon the trees hid +him.  I poked into the place a-ways and come to a little open patch +as big as a bedroom all hung around with vines, and found a man laying +there asleep—and, by jings, it was my old Jim! + +I waked him up, and I reckoned it was going to be a grand surprise to +him to see me again, but it warn't.  He nearly cried he was so glad, but +he warn't surprised.  Said he swum along behind me that night, and heard +me yell every time, but dasn't answer, because he didn't want nobody to +pick _him_ up and take him into slavery again.  Says he: + +"I got hurt a little, en couldn't swim fas', so I wuz a considable ways +behine you towards de las'; when you landed I reck'ned I could ketch +up wid you on de lan' 'dout havin' to shout at you, but when I see dat +house I begin to go slow.  I 'uz off too fur to hear what dey say to +you—I wuz 'fraid o' de dogs; but when it 'uz all quiet agin I knowed +you's in de house, so I struck out for de woods to wait for day.  Early +in de mawnin' some er de niggers come along, gwyne to de fields, en dey +tuk me en showed me dis place, whah de dogs can't track me on accounts +o' de water, en dey brings me truck to eat every night, en tells me how +you's a-gitt'n along." + +"Why didn't you tell my Jack to fetch me here sooner, Jim?" + +"Well, 'twarn't no use to 'sturb you, Huck, tell we could do sumfn—but +we's all right now.  I ben a-buyin' pots en pans en vittles, as I got a +chanst, en a-patchin' up de raf' nights when—" + +"_What_ raft, Jim?" + +"Our ole raf'." + +"You mean to say our old raft warn't smashed all to flinders?" + +"No, she warn't.  She was tore up a good deal—one en' of her was; but +dey warn't no great harm done, on'y our traps was mos' all los'.  Ef we +hadn' dive' so deep en swum so fur under water, en de night hadn' ben +so dark, en we warn't so sk'yerd, en ben sich punkin-heads, as de sayin' +is, we'd a seed de raf'.  But it's jis' as well we didn't, 'kase now +she's all fixed up agin mos' as good as new, en we's got a new lot o' +stuff, in de place o' what 'uz los'." + +"Why, how did you get hold of the raft again, Jim—did you catch her?" + +"How I gwyne to ketch her en I out in de woods?  No; some er de niggers +foun' her ketched on a snag along heah in de ben', en dey hid her in a +crick 'mongst de willows, en dey wuz so much jawin' 'bout which un 'um +she b'long to de mos' dat I come to heah 'bout it pooty soon, so I ups +en settles de trouble by tellin' 'um she don't b'long to none uv um, but +to you en me; en I ast 'm if dey gwyne to grab a young white genlman's +propaty, en git a hid'n for it?  Den I gin 'm ten cents apiece, en dey +'uz mighty well satisfied, en wisht some mo' raf's 'ud come along en +make 'm rich agin. Dey's mighty good to me, dese niggers is, en whatever +I wants 'm to do fur me I doan' have to ast 'm twice, honey.  Dat Jack's +a good nigger, en pooty smart." + +"Yes, he is.  He ain't ever told me you was here; told me to come, and +he'd show me a lot of water-moccasins.  If anything happens _he_ ain't +mixed up in it.  He can say he never seen us together, and it 'll be the +truth." + +I don't want to talk much about the next day.  I reckon I'll cut it +pretty short.  I waked up about dawn, and was a-going to turn over and +go to sleep again when I noticed how still it was—didn't seem to be +anybody stirring.  That warn't usual.  Next I noticed that Buck was +up and gone. Well, I gets up, a-wondering, and goes down stairs—nobody +around; everything as still as a mouse.  Just the same outside.  Thinks +I, what does it mean?  Down by the wood-pile I comes across my Jack, and +says: + +"What's it all about?" + +Says he: + +"Don't you know, Mars Jawge?" + +"No," says I, "I don't." + +"Well, den, Miss Sophia's run off! 'deed she has.  She run off in de +night some time—nobody don't know jis' when; run off to get married +to dat young Harney Shepherdson, you know—leastways, so dey 'spec.  De +fambly foun' it out 'bout half an hour ago—maybe a little mo'—en' I +_tell_ you dey warn't no time los'.  Sich another hurryin' up guns +en hosses _you_ never see!  De women folks has gone for to stir up de +relations, en ole Mars Saul en de boys tuck dey guns en rode up de +river road for to try to ketch dat young man en kill him 'fo' he kin +git acrost de river wid Miss Sophia.  I reck'n dey's gwyne to be mighty +rough times." + +"Buck went off 'thout waking me up." + +"Well, I reck'n he _did_!  Dey warn't gwyne to mix you up in it. + Mars Buck he loaded up his gun en 'lowed he's gwyne to fetch home a +Shepherdson or bust. Well, dey'll be plenty un 'm dah, I reck'n, en you +bet you he'll fetch one ef he gits a chanst." + +I took up the river road as hard as I could put.  By and by I begin to +hear guns a good ways off.  When I come in sight of the log store and +the woodpile where the steamboats lands I worked along under the trees +and brush till I got to a good place, and then I clumb up into the +forks of a cottonwood that was out of reach, and watched.  There was a +wood-rank four foot high a little ways in front of the tree, and first I +was going to hide behind that; but maybe it was luckier I didn't. + +There was four or five men cavorting around on their horses in the open +place before the log store, cussing and yelling, and trying to get at +a couple of young chaps that was behind the wood-rank alongside of the +steamboat landing; but they couldn't come it.  Every time one of them +showed himself on the river side of the woodpile he got shot at.  The +two boys was squatting back to back behind the pile, so they could watch +both ways. + +By and by the men stopped cavorting around and yelling.  They started +riding towards the store; then up gets one of the boys, draws a steady +bead over the wood-rank, and drops one of them out of his saddle.  All +the men jumped off of their horses and grabbed the hurt one and started +to carry him to the store; and that minute the two boys started on the +run.  They got half way to the tree I was in before the men noticed. +Then the men see them, and jumped on their horses and took out after +them.  They gained on the boys, but it didn't do no good, the boys had +too good a start; they got to the woodpile that was in front of my tree, +and slipped in behind it, and so they had the bulge on the men again. +One of the boys was Buck, and the other was a slim young chap about +nineteen years old. + +The men ripped around awhile, and then rode away.  As soon as they was +out of sight I sung out to Buck and told him.  He didn't know what +to make of my voice coming out of the tree at first.  He was awful +surprised.  He told me to watch out sharp and let him know when the +men come in sight again; said they was up to some devilment or +other—wouldn't be gone long.  I wished I was out of that tree, but I +dasn't come down.  Buck begun to cry and rip, and 'lowed that him and +his cousin Joe (that was the other young chap) would make up for this +day yet.  He said his father and his two brothers was killed, and two +or three of the enemy.  Said the Shepherdsons laid for them in +ambush.  Buck said his father and brothers ought to waited for their +relations—the Shepherdsons was too strong for them.  I asked him what +was become of young Harney and Miss Sophia.  He said they'd got across +the river and was safe.  I was glad of that; but the way Buck did take +on because he didn't manage to kill Harney that day he shot at him—I +hain't ever heard anything like it. + +All of a sudden, bang! bang! bang! goes three or four guns—the men had +slipped around through the woods and come in from behind without their +horses!  The boys jumped for the river—both of them hurt—and as they +swum down the current the men run along the bank shooting at them and +singing out, "Kill them, kill them!"  It made me so sick I most fell out +of the tree.  I ain't a-going to tell _all_ that happened—it would make +me sick again if I was to do that.  I wished I hadn't ever come ashore +that night to see such things.  I ain't ever going to get shut of +them—lots of times I dream about them. + +I stayed in the tree till it begun to get dark, afraid to come down. +Sometimes I heard guns away off in the woods; and twice I seen little +gangs of men gallop past the log store with guns; so I reckoned the +trouble was still a-going on.  I was mighty downhearted; so I made up my +mind I wouldn't ever go anear that house again, because I reckoned I +was to blame, somehow. I judged that that piece of paper meant that Miss +Sophia was to meet Harney somewheres at half-past two and run off; and +I judged I ought to told her father about that paper and the curious way +she acted, and then maybe he would a locked her up, and this awful mess +wouldn't ever happened. + +When I got down out of the tree I crept along down the river bank a +piece, and found the two bodies laying in the edge of the water, and +tugged at them till I got them ashore; then I covered up their faces, +and got away as quick as I could.  I cried a little when I was covering +up Buck's face, for he was mighty good to me. + +It was just dark now.  I never went near the house, but struck through +the woods and made for the swamp.  Jim warn't on his island, so I +tramped off in a hurry for the crick, and crowded through the willows, +red-hot to jump aboard and get out of that awful country.  The raft was +gone!  My souls, but I was scared!  I couldn't get my breath for most +a minute. Then I raised a yell.  A voice not twenty-five foot from me +says: + +"Good lan'! is dat you, honey?  Doan' make no noise." + +It was Jim's voice—nothing ever sounded so good before.  I run along the +bank a piece and got aboard, and Jim he grabbed me and hugged me, he was +so glad to see me.  He says: + +"Laws bless you, chile, I 'uz right down sho' you's dead agin.  Jack's +been heah; he say he reck'n you's ben shot, kase you didn' come home no +mo'; so I's jes' dis minute a startin' de raf' down towards de mouf er +de crick, so's to be all ready for to shove out en leave soon as Jack +comes agin en tells me for certain you _is_ dead.  Lawsy, I's mighty +glad to git you back again, honey." + +I says: + +"All right—that's mighty good; they won't find me, and they'll think +I've been killed, and floated down the river—there's something up there +that 'll help them think so—so don't you lose no time, Jim, but just +shove off for the big water as fast as ever you can." + +I never felt easy till the raft was two mile below there and out in +the middle of the Mississippi.  Then we hung up our signal lantern, and +judged that we was free and safe once more.  I hadn't had a bite to eat +since yesterday, so Jim he got out some corn-dodgers and buttermilk, +and pork and cabbage and greens—there ain't nothing in the world so good +when it's cooked right—and whilst I eat my supper we talked and had a +good time.  I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was +Jim to get away from the swamp.  We said there warn't no home like a +raft, after all.  Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a +raft don't.  You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +TWO or three days and nights went by; I reckon I might say they swum by, +they slid along so quiet and smooth and lovely.  Here is the way we put +in the time.  It was a monstrous big river down there—sometimes a mile +and a half wide; we run nights, and laid up and hid daytimes; soon as +night was most gone we stopped navigating and tied up—nearly always +in the dead water under a towhead; and then cut young cottonwoods and +willows, and hid the raft with them.  Then we set out the lines.  Next +we slid into the river and had a swim, so as to freshen up and cool +off; then we set down on the sandy bottom where the water was about knee +deep, and watched the daylight come.  Not a sound anywheres—perfectly +still—just like the whole world was asleep, only sometimes the bullfrogs +a-cluttering, maybe.  The first thing to see, looking away over the +water, was a kind of dull line—that was the woods on t'other side; you +couldn't make nothing else out; then a pale place in the sky; then more +paleness spreading around; then the river softened up away off, and +warn't black any more, but gray; you could see little dark spots +drifting along ever so far away—trading scows, and such things; and +long black streaks—rafts; sometimes you could hear a sweep screaking; or +jumbled up voices, it was so still, and sounds come so far; and by and +by you could see a streak on the water which you know by the look of the +streak that there's a snag there in a swift current which breaks on it +and makes that streak look that way; and you see the mist curl up off +of the water, and the east reddens up, and the river, and you make out a +log-cabin in the edge of the woods, away on the bank on t'other side of +the river, being a woodyard, likely, and piled by them cheats so you can +throw a dog through it anywheres; then the nice breeze springs up, and +comes fanning you from over there, so cool and fresh and sweet to smell +on account of the woods and the flowers; but sometimes not that way, +because they've left dead fish laying around, gars and such, and they +do get pretty rank; and next you've got the full day, and everything +smiling in the sun, and the song-birds just going it! + +A little smoke couldn't be noticed now, so we would take some fish off +of the lines and cook up a hot breakfast.  And afterwards we would watch +the lonesomeness of the river, and kind of lazy along, and by and by +lazy off to sleep.  Wake up by and by, and look to see what done it, and +maybe see a steamboat coughing along up-stream, so far off towards the +other side you couldn't tell nothing about her only whether she was +a stern-wheel or side-wheel; then for about an hour there wouldn't be +nothing to hear nor nothing to see—just solid lonesomeness.  Next +you'd see a raft sliding by, away off yonder, and maybe a galoot on it +chopping, because they're most always doing it on a raft; you'd see the +axe flash and come down—you don't hear nothing; you see that axe go +up again, and by the time it's above the man's head then you hear the +_k'chunk_!—it had took all that time to come over the water.  So we +would put in the day, lazying around, listening to the stillness.  Once +there was a thick fog, and the rafts and things that went by was beating +tin pans so the steamboats wouldn't run over them.  A scow or a +raft went by so close we could hear them talking and cussing and +laughing—heard them plain; but we couldn't see no sign of them; it made +you feel crawly; it was like spirits carrying on that way in the air. + Jim said he believed it was spirits; but I says: + +"No; spirits wouldn't say, 'Dern the dern fog.'" + +Soon as it was night out we shoved; when we got her out to about the +middle we let her alone, and let her float wherever the current wanted +her to; then we lit the pipes, and dangled our legs in the water, and +talked about all kinds of things—we was always naked, day and night, +whenever the mosquitoes would let us—the new clothes Buck's folks made +for me was too good to be comfortable, and besides I didn't go much on +clothes, nohow. + +Sometimes we'd have that whole river all to ourselves for the longest +time. Yonder was the banks and the islands, across the water; and maybe +a spark—which was a candle in a cabin window; and sometimes on the water +you could see a spark or two—on a raft or a scow, you know; and maybe +you could hear a fiddle or a song coming over from one of them crafts. +It's lovely to live on a raft.  We had the sky up there, all speckled +with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and +discuss about whether they was made or only just happened.  Jim he +allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened; I judged it would +have took too long to _make_ so many.  Jim said the moon could a _laid_ +them; well, that looked kind of reasonable, so I didn't say nothing +against it, because I've seen a frog lay most as many, so of course it +could be done. We used to watch the stars that fell, too, and see them +streak down.  Jim allowed they'd got spoiled and was hove out of the +nest. + +Once or twice of a night we would see a steamboat slipping along in the +dark, and now and then she would belch a whole world of sparks up out +of her chimbleys, and they would rain down in the river and look awful +pretty; then she would turn a corner and her lights would wink out and +her powwow shut off and leave the river still again; and by and by her +waves would get to us, a long time after she was gone, and joggle the +raft a bit, and after that you wouldn't hear nothing for you couldn't +tell how long, except maybe frogs or something. + +After midnight the people on shore went to bed, and then for two or +three hours the shores was black—no more sparks in the cabin windows. + These sparks was our clock—the first one that showed again meant +morning was coming, so we hunted a place to hide and tie up right away. + +One morning about daybreak I found a canoe and crossed over a chute to +the main shore—it was only two hundred yards—and paddled about a mile +up a crick amongst the cypress woods, to see if I couldn't get some +berries. Just as I was passing a place where a kind of a cowpath crossed +the crick, here comes a couple of men tearing up the path as tight as +they could foot it.  I thought I was a goner, for whenever anybody was +after anybody I judged it was _me_—or maybe Jim.  I was about to dig out +from there in a hurry, but they was pretty close to me then, and sung +out and begged me to save their lives—said they hadn't been doing +nothing, and was being chased for it—said there was men and dogs +a-coming.  They wanted to jump right in, but I says: + +"Don't you do it.  I don't hear the dogs and horses yet; you've got time +to crowd through the brush and get up the crick a little ways; then you +take to the water and wade down to me and get in—that'll throw the dogs +off the scent." + +They done it, and soon as they was aboard I lit out for our towhead, +and in about five or ten minutes we heard the dogs and the men away off, +shouting. We heard them come along towards the crick, but couldn't +see them; they seemed to stop and fool around a while; then, as we got +further and further away all the time, we couldn't hardly hear them at +all; by the time we had left a mile of woods behind us and struck the +river, everything was quiet, and we paddled over to the towhead and hid +in the cottonwoods and was safe. + +One of these fellows was about seventy or upwards, and had a bald head +and very gray whiskers.  He had an old battered-up slouch hat on, and +a greasy blue woollen shirt, and ragged old blue jeans britches stuffed +into his boot-tops, and home-knit galluses—no, he only had one.  He had +an old long-tailed blue jeans coat with slick brass buttons flung over +his arm, and both of them had big, fat, ratty-looking carpet-bags. + +The other fellow was about thirty, and dressed about as ornery.  After +breakfast we all laid off and talked, and the first thing that come out +was that these chaps didn't know one another. + +"What got you into trouble?" says the baldhead to t'other chap. + +"Well, I'd been selling an article to take the tartar off the teeth—and +it does take it off, too, and generly the enamel along with it—but I +stayed about one night longer than I ought to, and was just in the act +of sliding out when I ran across you on the trail this side of town, and +you told me they were coming, and begged me to help you to get off.  So +I told you I was expecting trouble myself, and would scatter out _with_ +you. That's the whole yarn—what's yourn? + +"Well, I'd ben a-running' a little temperance revival thar 'bout a week, +and was the pet of the women folks, big and little, for I was makin' it +mighty warm for the rummies, I _tell_ you, and takin' as much as five +or six dollars a night—ten cents a head, children and niggers free—and +business a-growin' all the time, when somehow or another a little report +got around last night that I had a way of puttin' in my time with a +private jug on the sly.  A nigger rousted me out this mornin', and told +me the people was getherin' on the quiet with their dogs and horses, and +they'd be along pretty soon and give me 'bout half an hour's start, +and then run me down if they could; and if they got me they'd tar +and feather me and ride me on a rail, sure.  I didn't wait for no +breakfast—I warn't hungry." + +"Old man," said the young one, "I reckon we might double-team it +together; what do you think?" + +"I ain't undisposed.  What's your line—mainly?" + +"Jour printer by trade; do a little in patent medicines; +theater-actor—tragedy, you know; take a turn to mesmerism and phrenology +when there's a chance; teach singing-geography school for a change; +sling a lecture sometimes—oh, I do lots of things—most anything that +comes handy, so it ain't work.  What's your lay?" + +"I've done considerble in the doctoring way in my time.  Layin' on o' +hands is my best holt—for cancer and paralysis, and sich things; and I +k'n tell a fortune pretty good when I've got somebody along to find out +the facts for me.  Preachin's my line, too, and workin' camp-meetin's, +and missionaryin' around." + +Nobody never said anything for a while; then the young man hove a sigh +and says: + +"Alas!" + +"What 're you alassin' about?" says the bald-head. + +"To think I should have lived to be leading such a life, and be degraded +down into such company."  And he begun to wipe the corner of his eye +with a rag. + +"Dern your skin, ain't the company good enough for you?" says the +baldhead, pretty pert and uppish. + +"Yes, it _is_ good enough for me; it's as good as I deserve; for who +fetched me so low when I was so high?  I did myself.  I don't blame +_you_, gentlemen—far from it; I don't blame anybody.  I deserve it +all.  Let the cold world do its worst; one thing I know—there's a grave +somewhere for me. The world may go on just as it's always done, and take +everything from me—loved ones, property, everything; but it can't take +that. Some day I'll lie down in it and forget it all, and my poor broken +heart will be at rest."  He went on a-wiping. + +"Drot your pore broken heart," says the baldhead; "what are you heaving +your pore broken heart at _us_ f'r?  _we_ hain't done nothing." + +"No, I know you haven't.  I ain't blaming you, gentlemen.  I brought +myself down—yes, I did it myself.  It's right I should suffer—perfectly +right—I don't make any moan." + +"Brought you down from whar?  Whar was you brought down from?" + +"Ah, you would not believe me; the world never believes—let it pass—'tis +no matter.  The secret of my birth—" + +"The secret of your birth!  Do you mean to say—" + +"Gentlemen," says the young man, very solemn, "I will reveal it to you, +for I feel I may have confidence in you.  By rights I am a duke!" + +Jim's eyes bugged out when he heard that; and I reckon mine did, too. +Then the baldhead says:  "No! you can't mean it?" + +"Yes.  My great-grandfather, eldest son of the Duke of Bridgewater, fled +to this country about the end of the last century, to breathe the pure +air of freedom; married here, and died, leaving a son, his own father +dying about the same time.  The second son of the late duke seized the +titles and estates—the infant real duke was ignored.  I am the lineal +descendant of that infant—I am the rightful Duke of Bridgewater; and +here am I, forlorn, torn from my high estate, hunted of men, despised +by the cold world, ragged, worn, heart-broken, and degraded to the +companionship of felons on a raft!" + +Jim pitied him ever so much, and so did I. We tried to comfort him, but +he said it warn't much use, he couldn't be much comforted; said if we +was a mind to acknowledge him, that would do him more good than most +anything else; so we said we would, if he would tell us how.  He said we +ought to bow when we spoke to him, and say "Your Grace," or "My Lord," +or "Your Lordship"—and he wouldn't mind it if we called him plain +"Bridgewater," which, he said, was a title anyway, and not a name; and +one of us ought to wait on him at dinner, and do any little thing for +him he wanted done. + +Well, that was all easy, so we done it.  All through dinner Jim stood +around and waited on him, and says, "Will yo' Grace have some o' dis or +some o' dat?" and so on, and a body could see it was mighty pleasing to +him. + +But the old man got pretty silent by and by—didn't have much to say, and +didn't look pretty comfortable over all that petting that was going on +around that duke.  He seemed to have something on his mind.  So, along +in the afternoon, he says: + +"Looky here, Bilgewater," he says, "I'm nation sorry for you, but you +ain't the only person that's had troubles like that." + +"No?" + +"No you ain't.  You ain't the only person that's ben snaked down +wrongfully out'n a high place." + +"Alas!" + +"No, you ain't the only person that's had a secret of his birth."  And, +by jings, _he_ begins to cry. + +"Hold!  What do you mean?" + +"Bilgewater, kin I trust you?" says the old man, still sort of sobbing. + +"To the bitter death!"  He took the old man by the hand and squeezed it, +and says, "That secret of your being:  speak!" + +"Bilgewater, I am the late Dauphin!" + +You bet you, Jim and me stared this time.  Then the duke says: + +"You are what?" + +"Yes, my friend, it is too true—your eyes is lookin' at this very moment +on the pore disappeared Dauphin, Looy the Seventeen, son of Looy the +Sixteen and Marry Antonette." + +"You!  At your age!  No!  You mean you're the late Charlemagne; you must +be six or seven hundred years old, at the very least." + +"Trouble has done it, Bilgewater, trouble has done it; trouble has brung +these gray hairs and this premature balditude.  Yes, gentlemen, you +see before you, in blue jeans and misery, the wanderin', exiled, +trampled-on, and sufferin' rightful King of France." + +Well, he cried and took on so that me and Jim didn't know hardly what to +do, we was so sorry—and so glad and proud we'd got him with us, too. + So we set in, like we done before with the duke, and tried to comfort +_him_. But he said it warn't no use, nothing but to be dead and done +with it all could do him any good; though he said it often made him feel +easier and better for a while if people treated him according to his +rights, and got down on one knee to speak to him, and always called him +"Your Majesty," and waited on him first at meals, and didn't set down +in his presence till he asked them. So Jim and me set to majestying him, +and doing this and that and t'other for him, and standing up till he +told us we might set down.  This done him heaps of good, and so he +got cheerful and comfortable.  But the duke kind of soured on him, and +didn't look a bit satisfied with the way things was going; still, +the king acted real friendly towards him, and said the duke's +great-grandfather and all the other Dukes of Bilgewater was a good +deal thought of by _his_ father, and was allowed to come to the palace +considerable; but the duke stayed huffy a good while, till by and by the +king says: + +"Like as not we got to be together a blamed long time on this h-yer +raft, Bilgewater, and so what's the use o' your bein' sour?  It 'll only +make things oncomfortable.  It ain't my fault I warn't born a duke, +it ain't your fault you warn't born a king—so what's the use to worry? + Make the best o' things the way you find 'em, says I—that's my motto. + This ain't no bad thing that we've struck here—plenty grub and an easy +life—come, give us your hand, duke, and le's all be friends." + +The duke done it, and Jim and me was pretty glad to see it.  It took +away all the uncomfortableness and we felt mighty good over it, because +it would a been a miserable business to have any unfriendliness on the +raft; for what you want, above all things, on a raft, is for everybody +to be satisfied, and feel right and kind towards the others. + +It didn't take me long to make up my mind that these liars warn't no +kings nor dukes at all, but just low-down humbugs and frauds.  But I +never said nothing, never let on; kept it to myself; it's the best way; +then you don't have no quarrels, and don't get into no trouble.  If they +wanted us to call them kings and dukes, I hadn't no objections, 'long as +it would keep peace in the family; and it warn't no use to tell Jim, so +I didn't tell him.  If I never learnt nothing else out of pap, I learnt +that the best way to get along with his kind of people is to let them +have their own way. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +THEY asked us considerable many questions; wanted to know what we +covered up the raft that way for, and laid by in the daytime instead of +running—was Jim a runaway nigger?  Says I: + +"Goodness sakes! would a runaway nigger run _south_?" + +No, they allowed he wouldn't.  I had to account for things some way, so +I says: + +"My folks was living in Pike County, in Missouri, where I was born, and +they all died off but me and pa and my brother Ike.  Pa, he 'lowed +he'd break up and go down and live with Uncle Ben, who's got a little +one-horse place on the river, forty-four mile below Orleans.  Pa was +pretty poor, and had some debts; so when he'd squared up there warn't +nothing left but sixteen dollars and our nigger, Jim.  That warn't +enough to take us fourteen hundred mile, deck passage nor no other way. + Well, when the river rose pa had a streak of luck one day; he ketched +this piece of a raft; so we reckoned we'd go down to Orleans on it. + Pa's luck didn't hold out; a steamboat run over the forrard corner of +the raft one night, and we all went overboard and dove under the wheel; +Jim and me come up all right, but pa was drunk, and Ike was only four +years old, so they never come up no more.  Well, for the next day or +two we had considerable trouble, because people was always coming out in +skiffs and trying to take Jim away from me, saying they believed he was +a runaway nigger.  We don't run daytimes no more now; nights they don't +bother us." + +The duke says: + +"Leave me alone to cipher out a way so we can run in the daytime if we +want to.  I'll think the thing over—I'll invent a plan that'll fix it. +We'll let it alone for to-day, because of course we don't want to go by +that town yonder in daylight—it mightn't be healthy." + +Towards night it begun to darken up and look like rain; the heat +lightning was squirting around low down in the sky, and the leaves was +beginning to shiver—it was going to be pretty ugly, it was easy to see +that.  So the duke and the king went to overhauling our wigwam, to see +what the beds was like.  My bed was a straw tick better than Jim's, +which was a corn-shuck tick; there's always cobs around about in a shuck +tick, and they poke into you and hurt; and when you roll over the dry +shucks sound like you was rolling over in a pile of dead leaves; it +makes such a rustling that you wake up.  Well, the duke allowed he would +take my bed; but the king allowed he wouldn't.  He says: + +"I should a reckoned the difference in rank would a sejested to you that +a corn-shuck bed warn't just fitten for me to sleep on.  Your Grace 'll +take the shuck bed yourself." + +Jim and me was in a sweat again for a minute, being afraid there was +going to be some more trouble amongst them; so we was pretty glad when +the duke says: + +"'Tis my fate to be always ground into the mire under the iron heel of +oppression.  Misfortune has broken my once haughty spirit; I yield, I +submit; 'tis my fate.  I am alone in the world—let me suffer; can bear +it." + +We got away as soon as it was good and dark.  The king told us to stand +well out towards the middle of the river, and not show a light till we +got a long ways below the town.  We come in sight of the little bunch of +lights by and by—that was the town, you know—and slid by, about a half +a mile out, all right.  When we was three-quarters of a mile below we +hoisted up our signal lantern; and about ten o'clock it come on to rain +and blow and thunder and lighten like everything; so the king told us +to both stay on watch till the weather got better; then him and the duke +crawled into the wigwam and turned in for the night.  It was my watch +below till twelve, but I wouldn't a turned in anyway if I'd had a bed, +because a body don't see such a storm as that every day in the week, not +by a long sight.  My souls, how the wind did scream along!  And every +second or two there'd come a glare that lit up the white-caps for a half +a mile around, and you'd see the islands looking dusty through the rain, +and the trees thrashing around in the wind; then comes a H-WHACK!—bum! +bum! bumble-umble-um-bum-bum-bum-bum—and the thunder would go rumbling +and grumbling away, and quit—and then RIP comes another flash and +another sockdolager.  The waves most washed me off the raft sometimes, +but I hadn't any clothes on, and didn't mind.  We didn't have no trouble +about snags; the lightning was glaring and flittering around so constant +that we could see them plenty soon enough to throw her head this way or +that and miss them. + +I had the middle watch, you know, but I was pretty sleepy by that time, +so Jim he said he would stand the first half of it for me; he was always +mighty good that way, Jim was.  I crawled into the wigwam, but the king +and the duke had their legs sprawled around so there warn't no show for +me; so I laid outside—I didn't mind the rain, because it was warm, and +the waves warn't running so high now.  About two they come up again, +though, and Jim was going to call me; but he changed his mind, because +he reckoned they warn't high enough yet to do any harm; but he was +mistaken about that, for pretty soon all of a sudden along comes a +regular ripper and washed me overboard.  It most killed Jim a-laughing. + He was the easiest nigger to laugh that ever was, anyway. + +I took the watch, and Jim he laid down and snored away; and by and by +the storm let up for good and all; and the first cabin-light that showed +I rousted him out, and we slid the raft into hiding quarters for the +day. + +The king got out an old ratty deck of cards after breakfast, and him +and the duke played seven-up a while, five cents a game.  Then they got +tired of it, and allowed they would "lay out a campaign," as they called +it. The duke went down into his carpet-bag, and fetched up a lot of +little printed bills and read them out loud.  One bill said, "The +celebrated Dr. Armand de Montalban, of Paris," would "lecture on the +Science of Phrenology" at such and such a place, on the blank day of +blank, at ten cents admission, and "furnish charts of character at +twenty-five cents apiece."  The duke said that was _him_.  In another +bill he was the "world-renowned Shakespearian tragedian, Garrick the +Younger, of Drury Lane, London."  In other bills he had a lot of other +names and done other wonderful things, like finding water and gold with +a "divining-rod," "dissipating witch spells," and so on.  By and by he +says: + +"But the histrionic muse is the darling.  Have you ever trod the boards, +Royalty?" + +"No," says the king. + +"You shall, then, before you're three days older, Fallen Grandeur," says +the duke.  "The first good town we come to we'll hire a hall and do the +sword fight in Richard III. and the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. +How does that strike you?" + +"I'm in, up to the hub, for anything that will pay, Bilgewater; but, you +see, I don't know nothing about play-actin', and hain't ever seen much +of it.  I was too small when pap used to have 'em at the palace.  Do you +reckon you can learn me?" + +"Easy!" + +"All right.  I'm jist a-freezn' for something fresh, anyway.  Le's +commence right away." + +So the duke he told him all about who Romeo was and who Juliet was, and +said he was used to being Romeo, so the king could be Juliet. + +"But if Juliet's such a young gal, duke, my peeled head and my white +whiskers is goin' to look oncommon odd on her, maybe." + +"No, don't you worry; these country jakes won't ever think of that. +Besides, you know, you'll be in costume, and that makes all the +difference in the world; Juliet's in a balcony, enjoying the moonlight +before she goes to bed, and she's got on her night-gown and her ruffled +nightcap.  Here are the costumes for the parts." + +He got out two or three curtain-calico suits, which he said was +meedyevil armor for Richard III. and t'other chap, and a long white +cotton nightshirt and a ruffled nightcap to match.  The king was +satisfied; so the duke got out his book and read the parts over in the +most splendid spread-eagle way, prancing around and acting at the same +time, to show how it had got to be done; then he give the book to the +king and told him to get his part by heart. + +There was a little one-horse town about three mile down the bend, and +after dinner the duke said he had ciphered out his idea about how to run +in daylight without it being dangersome for Jim; so he allowed he would +go down to the town and fix that thing.  The king allowed he would go, +too, and see if he couldn't strike something.  We was out of coffee, so +Jim said I better go along with them in the canoe and get some. + +When we got there there warn't nobody stirring; streets empty, and +perfectly dead and still, like Sunday.  We found a sick nigger sunning +himself in a back yard, and he said everybody that warn't too young or +too sick or too old was gone to camp-meeting, about two mile back in the +woods.  The king got the directions, and allowed he'd go and work that +camp-meeting for all it was worth, and I might go, too. + +The duke said what he was after was a printing-office.  We found it; +a little bit of a concern, up over a carpenter shop—carpenters and +printers all gone to the meeting, and no doors locked.  It was a dirty, +littered-up place, and had ink marks, and handbills with pictures of +horses and runaway niggers on them, all over the walls.  The duke shed +his coat and said he was all right now.  So me and the king lit out for +the camp-meeting. + +We got there in about a half an hour fairly dripping, for it was a most +awful hot day.  There was as much as a thousand people there from +twenty mile around.  The woods was full of teams and wagons, hitched +everywheres, feeding out of the wagon-troughs and stomping to keep +off the flies.  There was sheds made out of poles and roofed over with +branches, where they had lemonade and gingerbread to sell, and piles of +watermelons and green corn and such-like truck. + +The preaching was going on under the same kinds of sheds, only they was +bigger and held crowds of people.  The benches was made out of outside +slabs of logs, with holes bored in the round side to drive sticks into +for legs. They didn't have no backs.  The preachers had high platforms +to stand on at one end of the sheds.  The women had on sun-bonnets; +and some had linsey-woolsey frocks, some gingham ones, and a few of the +young ones had on calico.  Some of the young men was barefooted, and +some of the children didn't have on any clothes but just a tow-linen +shirt.  Some of the old women was knitting, and some of the young folks +was courting on the sly. + +The first shed we come to the preacher was lining out a hymn.  He lined +out two lines, everybody sung it, and it was kind of grand to hear it, +there was so many of them and they done it in such a rousing way; then +he lined out two more for them to sing—and so on.  The people woke up +more and more, and sung louder and louder; and towards the end some +begun to groan, and some begun to shout.  Then the preacher begun to +preach, and begun in earnest, too; and went weaving first to one side of +the platform and then the other, and then a-leaning down over the front +of it, with his arms and his body going all the time, and shouting his +words out with all his might; and every now and then he would hold up +his Bible and spread it open, and kind of pass it around this way and +that, shouting, "It's the brazen serpent in the wilderness!  Look upon +it and live!"  And people would shout out, "Glory!—A-a-_men_!"  And so +he went on, and the people groaning and crying and saying amen: + +"Oh, come to the mourners' bench! come, black with sin! (_Amen_!) come, +sick and sore! (_Amen_!) come, lame and halt and blind! (_Amen_!) come, +pore and needy, sunk in shame! (_A-A-Men_!) come, all that's worn and +soiled and suffering!—come with a broken spirit! come with a contrite +heart! come in your rags and sin and dirt! the waters that cleanse +is free, the door of heaven stands open—oh, enter in and be at rest!" +(_A-A-Men_!  _Glory, Glory Hallelujah!_) + +And so on.  You couldn't make out what the preacher said any more, on +account of the shouting and crying.  Folks got up everywheres in the +crowd, and worked their way just by main strength to the mourners' +bench, with the tears running down their faces; and when all the +mourners had got up there to the front benches in a crowd, they sung and +shouted and flung themselves down on the straw, just crazy and wild. + +Well, the first I knowed the king got a-going, and you could hear him +over everybody; and next he went a-charging up on to the platform, and +the preacher he begged him to speak to the people, and he done it.  He +told them he was a pirate—been a pirate for thirty years out in the +Indian Ocean—and his crew was thinned out considerable last spring in +a fight, and he was home now to take out some fresh men, and thanks to +goodness he'd been robbed last night and put ashore off of a steamboat +without a cent, and he was glad of it; it was the blessedest thing that +ever happened to him, because he was a changed man now, and happy for +the first time in his life; and, poor as he was, he was going to start +right off and work his way back to the Indian Ocean, and put in the rest +of his life trying to turn the pirates into the true path; for he could +do it better than anybody else, being acquainted with all pirate crews +in that ocean; and though it would take him a long time to get there +without money, he would get there anyway, and every time he convinced +a pirate he would say to him, "Don't you thank me, don't you give me no +credit; it all belongs to them dear people in Pokeville camp-meeting, +natural brothers and benefactors of the race, and that dear preacher +there, the truest friend a pirate ever had!" + +And then he busted into tears, and so did everybody.  Then somebody +sings out, "Take up a collection for him, take up a collection!"  Well, +a half a dozen made a jump to do it, but somebody sings out, "Let _him_ +pass the hat around!"  Then everybody said it, the preacher too. + +So the king went all through the crowd with his hat swabbing his eyes, +and blessing the people and praising them and thanking them for being +so good to the poor pirates away off there; and every little while the +prettiest kind of girls, with the tears running down their cheeks, would +up and ask him would he let them kiss him for to remember him by; and he +always done it; and some of them he hugged and kissed as many as five or +six times—and he was invited to stay a week; and everybody wanted him to +live in their houses, and said they'd think it was an honor; but he said +as this was the last day of the camp-meeting he couldn't do no good, and +besides he was in a sweat to get to the Indian Ocean right off and go to +work on the pirates. + +When we got back to the raft and he come to count up he found he had +collected eighty-seven dollars and seventy-five cents.  And then he had +fetched away a three-gallon jug of whisky, too, that he found under a +wagon when he was starting home through the woods.  The king said, +take it all around, it laid over any day he'd ever put in in the +missionarying line.  He said it warn't no use talking, heathens don't +amount to shucks alongside of pirates to work a camp-meeting with. + +The duke was thinking _he'd_ been doing pretty well till the king come +to show up, but after that he didn't think so so much.  He had set +up and printed off two little jobs for farmers in that +printing-office—horse bills—and took the money, four dollars.  And he +had got in ten dollars' worth of advertisements for the paper, which he +said he would put in for four dollars if they would pay in advance—so +they done it. The price of the paper was two dollars a year, but he took +in three subscriptions for half a dollar apiece on condition of them +paying him in advance; they were going to pay in cordwood and onions as +usual, but he said he had just bought the concern and knocked down the +price as low as he could afford it, and was going to run it for cash. + He set up a little piece of poetry, which he made, himself, out of +his own head—three verses—kind of sweet and saddish—the name of it was, +"Yes, crush, cold world, this breaking heart"—and he left that all set +up and ready to print in the paper, and didn't charge nothing for it. + Well, he took in nine dollars and a half, and said he'd done a pretty +square day's work for it. + +Then he showed us another little job he'd printed and hadn't charged +for, because it was for us.  It had a picture of a runaway nigger with +a bundle on a stick over his shoulder, and "$200 reward" under it.  The +reading was all about Jim, and just described him to a dot.  It said +he run away from St. Jacques' plantation, forty mile below New Orleans, +last winter, and likely went north, and whoever would catch him and send +him back he could have the reward and expenses. + +"Now," says the duke, "after to-night we can run in the daytime if we +want to.  Whenever we see anybody coming we can tie Jim hand and foot +with a rope, and lay him in the wigwam and show this handbill and say we +captured him up the river, and were too poor to travel on a steamboat, +so we got this little raft on credit from our friends and are going down +to get the reward.  Handcuffs and chains would look still better on Jim, +but it wouldn't go well with the story of us being so poor.  Too much +like jewelry.  Ropes are the correct thing—we must preserve the unities, +as we say on the boards." + +We all said the duke was pretty smart, and there couldn't be no trouble +about running daytimes.  We judged we could make miles enough that night +to get out of the reach of the powwow we reckoned the duke's work in +the printing office was going to make in that little town; then we could +boom right along if we wanted to. + +We laid low and kept still, and never shoved out till nearly ten +o'clock; then we slid by, pretty wide away from the town, and didn't +hoist our lantern till we was clear out of sight of it. + +When Jim called me to take the watch at four in the morning, he says: + +"Huck, does you reck'n we gwyne to run acrost any mo' kings on dis +trip?" + +"No," I says, "I reckon not." + +"Well," says he, "dat's all right, den.  I doan' mine one er two kings, +but dat's enough.  Dis one's powerful drunk, en de duke ain' much +better." + +I found Jim had been trying to get him to talk French, so he could hear +what it was like; but he said he had been in this country so long, and +had so much trouble, he'd forgot it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +IT was after sun-up now, but we went right on and didn't tie up.  The +king and the duke turned out by and by looking pretty rusty; but after +they'd jumped overboard and took a swim it chippered them up a good +deal. After breakfast the king he took a seat on the corner of the raft, +and pulled off his boots and rolled up his britches, and let his legs +dangle in the water, so as to be comfortable, and lit his pipe, and went +to getting his Romeo and Juliet by heart.  When he had got it pretty +good him and the duke begun to practice it together.  The duke had to +learn him over and over again how to say every speech; and he made him +sigh, and put his hand on his heart, and after a while he said he done +it pretty well; "only," he says, "you mustn't bellow out _Romeo_! +that way, like a bull—you must say it soft and sick and languishy, +so—R-o-o-meo! that is the idea; for Juliet's a dear sweet mere child of +a girl, you know, and she doesn't bray like a jackass." + +Well, next they got out a couple of long swords that the duke made out +of oak laths, and begun to practice the sword fight—the duke called +himself Richard III.; and the way they laid on and pranced around +the raft was grand to see.  But by and by the king tripped and fell +overboard, and after that they took a rest, and had a talk about all +kinds of adventures they'd had in other times along the river. + +After dinner the duke says: + +"Well, Capet, we'll want to make this a first-class show, you know, so +I guess we'll add a little more to it.  We want a little something to +answer encores with, anyway." + +"What's onkores, Bilgewater?" + +The duke told him, and then says: + +"I'll answer by doing the Highland fling or the sailor's hornpipe; and +you—well, let me see—oh, I've got it—you can do Hamlet's soliloquy." + +"Hamlet's which?" + +"Hamlet's soliloquy, you know; the most celebrated thing in Shakespeare. +Ah, it's sublime, sublime!  Always fetches the house.  I haven't got +it in the book—I've only got one volume—but I reckon I can piece it out +from memory.  I'll just walk up and down a minute, and see if I can call +it back from recollection's vaults." + +So he went to marching up and down, thinking, and frowning horrible +every now and then; then he would hoist up his eyebrows; next he would +squeeze his hand on his forehead and stagger back and kind of moan; next +he would sigh, and next he'd let on to drop a tear.  It was beautiful +to see him. By and by he got it.  He told us to give attention.  Then +he strikes a most noble attitude, with one leg shoved forwards, and his +arms stretched away up, and his head tilted back, looking up at the sky; +and then he begins to rip and rave and grit his teeth; and after that, +all through his speech, he howled, and spread around, and swelled up his +chest, and just knocked the spots out of any acting ever I see before. + This is the speech—I learned it, easy enough, while he was learning it +to the king: + +To be, or not to be; that is the bare bodkin That makes calamity of +so long life; For who would fardels bear, till Birnam Wood do come +to Dunsinane, But that the fear of something after death Murders the +innocent sleep, Great nature's second course, And makes us rather sling +the arrows of outrageous fortune Than fly to others that we know not of. +There's the respect must give us pause: Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I +would thou couldst; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The +oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The law's delay, and the +quietus which his pangs might take. In the dead waste and middle of the +night, when churchyards yawn In customary suits of solemn black, But +that the undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns, +Breathes forth contagion on the world, And thus the native hue of +resolution, like the poor cat i' the adage, Is sicklied o'er with care. +And all the clouds that lowered o'er our housetops, With this +regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. 'Tis a +consummation devoutly to be wished. But soft you, the fair Ophelia: Ope +not thy ponderous and marble jaws. But get thee to a nunnery—go! + +Well, the old man he liked that speech, and he mighty soon got it so he +could do it first rate. It seemed like he was just born for it; and when +he had his hand in and was excited, it was perfectly lovely the way he +would rip and tear and rair up behind when he was getting it off. + +The first chance we got, the duke he had some show bills printed; and +after that, for two or three days as we floated along, the raft was a +most uncommon lively place, for there warn't nothing but sword-fighting +and rehearsing—as the duke called it—going on all the time. One morning, +when we was pretty well down the State of Arkansaw, we come in sight +of a little one-horse town in a big bend; so we tied up about +three-quarters of a mile above it, in the mouth of a crick which was +shut in like a tunnel by the cypress trees, and all of us but Jim took +the canoe and went down there to see if there was any chance in that +place for our show. + +We struck it mighty lucky; there was going to be a circus there that +afternoon, and the country people was already beginning to come in, in +all kinds of old shackly wagons, and on horses. The circus would leave +before night, so our show would have a pretty good chance. The duke he +hired the court house, and we went around and stuck up our bills. They +read like this: + +Shaksperean Revival!!! + +Wonderful Attraction! + +For One Night Only! The world renowned tragedians, + +David Garrick the younger, of Drury Lane Theatre, London, + +and + +Edmund Kean the elder, of the Royal Haymarket Theatre, Whitechapel, +Pudding Lane, Piccadilly, London, and the Royal Continental Theatres, in +their sublime Shaksperean Spectacle entitled The Balcony Scene in + +Romeo and Juliet!!! + +Romeo...................................... Mr. Garrick. + +Juliet..................................... Mr. Kean. + +Assisted by the whole strength of the company! + +New costumes, new scenery, new appointments! + +Also: + +The thrilling, masterly, and blood-curdling Broad-sword conflict In +Richard III.!!! + +Richard III................................ Mr. Garrick. + +Richmond................................... Mr. Kean. + +also: + +(by special request,) + +Hamlet's Immortal Soliloquy!! + +By the Illustrious Kean! + +Done by him 300 consecutive nights in Paris! + +For One Night Only, + +On account of imperative European engagements! + +Admission 25 cents; children and servants, 10 cents. + +Then we went loafing around the town. The stores and houses was most all +old shackly dried-up frame concerns that hadn't ever been painted; they +was set up three or four foot above ground on stilts, so as to be out of +reach of the water when the river was overflowed. The houses had little +gardens around them, but they didn't seem to raise hardly anything in +them but jimpson weeds, and sunflowers, and ash-piles, and old curled-up +boots and shoes, and pieces of bottles, and rags, and played-out +tin-ware. The fences was made of different kinds of boards, nailed on +at different times; and they leaned every which-way, and had gates that +didn't generly have but one hinge—a leather one. Some of the fences +had been whitewashed, some time or another, but the duke said it was in +Clumbus's time, like enough. There was generly hogs in the garden, and +people driving them out. + +All the stores was along one street.  They had white domestic awnings in +front, and the country people hitched their horses to the awning-posts. +There was empty drygoods boxes under the awnings, and loafers roosting +on them all day long, whittling them with their Barlow knives; and +chawing tobacco, and gaping and yawning and stretching—a mighty ornery +lot. They generly had on yellow straw hats most as wide as an umbrella, +but didn't wear no coats nor waistcoats, they called one another Bill, +and Buck, and Hank, and Joe, and Andy, and talked lazy and drawly, and +used considerable many cuss words.  There was as many as one loafer +leaning up against every awning-post, and he most always had his hands +in his britches-pockets, except when he fetched them out to lend a chaw +of tobacco or scratch.  What a body was hearing amongst them all the +time was: + +"Gimme a chaw 'v tobacker, Hank." + +"Cain't; I hain't got but one chaw left.  Ask Bill." + +Maybe Bill he gives him a chaw; maybe he lies and says he ain't got +none. Some of them kinds of loafers never has a cent in the world, nor a +chaw of tobacco of their own.  They get all their chawing by borrowing; +they say to a fellow, "I wisht you'd len' me a chaw, Jack, I jist this +minute give Ben Thompson the last chaw I had"—which is a lie pretty +much everytime; it don't fool nobody but a stranger; but Jack ain't no +stranger, so he says: + +"_You_ give him a chaw, did you?  So did your sister's cat's +grandmother. You pay me back the chaws you've awready borry'd off'n me, +Lafe Buckner, then I'll loan you one or two ton of it, and won't charge +you no back intrust, nuther." + +"Well, I _did_ pay you back some of it wunst." + +"Yes, you did—'bout six chaws.  You borry'd store tobacker and paid back +nigger-head." + +Store tobacco is flat black plug, but these fellows mostly chaws the +natural leaf twisted.  When they borrow a chaw they don't generly cut it +off with a knife, but set the plug in between their teeth, and gnaw with +their teeth and tug at the plug with their hands till they get it in +two; then sometimes the one that owns the tobacco looks mournful at it +when it's handed back, and says, sarcastic: + +"Here, gimme the _chaw_, and you take the _plug_." + +All the streets and lanes was just mud; they warn't nothing else _but_ +mud—mud as black as tar and nigh about a foot deep in some places, +and two or three inches deep in _all_ the places.  The hogs loafed and +grunted around everywheres.  You'd see a muddy sow and a litter of pigs +come lazying along the street and whollop herself right down in the way, +where folks had to walk around her, and she'd stretch out and shut her +eyes and wave her ears whilst the pigs was milking her, and look as +happy as if she was on salary. And pretty soon you'd hear a loafer +sing out, "Hi!  _so_ boy! sick him, Tige!" and away the sow would go, +squealing most horrible, with a dog or two swinging to each ear, and +three or four dozen more a-coming; and then you would see all the +loafers get up and watch the thing out of sight, and laugh at the fun +and look grateful for the noise.  Then they'd settle back again till +there was a dog fight.  There couldn't anything wake them up all over, +and make them happy all over, like a dog fight—unless it might be +putting turpentine on a stray dog and setting fire to him, or tying a +tin pan to his tail and see him run himself to death. + +On the river front some of the houses was sticking out over the bank, +and they was bowed and bent, and about ready to tumble in, The people +had moved out of them.  The bank was caved away under one corner of some +others, and that corner was hanging over.  People lived in them yet, but +it was dangersome, because sometimes a strip of land as wide as a house +caves in at a time.  Sometimes a belt of land a quarter of a mile deep +will start in and cave along and cave along till it all caves into the +river in one summer. Such a town as that has to be always moving back, +and back, and back, because the river's always gnawing at it. + +The nearer it got to noon that day the thicker and thicker was the +wagons and horses in the streets, and more coming all the time. + Families fetched their dinners with them from the country, and eat them +in the wagons.  There was considerable whisky drinking going on, and I +seen three fights.  By and by somebody sings out: + +"Here comes old Boggs!—in from the country for his little old monthly +drunk; here he comes, boys!" + +All the loafers looked glad; I reckoned they was used to having fun out +of Boggs.  One of them says: + +"Wonder who he's a-gwyne to chaw up this time.  If he'd a-chawed up all +the men he's ben a-gwyne to chaw up in the last twenty year he'd have +considerable ruputation now." + +Another one says, "I wisht old Boggs 'd threaten me, 'cuz then I'd know +I warn't gwyne to die for a thousan' year." + +Boggs comes a-tearing along on his horse, whooping and yelling like an +Injun, and singing out: + +"Cler the track, thar.  I'm on the waw-path, and the price uv coffins is +a-gwyne to raise." + +He was drunk, and weaving about in his saddle; he was over fifty year +old, and had a very red face.  Everybody yelled at him and laughed at +him and sassed him, and he sassed back, and said he'd attend to them and +lay them out in their regular turns, but he couldn't wait now because +he'd come to town to kill old Colonel Sherburn, and his motto was, "Meat +first, and spoon vittles to top off on." + +He see me, and rode up and says: + +"Whar'd you come f'm, boy?  You prepared to die?" + +Then he rode on.  I was scared, but a man says: + +"He don't mean nothing; he's always a-carryin' on like that when he's +drunk.  He's the best naturedest old fool in Arkansaw—never hurt nobody, +drunk nor sober." + +Boggs rode up before the biggest store in town, and bent his head down +so he could see under the curtain of the awning and yells: + +"Come out here, Sherburn! Come out and meet the man you've swindled. +You're the houn' I'm after, and I'm a-gwyne to have you, too!" + +And so he went on, calling Sherburn everything he could lay his tongue +to, and the whole street packed with people listening and laughing and +going on.  By and by a proud-looking man about fifty-five—and he was a +heap the best dressed man in that town, too—steps out of the store, and +the crowd drops back on each side to let him come.  He says to Boggs, +mighty ca'm and slow—he says: + +"I'm tired of this, but I'll endure it till one o'clock.  Till one +o'clock, mind—no longer.  If you open your mouth against me only once +after that time you can't travel so far but I will find you." + +Then he turns and goes in.  The crowd looked mighty sober; nobody +stirred, and there warn't no more laughing.  Boggs rode off +blackguarding Sherburn as loud as he could yell, all down the street; +and pretty soon back he comes and stops before the store, still keeping +it up.  Some men crowded around him and tried to get him to shut up, +but he wouldn't; they told him it would be one o'clock in about fifteen +minutes, and so he _must_ go home—he must go right away.  But it didn't +do no good.  He cussed away with all his might, and throwed his hat down +in the mud and rode over it, and pretty soon away he went a-raging down +the street again, with his gray hair a-flying. Everybody that could get +a chance at him tried their best to coax him off of his horse so they +could lock him up and get him sober; but it warn't no use—up the street +he would tear again, and give Sherburn another cussing.  By and by +somebody says: + +"Go for his daughter!—quick, go for his daughter; sometimes he'll listen +to her.  If anybody can persuade him, she can." + +So somebody started on a run.  I walked down street a ways and stopped. +In about five or ten minutes here comes Boggs again, but not on his +horse.  He was a-reeling across the street towards me, bare-headed, with +a friend on both sides of him a-holt of his arms and hurrying him along. +He was quiet, and looked uneasy; and he warn't hanging back any, but was +doing some of the hurrying himself.  Somebody sings out: + +"Boggs!" + +I looked over there to see who said it, and it was that Colonel +Sherburn. He was standing perfectly still in the street, and had a +pistol raised in his right hand—not aiming it, but holding it out with +the barrel tilted up towards the sky.  The same second I see a young +girl coming on the run, and two men with her.  Boggs and the men turned +round to see who called him, and when they see the pistol the men +jumped to one side, and the pistol-barrel come down slow and steady to +a level—both barrels cocked. Boggs throws up both of his hands and says, +"O Lord, don't shoot!"  Bang! goes the first shot, and he staggers back, +clawing at the air—bang! goes the second one, and he tumbles backwards +on to the ground, heavy and solid, with his arms spread out.  That young +girl screamed out and comes rushing, and down she throws herself on her +father, crying, and saying, "Oh, he's killed him, he's killed him!"  The +crowd closed up around them, and shouldered and jammed one another, with +their necks stretched, trying to see, and people on the inside trying to +shove them back and shouting, "Back, back! give him air, give him air!" + +Colonel Sherburn he tossed his pistol on to the ground, and turned +around on his heels and walked off. + +They took Boggs to a little drug store, the crowd pressing around just +the same, and the whole town following, and I rushed and got a good +place at the window, where I was close to him and could see in.  They +laid him on the floor and put one large Bible under his head, and opened +another one and spread it on his breast; but they tore open his shirt +first, and I seen where one of the bullets went in.  He made about a +dozen long gasps, his breast lifting the Bible up when he drawed in his +breath, and letting it down again when he breathed it out—and after that +he laid still; he was dead.  Then they pulled his daughter away from +him, screaming and crying, and took her off.  She was about sixteen, and +very sweet and gentle looking, but awful pale and scared. + +Well, pretty soon the whole town was there, squirming and scrouging and +pushing and shoving to get at the window and have a look, but people +that had the places wouldn't give them up, and folks behind them was +saying all the time, "Say, now, you've looked enough, you fellows; +'tain't right and 'tain't fair for you to stay thar all the time, and +never give nobody a chance; other folks has their rights as well as +you." + +There was considerable jawing back, so I slid out, thinking maybe +there was going to be trouble.  The streets was full, and everybody was +excited. Everybody that seen the shooting was telling how it happened, +and there was a big crowd packed around each one of these fellows, +stretching their necks and listening.  One long, lanky man, with long +hair and a big white fur stovepipe hat on the back of his head, and a +crooked-handled cane, marked out the places on the ground where Boggs +stood and where Sherburn stood, and the people following him around from +one place to t'other and watching everything he done, and bobbing their +heads to show they understood, and stooping a little and resting their +hands on their thighs to watch him mark the places on the ground with +his cane; and then he stood up straight and stiff where Sherburn had +stood, frowning and having his hat-brim down over his eyes, and sung +out, "Boggs!" and then fetched his cane down slow to a level, and says +"Bang!" staggered backwards, says "Bang!" again, and fell down flat on +his back. The people that had seen the thing said he done it perfect; +said it was just exactly the way it all happened.  Then as much as a +dozen people got out their bottles and treated him. + +Well, by and by somebody said Sherburn ought to be lynched.  In about a +minute everybody was saying it; so away they went, mad and yelling, and +snatching down every clothes-line they come to to do the hanging with. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +THEY swarmed up towards Sherburn's house, a-whooping and raging like +Injuns, and everything had to clear the way or get run over and tromped +to mush, and it was awful to see.  Children was heeling it ahead of the +mob, screaming and trying to get out of the way; and every window along +the road was full of women's heads, and there was nigger boys in every +tree, and bucks and wenches looking over every fence; and as soon as the +mob would get nearly to them they would break and skaddle back out of +reach.  Lots of the women and girls was crying and taking on, scared +most to death. + +They swarmed up in front of Sherburn's palings as thick as they could +jam together, and you couldn't hear yourself think for the noise.  It +was a little twenty-foot yard.  Some sung out "Tear down the fence! tear +down the fence!"  Then there was a racket of ripping and tearing and +smashing, and down she goes, and the front wall of the crowd begins to +roll in like a wave. + +Just then Sherburn steps out on to the roof of his little front porch, +with a double-barrel gun in his hand, and takes his stand, perfectly +ca'm and deliberate, not saying a word.  The racket stopped, and the +wave sucked back. + +Sherburn never said a word—just stood there, looking down.  The +stillness was awful creepy and uncomfortable.  Sherburn run his eye slow +along the crowd; and wherever it struck the people tried a little to +out-gaze him, but they couldn't; they dropped their eyes and looked +sneaky. Then pretty soon Sherburn sort of laughed; not the pleasant +kind, but the kind that makes you feel like when you are eating bread +that's got sand in it. + +Then he says, slow and scornful: + +"The idea of _you_ lynching anybody!  It's amusing.  The idea of you +thinking you had pluck enough to lynch a _man_!  Because you're brave +enough to tar and feather poor friendless cast-out women that come along +here, did that make you think you had grit enough to lay your hands on a +_man_?  Why, a _man's_ safe in the hands of ten thousand of your kind—as +long as it's daytime and you're not behind him. + +"Do I know you?  I know you clear through was born and raised in the +South, and I've lived in the North; so I know the average all around. +The average man's a coward.  In the North he lets anybody walk over him +that wants to, and goes home and prays for a humble spirit to bear it. +In the South one man all by himself, has stopped a stage full of men +in the daytime, and robbed the lot.  Your newspapers call you a +brave people so much that you think you are braver than any other +people—whereas you're just _as_ brave, and no braver.  Why don't your +juries hang murderers?  Because they're afraid the man's friends will +shoot them in the back, in the dark—and it's just what they _would_ do. + +"So they always acquit; and then a _man_ goes in the night, with a +hundred masked cowards at his back and lynches the rascal.  Your mistake +is, that you didn't bring a man with you; that's one mistake, and the +other is that you didn't come in the dark and fetch your masks.  You +brought _part_ of a man—Buck Harkness, there—and if you hadn't had him +to start you, you'd a taken it out in blowing. + +"You didn't want to come.  The average man don't like trouble and +danger. _You_ don't like trouble and danger.  But if only _half_ a +man—like Buck Harkness, there—shouts 'Lynch him! lynch him!' you're +afraid to back down—afraid you'll be found out to be what you +are—_cowards_—and so you raise a yell, and hang yourselves on to that +half-a-man's coat-tail, and come raging up here, swearing what big +things you're going to do. The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that's +what an army is—a mob; they don't fight with courage that's born in +them, but with courage that's borrowed from their mass, and from their +officers.  But a mob without any _man_ at the head of it is _beneath_ +pitifulness.  Now the thing for _you_ to do is to droop your tails and +go home and crawl in a hole.  If any real lynching's going to be done it +will be done in the dark, Southern fashion; and when they come they'll +bring their masks, and fetch a _man_ along.  Now _leave_—and take your +half-a-man with you"—tossing his gun up across his left arm and cocking +it when he says this. + +The crowd washed back sudden, and then broke all apart, and went tearing +off every which way, and Buck Harkness he heeled it after them, looking +tolerable cheap.  I could a stayed if I wanted to, but I didn't want to. + +I went to the circus and loafed around the back side till the watchman +went by, and then dived in under the tent.  I had my twenty-dollar gold +piece and some other money, but I reckoned I better save it, because +there ain't no telling how soon you are going to need it, away from +home and amongst strangers that way.  You can't be too careful.  I ain't +opposed to spending money on circuses when there ain't no other way, but +there ain't no use in _wasting_ it on them. + +It was a real bully circus.  It was the splendidest sight that ever was +when they all come riding in, two and two, a gentleman and lady, side +by side, the men just in their drawers and undershirts, and no shoes +nor stirrups, and resting their hands on their thighs easy and +comfortable—there must a been twenty of them—and every lady with a +lovely complexion, and perfectly beautiful, and looking just like a gang +of real sure-enough queens, and dressed in clothes that cost millions of +dollars, and just littered with diamonds.  It was a powerful fine sight; +I never see anything so lovely.  And then one by one they got up +and stood, and went a-weaving around the ring so gentle and wavy and +graceful, the men looking ever so tall and airy and straight, with their +heads bobbing and skimming along, away up there under the tent-roof, and +every lady's rose-leafy dress flapping soft and silky around her hips, +and she looking like the most loveliest parasol. + +And then faster and faster they went, all of them dancing, first one +foot out in the air and then the other, the horses leaning more and +more, and the ringmaster going round and round the center-pole, cracking +his whip and shouting "Hi!—hi!" and the clown cracking jokes behind +him; and by and by all hands dropped the reins, and every lady put her +knuckles on her hips and every gentleman folded his arms, and then how +the horses did lean over and hump themselves!  And so one after the +other they all skipped off into the ring, and made the sweetest bow I +ever see, and then scampered out, and everybody clapped their hands and +went just about wild. + +Well, all through the circus they done the most astonishing things; and +all the time that clown carried on so it most killed the people.  The +ringmaster couldn't ever say a word to him but he was back at him quick +as a wink with the funniest things a body ever said; and how he ever +_could_ think of so many of them, and so sudden and so pat, was what I +couldn't noway understand. Why, I couldn't a thought of them in a year. +And by and by a drunk man tried to get into the ring—said he wanted to +ride; said he could ride as well as anybody that ever was.  They argued +and tried to keep him out, but he wouldn't listen, and the whole show +come to a standstill.  Then the people begun to holler at him and make +fun of him, and that made him mad, and he begun to rip and tear; so that +stirred up the people, and a lot of men begun to pile down off of the +benches and swarm towards the ring, saying, "Knock him down! throw him +out!" and one or two women begun to scream.  So, then, the ringmaster +he made a little speech, and said he hoped there wouldn't be no +disturbance, and if the man would promise he wouldn't make no more +trouble he would let him ride if he thought he could stay on the horse. + So everybody laughed and said all right, and the man got on. The minute +he was on, the horse begun to rip and tear and jump and cavort around, +with two circus men hanging on to his bridle trying to hold him, and the +drunk man hanging on to his neck, and his heels flying in the air every +jump, and the whole crowd of people standing up shouting and laughing +till tears rolled down.  And at last, sure enough, all the circus men +could do, the horse broke loose, and away he went like the very nation, +round and round the ring, with that sot laying down on him and hanging +to his neck, with first one leg hanging most to the ground on one side, +and then t'other one on t'other side, and the people just crazy.  It +warn't funny to me, though; I was all of a tremble to see his danger. + But pretty soon he struggled up astraddle and grabbed the bridle, +a-reeling this way and that; and the next minute he sprung up and +dropped the bridle and stood! and the horse a-going like a house afire +too.  He just stood up there, a-sailing around as easy and comfortable +as if he warn't ever drunk in his life—and then he begun to pull off his +clothes and sling them.  He shed them so thick they kind of clogged up +the air, and altogether he shed seventeen suits. And, then, there he +was, slim and handsome, and dressed the gaudiest and prettiest you +ever saw, and he lit into that horse with his whip and made him fairly +hum—and finally skipped off, and made his bow and danced off to +the dressing-room, and everybody just a-howling with pleasure and +astonishment. + +Then the ringmaster he see how he had been fooled, and he _was_ the +sickest ringmaster you ever see, I reckon.  Why, it was one of his own +men!  He had got up that joke all out of his own head, and never let on +to nobody. Well, I felt sheepish enough to be took in so, but I wouldn't +a been in that ringmaster's place, not for a thousand dollars.  I don't +know; there may be bullier circuses than what that one was, but I +never struck them yet. Anyways, it was plenty good enough for _me_; and +wherever I run across it, it can have all of _my_ custom every time. + +Well, that night we had _our_ show; but there warn't only about twelve +people there—just enough to pay expenses.  And they laughed all the +time, and that made the duke mad; and everybody left, anyway, before +the show was over, but one boy which was asleep.  So the duke said these +Arkansaw lunkheads couldn't come up to Shakespeare; what they wanted +was low comedy—and maybe something ruther worse than low comedy, he +reckoned.  He said he could size their style.  So next morning he got +some big sheets of wrapping paper and some black paint, and drawed off +some handbills, and stuck them up all over the village.  The bills said: + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +WELL, all day him and the king was hard at it, rigging up a stage and +a curtain and a row of candles for footlights; and that night the house +was jam full of men in no time.  When the place couldn't hold no more, +the duke he quit tending door and went around the back way and come on +to the stage and stood up before the curtain and made a little speech, +and praised up this tragedy, and said it was the most thrillingest one +that ever was; and so he went on a-bragging about the tragedy, and about +Edmund Kean the Elder, which was to play the main principal part in it; +and at last when he'd got everybody's expectations up high enough, he +rolled up the curtain, and the next minute the king come a-prancing +out on all fours, naked; and he was painted all over, +ring-streaked-and-striped, all sorts of colors, as splendid as a +rainbow.  And—but never mind the rest of his outfit; it was just wild, +but it was awful funny. The people most killed themselves laughing; and +when the king got done capering and capered off behind the scenes, they +roared and clapped and stormed and haw-hawed till he come back and done +it over again, and after that they made him do it another time. Well, it +would make a cow laugh to see the shines that old idiot cut. + +Then the duke he lets the curtain down, and bows to the people, and says +the great tragedy will be performed only two nights more, on accounts of +pressing London engagements, where the seats is all sold already for it +in Drury Lane; and then he makes them another bow, and says if he has +succeeded in pleasing them and instructing them, he will be deeply +obleeged if they will mention it to their friends and get them to come +and see it. + +Twenty people sings out: + +"What, is it over?  Is that _all_?" + +The duke says yes.  Then there was a fine time.  Everybody sings +out, "Sold!" and rose up mad, and was a-going for that stage and them +tragedians.  But a big, fine looking man jumps up on a bench and shouts: + +"Hold on!  Just a word, gentlemen."  They stopped to listen.  "We are +sold—mighty badly sold.  But we don't want to be the laughing stock of +this whole town, I reckon, and never hear the last of this thing as long +as we live.  _No_.  What we want is to go out of here quiet, and talk +this show up, and sell the _rest_ of the town!  Then we'll all be in the +same boat.  Ain't that sensible?" ("You bet it is!—the jedge is right!" +everybody sings out.) "All right, then—not a word about any sell.  Go +along home, and advise everybody to come and see the tragedy." + +Next day you couldn't hear nothing around that town but how splendid +that show was.  House was jammed again that night, and we sold this +crowd the same way.  When me and the king and the duke got home to the +raft we all had a supper; and by and by, about midnight, they made Jim +and me back her out and float her down the middle of the river, and +fetch her in and hide her about two mile below town. + +The third night the house was crammed again—and they warn't new-comers +this time, but people that was at the show the other two nights.  I +stood by the duke at the door, and I see that every man that went in had +his pockets bulging, or something muffled up under his coat—and I see it +warn't no perfumery, neither, not by a long sight.  I smelt sickly eggs +by the barrel, and rotten cabbages, and such things; and if I know the +signs of a dead cat being around, and I bet I do, there was sixty-four +of them went in.  I shoved in there for a minute, but it was too various +for me; I couldn't stand it.  Well, when the place couldn't hold no more +people the duke he give a fellow a quarter and told him to tend door +for him a minute, and then he started around for the stage door, I after +him; but the minute we turned the corner and was in the dark he says: + +"Walk fast now till you get away from the houses, and then shin for the +raft like the dickens was after you!" + +I done it, and he done the same.  We struck the raft at the same time, +and in less than two seconds we was gliding down stream, all dark and +still, and edging towards the middle of the river, nobody saying a +word. I reckoned the poor king was in for a gaudy time of it with the +audience, but nothing of the sort; pretty soon he crawls out from under +the wigwam, and says: + +"Well, how'd the old thing pan out this time, duke?"  He hadn't been +up-town at all. + +We never showed a light till we was about ten mile below the village. +Then we lit up and had a supper, and the king and the duke fairly +laughed their bones loose over the way they'd served them people.  The +duke says: + +"Greenhorns, flatheads!  I knew the first house would keep mum and let +the rest of the town get roped in; and I knew they'd lay for us the +third night, and consider it was _their_ turn now.  Well, it _is_ their +turn, and I'd give something to know how much they'd take for it.  I +_would_ just like to know how they're putting in their opportunity. + They can turn it into a picnic if they want to—they brought plenty +provisions." + +Them rapscallions took in four hundred and sixty-five dollars in that +three nights.  I never see money hauled in by the wagon-load like that +before.  By and by, when they was asleep and snoring, Jim says: + +"Don't it s'prise you de way dem kings carries on, Huck?" + +"No," I says, "it don't." + +"Why don't it, Huck?" + +"Well, it don't, because it's in the breed.  I reckon they're all +alike." + +"But, Huck, dese kings o' ourn is reglar rapscallions; dat's jist what +dey is; dey's reglar rapscallions." + +"Well, that's what I'm a-saying; all kings is mostly rapscallions, as +fur as I can make out." + +"Is dat so?" + +"You read about them once—you'll see.  Look at Henry the Eight; this 'n +'s a Sunday-school Superintendent to _him_.  And look at Charles Second, +and Louis Fourteen, and Louis Fifteen, and James Second, and Edward +Second, and Richard Third, and forty more; besides all them Saxon +heptarchies that used to rip around so in old times and raise Cain.  My, +you ought to seen old Henry the Eight when he was in bloom.  He _was_ a +blossom.  He used to marry a new wife every day, and chop off her head +next morning.  And he would do it just as indifferent as if he was +ordering up eggs.  'Fetch up Nell Gwynn,' he says.  They fetch her up. +Next morning, 'Chop off her head!'  And they chop it off.  'Fetch up +Jane Shore,' he says; and up she comes, Next morning, 'Chop off her +head'—and they chop it off.  'Ring up Fair Rosamun.'  Fair Rosamun +answers the bell.  Next morning, 'Chop off her head.'  And he made every +one of them tell him a tale every night; and he kept that up till he had +hogged a thousand and one tales that way, and then he put them all in a +book, and called it Domesday Book—which was a good name and stated the +case.  You don't know kings, Jim, but I know them; and this old rip +of ourn is one of the cleanest I've struck in history.  Well, Henry he +takes a notion he wants to get up some trouble with this country. How +does he go at it—give notice?—give the country a show?  No.  All of a +sudden he heaves all the tea in Boston Harbor overboard, and whacks +out a declaration of independence, and dares them to come on.  That was +_his_ style—he never give anybody a chance.  He had suspicions of his +father, the Duke of Wellington.  Well, what did he do?  Ask him to show +up?  No—drownded him in a butt of mamsey, like a cat.  S'pose people +left money laying around where he was—what did he do?  He collared it. + S'pose he contracted to do a thing, and you paid him, and didn't set +down there and see that he done it—what did he do?  He always done the +other thing. S'pose he opened his mouth—what then?  If he didn't shut it +up powerful quick he'd lose a lie every time.  That's the kind of a bug +Henry was; and if we'd a had him along 'stead of our kings he'd a fooled +that town a heap worse than ourn done.  I don't say that ourn is lambs, +because they ain't, when you come right down to the cold facts; but they +ain't nothing to _that_ old ram, anyway.  All I say is, kings is kings, +and you got to make allowances.  Take them all around, they're a mighty +ornery lot. It's the way they're raised." + +"But dis one do _smell_ so like de nation, Huck." + +"Well, they all do, Jim.  We can't help the way a king smells; history +don't tell no way." + +"Now de duke, he's a tolerble likely man in some ways." + +"Yes, a duke's different.  But not very different.  This one's +a middling hard lot for a duke.  When he's drunk there ain't no +near-sighted man could tell him from a king." + +"Well, anyways, I doan' hanker for no mo' un um, Huck.  Dese is all I +kin stan'." + +"It's the way I feel, too, Jim.  But we've got them on our hands, and we +got to remember what they are, and make allowances.  Sometimes I wish we +could hear of a country that's out of kings." + +What was the use to tell Jim these warn't real kings and dukes?  It +wouldn't a done no good; and, besides, it was just as I said:  you +couldn't tell them from the real kind. + +I went to sleep, and Jim didn't call me when it was my turn.  He often +done that.  When I waked up just at daybreak he was sitting there with +his head down betwixt his knees, moaning and mourning to himself.  I +didn't take notice nor let on.  I knowed what it was about.  He was +thinking about his wife and his children, away up yonder, and he was low +and homesick; because he hadn't ever been away from home before in his +life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white +folks does for their'n.  It don't seem natural, but I reckon it's so. + He was often moaning and mourning that way nights, when he judged I +was asleep, and saying, "Po' little 'Lizabeth! po' little Johnny! it's +mighty hard; I spec' I ain't ever gwyne to see you no mo', no mo'!"  He +was a mighty good nigger, Jim was. + +But this time I somehow got to talking to him about his wife and young +ones; and by and by he says: + +"What makes me feel so bad dis time 'uz bekase I hear sumpn over yonder +on de bank like a whack, er a slam, while ago, en it mine me er de time +I treat my little 'Lizabeth so ornery.  She warn't on'y 'bout fo' year +ole, en she tuck de sk'yarlet fever, en had a powful rough spell; but +she got well, en one day she was a-stannin' aroun', en I says to her, I +says: + +"'Shet de do'.' + +"She never done it; jis' stood dah, kiner smilin' up at me.  It make me +mad; en I says agin, mighty loud, I says: + +"'Doan' you hear me?  Shet de do'!' + +"She jis stood de same way, kiner smilin' up.  I was a-bilin'!  I says: + +"'I lay I _make_ you mine!' + +"En wid dat I fetch' her a slap side de head dat sont her a-sprawlin'. +Den I went into de yuther room, en 'uz gone 'bout ten minutes; en when +I come back dah was dat do' a-stannin' open _yit_, en dat chile stannin' +mos' right in it, a-lookin' down and mournin', en de tears runnin' down. + My, but I _wuz_ mad!  I was a-gwyne for de chile, but jis' den—it was a +do' dat open innerds—jis' den, 'long come de wind en slam it to, behine +de chile, ker-BLAM!—en my lan', de chile never move'!  My breff mos' +hop outer me; en I feel so—so—I doan' know HOW I feel.  I crope out, +all a-tremblin', en crope aroun' en open de do' easy en slow, en poke my +head in behine de chile, sof' en still, en all uv a sudden I says POW! +jis' as loud as I could yell.  _She never budge!_  Oh, Huck, I bust out +a-cryin' en grab her up in my arms, en say, 'Oh, de po' little thing! + De Lord God Amighty fogive po' ole Jim, kaze he never gwyne to fogive +hisself as long's he live!'  Oh, she was plumb deef en dumb, Huck, plumb +deef en dumb—en I'd ben a-treat'n her so!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +NEXT day, towards night, we laid up under a little willow towhead out in +the middle, where there was a village on each side of the river, and the +duke and the king begun to lay out a plan for working them towns.  Jim +he spoke to the duke, and said he hoped it wouldn't take but a few +hours, because it got mighty heavy and tiresome to him when he had to +lay all day in the wigwam tied with the rope.  You see, when we left him +all alone we had to tie him, because if anybody happened on to him all +by himself and not tied it wouldn't look much like he was a runaway +nigger, you know. So the duke said it _was_ kind of hard to have to lay +roped all day, and he'd cipher out some way to get around it. + +He was uncommon bright, the duke was, and he soon struck it.  He dressed +Jim up in King Lear's outfit—it was a long curtain-calico gown, and a +white horse-hair wig and whiskers; and then he took his theater paint +and painted Jim's face and hands and ears and neck all over a dead, +dull, solid blue, like a man that's been drownded nine days.  Blamed if +he warn't the horriblest looking outrage I ever see.  Then the duke took +and wrote out a sign on a shingle so: + +Sick Arab—but harmless when not out of his head. + +And he nailed that shingle to a lath, and stood the lath up four or five +foot in front of the wigwam.  Jim was satisfied.  He said it was a sight +better than lying tied a couple of years every day, and trembling all +over every time there was a sound.  The duke told him to make himself +free and easy, and if anybody ever come meddling around, he must hop +out of the wigwam, and carry on a little, and fetch a howl or two like +a wild beast, and he reckoned they would light out and leave him alone. + Which was sound enough judgment; but you take the average man, and he +wouldn't wait for him to howl.  Why, he didn't only look like he was +dead, he looked considerable more than that. + +These rapscallions wanted to try the Nonesuch again, because there was +so much money in it, but they judged it wouldn't be safe, because maybe +the news might a worked along down by this time.  They couldn't hit no +project that suited exactly; so at last the duke said he reckoned he'd +lay off and work his brains an hour or two and see if he couldn't put up +something on the Arkansaw village; and the king he allowed he would drop +over to t'other village without any plan, but just trust in Providence +to lead him the profitable way—meaning the devil, I reckon.  We had all +bought store clothes where we stopped last; and now the king put his'n +on, and he told me to put mine on.  I done it, of course.  The king's +duds was all black, and he did look real swell and starchy.  I never +knowed how clothes could change a body before.  Why, before, he looked +like the orneriest old rip that ever was; but now, when he'd take off +his new white beaver and make a bow and do a smile, he looked that grand +and good and pious that you'd say he had walked right out of the ark, +and maybe was old Leviticus himself.  Jim cleaned up the canoe, and I +got my paddle ready.  There was a big steamboat laying at the shore away +up under the point, about three mile above the town—been there a couple +of hours, taking on freight.  Says the king: + +"Seein' how I'm dressed, I reckon maybe I better arrive down from St. +Louis or Cincinnati, or some other big place.  Go for the steamboat, +Huckleberry; we'll come down to the village on her." + +I didn't have to be ordered twice to go and take a steamboat ride. + I fetched the shore a half a mile above the village, and then went +scooting along the bluff bank in the easy water.  Pretty soon we come to +a nice innocent-looking young country jake setting on a log swabbing the +sweat off of his face, for it was powerful warm weather; and he had a +couple of big carpet-bags by him. + +"Run her nose in shore," says the king.  I done it.  "Wher' you bound +for, young man?" + +"For the steamboat; going to Orleans." + +"Git aboard," says the king.  "Hold on a minute, my servant 'll he'p you +with them bags.  Jump out and he'p the gentleman, Adolphus"—meaning me, +I see. + +I done so, and then we all three started on again.  The young chap was +mighty thankful; said it was tough work toting his baggage such weather. +He asked the king where he was going, and the king told him he'd come +down the river and landed at the other village this morning, and now he +was going up a few mile to see an old friend on a farm up there.  The +young fellow says: + +"When I first see you I says to myself, 'It's Mr. Wilks, sure, and he +come mighty near getting here in time.'  But then I says again, 'No, I +reckon it ain't him, or else he wouldn't be paddling up the river.'  You +_ain't_ him, are you?" + +"No, my name's Blodgett—Elexander Blodgett—_Reverend_ Elexander +Blodgett, I s'pose I must say, as I'm one o' the Lord's poor servants. + But still I'm jist as able to be sorry for Mr. Wilks for not arriving +in time, all the same, if he's missed anything by it—which I hope he +hasn't." + +"Well, he don't miss any property by it, because he'll get that all +right; but he's missed seeing his brother Peter die—which he mayn't +mind, nobody can tell as to that—but his brother would a give anything +in this world to see _him_ before he died; never talked about nothing +else all these three weeks; hadn't seen him since they was boys +together—and hadn't ever seen his brother William at all—that's the deef +and dumb one—William ain't more than thirty or thirty-five.  Peter and +George were the only ones that come out here; George was the married +brother; him and his wife both died last year.  Harvey and William's the +only ones that's left now; and, as I was saying, they haven't got here +in time." + +"Did anybody send 'em word?" + +"Oh, yes; a month or two ago, when Peter was first took; because Peter +said then that he sorter felt like he warn't going to get well this +time. You see, he was pretty old, and George's g'yirls was too young to +be much company for him, except Mary Jane, the red-headed one; and so he +was kinder lonesome after George and his wife died, and didn't seem +to care much to live.  He most desperately wanted to see Harvey—and +William, too, for that matter—because he was one of them kind that can't +bear to make a will.  He left a letter behind for Harvey, and said he'd +told in it where his money was hid, and how he wanted the rest of the +property divided up so George's g'yirls would be all right—for George +didn't leave nothing.  And that letter was all they could get him to put +a pen to." + +"Why do you reckon Harvey don't come?  Wher' does he live?" + +"Oh, he lives in England—Sheffield—preaches there—hasn't ever been in +this country.  He hasn't had any too much time—and besides he mightn't a +got the letter at all, you know." + +"Too bad, too bad he couldn't a lived to see his brothers, poor soul. +You going to Orleans, you say?" + +"Yes, but that ain't only a part of it.  I'm going in a ship, next +Wednesday, for Ryo Janeero, where my uncle lives." + +"It's a pretty long journey.  But it'll be lovely; wisht I was a-going. +Is Mary Jane the oldest?  How old is the others?" + +"Mary Jane's nineteen, Susan's fifteen, and Joanna's about +fourteen—that's the one that gives herself to good works and has a +hare-lip." + +"Poor things! to be left alone in the cold world so." + +"Well, they could be worse off.  Old Peter had friends, and they +ain't going to let them come to no harm.  There's Hobson, the Babtis' +preacher; and Deacon Lot Hovey, and Ben Rucker, and Abner Shackleford, +and Levi Bell, the lawyer; and Dr. Robinson, and their wives, and the +widow Bartley, and—well, there's a lot of them; but these are the ones +that Peter was thickest with, and used to write about sometimes, when +he wrote home; so Harvey 'll know where to look for friends when he gets +here." + +Well, the old man went on asking questions till he just fairly emptied +that young fellow.  Blamed if he didn't inquire about everybody and +everything in that blessed town, and all about the Wilkses; and about +Peter's business—which was a tanner; and about George's—which was a +carpenter; and about Harvey's—which was a dissentering minister; and so +on, and so on.  Then he says: + +"What did you want to walk all the way up to the steamboat for?" + +"Because she's a big Orleans boat, and I was afeard she mightn't stop +there.  When they're deep they won't stop for a hail.  A Cincinnati boat +will, but this is a St. Louis one." + +"Was Peter Wilks well off?" + +"Oh, yes, pretty well off.  He had houses and land, and it's reckoned he +left three or four thousand in cash hid up som'ers." + +"When did you say he died?" + +"I didn't say, but it was last night." + +"Funeral to-morrow, likely?" + +"Yes, 'bout the middle of the day." + +"Well, it's all terrible sad; but we've all got to go, one time or +another. So what we want to do is to be prepared; then we're all right." + +"Yes, sir, it's the best way.  Ma used to always say that." + +When we struck the boat she was about done loading, and pretty soon she +got off.  The king never said nothing about going aboard, so I lost +my ride, after all.  When the boat was gone the king made me paddle up +another mile to a lonesome place, and then he got ashore and says: + +"Now hustle back, right off, and fetch the duke up here, and the new +carpet-bags.  And if he's gone over to t'other side, go over there and +git him.  And tell him to git himself up regardless.  Shove along, now." + +I see what _he_ was up to; but I never said nothing, of course.  When +I got back with the duke we hid the canoe, and then they set down on a +log, and the king told him everything, just like the young fellow had +said it—every last word of it.  And all the time he was a-doing it he +tried to talk like an Englishman; and he done it pretty well, too, for +a slouch. I can't imitate him, and so I ain't a-going to try to; but he +really done it pretty good.  Then he says: + +"How are you on the deef and dumb, Bilgewater?" + +The duke said, leave him alone for that; said he had played a deef +and dumb person on the histronic boards.  So then they waited for a +steamboat. + +About the middle of the afternoon a couple of little boats come along, +but they didn't come from high enough up the river; but at last there +was a big one, and they hailed her.  She sent out her yawl, and we went +aboard, and she was from Cincinnati; and when they found we only wanted +to go four or five mile they was booming mad, and gave us a cussing, and +said they wouldn't land us.  But the king was ca'm.  He says: + +"If gentlemen kin afford to pay a dollar a mile apiece to be took on and +put off in a yawl, a steamboat kin afford to carry 'em, can't it?" + +So they softened down and said it was all right; and when we got to the +village they yawled us ashore.  About two dozen men flocked down when +they see the yawl a-coming, and when the king says: + +"Kin any of you gentlemen tell me wher' Mr. Peter Wilks lives?" they +give a glance at one another, and nodded their heads, as much as to say, +"What d' I tell you?"  Then one of them says, kind of soft and gentle: + +"I'm sorry sir, but the best we can do is to tell you where he _did_ +live yesterday evening." + +Sudden as winking the ornery old cretur went an to smash, and fell up +against the man, and put his chin on his shoulder, and cried down his +back, and says: + +"Alas, alas, our poor brother—gone, and we never got to see him; oh, +it's too, too hard!" + +Then he turns around, blubbering, and makes a lot of idiotic signs to +the duke on his hands, and blamed if he didn't drop a carpet-bag and +bust out a-crying.  If they warn't the beatenest lot, them two frauds, +that ever I struck. + +Well, the men gathered around and sympathized with them, and said all +sorts of kind things to them, and carried their carpet-bags up the hill +for them, and let them lean on them and cry, and told the king all about +his brother's last moments, and the king he told it all over again on +his hands to the duke, and both of them took on about that dead tanner +like they'd lost the twelve disciples.  Well, if ever I struck anything +like it, I'm a nigger. It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human +race. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE news was all over town in two minutes, and you could see the people +tearing down on the run from every which way, some of them putting on +their coats as they come.  Pretty soon we was in the middle of a crowd, +and the noise of the tramping was like a soldier march.  The windows and +dooryards was full; and every minute somebody would say, over a fence: + +"Is it _them_?" + +And somebody trotting along with the gang would answer back and say: + +"You bet it is." + +When we got to the house the street in front of it was packed, and the +three girls was standing in the door.  Mary Jane _was_ red-headed, but +that don't make no difference, she was most awful beautiful, and her +face and her eyes was all lit up like glory, she was so glad her uncles +was come. The king he spread his arms, and Mary Jane she jumped for +them, and the hare-lip jumped for the duke, and there they had it! + Everybody most, leastways women, cried for joy to see them meet again +at last and have such good times. + +Then the king he hunched the duke private—I see him do it—and then he +looked around and see the coffin, over in the corner on two chairs; so +then him and the duke, with a hand across each other's shoulder, and +t'other hand to their eyes, walked slow and solemn over there, everybody +dropping back to give them room, and all the talk and noise stopping, +people saying "Sh!" and all the men taking their hats off and drooping +their heads, so you could a heard a pin fall.  And when they got there +they bent over and looked in the coffin, and took one sight, and then +they bust out a-crying so you could a heard them to Orleans, most; and +then they put their arms around each other's necks, and hung their chins +over each other's shoulders; and then for three minutes, or maybe four, +I never see two men leak the way they done.  And, mind you, everybody +was doing the same; and the place was that damp I never see anything +like it. Then one of them got on one side of the coffin, and t'other on +t'other side, and they kneeled down and rested their foreheads on the +coffin, and let on to pray all to themselves.  Well, when it come +to that it worked the crowd like you never see anything like it, and +everybody broke down and went to sobbing right out loud—the poor girls, +too; and every woman, nearly, went up to the girls, without saying a +word, and kissed them, solemn, on the forehead, and then put their hand +on their head, and looked up towards the sky, with the tears running +down, and then busted out and went off sobbing and swabbing, and give +the next woman a show.  I never see anything so disgusting. + +Well, by and by the king he gets up and comes forward a little, and +works himself up and slobbers out a speech, all full of tears and +flapdoodle about its being a sore trial for him and his poor brother +to lose the diseased, and to miss seeing diseased alive after the long +journey of four thousand mile, but it's a trial that's sweetened and +sanctified to us by this dear sympathy and these holy tears, and so he +thanks them out of his heart and out of his brother's heart, because out +of their mouths they can't, words being too weak and cold, and all that +kind of rot and slush, till it was just sickening; and then he blubbers +out a pious goody-goody Amen, and turns himself loose and goes to crying +fit to bust. + +And the minute the words were out of his mouth somebody over in the +crowd struck up the doxolojer, and everybody joined in with all their +might, and it just warmed you up and made you feel as good as church +letting out. Music is a good thing; and after all that soul-butter and +hogwash I never see it freshen up things so, and sound so honest and +bully. + +Then the king begins to work his jaw again, and says how him and his +nieces would be glad if a few of the main principal friends of the +family would take supper here with them this evening, and help set up +with the ashes of the diseased; and says if his poor brother laying +yonder could speak he knows who he would name, for they was names that +was very dear to him, and mentioned often in his letters; and so he will +name the same, to wit, as follows, vizz.:—Rev. Mr. Hobson, and Deacon +Lot Hovey, and Mr. Ben Rucker, and Abner Shackleford, and Levi Bell, and +Dr. Robinson, and their wives, and the widow Bartley. + +Rev. Hobson and Dr. Robinson was down to the end of the town a-hunting +together—that is, I mean the doctor was shipping a sick man to t'other +world, and the preacher was pinting him right.  Lawyer Bell was away up +to Louisville on business.  But the rest was on hand, and so they all +come and shook hands with the king and thanked him and talked to him; +and then they shook hands with the duke and didn't say nothing, but just +kept a-smiling and bobbing their heads like a passel of sapheads whilst +he made all sorts of signs with his hands and said "Goo-goo—goo-goo-goo" +all the time, like a baby that can't talk. + +So the king he blattered along, and managed to inquire about pretty +much everybody and dog in town, by his name, and mentioned all sorts +of little things that happened one time or another in the town, or to +George's family, or to Peter.  And he always let on that Peter wrote him +the things; but that was a lie:  he got every blessed one of them out of +that young flathead that we canoed up to the steamboat. + +Then Mary Jane she fetched the letter her father left behind, and the +king he read it out loud and cried over it.  It give the dwelling-house +and three thousand dollars, gold, to the girls; and it give the tanyard +(which was doing a good business), along with some other houses and +land (worth about seven thousand), and three thousand dollars in gold +to Harvey and William, and told where the six thousand cash was hid down +cellar.  So these two frauds said they'd go and fetch it up, and have +everything square and above-board; and told me to come with a candle. + We shut the cellar door behind us, and when they found the bag +they spilt it out on the floor, and it was a lovely sight, all them +yaller-boys.  My, the way the king's eyes did shine!  He slaps the duke +on the shoulder and says: + +"Oh, _this_ ain't bully nor noth'n!  Oh, no, I reckon not!  Why, +_bully_, it beats the Nonesuch, _don't_ it?" + +The duke allowed it did.  They pawed the yaller-boys, and sifted them +through their fingers and let them jingle down on the floor; and the +king says: + +"It ain't no use talkin'; bein' brothers to a rich dead man and +representatives of furrin heirs that's got left is the line for you and +me, Bilge.  Thish yer comes of trust'n to Providence.  It's the best +way, in the long run.  I've tried 'em all, and ther' ain't no better +way." + +Most everybody would a been satisfied with the pile, and took it on +trust; but no, they must count it.  So they counts it, and it comes out +four hundred and fifteen dollars short.  Says the king: + +"Dern him, I wonder what he done with that four hundred and fifteen +dollars?" + +They worried over that awhile, and ransacked all around for it.  Then +the duke says: + +"Well, he was a pretty sick man, and likely he made a mistake—I reckon +that's the way of it.  The best way's to let it go, and keep still about +it.  We can spare it." + +"Oh, shucks, yes, we can _spare_ it.  I don't k'yer noth'n 'bout +that—it's the _count_ I'm thinkin' about.  We want to be awful square +and open and above-board here, you know.  We want to lug this h-yer +money up stairs and count it before everybody—then ther' ain't noth'n +suspicious.  But when the dead man says ther's six thous'n dollars, you +know, we don't want to—" + +"Hold on," says the duke.  "Le's make up the deffisit," and he begun to +haul out yaller-boys out of his pocket. + +"It's a most amaz'n' good idea, duke—you _have_ got a rattlin' clever +head on you," says the king.  "Blest if the old Nonesuch ain't a heppin' +us out agin," and _he_ begun to haul out yaller-jackets and stack them +up. + +It most busted them, but they made up the six thousand clean and clear. + +"Say," says the duke, "I got another idea.  Le's go up stairs and count +this money, and then take and _give it to the girls_." + +"Good land, duke, lemme hug you!  It's the most dazzling idea 'at ever a +man struck.  You have cert'nly got the most astonishin' head I ever see. +Oh, this is the boss dodge, ther' ain't no mistake 'bout it.  Let 'em +fetch along their suspicions now if they want to—this 'll lay 'em out." + +When we got up-stairs everybody gethered around the table, and the king +he counted it and stacked it up, three hundred dollars in a pile—twenty +elegant little piles.  Everybody looked hungry at it, and licked their +chops.  Then they raked it into the bag again, and I see the king begin +to swell himself up for another speech.  He says: + +"Friends all, my poor brother that lays yonder has done generous by +them that's left behind in the vale of sorrers.  He has done generous by +these yer poor little lambs that he loved and sheltered, and that's left +fatherless and motherless.  Yes, and we that knowed him knows that he +would a done _more_ generous by 'em if he hadn't ben afeard o' woundin' +his dear William and me.  Now, _wouldn't_ he?  Ther' ain't no question +'bout it in _my_ mind.  Well, then, what kind o' brothers would it be +that 'd stand in his way at sech a time?  And what kind o' uncles would +it be that 'd rob—yes, _rob_—sech poor sweet lambs as these 'at he loved +so at sech a time?  If I know William—and I _think_ I do—he—well, I'll +jest ask him." He turns around and begins to make a lot of signs to +the duke with his hands, and the duke he looks at him stupid and +leather-headed a while; then all of a sudden he seems to catch his +meaning, and jumps for the king, goo-gooing with all his might for joy, +and hugs him about fifteen times before he lets up.  Then the king says, +"I knowed it; I reckon _that 'll_ convince anybody the way _he_ feels +about it.  Here, Mary Jane, Susan, Joanner, take the money—take it +_all_.  It's the gift of him that lays yonder, cold but joyful." + +Mary Jane she went for him, Susan and the hare-lip went for the +duke, and then such another hugging and kissing I never see yet.  And +everybody crowded up with the tears in their eyes, and most shook the +hands off of them frauds, saying all the time: + +"You _dear_ good souls!—how _lovely_!—how _could_ you!" + +Well, then, pretty soon all hands got to talking about the diseased +again, and how good he was, and what a loss he was, and all that; and +before long a big iron-jawed man worked himself in there from outside, +and stood a-listening and looking, and not saying anything; and nobody +saying anything to him either, because the king was talking and they was +all busy listening.  The king was saying—in the middle of something he'd +started in on— + +"—they bein' partickler friends o' the diseased.  That's why they're +invited here this evenin'; but tomorrow we want _all_ to come—everybody; +for he respected everybody, he liked everybody, and so it's fitten that +his funeral orgies sh'd be public." + +And so he went a-mooning on and on, liking to hear himself talk, and +every little while he fetched in his funeral orgies again, till the duke +he couldn't stand it no more; so he writes on a little scrap of paper, +"_Obsequies_, you old fool," and folds it up, and goes to goo-gooing and +reaching it over people's heads to him.  The king he reads it and puts +it in his pocket, and says: + +"Poor William, afflicted as he is, his _heart's_ aluz right.  Asks me +to invite everybody to come to the funeral—wants me to make 'em all +welcome.  But he needn't a worried—it was jest what I was at." + +Then he weaves along again, perfectly ca'm, and goes to dropping in his +funeral orgies again every now and then, just like he done before.  And +when he done it the third time he says: + +"I say orgies, not because it's the common term, because it +ain't—obsequies bein' the common term—but because orgies is the right +term. Obsequies ain't used in England no more now—it's gone out.  We +say orgies now in England.  Orgies is better, because it means the thing +you're after more exact.  It's a word that's made up out'n the Greek +_orgo_, outside, open, abroad; and the Hebrew _jeesum_, to plant, cover +up; hence in_ter._  So, you see, funeral orgies is an open er public +funeral." + +He was the _worst_ I ever struck.  Well, the iron-jawed man he laughed +right in his face.  Everybody was shocked.  Everybody says, "Why, +_doctor_!" and Abner Shackleford says: + +"Why, Robinson, hain't you heard the news?  This is Harvey Wilks." + +The king he smiled eager, and shoved out his flapper, and says: + +"Is it my poor brother's dear good friend and physician?  I—" + +"Keep your hands off of me!" says the doctor.  "_You_ talk like an +Englishman, _don't_ you?  It's the worst imitation I ever heard.  _You_ +Peter Wilks's brother!  You're a fraud, that's what you are!" + +Well, how they all took on!  They crowded around the doctor and tried to +quiet him down, and tried to explain to him and tell him how Harvey 'd +showed in forty ways that he _was_ Harvey, and knowed everybody by name, +and the names of the very dogs, and begged and _begged_ him not to hurt +Harvey's feelings and the poor girl's feelings, and all that.  But it +warn't no use; he stormed right along, and said any man that pretended +to be an Englishman and couldn't imitate the lingo no better than what +he did was a fraud and a liar.  The poor girls was hanging to the king +and crying; and all of a sudden the doctor ups and turns on _them_.  He +says: + +"I was your father's friend, and I'm your friend; and I warn you as a +friend, and an honest one that wants to protect you and keep you out of +harm and trouble, to turn your backs on that scoundrel and have nothing +to do with him, the ignorant tramp, with his idiotic Greek and Hebrew, +as he calls it.  He is the thinnest kind of an impostor—has come here +with a lot of empty names and facts which he picked up somewheres, and +you take them for _proofs_, and are helped to fool yourselves by these +foolish friends here, who ought to know better.  Mary Jane Wilks, you +know me for your friend, and for your unselfish friend, too.  Now listen +to me; turn this pitiful rascal out—I _beg_ you to do it.  Will you?" + +Mary Jane straightened herself up, and my, but she was handsome!  She +says: + +"_Here_ is my answer."  She hove up the bag of money and put it in the +king's hands, and says, "Take this six thousand dollars, and invest for +me and my sisters any way you want to, and don't give us no receipt for +it." + +Then she put her arm around the king on one side, and Susan and the +hare-lip done the same on the other.  Everybody clapped their hands and +stomped on the floor like a perfect storm, whilst the king held up his +head and smiled proud.  The doctor says: + +"All right; I wash _my_ hands of the matter.  But I warn you all that a +time 's coming when you're going to feel sick whenever you think of this +day." And away he went. + +"All right, doctor," says the king, kinder mocking him; "we'll try and +get 'em to send for you;" which made them all laugh, and they said it +was a prime good hit. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +WELL, when they was all gone the king he asks Mary Jane how they was off +for spare rooms, and she said she had one spare room, which would do for +Uncle William, and she'd give her own room to Uncle Harvey, which was +a little bigger, and she would turn into the room with her sisters and +sleep on a cot; and up garret was a little cubby, with a pallet in it. +The king said the cubby would do for his valley—meaning me. + +So Mary Jane took us up, and she showed them their rooms, which was +plain but nice.  She said she'd have her frocks and a lot of other traps +took out of her room if they was in Uncle Harvey's way, but he said +they warn't.  The frocks was hung along the wall, and before them was +a curtain made out of calico that hung down to the floor.  There was an +old hair trunk in one corner, and a guitar-box in another, and all sorts +of little knickknacks and jimcracks around, like girls brisken up a room +with.  The king said it was all the more homely and more pleasanter for +these fixings, and so don't disturb them.  The duke's room was pretty +small, but plenty good enough, and so was my cubby. + +That night they had a big supper, and all them men and women was there, +and I stood behind the king and the duke's chairs and waited on them, +and the niggers waited on the rest.  Mary Jane she set at the head of +the table, with Susan alongside of her, and said how bad the biscuits +was, and how mean the preserves was, and how ornery and tough the fried +chickens was—and all that kind of rot, the way women always do for to +force out compliments; and the people all knowed everything was tiptop, +and said so—said "How _do_ you get biscuits to brown so nice?" and +"Where, for the land's sake, _did_ you get these amaz'n pickles?" and +all that kind of humbug talky-talk, just the way people always does at a +supper, you know. + +And when it was all done me and the hare-lip had supper in the kitchen +off of the leavings, whilst the others was helping the niggers clean up +the things.  The hare-lip she got to pumping me about England, and blest +if I didn't think the ice was getting mighty thin sometimes.  She says: + +"Did you ever see the king?" + +"Who?  William Fourth?  Well, I bet I have—he goes to our church."  I +knowed he was dead years ago, but I never let on.  So when I says he +goes to our church, she says: + +"What—regular?" + +"Yes—regular.  His pew's right over opposite ourn—on t'other side the +pulpit." + +"I thought he lived in London?" + +"Well, he does.  Where _would_ he live?" + +"But I thought _you_ lived in Sheffield?" + +I see I was up a stump.  I had to let on to get choked with a chicken +bone, so as to get time to think how to get down again.  Then I says: + +"I mean he goes to our church regular when he's in Sheffield.  That's +only in the summer time, when he comes there to take the sea baths." + +"Why, how you talk—Sheffield ain't on the sea." + +"Well, who said it was?" + +"Why, you did." + +"I _didn't_ nuther." + +"You did!" + +"I didn't." + +"You did." + +"I never said nothing of the kind." + +"Well, what _did_ you say, then?" + +"Said he come to take the sea _baths_—that's what I said." + +"Well, then, how's he going to take the sea baths if it ain't on the +sea?" + +"Looky here," I says; "did you ever see any Congress-water?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, did you have to go to Congress to get it?" + +"Why, no." + +"Well, neither does William Fourth have to go to the sea to get a sea +bath." + +"How does he get it, then?" + +"Gets it the way people down here gets Congress-water—in barrels.  There +in the palace at Sheffield they've got furnaces, and he wants his water +hot.  They can't bile that amount of water away off there at the sea. +They haven't got no conveniences for it." + +"Oh, I see, now.  You might a said that in the first place and saved +time." + +When she said that I see I was out of the woods again, and so I was +comfortable and glad.  Next, she says: + +"Do you go to church, too?" + +"Yes—regular." + +"Where do you set?" + +"Why, in our pew." + +"_Whose_ pew?" + +"Why, _ourn_—your Uncle Harvey's." + +"His'n?  What does _he_ want with a pew?" + +"Wants it to set in.  What did you _reckon_ he wanted with it?" + +"Why, I thought he'd be in the pulpit." + +Rot him, I forgot he was a preacher.  I see I was up a stump again, so I +played another chicken bone and got another think.  Then I says: + +"Blame it, do you suppose there ain't but one preacher to a church?" + +"Why, what do they want with more?" + +"What!—to preach before a king?  I never did see such a girl as you. +They don't have no less than seventeen." + +"Seventeen!  My land!  Why, I wouldn't set out such a string as that, +not if I _never_ got to glory.  It must take 'em a week." + +"Shucks, they don't _all_ of 'em preach the same day—only _one_ of 'em." + +"Well, then, what does the rest of 'em do?" + +"Oh, nothing much.  Loll around, pass the plate—and one thing or +another.  But mainly they don't do nothing." + +"Well, then, what are they _for_?" + +"Why, they're for _style_.  Don't you know nothing?" + +"Well, I don't _want_ to know no such foolishness as that.  How is +servants treated in England?  Do they treat 'em better 'n we treat our +niggers?" + +"_No_!  A servant ain't nobody there.  They treat them worse than dogs." + +"Don't they give 'em holidays, the way we do, Christmas and New Year's +week, and Fourth of July?" + +"Oh, just listen!  A body could tell _you_ hain't ever been to England +by that.  Why, Hare-l—why, Joanna, they never see a holiday from year's +end to year's end; never go to the circus, nor theater, nor nigger +shows, nor nowheres." + +"Nor church?" + +"Nor church." + +"But _you_ always went to church." + +Well, I was gone up again.  I forgot I was the old man's servant.  But +next minute I whirled in on a kind of an explanation how a valley was +different from a common servant and _had_ to go to church whether he +wanted to or not, and set with the family, on account of its being the +law.  But I didn't do it pretty good, and when I got done I see she +warn't satisfied.  She says: + +"Honest injun, now, hain't you been telling me a lot of lies?" + +"Honest injun," says I. + +"None of it at all?" + +"None of it at all.  Not a lie in it," says I. + +"Lay your hand on this book and say it." + +I see it warn't nothing but a dictionary, so I laid my hand on it and +said it.  So then she looked a little better satisfied, and says: + +"Well, then, I'll believe some of it; but I hope to gracious if I'll +believe the rest." + +"What is it you won't believe, Joe?" says Mary Jane, stepping in with +Susan behind her.  "It ain't right nor kind for you to talk so to him, +and him a stranger and so far from his people.  How would you like to be +treated so?" + +"That's always your way, Maim—always sailing in to help somebody before +they're hurt.  I hain't done nothing to him.  He's told some stretchers, +I reckon, and I said I wouldn't swallow it all; and that's every bit +and grain I _did_ say.  I reckon he can stand a little thing like that, +can't he?" + +"I don't care whether 'twas little or whether 'twas big; he's here in +our house and a stranger, and it wasn't good of you to say it.  If you +was in his place it would make you feel ashamed; and so you oughtn't to +say a thing to another person that will make _them_ feel ashamed." + +"Why, Mam, he said—" + +"It don't make no difference what he _said_—that ain't the thing.  The +thing is for you to treat him _kind_, and not be saying things to make +him remember he ain't in his own country and amongst his own folks." + +I says to myself, _this_ is a girl that I'm letting that old reptile rob +her of her money! + +Then Susan _she_ waltzed in; and if you'll believe me, she did give +Hare-lip hark from the tomb! + +Says I to myself, and this is _another_ one that I'm letting him rob her +of her money! + +Then Mary Jane she took another inning, and went in sweet and lovely +again—which was her way; but when she got done there warn't hardly +anything left o' poor Hare-lip.  So she hollered. + +"All right, then," says the other girls; "you just ask his pardon." + +She done it, too; and she done it beautiful.  She done it so beautiful +it was good to hear; and I wished I could tell her a thousand lies, so +she could do it again. + +I says to myself, this is _another_ one that I'm letting him rob her of +her money.  And when she got through they all jest laid theirselves +out to make me feel at home and know I was amongst friends.  I felt so +ornery and low down and mean that I says to myself, my mind's made up; +I'll hive that money for them or bust. + +So then I lit out—for bed, I said, meaning some time or another.  When +I got by myself I went to thinking the thing over.  I says to myself, +shall I go to that doctor, private, and blow on these frauds?  No—that +won't do. He might tell who told him; then the king and the duke would +make it warm for me.  Shall I go, private, and tell Mary Jane?  No—I +dasn't do it. Her face would give them a hint, sure; they've got the +money, and they'd slide right out and get away with it.  If she was to +fetch in help I'd get mixed up in the business before it was done with, +I judge.  No; there ain't no good way but one.  I got to steal that +money, somehow; and I got to steal it some way that they won't suspicion +that I done it. They've got a good thing here, and they ain't a-going +to leave till they've played this family and this town for all they're +worth, so I'll find a chance time enough. I'll steal it and hide it; and +by and by, when I'm away down the river, I'll write a letter and tell +Mary Jane where it's hid.  But I better hive it tonight if I can, +because the doctor maybe hasn't let up as much as he lets on he has; he +might scare them out of here yet. + +So, thinks I, I'll go and search them rooms.  Upstairs the hall was +dark, but I found the duke's room, and started to paw around it with +my hands; but I recollected it wouldn't be much like the king to let +anybody else take care of that money but his own self; so then I went to +his room and begun to paw around there.  But I see I couldn't do nothing +without a candle, and I dasn't light one, of course.  So I judged I'd +got to do the other thing—lay for them and eavesdrop.  About that time +I hears their footsteps coming, and was going to skip under the bed; I +reached for it, but it wasn't where I thought it would be; but I touched +the curtain that hid Mary Jane's frocks, so I jumped in behind that and +snuggled in amongst the gowns, and stood there perfectly still. + +They come in and shut the door; and the first thing the duke done was to +get down and look under the bed.  Then I was glad I hadn't found the bed +when I wanted it.  And yet, you know, it's kind of natural to hide under +the bed when you are up to anything private.  They sets down then, and +the king says: + +"Well, what is it?  And cut it middlin' short, because it's better for +us to be down there a-whoopin' up the mournin' than up here givin' 'em a +chance to talk us over." + +"Well, this is it, Capet.  I ain't easy; I ain't comfortable.  That +doctor lays on my mind.  I wanted to know your plans.  I've got a +notion, and I think it's a sound one." + +"What is it, duke?" + +"That we better glide out of this before three in the morning, and clip +it down the river with what we've got.  Specially, seeing we got it so +easy—_given_ back to us, flung at our heads, as you may say, when of +course we allowed to have to steal it back.  I'm for knocking off and +lighting out." + +That made me feel pretty bad.  About an hour or two ago it would a been +a little different, but now it made me feel bad and disappointed, The +king rips out and says: + +"What!  And not sell out the rest o' the property?  March off like +a passel of fools and leave eight or nine thous'n' dollars' worth o' +property layin' around jest sufferin' to be scooped in?—and all good, +salable stuff, too." + +The duke he grumbled; said the bag of gold was enough, and he didn't +want to go no deeper—didn't want to rob a lot of orphans of _everything_ +they had. + +"Why, how you talk!" says the king.  "We sha'n't rob 'em of nothing at +all but jest this money.  The people that _buys_ the property is the +suff'rers; because as soon 's it's found out 'at we didn't own it—which +won't be long after we've slid—the sale won't be valid, and it 'll all +go back to the estate.  These yer orphans 'll git their house back agin, +and that's enough for _them_; they're young and spry, and k'n easy +earn a livin'.  _they_ ain't a-goin to suffer.  Why, jest think—there's +thous'n's and thous'n's that ain't nigh so well off.  Bless you, _they_ +ain't got noth'n' to complain of." + +Well, the king he talked him blind; so at last he give in, and said all +right, but said he believed it was blamed foolishness to stay, and that +doctor hanging over them.  But the king says: + +"Cuss the doctor!  What do we k'yer for _him_?  Hain't we got all the +fools in town on our side?  And ain't that a big enough majority in any +town?" + +So they got ready to go down stairs again.  The duke says: + +"I don't think we put that money in a good place." + +That cheered me up.  I'd begun to think I warn't going to get a hint of +no kind to help me.  The king says: + +"Why?" + +"Because Mary Jane 'll be in mourning from this out; and first you know +the nigger that does up the rooms will get an order to box these duds +up and put 'em away; and do you reckon a nigger can run across money and +not borrow some of it?" + +"Your head's level agin, duke," says the king; and he comes a-fumbling +under the curtain two or three foot from where I was.  I stuck tight to +the wall and kept mighty still, though quivery; and I wondered what them +fellows would say to me if they catched me; and I tried to think what +I'd better do if they did catch me.  But the king he got the bag before +I could think more than about a half a thought, and he never suspicioned +I was around.  They took and shoved the bag through a rip in the straw +tick that was under the feather-bed, and crammed it in a foot or two +amongst the straw and said it was all right now, because a nigger only +makes up the feather-bed, and don't turn over the straw tick only about +twice a year, and so it warn't in no danger of getting stole now. + +But I knowed better.  I had it out of there before they was half-way +down stairs.  I groped along up to my cubby, and hid it there till I +could get a chance to do better.  I judged I better hide it outside +of the house somewheres, because if they missed it they would give the +house a good ransacking:  I knowed that very well.  Then I turned in, +with my clothes all on; but I couldn't a gone to sleep if I'd a wanted +to, I was in such a sweat to get through with the business.  By and by I +heard the king and the duke come up; so I rolled off my pallet and laid +with my chin at the top of my ladder, and waited to see if anything was +going to happen.  But nothing did. + +So I held on till all the late sounds had quit and the early ones hadn't +begun yet; and then I slipped down the ladder. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +I crept to their doors and listened; they was snoring.  So I tiptoed +along, and got down stairs all right.  There warn't a sound anywheres. + I peeped through a crack of the dining-room door, and see the men that +was watching the corpse all sound asleep on their chairs.  The door +was open into the parlor, where the corpse was laying, and there was a +candle in both rooms. I passed along, and the parlor door was open; but +I see there warn't nobody in there but the remainders of Peter; so I +shoved on by; but the front door was locked, and the key wasn't there. + Just then I heard somebody coming down the stairs, back behind me.  I +run in the parlor and took a swift look around, and the only place I +see to hide the bag was in the coffin.  The lid was shoved along about +a foot, showing the dead man's face down in there, with a wet cloth over +it, and his shroud on.  I tucked the money-bag in under the lid, just +down beyond where his hands was crossed, which made me creep, they was +so cold, and then I run back across the room and in behind the door. + +The person coming was Mary Jane.  She went to the coffin, very soft, and +kneeled down and looked in; then she put up her handkerchief, and I see +she begun to cry, though I couldn't hear her, and her back was to me.  I +slid out, and as I passed the dining-room I thought I'd make sure them +watchers hadn't seen me; so I looked through the crack, and everything +was all right.  They hadn't stirred. + +I slipped up to bed, feeling ruther blue, on accounts of the thing +playing out that way after I had took so much trouble and run so much +resk about it.  Says I, if it could stay where it is, all right; because +when we get down the river a hundred mile or two I could write back to +Mary Jane, and she could dig him up again and get it; but that ain't the +thing that's going to happen; the thing that's going to happen is, the +money 'll be found when they come to screw on the lid.  Then the king +'ll get it again, and it 'll be a long day before he gives anybody +another chance to smouch it from him. Of course I _wanted_ to slide +down and get it out of there, but I dasn't try it.  Every minute it was +getting earlier now, and pretty soon some of them watchers would begin +to stir, and I might get catched—catched with six thousand dollars in my +hands that nobody hadn't hired me to take care of.  I don't wish to be +mixed up in no such business as that, I says to myself. + +When I got down stairs in the morning the parlor was shut up, and the +watchers was gone.  There warn't nobody around but the family and the +widow Bartley and our tribe.  I watched their faces to see if anything +had been happening, but I couldn't tell. + +Towards the middle of the day the undertaker come with his man, and they +set the coffin in the middle of the room on a couple of chairs, and then +set all our chairs in rows, and borrowed more from the neighbors till +the hall and the parlor and the dining-room was full.  I see the coffin +lid was the way it was before, but I dasn't go to look in under it, with +folks around. + +Then the people begun to flock in, and the beats and the girls took +seats in the front row at the head of the coffin, and for a half an hour +the people filed around slow, in single rank, and looked down at the +dead man's face a minute, and some dropped in a tear, and it was +all very still and solemn, only the girls and the beats holding +handkerchiefs to their eyes and keeping their heads bent, and sobbing a +little.  There warn't no other sound but the scraping of the feet on +the floor and blowing noses—because people always blows them more at a +funeral than they do at other places except church. + +When the place was packed full the undertaker he slid around in his +black gloves with his softy soothering ways, putting on the last +touches, and getting people and things all ship-shape and comfortable, +and making no more sound than a cat.  He never spoke; he moved people +around, he squeezed in late ones, he opened up passageways, and done +it with nods, and signs with his hands.  Then he took his place over +against the wall. He was the softest, glidingest, stealthiest man I ever +see; and there warn't no more smile to him than there is to a ham. + +They had borrowed a melodeum—a sick one; and when everything was ready +a young woman set down and worked it, and it was pretty skreeky and +colicky, and everybody joined in and sung, and Peter was the only one +that had a good thing, according to my notion.  Then the Reverend Hobson +opened up, slow and solemn, and begun to talk; and straight off the most +outrageous row busted out in the cellar a body ever heard; it was only +one dog, but he made a most powerful racket, and he kept it up right +along; the parson he had to stand there, over the coffin, and wait—you +couldn't hear yourself think.  It was right down awkward, and nobody +didn't seem to know what to do.  But pretty soon they see that +long-legged undertaker make a sign to the preacher as much as to say, +"Don't you worry—just depend on me."  Then he stooped down and begun +to glide along the wall, just his shoulders showing over the people's +heads.  So he glided along, and the powwow and racket getting more and +more outrageous all the time; and at last, when he had gone around two +sides of the room, he disappears down cellar.  Then in about two seconds +we heard a whack, and the dog he finished up with a most amazing howl or +two, and then everything was dead still, and the parson begun his solemn +talk where he left off.  In a minute or two here comes this undertaker's +back and shoulders gliding along the wall again; and so he glided and +glided around three sides of the room, and then rose up, and shaded his +mouth with his hands, and stretched his neck out towards the preacher, +over the people's heads, and says, in a kind of a coarse whisper, "_He +had a rat_!"  Then he drooped down and glided along the wall again to +his place.  You could see it was a great satisfaction to the people, +because naturally they wanted to know.  A little thing like that don't +cost nothing, and it's just the little things that makes a man to be +looked up to and liked.  There warn't no more popular man in town than +what that undertaker was. + +Well, the funeral sermon was very good, but pison long and tiresome; and +then the king he shoved in and got off some of his usual rubbage, and +at last the job was through, and the undertaker begun to sneak up on the +coffin with his screw-driver.  I was in a sweat then, and watched him +pretty keen. But he never meddled at all; just slid the lid along as +soft as mush, and screwed it down tight and fast.  So there I was!  I +didn't know whether the money was in there or not.  So, says I, s'pose +somebody has hogged that bag on the sly?—now how do I know whether +to write to Mary Jane or not? S'pose she dug him up and didn't find +nothing, what would she think of me? Blame it, I says, I might get +hunted up and jailed; I'd better lay low and keep dark, and not write at +all; the thing's awful mixed now; trying to better it, I've worsened it +a hundred times, and I wish to goodness I'd just let it alone, dad fetch +the whole business! + +They buried him, and we come back home, and I went to watching faces +again—I couldn't help it, and I couldn't rest easy.  But nothing come of +it; the faces didn't tell me nothing. + +The king he visited around in the evening, and sweetened everybody up, +and made himself ever so friendly; and he give out the idea that his +congregation over in England would be in a sweat about him, so he must +hurry and settle up the estate right away and leave for home.  He was +very sorry he was so pushed, and so was everybody; they wished he could +stay longer, but they said they could see it couldn't be done.  And he +said of course him and William would take the girls home with them; and +that pleased everybody too, because then the girls would be well fixed +and amongst their own relations; and it pleased the girls, too—tickled +them so they clean forgot they ever had a trouble in the world; and told +him to sell out as quick as he wanted to, they would be ready.  Them +poor things was that glad and happy it made my heart ache to see them +getting fooled and lied to so, but I didn't see no safe way for me to +chip in and change the general tune. + +Well, blamed if the king didn't bill the house and the niggers and all +the property for auction straight off—sale two days after the funeral; +but anybody could buy private beforehand if they wanted to. + +So the next day after the funeral, along about noon-time, the girls' joy +got the first jolt.  A couple of nigger traders come along, and the king +sold them the niggers reasonable, for three-day drafts as they called +it, and away they went, the two sons up the river to Memphis, and their +mother down the river to Orleans.  I thought them poor girls and them +niggers would break their hearts for grief; they cried around each +other, and took on so it most made me down sick to see it.  The girls +said they hadn't ever dreamed of seeing the family separated or sold +away from the town.  I can't ever get it out of my memory, the sight of +them poor miserable girls and niggers hanging around each other's necks +and crying; and I reckon I couldn't a stood it all, but would a had +to bust out and tell on our gang if I hadn't knowed the sale warn't no +account and the niggers would be back home in a week or two. + +The thing made a big stir in the town, too, and a good many come out +flatfooted and said it was scandalous to separate the mother and the +children that way.  It injured the frauds some; but the old fool he +bulled right along, spite of all the duke could say or do, and I tell +you the duke was powerful uneasy. + +Next day was auction day.  About broad day in the morning the king and +the duke come up in the garret and woke me up, and I see by their look +that there was trouble.  The king says: + +"Was you in my room night before last?" + +"No, your majesty"—which was the way I always called him when nobody but +our gang warn't around. + +"Was you in there yisterday er last night?" + +"No, your majesty." + +"Honor bright, now—no lies." + +"Honor bright, your majesty, I'm telling you the truth.  I hain't been +a-near your room since Miss Mary Jane took you and the duke and showed +it to you." + +The duke says: + +"Have you seen anybody else go in there?" + +"No, your grace, not as I remember, I believe." + +"Stop and think." + +I studied awhile and see my chance; then I says: + +"Well, I see the niggers go in there several times." + +Both of them gave a little jump, and looked like they hadn't ever +expected it, and then like they _had_.  Then the duke says: + +"What, all of them?" + +"No—leastways, not all at once—that is, I don't think I ever see them +all come _out_ at once but just one time." + +"Hello!  When was that?" + +"It was the day we had the funeral.  In the morning.  It warn't early, +because I overslept.  I was just starting down the ladder, and I see +them." + +"Well, go on, _go_ on!  What did they do?  How'd they act?" + +"They didn't do nothing.  And they didn't act anyway much, as fur as I +see. They tiptoed away; so I seen, easy enough, that they'd shoved in +there to do up your majesty's room, or something, s'posing you was up; +and found you _warn't_ up, and so they was hoping to slide out of the +way of trouble without waking you up, if they hadn't already waked you +up." + +"Great guns, _this_ is a go!" says the king; and both of them looked +pretty sick and tolerable silly.  They stood there a-thinking and +scratching their heads a minute, and the duke he bust into a kind of a +little raspy chuckle, and says: + +"It does beat all how neat the niggers played their hand.  They let on +to be _sorry_ they was going out of this region!  And I believed they +_was_ sorry, and so did you, and so did everybody.  Don't ever tell _me_ +any more that a nigger ain't got any histrionic talent.  Why, the way +they played that thing it would fool _anybody_.  In my opinion, there's +a fortune in 'em.  If I had capital and a theater, I wouldn't want a +better lay-out than that—and here we've gone and sold 'em for a song. + Yes, and ain't privileged to sing the song yet.  Say, where _is_ that +song—that draft?" + +"In the bank for to be collected.  Where _would_ it be?" + +"Well, _that's_ all right then, thank goodness." + +Says I, kind of timid-like: + +"Is something gone wrong?" + +The king whirls on me and rips out: + +"None o' your business!  You keep your head shet, and mind y'r own +affairs—if you got any.  Long as you're in this town don't you forgit +_that_—you hear?"  Then he says to the duke, "We got to jest swaller it +and say noth'n':  mum's the word for _us_." + +As they was starting down the ladder the duke he chuckles again, and +says: + +"Quick sales _and_ small profits!  It's a good business—yes." + +The king snarls around on him and says: + +"I was trying to do for the best in sellin' 'em out so quick.  If the +profits has turned out to be none, lackin' considable, and none to +carry, is it my fault any more'n it's yourn?" + +"Well, _they'd_ be in this house yet and we _wouldn't_ if I could a got +my advice listened to." + +The king sassed back as much as was safe for him, and then swapped +around and lit into _me_ again.  He give me down the banks for not +coming and _telling_ him I see the niggers come out of his room acting +that way—said any fool would a _knowed_ something was up.  And then +waltzed in and cussed _himself_ awhile, and said it all come of him not +laying late and taking his natural rest that morning, and he'd be +blamed if he'd ever do it again.  So they went off a-jawing; and I felt +dreadful glad I'd worked it all off on to the niggers, and yet hadn't +done the niggers no harm by it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +BY and by it was getting-up time.  So I come down the ladder and started +for down-stairs; but as I come to the girls' room the door was open, and +I see Mary Jane setting by her old hair trunk, which was open and she'd +been packing things in it—getting ready to go to England.  But she +had stopped now with a folded gown in her lap, and had her face in her +hands, crying.  I felt awful bad to see it; of course anybody would.  I +went in there and says: + +"Miss Mary Jane, you can't a-bear to see people in trouble, and I +can't—most always.  Tell me about it." + +So she done it.  And it was the niggers—I just expected it.  She said +the beautiful trip to England was most about spoiled for her; she didn't +know _how_ she was ever going to be happy there, knowing the mother and +the children warn't ever going to see each other no more—and then busted +out bitterer than ever, and flung up her hands, and says: + +"Oh, dear, dear, to think they ain't _ever_ going to see each other any +more!" + +"But they _will_—and inside of two weeks—and I _know_ it!" says I. + +Laws, it was out before I could think!  And before I could budge she +throws her arms around my neck and told me to say it _again_, say it +_again_, say it _again_! + +I see I had spoke too sudden and said too much, and was in a close +place. I asked her to let me think a minute; and she set there, very +impatient and excited and handsome, but looking kind of happy and +eased-up, like a person that's had a tooth pulled out.  So I went to +studying it out.  I says to myself, I reckon a body that ups and tells +the truth when he is in a tight place is taking considerable many resks, +though I ain't had no experience, and can't say for certain; but it +looks so to me, anyway; and yet here's a case where I'm blest if it +don't look to me like the truth is better and actuly _safer_ than a lie. + I must lay it by in my mind, and think it over some time or other, it's +so kind of strange and unregular. I never see nothing like it.  Well, I +says to myself at last, I'm a-going to chance it; I'll up and tell the +truth this time, though it does seem most like setting down on a kag of +powder and touching it off just to see where you'll go to. Then I says: + +"Miss Mary Jane, is there any place out of town a little ways where you +could go and stay three or four days?" + +"Yes; Mr. Lothrop's.  Why?" + +"Never mind why yet.  If I'll tell you how I know the niggers will see +each other again inside of two weeks—here in this house—and _prove_ how +I know it—will you go to Mr. Lothrop's and stay four days?" + +"Four days!" she says; "I'll stay a year!" + +"All right," I says, "I don't want nothing more out of _you_ than just +your word—I druther have it than another man's kiss-the-Bible."  She +smiled and reddened up very sweet, and I says, "If you don't mind it, +I'll shut the door—and bolt it." + +Then I come back and set down again, and says: + +"Don't you holler.  Just set still and take it like a man.  I got to +tell the truth, and you want to brace up, Miss Mary, because it's a +bad kind, and going to be hard to take, but there ain't no help for +it.  These uncles of yourn ain't no uncles at all; they're a couple of +frauds—regular dead-beats.  There, now we're over the worst of it, you +can stand the rest middling easy." + +It jolted her up like everything, of course; but I was over the shoal +water now, so I went right along, her eyes a-blazing higher and higher +all the time, and told her every blame thing, from where we first struck +that young fool going up to the steamboat, clear through to where she +flung herself on to the king's breast at the front door and he kissed +her sixteen or seventeen times—and then up she jumps, with her face +afire like sunset, and says: + +"The brute!  Come, don't waste a minute—not a _second_—we'll have them +tarred and feathered, and flung in the river!" + +Says I: + +"Cert'nly.  But do you mean _before_ you go to Mr. Lothrop's, or—" + +"Oh," she says, "what am I _thinking_ about!" she says, and set right +down again.  "Don't mind what I said—please don't—you _won't,_ now, +_will_ you?" Laying her silky hand on mine in that kind of a way that +I said I would die first.  "I never thought, I was so stirred up," she +says; "now go on, and I won't do so any more.  You tell me what to do, +and whatever you say I'll do it." + +"Well," I says, "it's a rough gang, them two frauds, and I'm fixed so +I got to travel with them a while longer, whether I want to or not—I +druther not tell you why; and if you was to blow on them this town would +get me out of their claws, and I'd be all right; but there'd be another +person that you don't know about who'd be in big trouble.  Well, we +got to save _him_, hain't we?  Of course.  Well, then, we won't blow on +them." + +Saying them words put a good idea in my head.  I see how maybe I could +get me and Jim rid of the frauds; get them jailed here, and then leave. +But I didn't want to run the raft in the daytime without anybody aboard +to answer questions but me; so I didn't want the plan to begin working +till pretty late to-night.  I says: + +"Miss Mary Jane, I'll tell you what we'll do, and you won't have to stay +at Mr. Lothrop's so long, nuther.  How fur is it?" + +"A little short of four miles—right out in the country, back here." + +"Well, that 'll answer.  Now you go along out there, and lay low +till nine or half-past to-night, and then get them to fetch you home +again—tell them you've thought of something.  If you get here before +eleven put a candle in this window, and if I don't turn up wait _till_ +eleven, and _then_ if I don't turn up it means I'm gone, and out of the +way, and safe. Then you come out and spread the news around, and get +these beats jailed." + +"Good," she says, "I'll do it." + +"And if it just happens so that I don't get away, but get took up along +with them, you must up and say I told you the whole thing beforehand, +and you must stand by me all you can." + +"Stand by you! indeed I will.  They sha'n't touch a hair of your head!" +she says, and I see her nostrils spread and her eyes snap when she said +it, too. + +"If I get away I sha'n't be here," I says, "to prove these rapscallions +ain't your uncles, and I couldn't do it if I _was_ here.  I could swear +they was beats and bummers, that's all, though that's worth something. +Well, there's others can do that better than what I can, and they're +people that ain't going to be doubted as quick as I'd be.  I'll tell you +how to find them.  Gimme a pencil and a piece of paper.  There—'Royal +Nonesuch, Bricksville.'  Put it away, and don't lose it.  When the +court wants to find out something about these two, let them send up to +Bricksville and say they've got the men that played the Royal Nonesuch, +and ask for some witnesses—why, you'll have that entire town down here +before you can hardly wink, Miss Mary.  And they'll come a-biling, too." + +I judged we had got everything fixed about right now.  So I says: + +"Just let the auction go right along, and don't worry.  Nobody don't +have to pay for the things they buy till a whole day after the auction +on accounts of the short notice, and they ain't going out of this till +they get that money; and the way we've fixed it the sale ain't going to +count, and they ain't going to get no money.  It's just like the way +it was with the niggers—it warn't no sale, and the niggers will be +back before long.  Why, they can't collect the money for the _niggers_ +yet—they're in the worst kind of a fix, Miss Mary." + +"Well," she says, "I'll run down to breakfast now, and then I'll start +straight for Mr. Lothrop's." + +"'Deed, _that_ ain't the ticket, Miss Mary Jane," I says, "by no manner +of means; go _before_ breakfast." + +"Why?" + +"What did you reckon I wanted you to go at all for, Miss Mary?" + +"Well, I never thought—and come to think, I don't know.  What was it?" + +"Why, it's because you ain't one of these leather-face people.  I don't +want no better book than what your face is.  A body can set down and +read it off like coarse print.  Do you reckon you can go and face your +uncles when they come to kiss you good-morning, and never—" + +"There, there, don't!  Yes, I'll go before breakfast—I'll be glad to. +And leave my sisters with them?" + +"Yes; never mind about them.  They've got to stand it yet a while.  They +might suspicion something if all of you was to go.  I don't want you to +see them, nor your sisters, nor nobody in this town; if a neighbor was +to ask how is your uncles this morning your face would tell something. + No, you go right along, Miss Mary Jane, and I'll fix it with all of +them. I'll tell Miss Susan to give your love to your uncles and say +you've went away for a few hours for to get a little rest and change, or +to see a friend, and you'll be back to-night or early in the morning." + +"Gone to see a friend is all right, but I won't have my love given to +them." + +"Well, then, it sha'n't be."  It was well enough to tell _her_ so—no +harm in it.  It was only a little thing to do, and no trouble; and it's +the little things that smooths people's roads the most, down here below; +it would make Mary Jane comfortable, and it wouldn't cost nothing.  Then +I says:  "There's one more thing—that bag of money." + +"Well, they've got that; and it makes me feel pretty silly to think +_how_ they got it." + +"No, you're out, there.  They hain't got it." + +"Why, who's got it?" + +"I wish I knowed, but I don't.  I _had_ it, because I stole it from +them; and I stole it to give to you; and I know where I hid it, but I'm +afraid it ain't there no more.  I'm awful sorry, Miss Mary Jane, I'm +just as sorry as I can be; but I done the best I could; I did honest.  I +come nigh getting caught, and I had to shove it into the first place I +come to, and run—and it warn't a good place." + +"Oh, stop blaming yourself—it's too bad to do it, and I won't allow +it—you couldn't help it; it wasn't your fault.  Where did you hide it?" + +I didn't want to set her to thinking about her troubles again; and I +couldn't seem to get my mouth to tell her what would make her see that +corpse laying in the coffin with that bag of money on his stomach.  So +for a minute I didn't say nothing; then I says: + +"I'd ruther not _tell_ you where I put it, Miss Mary Jane, if you don't +mind letting me off; but I'll write it for you on a piece of paper, and +you can read it along the road to Mr. Lothrop's, if you want to.  Do you +reckon that 'll do?" + +"Oh, yes." + +So I wrote:  "I put it in the coffin.  It was in there when you was +crying there, away in the night.  I was behind the door, and I was +mighty sorry for you, Miss Mary Jane." + +It made my eyes water a little to remember her crying there all by +herself in the night, and them devils laying there right under her own +roof, shaming her and robbing her; and when I folded it up and give it +to her I see the water come into her eyes, too; and she shook me by the +hand, hard, and says: + +"_Good_-bye.  I'm going to do everything just as you've told me; and if +I don't ever see you again, I sha'n't ever forget you and I'll think of +you a many and a many a time, and I'll _pray_ for you, too!"—and she was +gone. + +Pray for me!  I reckoned if she knowed me she'd take a job that was more +nearer her size.  But I bet she done it, just the same—she was just that +kind.  She had the grit to pray for Judus if she took the notion—there +warn't no back-down to her, I judge.  You may say what you want to, but +in my opinion she had more sand in her than any girl I ever see; in +my opinion she was just full of sand.  It sounds like flattery, but it +ain't no flattery.  And when it comes to beauty—and goodness, too—she +lays over them all.  I hain't ever seen her since that time that I see +her go out of that door; no, I hain't ever seen her since, but I reckon +I've thought of her a many and a many a million times, and of her saying +she would pray for me; and if ever I'd a thought it would do any good +for me to pray for _her_, blamed if I wouldn't a done it or bust. + +Well, Mary Jane she lit out the back way, I reckon; because nobody see +her go.  When I struck Susan and the hare-lip, I says: + +"What's the name of them people over on t'other side of the river that +you all goes to see sometimes?" + +They says: + +"There's several; but it's the Proctors, mainly." + +"That's the name," I says; "I most forgot it.  Well, Miss Mary Jane she +told me to tell you she's gone over there in a dreadful hurry—one of +them's sick." + +"Which one?" + +"I don't know; leastways, I kinder forget; but I thinks it's—" + +"Sakes alive, I hope it ain't _Hanner_?" + +"I'm sorry to say it," I says, "but Hanner's the very one." + +"My goodness, and she so well only last week!  Is she took bad?" + +"It ain't no name for it.  They set up with her all night, Miss Mary +Jane said, and they don't think she'll last many hours." + +"Only think of that, now!  What's the matter with her?" + +I couldn't think of anything reasonable, right off that way, so I says: + +"Mumps." + +"Mumps your granny!  They don't set up with people that's got the +mumps." + +"They don't, don't they?  You better bet they do with _these_ mumps. + These mumps is different.  It's a new kind, Miss Mary Jane said." + +"How's it a new kind?" + +"Because it's mixed up with other things." + +"What other things?" + +"Well, measles, and whooping-cough, and erysiplas, and consumption, and +yaller janders, and brain-fever, and I don't know what all." + +"My land!  And they call it the _mumps_?" + +"That's what Miss Mary Jane said." + +"Well, what in the nation do they call it the _mumps_ for?" + +"Why, because it _is_ the mumps.  That's what it starts with." + +"Well, ther' ain't no sense in it.  A body might stump his toe, and take +pison, and fall down the well, and break his neck, and bust his brains +out, and somebody come along and ask what killed him, and some numskull +up and say, 'Why, he stumped his _toe_.'  Would ther' be any sense +in that? _No_.  And ther' ain't no sense in _this_, nuther.  Is it +ketching?" + +"Is it _ketching_?  Why, how you talk.  Is a _harrow_ catching—in the +dark? If you don't hitch on to one tooth, you're bound to on another, +ain't you? And you can't get away with that tooth without fetching the +whole harrow along, can you?  Well, these kind of mumps is a kind of a +harrow, as you may say—and it ain't no slouch of a harrow, nuther, you +come to get it hitched on good." + +"Well, it's awful, I think," says the hare-lip.  "I'll go to Uncle +Harvey and—" + +"Oh, yes," I says, "I _would_.  Of _course_ I would.  I wouldn't lose no +time." + +"Well, why wouldn't you?" + +"Just look at it a minute, and maybe you can see.  Hain't your uncles +obleegd to get along home to England as fast as they can?  And do you +reckon they'd be mean enough to go off and leave you to go all that +journey by yourselves?  _you_ know they'll wait for you.  So fur, so +good. Your uncle Harvey's a preacher, ain't he?  Very well, then; is a +_preacher_ going to deceive a steamboat clerk? is he going to deceive +a _ship clerk?_—so as to get them to let Miss Mary Jane go aboard?  Now +_you_ know he ain't.  What _will_ he do, then?  Why, he'll say, 'It's a +great pity, but my church matters has got to get along the best way they +can; for my niece has been exposed to the dreadful pluribus-unum mumps, +and so it's my bounden duty to set down here and wait the three months +it takes to show on her if she's got it.'  But never mind, if you think +it's best to tell your uncle Harvey—" + +"Shucks, and stay fooling around here when we could all be having good +times in England whilst we was waiting to find out whether Mary Jane's +got it or not?  Why, you talk like a muggins." + +"Well, anyway, maybe you'd better tell some of the neighbors." + +"Listen at that, now.  You do beat all for natural stupidness.  Can't +you _see_ that _they'd_ go and tell?  Ther' ain't no way but just to not +tell anybody at _all_." + +"Well, maybe you're right—yes, I judge you _are_ right." + +"But I reckon we ought to tell Uncle Harvey she's gone out a while, +anyway, so he won't be uneasy about her?" + +"Yes, Miss Mary Jane she wanted you to do that.  She says, 'Tell them to +give Uncle Harvey and William my love and a kiss, and say I've run over +the river to see Mr.'—Mr.—what _is_ the name of that rich family your +uncle Peter used to think so much of?—I mean the one that—" + +"Why, you must mean the Apthorps, ain't it?" + +"Of course; bother them kind of names, a body can't ever seem to +remember them, half the time, somehow.  Yes, she said, say she has run +over for to ask the Apthorps to be sure and come to the auction and buy +this house, because she allowed her uncle Peter would ruther they had +it than anybody else; and she's going to stick to them till they say +they'll come, and then, if she ain't too tired, she's coming home; and +if she is, she'll be home in the morning anyway.  She said, don't say +nothing about the Proctors, but only about the Apthorps—which 'll be +perfectly true, because she is going there to speak about their buying +the house; I know it, because she told me so herself." + +"All right," they said, and cleared out to lay for their uncles, and +give them the love and the kisses, and tell them the message. + +Everything was all right now.  The girls wouldn't say nothing because +they wanted to go to England; and the king and the duke would ruther +Mary Jane was off working for the auction than around in reach of +Doctor Robinson.  I felt very good; I judged I had done it pretty neat—I +reckoned Tom Sawyer couldn't a done it no neater himself.  Of course he +would a throwed more style into it, but I can't do that very handy, not +being brung up to it. + +Well, they held the auction in the public square, along towards the end +of the afternoon, and it strung along, and strung along, and the old man +he was on hand and looking his level pisonest, up there longside of the +auctioneer, and chipping in a little Scripture now and then, or a little +goody-goody saying of some kind, and the duke he was around goo-gooing +for sympathy all he knowed how, and just spreading himself generly. + +But by and by the thing dragged through, and everything was +sold—everything but a little old trifling lot in the graveyard.  So +they'd got to work that off—I never see such a girafft as the king was +for wanting to swallow _everything_.  Well, whilst they was at it a +steamboat landed, and in about two minutes up comes a crowd a-whooping +and yelling and laughing and carrying on, and singing out: + +"_Here's_ your opposition line! here's your two sets o' heirs to old +Peter Wilks—and you pays your money and you takes your choice!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +THEY was fetching a very nice-looking old gentleman along, and a +nice-looking younger one, with his right arm in a sling.  And, my souls, +how the people yelled and laughed, and kept it up.  But I didn't see no +joke about it, and I judged it would strain the duke and the king some +to see any.  I reckoned they'd turn pale.  But no, nary a pale did +_they_ turn. The duke he never let on he suspicioned what was up, but +just went a goo-gooing around, happy and satisfied, like a jug that's +googling out buttermilk; and as for the king, he just gazed and gazed +down sorrowful on them new-comers like it give him the stomach-ache in +his very heart to think there could be such frauds and rascals in the +world.  Oh, he done it admirable.  Lots of the principal people +gethered around the king, to let him see they was on his side.  That old +gentleman that had just come looked all puzzled to death.  Pretty +soon he begun to speak, and I see straight off he pronounced _like_ an +Englishman—not the king's way, though the king's _was_ pretty good for +an imitation.  I can't give the old gent's words, nor I can't imitate +him; but he turned around to the crowd, and says, about like this: + +"This is a surprise to me which I wasn't looking for; and I'll +acknowledge, candid and frank, I ain't very well fixed to meet it and +answer it; for my brother and me has had misfortunes; he's broke his +arm, and our baggage got put off at a town above here last night in the +night by a mistake.  I am Peter Wilks' brother Harvey, and this is his +brother William, which can't hear nor speak—and can't even make signs to +amount to much, now't he's only got one hand to work them with.  We are +who we say we are; and in a day or two, when I get the baggage, I can +prove it. But up till then I won't say nothing more, but go to the hotel +and wait." + +So him and the new dummy started off; and the king he laughs, and +blethers out: + +"Broke his arm—_very_ likely, _ain't_ it?—and very convenient, too, +for a fraud that's got to make signs, and ain't learnt how.  Lost +their baggage! That's _mighty_ good!—and mighty ingenious—under the +_circumstances_!" + +So he laughed again; and so did everybody else, except three or four, +or maybe half a dozen.  One of these was that doctor; another one was +a sharp-looking gentleman, with a carpet-bag of the old-fashioned kind +made out of carpet-stuff, that had just come off of the steamboat and +was talking to him in a low voice, and glancing towards the king now and +then and nodding their heads—it was Levi Bell, the lawyer that was gone +up to Louisville; and another one was a big rough husky that come along +and listened to all the old gentleman said, and was listening to the +king now. And when the king got done this husky up and says: + +"Say, looky here; if you are Harvey Wilks, when'd you come to this +town?" + +"The day before the funeral, friend," says the king. + +"But what time o' day?" + +"In the evenin'—'bout an hour er two before sundown." + +"_How'd_ you come?" + +"I come down on the Susan Powell from Cincinnati." + +"Well, then, how'd you come to be up at the Pint in the _mornin_'—in a +canoe?" + +"I warn't up at the Pint in the mornin'." + +"It's a lie." + +Several of them jumped for him and begged him not to talk that way to an +old man and a preacher. + +"Preacher be hanged, he's a fraud and a liar.  He was up at the Pint +that mornin'.  I live up there, don't I?  Well, I was up there, and +he was up there.  I see him there.  He come in a canoe, along with Tim +Collins and a boy." + +The doctor he up and says: + +"Would you know the boy again if you was to see him, Hines?" + +"I reckon I would, but I don't know.  Why, yonder he is, now.  I know +him perfectly easy." + +It was me he pointed at.  The doctor says: + +"Neighbors, I don't know whether the new couple is frauds or not; but if +_these_ two ain't frauds, I am an idiot, that's all.  I think it's our +duty to see that they don't get away from here till we've looked into +this thing. Come along, Hines; come along, the rest of you.  We'll take +these fellows to the tavern and affront them with t'other couple, and I +reckon we'll find out _something_ before we get through." + +It was nuts for the crowd, though maybe not for the king's friends; so +we all started.  It was about sundown.  The doctor he led me along by +the hand, and was plenty kind enough, but he never let go my hand. + +We all got in a big room in the hotel, and lit up some candles, and +fetched in the new couple.  First, the doctor says: + +"I don't wish to be too hard on these two men, but I think they're +frauds, and they may have complices that we don't know nothing about. + If they have, won't the complices get away with that bag of gold Peter +Wilks left?  It ain't unlikely.  If these men ain't frauds, they won't +object to sending for that money and letting us keep it till they prove +they're all right—ain't that so?" + +Everybody agreed to that.  So I judged they had our gang in a pretty +tight place right at the outstart.  But the king he only looked +sorrowful, and says: + +"Gentlemen, I wish the money was there, for I ain't got no disposition +to throw anything in the way of a fair, open, out-and-out investigation +o' this misable business; but, alas, the money ain't there; you k'n send +and see, if you want to." + +"Where is it, then?" + +"Well, when my niece give it to me to keep for her I took and hid it +inside o' the straw tick o' my bed, not wishin' to bank it for the few +days we'd be here, and considerin' the bed a safe place, we not bein' +used to niggers, and suppos'n' 'em honest, like servants in England. + The niggers stole it the very next mornin' after I had went down +stairs; and when I sold 'em I hadn't missed the money yit, so they got +clean away with it.  My servant here k'n tell you 'bout it, gentlemen." + +The doctor and several said "Shucks!" and I see nobody didn't altogether +believe him.  One man asked me if I see the niggers steal it.  I said +no, but I see them sneaking out of the room and hustling away, and I +never thought nothing, only I reckoned they was afraid they had waked up +my master and was trying to get away before he made trouble with them. + That was all they asked me.  Then the doctor whirls on me and says: + +"Are _you_ English, too?" + +I says yes; and him and some others laughed, and said, "Stuff!" + +Well, then they sailed in on the general investigation, and there we had +it, up and down, hour in, hour out, and nobody never said a word about +supper, nor ever seemed to think about it—and so they kept it up, and +kept it up; and it _was_ the worst mixed-up thing you ever see.  They +made the king tell his yarn, and they made the old gentleman tell his'n; +and anybody but a lot of prejudiced chuckleheads would a _seen_ that the +old gentleman was spinning truth and t'other one lies.  And by and by +they had me up to tell what I knowed.  The king he give me a left-handed +look out of the corner of his eye, and so I knowed enough to talk on the +right side.  I begun to tell about Sheffield, and how we lived there, +and all about the English Wilkses, and so on; but I didn't get pretty +fur till the doctor begun to laugh; and Levi Bell, the lawyer, says: + +"Set down, my boy; I wouldn't strain myself if I was you.  I reckon +you ain't used to lying, it don't seem to come handy; what you want is +practice.  You do it pretty awkward." + +I didn't care nothing for the compliment, but I was glad to be let off, +anyway. + +The doctor he started to say something, and turns and says: + +"If you'd been in town at first, Levi Bell—" The king broke in and +reached out his hand, and says: + +"Why, is this my poor dead brother's old friend that he's wrote so often +about?" + +The lawyer and him shook hands, and the lawyer smiled and looked +pleased, and they talked right along awhile, and then got to one side +and talked low; and at last the lawyer speaks up and says: + +"That 'll fix it.  I'll take the order and send it, along with your +brother's, and then they'll know it's all right." + +So they got some paper and a pen, and the king he set down and twisted +his head to one side, and chawed his tongue, and scrawled off something; +and then they give the pen to the duke—and then for the first time the +duke looked sick.  But he took the pen and wrote.  So then the lawyer +turns to the new old gentleman and says: + +"You and your brother please write a line or two and sign your names." + +The old gentleman wrote, but nobody couldn't read it.  The lawyer looked +powerful astonished, and says: + +"Well, it beats _me_"—and snaked a lot of old letters out of his pocket, +and examined them, and then examined the old man's writing, and then +_them_ again; and then says:  "These old letters is from Harvey Wilks; +and here's _these_ two handwritings, and anybody can see they didn't +write them" (the king and the duke looked sold and foolish, I tell +you, to see how the lawyer had took them in), "and here's _this_ old +gentleman's hand writing, and anybody can tell, easy enough, _he_ didn't +write them—fact is, the scratches he makes ain't properly _writing_ at +all.  Now, here's some letters from—" + +The new old gentleman says: + +"If you please, let me explain.  Nobody can read my hand but my brother +there—so he copies for me.  It's _his_ hand you've got there, not mine." + +"_Well_!" says the lawyer, "this _is_ a state of things.  I've got some +of William's letters, too; so if you'll get him to write a line or so we +can com—" + +"He _can't_ write with his left hand," says the old gentleman.  "If he +could use his right hand, you would see that he wrote his own letters +and mine too.  Look at both, please—they're by the same hand." + +The lawyer done it, and says: + +"I believe it's so—and if it ain't so, there's a heap stronger +resemblance than I'd noticed before, anyway.  Well, well, well!  I +thought we was right on the track of a solution, but it's gone to grass, +partly.  But anyway, one thing is proved—_these_ two ain't either of 'em +Wilkses"—and he wagged his head towards the king and the duke. + +Well, what do you think?  That muleheaded old fool wouldn't give in +_then_! Indeed he wouldn't.  Said it warn't no fair test.  Said his +brother William was the cussedest joker in the world, and hadn't tried +to write—_he_ see William was going to play one of his jokes the minute +he put the pen to paper.  And so he warmed up and went warbling and +warbling right along till he was actuly beginning to believe what he was +saying _himself_; but pretty soon the new gentleman broke in, and says: + +"I've thought of something.  Is there anybody here that helped to lay +out my br—helped to lay out the late Peter Wilks for burying?" + +"Yes," says somebody, "me and Ab Turner done it.  We're both here." + +Then the old man turns towards the king, and says: + +"Perhaps this gentleman can tell me what was tattooed on his breast?" + +Blamed if the king didn't have to brace up mighty quick, or he'd a +squshed down like a bluff bank that the river has cut under, it took +him so sudden; and, mind you, it was a thing that was calculated to make +most _anybody_ sqush to get fetched such a solid one as that without any +notice, because how was _he_ going to know what was tattooed on the man? + He whitened a little; he couldn't help it; and it was mighty still in +there, and everybody bending a little forwards and gazing at him.  Says +I to myself, _now_ he'll throw up the sponge—there ain't no more use. + Well, did he?  A body can't hardly believe it, but he didn't.  I reckon +he thought he'd keep the thing up till he tired them people out, so +they'd thin out, and him and the duke could break loose and get away. + Anyway, he set there, and pretty soon he begun to smile, and says: + +"Mf!  It's a _very_ tough question, _ain't_ it!  _yes_, sir, I k'n +tell you what's tattooed on his breast.  It's jest a small, thin, blue +arrow—that's what it is; and if you don't look clost, you can't see it. + _now_ what do you say—hey?" + +Well, I never see anything like that old blister for clean out-and-out +cheek. + +The new old gentleman turns brisk towards Ab Turner and his pard, and +his eye lights up like he judged he'd got the king _this_ time, and +says: + +"There—you've heard what he said!  Was there any such mark on Peter +Wilks' breast?" + +Both of them spoke up and says: + +"We didn't see no such mark." + +"Good!" says the old gentleman.  "Now, what you _did_ see on his breast +was a small dim P, and a B (which is an initial he dropped when he was +young), and a W, with dashes between them, so:  P—B—W"—and he marked +them that way on a piece of paper.  "Come, ain't that what you saw?" + +Both of them spoke up again, and says: + +"No, we _didn't_.  We never seen any marks at all." + +Well, everybody _was_ in a state of mind now, and they sings out: + +"The whole _bilin_' of 'm 's frauds!  Le's duck 'em! le's drown 'em! +le's ride 'em on a rail!" and everybody was whooping at once, and there +was a rattling powwow.  But the lawyer he jumps on the table and yells, +and says: + +"Gentlemen—gentle_men!_  Hear me just a word—just a _single_ word—if you +_please_!  There's one way yet—let's go and dig up the corpse and look." + +That took them. + +"Hooray!" they all shouted, and was starting right off; but the lawyer +and the doctor sung out: + +"Hold on, hold on!  Collar all these four men and the boy, and fetch +_them_ along, too!" + +"We'll do it!" they all shouted; "and if we don't find them marks we'll +lynch the whole gang!" + +I _was_ scared, now, I tell you.  But there warn't no getting away, you +know. They gripped us all, and marched us right along, straight for the +graveyard, which was a mile and a half down the river, and the whole +town at our heels, for we made noise enough, and it was only nine in the +evening. + +As we went by our house I wished I hadn't sent Mary Jane out of town; +because now if I could tip her the wink she'd light out and save me, and +blow on our dead-beats. + +Well, we swarmed along down the river road, just carrying on like +wildcats; and to make it more scary the sky was darking up, and the +lightning beginning to wink and flitter, and the wind to shiver amongst +the leaves. This was the most awful trouble and most dangersome I ever +was in; and I was kinder stunned; everything was going so different from +what I had allowed for; stead of being fixed so I could take my own time +if I wanted to, and see all the fun, and have Mary Jane at my back to +save me and set me free when the close-fit come, here was nothing in the +world betwixt me and sudden death but just them tattoo-marks.  If they +didn't find them— + +I couldn't bear to think about it; and yet, somehow, I couldn't think +about nothing else.  It got darker and darker, and it was a beautiful +time to give the crowd the slip; but that big husky had me by the +wrist—Hines—and a body might as well try to give Goliar the slip.  He +dragged me right along, he was so excited, and I had to run to keep up. + +When they got there they swarmed into the graveyard and washed over it +like an overflow.  And when they got to the grave they found they had +about a hundred times as many shovels as they wanted, but nobody hadn't +thought to fetch a lantern.  But they sailed into digging anyway by the +flicker of the lightning, and sent a man to the nearest house, a half a +mile off, to borrow one. + +So they dug and dug like everything; and it got awful dark, and the rain +started, and the wind swished and swushed along, and the lightning come +brisker and brisker, and the thunder boomed; but them people never took +no notice of it, they was so full of this business; and one minute +you could see everything and every face in that big crowd, and the +shovelfuls of dirt sailing up out of the grave, and the next second the +dark wiped it all out, and you couldn't see nothing at all. + +At last they got out the coffin and begun to unscrew the lid, and then +such another crowding and shouldering and shoving as there was, to +scrouge in and get a sight, you never see; and in the dark, that way, it +was awful.  Hines he hurt my wrist dreadful pulling and tugging so, +and I reckon he clean forgot I was in the world, he was so excited and +panting. + +All of a sudden the lightning let go a perfect sluice of white glare, +and somebody sings out: + +"By the living jingo, here's the bag of gold on his breast!" + +Hines let out a whoop, like everybody else, and dropped my wrist and +give a big surge to bust his way in and get a look, and the way I lit +out and shinned for the road in the dark there ain't nobody can tell. + +I had the road all to myself, and I fairly flew—leastways, I had it all +to myself except the solid dark, and the now-and-then glares, and the +buzzing of the rain, and the thrashing of the wind, and the splitting of +the thunder; and sure as you are born I did clip it along! + +When I struck the town I see there warn't nobody out in the storm, so +I never hunted for no back streets, but humped it straight through the +main one; and when I begun to get towards our house I aimed my eye and +set it. No light there; the house all dark—which made me feel sorry and +disappointed, I didn't know why.  But at last, just as I was sailing by, +_flash_ comes the light in Mary Jane's window! and my heart swelled up +sudden, like to bust; and the same second the house and all was behind +me in the dark, and wasn't ever going to be before me no more in this +world. She _was_ the best girl I ever see, and had the most sand. + +The minute I was far enough above the town to see I could make the +towhead, I begun to look sharp for a boat to borrow, and the first +time the lightning showed me one that wasn't chained I snatched it and +shoved. It was a canoe, and warn't fastened with nothing but a rope. + The towhead was a rattling big distance off, away out there in the +middle of the river, but I didn't lose no time; and when I struck the +raft at last I was so fagged I would a just laid down to blow and gasp +if I could afforded it.  But I didn't.  As I sprung aboard I sung out: + +"Out with you, Jim, and set her loose!  Glory be to goodness, we're shut +of them!" + +Jim lit out, and was a-coming for me with both arms spread, he was so +full of joy; but when I glimpsed him in the lightning my heart shot up +in my mouth and I went overboard backwards; for I forgot he was old King +Lear and a drownded A-rab all in one, and it most scared the livers and +lights out of me.  But Jim fished me out, and was going to hug me and +bless me, and so on, he was so glad I was back and we was shut of the +king and the duke, but I says: + +"Not now; have it for breakfast, have it for breakfast!  Cut loose and +let her slide!" + +So in two seconds away we went a-sliding down the river, and it _did_ +seem so good to be free again and all by ourselves on the big river, and +nobody to bother us.  I had to skip around a bit, and jump up and crack +my heels a few times—I couldn't help it; but about the third crack +I noticed a sound that I knowed mighty well, and held my breath and +listened and waited; and sure enough, when the next flash busted out +over the water, here they come!—and just a-laying to their oars and +making their skiff hum!  It was the king and the duke. + +So I wilted right down on to the planks then, and give up; and it was +all I could do to keep from crying. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +WHEN they got aboard the king went for me, and shook me by the collar, +and says: + +"Tryin' to give us the slip, was ye, you pup!  Tired of our company, +hey?" + +I says: + +"No, your majesty, we warn't—_please_ don't, your majesty!" + +"Quick, then, and tell us what _was_ your idea, or I'll shake the +insides out o' you!" + +"Honest, I'll tell you everything just as it happened, your majesty. + The man that had a-holt of me was very good to me, and kept saying he +had a boy about as big as me that died last year, and he was sorry +to see a boy in such a dangerous fix; and when they was all took by +surprise by finding the gold, and made a rush for the coffin, he lets go +of me and whispers, 'Heel it now, or they'll hang ye, sure!' and I lit +out.  It didn't seem no good for _me_ to stay—I couldn't do nothing, +and I didn't want to be hung if I could get away.  So I never stopped +running till I found the canoe; and when I got here I told Jim to hurry, +or they'd catch me and hang me yet, and said I was afeard you and the +duke wasn't alive now, and I was awful sorry, and so was Jim, and was +awful glad when we see you coming; you may ask Jim if I didn't." + +Jim said it was so; and the king told him to shut up, and said, "Oh, +yes, it's _mighty_ likely!" and shook me up again, and said he reckoned +he'd drownd me.  But the duke says: + +"Leggo the boy, you old idiot!  Would _you_ a done any different?  Did +you inquire around for _him_ when you got loose?  I don't remember it." + +So the king let go of me, and begun to cuss that town and everybody in +it. But the duke says: + +"You better a blame' sight give _yourself_ a good cussing, for you're +the one that's entitled to it most.  You hain't done a thing from the +start that had any sense in it, except coming out so cool and cheeky +with that imaginary blue-arrow mark.  That _was_ bright—it was right +down bully; and it was the thing that saved us.  For if it hadn't been +for that they'd a jailed us till them Englishmen's baggage come—and +then—the penitentiary, you bet! But that trick took 'em to the +graveyard, and the gold done us a still bigger kindness; for if the +excited fools hadn't let go all holts and made that rush to get a +look we'd a slept in our cravats to-night—cravats warranted to _wear_, +too—longer than _we'd_ need 'em." + +They was still a minute—thinking; then the king says, kind of +absent-minded like: + +"Mf!  And we reckoned the _niggers_ stole it!" + +That made me squirm! + +"Yes," says the duke, kinder slow and deliberate and sarcastic, "_we_ +did." + +After about a half a minute the king drawls out: + +"Leastways, I did." + +The duke says, the same way: + +"On the contrary, I did." + +The king kind of ruffles up, and says: + +"Looky here, Bilgewater, what'r you referrin' to?" + +The duke says, pretty brisk: + +"When it comes to that, maybe you'll let me ask, what was _you_ +referring to?" + +"Shucks!" says the king, very sarcastic; "but I don't know—maybe you was +asleep, and didn't know what you was about." + +The duke bristles up now, and says: + +"Oh, let _up_ on this cussed nonsense; do you take me for a blame' fool? +Don't you reckon I know who hid that money in that coffin?" + +"_Yes_, sir!  I know you _do_ know, because you done it yourself!" + +"It's a lie!"—and the duke went for him.  The king sings out: + +"Take y'r hands off!—leggo my throat!—I take it all back!" + +The duke says: + +"Well, you just own up, first, that you _did_ hide that money there, +intending to give me the slip one of these days, and come back and dig +it up, and have it all to yourself." + +"Wait jest a minute, duke—answer me this one question, honest and fair; +if you didn't put the money there, say it, and I'll b'lieve you, and +take back everything I said." + +"You old scoundrel, I didn't, and you know I didn't.  There, now!" + +"Well, then, I b'lieve you.  But answer me only jest this one more—now +_don't_ git mad; didn't you have it in your mind to hook the money and +hide it?" + +The duke never said nothing for a little bit; then he says: + +"Well, I don't care if I _did_, I didn't _do_ it, anyway.  But you not +only had it in mind to do it, but you _done_ it." + +"I wisht I never die if I done it, duke, and that's honest.  I won't say +I warn't goin' to do it, because I _was_; but you—I mean somebody—got in +ahead o' me." + +"It's a lie!  You done it, and you got to _say_ you done it, or—" + +The king began to gurgle, and then he gasps out: + +"'Nough!—I _own up!_" + +I was very glad to hear him say that; it made me feel much more easier +than what I was feeling before.  So the duke took his hands off and +says: + +"If you ever deny it again I'll drown you.  It's _well_ for you to set +there and blubber like a baby—it's fitten for you, after the way +you've acted. I never see such an old ostrich for wanting to gobble +everything—and I a-trusting you all the time, like you was my own +father.  You ought to been ashamed of yourself to stand by and hear it +saddled on to a lot of poor niggers, and you never say a word for 'em. + It makes me feel ridiculous to think I was soft enough to _believe_ +that rubbage.  Cuss you, I can see now why you was so anxious to make +up the deffisit—you wanted to get what money I'd got out of the Nonesuch +and one thing or another, and scoop it _all_!" + +The king says, timid, and still a-snuffling: + +"Why, duke, it was you that said make up the deffisit; it warn't me." + +"Dry up!  I don't want to hear no more out of you!" says the duke.  "And +_now_ you see what you GOT by it.  They've got all their own money back, +and all of _ourn_ but a shekel or two _besides_.  G'long to bed, and +don't you deffersit _me_ no more deffersits, long 's _you_ live!" + +So the king sneaked into the wigwam and took to his bottle for comfort, +and before long the duke tackled HIS bottle; and so in about a half an +hour they was as thick as thieves again, and the tighter they got the +lovinger they got, and went off a-snoring in each other's arms.  They +both got powerful mellow, but I noticed the king didn't get mellow +enough to forget to remember to not deny about hiding the money-bag +again.  That made me feel easy and satisfied.  Of course when they got +to snoring we had a long gabble, and I told Jim everything. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +WE dasn't stop again at any town for days and days; kept right along +down the river.  We was down south in the warm weather now, and a mighty +long ways from home.  We begun to come to trees with Spanish moss on +them, hanging down from the limbs like long, gray beards.  It was the +first I ever see it growing, and it made the woods look solemn and +dismal.  So now the frauds reckoned they was out of danger, and they +begun to work the villages again. + +First they done a lecture on temperance; but they didn't make enough +for them both to get drunk on.  Then in another village they started +a dancing-school; but they didn't know no more how to dance than a +kangaroo does; so the first prance they made the general public jumped +in and pranced them out of town.  Another time they tried to go at +yellocution; but they didn't yellocute long till the audience got up and +give them a solid good cussing, and made them skip out.  They tackled +missionarying, and mesmerizing, and doctoring, and telling fortunes, and +a little of everything; but they couldn't seem to have no luck.  So at +last they got just about dead broke, and laid around the raft as she +floated along, thinking and thinking, and never saying nothing, by the +half a day at a time, and dreadful blue and desperate. + +And at last they took a change and begun to lay their heads together in +the wigwam and talk low and confidential two or three hours at a time. +Jim and me got uneasy.  We didn't like the look of it.  We judged they +was studying up some kind of worse deviltry than ever.  We turned it +over and over, and at last we made up our minds they was going to break +into somebody's house or store, or was going into the counterfeit-money +business, or something. So then we was pretty scared, and made up an +agreement that we wouldn't have nothing in the world to do with such +actions, and if we ever got the least show we would give them the cold +shake and clear out and leave them behind. Well, early one morning we +hid the raft in a good, safe place about two mile below a little bit of +a shabby village named Pikesville, and the king he went ashore and told +us all to stay hid whilst he went up to town and smelt around to see +if anybody had got any wind of the Royal Nonesuch there yet. ("House to +rob, you _mean_," says I to myself; "and when you get through robbing it +you'll come back here and wonder what has become of me and Jim and the +raft—and you'll have to take it out in wondering.") And he said if he +warn't back by midday the duke and me would know it was all right, and +we was to come along. + +So we stayed where we was.  The duke he fretted and sweated around, and +was in a mighty sour way.  He scolded us for everything, and we couldn't +seem to do nothing right; he found fault with every little thing. +Something was a-brewing, sure.  I was good and glad when midday come +and no king; we could have a change, anyway—and maybe a chance for _the_ +change on top of it.  So me and the duke went up to the village, and +hunted around there for the king, and by and by we found him in the +back room of a little low doggery, very tight, and a lot of loafers +bullyragging him for sport, and he a-cussing and a-threatening with all +his might, and so tight he couldn't walk, and couldn't do nothing to +them.  The duke he begun to abuse him for an old fool, and the king +begun to sass back, and the minute they was fairly at it I lit out and +shook the reefs out of my hind legs, and spun down the river road like +a deer, for I see our chance; and I made up my mind that it would be a +long day before they ever see me and Jim again.  I got down there all +out of breath but loaded up with joy, and sung out: + +"Set her loose, Jim! we're all right now!" + +But there warn't no answer, and nobody come out of the wigwam.  Jim was +gone!  I set up a shout—and then another—and then another one; and run +this way and that in the woods, whooping and screeching; but it warn't +no use—old Jim was gone.  Then I set down and cried; I couldn't help +it. But I couldn't set still long.  Pretty soon I went out on the road, +trying to think what I better do, and I run across a boy walking, and +asked him if he'd seen a strange nigger dressed so and so, and he says: + +"Yes." + +"Whereabouts?" says I. + +"Down to Silas Phelps' place, two mile below here.  He's a runaway +nigger, and they've got him.  Was you looking for him?" + +"You bet I ain't!  I run across him in the woods about an hour or two +ago, and he said if I hollered he'd cut my livers out—and told me to lay +down and stay where I was; and I done it.  Been there ever since; afeard +to come out." + +"Well," he says, "you needn't be afeard no more, becuz they've got him. +He run off f'm down South, som'ers." + +"It's a good job they got him." + +"Well, I _reckon_!  There's two hunderd dollars reward on him.  It's +like picking up money out'n the road." + +"Yes, it is—and I could a had it if I'd been big enough; I see him +_first_. Who nailed him?" + +"It was an old fellow—a stranger—and he sold out his chance in him for +forty dollars, becuz he's got to go up the river and can't wait.  Think +o' that, now!  You bet _I'd_ wait, if it was seven year." + +"That's me, every time," says I.  "But maybe his chance ain't worth +no more than that, if he'll sell it so cheap.  Maybe there's something +ain't straight about it." + +"But it _is_, though—straight as a string.  I see the handbill myself. + It tells all about him, to a dot—paints him like a picture, and tells +the plantation he's frum, below Newr_leans_.  No-sirree-_bob_, they +ain't no trouble 'bout _that_ speculation, you bet you.  Say, gimme a +chaw tobacker, won't ye?" + +I didn't have none, so he left.  I went to the raft, and set down in the +wigwam to think.  But I couldn't come to nothing.  I thought till I wore +my head sore, but I couldn't see no way out of the trouble.  After all +this long journey, and after all we'd done for them scoundrels, here it +was all come to nothing, everything all busted up and ruined, because +they could have the heart to serve Jim such a trick as that, and make +him a slave again all his life, and amongst strangers, too, for forty +dirty dollars. + +Once I said to myself it would be a thousand times better for Jim to +be a slave at home where his family was, as long as he'd _got_ to be a +slave, and so I'd better write a letter to Tom Sawyer and tell him to +tell Miss Watson where he was.  But I soon give up that notion for two +things: she'd be mad and disgusted at his rascality and ungratefulness +for leaving her, and so she'd sell him straight down the river again; +and if she didn't, everybody naturally despises an ungrateful nigger, +and they'd make Jim feel it all the time, and so he'd feel ornery and +disgraced. And then think of _me_!  It would get all around that Huck +Finn helped a nigger to get his freedom; and if I was ever to see +anybody from that town again I'd be ready to get down and lick his boots +for shame.  That's just the way:  a person does a low-down thing, and +then he don't want to take no consequences of it. Thinks as long as he +can hide it, it ain't no disgrace.  That was my fix exactly. The more I +studied about this the more my conscience went to grinding me, and the +more wicked and low-down and ornery I got to feeling. And at last, when +it hit me all of a sudden that here was the plain hand of Providence +slapping me in the face and letting me know my wickedness was being +watched all the time from up there in heaven, whilst I was stealing a +poor old woman's nigger that hadn't ever done me no harm, and now was +showing me there's One that's always on the lookout, and ain't a-going +to allow no such miserable doings to go only just so fur and no further, +I most dropped in my tracks I was so scared.  Well, I tried the best I +could to kinder soften it up somehow for myself by saying I was brung +up wicked, and so I warn't so much to blame; but something inside of me +kept saying, "There was the Sunday-school, you could a gone to it; and +if you'd a done it they'd a learnt you there that people that acts as +I'd been acting about that nigger goes to everlasting fire." + +It made me shiver.  And I about made up my mind to pray, and see if I +couldn't try to quit being the kind of a boy I was and be better.  So +I kneeled down.  But the words wouldn't come.  Why wouldn't they?  It +warn't no use to try and hide it from Him.  Nor from _me_, neither.  I +knowed very well why they wouldn't come.  It was because my heart warn't +right; it was because I warn't square; it was because I was playing +double.  I was letting _on_ to give up sin, but away inside of me I was +holding on to the biggest one of all.  I was trying to make my mouth +_say_ I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write +to that nigger's owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I +knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it.  You can't pray a lie—I found +that out. + +So I was full of trouble, full as I could be; and didn't know what to +do. At last I had an idea; and I says, I'll go and write the letter—and +then see if I can pray.  Why, it was astonishing, the way I felt as +light as a feather right straight off, and my troubles all gone.  So I +got a piece of paper and a pencil, all glad and excited, and set down +and wrote: + +Miss Watson, your runaway nigger Jim is down here two mile below +Pikesville, and Mr. Phelps has got him and he will give him up for the +reward if you send. + +_Huck Finn._ + +I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever +felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now.  But I didn't do it +straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking—thinking +how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost +and going to hell.  And went on thinking.  And got to thinking over our +trip down the river; and I see Jim before me all the time:  in the day +and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we +a-floating along, talking and singing and laughing.  But somehow I +couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the +other kind.  I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, 'stead of +calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when +I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, +up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call +me honey, and pet me and do everything he could think of for me, and how +good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling +the men we had small-pox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was +the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the _only_ one he's +got now; and then I happened to look around and see that paper. + +It was a close place.  I took it up, and held it in my hand.  I was +a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and +I knowed it.  I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then +says to myself: + +"All right, then, I'll _go_ to hell"—and tore it up. + +It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said.  And I let +them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming.  I shoved the +whole thing out of my head, and said I would take up wickedness again, +which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other warn't.  And +for a starter I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; +and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as +long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog. + +Then I set to thinking over how to get at it, and turned over some +considerable many ways in my mind; and at last fixed up a plan that +suited me.  So then I took the bearings of a woody island that was down +the river a piece, and as soon as it was fairly dark I crept out with my +raft and went for it, and hid it there, and then turned in.  I slept the +night through, and got up before it was light, and had my breakfast, +and put on my store clothes, and tied up some others and one thing or +another in a bundle, and took the canoe and cleared for shore.  I landed +below where I judged was Phelps's place, and hid my bundle in the woods, +and then filled up the canoe with water, and loaded rocks into her and +sunk her where I could find her again when I wanted her, about a quarter +of a mile below a little steam sawmill that was on the bank. + +Then I struck up the road, and when I passed the mill I see a sign on +it, "Phelps's Sawmill," and when I come to the farm-houses, two or +three hundred yards further along, I kept my eyes peeled, but didn't +see nobody around, though it was good daylight now.  But I didn't mind, +because I didn't want to see nobody just yet—I only wanted to get the +lay of the land. According to my plan, I was going to turn up there from +the village, not from below.  So I just took a look, and shoved along, +straight for town. Well, the very first man I see when I got there was +the duke.  He was sticking up a bill for the Royal Nonesuch—three-night +performance—like that other time.  They had the cheek, them frauds!  I +was right on him before I could shirk.  He looked astonished, and says: + +"Hel-_lo_!  Where'd _you_ come from?"  Then he says, kind of glad and +eager, "Where's the raft?—got her in a good place?" + +I says: + +"Why, that's just what I was going to ask your grace." + +Then he didn't look so joyful, and says: + +"What was your idea for asking _me_?" he says. + +"Well," I says, "when I see the king in that doggery yesterday I says +to myself, we can't get him home for hours, till he's soberer; so I went +a-loafing around town to put in the time and wait.  A man up and offered +me ten cents to help him pull a skiff over the river and back to fetch +a sheep, and so I went along; but when we was dragging him to the boat, +and the man left me a-holt of the rope and went behind him to shove him +along, he was too strong for me and jerked loose and run, and we after +him.  We didn't have no dog, and so we had to chase him all over the +country till we tired him out.  We never got him till dark; then we +fetched him over, and I started down for the raft.  When I got there and +see it was gone, I says to myself, 'They've got into trouble and had to +leave; and they've took my nigger, which is the only nigger I've got in +the world, and now I'm in a strange country, and ain't got no property +no more, nor nothing, and no way to make my living;' so I set down and +cried.  I slept in the woods all night.  But what _did_ become of the +raft, then?—and Jim—poor Jim!" + +"Blamed if I know—that is, what's become of the raft.  That old fool had +made a trade and got forty dollars, and when we found him in the doggery +the loafers had matched half-dollars with him and got every cent but +what he'd spent for whisky; and when I got him home late last night and +found the raft gone, we said, 'That little rascal has stole our raft and +shook us, and run off down the river.'" + +"I wouldn't shake my _nigger_, would I?—the only nigger I had in the +world, and the only property." + +"We never thought of that.  Fact is, I reckon we'd come to consider him +_our_ nigger; yes, we did consider him so—goodness knows we had trouble +enough for him.  So when we see the raft was gone and we flat broke, +there warn't anything for it but to try the Royal Nonesuch another +shake. And I've pegged along ever since, dry as a powder-horn.  Where's +that ten cents? Give it here." + +I had considerable money, so I give him ten cents, but begged him to +spend it for something to eat, and give me some, because it was all the +money I had, and I hadn't had nothing to eat since yesterday.  He never +said nothing.  The next minute he whirls on me and says: + +"Do you reckon that nigger would blow on us?  We'd skin him if he done +that!" + +"How can he blow?  Hain't he run off?" + +"No!  That old fool sold him, and never divided with me, and the money's +gone." + +"_Sold_ him?"  I says, and begun to cry; "why, he was _my_ nigger, and +that was my money.  Where is he?—I want my nigger." + +"Well, you can't _get_ your nigger, that's all—so dry up your +blubbering. Looky here—do you think _you'd_ venture to blow on us? + Blamed if I think I'd trust you.  Why, if you _was_ to blow on us—" + +He stopped, but I never see the duke look so ugly out of his eyes +before. I went on a-whimpering, and says: + +"I don't want to blow on nobody; and I ain't got no time to blow, nohow. +I got to turn out and find my nigger." + +He looked kinder bothered, and stood there with his bills fluttering on +his arm, thinking, and wrinkling up his forehead.  At last he says: + +"I'll tell you something.  We got to be here three days.  If you'll +promise you won't blow, and won't let the nigger blow, I'll tell you +where to find him." + +So I promised, and he says: + +"A farmer by the name of Silas Ph—" and then he stopped.  You see, he +started to tell me the truth; but when he stopped that way, and begun to +study and think again, I reckoned he was changing his mind.  And so he +was. He wouldn't trust me; he wanted to make sure of having me out of +the way the whole three days.  So pretty soon he says: + +"The man that bought him is named Abram Foster—Abram G. Foster—and he +lives forty mile back here in the country, on the road to Lafayette." + +"All right," I says, "I can walk it in three days.  And I'll start this +very afternoon." + +"No you wont, you'll start _now_; and don't you lose any time about it, +neither, nor do any gabbling by the way.  Just keep a tight tongue in +your head and move right along, and then you won't get into trouble with +_us_, d'ye hear?" + +That was the order I wanted, and that was the one I played for.  I +wanted to be left free to work my plans. + +"So clear out," he says; "and you can tell Mr. Foster whatever you want +to. Maybe you can get him to believe that Jim _is_ your nigger—some +idiots don't require documents—leastways I've heard there's such down +South here.  And when you tell him the handbill and the reward's bogus, +maybe he'll believe you when you explain to him what the idea was for +getting 'em out.  Go 'long now, and tell him anything you want to; but +mind you don't work your jaw any _between_ here and there." + +So I left, and struck for the back country.  I didn't look around, but I +kinder felt like he was watching me.  But I knowed I could tire him out +at that.  I went straight out in the country as much as a mile before +I stopped; then I doubled back through the woods towards Phelps'.  I +reckoned I better start in on my plan straight off without fooling +around, because I wanted to stop Jim's mouth till these fellows could +get away.  I didn't want no trouble with their kind.  I'd seen all I +wanted to of them, and wanted to get entirely shut of them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +WHEN I got there it was all still and Sunday-like, and hot and sunshiny; +the hands was gone to the fields; and there was them kind of faint +dronings of bugs and flies in the air that makes it seem so lonesome and +like everybody's dead and gone; and if a breeze fans along and quivers +the leaves it makes you feel mournful, because you feel like it's +spirits whispering—spirits that's been dead ever so many years—and you +always think they're talking about _you_.  As a general thing it makes a +body wish _he_ was dead, too, and done with it all. + +Phelps' was one of these little one-horse cotton plantations, and they +all look alike.  A rail fence round a two-acre yard; a stile made out +of logs sawed off and up-ended in steps, like barrels of a different +length, to climb over the fence with, and for the women to stand on when +they are going to jump on to a horse; some sickly grass-patches in the +big yard, but mostly it was bare and smooth, like an old hat with the +nap rubbed off; big double log-house for the white folks—hewed logs, +with the chinks stopped up with mud or mortar, and these mud-stripes +been whitewashed some time or another; round-log kitchen, with a big +broad, open but roofed passage joining it to the house; log smoke-house +back of the kitchen; three little log nigger-cabins in a row t'other +side the smoke-house; one little hut all by itself away down against +the back fence, and some outbuildings down a piece the other side; +ash-hopper and big kettle to bile soap in by the little hut; bench by +the kitchen door, with bucket of water and a gourd; hound asleep there +in the sun; more hounds asleep round about; about three shade trees away +off in a corner; some currant bushes and gooseberry bushes in one place +by the fence; outside of the fence a garden and a watermelon patch; then +the cotton fields begins, and after the fields the woods. + +I went around and clumb over the back stile by the ash-hopper, and +started for the kitchen.  When I got a little ways I heard the dim hum +of a spinning-wheel wailing along up and sinking along down again; +and then I knowed for certain I wished I was dead—for that _is_ the +lonesomest sound in the whole world. + +I went right along, not fixing up any particular plan, but just trusting +to Providence to put the right words in my mouth when the time come; for +I'd noticed that Providence always did put the right words in my mouth +if I left it alone. + +When I got half-way, first one hound and then another got up and went +for me, and of course I stopped and faced them, and kept still.  And +such another powwow as they made!  In a quarter of a minute I was a kind +of a hub of a wheel, as you may say—spokes made out of dogs—circle of +fifteen of them packed together around me, with their necks and noses +stretched up towards me, a-barking and howling; and more a-coming; you +could see them sailing over fences and around corners from everywheres. + +A nigger woman come tearing out of the kitchen with a rolling-pin in her +hand, singing out, "Begone _you_ Tige! you Spot! begone sah!" and she +fetched first one and then another of them a clip and sent them howling, +and then the rest followed; and the next second half of them come back, +wagging their tails around me, and making friends with me.  There ain't +no harm in a hound, nohow. + +And behind the woman comes a little nigger girl and two little nigger +boys without anything on but tow-linen shirts, and they hung on to their +mother's gown, and peeped out from behind her at me, bashful, the way +they always do.  And here comes the white woman running from the house, +about forty-five or fifty year old, bareheaded, and her spinning-stick +in her hand; and behind her comes her little white children, acting the +same way the little niggers was doing.  She was smiling all over so she +could hardly stand—and says: + +"It's _you_, at last!—_ain't_ it?" + +I out with a "Yes'm" before I thought. + +She grabbed me and hugged me tight; and then gripped me by both hands +and shook and shook; and the tears come in her eyes, and run down over; +and she couldn't seem to hug and shake enough, and kept saying, "You +don't look as much like your mother as I reckoned you would; but law +sakes, I don't care for that, I'm so glad to see you!  Dear, dear, it +does seem like I could eat you up!  Children, it's your cousin Tom!—tell +him howdy." + +But they ducked their heads, and put their fingers in their mouths, and +hid behind her.  So she run on: + +"Lize, hurry up and get him a hot breakfast right away—or did you get +your breakfast on the boat?" + +I said I had got it on the boat.  So then she started for the house, +leading me by the hand, and the children tagging after.  When we got +there she set me down in a split-bottomed chair, and set herself down on +a little low stool in front of me, holding both of my hands, and says: + +"Now I can have a _good_ look at you; and, laws-a-me, I've been hungry +for it a many and a many a time, all these long years, and it's come +at last! We been expecting you a couple of days and more.  What kep' +you?—boat get aground?" + +"Yes'm—she—" + +"Don't say yes'm—say Aunt Sally.  Where'd she get aground?" + +I didn't rightly know what to say, because I didn't know whether the +boat would be coming up the river or down.  But I go a good deal on +instinct; and my instinct said she would be coming up—from down towards +Orleans. That didn't help me much, though; for I didn't know the names +of bars down that way.  I see I'd got to invent a bar, or forget the +name of the one we got aground on—or—Now I struck an idea, and fetched +it out: + +"It warn't the grounding—that didn't keep us back but a little.  We +blowed out a cylinder-head." + +"Good gracious! anybody hurt?" + +"No'm.  Killed a nigger." + +"Well, it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.  Two years ago +last Christmas your uncle Silas was coming up from Newrleans on the old +Lally Rook, and she blowed out a cylinder-head and crippled a man.  And +I think he died afterwards.  He was a Baptist.  Your uncle Silas knowed +a family in Baton Rouge that knowed his people very well.  Yes, I +remember now, he _did_ die.  Mortification set in, and they had to +amputate him. But it didn't save him.  Yes, it was mortification—that +was it.  He turned blue all over, and died in the hope of a glorious +resurrection. They say he was a sight to look at.  Your uncle's been up +to the town every day to fetch you. And he's gone again, not more'n an +hour ago; he'll be back any minute now. You must a met him on the road, +didn't you?—oldish man, with a—" + +"No, I didn't see nobody, Aunt Sally.  The boat landed just at daylight, +and I left my baggage on the wharf-boat and went looking around the town +and out a piece in the country, to put in the time and not get here too +soon; and so I come down the back way." + +"Who'd you give the baggage to?" + +"Nobody." + +"Why, child, it 'll be stole!" + +"Not where I hid it I reckon it won't," I says. + +"How'd you get your breakfast so early on the boat?" + +It was kinder thin ice, but I says: + +"The captain see me standing around, and told me I better have something +to eat before I went ashore; so he took me in the texas to the officers' +lunch, and give me all I wanted." + +I was getting so uneasy I couldn't listen good.  I had my mind on the +children all the time; I wanted to get them out to one side and pump +them a little, and find out who I was.  But I couldn't get no show, Mrs. +Phelps kept it up and run on so.  Pretty soon she made the cold chills +streak all down my back, because she says: + +"But here we're a-running on this way, and you hain't told me a word +about Sis, nor any of them.  Now I'll rest my works a little, and you +start up yourn; just tell me _everything_—tell me all about 'm all every +one of 'm; and how they are, and what they're doing, and what they told +you to tell me; and every last thing you can think of." + +Well, I see I was up a stump—and up it good.  Providence had stood by +me this fur all right, but I was hard and tight aground now.  I see it +warn't a bit of use to try to go ahead—I'd got to throw up my hand.  So +I says to myself, here's another place where I got to resk the truth. + I opened my mouth to begin; but she grabbed me and hustled me in behind +the bed, and says: + +"Here he comes!  Stick your head down lower—there, that'll do; you can't +be seen now.  Don't you let on you're here.  I'll play a joke on him. +Children, don't you say a word." + +I see I was in a fix now.  But it warn't no use to worry; there warn't +nothing to do but just hold still, and try and be ready to stand from +under when the lightning struck. + +I had just one little glimpse of the old gentleman when he come in; then +the bed hid him.  Mrs. Phelps she jumps for him, and says: + +"Has he come?" + +"No," says her husband. + +"Good-_ness_ gracious!" she says, "what in the warld can have become of +him?" + +"I can't imagine," says the old gentleman; "and I must say it makes me +dreadful uneasy." + +"Uneasy!" she says; "I'm ready to go distracted!  He _must_ a come; and +you've missed him along the road.  I _know_ it's so—something tells me +so." + +"Why, Sally, I _couldn't_ miss him along the road—_you_ know that." + +"But oh, dear, dear, what _will_ Sis say!  He must a come!  You must a +missed him.  He—" + +"Oh, don't distress me any more'n I'm already distressed.  I don't know +what in the world to make of it.  I'm at my wit's end, and I don't mind +acknowledging 't I'm right down scared.  But there's no hope that he's +come; for he _couldn't_ come and me miss him.  Sally, it's terrible—just +terrible—something's happened to the boat, sure!" + +"Why, Silas!  Look yonder!—up the road!—ain't that somebody coming?" + +He sprung to the window at the head of the bed, and that give Mrs. +Phelps the chance she wanted.  She stooped down quick at the foot of the +bed and give me a pull, and out I come; and when he turned back from the +window there she stood, a-beaming and a-smiling like a house afire, and +I standing pretty meek and sweaty alongside.  The old gentleman stared, +and says: + +"Why, who's that?" + +"Who do you reckon 't is?" + +"I hain't no idea.  Who _is_ it?" + +"It's _Tom Sawyer!_" + +By jings, I most slumped through the floor!  But there warn't no time to +swap knives; the old man grabbed me by the hand and shook, and kept on +shaking; and all the time how the woman did dance around and laugh and +cry; and then how they both did fire off questions about Sid, and Mary, +and the rest of the tribe. + +But if they was joyful, it warn't nothing to what I was; for it was like +being born again, I was so glad to find out who I was.  Well, they froze +to me for two hours; and at last, when my chin was so tired it couldn't +hardly go any more, I had told them more about my family—I mean the +Sawyer family—than ever happened to any six Sawyer families.  And I +explained all about how we blowed out a cylinder-head at the mouth of +White River, and it took us three days to fix it.  Which was all right, +and worked first-rate; because _they_ didn't know but what it would take +three days to fix it.  If I'd a called it a bolthead it would a done +just as well. + +Now I was feeling pretty comfortable all down one side, and pretty +uncomfortable all up the other.  Being Tom Sawyer was easy and +comfortable, and it stayed easy and comfortable till by and by I hear a +steamboat coughing along down the river.  Then I says to myself, s'pose +Tom Sawyer comes down on that boat?  And s'pose he steps in here any +minute, and sings out my name before I can throw him a wink to keep +quiet? + +Well, I couldn't _have_ it that way; it wouldn't do at all.  I must go +up the road and waylay him.  So I told the folks I reckoned I would go +up to the town and fetch down my baggage.  The old gentleman was for +going along with me, but I said no, I could drive the horse myself, and +I druther he wouldn't take no trouble about me. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +SO I started for town in the wagon, and when I was half-way I see a +wagon coming, and sure enough it was Tom Sawyer, and I stopped and +waited till he come along.  I says "Hold on!" and it stopped alongside, +and his mouth opened up like a trunk, and stayed so; and he swallowed +two or three times like a person that's got a dry throat, and then says: + +"I hain't ever done you no harm.  You know that.  So, then, what you +want to come back and ha'nt _me_ for?" + +I says: + +"I hain't come back—I hain't been _gone_." + +When he heard my voice it righted him up some, but he warn't quite +satisfied yet.  He says: + +"Don't you play nothing on me, because I wouldn't on you.  Honest injun +now, you ain't a ghost?" + +"Honest injun, I ain't," I says. + +"Well—I—I—well, that ought to settle it, of course; but I can't somehow +seem to understand it no way.  Looky here, warn't you ever murdered _at +all?_" + +"No.  I warn't ever murdered at all—I played it on them.  You come in +here and feel of me if you don't believe me." + +So he done it; and it satisfied him; and he was that glad to see me +again he didn't know what to do.  And he wanted to know all about it +right off, because it was a grand adventure, and mysterious, and so it +hit him where he lived.  But I said, leave it alone till by and by; and +told his driver to wait, and we drove off a little piece, and I told +him the kind of a fix I was in, and what did he reckon we better do?  He +said, let him alone a minute, and don't disturb him.  So he thought and +thought, and pretty soon he says: + +"It's all right; I've got it.  Take my trunk in your wagon, and let on +it's your'n; and you turn back and fool along slow, so as to get to the +house about the time you ought to; and I'll go towards town a piece, and +take a fresh start, and get there a quarter or a half an hour after you; +and you needn't let on to know me at first." + +I says: + +"All right; but wait a minute.  There's one more thing—a thing that +_nobody_ don't know but me.  And that is, there's a nigger here that +I'm a-trying to steal out of slavery, and his name is _Jim_—old Miss +Watson's Jim." + +He says: + +"What!  Why, Jim is—" + +He stopped and went to studying.  I says: + +"I know what you'll say.  You'll say it's dirty, low-down business; but +what if it is?  I'm low down; and I'm a-going to steal him, and I want +you keep mum and not let on.  Will you?" + +His eye lit up, and he says: + +"I'll _help_ you steal him!" + +Well, I let go all holts then, like I was shot.  It was the most +astonishing speech I ever heard—and I'm bound to say Tom Sawyer fell +considerable in my estimation.  Only I couldn't believe it.  Tom Sawyer +a _nigger-stealer!_ + +"Oh, shucks!"  I says; "you're joking." + +"I ain't joking, either." + +"Well, then," I says, "joking or no joking, if you hear anything said +about a runaway nigger, don't forget to remember that _you_ don't know +nothing about him, and I don't know nothing about him." + +Then we took the trunk and put it in my wagon, and he drove off his +way and I drove mine.  But of course I forgot all about driving slow on +accounts of being glad and full of thinking; so I got home a heap too +quick for that length of a trip.  The old gentleman was at the door, and +he says: + +"Why, this is wonderful!  Whoever would a thought it was in that mare +to do it?  I wish we'd a timed her.  And she hain't sweated a hair—not +a hair. It's wonderful.  Why, I wouldn't take a hundred dollars for that +horse now—I wouldn't, honest; and yet I'd a sold her for fifteen before, +and thought 'twas all she was worth." + +That's all he said.  He was the innocentest, best old soul I ever see. +But it warn't surprising; because he warn't only just a farmer, he was +a preacher, too, and had a little one-horse log church down back of the +plantation, which he built it himself at his own expense, for a church +and schoolhouse, and never charged nothing for his preaching, and it was +worth it, too.  There was plenty other farmer-preachers like that, and +done the same way, down South. + +In about half an hour Tom's wagon drove up to the front stile, and Aunt +Sally she see it through the window, because it was only about fifty +yards, and says: + +"Why, there's somebody come!  I wonder who 'tis?  Why, I do believe it's +a stranger.  Jimmy" (that's one of the children) "run and tell Lize to +put on another plate for dinner." + +Everybody made a rush for the front door, because, of course, a stranger +don't come _every_ year, and so he lays over the yaller-fever, for +interest, when he does come.  Tom was over the stile and starting for +the house; the wagon was spinning up the road for the village, and we +was all bunched in the front door.  Tom had his store clothes on, and an +audience—and that was always nuts for Tom Sawyer.  In them circumstances +it warn't no trouble to him to throw in an amount of style that was +suitable.  He warn't a boy to meeky along up that yard like a sheep; no, +he come ca'm and important, like the ram.  When he got a-front of us he +lifts his hat ever so gracious and dainty, like it was the lid of a box +that had butterflies asleep in it and he didn't want to disturb them, +and says: + +"Mr. Archibald Nichols, I presume?" + +"No, my boy," says the old gentleman, "I'm sorry to say 't your driver +has deceived you; Nichols's place is down a matter of three mile more. +Come in, come in." + +Tom he took a look back over his shoulder, and says, "Too late—he's out +of sight." + +"Yes, he's gone, my son, and you must come in and eat your dinner with +us; and then we'll hitch up and take you down to Nichols's." + +"Oh, I _can't_ make you so much trouble; I couldn't think of it.  I'll +walk—I don't mind the distance." + +"But we won't _let_ you walk—it wouldn't be Southern hospitality to do +it. Come right in." + +"Oh, _do_," says Aunt Sally; "it ain't a bit of trouble to us, not a +bit in the world.  You must stay.  It's a long, dusty three mile, and +we can't let you walk.  And, besides, I've already told 'em to put on +another plate when I see you coming; so you mustn't disappoint us.  Come +right in and make yourself at home." + +So Tom he thanked them very hearty and handsome, and let himself be +persuaded, and come in; and when he was in he said he was a stranger +from Hicksville, Ohio, and his name was William Thompson—and he made +another bow. + +Well, he run on, and on, and on, making up stuff about Hicksville and +everybody in it he could invent, and I getting a little nervious, and +wondering how this was going to help me out of my scrape; and at last, +still talking along, he reached over and kissed Aunt Sally right on the +mouth, and then settled back again in his chair comfortable, and was +going on talking; but she jumped up and wiped it off with the back of +her hand, and says: + +"You owdacious puppy!" + +He looked kind of hurt, and says: + +"I'm surprised at you, m'am." + +"You're s'rp—Why, what do you reckon I am?  I've a good notion to take +and—Say, what do you mean by kissing me?" + +He looked kind of humble, and says: + +"I didn't mean nothing, m'am.  I didn't mean no harm.  I—I—thought you'd +like it." + +"Why, you born fool!"  She took up the spinning stick, and it looked +like it was all she could do to keep from giving him a crack with it. + "What made you think I'd like it?" + +"Well, I don't know.  Only, they—they—told me you would." + +"_They_ told you I would.  Whoever told you's _another_ lunatic.  I +never heard the beat of it.  Who's _they_?" + +"Why, everybody.  They all said so, m'am." + +It was all she could do to hold in; and her eyes snapped, and her +fingers worked like she wanted to scratch him; and she says: + +"Who's 'everybody'?  Out with their names, or ther'll be an idiot +short." + +He got up and looked distressed, and fumbled his hat, and says: + +"I'm sorry, and I warn't expecting it.  They told me to.  They all told +me to.  They all said, kiss her; and said she'd like it.  They all said +it—every one of them.  But I'm sorry, m'am, and I won't do it no more—I +won't, honest." + +"You won't, won't you?  Well, I sh'd _reckon_ you won't!" + +"No'm, I'm honest about it; I won't ever do it again—till you ask me." + +"Till I _ask_ you!  Well, I never see the beat of it in my born days! + I lay you'll be the Methusalem-numskull of creation before ever I ask +you—or the likes of you." + +"Well," he says, "it does surprise me so.  I can't make it out, somehow. +They said you would, and I thought you would.  But—" He stopped and +looked around slow, like he wished he could run across a friendly eye +somewheres, and fetched up on the old gentleman's, and says, "Didn't +_you_ think she'd like me to kiss her, sir?" + +"Why, no; I—I—well, no, I b'lieve I didn't." + +Then he looks on around the same way to me, and says: + +"Tom, didn't _you_ think Aunt Sally 'd open out her arms and say, 'Sid +Sawyer—'" + +"My land!" she says, breaking in and jumping for him, "you impudent +young rascal, to fool a body so—" and was going to hug him, but he +fended her off, and says: + +"No, not till you've asked me first." + +So she didn't lose no time, but asked him; and hugged him and kissed +him over and over again, and then turned him over to the old man, and he +took what was left.  And after they got a little quiet again she says: + +"Why, dear me, I never see such a surprise.  We warn't looking for _you_ +at all, but only Tom.  Sis never wrote to me about anybody coming but +him." + +"It's because it warn't _intended_ for any of us to come but Tom," he +says; "but I begged and begged, and at the last minute she let me +come, too; so, coming down the river, me and Tom thought it would be a +first-rate surprise for him to come here to the house first, and for me +to by and by tag along and drop in, and let on to be a stranger.  But it +was a mistake, Aunt Sally.  This ain't no healthy place for a stranger +to come." + +"No—not impudent whelps, Sid.  You ought to had your jaws boxed; I +hain't been so put out since I don't know when.  But I don't care, I +don't mind the terms—I'd be willing to stand a thousand such jokes to +have you here. Well, to think of that performance!  I don't deny it, I +was most putrified with astonishment when you give me that smack." + +We had dinner out in that broad open passage betwixt the house and +the kitchen; and there was things enough on that table for seven +families—and all hot, too; none of your flabby, tough meat that's laid +in a cupboard in a damp cellar all night and tastes like a hunk of +old cold cannibal in the morning.  Uncle Silas he asked a pretty long +blessing over it, but it was worth it; and it didn't cool it a bit, +neither, the way I've seen them kind of interruptions do lots of times. + There was a considerable good deal of talk all the afternoon, and me +and Tom was on the lookout all the time; but it warn't no use, they +didn't happen to say nothing about any runaway nigger, and we was afraid +to try to work up to it.  But at supper, at night, one of the little +boys says: + +"Pa, mayn't Tom and Sid and me go to the show?" + +"No," says the old man, "I reckon there ain't going to be any; and you +couldn't go if there was; because the runaway nigger told Burton and +me all about that scandalous show, and Burton said he would tell the +people; so I reckon they've drove the owdacious loafers out of town +before this time." + +So there it was!—but I couldn't help it.  Tom and me was to sleep in the +same room and bed; so, being tired, we bid good-night and went up to +bed right after supper, and clumb out of the window and down the +lightning-rod, and shoved for the town; for I didn't believe anybody was +going to give the king and the duke a hint, and so if I didn't hurry up +and give them one they'd get into trouble sure. + +On the road Tom he told me all about how it was reckoned I was murdered, +and how pap disappeared pretty soon, and didn't come back no more, and +what a stir there was when Jim run away; and I told Tom all about our +Royal Nonesuch rapscallions, and as much of the raft voyage as I had +time to; and as we struck into the town and up through the the middle of +it--it was as much as half-after eight, then—here comes a raging rush of +people with torches, and an awful whooping and yelling, and banging tin +pans and blowing horns; and we jumped to one side to let them go by; +and as they went by I see they had the king and the duke astraddle of a +rail—that is, I knowed it _was_ the king and the duke, though they was +all over tar and feathers, and didn't look like nothing in the +world that was human—just looked like a couple of monstrous big +soldier-plumes.  Well, it made me sick to see it; and I was sorry for +them poor pitiful rascals, it seemed like I couldn't ever feel any +hardness against them any more in the world.  It was a dreadful thing to +see.  Human beings _can_ be awful cruel to one another. + +We see we was too late—couldn't do no good.  We asked some stragglers +about it, and they said everybody went to the show looking very +innocent; and laid low and kept dark till the poor old king was in the +middle of his cavortings on the stage; then somebody give a signal, and +the house rose up and went for them. + +So we poked along back home, and I warn't feeling so brash as I was +before, but kind of ornery, and humble, and to blame, somehow—though +I hadn't done nothing.  But that's always the way; it don't make no +difference whether you do right or wrong, a person's conscience ain't +got no sense, and just goes for him anyway.  If I had a yaller dog that +didn't know no more than a person's conscience does I would pison him. +It takes up more room than all the rest of a person's insides, and yet +ain't no good, nohow.  Tom Sawyer he says the same. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +WE stopped talking, and got to thinking.  By and by Tom says: + +"Looky here, Huck, what fools we are to not think of it before!  I bet I +know where Jim is." + +"No!  Where?" + +"In that hut down by the ash-hopper.  Why, looky here.  When we was at +dinner, didn't you see a nigger man go in there with some vittles?" + +"Yes." + +"What did you think the vittles was for?" + +"For a dog." + +"So 'd I. Well, it wasn't for a dog." + +"Why?" + +"Because part of it was watermelon." + +"So it was—I noticed it.  Well, it does beat all that I never thought +about a dog not eating watermelon.  It shows how a body can see and +don't see at the same time." + +"Well, the nigger unlocked the padlock when he went in, and he locked it +again when he came out.  He fetched uncle a key about the time we got up +from table—same key, I bet.  Watermelon shows man, lock shows prisoner; +and it ain't likely there's two prisoners on such a little plantation, +and where the people's all so kind and good.  Jim's the prisoner.  All +right—I'm glad we found it out detective fashion; I wouldn't give shucks +for any other way.  Now you work your mind, and study out a plan to +steal Jim, and I will study out one, too; and we'll take the one we like +the best." + +What a head for just a boy to have!  If I had Tom Sawyer's head I +wouldn't trade it off to be a duke, nor mate of a steamboat, nor clown +in a circus, nor nothing I can think of.  I went to thinking out a plan, +but only just to be doing something; I knowed very well where the right +plan was going to come from.  Pretty soon Tom says: + +"Ready?" + +"Yes," I says. + +"All right—bring it out." + +"My plan is this," I says.  "We can easy find out if it's Jim in there. +Then get up my canoe to-morrow night, and fetch my raft over from the +island.  Then the first dark night that comes steal the key out of the +old man's britches after he goes to bed, and shove off down the river +on the raft with Jim, hiding daytimes and running nights, the way me and +Jim used to do before.  Wouldn't that plan work?" + +"_Work_?  Why, cert'nly it would work, like rats a-fighting.  But it's +too blame' simple; there ain't nothing _to_ it.  What's the good of a +plan that ain't no more trouble than that?  It's as mild as goose-milk. + Why, Huck, it wouldn't make no more talk than breaking into a soap +factory." + +I never said nothing, because I warn't expecting nothing different; but +I knowed mighty well that whenever he got _his_ plan ready it wouldn't +have none of them objections to it. + +And it didn't.  He told me what it was, and I see in a minute it was +worth fifteen of mine for style, and would make Jim just as free a man +as mine would, and maybe get us all killed besides.  So I was satisfied, +and said we would waltz in on it.  I needn't tell what it was here, +because I knowed it wouldn't stay the way, it was.  I knowed he would be +changing it around every which way as we went along, and heaving in new +bullinesses wherever he got a chance.  And that is what he done. + +Well, one thing was dead sure, and that was that Tom Sawyer was in +earnest, and was actuly going to help steal that nigger out of slavery. +That was the thing that was too many for me.  Here was a boy that was +respectable and well brung up; and had a character to lose; and folks at +home that had characters; and he was bright and not leather-headed; and +knowing and not ignorant; and not mean, but kind; and yet here he was, +without any more pride, or rightness, or feeling, than to stoop to +this business, and make himself a shame, and his family a shame, +before everybody.  I _couldn't_ understand it no way at all.  It was +outrageous, and I knowed I ought to just up and tell him so; and so be +his true friend, and let him quit the thing right where he was and save +himself. And I _did_ start to tell him; but he shut me up, and says: + +"Don't you reckon I know what I'm about?  Don't I generly know what I'm +about?" + +"Yes." + +"Didn't I _say_ I was going to help steal the nigger?" + +"Yes." + +"_Well_, then." + +That's all he said, and that's all I said.  It warn't no use to say any +more; because when he said he'd do a thing, he always done it.  But I +couldn't make out how he was willing to go into this thing; so I just +let it go, and never bothered no more about it.  If he was bound to have +it so, I couldn't help it. + +When we got home the house was all dark and still; so we went on down to +the hut by the ash-hopper for to examine it.  We went through the yard +so as to see what the hounds would do.  They knowed us, and didn't make +no more noise than country dogs is always doing when anything comes by +in the night.  When we got to the cabin we took a look at the front and +the two sides; and on the side I warn't acquainted with—which was the +north side—we found a square window-hole, up tolerable high, with just +one stout board nailed across it.  I says: + +"Here's the ticket.  This hole's big enough for Jim to get through if we +wrench off the board." + +Tom says: + +"It's as simple as tit-tat-toe, three-in-a-row, and as easy as +playing hooky.  I should _hope_ we can find a way that's a little more +complicated than _that_, Huck Finn." + +"Well, then," I says, "how 'll it do to saw him out, the way I done +before I was murdered that time?" + +"That's more _like_," he says.  "It's real mysterious, and troublesome, +and good," he says; "but I bet we can find a way that's twice as long. + There ain't no hurry; le's keep on looking around." + +Betwixt the hut and the fence, on the back side, was a lean-to that +joined the hut at the eaves, and was made out of plank.  It was as long +as the hut, but narrow—only about six foot wide.  The door to it was at +the south end, and was padlocked.  Tom he went to the soap-kettle and +searched around, and fetched back the iron thing they lift the lid with; +so he took it and prized out one of the staples.  The chain fell down, +and we opened the door and went in, and shut it, and struck a match, +and see the shed was only built against a cabin and hadn't no connection +with it; and there warn't no floor to the shed, nor nothing in it but +some old rusty played-out hoes and spades and picks and a crippled plow. + The match went out, and so did we, and shoved in the staple again, and +the door was locked as good as ever. Tom was joyful.  He says; + +"Now we're all right.  We'll _dig_ him out.  It 'll take about a week!" + +Then we started for the house, and I went in the back door—you only have +to pull a buckskin latch-string, they don't fasten the doors—but that +warn't romantical enough for Tom Sawyer; no way would do him but he must +climb up the lightning-rod.  But after he got up half way about three +times, and missed fire and fell every time, and the last time most +busted his brains out, he thought he'd got to give it up; but after he +was rested he allowed he would give her one more turn for luck, and this +time he made the trip. + +In the morning we was up at break of day, and down to the nigger cabins +to pet the dogs and make friends with the nigger that fed Jim—if it +_was_ Jim that was being fed.  The niggers was just getting through +breakfast and starting for the fields; and Jim's nigger was piling up +a tin pan with bread and meat and things; and whilst the others was +leaving, the key come from the house. + +This nigger had a good-natured, chuckle-headed face, and his wool was +all tied up in little bunches with thread.  That was to keep witches +off.  He said the witches was pestering him awful these nights, and +making him see all kinds of strange things, and hear all kinds of +strange words and noises, and he didn't believe he was ever witched so +long before in his life.  He got so worked up, and got to running on so +about his troubles, he forgot all about what he'd been a-going to do. + So Tom says: + +"What's the vittles for?  Going to feed the dogs?" + +The nigger kind of smiled around gradually over his face, like when you +heave a brickbat in a mud-puddle, and he says: + +"Yes, Mars Sid, A dog.  Cur'us dog, too.  Does you want to go en look at +'im?" + +"Yes." + +I hunched Tom, and whispers: + +"You going, right here in the daybreak?  _that_ warn't the plan." + +"No, it warn't; but it's the plan _now_." + +So, drat him, we went along, but I didn't like it much.  When we got in +we couldn't hardly see anything, it was so dark; but Jim was there, sure +enough, and could see us; and he sings out: + +"Why, _Huck_!  En good _lan_'! ain' dat Misto Tom?" + +I just knowed how it would be; I just expected it.  I didn't know +nothing to do; and if I had I couldn't a done it, because that nigger +busted in and says: + +"Why, de gracious sakes! do he know you genlmen?" + +We could see pretty well now.  Tom he looked at the nigger, steady and +kind of wondering, and says: + +"Does _who_ know us?" + +"Why, dis-yer runaway nigger." + +"I don't reckon he does; but what put that into your head?" + +"What _put_ it dar?  Didn' he jis' dis minute sing out like he knowed +you?" + +Tom says, in a puzzled-up kind of way: + +"Well, that's mighty curious.  _Who_ sung out? _when_ did he sing out? + _what_ did he sing out?" And turns to me, perfectly ca'm, and says, +"Did _you_ hear anybody sing out?" + +Of course there warn't nothing to be said but the one thing; so I says: + +"No; I ain't heard nobody say nothing." + +Then he turns to Jim, and looks him over like he never see him before, +and says: + +"Did you sing out?" + +"No, sah," says Jim; "I hain't said nothing, sah." + +"Not a word?" + +"No, sah, I hain't said a word." + +"Did you ever see us before?" + +"No, sah; not as I knows on." + +So Tom turns to the nigger, which was looking wild and distressed, and +says, kind of severe: + +"What do you reckon's the matter with you, anyway?  What made you think +somebody sung out?" + +"Oh, it's de dad-blame' witches, sah, en I wisht I was dead, I do. + Dey's awluz at it, sah, en dey do mos' kill me, dey sk'yers me so. + Please to don't tell nobody 'bout it sah, er ole Mars Silas he'll scole +me; 'kase he say dey _ain't_ no witches.  I jis' wish to goodness he was +heah now—_den_ what would he say!  I jis' bet he couldn' fine no way to +git aroun' it _dis_ time.  But it's awluz jis' so; people dat's _sot_, +stays sot; dey won't look into noth'n'en fine it out f'r deyselves, en +when _you_ fine it out en tell um 'bout it, dey doan' b'lieve you." + +Tom give him a dime, and said we wouldn't tell nobody; and told him to +buy some more thread to tie up his wool with; and then looks at Jim, and +says: + +"I wonder if Uncle Silas is going to hang this nigger.  If I was to +catch a nigger that was ungrateful enough to run away, I wouldn't give +him up, I'd hang him."  And whilst the nigger stepped to the door to +look at the dime and bite it to see if it was good, he whispers to Jim +and says: + +"Don't ever let on to know us.  And if you hear any digging going on +nights, it's us; we're going to set you free." + +Jim only had time to grab us by the hand and squeeze it; then the nigger +come back, and we said we'd come again some time if the nigger wanted +us to; and he said he would, more particular if it was dark, because the +witches went for him mostly in the dark, and it was good to have folks +around then. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +IT would be most an hour yet till breakfast, so we left and struck down +into the woods; because Tom said we got to have _some_ light to see how +to dig by, and a lantern makes too much, and might get us into trouble; +what we must have was a lot of them rotten chunks that's called +fox-fire, and just makes a soft kind of a glow when you lay them in a +dark place.  We fetched an armful and hid it in the weeds, and set down +to rest, and Tom says, kind of dissatisfied: + +"Blame it, this whole thing is just as easy and awkward as it can be. +And so it makes it so rotten difficult to get up a difficult plan. + There ain't no watchman to be drugged—now there _ought_ to be a +watchman.  There ain't even a dog to give a sleeping-mixture to.  And +there's Jim chained by one leg, with a ten-foot chain, to the leg of his +bed:  why, all you got to do is to lift up the bedstead and slip off +the chain.  And Uncle Silas he trusts everybody; sends the key to the +punkin-headed nigger, and don't send nobody to watch the nigger.  Jim +could a got out of that window-hole before this, only there wouldn't be +no use trying to travel with a ten-foot chain on his leg.  Why, drat it, +Huck, it's the stupidest arrangement I ever see. You got to invent _all_ +the difficulties.  Well, we can't help it; we got to do the best we can +with the materials we've got. Anyhow, there's one thing—there's more +honor in getting him out through a lot of difficulties and dangers, +where there warn't one of them furnished to you by the people who it was +their duty to furnish them, and you had to contrive them all out of your +own head.  Now look at just that one thing of the lantern.  When you +come down to the cold facts, we simply got to _let on_ that a lantern's +resky.  Why, we could work with a torchlight procession if we wanted to, +I believe.  Now, whilst I think of it, we got to hunt up something to +make a saw out of the first chance we get." + +"What do we want of a saw?" + +"What do we _want_ of it?  Hain't we got to saw the leg of Jim's bed +off, so as to get the chain loose?" + +"Why, you just said a body could lift up the bedstead and slip the chain +off." + +"Well, if that ain't just like you, Huck Finn.  You _can_ get up the +infant-schooliest ways of going at a thing.  Why, hain't you ever read +any books at all?—Baron Trenck, nor Casanova, nor Benvenuto Chelleeny, +nor Henri IV., nor none of them heroes?  Who ever heard of getting a +prisoner loose in such an old-maidy way as that?  No; the way all the +best authorities does is to saw the bed-leg in two, and leave it just +so, and swallow the sawdust, so it can't be found, and put some dirt and +grease around the sawed place so the very keenest seneskal can't see +no sign of it's being sawed, and thinks the bed-leg is perfectly sound. +Then, the night you're ready, fetch the leg a kick, down she goes; slip +off your chain, and there you are.  Nothing to do but hitch your +rope ladder to the battlements, shin down it, break your leg in the +moat—because a rope ladder is nineteen foot too short, you know—and +there's your horses and your trusty vassles, and they scoop you up and +fling you across a saddle, and away you go to your native Langudoc, or +Navarre, or wherever it is. It's gaudy, Huck.  I wish there was a moat +to this cabin. If we get time, the night of the escape, we'll dig one." + +I says: + +"What do we want of a moat when we're going to snake him out from under +the cabin?" + +But he never heard me.  He had forgot me and everything else.  He had +his chin in his hand, thinking.  Pretty soon he sighs and shakes his +head; then sighs again, and says: + +"No, it wouldn't do—there ain't necessity enough for it." + +"For what?"  I says. + +"Why, to saw Jim's leg off," he says. + +"Good land!"  I says; "why, there ain't _no_ necessity for it.  And what +would you want to saw his leg off for, anyway?" + +"Well, some of the best authorities has done it.  They couldn't get the +chain off, so they just cut their hand off and shoved.  And a leg would +be better still.  But we got to let that go.  There ain't necessity +enough in this case; and, besides, Jim's a nigger, and wouldn't +understand the reasons for it, and how it's the custom in Europe; so +we'll let it go.  But there's one thing—he can have a rope ladder; we +can tear up our sheets and make him a rope ladder easy enough.  And we +can send it to him in a pie; it's mostly done that way.  And I've et +worse pies." + +"Why, Tom Sawyer, how you talk," I says; "Jim ain't got no use for a +rope ladder." + +"He _has_ got use for it.  How _you_ talk, you better say; you don't +know nothing about it.  He's _got_ to have a rope ladder; they all do." + +"What in the nation can he _do_ with it?" + +"_Do_ with it?  He can hide it in his bed, can't he?"  That's what they +all do; and _he's_ got to, too.  Huck, you don't ever seem to want to do +anything that's regular; you want to be starting something fresh all the +time. S'pose he _don't_ do nothing with it? ain't it there in his bed, +for a clew, after he's gone? and don't you reckon they'll want clews? + Of course they will.  And you wouldn't leave them any?  That would be a +_pretty_ howdy-do, _wouldn't_ it!  I never heard of such a thing." + +"Well," I says, "if it's in the regulations, and he's got to have +it, all right, let him have it; because I don't wish to go back on no +regulations; but there's one thing, Tom Sawyer—if we go to tearing up +our sheets to make Jim a rope ladder, we're going to get into trouble +with Aunt Sally, just as sure as you're born.  Now, the way I look at +it, a hickry-bark ladder don't cost nothing, and don't waste nothing, +and is just as good to load up a pie with, and hide in a straw tick, +as any rag ladder you can start; and as for Jim, he ain't had no +experience, and so he don't care what kind of a—" + +"Oh, shucks, Huck Finn, if I was as ignorant as you I'd keep +still—that's what I'D do.  Who ever heard of a state prisoner escaping +by a hickry-bark ladder?  Why, it's perfectly ridiculous." + +"Well, all right, Tom, fix it your own way; but if you'll take my +advice, you'll let me borrow a sheet off of the clothesline." + +He said that would do.  And that gave him another idea, and he says: + +"Borrow a shirt, too." + +"What do we want of a shirt, Tom?" + +"Want it for Jim to keep a journal on." + +"Journal your granny—_Jim_ can't write." + +"S'pose he _can't_ write—he can make marks on the shirt, can't he, if +we make him a pen out of an old pewter spoon or a piece of an old iron +barrel-hoop?" + +"Why, Tom, we can pull a feather out of a goose and make him a better +one; and quicker, too." + +"_Prisoners_ don't have geese running around the donjon-keep to pull +pens out of, you muggins.  They _always_ make their pens out of the +hardest, toughest, troublesomest piece of old brass candlestick or +something like that they can get their hands on; and it takes them weeks +and weeks and months and months to file it out, too, because they've got +to do it by rubbing it on the wall.  _They_ wouldn't use a goose-quill +if they had it. It ain't regular." + +"Well, then, what'll we make him the ink out of?" + +"Many makes it out of iron-rust and tears; but that's the common sort +and women; the best authorities uses their own blood.  Jim can do that; +and when he wants to send any little common ordinary mysterious message +to let the world know where he's captivated, he can write it on the +bottom of a tin plate with a fork and throw it out of the window.  The +Iron Mask always done that, and it's a blame' good way, too." + +"Jim ain't got no tin plates.  They feed him in a pan." + +"That ain't nothing; we can get him some." + +"Can't nobody _read_ his plates." + +"That ain't got anything to _do_ with it, Huck Finn.  All _he's_ got to +do is to write on the plate and throw it out.  You don't _have_ to be +able to read it. Why, half the time you can't read anything a prisoner +writes on a tin plate, or anywhere else." + +"Well, then, what's the sense in wasting the plates?" + +"Why, blame it all, it ain't the _prisoner's_ plates." + +"But it's _somebody's_ plates, ain't it?" + +"Well, spos'n it is?  What does the _prisoner_ care whose—" + +He broke off there, because we heard the breakfast-horn blowing.  So we +cleared out for the house. + +Along during the morning I borrowed a sheet and a white shirt off of the +clothes-line; and I found an old sack and put them in it, and we went +down and got the fox-fire, and put that in too.  I called it borrowing, +because that was what pap always called it; but Tom said it warn't +borrowing, it was stealing.  He said we was representing prisoners; and +prisoners don't care how they get a thing so they get it, and nobody +don't blame them for it, either.  It ain't no crime in a prisoner to +steal the thing he needs to get away with, Tom said; it's his right; and +so, as long as we was representing a prisoner, we had a perfect right to +steal anything on this place we had the least use for to get ourselves +out of prison with.  He said if we warn't prisoners it would be a very +different thing, and nobody but a mean, ornery person would steal when +he warn't a prisoner.  So we allowed we would steal everything there was +that come handy.  And yet he made a mighty fuss, one day, after that, +when I stole a watermelon out of the nigger-patch and eat it; and he +made me go and give the niggers a dime without telling them what it +was for. Tom said that what he meant was, we could steal anything we +_needed_. Well, I says, I needed the watermelon.  But he said I didn't +need it to get out of prison with; there's where the difference was. + He said if I'd a wanted it to hide a knife in, and smuggle it to Jim +to kill the seneskal with, it would a been all right.  So I let it go at +that, though I couldn't see no advantage in my representing a prisoner +if I got to set down and chaw over a lot of gold-leaf distinctions like +that every time I see a chance to hog a watermelon. + +Well, as I was saying, we waited that morning till everybody was settled +down to business, and nobody in sight around the yard; then Tom he +carried the sack into the lean-to whilst I stood off a piece to keep +watch.  By and by he come out, and we went and set down on the woodpile +to talk.  He says: + +"Everything's all right now except tools; and that's easy fixed." + +"Tools?"  I says. + +"Yes." + +"Tools for what?" + +"Why, to dig with.  We ain't a-going to _gnaw_ him out, are we?" + +"Ain't them old crippled picks and things in there good enough to dig a +nigger out with?"  I says. + +He turns on me, looking pitying enough to make a body cry, and says: + +"Huck Finn, did you _ever_ hear of a prisoner having picks and shovels, +and all the modern conveniences in his wardrobe to dig himself out with? + Now I want to ask you—if you got any reasonableness in you at all—what +kind of a show would _that_ give him to be a hero?  Why, they might as +well lend him the key and done with it.  Picks and shovels—why, they +wouldn't furnish 'em to a king." + +"Well, then," I says, "if we don't want the picks and shovels, what do +we want?" + +"A couple of case-knives." + +"To dig the foundations out from under that cabin with?" + +"Yes." + +"Confound it, it's foolish, Tom." + +"It don't make no difference how foolish it is, it's the _right_ way—and +it's the regular way.  And there ain't no _other_ way, that ever I heard +of, and I've read all the books that gives any information about these +things. They always dig out with a case-knife—and not through dirt, mind +you; generly it's through solid rock.  And it takes them weeks and weeks +and weeks, and for ever and ever.  Why, look at one of them prisoners in +the bottom dungeon of the Castle Deef, in the harbor of Marseilles, that +dug himself out that way; how long was _he_ at it, you reckon?" + +"I don't know." + +"Well, guess." + +"I don't know.  A month and a half." + +"_Thirty-seven year_—and he come out in China.  _That's_ the kind.  I +wish the bottom of _this_ fortress was solid rock." + +"_Jim_ don't know nobody in China." + +"What's _that_ got to do with it?  Neither did that other fellow.  But +you're always a-wandering off on a side issue.  Why can't you stick to +the main point?" + +"All right—I don't care where he comes out, so he _comes_ out; and Jim +don't, either, I reckon.  But there's one thing, anyway—Jim's too old to +be dug out with a case-knife.  He won't last." + +"Yes he will _last_, too.  You don't reckon it's going to take +thirty-seven years to dig out through a _dirt_ foundation, do you?" + +"How long will it take, Tom?" + +"Well, we can't resk being as long as we ought to, because it mayn't +take very long for Uncle Silas to hear from down there by New Orleans. + He'll hear Jim ain't from there.  Then his next move will be to +advertise Jim, or something like that.  So we can't resk being as long +digging him out as we ought to.  By rights I reckon we ought to be +a couple of years; but we can't.  Things being so uncertain, what I +recommend is this:  that we really dig right in, as quick as we can; +and after that, we can _let on_, to ourselves, that we was at it +thirty-seven years.  Then we can snatch him out and rush him away the +first time there's an alarm.  Yes, I reckon that 'll be the best way." + +"Now, there's _sense_ in that," I says.  "Letting on don't cost nothing; +letting on ain't no trouble; and if it's any object, I don't mind +letting on we was at it a hundred and fifty year.  It wouldn't strain +me none, after I got my hand in.  So I'll mosey along now, and smouch a +couple of case-knives." + +"Smouch three," he says; "we want one to make a saw out of." + +"Tom, if it ain't unregular and irreligious to sejest it," I says, +"there's an old rusty saw-blade around yonder sticking under the +weather-boarding behind the smoke-house." + +He looked kind of weary and discouraged-like, and says: + +"It ain't no use to try to learn you nothing, Huck.  Run along and +smouch the knives—three of them."  So I done it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +AS soon as we reckoned everybody was asleep that night we went down the +lightning-rod, and shut ourselves up in the lean-to, and got out our +pile of fox-fire, and went to work.  We cleared everything out of the +way, about four or five foot along the middle of the bottom log.  Tom +said he was right behind Jim's bed now, and we'd dig in under it, and +when we got through there couldn't nobody in the cabin ever know there +was any hole there, because Jim's counter-pin hung down most to the +ground, and you'd have to raise it up and look under to see the hole. + So we dug and dug with the case-knives till most midnight; and then +we was dog-tired, and our hands was blistered, and yet you couldn't see +we'd done anything hardly.  At last I says: + +"This ain't no thirty-seven year job; this is a thirty-eight year job, +Tom Sawyer." + +He never said nothing.  But he sighed, and pretty soon he stopped +digging, and then for a good little while I knowed that he was thinking. +Then he says: + +"It ain't no use, Huck, it ain't a-going to work.  If we was prisoners +it would, because then we'd have as many years as we wanted, and no +hurry; and we wouldn't get but a few minutes to dig, every day, while +they was changing watches, and so our hands wouldn't get blistered, and +we could keep it up right along, year in and year out, and do it right, +and the way it ought to be done.  But _we_ can't fool along; we got to +rush; we ain't got no time to spare.  If we was to put in another +night this way we'd have to knock off for a week to let our hands get +well—couldn't touch a case-knife with them sooner." + +"Well, then, what we going to do, Tom?" + +"I'll tell you.  It ain't right, and it ain't moral, and I wouldn't like +it to get out; but there ain't only just the one way:  we got to dig him +out with the picks, and _let on_ it's case-knives." + +"_Now_ you're _talking_!"  I says; "your head gets leveler and leveler +all the time, Tom Sawyer," I says.  "Picks is the thing, moral or no +moral; and as for me, I don't care shucks for the morality of it, nohow. + When I start in to steal a nigger, or a watermelon, or a Sunday-school +book, I ain't no ways particular how it's done so it's done.  What I +want is my nigger; or what I want is my watermelon; or what I want is my +Sunday-school book; and if a pick's the handiest thing, that's the thing +I'm a-going to dig that nigger or that watermelon or that Sunday-school +book out with; and I don't give a dead rat what the authorities thinks +about it nuther." + +"Well," he says, "there's excuse for picks and letting-on in a case like +this; if it warn't so, I wouldn't approve of it, nor I wouldn't stand by +and see the rules broke—because right is right, and wrong is wrong, +and a body ain't got no business doing wrong when he ain't ignorant and +knows better.  It might answer for _you_ to dig Jim out with a pick, +_without_ any letting on, because you don't know no better; but it +wouldn't for me, because I do know better.  Gimme a case-knife." + +He had his own by him, but I handed him mine.  He flung it down, and +says: + +"Gimme a _case-knife_." + +I didn't know just what to do—but then I thought.  I scratched around +amongst the old tools, and got a pickaxe and give it to him, and he took +it and went to work, and never said a word. + +He was always just that particular.  Full of principle. + +So then I got a shovel, and then we picked and shoveled, turn about, +and made the fur fly.  We stuck to it about a half an hour, which was as +long as we could stand up; but we had a good deal of a hole to show for +it. When I got up stairs I looked out at the window and see Tom doing +his level best with the lightning-rod, but he couldn't come it, his +hands was so sore.  At last he says: + +"It ain't no use, it can't be done.  What you reckon I better do?  Can't +you think of no way?" + +"Yes," I says, "but I reckon it ain't regular.  Come up the stairs, and +let on it's a lightning-rod." + +So he done it. + +Next day Tom stole a pewter spoon and a brass candlestick in the house, +for to make some pens for Jim out of, and six tallow candles; and I +hung around the nigger cabins and laid for a chance, and stole three tin +plates.  Tom says it wasn't enough; but I said nobody wouldn't ever see +the plates that Jim throwed out, because they'd fall in the dog-fennel +and jimpson weeds under the window-hole—then we could tote them back and +he could use them over again.  So Tom was satisfied.  Then he says: + +"Now, the thing to study out is, how to get the things to Jim." + +"Take them in through the hole," I says, "when we get it done." + +He only just looked scornful, and said something about nobody ever heard +of such an idiotic idea, and then he went to studying.  By and by he +said he had ciphered out two or three ways, but there warn't no need to +decide on any of them yet.  Said we'd got to post Jim first. + +That night we went down the lightning-rod a little after ten, and took +one of the candles along, and listened under the window-hole, and heard +Jim snoring; so we pitched it in, and it didn't wake him.  Then we +whirled in with the pick and shovel, and in about two hours and a half +the job was done.  We crept in under Jim's bed and into the cabin, and +pawed around and found the candle and lit it, and stood over Jim awhile, +and found him looking hearty and healthy, and then we woke him up gentle +and gradual.  He was so glad to see us he most cried; and called us +honey, and all the pet names he could think of; and was for having us +hunt up a cold-chisel to cut the chain off of his leg with right away, +and clearing out without losing any time.  But Tom he showed him how +unregular it would be, and set down and told him all about our plans, +and how we could alter them in a minute any time there was an alarm; and +not to be the least afraid, because we would see he got away, _sure_. + So Jim he said it was all right, and we set there and talked over old +times awhile, and then Tom asked a lot of questions, and when Jim told +him Uncle Silas come in every day or two to pray with him, and Aunt +Sally come in to see if he was comfortable and had plenty to eat, and +both of them was kind as they could be, Tom says: + +"_Now_ I know how to fix it.  We'll send you some things by them." + +I said, "Don't do nothing of the kind; it's one of the most jackass +ideas I ever struck;" but he never paid no attention to me; went right +on.  It was his way when he'd got his plans set. + +So he told Jim how we'd have to smuggle in the rope-ladder pie and other +large things by Nat, the nigger that fed him, and he must be on the +lookout, and not be surprised, and not let Nat see him open them; and +we would put small things in uncle's coat-pockets and he must steal them +out; and we would tie things to aunt's apron-strings or put them in her +apron-pocket, if we got a chance; and told him what they would be and +what they was for.  And told him how to keep a journal on the shirt with +his blood, and all that. He told him everything.  Jim he couldn't see +no sense in the most of it, but he allowed we was white folks and knowed +better than him; so he was satisfied, and said he would do it all just +as Tom said. + +Jim had plenty corn-cob pipes and tobacco; so we had a right down good +sociable time; then we crawled out through the hole, and so home to +bed, with hands that looked like they'd been chawed.  Tom was in high +spirits. He said it was the best fun he ever had in his life, and the +most intellectural; and said if he only could see his way to it we would +keep it up all the rest of our lives and leave Jim to our children to +get out; for he believed Jim would come to like it better and better the +more he got used to it.  He said that in that way it could be strung out +to as much as eighty year, and would be the best time on record.  And he +said it would make us all celebrated that had a hand in it. + +In the morning we went out to the woodpile and chopped up the brass +candlestick into handy sizes, and Tom put them and the pewter spoon in +his pocket.  Then we went to the nigger cabins, and while I got Nat's +notice off, Tom shoved a piece of candlestick into the middle of a +corn-pone that was in Jim's pan, and we went along with Nat to see how +it would work, and it just worked noble; when Jim bit into it it most +mashed all his teeth out; and there warn't ever anything could a worked +better. Tom said so himself. Jim he never let on but what it was only +just a piece of rock or something like that that's always getting into +bread, you know; but after that he never bit into nothing but what he +jabbed his fork into it in three or four places first. + +And whilst we was a-standing there in the dimmish light, here comes a +couple of the hounds bulging in from under Jim's bed; and they kept on +piling in till there was eleven of them, and there warn't hardly room +in there to get your breath.  By jings, we forgot to fasten that lean-to +door!  The nigger Nat he only just hollered "Witches" once, and keeled +over on to the floor amongst the dogs, and begun to groan like he was +dying.  Tom jerked the door open and flung out a slab of Jim's meat, +and the dogs went for it, and in two seconds he was out himself and back +again and shut the door, and I knowed he'd fixed the other door too. +Then he went to work on the nigger, coaxing him and petting him, and +asking him if he'd been imagining he saw something again.  He raised up, +and blinked his eyes around, and says: + +"Mars Sid, you'll say I's a fool, but if I didn't b'lieve I see most a +million dogs, er devils, er some'n, I wisht I may die right heah in dese +tracks.  I did, mos' sholy.  Mars Sid, I _felt_ um—I _felt_ um, sah; dey +was all over me.  Dad fetch it, I jis' wisht I could git my han's on one +er dem witches jis' wunst—on'y jis' wunst—it's all I'd ast.  But mos'ly +I wisht dey'd lemme 'lone, I does." + +Tom says: + +"Well, I tell you what I think.  What makes them come here just at this +runaway nigger's breakfast-time?  It's because they're hungry; that's +the reason.  You make them a witch pie; that's the thing for _you_ to +do." + +"But my lan', Mars Sid, how's I gwyne to make 'm a witch pie?  I doan' +know how to make it.  I hain't ever hearn er sich a thing b'fo'." + +"Well, then, I'll have to make it myself." + +"Will you do it, honey?—will you?  I'll wusshup de groun' und' yo' foot, +I will!" + +"All right, I'll do it, seeing it's you, and you've been good to us and +showed us the runaway nigger.  But you got to be mighty careful.  When +we come around, you turn your back; and then whatever we've put in the +pan, don't you let on you see it at all.  And don't you look when Jim +unloads the pan—something might happen, I don't know what.  And above +all, don't you _handle_ the witch-things." + +"_Hannel 'M_, Mars Sid?  What _is_ you a-talkin' 'bout?  I wouldn' +lay de weight er my finger on um, not f'r ten hund'd thous'n billion +dollars, I wouldn't." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +THAT was all fixed.  So then we went away and went to the rubbage-pile +in the back yard, where they keep the old boots, and rags, and pieces +of bottles, and wore-out tin things, and all such truck, and scratched +around and found an old tin washpan, and stopped up the holes as well as +we could, to bake the pie in, and took it down cellar and stole it full +of flour and started for breakfast, and found a couple of shingle-nails +that Tom said would be handy for a prisoner to scrabble his name and +sorrows on the dungeon walls with, and dropped one of them in Aunt +Sally's apron-pocket which was hanging on a chair, and t'other we stuck +in the band of Uncle Silas's hat, which was on the bureau, because we +heard the children say their pa and ma was going to the runaway nigger's +house this morning, and then went to breakfast, and Tom dropped the +pewter spoon in Uncle Silas's coat-pocket, and Aunt Sally wasn't come +yet, so we had to wait a little while. + +And when she come she was hot and red and cross, and couldn't hardly +wait for the blessing; and then she went to sluicing out coffee with one +hand and cracking the handiest child's head with her thimble with the +other, and says: + +"I've hunted high and I've hunted low, and it does beat all what _has_ +become of your other shirt." + +My heart fell down amongst my lungs and livers and things, and a hard +piece of corn-crust started down my throat after it and got met on the +road with a cough, and was shot across the table, and took one of the +children in the eye and curled him up like a fishing-worm, and let a cry +out of him the size of a warwhoop, and Tom he turned kinder blue around +the gills, and it all amounted to a considerable state of things for +about a quarter of a minute or as much as that, and I would a sold out +for half price if there was a bidder.  But after that we was all right +again—it was the sudden surprise of it that knocked us so kind of cold. +Uncle Silas he says: + +"It's most uncommon curious, I can't understand it.  I know perfectly +well I took it _off_, because—" + +"Because you hain't got but one _on_.  Just _listen_ at the man!  I know +you took it off, and know it by a better way than your wool-gethering +memory, too, because it was on the clo's-line yesterday—I see it there +myself. But it's gone, that's the long and the short of it, and you'll +just have to change to a red flann'l one till I can get time to make a +new one. And it 'll be the third I've made in two years.  It just keeps +a body on the jump to keep you in shirts; and whatever you do manage to +_do_ with 'm all is more'n I can make out.  A body 'd think you _would_ +learn to take some sort of care of 'em at your time of life." + +"I know it, Sally, and I do try all I can.  But it oughtn't to be +altogether my fault, because, you know, I don't see them nor have +nothing to do with them except when they're on me; and I don't believe +I've ever lost one of them _off_ of me." + +"Well, it ain't _your_ fault if you haven't, Silas; you'd a done it +if you could, I reckon.  And the shirt ain't all that's gone, nuther. + Ther's a spoon gone; and _that_ ain't all.  There was ten, and now +ther's only nine. The calf got the shirt, I reckon, but the calf never +took the spoon, _that's_ certain." + +"Why, what else is gone, Sally?" + +"Ther's six _candles_ gone—that's what.  The rats could a got the +candles, and I reckon they did; I wonder they don't walk off with the +whole place, the way you're always going to stop their holes and don't +do it; and if they warn't fools they'd sleep in your hair, Silas—_you'd_ +never find it out; but you can't lay the _spoon_ on the rats, and that I +know." + +"Well, Sally, I'm in fault, and I acknowledge it; I've been remiss; but +I won't let to-morrow go by without stopping up them holes." + +"Oh, I wouldn't hurry; next year 'll do.  Matilda Angelina Araminta +_Phelps!_" + +Whack comes the thimble, and the child snatches her claws out of the +sugar-bowl without fooling around any.  Just then the nigger woman steps +on to the passage, and says: + +"Missus, dey's a sheet gone." + +"A _sheet_ gone!  Well, for the land's sake!" + +"I'll stop up them holes to-day," says Uncle Silas, looking sorrowful. + +"Oh, _do_ shet up!—s'pose the rats took the _sheet_?  _where's_ it gone, +Lize?" + +"Clah to goodness I hain't no notion, Miss' Sally.  She wuz on de +clo'sline yistiddy, but she done gone:  she ain' dah no mo' now." + +"I reckon the world _is_ coming to an end.  I _never_ see the beat of it +in all my born days.  A shirt, and a sheet, and a spoon, and six can—" + +"Missus," comes a young yaller wench, "dey's a brass cannelstick +miss'n." + +"Cler out from here, you hussy, er I'll take a skillet to ye!" + +Well, she was just a-biling.  I begun to lay for a chance; I reckoned +I would sneak out and go for the woods till the weather moderated.  She +kept a-raging right along, running her insurrection all by herself, and +everybody else mighty meek and quiet; and at last Uncle Silas, looking +kind of foolish, fishes up that spoon out of his pocket.  She stopped, +with her mouth open and her hands up; and as for me, I wished I was in +Jeruslem or somewheres. But not long, because she says: + +"It's _just_ as I expected.  So you had it in your pocket all the time; +and like as not you've got the other things there, too.  How'd it get +there?" + +"I reely don't know, Sally," he says, kind of apologizing, "or you know +I would tell.  I was a-studying over my text in Acts Seventeen before +breakfast, and I reckon I put it in there, not noticing, meaning to put +my Testament in, and it must be so, because my Testament ain't in; but +I'll go and see; and if the Testament is where I had it, I'll know I +didn't put it in, and that will show that I laid the Testament down and +took up the spoon, and—" + +"Oh, for the land's sake!  Give a body a rest!  Go 'long now, the whole +kit and biling of ye; and don't come nigh me again till I've got back my +peace of mind." + +I'D a heard her if she'd a said it to herself, let alone speaking it +out; and I'd a got up and obeyed her if I'd a been dead.  As we was +passing through the setting-room the old man he took up his hat, and the +shingle-nail fell out on the floor, and he just merely picked it up and +laid it on the mantel-shelf, and never said nothing, and went out.  Tom +see him do it, and remembered about the spoon, and says: + +"Well, it ain't no use to send things by _him_ no more, he ain't +reliable." Then he says:  "But he done us a good turn with the spoon, +anyway, without knowing it, and so we'll go and do him one without _him_ +knowing it—stop up his rat-holes." + +There was a noble good lot of them down cellar, and it took us a whole +hour, but we done the job tight and good and shipshape.  Then we heard +steps on the stairs, and blowed out our light and hid; and here comes +the old man, with a candle in one hand and a bundle of stuff in t'other, +looking as absent-minded as year before last.  He went a mooning around, +first to one rat-hole and then another, till he'd been to them all. + Then he stood about five minutes, picking tallow-drip off of his candle +and thinking.  Then he turns off slow and dreamy towards the stairs, +saying: + +"Well, for the life of me I can't remember when I done it.  I could +show her now that I warn't to blame on account of the rats.  But never +mind—let it go.  I reckon it wouldn't do no good." + +And so he went on a-mumbling up stairs, and then we left.  He was a +mighty nice old man.  And always is. + +Tom was a good deal bothered about what to do for a spoon, but he said +we'd got to have it; so he took a think.  When he had ciphered it out +he told me how we was to do; then we went and waited around the +spoon-basket till we see Aunt Sally coming, and then Tom went to +counting the spoons and laying them out to one side, and I slid one of +them up my sleeve, and Tom says: + +"Why, Aunt Sally, there ain't but nine spoons _yet_." + +She says: + +"Go 'long to your play, and don't bother me.  I know better, I counted +'m myself." + +"Well, I've counted them twice, Aunty, and I can't make but nine." + +She looked out of all patience, but of course she come to count—anybody +would. + +"I declare to gracious ther' _ain't_ but nine!" she says.  "Why, what in +the world—plague _take_ the things, I'll count 'm again." + +So I slipped back the one I had, and when she got done counting, she +says: + +"Hang the troublesome rubbage, ther's _ten_ now!" and she looked huffy +and bothered both.  But Tom says: + +"Why, Aunty, I don't think there's ten." + +"You numskull, didn't you see me _count 'm?_" + +"I know, but—" + +"Well, I'll count 'm _again_." + +So I smouched one, and they come out nine, same as the other time. + Well, she _was_ in a tearing way—just a-trembling all over, she was so +mad.  But she counted and counted till she got that addled she'd start +to count in the basket for a spoon sometimes; and so, three times they +come out right, and three times they come out wrong.  Then she grabbed +up the basket and slammed it across the house and knocked the cat +galley-west; and she said cle'r out and let her have some peace, and if +we come bothering around her again betwixt that and dinner she'd skin +us.  So we had the odd spoon, and dropped it in her apron-pocket whilst +she was a-giving us our sailing orders, and Jim got it all right, along +with her shingle nail, before noon.  We was very well satisfied with +this business, and Tom allowed it was worth twice the trouble it took, +because he said _now_ she couldn't ever count them spoons twice alike +again to save her life; and wouldn't believe she'd counted them right if +she _did_; and said that after she'd about counted her head off for the +next three days he judged she'd give it up and offer to kill anybody +that wanted her to ever count them any more. + +So we put the sheet back on the line that night, and stole one out of +her closet; and kept on putting it back and stealing it again for a +couple of days till she didn't know how many sheets she had any more, +and she didn't _care_, and warn't a-going to bullyrag the rest of her +soul out about it, and wouldn't count them again not to save her life; +she druther die first. + +So we was all right now, as to the shirt and the sheet and the spoon +and the candles, by the help of the calf and the rats and the mixed-up +counting; and as to the candlestick, it warn't no consequence, it would +blow over by and by. + +But that pie was a job; we had no end of trouble with that pie.  We +fixed it up away down in the woods, and cooked it there; and we got it +done at last, and very satisfactory, too; but not all in one day; and we +had to use up three wash-pans full of flour before we got through, and +we got burnt pretty much all over, in places, and eyes put out with +the smoke; because, you see, we didn't want nothing but a crust, and we +couldn't prop it up right, and she would always cave in.  But of course +we thought of the right way at last—which was to cook the ladder, too, +in the pie.  So then we laid in with Jim the second night, and tore +up the sheet all in little strings and twisted them together, and long +before daylight we had a lovely rope that you could a hung a person +with.  We let on it took nine months to make it. + +And in the forenoon we took it down to the woods, but it wouldn't go +into the pie.  Being made of a whole sheet, that way, there was rope +enough for forty pies if we'd a wanted them, and plenty left over +for soup, or sausage, or anything you choose.  We could a had a whole +dinner. + +But we didn't need it.  All we needed was just enough for the pie, and +so we throwed the rest away.  We didn't cook none of the pies in the +wash-pan—afraid the solder would melt; but Uncle Silas he had a noble +brass warming-pan which he thought considerable of, because it belonged +to one of his ancesters with a long wooden handle that come over from +England with William the Conqueror in the Mayflower or one of them early +ships and was hid away up garret with a lot of other old pots and things +that was valuable, not on account of being any account, because they +warn't, but on account of them being relicts, you know, and we snaked +her out, private, and took her down there, but she failed on the first +pies, because we didn't know how, but she come up smiling on the last +one.  We took and lined her with dough, and set her in the coals, and +loaded her up with rag rope, and put on a dough roof, and shut down the +lid, and put hot embers on top, and stood off five foot, with the long +handle, cool and comfortable, and in fifteen minutes she turned out a +pie that was a satisfaction to look at. But the person that et it would +want to fetch a couple of kags of toothpicks along, for if that rope +ladder wouldn't cramp him down to business I don't know nothing what I'm +talking about, and lay him in enough stomach-ache to last him till next +time, too. + +Nat didn't look when we put the witch pie in Jim's pan; and we put the +three tin plates in the bottom of the pan under the vittles; and so Jim +got everything all right, and as soon as he was by himself he busted +into the pie and hid the rope ladder inside of his straw tick, +and scratched some marks on a tin plate and throwed it out of the +window-hole. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +MAKING them pens was a distressid tough job, and so was the saw; and Jim +allowed the inscription was going to be the toughest of all.  That's the +one which the prisoner has to scrabble on the wall.  But he had to have +it; Tom said he'd _got_ to; there warn't no case of a state prisoner not +scrabbling his inscription to leave behind, and his coat of arms. + +"Look at Lady Jane Grey," he says; "look at Gilford Dudley; look at old +Northumberland!  Why, Huck, s'pose it _is_ considerble trouble?—what +you going to do?—how you going to get around it?  Jim's _got_ to do his +inscription and coat of arms.  They all do." + +Jim says: + +"Why, Mars Tom, I hain't got no coat o' arm; I hain't got nuffn but dish +yer ole shirt, en you knows I got to keep de journal on dat." + +"Oh, you don't understand, Jim; a coat of arms is very different." + +"Well," I says, "Jim's right, anyway, when he says he ain't got no coat +of arms, because he hain't." + +"I reckon I knowed that," Tom says, "but you bet he'll have one before +he goes out of this—because he's going out _right_, and there ain't +going to be no flaws in his record." + +So whilst me and Jim filed away at the pens on a brickbat apiece, Jim +a-making his'n out of the brass and I making mine out of the spoon, +Tom set to work to think out the coat of arms.  By and by he said he'd +struck so many good ones he didn't hardly know which to take, but there +was one which he reckoned he'd decide on.  He says: + +"On the scutcheon we'll have a bend _or_ in the dexter base, a saltire +_murrey_ in the fess, with a dog, couchant, for common charge, and under +his foot a chain embattled, for slavery, with a chevron _vert_ in a +chief engrailed, and three invected lines on a field _azure_, with the +nombril points rampant on a dancette indented; crest, a runaway nigger, +_sable_, with his bundle over his shoulder on a bar sinister; and a +couple of gules for supporters, which is you and me; motto, _Maggiore +Fretta, Minore Otto._  Got it out of a book—means the more haste the +less speed." + +"Geewhillikins," I says, "but what does the rest of it mean?" + +"We ain't got no time to bother over that," he says; "we got to dig in +like all git-out." + +"Well, anyway," I says, "what's _some_ of it?  What's a fess?" + +"A fess—a fess is—_you_ don't need to know what a fess is.  I'll show +him how to make it when he gets to it." + +"Shucks, Tom," I says, "I think you might tell a person.  What's a bar +sinister?" + +"Oh, I don't know.  But he's got to have it.  All the nobility does." + +That was just his way.  If it didn't suit him to explain a thing to you, +he wouldn't do it.  You might pump at him a week, it wouldn't make no +difference. + +He'd got all that coat of arms business fixed, so now he started in to +finish up the rest of that part of the work, which was to plan out a +mournful inscription—said Jim got to have one, like they all done.  He +made up a lot, and wrote them out on a paper, and read them off, so: + +1.  Here a captive heart busted. 2.  Here a poor prisoner, forsook by +the world and friends, fretted his sorrowful life. 3.  Here a lonely +heart broke, and a worn spirit went to its rest, after thirty-seven +years of solitary captivity. 4.  Here, homeless and friendless, after +thirty-seven years of bitter captivity, perished a noble stranger, +natural son of Louis XIV. + +Tom's voice trembled whilst he was reading them, and he most broke down. +When he got done he couldn't no way make up his mind which one for Jim +to scrabble on to the wall, they was all so good; but at last he allowed +he would let him scrabble them all on.  Jim said it would take him a +year to scrabble such a lot of truck on to the logs with a nail, and he +didn't know how to make letters, besides; but Tom said he would block +them out for him, and then he wouldn't have nothing to do but just +follow the lines.  Then pretty soon he says: + +"Come to think, the logs ain't a-going to do; they don't have log walls +in a dungeon:  we got to dig the inscriptions into a rock.  We'll fetch +a rock." + +Jim said the rock was worse than the logs; he said it would take him +such a pison long time to dig them into a rock he wouldn't ever get out. + But Tom said he would let me help him do it.  Then he took a look to +see how me and Jim was getting along with the pens.  It was most pesky +tedious hard work and slow, and didn't give my hands no show to get +well of the sores, and we didn't seem to make no headway, hardly; so Tom +says: + +"I know how to fix it.  We got to have a rock for the coat of arms and +mournful inscriptions, and we can kill two birds with that same rock. +There's a gaudy big grindstone down at the mill, and we'll smouch it, +and carve the things on it, and file out the pens and the saw on it, +too." + +It warn't no slouch of an idea; and it warn't no slouch of a grindstone +nuther; but we allowed we'd tackle it.  It warn't quite midnight yet, +so we cleared out for the mill, leaving Jim at work.  We smouched the +grindstone, and set out to roll her home, but it was a most nation tough +job. Sometimes, do what we could, we couldn't keep her from falling +over, and she come mighty near mashing us every time.  Tom said she was +going to get one of us, sure, before we got through.  We got her half +way; and then we was plumb played out, and most drownded with sweat.  We +see it warn't no use; we got to go and fetch Jim. So he raised up his +bed and slid the chain off of the bed-leg, and wrapt it round and round +his neck, and we crawled out through our hole and down there, and Jim +and me laid into that grindstone and walked her along like nothing; and +Tom superintended.  He could out-superintend any boy I ever see.  He +knowed how to do everything. + +Our hole was pretty big, but it warn't big enough to get the grindstone +through; but Jim he took the pick and soon made it big enough.  Then Tom +marked out them things on it with the nail, and set Jim to work on them, +with the nail for a chisel and an iron bolt from the rubbage in the +lean-to for a hammer, and told him to work till the rest of his candle +quit on him, and then he could go to bed, and hide the grindstone under +his straw tick and sleep on it.  Then we helped him fix his chain back +on the bed-leg, and was ready for bed ourselves.  But Tom thought of +something, and says: + +"You got any spiders in here, Jim?" + +"No, sah, thanks to goodness I hain't, Mars Tom." + +"All right, we'll get you some." + +"But bless you, honey, I doan' _want_ none.  I's afeard un um.  I jis' +'s soon have rattlesnakes aroun'." + +Tom thought a minute or two, and says: + +"It's a good idea.  And I reckon it's been done.  It _must_ a been done; +it stands to reason.  Yes, it's a prime good idea.  Where could you keep +it?" + +"Keep what, Mars Tom?" + +"Why, a rattlesnake." + +"De goodness gracious alive, Mars Tom!  Why, if dey was a rattlesnake to +come in heah I'd take en bust right out thoo dat log wall, I would, wid +my head." + +"Why, Jim, you wouldn't be afraid of it after a little.  You could tame +it." + +"_Tame_ it!" + +"Yes—easy enough.  Every animal is grateful for kindness and petting, +and they wouldn't _think_ of hurting a person that pets them.  Any book +will tell you that.  You try—that's all I ask; just try for two or three +days. Why, you can get him so, in a little while, that he'll love you; +and sleep with you; and won't stay away from you a minute; and will let +you wrap him round your neck and put his head in your mouth." + +"_Please_, Mars Tom—_doan_' talk so!  I can't _stan_' it!  He'd _let_ +me shove his head in my mouf—fer a favor, hain't it?  I lay he'd wait a +pow'ful long time 'fo' I _ast_ him.  En mo' en dat, I doan' _want_ him +to sleep wid me." + +"Jim, don't act so foolish.  A prisoner's _got_ to have some kind of a +dumb pet, and if a rattlesnake hain't ever been tried, why, there's more +glory to be gained in your being the first to ever try it than any other +way you could ever think of to save your life." + +"Why, Mars Tom, I doan' _want_ no sich glory.  Snake take 'n bite +Jim's chin off, den _whah_ is de glory?  No, sah, I doan' want no sich +doin's." + +"Blame it, can't you _try_?  I only _want_ you to try—you needn't keep +it up if it don't work." + +"But de trouble all _done_ ef de snake bite me while I's a tryin' him. +Mars Tom, I's willin' to tackle mos' anything 'at ain't onreasonable, +but ef you en Huck fetches a rattlesnake in heah for me to tame, I's +gwyne to _leave_, dat's _shore_." + +"Well, then, let it go, let it go, if you're so bull-headed about it. + We can get you some garter-snakes, and you can tie some buttons on +their tails, and let on they're rattlesnakes, and I reckon that 'll have +to do." + +"I k'n stan' _dem_, Mars Tom, but blame' 'f I couldn' get along widout +um, I tell you dat.  I never knowed b'fo' 't was so much bother and +trouble to be a prisoner." + +"Well, it _always_ is when it's done right.  You got any rats around +here?" + +"No, sah, I hain't seed none." + +"Well, we'll get you some rats." + +"Why, Mars Tom, I doan' _want_ no rats.  Dey's de dadblamedest creturs +to 'sturb a body, en rustle roun' over 'im, en bite his feet, when he's +tryin' to sleep, I ever see.  No, sah, gimme g'yarter-snakes, 'f I's +got to have 'm, but doan' gimme no rats; I hain' got no use f'r um, +skasely." + +"But, Jim, you _got_ to have 'em—they all do.  So don't make no more +fuss about it.  Prisoners ain't ever without rats.  There ain't no +instance of it.  And they train them, and pet them, and learn them +tricks, and they get to be as sociable as flies.  But you got to play +music to them.  You got anything to play music on?" + +"I ain' got nuffn but a coase comb en a piece o' paper, en a juice-harp; +but I reck'n dey wouldn' take no stock in a juice-harp." + +"Yes they would _they_ don't care what kind of music 'tis.  A +jews-harp's plenty good enough for a rat.  All animals like music—in a +prison they dote on it.  Specially, painful music; and you can't get no +other kind out of a jews-harp.  It always interests them; they come out +to see what's the matter with you.  Yes, you're all right; you're fixed +very well.  You want to set on your bed nights before you go to sleep, +and early in the mornings, and play your jews-harp; play 'The Last Link +is Broken'—that's the thing that 'll scoop a rat quicker 'n anything +else; and when you've played about two minutes you'll see all the rats, +and the snakes, and spiders, and things begin to feel worried about you, +and come.  And they'll just fairly swarm over you, and have a noble good +time." + +"Yes, _dey_ will, I reck'n, Mars Tom, but what kine er time is _Jim_ +havin'? Blest if I kin see de pint.  But I'll do it ef I got to.  I +reck'n I better keep de animals satisfied, en not have no trouble in de +house." + +Tom waited to think it over, and see if there wasn't nothing else; and +pretty soon he says: + +"Oh, there's one thing I forgot.  Could you raise a flower here, do you +reckon?" + +"I doan know but maybe I could, Mars Tom; but it's tolable dark in heah, +en I ain' got no use f'r no flower, nohow, en she'd be a pow'ful sight +o' trouble." + +"Well, you try it, anyway.  Some other prisoners has done it." + +"One er dem big cat-tail-lookin' mullen-stalks would grow in heah, Mars +Tom, I reck'n, but she wouldn't be wuth half de trouble she'd coss." + +"Don't you believe it.  We'll fetch you a little one and you plant it in +the corner over there, and raise it.  And don't call it mullen, call it +Pitchiola—that's its right name when it's in a prison.  And you want to +water it with your tears." + +"Why, I got plenty spring water, Mars Tom." + +"You don't _want_ spring water; you want to water it with your tears. + It's the way they always do." + +"Why, Mars Tom, I lay I kin raise one er dem mullen-stalks twyste wid +spring water whiles another man's a _start'n_ one wid tears." + +"That ain't the idea.  You _got_ to do it with tears." + +"She'll die on my han's, Mars Tom, she sholy will; kase I doan' skasely +ever cry." + +So Tom was stumped.  But he studied it over, and then said Jim would +have to worry along the best he could with an onion.  He promised +he would go to the nigger cabins and drop one, private, in Jim's +coffee-pot, in the morning. Jim said he would "jis' 's soon have +tobacker in his coffee;" and found so much fault with it, and with the +work and bother of raising the mullen, and jews-harping the rats, and +petting and flattering up the snakes and spiders and things, on top of +all the other work he had to do on pens, and inscriptions, and journals, +and things, which made it more trouble and worry and responsibility to +be a prisoner than anything he ever undertook, that Tom most lost all +patience with him; and said he was just loadened down with more gaudier +chances than a prisoner ever had in the world to make a name for +himself, and yet he didn't know enough to appreciate them, and they was +just about wasted on him.  So Jim he was sorry, and said he wouldn't +behave so no more, and then me and Tom shoved for bed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +IN the morning we went up to the village and bought a wire rat-trap and +fetched it down, and unstopped the best rat-hole, and in about an hour +we had fifteen of the bulliest kind of ones; and then we took it and put +it in a safe place under Aunt Sally's bed.  But while we was gone for +spiders little Thomas Franklin Benjamin Jefferson Elexander Phelps found +it there, and opened the door of it to see if the rats would come out, +and they did; and Aunt Sally she come in, and when we got back she was +a-standing on top of the bed raising Cain, and the rats was doing what +they could to keep off the dull times for her.  So she took and dusted +us both with the hickry, and we was as much as two hours catching +another fifteen or sixteen, drat that meddlesome cub, and they warn't +the likeliest, nuther, because the first haul was the pick of the flock. + I never see a likelier lot of rats than what that first haul was. + +We got a splendid stock of sorted spiders, and bugs, and frogs, and +caterpillars, and one thing or another; and we like to got a hornet's +nest, but we didn't.  The family was at home.  We didn't give it right +up, but stayed with them as long as we could; because we allowed we'd +tire them out or they'd got to tire us out, and they done it.  Then we +got allycumpain and rubbed on the places, and was pretty near all right +again, but couldn't set down convenient.  And so we went for the snakes, +and grabbed a couple of dozen garters and house-snakes, and put them in +a bag, and put it in our room, and by that time it was supper-time, and +a rattling good honest day's work:  and hungry?—oh, no, I reckon not! + And there warn't a blessed snake up there when we went back—we didn't +half tie the sack, and they worked out somehow, and left.  But it didn't +matter much, because they was still on the premises somewheres.  So +we judged we could get some of them again.  No, there warn't no real +scarcity of snakes about the house for a considerable spell.  You'd see +them dripping from the rafters and places every now and then; and they +generly landed in your plate, or down the back of your neck, and most +of the time where you didn't want them.  Well, they was handsome and +striped, and there warn't no harm in a million of them; but that never +made no difference to Aunt Sally; she despised snakes, be the breed what +they might, and she couldn't stand them no way you could fix it; and +every time one of them flopped down on her, it didn't make no difference +what she was doing, she would just lay that work down and light out.  I +never see such a woman.  And you could hear her whoop to Jericho.  You +couldn't get her to take a-holt of one of them with the tongs.  And if +she turned over and found one in bed she would scramble out and lift a +howl that you would think the house was afire.  She disturbed the old +man so that he said he could most wish there hadn't ever been no snakes +created.  Why, after every last snake had been gone clear out of the +house for as much as a week Aunt Sally warn't over it yet; she warn't +near over it; when she was setting thinking about something you could +touch her on the back of her neck with a feather and she would jump +right out of her stockings.  It was very curious.  But Tom said all +women was just so.  He said they was made that way for some reason or +other. + +We got a licking every time one of our snakes come in her way, and she +allowed these lickings warn't nothing to what she would do if we ever +loaded up the place again with them.  I didn't mind the lickings, +because they didn't amount to nothing; but I minded the trouble we +had to lay in another lot.  But we got them laid in, and all the other +things; and you never see a cabin as blithesome as Jim's was when they'd +all swarm out for music and go for him.  Jim didn't like the spiders, +and the spiders didn't like Jim; and so they'd lay for him, and make it +mighty warm for him.  And he said that between the rats and the snakes +and the grindstone there warn't no room in bed for him, skasely; and +when there was, a body couldn't sleep, it was so lively, and it was +always lively, he said, because _they_ never all slept at one time, but +took turn about, so when the snakes was asleep the rats was on deck, and +when the rats turned in the snakes come on watch, so he always had one +gang under him, in his way, and t'other gang having a circus over him, +and if he got up to hunt a new place the spiders would take a chance at +him as he crossed over. He said if he ever got out this time he wouldn't +ever be a prisoner again, not for a salary. + +Well, by the end of three weeks everything was in pretty good shape. + The shirt was sent in early, in a pie, and every time a rat bit Jim he +would get up and write a little in his journal whilst the ink was fresh; +the pens was made, the inscriptions and so on was all carved on the +grindstone; the bed-leg was sawed in two, and we had et up the sawdust, +and it give us a most amazing stomach-ache.  We reckoned we was all +going to die, but didn't.  It was the most undigestible sawdust I ever +see; and Tom said the same./ + +But as I was saying, we'd got all the work done now, at last; and we was +all pretty much fagged out, too, but mainly Jim.  The old man had wrote +a couple of times to the plantation below Orleans to come and get their +runaway nigger, but hadn't got no answer, because there warn't no such +plantation; so he allowed he would advertise Jim in the St. Louis and +New Orleans papers; and when he mentioned the St. Louis ones it give me +the cold shivers, and I see we hadn't no time to lose. So Tom said, now +for the nonnamous letters. + +"What's them?"  I says. + +"Warnings to the people that something is up.  Sometimes it's done one +way, sometimes another.  But there's always somebody spying around that +gives notice to the governor of the castle.  When Louis XVI. was going +to light out of the Tooleries, a servant-girl done it.  It's a very good +way, and so is the nonnamous letters.  We'll use them both.  And it's +usual for the prisoner's mother to change clothes with him, and she +stays in, and he slides out in her clothes.  We'll do that, too." + +"But looky here, Tom, what do we want to _warn_ anybody for that +something's up?  Let them find it out for themselves—it's their +lookout." + +"Yes, I know; but you can't depend on them.  It's the way they've acted +from the very start—left us to do _everything_.  They're so confiding +and mullet-headed they don't take notice of nothing at all.  So if we +don't _give_ them notice there won't be nobody nor nothing to interfere +with us, and so after all our hard work and trouble this escape 'll go +off perfectly flat; won't amount to nothing—won't be nothing _to_ it." + +"Well, as for me, Tom, that's the way I'd like." + +"Shucks!" he says, and looked disgusted.  So I says: + +"But I ain't going to make no complaint.  Any way that suits you suits +me. What you going to do about the servant-girl?" + +"You'll be her.  You slide in, in the middle of the night, and hook that +yaller girl's frock." + +"Why, Tom, that 'll make trouble next morning; because, of course, she +prob'bly hain't got any but that one." + +"I know; but you don't want it but fifteen minutes, to carry the +nonnamous letter and shove it under the front door." + +"All right, then, I'll do it; but I could carry it just as handy in my +own togs." + +"You wouldn't look like a servant-girl _then_, would you?" + +"No, but there won't be nobody to see what I look like, _anyway_." + +"That ain't got nothing to do with it.  The thing for us to do is just +to do our _duty_, and not worry about whether anybody _sees_ us do it or +not. Hain't you got no principle at all?" + +"All right, I ain't saying nothing; I'm the servant-girl.  Who's Jim's +mother?" + +"I'm his mother.  I'll hook a gown from Aunt Sally." + +"Well, then, you'll have to stay in the cabin when me and Jim leaves." + +"Not much.  I'll stuff Jim's clothes full of straw and lay it on his bed +to represent his mother in disguise, and Jim 'll take the nigger woman's +gown off of me and wear it, and we'll all evade together.  When a +prisoner of style escapes it's called an evasion.  It's always called +so when a king escapes, f'rinstance.  And the same with a king's son; +it don't make no difference whether he's a natural one or an unnatural +one." + +So Tom he wrote the nonnamous letter, and I smouched the yaller wench's +frock that night, and put it on, and shoved it under the front door, the +way Tom told me to.  It said: + +Beware.  Trouble is brewing.  Keep a sharp lookout. _Unknown_ _Friend_. + +Next night we stuck a picture, which Tom drawed in blood, of a skull and +crossbones on the front door; and next night another one of a coffin on +the back door.  I never see a family in such a sweat.  They couldn't a +been worse scared if the place had a been full of ghosts laying for them +behind everything and under the beds and shivering through the air.  If +a door banged, Aunt Sally she jumped and said "ouch!" if anything fell, +she jumped and said "ouch!" if you happened to touch her, when she +warn't noticing, she done the same; she couldn't face noway and be +satisfied, because she allowed there was something behind her every +time—so she was always a-whirling around sudden, and saying "ouch," and +before she'd got two-thirds around she'd whirl back again, and say it +again; and she was afraid to go to bed, but she dasn't set up.  So the +thing was working very well, Tom said; he said he never see a thing work +more satisfactory. He said it showed it was done right. + +So he said, now for the grand bulge!  So the very next morning at the +streak of dawn we got another letter ready, and was wondering what we +better do with it, because we heard them say at supper they was going +to have a nigger on watch at both doors all night.  Tom he went down the +lightning-rod to spy around; and the nigger at the back door was asleep, +and he stuck it in the back of his neck and come back.  This letter +said: + +Don't betray me, I wish to be your friend.  There is a desprate gang of +cutthroats from over in the Indian Territory going to steal your runaway +nigger to-night, and they have been trying to scare you so as you will +stay in the house and not bother them.  I am one of the gang, but have +got religgion and wish to quit it and lead an honest life again, and +will betray the helish design. They will sneak down from northards, +along the fence, at midnight exact, with a false key, and go in the +nigger's cabin to get him. I am to be off a piece and blow a tin horn +if I see any danger; but stead of that I will _baa_ like a sheep soon as +they get in and not blow at all; then whilst they are getting his +chains loose, you slip there and lock them in, and can kill them at your +leasure.  Don't do anything but just the way I am telling you, if you do +they will suspicion something and raise whoop-jamboreehoo. I do not wish +any reward but to know I have done the right thing. _Unknown Friend._ + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +WE was feeling pretty good after breakfast, and took my canoe and went +over the river a-fishing, with a lunch, and had a good time, and took a +look at the raft and found her all right, and got home late to supper, +and found them in such a sweat and worry they didn't know which end they +was standing on, and made us go right off to bed the minute we was done +supper, and wouldn't tell us what the trouble was, and never let on a +word about the new letter, but didn't need to, because we knowed as much +about it as anybody did, and as soon as we was half up stairs and her +back was turned we slid for the cellar cupboard and loaded up a good +lunch and took it up to our room and went to bed, and got up about +half-past eleven, and Tom put on Aunt Sally's dress that he stole and +was going to start with the lunch, but says: + +"Where's the butter?" + +"I laid out a hunk of it," I says, "on a piece of a corn-pone." + +"Well, you _left_ it laid out, then—it ain't here." + +"We can get along without it," I says. + +"We can get along _with_ it, too," he says; "just you slide down cellar +and fetch it.  And then mosey right down the lightning-rod and come +along. I'll go and stuff the straw into Jim's clothes to represent his +mother in disguise, and be ready to _baa_ like a sheep and shove soon as +you get there." + +So out he went, and down cellar went I. The hunk of butter, big as +a person's fist, was where I had left it, so I took up the slab of +corn-pone with it on, and blowed out my light, and started up stairs +very stealthy, and got up to the main floor all right, but here comes +Aunt Sally with a candle, and I clapped the truck in my hat, and clapped +my hat on my head, and the next second she see me; and she says: + +"You been down cellar?" + +"Yes'm." + +"What you been doing down there?" + +"Noth'n." + +"_Noth'n!_" + +"No'm." + +"Well, then, what possessed you to go down there this time of night?" + +"I don't know 'm." + +"You don't _know_?  Don't answer me that way. Tom, I want to know what +you been _doing_ down there." + +"I hain't been doing a single thing, Aunt Sally, I hope to gracious if I +have." + +I reckoned she'd let me go now, and as a generl thing she would; but I +s'pose there was so many strange things going on she was just in a sweat +about every little thing that warn't yard-stick straight; so she says, +very decided: + +"You just march into that setting-room and stay there till I come.  You +been up to something you no business to, and I lay I'll find out what it +is before I'M done with you." + +So she went away as I opened the door and walked into the setting-room. +My, but there was a crowd there!  Fifteen farmers, and every one of them +had a gun.  I was most powerful sick, and slunk to a chair and set down. +They was setting around, some of them talking a little, in a low voice, +and all of them fidgety and uneasy, but trying to look like they warn't; +but I knowed they was, because they was always taking off their hats, +and putting them on, and scratching their heads, and changing their +seats, and fumbling with their buttons.  I warn't easy myself, but I +didn't take my hat off, all the same. + +I did wish Aunt Sally would come, and get done with me, and lick me, if +she wanted to, and let me get away and tell Tom how we'd overdone this +thing, and what a thundering hornet's-nest we'd got ourselves into, so +we could stop fooling around straight off, and clear out with Jim before +these rips got out of patience and come for us. + +At last she come and begun to ask me questions, but I _couldn't_ answer +them straight, I didn't know which end of me was up; because these men +was in such a fidget now that some was wanting to start right NOW and +lay for them desperadoes, and saying it warn't but a few minutes to +midnight; and others was trying to get them to hold on and wait for the +sheep-signal; and here was Aunty pegging away at the questions, and +me a-shaking all over and ready to sink down in my tracks I was +that scared; and the place getting hotter and hotter, and the butter +beginning to melt and run down my neck and behind my ears; and pretty +soon, when one of them says, "I'M for going and getting in the cabin +_first_ and right _now_, and catching them when they come," I most +dropped; and a streak of butter come a-trickling down my forehead, and +Aunt Sally she see it, and turns white as a sheet, and says: + +"For the land's sake, what _is_ the matter with the child?  He's got the +brain-fever as shore as you're born, and they're oozing out!" + +And everybody runs to see, and she snatches off my hat, and out comes +the bread and what was left of the butter, and she grabbed me, and +hugged me, and says: + +"Oh, what a turn you did give me! and how glad and grateful I am it +ain't no worse; for luck's against us, and it never rains but it pours, +and when I see that truck I thought we'd lost you, for I knowed by +the color and all it was just like your brains would be if—Dear, +dear, whyd'nt you _tell_ me that was what you'd been down there for, I +wouldn't a cared.  Now cler out to bed, and don't lemme see no more of +you till morning!" + +I was up stairs in a second, and down the lightning-rod in another one, +and shinning through the dark for the lean-to.  I couldn't hardly get my +words out, I was so anxious; but I told Tom as quick as I could we must +jump for it now, and not a minute to lose—the house full of men, yonder, +with guns! + +His eyes just blazed; and he says: + +"No!—is that so?  _ain't_ it bully!  Why, Huck, if it was to do over +again, I bet I could fetch two hundred!  If we could put it off till—" + +"Hurry!  _Hurry_!"  I says.  "Where's Jim?" + +"Right at your elbow; if you reach out your arm you can touch him. + He's dressed, and everything's ready.  Now we'll slide out and give the +sheep-signal." + +But then we heard the tramp of men coming to the door, and heard them +begin to fumble with the pad-lock, and heard a man say: + +"I _told_ you we'd be too soon; they haven't come—the door is locked. +Here, I'll lock some of you into the cabin, and you lay for 'em in the +dark and kill 'em when they come; and the rest scatter around a piece, +and listen if you can hear 'em coming." + +So in they come, but couldn't see us in the dark, and most trod on +us whilst we was hustling to get under the bed.  But we got under all +right, and out through the hole, swift but soft—Jim first, me next, +and Tom last, which was according to Tom's orders.  Now we was in the +lean-to, and heard trampings close by outside.  So we crept to the door, +and Tom stopped us there and put his eye to the crack, but couldn't make +out nothing, it was so dark; and whispered and said he would listen +for the steps to get further, and when he nudged us Jim must glide out +first, and him last.  So he set his ear to the crack and listened, and +listened, and listened, and the steps a-scraping around out there all +the time; and at last he nudged us, and we slid out, and stooped down, +not breathing, and not making the least noise, and slipped stealthy +towards the fence in Injun file, and got to it all right, and me and Jim +over it; but Tom's britches catched fast on a splinter on the top +rail, and then he hear the steps coming, so he had to pull loose, which +snapped the splinter and made a noise; and as he dropped in our tracks +and started somebody sings out: + +"Who's that?  Answer, or I'll shoot!" + +But we didn't answer; we just unfurled our heels and shoved.  Then there +was a rush, and a _Bang, Bang, Bang!_ and the bullets fairly whizzed +around us! We heard them sing out: + +"Here they are!  They've broke for the river!  After 'em, boys, and turn +loose the dogs!" + +So here they come, full tilt.  We could hear them because they wore +boots and yelled, but we didn't wear no boots and didn't yell.  We was +in the path to the mill; and when they got pretty close on to us we +dodged into the bush and let them go by, and then dropped in behind +them.  They'd had all the dogs shut up, so they wouldn't scare off the +robbers; but by this time somebody had let them loose, and here they +come, making powwow enough for a million; but they was our dogs; so we +stopped in our tracks till they catched up; and when they see it warn't +nobody but us, and no excitement to offer them, they only just said +howdy, and tore right ahead towards the shouting and clattering; and +then we up-steam again, and whizzed along after them till we was nearly +to the mill, and then struck up through the bush to where my canoe was +tied, and hopped in and pulled for dear life towards the middle of the +river, but didn't make no more noise than we was obleeged to. Then we +struck out, easy and comfortable, for the island where my raft was; and +we could hear them yelling and barking at each other all up and down the +bank, till we was so far away the sounds got dim and died out.  And when +we stepped on to the raft I says: + +"_Now_, old Jim, you're a free man again, and I bet you won't ever be a +slave no more." + +"En a mighty good job it wuz, too, Huck.  It 'uz planned beautiful, en +it 'uz done beautiful; en dey ain't _nobody_ kin git up a plan dat's mo' +mixed-up en splendid den what dat one wuz." + +We was all glad as we could be, but Tom was the gladdest of all because +he had a bullet in the calf of his leg. + +When me and Jim heard that we didn't feel so brash as what we did +before. It was hurting him considerable, and bleeding; so we laid him in +the wigwam and tore up one of the duke's shirts for to bandage him, but +he says: + +"Gimme the rags; I can do it myself.  Don't stop now; don't fool around +here, and the evasion booming along so handsome; man the sweeps, and set +her loose!  Boys, we done it elegant!—'deed we did.  I wish _we'd_ a +had the handling of Louis XVI., there wouldn't a been no 'Son of Saint +Louis, ascend to heaven!' wrote down in _his_ biography; no, sir, we'd +a whooped him over the _border_—that's what we'd a done with _him_—and +done it just as slick as nothing at all, too.  Man the sweeps—man the +sweeps!" + +But me and Jim was consulting—and thinking.  And after we'd thought a +minute, I says: + +"Say it, Jim." + +So he says: + +"Well, den, dis is de way it look to me, Huck.  Ef it wuz _him_ dat 'uz +bein' sot free, en one er de boys wuz to git shot, would he say, 'Go on +en save me, nemmine 'bout a doctor f'r to save dis one?'  Is dat like +Mars Tom Sawyer?  Would he say dat?  You _bet_ he wouldn't!  _well_, +den, is _Jim_ gywne to say it?  No, sah—I doan' budge a step out'n dis +place 'dout a _doctor_, not if it's forty year!" + +I knowed he was white inside, and I reckoned he'd say what he did say—so +it was all right now, and I told Tom I was a-going for a doctor. + He raised considerable row about it, but me and Jim stuck to it and +wouldn't budge; so he was for crawling out and setting the raft loose +himself; but we wouldn't let him.  Then he give us a piece of his mind, +but it didn't do no good. + +So when he sees me getting the canoe ready, he says: + +"Well, then, if you're bound to go, I'll tell you the way to do when you +get to the village.  Shut the door and blindfold the doctor tight and +fast, and make him swear to be silent as the grave, and put a purse +full of gold in his hand, and then take and lead him all around the +back alleys and everywheres in the dark, and then fetch him here in the +canoe, in a roundabout way amongst the islands, and search him and take +his chalk away from him, and don't give it back to him till you get him +back to the village, or else he will chalk this raft so he can find it +again. It's the way they all do." + +So I said I would, and left, and Jim was to hide in the woods when he +see the doctor coming till he was gone again. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +THE doctor was an old man; a very nice, kind-looking old man when I got +him up.  I told him me and my brother was over on Spanish Island hunting +yesterday afternoon, and camped on a piece of a raft we found, and about +midnight he must a kicked his gun in his dreams, for it went off and +shot him in the leg, and we wanted him to go over there and fix it and +not say nothing about it, nor let anybody know, because we wanted to +come home this evening and surprise the folks. + +"Who is your folks?" he says. + +"The Phelpses, down yonder." + +"Oh," he says.  And after a minute, he says: + +"How'd you say he got shot?" + +"He had a dream," I says, "and it shot him." + +"Singular dream," he says. + +So he lit up his lantern, and got his saddle-bags, and we started.  But +when he sees the canoe he didn't like the look of her—said she was big +enough for one, but didn't look pretty safe for two.  I says: + +"Oh, you needn't be afeard, sir, she carried the three of us easy +enough." + +"What three?" + +"Why, me and Sid, and—and—and _the guns_; that's what I mean." + +"Oh," he says. + +But he put his foot on the gunnel and rocked her, and shook his head, +and said he reckoned he'd look around for a bigger one.  But they was +all locked and chained; so he took my canoe, and said for me to wait +till he come back, or I could hunt around further, or maybe I better +go down home and get them ready for the surprise if I wanted to.  But +I said I didn't; so I told him just how to find the raft, and then he +started. + +I struck an idea pretty soon.  I says to myself, spos'n he can't fix +that leg just in three shakes of a sheep's tail, as the saying is? +spos'n it takes him three or four days?  What are we going to do?—lay +around there till he lets the cat out of the bag?  No, sir; I know what +_I'll_ do.  I'll wait, and when he comes back if he says he's got to +go any more I'll get down there, too, if I swim; and we'll take and tie +him, and keep him, and shove out down the river; and when Tom's done +with him we'll give him what it's worth, or all we got, and then let him +get ashore. + +So then I crept into a lumber-pile to get some sleep; and next time I +waked up the sun was away up over my head!  I shot out and went for the +doctor's house, but they told me he'd gone away in the night some time +or other, and warn't back yet.  Well, thinks I, that looks powerful bad +for Tom, and I'll dig out for the island right off.  So away I shoved, +and turned the corner, and nearly rammed my head into Uncle Silas's +stomach! He says: + +"Why, _Tom!_  Where you been all this time, you rascal?" + +"I hain't been nowheres," I says, "only just hunting for the runaway +nigger—me and Sid." + +"Why, where ever did you go?" he says.  "Your aunt's been mighty +uneasy." + +"She needn't," I says, "because we was all right.  We followed the men +and the dogs, but they outrun us, and we lost them; but we thought we +heard them on the water, so we got a canoe and took out after them and +crossed over, but couldn't find nothing of them; so we cruised along +up-shore till we got kind of tired and beat out; and tied up the canoe +and went to sleep, and never waked up till about an hour ago; then we +paddled over here to hear the news, and Sid's at the post-office to see +what he can hear, and I'm a-branching out to get something to eat for +us, and then we're going home." + +So then we went to the post-office to get "Sid"; but just as I +suspicioned, he warn't there; so the old man he got a letter out of the +office, and we waited awhile longer, but Sid didn't come; so the old man +said, come along, let Sid foot it home, or canoe it, when he got done +fooling around—but we would ride.  I couldn't get him to let me stay +and wait for Sid; and he said there warn't no use in it, and I must come +along, and let Aunt Sally see we was all right. + +When we got home Aunt Sally was that glad to see me she laughed and +cried both, and hugged me, and give me one of them lickings of hern that +don't amount to shucks, and said she'd serve Sid the same when he come. + +And the place was plum full of farmers and farmers' wives, to dinner; +and such another clack a body never heard.  Old Mrs. Hotchkiss was the +worst; her tongue was a-going all the time.  She says: + +"Well, Sister Phelps, I've ransacked that-air cabin over, an' I b'lieve +the nigger was crazy.  I says to Sister Damrell—didn't I, Sister +Damrell?—s'I, he's crazy, s'I—them's the very words I said.  You all +hearn me: he's crazy, s'I; everything shows it, s'I.  Look at that-air +grindstone, s'I; want to tell _me_'t any cretur 't's in his right mind +'s a goin' to scrabble all them crazy things onto a grindstone, s'I? + Here sich 'n' sich a person busted his heart; 'n' here so 'n' so +pegged along for thirty-seven year, 'n' all that—natcherl son o' Louis +somebody, 'n' sich everlast'n rubbage.  He's plumb crazy, s'I; it's what +I says in the fust place, it's what I says in the middle, 'n' it's what +I says last 'n' all the time—the nigger's crazy—crazy 's Nebokoodneezer, +s'I." + +"An' look at that-air ladder made out'n rags, Sister Hotchkiss," says +old Mrs. Damrell; "what in the name o' goodness _could_ he ever want +of—" + +"The very words I was a-sayin' no longer ago th'n this minute to Sister +Utterback, 'n' she'll tell you so herself.  Sh-she, look at that-air rag +ladder, sh-she; 'n' s'I, yes, _look_ at it, s'I—what _could_ he a-wanted +of it, s'I.  Sh-she, Sister Hotchkiss, sh-she—" + +"But how in the nation'd they ever _git_ that grindstone _in_ there, +_anyway_? 'n' who dug that-air _hole_? 'n' who—" + +"My very _words_, Brer Penrod!  I was a-sayin'—pass that-air sasser o' +m'lasses, won't ye?—I was a-sayin' to Sister Dunlap, jist this minute, +how _did_ they git that grindstone in there, s'I.  Without _help_, mind +you—'thout _help_!  _that's_ wher 'tis.  Don't tell _me_, s'I; there +_wuz_ help, s'I; 'n' ther' wuz a _plenty_ help, too, s'I; ther's ben a +_dozen_ a-helpin' that nigger, 'n' I lay I'd skin every last nigger on +this place but _I'd_ find out who done it, s'I; 'n' moreover, s'I—" + +"A _dozen_ says you!—_forty_ couldn't a done every thing that's been +done. Look at them case-knife saws and things, how tedious they've been +made; look at that bed-leg sawed off with 'm, a week's work for six men; +look at that nigger made out'n straw on the bed; and look at—" + +"You may _well_ say it, Brer Hightower!  It's jist as I was a-sayin' +to Brer Phelps, his own self.  S'e, what do _you_ think of it, Sister +Hotchkiss, s'e? Think o' what, Brer Phelps, s'I?  Think o' that bed-leg +sawed off that a way, s'e?  _think_ of it, s'I?  I lay it never sawed +_itself_ off, s'I—somebody _sawed_ it, s'I; that's my opinion, take it +or leave it, it mayn't be no 'count, s'I, but sich as 't is, it's my +opinion, s'I, 'n' if any body k'n start a better one, s'I, let him _do_ +it, s'I, that's all.  I says to Sister Dunlap, s'I—" + +"Why, dog my cats, they must a ben a house-full o' niggers in there +every night for four weeks to a done all that work, Sister Phelps.  Look +at that shirt—every last inch of it kivered over with secret African +writ'n done with blood!  Must a ben a raft uv 'm at it right along, all +the time, amost.  Why, I'd give two dollars to have it read to me; 'n' +as for the niggers that wrote it, I 'low I'd take 'n' lash 'm t'll—" + +"People to _help_ him, Brother Marples!  Well, I reckon you'd _think_ +so if you'd a been in this house for a while back.  Why, they've stole +everything they could lay their hands on—and we a-watching all the time, +mind you. They stole that shirt right off o' the line! and as for that +sheet they made the rag ladder out of, ther' ain't no telling how +many times they _didn't_ steal that; and flour, and candles, and +candlesticks, and spoons, and the old warming-pan, and most a thousand +things that I disremember now, and my new calico dress; and me and +Silas and my Sid and Tom on the constant watch day _and_ night, as I was +a-telling you, and not a one of us could catch hide nor hair nor sight +nor sound of them; and here at the last minute, lo and behold you, they +slides right in under our noses and fools us, and not only fools _us_ +but the Injun Territory robbers too, and actuly gets _away_ with that +nigger safe and sound, and that with sixteen men and twenty-two dogs +right on their very heels at that very time!  I tell you, it just bangs +anything I ever _heard_ of. Why, _sperits_ couldn't a done better and +been no smarter. And I reckon they must a _been_ sperits—because, _you_ +know our dogs, and ther' ain't no better; well, them dogs never even got +on the _track_ of 'm once!  You explain _that_ to me if you can!—_any_ +of you!" + +"Well, it does beat—" + +"Laws alive, I never—" + +"So help me, I wouldn't a be—" + +"_House_-thieves as well as—" + +"Goodnessgracioussakes, I'd a ben afeard to live in sich a—" + +"'Fraid to _live_!—why, I was that scared I dasn't hardly go to bed, or +get up, or lay down, or _set_ down, Sister Ridgeway.  Why, they'd steal +the very—why, goodness sakes, you can guess what kind of a fluster I was +in by the time midnight come last night.  I hope to gracious if I warn't +afraid they'd steal some o' the family!  I was just to that pass I +didn't have no reasoning faculties no more.  It looks foolish enough +_now_, in the daytime; but I says to myself, there's my two poor boys +asleep, 'way up stairs in that lonesome room, and I declare to goodness +I was that uneasy 't I crep' up there and locked 'em in!  I _did_.  And +anybody would. Because, you know, when you get scared that way, and it +keeps running on, and getting worse and worse all the time, and your +wits gets to addling, and you get to doing all sorts o' wild things, +and by and by you think to yourself, spos'n I was a boy, and was away up +there, and the door ain't locked, and you—" She stopped, looking kind +of wondering, and then she turned her head around slow, and when her eye +lit on me—I got up and took a walk. + +Says I to myself, I can explain better how we come to not be in that +room this morning if I go out to one side and study over it a little. + So I done it.  But I dasn't go fur, or she'd a sent for me.  And when +it was late in the day the people all went, and then I come in and +told her the noise and shooting waked up me and "Sid," and the door was +locked, and we wanted to see the fun, so we went down the lightning-rod, +and both of us got hurt a little, and we didn't never want to try _that_ +no more.  And then I went on and told her all what I told Uncle Silas +before; and then she said she'd forgive us, and maybe it was all right +enough anyway, and about what a body might expect of boys, for all boys +was a pretty harum-scarum lot as fur as she could see; and so, as long +as no harm hadn't come of it, she judged she better put in her time +being grateful we was alive and well and she had us still, stead of +fretting over what was past and done.  So then she kissed me, and patted +me on the head, and dropped into a kind of a brown study; and pretty +soon jumps up, and says: + +"Why, lawsamercy, it's most night, and Sid not come yet!  What _has_ +become of that boy?" + +I see my chance; so I skips up and says: + +"I'll run right up to town and get him," I says. + +"No you won't," she says.  "You'll stay right wher' you are; _one's_ +enough to be lost at a time.  If he ain't here to supper, your uncle 'll +go." + +Well, he warn't there to supper; so right after supper uncle went. + +He come back about ten a little bit uneasy; hadn't run across Tom's +track. Aunt Sally was a good _deal_ uneasy; but Uncle Silas he said +there warn't no occasion to be—boys will be boys, he said, and you'll +see this one turn up in the morning all sound and right.  So she had +to be satisfied.  But she said she'd set up for him a while anyway, and +keep a light burning so he could see it. + +And then when I went up to bed she come up with me and fetched her +candle, and tucked me in, and mothered me so good I felt mean, and like +I couldn't look her in the face; and she set down on the bed and talked +with me a long time, and said what a splendid boy Sid was, and didn't +seem to want to ever stop talking about him; and kept asking me every +now and then if I reckoned he could a got lost, or hurt, or maybe +drownded, and might be laying at this minute somewheres suffering or +dead, and she not by him to help him, and so the tears would drip down +silent, and I would tell her that Sid was all right, and would be home +in the morning, sure; and she would squeeze my hand, or maybe kiss me, +and tell me to say it again, and keep on saying it, because it done her +good, and she was in so much trouble.  And when she was going away she +looked down in my eyes so steady and gentle, and says: + +"The door ain't going to be locked, Tom, and there's the window and +the rod; but you'll be good, _won't_ you?  And you won't go?  For _my_ +sake." + +Laws knows I _wanted_ to go bad enough to see about Tom, and was all +intending to go; but after that I wouldn't a went, not for kingdoms. + +But she was on my mind and Tom was on my mind, so I slept very restless. +And twice I went down the rod away in the night, and slipped around +front, and see her setting there by her candle in the window with her +eyes towards the road and the tears in them; and I wished I could do +something for her, but I couldn't, only to swear that I wouldn't never +do nothing to grieve her any more.  And the third time I waked up at +dawn, and slid down, and she was there yet, and her candle was most out, +and her old gray head was resting on her hand, and she was asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +THE old man was uptown again before breakfast, but couldn't get no +track of Tom; and both of them set at the table thinking, and not saying +nothing, and looking mournful, and their coffee getting cold, and not +eating anything. And by and by the old man says: + +"Did I give you the letter?" + +"What letter?" + +"The one I got yesterday out of the post-office." + +"No, you didn't give me no letter." + +"Well, I must a forgot it." + +So he rummaged his pockets, and then went off somewheres where he had +laid it down, and fetched it, and give it to her.  She says: + +"Why, it's from St. Petersburg—it's from Sis." + +I allowed another walk would do me good; but I couldn't stir.  But +before she could break it open she dropped it and run—for she see +something. And so did I. It was Tom Sawyer on a mattress; and that old +doctor; and Jim, in _her_ calico dress, with his hands tied behind him; +and a lot of people.  I hid the letter behind the first thing that come +handy, and rushed.  She flung herself at Tom, crying, and says: + +"Oh, he's dead, he's dead, I know he's dead!" + +And Tom he turned his head a little, and muttered something or other, +which showed he warn't in his right mind; then she flung up her hands, +and says: + +"He's alive, thank God!  And that's enough!" and she snatched a kiss of +him, and flew for the house to get the bed ready, and scattering orders +right and left at the niggers and everybody else, as fast as her tongue +could go, every jump of the way. + +I followed the men to see what they was going to do with Jim; and the +old doctor and Uncle Silas followed after Tom into the house.  The men +was very huffy, and some of them wanted to hang Jim for an example to +all the other niggers around there, so they wouldn't be trying to run +away like Jim done, and making such a raft of trouble, and keeping a +whole family scared most to death for days and nights.  But the others +said, don't do it, it wouldn't answer at all; he ain't our nigger, and +his owner would turn up and make us pay for him, sure.  So that cooled +them down a little, because the people that's always the most anxious +for to hang a nigger that hain't done just right is always the very +ones that ain't the most anxious to pay for him when they've got their +satisfaction out of him. + +They cussed Jim considerble, though, and give him a cuff or two side the +head once in a while, but Jim never said nothing, and he never let on to +know me, and they took him to the same cabin, and put his own clothes +on him, and chained him again, and not to no bed-leg this time, but to +a big staple drove into the bottom log, and chained his hands, too, and +both legs, and said he warn't to have nothing but bread and water to +eat after this till his owner come, or he was sold at auction because +he didn't come in a certain length of time, and filled up our hole, and +said a couple of farmers with guns must stand watch around about the +cabin every night, and a bulldog tied to the door in the daytime; and +about this time they was through with the job and was tapering off with +a kind of generl good-bye cussing, and then the old doctor comes and +takes a look, and says: + +"Don't be no rougher on him than you're obleeged to, because he ain't +a bad nigger.  When I got to where I found the boy I see I couldn't cut +the bullet out without some help, and he warn't in no condition for +me to leave to go and get help; and he got a little worse and a little +worse, and after a long time he went out of his head, and wouldn't let +me come a-nigh him any more, and said if I chalked his raft he'd kill +me, and no end of wild foolishness like that, and I see I couldn't do +anything at all with him; so I says, I got to have _help_ somehow; and +the minute I says it out crawls this nigger from somewheres and says +he'll help, and he done it, too, and done it very well.  Of course I +judged he must be a runaway nigger, and there I _was_! and there I had +to stick right straight along all the rest of the day and all night.  It +was a fix, I tell you! I had a couple of patients with the chills, and +of course I'd of liked to run up to town and see them, but I dasn't, +because the nigger might get away, and then I'd be to blame; and yet +never a skiff come close enough for me to hail.  So there I had to stick +plumb until daylight this morning; and I never see a nigger that was a +better nuss or faithfuller, and yet he was risking his freedom to do it, +and was all tired out, too, and I see plain enough he'd been worked +main hard lately.  I liked the nigger for that; I tell you, gentlemen, a +nigger like that is worth a thousand dollars—and kind treatment, too.  I +had everything I needed, and the boy was doing as well there as he +would a done at home—better, maybe, because it was so quiet; but there I +_was_, with both of 'm on my hands, and there I had to stick till about +dawn this morning; then some men in a skiff come by, and as good luck +would have it the nigger was setting by the pallet with his head propped +on his knees sound asleep; so I motioned them in quiet, and they slipped +up on him and grabbed him and tied him before he knowed what he was +about, and we never had no trouble. And the boy being in a kind of a +flighty sleep, too, we muffled the oars and hitched the raft on, and +towed her over very nice and quiet, and the nigger never made the least +row nor said a word from the start.  He ain't no bad nigger, gentlemen; +that's what I think about him." + +Somebody says: + +"Well, it sounds very good, doctor, I'm obleeged to say." + +Then the others softened up a little, too, and I was mighty thankful +to that old doctor for doing Jim that good turn; and I was glad it was +according to my judgment of him, too; because I thought he had a good +heart in him and was a good man the first time I see him.  Then they +all agreed that Jim had acted very well, and was deserving to have some +notice took of it, and reward.  So every one of them promised, right out +and hearty, that they wouldn't cuss him no more. + +Then they come out and locked him up.  I hoped they was going to say he +could have one or two of the chains took off, because they was rotten +heavy, or could have meat and greens with his bread and water; but they +didn't think of it, and I reckoned it warn't best for me to mix in, but +I judged I'd get the doctor's yarn to Aunt Sally somehow or other as +soon as I'd got through the breakers that was laying just ahead of +me—explanations, I mean, of how I forgot to mention about Sid being shot +when I was telling how him and me put in that dratted night paddling +around hunting the runaway nigger. + +But I had plenty time.  Aunt Sally she stuck to the sick-room all day +and all night, and every time I see Uncle Silas mooning around I dodged +him. + +Next morning I heard Tom was a good deal better, and they said Aunt +Sally was gone to get a nap.  So I slips to the sick-room, and if I +found him awake I reckoned we could put up a yarn for the family that +would wash. But he was sleeping, and sleeping very peaceful, too; and +pale, not fire-faced the way he was when he come.  So I set down and +laid for him to wake.  In about half an hour Aunt Sally comes gliding +in, and there I was, up a stump again!  She motioned me to be still, and +set down by me, and begun to whisper, and said we could all be joyful +now, because all the symptoms was first-rate, and he'd been sleeping +like that for ever so long, and looking better and peacefuller all the +time, and ten to one he'd wake up in his right mind. + +So we set there watching, and by and by he stirs a bit, and opened his +eyes very natural, and takes a look, and says: + +"Hello!—why, I'm at _home_!  How's that?  Where's the raft?" + +"It's all right," I says. + +"And _Jim_?" + +"The same," I says, but couldn't say it pretty brash.  But he never +noticed, but says: + +"Good!  Splendid!  _Now_ we're all right and safe! Did you tell Aunty?" + +I was going to say yes; but she chipped in and says:  "About what, Sid?" + +"Why, about the way the whole thing was done." + +"What whole thing?" + +"Why, _the_ whole thing.  There ain't but one; how we set the runaway +nigger free—me and Tom." + +"Good land!  Set the run—What _is_ the child talking about!  Dear, dear, +out of his head again!" + +"_No_, I ain't out of my _head_; I know all what I'm talking about.  We +_did_ set him free—me and Tom.  We laid out to do it, and we _done_ it. + And we done it elegant, too."  He'd got a start, and she never checked +him up, just set and stared and stared, and let him clip along, and +I see it warn't no use for _me_ to put in.  "Why, Aunty, it cost us a +power of work—weeks of it—hours and hours, every night, whilst you was +all asleep. And we had to steal candles, and the sheet, and the shirt, +and your dress, and spoons, and tin plates, and case-knives, and the +warming-pan, and the grindstone, and flour, and just no end of things, +and you can't think what work it was to make the saws, and pens, and +inscriptions, and one thing or another, and you can't think _half_ the +fun it was.  And we had to make up the pictures of coffins and things, +and nonnamous letters from the robbers, and get up and down the +lightning-rod, and dig the hole into the cabin, and made the rope ladder +and send it in cooked up in a pie, and send in spoons and things to work +with in your apron pocket—" + +"Mercy sakes!" + +"—and load up the cabin with rats and snakes and so on, for company for +Jim; and then you kept Tom here so long with the butter in his hat that +you come near spiling the whole business, because the men come before +we was out of the cabin, and we had to rush, and they heard us and let +drive at us, and I got my share, and we dodged out of the path and let +them go by, and when the dogs come they warn't interested in us, but +went for the most noise, and we got our canoe, and made for the +raft, and was all safe, and Jim was a free man, and we done it all by +ourselves, and _wasn't_ it bully, Aunty!" + +"Well, I never heard the likes of it in all my born days!  So it was +_you_, you little rapscallions, that's been making all this trouble, +and turned everybody's wits clean inside out and scared us all most to +death.  I've as good a notion as ever I had in my life to take it out +o' you this very minute.  To think, here I've been, night after night, +a—_you_ just get well once, you young scamp, and I lay I'll tan the Old +Harry out o' both o' ye!" + +But Tom, he _was_ so proud and joyful, he just _couldn't_ hold in, +and his tongue just _went_ it—she a-chipping in, and spitting fire all +along, and both of them going it at once, like a cat convention; and she +says: + +"_Well_, you get all the enjoyment you can out of it _now_, for mind I +tell you if I catch you meddling with him again—" + +"Meddling with _who_?"  Tom says, dropping his smile and looking +surprised. + +"With _who_?  Why, the runaway nigger, of course.  Who'd you reckon?" + +Tom looks at me very grave, and says: + +"Tom, didn't you just tell me he was all right?  Hasn't he got away?" + +"_Him_?" says Aunt Sally; "the runaway nigger?  'Deed he hasn't. + They've got him back, safe and sound, and he's in that cabin again, +on bread and water, and loaded down with chains, till he's claimed or +sold!" + +Tom rose square up in bed, with his eye hot, and his nostrils opening +and shutting like gills, and sings out to me: + +"They hain't no _right_ to shut him up!  SHOVE!—and don't you lose a +minute.  Turn him loose! he ain't no slave; he's as free as any cretur +that walks this earth!" + +"What _does_ the child mean?" + +"I mean every word I _say_, Aunt Sally, and if somebody don't go, _I'll_ +go. I've knowed him all his life, and so has Tom, there.  Old Miss +Watson died two months ago, and she was ashamed she ever was going to +sell him down the river, and _said_ so; and she set him free in her +will." + +"Then what on earth did _you_ want to set him free for, seeing he was +already free?" + +"Well, that _is_ a question, I must say; and just like women!  Why, +I wanted the _adventure_ of it; and I'd a waded neck-deep in blood +to—goodness alive, _Aunt Polly!_" + +If she warn't standing right there, just inside the door, looking as +sweet and contented as an angel half full of pie, I wish I may never! + +Aunt Sally jumped for her, and most hugged the head off of her, and +cried over her, and I found a good enough place for me under the bed, +for it was getting pretty sultry for us, seemed to me.  And I peeped +out, and in a little while Tom's Aunt Polly shook herself loose and +stood there looking across at Tom over her spectacles—kind of grinding +him into the earth, you know.  And then she says: + +"Yes, you _better_ turn y'r head away—I would if I was you, Tom." + +"Oh, deary me!" says Aunt Sally; "_Is_ he changed so?  Why, that ain't +_Tom_, it's Sid; Tom's—Tom's—why, where is Tom?  He was here a minute +ago." + +"You mean where's Huck _Finn_—that's what you mean!  I reckon I hain't +raised such a scamp as my Tom all these years not to know him when I +_see_ him.  That _would_ be a pretty howdy-do. Come out from under that +bed, Huck Finn." + +So I done it.  But not feeling brash. + +Aunt Sally she was one of the mixed-upest-looking persons I ever +see—except one, and that was Uncle Silas, when he come in and they told +it all to him.  It kind of made him drunk, as you may say, and he didn't +know nothing at all the rest of the day, and preached a prayer-meeting +sermon that night that gave him a rattling ruputation, because the +oldest man in the world couldn't a understood it.  So Tom's Aunt Polly, +she told all about who I was, and what; and I had to up and tell how +I was in such a tight place that when Mrs. Phelps took me for Tom +Sawyer—she chipped in and says, "Oh, go on and call me Aunt Sally, I'm +used to it now, and 'tain't no need to change"—that when Aunt Sally took +me for Tom Sawyer I had to stand it—there warn't no other way, and +I knowed he wouldn't mind, because it would be nuts for him, being +a mystery, and he'd make an adventure out of it, and be perfectly +satisfied.  And so it turned out, and he let on to be Sid, and made +things as soft as he could for me. + +And his Aunt Polly she said Tom was right about old Miss Watson setting +Jim free in her will; and so, sure enough, Tom Sawyer had gone and took +all that trouble and bother to set a free nigger free! and I couldn't +ever understand before, until that minute and that talk, how he _could_ +help a body set a nigger free with his bringing-up. + +Well, Aunt Polly she said that when Aunt Sally wrote to her that Tom and +_Sid_ had come all right and safe, she says to herself: + +"Look at that, now!  I might have expected it, letting him go off that +way without anybody to watch him.  So now I got to go and trapse all +the way down the river, eleven hundred mile, and find out what that +creetur's up to _this_ time, as long as I couldn't seem to get any +answer out of you about it." + +"Why, I never heard nothing from you," says Aunt Sally. + +"Well, I wonder!  Why, I wrote you twice to ask you what you could mean +by Sid being here." + +"Well, I never got 'em, Sis." + +Aunt Polly she turns around slow and severe, and says: + +"You, Tom!" + +"Well—_what_?" he says, kind of pettish. + +"Don't you what _me_, you impudent thing—hand out them letters." + +"What letters?" + +"_Them_ letters.  I be bound, if I have to take a-holt of you I'll—" + +"They're in the trunk.  There, now.  And they're just the same as they +was when I got them out of the office.  I hain't looked into them, I +hain't touched them.  But I knowed they'd make trouble, and I thought if +you warn't in no hurry, I'd—" + +"Well, you _do_ need skinning, there ain't no mistake about it.  And I +wrote another one to tell you I was coming; and I s'pose he—" + +"No, it come yesterday; I hain't read it yet, but _it's_ all right, I've +got that one." + +I wanted to offer to bet two dollars she hadn't, but I reckoned maybe it +was just as safe to not to.  So I never said nothing. + + + + +CHAPTER THE LAST + +THE first time I catched Tom private I asked him what was his idea, time +of the evasion?—what it was he'd planned to do if the evasion worked all +right and he managed to set a nigger free that was already free before? +And he said, what he had planned in his head from the start, if we got +Jim out all safe, was for us to run him down the river on the raft, and +have adventures plumb to the mouth of the river, and then tell him about +his being free, and take him back up home on a steamboat, in style, +and pay him for his lost time, and write word ahead and get out all +the niggers around, and have them waltz him into town with a torchlight +procession and a brass-band, and then he would be a hero, and so would +we.  But I reckoned it was about as well the way it was. + +We had Jim out of the chains in no time, and when Aunt Polly and Uncle +Silas and Aunt Sally found out how good he helped the doctor nurse Tom, +they made a heap of fuss over him, and fixed him up prime, and give him +all he wanted to eat, and a good time, and nothing to do.  And we had +him up to the sick-room, and had a high talk; and Tom give Jim forty +dollars for being prisoner for us so patient, and doing it up so good, +and Jim was pleased most to death, and busted out, and says: + +"Dah, now, Huck, what I tell you?—what I tell you up dah on Jackson +islan'?  I _tole_ you I got a hairy breas', en what's de sign un it; en +I _tole_ you I ben rich wunst, en gwineter to be rich _agin_; en it's +come true; en heah she is!  _dah_, now! doan' talk to _me_—signs is +_signs_, mine I tell you; en I knowed jis' 's well 'at I 'uz gwineter be +rich agin as I's a-stannin' heah dis minute!" + +And then Tom he talked along and talked along, and says, le's all three +slide out of here one of these nights and get an outfit, and go for +howling adventures amongst the Injuns, over in the Territory, for a +couple of weeks or two; and I says, all right, that suits me, but I +ain't got no money for to buy the outfit, and I reckon I couldn't get +none from home, because it's likely pap's been back before now, and got +it all away from Judge Thatcher and drunk it up. + +"No, he hain't," Tom says; "it's all there yet—six thousand dollars +and more; and your pap hain't ever been back since.  Hadn't when I come +away, anyhow." + +Jim says, kind of solemn: + +"He ain't a-comin' back no mo', Huck." + +I says: + +"Why, Jim?" + +"Nemmine why, Huck—but he ain't comin' back no mo." + +But I kept at him; so at last he says: + +"Doan' you 'member de house dat was float'n down de river, en dey wuz a +man in dah, kivered up, en I went in en unkivered him and didn' let you +come in?  Well, den, you kin git yo' money when you wants it, kase dat +wuz him." + +Tom's most well now, and got his bullet around his neck on a watch-guard +for a watch, and is always seeing what time it is, and so there ain't +nothing more to write about, and I am rotten glad of it, because if I'd +a knowed what a trouble it was to make a book I wouldn't a tackled it, +and ain't a-going to no more.  But I reckon I got to light out for the +Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me +and sivilize me, and I can't stand it.  I been there before. + +THE END. YOURS TRULY, _HUCK FINN_. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, +Complete, by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUCKLEBERRY FINN *** + +***** This file should be named 76-h.htm or 76-h.zip ***** This and +all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.net/7/76/ + +Produced by David Widger. Previous editions produced by Ron Burkey and +Internet Wiretap + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be +renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one +owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and +you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission +and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily keep eBooks +in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + +http://www.gutenberg.net + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, including +how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe to +our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/TrieNet.sln b/TrieNet.sln index 56be1f0..84bef2e 100644 --- a/TrieNet.sln +++ b/TrieNet.sln @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@  Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 12.00 -# Visual Studio 15 -VisualStudioVersion = 15.0.26730.16 +# Visual Studio Version 17 +VisualStudioVersion = 17.2.32408.312 MinimumVisualStudioVersion = 10.0.40219.1 Project("{2150E333-8FDC-42A3-9474-1A3956D46DE8}") = "Solution Items", "Solution Items", "{80B41D2C-7608-4824-A6E5-C009C65F8561}" ProjectSection(SolutionItems) = preProject @@ -16,10 +16,12 @@ Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "SampleConsoleApp", "SampleC EndProject Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "DemoApp", "DemoApp\DemoApp.csproj", "{7C2CFF68-CFCD-4069-8EB4-FF136084DE1B}" EndProject -Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "TrieNet", "TrieNet\TrieNet.csproj", "{1A60C4E2-8E02-48C4-BAFA-8EA0FE1BAE5E}" +Project("{9A19103F-16F7-4668-BE54-9A1E7A4F7556}") = "TrieNet", "TrieNet\TrieNet.csproj", "{1A60C4E2-8E02-48C4-BAFA-8EA0FE1BAE5E}" EndProject Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "TrieNet.Test", "TrieNet.Test\TrieNet.Test.csproj", "{84284C14-F2EE-47E1-AD63-E001A98D5954}" EndProject +Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "DemoApp2", "DemoApp2\DemoApp2.csproj", "{3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}" +EndProject Global GlobalSection(SolutionConfigurationPlatforms) = preSolution Debug|Any CPU = Debug|Any CPU @@ -59,6 +61,14 @@ Global {84284C14-F2EE-47E1-AD63-E001A98D5954}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU {84284C14-F2EE-47E1-AD63-E001A98D5954}.Release|x86.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU {84284C14-F2EE-47E1-AD63-E001A98D5954}.Release|x86.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU + {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU + {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU + {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Debug|x86.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU + {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Debug|x86.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU + {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Release|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU + {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU + {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Release|x86.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU + {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Release|x86.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU EndGlobalSection GlobalSection(SolutionProperties) = preSolution HideSolutionNode = FALSE @@ -66,6 +76,7 @@ Global GlobalSection(NestedProjects) = preSolution {AA86F904-90E5-407F-87B6-688ED8A2FF85} = {4186BBA3-FBD8-408B-AF5A-2848A4073DD1} {7C2CFF68-CFCD-4069-8EB4-FF136084DE1B} = {4186BBA3-FBD8-408B-AF5A-2848A4073DD1} + {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16} = {4186BBA3-FBD8-408B-AF5A-2848A4073DD1} EndGlobalSection GlobalSection(ExtensibilityGlobals) = postSolution SolutionGuid = {C570FD29-9F0C-417A-BB07-2135E30E76F3} From 18f70f84b9ad615a7e0d1f5e8db31fab110504cc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2022 19:26:26 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 02/25] added Size and WordPosition to UkkonenTrie --- DemoApp2/DemoApp2.csproj | 3 + DemoApp2/MainForm.cs | 33 +- .../{WordPosition.cs => WordPosition2.cs} | 4 +- ...ures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt | 12361 ---------------- ...entures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.txt | 3735 +++++ TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs | 6 + TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs | 6 + TrieNet/_Trie/TrieNodeBase.cs | 4 + TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs | 8 +- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs | 67 +- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/WordPosition.cs | 35 + 11 files changed, 3853 insertions(+), 12409 deletions(-) rename DemoApp2/{WordPosition.cs => WordPosition2.cs} (89%) delete mode 100644 DemoApp2/texts/Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt create mode 100644 DemoApp2/texts/Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.txt create mode 100644 TrieNet/_Ukkonen/WordPosition.cs diff --git a/DemoApp2/DemoApp2.csproj b/DemoApp2/DemoApp2.csproj index 4bc3e83..0c951b2 100644 --- a/DemoApp2/DemoApp2.csproj +++ b/DemoApp2/DemoApp2.csproj @@ -28,6 +28,9 @@ PreserveNewest + + PreserveNewest + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs b/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs index 0c68716..ea52c6e 100644 --- a/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs +++ b/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs @@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ using Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch; using System; using System.Collections.Generic; +using System.Diagnostics; using System.Drawing; using System.IO; using System.Linq; @@ -11,12 +12,12 @@ namespace DemoApp2 { public partial class MainForm : Form { - private readonly ITrie m_PatriciaTrie; + private readonly UkkonenTrie m_Trie; private long m_WordCount; public MainForm() { InitializeComponent(); - m_PatriciaTrie = new PatriciaSuffixTrie(3); + m_Trie = new UkkonenTrie(3); //m_PatriciaTrie = new FakeTrie(); folderName.Text = Path.Combine( @@ -25,18 +26,20 @@ public MainForm() { } private void LoadFile(string fileName) { - //var word = File.ReadAllText(fileName); - //m_PatriciaTrie.Add(word, new WordPosition(0, fileName)); - Tuple[] words = GetWords(fileName).ToArray(); + var word = File.ReadAllText(fileName); + m_Trie.Add(word, fileName); + /*Tuple[] words = GetWords(fileName).ToArray(); foreach (var word in words) { string text = word.Item2; WordPosition wordPosition = word.Item1; - m_PatriciaTrie.Add(text, wordPosition); - } + m_Trie.Add(text, wordPosition); + }*/ + Debug.WriteLine($"trie size = {m_Trie.Size}"); + Debug.WriteLine($"num chars = {word.Length}"); } - private IEnumerable> GetWords(string file) { + private IEnumerable> GetWords(string file) { using (Stream stream = File.Open(file, FileMode.Open)) { var word = new StringBuilder(); while (true) { @@ -45,12 +48,12 @@ private IEnumerable> GetWords(string file) { { if (data > byte.MaxValue) break; var ch = (Char)data; - if (char.IsLetter(ch) || word.Length < 50) { + if (char.IsLetter(ch) || char.IsWhiteSpace(ch)) { word.Append(ch); } else { if (word.Length != 0) { - var wordPosition = new WordPosition(position, file); - yield return new Tuple(wordPosition, word.ToString().ToLower()); + var wordPosition = new WordPosition2(position, file); + yield return new Tuple(wordPosition, word.ToString().ToLower()); word.Clear(); m_WordCount++; } @@ -70,17 +73,17 @@ private void UpdateProgress(long position) { private void textBox1_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { string text = textBox1.Text; if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(text) || text.Length < 3) return; - WordPosition[] result = m_PatriciaTrie.Retrieve(text).ToArray(); + var result = m_Trie.Retrieve(text).ToArray(); listBox1.Items.Clear(); - foreach (WordPosition wordPosition in result) { + foreach (var wordPosition in result) { listBox1.Items.Add(wordPosition); } } private void listBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { - var item = listBox1.SelectedItem as WordPosition; + var item = listBox1.SelectedItem as WordPosition; if (item == null) return; - using (FileStream file = File.Open(item.FileName, FileMode.Open)) { + using (FileStream file = File.Open(item.Value, FileMode.Open)) { const int bifferSize = 300; long position = Math.Max(item.CharPosition - bifferSize / 2, 0); file.Seek(position, SeekOrigin.Begin); diff --git a/DemoApp2/WordPosition.cs b/DemoApp2/WordPosition2.cs similarity index 89% rename from DemoApp2/WordPosition.cs rename to DemoApp2/WordPosition2.cs index 8e07ca4..8b09c09 100644 --- a/DemoApp2/WordPosition.cs +++ b/DemoApp2/WordPosition2.cs @@ -3,12 +3,12 @@ using System.IO; namespace DemoApp2 { - internal class WordPosition + internal class WordPosition2 { private readonly long m_CharPosition; private readonly string m_FileName; - public WordPosition(long charPosition, string fileName) + public WordPosition2(long charPosition, string fileName) { m_CharPosition = charPosition; m_FileName = fileName; diff --git a/DemoApp2/texts/Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt b/DemoApp2/texts/Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt deleted file mode 100644 index a366dc0..0000000 --- a/DemoApp2/texts/Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,12361 +0,0 @@ - - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Complete -by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost -no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use -it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net - -Title: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Complete - -Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) - -Release Date: August 20, 2006 [EBook #76] - -Last Updated: October 20, 2012] - -Language: English - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUCKLEBERRY FINN *** - -Produced by David Widger - - - - - -ADVENTURES - -OF - -HUCKLEBERRY FINN - -(Tom Sawyer's Comrade) - -By Mark Twain - -Complete - - - - -CONTENTS. - -CHAPTER I. Civilizing Huck.—Miss Watson.—Tom Sawyer Waits. - -CHAPTER II. The Boys Escape Jim.—Torn Sawyer's Gang.—Deep-laid Plans. - -CHAPTER III. A Good Going-over.—Grace Triumphant.—"One of Tom Sawyers's -Lies". - -CHAPTER IV. Huck and the Judge.—Superstition. - -CHAPTER V. Huck's Father.—The Fond Parent.—Reform. - -CHAPTER VI. He Went for Judge Thatcher.—Huck Decided to Leave.—Political -Economy.—Thrashing Around. - -CHAPTER VII. Laying for Him.—Locked in the Cabin.—Sinking the -Body.—Resting. - -CHAPTER VIII. Sleeping in the Woods.—Raising the Dead.—Exploring the -Island.—Finding Jim.—Jim's Escape.—Signs.—Balum. - -CHAPTER IX. The Cave.—The Floating House. - -CHAPTER X. The Find.—Old Hank Bunker.—In Disguise. - -CHAPTER XI. Huck and the Woman.—The Search.—Prevarication.—Going to -Goshen. - -CHAPTER XII. Slow Navigation.—Borrowing Things.—Boarding the Wreck.—The -Plotters.—Hunting for the Boat. - -CHAPTER XIII. Escaping from the Wreck.—The Watchman.—Sinking. - -CHAPTER XIV. A General Good Time.—The Harem.—French. - -CHAPTER XV. Huck Loses the Raft.—In the Fog.—Huck Finds the Raft.—Trash. - -CHAPTER XVI. Expectation.—A White Lie.—Floating Currency.—Running by -Cairo.—Swimming Ashore. - -CHAPTER XVII. An Evening Call.—The Farm in Arkansaw.—Interior -Decorations.—Stephen Dowling Bots.—Poetical Effusions. - -CHAPTER XVIII. Col. Grangerford.—Aristocracy.—Feuds.—The -Testament.—Recovering the Raft.—The Wood—pile.—Pork and Cabbage. - -CHAPTER XIX. Tying Up Day—times.—An Astronomical Theory.—Running a -Temperance Revival.—The Duke of Bridgewater.—The Troubles of Royalty. - -CHAPTER XX. Huck Explains.—Laying Out a Campaign.—Working the -Camp—meeting.—A Pirate at the Camp—meeting.—The Duke as a Printer. - -CHAPTER XXI. Sword Exercise.—Hamlet's Soliloquy.—They Loafed Around -Town.—A Lazy Town.—Old Boggs.—Dead. - -CHAPTER XXII. Sherburn.—Attending the Circus.—Intoxication in the -Ring.—The Thrilling Tragedy. - -CHAPTER XXIII. Sold.—Royal Comparisons.—Jim Gets Home-sick. - -CHAPTER XXIV. Jim in Royal Robes.—They Take a Passenger.—Getting -Information.—Family Grief. - -CHAPTER XXV. Is It Them?—Singing the "Doxologer."—Awful Square—Funeral -Orgies.—A Bad Investment . - -CHAPTER XXVI. A Pious King.—The King's Clergy.—She Asked His -Pardon.—Hiding in the Room.—Huck Takes the Money. - -CHAPTER XXVII. The Funeral.—Satisfying Curiosity.—Suspicious of -Huck,—Quick Sales and Small. - -CHAPTER XXVIII. The Trip to England.—"The Brute!"—Mary Jane Decides to -Leave.—Huck Parting with Mary Jane.—Mumps.—The Opposition Line. - -CHAPTER XXIX. Contested Relationship.—The King Explains the Loss.—A -Question of Handwriting.—Digging up the Corpse.—Huck Escapes. - -CHAPTER XXX. The King Went for Him.—A Royal Row.—Powerful Mellow. - -CHAPTER XXXI. Ominous Plans.—News from Jim.—Old Recollections.—A Sheep -Story.—Valuable Information. - -CHAPTER XXXII. Still and Sunday—like.—Mistaken Identity.—Up a Stump.—In -a Dilemma. - -CHAPTER XXXIII. A Nigger Stealer.—Southern Hospitality.—A Pretty Long -Blessing.—Tar and Feathers. - -CHAPTER XXXIV. The Hut by the Ash Hopper.—Outrageous.—Climbing the -Lightning Rod.—Troubled with Witches. - -CHAPTER XXXV. Escaping Properly.—Dark Schemes.—Discrimination in -Stealing.—A Deep Hole. - -CHAPTER XXXVI. The Lightning Rod.—His Level Best.—A Bequest to -Posterity.—A High Figure. - -CHAPTER XXXVII. The Last Shirt.—Mooning Around.—Sailing Orders.—The -Witch Pie. - -CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Coat of Arms.—A Skilled Superintendent.—Unpleasant -Glory.—A Tearful Subject. - -CHAPTER XXXIX. Rats.—Lively Bed—fellows.—The Straw Dummy. - -CHAPTER XL. Fishing.—The Vigilance Committee.—A Lively Run.—Jim Advises -a Doctor. - -CHAPTER XLI. The Doctor.—Uncle Silas.—Sister Hotchkiss.—Aunt Sally in -Trouble. - -CHAPTER XLII. Tom Sawyer Wounded.—The Doctor's Story.—Tom -Confesses.—Aunt Polly Arrives.—Hand Out Them Letters    . - -CHAPTER THE LAST. Out of Bondage.—Paying the Captive.—Yours Truly, Huck -Finn. - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS. - -The Widows - -Moses and the "Bulrushers" - -Miss Watson - -Huck Stealing Away - -They Tip-toed Along - -Jim - -Tom Sawyer's Band of Robbers   - -Huck Creeps into his Window - -Miss Watson's Lecture - -The Robbers Dispersed - -Rubbing the Lamp - -! ! ! ! - -Judge Thatcher surprised - -Jim Listening - -"Pap" - -Huck and his Father - -Reforming the Drunkard - -Falling from Grace - -The Widows - -Moses and the "Bulrushers" - -Miss Watson - -Huck Stealing Away - -They Tip-toed Along - -Jim - -Tom Sawyer's Band of Robbers   - -Huck Creeps into his Window - -Miss Watson's Lecture - -The Robbers Dispersed - -Rubbing the Lamp - -! ! ! ! - -Judge Thatcher surprised - -Jim Listening - -"Pap" - -Huck and his Father - -Reforming the Drunkard - -Falling from Grace - -Getting out of the Way - -Solid Comfort - -Thinking it Over - -Raising a Howl - -"Git Up" - -The Shanty - -Shooting the Pig - -Taking a Rest - -In the Woods - -Watching the Boat - -Discovering the Camp Fire - -Jim and the Ghost - -Misto Bradish's Nigger - -Exploring the Cave - -In the Cave - -Jim sees a Dead Man - -They Found Eight Dollars - -Jim and the Snake - -Old Hank Bunker - -"A Fair Fit" - -"Come In" - -"Him and another Man" - -She puts up a Snack - -"Hump Yourself" - -On the Raft - -He sometimes Lifted a Chicken - -"Please don't, Bill" - -"It ain't Good Morals" - -"Oh! Lordy, Lordy!" - -In a Fix - -"Hello, What's Up?" - -The Wreck - -We turned in and Slept - -Turning over the Truck - -Solomon and his Million Wives - -The story of "Sollermun" - -"We Would Sell the Raft" - -Among the Snags - -Asleep on the Raft - -"Something being Raftsman" - -"Boy, that's a Lie" - -"Here I is, Huck" - -Climbing up the Bank - -"Who's There?" - -"Buck" - -"It made Her look Spidery" - -"They got him out and emptied Him"   - -The House - -Col. Grangerford - -Young Harney Shepherdson - -Miss Charlotte - -"And asked me if I Liked Her" - -"Behind the Wood-pile" - -Hiding Day-times - -"And Dogs a-Coming" - -"By rights I am a Duke!" - -"I am the Late Dauphin" - -Tail Piece - -On the Raft - -The King as Juliet - -"Courting on the Sly" - -"A Pirate for Thirty Years" - -Another little Job - -Practizing - -Hamlet's Soliloquy - -"Gimme a Chaw" - -A Little Monthly Drunk - -The Death of Boggs - -Sherburn steps out - -A Dead Head - -He shed Seventeen Suits - -Tragedy - -Their Pockets Bulged - -Henry the Eighth in Boston Harbor - -Harmless - -Adolphus - -He fairly emptied that Young Fellow - -"Alas, our Poor Brother" - -"You Bet it is" - -Leaking - -Making up the "Deffisit" - -Going for him - -The Doctor - -The Bag of Money - -The Cubby - -Supper with the Hare-Lip - -Honest Injun - -The Duke looks under the Bed - -Huck takes the Money - -A Crack in the Dining-room Door - -The Undertaker - -"He had a Rat!" - -"Was you in my Room?" - -Jawing - -In Trouble - -Indignation - -How to Find Them - -He Wrote - -Hannah with the Mumps - -The Auction - -The True Brothers - -The Doctor leads Huck - -The Duke Wrote - -"Gentlemen, Gentlemen!" - -"Jim Lit Out" - -The King shakes Huck - -The Duke went for Him - -Spanish Moss - -"Who Nailed Him?" - -Thinking - -He gave him Ten Cents - -Striking for the Back Country - -Still and Sunday-like - -She hugged him tight - -"Who do you reckon it is?" - -"It was Tom Sawyer" - -"Mr. Archibald Nichols, I presume?" - -A pretty long Blessing - -Traveling By Rail - -Vittles - -A Simple Job - -Witches - -Getting Wood - -One of the Best Authorities - -The Breakfast-Horn - -Smouching the Knives - -Going down the Lightning-Rod - -Stealing spoons - -Tom advises a Witch Pie - -The Rubbage-Pile - -"Missus, dey's a Sheet Gone" - -In a Tearing Way - -One of his Ancestors - -Jim's Coat of Arms - -A Tough Job - -Buttons on their Tails - -Irrigation - -Keeping off Dull Times - -Sawdust Diet - -Trouble is Brewing - -Fishing - -Every one had a Gun - -Tom caught on a Splinter - -Jim advises a Doctor - -The Doctor - -Uncle Silas in Danger - -Old Mrs. Hotchkiss - -Aunt Sally talks to Huck - -Tom Sawyer wounded - -The Doctor speaks for Jim - -Tom rose square up in Bed - -"Hand out them Letters" - -Out of Bondage - -Tom's Liberality - -Yours Truly - - - - -EXPLANATORY - -IN this book a number of dialects are used, to wit:  the Missouri negro -dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect; the -ordinary "Pike County" dialect; and four modified varieties of this -last. The shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion, or by -guesswork; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and -support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech. - -I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers -would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and -not succeeding. - -THE AUTHOR. - - - - -HUCKLEBERRY FINN - -Scene:  The Mississippi Valley Time:  Forty to fifty years ago - - - - -CHAPTER I. - -YOU don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The -Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter.  That book was made -by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly.  There was things -which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.  That is nothing.  I -never seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt -Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary.  Aunt Polly—Tom's Aunt Polly, she -is—and Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told about in that book, which -is mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I said before. - -Now the way that the book winds up is this:  Tom and me found the money -that the robbers hid in the cave, and it made us rich.  We got six -thousand dollars apiece—all gold.  It was an awful sight of money when -it was piled up.  Well, Judge Thatcher he took it and put it out -at interest, and it fetched us a dollar a day apiece all the year -round—more than a body could tell what to do with.  The Widow Douglas -she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was -rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular -and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand -it no longer I lit out.  I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead -again, and was free and satisfied.  But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and -said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I -would go back to the widow and be respectable.  So I went back. - -The widow she cried over me, and called me a poor lost lamb, and she -called me a lot of other names, too, but she never meant no harm by -it. She put me in them new clothes again, and I couldn't do nothing but -sweat and sweat, and feel all cramped up.  Well, then, the old thing -commenced again.  The widow rung a bell for supper, and you had to come -to time. When you got to the table you couldn't go right to eating, but -you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little -over the victuals, though there warn't really anything the matter with -them,—that is, nothing only everything was cooked by itself.  In a -barrel of odds and ends it is different; things get mixed up, and the -juice kind of swaps around, and the things go better. - -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 didn't care no more about him, because I don't take no stock in -dead people. - -Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me.  But she -wouldn't.  She said it was a mean practice and wasn't 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 don't 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 couldn't stood it much longer.  Then for -an hour it was deadly dull, and I was fidgety.  Miss Watson would say, -"Don't put your feet up there, Huckleberry;" and "Don't scrunch up -like that, Huckleberry—set up straight;" and pretty soon she would -say, "Don't gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry—why don't you try to -behave?"  Then she told me all about the bad place, and I said I wished -I was there. She got mad then, but I didn't mean no harm.  All I wanted -was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change, I warn't particular. - She said it was wicked to say what I said; said she wouldn't say it for -the whole world; she was going to live so as to go to the good place. - Well, I couldn't see no advantage in going where she was going, so I -made up my mind I wouldn't try for it.  But I never said so, because it -would only make trouble, and wouldn't 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 didn't 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 warn't 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 couldn't 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 that's on its mind and can't make itself understood, and so -can't 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 didn't 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 hadn't no confidence.  You do that when you've lost a horseshoe that -you've found, instead of nailing it up over the door, but I hadn't ever -heard anybody say it was any way to keep off bad luck when you'd 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 wouldn't -know. Well, after a long time I heard the clock away off in the town -go boom—boom—boom—twelve licks; and all still again—stiller than -ever. Pretty soon I heard a twig snap down in the dark amongst the -trees—something was a stirring.  I set still and listened.  Directly I -could just barely hear a "me-yow! me-yow!" down there.  That was good! - Says I, "me-yow! me-yow!" 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 widow's garden, stooping down so as the branches wouldn't 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 Watson's 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: - -"Who dah?" - -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 warn't a sound, and we all there so close -together.  There was a place on my ankle that got to itching, but I -dasn't scratch it; and then my ear begun to itch; and next my back, -right between my shoulders.  Seemed like I'd die if I couldn't scratch. - Well, I've noticed that thing plenty times since.  If you are with -the quality, or at a funeral, or trying to go to sleep when you ain't -sleepy—if you are anywheres where it won't do for you to scratch, why -you will itch all over in upwards of a thousand places. Pretty soon Jim -says: - -"Say, who is you?  Whar is you?  Dog my cats ef I didn' hear sumf'n. -Well, I know what I's gwyne to do:  I's gwyne to set down here and -listen tell I hears it agin." - -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 dasn't scratch.  Then it begun to itch on the inside. -Next I got to itching underneath.  I didn't 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 couldn't stand it more'n 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 snore—and then I was pretty soon -comfortable again. - -Tom he made a sign to me—kind of a little noise with his mouth—and 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 they'd find out I -warn't in. Then Tom said he hadn't got candles enough, and he would slip -in the kitchen and get some more.  I didn't 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 Jim's hat off of his head and hung it -on a limb right over him, and Jim stirred a little, but he didn't 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 wouldn't 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, "Hm!  What you know 'bout witches?" 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 wouldn't touch -it, because the devil had had his hands on it.  Jim was most ruined for -a servant, because he got stuck up on account of having seen the devil -and been rode by witches. - -Well, when Tom and me got to the edge of the hilltop we looked away down -into the village and could see three or four lights twinkling, where -there was sick folks, maybe; and the stars over us was sparkling ever -so fine; and down by the village was the river, a whole mile broad, and -awful still and grand.  We went down the hill and found Jo Harper and -Ben Rogers, and two or three more of the boys, hid in the old tanyard. - So we unhitched a skiff and pulled down the river two mile and a half, -to the big scar on the hillside, and went ashore. - -We went to a clump of bushes, and Tom made everybody swear to keep the -secret, and then showed them a hole in the hill, right in the thickest -part of the bushes.  Then we lit the candles, and crawled in on our -hands and knees.  We went about two hundred yards, and then the cave -opened up. Tom poked about amongst the passages, and pretty soon ducked -under a wall where you wouldn't a noticed that there was a hole.  We -went along a narrow place and got into a kind of room, all damp and -sweaty and cold, and there we stopped.  Tom says: - -"Now, we'll start this band of robbers and call it Tom Sawyer's Gang. -Everybody that wants to join has got to take an oath, and write his name -in blood." - -Everybody was willing.  So Tom got out a sheet of paper that he had -wrote the oath on, and read it.  It swore every boy to stick to the -band, and never tell any of the secrets; and if anybody done anything to -any boy in the band, whichever boy was ordered to kill that person and -his family must do it, and he mustn't eat and he mustn't sleep till he -had killed them and hacked a cross in their breasts, which was the sign -of the band. And nobody that didn't belong to the band could use that -mark, and if he did he must be sued; and if he done it again he must be -killed.  And if anybody that belonged to the band told the secrets, he -must have his throat cut, and then have his carcass burnt up and the -ashes scattered all around, and his name blotted off of the list with -blood and never mentioned again by the gang, but have a curse put on it -and be forgot forever. - -Everybody said it was a real beautiful oath, and asked Tom if he got -it out of his own head.  He said, some of it, but the rest was out of -pirate-books and robber-books, and every gang that was high-toned had -it. - -Some thought it would be good to kill the _families_ of boys that told -the secrets.  Tom said it was a good idea, so he took a pencil and wrote -it in. Then Ben Rogers says: - -"Here's Huck Finn, he hain't got no family; what you going to do 'bout -him?" - -"Well, hain't he got a father?" says Tom Sawyer. - -"Yes, he's got a father, but you can't never find him these days.  He -used to lay drunk with the hogs in the tanyard, but he hain't been seen -in these parts for a year or more." - -They talked it over, and they was going to rule me out, because they -said every boy must have a family or somebody to kill, or else it -wouldn't be fair and square for the others.  Well, nobody could think of -anything to do—everybody was stumped, and set still.  I was most ready -to cry; but all at once I thought of a way, and so I offered them Miss -Watson—they could kill her.  Everybody said: - -"Oh, she'll do.  That's all right.  Huck can come in." - -Then they all stuck a pin in their fingers to get blood to sign with, -and I made my mark on the paper. - -"Now," says Ben Rogers, "what's the line of business of this Gang?" - -"Nothing only robbery and murder," Tom said. - -"But who are we going to rob?—houses, or cattle, or—" - -"Stuff! stealing cattle and such things ain't robbery; it's burglary," -says Tom Sawyer.  "We ain't burglars.  That ain't no sort of style.  We -are highwaymen.  We stop stages and carriages on the road, with masks -on, and kill the people and take their watches and money." - -"Must we always kill the people?" - -"Oh, certainly.  It's best.  Some authorities think different, but -mostly it's considered best to kill them—except some that you bring to -the cave here, and keep them till they're ransomed." - -"Ransomed?  What's that?" - -"I don't know.  But that's what they do.  I've seen it in books; and so -of course that's what we've got to do." - -"But how can we do it if we don't know what it is?" - -"Why, blame it all, we've _got_ to do it.  Don't I tell you it's in the -books?  Do you want to go to doing different from what's in the books, -and get things all muddled up?" - -"Oh, that's all very fine to _say_, Tom Sawyer, but how in the nation -are these fellows going to be ransomed if we don't know how to do it -to them?—that's the thing I want to get at.  Now, what do you reckon it -is?" - -"Well, I don't know.  But per'aps if we keep them till they're ransomed, -it means that we keep them till they're dead." - -"Now, that's something _like_.  That'll answer.  Why couldn't you said -that before?  We'll keep them till they're ransomed to death; and a -bothersome lot they'll be, too—eating up everything, and always trying -to get loose." - -"How you talk, Ben Rogers.  How can they get loose when there's a guard -over them, ready to shoot them down if they move a peg?" - -"A guard!  Well, that _is_ good.  So somebody's got to set up all night -and never get any sleep, just so as to watch them.  I think that's -foolishness. Why can't a body take a club and ransom them as soon as -they get here?" - -"Because it ain't in the books so—that's why.  Now, Ben Rogers, do you -want to do things regular, or don't you?—that's the idea.  Don't you -reckon that the people that made the books knows what's the correct -thing to do?  Do you reckon _you_ can learn 'em anything?  Not by a good -deal. No, sir, we'll just go on and ransom them in the regular way." - -"All right.  I don't mind; but I say it's a fool way, anyhow.  Say, do -we kill the women, too?" - -"Well, Ben Rogers, if I was as ignorant as you I wouldn't let on.  Kill -the women?  No; nobody ever saw anything in the books like that.  You -fetch them to the cave, and you're always as polite as pie to them; -and by and by they fall in love with you, and never want to go home any -more." - -"Well, if that's the way I'm agreed, but I don't take no stock in it. -Mighty soon we'll have the cave so cluttered up with women, and fellows -waiting to be ransomed, that there won't be no place for the robbers. -But go ahead, I ain't got nothing to say." - -Little Tommy Barnes was asleep now, and when they waked him up he was -scared, and cried, and said he wanted to go home to his ma, and didn't -want to be a robber any more. - -So they all made fun of him, and called him cry-baby, and that made him -mad, and he said he would go straight and tell all the secrets.  But -Tom give him five cents to keep quiet, and said we would all go home and -meet next week, and rob somebody and kill some people. - -Ben Rogers said he couldn't get out much, only Sundays, and so he wanted -to begin next Sunday; but all the boys said it would be wicked to do it -on Sunday, and that settled the thing.  They agreed to get together and -fix a day as soon as they could, and then we elected Tom Sawyer first -captain and Jo Harper second captain of the Gang, and so started home. - -I clumb up the shed and crept into my window just before day was -breaking. My new clothes was all greased up and clayey, and I was -dog-tired. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -WELL, I got a good going-over in the morning from old Miss Watson on -account of my clothes; but the widow she didn't scold, but only cleaned -off the grease and clay, and looked so sorry that I thought I would -behave awhile if I could.  Then Miss Watson she took me in the closet -and prayed, but nothing come of it.  She told me to pray every day, and -whatever I asked for I would get it.  But it warn't so.  I tried it. -Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks.  It warn't any good to me without -hooks.  I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I -couldn't make it work.  By and by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to -try for me, but she said I was a fool.  She never told me why, and I -couldn't make it out no way. - -I set down one time back in the woods, and had a long think about it. - I says to myself, if a body can get anything they pray for, why don't -Deacon Winn get back the money he lost on pork?  Why can't the widow get -back her silver snuffbox that was stole?  Why can't Miss Watson fat up? -No, says I to my self, there ain't nothing in it.  I went and told the -widow about it, and she said the thing a body could get by praying for -it was "spiritual gifts."  This was too many for me, but she told me -what she meant—I must help other people, and do everything I could for -other people, and look out for them all the time, and never think about -myself. This was including Miss Watson, as I took it.  I went out in the -woods and turned it over in my mind a long time, but I couldn't see no -advantage about it—except for the other people; so at last I reckoned -I wouldn't worry about it any more, but just let it go.  Sometimes the -widow would take me one side and talk about Providence in a way to make -a body's mouth water; but maybe next day Miss Watson would take hold -and knock it all down again.  I judged I could see that there was two -Providences, and a poor chap would stand considerable show with the -widow's Providence, but if Miss Watson's got him there warn't no help -for him any more.  I thought it all out, and reckoned I would belong -to the widow's if he wanted me, though I couldn't make out how he was -a-going to be any better off then than what he was before, seeing I was -so ignorant, and so kind of low-down and ornery. - -Pap he hadn't been seen for more than a year, and that was comfortable -for me; I didn't want to see him no more.  He used to always whale me -when he was sober and could get his hands on me; though I used to take -to the woods most of the time when he was around.  Well, about this time -he was found in the river drownded, about twelve mile above town, so -people said.  They judged it was him, anyway; said this drownded man was -just his size, and was ragged, and had uncommon long hair, which was all -like pap; but they couldn't make nothing out of the face, because it had -been in the water so long it warn't much like a face at all.  They said -he was floating on his back in the water.  They took him and buried him -on the bank.  But I warn't comfortable long, because I happened to think -of something.  I knowed mighty well that a drownded man don't float on -his back, but on his face.  So I knowed, then, that this warn't pap, but -a woman dressed up in a man's clothes.  So I was uncomfortable again. - I judged the old man would turn up again by and by, though I wished he -wouldn't. - -We played robber now and then about a month, and then I resigned.  All -the boys did.  We hadn't robbed nobody, hadn't killed any people, but -only just pretended.  We used to hop out of the woods and go charging -down on hog-drivers and women in carts taking garden stuff to market, -but we never hived any of them.  Tom Sawyer called the hogs "ingots," -and he called the turnips and stuff "julery," and we would go to the -cave and powwow over what we had done, and how many people we had killed -and marked.  But I couldn't see no profit in it.  One time Tom sent a -boy to run about town with a blazing stick, which he called a slogan -(which was the sign for the Gang to get together), and then he said he -had got secret news by his spies that next day a whole parcel of Spanish -merchants and rich A-rabs was going to camp in Cave Hollow with two -hundred elephants, and six hundred camels, and over a thousand "sumter" -mules, all loaded down with di'monds, and they didn't have only a guard -of four hundred soldiers, and so we would lay in ambuscade, as he called -it, and kill the lot and scoop the things.  He said we must slick up -our swords and guns, and get ready.  He never could go after even a -turnip-cart but he must have the swords and guns all scoured up for it, -though they was only lath and broomsticks, and you might scour at them -till you rotted, and then they warn't worth a mouthful of ashes more -than what they was before.  I didn't believe we could lick such a crowd -of Spaniards and A-rabs, but I wanted to see the camels and elephants, -so I was on hand next day, Saturday, in the ambuscade; and when we got -the word we rushed out of the woods and down the hill.  But there warn't -no Spaniards and A-rabs, and there warn't no camels nor no elephants. - It warn't anything but a Sunday-school picnic, and only a primer-class -at that.  We busted it up, and chased the children up the hollow; but we -never got anything but some doughnuts and jam, though Ben Rogers got -a rag doll, and Jo Harper got a hymn-book and a tract; and then the -teacher charged in, and made us drop everything and cut. - - I didn't see no di'monds, and I told Tom Sawyer so.  He said there was -loads of them there, anyway; and he said there was A-rabs there, too, -and elephants and things.  I said, why couldn't we see them, then?  He -said if I warn't so ignorant, but had read a book called Don Quixote, I -would know without asking.  He said it was all done by enchantment.  He -said there was hundreds of soldiers there, and elephants and treasure, -and so on, but we had enemies which he called magicians; and they had -turned the whole thing into an infant Sunday-school, just out of spite. - I said, all right; then the thing for us to do was to go for the -magicians.  Tom Sawyer said I was a numskull. - -"Why," said he, "a magician could call up a lot of genies, and they -would hash you up like nothing before you could say Jack Robinson.  They -are as tall as a tree and as big around as a church." - -"Well," I says, "s'pose we got some genies to help _us_—can't we lick -the other crowd then?" - -"How you going to get them?" - -"I don't know.  How do _they_ get them?" - -"Why, they rub an old tin lamp or an iron ring, and then the genies -come tearing in, with the thunder and lightning a-ripping around and the -smoke a-rolling, and everything they're told to do they up and do it. - They don't think nothing of pulling a shot-tower up by the roots, and -belting a Sunday-school superintendent over the head with it—or any -other man." - -"Who makes them tear around so?" - -"Why, whoever rubs the lamp or the ring.  They belong to whoever rubs -the lamp or the ring, and they've got to do whatever he says.  If he -tells them to build a palace forty miles long out of di'monds, and fill -it full of chewing-gum, or whatever you want, and fetch an emperor's -daughter from China for you to marry, they've got to do it—and they've -got to do it before sun-up next morning, too.  And more:  they've got -to waltz that palace around over the country wherever you want it, you -understand." - -"Well," says I, "I think they are a pack of flat-heads for not keeping -the palace themselves 'stead of fooling them away like that.  And what's -more—if I was one of them I would see a man in Jericho before I would -drop my business and come to him for the rubbing of an old tin lamp." - -"How you talk, Huck Finn.  Why, you'd _have_ to come when he rubbed it, -whether you wanted to or not." - -"What! and I as high as a tree and as big as a church?  All right, then; -I _would_ come; but I lay I'd make that man climb the highest tree there -was in the country." - -"Shucks, it ain't no use to talk to you, Huck Finn.  You don't seem to -know anything, somehow—perfect saphead." - -I thought all this over for two or three days, and then I reckoned I -would see if there was anything in it.  I got an old tin lamp and an -iron ring, and went out in the woods and rubbed and rubbed till I sweat -like an Injun, calculating to build a palace and sell it; but it warn't -no use, none of the genies come.  So then I judged that all that stuff -was only just one of Tom Sawyer's lies.  I reckoned he believed in the -A-rabs and the elephants, but as for me I think different.  It had all -the marks of a Sunday-school. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -WELL, three or four months run along, and it was well into the winter -now. I had been to school most all the time and could spell and read and -write just a little, and could say the multiplication table up to six -times seven is thirty-five, and I don't reckon I could ever get any -further than that if I was to live forever.  I don't take no stock in -mathematics, anyway. - -At first I hated the school, but by and by I got so I could stand it. -Whenever I got uncommon tired I played hookey, and the hiding I got next -day done me good and cheered me up.  So the longer I went to school the -easier it got to be.  I was getting sort of used to the widow's ways, -too, and they warn't so raspy on me.  Living in a house and sleeping in -a bed pulled on me pretty tight mostly, but before the cold weather I -used to slide out and sleep in the woods sometimes, and so that was a -rest to me.  I liked the old ways best, but I was getting so I liked the -new ones, too, a little bit. The widow said I was coming along slow but -sure, and doing very satisfactory.  She said she warn't ashamed of me. - -One morning I happened to turn over the salt-cellar at breakfast. - I reached for some of it as quick as I could to throw over my left -shoulder and keep off the bad luck, but Miss Watson was in ahead of me, -and crossed me off. She says, "Take your hands away, Huckleberry; what -a mess you are always making!"  The widow put in a good word for me, but -that warn't going to keep off the bad luck, I knowed that well enough. - I started out, after breakfast, feeling worried and shaky, and -wondering where it was going to fall on me, and what it was going to be. - There is ways to keep off some kinds of bad luck, but this wasn't one -of them kind; so I never tried to do anything, but just poked along -low-spirited and on the watch-out. - -I went down to the front garden and clumb over the stile where you go -through the high board fence.  There was an inch of new snow on the -ground, and I seen somebody's tracks.  They had come up from the quarry -and stood around the stile a while, and then went on around the garden -fence.  It was funny they hadn't come in, after standing around so.  I -couldn't make it out.  It was very curious, somehow.  I was going to -follow around, but I stooped down to look at the tracks first.  I didn't -notice anything at first, but next I did.  There was a cross in the left -boot-heel made with big nails, to keep off the devil. - -I was up in a second and shinning down the hill.  I looked over my -shoulder every now and then, but I didn't see nobody.  I was at Judge -Thatcher's as quick as I could get there.  He said: - -"Why, my boy, you are all out of breath.  Did you come for your -interest?" - -"No, sir," I says; "is there some for me?" - -"Oh, yes, a half-yearly is in last night—over a hundred and fifty -dollars.  Quite a fortune for you.  You had better let me invest it -along with your six thousand, because if you take it you'll spend it." - -"No, sir," I says, "I don't want to spend it.  I don't want it at -all—nor the six thousand, nuther.  I want you to take it; I want to give -it to you—the six thousand and all." - -He looked surprised.  He couldn't seem to make it out.  He says: - -"Why, what can you mean, my boy?" - -I says, "Don't you ask me no questions about it, please.  You'll take -it—won't you?" - -He says: - -"Well, I'm puzzled.  Is something the matter?" - -"Please take it," says I, "and don't ask me nothing—then I won't have to -tell no lies." - -He studied a while, and then he says: - -"Oho-o!  I think I see.  You want to _sell_ all your property to me—not -give it.  That's the correct idea." - -Then he wrote something on a paper and read it over, and says: - -"There; you see it says 'for a consideration.'  That means I have bought -it of you and paid you for it.  Here's a dollar for you.  Now you sign -it." - -So I signed it, and left. - -Miss Watson's nigger, Jim, had a hair-ball as big as your fist, which -had been took out of the fourth stomach of an ox, and he used to do -magic with it.  He said there was a spirit inside of it, and it knowed -everything.  So I went to him that night and told him pap was here -again, for I found his tracks in the snow.  What I wanted to know was, -what he was going to do, and was he going to stay?  Jim got out his -hair-ball and said something over it, and then he held it up and dropped -it on the floor.  It fell pretty solid, and only rolled about an inch. - Jim tried it again, and then another time, and it acted just the same. - Jim got down on his knees, and put his ear against it and listened. - But it warn't no use; he said it wouldn't talk. He said sometimes it -wouldn't talk without money.  I told him I had an old slick counterfeit -quarter that warn't no good because the brass showed through the silver -a little, and it wouldn't pass nohow, even if the brass didn't show, -because it was so slick it felt greasy, and so that would tell on it -every time.  (I reckoned I wouldn't say nothing about the dollar I got -from the judge.) I said it was pretty bad money, but maybe the hair-ball -would take it, because maybe it wouldn't know the difference.  Jim smelt -it and bit it and rubbed it, and said he would manage so the hair-ball -would think it was good.  He said he would split open a raw Irish potato -and stick the quarter in between and keep it there all night, and next -morning you couldn't see no brass, and it wouldn't feel greasy no more, -and so anybody in town would take it in a minute, let alone a hair-ball. - Well, I knowed a potato would do that before, but I had forgot it. - -Jim put the quarter under the hair-ball, and got down and listened -again. This time he said the hair-ball was all right.  He said it -would tell my whole fortune if I wanted it to.  I says, go on.  So the -hair-ball talked to Jim, and Jim told it to me.  He says: - -"Yo' ole father doan' know yit what he's a-gwyne to do.  Sometimes he -spec he'll go 'way, en den agin he spec he'll stay.  De bes' way is to -res' easy en let de ole man take his own way.  Dey's two angels hoverin' -roun' 'bout him.  One uv 'em is white en shiny, en t'other one is black. -De white one gits him to go right a little while, den de black one sail -in en bust it all up.  A body can't tell yit which one gwyne to fetch -him at de las'.  But you is all right.  You gwyne to have considable -trouble in yo' life, en considable joy.  Sometimes you gwyne to git -hurt, en sometimes you gwyne to git sick; but every time you's gwyne -to git well agin.  Dey's two gals flyin' 'bout you in yo' life.  One -uv 'em's light en t'other one is dark. One is rich en t'other is po'. - You's gwyne to marry de po' one fust en de rich one by en by.  You -wants to keep 'way fum de water as much as you kin, en don't run no -resk, 'kase it's down in de bills dat you's gwyne to git hung." - -When I lit my candle and went up to my room that night there sat pap his -own self! - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -I had shut the door to.  Then I turned around and there he was.  I used -to be scared of him all the time, he tanned me so much.  I reckoned I -was scared now, too; but in a minute I see I was mistaken—that is, after -the first jolt, as you may say, when my breath sort of hitched, he being -so unexpected; but right away after I see I warn't scared of him worth -bothring about. - -He was most fifty, and he looked it.  His hair was long and tangled and -greasy, and hung down, and you could see his eyes shining through -like he was behind vines.  It was all black, no gray; so was his long, -mixed-up whiskers.  There warn't no color in his face, where his face -showed; it was white; not like another man's white, but a white to make -a body sick, a white to make a body's flesh crawl—a tree-toad white, a -fish-belly white.  As for his clothes—just rags, that was all.  He had -one ankle resting on t'other knee; the boot on that foot was busted, and -two of his toes stuck through, and he worked them now and then.  His hat -was laying on the floor—an old black slouch with the top caved in, like -a lid. - -I stood a-looking at him; he set there a-looking at me, with his chair -tilted back a little.  I set the candle down.  I noticed the window was -up; so he had clumb in by the shed.  He kept a-looking me all over.  By -and by he says: - -"Starchy clothes—very.  You think you're a good deal of a big-bug, -_don't_ you?" - -"Maybe I am, maybe I ain't," I says. - -"Don't you give me none o' your lip," says he.  "You've put on -considerable many frills since I been away.  I'll take you down a peg -before I get done with you.  You're educated, too, they say—can read and -write.  You think you're better'n your father, now, don't you, because -he can't?  _I'll_ take it out of you.  Who told you you might meddle -with such hifalut'n foolishness, hey?—who told you you could?" - -"The widow.  She told me." - -"The widow, hey?—and who told the widow she could put in her shovel -about a thing that ain't none of her business?" - -"Nobody never told her." - -"Well, I'll learn her how to meddle.  And looky here—you drop that -school, you hear?  I'll learn people to bring up a boy to put on airs -over his own father and let on to be better'n what _he_ is.  You lemme -catch you fooling around that school again, you hear?  Your mother -couldn't read, and she couldn't write, nuther, before she died.  None -of the family couldn't before _they_ died.  I can't; and here you're -a-swelling yourself up like this.  I ain't the man to stand it—you hear? -Say, lemme hear you read." - -I took up a book and begun something about General Washington and the -wars. When I'd read about a half a minute, he fetched the book a whack -with his hand and knocked it across the house.  He says: - -"It's so.  You can do it.  I had my doubts when you told me.  Now looky -here; you stop that putting on frills.  I won't have it.  I'll lay for -you, my smarty; and if I catch you about that school I'll tan you good. -First you know you'll get religion, too.  I never see such a son." - -He took up a little blue and yaller picture of some cows and a boy, and -says: - -"What's this?" - -"It's something they give me for learning my lessons good." - -He tore it up, and says: - -"I'll give you something better—I'll give you a cowhide." - -He set there a-mumbling and a-growling a minute, and then he says: - -"_Ain't_ you a sweet-scented dandy, though?  A bed; and bedclothes; and -a look'n'-glass; and a piece of carpet on the floor—and your own father -got to sleep with the hogs in the tanyard.  I never see such a son.  I -bet I'll take some o' these frills out o' you before I'm done with you. -Why, there ain't no end to your airs—they say you're rich.  Hey?—how's -that?" - -"They lie—that's how." - -"Looky here—mind how you talk to me; I'm a-standing about all I can -stand now—so don't gimme no sass.  I've been in town two days, and I -hain't heard nothing but about you bein' rich.  I heard about it -away down the river, too.  That's why I come.  You git me that money -to-morrow—I want it." - -"I hain't got no money." - -"It's a lie.  Judge Thatcher's got it.  You git it.  I want it." - -"I hain't got no money, I tell you.  You ask Judge Thatcher; he'll tell -you the same." - -"All right.  I'll ask him; and I'll make him pungle, too, or I'll know -the reason why.  Say, how much you got in your pocket?  I want it." - -"I hain't got only a dollar, and I want that to—" - -"It don't make no difference what you want it for—you just shell it -out." - -He took it and bit it to see if it was good, and then he said he was -going down town to get some whisky; said he hadn't had a drink all day. -When he had got out on the shed he put his head in again, and cussed -me for putting on frills and trying to be better than him; and when I -reckoned he was gone he come back and put his head in again, and told me -to mind about that school, because he was going to lay for me and lick -me if I didn't drop that. - -Next day he was drunk, and he went to Judge Thatcher's and bullyragged -him, and tried to make him give up the money; but he couldn't, and then -he swore he'd make the law force him. - -The judge and the widow went to law to get the court to take me away -from him and let one of them be my guardian; but it was a new judge that -had just come, and he didn't know the old man; so he said courts mustn't -interfere and separate families if they could help it; said he'd druther -not take a child away from its father.  So Judge Thatcher and the widow -had to quit on the business. - -That pleased the old man till he couldn't rest.  He said he'd cowhide -me till I was black and blue if I didn't raise some money for him.  I -borrowed three dollars from Judge Thatcher, and pap took it and got -drunk, and went a-blowing around and cussing and whooping and carrying -on; and he kept it up all over town, with a tin pan, till most midnight; -then they jailed him, and next day they had him before court, and jailed -him again for a week.  But he said _he_ was satisfied; said he was boss -of his son, and he'd make it warm for _him_. - -When he got out the new judge said he was a-going to make a man of him. -So he took him to his own house, and dressed him up clean and nice, and -had him to breakfast and dinner and supper with the family, and was just -old pie to him, so to speak.  And after supper he talked to him about -temperance and such things till the old man cried, and said he'd been -a fool, and fooled away his life; but now he was a-going to turn over -a new leaf and be a man nobody wouldn't be ashamed of, and he hoped the -judge would help him and not look down on him.  The judge said he could -hug him for them words; so he cried, and his wife she cried again; pap -said he'd been a man that had always been misunderstood before, and the -judge said he believed it.  The old man said that what a man wanted -that was down was sympathy, and the judge said it was so; so they cried -again.  And when it was bedtime the old man rose up and held out his -hand, and says: - -"Look at it, gentlemen and ladies all; take a-hold of it; shake it. -There's a hand that was the hand of a hog; but it ain't so no more; it's -the hand of a man that's started in on a new life, and'll die before -he'll go back.  You mark them words—don't forget I said them.  It's a -clean hand now; shake it—don't be afeard." - -So they shook it, one after the other, all around, and cried.  The -judge's wife she kissed it.  Then the old man he signed a pledge—made -his mark. The judge said it was the holiest time on record, or something -like that. Then they tucked the old man into a beautiful room, which was -the spare room, and in the night some time he got powerful thirsty and -clumb out on to the porch-roof and slid down a stanchion and traded his -new coat for a jug of forty-rod, and clumb back again and had a good old -time; and towards daylight he crawled out again, drunk as a fiddler, and -rolled off the porch and broke his left arm in two places, and was most -froze to death when somebody found him after sun-up.  And when they come -to look at that spare room they had to take soundings before they could -navigate it. - -The judge he felt kind of sore.  He said he reckoned a body could reform -the old man with a shotgun, maybe, but he didn't know no other way. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -WELL, pretty soon the old man was up and around again, and then he went -for Judge Thatcher in the courts to make him give up that money, and he -went for me, too, for not stopping school.  He catched me a couple of -times and thrashed me, but I went to school just the same, and dodged -him or outrun him most of the time.  I didn't want to go to school much -before, but I reckoned I'd go now to spite pap.  That law trial was a -slow business—appeared like they warn't ever going to get started on it; -so every now and then I'd borrow two or three dollars off of the judge -for him, to keep from getting a cowhiding.  Every time he got money he -got drunk; and every time he got drunk he raised Cain around town; and -every time he raised Cain he got jailed.  He was just suited—this kind -of thing was right in his line. - -He got to hanging around the widow's too much and so she told him at -last that if he didn't quit using around there she would make trouble -for him. Well, _wasn't_ he mad?  He said he would show who was Huck -Finn's boss.  So he watched out for me one day in the spring, and -catched me, and took me up the river about three mile in a skiff, and -crossed over to the Illinois shore where it was woody and there warn't -no houses but an old log hut in a place where the timber was so thick -you couldn't find it if you didn't know where it was. - -He kept me with him all the time, and I never got a chance to run off. -We lived in that old cabin, and he always locked the door and put the -key under his head nights.  He had a gun which he had stole, I reckon, -and we fished and hunted, and that was what we lived on.  Every little -while he locked me in and went down to the store, three miles, to the -ferry, and traded fish and game for whisky, and fetched it home and got -drunk and had a good time, and licked me.  The widow she found out where -I was by and by, and she sent a man over to try to get hold of me; but -pap drove him off with the gun, and it warn't long after that till I was -used to being where I was, and liked it—all but the cowhide part. - -It was kind of lazy and jolly, laying off comfortable all day, smoking -and fishing, and no books nor study.  Two months or more run along, and -my clothes got to be all rags and dirt, and I didn't see how I'd ever -got to like it so well at the widow's, where you had to wash, and eat on -a plate, and comb up, and go to bed and get up regular, and be forever -bothering over a book, and have old Miss Watson pecking at you all the -time.  I didn't want to go back no more.  I had stopped cussing, because -the widow didn't like it; but now I took to it again because pap hadn't -no objections.  It was pretty good times up in the woods there, take it -all around. - -But by and by pap got too handy with his hick'ry, and I couldn't stand -it. I was all over welts.  He got to going away so much, too, and -locking me in.  Once he locked me in and was gone three days.  It was -dreadful lonesome.  I judged he had got drownded, and I wasn't ever -going to get out any more.  I was scared.  I made up my mind I would fix -up some way to leave there.  I had tried to get out of that cabin many -a time, but I couldn't find no way.  There warn't a window to it big -enough for a dog to get through.  I couldn't get up the chimbly; it -was too narrow.  The door was thick, solid oak slabs.  Pap was pretty -careful not to leave a knife or anything in the cabin when he was away; -I reckon I had hunted the place over as much as a hundred times; well, I -was most all the time at it, because it was about the only way to put in -the time.  But this time I found something at last; I found an old rusty -wood-saw without any handle; it was laid in between a rafter and the -clapboards of the roof. I greased it up and went to work.  There was an -old horse-blanket nailed against the logs at the far end of the cabin -behind the table, to keep the wind from blowing through the chinks and -putting the candle out.  I got under the table and raised the blanket, -and went to work to saw a section of the big bottom log out—big enough -to let me through.  Well, it was a good long job, but I was getting -towards the end of it when I heard pap's gun in the woods.  I got rid of -the signs of my work, and dropped the blanket and hid my saw, and pretty -soon pap come in. - -Pap warn't in a good humor—so he was his natural self.  He said he was -down town, and everything was going wrong.  His lawyer said he reckoned -he would win his lawsuit and get the money if they ever got started on -the trial; but then there was ways to put it off a long time, and Judge -Thatcher knowed how to do it. And he said people allowed there'd be -another trial to get me away from him and give me to the widow for my -guardian, and they guessed it would win this time.  This shook me up -considerable, because I didn't want to go back to the widow's any more -and be so cramped up and sivilized, as they called it.  Then the old man -got to cussing, and cussed everything and everybody he could think of, -and then cussed them all over again to make sure he hadn't skipped any, -and after that he polished off with a kind of a general cuss all round, -including a considerable parcel of people which he didn't know the names -of, and so called them what's-his-name when he got to them, and went -right along with his cussing. - -He said he would like to see the widow get me.  He said he would watch -out, and if they tried to come any such game on him he knowed of a place -six or seven mile off to stow me in, where they might hunt till they -dropped and they couldn't find me.  That made me pretty uneasy again, -but only for a minute; I reckoned I wouldn't stay on hand till he got -that chance. - -The old man made me go to the skiff and fetch the things he had -got. There was a fifty-pound sack of corn meal, and a side of bacon, -ammunition, and a four-gallon jug of whisky, and an old book and two -newspapers for wadding, besides some tow.  I toted up a load, and went -back and set down on the bow of the skiff to rest.  I thought it all -over, and I reckoned I would walk off with the gun and some lines, and -take to the woods when I run away.  I guessed I wouldn't stay in one -place, but just tramp right across the country, mostly night times, and -hunt and fish to keep alive, and so get so far away that the old man nor -the widow couldn't ever find me any more.  I judged I would saw out and -leave that night if pap got drunk enough, and I reckoned he would.  I -got so full of it I didn't notice how long I was staying till the old -man hollered and asked me whether I was asleep or drownded. - -I got the things all up to the cabin, and then it was about dark.  While -I was cooking supper the old man took a swig or two and got sort of -warmed up, and went to ripping again.  He had been drunk over in town, -and laid in the gutter all night, and he was a sight to look at.  A body -would a thought he was Adam—he was just all mud.  Whenever his liquor -begun to work he most always went for the govment, this time he says: - -"Call this a govment! why, just look at it and see what it's like. -Here's the law a-standing ready to take a man's son away from him—a -man's own son, which he has had all the trouble and all the anxiety -and all the expense of raising.  Yes, just as that man has got that -son raised at last, and ready to go to work and begin to do suthin' for -_him_ and give him a rest, the law up and goes for him.  And they call -_that_ govment!  That ain't all, nuther.  The law backs that old Judge -Thatcher up and helps him to keep me out o' my property.  Here's what -the law does:  The law takes a man worth six thousand dollars and -up'ards, and jams him into an old trap of a cabin like this, and lets -him go round in clothes that ain't fitten for a hog. They call that -govment!  A man can't get his rights in a govment like this. Sometimes -I've a mighty notion to just leave the country for good and all. Yes, -and I _told_ 'em so; I told old Thatcher so to his face.  Lots of 'em -heard me, and can tell what I said.  Says I, for two cents I'd leave the -blamed country and never come a-near it agin.  Them's the very words.  I -says look at my hat—if you call it a hat—but the lid raises up and the -rest of it goes down till it's below my chin, and then it ain't rightly -a hat at all, but more like my head was shoved up through a jint o' -stove-pipe.  Look at it, says I—such a hat for me to wear—one of the -wealthiest men in this town if I could git my rights. - -"Oh, yes, this is a wonderful govment, wonderful.  Why, looky here. -There was a free nigger there from Ohio—a mulatter, most as white as -a white man.  He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the -shiniest hat; and there ain't a man in that town that's got as fine -clothes as what he had; and he had a gold watch and chain, and a -silver-headed cane—the awfulest old gray-headed nabob in the State.  And -what do you think?  They said he was a p'fessor in a college, and could -talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything.  And that ain't the -wust. They said he could _vote_ when he was at home.  Well, that let me -out. Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to?  It was 'lection day, -and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn't too drunk to get -there; but when they told me there was a State in this country where -they'd let that nigger vote, I drawed out.  I says I'll never vote agin. - Them's the very words I said; they all heard me; and the country may -rot for all me—I'll never vote agin as long as I live.  And to see the -cool way of that nigger—why, he wouldn't a give me the road if I hadn't -shoved him out o' the way.  I says to the people, why ain't this nigger -put up at auction and sold?—that's what I want to know.  And what do you -reckon they said? Why, they said he couldn't be sold till he'd been in -the State six months, and he hadn't been there that long yet.  There, -now—that's a specimen.  They call that a govment that can't sell a free -nigger till he's been in the State six months.  Here's a govment that -calls itself a govment, and lets on to be a govment, and thinks it is a -govment, and yet's got to set stock-still for six whole months before -it can take a hold of a prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free -nigger, and—" - -Pap was agoing on so he never noticed where his old limber legs was -taking him to, so he went head over heels over the tub of salt pork and -barked both shins, and the rest of his speech was all the hottest kind -of language—mostly hove at the nigger and the govment, though he give -the tub some, too, all along, here and there.  He hopped around the -cabin considerable, first on one leg and then on the other, holding -first one shin and then the other one, and at last he let out with his -left foot all of a sudden and fetched the tub a rattling kick.  But it -warn't good judgment, because that was the boot that had a couple of his -toes leaking out of the front end of it; so now he raised a howl that -fairly made a body's hair raise, and down he went in the dirt, and -rolled there, and held his toes; and the cussing he done then laid over -anything he had ever done previous.  He said so his own self afterwards. - He had heard old Sowberry Hagan in his best days, and he said it laid -over him, too; but I reckon that was sort of piling it on, maybe. - -After supper pap took the jug, and said he had enough whisky there -for two drunks and one delirium tremens.  That was always his word.  I -judged he would be blind drunk in about an hour, and then I would steal -the key, or saw myself out, one or t'other.  He drank and drank, and -tumbled down on his blankets by and by; but luck didn't run my way. - He didn't go sound asleep, but was uneasy.  He groaned and moaned and -thrashed around this way and that for a long time.  At last I got so -sleepy I couldn't keep my eyes open all I could do, and so before I -knowed what I was about I was sound asleep, and the candle burning. - -I don't know how long I was asleep, but all of a sudden there was an -awful scream and I was up.  There was pap looking wild, and skipping -around every which way and yelling about snakes.  He said they was -crawling up his legs; and then he would give a jump and scream, and say -one had bit him on the cheek—but I couldn't see no snakes.  He started -and run round and round the cabin, hollering "Take him off! take him -off! he's biting me on the neck!"  I never see a man look so wild in the -eyes. Pretty soon he was all fagged out, and fell down panting; then he -rolled over and over wonderful fast, kicking things every which way, -and striking and grabbing at the air with his hands, and screaming and -saying there was devils a-hold of him.  He wore out by and by, and laid -still a while, moaning.  Then he laid stiller, and didn't make a sound. - I could hear the owls and the wolves away off in the woods, and it -seemed terrible still.  He was laying over by the corner. By and by he -raised up part way and listened, with his head to one side.  He says, -very low: - -"Tramp—tramp—tramp; that's the dead; tramp—tramp—tramp; they're coming -after me; but I won't go.  Oh, they're here! don't touch me—don't! hands -off—they're cold; let go.  Oh, let a poor devil alone!" - -Then he went down on all fours and crawled off, begging them to let him -alone, and he rolled himself up in his blanket and wallowed in under the -old pine table, still a-begging; and then he went to crying.  I could -hear him through the blanket. - -By and by he rolled out and jumped up on his feet looking wild, and he -see me and went for me.  He chased me round and round the place with a -clasp-knife, calling me the Angel of Death, and saying he would kill me, -and then I couldn't come for him no more.  I begged, and told him I -was only Huck; but he laughed _such_ a screechy laugh, and roared and -cussed, and kept on chasing me up.  Once when I turned short and -dodged under his arm he made a grab and got me by the jacket between my -shoulders, and I thought I was gone; but I slid out of the jacket quick -as lightning, and saved myself. Pretty soon he was all tired out, and -dropped down with his back against the door, and said he would rest a -minute and then kill me. He put his knife under him, and said he would -sleep and get strong, and then he would see who was who. - -So he dozed off pretty soon.  By and by I got the old split-bottom chair -and clumb up as easy as I could, not to make any noise, and got down the -gun.  I slipped the ramrod down it to make sure it was loaded, then I -laid it across the turnip barrel, pointing towards pap, and set down -behind it to wait for him to stir.  And how slow and still the time did -drag along. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -"GIT up!  What you 'bout?" - -I opened my eyes and looked around, trying to make out where I was.  It -was after sun-up, and I had been sound asleep.  Pap was standing over me -looking sour and sick, too.  He says: - -"What you doin' with this gun?" - -I judged he didn't know nothing about what he had been doing, so I says: - -"Somebody tried to get in, so I was laying for him." - -"Why didn't you roust me out?" - -"Well, I tried to, but I couldn't; I couldn't budge you." - -"Well, all right.  Don't stand there palavering all day, but out with -you and see if there's a fish on the lines for breakfast.  I'll be along -in a minute." - -He unlocked the door, and I cleared out up the river-bank.  I noticed -some pieces of limbs and such things floating down, and a sprinkling of -bark; so I knowed the river had begun to rise.  I reckoned I would have -great times now if I was over at the town.  The June rise used to be -always luck for me; because as soon as that rise begins here comes -cordwood floating down, and pieces of log rafts—sometimes a dozen logs -together; so all you have to do is to catch them and sell them to the -wood-yards and the sawmill. - -I went along up the bank with one eye out for pap and t'other one out -for what the rise might fetch along.  Well, all at once here comes a -canoe; just a beauty, too, about thirteen or fourteen foot long, riding -high like a duck.  I shot head-first off of the bank like a frog, -clothes and all on, and struck out for the canoe.  I just expected -there'd be somebody laying down in it, because people often done that -to fool folks, and when a chap had pulled a skiff out most to it they'd -raise up and laugh at him.  But it warn't so this time.  It was a -drift-canoe sure enough, and I clumb in and paddled her ashore.  Thinks -I, the old man will be glad when he sees this—she's worth ten dollars. - But when I got to shore pap wasn't in sight yet, and as I was running -her into a little creek like a gully, all hung over with vines and -willows, I struck another idea:  I judged I'd hide her good, and then, -'stead of taking to the woods when I run off, I'd go down the river -about fifty mile and camp in one place for good, and not have such a -rough time tramping on foot. - -It was pretty close to the shanty, and I thought I heard the old man -coming all the time; but I got her hid; and then I out and looked around -a bunch of willows, and there was the old man down the path a piece just -drawing a bead on a bird with his gun.  So he hadn't seen anything. - -When he got along I was hard at it taking up a "trot" line.  He abused -me a little for being so slow; but I told him I fell in the river, and -that was what made me so long.  I knowed he would see I was wet, and -then he would be asking questions.  We got five catfish off the lines -and went home. - -While we laid off after breakfast to sleep up, both of us being about -wore out, I got to thinking that if I could fix up some way to keep pap -and the widow from trying to follow me, it would be a certainer thing -than trusting to luck to get far enough off before they missed me; you -see, all kinds of things might happen.  Well, I didn't see no way for a -while, but by and by pap raised up a minute to drink another barrel of -water, and he says: - -"Another time a man comes a-prowling round here you roust me out, you -hear? That man warn't here for no good.  I'd a shot him.  Next time you -roust me out, you hear?" - -Then he dropped down and went to sleep again; but what he had been -saying give me the very idea I wanted.  I says to myself, I can fix it -now so nobody won't think of following me. - -About twelve o'clock we turned out and went along up the bank.  The -river was coming up pretty fast, and lots of driftwood going by on the -rise. By and by along comes part of a log raft—nine logs fast together. - We went out with the skiff and towed it ashore.  Then we had dinner. -Anybody but pap would a waited and seen the day through, so as to catch -more stuff; but that warn't pap's style.  Nine logs was enough for one -time; he must shove right over to town and sell.  So he locked me in and -took the skiff, and started off towing the raft about half-past three. - I judged he wouldn't come back that night.  I waited till I reckoned he -had got a good start; then I out with my saw, and went to work on that -log again.  Before he was t'other side of the river I was out of the -hole; him and his raft was just a speck on the water away off yonder. - -I took the sack of corn meal and took it to where the canoe was hid, and -shoved the vines and branches apart and put it in; then I done the same -with the side of bacon; then the whisky-jug.  I took all the coffee and -sugar there was, and all the ammunition; I took the wadding; I took the -bucket and gourd; I took a dipper and a tin cup, and my old saw and two -blankets, and the skillet and the coffee-pot.  I took fish-lines and -matches and other things—everything that was worth a cent.  I cleaned -out the place.  I wanted an axe, but there wasn't any, only the one out -at the woodpile, and I knowed why I was going to leave that.  I fetched -out the gun, and now I was done. - -I had wore the ground a good deal crawling out of the hole and dragging -out so many things.  So I fixed that as good as I could from the outside -by scattering dust on the place, which covered up the smoothness and the -sawdust.  Then I fixed the piece of log back into its place, and put two -rocks under it and one against it to hold it there, for it was bent up -at that place and didn't quite touch ground.  If you stood four or five -foot away and didn't know it was sawed, you wouldn't never notice -it; and besides, this was the back of the cabin, and it warn't likely -anybody would go fooling around there. - -It was all grass clear to the canoe, so I hadn't left a track.  I -followed around to see.  I stood on the bank and looked out over the -river.  All safe.  So I took the gun and went up a piece into the woods, -and was hunting around for some birds when I see a wild pig; hogs soon -went wild in them bottoms after they had got away from the prairie -farms. I shot this fellow and took him into camp. - -I took the axe and smashed in the door.  I beat it and hacked it -considerable a-doing it.  I fetched the pig in, and took him back nearly -to the table and hacked into his throat with the axe, and laid him down -on the ground to bleed; I say ground because it was ground—hard packed, -and no boards.  Well, next I took an old sack and put a lot of big rocks -in it—all I could drag—and I started it from the pig, and dragged it to -the door and through the woods down to the river and dumped it in, and -down it sunk, out of sight.  You could easy see that something had been -dragged over the ground.  I did wish Tom Sawyer was there; I knowed he -would take an interest in this kind of business, and throw in the fancy -touches.  Nobody could spread himself like Tom Sawyer in such a thing as -that. - -Well, last I pulled out some of my hair, and blooded the axe good, and -stuck it on the back side, and slung the axe in the corner.  Then I -took up the pig and held him to my breast with my jacket (so he couldn't -drip) till I got a good piece below the house and then dumped him into -the river.  Now I thought of something else.  So I went and got the bag -of meal and my old saw out of the canoe, and fetched them to the house. - I took the bag to where it used to stand, and ripped a hole in the -bottom of it with the saw, for there warn't no knives and forks on the -place—pap done everything with his clasp-knife about the cooking.  Then -I carried the sack about a hundred yards across the grass and through -the willows east of the house, to a shallow lake that was five mile wide -and full of rushes—and ducks too, you might say, in the season.  There -was a slough or a creek leading out of it on the other side that went -miles away, I don't know where, but it didn't go to the river.  The meal -sifted out and made a little track all the way to the lake.  I dropped -pap's whetstone there too, so as to look like it had been done by -accident. Then I tied up the rip in the meal sack with a string, so it -wouldn't leak no more, and took it and my saw to the canoe again. - -It was about dark now; so I dropped the canoe down the river under some -willows that hung over the bank, and waited for the moon to rise.  I -made fast to a willow; then I took a bite to eat, and by and by laid -down in the canoe to smoke a pipe and lay out a plan.  I says to myself, -they'll follow the track of that sackful of rocks to the shore and then -drag the river for me.  And they'll follow that meal track to the lake -and go browsing down the creek that leads out of it to find the robbers -that killed me and took the things.  They won't ever hunt the river for -anything but my dead carcass. They'll soon get tired of that, and won't -bother no more about me.  All right; I can stop anywhere I want to. -Jackson's Island is good enough for me; I know that island pretty well, -and nobody ever comes there.  And then I can paddle over to town nights, -and slink around and pick up things I want. Jackson's Island's the -place. - -I was pretty tired, and the first thing I knowed I was asleep.  When -I woke up I didn't know where I was for a minute.  I set up and looked -around, a little scared.  Then I remembered.  The river looked miles and -miles across.  The moon was so bright I could a counted the drift logs -that went a-slipping along, black and still, hundreds of yards out from -shore. Everything was dead quiet, and it looked late, and _smelt_ late. -You know what I mean—I don't know the words to put it in. - -I took a good gap and a stretch, and was just going to unhitch and start -when I heard a sound away over the water.  I listened.  Pretty soon I -made it out.  It was that dull kind of a regular sound that comes from -oars working in rowlocks when it's a still night.  I peeped out through -the willow branches, and there it was—a skiff, away across the water. - I couldn't tell how many was in it.  It kept a-coming, and when it was -abreast of me I see there warn't but one man in it.  Think's I, maybe -it's pap, though I warn't expecting him.  He dropped below me with the -current, and by and by he came a-swinging up shore in the easy water, -and he went by so close I could a reached out the gun and touched him. - Well, it _was_ pap, sure enough—and sober, too, by the way he laid his -oars. - -I didn't lose no time.  The next minute I was a-spinning down stream -soft but quick in the shade of the bank.  I made two mile and a half, -and then struck out a quarter of a mile or more towards the middle of -the river, because pretty soon I would be passing the ferry landing, and -people might see me and hail me.  I got out amongst the driftwood, and -then laid down in the bottom of the canoe and let her float. - - I laid there, and had a good rest and a smoke out of my pipe, looking -away into the sky; not a cloud in it.  The sky looks ever so deep when -you lay down on your back in the moonshine; I never knowed it before. - And how far a body can hear on the water such nights!  I heard people -talking at the ferry landing. I heard what they said, too—every word -of it.  One man said it was getting towards the long days and the short -nights now.  T'other one said _this_ warn't one of the short ones, he -reckoned—and then they laughed, and he said it over again, and they -laughed again; then they waked up another fellow and told him, and -laughed, but he didn't laugh; he ripped out something brisk, and said -let him alone.  The first fellow said he 'lowed to tell it to his -old woman—she would think it was pretty good; but he said that warn't -nothing to some things he had said in his time. I heard one man say it -was nearly three o'clock, and he hoped daylight wouldn't wait more than -about a week longer.  After that the talk got further and further away, -and I couldn't make out the words any more; but I could hear the mumble, -and now and then a laugh, too, but it seemed a long ways off. - -I was away below the ferry now.  I rose up, and there was Jackson's -Island, about two mile and a half down stream, heavy timbered and -standing up out of the middle of the river, big and dark and solid, like -a steamboat without any lights.  There warn't any signs of the bar at -the head—it was all under water now. - -It didn't take me long to get there.  I shot past the head at a ripping -rate, the current was so swift, and then I got into the dead water and -landed on the side towards the Illinois shore.  I run the canoe into -a deep dent in the bank that I knowed about; I had to part the willow -branches to get in; and when I made fast nobody could a seen the canoe -from the outside. - -I went up and set down on a log at the head of the island, and looked -out on the big river and the black driftwood and away over to the town, -three mile away, where there was three or four lights twinkling.  A -monstrous big lumber-raft was about a mile up stream, coming along down, -with a lantern in the middle of it.  I watched it come creeping down, -and when it was most abreast of where I stood I heard a man say, "Stern -oars, there! heave her head to stabboard!"  I heard that just as plain -as if the man was by my side. - -There was a little gray in the sky now; so I stepped into the woods, and -laid down for a nap before breakfast. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -THE sun was up so high when I waked that I judged it was after eight -o'clock.  I laid there in the grass and the cool shade thinking about -things, and feeling rested and ruther comfortable and satisfied.  I -could see the sun out at one or two holes, but mostly it was big trees -all about, and gloomy in there amongst them.  There was freckled places -on the ground where the light sifted down through the leaves, and the -freckled places swapped about a little, showing there was a little -breeze up there.  A couple of squirrels set on a limb and jabbered at me -very friendly. - -I was powerful lazy and comfortable—didn't want to get up and cook -breakfast.  Well, I was dozing off again when I thinks I hears a deep -sound of "boom!" away up the river.  I rouses up, and rests on my elbow -and listens; pretty soon I hears it again.  I 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.  And there was the -ferryboat full of people floating along down.  I knowed what was the -matter now.  "Boom!" I see the white smoke squirt out of the ferryboat's -side.  You see, they was firing cannon over the water, trying to make my -carcass come to the top. - -I was pretty hungry, but it warn't going to do for me to start a fire, -because they might see the smoke.  So I set there and watched the -cannon-smoke and listened to the boom.  The 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. Well, 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.  So, says I, I'll keep a lookout, and -if any of them's floating around after me I'll give them a show.  I -changed to the Illinois edge of the island to see what luck I could -have, and I warn't disappointed.  A big double loaf come along, and I -most got it with a long stick, but my foot slipped and she floated out -further.  Of course I was where the current set in the closest to the -shore—I knowed enough for that.  But by and by along comes another one, -and this time I won.  I took out the plug and shook out the little dab -of quicksilver, and set my teeth in.  It was "baker's bread"—what the -quality eat; none of your low-down corn-pone. - -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 ain't no doubt but there is something in that -thing—that 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. - -I lit a pipe and had a good long smoke, and went on watching.  The -ferryboat was floating with the current, and I allowed I'd have a chance -to see who was aboard when she come along, because she would come in -close, where the bread did.  When she'd 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: - -"Look sharp, now; the current sets in the closest here, and maybe he's -washed ashore and got tangled amongst the brush at the water's edge.  I -hope so, anyway." - -I didn't 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 couldn't see me.  Then the captain sung out: - -"Stand away!" 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 they'd a had some bullets in, I reckon they'd -a got the corpse they was after.  Well, I see I warn't 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 didn't 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 didn't 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 couldn't 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 ain't no better way to put in time when you are lonesome; you -can't stay so, you soon get over it. - -And so for three days and nights.  No difference—just 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 warn't -far from the foot of the island.  I had my gun along, but I hadn't 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 couldn't 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 warn't feeling very brash, there warn't much sand -in my craw; but I says, this ain't 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 year's camp, and then clumb a tree. - -I reckon I was up in the tree two hours; but I didn't see nothing, -I didn't hear nothing—I only _thought_ I heard and seen as much as a -thousand things.  Well, I couldn't 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 bank—about 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 people's 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 hadn't got far when I -hear a man say: - -"We better camp here if we can find a good place; the horses is about -beat out.  Let's look around." - -I didn't wait, but shoved out and paddled away easy.  I tied up in the -old place, and reckoned I would sleep in the canoe. - -I didn't sleep much.  I couldn't, somehow, for thinking.  And every time -I waked up I thought somebody had me by the neck.  So the sleep didn't -do me no good.  By and by I says to myself, I can't live this way; I'm -a-going to find out who it is that's here on the island with me; I'll -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 hadn't no luck somehow; I couldn't 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 Watson's Jim!  I bet I was glad to see -him.  I says: - -"Hello, Jim!" 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: - -"Doan' hurt me—don't!  I hain't ever done no harm to a ghos'.  I alwuz -liked dead people, en done all I could for 'em.  You go en git in de -river agin, whah you b'longs, en doan' do nuffn to Ole Jim, 'at 'uz -awluz yo' fren'." - -Well, I warn't long making him understand I warn't dead.  I was ever so -glad to see Jim.  I warn't lonesome now.  I told him I warn't 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: - -"It's good daylight.  Le's get breakfast.  Make up your camp fire good." - -"What's de use er makin' up de camp fire to cook strawbries en sich -truck? But you got a gun, hain't you?  Den we kin git sumfn better den -strawbries." - -"Strawberries and such truck," I says.  "Is that what you live on?" - -"I couldn' git nuffn else," he says. - -"Why, how long you been on the island, Jim?" - -"I come heah de night arter you's killed." - -"What, all that time?" - -"Yes—indeedy." - -"And ain't you had nothing but that kind of rubbage to eat?" - -"No, sah—nuffn else." - -"Well, you must be most starved, ain't you?" - -"I reck'n I could eat a hoss.  I think I could. How long you ben on de -islan'?" - -"Since the night I got killed." - -"No!  W'y, what has you lived on?  But you got a gun.  Oh, yes, you got -a gun.  Dat's good.  Now you kill sumfn en I'll make up de fire." - -So 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. I catched a good big catfish, too, and Jim cleaned him -with his knife, and fried him. - -When breakfast was ready we lolled on the grass and eat it smoking hot. -Jim laid it in with all his might, for he was most about starved.  Then -when we had got pretty well stuffed, we laid off and lazied.  By and by -Jim says: - -"But looky here, Huck, who wuz it dat 'uz killed in dat shanty ef it -warn't you?" - -Then I told him the whole thing, and he said it was smart.  He said Tom -Sawyer couldn't get up no better plan than what I had.  Then I says: - -"How do you come to be here, Jim, and how'd you get here?" - -He looked pretty uneasy, and didn't say nothing for a minute.  Then he -says: - -"Maybe I better not tell." - -"Why, Jim?" - -"Well, dey's reasons.  But you wouldn' tell on me ef I uz to tell you, -would you, Huck?" - -"Blamed if I would, Jim." - -"Well, I b'lieve you, Huck.  I—_I run off_." - -"Jim!" - -"But mind, you said you wouldn' tell—you know you said you wouldn' tell, -Huck." - -"Well, I did.  I said I wouldn't, and I'll stick to it.  Honest _injun_, -I will.  People would call me a low-down Abolitionist and despise me for -keeping mum—but that don't make no difference.  I ain't a-going to tell, -and I ain't a-going back there, anyways.  So, now, le's know all about -it." - -"Well, you see, it 'uz dis way.  Ole missus—dat's Miss Watson—she pecks -on me all de time, en treats me pooty rough, but she awluz said she -wouldn' sell me down to Orleans.  But I noticed dey wuz a nigger trader -roun' de place considable lately, en I begin to git oneasy.  Well, one -night I creeps to de do' pooty late, en de do' warn't quite shet, en I -hear old missus tell de widder she gwyne to sell me down to Orleans, but -she didn' want to, but she could git eight hund'd dollars for me, en it -'uz sich a big stack o' money she couldn' resis'.  De widder she try to -git her to say she wouldn' do it, but I never waited to hear de res'.  I -lit out mighty quick, I tell you. - -"I tuck out en shin down de hill, en 'spec to steal a skift 'long de -sho' som'ers 'bove de town, but dey wuz people a-stirring yit, so I hid -in de ole tumble-down cooper-shop on de bank to wait for everybody to -go 'way. Well, I wuz dah all night.  Dey wuz somebody roun' all de time. - 'Long 'bout six in de mawnin' skifts begin to go by, en 'bout eight er -nine every skift dat went 'long wuz talkin' 'bout how yo' pap come over -to de town en say you's killed.  Dese las' skifts wuz full o' ladies en -genlmen a-goin' over for to see de place.  Sometimes dey'd pull up at -de sho' en take a res' b'fo' dey started acrost, so by de talk I got to -know all 'bout de killin'.  I 'uz powerful sorry you's killed, Huck, but -I ain't no mo' now. - -"I laid dah under de shavin's all day.  I 'uz hungry, but I warn't -afeard; bekase I knowed ole missus en de widder wuz goin' to start to -de camp-meet'n' right arter breakfas' en be gone all day, en dey knows -I goes off wid de cattle 'bout daylight, so dey wouldn' 'spec to see me -roun' de place, en so dey wouldn' miss me tell arter dark in de evenin'. -De yuther servants wouldn' miss me, kase dey'd shin out en take holiday -soon as de ole folks 'uz out'n de way. - -"Well, when it come dark I tuck out up de river road, en went 'bout two -mile er more to whah dey warn't no houses.  I'd made up my mine 'bout -what I's agwyne to do.  You see, ef I kep' on tryin' to git away afoot, -de dogs 'ud track me; ef I stole a skift to cross over, dey'd miss dat -skift, you see, en dey'd know 'bout whah I'd lan' on de yuther side, en -whah to pick up my track.  So I says, a raff is what I's arter; it doan' -_make_ no track. - -"I see a light a-comin' roun' de p'int bymeby, so I wade' in en shove' -a log ahead o' me en swum more'n half way acrost de river, en got in -'mongst de drift-wood, en kep' my head down low, en kinder swum agin de -current tell de raff come along.  Den I swum to de stern uv it en tuck -a-holt.  It clouded up en 'uz pooty dark for a little while.  So I clumb -up en laid down on de planks.  De men 'uz all 'way yonder in de middle, -whah de lantern wuz.  De river wuz a-risin', en dey wuz a good current; -so I reck'n'd 'at by fo' in de mawnin' I'd be twenty-five mile down de -river, en den I'd slip in jis b'fo' daylight en swim asho', en take to -de woods on de Illinois side. - -"But I didn' have no luck.  When we 'uz mos' down to de head er de -islan' a man begin to come aft wid de lantern, I see it warn't no use -fer to wait, so I slid overboard en struck out fer de islan'.  Well, I -had a notion I could lan' mos' anywhers, but I couldn't—bank too bluff. - I 'uz mos' to de foot er de islan' b'fo' I found' a good place.  I went -into de woods en jedged I wouldn' fool wid raffs no mo', long as dey -move de lantern roun' so.  I had my pipe en a plug er dog-leg, en some -matches in my cap, en dey warn't wet, so I 'uz all right." - -"And so you ain't had no meat nor bread to eat all this time?  Why -didn't you get mud-turkles?" - -"How you gwyne to git 'm?  You can't slip up on um en grab um; en how's -a body gwyne to hit um wid a rock?  How could a body do it in de night? - En I warn't gwyne to show mysef on de bank in de daytime." - -"Well, that's so.  You've had to keep in the woods all the time, of -course. Did you hear 'em shooting the cannon?" - -"Oh, yes.  I knowed dey was arter you.  I see um go by heah—watched um -thoo de bushes." - -Some young birds come along, flying a yard or two at a time and -lighting. Jim said it was a sign it was going to rain.  He said it was -a sign when young chickens flew that way, and so he reckoned it was the -same way when young birds done it.  I was going to catch some of them, -but Jim wouldn't let me.  He said it was death.  He said his father laid -mighty sick once, and some of them catched a bird, and his old granny -said his father would die, and he did. - -And Jim said you mustn't count the things you are going to cook for -dinner, because that would bring bad luck.  The same if you shook the -table-cloth after sundown.  And he said if a man owned a beehive -and that man died, the bees must be told about it before sun-up next -morning, or else the bees would all weaken down and quit work and die. - Jim said bees wouldn't sting idiots; but I didn't believe that, because -I had tried them lots of times myself, and they wouldn't sting me. - -I had heard about some of these things before, but not all of them.  Jim -knowed all kinds of signs.  He said he knowed most everything.  I said -it looked to me like all the signs was about bad luck, and so I asked -him if there warn't any good-luck signs.  He says: - -"Mighty few—an' _dey_ ain't no use to a body.  What you want to know -when good luck's a-comin' for?  Want to keep it off?"  And he said:  "Ef -you's got hairy arms en a hairy breas', it's a sign dat you's agwyne -to be rich. Well, dey's some use in a sign like dat, 'kase it's so fur -ahead. You see, maybe you's got to be po' a long time fust, en so you -might git discourage' en kill yo'sef 'f you didn' know by de sign dat -you gwyne to be rich bymeby." - -"Have you got hairy arms and a hairy breast, Jim?" - -"What's de use to ax dat question?  Don't you see I has?" - -"Well, are you rich?" - -"No, but I ben rich wunst, and gwyne to be rich agin.  Wunst I had -foteen dollars, but I tuck to specalat'n', en got busted out." - -"What did you speculate in, Jim?" - -"Well, fust I tackled stock." - -"What kind of stock?" - -"Why, live stock—cattle, you know.  I put ten dollars in a cow.  But -I ain' gwyne to resk no mo' money in stock.  De cow up 'n' died on my -han's." - -"So you lost the ten dollars." - -"No, I didn't lose it all.  I on'y los' 'bout nine of it.  I sole de -hide en taller for a dollar en ten cents." - -"You had five dollars and ten cents left.  Did you speculate any more?" - -"Yes.  You know that one-laigged nigger dat b'longs to old Misto -Bradish? Well, he sot up a bank, en say anybody dat put in a dollar -would git fo' dollars mo' at de en' er de year.  Well, all de niggers -went in, but dey didn't have much.  I wuz de on'y one dat had much.  So -I stuck out for mo' dan fo' dollars, en I said 'f I didn' git it I'd -start a bank mysef. Well, o' course dat nigger want' to keep me out er -de business, bekase he says dey warn't business 'nough for two banks, so -he say I could put in my five dollars en he pay me thirty-five at de en' -er de year. - -"So I done it.  Den I reck'n'd I'd inves' de thirty-five dollars right -off en keep things a-movin'.  Dey wuz a nigger name' Bob, dat had -ketched a wood-flat, en his marster didn' know it; en I bought it off'n -him en told him to take de thirty-five dollars when de en' er de -year come; but somebody stole de wood-flat dat night, en nex day de -one-laigged nigger say de bank's busted.  So dey didn' none uv us git no -money." - -"What did you do with the ten cents, Jim?" - -"Well, I 'uz gwyne to spen' it, but I had a dream, en de dream tole me -to give it to a nigger name' Balum—Balum's Ass dey call him for short; -he's one er dem chuckleheads, you know.  But he's lucky, dey say, en I -see I warn't lucky.  De dream say let Balum inves' de ten cents en he'd -make a raise for me.  Well, Balum he tuck de money, en when he wuz in -church he hear de preacher say dat whoever give to de po' len' to de -Lord, en boun' to git his money back a hund'd times.  So Balum he tuck -en give de ten cents to de po', en laid low to see what wuz gwyne to -come of it." - -"Well, what did come of it, Jim?" - -"Nuffn never come of it.  I couldn' manage to k'leck dat money no way; -en Balum he couldn'.  I ain' gwyne to len' no mo' money 'dout I see de -security.  Boun' to git yo' money back a hund'd times, de preacher says! -Ef I could git de ten _cents_ back, I'd call it squah, en be glad er de -chanst." - -"Well, it's all right anyway, Jim, long as you're going to be rich again -some time or other." - -"Yes; en I's rich now, come to look at it.  I owns mysef, en I's wuth -eight hund'd dollars.  I wisht I had de money, I wouldn' want no mo'." - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -I wanted to go and look at a place right about the middle of the island -that I'd found when I was exploring; so we started and soon got to it, -because the island was only three miles long and a quarter of a mile -wide. - -This place was a tolerable long, steep hill or ridge about forty foot -high. We had a rough time getting to the top, the sides was so steep and -the bushes so thick.  We tramped and clumb around all over it, and by -and by found a good big cavern in the rock, most up to the top on the -side towards Illinois.  The cavern was as big as two or three rooms -bunched together, and Jim could stand up straight in it.  It was cool in -there. Jim was for putting our traps in there right away, but I said we -didn't want to be climbing up and down there all the time. - -Jim said if we had the canoe hid in a good place, and had all the traps -in the cavern, we could rush there if anybody was to come to the island, -and they would never find us without dogs.  And, besides, he said them -little birds had said it was going to rain, and did I want the things to -get wet? - -So we went back and got the canoe, and paddled up abreast the cavern, -and lugged all the traps up there.  Then we hunted up a place close by -to hide the canoe in, amongst the thick willows.  We took some fish off -of the lines and set them again, and begun to get ready for dinner. - -The door of the cavern was big enough to roll a hogshead in, and on one -side of the door the floor stuck out a little bit, and was flat and a -good place to build a fire on.  So we built it there and cooked dinner. - -We spread the blankets inside for a carpet, and eat our dinner in there. -We put all the other things handy at the back of the cavern.  Pretty -soon it darkened up, and begun to thunder and lighten; so the birds was -right about it.  Directly it begun to rain, and it rained like all fury, -too, and I never see the wind blow so.  It was one of these regular -summer storms.  It would get so dark that it looked all blue-black -outside, and lovely; and the rain would thrash along by so thick that -the trees off a little ways looked dim and spider-webby; and here would -come a blast of wind that would bend the trees down and turn up the -pale underside of the leaves; and then a perfect ripper of a gust would -follow along and set the branches to tossing their arms as if they -was just wild; and next, when it was just about the bluest and -blackest—_FST_! it was as bright as glory, and you'd have a little -glimpse of tree-tops a-plunging about away off yonder in the storm, -hundreds of yards further than you could see before; dark as sin again -in a second, and now you'd hear the thunder let go with an awful crash, -and then go rumbling, grumbling, tumbling, down the sky towards the -under side of the world, like rolling empty barrels down stairs—where -it's long stairs and they bounce a good deal, you know. - -"Jim, this is nice," I says.  "I wouldn't want to be nowhere else but -here. Pass me along another hunk of fish and some hot corn-bread." - -"Well, you wouldn't a ben here 'f it hadn't a ben for Jim.  You'd a ben -down dah in de woods widout any dinner, en gittn' mos' drownded, too; -dat you would, honey.  Chickens knows when it's gwyne to rain, en so do -de birds, chile." - -The river went on raising and raising for ten or twelve days, till at -last it was over the banks.  The water was three or four foot deep on -the island in the low places and on the Illinois bottom.  On that side -it was a good many miles wide, but on the Missouri side it was the same -old distance across—a half a mile—because the Missouri shore was just a -wall of high bluffs. - -Daytimes we paddled all over the island in the canoe, It was mighty cool -and shady in the deep woods, even if the sun was blazing outside.  We -went winding in and out amongst the trees, and sometimes the vines hung -so thick we had to back away and go some other way.  Well, on every old -broken-down tree you could see rabbits and snakes and such things; and -when the island had been overflowed a day or two they got so tame, on -account of being hungry, that you could paddle right up and put your -hand on them if you wanted to; but not the snakes and turtles—they would -slide off in the water.  The ridge our cavern was in was full of them. -We could a had pets enough if we'd wanted them. - -One night we catched a little section of a lumber raft—nice pine planks. -It was twelve foot wide and about fifteen or sixteen foot long, and -the top stood above water six or seven inches—a solid, level floor.  We -could see saw-logs go by in the daylight sometimes, but we let them go; -we didn't show ourselves in daylight. - -Another night when we was up at the head of the island, just before -daylight, here comes a frame-house down, on the west side.  She was -a two-story, and tilted over considerable.  We paddled out and got -aboard—clumb in at an upstairs window.  But it was too dark to see yet, -so we made the canoe fast and set in her to wait for daylight. - -The light begun to come before we got to the foot of the island.  Then -we looked in at the window.  We could make out a bed, and a table, and -two old chairs, and lots of things around about on the floor, and there -was clothes hanging against the wall.  There was something laying on the -floor in the far corner that looked like a man.  So Jim says: - -"Hello, you!" - -But it didn't budge.  So I hollered again, and then Jim says: - -"De man ain't asleep—he's dead.  You hold still—I'll go en see." - -He went, and bent down and looked, and says: - -"It's a dead man.  Yes, indeedy; naked, too.  He's ben shot in de back. -I reck'n he's ben dead two er three days.  Come in, Huck, but doan' look -at his face—it's too gashly." - -I didn't look at him at all.  Jim throwed some old rags over him, but -he needn't done it; I didn't want to see him.  There was heaps of old -greasy cards scattered around over the floor, and old whisky bottles, -and a couple of masks made out of black cloth; and all over the walls -was the ignorantest kind of words and pictures made with charcoal. - There was two old dirty calico dresses, and a sun-bonnet, and some -women's underclothes hanging against the wall, and some men's clothing, -too.  We put the lot into the canoe—it might come good.  There was a -boy's old speckled straw hat on the floor; I took that, too.  And there -was a bottle that had had milk in it, and it had a rag stopper for a -baby to suck.  We would a took the bottle, but it was broke.  There was -a seedy old chest, and an old hair trunk with the hinges broke.  They -stood open, but there warn't nothing left in them that was any account. - The way things was scattered about we reckoned the people left in a -hurry, and warn't fixed so as to carry off most of their stuff. - -We got an old tin lantern, and a butcher-knife without any handle, and -a bran-new Barlow knife worth two bits in any store, and a lot of tallow -candles, and a tin candlestick, and a gourd, and a tin cup, and a ratty -old bedquilt off the bed, and a reticule with needles and pins and -beeswax and buttons and thread and all such truck in it, and a hatchet -and some nails, and a fishline as thick as my little finger with some -monstrous hooks on it, and a roll of buckskin, and a leather dog-collar, -and a horseshoe, and some vials of medicine that didn't have no label -on them; and just as we was leaving I found a tolerable good curry-comb, -and Jim he found a ratty old fiddle-bow, and a wooden leg.  The straps -was broke off of it, but, barring that, it was a good enough leg, though -it was too long for me and not long enough for Jim, and we couldn't find -the other one, though we hunted all around. - -And so, take it all around, we made a good haul.  When we was ready to -shove off we was a quarter of a mile below the island, and it was pretty -broad day; so I made Jim lay down in the canoe and cover up with the -quilt, because if he set up people could tell he was a nigger a good -ways off.  I paddled over to the Illinois shore, and drifted down most -a half a mile doing it.  I crept up the dead water under the bank, and -hadn't no accidents and didn't see nobody.  We got home all safe. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -AFTER breakfast I wanted to talk about the dead man and guess out how he -come to be killed, but Jim didn't want to.  He said it would fetch bad -luck; and besides, he said, he might come and ha'nt us; he said a man -that warn't buried was more likely to go a-ha'nting around than one -that was planted and comfortable.  That sounded pretty reasonable, so -I didn't say no more; but I couldn't keep from studying over it and -wishing I knowed who shot the man, and what they done it for. - -We rummaged the clothes we'd got, and found eight dollars in silver -sewed up in the lining of an old blanket overcoat.  Jim said he reckoned -the people in that house stole the coat, because if they'd a knowed the -money was there they wouldn't a left it.  I said I reckoned they killed -him, too; but Jim didn't want to talk about that.  I says: - -"Now you think it's bad luck; but what did you say when I fetched in the -snake-skin that I found on the top of the ridge day before yesterday? -You said it was the worst bad luck in the world to touch a snake-skin -with my hands.  Well, here's your bad luck!  We've raked in all this -truck and eight dollars besides.  I wish we could have some bad luck -like this every day, Jim." - -"Never you mind, honey, never you mind.  Don't you git too peart.  It's -a-comin'.  Mind I tell you, it's a-comin'." - -It did come, too.  It was a Tuesday that we had that talk.  Well, after -dinner Friday we was laying around in the grass at the upper end of the -ridge, and got out of tobacco.  I went to the cavern to get some, and -found a rattlesnake in there.  I killed him, and curled him up on the -foot of Jim's blanket, ever so natural, thinking there'd be some fun -when Jim found him there.  Well, by night I forgot all about the snake, -and when Jim flung himself down on the blanket while I struck a light -the snake's mate was there, and bit him. - -He jumped up yelling, and the first thing the light showed was the -varmint curled up and ready for another spring.  I laid him out in a -second with a stick, and Jim grabbed pap's whisky-jug and begun to pour -it down. - -He was barefooted, and the snake bit him right on the heel.  That all -comes of my being such a fool as to not remember that wherever you leave -a dead snake its mate always comes there and curls around it.  Jim told -me to chop off the snake's head and throw it away, and then skin the -body and roast a piece of it.  I done it, and he eat it and said it -would help cure him. He made me take off the rattles and tie them around -his wrist, too.  He said that that would help.  Then I slid out quiet -and throwed the snakes clear away amongst the bushes; for I warn't going -to let Jim find out it was all my fault, not if I could help it. - -Jim sucked and sucked at the jug, and now and then he got out of his -head and pitched around and yelled; but every time he come to himself he -went to sucking at the jug again.  His foot swelled up pretty big, and -so did his leg; but by and by the drunk begun to come, and so I judged -he was all right; but I'd druther been bit with a snake than pap's -whisky. - -Jim was laid up for four days and nights.  Then the swelling was all -gone and he was around again.  I made up my mind I wouldn't ever take -a-holt of a snake-skin again with my hands, now that I see what had come -of it. Jim said he reckoned I would believe him next time.  And he said -that handling a snake-skin was such awful bad luck that maybe we hadn't -got to the end of it yet.  He said he druther see the new moon over his -left shoulder as much as a thousand times than take up a snake-skin -in his hand.  Well, I was getting to feel that way myself, though I've -always reckoned that looking at the new moon over your left shoulder is -one of the carelessest and foolishest things a body can do.  Old Hank -Bunker done it once, and bragged about it; and in less than two years he -got drunk and fell off of the shot-tower, and spread himself out so -that he was just a kind of a layer, as you may say; and they slid him -edgeways between two barn doors for a coffin, and buried him so, so -they say, but I didn't see it.  Pap told me.  But anyway it all come of -looking at the moon that way, like a fool. - -Well, the days went along, and the river went down between its banks -again; and about the first thing we done was to bait one of the big -hooks with a skinned rabbit and set it and catch a catfish that was -as big as a man, being six foot two inches long, and weighed over two -hundred pounds. We couldn't handle him, of course; he would a flung us -into Illinois.  We just set there and watched him rip and tear around -till he drownded.  We found a brass button in his stomach and a round -ball, and lots of rubbage.  We split the ball open with the hatchet, -and there was a spool in it.  Jim said he'd had it there a long time, to -coat it over so and make a ball of it.  It was as big a fish as was ever -catched in the Mississippi, I reckon.  Jim said he hadn't ever seen -a bigger one.  He would a been worth a good deal over at the village. - They peddle out such a fish as that by the pound in the market-house -there; everybody buys some of him; his meat's as white as snow and makes -a good fry. - -Next morning I said it was getting slow and dull, and I wanted to get a -stirring up some way.  I said I reckoned I would slip over the river and -find out what was going on.  Jim liked that notion; but he said I -must go in the dark and look sharp.  Then he studied it over and said, -couldn't I put on some of them old things and dress up like a girl? - That was a good notion, too.  So we shortened up one of the calico -gowns, and I turned up my trouser-legs to my knees and got into it.  Jim -hitched it behind with the hooks, and it was a fair fit.  I put on the -sun-bonnet and tied it under my chin, and then for a body to look in -and see my face was like looking down a joint of stove-pipe.  Jim said -nobody would know me, even in the daytime, hardly.  I practiced around -all day to get the hang of the things, and by and by I could do pretty -well in them, only Jim said I didn't walk like a girl; and he said -I must quit pulling up my gown to get at my britches-pocket.  I took -notice, and done better. - -I started up the Illinois shore in the canoe just after dark. - -I started across to the town from a little below the ferry-landing, and -the drift of the current fetched me in at the bottom of the town.  I -tied up and started along the bank.  There was a light burning in a -little shanty that hadn't been lived in for a long time, and I wondered -who had took up quarters there.  I slipped up and peeped in at the -window.  There was a woman about forty year old in there knitting by -a candle that was on a pine table.  I didn't know her face; she was a -stranger, for you couldn't start a face in that town that I didn't know. - Now this was lucky, because I was weakening; I was getting afraid I had -come; people might know my voice and find me out.  But if this woman had -been in such a little town two days she could tell me all I wanted to -know; so I knocked at the door, and made up my mind I wouldn't forget I -was a girl. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -"COME in," says the woman, and I did.  She says:  "Take a cheer." - -I done it.  She looked me all over with her little shiny eyes, and says: - -"What might your name be?" - -"Sarah Williams." - -"Where 'bouts do you live?  In this neighborhood?' - -"No'm.  In Hookerville, seven mile below.  I've walked all the way and -I'm all tired out." - -"Hungry, too, I reckon.  I'll find you something." - -"No'm, I ain't hungry.  I was so hungry I had to stop two miles below -here at a farm; so I ain't hungry no more.  It's what makes me so late. -My mother's down sick, and out of money and everything, and I come to -tell my uncle Abner Moore.  He lives at the upper end of the town, she -says.  I hain't ever been here before.  Do you know him?" - -"No; but I don't know everybody yet.  I haven't lived here quite two -weeks. It's a considerable ways to the upper end of the town.  You -better stay here all night.  Take off your bonnet." - -"No," I says; "I'll rest a while, I reckon, and go on.  I ain't afeared -of the dark." - -She said she wouldn't let me go by myself, but her husband would be in -by and by, maybe in a hour and a half, and she'd send him along with me. -Then she got to talking about her husband, and about her relations up -the river, and her relations down the river, and about how much better -off they used to was, and how they didn't know but they'd made a mistake -coming to our town, instead of letting well alone—and so on and so on, -till I was afeard I had made a mistake coming to her to find out what -was going on in the town; but by and by she dropped on to pap and the -murder, and then I was pretty willing to let her clatter right along. - 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 murdered.  I -says: - -"Who done it?  We've heard considerable about these goings on down in -Hookerville, but we don't know who 'twas that killed Huck Finn." - -"Well, I reckon there's a right smart chance of people _here_ that'd -like to know who killed him.  Some think old Finn done it himself." - -"No—is that so?" - -"Most everybody thought it at first.  He'll never know how nigh he come -to getting lynched.  But before night they changed around and judged it -was done by a runaway nigger named Jim." - -"Why _he_—" - -I stopped.  I reckoned I better keep still.  She run on, and never -noticed I had put in at all: - -"The nigger run off the very night Huck Finn was killed.  So there's a -reward out for him—three hundred dollars.  And there's a reward out for -old Finn, too—two hundred dollars.  You see, he come to town the -morning after the murder, and told about it, and was out with 'em on the -ferryboat hunt, and right away after he up and left.  Before night they -wanted to lynch him, but he was gone, you see.  Well, next day they -found out the nigger was gone; they found out he hadn't ben seen sence -ten o'clock the night the murder 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 boo-hooing to Judge Thatcher to get money to hunt for the -nigger all over Illinois with. The judge gave him some, and that evening -he got drunk, and was around till after midnight with a couple of mighty -hard-looking strangers, and then went off with them.  Well, he hain't -come back sence, and they ain't looking for him back till this thing -blows over a little, for people thinks now that he killed his boy and -fixed things so folks would think robbers done it, and then he'd get -Huck's money without having to bother a long time with a lawsuit. - People do say he warn't any too good to do it.  Oh, he's sly, I reckon. - If he don't come back for a year he'll be all right.  You can't prove -anything on him, you know; everything will be quieted down then, and -he'll walk in Huck's money as easy as nothing." - -"Yes, I reckon so, 'm.  I don't see nothing in the way of it.  Has -everybody quit thinking the nigger done it?" - -"Oh, no, not everybody.  A good many thinks he done it.  But they'll get -the nigger pretty soon now, and maybe they can scare it out of him." - -"Why, are they after him yet?" - -"Well, you're innocent, ain't you!  Does three hundred dollars lay -around every day for people to pick up?  Some folks think the nigger -ain't far from here.  I'm one of them—but I hain't talked it around.  A -few days ago I was talking with an old couple that lives next door in -the log shanty, and they happened to say hardly anybody ever goes to -that island over yonder that they call Jackson's Island.  Don't anybody -live there? says I. No, nobody, says they.  I didn't say any more, but -I done some thinking.  I was pretty near certain I'd 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 nigger's hiding over there; anyway, says -I, it's worth the trouble to give the place a hunt.  I hain't seen any -smoke sence, so I reckon maybe he's gone, if it was him; but husband's -going over to see—him and another man.  He was gone up the river; but he -got back to-day, and I told him as soon as he got here two hours ago." - -I had got so uneasy I couldn't 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 interested—and I was, too—and says: - -"Three hundred dollars is a power of money.  I wish my mother could get -it. Is your husband going over there to-night?" - -"Oh, 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.  They'll go over after -midnight." - -"Couldn't they see better if they was to wait till daytime?" - -"Yes.  And couldn't the nigger see better, too?  After midnight he'll -likely be asleep, and they can slip around through the woods and hunt up -his camp fire all the better for the dark, if he's got one." - -"I didn't think of that." - -The woman kept looking at me pretty curious, and I didn't feel a bit -comfortable.  Pretty soon she says, - -"What did you say your name was, honey?" - -"M—Mary Williams." - -Somehow it didn't seem to me that I said it was Mary before, so I didn't -look up—seemed 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: - -"Honey, I thought you said it was Sarah when you first come in?" - -"Oh, yes'm, I did.  Sarah Mary Williams.  Sarah's my first name.  Some -calls me Sarah, some calls me Mary." - -"Oh, that's the way of it?" - -"Yes'm." - -I was feeling better then, but I wished I was out of there, anyway.  I -couldn't 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. You'd 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 wouldn't 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 she'd wrenched her arm a day or two ago, and didn't -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 -"Ouch!" 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 didn't let on.  I got the thing, and the first rat that showed his -nose I let drive, and if he'd a stayed where he was he'd 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 husband's matters.  But she broke off -to say: - -"Keep your eye on the rats.  You better have the lead in your lap, -handy." - -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: - -"Come, now, what's your real name?" - -"Wh—what, mum?" - -"What's your real name?  Is it Bill, or Tom, or Bob?—or what is it?" - -I reckon I shook like a leaf, and I didn't know hardly what to do.  But -I says: - -"Please to don't poke fun at a poor girl like me, mum.  If I'm in the -way here, I'll—" - -"No, you won't.  Set down and stay where you are.  I ain't going to hurt -you, and I ain't going to tell on you, nuther.  You just tell me your -secret, and trust me.  I'll keep it; and, what's more, I'll help -you. So'll my old man if you want him to.  You see, you're a runaway -'prentice, that's all.  It ain't anything.  There ain't no harm in it. -You've been treated bad, and you made up your mind to cut.  Bless you, -child, I wouldn't tell on you.  Tell me all about it now, that's a good -boy." - -So I said it wouldn't be no use to try to play it any longer, and I -would just make a clean breast and tell her everything, but she musn't -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 couldn't 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 daughter's 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. - -"Goshen, child?  This ain't Goshen.  This is St. Petersburg.  Goshen's -ten mile further up the river.  Who told you this was Goshen?" - -"Why, 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." - -"He was drunk, I reckon.  He told you just exactly wrong." - -"Well, he did act like he was drunk, but it ain't no matter now.  I got -to be moving along.  I'll fetch Goshen before daylight." - -"Hold on a minute.  I'll put you up a snack to eat.  You might want it." - -So she put me up a snack, and says: - -"Say, when a cow's laying down, which end of her gets up first?  Answer -up prompt now—don't stop to study over it.  Which end gets up first?" - -"The hind end, mum." - -"Well, then, a horse?" - -"The for'rard end, mum." - -"Which side of a tree does the moss grow on?" - -"North side." - -"If fifteen cows is browsing on a hillside, how many of them eats with -their heads pointed the same direction?" - -"The whole fifteen, mum." - -"Well, I reckon you _have_ lived in the country.  I thought maybe you -was trying to hocus me again.  What's your real name, now?" - -"George Peters, mum." - -"Well, try to remember it, George.  Don't forget and tell me it's -Elexander before you go, and then get out by saying it's George -Elexander when I catch you.  And don't 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 don't hold the -thread still and fetch the needle up to it; hold the needle still and -poke the thread at it; that's the way a woman most always does, but a -man always does t'other 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 don't 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 I'll 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 road's a rocky one, -and your feet'll be in a condition when you get to Goshen, I reckon." - -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 didn't 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 clear—eleven.  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: - -"Git up and hump yourself, Jim!  There ain't a minute to lose.  They're -after us!" - -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 didn't 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 couldn't see it, for stars and shadows -ain't good to see by.  Then we got out the raft and slipped along down -in the shade, past the foot of the island dead still—never saying a -word. - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -IT must a been close on to one o'clock when we got below the island at -last, and the raft did seem to go mighty slow.  If a boat was to come -along we was going to take to the canoe and break for the Illinois -shore; and it was well a boat didn't come, for we hadn't ever thought to -put the gun in the canoe, or a fishing-line, or anything to eat.  We -was in ruther too much of a sweat to think of so many things.  It warn't -good judgment to put _everything_ on the raft. - -If the men went to the island I just expect they found the camp fire I -built, and watched it all night for Jim to come.  Anyways, they stayed -away from us, and if my building the fire never fooled them it warn't no -fault of mine.  I played it as low down on them as I could. - -When the first streak of day began to show we tied up to a towhead in a -big bend on the Illinois side, and hacked off cottonwood branches with -the hatchet, and covered up the raft with them so she looked like there -had been a cave-in in the bank there.  A tow-head is a sandbar that has -cottonwoods on it as thick as harrow-teeth. - -We had mountains on the Missouri shore and heavy timber on the Illinois -side, and the channel was down the Missouri shore at that place, so we -warn't afraid of anybody running across us.  We laid there all day, -and watched the rafts and steamboats spin down the Missouri shore, and -up-bound steamboats fight the big river in the middle.  I told Jim all -about the time I had jabbering with that woman; and Jim said she was -a smart one, and if she was to start after us herself she wouldn't set -down and watch a camp fire—no, sir, she'd fetch a dog.  Well, then, I -said, why couldn't she tell her husband to fetch a dog?  Jim said he -bet she did think of it by the time the men was ready to start, and he -believed they must a gone up-town to get a dog and so they lost all that -time, or else we wouldn't be here on a towhead sixteen or seventeen mile -below the village—no, indeedy, we would be in that same old town again. - So I said I didn't care what was the reason they didn't get us as long -as they didn't. - -When it was beginning to come on dark we poked our heads out of the -cottonwood thicket, and looked up and down and across; nothing in sight; -so Jim took up some of the top planks of the raft and built a snug -wigwam to get under in blazing weather and rainy, and to keep the things -dry. Jim made a floor for the wigwam, and raised it a foot or more above -the level of the raft, so now the blankets and all the traps was out of -reach of steamboat waves.  Right in the middle of the wigwam we made a -layer of dirt about five or six inches deep with a frame around it for -to hold it to its place; this was to build a fire on in sloppy weather -or chilly; the wigwam would keep it from being seen.  We made an extra -steering-oar, too, because one of the others might get broke on a snag -or something. We fixed up a short forked stick to hang the old lantern -on, because we must always light the lantern whenever we see a steamboat -coming down-stream, to keep from getting run over; but we wouldn't have -to light it for up-stream boats unless we see we was in what they call -a "crossing"; for the river was pretty high yet, very low banks being -still a little under water; so up-bound boats didn't always run the -channel, but hunted easy water. - -This second night we run between seven and eight hours, with a current -that was making over four mile an hour.  We catched fish and talked, -and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness.  It was kind of -solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying on our backs looking -up at the stars, and we didn't ever feel like talking loud, and it -warn't often that we laughed—only a little kind of a low chuckle.  We -had mighty good weather as a general thing, and nothing ever happened to -us at all—that night, nor the next, nor the next. - -Every night we passed towns, some of them away up on black hillsides, -nothing but just a shiny bed of lights; not a house could you see.  The -fifth night we passed St. Louis, and it was like the whole world lit up. -In St. Petersburg they used to say there was twenty or thirty thousand -people in St. Louis, but I never believed it till I see that wonderful -spread of lights at two o'clock that still night.  There warn't a sound -there; everybody was asleep. - -Every night now I used to slip ashore towards ten o'clock at some little -village, and buy ten or fifteen cents' worth of meal or bacon or other -stuff to eat; and sometimes I lifted a chicken that warn't roosting -comfortable, and took him along.  Pap always said, take a chicken when -you get a chance, because if you don't want him yourself you can easy -find somebody that does, and a good deed ain't ever forgot.  I never see -pap when he didn't want the chicken himself, but that is what he used to -say, anyway. - -Mornings before daylight I slipped into cornfields and borrowed a -watermelon, or a mushmelon, or a punkin, or some new corn, or things of -that kind.  Pap always said it warn't no harm to borrow things if you -was meaning to pay them back some time; but the widow said it warn't -anything but a soft name for stealing, and no decent body would do it. - Jim said he reckoned the widow was partly right and pap was partly -right; so the best way would be for us to pick out two or three things -from the list and say we wouldn't borrow them any more—then he reckoned -it wouldn't be no harm to borrow the others.  So we talked it over all -one night, drifting along down the river, trying to make up our minds -whether to drop the watermelons, or the cantelopes, or the mushmelons, -or what.  But towards daylight we got it all settled satisfactory, and -concluded to drop crabapples and p'simmons.  We warn't feeling just -right before that, but it was all comfortable now.  I was glad the way -it come out, too, because crabapples ain't ever good, and the p'simmons -wouldn't be ripe for two or three months yet. - -We shot a water-fowl now and then that got up too early in the morning -or didn't go to bed early enough in the evening.  Take it all round, we -lived pretty high. - -The fifth night below St. Louis we had a big storm after midnight, with -a power of thunder and lightning, and the rain poured down in a solid -sheet. We stayed in the wigwam and let the raft take care of itself. -When the lightning glared out we could see a big straight river ahead, -and high, rocky bluffs on both sides.  By and by says I, "Hel-_lo_, Jim, -looky yonder!" It was a steamboat that had killed herself on a rock. - We was drifting straight down for her.  The lightning showed her very -distinct.  She was leaning over, with part of her upper deck above -water, and you could see every little chimbly-guy clean and clear, and a -chair by the big bell, with an old slouch hat hanging on the back of it, -when the flashes come. - -Well, it being away in the night and stormy, and all so mysterious-like, -I felt just the way any other boy would a felt when I see that wreck -laying there so mournful and lonesome in the middle of the river.  I -wanted to get aboard of her and slink around a little, and see what -there was there.  So I says: - -"Le's land on her, Jim." - -But Jim was dead against it at first.  He says: - -"I doan' want to go fool'n 'long er no wrack.  We's doin' blame' well, -en we better let blame' well alone, as de good book says.  Like as not -dey's a watchman on dat wrack." - -"Watchman your grandmother," I says; "there ain't nothing to watch but -the texas and the pilot-house; and do you reckon anybody's going to resk -his life for a texas and a pilot-house such a night as this, when -it's likely to break up and wash off down the river any minute?"  Jim -couldn't say nothing to that, so he didn't try.  "And besides," I says, -"we might borrow something worth having out of the captain's stateroom. - Seegars, I bet you—and cost five cents apiece, solid cash.  Steamboat -captains is always rich, and get sixty dollars a month, and _they_ don't -care a cent what a thing costs, you know, long as they want it.  Stick a -candle in your pocket; I can't rest, Jim, till we give her a rummaging. - Do you reckon Tom Sawyer would ever go by this thing?  Not for pie, he -wouldn't. He'd call it an adventure—that's what he'd call it; and he'd -land on that wreck if it was his last act.  And wouldn't he throw style -into it?—wouldn't he spread himself, nor nothing?  Why, you'd think it -was Christopher C'lumbus discovering Kingdom-Come.  I wish Tom Sawyer -_was_ here." - -Jim he grumbled a little, but give in.  He said we mustn't talk any more -than we could help, and then talk mighty low.  The lightning showed us -the wreck again just in time, and we fetched the stabboard derrick, and -made fast there. - -The deck was high out here.  We went sneaking down the slope of it to -labboard, in the dark, towards the texas, feeling our way slow with our -feet, and spreading our hands out to fend off the guys, for it was so -dark we couldn't see no sign of them.  Pretty soon we struck the forward -end of the skylight, and clumb on to it; and the next step fetched us in -front of the captain's door, which was open, and by Jimminy, away down -through the texas-hall we see a light! and all in the same second we -seem to hear low voices in yonder! - -Jim whispered and said he was feeling powerful sick, and told me to come -along.  I says, all right, and was going to start for the raft; but just -then I heard a voice wail out and say: - -"Oh, please don't, boys; I swear I won't ever tell!" - -Another voice said, pretty loud: - -"It's a lie, Jim Turner.  You've acted this way before.  You always want -more'n your share of the truck, and you've always got it, too, because -you've swore 't if you didn't you'd tell.  But this time you've said -it jest one time too many.  You're the meanest, treacherousest hound in -this country." - -By this time Jim was gone for the raft.  I was just a-biling with -curiosity; and I says to myself, Tom Sawyer wouldn't back out now, -and so I won't either; I'm a-going to see what's going on here.  So I -dropped on my hands and knees in the little passage, and crept aft -in the dark till there warn't but one stateroom betwixt me and the -cross-hall of the texas.  Then in there I see a man stretched on the -floor and tied hand and foot, and two men standing over him, and one -of them had a dim lantern in his hand, and the other one had a pistol. - This one kept pointing the pistol at the man's head on the floor, and -saying: - -"I'd _like_ to!  And I orter, too—a mean skunk!" - -The man on the floor would shrivel up and say, "Oh, please don't, Bill; -I hain't ever goin' to tell." - -And every time he said that the man with the lantern would laugh and -say: - -"'Deed you _ain't!_  You never said no truer thing 'n that, you bet -you." And once he said:  "Hear him beg! and yit if we hadn't got the -best of him and tied him he'd a killed us both.  And what _for_?  Jist -for noth'n. Jist because we stood on our _rights_—that's what for.  But -I lay you ain't a-goin' to threaten nobody any more, Jim Turner.  Put -_up_ that pistol, Bill." - -Bill says: - -"I don't want to, Jake Packard.  I'm for killin' him—and didn't he kill -old Hatfield jist the same way—and don't he deserve it?" - -"But I don't _want_ him killed, and I've got my reasons for it." - -"Bless yo' heart for them words, Jake Packard!  I'll never forgit you -long's I live!" says the man on the floor, sort of blubbering. - -Packard didn't take no notice of that, but hung up his lantern on a nail -and started towards where I was there in the dark, and motioned Bill -to come.  I crawfished as fast as I could about two yards, but the boat -slanted so that I couldn't make very good time; so to keep from getting -run over and catched I crawled into a stateroom on the upper side. - The man came a-pawing along in the dark, and when Packard got to my -stateroom, he says: - -"Here—come in here." - -And in he come, and Bill after him.  But before they got in I was up -in the upper berth, cornered, and sorry I come.  Then they stood there, -with their hands on the ledge of the berth, and talked.  I couldn't see -them, but I could tell where they was by the whisky they'd been having. - I was glad I didn't drink whisky; but it wouldn't made much difference -anyway, because most of the time they couldn't a treed me because I -didn't breathe.  I was too scared.  And, besides, a body _couldn't_ -breathe and hear such talk.  They talked low and earnest.  Bill wanted -to kill Turner.  He says: - -"He's said he'll tell, and he will.  If we was to give both our shares -to him _now_ it wouldn't make no difference after the row and the way -we've served him.  Shore's you're born, he'll turn State's evidence; now -you hear _me_.  I'm for putting him out of his troubles." - -"So'm I," says Packard, very quiet. - -"Blame it, I'd sorter begun to think you wasn't.  Well, then, that's all -right.  Le's go and do it." - -"Hold on a minute; I hain't had my say yit.  You listen to me. -Shooting's good, but there's quieter ways if the thing's _got_ to be -done. But what I say is this:  it ain't good sense to go court'n around -after a halter if you can git at what you're up to in some way that's -jist as good and at the same time don't bring you into no resks.  Ain't -that so?" - -"You bet it is.  But how you goin' to manage it this time?" - -"Well, my idea is this:  we'll rustle around and gather up whatever -pickins we've overlooked in the staterooms, and shove for shore and hide -the truck. Then we'll wait.  Now I say it ain't a-goin' to be more'n two -hours befo' this wrack breaks up and washes off down the river.  See? -He'll be drownded, and won't have nobody to blame for it but his own -self.  I reckon that's a considerble sight better 'n killin' of him. - I'm unfavorable to killin' a man as long as you can git aroun' it; it -ain't good sense, it ain't good morals.  Ain't I right?" - -"Yes, I reck'n you are.  But s'pose she _don't_ break up and wash off?" - -"Well, we can wait the two hours anyway and see, can't we?" - -"All right, then; come along." - -So they started, and I lit out, all in a cold sweat, and scrambled -forward. It was dark as pitch there; but I said, in a kind of a coarse -whisper, "Jim!" and he answered up, right at my elbow, with a sort of a -moan, and I says: - -"Quick, Jim, it ain't no time for fooling around and moaning; there's a -gang of murderers in yonder, and if we don't hunt up their boat and set -her drifting down the river so these fellows can't get away from the -wreck there's one of 'em going to be in a bad fix.  But if we find their -boat we can put _all_ of 'em in a bad fix—for the sheriff 'll get 'em. -Quick—hurry!  I'll hunt the labboard side, you hunt the stabboard. You -start at the raft, and—" - -"Oh, my lordy, lordy!  _raf'_?  Dey ain' no raf' no mo'; she done broke -loose en gone I—en here we is!" - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -WELL, I catched my breath and most fainted.  Shut up on a wreck with -such a gang as that!  But it warn't no time to be sentimentering.  We'd -_got_ to find that boat now—had to have it for ourselves.  So we went -a-quaking and shaking down the stabboard side, and slow work it was, -too—seemed a week before we got to the stern.  No sign of a boat.  Jim -said he didn't believe he could go any further—so scared he hadn't -hardly any strength left, he said.  But I said, come on, if we get left -on this wreck we are in a fix, sure.  So on we prowled again.  We struck -for the stern of the texas, and found it, and then scrabbled along -forwards on the skylight, hanging on from shutter to shutter, for the -edge of the skylight was in the water.  When we got pretty close to the -cross-hall door there was the skiff, sure enough!  I could just barely -see her.  I felt ever so thankful.  In another second I would a been -aboard of her, but just then the door opened.  One of the men stuck his -head out only about a couple of foot from me, and I thought I was gone; -but he jerked it in again, and says: - -"Heave that blame lantern out o' sight, Bill!" - -He flung a bag of something into the boat, and then got in himself and -set down.  It was Packard.  Then Bill _he_ come out and got in.  Packard -says, in a low voice: - -"All ready—shove off!" - -I couldn't hardly hang on to the shutters, I was so weak.  But Bill -says: - -"Hold on—'d you go through him?" - -"No.  Didn't you?" - -"No.  So he's got his share o' the cash yet." - -"Well, then, come along; no use to take truck and leave money." - -"Say, won't he suspicion what we're up to?" - -"Maybe he won't.  But we got to have it anyway. Come along." - -So they got out and went in. - -The door slammed to because it was on the careened side; and in a half -second I was in the boat, and Jim come tumbling after me.  I out with my -knife and cut the rope, and away we went! - -We didn't touch an oar, and we didn't speak nor whisper, nor hardly even -breathe.  We went gliding swift along, dead silent, past the tip of the -paddle-box, and past the stern; then in a second or two more we was a -hundred yards below the wreck, and the darkness soaked her up, every -last sign of her, and we was safe, and knowed it. - -When we was three or four hundred yards down-stream we see the lantern -show like a little spark at the texas door for a second, and we knowed -by that that the rascals had missed their boat, and was beginning to -understand that they was in just as much trouble now as Jim Turner was. - -Then Jim manned the oars, and we took out after our raft.  Now was the -first time that I begun to worry about the men—I reckon I hadn't -had time to before.  I begun to think how dreadful it was, even for -murderers, to be in such a fix.  I says to myself, there ain't no -telling but I might come to be a murderer myself yet, and then how would -I like it?  So says I to Jim: - -"The first light we see we'll land a hundred yards below it or above -it, in a place where it's a good hiding-place for you and the skiff, and -then I'll go and fix up some kind of a yarn, and get somebody to go for -that gang and get them out of their scrape, so they can be hung when -their time comes." - -But that idea was a failure; for pretty soon it begun to storm again, -and this time worse than ever.  The rain poured down, and never a light -showed; everybody in bed, I reckon.  We boomed along down the river, -watching for lights and watching for our raft.  After a long time the -rain let up, but the clouds stayed, and the lightning kept whimpering, -and by and by a flash showed us a black thing ahead, floating, and we -made for it. - -It was the raft, and mighty glad was we to get aboard of it again.  We -seen a light now away down to the right, on shore.  So I said I would -go for it. The skiff was half full of plunder which that gang had stole -there on the wreck.  We hustled it on to the raft in a pile, and I told -Jim to float along down, and show a light when he judged he had gone -about two mile, and keep it burning till I come; then I manned my oars -and shoved for the light.  As I got down towards it three or four more -showed—up on a hillside.  It was a village.  I closed in above the shore -light, and laid on my oars and floated.  As I went by I see it was a -lantern hanging on the jackstaff of a double-hull ferryboat.  I skimmed -around for the watchman, a-wondering whereabouts he slept; and by and -by I found him roosting on the bitts forward, with his head down between -his knees.  I gave his shoulder two or three little shoves, and begun to -cry. - -He stirred up in a kind of a startlish way; but when he see it was only -me he took a good gap and stretch, and then he says: - -"Hello, what's up?  Don't cry, bub.  What's the trouble?" - -I says: - -"Pap, and mam, and sis, and—" - -Then I broke down.  He says: - -"Oh, dang it now, _don't_ take on so; we all has to have our troubles, -and this 'n 'll come out all right.  What's the matter with 'em?" - -"They're—they're—are you the watchman of the boat?" - -"Yes," he says, kind of pretty-well-satisfied like.  "I'm the captain -and the owner and the mate and the pilot and watchman and head -deck-hand; and sometimes I'm the freight and passengers.  I ain't as -rich as old Jim Hornback, and I can't be so blame' generous and good -to Tom, Dick, and Harry as what he is, and slam around money the way he -does; but I've told him a many a time 't I wouldn't trade places with -him; for, says I, a sailor's life's the life for me, and I'm derned if -_I'd_ live two mile out o' town, where there ain't nothing ever goin' -on, not for all his spondulicks and as much more on top of it.  Says I—" - -I broke in and says: - -"They're in an awful peck of trouble, and—" - -"_Who_ is?" - -"Why, pap and mam and sis and Miss Hooker; and if you'd take your -ferryboat and go up there—" - -"Up where?  Where are they?" - -"On the wreck." - -"What wreck?" - -"Why, there ain't but one." - -"What, you don't mean the Walter Scott?" - -"Yes." - -"Good land! what are they doin' _there_, for gracious sakes?" - -"Well, they didn't go there a-purpose." - -"I bet they didn't!  Why, great goodness, there ain't no chance for 'em -if they don't git off mighty quick!  Why, how in the nation did they -ever git into such a scrape?" - -"Easy enough.  Miss Hooker was a-visiting up there to the town—" - -"Yes, Booth's Landing—go on." - -"She was a-visiting there at Booth's Landing, and just in the edge of -the evening she started over with her nigger woman in the horse-ferry -to stay all night at her friend's house, Miss What-you-may-call-her I -disremember her name—and they lost their steering-oar, and swung -around and went a-floating down, stern first, about two mile, and -saddle-baggsed on the wreck, and the ferryman and the nigger woman and -the horses was all lost, but Miss Hooker she made a grab and got aboard -the wreck.  Well, about an hour after dark we come along down in our -trading-scow, and it was so dark we didn't notice the wreck till we was -right on it; and so _we_ saddle-baggsed; but all of us was saved but -Bill Whipple—and oh, he _was_ the best cretur!—I most wish 't it had -been me, I do." - -"My George!  It's the beatenest thing I ever struck.  And _then_ what -did you all do?" - -"Well, we hollered and took on, but it's so wide there we couldn't -make nobody hear.  So pap said somebody got to get ashore and get help -somehow. I was the only one that could swim, so I made a dash for it, -and Miss Hooker she said if I didn't strike help sooner, come here and -hunt up her uncle, and he'd fix the thing.  I made the land about a mile -below, and been fooling along ever since, trying to get people to do -something, but they said, 'What, in such a night and such a current? -There ain't no sense in it; go for the steam ferry.'  Now if you'll go -and—" - -"By Jackson, I'd _like_ to, and, blame it, I don't know but I will; but -who in the dingnation's a-going' to _pay_ for it?  Do you reckon your -pap—" - -"Why _that's_ all right.  Miss Hooker she tole me, _particular_, that -her uncle Hornback—" - -"Great guns! is _he_ her uncle?  Looky here, you break for that light -over yonder-way, and turn out west when you git there, and about a -quarter of a mile out you'll come to the tavern; tell 'em to dart you -out to Jim Hornback's, and he'll foot the bill.  And don't you fool -around any, because he'll want to know the news.  Tell him I'll have -his niece all safe before he can get to town.  Hump yourself, now; I'm -a-going up around the corner here to roust out my engineer." - -I struck for the light, but as soon as he turned the corner I went back -and got into my skiff and bailed her out, and then pulled up shore in -the easy water about six hundred yards, and tucked myself in among -some woodboats; for I couldn't rest easy till I could see the ferryboat -start. But take it all around, I was feeling ruther comfortable on -accounts of taking all this trouble for that gang, for not many would -a done it.  I wished the widow knowed about it.  I judged she would be -proud of me for helping these rapscallions, because rapscallions and -dead beats is the kind the widow and good people takes the most interest -in. - -Well, before long here comes the wreck, dim and dusky, sliding along -down! A kind of cold shiver went through me, and then I struck out for -her.  She was very deep, and I see in a minute there warn't much chance -for anybody being alive in her.  I pulled all around her and hollered -a little, but there wasn't any answer; all dead still.  I felt a little -bit heavy-hearted about the gang, but not much, for I reckoned if they -could stand it I could. - -Then here comes the ferryboat; so I shoved for the middle of the river -on a long down-stream slant; and when I judged I was out of eye-reach -I laid on my oars, and looked back and see her go and smell around the -wreck for Miss Hooker's remainders, because the captain would know her -uncle Hornback would want them; and then pretty soon the ferryboat give -it up and went for the shore, and I laid into my work and went a-booming -down the river. - -It did seem a powerful long time before Jim's light showed up; and when -it did show it looked like it was a thousand mile off.  By the time I -got there the sky was beginning to get a little gray in the east; so we -struck for an island, and hid the raft, and sunk the skiff, and turned -in and slept like dead people. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -BY and by, when we got up, we turned over the truck the gang had stole -off of the wreck, and found boots, and blankets, and clothes, and all -sorts of other things, and a lot of books, and a spyglass, and three -boxes of seegars.  We hadn't ever been this rich before in neither of -our lives.  The seegars was prime.  We laid off all the afternoon in the -woods talking, and me reading the books, and having a general good -time. I told Jim all about what happened inside the wreck and at the -ferryboat, and I said these kinds of things was adventures; but he said -he didn't want no more adventures.  He said that when I went in the -texas and he crawled back to get on the raft and found her gone he -nearly died, because he judged it was all up with _him_ anyway it could -be fixed; for if he didn't get saved he would get drownded; and if he -did get saved, whoever saved him would send him back home so as to get -the reward, and then Miss Watson would sell him South, sure.  Well, he -was right; he was most always right; he had an uncommon level head for a -nigger. - -I read considerable to Jim about kings and dukes and earls and such, and -how gaudy they dressed, and how much style they put on, and called each -other your majesty, and your grace, and your lordship, and so on, 'stead -of mister; and Jim's eyes bugged out, and he was interested.  He says: - -"I didn' know dey was so many un um.  I hain't hearn 'bout none un um, -skasely, but ole King Sollermun, onless you counts dem kings dat's in a -pack er k'yards.  How much do a king git?" - -"Get?"  I says; "why, they get a thousand dollars a month if they want -it; they can have just as much as they want; everything belongs to -them." - -"_Ain'_ dat gay?  En what dey got to do, Huck?" - -"_They_ don't do nothing!  Why, how you talk! They just set around." - -"No; is dat so?" - -"Of course it is.  They just set around—except, maybe, when there's a -war; then they go to the war.  But other times they just lazy around; or -go hawking—just hawking and sp—Sh!—d' you hear a noise?" - -We skipped out and looked; but it warn't nothing but the flutter of a -steamboat's wheel away down, coming around the point; so we come back. - -"Yes," says I, "and other times, when things is dull, they fuss with the -parlyment; and if everybody don't go just so he whacks their heads off. -But mostly they hang round the harem." - -"Roun' de which?" - -"Harem." - -"What's de harem?" - -"The place where he keeps his wives.  Don't you know about the harem? -Solomon had one; he had about a million wives." - -"Why, yes, dat's so; I—I'd done forgot it.  A harem's a bo'd'n-house, I -reck'n.  Mos' likely dey has rackety times in de nussery.  En I reck'n -de wives quarrels considable; en dat 'crease de racket.  Yit dey say -Sollermun de wises' man dat ever live'.  I doan' take no stock in -dat. Bekase why: would a wise man want to live in de mids' er sich a -blim-blammin' all de time?  No—'deed he wouldn't.  A wise man 'ud take -en buil' a biler-factry; en den he could shet _down_ de biler-factry -when he want to res'." - -"Well, but he _was_ the wisest man, anyway; because the widow she told -me so, her own self." - -"I doan k'yer what de widder say, he _warn't_ no wise man nuther.  He -had some er de dad-fetchedes' ways I ever see.  Does you know 'bout dat -chile dat he 'uz gwyne to chop in two?" - -"Yes, the widow told me all about it." - -"_Well_, den!  Warn' dat de beatenes' notion in de worl'?  You jes' -take en look at it a minute.  Dah's de stump, dah—dat's one er de women; -heah's you—dat's de yuther one; I's Sollermun; en dish yer dollar bill's -de chile.  Bofe un you claims it.  What does I do?  Does I shin aroun' -mongs' de neighbors en fine out which un you de bill _do_ b'long to, en -han' it over to de right one, all safe en soun', de way dat anybody dat -had any gumption would?  No; I take en whack de bill in _two_, en give -half un it to you, en de yuther half to de yuther woman.  Dat's de way -Sollermun was gwyne to do wid de chile.  Now I want to ast you:  what's -de use er dat half a bill?—can't buy noth'n wid it.  En what use is a -half a chile?  I wouldn' give a dern for a million un um." - -"But hang it, Jim, you've clean missed the point—blame it, you've missed -it a thousand mile." - -"Who?  Me?  Go 'long.  Doan' talk to me 'bout yo' pints.  I reck'n I -knows sense when I sees it; en dey ain' no sense in sich doin's as -dat. De 'spute warn't 'bout a half a chile, de 'spute was 'bout a whole -chile; en de man dat think he kin settle a 'spute 'bout a whole chile -wid a half a chile doan' know enough to come in out'n de rain.  Doan' -talk to me 'bout Sollermun, Huck, I knows him by de back." - -"But I tell you you don't get the point." - -"Blame de point!  I reck'n I knows what I knows.  En mine you, de _real_ -pint is down furder—it's down deeper.  It lays in de way Sollermun was -raised.  You take a man dat's got on'y one or two chillen; is dat man -gwyne to be waseful o' chillen?  No, he ain't; he can't 'ford it.  _He_ -know how to value 'em.  But you take a man dat's got 'bout five million -chillen runnin' roun' de house, en it's diffunt.  _He_ as soon chop a -chile in two as a cat. Dey's plenty mo'.  A chile er two, mo' er less, -warn't no consekens to Sollermun, dad fatch him!" - -I never see such a nigger.  If he got a notion in his head once, there -warn't no getting it out again.  He was the most down on Solomon of -any nigger I ever see.  So I went to talking about other kings, and let -Solomon slide.  I told about Louis Sixteenth that got his head cut off -in France long time ago; and about his little boy the dolphin, that -would a been a king, but they took and shut him up in jail, and some say -he died there. - -"Po' little chap." - -"But some says he got out and got away, and come to America." - -"Dat's good!  But he'll be pooty lonesome—dey ain' no kings here, is -dey, Huck?" - -"No." - -"Den he cain't git no situation.  What he gwyne to do?" - -"Well, I don't know.  Some of them gets on the police, and some of them -learns people how to talk French." - -"Why, Huck, doan' de French people talk de same way we does?" - -"_No_, Jim; you couldn't understand a word they said—not a single word." - -"Well, now, I be ding-busted!  How do dat come?" - -"I don't know; but it's so.  I got some of their jabber out of a book. -S'pose a man was to come to you and say Polly-voo-franzy—what would you -think?" - -"I wouldn' think nuff'n; I'd take en bust him over de head—dat is, if he -warn't white.  I wouldn't 'low no nigger to call me dat." - -"Shucks, it ain't calling you anything.  It's only saying, do you know -how to talk French?" - -"Well, den, why couldn't he _say_ it?" - -"Why, he _is_ a-saying it.  That's a Frenchman's _way_ of saying it." - -"Well, it's a blame ridicklous way, en I doan' want to hear no mo' 'bout -it.  Dey ain' no sense in it." - -"Looky here, Jim; does a cat talk like we do?" - -"No, a cat don't." - -"Well, does a cow?" - -"No, a cow don't, nuther." - -"Does a cat talk like a cow, or a cow talk like a cat?" - -"No, dey don't." - -"It's natural and right for 'em to talk different from each other, ain't -it?" - -"Course." - -"And ain't it natural and right for a cat and a cow to talk different -from _us_?" - -"Why, mos' sholy it is." - -"Well, then, why ain't it natural and right for a _Frenchman_ to talk -different from us?  You answer me that." - -"Is a cat a man, Huck?" - -"No." - -"Well, den, dey ain't no sense in a cat talkin' like a man.  Is a cow a -man?—er is a cow a cat?" - -"No, she ain't either of them." - -"Well, den, she ain't got no business to talk like either one er the -yuther of 'em.  Is a Frenchman a man?" - -"Yes." - -"_Well_, den!  Dad blame it, why doan' he _talk_ like a man?  You answer -me _dat_!" - -I see it warn't no use wasting words—you can't learn a nigger to argue. -So I quit. - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -WE judged that three nights more would fetch us to Cairo, at the bottom -of Illinois, where the Ohio River comes in, and that was what we was -after.  We would sell the raft and get on a steamboat and go way up the -Ohio amongst the free States, and then be out of trouble. - -Well, the second night a fog begun to come on, and we made for a towhead -to tie to, for it wouldn't do to try to run in a fog; but when I paddled -ahead in the canoe, with the line to make fast, there warn't anything -but little saplings to tie to.  I passed the line around one of them -right on the edge of the cut bank, but there was a stiff current, and -the raft come booming down so lively she tore it out by the roots and -away she went.  I see the fog closing down, and it made me so sick and -scared I couldn't budge for most a half a minute it seemed to me—and -then there warn't no raft in sight; you couldn't see twenty yards.  I -jumped into the canoe and run back to the stern, and grabbed the paddle -and set her back a stroke.  But she didn't come.  I was in such a hurry -I hadn't untied her.  I got up and tried to untie her, but I was so -excited my hands shook so I couldn't hardly do anything with them. - -As soon as I got started I took out after the raft, hot and heavy, right -down the towhead.  That was all right as far as it went, but the towhead -warn't sixty yards long, and the minute I flew by the foot of it I shot -out into the solid white fog, and hadn't no more idea which way I was -going than a dead man. - -Thinks I, it won't do to paddle; first I know I'll run into the bank -or a towhead or something; I got to set still and float, and yet it's -mighty fidgety business to have to hold your hands still at such a time. - I whooped and listened.  Away down there somewheres I hears a small -whoop, and up comes my spirits.  I went tearing after it, listening -sharp to hear it again.  The next time it come I see I warn't heading -for it, but heading away to the right of it.  And the next time I was -heading away to the left of it—and not gaining on it much either, for -I was flying around, this way and that and t'other, but it was going -straight ahead all the time. - -I did wish the fool would think to beat a tin pan, and beat it all the -time, but he never did, and it was the still places between the whoops -that was making the trouble for me.  Well, I fought along, and directly -I hears the whoop _behind_ me.  I was tangled good now.  That was -somebody else's whoop, or else I was turned around. - -I throwed the paddle down.  I heard the whoop again; it was behind me -yet, but in a different place; it kept coming, and kept changing its -place, and I kept answering, till by and by it was in front of me again, -and I knowed the current had swung the canoe's head down-stream, and I -was all right if that was Jim and not some other raftsman hollering. - I couldn't tell nothing about voices in a fog, for nothing don't look -natural nor sound natural in a fog. - -The whooping went on, and in about a minute I come a-booming down on a -cut bank with smoky ghosts of big trees on it, and the current throwed -me off to the left and shot by, amongst a lot of snags that fairly -roared, the currrent was tearing by them so swift. - -In another second or two it was solid white and still again.  I set -perfectly still then, listening to my heart thump, and I reckon I didn't -draw a breath while it thumped a hundred. - -I just give up then.  I knowed what the matter was.  That cut bank -was an island, and Jim had gone down t'other side of it.  It warn't no -towhead that you could float by in ten minutes.  It had the big timber -of a regular island; it might be five or six miles long and more than -half a mile wide. - -I kept quiet, with my ears cocked, about fifteen minutes, I reckon.  I -was floating along, of course, four or five miles an hour; but you don't -ever think of that.  No, you _feel_ like you are laying dead still on -the water; and if a little glimpse of a snag slips by you don't think to -yourself how fast _you're_ going, but you catch your breath and think, -my! how that snag's tearing along.  If you think it ain't dismal and -lonesome out in a fog that way by yourself in the night, you try it -once—you'll see. - -Next, for about a half an hour, I whoops now and then; at last I hears -the answer a long ways off, and tries to follow it, but I couldn't do -it, and directly I judged I'd got into a nest of towheads, for I had -little dim glimpses of them on both sides of me—sometimes just a narrow -channel between, and some that I couldn't see I knowed was there because -I'd hear the wash of the current against the old dead brush and trash -that hung over the banks.  Well, I warn't long loosing the whoops down -amongst the towheads; and I only tried to chase them a little while, -anyway, because it was worse than chasing a Jack-o'-lantern.  You never -knowed a sound dodge around so, and swap places so quick and so much. - -I had to claw away from the bank pretty lively four or five times, to -keep from knocking the islands out of the river; and so I judged the -raft must be butting into the bank every now and then, or else it would -get further ahead and clear out of hearing—it was floating a little -faster than what I was. - -Well, I seemed to be in the open river again by and by, but I couldn't -hear no sign of a whoop nowheres.  I reckoned Jim had fetched up on a -snag, maybe, and it was all up with him.  I was good and tired, so I -laid down in the canoe and said I wouldn't bother no more.  I didn't -want to go to sleep, of course; but I was so sleepy I couldn't help it; -so I thought I would take jest one little cat-nap. - -But I reckon it was more than a cat-nap, for when I waked up the stars -was shining bright, the fog was all gone, and I was spinning down a -big bend stern first.  First I didn't know where I was; I thought I was -dreaming; and when things began to come back to me they seemed to come -up dim out of last week. - -It was a monstrous big river here, with the tallest and the thickest -kind of timber on both banks; just a solid wall, as well as I could see -by the stars.  I looked away down-stream, and seen a black speck on the -water. I took after it; but when I got to it it warn't nothing but a -couple of sawlogs made fast together.  Then I see another speck, and -chased that; then another, and this time I was right.  It was the raft. - -When I got to it Jim was setting there with his head down between his -knees, asleep, with his right arm hanging over the steering-oar.  The -other oar was smashed off, and the raft was littered up with leaves and -branches and dirt.  So she'd had a rough time. - -I made fast and laid down under Jim's nose on the raft, and began to -gap, and stretch my fists out against Jim, and says: - -"Hello, Jim, have I been asleep?  Why didn't you stir me up?" - -"Goodness gracious, is dat you, Huck?  En you ain' dead—you ain' -drownded—you's back agin?  It's too good for true, honey, it's too good -for true. Lemme look at you chile, lemme feel o' you.  No, you ain' -dead! you's back agin, 'live en soun', jis de same ole Huck—de same ole -Huck, thanks to goodness!" - -"What's the matter with you, Jim?  You been a-drinking?" - -"Drinkin'?  Has I ben a-drinkin'?  Has I had a chance to be a-drinkin'?" - -"Well, then, what makes you talk so wild?" - -"How does I talk wild?" - -"_How_?  Why, hain't you been talking about my coming back, and all that -stuff, as if I'd been gone away?" - -"Huck—Huck Finn, you look me in de eye; look me in de eye.  _Hain't_ you -ben gone away?" - -"Gone away?  Why, what in the nation do you mean?  I hain't been gone -anywheres.  Where would I go to?" - -"Well, looky here, boss, dey's sumf'n wrong, dey is.  Is I _me_, or who -_is_ I? Is I heah, or whah _is_ I?  Now dat's what I wants to know." - -"Well, I think you're here, plain enough, but I think you're a -tangle-headed old fool, Jim." - -"I is, is I?  Well, you answer me dis:  Didn't you tote out de line in -de canoe fer to make fas' to de tow-head?" - -"No, I didn't.  What tow-head?  I hain't see no tow-head." - -"You hain't seen no towhead?  Looky here, didn't de line pull loose en -de raf' go a-hummin' down de river, en leave you en de canoe behine in -de fog?" - -"What fog?" - -"Why, de fog!—de fog dat's been aroun' all night.  En didn't you whoop, -en didn't I whoop, tell we got mix' up in de islands en one un us got -los' en t'other one was jis' as good as los', 'kase he didn' know whah -he wuz? En didn't I bust up agin a lot er dem islands en have a turrible -time en mos' git drownded?  Now ain' dat so, boss—ain't it so?  You -answer me dat." - -"Well, this is too many for me, Jim.  I hain't seen no fog, nor no -islands, nor no troubles, nor nothing.  I been setting here talking with -you all night till you went to sleep about ten minutes ago, and I reckon -I done the same.  You couldn't a got drunk in that time, so of course -you've been dreaming." - -"Dad fetch it, how is I gwyne to dream all dat in ten minutes?" - -"Well, hang it all, you did dream it, because there didn't any of it -happen." - -"But, Huck, it's all jis' as plain to me as—" - -"It don't make no difference how plain it is; there ain't nothing in it. -I know, because I've been here all the time." - -Jim didn't say nothing for about five minutes, but set there studying -over it.  Then he says: - -"Well, den, I reck'n I did dream it, Huck; but dog my cats ef it ain't -de powerfullest dream I ever see.  En I hain't ever had no dream b'fo' -dat's tired me like dis one." - -"Oh, well, that's all right, because a dream does tire a body like -everything sometimes.  But this one was a staving dream; tell me all -about it, Jim." - -So Jim went to work and told me the whole thing right through, just as -it happened, only he painted it up considerable.  Then he said he must -start in and "'terpret" it, because it was sent for a warning.  He said -the first towhead stood for a man that would try to do us some good, but -the current was another man that would get us away from him.  The whoops -was warnings that would come to us every now and then, and if we didn't -try hard to make out to understand them they'd just take us into bad -luck, 'stead of keeping us out of it.  The lot of towheads was troubles -we was going to get into with quarrelsome people and all kinds of mean -folks, but if we minded our business and didn't talk back and aggravate -them, we would pull through and get out of the fog and into the big -clear river, which was the free States, and wouldn't have no more -trouble. - -It had clouded up pretty dark just after I got on to the raft, but it -was clearing up again now. - -"Oh, well, that's all interpreted well enough as far as it goes, Jim," I -says; "but what does _these_ things stand for?" - -It was the leaves and rubbish on the raft and the smashed oar.  You -could see them first-rate now. - -Jim looked at the trash, and then looked at me, and back at the trash -again.  He had got the dream fixed so strong in his head that he -couldn't seem to shake it loose and get the facts back into its place -again right away.  But when he did get the thing straightened around he -looked at me steady without ever smiling, and says: - -"What do dey stan' for?  I'se gwyne to tell you.  When I got all wore -out wid work, en wid de callin' for you, en went to sleep, my heart wuz -mos' broke bekase you wuz los', en I didn' k'yer no' mo' what become -er me en de raf'.  En when I wake up en fine you back agin, all safe -en soun', de tears come, en I could a got down on my knees en kiss yo' -foot, I's so thankful. En all you wuz thinkin' 'bout wuz how you could -make a fool uv ole Jim wid a lie.  Dat truck dah is _trash_; en trash -is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren's en makes 'em -ashamed." - -Then he got up slow and walked to the wigwam, and went in there without -saying anything but that.  But that was enough.  It made me feel so mean -I could almost kissed _his_ foot to get him to take it back. - -It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble -myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it -afterwards, neither.  I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I -wouldn't done that one if I'd a knowed it would make him feel that way. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -WE slept most all day, and started out at night, a little ways behind a -monstrous long raft that was as long going by as a procession.  She had -four long sweeps at each end, so we judged she carried as many as thirty -men, likely.  She had five big wigwams aboard, wide apart, and an open -camp fire in the middle, and a tall flag-pole at each end.  There was a -power of style about her.  It _amounted_ to something being a raftsman -on such a craft as that. - -We went drifting down into a big bend, and the night clouded up and got -hot.  The river was very wide, and was walled with solid timber on -both sides; you couldn't see a break in it hardly ever, or a light.  We -talked about Cairo, and wondered whether we would know it when we got to -it.  I said likely we wouldn't, because I had heard say there warn't but -about a dozen houses there, and if they didn't happen to have them lit -up, how was we going to know we was passing a town?  Jim said if the two -big rivers joined together there, that would show.  But I said maybe -we might think we was passing the foot of an island and coming into the -same old river again. That disturbed Jim—and me too.  So the question -was, what to do?  I said, paddle ashore the first time a light showed, -and tell them pap was behind, coming along with a trading-scow, and -was a green hand at the business, and wanted to know how far it was to -Cairo.  Jim thought it was a good idea, so we took a smoke on it and -waited. - -There warn't nothing to do now but to look out sharp for the town, and -not pass it without seeing it.  He said he'd be mighty sure to see it, -because he'd be a free man the minute he seen it, but if he missed it -he'd be in a slave country again and no more show for freedom.  Every -little while he jumps up and says: - -"Dah she is?" - -But it warn't.  It was Jack-o'-lanterns, or lightning bugs; so he set -down again, and went to watching, same as before.  Jim said it made him -all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom.  Well, I can -tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, -because I begun to get it through my head that he _was_ most free—and -who was to blame for it?  Why, _me_.  I couldn't get that out of my -conscience, no how nor no way. It got to troubling me so I couldn't -rest; I couldn't stay still in one place.  It hadn't ever come home to -me before, what this thing was that I was doing.  But now it did; and it -stayed with me, and scorched me more and more.  I tried to make out to -myself that I warn't to blame, because I didn't run Jim off from his -rightful owner; but it warn't no use, conscience up and says, every -time, "But you knowed he was running for his freedom, and you could a -paddled ashore and told somebody."  That was so—I couldn't get around -that noway.  That was where it pinched.  Conscience says to me, "What -had poor Miss Watson done to you that you could see her nigger go off -right under your eyes and never say one single word?  What did that poor -old woman do to you that you could treat her so mean?  Why, she tried to -learn you your book, she tried to learn you your manners, she tried to -be good to you every way she knowed how.  _That's_ what she done." - -I got to feeling so mean and so miserable I most wished I was dead.  I -fidgeted up and down the raft, abusing myself to myself, and Jim was -fidgeting up and down past me.  We neither of us could keep still. - Every time he danced around and says, "Dah's Cairo!" it went through me -like a shot, and I thought if it _was_ Cairo I reckoned I would die of -miserableness. - -Jim talked out loud all the time while I was talking to myself.  He was -saying how the first thing he would do when he got to a free State he -would go to saving up money and never spend a single cent, and when he -got enough he would buy his wife, which was owned on a farm close to -where Miss Watson lived; and then they would both work to buy the -two children, and if their master wouldn't sell them, they'd get an -Ab'litionist to go and steal them. - -It most froze me to hear such talk.  He wouldn't ever dared to talk such -talk in his life before.  Just see what a difference it made in him the -minute he judged he was about free.  It was according to the old saying, -"Give a nigger an inch and he'll take an ell."  Thinks I, this is what -comes of my not thinking.  Here was this nigger, which I had as good -as helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would -steal his children—children that belonged to a man I didn't even know; a -man that hadn't ever done me no harm. - -I was sorry to hear Jim say that, it was such a lowering of him.  My -conscience got to stirring me up hotter than ever, until at last I says -to it, "Let up on me—it ain't too late yet—I'll paddle ashore at the -first light and tell."  I felt easy and happy and light as a feather -right off.  All my troubles was gone.  I went to looking out sharp for a -light, and sort of singing to myself.  By and by one showed.  Jim sings -out: - -"We's safe, Huck, we's safe!  Jump up and crack yo' heels!  Dat's de -good ole Cairo at las', I jis knows it!" - -I says: - -"I'll take the canoe and go and see, Jim.  It mightn't be, you know." - -He jumped and got the canoe ready, and put his old coat in the bottom -for me to set on, and give me the paddle; and as I shoved off, he says: - -"Pooty soon I'll be a-shout'n' for joy, en I'll say, it's all on -accounts o' Huck; I's a free man, en I couldn't ever ben free ef it -hadn' ben for Huck; Huck done it.  Jim won't ever forgit you, Huck; -you's de bes' fren' Jim's ever had; en you's de _only_ fren' ole Jim's -got now." - -I was paddling off, all in a sweat to tell on him; but when he says -this, it seemed to kind of take the tuck all out of me.  I went along -slow then, and I warn't right down certain whether I was glad I started -or whether I warn't.  When I was fifty yards off, Jim says: - -"Dah you goes, de ole true Huck; de on'y white genlman dat ever kep' his -promise to ole Jim." - -Well, I just felt sick.  But I says, I _got_ to do it—I can't get _out_ -of it.  Right then along comes a skiff with two men in it with guns, and -they stopped and I stopped.  One of them says: - -"What's that yonder?" - -"A piece of a raft," I says. - -"Do you belong on it?" - -"Yes, sir." - -"Any men on it?" - -"Only one, sir." - -"Well, there's five niggers run off to-night up yonder, above the head -of the bend.  Is your man white or black?" - -I didn't answer up prompt.  I tried to, but the words wouldn't come. I -tried for a second or two to brace up and out with it, but I warn't man -enough—hadn't the spunk of a rabbit.  I see I was weakening; so I just -give up trying, and up and says: - -"He's white." - -"I reckon we'll go and see for ourselves." - -"I wish you would," says I, "because it's pap that's there, and maybe -you'd help me tow the raft ashore where the light is.  He's sick—and so -is mam and Mary Ann." - -"Oh, the devil! we're in a hurry, boy.  But I s'pose we've got to. - Come, buckle to your paddle, and let's get along." - -I buckled to my paddle and they laid to their oars.  When we had made a -stroke or two, I says: - -"Pap'll be mighty much obleeged to you, I can tell you.  Everybody goes -away when I want them to help me tow the raft ashore, and I can't do it -by myself." - -"Well, that's infernal mean.  Odd, too.  Say, boy, what's the matter -with your father?" - -"It's the—a—the—well, it ain't anything much." - -They stopped pulling.  It warn't but a mighty little ways to the raft -now. One says: - -"Boy, that's a lie.  What _is_ the matter with your pap?  Answer up -square now, and it'll be the better for you." - -"I will, sir, I will, honest—but don't leave us, please.  It's -the—the—Gentlemen, if you'll only pull ahead, and let me heave you the -headline, you won't have to come a-near the raft—please do." - -"Set her back, John, set her back!" says one.  They backed water.  "Keep -away, boy—keep to looard.  Confound it, I just expect the wind has -blowed it to us.  Your pap's got the small-pox, and you know it precious -well.  Why didn't you come out and say so?  Do you want to spread it all -over?" - -"Well," says I, a-blubbering, "I've told everybody before, and they just -went away and left us." - -"Poor devil, there's something in that.  We are right down sorry for -you, but we—well, hang it, we don't want the small-pox, you see.  Look -here, I'll tell you what to do.  Don't you try to land by yourself, or -you'll smash everything to pieces.  You float along down about twenty -miles, and you'll come to a town on the left-hand side of the river.  It -will be long after sun-up then, and when you ask for help you tell them -your folks are all down with chills and fever.  Don't be a fool again, -and let people guess what is the matter.  Now we're trying to do you a -kindness; so you just put twenty miles between us, that's a good boy. - It wouldn't do any good to land yonder where the light is—it's only a -wood-yard. Say, I reckon your father's poor, and I'm bound to say he's -in pretty hard luck.  Here, I'll put a twenty-dollar gold piece on this -board, and you get it when it floats by.  I feel mighty mean to leave -you; but my kingdom! it won't do to fool with small-pox, don't you see?" - -"Hold on, Parker," says the other man, "here's a twenty to put on the -board for me.  Good-bye, boy; you do as Mr. Parker told you, and you'll -be all right." - -"That's so, my boy—good-bye, good-bye.  If you see any runaway niggers -you get help and nab them, and you can make some money by it." - -"Good-bye, sir," says I; "I won't let no runaway niggers get by me if I -can help it." - -They went off and I got aboard the raft, feeling bad and low, because I -knowed very well I had done wrong, and I see it warn't no use for me -to try to learn to do right; a body that don't get _started_ right when -he's little ain't got no show—when the pinch comes there ain't nothing -to back him up and keep him to his work, and so he gets beat.  Then I -thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on; s'pose you'd a done right -and give Jim up, would you felt better than what you do now?  No, says -I, I'd feel bad—I'd feel just the same way I do now.  Well, then, says -I, what's the use you learning to do right when it's troublesome to do -right and ain't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same? - I was stuck.  I couldn't answer that.  So I reckoned I wouldn't bother -no more about it, but after this always do whichever come handiest at -the time. - -I went into the wigwam; Jim warn't there.  I looked all around; he -warn't anywhere.  I says: - -"Jim!" - -"Here I is, Huck.  Is dey out o' sight yit?  Don't talk loud." - -He was in the river under the stern oar, with just his nose out.  I told -him they were out of sight, so he come aboard.  He says: - -"I was a-listenin' to all de talk, en I slips into de river en was gwyne -to shove for sho' if dey come aboard.  Den I was gwyne to swim to de -raf' agin when dey was gone.  But lawsy, how you did fool 'em, Huck! - Dat _wuz_ de smartes' dodge!  I tell you, chile, I'spec it save' ole -Jim—ole Jim ain't going to forgit you for dat, honey." - -Then we talked about the money.  It was a pretty good raise—twenty -dollars apiece.  Jim said we could take deck passage on a steamboat -now, and the money would last us as far as we wanted to go in the free -States. He said twenty mile more warn't far for the raft to go, but he -wished we was already there. - -Towards daybreak we tied up, and Jim was mighty particular about hiding -the raft good.  Then he worked all day fixing things in bundles, and -getting all ready to quit rafting. - -That night about ten we hove in sight of the lights of a town away down -in a left-hand bend. - -I went off in the canoe to ask about it.  Pretty soon I found a man out -in the river with a skiff, setting a trot-line.  I ranged up and says: - -"Mister, is that town Cairo?" - -"Cairo? no.  You must be a blame' fool." - -"What town is it, mister?" - -"If you want to know, go and find out.  If you stay here botherin' -around me for about a half a minute longer you'll get something you -won't want." - -I paddled to the raft.  Jim was awful disappointed, but I said never -mind, Cairo would be the next place, I reckoned. - -We passed another town before daylight, and I was going out again; but -it was high ground, so I didn't go.  No high ground about Cairo, Jim -said. I had forgot it.  We laid up for the day on a towhead tolerable -close to the left-hand bank.  I begun to suspicion something.  So did -Jim.  I says: - -"Maybe we went by Cairo in the fog that night." - -He says: - -"Doan' le's talk about it, Huck.  Po' niggers can't have no luck.  I -awluz 'spected dat rattlesnake-skin warn't done wid its work." - -"I wish I'd never seen that snake-skin, Jim—I do wish I'd never laid -eyes on it." - -"It ain't yo' fault, Huck; you didn' know.  Don't you blame yo'self -'bout it." - -When it was daylight, here was the clear Ohio water inshore, sure -enough, and outside was the old regular Muddy!  So it was all up with -Cairo. - -We talked it all over.  It wouldn't do to take to the shore; we couldn't -take the raft up the stream, of course.  There warn't no way but to wait -for dark, and start back in the canoe and take the chances.  So we slept -all day amongst the cottonwood thicket, so as to be fresh for the work, -and when we went back to the raft about dark the canoe was gone! - -We didn't say a word for a good while.  There warn't anything to -say.  We both knowed well enough it was some more work of the -rattlesnake-skin; so what was the use to talk about it?  It would only -look like we was finding fault, and that would be bound to fetch more -bad luck—and keep on fetching it, too, till we knowed enough to keep -still. - -By and by we talked about what we better do, and found there warn't no -way but just to go along down with the raft till we got a chance to buy -a canoe to go back in.  We warn't going to borrow it when there warn't -anybody around, the way pap would do, for that might set people after -us. - -So we shoved out after dark on the raft. - -Anybody that don't believe yet that it's foolishness to handle a -snake-skin, after all that that snake-skin done for us, will believe it -now if they read on and see what more it done for us. - -The place to buy canoes is off of rafts laying up at shore.  But we -didn't see no rafts laying up; so we went along during three hours and -more.  Well, the night got gray and ruther thick, which is the next -meanest thing to fog.  You can't tell the shape of the river, and you -can't see no distance. It got to be very late and still, and then along -comes a steamboat up the river.  We lit the lantern, and judged she -would see it.  Up-stream boats didn't generly come close to us; they -go out and follow the bars and hunt for easy water under the reefs; but -nights like this they bull right up the channel against the whole river. - -We could hear her pounding along, but we didn't see her good till she -was close.  She aimed right for us.  Often they do that and try to see -how close they can come without touching; sometimes the wheel bites off -a sweep, and then the pilot sticks his head out and laughs, and thinks -he's mighty smart.  Well, here she comes, and we said she was going to -try and shave us; but she didn't seem to be sheering off a bit.  She -was a big one, and she was coming in a hurry, too, looking like a black -cloud with rows of glow-worms around it; but all of a sudden she bulged -out, big and scary, with a long row of wide-open furnace doors shining -like red-hot teeth, and her monstrous bows and guards hanging right -over us.  There was a yell at us, and a jingling of bells to stop the -engines, a powwow of cussing, and whistling of steam—and as Jim went -overboard on one side and I on the other, she come smashing straight -through the raft. - -I dived—and I aimed to find the bottom, too, for a thirty-foot wheel -had got to go over me, and I wanted it to have plenty of room.  I could -always stay under water a minute; this time I reckon I stayed under a -minute and a half.  Then I bounced for the top in a hurry, for I was -nearly busting.  I popped out to my armpits and blowed the water out of -my nose, and puffed a bit.  Of course there was a booming current; and -of course that boat started her engines again ten seconds after she -stopped them, for they never cared much for raftsmen; so now she was -churning along up the river, out of sight in the thick weather, though I -could hear her. - -I sung out for Jim about a dozen times, but I didn't get any answer; -so I grabbed a plank that touched me while I was "treading water," and -struck out for shore, shoving it ahead of me.  But I made out to see -that the drift of the current was towards the left-hand shore, which -meant that I was in a crossing; so I changed off and went that way. - -It was one of these long, slanting, two-mile crossings; so I was a good -long time in getting over.  I made a safe landing, and clumb up the -bank. I couldn't see but a little ways, but I went poking along over -rough ground for a quarter of a mile or more, and then I run across a -big old-fashioned double log-house before I noticed it.  I was going to -rush by and get away, but a lot of dogs jumped out and went to howling -and barking at me, and I knowed better than to move another peg. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -IN about a minute somebody spoke out of a window without putting his -head out, and says: - -"Be done, boys!  Who's there?" - -I says: - -"It's me." - -"Who's me?" - -"George Jackson, sir." - -"What do you want?" - -"I don't want nothing, sir.  I only want to go along by, but the dogs -won't let me." - -"What are you prowling around here this time of night for—hey?" - -"I warn't prowling around, sir, I fell overboard off of the steamboat." - -"Oh, you did, did you?  Strike a light there, somebody.  What did you -say your name was?" - -"George Jackson, sir.  I'm only a boy." - -"Look here, if you're telling the truth you needn't be afraid—nobody'll -hurt you.  But don't try to budge; stand right where you are.  Rouse out -Bob and Tom, some of you, and fetch the guns.  George Jackson, is there -anybody with you?" - -"No, sir, nobody." - -I heard the people stirring around in the house now, and see a light. -The man sung out: - -"Snatch that light away, Betsy, you old fool—ain't you got any sense? -Put it on the floor behind the front door.  Bob, if you and Tom are -ready, take your places." - -"All ready." - -"Now, George Jackson, do you know the Shepherdsons?" - -"No, sir; I never heard of them." - -"Well, that may be so, and it mayn't.  Now, all ready.  Step forward, -George Jackson.  And mind, don't you hurry—come mighty slow.  If there's -anybody with you, let him keep back—if he shows himself he'll be shot. -Come along now.  Come slow; push the door open yourself—just enough to -squeeze in, d' you hear?" - -I didn't hurry; I couldn't if I'd a wanted to.  I took one slow step at -a time and there warn't a sound, only I thought I could hear my heart. - The dogs were as still as the humans, but they followed a little behind -me. When I got to the three log doorsteps I heard them unlocking and -unbarring and unbolting.  I put my hand on the door and pushed it a -little and a little more till somebody said, "There, that's enough—put -your head in." I done it, but I judged they would take it off. - -The candle was on the floor, and there they all was, looking at me, and -me at them, for about a quarter of a minute:  Three big men with guns -pointed at me, which made me wince, I tell you; the oldest, gray -and about sixty, the other two thirty or more—all of them fine and -handsome—and the sweetest old gray-headed lady, and back of her two -young women which I couldn't see right well.  The old gentleman says: - -"There; I reckon it's all right.  Come in." - -As soon as I was in the old gentleman he locked the door and barred it -and bolted it, and told the young men to come in with their guns, and -they all went in a big parlor that had a new rag carpet on the floor, -and got together in a corner that was out of the range of the front -windows—there warn't none on the side.  They held the candle, and took a -good look at me, and all said, "Why, _he_ ain't a Shepherdson—no, there -ain't any Shepherdson about him."  Then the old man said he hoped I -wouldn't mind being searched for arms, because he didn't mean no harm by -it—it was only to make sure.  So he didn't pry into my pockets, but only -felt outside with his hands, and said it was all right.  He told me to -make myself easy and at home, and tell all about myself; but the old -lady says: - -"Why, bless you, Saul, the poor thing's as wet as he can be; and don't -you reckon it may be he's hungry?" - -"True for you, Rachel—I forgot." - -So the old lady says: - -"Betsy" (this was a nigger woman), "you fly around and get him something -to eat as quick as you can, poor thing; and one of you girls go and wake -up Buck and tell him—oh, here he is himself.  Buck, take this little -stranger and get the wet clothes off from him and dress him up in some -of yours that's dry." - -Buck looked about as old as me—thirteen or fourteen or along there, -though he was a little bigger than me.  He hadn't on anything but a -shirt, and he was very frowzy-headed.  He came in gaping and digging one -fist into his eyes, and he was dragging a gun along with the other one. -He says: - -"Ain't they no Shepherdsons around?" - -They said, no, 'twas a false alarm. - -"Well," he says, "if they'd a ben some, I reckon I'd a got one." - -They all laughed, and Bob says: - -"Why, Buck, they might have scalped us all, you've been so slow in -coming." - -"Well, nobody come after me, and it ain't right I'm always kept down; I -don't get no show." - -"Never mind, Buck, my boy," says the old man, "you'll have show enough, -all in good time, don't you fret about that.  Go 'long with you now, and -do as your mother told you." - -When we got up-stairs to his room he got me a coarse shirt and a -roundabout and pants of his, and I put them on.  While I was at it he -asked me what my name was, but before I could tell him he started to -tell me about a bluejay and a young rabbit he had catched in the woods -day before yesterday, and he asked me where Moses was when the candle -went out.  I said I didn't know; I hadn't heard about it before, no way. - -"Well, guess," he says. - -"How'm I going to guess," says I, "when I never heard tell of it -before?" - -"But you can guess, can't you?  It's just as easy." - -"_Which_ candle?"  I says. - -"Why, any candle," he says. - -"I don't know where he was," says I; "where was he?" - -"Why, he was in the _dark_!  That's where he was!" - -"Well, if you knowed where he was, what did you ask me for?" - -"Why, blame it, it's a riddle, don't you see?  Say, how long are you -going to stay here?  You got to stay always.  We can just have booming -times—they don't have no school now.  Do you own a dog?  I've got a -dog—and he'll go in the river and bring out chips that you throw in.  Do -you like to comb up Sundays, and all that kind of foolishness?  You bet -I don't, but ma she makes me.  Confound these ole britches!  I reckon -I'd better put 'em on, but I'd ruther not, it's so warm.  Are you all -ready? All right.  Come along, old hoss." - -Cold corn-pone, cold corn-beef, butter and buttermilk—that is what they -had for me down there, and there ain't nothing better that ever I've -come across yet.  Buck and his ma and all of them smoked cob pipes, -except the nigger woman, which was gone, and the two young women.  They -all smoked and talked, and I eat and talked.  The young women had -quilts around them, and their hair down their backs.  They all asked me -questions, and I told them how pap and me and all the family was living -on a little farm down at the bottom of Arkansaw, and my sister Mary Ann -run off and got married and never was heard of no more, and Bill went -to hunt them and he warn't heard of no more, and Tom and Mort died, -and then there warn't nobody but just me and pap left, and he was just -trimmed down to nothing, on account of his troubles; so when he died -I took what there was left, because the farm didn't belong to us, and -started up the river, deck passage, and fell overboard; and that was how -I come to be here.  So they said I could have a home there as long as I -wanted it.  Then it was most daylight and everybody went to bed, and I -went to bed with Buck, and when I waked up in the morning, drat it all, -I had forgot what my name was. So I laid there about an hour trying to -think, and when Buck waked up I says: - -"Can you spell, Buck?" - -"Yes," he says. - -"I bet you can't spell my name," says I. - -"I bet you what you dare I can," says he. - -"All right," says I, "go ahead." - -"G-e-o-r-g-e J-a-x-o-n—there now," he says. - -"Well," says I, "you done it, but I didn't think you could.  It ain't no -slouch of a name to spell—right off without studying." - -I set it down, private, because somebody might want _me_ to spell it -next, and so I wanted to be handy with it and rattle it off like I was -used to it. - -It was a mighty nice family, and a mighty nice house, too.  I hadn't -seen no house out in the country before that was so nice and had so much -style.  It didn't have an iron latch on the front door, nor a wooden one -with a buckskin string, but a brass knob to turn, the same as houses in -town. There warn't no bed in the parlor, nor a sign of a bed; but heaps -of parlors in towns has beds in them.  There was a big fireplace that -was bricked on the bottom, and the bricks was kept clean and red by -pouring water on them and scrubbing them with another brick; sometimes -they wash them over with red water-paint that they call Spanish-brown, -same as they do in town.  They had big brass dog-irons that could hold -up a saw-log. There was a clock on the middle of the mantelpiece, with -a picture of a town painted on the bottom half of the glass front, and -a round place in the middle of it for the sun, and you could see the -pendulum swinging behind it.  It was beautiful to hear that clock tick; -and sometimes when one of these peddlers had been along and scoured her -up and got her in good shape, she would start in and strike a hundred -and fifty before she got tuckered out.  They wouldn't took any money for -her. - -Well, there was a big outlandish parrot on each side of the clock, -made out of something like chalk, and painted up gaudy.  By one of the -parrots was a cat made of crockery, and a crockery dog by the other; -and when you pressed down on them they squeaked, but didn't open -their mouths nor look different nor interested.  They squeaked through -underneath.  There was a couple of big wild-turkey-wing fans spread out -behind those things.  On the table in the middle of the room was a kind -of a lovely crockery basket that had apples and oranges and peaches and -grapes piled up in it, which was much redder and yellower and prettier -than real ones is, but they warn't real because you could see where -pieces had got chipped off and showed the white chalk, or whatever it -was, underneath. - -This table had a cover made out of beautiful oilcloth, with a red and -blue spread-eagle painted on it, and a painted border all around.  It -come all the way from Philadelphia, they said.  There was some books, -too, piled up perfectly exact, on each corner of the table.  One was a -big family Bible full of pictures.  One was Pilgrim's Progress, about a -man that left his family, it didn't say why.  I read considerable in it -now and then.  The statements was interesting, but tough.  Another was -Friendship's Offering, full of beautiful stuff and poetry; but I didn't -read the poetry.  Another was Henry Clay's Speeches, and another was Dr. -Gunn's Family Medicine, which told you all about what to do if a body -was sick or dead.  There was a hymn book, and a lot of other books.  And -there was nice split-bottom chairs, and perfectly sound, too—not bagged -down in the middle and busted, like an old basket. - -They had pictures hung on the walls—mainly Washingtons and Lafayettes, -and battles, and Highland Marys, and one called "Signing the -Declaration." There was some that they called crayons, which one of the -daughters which was dead made her own self when she was only -fifteen years old.  They was different from any pictures I ever see -before—blacker, mostly, than is common.  One was a woman in a slim black -dress, belted small under the armpits, with bulges like a cabbage in -the middle of the sleeves, and a large black scoop-shovel bonnet with -a black veil, and white slim ankles crossed about with black tape, and -very wee black slippers, like a chisel, and she was leaning pensive on a -tombstone on her right elbow, under a weeping willow, and her other hand -hanging down her side holding a white handkerchief and a reticule, -and underneath the picture it said "Shall I Never See Thee More Alas." - Another one was a young lady with her hair all combed up straight -to the top of her head, and knotted there in front of a comb like a -chair-back, and she was crying into a handkerchief and had a dead bird -laying on its back in her other hand with its heels up, and underneath -the picture it said "I Shall Never Hear Thy Sweet Chirrup More Alas." - There was one where a young lady was at a window looking up at the -moon, and tears running down her cheeks; and she had an open letter in -one hand with black sealing wax showing on one edge of it, and she was -mashing a locket with a chain to it against her mouth, and underneath -the picture it said "And Art Thou Gone Yes Thou Art Gone Alas."  These -was all nice pictures, I reckon, but I didn't somehow seem to take -to them, because if ever I was down a little they always give me the -fan-tods.  Everybody was sorry she died, because she had laid out a lot -more of these pictures to do, and a body could see by what she had done -what they had lost.  But I reckoned that with her disposition she was -having a better time in the graveyard.  She was at work on what they -said was her greatest picture when she took sick, and every day and -every night it was her prayer to be allowed to live till she got it -done, but she never got the chance.  It was a picture of a young woman -in a long white gown, standing on the rail of a bridge all ready to jump -off, with her hair all down her back, and looking up to the moon, with -the tears running down her face, and she had two arms folded across her -breast, and two arms stretched out in front, and two more reaching up -towards the moon—and the idea was to see which pair would look best, -and then scratch out all the other arms; but, as I was saying, she died -before she got her mind made up, and now they kept this picture over the -head of the bed in her room, and every time her birthday come they hung -flowers on it.  Other times it was hid with a little curtain.  The young -woman in the picture had a kind of a nice sweet face, but there was so -many arms it made her look too spidery, seemed to me. - -This young girl kept a scrap-book when she was alive, and used to paste -obituaries and accidents and cases of patient suffering in it out of the -Presbyterian Observer, and write poetry after them out of her own head. -It was very good poetry. This is what she wrote about a boy by the name -of Stephen Dowling Bots that fell down a well and was drownded: - -ODE TO STEPHEN DOWLING BOTS, DEC'D - -And did young Stephen sicken,    And did young Stephen die? And did the -sad hearts thicken,    And did the mourners cry? - -No; such was not the fate of    Young Stephen Dowling Bots; Though sad -hearts round him thickened,    'Twas not from sickness' shots. - -No whooping-cough did rack his frame,    Nor measles drear with spots; -Not these impaired the sacred name    Of Stephen Dowling Bots. - -Despised love struck not with woe    That head of curly knots, Nor -stomach troubles laid him low,    Young Stephen Dowling Bots. - -O no. Then list with tearful eye,    Whilst I his fate do tell. His soul -did from this cold world fly    By falling down a well. - -They got him out and emptied him;    Alas it was too late; His spirit -was gone for to sport aloft    In the realms of the good and great. - -If Emmeline Grangerford could make poetry like that before she was -fourteen, there ain't no telling what she could a done by and by.  Buck -said she could rattle off poetry like nothing.  She didn't ever have to -stop to think.  He said she would slap down a line, and if she couldn't -find anything to rhyme with it would just scratch it out and slap down -another one, and go ahead. She warn't particular; she could write about -anything you choose to give her to write about just so it was sadful. -Every time a man died, or a woman died, or a child died, she would be on -hand with her "tribute" before he was cold.  She called them tributes. -The neighbors said it was the doctor first, then Emmeline, then the -undertaker—the undertaker never got in ahead of Emmeline but once, and -then she hung fire on a rhyme for the dead person's name, which was -Whistler.  She warn't ever the same after that; she never complained, -but she kinder pined away and did not live long.  Poor thing, many's the -time I made myself go up to the little room that used to be hers and get -out her poor old scrap-book and read in it when her pictures had been -aggravating me and I had soured on her a little.  I liked all that -family, dead ones and all, and warn't going to let anything come between -us.  Poor Emmeline made poetry about all the dead people when she was -alive, and it didn't seem right that there warn't nobody to make some -about her now she was gone; so I tried to sweat out a verse or two -myself, but I couldn't seem to make it go somehow.  They kept Emmeline's -room trim and nice, and all the things fixed in it just the way she -liked to have them when she was alive, and nobody ever slept there. - The old lady took care of the room herself, though there was plenty -of niggers, and she sewed there a good deal and read her Bible there -mostly. - -Well, as I was saying about the parlor, there was beautiful curtains on -the windows:  white, with pictures painted on them of castles with vines -all down the walls, and cattle coming down to drink.  There was a little -old piano, too, that had tin pans in it, I reckon, and nothing was ever -so lovely as to hear the young ladies sing "The Last Link is Broken" -and play "The Battle of Prague" on it.  The walls of all the rooms was -plastered, and most had carpets on the floors, and the whole house was -whitewashed on the outside. - -It was a double house, and the big open place betwixt them was roofed -and floored, and sometimes the table was set there in the middle of the -day, and it was a cool, comfortable place.  Nothing couldn't be better. - And warn't the cooking good, and just bushels of it too! - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -COL.  Grangerford was a gentleman, you see.  He was a gentleman all -over; and so was his family.  He was well born, as the saying is, and -that's worth as much in a man as it is in a horse, so the Widow Douglas -said, and nobody ever denied that she was of the first aristocracy -in our town; and pap he always said it, too, though he warn't no more -quality than a mudcat himself.  Col.  Grangerford was very tall and -very slim, and had a darkish-paly complexion, not a sign of red in it -anywheres; he was clean shaved every morning all over his thin face, and -he had the thinnest kind of lips, and the thinnest kind of nostrils, and -a high nose, and heavy eyebrows, and the blackest kind of eyes, sunk so -deep back that they seemed like they was looking out of caverns at -you, as you may say.  His forehead was high, and his hair was black and -straight and hung to his shoulders. His hands was long and thin, and -every day of his life he put on a clean shirt and a full suit from head -to foot made out of linen so white it hurt your eyes to look at it; -and on Sundays he wore a blue tail-coat with brass buttons on it.  He -carried a mahogany cane with a silver head to it.  There warn't no -frivolishness about him, not a bit, and he warn't ever loud.  He was -as kind as he could be—you could feel that, you know, and so you had -confidence.  Sometimes he smiled, and it was good to see; but when he -straightened himself up like a liberty-pole, and the lightning begun to -flicker out from under his eyebrows, you wanted to climb a tree first, -and find out what the matter was afterwards.  He didn't ever have to -tell anybody to mind their manners—everybody was always good-mannered -where he was.  Everybody loved to have him around, too; he was sunshine -most always—I mean he made it seem like good weather.  When he turned -into a cloudbank it was awful dark for half a minute, and that was -enough; there wouldn't nothing go wrong again for a week. - -When him and the old lady come down in the morning all the family got -up out of their chairs and give them good-day, and didn't set down again -till they had set down.  Then Tom and Bob went to the sideboard where -the decanter was, and mixed a glass of bitters and handed it to him, and -he held it in his hand and waited till Tom's and Bob's was mixed, and -then they bowed and said, "Our duty to you, sir, and madam;" and _they_ -bowed the least bit in the world and said thank you, and so they drank, -all three, and Bob and Tom poured a spoonful of water on the sugar and -the mite of whisky or apple brandy in the bottom of their tumblers, and -give it to me and Buck, and we drank to the old people too. - -Bob was the oldest and Tom next—tall, beautiful men with very broad -shoulders and brown faces, and long black hair and black eyes.  They -dressed in white linen from head to foot, like the old gentleman, and -wore broad Panama hats. - -Then there was Miss Charlotte; she was twenty-five, and tall and proud -and grand, but as good as she could be when she warn't stirred up; but -when she was she had a look that would make you wilt in your tracks, -like her father.  She was beautiful. - -So was her sister, Miss Sophia, but it was a different kind.  She was -gentle and sweet like a dove, and she was only twenty. - -Each person had their own nigger to wait on them—Buck too.  My nigger -had a monstrous easy time, because I warn't used to having anybody do -anything for me, but Buck's was on the jump most of the time. - -This was all there was of the family now, but there used to be -more—three sons; they got killed; and Emmeline that died. - -The old gentleman owned a lot of farms and over a hundred niggers. -Sometimes a stack of people would come there, horseback, from ten or -fifteen mile around, and stay five or six days, and have such junketings -round about and on the river, and dances and picnics in the woods -daytimes, and balls at the house nights.  These people was mostly -kinfolks of the family.  The men brought their guns with them.  It was a -handsome lot of quality, I tell you. - -There was another clan of aristocracy around there—five or six -families—mostly of the name of Shepherdson.  They was as high-toned -and well born and rich and grand as the tribe of Grangerfords.  The -Shepherdsons and Grangerfords used the same steamboat landing, which was -about two mile above our house; so sometimes when I went up there with a -lot of our folks I used to see a lot of the Shepherdsons there on their -fine horses. - -One day Buck and me was away out in the woods hunting, and heard a horse -coming.  We was crossing the road.  Buck says: - -"Quick!  Jump for the woods!" - -We done it, and then peeped down the woods through the leaves.  Pretty -soon a splendid young man come galloping down the road, setting his -horse easy and looking like a soldier.  He had his gun across his -pommel.  I had seen him before.  It was young Harney Shepherdson.  I -heard Buck's gun go off at my ear, and Harney's hat tumbled off from his -head.  He grabbed his gun and rode straight to the place where we was -hid.  But we didn't wait.  We started through the woods on a run.  The -woods warn't thick, so I looked over my shoulder to dodge the bullet, -and twice I seen Harney cover Buck with his gun; and then he rode away -the way he come—to get his hat, I reckon, but I couldn't see.  We never -stopped running till we got home.  The old gentleman's eyes blazed a -minute—'twas pleasure, mainly, I judged—then his face sort of smoothed -down, and he says, kind of gentle: - -"I don't like that shooting from behind a bush.  Why didn't you step -into the road, my boy?" - -"The Shepherdsons don't, father.  They always take advantage." - -Miss Charlotte she held her head up like a queen while Buck was telling -his tale, and her nostrils spread and her eyes snapped.  The two young -men looked dark, but never said nothing.  Miss Sophia she turned pale, -but the color come back when she found the man warn't hurt. - -Soon as I could get Buck down by the corn-cribs under the trees by -ourselves, I says: - -"Did you want to kill him, Buck?" - -"Well, I bet I did." - -"What did he do to you?" - -"Him?  He never done nothing to me." - -"Well, then, what did you want to kill him for?" - -"Why, nothing—only it's on account of the feud." - -"What's a feud?" - -"Why, where was you raised?  Don't you know what a feud is?" - -"Never heard of it before—tell me about it." - -"Well," says Buck, "a feud is this way:  A man has a quarrel with -another man, and kills him; then that other man's brother kills _him_; -then the other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the -_cousins_ chip in—and by and by everybody's killed off, and there ain't -no more feud.  But it's kind of slow, and takes a long time." - -"Has this one been going on long, Buck?" - -"Well, I should _reckon_!  It started thirty year ago, or som'ers along -there.  There was trouble 'bout something, and then a lawsuit to settle -it; and the suit went agin one of the men, and so he up and shot the -man that won the suit—which he would naturally do, of course.  Anybody -would." - -"What was the trouble about, Buck?—land?" - -"I reckon maybe—I don't know." - -"Well, who done the shooting?  Was it a Grangerford or a Shepherdson?" - -"Laws, how do I know?  It was so long ago." - -"Don't anybody know?" - -"Oh, yes, pa knows, I reckon, and some of the other old people; but they -don't know now what the row was about in the first place." - -"Has there been many killed, Buck?" - -"Yes; right smart chance of funerals.  But they don't always kill.  Pa's -got a few buckshot in him; but he don't mind it 'cuz he don't weigh -much, anyway.  Bob's been carved up some with a bowie, and Tom's been -hurt once or twice." - -"Has anybody been killed this year, Buck?" - -"Yes; we got one and they got one.  'Bout three months ago my cousin -Bud, fourteen year old, was riding through the woods on t'other side -of the river, and didn't have no weapon with him, which was blame' -foolishness, and in a lonesome place he hears a horse a-coming behind -him, and sees old Baldy Shepherdson a-linkin' after him with his gun in -his hand and his white hair a-flying in the wind; and 'stead of jumping -off and taking to the brush, Bud 'lowed he could out-run him; so they -had it, nip and tuck, for five mile or more, the old man a-gaining all -the time; so at last Bud seen it warn't any use, so he stopped and faced -around so as to have the bullet holes in front, you know, and the old -man he rode up and shot him down.  But he didn't git much chance to -enjoy his luck, for inside of a week our folks laid _him_ out." - -"I reckon that old man was a coward, Buck." - -"I reckon he _warn't_ a coward.  Not by a blame' sight.  There ain't a -coward amongst them Shepherdsons—not a one.  And there ain't no cowards -amongst the Grangerfords either.  Why, that old man kep' up his end in a -fight one day for half an hour against three Grangerfords, and come -out winner.  They was all a-horseback; he lit off of his horse and got -behind a little woodpile, and kep' his horse before him to stop the -bullets; but the Grangerfords stayed on their horses and capered around -the old man, and peppered away at him, and he peppered away at them. - Him and his horse both went home pretty leaky and crippled, but the -Grangerfords had to be _fetched_ home—and one of 'em was dead, and -another died the next day.  No, sir; if a body's out hunting for cowards -he don't want to fool away any time amongst them Shepherdsons, becuz -they don't breed any of that _kind_." - -Next Sunday we all went to church, about three mile, everybody -a-horseback. The men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept -them between their knees or stood them handy against the wall.  The -Shepherdsons done the same.  It was pretty ornery preaching—all about -brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness; but everybody said it was -a good sermon, and they all talked it over going home, and had such -a powerful lot to say about faith and good works and free grace and -preforeordestination, and I don't know what all, that it did seem to me -to be one of the roughest Sundays I had run across yet. - -About an hour after dinner everybody was dozing around, some in their -chairs and some in their rooms, and it got to be pretty dull.  Buck and -a dog was stretched out on the grass in the sun sound asleep.  I went up -to our room, and judged I would take a nap myself.  I found that sweet -Miss Sophia standing in her door, which was next to ours, and she took -me in her room and shut the door very soft, and asked me if I liked her, -and I said I did; and she asked me if I would do something for her and -not tell anybody, and I said I would.  Then she said she'd forgot her -Testament, and left it in the seat at church between two other books, -and would I slip out quiet and go there and fetch it to her, and not say -nothing to nobody.  I said I would. So I slid out and slipped off up the -road, and there warn't anybody at the church, except maybe a hog or two, -for there warn't any lock on the door, and hogs likes a puncheon floor -in summer-time because it's cool.  If you notice, most folks don't go to -church only when they've got to; but a hog is different. - -Says I to myself, something's up; it ain't natural for a girl to be in -such a sweat about a Testament.  So I give it a shake, and out drops a -little piece of paper with "HALF-PAST TWO" wrote on it with a pencil.  I -ransacked it, but couldn't find anything else.  I couldn't make anything -out of that, so I put the paper in the book again, and when I got home -and upstairs there was Miss Sophia in her door waiting for me.  She -pulled me in and shut the door; then she looked in the Testament till -she found the paper, and as soon as she read it she looked glad; and -before a body could think she grabbed me and give me a squeeze, and -said I was the best boy in the world, and not to tell anybody.  She was -mighty red in the face for a minute, and her eyes lighted up, and it -made her powerful pretty.  I was a good deal astonished, but when I got -my breath I asked her what the paper was about, and she asked me if I -had read it, and I said no, and she asked me if I could read writing, -and I told her "no, only coarse-hand," and then she said the paper -warn't anything but a book-mark to keep her place, and I might go and -play now. - -I went off down to the river, studying over this thing, and pretty soon -I noticed that my nigger was following along behind.  When we was out -of sight of the house he looked back and around a second, and then comes -a-running, and says: - -"Mars Jawge, if you'll come down into de swamp I'll show you a whole -stack o' water-moccasins." - -Thinks I, that's mighty curious; he said that yesterday.  He oughter -know a body don't love water-moccasins enough to go around hunting for -them. What is he up to, anyway?  So I says: - -"All right; trot ahead." - -I followed a half a mile; then he struck out over the swamp, and waded -ankle deep as much as another half-mile.  We come to a little flat piece -of land which was dry and very thick with trees and bushes and vines, -and he says: - -"You shove right in dah jist a few steps, Mars Jawge; dah's whah dey is. -I's seed 'm befo'; I don't k'yer to see 'em no mo'." - -Then he slopped right along and went away, and pretty soon the trees hid -him.  I poked into the place a-ways and come to a little open patch -as big as a bedroom all hung around with vines, and found a man laying -there asleep—and, by jings, it was my old Jim! - -I waked him up, and I reckoned it was going to be a grand surprise to -him to see me again, but it warn't.  He nearly cried he was so glad, but -he warn't surprised.  Said he swum along behind me that night, and heard -me yell every time, but dasn't answer, because he didn't want nobody to -pick _him_ up and take him into slavery again.  Says he: - -"I got hurt a little, en couldn't swim fas', so I wuz a considable ways -behine you towards de las'; when you landed I reck'ned I could ketch -up wid you on de lan' 'dout havin' to shout at you, but when I see dat -house I begin to go slow.  I 'uz off too fur to hear what dey say to -you—I wuz 'fraid o' de dogs; but when it 'uz all quiet agin I knowed -you's in de house, so I struck out for de woods to wait for day.  Early -in de mawnin' some er de niggers come along, gwyne to de fields, en dey -tuk me en showed me dis place, whah de dogs can't track me on accounts -o' de water, en dey brings me truck to eat every night, en tells me how -you's a-gitt'n along." - -"Why didn't you tell my Jack to fetch me here sooner, Jim?" - -"Well, 'twarn't no use to 'sturb you, Huck, tell we could do sumfn—but -we's all right now.  I ben a-buyin' pots en pans en vittles, as I got a -chanst, en a-patchin' up de raf' nights when—" - -"_What_ raft, Jim?" - -"Our ole raf'." - -"You mean to say our old raft warn't smashed all to flinders?" - -"No, she warn't.  She was tore up a good deal—one en' of her was; but -dey warn't no great harm done, on'y our traps was mos' all los'.  Ef we -hadn' dive' so deep en swum so fur under water, en de night hadn' ben -so dark, en we warn't so sk'yerd, en ben sich punkin-heads, as de sayin' -is, we'd a seed de raf'.  But it's jis' as well we didn't, 'kase now -she's all fixed up agin mos' as good as new, en we's got a new lot o' -stuff, in de place o' what 'uz los'." - -"Why, how did you get hold of the raft again, Jim—did you catch her?" - -"How I gwyne to ketch her en I out in de woods?  No; some er de niggers -foun' her ketched on a snag along heah in de ben', en dey hid her in a -crick 'mongst de willows, en dey wuz so much jawin' 'bout which un 'um -she b'long to de mos' dat I come to heah 'bout it pooty soon, so I ups -en settles de trouble by tellin' 'um she don't b'long to none uv um, but -to you en me; en I ast 'm if dey gwyne to grab a young white genlman's -propaty, en git a hid'n for it?  Den I gin 'm ten cents apiece, en dey -'uz mighty well satisfied, en wisht some mo' raf's 'ud come along en -make 'm rich agin. Dey's mighty good to me, dese niggers is, en whatever -I wants 'm to do fur me I doan' have to ast 'm twice, honey.  Dat Jack's -a good nigger, en pooty smart." - -"Yes, he is.  He ain't ever told me you was here; told me to come, and -he'd show me a lot of water-moccasins.  If anything happens _he_ ain't -mixed up in it.  He can say he never seen us together, and it 'll be the -truth." - -I don't want to talk much about the next day.  I reckon I'll cut it -pretty short.  I waked up about dawn, and was a-going to turn over and -go to sleep again when I noticed how still it was—didn't seem to be -anybody stirring.  That warn't usual.  Next I noticed that Buck was -up and gone. Well, I gets up, a-wondering, and goes down stairs—nobody -around; everything as still as a mouse.  Just the same outside.  Thinks -I, what does it mean?  Down by the wood-pile I comes across my Jack, and -says: - -"What's it all about?" - -Says he: - -"Don't you know, Mars Jawge?" - -"No," says I, "I don't." - -"Well, den, Miss Sophia's run off! 'deed she has.  She run off in de -night some time—nobody don't know jis' when; run off to get married -to dat young Harney Shepherdson, you know—leastways, so dey 'spec.  De -fambly foun' it out 'bout half an hour ago—maybe a little mo'—en' I -_tell_ you dey warn't no time los'.  Sich another hurryin' up guns -en hosses _you_ never see!  De women folks has gone for to stir up de -relations, en ole Mars Saul en de boys tuck dey guns en rode up de -river road for to try to ketch dat young man en kill him 'fo' he kin -git acrost de river wid Miss Sophia.  I reck'n dey's gwyne to be mighty -rough times." - -"Buck went off 'thout waking me up." - -"Well, I reck'n he _did_!  Dey warn't gwyne to mix you up in it. - Mars Buck he loaded up his gun en 'lowed he's gwyne to fetch home a -Shepherdson or bust. Well, dey'll be plenty un 'm dah, I reck'n, en you -bet you he'll fetch one ef he gits a chanst." - -I took up the river road as hard as I could put.  By and by I begin to -hear guns a good ways off.  When I come in sight of the log store and -the woodpile where the steamboats lands I worked along under the trees -and brush till I got to a good place, and then I clumb up into the -forks of a cottonwood that was out of reach, and watched.  There was a -wood-rank four foot high a little ways in front of the tree, and first I -was going to hide behind that; but maybe it was luckier I didn't. - -There was four or five men cavorting around on their horses in the open -place before the log store, cussing and yelling, and trying to get at -a couple of young chaps that was behind the wood-rank alongside of the -steamboat landing; but they couldn't come it.  Every time one of them -showed himself on the river side of the woodpile he got shot at.  The -two boys was squatting back to back behind the pile, so they could watch -both ways. - -By and by the men stopped cavorting around and yelling.  They started -riding towards the store; then up gets one of the boys, draws a steady -bead over the wood-rank, and drops one of them out of his saddle.  All -the men jumped off of their horses and grabbed the hurt one and started -to carry him to the store; and that minute the two boys started on the -run.  They got half way to the tree I was in before the men noticed. -Then the men see them, and jumped on their horses and took out after -them.  They gained on the boys, but it didn't do no good, the boys had -too good a start; they got to the woodpile that was in front of my tree, -and slipped in behind it, and so they had the bulge on the men again. -One of the boys was Buck, and the other was a slim young chap about -nineteen years old. - -The men ripped around awhile, and then rode away.  As soon as they was -out of sight I sung out to Buck and told him.  He didn't know what -to make of my voice coming out of the tree at first.  He was awful -surprised.  He told me to watch out sharp and let him know when the -men come in sight again; said they was up to some devilment or -other—wouldn't be gone long.  I wished I was out of that tree, but I -dasn't come down.  Buck begun to cry and rip, and 'lowed that him and -his cousin Joe (that was the other young chap) would make up for this -day yet.  He said his father and his two brothers was killed, and two -or three of the enemy.  Said the Shepherdsons laid for them in -ambush.  Buck said his father and brothers ought to waited for their -relations—the Shepherdsons was too strong for them.  I asked him what -was become of young Harney and Miss Sophia.  He said they'd got across -the river and was safe.  I was glad of that; but the way Buck did take -on because he didn't manage to kill Harney that day he shot at him—I -hain't ever heard anything like it. - -All of a sudden, bang! bang! bang! goes three or four guns—the men had -slipped around through the woods and come in from behind without their -horses!  The boys jumped for the river—both of them hurt—and as they -swum down the current the men run along the bank shooting at them and -singing out, "Kill them, kill them!"  It made me so sick I most fell out -of the tree.  I ain't a-going to tell _all_ that happened—it would make -me sick again if I was to do that.  I wished I hadn't ever come ashore -that night to see such things.  I ain't ever going to get shut of -them—lots of times I dream about them. - -I stayed in the tree till it begun to get dark, afraid to come down. -Sometimes I heard guns away off in the woods; and twice I seen little -gangs of men gallop past the log store with guns; so I reckoned the -trouble was still a-going on.  I was mighty downhearted; so I made up my -mind I wouldn't ever go anear that house again, because I reckoned I -was to blame, somehow. I judged that that piece of paper meant that Miss -Sophia was to meet Harney somewheres at half-past two and run off; and -I judged I ought to told her father about that paper and the curious way -she acted, and then maybe he would a locked her up, and this awful mess -wouldn't ever happened. - -When I got down out of the tree I crept along down the river bank a -piece, and found the two bodies laying in the edge of the water, and -tugged at them till I got them ashore; then I covered up their faces, -and got away as quick as I could.  I cried a little when I was covering -up Buck's face, for he was mighty good to me. - -It was just dark now.  I never went near the house, but struck through -the woods and made for the swamp.  Jim warn't on his island, so I -tramped off in a hurry for the crick, and crowded through the willows, -red-hot to jump aboard and get out of that awful country.  The raft was -gone!  My souls, but I was scared!  I couldn't get my breath for most -a minute. Then I raised a yell.  A voice not twenty-five foot from me -says: - -"Good lan'! is dat you, honey?  Doan' make no noise." - -It was Jim's voice—nothing ever sounded so good before.  I run along the -bank a piece and got aboard, and Jim he grabbed me and hugged me, he was -so glad to see me.  He says: - -"Laws bless you, chile, I 'uz right down sho' you's dead agin.  Jack's -been heah; he say he reck'n you's ben shot, kase you didn' come home no -mo'; so I's jes' dis minute a startin' de raf' down towards de mouf er -de crick, so's to be all ready for to shove out en leave soon as Jack -comes agin en tells me for certain you _is_ dead.  Lawsy, I's mighty -glad to git you back again, honey." - -I says: - -"All right—that's mighty good; they won't find me, and they'll think -I've been killed, and floated down the river—there's something up there -that 'll help them think so—so don't you lose no time, Jim, but just -shove off for the big water as fast as ever you can." - -I never felt easy till the raft was two mile below there and out in -the middle of the Mississippi.  Then we hung up our signal lantern, and -judged that we was free and safe once more.  I hadn't had a bite to eat -since yesterday, so Jim he got out some corn-dodgers and buttermilk, -and pork and cabbage and greens—there ain't nothing in the world so good -when it's cooked right—and whilst I eat my supper we talked and had a -good time.  I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was -Jim to get away from the swamp.  We said there warn't no home like a -raft, after all.  Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a -raft don't.  You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -TWO or three days and nights went by; I reckon I might say they swum by, -they slid along so quiet and smooth and lovely.  Here is the way we put -in the time.  It was a monstrous big river down there—sometimes a mile -and a half wide; we run nights, and laid up and hid daytimes; soon as -night was most gone we stopped navigating and tied up—nearly always -in the dead water under a towhead; and then cut young cottonwoods and -willows, and hid the raft with them.  Then we set out the lines.  Next -we slid into the river and had a swim, so as to freshen up and cool -off; then we set down on the sandy bottom where the water was about knee -deep, and watched the daylight come.  Not a sound anywheres—perfectly -still—just like the whole world was asleep, only sometimes the bullfrogs -a-cluttering, maybe.  The first thing to see, looking away over the -water, was a kind of dull line—that was the woods on t'other side; you -couldn't make nothing else out; then a pale place in the sky; then more -paleness spreading around; then the river softened up away off, and -warn't black any more, but gray; you could see little dark spots -drifting along ever so far away—trading scows, and such things; and -long black streaks—rafts; sometimes you could hear a sweep screaking; or -jumbled up voices, it was so still, and sounds come so far; and by and -by you could see a streak on the water which you know by the look of the -streak that there's a snag there in a swift current which breaks on it -and makes that streak look that way; and you see the mist curl up off -of the water, and the east reddens up, and the river, and you make out a -log-cabin in the edge of the woods, away on the bank on t'other side of -the river, being a woodyard, likely, and piled by them cheats so you can -throw a dog through it anywheres; then the nice breeze springs up, and -comes fanning you from over there, so cool and fresh and sweet to smell -on account of the woods and the flowers; but sometimes not that way, -because they've left dead fish laying around, gars and such, and they -do get pretty rank; and next you've got the full day, and everything -smiling in the sun, and the song-birds just going it! - -A little smoke couldn't be noticed now, so we would take some fish off -of the lines and cook up a hot breakfast.  And afterwards we would watch -the lonesomeness of the river, and kind of lazy along, and by and by -lazy off to sleep.  Wake up by and by, and look to see what done it, and -maybe see a steamboat coughing along up-stream, so far off towards the -other side you couldn't tell nothing about her only whether she was -a stern-wheel or side-wheel; then for about an hour there wouldn't be -nothing to hear nor nothing to see—just solid lonesomeness.  Next -you'd see a raft sliding by, away off yonder, and maybe a galoot on it -chopping, because they're most always doing it on a raft; you'd see the -axe flash and come down—you don't hear nothing; you see that axe go -up again, and by the time it's above the man's head then you hear the -_k'chunk_!—it had took all that time to come over the water.  So we -would put in the day, lazying around, listening to the stillness.  Once -there was a thick fog, and the rafts and things that went by was beating -tin pans so the steamboats wouldn't run over them.  A scow or a -raft went by so close we could hear them talking and cussing and -laughing—heard them plain; but we couldn't see no sign of them; it made -you feel crawly; it was like spirits carrying on that way in the air. - Jim said he believed it was spirits; but I says: - -"No; spirits wouldn't say, 'Dern the dern fog.'" - -Soon as it was night out we shoved; when we got her out to about the -middle we let her alone, and let her float wherever the current wanted -her to; then we lit the pipes, and dangled our legs in the water, and -talked about all kinds of things—we was always naked, day and night, -whenever the mosquitoes would let us—the new clothes Buck's folks made -for me was too good to be comfortable, and besides I didn't go much on -clothes, nohow. - -Sometimes we'd have that whole river all to ourselves for the longest -time. Yonder was the banks and the islands, across the water; and maybe -a spark—which was a candle in a cabin window; and sometimes on the water -you could see a spark or two—on a raft or a scow, you know; and maybe -you could hear a fiddle or a song coming over from one of them crafts. -It's lovely to live on a raft.  We had the sky up there, all speckled -with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and -discuss about whether they was made or only just happened.  Jim he -allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened; I judged it would -have took too long to _make_ so many.  Jim said the moon could a _laid_ -them; well, that looked kind of reasonable, so I didn't say nothing -against it, because I've seen a frog lay most as many, so of course it -could be done. We used to watch the stars that fell, too, and see them -streak down.  Jim allowed they'd got spoiled and was hove out of the -nest. - -Once or twice of a night we would see a steamboat slipping along in the -dark, and now and then she would belch a whole world of sparks up out -of her chimbleys, and they would rain down in the river and look awful -pretty; then she would turn a corner and her lights would wink out and -her powwow shut off and leave the river still again; and by and by her -waves would get to us, a long time after she was gone, and joggle the -raft a bit, and after that you wouldn't hear nothing for you couldn't -tell how long, except maybe frogs or something. - -After midnight the people on shore went to bed, and then for two or -three hours the shores was black—no more sparks in the cabin windows. - These sparks was our clock—the first one that showed again meant -morning was coming, so we hunted a place to hide and tie up right away. - -One morning about daybreak I found a canoe and crossed over a chute to -the main shore—it was only two hundred yards—and paddled about a mile -up a crick amongst the cypress woods, to see if I couldn't get some -berries. Just as I was passing a place where a kind of a cowpath crossed -the crick, here comes a couple of men tearing up the path as tight as -they could foot it.  I thought I was a goner, for whenever anybody was -after anybody I judged it was _me_—or maybe Jim.  I was about to dig out -from there in a hurry, but they was pretty close to me then, and sung -out and begged me to save their lives—said they hadn't been doing -nothing, and was being chased for it—said there was men and dogs -a-coming.  They wanted to jump right in, but I says: - -"Don't you do it.  I don't hear the dogs and horses yet; you've got time -to crowd through the brush and get up the crick a little ways; then you -take to the water and wade down to me and get in—that'll throw the dogs -off the scent." - -They done it, and soon as they was aboard I lit out for our towhead, -and in about five or ten minutes we heard the dogs and the men away off, -shouting. We heard them come along towards the crick, but couldn't -see them; they seemed to stop and fool around a while; then, as we got -further and further away all the time, we couldn't hardly hear them at -all; by the time we had left a mile of woods behind us and struck the -river, everything was quiet, and we paddled over to the towhead and hid -in the cottonwoods and was safe. - -One of these fellows was about seventy or upwards, and had a bald head -and very gray whiskers.  He had an old battered-up slouch hat on, and -a greasy blue woollen shirt, and ragged old blue jeans britches stuffed -into his boot-tops, and home-knit galluses—no, he only had one.  He had -an old long-tailed blue jeans coat with slick brass buttons flung over -his arm, and both of them had big, fat, ratty-looking carpet-bags. - -The other fellow was about thirty, and dressed about as ornery.  After -breakfast we all laid off and talked, and the first thing that come out -was that these chaps didn't know one another. - -"What got you into trouble?" says the baldhead to t'other chap. - -"Well, I'd been selling an article to take the tartar off the teeth—and -it does take it off, too, and generly the enamel along with it—but I -stayed about one night longer than I ought to, and was just in the act -of sliding out when I ran across you on the trail this side of town, and -you told me they were coming, and begged me to help you to get off.  So -I told you I was expecting trouble myself, and would scatter out _with_ -you. That's the whole yarn—what's yourn? - -"Well, I'd ben a-running' a little temperance revival thar 'bout a week, -and was the pet of the women folks, big and little, for I was makin' it -mighty warm for the rummies, I _tell_ you, and takin' as much as five -or six dollars a night—ten cents a head, children and niggers free—and -business a-growin' all the time, when somehow or another a little report -got around last night that I had a way of puttin' in my time with a -private jug on the sly.  A nigger rousted me out this mornin', and told -me the people was getherin' on the quiet with their dogs and horses, and -they'd be along pretty soon and give me 'bout half an hour's start, -and then run me down if they could; and if they got me they'd tar -and feather me and ride me on a rail, sure.  I didn't wait for no -breakfast—I warn't hungry." - -"Old man," said the young one, "I reckon we might double-team it -together; what do you think?" - -"I ain't undisposed.  What's your line—mainly?" - -"Jour printer by trade; do a little in patent medicines; -theater-actor—tragedy, you know; take a turn to mesmerism and phrenology -when there's a chance; teach singing-geography school for a change; -sling a lecture sometimes—oh, I do lots of things—most anything that -comes handy, so it ain't work.  What's your lay?" - -"I've done considerble in the doctoring way in my time.  Layin' on o' -hands is my best holt—for cancer and paralysis, and sich things; and I -k'n tell a fortune pretty good when I've got somebody along to find out -the facts for me.  Preachin's my line, too, and workin' camp-meetin's, -and missionaryin' around." - -Nobody never said anything for a while; then the young man hove a sigh -and says: - -"Alas!" - -"What 're you alassin' about?" says the bald-head. - -"To think I should have lived to be leading such a life, and be degraded -down into such company."  And he begun to wipe the corner of his eye -with a rag. - -"Dern your skin, ain't the company good enough for you?" says the -baldhead, pretty pert and uppish. - -"Yes, it _is_ good enough for me; it's as good as I deserve; for who -fetched me so low when I was so high?  I did myself.  I don't blame -_you_, gentlemen—far from it; I don't blame anybody.  I deserve it -all.  Let the cold world do its worst; one thing I know—there's a grave -somewhere for me. The world may go on just as it's always done, and take -everything from me—loved ones, property, everything; but it can't take -that. Some day I'll lie down in it and forget it all, and my poor broken -heart will be at rest."  He went on a-wiping. - -"Drot your pore broken heart," says the baldhead; "what are you heaving -your pore broken heart at _us_ f'r?  _we_ hain't done nothing." - -"No, I know you haven't.  I ain't blaming you, gentlemen.  I brought -myself down—yes, I did it myself.  It's right I should suffer—perfectly -right—I don't make any moan." - -"Brought you down from whar?  Whar was you brought down from?" - -"Ah, you would not believe me; the world never believes—let it pass—'tis -no matter.  The secret of my birth—" - -"The secret of your birth!  Do you mean to say—" - -"Gentlemen," says the young man, very solemn, "I will reveal it to you, -for I feel I may have confidence in you.  By rights I am a duke!" - -Jim's eyes bugged out when he heard that; and I reckon mine did, too. -Then the baldhead says:  "No! you can't mean it?" - -"Yes.  My great-grandfather, eldest son of the Duke of Bridgewater, fled -to this country about the end of the last century, to breathe the pure -air of freedom; married here, and died, leaving a son, his own father -dying about the same time.  The second son of the late duke seized the -titles and estates—the infant real duke was ignored.  I am the lineal -descendant of that infant—I am the rightful Duke of Bridgewater; and -here am I, forlorn, torn from my high estate, hunted of men, despised -by the cold world, ragged, worn, heart-broken, and degraded to the -companionship of felons on a raft!" - -Jim pitied him ever so much, and so did I. We tried to comfort him, but -he said it warn't much use, he couldn't be much comforted; said if we -was a mind to acknowledge him, that would do him more good than most -anything else; so we said we would, if he would tell us how.  He said we -ought to bow when we spoke to him, and say "Your Grace," or "My Lord," -or "Your Lordship"—and he wouldn't mind it if we called him plain -"Bridgewater," which, he said, was a title anyway, and not a name; and -one of us ought to wait on him at dinner, and do any little thing for -him he wanted done. - -Well, that was all easy, so we done it.  All through dinner Jim stood -around and waited on him, and says, "Will yo' Grace have some o' dis or -some o' dat?" and so on, and a body could see it was mighty pleasing to -him. - -But the old man got pretty silent by and by—didn't have much to say, and -didn't look pretty comfortable over all that petting that was going on -around that duke.  He seemed to have something on his mind.  So, along -in the afternoon, he says: - -"Looky here, Bilgewater," he says, "I'm nation sorry for you, but you -ain't the only person that's had troubles like that." - -"No?" - -"No you ain't.  You ain't the only person that's ben snaked down -wrongfully out'n a high place." - -"Alas!" - -"No, you ain't the only person that's had a secret of his birth."  And, -by jings, _he_ begins to cry. - -"Hold!  What do you mean?" - -"Bilgewater, kin I trust you?" says the old man, still sort of sobbing. - -"To the bitter death!"  He took the old man by the hand and squeezed it, -and says, "That secret of your being:  speak!" - -"Bilgewater, I am the late Dauphin!" - -You bet you, Jim and me stared this time.  Then the duke says: - -"You are what?" - -"Yes, my friend, it is too true—your eyes is lookin' at this very moment -on the pore disappeared Dauphin, Looy the Seventeen, son of Looy the -Sixteen and Marry Antonette." - -"You!  At your age!  No!  You mean you're the late Charlemagne; you must -be six or seven hundred years old, at the very least." - -"Trouble has done it, Bilgewater, trouble has done it; trouble has brung -these gray hairs and this premature balditude.  Yes, gentlemen, you -see before you, in blue jeans and misery, the wanderin', exiled, -trampled-on, and sufferin' rightful King of France." - -Well, he cried and took on so that me and Jim didn't know hardly what to -do, we was so sorry—and so glad and proud we'd got him with us, too. - So we set in, like we done before with the duke, and tried to comfort -_him_. But he said it warn't no use, nothing but to be dead and done -with it all could do him any good; though he said it often made him feel -easier and better for a while if people treated him according to his -rights, and got down on one knee to speak to him, and always called him -"Your Majesty," and waited on him first at meals, and didn't set down -in his presence till he asked them. So Jim and me set to majestying him, -and doing this and that and t'other for him, and standing up till he -told us we might set down.  This done him heaps of good, and so he -got cheerful and comfortable.  But the duke kind of soured on him, and -didn't look a bit satisfied with the way things was going; still, -the king acted real friendly towards him, and said the duke's -great-grandfather and all the other Dukes of Bilgewater was a good -deal thought of by _his_ father, and was allowed to come to the palace -considerable; but the duke stayed huffy a good while, till by and by the -king says: - -"Like as not we got to be together a blamed long time on this h-yer -raft, Bilgewater, and so what's the use o' your bein' sour?  It 'll only -make things oncomfortable.  It ain't my fault I warn't born a duke, -it ain't your fault you warn't born a king—so what's the use to worry? - Make the best o' things the way you find 'em, says I—that's my motto. - This ain't no bad thing that we've struck here—plenty grub and an easy -life—come, give us your hand, duke, and le's all be friends." - -The duke done it, and Jim and me was pretty glad to see it.  It took -away all the uncomfortableness and we felt mighty good over it, because -it would a been a miserable business to have any unfriendliness on the -raft; for what you want, above all things, on a raft, is for everybody -to be satisfied, and feel right and kind towards the others. - -It didn't take me long to make up my mind that these liars warn't no -kings nor dukes at all, but just low-down humbugs and frauds.  But I -never said nothing, never let on; kept it to myself; it's the best way; -then you don't have no quarrels, and don't get into no trouble.  If they -wanted us to call them kings and dukes, I hadn't no objections, 'long as -it would keep peace in the family; and it warn't no use to tell Jim, so -I didn't tell him.  If I never learnt nothing else out of pap, I learnt -that the best way to get along with his kind of people is to let them -have their own way. - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - -THEY asked us considerable many questions; wanted to know what we -covered up the raft that way for, and laid by in the daytime instead of -running—was Jim a runaway nigger?  Says I: - -"Goodness sakes! would a runaway nigger run _south_?" - -No, they allowed he wouldn't.  I had to account for things some way, so -I says: - -"My folks was living in Pike County, in Missouri, where I was born, and -they all died off but me and pa and my brother Ike.  Pa, he 'lowed -he'd break up and go down and live with Uncle Ben, who's got a little -one-horse place on the river, forty-four mile below Orleans.  Pa was -pretty poor, and had some debts; so when he'd squared up there warn't -nothing left but sixteen dollars and our nigger, Jim.  That warn't -enough to take us fourteen hundred mile, deck passage nor no other way. - Well, when the river rose pa had a streak of luck one day; he ketched -this piece of a raft; so we reckoned we'd go down to Orleans on it. - Pa's luck didn't hold out; a steamboat run over the forrard corner of -the raft one night, and we all went overboard and dove under the wheel; -Jim and me come up all right, but pa was drunk, and Ike was only four -years old, so they never come up no more.  Well, for the next day or -two we had considerable trouble, because people was always coming out in -skiffs and trying to take Jim away from me, saying they believed he was -a runaway nigger.  We don't run daytimes no more now; nights they don't -bother us." - -The duke says: - -"Leave me alone to cipher out a way so we can run in the daytime if we -want to.  I'll think the thing over—I'll invent a plan that'll fix it. -We'll let it alone for to-day, because of course we don't want to go by -that town yonder in daylight—it mightn't be healthy." - -Towards night it begun to darken up and look like rain; the heat -lightning was squirting around low down in the sky, and the leaves was -beginning to shiver—it was going to be pretty ugly, it was easy to see -that.  So the duke and the king went to overhauling our wigwam, to see -what the beds was like.  My bed was a straw tick better than Jim's, -which was a corn-shuck tick; there's always cobs around about in a shuck -tick, and they poke into you and hurt; and when you roll over the dry -shucks sound like you was rolling over in a pile of dead leaves; it -makes such a rustling that you wake up.  Well, the duke allowed he would -take my bed; but the king allowed he wouldn't.  He says: - -"I should a reckoned the difference in rank would a sejested to you that -a corn-shuck bed warn't just fitten for me to sleep on.  Your Grace 'll -take the shuck bed yourself." - -Jim and me was in a sweat again for a minute, being afraid there was -going to be some more trouble amongst them; so we was pretty glad when -the duke says: - -"'Tis my fate to be always ground into the mire under the iron heel of -oppression.  Misfortune has broken my once haughty spirit; I yield, I -submit; 'tis my fate.  I am alone in the world—let me suffer; can bear -it." - -We got away as soon as it was good and dark.  The king told us to stand -well out towards the middle of the river, and not show a light till we -got a long ways below the town.  We come in sight of the little bunch of -lights by and by—that was the town, you know—and slid by, about a half -a mile out, all right.  When we was three-quarters of a mile below we -hoisted up our signal lantern; and about ten o'clock it come on to rain -and blow and thunder and lighten like everything; so the king told us -to both stay on watch till the weather got better; then him and the duke -crawled into the wigwam and turned in for the night.  It was my watch -below till twelve, but I wouldn't a turned in anyway if I'd had a bed, -because a body don't see such a storm as that every day in the week, not -by a long sight.  My souls, how the wind did scream along!  And every -second or two there'd come a glare that lit up the white-caps for a half -a mile around, and you'd see the islands looking dusty through the rain, -and the trees thrashing around in the wind; then comes a H-WHACK!—bum! -bum! bumble-umble-um-bum-bum-bum-bum—and the thunder would go rumbling -and grumbling away, and quit—and then RIP comes another flash and -another sockdolager.  The waves most washed me off the raft sometimes, -but I hadn't any clothes on, and didn't mind.  We didn't have no trouble -about snags; the lightning was glaring and flittering around so constant -that we could see them plenty soon enough to throw her head this way or -that and miss them. - -I had the middle watch, you know, but I was pretty sleepy by that time, -so Jim he said he would stand the first half of it for me; he was always -mighty good that way, Jim was.  I crawled into the wigwam, but the king -and the duke had their legs sprawled around so there warn't no show for -me; so I laid outside—I didn't mind the rain, because it was warm, and -the waves warn't running so high now.  About two they come up again, -though, and Jim was going to call me; but he changed his mind, because -he reckoned they warn't high enough yet to do any harm; but he was -mistaken about that, for pretty soon all of a sudden along comes a -regular ripper and washed me overboard.  It most killed Jim a-laughing. - He was the easiest nigger to laugh that ever was, anyway. - -I took the watch, and Jim he laid down and snored away; and by and by -the storm let up for good and all; and the first cabin-light that showed -I rousted him out, and we slid the raft into hiding quarters for the -day. - -The king got out an old ratty deck of cards after breakfast, and him -and the duke played seven-up a while, five cents a game.  Then they got -tired of it, and allowed they would "lay out a campaign," as they called -it. The duke went down into his carpet-bag, and fetched up a lot of -little printed bills and read them out loud.  One bill said, "The -celebrated Dr. Armand de Montalban, of Paris," would "lecture on the -Science of Phrenology" at such and such a place, on the blank day of -blank, at ten cents admission, and "furnish charts of character at -twenty-five cents apiece."  The duke said that was _him_.  In another -bill he was the "world-renowned Shakespearian tragedian, Garrick the -Younger, of Drury Lane, London."  In other bills he had a lot of other -names and done other wonderful things, like finding water and gold with -a "divining-rod," "dissipating witch spells," and so on.  By and by he -says: - -"But the histrionic muse is the darling.  Have you ever trod the boards, -Royalty?" - -"No," says the king. - -"You shall, then, before you're three days older, Fallen Grandeur," says -the duke.  "The first good town we come to we'll hire a hall and do the -sword fight in Richard III. and the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. -How does that strike you?" - -"I'm in, up to the hub, for anything that will pay, Bilgewater; but, you -see, I don't know nothing about play-actin', and hain't ever seen much -of it.  I was too small when pap used to have 'em at the palace.  Do you -reckon you can learn me?" - -"Easy!" - -"All right.  I'm jist a-freezn' for something fresh, anyway.  Le's -commence right away." - -So the duke he told him all about who Romeo was and who Juliet was, and -said he was used to being Romeo, so the king could be Juliet. - -"But if Juliet's such a young gal, duke, my peeled head and my white -whiskers is goin' to look oncommon odd on her, maybe." - -"No, don't you worry; these country jakes won't ever think of that. -Besides, you know, you'll be in costume, and that makes all the -difference in the world; Juliet's in a balcony, enjoying the moonlight -before she goes to bed, and she's got on her night-gown and her ruffled -nightcap.  Here are the costumes for the parts." - -He got out two or three curtain-calico suits, which he said was -meedyevil armor for Richard III. and t'other chap, and a long white -cotton nightshirt and a ruffled nightcap to match.  The king was -satisfied; so the duke got out his book and read the parts over in the -most splendid spread-eagle way, prancing around and acting at the same -time, to show how it had got to be done; then he give the book to the -king and told him to get his part by heart. - -There was a little one-horse town about three mile down the bend, and -after dinner the duke said he had ciphered out his idea about how to run -in daylight without it being dangersome for Jim; so he allowed he would -go down to the town and fix that thing.  The king allowed he would go, -too, and see if he couldn't strike something.  We was out of coffee, so -Jim said I better go along with them in the canoe and get some. - -When we got there there warn't nobody stirring; streets empty, and -perfectly dead and still, like Sunday.  We found a sick nigger sunning -himself in a back yard, and he said everybody that warn't too young or -too sick or too old was gone to camp-meeting, about two mile back in the -woods.  The king got the directions, and allowed he'd go and work that -camp-meeting for all it was worth, and I might go, too. - -The duke said what he was after was a printing-office.  We found it; -a little bit of a concern, up over a carpenter shop—carpenters and -printers all gone to the meeting, and no doors locked.  It was a dirty, -littered-up place, and had ink marks, and handbills with pictures of -horses and runaway niggers on them, all over the walls.  The duke shed -his coat and said he was all right now.  So me and the king lit out for -the camp-meeting. - -We got there in about a half an hour fairly dripping, for it was a most -awful hot day.  There was as much as a thousand people there from -twenty mile around.  The woods was full of teams and wagons, hitched -everywheres, feeding out of the wagon-troughs and stomping to keep -off the flies.  There was sheds made out of poles and roofed over with -branches, where they had lemonade and gingerbread to sell, and piles of -watermelons and green corn and such-like truck. - -The preaching was going on under the same kinds of sheds, only they was -bigger and held crowds of people.  The benches was made out of outside -slabs of logs, with holes bored in the round side to drive sticks into -for legs. They didn't have no backs.  The preachers had high platforms -to stand on at one end of the sheds.  The women had on sun-bonnets; -and some had linsey-woolsey frocks, some gingham ones, and a few of the -young ones had on calico.  Some of the young men was barefooted, and -some of the children didn't have on any clothes but just a tow-linen -shirt.  Some of the old women was knitting, and some of the young folks -was courting on the sly. - -The first shed we come to the preacher was lining out a hymn.  He lined -out two lines, everybody sung it, and it was kind of grand to hear it, -there was so many of them and they done it in such a rousing way; then -he lined out two more for them to sing—and so on.  The people woke up -more and more, and sung louder and louder; and towards the end some -begun to groan, and some begun to shout.  Then the preacher begun to -preach, and begun in earnest, too; and went weaving first to one side of -the platform and then the other, and then a-leaning down over the front -of it, with his arms and his body going all the time, and shouting his -words out with all his might; and every now and then he would hold up -his Bible and spread it open, and kind of pass it around this way and -that, shouting, "It's the brazen serpent in the wilderness!  Look upon -it and live!"  And people would shout out, "Glory!—A-a-_men_!"  And so -he went on, and the people groaning and crying and saying amen: - -"Oh, come to the mourners' bench! come, black with sin! (_Amen_!) come, -sick and sore! (_Amen_!) come, lame and halt and blind! (_Amen_!) come, -pore and needy, sunk in shame! (_A-A-Men_!) come, all that's worn and -soiled and suffering!—come with a broken spirit! come with a contrite -heart! come in your rags and sin and dirt! the waters that cleanse -is free, the door of heaven stands open—oh, enter in and be at rest!" -(_A-A-Men_!  _Glory, Glory Hallelujah!_) - -And so on.  You couldn't make out what the preacher said any more, on -account of the shouting and crying.  Folks got up everywheres in the -crowd, and worked their way just by main strength to the mourners' -bench, with the tears running down their faces; and when all the -mourners had got up there to the front benches in a crowd, they sung and -shouted and flung themselves down on the straw, just crazy and wild. - -Well, the first I knowed the king got a-going, and you could hear him -over everybody; and next he went a-charging up on to the platform, and -the preacher he begged him to speak to the people, and he done it.  He -told them he was a pirate—been a pirate for thirty years out in the -Indian Ocean—and his crew was thinned out considerable last spring in -a fight, and he was home now to take out some fresh men, and thanks to -goodness he'd been robbed last night and put ashore off of a steamboat -without a cent, and he was glad of it; it was the blessedest thing that -ever happened to him, because he was a changed man now, and happy for -the first time in his life; and, poor as he was, he was going to start -right off and work his way back to the Indian Ocean, and put in the rest -of his life trying to turn the pirates into the true path; for he could -do it better than anybody else, being acquainted with all pirate crews -in that ocean; and though it would take him a long time to get there -without money, he would get there anyway, and every time he convinced -a pirate he would say to him, "Don't you thank me, don't you give me no -credit; it all belongs to them dear people in Pokeville camp-meeting, -natural brothers and benefactors of the race, and that dear preacher -there, the truest friend a pirate ever had!" - -And then he busted into tears, and so did everybody.  Then somebody -sings out, "Take up a collection for him, take up a collection!"  Well, -a half a dozen made a jump to do it, but somebody sings out, "Let _him_ -pass the hat around!"  Then everybody said it, the preacher too. - -So the king went all through the crowd with his hat swabbing his eyes, -and blessing the people and praising them and thanking them for being -so good to the poor pirates away off there; and every little while the -prettiest kind of girls, with the tears running down their cheeks, would -up and ask him would he let them kiss him for to remember him by; and he -always done it; and some of them he hugged and kissed as many as five or -six times—and he was invited to stay a week; and everybody wanted him to -live in their houses, and said they'd think it was an honor; but he said -as this was the last day of the camp-meeting he couldn't do no good, and -besides he was in a sweat to get to the Indian Ocean right off and go to -work on the pirates. - -When we got back to the raft and he come to count up he found he had -collected eighty-seven dollars and seventy-five cents.  And then he had -fetched away a three-gallon jug of whisky, too, that he found under a -wagon when he was starting home through the woods.  The king said, -take it all around, it laid over any day he'd ever put in in the -missionarying line.  He said it warn't no use talking, heathens don't -amount to shucks alongside of pirates to work a camp-meeting with. - -The duke was thinking _he'd_ been doing pretty well till the king come -to show up, but after that he didn't think so so much.  He had set -up and printed off two little jobs for farmers in that -printing-office—horse bills—and took the money, four dollars.  And he -had got in ten dollars' worth of advertisements for the paper, which he -said he would put in for four dollars if they would pay in advance—so -they done it. The price of the paper was two dollars a year, but he took -in three subscriptions for half a dollar apiece on condition of them -paying him in advance; they were going to pay in cordwood and onions as -usual, but he said he had just bought the concern and knocked down the -price as low as he could afford it, and was going to run it for cash. - He set up a little piece of poetry, which he made, himself, out of -his own head—three verses—kind of sweet and saddish—the name of it was, -"Yes, crush, cold world, this breaking heart"—and he left that all set -up and ready to print in the paper, and didn't charge nothing for it. - Well, he took in nine dollars and a half, and said he'd done a pretty -square day's work for it. - -Then he showed us another little job he'd printed and hadn't charged -for, because it was for us.  It had a picture of a runaway nigger with -a bundle on a stick over his shoulder, and "$200 reward" under it.  The -reading was all about Jim, and just described him to a dot.  It said -he run away from St. Jacques' plantation, forty mile below New Orleans, -last winter, and likely went north, and whoever would catch him and send -him back he could have the reward and expenses. - -"Now," says the duke, "after to-night we can run in the daytime if we -want to.  Whenever we see anybody coming we can tie Jim hand and foot -with a rope, and lay him in the wigwam and show this handbill and say we -captured him up the river, and were too poor to travel on a steamboat, -so we got this little raft on credit from our friends and are going down -to get the reward.  Handcuffs and chains would look still better on Jim, -but it wouldn't go well with the story of us being so poor.  Too much -like jewelry.  Ropes are the correct thing—we must preserve the unities, -as we say on the boards." - -We all said the duke was pretty smart, and there couldn't be no trouble -about running daytimes.  We judged we could make miles enough that night -to get out of the reach of the powwow we reckoned the duke's work in -the printing office was going to make in that little town; then we could -boom right along if we wanted to. - -We laid low and kept still, and never shoved out till nearly ten -o'clock; then we slid by, pretty wide away from the town, and didn't -hoist our lantern till we was clear out of sight of it. - -When Jim called me to take the watch at four in the morning, he says: - -"Huck, does you reck'n we gwyne to run acrost any mo' kings on dis -trip?" - -"No," I says, "I reckon not." - -"Well," says he, "dat's all right, den.  I doan' mine one er two kings, -but dat's enough.  Dis one's powerful drunk, en de duke ain' much -better." - -I found Jim had been trying to get him to talk French, so he could hear -what it was like; but he said he had been in this country so long, and -had so much trouble, he'd forgot it. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI. - -IT was after sun-up now, but we went right on and didn't tie up.  The -king and the duke turned out by and by looking pretty rusty; but after -they'd jumped overboard and took a swim it chippered them up a good -deal. After breakfast the king he took a seat on the corner of the raft, -and pulled off his boots and rolled up his britches, and let his legs -dangle in the water, so as to be comfortable, and lit his pipe, and went -to getting his Romeo and Juliet by heart.  When he had got it pretty -good him and the duke begun to practice it together.  The duke had to -learn him over and over again how to say every speech; and he made him -sigh, and put his hand on his heart, and after a while he said he done -it pretty well; "only," he says, "you mustn't bellow out _Romeo_! -that way, like a bull—you must say it soft and sick and languishy, -so—R-o-o-meo! that is the idea; for Juliet's a dear sweet mere child of -a girl, you know, and she doesn't bray like a jackass." - -Well, next they got out a couple of long swords that the duke made out -of oak laths, and begun to practice the sword fight—the duke called -himself Richard III.; and the way they laid on and pranced around -the raft was grand to see.  But by and by the king tripped and fell -overboard, and after that they took a rest, and had a talk about all -kinds of adventures they'd had in other times along the river. - -After dinner the duke says: - -"Well, Capet, we'll want to make this a first-class show, you know, so -I guess we'll add a little more to it.  We want a little something to -answer encores with, anyway." - -"What's onkores, Bilgewater?" - -The duke told him, and then says: - -"I'll answer by doing the Highland fling or the sailor's hornpipe; and -you—well, let me see—oh, I've got it—you can do Hamlet's soliloquy." - -"Hamlet's which?" - -"Hamlet's soliloquy, you know; the most celebrated thing in Shakespeare. -Ah, it's sublime, sublime!  Always fetches the house.  I haven't got -it in the book—I've only got one volume—but I reckon I can piece it out -from memory.  I'll just walk up and down a minute, and see if I can call -it back from recollection's vaults." - -So he went to marching up and down, thinking, and frowning horrible -every now and then; then he would hoist up his eyebrows; next he would -squeeze his hand on his forehead and stagger back and kind of moan; next -he would sigh, and next he'd let on to drop a tear.  It was beautiful -to see him. By and by he got it.  He told us to give attention.  Then -he strikes a most noble attitude, with one leg shoved forwards, and his -arms stretched away up, and his head tilted back, looking up at the sky; -and then he begins to rip and rave and grit his teeth; and after that, -all through his speech, he howled, and spread around, and swelled up his -chest, and just knocked the spots out of any acting ever I see before. - This is the speech—I learned it, easy enough, while he was learning it -to the king: - -To be, or not to be; that is the bare bodkin That makes calamity of -so long life; For who would fardels bear, till Birnam Wood do come -to Dunsinane, But that the fear of something after death Murders the -innocent sleep, Great nature's second course, And makes us rather sling -the arrows of outrageous fortune Than fly to others that we know not of. -There's the respect must give us pause: Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I -would thou couldst; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The -oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The law's delay, and the -quietus which his pangs might take. In the dead waste and middle of the -night, when churchyards yawn In customary suits of solemn black, But -that the undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns, -Breathes forth contagion on the world, And thus the native hue of -resolution, like the poor cat i' the adage, Is sicklied o'er with care. -And all the clouds that lowered o'er our housetops, With this -regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. 'Tis a -consummation devoutly to be wished. But soft you, the fair Ophelia: Ope -not thy ponderous and marble jaws. But get thee to a nunnery—go! - -Well, the old man he liked that speech, and he mighty soon got it so he -could do it first rate. It seemed like he was just born for it; and when -he had his hand in and was excited, it was perfectly lovely the way he -would rip and tear and rair up behind when he was getting it off. - -The first chance we got, the duke he had some show bills printed; and -after that, for two or three days as we floated along, the raft was a -most uncommon lively place, for there warn't nothing but sword-fighting -and rehearsing—as the duke called it—going on all the time. One morning, -when we was pretty well down the State of Arkansaw, we come in sight -of a little one-horse town in a big bend; so we tied up about -three-quarters of a mile above it, in the mouth of a crick which was -shut in like a tunnel by the cypress trees, and all of us but Jim took -the canoe and went down there to see if there was any chance in that -place for our show. - -We struck it mighty lucky; there was going to be a circus there that -afternoon, and the country people was already beginning to come in, in -all kinds of old shackly wagons, and on horses. The circus would leave -before night, so our show would have a pretty good chance. The duke he -hired the court house, and we went around and stuck up our bills. They -read like this: - -Shaksperean Revival!!! - -Wonderful Attraction! - -For One Night Only! The world renowned tragedians, - -David Garrick the younger, of Drury Lane Theatre, London, - -and - -Edmund Kean the elder, of the Royal Haymarket Theatre, Whitechapel, -Pudding Lane, Piccadilly, London, and the Royal Continental Theatres, in -their sublime Shaksperean Spectacle entitled The Balcony Scene in - -Romeo and Juliet!!! - -Romeo...................................... Mr. Garrick. - -Juliet..................................... Mr. Kean. - -Assisted by the whole strength of the company! - -New costumes, new scenery, new appointments! - -Also: - -The thrilling, masterly, and blood-curdling Broad-sword conflict In -Richard III.!!! - -Richard III................................ Mr. Garrick. - -Richmond................................... Mr. Kean. - -also: - -(by special request,) - -Hamlet's Immortal Soliloquy!! - -By the Illustrious Kean! - -Done by him 300 consecutive nights in Paris! - -For One Night Only, - -On account of imperative European engagements! - -Admission 25 cents; children and servants, 10 cents. - -Then we went loafing around the town. The stores and houses was most all -old shackly dried-up frame concerns that hadn't ever been painted; they -was set up three or four foot above ground on stilts, so as to be out of -reach of the water when the river was overflowed. The houses had little -gardens around them, but they didn't seem to raise hardly anything in -them but jimpson weeds, and sunflowers, and ash-piles, and old curled-up -boots and shoes, and pieces of bottles, and rags, and played-out -tin-ware. The fences was made of different kinds of boards, nailed on -at different times; and they leaned every which-way, and had gates that -didn't generly have but one hinge—a leather one. Some of the fences -had been whitewashed, some time or another, but the duke said it was in -Clumbus's time, like enough. There was generly hogs in the garden, and -people driving them out. - -All the stores was along one street.  They had white domestic awnings in -front, and the country people hitched their horses to the awning-posts. -There was empty drygoods boxes under the awnings, and loafers roosting -on them all day long, whittling them with their Barlow knives; and -chawing tobacco, and gaping and yawning and stretching—a mighty ornery -lot. They generly had on yellow straw hats most as wide as an umbrella, -but didn't wear no coats nor waistcoats, they called one another Bill, -and Buck, and Hank, and Joe, and Andy, and talked lazy and drawly, and -used considerable many cuss words.  There was as many as one loafer -leaning up against every awning-post, and he most always had his hands -in his britches-pockets, except when he fetched them out to lend a chaw -of tobacco or scratch.  What a body was hearing amongst them all the -time was: - -"Gimme a chaw 'v tobacker, Hank." - -"Cain't; I hain't got but one chaw left.  Ask Bill." - -Maybe Bill he gives him a chaw; maybe he lies and says he ain't got -none. Some of them kinds of loafers never has a cent in the world, nor a -chaw of tobacco of their own.  They get all their chawing by borrowing; -they say to a fellow, "I wisht you'd len' me a chaw, Jack, I jist this -minute give Ben Thompson the last chaw I had"—which is a lie pretty -much everytime; it don't fool nobody but a stranger; but Jack ain't no -stranger, so he says: - -"_You_ give him a chaw, did you?  So did your sister's cat's -grandmother. You pay me back the chaws you've awready borry'd off'n me, -Lafe Buckner, then I'll loan you one or two ton of it, and won't charge -you no back intrust, nuther." - -"Well, I _did_ pay you back some of it wunst." - -"Yes, you did—'bout six chaws.  You borry'd store tobacker and paid back -nigger-head." - -Store tobacco is flat black plug, but these fellows mostly chaws the -natural leaf twisted.  When they borrow a chaw they don't generly cut it -off with a knife, but set the plug in between their teeth, and gnaw with -their teeth and tug at the plug with their hands till they get it in -two; then sometimes the one that owns the tobacco looks mournful at it -when it's handed back, and says, sarcastic: - -"Here, gimme the _chaw_, and you take the _plug_." - -All the streets and lanes was just mud; they warn't nothing else _but_ -mud—mud as black as tar and nigh about a foot deep in some places, -and two or three inches deep in _all_ the places.  The hogs loafed and -grunted around everywheres.  You'd see a muddy sow and a litter of pigs -come lazying along the street and whollop herself right down in the way, -where folks had to walk around her, and she'd stretch out and shut her -eyes and wave her ears whilst the pigs was milking her, and look as -happy as if she was on salary. And pretty soon you'd hear a loafer -sing out, "Hi!  _so_ boy! sick him, Tige!" and away the sow would go, -squealing most horrible, with a dog or two swinging to each ear, and -three or four dozen more a-coming; and then you would see all the -loafers get up and watch the thing out of sight, and laugh at the fun -and look grateful for the noise.  Then they'd settle back again till -there was a dog fight.  There couldn't anything wake them up all over, -and make them happy all over, like a dog fight—unless it might be -putting turpentine on a stray dog and setting fire to him, or tying a -tin pan to his tail and see him run himself to death. - -On the river front some of the houses was sticking out over the bank, -and they was bowed and bent, and about ready to tumble in, The people -had moved out of them.  The bank was caved away under one corner of some -others, and that corner was hanging over.  People lived in them yet, but -it was dangersome, because sometimes a strip of land as wide as a house -caves in at a time.  Sometimes a belt of land a quarter of a mile deep -will start in and cave along and cave along till it all caves into the -river in one summer. Such a town as that has to be always moving back, -and back, and back, because the river's always gnawing at it. - -The nearer it got to noon that day the thicker and thicker was the -wagons and horses in the streets, and more coming all the time. - Families fetched their dinners with them from the country, and eat them -in the wagons.  There was considerable whisky drinking going on, and I -seen three fights.  By and by somebody sings out: - -"Here comes old Boggs!—in from the country for his little old monthly -drunk; here he comes, boys!" - -All the loafers looked glad; I reckoned they was used to having fun out -of Boggs.  One of them says: - -"Wonder who he's a-gwyne to chaw up this time.  If he'd a-chawed up all -the men he's ben a-gwyne to chaw up in the last twenty year he'd have -considerable ruputation now." - -Another one says, "I wisht old Boggs 'd threaten me, 'cuz then I'd know -I warn't gwyne to die for a thousan' year." - -Boggs comes a-tearing along on his horse, whooping and yelling like an -Injun, and singing out: - -"Cler the track, thar.  I'm on the waw-path, and the price uv coffins is -a-gwyne to raise." - -He was drunk, and weaving about in his saddle; he was over fifty year -old, and had a very red face.  Everybody yelled at him and laughed at -him and sassed him, and he sassed back, and said he'd attend to them and -lay them out in their regular turns, but he couldn't wait now because -he'd come to town to kill old Colonel Sherburn, and his motto was, "Meat -first, and spoon vittles to top off on." - -He see me, and rode up and says: - -"Whar'd you come f'm, boy?  You prepared to die?" - -Then he rode on.  I was scared, but a man says: - -"He don't mean nothing; he's always a-carryin' on like that when he's -drunk.  He's the best naturedest old fool in Arkansaw—never hurt nobody, -drunk nor sober." - -Boggs rode up before the biggest store in town, and bent his head down -so he could see under the curtain of the awning and yells: - -"Come out here, Sherburn! Come out and meet the man you've swindled. -You're the houn' I'm after, and I'm a-gwyne to have you, too!" - -And so he went on, calling Sherburn everything he could lay his tongue -to, and the whole street packed with people listening and laughing and -going on.  By and by a proud-looking man about fifty-five—and he was a -heap the best dressed man in that town, too—steps out of the store, and -the crowd drops back on each side to let him come.  He says to Boggs, -mighty ca'm and slow—he says: - -"I'm tired of this, but I'll endure it till one o'clock.  Till one -o'clock, mind—no longer.  If you open your mouth against me only once -after that time you can't travel so far but I will find you." - -Then he turns and goes in.  The crowd looked mighty sober; nobody -stirred, and there warn't no more laughing.  Boggs rode off -blackguarding Sherburn as loud as he could yell, all down the street; -and pretty soon back he comes and stops before the store, still keeping -it up.  Some men crowded around him and tried to get him to shut up, -but he wouldn't; they told him it would be one o'clock in about fifteen -minutes, and so he _must_ go home—he must go right away.  But it didn't -do no good.  He cussed away with all his might, and throwed his hat down -in the mud and rode over it, and pretty soon away he went a-raging down -the street again, with his gray hair a-flying. Everybody that could get -a chance at him tried their best to coax him off of his horse so they -could lock him up and get him sober; but it warn't no use—up the street -he would tear again, and give Sherburn another cussing.  By and by -somebody says: - -"Go for his daughter!—quick, go for his daughter; sometimes he'll listen -to her.  If anybody can persuade him, she can." - -So somebody started on a run.  I walked down street a ways and stopped. -In about five or ten minutes here comes Boggs again, but not on his -horse.  He was a-reeling across the street towards me, bare-headed, with -a friend on both sides of him a-holt of his arms and hurrying him along. -He was quiet, and looked uneasy; and he warn't hanging back any, but was -doing some of the hurrying himself.  Somebody sings out: - -"Boggs!" - -I looked over there to see who said it, and it was that Colonel -Sherburn. He was standing perfectly still in the street, and had a -pistol raised in his right hand—not aiming it, but holding it out with -the barrel tilted up towards the sky.  The same second I see a young -girl coming on the run, and two men with her.  Boggs and the men turned -round to see who called him, and when they see the pistol the men -jumped to one side, and the pistol-barrel come down slow and steady to -a level—both barrels cocked. Boggs throws up both of his hands and says, -"O Lord, don't shoot!"  Bang! goes the first shot, and he staggers back, -clawing at the air—bang! goes the second one, and he tumbles backwards -on to the ground, heavy and solid, with his arms spread out.  That young -girl screamed out and comes rushing, and down she throws herself on her -father, crying, and saying, "Oh, he's killed him, he's killed him!"  The -crowd closed up around them, and shouldered and jammed one another, with -their necks stretched, trying to see, and people on the inside trying to -shove them back and shouting, "Back, back! give him air, give him air!" - -Colonel Sherburn he tossed his pistol on to the ground, and turned -around on his heels and walked off. - -They took Boggs to a little drug store, the crowd pressing around just -the same, and the whole town following, and I rushed and got a good -place at the window, where I was close to him and could see in.  They -laid him on the floor and put one large Bible under his head, and opened -another one and spread it on his breast; but they tore open his shirt -first, and I seen where one of the bullets went in.  He made about a -dozen long gasps, his breast lifting the Bible up when he drawed in his -breath, and letting it down again when he breathed it out—and after that -he laid still; he was dead.  Then they pulled his daughter away from -him, screaming and crying, and took her off.  She was about sixteen, and -very sweet and gentle looking, but awful pale and scared. - -Well, pretty soon the whole town was there, squirming and scrouging and -pushing and shoving to get at the window and have a look, but people -that had the places wouldn't give them up, and folks behind them was -saying all the time, "Say, now, you've looked enough, you fellows; -'tain't right and 'tain't fair for you to stay thar all the time, and -never give nobody a chance; other folks has their rights as well as -you." - -There was considerable jawing back, so I slid out, thinking maybe -there was going to be trouble.  The streets was full, and everybody was -excited. Everybody that seen the shooting was telling how it happened, -and there was a big crowd packed around each one of these fellows, -stretching their necks and listening.  One long, lanky man, with long -hair and a big white fur stovepipe hat on the back of his head, and a -crooked-handled cane, marked out the places on the ground where Boggs -stood and where Sherburn stood, and the people following him around from -one place to t'other and watching everything he done, and bobbing their -heads to show they understood, and stooping a little and resting their -hands on their thighs to watch him mark the places on the ground with -his cane; and then he stood up straight and stiff where Sherburn had -stood, frowning and having his hat-brim down over his eyes, and sung -out, "Boggs!" and then fetched his cane down slow to a level, and says -"Bang!" staggered backwards, says "Bang!" again, and fell down flat on -his back. The people that had seen the thing said he done it perfect; -said it was just exactly the way it all happened.  Then as much as a -dozen people got out their bottles and treated him. - -Well, by and by somebody said Sherburn ought to be lynched.  In about a -minute everybody was saying it; so away they went, mad and yelling, and -snatching down every clothes-line they come to to do the hanging with. - - - - -CHAPTER XXII. - -THEY swarmed up towards Sherburn's house, a-whooping and raging like -Injuns, and everything had to clear the way or get run over and tromped -to mush, and it was awful to see.  Children was heeling it ahead of the -mob, screaming and trying to get out of the way; and every window along -the road was full of women's heads, and there was nigger boys in every -tree, and bucks and wenches looking over every fence; and as soon as the -mob would get nearly to them they would break and skaddle back out of -reach.  Lots of the women and girls was crying and taking on, scared -most to death. - -They swarmed up in front of Sherburn's palings as thick as they could -jam together, and you couldn't hear yourself think for the noise.  It -was a little twenty-foot yard.  Some sung out "Tear down the fence! tear -down the fence!"  Then there was a racket of ripping and tearing and -smashing, and down she goes, and the front wall of the crowd begins to -roll in like a wave. - -Just then Sherburn steps out on to the roof of his little front porch, -with a double-barrel gun in his hand, and takes his stand, perfectly -ca'm and deliberate, not saying a word.  The racket stopped, and the -wave sucked back. - -Sherburn never said a word—just stood there, looking down.  The -stillness was awful creepy and uncomfortable.  Sherburn run his eye slow -along the crowd; and wherever it struck the people tried a little to -out-gaze him, but they couldn't; they dropped their eyes and looked -sneaky. Then pretty soon Sherburn sort of laughed; not the pleasant -kind, but the kind that makes you feel like when you are eating bread -that's got sand in it. - -Then he says, slow and scornful: - -"The idea of _you_ lynching anybody!  It's amusing.  The idea of you -thinking you had pluck enough to lynch a _man_!  Because you're brave -enough to tar and feather poor friendless cast-out women that come along -here, did that make you think you had grit enough to lay your hands on a -_man_?  Why, a _man's_ safe in the hands of ten thousand of your kind—as -long as it's daytime and you're not behind him. - -"Do I know you?  I know you clear through was born and raised in the -South, and I've lived in the North; so I know the average all around. -The average man's a coward.  In the North he lets anybody walk over him -that wants to, and goes home and prays for a humble spirit to bear it. -In the South one man all by himself, has stopped a stage full of men -in the daytime, and robbed the lot.  Your newspapers call you a -brave people so much that you think you are braver than any other -people—whereas you're just _as_ brave, and no braver.  Why don't your -juries hang murderers?  Because they're afraid the man's friends will -shoot them in the back, in the dark—and it's just what they _would_ do. - -"So they always acquit; and then a _man_ goes in the night, with a -hundred masked cowards at his back and lynches the rascal.  Your mistake -is, that you didn't bring a man with you; that's one mistake, and the -other is that you didn't come in the dark and fetch your masks.  You -brought _part_ of a man—Buck Harkness, there—and if you hadn't had him -to start you, you'd a taken it out in blowing. - -"You didn't want to come.  The average man don't like trouble and -danger. _You_ don't like trouble and danger.  But if only _half_ a -man—like Buck Harkness, there—shouts 'Lynch him! lynch him!' you're -afraid to back down—afraid you'll be found out to be what you -are—_cowards_—and so you raise a yell, and hang yourselves on to that -half-a-man's coat-tail, and come raging up here, swearing what big -things you're going to do. The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that's -what an army is—a mob; they don't fight with courage that's born in -them, but with courage that's borrowed from their mass, and from their -officers.  But a mob without any _man_ at the head of it is _beneath_ -pitifulness.  Now the thing for _you_ to do is to droop your tails and -go home and crawl in a hole.  If any real lynching's going to be done it -will be done in the dark, Southern fashion; and when they come they'll -bring their masks, and fetch a _man_ along.  Now _leave_—and take your -half-a-man with you"—tossing his gun up across his left arm and cocking -it when he says this. - -The crowd washed back sudden, and then broke all apart, and went tearing -off every which way, and Buck Harkness he heeled it after them, looking -tolerable cheap.  I could a stayed if I wanted to, but I didn't want to. - -I went to the circus and loafed around the back side till the watchman -went by, and then dived in under the tent.  I had my twenty-dollar gold -piece and some other money, but I reckoned I better save it, because -there ain't no telling how soon you are going to need it, away from -home and amongst strangers that way.  You can't be too careful.  I ain't -opposed to spending money on circuses when there ain't no other way, but -there ain't no use in _wasting_ it on them. - -It was a real bully circus.  It was the splendidest sight that ever was -when they all come riding in, two and two, a gentleman and lady, side -by side, the men just in their drawers and undershirts, and no shoes -nor stirrups, and resting their hands on their thighs easy and -comfortable—there must a been twenty of them—and every lady with a -lovely complexion, and perfectly beautiful, and looking just like a gang -of real sure-enough queens, and dressed in clothes that cost millions of -dollars, and just littered with diamonds.  It was a powerful fine sight; -I never see anything so lovely.  And then one by one they got up -and stood, and went a-weaving around the ring so gentle and wavy and -graceful, the men looking ever so tall and airy and straight, with their -heads bobbing and skimming along, away up there under the tent-roof, and -every lady's rose-leafy dress flapping soft and silky around her hips, -and she looking like the most loveliest parasol. - -And then faster and faster they went, all of them dancing, first one -foot out in the air and then the other, the horses leaning more and -more, and the ringmaster going round and round the center-pole, cracking -his whip and shouting "Hi!—hi!" and the clown cracking jokes behind -him; and by and by all hands dropped the reins, and every lady put her -knuckles on her hips and every gentleman folded his arms, and then how -the horses did lean over and hump themselves!  And so one after the -other they all skipped off into the ring, and made the sweetest bow I -ever see, and then scampered out, and everybody clapped their hands and -went just about wild. - -Well, all through the circus they done the most astonishing things; and -all the time that clown carried on so it most killed the people.  The -ringmaster couldn't ever say a word to him but he was back at him quick -as a wink with the funniest things a body ever said; and how he ever -_could_ think of so many of them, and so sudden and so pat, was what I -couldn't noway understand. Why, I couldn't a thought of them in a year. -And by and by a drunk man tried to get into the ring—said he wanted to -ride; said he could ride as well as anybody that ever was.  They argued -and tried to keep him out, but he wouldn't listen, and the whole show -come to a standstill.  Then the people begun to holler at him and make -fun of him, and that made him mad, and he begun to rip and tear; so that -stirred up the people, and a lot of men begun to pile down off of the -benches and swarm towards the ring, saying, "Knock him down! throw him -out!" and one or two women begun to scream.  So, then, the ringmaster -he made a little speech, and said he hoped there wouldn't be no -disturbance, and if the man would promise he wouldn't make no more -trouble he would let him ride if he thought he could stay on the horse. - So everybody laughed and said all right, and the man got on. The minute -he was on, the horse begun to rip and tear and jump and cavort around, -with two circus men hanging on to his bridle trying to hold him, and the -drunk man hanging on to his neck, and his heels flying in the air every -jump, and the whole crowd of people standing up shouting and laughing -till tears rolled down.  And at last, sure enough, all the circus men -could do, the horse broke loose, and away he went like the very nation, -round and round the ring, with that sot laying down on him and hanging -to his neck, with first one leg hanging most to the ground on one side, -and then t'other one on t'other side, and the people just crazy.  It -warn't funny to me, though; I was all of a tremble to see his danger. - But pretty soon he struggled up astraddle and grabbed the bridle, -a-reeling this way and that; and the next minute he sprung up and -dropped the bridle and stood! and the horse a-going like a house afire -too.  He just stood up there, a-sailing around as easy and comfortable -as if he warn't ever drunk in his life—and then he begun to pull off his -clothes and sling them.  He shed them so thick they kind of clogged up -the air, and altogether he shed seventeen suits. And, then, there he -was, slim and handsome, and dressed the gaudiest and prettiest you -ever saw, and he lit into that horse with his whip and made him fairly -hum—and finally skipped off, and made his bow and danced off to -the dressing-room, and everybody just a-howling with pleasure and -astonishment. - -Then the ringmaster he see how he had been fooled, and he _was_ the -sickest ringmaster you ever see, I reckon.  Why, it was one of his own -men!  He had got up that joke all out of his own head, and never let on -to nobody. Well, I felt sheepish enough to be took in so, but I wouldn't -a been in that ringmaster's place, not for a thousand dollars.  I don't -know; there may be bullier circuses than what that one was, but I -never struck them yet. Anyways, it was plenty good enough for _me_; and -wherever I run across it, it can have all of _my_ custom every time. - -Well, that night we had _our_ show; but there warn't only about twelve -people there—just enough to pay expenses.  And they laughed all the -time, and that made the duke mad; and everybody left, anyway, before -the show was over, but one boy which was asleep.  So the duke said these -Arkansaw lunkheads couldn't come up to Shakespeare; what they wanted -was low comedy—and maybe something ruther worse than low comedy, he -reckoned.  He said he could size their style.  So next morning he got -some big sheets of wrapping paper and some black paint, and drawed off -some handbills, and stuck them up all over the village.  The bills said: - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII. - -WELL, all day him and the king was hard at it, rigging up a stage and -a curtain and a row of candles for footlights; and that night the house -was jam full of men in no time.  When the place couldn't hold no more, -the duke he quit tending door and went around the back way and come on -to the stage and stood up before the curtain and made a little speech, -and praised up this tragedy, and said it was the most thrillingest one -that ever was; and so he went on a-bragging about the tragedy, and about -Edmund Kean the Elder, which was to play the main principal part in it; -and at last when he'd got everybody's expectations up high enough, he -rolled up the curtain, and the next minute the king come a-prancing -out on all fours, naked; and he was painted all over, -ring-streaked-and-striped, all sorts of colors, as splendid as a -rainbow.  And—but never mind the rest of his outfit; it was just wild, -but it was awful funny. The people most killed themselves laughing; and -when the king got done capering and capered off behind the scenes, they -roared and clapped and stormed and haw-hawed till he come back and done -it over again, and after that they made him do it another time. Well, it -would make a cow laugh to see the shines that old idiot cut. - -Then the duke he lets the curtain down, and bows to the people, and says -the great tragedy will be performed only two nights more, on accounts of -pressing London engagements, where the seats is all sold already for it -in Drury Lane; and then he makes them another bow, and says if he has -succeeded in pleasing them and instructing them, he will be deeply -obleeged if they will mention it to their friends and get them to come -and see it. - -Twenty people sings out: - -"What, is it over?  Is that _all_?" - -The duke says yes.  Then there was a fine time.  Everybody sings -out, "Sold!" and rose up mad, and was a-going for that stage and them -tragedians.  But a big, fine looking man jumps up on a bench and shouts: - -"Hold on!  Just a word, gentlemen."  They stopped to listen.  "We are -sold—mighty badly sold.  But we don't want to be the laughing stock of -this whole town, I reckon, and never hear the last of this thing as long -as we live.  _No_.  What we want is to go out of here quiet, and talk -this show up, and sell the _rest_ of the town!  Then we'll all be in the -same boat.  Ain't that sensible?" ("You bet it is!—the jedge is right!" -everybody sings out.) "All right, then—not a word about any sell.  Go -along home, and advise everybody to come and see the tragedy." - -Next day you couldn't hear nothing around that town but how splendid -that show was.  House was jammed again that night, and we sold this -crowd the same way.  When me and the king and the duke got home to the -raft we all had a supper; and by and by, about midnight, they made Jim -and me back her out and float her down the middle of the river, and -fetch her in and hide her about two mile below town. - -The third night the house was crammed again—and they warn't new-comers -this time, but people that was at the show the other two nights.  I -stood by the duke at the door, and I see that every man that went in had -his pockets bulging, or something muffled up under his coat—and I see it -warn't no perfumery, neither, not by a long sight.  I smelt sickly eggs -by the barrel, and rotten cabbages, and such things; and if I know the -signs of a dead cat being around, and I bet I do, there was sixty-four -of them went in.  I shoved in there for a minute, but it was too various -for me; I couldn't stand it.  Well, when the place couldn't hold no more -people the duke he give a fellow a quarter and told him to tend door -for him a minute, and then he started around for the stage door, I after -him; but the minute we turned the corner and was in the dark he says: - -"Walk fast now till you get away from the houses, and then shin for the -raft like the dickens was after you!" - -I done it, and he done the same.  We struck the raft at the same time, -and in less than two seconds we was gliding down stream, all dark and -still, and edging towards the middle of the river, nobody saying a -word. I reckoned the poor king was in for a gaudy time of it with the -audience, but nothing of the sort; pretty soon he crawls out from under -the wigwam, and says: - -"Well, how'd the old thing pan out this time, duke?"  He hadn't been -up-town at all. - -We never showed a light till we was about ten mile below the village. -Then we lit up and had a supper, and the king and the duke fairly -laughed their bones loose over the way they'd served them people.  The -duke says: - -"Greenhorns, flatheads!  I knew the first house would keep mum and let -the rest of the town get roped in; and I knew they'd lay for us the -third night, and consider it was _their_ turn now.  Well, it _is_ their -turn, and I'd give something to know how much they'd take for it.  I -_would_ just like to know how they're putting in their opportunity. - They can turn it into a picnic if they want to—they brought plenty -provisions." - -Them rapscallions took in four hundred and sixty-five dollars in that -three nights.  I never see money hauled in by the wagon-load like that -before.  By and by, when they was asleep and snoring, Jim says: - -"Don't it s'prise you de way dem kings carries on, Huck?" - -"No," I says, "it don't." - -"Why don't it, Huck?" - -"Well, it don't, because it's in the breed.  I reckon they're all -alike." - -"But, Huck, dese kings o' ourn is reglar rapscallions; dat's jist what -dey is; dey's reglar rapscallions." - -"Well, that's what I'm a-saying; all kings is mostly rapscallions, as -fur as I can make out." - -"Is dat so?" - -"You read about them once—you'll see.  Look at Henry the Eight; this 'n -'s a Sunday-school Superintendent to _him_.  And look at Charles Second, -and Louis Fourteen, and Louis Fifteen, and James Second, and Edward -Second, and Richard Third, and forty more; besides all them Saxon -heptarchies that used to rip around so in old times and raise Cain.  My, -you ought to seen old Henry the Eight when he was in bloom.  He _was_ a -blossom.  He used to marry a new wife every day, and chop off her head -next morning.  And he would do it just as indifferent as if he was -ordering up eggs.  'Fetch up Nell Gwynn,' he says.  They fetch her up. -Next morning, 'Chop off her head!'  And they chop it off.  'Fetch up -Jane Shore,' he says; and up she comes, Next morning, 'Chop off her -head'—and they chop it off.  'Ring up Fair Rosamun.'  Fair Rosamun -answers the bell.  Next morning, 'Chop off her head.'  And he made every -one of them tell him a tale every night; and he kept that up till he had -hogged a thousand and one tales that way, and then he put them all in a -book, and called it Domesday Book—which was a good name and stated the -case.  You don't know kings, Jim, but I know them; and this old rip -of ourn is one of the cleanest I've struck in history.  Well, Henry he -takes a notion he wants to get up some trouble with this country. How -does he go at it—give notice?—give the country a show?  No.  All of a -sudden he heaves all the tea in Boston Harbor overboard, and whacks -out a declaration of independence, and dares them to come on.  That was -_his_ style—he never give anybody a chance.  He had suspicions of his -father, the Duke of Wellington.  Well, what did he do?  Ask him to show -up?  No—drownded him in a butt of mamsey, like a cat.  S'pose people -left money laying around where he was—what did he do?  He collared it. - S'pose he contracted to do a thing, and you paid him, and didn't set -down there and see that he done it—what did he do?  He always done the -other thing. S'pose he opened his mouth—what then?  If he didn't shut it -up powerful quick he'd lose a lie every time.  That's the kind of a bug -Henry was; and if we'd a had him along 'stead of our kings he'd a fooled -that town a heap worse than ourn done.  I don't say that ourn is lambs, -because they ain't, when you come right down to the cold facts; but they -ain't nothing to _that_ old ram, anyway.  All I say is, kings is kings, -and you got to make allowances.  Take them all around, they're a mighty -ornery lot. It's the way they're raised." - -"But dis one do _smell_ so like de nation, Huck." - -"Well, they all do, Jim.  We can't help the way a king smells; history -don't tell no way." - -"Now de duke, he's a tolerble likely man in some ways." - -"Yes, a duke's different.  But not very different.  This one's -a middling hard lot for a duke.  When he's drunk there ain't no -near-sighted man could tell him from a king." - -"Well, anyways, I doan' hanker for no mo' un um, Huck.  Dese is all I -kin stan'." - -"It's the way I feel, too, Jim.  But we've got them on our hands, and we -got to remember what they are, and make allowances.  Sometimes I wish we -could hear of a country that's out of kings." - -What was the use to tell Jim these warn't real kings and dukes?  It -wouldn't a done no good; and, besides, it was just as I said:  you -couldn't tell them from the real kind. - -I went to sleep, and Jim didn't call me when it was my turn.  He often -done that.  When I waked up just at daybreak he was sitting there with -his head down betwixt his knees, moaning and mourning to himself.  I -didn't take notice nor let on.  I knowed what it was about.  He was -thinking about his wife and his children, away up yonder, and he was low -and homesick; because he hadn't ever been away from home before in his -life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white -folks does for their'n.  It don't seem natural, but I reckon it's so. - He was often moaning and mourning that way nights, when he judged I -was asleep, and saying, "Po' little 'Lizabeth! po' little Johnny! it's -mighty hard; I spec' I ain't ever gwyne to see you no mo', no mo'!"  He -was a mighty good nigger, Jim was. - -But this time I somehow got to talking to him about his wife and young -ones; and by and by he says: - -"What makes me feel so bad dis time 'uz bekase I hear sumpn over yonder -on de bank like a whack, er a slam, while ago, en it mine me er de time -I treat my little 'Lizabeth so ornery.  She warn't on'y 'bout fo' year -ole, en she tuck de sk'yarlet fever, en had a powful rough spell; but -she got well, en one day she was a-stannin' aroun', en I says to her, I -says: - -"'Shet de do'.' - -"She never done it; jis' stood dah, kiner smilin' up at me.  It make me -mad; en I says agin, mighty loud, I says: - -"'Doan' you hear me?  Shet de do'!' - -"She jis stood de same way, kiner smilin' up.  I was a-bilin'!  I says: - -"'I lay I _make_ you mine!' - -"En wid dat I fetch' her a slap side de head dat sont her a-sprawlin'. -Den I went into de yuther room, en 'uz gone 'bout ten minutes; en when -I come back dah was dat do' a-stannin' open _yit_, en dat chile stannin' -mos' right in it, a-lookin' down and mournin', en de tears runnin' down. - My, but I _wuz_ mad!  I was a-gwyne for de chile, but jis' den—it was a -do' dat open innerds—jis' den, 'long come de wind en slam it to, behine -de chile, ker-BLAM!—en my lan', de chile never move'!  My breff mos' -hop outer me; en I feel so—so—I doan' know HOW I feel.  I crope out, -all a-tremblin', en crope aroun' en open de do' easy en slow, en poke my -head in behine de chile, sof' en still, en all uv a sudden I says POW! -jis' as loud as I could yell.  _She never budge!_  Oh, Huck, I bust out -a-cryin' en grab her up in my arms, en say, 'Oh, de po' little thing! - De Lord God Amighty fogive po' ole Jim, kaze he never gwyne to fogive -hisself as long's he live!'  Oh, she was plumb deef en dumb, Huck, plumb -deef en dumb—en I'd ben a-treat'n her so!" - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV. - -NEXT day, towards night, we laid up under a little willow towhead out in -the middle, where there was a village on each side of the river, and the -duke and the king begun to lay out a plan for working them towns.  Jim -he spoke to the duke, and said he hoped it wouldn't take but a few -hours, because it got mighty heavy and tiresome to him when he had to -lay all day in the wigwam tied with the rope.  You see, when we left him -all alone we had to tie him, because if anybody happened on to him all -by himself and not tied it wouldn't look much like he was a runaway -nigger, you know. So the duke said it _was_ kind of hard to have to lay -roped all day, and he'd cipher out some way to get around it. - -He was uncommon bright, the duke was, and he soon struck it.  He dressed -Jim up in King Lear's outfit—it was a long curtain-calico gown, and a -white horse-hair wig and whiskers; and then he took his theater paint -and painted Jim's face and hands and ears and neck all over a dead, -dull, solid blue, like a man that's been drownded nine days.  Blamed if -he warn't the horriblest looking outrage I ever see.  Then the duke took -and wrote out a sign on a shingle so: - -Sick Arab—but harmless when not out of his head. - -And he nailed that shingle to a lath, and stood the lath up four or five -foot in front of the wigwam.  Jim was satisfied.  He said it was a sight -better than lying tied a couple of years every day, and trembling all -over every time there was a sound.  The duke told him to make himself -free and easy, and if anybody ever come meddling around, he must hop -out of the wigwam, and carry on a little, and fetch a howl or two like -a wild beast, and he reckoned they would light out and leave him alone. - Which was sound enough judgment; but you take the average man, and he -wouldn't wait for him to howl.  Why, he didn't only look like he was -dead, he looked considerable more than that. - -These rapscallions wanted to try the Nonesuch again, because there was -so much money in it, but they judged it wouldn't be safe, because maybe -the news might a worked along down by this time.  They couldn't hit no -project that suited exactly; so at last the duke said he reckoned he'd -lay off and work his brains an hour or two and see if he couldn't put up -something on the Arkansaw village; and the king he allowed he would drop -over to t'other village without any plan, but just trust in Providence -to lead him the profitable way—meaning the devil, I reckon.  We had all -bought store clothes where we stopped last; and now the king put his'n -on, and he told me to put mine on.  I done it, of course.  The king's -duds was all black, and he did look real swell and starchy.  I never -knowed how clothes could change a body before.  Why, before, he looked -like the orneriest old rip that ever was; but now, when he'd take off -his new white beaver and make a bow and do a smile, he looked that grand -and good and pious that you'd say he had walked right out of the ark, -and maybe was old Leviticus himself.  Jim cleaned up the canoe, and I -got my paddle ready.  There was a big steamboat laying at the shore away -up under the point, about three mile above the town—been there a couple -of hours, taking on freight.  Says the king: - -"Seein' how I'm dressed, I reckon maybe I better arrive down from St. -Louis or Cincinnati, or some other big place.  Go for the steamboat, -Huckleberry; we'll come down to the village on her." - -I didn't have to be ordered twice to go and take a steamboat ride. - I fetched the shore a half a mile above the village, and then went -scooting along the bluff bank in the easy water.  Pretty soon we come to -a nice innocent-looking young country jake setting on a log swabbing the -sweat off of his face, for it was powerful warm weather; and he had a -couple of big carpet-bags by him. - -"Run her nose in shore," says the king.  I done it.  "Wher' you bound -for, young man?" - -"For the steamboat; going to Orleans." - -"Git aboard," says the king.  "Hold on a minute, my servant 'll he'p you -with them bags.  Jump out and he'p the gentleman, Adolphus"—meaning me, -I see. - -I done so, and then we all three started on again.  The young chap was -mighty thankful; said it was tough work toting his baggage such weather. -He asked the king where he was going, and the king told him he'd come -down the river and landed at the other village this morning, and now he -was going up a few mile to see an old friend on a farm up there.  The -young fellow says: - -"When I first see you I says to myself, 'It's Mr. Wilks, sure, and he -come mighty near getting here in time.'  But then I says again, 'No, I -reckon it ain't him, or else he wouldn't be paddling up the river.'  You -_ain't_ him, are you?" - -"No, my name's Blodgett—Elexander Blodgett—_Reverend_ Elexander -Blodgett, I s'pose I must say, as I'm one o' the Lord's poor servants. - But still I'm jist as able to be sorry for Mr. Wilks for not arriving -in time, all the same, if he's missed anything by it—which I hope he -hasn't." - -"Well, he don't miss any property by it, because he'll get that all -right; but he's missed seeing his brother Peter die—which he mayn't -mind, nobody can tell as to that—but his brother would a give anything -in this world to see _him_ before he died; never talked about nothing -else all these three weeks; hadn't seen him since they was boys -together—and hadn't ever seen his brother William at all—that's the deef -and dumb one—William ain't more than thirty or thirty-five.  Peter and -George were the only ones that come out here; George was the married -brother; him and his wife both died last year.  Harvey and William's the -only ones that's left now; and, as I was saying, they haven't got here -in time." - -"Did anybody send 'em word?" - -"Oh, yes; a month or two ago, when Peter was first took; because Peter -said then that he sorter felt like he warn't going to get well this -time. You see, he was pretty old, and George's g'yirls was too young to -be much company for him, except Mary Jane, the red-headed one; and so he -was kinder lonesome after George and his wife died, and didn't seem -to care much to live.  He most desperately wanted to see Harvey—and -William, too, for that matter—because he was one of them kind that can't -bear to make a will.  He left a letter behind for Harvey, and said he'd -told in it where his money was hid, and how he wanted the rest of the -property divided up so George's g'yirls would be all right—for George -didn't leave nothing.  And that letter was all they could get him to put -a pen to." - -"Why do you reckon Harvey don't come?  Wher' does he live?" - -"Oh, he lives in England—Sheffield—preaches there—hasn't ever been in -this country.  He hasn't had any too much time—and besides he mightn't a -got the letter at all, you know." - -"Too bad, too bad he couldn't a lived to see his brothers, poor soul. -You going to Orleans, you say?" - -"Yes, but that ain't only a part of it.  I'm going in a ship, next -Wednesday, for Ryo Janeero, where my uncle lives." - -"It's a pretty long journey.  But it'll be lovely; wisht I was a-going. -Is Mary Jane the oldest?  How old is the others?" - -"Mary Jane's nineteen, Susan's fifteen, and Joanna's about -fourteen—that's the one that gives herself to good works and has a -hare-lip." - -"Poor things! to be left alone in the cold world so." - -"Well, they could be worse off.  Old Peter had friends, and they -ain't going to let them come to no harm.  There's Hobson, the Babtis' -preacher; and Deacon Lot Hovey, and Ben Rucker, and Abner Shackleford, -and Levi Bell, the lawyer; and Dr. Robinson, and their wives, and the -widow Bartley, and—well, there's a lot of them; but these are the ones -that Peter was thickest with, and used to write about sometimes, when -he wrote home; so Harvey 'll know where to look for friends when he gets -here." - -Well, the old man went on asking questions till he just fairly emptied -that young fellow.  Blamed if he didn't inquire about everybody and -everything in that blessed town, and all about the Wilkses; and about -Peter's business—which was a tanner; and about George's—which was a -carpenter; and about Harvey's—which was a dissentering minister; and so -on, and so on.  Then he says: - -"What did you want to walk all the way up to the steamboat for?" - -"Because she's a big Orleans boat, and I was afeard she mightn't stop -there.  When they're deep they won't stop for a hail.  A Cincinnati boat -will, but this is a St. Louis one." - -"Was Peter Wilks well off?" - -"Oh, yes, pretty well off.  He had houses and land, and it's reckoned he -left three or four thousand in cash hid up som'ers." - -"When did you say he died?" - -"I didn't say, but it was last night." - -"Funeral to-morrow, likely?" - -"Yes, 'bout the middle of the day." - -"Well, it's all terrible sad; but we've all got to go, one time or -another. So what we want to do is to be prepared; then we're all right." - -"Yes, sir, it's the best way.  Ma used to always say that." - -When we struck the boat she was about done loading, and pretty soon she -got off.  The king never said nothing about going aboard, so I lost -my ride, after all.  When the boat was gone the king made me paddle up -another mile to a lonesome place, and then he got ashore and says: - -"Now hustle back, right off, and fetch the duke up here, and the new -carpet-bags.  And if he's gone over to t'other side, go over there and -git him.  And tell him to git himself up regardless.  Shove along, now." - -I see what _he_ was up to; but I never said nothing, of course.  When -I got back with the duke we hid the canoe, and then they set down on a -log, and the king told him everything, just like the young fellow had -said it—every last word of it.  And all the time he was a-doing it he -tried to talk like an Englishman; and he done it pretty well, too, for -a slouch. I can't imitate him, and so I ain't a-going to try to; but he -really done it pretty good.  Then he says: - -"How are you on the deef and dumb, Bilgewater?" - -The duke said, leave him alone for that; said he had played a deef -and dumb person on the histronic boards.  So then they waited for a -steamboat. - -About the middle of the afternoon a couple of little boats come along, -but they didn't come from high enough up the river; but at last there -was a big one, and they hailed her.  She sent out her yawl, and we went -aboard, and she was from Cincinnati; and when they found we only wanted -to go four or five mile they was booming mad, and gave us a cussing, and -said they wouldn't land us.  But the king was ca'm.  He says: - -"If gentlemen kin afford to pay a dollar a mile apiece to be took on and -put off in a yawl, a steamboat kin afford to carry 'em, can't it?" - -So they softened down and said it was all right; and when we got to the -village they yawled us ashore.  About two dozen men flocked down when -they see the yawl a-coming, and when the king says: - -"Kin any of you gentlemen tell me wher' Mr. Peter Wilks lives?" they -give a glance at one another, and nodded their heads, as much as to say, -"What d' I tell you?"  Then one of them says, kind of soft and gentle: - -"I'm sorry sir, but the best we can do is to tell you where he _did_ -live yesterday evening." - -Sudden as winking the ornery old cretur went an to smash, and fell up -against the man, and put his chin on his shoulder, and cried down his -back, and says: - -"Alas, alas, our poor brother—gone, and we never got to see him; oh, -it's too, too hard!" - -Then he turns around, blubbering, and makes a lot of idiotic signs to -the duke on his hands, and blamed if he didn't drop a carpet-bag and -bust out a-crying.  If they warn't the beatenest lot, them two frauds, -that ever I struck. - -Well, the men gathered around and sympathized with them, and said all -sorts of kind things to them, and carried their carpet-bags up the hill -for them, and let them lean on them and cry, and told the king all about -his brother's last moments, and the king he told it all over again on -his hands to the duke, and both of them took on about that dead tanner -like they'd lost the twelve disciples.  Well, if ever I struck anything -like it, I'm a nigger. It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human -race. - - - - -CHAPTER XXV. - -THE news was all over town in two minutes, and you could see the people -tearing down on the run from every which way, some of them putting on -their coats as they come.  Pretty soon we was in the middle of a crowd, -and the noise of the tramping was like a soldier march.  The windows and -dooryards was full; and every minute somebody would say, over a fence: - -"Is it _them_?" - -And somebody trotting along with the gang would answer back and say: - -"You bet it is." - -When we got to the house the street in front of it was packed, and the -three girls was standing in the door.  Mary Jane _was_ red-headed, but -that don't make no difference, she was most awful beautiful, and her -face and her eyes was all lit up like glory, she was so glad her uncles -was come. The king he spread his arms, and Mary Jane she jumped for -them, and the hare-lip jumped for the duke, and there they had it! - Everybody most, leastways women, cried for joy to see them meet again -at last and have such good times. - -Then the king he hunched the duke private—I see him do it—and then he -looked around and see the coffin, over in the corner on two chairs; so -then him and the duke, with a hand across each other's shoulder, and -t'other hand to their eyes, walked slow and solemn over there, everybody -dropping back to give them room, and all the talk and noise stopping, -people saying "Sh!" and all the men taking their hats off and drooping -their heads, so you could a heard a pin fall.  And when they got there -they bent over and looked in the coffin, and took one sight, and then -they bust out a-crying so you could a heard them to Orleans, most; and -then they put their arms around each other's necks, and hung their chins -over each other's shoulders; and then for three minutes, or maybe four, -I never see two men leak the way they done.  And, mind you, everybody -was doing the same; and the place was that damp I never see anything -like it. Then one of them got on one side of the coffin, and t'other on -t'other side, and they kneeled down and rested their foreheads on the -coffin, and let on to pray all to themselves.  Well, when it come -to that it worked the crowd like you never see anything like it, and -everybody broke down and went to sobbing right out loud—the poor girls, -too; and every woman, nearly, went up to the girls, without saying a -word, and kissed them, solemn, on the forehead, and then put their hand -on their head, and looked up towards the sky, with the tears running -down, and then busted out and went off sobbing and swabbing, and give -the next woman a show.  I never see anything so disgusting. - -Well, by and by the king he gets up and comes forward a little, and -works himself up and slobbers out a speech, all full of tears and -flapdoodle about its being a sore trial for him and his poor brother -to lose the diseased, and to miss seeing diseased alive after the long -journey of four thousand mile, but it's a trial that's sweetened and -sanctified to us by this dear sympathy and these holy tears, and so he -thanks them out of his heart and out of his brother's heart, because out -of their mouths they can't, words being too weak and cold, and all that -kind of rot and slush, till it was just sickening; and then he blubbers -out a pious goody-goody Amen, and turns himself loose and goes to crying -fit to bust. - -And the minute the words were out of his mouth somebody over in the -crowd struck up the doxolojer, and everybody joined in with all their -might, and it just warmed you up and made you feel as good as church -letting out. Music is a good thing; and after all that soul-butter and -hogwash I never see it freshen up things so, and sound so honest and -bully. - -Then the king begins to work his jaw again, and says how him and his -nieces would be glad if a few of the main principal friends of the -family would take supper here with them this evening, and help set up -with the ashes of the diseased; and says if his poor brother laying -yonder could speak he knows who he would name, for they was names that -was very dear to him, and mentioned often in his letters; and so he will -name the same, to wit, as follows, vizz.:—Rev. Mr. Hobson, and Deacon -Lot Hovey, and Mr. Ben Rucker, and Abner Shackleford, and Levi Bell, and -Dr. Robinson, and their wives, and the widow Bartley. - -Rev. Hobson and Dr. Robinson was down to the end of the town a-hunting -together—that is, I mean the doctor was shipping a sick man to t'other -world, and the preacher was pinting him right.  Lawyer Bell was away up -to Louisville on business.  But the rest was on hand, and so they all -come and shook hands with the king and thanked him and talked to him; -and then they shook hands with the duke and didn't say nothing, but just -kept a-smiling and bobbing their heads like a passel of sapheads whilst -he made all sorts of signs with his hands and said "Goo-goo—goo-goo-goo" -all the time, like a baby that can't talk. - -So the king he blattered along, and managed to inquire about pretty -much everybody and dog in town, by his name, and mentioned all sorts -of little things that happened one time or another in the town, or to -George's family, or to Peter.  And he always let on that Peter wrote him -the things; but that was a lie:  he got every blessed one of them out of -that young flathead that we canoed up to the steamboat. - -Then Mary Jane she fetched the letter her father left behind, and the -king he read it out loud and cried over it.  It give the dwelling-house -and three thousand dollars, gold, to the girls; and it give the tanyard -(which was doing a good business), along with some other houses and -land (worth about seven thousand), and three thousand dollars in gold -to Harvey and William, and told where the six thousand cash was hid down -cellar.  So these two frauds said they'd go and fetch it up, and have -everything square and above-board; and told me to come with a candle. - We shut the cellar door behind us, and when they found the bag -they spilt it out on the floor, and it was a lovely sight, all them -yaller-boys.  My, the way the king's eyes did shine!  He slaps the duke -on the shoulder and says: - -"Oh, _this_ ain't bully nor noth'n!  Oh, no, I reckon not!  Why, -_bully_, it beats the Nonesuch, _don't_ it?" - -The duke allowed it did.  They pawed the yaller-boys, and sifted them -through their fingers and let them jingle down on the floor; and the -king says: - -"It ain't no use talkin'; bein' brothers to a rich dead man and -representatives of furrin heirs that's got left is the line for you and -me, Bilge.  Thish yer comes of trust'n to Providence.  It's the best -way, in the long run.  I've tried 'em all, and ther' ain't no better -way." - -Most everybody would a been satisfied with the pile, and took it on -trust; but no, they must count it.  So they counts it, and it comes out -four hundred and fifteen dollars short.  Says the king: - -"Dern him, I wonder what he done with that four hundred and fifteen -dollars?" - -They worried over that awhile, and ransacked all around for it.  Then -the duke says: - -"Well, he was a pretty sick man, and likely he made a mistake—I reckon -that's the way of it.  The best way's to let it go, and keep still about -it.  We can spare it." - -"Oh, shucks, yes, we can _spare_ it.  I don't k'yer noth'n 'bout -that—it's the _count_ I'm thinkin' about.  We want to be awful square -and open and above-board here, you know.  We want to lug this h-yer -money up stairs and count it before everybody—then ther' ain't noth'n -suspicious.  But when the dead man says ther's six thous'n dollars, you -know, we don't want to—" - -"Hold on," says the duke.  "Le's make up the deffisit," and he begun to -haul out yaller-boys out of his pocket. - -"It's a most amaz'n' good idea, duke—you _have_ got a rattlin' clever -head on you," says the king.  "Blest if the old Nonesuch ain't a heppin' -us out agin," and _he_ begun to haul out yaller-jackets and stack them -up. - -It most busted them, but they made up the six thousand clean and clear. - -"Say," says the duke, "I got another idea.  Le's go up stairs and count -this money, and then take and _give it to the girls_." - -"Good land, duke, lemme hug you!  It's the most dazzling idea 'at ever a -man struck.  You have cert'nly got the most astonishin' head I ever see. -Oh, this is the boss dodge, ther' ain't no mistake 'bout it.  Let 'em -fetch along their suspicions now if they want to—this 'll lay 'em out." - -When we got up-stairs everybody gethered around the table, and the king -he counted it and stacked it up, three hundred dollars in a pile—twenty -elegant little piles.  Everybody looked hungry at it, and licked their -chops.  Then they raked it into the bag again, and I see the king begin -to swell himself up for another speech.  He says: - -"Friends all, my poor brother that lays yonder has done generous by -them that's left behind in the vale of sorrers.  He has done generous by -these yer poor little lambs that he loved and sheltered, and that's left -fatherless and motherless.  Yes, and we that knowed him knows that he -would a done _more_ generous by 'em if he hadn't ben afeard o' woundin' -his dear William and me.  Now, _wouldn't_ he?  Ther' ain't no question -'bout it in _my_ mind.  Well, then, what kind o' brothers would it be -that 'd stand in his way at sech a time?  And what kind o' uncles would -it be that 'd rob—yes, _rob_—sech poor sweet lambs as these 'at he loved -so at sech a time?  If I know William—and I _think_ I do—he—well, I'll -jest ask him." He turns around and begins to make a lot of signs to -the duke with his hands, and the duke he looks at him stupid and -leather-headed a while; then all of a sudden he seems to catch his -meaning, and jumps for the king, goo-gooing with all his might for joy, -and hugs him about fifteen times before he lets up.  Then the king says, -"I knowed it; I reckon _that 'll_ convince anybody the way _he_ feels -about it.  Here, Mary Jane, Susan, Joanner, take the money—take it -_all_.  It's the gift of him that lays yonder, cold but joyful." - -Mary Jane she went for him, Susan and the hare-lip went for the -duke, and then such another hugging and kissing I never see yet.  And -everybody crowded up with the tears in their eyes, and most shook the -hands off of them frauds, saying all the time: - -"You _dear_ good souls!—how _lovely_!—how _could_ you!" - -Well, then, pretty soon all hands got to talking about the diseased -again, and how good he was, and what a loss he was, and all that; and -before long a big iron-jawed man worked himself in there from outside, -and stood a-listening and looking, and not saying anything; and nobody -saying anything to him either, because the king was talking and they was -all busy listening.  The king was saying—in the middle of something he'd -started in on— - -"—they bein' partickler friends o' the diseased.  That's why they're -invited here this evenin'; but tomorrow we want _all_ to come—everybody; -for he respected everybody, he liked everybody, and so it's fitten that -his funeral orgies sh'd be public." - -And so he went a-mooning on and on, liking to hear himself talk, and -every little while he fetched in his funeral orgies again, till the duke -he couldn't stand it no more; so he writes on a little scrap of paper, -"_Obsequies_, you old fool," and folds it up, and goes to goo-gooing and -reaching it over people's heads to him.  The king he reads it and puts -it in his pocket, and says: - -"Poor William, afflicted as he is, his _heart's_ aluz right.  Asks me -to invite everybody to come to the funeral—wants me to make 'em all -welcome.  But he needn't a worried—it was jest what I was at." - -Then he weaves along again, perfectly ca'm, and goes to dropping in his -funeral orgies again every now and then, just like he done before.  And -when he done it the third time he says: - -"I say orgies, not because it's the common term, because it -ain't—obsequies bein' the common term—but because orgies is the right -term. Obsequies ain't used in England no more now—it's gone out.  We -say orgies now in England.  Orgies is better, because it means the thing -you're after more exact.  It's a word that's made up out'n the Greek -_orgo_, outside, open, abroad; and the Hebrew _jeesum_, to plant, cover -up; hence in_ter._  So, you see, funeral orgies is an open er public -funeral." - -He was the _worst_ I ever struck.  Well, the iron-jawed man he laughed -right in his face.  Everybody was shocked.  Everybody says, "Why, -_doctor_!" and Abner Shackleford says: - -"Why, Robinson, hain't you heard the news?  This is Harvey Wilks." - -The king he smiled eager, and shoved out his flapper, and says: - -"Is it my poor brother's dear good friend and physician?  I—" - -"Keep your hands off of me!" says the doctor.  "_You_ talk like an -Englishman, _don't_ you?  It's the worst imitation I ever heard.  _You_ -Peter Wilks's brother!  You're a fraud, that's what you are!" - -Well, how they all took on!  They crowded around the doctor and tried to -quiet him down, and tried to explain to him and tell him how Harvey 'd -showed in forty ways that he _was_ Harvey, and knowed everybody by name, -and the names of the very dogs, and begged and _begged_ him not to hurt -Harvey's feelings and the poor girl's feelings, and all that.  But it -warn't no use; he stormed right along, and said any man that pretended -to be an Englishman and couldn't imitate the lingo no better than what -he did was a fraud and a liar.  The poor girls was hanging to the king -and crying; and all of a sudden the doctor ups and turns on _them_.  He -says: - -"I was your father's friend, and I'm your friend; and I warn you as a -friend, and an honest one that wants to protect you and keep you out of -harm and trouble, to turn your backs on that scoundrel and have nothing -to do with him, the ignorant tramp, with his idiotic Greek and Hebrew, -as he calls it.  He is the thinnest kind of an impostor—has come here -with a lot of empty names and facts which he picked up somewheres, and -you take them for _proofs_, and are helped to fool yourselves by these -foolish friends here, who ought to know better.  Mary Jane Wilks, you -know me for your friend, and for your unselfish friend, too.  Now listen -to me; turn this pitiful rascal out—I _beg_ you to do it.  Will you?" - -Mary Jane straightened herself up, and my, but she was handsome!  She -says: - -"_Here_ is my answer."  She hove up the bag of money and put it in the -king's hands, and says, "Take this six thousand dollars, and invest for -me and my sisters any way you want to, and don't give us no receipt for -it." - -Then she put her arm around the king on one side, and Susan and the -hare-lip done the same on the other.  Everybody clapped their hands and -stomped on the floor like a perfect storm, whilst the king held up his -head and smiled proud.  The doctor says: - -"All right; I wash _my_ hands of the matter.  But I warn you all that a -time 's coming when you're going to feel sick whenever you think of this -day." And away he went. - -"All right, doctor," says the king, kinder mocking him; "we'll try and -get 'em to send for you;" which made them all laugh, and they said it -was a prime good hit. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVI. - -WELL, when they was all gone the king he asks Mary Jane how they was off -for spare rooms, and she said she had one spare room, which would do for -Uncle William, and she'd give her own room to Uncle Harvey, which was -a little bigger, and she would turn into the room with her sisters and -sleep on a cot; and up garret was a little cubby, with a pallet in it. -The king said the cubby would do for his valley—meaning me. - -So Mary Jane took us up, and she showed them their rooms, which was -plain but nice.  She said she'd have her frocks and a lot of other traps -took out of her room if they was in Uncle Harvey's way, but he said -they warn't.  The frocks was hung along the wall, and before them was -a curtain made out of calico that hung down to the floor.  There was an -old hair trunk in one corner, and a guitar-box in another, and all sorts -of little knickknacks and jimcracks around, like girls brisken up a room -with.  The king said it was all the more homely and more pleasanter for -these fixings, and so don't disturb them.  The duke's room was pretty -small, but plenty good enough, and so was my cubby. - -That night they had a big supper, and all them men and women was there, -and I stood behind the king and the duke's chairs and waited on them, -and the niggers waited on the rest.  Mary Jane she set at the head of -the table, with Susan alongside of her, and said how bad the biscuits -was, and how mean the preserves was, and how ornery and tough the fried -chickens was—and all that kind of rot, the way women always do for to -force out compliments; and the people all knowed everything was tiptop, -and said so—said "How _do_ you get biscuits to brown so nice?" and -"Where, for the land's sake, _did_ you get these amaz'n pickles?" and -all that kind of humbug talky-talk, just the way people always does at a -supper, you know. - -And when it was all done me and the hare-lip had supper in the kitchen -off of the leavings, whilst the others was helping the niggers clean up -the things.  The hare-lip she got to pumping me about England, and blest -if I didn't think the ice was getting mighty thin sometimes.  She says: - -"Did you ever see the king?" - -"Who?  William Fourth?  Well, I bet I have—he goes to our church."  I -knowed he was dead years ago, but I never let on.  So when I says he -goes to our church, she says: - -"What—regular?" - -"Yes—regular.  His pew's right over opposite ourn—on t'other side the -pulpit." - -"I thought he lived in London?" - -"Well, he does.  Where _would_ he live?" - -"But I thought _you_ lived in Sheffield?" - -I see I was up a stump.  I had to let on to get choked with a chicken -bone, so as to get time to think how to get down again.  Then I says: - -"I mean he goes to our church regular when he's in Sheffield.  That's -only in the summer time, when he comes there to take the sea baths." - -"Why, how you talk—Sheffield ain't on the sea." - -"Well, who said it was?" - -"Why, you did." - -"I _didn't_ nuther." - -"You did!" - -"I didn't." - -"You did." - -"I never said nothing of the kind." - -"Well, what _did_ you say, then?" - -"Said he come to take the sea _baths_—that's what I said." - -"Well, then, how's he going to take the sea baths if it ain't on the -sea?" - -"Looky here," I says; "did you ever see any Congress-water?" - -"Yes." - -"Well, did you have to go to Congress to get it?" - -"Why, no." - -"Well, neither does William Fourth have to go to the sea to get a sea -bath." - -"How does he get it, then?" - -"Gets it the way people down here gets Congress-water—in barrels.  There -in the palace at Sheffield they've got furnaces, and he wants his water -hot.  They can't bile that amount of water away off there at the sea. -They haven't got no conveniences for it." - -"Oh, I see, now.  You might a said that in the first place and saved -time." - -When she said that I see I was out of the woods again, and so I was -comfortable and glad.  Next, she says: - -"Do you go to church, too?" - -"Yes—regular." - -"Where do you set?" - -"Why, in our pew." - -"_Whose_ pew?" - -"Why, _ourn_—your Uncle Harvey's." - -"His'n?  What does _he_ want with a pew?" - -"Wants it to set in.  What did you _reckon_ he wanted with it?" - -"Why, I thought he'd be in the pulpit." - -Rot him, I forgot he was a preacher.  I see I was up a stump again, so I -played another chicken bone and got another think.  Then I says: - -"Blame it, do you suppose there ain't but one preacher to a church?" - -"Why, what do they want with more?" - -"What!—to preach before a king?  I never did see such a girl as you. -They don't have no less than seventeen." - -"Seventeen!  My land!  Why, I wouldn't set out such a string as that, -not if I _never_ got to glory.  It must take 'em a week." - -"Shucks, they don't _all_ of 'em preach the same day—only _one_ of 'em." - -"Well, then, what does the rest of 'em do?" - -"Oh, nothing much.  Loll around, pass the plate—and one thing or -another.  But mainly they don't do nothing." - -"Well, then, what are they _for_?" - -"Why, they're for _style_.  Don't you know nothing?" - -"Well, I don't _want_ to know no such foolishness as that.  How is -servants treated in England?  Do they treat 'em better 'n we treat our -niggers?" - -"_No_!  A servant ain't nobody there.  They treat them worse than dogs." - -"Don't they give 'em holidays, the way we do, Christmas and New Year's -week, and Fourth of July?" - -"Oh, just listen!  A body could tell _you_ hain't ever been to England -by that.  Why, Hare-l—why, Joanna, they never see a holiday from year's -end to year's end; never go to the circus, nor theater, nor nigger -shows, nor nowheres." - -"Nor church?" - -"Nor church." - -"But _you_ always went to church." - -Well, I was gone up again.  I forgot I was the old man's servant.  But -next minute I whirled in on a kind of an explanation how a valley was -different from a common servant and _had_ to go to church whether he -wanted to or not, and set with the family, on account of its being the -law.  But I didn't do it pretty good, and when I got done I see she -warn't satisfied.  She says: - -"Honest injun, now, hain't you been telling me a lot of lies?" - -"Honest injun," says I. - -"None of it at all?" - -"None of it at all.  Not a lie in it," says I. - -"Lay your hand on this book and say it." - -I see it warn't nothing but a dictionary, so I laid my hand on it and -said it.  So then she looked a little better satisfied, and says: - -"Well, then, I'll believe some of it; but I hope to gracious if I'll -believe the rest." - -"What is it you won't believe, Joe?" says Mary Jane, stepping in with -Susan behind her.  "It ain't right nor kind for you to talk so to him, -and him a stranger and so far from his people.  How would you like to be -treated so?" - -"That's always your way, Maim—always sailing in to help somebody before -they're hurt.  I hain't done nothing to him.  He's told some stretchers, -I reckon, and I said I wouldn't swallow it all; and that's every bit -and grain I _did_ say.  I reckon he can stand a little thing like that, -can't he?" - -"I don't care whether 'twas little or whether 'twas big; he's here in -our house and a stranger, and it wasn't good of you to say it.  If you -was in his place it would make you feel ashamed; and so you oughtn't to -say a thing to another person that will make _them_ feel ashamed." - -"Why, Mam, he said—" - -"It don't make no difference what he _said_—that ain't the thing.  The -thing is for you to treat him _kind_, and not be saying things to make -him remember he ain't in his own country and amongst his own folks." - -I says to myself, _this_ is a girl that I'm letting that old reptile rob -her of her money! - -Then Susan _she_ waltzed in; and if you'll believe me, she did give -Hare-lip hark from the tomb! - -Says I to myself, and this is _another_ one that I'm letting him rob her -of her money! - -Then Mary Jane she took another inning, and went in sweet and lovely -again—which was her way; but when she got done there warn't hardly -anything left o' poor Hare-lip.  So she hollered. - -"All right, then," says the other girls; "you just ask his pardon." - -She done it, too; and she done it beautiful.  She done it so beautiful -it was good to hear; and I wished I could tell her a thousand lies, so -she could do it again. - -I says to myself, this is _another_ one that I'm letting him rob her of -her money.  And when she got through they all jest laid theirselves -out to make me feel at home and know I was amongst friends.  I felt so -ornery and low down and mean that I says to myself, my mind's made up; -I'll hive that money for them or bust. - -So then I lit out—for bed, I said, meaning some time or another.  When -I got by myself I went to thinking the thing over.  I says to myself, -shall I go to that doctor, private, and blow on these frauds?  No—that -won't do. He might tell who told him; then the king and the duke would -make it warm for me.  Shall I go, private, and tell Mary Jane?  No—I -dasn't do it. Her face would give them a hint, sure; they've got the -money, and they'd slide right out and get away with it.  If she was to -fetch in help I'd get mixed up in the business before it was done with, -I judge.  No; there ain't no good way but one.  I got to steal that -money, somehow; and I got to steal it some way that they won't suspicion -that I done it. They've got a good thing here, and they ain't a-going -to leave till they've played this family and this town for all they're -worth, so I'll find a chance time enough. I'll steal it and hide it; and -by and by, when I'm away down the river, I'll write a letter and tell -Mary Jane where it's hid.  But I better hive it tonight if I can, -because the doctor maybe hasn't let up as much as he lets on he has; he -might scare them out of here yet. - -So, thinks I, I'll go and search them rooms.  Upstairs the hall was -dark, but I found the duke's room, and started to paw around it with -my hands; but I recollected it wouldn't be much like the king to let -anybody else take care of that money but his own self; so then I went to -his room and begun to paw around there.  But I see I couldn't do nothing -without a candle, and I dasn't light one, of course.  So I judged I'd -got to do the other thing—lay for them and eavesdrop.  About that time -I hears their footsteps coming, and was going to skip under the bed; I -reached for it, but it wasn't where I thought it would be; but I touched -the curtain that hid Mary Jane's frocks, so I jumped in behind that and -snuggled in amongst the gowns, and stood there perfectly still. - -They come in and shut the door; and the first thing the duke done was to -get down and look under the bed.  Then I was glad I hadn't found the bed -when I wanted it.  And yet, you know, it's kind of natural to hide under -the bed when you are up to anything private.  They sets down then, and -the king says: - -"Well, what is it?  And cut it middlin' short, because it's better for -us to be down there a-whoopin' up the mournin' than up here givin' 'em a -chance to talk us over." - -"Well, this is it, Capet.  I ain't easy; I ain't comfortable.  That -doctor lays on my mind.  I wanted to know your plans.  I've got a -notion, and I think it's a sound one." - -"What is it, duke?" - -"That we better glide out of this before three in the morning, and clip -it down the river with what we've got.  Specially, seeing we got it so -easy—_given_ back to us, flung at our heads, as you may say, when of -course we allowed to have to steal it back.  I'm for knocking off and -lighting out." - -That made me feel pretty bad.  About an hour or two ago it would a been -a little different, but now it made me feel bad and disappointed, The -king rips out and says: - -"What!  And not sell out the rest o' the property?  March off like -a passel of fools and leave eight or nine thous'n' dollars' worth o' -property layin' around jest sufferin' to be scooped in?—and all good, -salable stuff, too." - -The duke he grumbled; said the bag of gold was enough, and he didn't -want to go no deeper—didn't want to rob a lot of orphans of _everything_ -they had. - -"Why, how you talk!" says the king.  "We sha'n't rob 'em of nothing at -all but jest this money.  The people that _buys_ the property is the -suff'rers; because as soon 's it's found out 'at we didn't own it—which -won't be long after we've slid—the sale won't be valid, and it 'll all -go back to the estate.  These yer orphans 'll git their house back agin, -and that's enough for _them_; they're young and spry, and k'n easy -earn a livin'.  _they_ ain't a-goin to suffer.  Why, jest think—there's -thous'n's and thous'n's that ain't nigh so well off.  Bless you, _they_ -ain't got noth'n' to complain of." - -Well, the king he talked him blind; so at last he give in, and said all -right, but said he believed it was blamed foolishness to stay, and that -doctor hanging over them.  But the king says: - -"Cuss the doctor!  What do we k'yer for _him_?  Hain't we got all the -fools in town on our side?  And ain't that a big enough majority in any -town?" - -So they got ready to go down stairs again.  The duke says: - -"I don't think we put that money in a good place." - -That cheered me up.  I'd begun to think I warn't going to get a hint of -no kind to help me.  The king says: - -"Why?" - -"Because Mary Jane 'll be in mourning from this out; and first you know -the nigger that does up the rooms will get an order to box these duds -up and put 'em away; and do you reckon a nigger can run across money and -not borrow some of it?" - -"Your head's level agin, duke," says the king; and he comes a-fumbling -under the curtain two or three foot from where I was.  I stuck tight to -the wall and kept mighty still, though quivery; and I wondered what them -fellows would say to me if they catched me; and I tried to think what -I'd better do if they did catch me.  But the king he got the bag before -I could think more than about a half a thought, and he never suspicioned -I was around.  They took and shoved the bag through a rip in the straw -tick that was under the feather-bed, and crammed it in a foot or two -amongst the straw and said it was all right now, because a nigger only -makes up the feather-bed, and don't turn over the straw tick only about -twice a year, and so it warn't in no danger of getting stole now. - -But I knowed better.  I had it out of there before they was half-way -down stairs.  I groped along up to my cubby, and hid it there till I -could get a chance to do better.  I judged I better hide it outside -of the house somewheres, because if they missed it they would give the -house a good ransacking:  I knowed that very well.  Then I turned in, -with my clothes all on; but I couldn't a gone to sleep if I'd a wanted -to, I was in such a sweat to get through with the business.  By and by I -heard the king and the duke come up; so I rolled off my pallet and laid -with my chin at the top of my ladder, and waited to see if anything was -going to happen.  But nothing did. - -So I held on till all the late sounds had quit and the early ones hadn't -begun yet; and then I slipped down the ladder. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVII. - -I crept to their doors and listened; they was snoring.  So I tiptoed -along, and got down stairs all right.  There warn't a sound anywheres. - I peeped through a crack of the dining-room door, and see the men that -was watching the corpse all sound asleep on their chairs.  The door -was open into the parlor, where the corpse was laying, and there was a -candle in both rooms. I passed along, and the parlor door was open; but -I see there warn't nobody in there but the remainders of Peter; so I -shoved on by; but the front door was locked, and the key wasn't there. - Just then I heard somebody coming down the stairs, back behind me.  I -run in the parlor and took a swift look around, and the only place I -see to hide the bag was in the coffin.  The lid was shoved along about -a foot, showing the dead man's face down in there, with a wet cloth over -it, and his shroud on.  I tucked the money-bag in under the lid, just -down beyond where his hands was crossed, which made me creep, they was -so cold, and then I run back across the room and in behind the door. - -The person coming was Mary Jane.  She went to the coffin, very soft, and -kneeled down and looked in; then she put up her handkerchief, and I see -she begun to cry, though I couldn't hear her, and her back was to me.  I -slid out, and as I passed the dining-room I thought I'd make sure them -watchers hadn't seen me; so I looked through the crack, and everything -was all right.  They hadn't stirred. - -I slipped up to bed, feeling ruther blue, on accounts of the thing -playing out that way after I had took so much trouble and run so much -resk about it.  Says I, if it could stay where it is, all right; because -when we get down the river a hundred mile or two I could write back to -Mary Jane, and she could dig him up again and get it; but that ain't the -thing that's going to happen; the thing that's going to happen is, the -money 'll be found when they come to screw on the lid.  Then the king -'ll get it again, and it 'll be a long day before he gives anybody -another chance to smouch it from him. Of course I _wanted_ to slide -down and get it out of there, but I dasn't try it.  Every minute it was -getting earlier now, and pretty soon some of them watchers would begin -to stir, and I might get catched—catched with six thousand dollars in my -hands that nobody hadn't hired me to take care of.  I don't wish to be -mixed up in no such business as that, I says to myself. - -When I got down stairs in the morning the parlor was shut up, and the -watchers was gone.  There warn't nobody around but the family and the -widow Bartley and our tribe.  I watched their faces to see if anything -had been happening, but I couldn't tell. - -Towards the middle of the day the undertaker come with his man, and they -set the coffin in the middle of the room on a couple of chairs, and then -set all our chairs in rows, and borrowed more from the neighbors till -the hall and the parlor and the dining-room was full.  I see the coffin -lid was the way it was before, but I dasn't go to look in under it, with -folks around. - -Then the people begun to flock in, and the beats and the girls took -seats in the front row at the head of the coffin, and for a half an hour -the people filed around slow, in single rank, and looked down at the -dead man's face a minute, and some dropped in a tear, and it was -all very still and solemn, only the girls and the beats holding -handkerchiefs to their eyes and keeping their heads bent, and sobbing a -little.  There warn't no other sound but the scraping of the feet on -the floor and blowing noses—because people always blows them more at a -funeral than they do at other places except church. - -When the place was packed full the undertaker he slid around in his -black gloves with his softy soothering ways, putting on the last -touches, and getting people and things all ship-shape and comfortable, -and making no more sound than a cat.  He never spoke; he moved people -around, he squeezed in late ones, he opened up passageways, and done -it with nods, and signs with his hands.  Then he took his place over -against the wall. He was the softest, glidingest, stealthiest man I ever -see; and there warn't no more smile to him than there is to a ham. - -They had borrowed a melodeum—a sick one; and when everything was ready -a young woman set down and worked it, and it was pretty skreeky and -colicky, and everybody joined in and sung, and Peter was the only one -that had a good thing, according to my notion.  Then the Reverend Hobson -opened up, slow and solemn, and begun to talk; and straight off the most -outrageous row busted out in the cellar a body ever heard; it was only -one dog, but he made a most powerful racket, and he kept it up right -along; the parson he had to stand there, over the coffin, and wait—you -couldn't hear yourself think.  It was right down awkward, and nobody -didn't seem to know what to do.  But pretty soon they see that -long-legged undertaker make a sign to the preacher as much as to say, -"Don't you worry—just depend on me."  Then he stooped down and begun -to glide along the wall, just his shoulders showing over the people's -heads.  So he glided along, and the powwow and racket getting more and -more outrageous all the time; and at last, when he had gone around two -sides of the room, he disappears down cellar.  Then in about two seconds -we heard a whack, and the dog he finished up with a most amazing howl or -two, and then everything was dead still, and the parson begun his solemn -talk where he left off.  In a minute or two here comes this undertaker's -back and shoulders gliding along the wall again; and so he glided and -glided around three sides of the room, and then rose up, and shaded his -mouth with his hands, and stretched his neck out towards the preacher, -over the people's heads, and says, in a kind of a coarse whisper, "_He -had a rat_!"  Then he drooped down and glided along the wall again to -his place.  You could see it was a great satisfaction to the people, -because naturally they wanted to know.  A little thing like that don't -cost nothing, and it's just the little things that makes a man to be -looked up to and liked.  There warn't no more popular man in town than -what that undertaker was. - -Well, the funeral sermon was very good, but pison long and tiresome; and -then the king he shoved in and got off some of his usual rubbage, and -at last the job was through, and the undertaker begun to sneak up on the -coffin with his screw-driver.  I was in a sweat then, and watched him -pretty keen. But he never meddled at all; just slid the lid along as -soft as mush, and screwed it down tight and fast.  So there I was!  I -didn't know whether the money was in there or not.  So, says I, s'pose -somebody has hogged that bag on the sly?—now how do I know whether -to write to Mary Jane or not? S'pose she dug him up and didn't find -nothing, what would she think of me? Blame it, I says, I might get -hunted up and jailed; I'd better lay low and keep dark, and not write at -all; the thing's awful mixed now; trying to better it, I've worsened it -a hundred times, and I wish to goodness I'd just let it alone, dad fetch -the whole business! - -They buried him, and we come back home, and I went to watching faces -again—I couldn't help it, and I couldn't rest easy.  But nothing come of -it; the faces didn't tell me nothing. - -The king he visited around in the evening, and sweetened everybody up, -and made himself ever so friendly; and he give out the idea that his -congregation over in England would be in a sweat about him, so he must -hurry and settle up the estate right away and leave for home.  He was -very sorry he was so pushed, and so was everybody; they wished he could -stay longer, but they said they could see it couldn't be done.  And he -said of course him and William would take the girls home with them; and -that pleased everybody too, because then the girls would be well fixed -and amongst their own relations; and it pleased the girls, too—tickled -them so they clean forgot they ever had a trouble in the world; and told -him to sell out as quick as he wanted to, they would be ready.  Them -poor things was that glad and happy it made my heart ache to see them -getting fooled and lied to so, but I didn't see no safe way for me to -chip in and change the general tune. - -Well, blamed if the king didn't bill the house and the niggers and all -the property for auction straight off—sale two days after the funeral; -but anybody could buy private beforehand if they wanted to. - -So the next day after the funeral, along about noon-time, the girls' joy -got the first jolt.  A couple of nigger traders come along, and the king -sold them the niggers reasonable, for three-day drafts as they called -it, and away they went, the two sons up the river to Memphis, and their -mother down the river to Orleans.  I thought them poor girls and them -niggers would break their hearts for grief; they cried around each -other, and took on so it most made me down sick to see it.  The girls -said they hadn't ever dreamed of seeing the family separated or sold -away from the town.  I can't ever get it out of my memory, the sight of -them poor miserable girls and niggers hanging around each other's necks -and crying; and I reckon I couldn't a stood it all, but would a had -to bust out and tell on our gang if I hadn't knowed the sale warn't no -account and the niggers would be back home in a week or two. - -The thing made a big stir in the town, too, and a good many come out -flatfooted and said it was scandalous to separate the mother and the -children that way.  It injured the frauds some; but the old fool he -bulled right along, spite of all the duke could say or do, and I tell -you the duke was powerful uneasy. - -Next day was auction day.  About broad day in the morning the king and -the duke come up in the garret and woke me up, and I see by their look -that there was trouble.  The king says: - -"Was you in my room night before last?" - -"No, your majesty"—which was the way I always called him when nobody but -our gang warn't around. - -"Was you in there yisterday er last night?" - -"No, your majesty." - -"Honor bright, now—no lies." - -"Honor bright, your majesty, I'm telling you the truth.  I hain't been -a-near your room since Miss Mary Jane took you and the duke and showed -it to you." - -The duke says: - -"Have you seen anybody else go in there?" - -"No, your grace, not as I remember, I believe." - -"Stop and think." - -I studied awhile and see my chance; then I says: - -"Well, I see the niggers go in there several times." - -Both of them gave a little jump, and looked like they hadn't ever -expected it, and then like they _had_.  Then the duke says: - -"What, all of them?" - -"No—leastways, not all at once—that is, I don't think I ever see them -all come _out_ at once but just one time." - -"Hello!  When was that?" - -"It was the day we had the funeral.  In the morning.  It warn't early, -because I overslept.  I was just starting down the ladder, and I see -them." - -"Well, go on, _go_ on!  What did they do?  How'd they act?" - -"They didn't do nothing.  And they didn't act anyway much, as fur as I -see. They tiptoed away; so I seen, easy enough, that they'd shoved in -there to do up your majesty's room, or something, s'posing you was up; -and found you _warn't_ up, and so they was hoping to slide out of the -way of trouble without waking you up, if they hadn't already waked you -up." - -"Great guns, _this_ is a go!" says the king; and both of them looked -pretty sick and tolerable silly.  They stood there a-thinking and -scratching their heads a minute, and the duke he bust into a kind of a -little raspy chuckle, and says: - -"It does beat all how neat the niggers played their hand.  They let on -to be _sorry_ they was going out of this region!  And I believed they -_was_ sorry, and so did you, and so did everybody.  Don't ever tell _me_ -any more that a nigger ain't got any histrionic talent.  Why, the way -they played that thing it would fool _anybody_.  In my opinion, there's -a fortune in 'em.  If I had capital and a theater, I wouldn't want a -better lay-out than that—and here we've gone and sold 'em for a song. - Yes, and ain't privileged to sing the song yet.  Say, where _is_ that -song—that draft?" - -"In the bank for to be collected.  Where _would_ it be?" - -"Well, _that's_ all right then, thank goodness." - -Says I, kind of timid-like: - -"Is something gone wrong?" - -The king whirls on me and rips out: - -"None o' your business!  You keep your head shet, and mind y'r own -affairs—if you got any.  Long as you're in this town don't you forgit -_that_—you hear?"  Then he says to the duke, "We got to jest swaller it -and say noth'n':  mum's the word for _us_." - -As they was starting down the ladder the duke he chuckles again, and -says: - -"Quick sales _and_ small profits!  It's a good business—yes." - -The king snarls around on him and says: - -"I was trying to do for the best in sellin' 'em out so quick.  If the -profits has turned out to be none, lackin' considable, and none to -carry, is it my fault any more'n it's yourn?" - -"Well, _they'd_ be in this house yet and we _wouldn't_ if I could a got -my advice listened to." - -The king sassed back as much as was safe for him, and then swapped -around and lit into _me_ again.  He give me down the banks for not -coming and _telling_ him I see the niggers come out of his room acting -that way—said any fool would a _knowed_ something was up.  And then -waltzed in and cussed _himself_ awhile, and said it all come of him not -laying late and taking his natural rest that morning, and he'd be -blamed if he'd ever do it again.  So they went off a-jawing; and I felt -dreadful glad I'd worked it all off on to the niggers, and yet hadn't -done the niggers no harm by it. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVIII. - -BY and by it was getting-up time.  So I come down the ladder and started -for down-stairs; but as I come to the girls' room the door was open, and -I see Mary Jane setting by her old hair trunk, which was open and she'd -been packing things in it—getting ready to go to England.  But she -had stopped now with a folded gown in her lap, and had her face in her -hands, crying.  I felt awful bad to see it; of course anybody would.  I -went in there and says: - -"Miss Mary Jane, you can't a-bear to see people in trouble, and I -can't—most always.  Tell me about it." - -So she done it.  And it was the niggers—I just expected it.  She said -the beautiful trip to England was most about spoiled for her; she didn't -know _how_ she was ever going to be happy there, knowing the mother and -the children warn't ever going to see each other no more—and then busted -out bitterer than ever, and flung up her hands, and says: - -"Oh, dear, dear, to think they ain't _ever_ going to see each other any -more!" - -"But they _will_—and inside of two weeks—and I _know_ it!" says I. - -Laws, it was out before I could think!  And before I could budge she -throws her arms around my neck and told me to say it _again_, say it -_again_, say it _again_! - -I see I had spoke too sudden and said too much, and was in a close -place. I asked her to let me think a minute; and she set there, very -impatient and excited and handsome, but looking kind of happy and -eased-up, like a person that's had a tooth pulled out.  So I went to -studying it out.  I says to myself, I reckon a body that ups and tells -the truth when he is in a tight place is taking considerable many resks, -though I ain't had no experience, and can't say for certain; but it -looks so to me, anyway; and yet here's a case where I'm blest if it -don't look to me like the truth is better and actuly _safer_ than a lie. - I must lay it by in my mind, and think it over some time or other, it's -so kind of strange and unregular. I never see nothing like it.  Well, I -says to myself at last, I'm a-going to chance it; I'll up and tell the -truth this time, though it does seem most like setting down on a kag of -powder and touching it off just to see where you'll go to. Then I says: - -"Miss Mary Jane, is there any place out of town a little ways where you -could go and stay three or four days?" - -"Yes; Mr. Lothrop's.  Why?" - -"Never mind why yet.  If I'll tell you how I know the niggers will see -each other again inside of two weeks—here in this house—and _prove_ how -I know it—will you go to Mr. Lothrop's and stay four days?" - -"Four days!" she says; "I'll stay a year!" - -"All right," I says, "I don't want nothing more out of _you_ than just -your word—I druther have it than another man's kiss-the-Bible."  She -smiled and reddened up very sweet, and I says, "If you don't mind it, -I'll shut the door—and bolt it." - -Then I come back and set down again, and says: - -"Don't you holler.  Just set still and take it like a man.  I got to -tell the truth, and you want to brace up, Miss Mary, because it's a -bad kind, and going to be hard to take, but there ain't no help for -it.  These uncles of yourn ain't no uncles at all; they're a couple of -frauds—regular dead-beats.  There, now we're over the worst of it, you -can stand the rest middling easy." - -It jolted her up like everything, of course; but I was over the shoal -water now, so I went right along, her eyes a-blazing higher and higher -all the time, and told her every blame thing, from where we first struck -that young fool going up to the steamboat, clear through to where she -flung herself on to the king's breast at the front door and he kissed -her sixteen or seventeen times—and then up she jumps, with her face -afire like sunset, and says: - -"The brute!  Come, don't waste a minute—not a _second_—we'll have them -tarred and feathered, and flung in the river!" - -Says I: - -"Cert'nly.  But do you mean _before_ you go to Mr. Lothrop's, or—" - -"Oh," she says, "what am I _thinking_ about!" she says, and set right -down again.  "Don't mind what I said—please don't—you _won't,_ now, -_will_ you?" Laying her silky hand on mine in that kind of a way that -I said I would die first.  "I never thought, I was so stirred up," she -says; "now go on, and I won't do so any more.  You tell me what to do, -and whatever you say I'll do it." - -"Well," I says, "it's a rough gang, them two frauds, and I'm fixed so -I got to travel with them a while longer, whether I want to or not—I -druther not tell you why; and if you was to blow on them this town would -get me out of their claws, and I'd be all right; but there'd be another -person that you don't know about who'd be in big trouble.  Well, we -got to save _him_, hain't we?  Of course.  Well, then, we won't blow on -them." - -Saying them words put a good idea in my head.  I see how maybe I could -get me and Jim rid of the frauds; get them jailed here, and then leave. -But I didn't want to run the raft in the daytime without anybody aboard -to answer questions but me; so I didn't want the plan to begin working -till pretty late to-night.  I says: - -"Miss Mary Jane, I'll tell you what we'll do, and you won't have to stay -at Mr. Lothrop's so long, nuther.  How fur is it?" - -"A little short of four miles—right out in the country, back here." - -"Well, that 'll answer.  Now you go along out there, and lay low -till nine or half-past to-night, and then get them to fetch you home -again—tell them you've thought of something.  If you get here before -eleven put a candle in this window, and if I don't turn up wait _till_ -eleven, and _then_ if I don't turn up it means I'm gone, and out of the -way, and safe. Then you come out and spread the news around, and get -these beats jailed." - -"Good," she says, "I'll do it." - -"And if it just happens so that I don't get away, but get took up along -with them, you must up and say I told you the whole thing beforehand, -and you must stand by me all you can." - -"Stand by you! indeed I will.  They sha'n't touch a hair of your head!" -she says, and I see her nostrils spread and her eyes snap when she said -it, too. - -"If I get away I sha'n't be here," I says, "to prove these rapscallions -ain't your uncles, and I couldn't do it if I _was_ here.  I could swear -they was beats and bummers, that's all, though that's worth something. -Well, there's others can do that better than what I can, and they're -people that ain't going to be doubted as quick as I'd be.  I'll tell you -how to find them.  Gimme a pencil and a piece of paper.  There—'Royal -Nonesuch, Bricksville.'  Put it away, and don't lose it.  When the -court wants to find out something about these two, let them send up to -Bricksville and say they've got the men that played the Royal Nonesuch, -and ask for some witnesses—why, you'll have that entire town down here -before you can hardly wink, Miss Mary.  And they'll come a-biling, too." - -I judged we had got everything fixed about right now.  So I says: - -"Just let the auction go right along, and don't worry.  Nobody don't -have to pay for the things they buy till a whole day after the auction -on accounts of the short notice, and they ain't going out of this till -they get that money; and the way we've fixed it the sale ain't going to -count, and they ain't going to get no money.  It's just like the way -it was with the niggers—it warn't no sale, and the niggers will be -back before long.  Why, they can't collect the money for the _niggers_ -yet—they're in the worst kind of a fix, Miss Mary." - -"Well," she says, "I'll run down to breakfast now, and then I'll start -straight for Mr. Lothrop's." - -"'Deed, _that_ ain't the ticket, Miss Mary Jane," I says, "by no manner -of means; go _before_ breakfast." - -"Why?" - -"What did you reckon I wanted you to go at all for, Miss Mary?" - -"Well, I never thought—and come to think, I don't know.  What was it?" - -"Why, it's because you ain't one of these leather-face people.  I don't -want no better book than what your face is.  A body can set down and -read it off like coarse print.  Do you reckon you can go and face your -uncles when they come to kiss you good-morning, and never—" - -"There, there, don't!  Yes, I'll go before breakfast—I'll be glad to. -And leave my sisters with them?" - -"Yes; never mind about them.  They've got to stand it yet a while.  They -might suspicion something if all of you was to go.  I don't want you to -see them, nor your sisters, nor nobody in this town; if a neighbor was -to ask how is your uncles this morning your face would tell something. - No, you go right along, Miss Mary Jane, and I'll fix it with all of -them. I'll tell Miss Susan to give your love to your uncles and say -you've went away for a few hours for to get a little rest and change, or -to see a friend, and you'll be back to-night or early in the morning." - -"Gone to see a friend is all right, but I won't have my love given to -them." - -"Well, then, it sha'n't be."  It was well enough to tell _her_ so—no -harm in it.  It was only a little thing to do, and no trouble; and it's -the little things that smooths people's roads the most, down here below; -it would make Mary Jane comfortable, and it wouldn't cost nothing.  Then -I says:  "There's one more thing—that bag of money." - -"Well, they've got that; and it makes me feel pretty silly to think -_how_ they got it." - -"No, you're out, there.  They hain't got it." - -"Why, who's got it?" - -"I wish I knowed, but I don't.  I _had_ it, because I stole it from -them; and I stole it to give to you; and I know where I hid it, but I'm -afraid it ain't there no more.  I'm awful sorry, Miss Mary Jane, I'm -just as sorry as I can be; but I done the best I could; I did honest.  I -come nigh getting caught, and I had to shove it into the first place I -come to, and run—and it warn't a good place." - -"Oh, stop blaming yourself—it's too bad to do it, and I won't allow -it—you couldn't help it; it wasn't your fault.  Where did you hide it?" - -I didn't want to set her to thinking about her troubles again; and I -couldn't seem to get my mouth to tell her what would make her see that -corpse laying in the coffin with that bag of money on his stomach.  So -for a minute I didn't say nothing; then I says: - -"I'd ruther not _tell_ you where I put it, Miss Mary Jane, if you don't -mind letting me off; but I'll write it for you on a piece of paper, and -you can read it along the road to Mr. Lothrop's, if you want to.  Do you -reckon that 'll do?" - -"Oh, yes." - -So I wrote:  "I put it in the coffin.  It was in there when you was -crying there, away in the night.  I was behind the door, and I was -mighty sorry for you, Miss Mary Jane." - -It made my eyes water a little to remember her crying there all by -herself in the night, and them devils laying there right under her own -roof, shaming her and robbing her; and when I folded it up and give it -to her I see the water come into her eyes, too; and she shook me by the -hand, hard, and says: - -"_Good_-bye.  I'm going to do everything just as you've told me; and if -I don't ever see you again, I sha'n't ever forget you and I'll think of -you a many and a many a time, and I'll _pray_ for you, too!"—and she was -gone. - -Pray for me!  I reckoned if she knowed me she'd take a job that was more -nearer her size.  But I bet she done it, just the same—she was just that -kind.  She had the grit to pray for Judus if she took the notion—there -warn't no back-down to her, I judge.  You may say what you want to, but -in my opinion she had more sand in her than any girl I ever see; in -my opinion she was just full of sand.  It sounds like flattery, but it -ain't no flattery.  And when it comes to beauty—and goodness, too—she -lays over them all.  I hain't ever seen her since that time that I see -her go out of that door; no, I hain't ever seen her since, but I reckon -I've thought of her a many and a many a million times, and of her saying -she would pray for me; and if ever I'd a thought it would do any good -for me to pray for _her_, blamed if I wouldn't a done it or bust. - -Well, Mary Jane she lit out the back way, I reckon; because nobody see -her go.  When I struck Susan and the hare-lip, I says: - -"What's the name of them people over on t'other side of the river that -you all goes to see sometimes?" - -They says: - -"There's several; but it's the Proctors, mainly." - -"That's the name," I says; "I most forgot it.  Well, Miss Mary Jane she -told me to tell you she's gone over there in a dreadful hurry—one of -them's sick." - -"Which one?" - -"I don't know; leastways, I kinder forget; but I thinks it's—" - -"Sakes alive, I hope it ain't _Hanner_?" - -"I'm sorry to say it," I says, "but Hanner's the very one." - -"My goodness, and she so well only last week!  Is she took bad?" - -"It ain't no name for it.  They set up with her all night, Miss Mary -Jane said, and they don't think she'll last many hours." - -"Only think of that, now!  What's the matter with her?" - -I couldn't think of anything reasonable, right off that way, so I says: - -"Mumps." - -"Mumps your granny!  They don't set up with people that's got the -mumps." - -"They don't, don't they?  You better bet they do with _these_ mumps. - These mumps is different.  It's a new kind, Miss Mary Jane said." - -"How's it a new kind?" - -"Because it's mixed up with other things." - -"What other things?" - -"Well, measles, and whooping-cough, and erysiplas, and consumption, and -yaller janders, and brain-fever, and I don't know what all." - -"My land!  And they call it the _mumps_?" - -"That's what Miss Mary Jane said." - -"Well, what in the nation do they call it the _mumps_ for?" - -"Why, because it _is_ the mumps.  That's what it starts with." - -"Well, ther' ain't no sense in it.  A body might stump his toe, and take -pison, and fall down the well, and break his neck, and bust his brains -out, and somebody come along and ask what killed him, and some numskull -up and say, 'Why, he stumped his _toe_.'  Would ther' be any sense -in that? _No_.  And ther' ain't no sense in _this_, nuther.  Is it -ketching?" - -"Is it _ketching_?  Why, how you talk.  Is a _harrow_ catching—in the -dark? If you don't hitch on to one tooth, you're bound to on another, -ain't you? And you can't get away with that tooth without fetching the -whole harrow along, can you?  Well, these kind of mumps is a kind of a -harrow, as you may say—and it ain't no slouch of a harrow, nuther, you -come to get it hitched on good." - -"Well, it's awful, I think," says the hare-lip.  "I'll go to Uncle -Harvey and—" - -"Oh, yes," I says, "I _would_.  Of _course_ I would.  I wouldn't lose no -time." - -"Well, why wouldn't you?" - -"Just look at it a minute, and maybe you can see.  Hain't your uncles -obleegd to get along home to England as fast as they can?  And do you -reckon they'd be mean enough to go off and leave you to go all that -journey by yourselves?  _you_ know they'll wait for you.  So fur, so -good. Your uncle Harvey's a preacher, ain't he?  Very well, then; is a -_preacher_ going to deceive a steamboat clerk? is he going to deceive -a _ship clerk?_—so as to get them to let Miss Mary Jane go aboard?  Now -_you_ know he ain't.  What _will_ he do, then?  Why, he'll say, 'It's a -great pity, but my church matters has got to get along the best way they -can; for my niece has been exposed to the dreadful pluribus-unum mumps, -and so it's my bounden duty to set down here and wait the three months -it takes to show on her if she's got it.'  But never mind, if you think -it's best to tell your uncle Harvey—" - -"Shucks, and stay fooling around here when we could all be having good -times in England whilst we was waiting to find out whether Mary Jane's -got it or not?  Why, you talk like a muggins." - -"Well, anyway, maybe you'd better tell some of the neighbors." - -"Listen at that, now.  You do beat all for natural stupidness.  Can't -you _see_ that _they'd_ go and tell?  Ther' ain't no way but just to not -tell anybody at _all_." - -"Well, maybe you're right—yes, I judge you _are_ right." - -"But I reckon we ought to tell Uncle Harvey she's gone out a while, -anyway, so he won't be uneasy about her?" - -"Yes, Miss Mary Jane she wanted you to do that.  She says, 'Tell them to -give Uncle Harvey and William my love and a kiss, and say I've run over -the river to see Mr.'—Mr.—what _is_ the name of that rich family your -uncle Peter used to think so much of?—I mean the one that—" - -"Why, you must mean the Apthorps, ain't it?" - -"Of course; bother them kind of names, a body can't ever seem to -remember them, half the time, somehow.  Yes, she said, say she has run -over for to ask the Apthorps to be sure and come to the auction and buy -this house, because she allowed her uncle Peter would ruther they had -it than anybody else; and she's going to stick to them till they say -they'll come, and then, if she ain't too tired, she's coming home; and -if she is, she'll be home in the morning anyway.  She said, don't say -nothing about the Proctors, but only about the Apthorps—which 'll be -perfectly true, because she is going there to speak about their buying -the house; I know it, because she told me so herself." - -"All right," they said, and cleared out to lay for their uncles, and -give them the love and the kisses, and tell them the message. - -Everything was all right now.  The girls wouldn't say nothing because -they wanted to go to England; and the king and the duke would ruther -Mary Jane was off working for the auction than around in reach of -Doctor Robinson.  I felt very good; I judged I had done it pretty neat—I -reckoned Tom Sawyer couldn't a done it no neater himself.  Of course he -would a throwed more style into it, but I can't do that very handy, not -being brung up to it. - -Well, they held the auction in the public square, along towards the end -of the afternoon, and it strung along, and strung along, and the old man -he was on hand and looking his level pisonest, up there longside of the -auctioneer, and chipping in a little Scripture now and then, or a little -goody-goody saying of some kind, and the duke he was around goo-gooing -for sympathy all he knowed how, and just spreading himself generly. - -But by and by the thing dragged through, and everything was -sold—everything but a little old trifling lot in the graveyard.  So -they'd got to work that off—I never see such a girafft as the king was -for wanting to swallow _everything_.  Well, whilst they was at it a -steamboat landed, and in about two minutes up comes a crowd a-whooping -and yelling and laughing and carrying on, and singing out: - -"_Here's_ your opposition line! here's your two sets o' heirs to old -Peter Wilks—and you pays your money and you takes your choice!" - - - - -CHAPTER XXIX. - -THEY was fetching a very nice-looking old gentleman along, and a -nice-looking younger one, with his right arm in a sling.  And, my souls, -how the people yelled and laughed, and kept it up.  But I didn't see no -joke about it, and I judged it would strain the duke and the king some -to see any.  I reckoned they'd turn pale.  But no, nary a pale did -_they_ turn. The duke he never let on he suspicioned what was up, but -just went a goo-gooing around, happy and satisfied, like a jug that's -googling out buttermilk; and as for the king, he just gazed and gazed -down sorrowful on them new-comers like it give him the stomach-ache in -his very heart to think there could be such frauds and rascals in the -world.  Oh, he done it admirable.  Lots of the principal people -gethered around the king, to let him see they was on his side.  That old -gentleman that had just come looked all puzzled to death.  Pretty -soon he begun to speak, and I see straight off he pronounced _like_ an -Englishman—not the king's way, though the king's _was_ pretty good for -an imitation.  I can't give the old gent's words, nor I can't imitate -him; but he turned around to the crowd, and says, about like this: - -"This is a surprise to me which I wasn't looking for; and I'll -acknowledge, candid and frank, I ain't very well fixed to meet it and -answer it; for my brother and me has had misfortunes; he's broke his -arm, and our baggage got put off at a town above here last night in the -night by a mistake.  I am Peter Wilks' brother Harvey, and this is his -brother William, which can't hear nor speak—and can't even make signs to -amount to much, now't he's only got one hand to work them with.  We are -who we say we are; and in a day or two, when I get the baggage, I can -prove it. But up till then I won't say nothing more, but go to the hotel -and wait." - -So him and the new dummy started off; and the king he laughs, and -blethers out: - -"Broke his arm—_very_ likely, _ain't_ it?—and very convenient, too, -for a fraud that's got to make signs, and ain't learnt how.  Lost -their baggage! That's _mighty_ good!—and mighty ingenious—under the -_circumstances_!" - -So he laughed again; and so did everybody else, except three or four, -or maybe half a dozen.  One of these was that doctor; another one was -a sharp-looking gentleman, with a carpet-bag of the old-fashioned kind -made out of carpet-stuff, that had just come off of the steamboat and -was talking to him in a low voice, and glancing towards the king now and -then and nodding their heads—it was Levi Bell, the lawyer that was gone -up to Louisville; and another one was a big rough husky that come along -and listened to all the old gentleman said, and was listening to the -king now. And when the king got done this husky up and says: - -"Say, looky here; if you are Harvey Wilks, when'd you come to this -town?" - -"The day before the funeral, friend," says the king. - -"But what time o' day?" - -"In the evenin'—'bout an hour er two before sundown." - -"_How'd_ you come?" - -"I come down on the Susan Powell from Cincinnati." - -"Well, then, how'd you come to be up at the Pint in the _mornin_'—in a -canoe?" - -"I warn't up at the Pint in the mornin'." - -"It's a lie." - -Several of them jumped for him and begged him not to talk that way to an -old man and a preacher. - -"Preacher be hanged, he's a fraud and a liar.  He was up at the Pint -that mornin'.  I live up there, don't I?  Well, I was up there, and -he was up there.  I see him there.  He come in a canoe, along with Tim -Collins and a boy." - -The doctor he up and says: - -"Would you know the boy again if you was to see him, Hines?" - -"I reckon I would, but I don't know.  Why, yonder he is, now.  I know -him perfectly easy." - -It was me he pointed at.  The doctor says: - -"Neighbors, I don't know whether the new couple is frauds or not; but if -_these_ two ain't frauds, I am an idiot, that's all.  I think it's our -duty to see that they don't get away from here till we've looked into -this thing. Come along, Hines; come along, the rest of you.  We'll take -these fellows to the tavern and affront them with t'other couple, and I -reckon we'll find out _something_ before we get through." - -It was nuts for the crowd, though maybe not for the king's friends; so -we all started.  It was about sundown.  The doctor he led me along by -the hand, and was plenty kind enough, but he never let go my hand. - -We all got in a big room in the hotel, and lit up some candles, and -fetched in the new couple.  First, the doctor says: - -"I don't wish to be too hard on these two men, but I think they're -frauds, and they may have complices that we don't know nothing about. - If they have, won't the complices get away with that bag of gold Peter -Wilks left?  It ain't unlikely.  If these men ain't frauds, they won't -object to sending for that money and letting us keep it till they prove -they're all right—ain't that so?" - -Everybody agreed to that.  So I judged they had our gang in a pretty -tight place right at the outstart.  But the king he only looked -sorrowful, and says: - -"Gentlemen, I wish the money was there, for I ain't got no disposition -to throw anything in the way of a fair, open, out-and-out investigation -o' this misable business; but, alas, the money ain't there; you k'n send -and see, if you want to." - -"Where is it, then?" - -"Well, when my niece give it to me to keep for her I took and hid it -inside o' the straw tick o' my bed, not wishin' to bank it for the few -days we'd be here, and considerin' the bed a safe place, we not bein' -used to niggers, and suppos'n' 'em honest, like servants in England. - The niggers stole it the very next mornin' after I had went down -stairs; and when I sold 'em I hadn't missed the money yit, so they got -clean away with it.  My servant here k'n tell you 'bout it, gentlemen." - -The doctor and several said "Shucks!" and I see nobody didn't altogether -believe him.  One man asked me if I see the niggers steal it.  I said -no, but I see them sneaking out of the room and hustling away, and I -never thought nothing, only I reckoned they was afraid they had waked up -my master and was trying to get away before he made trouble with them. - That was all they asked me.  Then the doctor whirls on me and says: - -"Are _you_ English, too?" - -I says yes; and him and some others laughed, and said, "Stuff!" - -Well, then they sailed in on the general investigation, and there we had -it, up and down, hour in, hour out, and nobody never said a word about -supper, nor ever seemed to think about it—and so they kept it up, and -kept it up; and it _was_ the worst mixed-up thing you ever see.  They -made the king tell his yarn, and they made the old gentleman tell his'n; -and anybody but a lot of prejudiced chuckleheads would a _seen_ that the -old gentleman was spinning truth and t'other one lies.  And by and by -they had me up to tell what I knowed.  The king he give me a left-handed -look out of the corner of his eye, and so I knowed enough to talk on the -right side.  I begun to tell about Sheffield, and how we lived there, -and all about the English Wilkses, and so on; but I didn't get pretty -fur till the doctor begun to laugh; and Levi Bell, the lawyer, says: - -"Set down, my boy; I wouldn't strain myself if I was you.  I reckon -you ain't used to lying, it don't seem to come handy; what you want is -practice.  You do it pretty awkward." - -I didn't care nothing for the compliment, but I was glad to be let off, -anyway. - -The doctor he started to say something, and turns and says: - -"If you'd been in town at first, Levi Bell—" The king broke in and -reached out his hand, and says: - -"Why, is this my poor dead brother's old friend that he's wrote so often -about?" - -The lawyer and him shook hands, and the lawyer smiled and looked -pleased, and they talked right along awhile, and then got to one side -and talked low; and at last the lawyer speaks up and says: - -"That 'll fix it.  I'll take the order and send it, along with your -brother's, and then they'll know it's all right." - -So they got some paper and a pen, and the king he set down and twisted -his head to one side, and chawed his tongue, and scrawled off something; -and then they give the pen to the duke—and then for the first time the -duke looked sick.  But he took the pen and wrote.  So then the lawyer -turns to the new old gentleman and says: - -"You and your brother please write a line or two and sign your names." - -The old gentleman wrote, but nobody couldn't read it.  The lawyer looked -powerful astonished, and says: - -"Well, it beats _me_"—and snaked a lot of old letters out of his pocket, -and examined them, and then examined the old man's writing, and then -_them_ again; and then says:  "These old letters is from Harvey Wilks; -and here's _these_ two handwritings, and anybody can see they didn't -write them" (the king and the duke looked sold and foolish, I tell -you, to see how the lawyer had took them in), "and here's _this_ old -gentleman's hand writing, and anybody can tell, easy enough, _he_ didn't -write them—fact is, the scratches he makes ain't properly _writing_ at -all.  Now, here's some letters from—" - -The new old gentleman says: - -"If you please, let me explain.  Nobody can read my hand but my brother -there—so he copies for me.  It's _his_ hand you've got there, not mine." - -"_Well_!" says the lawyer, "this _is_ a state of things.  I've got some -of William's letters, too; so if you'll get him to write a line or so we -can com—" - -"He _can't_ write with his left hand," says the old gentleman.  "If he -could use his right hand, you would see that he wrote his own letters -and mine too.  Look at both, please—they're by the same hand." - -The lawyer done it, and says: - -"I believe it's so—and if it ain't so, there's a heap stronger -resemblance than I'd noticed before, anyway.  Well, well, well!  I -thought we was right on the track of a solution, but it's gone to grass, -partly.  But anyway, one thing is proved—_these_ two ain't either of 'em -Wilkses"—and he wagged his head towards the king and the duke. - -Well, what do you think?  That muleheaded old fool wouldn't give in -_then_! Indeed he wouldn't.  Said it warn't no fair test.  Said his -brother William was the cussedest joker in the world, and hadn't tried -to write—_he_ see William was going to play one of his jokes the minute -he put the pen to paper.  And so he warmed up and went warbling and -warbling right along till he was actuly beginning to believe what he was -saying _himself_; but pretty soon the new gentleman broke in, and says: - -"I've thought of something.  Is there anybody here that helped to lay -out my br—helped to lay out the late Peter Wilks for burying?" - -"Yes," says somebody, "me and Ab Turner done it.  We're both here." - -Then the old man turns towards the king, and says: - -"Perhaps this gentleman can tell me what was tattooed on his breast?" - -Blamed if the king didn't have to brace up mighty quick, or he'd a -squshed down like a bluff bank that the river has cut under, it took -him so sudden; and, mind you, it was a thing that was calculated to make -most _anybody_ sqush to get fetched such a solid one as that without any -notice, because how was _he_ going to know what was tattooed on the man? - He whitened a little; he couldn't help it; and it was mighty still in -there, and everybody bending a little forwards and gazing at him.  Says -I to myself, _now_ he'll throw up the sponge—there ain't no more use. - Well, did he?  A body can't hardly believe it, but he didn't.  I reckon -he thought he'd keep the thing up till he tired them people out, so -they'd thin out, and him and the duke could break loose and get away. - Anyway, he set there, and pretty soon he begun to smile, and says: - -"Mf!  It's a _very_ tough question, _ain't_ it!  _yes_, sir, I k'n -tell you what's tattooed on his breast.  It's jest a small, thin, blue -arrow—that's what it is; and if you don't look clost, you can't see it. - _now_ what do you say—hey?" - -Well, I never see anything like that old blister for clean out-and-out -cheek. - -The new old gentleman turns brisk towards Ab Turner and his pard, and -his eye lights up like he judged he'd got the king _this_ time, and -says: - -"There—you've heard what he said!  Was there any such mark on Peter -Wilks' breast?" - -Both of them spoke up and says: - -"We didn't see no such mark." - -"Good!" says the old gentleman.  "Now, what you _did_ see on his breast -was a small dim P, and a B (which is an initial he dropped when he was -young), and a W, with dashes between them, so:  P—B—W"—and he marked -them that way on a piece of paper.  "Come, ain't that what you saw?" - -Both of them spoke up again, and says: - -"No, we _didn't_.  We never seen any marks at all." - -Well, everybody _was_ in a state of mind now, and they sings out: - -"The whole _bilin_' of 'm 's frauds!  Le's duck 'em! le's drown 'em! -le's ride 'em on a rail!" and everybody was whooping at once, and there -was a rattling powwow.  But the lawyer he jumps on the table and yells, -and says: - -"Gentlemen—gentle_men!_  Hear me just a word—just a _single_ word—if you -_please_!  There's one way yet—let's go and dig up the corpse and look." - -That took them. - -"Hooray!" they all shouted, and was starting right off; but the lawyer -and the doctor sung out: - -"Hold on, hold on!  Collar all these four men and the boy, and fetch -_them_ along, too!" - -"We'll do it!" they all shouted; "and if we don't find them marks we'll -lynch the whole gang!" - -I _was_ scared, now, I tell you.  But there warn't no getting away, you -know. They gripped us all, and marched us right along, straight for the -graveyard, which was a mile and a half down the river, and the whole -town at our heels, for we made noise enough, and it was only nine in the -evening. - -As we went by our house I wished I hadn't sent Mary Jane out of town; -because now if I could tip her the wink she'd light out and save me, and -blow on our dead-beats. - -Well, we swarmed along down the river road, just carrying on like -wildcats; and to make it more scary the sky was darking up, and the -lightning beginning to wink and flitter, and the wind to shiver amongst -the leaves. This was the most awful trouble and most dangersome I ever -was in; and I was kinder stunned; everything was going so different from -what I had allowed for; stead of being fixed so I could take my own time -if I wanted to, and see all the fun, and have Mary Jane at my back to -save me and set me free when the close-fit come, here was nothing in the -world betwixt me and sudden death but just them tattoo-marks.  If they -didn't find them— - -I couldn't bear to think about it; and yet, somehow, I couldn't think -about nothing else.  It got darker and darker, and it was a beautiful -time to give the crowd the slip; but that big husky had me by the -wrist—Hines—and a body might as well try to give Goliar the slip.  He -dragged me right along, he was so excited, and I had to run to keep up. - -When they got there they swarmed into the graveyard and washed over it -like an overflow.  And when they got to the grave they found they had -about a hundred times as many shovels as they wanted, but nobody hadn't -thought to fetch a lantern.  But they sailed into digging anyway by the -flicker of the lightning, and sent a man to the nearest house, a half a -mile off, to borrow one. - -So they dug and dug like everything; and it got awful dark, and the rain -started, and the wind swished and swushed along, and the lightning come -brisker and brisker, and the thunder boomed; but them people never took -no notice of it, they was so full of this business; and one minute -you could see everything and every face in that big crowd, and the -shovelfuls of dirt sailing up out of the grave, and the next second the -dark wiped it all out, and you couldn't see nothing at all. - -At last they got out the coffin and begun to unscrew the lid, and then -such another crowding and shouldering and shoving as there was, to -scrouge in and get a sight, you never see; and in the dark, that way, it -was awful.  Hines he hurt my wrist dreadful pulling and tugging so, -and I reckon he clean forgot I was in the world, he was so excited and -panting. - -All of a sudden the lightning let go a perfect sluice of white glare, -and somebody sings out: - -"By the living jingo, here's the bag of gold on his breast!" - -Hines let out a whoop, like everybody else, and dropped my wrist and -give a big surge to bust his way in and get a look, and the way I lit -out and shinned for the road in the dark there ain't nobody can tell. - -I had the road all to myself, and I fairly flew—leastways, I had it all -to myself except the solid dark, and the now-and-then glares, and the -buzzing of the rain, and the thrashing of the wind, and the splitting of -the thunder; and sure as you are born I did clip it along! - -When I struck the town I see there warn't nobody out in the storm, so -I never hunted for no back streets, but humped it straight through the -main one; and when I begun to get towards our house I aimed my eye and -set it. No light there; the house all dark—which made me feel sorry and -disappointed, I didn't know why.  But at last, just as I was sailing by, -_flash_ comes the light in Mary Jane's window! and my heart swelled up -sudden, like to bust; and the same second the house and all was behind -me in the dark, and wasn't ever going to be before me no more in this -world. She _was_ the best girl I ever see, and had the most sand. - -The minute I was far enough above the town to see I could make the -towhead, I begun to look sharp for a boat to borrow, and the first -time the lightning showed me one that wasn't chained I snatched it and -shoved. It was a canoe, and warn't fastened with nothing but a rope. - The towhead was a rattling big distance off, away out there in the -middle of the river, but I didn't lose no time; and when I struck the -raft at last I was so fagged I would a just laid down to blow and gasp -if I could afforded it.  But I didn't.  As I sprung aboard I sung out: - -"Out with you, Jim, and set her loose!  Glory be to goodness, we're shut -of them!" - -Jim lit out, and was a-coming for me with both arms spread, he was so -full of joy; but when I glimpsed him in the lightning my heart shot up -in my mouth and I went overboard backwards; for I forgot he was old King -Lear and a drownded A-rab all in one, and it most scared the livers and -lights out of me.  But Jim fished me out, and was going to hug me and -bless me, and so on, he was so glad I was back and we was shut of the -king and the duke, but I says: - -"Not now; have it for breakfast, have it for breakfast!  Cut loose and -let her slide!" - -So in two seconds away we went a-sliding down the river, and it _did_ -seem so good to be free again and all by ourselves on the big river, and -nobody to bother us.  I had to skip around a bit, and jump up and crack -my heels a few times—I couldn't help it; but about the third crack -I noticed a sound that I knowed mighty well, and held my breath and -listened and waited; and sure enough, when the next flash busted out -over the water, here they come!—and just a-laying to their oars and -making their skiff hum!  It was the king and the duke. - -So I wilted right down on to the planks then, and give up; and it was -all I could do to keep from crying. - - - - -CHAPTER XXX. - -WHEN they got aboard the king went for me, and shook me by the collar, -and says: - -"Tryin' to give us the slip, was ye, you pup!  Tired of our company, -hey?" - -I says: - -"No, your majesty, we warn't—_please_ don't, your majesty!" - -"Quick, then, and tell us what _was_ your idea, or I'll shake the -insides out o' you!" - -"Honest, I'll tell you everything just as it happened, your majesty. - The man that had a-holt of me was very good to me, and kept saying he -had a boy about as big as me that died last year, and he was sorry -to see a boy in such a dangerous fix; and when they was all took by -surprise by finding the gold, and made a rush for the coffin, he lets go -of me and whispers, 'Heel it now, or they'll hang ye, sure!' and I lit -out.  It didn't seem no good for _me_ to stay—I couldn't do nothing, -and I didn't want to be hung if I could get away.  So I never stopped -running till I found the canoe; and when I got here I told Jim to hurry, -or they'd catch me and hang me yet, and said I was afeard you and the -duke wasn't alive now, and I was awful sorry, and so was Jim, and was -awful glad when we see you coming; you may ask Jim if I didn't." - -Jim said it was so; and the king told him to shut up, and said, "Oh, -yes, it's _mighty_ likely!" and shook me up again, and said he reckoned -he'd drownd me.  But the duke says: - -"Leggo the boy, you old idiot!  Would _you_ a done any different?  Did -you inquire around for _him_ when you got loose?  I don't remember it." - -So the king let go of me, and begun to cuss that town and everybody in -it. But the duke says: - -"You better a blame' sight give _yourself_ a good cussing, for you're -the one that's entitled to it most.  You hain't done a thing from the -start that had any sense in it, except coming out so cool and cheeky -with that imaginary blue-arrow mark.  That _was_ bright—it was right -down bully; and it was the thing that saved us.  For if it hadn't been -for that they'd a jailed us till them Englishmen's baggage come—and -then—the penitentiary, you bet! But that trick took 'em to the -graveyard, and the gold done us a still bigger kindness; for if the -excited fools hadn't let go all holts and made that rush to get a -look we'd a slept in our cravats to-night—cravats warranted to _wear_, -too—longer than _we'd_ need 'em." - -They was still a minute—thinking; then the king says, kind of -absent-minded like: - -"Mf!  And we reckoned the _niggers_ stole it!" - -That made me squirm! - -"Yes," says the duke, kinder slow and deliberate and sarcastic, "_we_ -did." - -After about a half a minute the king drawls out: - -"Leastways, I did." - -The duke says, the same way: - -"On the contrary, I did." - -The king kind of ruffles up, and says: - -"Looky here, Bilgewater, what'r you referrin' to?" - -The duke says, pretty brisk: - -"When it comes to that, maybe you'll let me ask, what was _you_ -referring to?" - -"Shucks!" says the king, very sarcastic; "but I don't know—maybe you was -asleep, and didn't know what you was about." - -The duke bristles up now, and says: - -"Oh, let _up_ on this cussed nonsense; do you take me for a blame' fool? -Don't you reckon I know who hid that money in that coffin?" - -"_Yes_, sir!  I know you _do_ know, because you done it yourself!" - -"It's a lie!"—and the duke went for him.  The king sings out: - -"Take y'r hands off!—leggo my throat!—I take it all back!" - -The duke says: - -"Well, you just own up, first, that you _did_ hide that money there, -intending to give me the slip one of these days, and come back and dig -it up, and have it all to yourself." - -"Wait jest a minute, duke—answer me this one question, honest and fair; -if you didn't put the money there, say it, and I'll b'lieve you, and -take back everything I said." - -"You old scoundrel, I didn't, and you know I didn't.  There, now!" - -"Well, then, I b'lieve you.  But answer me only jest this one more—now -_don't_ git mad; didn't you have it in your mind to hook the money and -hide it?" - -The duke never said nothing for a little bit; then he says: - -"Well, I don't care if I _did_, I didn't _do_ it, anyway.  But you not -only had it in mind to do it, but you _done_ it." - -"I wisht I never die if I done it, duke, and that's honest.  I won't say -I warn't goin' to do it, because I _was_; but you—I mean somebody—got in -ahead o' me." - -"It's a lie!  You done it, and you got to _say_ you done it, or—" - -The king began to gurgle, and then he gasps out: - -"'Nough!—I _own up!_" - -I was very glad to hear him say that; it made me feel much more easier -than what I was feeling before.  So the duke took his hands off and -says: - -"If you ever deny it again I'll drown you.  It's _well_ for you to set -there and blubber like a baby—it's fitten for you, after the way -you've acted. I never see such an old ostrich for wanting to gobble -everything—and I a-trusting you all the time, like you was my own -father.  You ought to been ashamed of yourself to stand by and hear it -saddled on to a lot of poor niggers, and you never say a word for 'em. - It makes me feel ridiculous to think I was soft enough to _believe_ -that rubbage.  Cuss you, I can see now why you was so anxious to make -up the deffisit—you wanted to get what money I'd got out of the Nonesuch -and one thing or another, and scoop it _all_!" - -The king says, timid, and still a-snuffling: - -"Why, duke, it was you that said make up the deffisit; it warn't me." - -"Dry up!  I don't want to hear no more out of you!" says the duke.  "And -_now_ you see what you GOT by it.  They've got all their own money back, -and all of _ourn_ but a shekel or two _besides_.  G'long to bed, and -don't you deffersit _me_ no more deffersits, long 's _you_ live!" - -So the king sneaked into the wigwam and took to his bottle for comfort, -and before long the duke tackled HIS bottle; and so in about a half an -hour they was as thick as thieves again, and the tighter they got the -lovinger they got, and went off a-snoring in each other's arms.  They -both got powerful mellow, but I noticed the king didn't get mellow -enough to forget to remember to not deny about hiding the money-bag -again.  That made me feel easy and satisfied.  Of course when they got -to snoring we had a long gabble, and I told Jim everything. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXI. - -WE dasn't stop again at any town for days and days; kept right along -down the river.  We was down south in the warm weather now, and a mighty -long ways from home.  We begun to come to trees with Spanish moss on -them, hanging down from the limbs like long, gray beards.  It was the -first I ever see it growing, and it made the woods look solemn and -dismal.  So now the frauds reckoned they was out of danger, and they -begun to work the villages again. - -First they done a lecture on temperance; but they didn't make enough -for them both to get drunk on.  Then in another village they started -a dancing-school; but they didn't know no more how to dance than a -kangaroo does; so the first prance they made the general public jumped -in and pranced them out of town.  Another time they tried to go at -yellocution; but they didn't yellocute long till the audience got up and -give them a solid good cussing, and made them skip out.  They tackled -missionarying, and mesmerizing, and doctoring, and telling fortunes, and -a little of everything; but they couldn't seem to have no luck.  So at -last they got just about dead broke, and laid around the raft as she -floated along, thinking and thinking, and never saying nothing, by the -half a day at a time, and dreadful blue and desperate. - -And at last they took a change and begun to lay their heads together in -the wigwam and talk low and confidential two or three hours at a time. -Jim and me got uneasy.  We didn't like the look of it.  We judged they -was studying up some kind of worse deviltry than ever.  We turned it -over and over, and at last we made up our minds they was going to break -into somebody's house or store, or was going into the counterfeit-money -business, or something. So then we was pretty scared, and made up an -agreement that we wouldn't have nothing in the world to do with such -actions, and if we ever got the least show we would give them the cold -shake and clear out and leave them behind. Well, early one morning we -hid the raft in a good, safe place about two mile below a little bit of -a shabby village named Pikesville, and the king he went ashore and told -us all to stay hid whilst he went up to town and smelt around to see -if anybody had got any wind of the Royal Nonesuch there yet. ("House to -rob, you _mean_," says I to myself; "and when you get through robbing it -you'll come back here and wonder what has become of me and Jim and the -raft—and you'll have to take it out in wondering.") And he said if he -warn't back by midday the duke and me would know it was all right, and -we was to come along. - -So we stayed where we was.  The duke he fretted and sweated around, and -was in a mighty sour way.  He scolded us for everything, and we couldn't -seem to do nothing right; he found fault with every little thing. -Something was a-brewing, sure.  I was good and glad when midday come -and no king; we could have a change, anyway—and maybe a chance for _the_ -change on top of it.  So me and the duke went up to the village, and -hunted around there for the king, and by and by we found him in the -back room of a little low doggery, very tight, and a lot of loafers -bullyragging him for sport, and he a-cussing and a-threatening with all -his might, and so tight he couldn't walk, and couldn't do nothing to -them.  The duke he begun to abuse him for an old fool, and the king -begun to sass back, and the minute they was fairly at it I lit out and -shook the reefs out of my hind legs, and spun down the river road like -a deer, for I see our chance; and I made up my mind that it would be a -long day before they ever see me and Jim again.  I got down there all -out of breath but loaded up with joy, and sung out: - -"Set her loose, Jim! we're all right now!" - -But there warn't no answer, and nobody come out of the wigwam.  Jim was -gone!  I set up a shout—and then another—and then another one; and run -this way and that in the woods, whooping and screeching; but it warn't -no use—old Jim was gone.  Then I set down and cried; I couldn't help -it. But I couldn't set still long.  Pretty soon I went out on the road, -trying to think what I better do, and I run across a boy walking, and -asked him if he'd seen a strange nigger dressed so and so, and he says: - -"Yes." - -"Whereabouts?" says I. - -"Down to Silas Phelps' place, two mile below here.  He's a runaway -nigger, and they've got him.  Was you looking for him?" - -"You bet I ain't!  I run across him in the woods about an hour or two -ago, and he said if I hollered he'd cut my livers out—and told me to lay -down and stay where I was; and I done it.  Been there ever since; afeard -to come out." - -"Well," he says, "you needn't be afeard no more, becuz they've got him. -He run off f'm down South, som'ers." - -"It's a good job they got him." - -"Well, I _reckon_!  There's two hunderd dollars reward on him.  It's -like picking up money out'n the road." - -"Yes, it is—and I could a had it if I'd been big enough; I see him -_first_. Who nailed him?" - -"It was an old fellow—a stranger—and he sold out his chance in him for -forty dollars, becuz he's got to go up the river and can't wait.  Think -o' that, now!  You bet _I'd_ wait, if it was seven year." - -"That's me, every time," says I.  "But maybe his chance ain't worth -no more than that, if he'll sell it so cheap.  Maybe there's something -ain't straight about it." - -"But it _is_, though—straight as a string.  I see the handbill myself. - It tells all about him, to a dot—paints him like a picture, and tells -the plantation he's frum, below Newr_leans_.  No-sirree-_bob_, they -ain't no trouble 'bout _that_ speculation, you bet you.  Say, gimme a -chaw tobacker, won't ye?" - -I didn't have none, so he left.  I went to the raft, and set down in the -wigwam to think.  But I couldn't come to nothing.  I thought till I wore -my head sore, but I couldn't see no way out of the trouble.  After all -this long journey, and after all we'd done for them scoundrels, here it -was all come to nothing, everything all busted up and ruined, because -they could have the heart to serve Jim such a trick as that, and make -him a slave again all his life, and amongst strangers, too, for forty -dirty dollars. - -Once I said to myself it would be a thousand times better for Jim to -be a slave at home where his family was, as long as he'd _got_ to be a -slave, and so I'd better write a letter to Tom Sawyer and tell him to -tell Miss Watson where he was.  But I soon give up that notion for two -things: she'd be mad and disgusted at his rascality and ungratefulness -for leaving her, and so she'd sell him straight down the river again; -and if she didn't, everybody naturally despises an ungrateful nigger, -and they'd make Jim feel it all the time, and so he'd feel ornery and -disgraced. And then think of _me_!  It would get all around that Huck -Finn helped a nigger to get his freedom; and if I was ever to see -anybody from that town again I'd be ready to get down and lick his boots -for shame.  That's just the way:  a person does a low-down thing, and -then he don't want to take no consequences of it. Thinks as long as he -can hide it, it ain't no disgrace.  That was my fix exactly. The more I -studied about this the more my conscience went to grinding me, and the -more wicked and low-down and ornery I got to feeling. And at last, when -it hit me all of a sudden that here was the plain hand of Providence -slapping me in the face and letting me know my wickedness was being -watched all the time from up there in heaven, whilst I was stealing a -poor old woman's nigger that hadn't ever done me no harm, and now was -showing me there's One that's always on the lookout, and ain't a-going -to allow no such miserable doings to go only just so fur and no further, -I most dropped in my tracks I was so scared.  Well, I tried the best I -could to kinder soften it up somehow for myself by saying I was brung -up wicked, and so I warn't so much to blame; but something inside of me -kept saying, "There was the Sunday-school, you could a gone to it; and -if you'd a done it they'd a learnt you there that people that acts as -I'd been acting about that nigger goes to everlasting fire." - -It made me shiver.  And I about made up my mind to pray, and see if I -couldn't try to quit being the kind of a boy I was and be better.  So -I kneeled down.  But the words wouldn't come.  Why wouldn't they?  It -warn't no use to try and hide it from Him.  Nor from _me_, neither.  I -knowed very well why they wouldn't come.  It was because my heart warn't -right; it was because I warn't square; it was because I was playing -double.  I was letting _on_ to give up sin, but away inside of me I was -holding on to the biggest one of all.  I was trying to make my mouth -_say_ I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write -to that nigger's owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I -knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it.  You can't pray a lie—I found -that out. - -So I was full of trouble, full as I could be; and didn't know what to -do. At last I had an idea; and I says, I'll go and write the letter—and -then see if I can pray.  Why, it was astonishing, the way I felt as -light as a feather right straight off, and my troubles all gone.  So I -got a piece of paper and a pencil, all glad and excited, and set down -and wrote: - -Miss Watson, your runaway nigger Jim is down here two mile below -Pikesville, and Mr. Phelps has got him and he will give him up for the -reward if you send. - -_Huck Finn._ - -I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever -felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now.  But I didn't do it -straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking—thinking -how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost -and going to hell.  And went on thinking.  And got to thinking over our -trip down the river; and I see Jim before me all the time:  in the day -and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we -a-floating along, talking and singing and laughing.  But somehow I -couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the -other kind.  I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, 'stead of -calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when -I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, -up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call -me honey, and pet me and do everything he could think of for me, and how -good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling -the men we had small-pox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was -the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the _only_ one he's -got now; and then I happened to look around and see that paper. - -It was a close place.  I took it up, and held it in my hand.  I was -a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and -I knowed it.  I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then -says to myself: - -"All right, then, I'll _go_ to hell"—and tore it up. - -It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said.  And I let -them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming.  I shoved the -whole thing out of my head, and said I would take up wickedness again, -which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other warn't.  And -for a starter I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; -and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as -long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog. - -Then I set to thinking over how to get at it, and turned over some -considerable many ways in my mind; and at last fixed up a plan that -suited me.  So then I took the bearings of a woody island that was down -the river a piece, and as soon as it was fairly dark I crept out with my -raft and went for it, and hid it there, and then turned in.  I slept the -night through, and got up before it was light, and had my breakfast, -and put on my store clothes, and tied up some others and one thing or -another in a bundle, and took the canoe and cleared for shore.  I landed -below where I judged was Phelps's place, and hid my bundle in the woods, -and then filled up the canoe with water, and loaded rocks into her and -sunk her where I could find her again when I wanted her, about a quarter -of a mile below a little steam sawmill that was on the bank. - -Then I struck up the road, and when I passed the mill I see a sign on -it, "Phelps's Sawmill," and when I come to the farm-houses, two or -three hundred yards further along, I kept my eyes peeled, but didn't -see nobody around, though it was good daylight now.  But I didn't mind, -because I didn't want to see nobody just yet—I only wanted to get the -lay of the land. According to my plan, I was going to turn up there from -the village, not from below.  So I just took a look, and shoved along, -straight for town. Well, the very first man I see when I got there was -the duke.  He was sticking up a bill for the Royal Nonesuch—three-night -performance—like that other time.  They had the cheek, them frauds!  I -was right on him before I could shirk.  He looked astonished, and says: - -"Hel-_lo_!  Where'd _you_ come from?"  Then he says, kind of glad and -eager, "Where's the raft?—got her in a good place?" - -I says: - -"Why, that's just what I was going to ask your grace." - -Then he didn't look so joyful, and says: - -"What was your idea for asking _me_?" he says. - -"Well," I says, "when I see the king in that doggery yesterday I says -to myself, we can't get him home for hours, till he's soberer; so I went -a-loafing around town to put in the time and wait.  A man up and offered -me ten cents to help him pull a skiff over the river and back to fetch -a sheep, and so I went along; but when we was dragging him to the boat, -and the man left me a-holt of the rope and went behind him to shove him -along, he was too strong for me and jerked loose and run, and we after -him.  We didn't have no dog, and so we had to chase him all over the -country till we tired him out.  We never got him till dark; then we -fetched him over, and I started down for the raft.  When I got there and -see it was gone, I says to myself, 'They've got into trouble and had to -leave; and they've took my nigger, which is the only nigger I've got in -the world, and now I'm in a strange country, and ain't got no property -no more, nor nothing, and no way to make my living;' so I set down and -cried.  I slept in the woods all night.  But what _did_ become of the -raft, then?—and Jim—poor Jim!" - -"Blamed if I know—that is, what's become of the raft.  That old fool had -made a trade and got forty dollars, and when we found him in the doggery -the loafers had matched half-dollars with him and got every cent but -what he'd spent for whisky; and when I got him home late last night and -found the raft gone, we said, 'That little rascal has stole our raft and -shook us, and run off down the river.'" - -"I wouldn't shake my _nigger_, would I?—the only nigger I had in the -world, and the only property." - -"We never thought of that.  Fact is, I reckon we'd come to consider him -_our_ nigger; yes, we did consider him so—goodness knows we had trouble -enough for him.  So when we see the raft was gone and we flat broke, -there warn't anything for it but to try the Royal Nonesuch another -shake. And I've pegged along ever since, dry as a powder-horn.  Where's -that ten cents? Give it here." - -I had considerable money, so I give him ten cents, but begged him to -spend it for something to eat, and give me some, because it was all the -money I had, and I hadn't had nothing to eat since yesterday.  He never -said nothing.  The next minute he whirls on me and says: - -"Do you reckon that nigger would blow on us?  We'd skin him if he done -that!" - -"How can he blow?  Hain't he run off?" - -"No!  That old fool sold him, and never divided with me, and the money's -gone." - -"_Sold_ him?"  I says, and begun to cry; "why, he was _my_ nigger, and -that was my money.  Where is he?—I want my nigger." - -"Well, you can't _get_ your nigger, that's all—so dry up your -blubbering. Looky here—do you think _you'd_ venture to blow on us? - Blamed if I think I'd trust you.  Why, if you _was_ to blow on us—" - -He stopped, but I never see the duke look so ugly out of his eyes -before. I went on a-whimpering, and says: - -"I don't want to blow on nobody; and I ain't got no time to blow, nohow. -I got to turn out and find my nigger." - -He looked kinder bothered, and stood there with his bills fluttering on -his arm, thinking, and wrinkling up his forehead.  At last he says: - -"I'll tell you something.  We got to be here three days.  If you'll -promise you won't blow, and won't let the nigger blow, I'll tell you -where to find him." - -So I promised, and he says: - -"A farmer by the name of Silas Ph—" and then he stopped.  You see, he -started to tell me the truth; but when he stopped that way, and begun to -study and think again, I reckoned he was changing his mind.  And so he -was. He wouldn't trust me; he wanted to make sure of having me out of -the way the whole three days.  So pretty soon he says: - -"The man that bought him is named Abram Foster—Abram G. Foster—and he -lives forty mile back here in the country, on the road to Lafayette." - -"All right," I says, "I can walk it in three days.  And I'll start this -very afternoon." - -"No you wont, you'll start _now_; and don't you lose any time about it, -neither, nor do any gabbling by the way.  Just keep a tight tongue in -your head and move right along, and then you won't get into trouble with -_us_, d'ye hear?" - -That was the order I wanted, and that was the one I played for.  I -wanted to be left free to work my plans. - -"So clear out," he says; "and you can tell Mr. Foster whatever you want -to. Maybe you can get him to believe that Jim _is_ your nigger—some -idiots don't require documents—leastways I've heard there's such down -South here.  And when you tell him the handbill and the reward's bogus, -maybe he'll believe you when you explain to him what the idea was for -getting 'em out.  Go 'long now, and tell him anything you want to; but -mind you don't work your jaw any _between_ here and there." - -So I left, and struck for the back country.  I didn't look around, but I -kinder felt like he was watching me.  But I knowed I could tire him out -at that.  I went straight out in the country as much as a mile before -I stopped; then I doubled back through the woods towards Phelps'.  I -reckoned I better start in on my plan straight off without fooling -around, because I wanted to stop Jim's mouth till these fellows could -get away.  I didn't want no trouble with their kind.  I'd seen all I -wanted to of them, and wanted to get entirely shut of them. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXII. - -WHEN I got there it was all still and Sunday-like, and hot and sunshiny; -the hands was gone to the fields; and there was them kind of faint -dronings of bugs and flies in the air that makes it seem so lonesome and -like everybody's dead and gone; and if a breeze fans along and quivers -the leaves it makes you feel mournful, because you feel like it's -spirits whispering—spirits that's been dead ever so many years—and you -always think they're talking about _you_.  As a general thing it makes a -body wish _he_ was dead, too, and done with it all. - -Phelps' was one of these little one-horse cotton plantations, and they -all look alike.  A rail fence round a two-acre yard; a stile made out -of logs sawed off and up-ended in steps, like barrels of a different -length, to climb over the fence with, and for the women to stand on when -they are going to jump on to a horse; some sickly grass-patches in the -big yard, but mostly it was bare and smooth, like an old hat with the -nap rubbed off; big double log-house for the white folks—hewed logs, -with the chinks stopped up with mud or mortar, and these mud-stripes -been whitewashed some time or another; round-log kitchen, with a big -broad, open but roofed passage joining it to the house; log smoke-house -back of the kitchen; three little log nigger-cabins in a row t'other -side the smoke-house; one little hut all by itself away down against -the back fence, and some outbuildings down a piece the other side; -ash-hopper and big kettle to bile soap in by the little hut; bench by -the kitchen door, with bucket of water and a gourd; hound asleep there -in the sun; more hounds asleep round about; about three shade trees away -off in a corner; some currant bushes and gooseberry bushes in one place -by the fence; outside of the fence a garden and a watermelon patch; then -the cotton fields begins, and after the fields the woods. - -I went around and clumb over the back stile by the ash-hopper, and -started for the kitchen.  When I got a little ways I heard the dim hum -of a spinning-wheel wailing along up and sinking along down again; -and then I knowed for certain I wished I was dead—for that _is_ the -lonesomest sound in the whole world. - -I went right along, not fixing up any particular plan, but just trusting -to Providence to put the right words in my mouth when the time come; for -I'd noticed that Providence always did put the right words in my mouth -if I left it alone. - -When I got half-way, first one hound and then another got up and went -for me, and of course I stopped and faced them, and kept still.  And -such another powwow as they made!  In a quarter of a minute I was a kind -of a hub of a wheel, as you may say—spokes made out of dogs—circle of -fifteen of them packed together around me, with their necks and noses -stretched up towards me, a-barking and howling; and more a-coming; you -could see them sailing over fences and around corners from everywheres. - -A nigger woman come tearing out of the kitchen with a rolling-pin in her -hand, singing out, "Begone _you_ Tige! you Spot! begone sah!" and she -fetched first one and then another of them a clip and sent them howling, -and then the rest followed; and the next second half of them come back, -wagging their tails around me, and making friends with me.  There ain't -no harm in a hound, nohow. - -And behind the woman comes a little nigger girl and two little nigger -boys without anything on but tow-linen shirts, and they hung on to their -mother's gown, and peeped out from behind her at me, bashful, the way -they always do.  And here comes the white woman running from the house, -about forty-five or fifty year old, bareheaded, and her spinning-stick -in her hand; and behind her comes her little white children, acting the -same way the little niggers was doing.  She was smiling all over so she -could hardly stand—and says: - -"It's _you_, at last!—_ain't_ it?" - -I out with a "Yes'm" before I thought. - -She grabbed me and hugged me tight; and then gripped me by both hands -and shook and shook; and the tears come in her eyes, and run down over; -and she couldn't seem to hug and shake enough, and kept saying, "You -don't look as much like your mother as I reckoned you would; but law -sakes, I don't care for that, I'm so glad to see you!  Dear, dear, it -does seem like I could eat you up!  Children, it's your cousin Tom!—tell -him howdy." - -But they ducked their heads, and put their fingers in their mouths, and -hid behind her.  So she run on: - -"Lize, hurry up and get him a hot breakfast right away—or did you get -your breakfast on the boat?" - -I said I had got it on the boat.  So then she started for the house, -leading me by the hand, and the children tagging after.  When we got -there she set me down in a split-bottomed chair, and set herself down on -a little low stool in front of me, holding both of my hands, and says: - -"Now I can have a _good_ look at you; and, laws-a-me, I've been hungry -for it a many and a many a time, all these long years, and it's come -at last! We been expecting you a couple of days and more.  What kep' -you?—boat get aground?" - -"Yes'm—she—" - -"Don't say yes'm—say Aunt Sally.  Where'd she get aground?" - -I didn't rightly know what to say, because I didn't know whether the -boat would be coming up the river or down.  But I go a good deal on -instinct; and my instinct said she would be coming up—from down towards -Orleans. That didn't help me much, though; for I didn't know the names -of bars down that way.  I see I'd got to invent a bar, or forget the -name of the one we got aground on—or—Now I struck an idea, and fetched -it out: - -"It warn't the grounding—that didn't keep us back but a little.  We -blowed out a cylinder-head." - -"Good gracious! anybody hurt?" - -"No'm.  Killed a nigger." - -"Well, it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.  Two years ago -last Christmas your uncle Silas was coming up from Newrleans on the old -Lally Rook, and she blowed out a cylinder-head and crippled a man.  And -I think he died afterwards.  He was a Baptist.  Your uncle Silas knowed -a family in Baton Rouge that knowed his people very well.  Yes, I -remember now, he _did_ die.  Mortification set in, and they had to -amputate him. But it didn't save him.  Yes, it was mortification—that -was it.  He turned blue all over, and died in the hope of a glorious -resurrection. They say he was a sight to look at.  Your uncle's been up -to the town every day to fetch you. And he's gone again, not more'n an -hour ago; he'll be back any minute now. You must a met him on the road, -didn't you?—oldish man, with a—" - -"No, I didn't see nobody, Aunt Sally.  The boat landed just at daylight, -and I left my baggage on the wharf-boat and went looking around the town -and out a piece in the country, to put in the time and not get here too -soon; and so I come down the back way." - -"Who'd you give the baggage to?" - -"Nobody." - -"Why, child, it 'll be stole!" - -"Not where I hid it I reckon it won't," I says. - -"How'd you get your breakfast so early on the boat?" - -It was kinder thin ice, but I says: - -"The captain see me standing around, and told me I better have something -to eat before I went ashore; so he took me in the texas to the officers' -lunch, and give me all I wanted." - -I was getting so uneasy I couldn't listen good.  I had my mind on the -children all the time; I wanted to get them out to one side and pump -them a little, and find out who I was.  But I couldn't get no show, Mrs. -Phelps kept it up and run on so.  Pretty soon she made the cold chills -streak all down my back, because she says: - -"But here we're a-running on this way, and you hain't told me a word -about Sis, nor any of them.  Now I'll rest my works a little, and you -start up yourn; just tell me _everything_—tell me all about 'm all every -one of 'm; and how they are, and what they're doing, and what they told -you to tell me; and every last thing you can think of." - -Well, I see I was up a stump—and up it good.  Providence had stood by -me this fur all right, but I was hard and tight aground now.  I see it -warn't a bit of use to try to go ahead—I'd got to throw up my hand.  So -I says to myself, here's another place where I got to resk the truth. - I opened my mouth to begin; but she grabbed me and hustled me in behind -the bed, and says: - -"Here he comes!  Stick your head down lower—there, that'll do; you can't -be seen now.  Don't you let on you're here.  I'll play a joke on him. -Children, don't you say a word." - -I see I was in a fix now.  But it warn't no use to worry; there warn't -nothing to do but just hold still, and try and be ready to stand from -under when the lightning struck. - -I had just one little glimpse of the old gentleman when he come in; then -the bed hid him.  Mrs. Phelps she jumps for him, and says: - -"Has he come?" - -"No," says her husband. - -"Good-_ness_ gracious!" she says, "what in the warld can have become of -him?" - -"I can't imagine," says the old gentleman; "and I must say it makes me -dreadful uneasy." - -"Uneasy!" she says; "I'm ready to go distracted!  He _must_ a come; and -you've missed him along the road.  I _know_ it's so—something tells me -so." - -"Why, Sally, I _couldn't_ miss him along the road—_you_ know that." - -"But oh, dear, dear, what _will_ Sis say!  He must a come!  You must a -missed him.  He—" - -"Oh, don't distress me any more'n I'm already distressed.  I don't know -what in the world to make of it.  I'm at my wit's end, and I don't mind -acknowledging 't I'm right down scared.  But there's no hope that he's -come; for he _couldn't_ come and me miss him.  Sally, it's terrible—just -terrible—something's happened to the boat, sure!" - -"Why, Silas!  Look yonder!—up the road!—ain't that somebody coming?" - -He sprung to the window at the head of the bed, and that give Mrs. -Phelps the chance she wanted.  She stooped down quick at the foot of the -bed and give me a pull, and out I come; and when he turned back from the -window there she stood, a-beaming and a-smiling like a house afire, and -I standing pretty meek and sweaty alongside.  The old gentleman stared, -and says: - -"Why, who's that?" - -"Who do you reckon 't is?" - -"I hain't no idea.  Who _is_ it?" - -"It's _Tom Sawyer!_" - -By jings, I most slumped through the floor!  But there warn't no time to -swap knives; the old man grabbed me by the hand and shook, and kept on -shaking; and all the time how the woman did dance around and laugh and -cry; and then how they both did fire off questions about Sid, and Mary, -and the rest of the tribe. - -But if they was joyful, it warn't nothing to what I was; for it was like -being born again, I was so glad to find out who I was.  Well, they froze -to me for two hours; and at last, when my chin was so tired it couldn't -hardly go any more, I had told them more about my family—I mean the -Sawyer family—than ever happened to any six Sawyer families.  And I -explained all about how we blowed out a cylinder-head at the mouth of -White River, and it took us three days to fix it.  Which was all right, -and worked first-rate; because _they_ didn't know but what it would take -three days to fix it.  If I'd a called it a bolthead it would a done -just as well. - -Now I was feeling pretty comfortable all down one side, and pretty -uncomfortable all up the other.  Being Tom Sawyer was easy and -comfortable, and it stayed easy and comfortable till by and by I hear a -steamboat coughing along down the river.  Then I says to myself, s'pose -Tom Sawyer comes down on that boat?  And s'pose he steps in here any -minute, and sings out my name before I can throw him a wink to keep -quiet? - -Well, I couldn't _have_ it that way; it wouldn't do at all.  I must go -up the road and waylay him.  So I told the folks I reckoned I would go -up to the town and fetch down my baggage.  The old gentleman was for -going along with me, but I said no, I could drive the horse myself, and -I druther he wouldn't take no trouble about me. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIII. - -SO I started for town in the wagon, and when I was half-way I see a -wagon coming, and sure enough it was Tom Sawyer, and I stopped and -waited till he come along.  I says "Hold on!" and it stopped alongside, -and his mouth opened up like a trunk, and stayed so; and he swallowed -two or three times like a person that's got a dry throat, and then says: - -"I hain't ever done you no harm.  You know that.  So, then, what you -want to come back and ha'nt _me_ for?" - -I says: - -"I hain't come back—I hain't been _gone_." - -When he heard my voice it righted him up some, but he warn't quite -satisfied yet.  He says: - -"Don't you play nothing on me, because I wouldn't on you.  Honest injun -now, you ain't a ghost?" - -"Honest injun, I ain't," I says. - -"Well—I—I—well, that ought to settle it, of course; but I can't somehow -seem to understand it no way.  Looky here, warn't you ever murdered _at -all?_" - -"No.  I warn't ever murdered at all—I played it on them.  You come in -here and feel of me if you don't believe me." - -So he done it; and it satisfied him; and he was that glad to see me -again he didn't know what to do.  And he wanted to know all about it -right off, because it was a grand adventure, and mysterious, and so it -hit him where he lived.  But I said, leave it alone till by and by; and -told his driver to wait, and we drove off a little piece, and I told -him the kind of a fix I was in, and what did he reckon we better do?  He -said, let him alone a minute, and don't disturb him.  So he thought and -thought, and pretty soon he says: - -"It's all right; I've got it.  Take my trunk in your wagon, and let on -it's your'n; and you turn back and fool along slow, so as to get to the -house about the time you ought to; and I'll go towards town a piece, and -take a fresh start, and get there a quarter or a half an hour after you; -and you needn't let on to know me at first." - -I says: - -"All right; but wait a minute.  There's one more thing—a thing that -_nobody_ don't know but me.  And that is, there's a nigger here that -I'm a-trying to steal out of slavery, and his name is _Jim_—old Miss -Watson's Jim." - -He says: - -"What!  Why, Jim is—" - -He stopped and went to studying.  I says: - -"I know what you'll say.  You'll say it's dirty, low-down business; but -what if it is?  I'm low down; and I'm a-going to steal him, and I want -you keep mum and not let on.  Will you?" - -His eye lit up, and he says: - -"I'll _help_ you steal him!" - -Well, I let go all holts then, like I was shot.  It was the most -astonishing speech I ever heard—and I'm bound to say Tom Sawyer fell -considerable in my estimation.  Only I couldn't believe it.  Tom Sawyer -a _nigger-stealer!_ - -"Oh, shucks!"  I says; "you're joking." - -"I ain't joking, either." - -"Well, then," I says, "joking or no joking, if you hear anything said -about a runaway nigger, don't forget to remember that _you_ don't know -nothing about him, and I don't know nothing about him." - -Then we took the trunk and put it in my wagon, and he drove off his -way and I drove mine.  But of course I forgot all about driving slow on -accounts of being glad and full of thinking; so I got home a heap too -quick for that length of a trip.  The old gentleman was at the door, and -he says: - -"Why, this is wonderful!  Whoever would a thought it was in that mare -to do it?  I wish we'd a timed her.  And she hain't sweated a hair—not -a hair. It's wonderful.  Why, I wouldn't take a hundred dollars for that -horse now—I wouldn't, honest; and yet I'd a sold her for fifteen before, -and thought 'twas all she was worth." - -That's all he said.  He was the innocentest, best old soul I ever see. -But it warn't surprising; because he warn't only just a farmer, he was -a preacher, too, and had a little one-horse log church down back of the -plantation, which he built it himself at his own expense, for a church -and schoolhouse, and never charged nothing for his preaching, and it was -worth it, too.  There was plenty other farmer-preachers like that, and -done the same way, down South. - -In about half an hour Tom's wagon drove up to the front stile, and Aunt -Sally she see it through the window, because it was only about fifty -yards, and says: - -"Why, there's somebody come!  I wonder who 'tis?  Why, I do believe it's -a stranger.  Jimmy" (that's one of the children) "run and tell Lize to -put on another plate for dinner." - -Everybody made a rush for the front door, because, of course, a stranger -don't come _every_ year, and so he lays over the yaller-fever, for -interest, when he does come.  Tom was over the stile and starting for -the house; the wagon was spinning up the road for the village, and we -was all bunched in the front door.  Tom had his store clothes on, and an -audience—and that was always nuts for Tom Sawyer.  In them circumstances -it warn't no trouble to him to throw in an amount of style that was -suitable.  He warn't a boy to meeky along up that yard like a sheep; no, -he come ca'm and important, like the ram.  When he got a-front of us he -lifts his hat ever so gracious and dainty, like it was the lid of a box -that had butterflies asleep in it and he didn't want to disturb them, -and says: - -"Mr. Archibald Nichols, I presume?" - -"No, my boy," says the old gentleman, "I'm sorry to say 't your driver -has deceived you; Nichols's place is down a matter of three mile more. -Come in, come in." - -Tom he took a look back over his shoulder, and says, "Too late—he's out -of sight." - -"Yes, he's gone, my son, and you must come in and eat your dinner with -us; and then we'll hitch up and take you down to Nichols's." - -"Oh, I _can't_ make you so much trouble; I couldn't think of it.  I'll -walk—I don't mind the distance." - -"But we won't _let_ you walk—it wouldn't be Southern hospitality to do -it. Come right in." - -"Oh, _do_," says Aunt Sally; "it ain't a bit of trouble to us, not a -bit in the world.  You must stay.  It's a long, dusty three mile, and -we can't let you walk.  And, besides, I've already told 'em to put on -another plate when I see you coming; so you mustn't disappoint us.  Come -right in and make yourself at home." - -So Tom he thanked them very hearty and handsome, and let himself be -persuaded, and come in; and when he was in he said he was a stranger -from Hicksville, Ohio, and his name was William Thompson—and he made -another bow. - -Well, he run on, and on, and on, making up stuff about Hicksville and -everybody in it he could invent, and I getting a little nervious, and -wondering how this was going to help me out of my scrape; and at last, -still talking along, he reached over and kissed Aunt Sally right on the -mouth, and then settled back again in his chair comfortable, and was -going on talking; but she jumped up and wiped it off with the back of -her hand, and says: - -"You owdacious puppy!" - -He looked kind of hurt, and says: - -"I'm surprised at you, m'am." - -"You're s'rp—Why, what do you reckon I am?  I've a good notion to take -and—Say, what do you mean by kissing me?" - -He looked kind of humble, and says: - -"I didn't mean nothing, m'am.  I didn't mean no harm.  I—I—thought you'd -like it." - -"Why, you born fool!"  She took up the spinning stick, and it looked -like it was all she could do to keep from giving him a crack with it. - "What made you think I'd like it?" - -"Well, I don't know.  Only, they—they—told me you would." - -"_They_ told you I would.  Whoever told you's _another_ lunatic.  I -never heard the beat of it.  Who's _they_?" - -"Why, everybody.  They all said so, m'am." - -It was all she could do to hold in; and her eyes snapped, and her -fingers worked like she wanted to scratch him; and she says: - -"Who's 'everybody'?  Out with their names, or ther'll be an idiot -short." - -He got up and looked distressed, and fumbled his hat, and says: - -"I'm sorry, and I warn't expecting it.  They told me to.  They all told -me to.  They all said, kiss her; and said she'd like it.  They all said -it—every one of them.  But I'm sorry, m'am, and I won't do it no more—I -won't, honest." - -"You won't, won't you?  Well, I sh'd _reckon_ you won't!" - -"No'm, I'm honest about it; I won't ever do it again—till you ask me." - -"Till I _ask_ you!  Well, I never see the beat of it in my born days! - I lay you'll be the Methusalem-numskull of creation before ever I ask -you—or the likes of you." - -"Well," he says, "it does surprise me so.  I can't make it out, somehow. -They said you would, and I thought you would.  But—" He stopped and -looked around slow, like he wished he could run across a friendly eye -somewheres, and fetched up on the old gentleman's, and says, "Didn't -_you_ think she'd like me to kiss her, sir?" - -"Why, no; I—I—well, no, I b'lieve I didn't." - -Then he looks on around the same way to me, and says: - -"Tom, didn't _you_ think Aunt Sally 'd open out her arms and say, 'Sid -Sawyer—'" - -"My land!" she says, breaking in and jumping for him, "you impudent -young rascal, to fool a body so—" and was going to hug him, but he -fended her off, and says: - -"No, not till you've asked me first." - -So she didn't lose no time, but asked him; and hugged him and kissed -him over and over again, and then turned him over to the old man, and he -took what was left.  And after they got a little quiet again she says: - -"Why, dear me, I never see such a surprise.  We warn't looking for _you_ -at all, but only Tom.  Sis never wrote to me about anybody coming but -him." - -"It's because it warn't _intended_ for any of us to come but Tom," he -says; "but I begged and begged, and at the last minute she let me -come, too; so, coming down the river, me and Tom thought it would be a -first-rate surprise for him to come here to the house first, and for me -to by and by tag along and drop in, and let on to be a stranger.  But it -was a mistake, Aunt Sally.  This ain't no healthy place for a stranger -to come." - -"No—not impudent whelps, Sid.  You ought to had your jaws boxed; I -hain't been so put out since I don't know when.  But I don't care, I -don't mind the terms—I'd be willing to stand a thousand such jokes to -have you here. Well, to think of that performance!  I don't deny it, I -was most putrified with astonishment when you give me that smack." - -We had dinner out in that broad open passage betwixt the house and -the kitchen; and there was things enough on that table for seven -families—and all hot, too; none of your flabby, tough meat that's laid -in a cupboard in a damp cellar all night and tastes like a hunk of -old cold cannibal in the morning.  Uncle Silas he asked a pretty long -blessing over it, but it was worth it; and it didn't cool it a bit, -neither, the way I've seen them kind of interruptions do lots of times. - There was a considerable good deal of talk all the afternoon, and me -and Tom was on the lookout all the time; but it warn't no use, they -didn't happen to say nothing about any runaway nigger, and we was afraid -to try to work up to it.  But at supper, at night, one of the little -boys says: - -"Pa, mayn't Tom and Sid and me go to the show?" - -"No," says the old man, "I reckon there ain't going to be any; and you -couldn't go if there was; because the runaway nigger told Burton and -me all about that scandalous show, and Burton said he would tell the -people; so I reckon they've drove the owdacious loafers out of town -before this time." - -So there it was!—but I couldn't help it.  Tom and me was to sleep in the -same room and bed; so, being tired, we bid good-night and went up to -bed right after supper, and clumb out of the window and down the -lightning-rod, and shoved for the town; for I didn't believe anybody was -going to give the king and the duke a hint, and so if I didn't hurry up -and give them one they'd get into trouble sure. - -On the road Tom he told me all about how it was reckoned I was murdered, -and how pap disappeared pretty soon, and didn't come back no more, and -what a stir there was when Jim run away; and I told Tom all about our -Royal Nonesuch rapscallions, and as much of the raft voyage as I had -time to; and as we struck into the town and up through the the middle of -it--it was as much as half-after eight, then—here comes a raging rush of -people with torches, and an awful whooping and yelling, and banging tin -pans and blowing horns; and we jumped to one side to let them go by; -and as they went by I see they had the king and the duke astraddle of a -rail—that is, I knowed it _was_ the king and the duke, though they was -all over tar and feathers, and didn't look like nothing in the -world that was human—just looked like a couple of monstrous big -soldier-plumes.  Well, it made me sick to see it; and I was sorry for -them poor pitiful rascals, it seemed like I couldn't ever feel any -hardness against them any more in the world.  It was a dreadful thing to -see.  Human beings _can_ be awful cruel to one another. - -We see we was too late—couldn't do no good.  We asked some stragglers -about it, and they said everybody went to the show looking very -innocent; and laid low and kept dark till the poor old king was in the -middle of his cavortings on the stage; then somebody give a signal, and -the house rose up and went for them. - -So we poked along back home, and I warn't feeling so brash as I was -before, but kind of ornery, and humble, and to blame, somehow—though -I hadn't done nothing.  But that's always the way; it don't make no -difference whether you do right or wrong, a person's conscience ain't -got no sense, and just goes for him anyway.  If I had a yaller dog that -didn't know no more than a person's conscience does I would pison him. -It takes up more room than all the rest of a person's insides, and yet -ain't no good, nohow.  Tom Sawyer he says the same. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIV. - -WE stopped talking, and got to thinking.  By and by Tom says: - -"Looky here, Huck, what fools we are to not think of it before!  I bet I -know where Jim is." - -"No!  Where?" - -"In that hut down by the ash-hopper.  Why, looky here.  When we was at -dinner, didn't you see a nigger man go in there with some vittles?" - -"Yes." - -"What did you think the vittles was for?" - -"For a dog." - -"So 'd I. Well, it wasn't for a dog." - -"Why?" - -"Because part of it was watermelon." - -"So it was—I noticed it.  Well, it does beat all that I never thought -about a dog not eating watermelon.  It shows how a body can see and -don't see at the same time." - -"Well, the nigger unlocked the padlock when he went in, and he locked it -again when he came out.  He fetched uncle a key about the time we got up -from table—same key, I bet.  Watermelon shows man, lock shows prisoner; -and it ain't likely there's two prisoners on such a little plantation, -and where the people's all so kind and good.  Jim's the prisoner.  All -right—I'm glad we found it out detective fashion; I wouldn't give shucks -for any other way.  Now you work your mind, and study out a plan to -steal Jim, and I will study out one, too; and we'll take the one we like -the best." - -What a head for just a boy to have!  If I had Tom Sawyer's head I -wouldn't trade it off to be a duke, nor mate of a steamboat, nor clown -in a circus, nor nothing I can think of.  I went to thinking out a plan, -but only just to be doing something; I knowed very well where the right -plan was going to come from.  Pretty soon Tom says: - -"Ready?" - -"Yes," I says. - -"All right—bring it out." - -"My plan is this," I says.  "We can easy find out if it's Jim in there. -Then get up my canoe to-morrow night, and fetch my raft over from the -island.  Then the first dark night that comes steal the key out of the -old man's britches after he goes to bed, and shove off down the river -on the raft with Jim, hiding daytimes and running nights, the way me and -Jim used to do before.  Wouldn't that plan work?" - -"_Work_?  Why, cert'nly it would work, like rats a-fighting.  But it's -too blame' simple; there ain't nothing _to_ it.  What's the good of a -plan that ain't no more trouble than that?  It's as mild as goose-milk. - Why, Huck, it wouldn't make no more talk than breaking into a soap -factory." - -I never said nothing, because I warn't expecting nothing different; but -I knowed mighty well that whenever he got _his_ plan ready it wouldn't -have none of them objections to it. - -And it didn't.  He told me what it was, and I see in a minute it was -worth fifteen of mine for style, and would make Jim just as free a man -as mine would, and maybe get us all killed besides.  So I was satisfied, -and said we would waltz in on it.  I needn't tell what it was here, -because I knowed it wouldn't stay the way, it was.  I knowed he would be -changing it around every which way as we went along, and heaving in new -bullinesses wherever he got a chance.  And that is what he done. - -Well, one thing was dead sure, and that was that Tom Sawyer was in -earnest, and was actuly going to help steal that nigger out of slavery. -That was the thing that was too many for me.  Here was a boy that was -respectable and well brung up; and had a character to lose; and folks at -home that had characters; and he was bright and not leather-headed; and -knowing and not ignorant; and not mean, but kind; and yet here he was, -without any more pride, or rightness, or feeling, than to stoop to -this business, and make himself a shame, and his family a shame, -before everybody.  I _couldn't_ understand it no way at all.  It was -outrageous, and I knowed I ought to just up and tell him so; and so be -his true friend, and let him quit the thing right where he was and save -himself. And I _did_ start to tell him; but he shut me up, and says: - -"Don't you reckon I know what I'm about?  Don't I generly know what I'm -about?" - -"Yes." - -"Didn't I _say_ I was going to help steal the nigger?" - -"Yes." - -"_Well_, then." - -That's all he said, and that's all I said.  It warn't no use to say any -more; because when he said he'd do a thing, he always done it.  But I -couldn't make out how he was willing to go into this thing; so I just -let it go, and never bothered no more about it.  If he was bound to have -it so, I couldn't help it. - -When we got home the house was all dark and still; so we went on down to -the hut by the ash-hopper for to examine it.  We went through the yard -so as to see what the hounds would do.  They knowed us, and didn't make -no more noise than country dogs is always doing when anything comes by -in the night.  When we got to the cabin we took a look at the front and -the two sides; and on the side I warn't acquainted with—which was the -north side—we found a square window-hole, up tolerable high, with just -one stout board nailed across it.  I says: - -"Here's the ticket.  This hole's big enough for Jim to get through if we -wrench off the board." - -Tom says: - -"It's as simple as tit-tat-toe, three-in-a-row, and as easy as -playing hooky.  I should _hope_ we can find a way that's a little more -complicated than _that_, Huck Finn." - -"Well, then," I says, "how 'll it do to saw him out, the way I done -before I was murdered that time?" - -"That's more _like_," he says.  "It's real mysterious, and troublesome, -and good," he says; "but I bet we can find a way that's twice as long. - There ain't no hurry; le's keep on looking around." - -Betwixt the hut and the fence, on the back side, was a lean-to that -joined the hut at the eaves, and was made out of plank.  It was as long -as the hut, but narrow—only about six foot wide.  The door to it was at -the south end, and was padlocked.  Tom he went to the soap-kettle and -searched around, and fetched back the iron thing they lift the lid with; -so he took it and prized out one of the staples.  The chain fell down, -and we opened the door and went in, and shut it, and struck a match, -and see the shed was only built against a cabin and hadn't no connection -with it; and there warn't no floor to the shed, nor nothing in it but -some old rusty played-out hoes and spades and picks and a crippled plow. - The match went out, and so did we, and shoved in the staple again, and -the door was locked as good as ever. Tom was joyful.  He says; - -"Now we're all right.  We'll _dig_ him out.  It 'll take about a week!" - -Then we started for the house, and I went in the back door—you only have -to pull a buckskin latch-string, they don't fasten the doors—but that -warn't romantical enough for Tom Sawyer; no way would do him but he must -climb up the lightning-rod.  But after he got up half way about three -times, and missed fire and fell every time, and the last time most -busted his brains out, he thought he'd got to give it up; but after he -was rested he allowed he would give her one more turn for luck, and this -time he made the trip. - -In the morning we was up at break of day, and down to the nigger cabins -to pet the dogs and make friends with the nigger that fed Jim—if it -_was_ Jim that was being fed.  The niggers was just getting through -breakfast and starting for the fields; and Jim's nigger was piling up -a tin pan with bread and meat and things; and whilst the others was -leaving, the key come from the house. - -This nigger had a good-natured, chuckle-headed face, and his wool was -all tied up in little bunches with thread.  That was to keep witches -off.  He said the witches was pestering him awful these nights, and -making him see all kinds of strange things, and hear all kinds of -strange words and noises, and he didn't believe he was ever witched so -long before in his life.  He got so worked up, and got to running on so -about his troubles, he forgot all about what he'd been a-going to do. - So Tom says: - -"What's the vittles for?  Going to feed the dogs?" - -The nigger kind of smiled around gradually over his face, like when you -heave a brickbat in a mud-puddle, and he says: - -"Yes, Mars Sid, A dog.  Cur'us dog, too.  Does you want to go en look at -'im?" - -"Yes." - -I hunched Tom, and whispers: - -"You going, right here in the daybreak?  _that_ warn't the plan." - -"No, it warn't; but it's the plan _now_." - -So, drat him, we went along, but I didn't like it much.  When we got in -we couldn't hardly see anything, it was so dark; but Jim was there, sure -enough, and could see us; and he sings out: - -"Why, _Huck_!  En good _lan_'! ain' dat Misto Tom?" - -I just knowed how it would be; I just expected it.  I didn't know -nothing to do; and if I had I couldn't a done it, because that nigger -busted in and says: - -"Why, de gracious sakes! do he know you genlmen?" - -We could see pretty well now.  Tom he looked at the nigger, steady and -kind of wondering, and says: - -"Does _who_ know us?" - -"Why, dis-yer runaway nigger." - -"I don't reckon he does; but what put that into your head?" - -"What _put_ it dar?  Didn' he jis' dis minute sing out like he knowed -you?" - -Tom says, in a puzzled-up kind of way: - -"Well, that's mighty curious.  _Who_ sung out? _when_ did he sing out? - _what_ did he sing out?" And turns to me, perfectly ca'm, and says, -"Did _you_ hear anybody sing out?" - -Of course there warn't nothing to be said but the one thing; so I says: - -"No; I ain't heard nobody say nothing." - -Then he turns to Jim, and looks him over like he never see him before, -and says: - -"Did you sing out?" - -"No, sah," says Jim; "I hain't said nothing, sah." - -"Not a word?" - -"No, sah, I hain't said a word." - -"Did you ever see us before?" - -"No, sah; not as I knows on." - -So Tom turns to the nigger, which was looking wild and distressed, and -says, kind of severe: - -"What do you reckon's the matter with you, anyway?  What made you think -somebody sung out?" - -"Oh, it's de dad-blame' witches, sah, en I wisht I was dead, I do. - Dey's awluz at it, sah, en dey do mos' kill me, dey sk'yers me so. - Please to don't tell nobody 'bout it sah, er ole Mars Silas he'll scole -me; 'kase he say dey _ain't_ no witches.  I jis' wish to goodness he was -heah now—_den_ what would he say!  I jis' bet he couldn' fine no way to -git aroun' it _dis_ time.  But it's awluz jis' so; people dat's _sot_, -stays sot; dey won't look into noth'n'en fine it out f'r deyselves, en -when _you_ fine it out en tell um 'bout it, dey doan' b'lieve you." - -Tom give him a dime, and said we wouldn't tell nobody; and told him to -buy some more thread to tie up his wool with; and then looks at Jim, and -says: - -"I wonder if Uncle Silas is going to hang this nigger.  If I was to -catch a nigger that was ungrateful enough to run away, I wouldn't give -him up, I'd hang him."  And whilst the nigger stepped to the door to -look at the dime and bite it to see if it was good, he whispers to Jim -and says: - -"Don't ever let on to know us.  And if you hear any digging going on -nights, it's us; we're going to set you free." - -Jim only had time to grab us by the hand and squeeze it; then the nigger -come back, and we said we'd come again some time if the nigger wanted -us to; and he said he would, more particular if it was dark, because the -witches went for him mostly in the dark, and it was good to have folks -around then. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXV. - -IT would be most an hour yet till breakfast, so we left and struck down -into the woods; because Tom said we got to have _some_ light to see how -to dig by, and a lantern makes too much, and might get us into trouble; -what we must have was a lot of them rotten chunks that's called -fox-fire, and just makes a soft kind of a glow when you lay them in a -dark place.  We fetched an armful and hid it in the weeds, and set down -to rest, and Tom says, kind of dissatisfied: - -"Blame it, this whole thing is just as easy and awkward as it can be. -And so it makes it so rotten difficult to get up a difficult plan. - There ain't no watchman to be drugged—now there _ought_ to be a -watchman.  There ain't even a dog to give a sleeping-mixture to.  And -there's Jim chained by one leg, with a ten-foot chain, to the leg of his -bed:  why, all you got to do is to lift up the bedstead and slip off -the chain.  And Uncle Silas he trusts everybody; sends the key to the -punkin-headed nigger, and don't send nobody to watch the nigger.  Jim -could a got out of that window-hole before this, only there wouldn't be -no use trying to travel with a ten-foot chain on his leg.  Why, drat it, -Huck, it's the stupidest arrangement I ever see. You got to invent _all_ -the difficulties.  Well, we can't help it; we got to do the best we can -with the materials we've got. Anyhow, there's one thing—there's more -honor in getting him out through a lot of difficulties and dangers, -where there warn't one of them furnished to you by the people who it was -their duty to furnish them, and you had to contrive them all out of your -own head.  Now look at just that one thing of the lantern.  When you -come down to the cold facts, we simply got to _let on_ that a lantern's -resky.  Why, we could work with a torchlight procession if we wanted to, -I believe.  Now, whilst I think of it, we got to hunt up something to -make a saw out of the first chance we get." - -"What do we want of a saw?" - -"What do we _want_ of it?  Hain't we got to saw the leg of Jim's bed -off, so as to get the chain loose?" - -"Why, you just said a body could lift up the bedstead and slip the chain -off." - -"Well, if that ain't just like you, Huck Finn.  You _can_ get up the -infant-schooliest ways of going at a thing.  Why, hain't you ever read -any books at all?—Baron Trenck, nor Casanova, nor Benvenuto Chelleeny, -nor Henri IV., nor none of them heroes?  Who ever heard of getting a -prisoner loose in such an old-maidy way as that?  No; the way all the -best authorities does is to saw the bed-leg in two, and leave it just -so, and swallow the sawdust, so it can't be found, and put some dirt and -grease around the sawed place so the very keenest seneskal can't see -no sign of it's being sawed, and thinks the bed-leg is perfectly sound. -Then, the night you're ready, fetch the leg a kick, down she goes; slip -off your chain, and there you are.  Nothing to do but hitch your -rope ladder to the battlements, shin down it, break your leg in the -moat—because a rope ladder is nineteen foot too short, you know—and -there's your horses and your trusty vassles, and they scoop you up and -fling you across a saddle, and away you go to your native Langudoc, or -Navarre, or wherever it is. It's gaudy, Huck.  I wish there was a moat -to this cabin. If we get time, the night of the escape, we'll dig one." - -I says: - -"What do we want of a moat when we're going to snake him out from under -the cabin?" - -But he never heard me.  He had forgot me and everything else.  He had -his chin in his hand, thinking.  Pretty soon he sighs and shakes his -head; then sighs again, and says: - -"No, it wouldn't do—there ain't necessity enough for it." - -"For what?"  I says. - -"Why, to saw Jim's leg off," he says. - -"Good land!"  I says; "why, there ain't _no_ necessity for it.  And what -would you want to saw his leg off for, anyway?" - -"Well, some of the best authorities has done it.  They couldn't get the -chain off, so they just cut their hand off and shoved.  And a leg would -be better still.  But we got to let that go.  There ain't necessity -enough in this case; and, besides, Jim's a nigger, and wouldn't -understand the reasons for it, and how it's the custom in Europe; so -we'll let it go.  But there's one thing—he can have a rope ladder; we -can tear up our sheets and make him a rope ladder easy enough.  And we -can send it to him in a pie; it's mostly done that way.  And I've et -worse pies." - -"Why, Tom Sawyer, how you talk," I says; "Jim ain't got no use for a -rope ladder." - -"He _has_ got use for it.  How _you_ talk, you better say; you don't -know nothing about it.  He's _got_ to have a rope ladder; they all do." - -"What in the nation can he _do_ with it?" - -"_Do_ with it?  He can hide it in his bed, can't he?"  That's what they -all do; and _he's_ got to, too.  Huck, you don't ever seem to want to do -anything that's regular; you want to be starting something fresh all the -time. S'pose he _don't_ do nothing with it? ain't it there in his bed, -for a clew, after he's gone? and don't you reckon they'll want clews? - Of course they will.  And you wouldn't leave them any?  That would be a -_pretty_ howdy-do, _wouldn't_ it!  I never heard of such a thing." - -"Well," I says, "if it's in the regulations, and he's got to have -it, all right, let him have it; because I don't wish to go back on no -regulations; but there's one thing, Tom Sawyer—if we go to tearing up -our sheets to make Jim a rope ladder, we're going to get into trouble -with Aunt Sally, just as sure as you're born.  Now, the way I look at -it, a hickry-bark ladder don't cost nothing, and don't waste nothing, -and is just as good to load up a pie with, and hide in a straw tick, -as any rag ladder you can start; and as for Jim, he ain't had no -experience, and so he don't care what kind of a—" - -"Oh, shucks, Huck Finn, if I was as ignorant as you I'd keep -still—that's what I'D do.  Who ever heard of a state prisoner escaping -by a hickry-bark ladder?  Why, it's perfectly ridiculous." - -"Well, all right, Tom, fix it your own way; but if you'll take my -advice, you'll let me borrow a sheet off of the clothesline." - -He said that would do.  And that gave him another idea, and he says: - -"Borrow a shirt, too." - -"What do we want of a shirt, Tom?" - -"Want it for Jim to keep a journal on." - -"Journal your granny—_Jim_ can't write." - -"S'pose he _can't_ write—he can make marks on the shirt, can't he, if -we make him a pen out of an old pewter spoon or a piece of an old iron -barrel-hoop?" - -"Why, Tom, we can pull a feather out of a goose and make him a better -one; and quicker, too." - -"_Prisoners_ don't have geese running around the donjon-keep to pull -pens out of, you muggins.  They _always_ make their pens out of the -hardest, toughest, troublesomest piece of old brass candlestick or -something like that they can get their hands on; and it takes them weeks -and weeks and months and months to file it out, too, because they've got -to do it by rubbing it on the wall.  _They_ wouldn't use a goose-quill -if they had it. It ain't regular." - -"Well, then, what'll we make him the ink out of?" - -"Many makes it out of iron-rust and tears; but that's the common sort -and women; the best authorities uses their own blood.  Jim can do that; -and when he wants to send any little common ordinary mysterious message -to let the world know where he's captivated, he can write it on the -bottom of a tin plate with a fork and throw it out of the window.  The -Iron Mask always done that, and it's a blame' good way, too." - -"Jim ain't got no tin plates.  They feed him in a pan." - -"That ain't nothing; we can get him some." - -"Can't nobody _read_ his plates." - -"That ain't got anything to _do_ with it, Huck Finn.  All _he's_ got to -do is to write on the plate and throw it out.  You don't _have_ to be -able to read it. Why, half the time you can't read anything a prisoner -writes on a tin plate, or anywhere else." - -"Well, then, what's the sense in wasting the plates?" - -"Why, blame it all, it ain't the _prisoner's_ plates." - -"But it's _somebody's_ plates, ain't it?" - -"Well, spos'n it is?  What does the _prisoner_ care whose—" - -He broke off there, because we heard the breakfast-horn blowing.  So we -cleared out for the house. - -Along during the morning I borrowed a sheet and a white shirt off of the -clothes-line; and I found an old sack and put them in it, and we went -down and got the fox-fire, and put that in too.  I called it borrowing, -because that was what pap always called it; but Tom said it warn't -borrowing, it was stealing.  He said we was representing prisoners; and -prisoners don't care how they get a thing so they get it, and nobody -don't blame them for it, either.  It ain't no crime in a prisoner to -steal the thing he needs to get away with, Tom said; it's his right; and -so, as long as we was representing a prisoner, we had a perfect right to -steal anything on this place we had the least use for to get ourselves -out of prison with.  He said if we warn't prisoners it would be a very -different thing, and nobody but a mean, ornery person would steal when -he warn't a prisoner.  So we allowed we would steal everything there was -that come handy.  And yet he made a mighty fuss, one day, after that, -when I stole a watermelon out of the nigger-patch and eat it; and he -made me go and give the niggers a dime without telling them what it -was for. Tom said that what he meant was, we could steal anything we -_needed_. Well, I says, I needed the watermelon.  But he said I didn't -need it to get out of prison with; there's where the difference was. - He said if I'd a wanted it to hide a knife in, and smuggle it to Jim -to kill the seneskal with, it would a been all right.  So I let it go at -that, though I couldn't see no advantage in my representing a prisoner -if I got to set down and chaw over a lot of gold-leaf distinctions like -that every time I see a chance to hog a watermelon. - -Well, as I was saying, we waited that morning till everybody was settled -down to business, and nobody in sight around the yard; then Tom he -carried the sack into the lean-to whilst I stood off a piece to keep -watch.  By and by he come out, and we went and set down on the woodpile -to talk.  He says: - -"Everything's all right now except tools; and that's easy fixed." - -"Tools?"  I says. - -"Yes." - -"Tools for what?" - -"Why, to dig with.  We ain't a-going to _gnaw_ him out, are we?" - -"Ain't them old crippled picks and things in there good enough to dig a -nigger out with?"  I says. - -He turns on me, looking pitying enough to make a body cry, and says: - -"Huck Finn, did you _ever_ hear of a prisoner having picks and shovels, -and all the modern conveniences in his wardrobe to dig himself out with? - Now I want to ask you—if you got any reasonableness in you at all—what -kind of a show would _that_ give him to be a hero?  Why, they might as -well lend him the key and done with it.  Picks and shovels—why, they -wouldn't furnish 'em to a king." - -"Well, then," I says, "if we don't want the picks and shovels, what do -we want?" - -"A couple of case-knives." - -"To dig the foundations out from under that cabin with?" - -"Yes." - -"Confound it, it's foolish, Tom." - -"It don't make no difference how foolish it is, it's the _right_ way—and -it's the regular way.  And there ain't no _other_ way, that ever I heard -of, and I've read all the books that gives any information about these -things. They always dig out with a case-knife—and not through dirt, mind -you; generly it's through solid rock.  And it takes them weeks and weeks -and weeks, and for ever and ever.  Why, look at one of them prisoners in -the bottom dungeon of the Castle Deef, in the harbor of Marseilles, that -dug himself out that way; how long was _he_ at it, you reckon?" - -"I don't know." - -"Well, guess." - -"I don't know.  A month and a half." - -"_Thirty-seven year_—and he come out in China.  _That's_ the kind.  I -wish the bottom of _this_ fortress was solid rock." - -"_Jim_ don't know nobody in China." - -"What's _that_ got to do with it?  Neither did that other fellow.  But -you're always a-wandering off on a side issue.  Why can't you stick to -the main point?" - -"All right—I don't care where he comes out, so he _comes_ out; and Jim -don't, either, I reckon.  But there's one thing, anyway—Jim's too old to -be dug out with a case-knife.  He won't last." - -"Yes he will _last_, too.  You don't reckon it's going to take -thirty-seven years to dig out through a _dirt_ foundation, do you?" - -"How long will it take, Tom?" - -"Well, we can't resk being as long as we ought to, because it mayn't -take very long for Uncle Silas to hear from down there by New Orleans. - He'll hear Jim ain't from there.  Then his next move will be to -advertise Jim, or something like that.  So we can't resk being as long -digging him out as we ought to.  By rights I reckon we ought to be -a couple of years; but we can't.  Things being so uncertain, what I -recommend is this:  that we really dig right in, as quick as we can; -and after that, we can _let on_, to ourselves, that we was at it -thirty-seven years.  Then we can snatch him out and rush him away the -first time there's an alarm.  Yes, I reckon that 'll be the best way." - -"Now, there's _sense_ in that," I says.  "Letting on don't cost nothing; -letting on ain't no trouble; and if it's any object, I don't mind -letting on we was at it a hundred and fifty year.  It wouldn't strain -me none, after I got my hand in.  So I'll mosey along now, and smouch a -couple of case-knives." - -"Smouch three," he says; "we want one to make a saw out of." - -"Tom, if it ain't unregular and irreligious to sejest it," I says, -"there's an old rusty saw-blade around yonder sticking under the -weather-boarding behind the smoke-house." - -He looked kind of weary and discouraged-like, and says: - -"It ain't no use to try to learn you nothing, Huck.  Run along and -smouch the knives—three of them."  So I done it. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVI. - -AS soon as we reckoned everybody was asleep that night we went down the -lightning-rod, and shut ourselves up in the lean-to, and got out our -pile of fox-fire, and went to work.  We cleared everything out of the -way, about four or five foot along the middle of the bottom log.  Tom -said he was right behind Jim's bed now, and we'd dig in under it, and -when we got through there couldn't nobody in the cabin ever know there -was any hole there, because Jim's counter-pin hung down most to the -ground, and you'd have to raise it up and look under to see the hole. - So we dug and dug with the case-knives till most midnight; and then -we was dog-tired, and our hands was blistered, and yet you couldn't see -we'd done anything hardly.  At last I says: - -"This ain't no thirty-seven year job; this is a thirty-eight year job, -Tom Sawyer." - -He never said nothing.  But he sighed, and pretty soon he stopped -digging, and then for a good little while I knowed that he was thinking. -Then he says: - -"It ain't no use, Huck, it ain't a-going to work.  If we was prisoners -it would, because then we'd have as many years as we wanted, and no -hurry; and we wouldn't get but a few minutes to dig, every day, while -they was changing watches, and so our hands wouldn't get blistered, and -we could keep it up right along, year in and year out, and do it right, -and the way it ought to be done.  But _we_ can't fool along; we got to -rush; we ain't got no time to spare.  If we was to put in another -night this way we'd have to knock off for a week to let our hands get -well—couldn't touch a case-knife with them sooner." - -"Well, then, what we going to do, Tom?" - -"I'll tell you.  It ain't right, and it ain't moral, and I wouldn't like -it to get out; but there ain't only just the one way:  we got to dig him -out with the picks, and _let on_ it's case-knives." - -"_Now_ you're _talking_!"  I says; "your head gets leveler and leveler -all the time, Tom Sawyer," I says.  "Picks is the thing, moral or no -moral; and as for me, I don't care shucks for the morality of it, nohow. - When I start in to steal a nigger, or a watermelon, or a Sunday-school -book, I ain't no ways particular how it's done so it's done.  What I -want is my nigger; or what I want is my watermelon; or what I want is my -Sunday-school book; and if a pick's the handiest thing, that's the thing -I'm a-going to dig that nigger or that watermelon or that Sunday-school -book out with; and I don't give a dead rat what the authorities thinks -about it nuther." - -"Well," he says, "there's excuse for picks and letting-on in a case like -this; if it warn't so, I wouldn't approve of it, nor I wouldn't stand by -and see the rules broke—because right is right, and wrong is wrong, -and a body ain't got no business doing wrong when he ain't ignorant and -knows better.  It might answer for _you_ to dig Jim out with a pick, -_without_ any letting on, because you don't know no better; but it -wouldn't for me, because I do know better.  Gimme a case-knife." - -He had his own by him, but I handed him mine.  He flung it down, and -says: - -"Gimme a _case-knife_." - -I didn't know just what to do—but then I thought.  I scratched around -amongst the old tools, and got a pickaxe and give it to him, and he took -it and went to work, and never said a word. - -He was always just that particular.  Full of principle. - -So then I got a shovel, and then we picked and shoveled, turn about, -and made the fur fly.  We stuck to it about a half an hour, which was as -long as we could stand up; but we had a good deal of a hole to show for -it. When I got up stairs I looked out at the window and see Tom doing -his level best with the lightning-rod, but he couldn't come it, his -hands was so sore.  At last he says: - -"It ain't no use, it can't be done.  What you reckon I better do?  Can't -you think of no way?" - -"Yes," I says, "but I reckon it ain't regular.  Come up the stairs, and -let on it's a lightning-rod." - -So he done it. - -Next day Tom stole a pewter spoon and a brass candlestick in the house, -for to make some pens for Jim out of, and six tallow candles; and I -hung around the nigger cabins and laid for a chance, and stole three tin -plates.  Tom says it wasn't enough; but I said nobody wouldn't ever see -the plates that Jim throwed out, because they'd fall in the dog-fennel -and jimpson weeds under the window-hole—then we could tote them back and -he could use them over again.  So Tom was satisfied.  Then he says: - -"Now, the thing to study out is, how to get the things to Jim." - -"Take them in through the hole," I says, "when we get it done." - -He only just looked scornful, and said something about nobody ever heard -of such an idiotic idea, and then he went to studying.  By and by he -said he had ciphered out two or three ways, but there warn't no need to -decide on any of them yet.  Said we'd got to post Jim first. - -That night we went down the lightning-rod a little after ten, and took -one of the candles along, and listened under the window-hole, and heard -Jim snoring; so we pitched it in, and it didn't wake him.  Then we -whirled in with the pick and shovel, and in about two hours and a half -the job was done.  We crept in under Jim's bed and into the cabin, and -pawed around and found the candle and lit it, and stood over Jim awhile, -and found him looking hearty and healthy, and then we woke him up gentle -and gradual.  He was so glad to see us he most cried; and called us -honey, and all the pet names he could think of; and was for having us -hunt up a cold-chisel to cut the chain off of his leg with right away, -and clearing out without losing any time.  But Tom he showed him how -unregular it would be, and set down and told him all about our plans, -and how we could alter them in a minute any time there was an alarm; and -not to be the least afraid, because we would see he got away, _sure_. - So Jim he said it was all right, and we set there and talked over old -times awhile, and then Tom asked a lot of questions, and when Jim told -him Uncle Silas come in every day or two to pray with him, and Aunt -Sally come in to see if he was comfortable and had plenty to eat, and -both of them was kind as they could be, Tom says: - -"_Now_ I know how to fix it.  We'll send you some things by them." - -I said, "Don't do nothing of the kind; it's one of the most jackass -ideas I ever struck;" but he never paid no attention to me; went right -on.  It was his way when he'd got his plans set. - -So he told Jim how we'd have to smuggle in the rope-ladder pie and other -large things by Nat, the nigger that fed him, and he must be on the -lookout, and not be surprised, and not let Nat see him open them; and -we would put small things in uncle's coat-pockets and he must steal them -out; and we would tie things to aunt's apron-strings or put them in her -apron-pocket, if we got a chance; and told him what they would be and -what they was for.  And told him how to keep a journal on the shirt with -his blood, and all that. He told him everything.  Jim he couldn't see -no sense in the most of it, but he allowed we was white folks and knowed -better than him; so he was satisfied, and said he would do it all just -as Tom said. - -Jim had plenty corn-cob pipes and tobacco; so we had a right down good -sociable time; then we crawled out through the hole, and so home to -bed, with hands that looked like they'd been chawed.  Tom was in high -spirits. He said it was the best fun he ever had in his life, and the -most intellectural; and said if he only could see his way to it we would -keep it up all the rest of our lives and leave Jim to our children to -get out; for he believed Jim would come to like it better and better the -more he got used to it.  He said that in that way it could be strung out -to as much as eighty year, and would be the best time on record.  And he -said it would make us all celebrated that had a hand in it. - -In the morning we went out to the woodpile and chopped up the brass -candlestick into handy sizes, and Tom put them and the pewter spoon in -his pocket.  Then we went to the nigger cabins, and while I got Nat's -notice off, Tom shoved a piece of candlestick into the middle of a -corn-pone that was in Jim's pan, and we went along with Nat to see how -it would work, and it just worked noble; when Jim bit into it it most -mashed all his teeth out; and there warn't ever anything could a worked -better. Tom said so himself. Jim he never let on but what it was only -just a piece of rock or something like that that's always getting into -bread, you know; but after that he never bit into nothing but what he -jabbed his fork into it in three or four places first. - -And whilst we was a-standing there in the dimmish light, here comes a -couple of the hounds bulging in from under Jim's bed; and they kept on -piling in till there was eleven of them, and there warn't hardly room -in there to get your breath.  By jings, we forgot to fasten that lean-to -door!  The nigger Nat he only just hollered "Witches" once, and keeled -over on to the floor amongst the dogs, and begun to groan like he was -dying.  Tom jerked the door open and flung out a slab of Jim's meat, -and the dogs went for it, and in two seconds he was out himself and back -again and shut the door, and I knowed he'd fixed the other door too. -Then he went to work on the nigger, coaxing him and petting him, and -asking him if he'd been imagining he saw something again.  He raised up, -and blinked his eyes around, and says: - -"Mars Sid, you'll say I's a fool, but if I didn't b'lieve I see most a -million dogs, er devils, er some'n, I wisht I may die right heah in dese -tracks.  I did, mos' sholy.  Mars Sid, I _felt_ um—I _felt_ um, sah; dey -was all over me.  Dad fetch it, I jis' wisht I could git my han's on one -er dem witches jis' wunst—on'y jis' wunst—it's all I'd ast.  But mos'ly -I wisht dey'd lemme 'lone, I does." - -Tom says: - -"Well, I tell you what I think.  What makes them come here just at this -runaway nigger's breakfast-time?  It's because they're hungry; that's -the reason.  You make them a witch pie; that's the thing for _you_ to -do." - -"But my lan', Mars Sid, how's I gwyne to make 'm a witch pie?  I doan' -know how to make it.  I hain't ever hearn er sich a thing b'fo'." - -"Well, then, I'll have to make it myself." - -"Will you do it, honey?—will you?  I'll wusshup de groun' und' yo' foot, -I will!" - -"All right, I'll do it, seeing it's you, and you've been good to us and -showed us the runaway nigger.  But you got to be mighty careful.  When -we come around, you turn your back; and then whatever we've put in the -pan, don't you let on you see it at all.  And don't you look when Jim -unloads the pan—something might happen, I don't know what.  And above -all, don't you _handle_ the witch-things." - -"_Hannel 'M_, Mars Sid?  What _is_ you a-talkin' 'bout?  I wouldn' -lay de weight er my finger on um, not f'r ten hund'd thous'n billion -dollars, I wouldn't." - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVII. - -THAT was all fixed.  So then we went away and went to the rubbage-pile -in the back yard, where they keep the old boots, and rags, and pieces -of bottles, and wore-out tin things, and all such truck, and scratched -around and found an old tin washpan, and stopped up the holes as well as -we could, to bake the pie in, and took it down cellar and stole it full -of flour and started for breakfast, and found a couple of shingle-nails -that Tom said would be handy for a prisoner to scrabble his name and -sorrows on the dungeon walls with, and dropped one of them in Aunt -Sally's apron-pocket which was hanging on a chair, and t'other we stuck -in the band of Uncle Silas's hat, which was on the bureau, because we -heard the children say their pa and ma was going to the runaway nigger's -house this morning, and then went to breakfast, and Tom dropped the -pewter spoon in Uncle Silas's coat-pocket, and Aunt Sally wasn't come -yet, so we had to wait a little while. - -And when she come she was hot and red and cross, and couldn't hardly -wait for the blessing; and then she went to sluicing out coffee with one -hand and cracking the handiest child's head with her thimble with the -other, and says: - -"I've hunted high and I've hunted low, and it does beat all what _has_ -become of your other shirt." - -My heart fell down amongst my lungs and livers and things, and a hard -piece of corn-crust started down my throat after it and got met on the -road with a cough, and was shot across the table, and took one of the -children in the eye and curled him up like a fishing-worm, and let a cry -out of him the size of a warwhoop, and Tom he turned kinder blue around -the gills, and it all amounted to a considerable state of things for -about a quarter of a minute or as much as that, and I would a sold out -for half price if there was a bidder.  But after that we was all right -again—it was the sudden surprise of it that knocked us so kind of cold. -Uncle Silas he says: - -"It's most uncommon curious, I can't understand it.  I know perfectly -well I took it _off_, because—" - -"Because you hain't got but one _on_.  Just _listen_ at the man!  I know -you took it off, and know it by a better way than your wool-gethering -memory, too, because it was on the clo's-line yesterday—I see it there -myself. But it's gone, that's the long and the short of it, and you'll -just have to change to a red flann'l one till I can get time to make a -new one. And it 'll be the third I've made in two years.  It just keeps -a body on the jump to keep you in shirts; and whatever you do manage to -_do_ with 'm all is more'n I can make out.  A body 'd think you _would_ -learn to take some sort of care of 'em at your time of life." - -"I know it, Sally, and I do try all I can.  But it oughtn't to be -altogether my fault, because, you know, I don't see them nor have -nothing to do with them except when they're on me; and I don't believe -I've ever lost one of them _off_ of me." - -"Well, it ain't _your_ fault if you haven't, Silas; you'd a done it -if you could, I reckon.  And the shirt ain't all that's gone, nuther. - Ther's a spoon gone; and _that_ ain't all.  There was ten, and now -ther's only nine. The calf got the shirt, I reckon, but the calf never -took the spoon, _that's_ certain." - -"Why, what else is gone, Sally?" - -"Ther's six _candles_ gone—that's what.  The rats could a got the -candles, and I reckon they did; I wonder they don't walk off with the -whole place, the way you're always going to stop their holes and don't -do it; and if they warn't fools they'd sleep in your hair, Silas—_you'd_ -never find it out; but you can't lay the _spoon_ on the rats, and that I -know." - -"Well, Sally, I'm in fault, and I acknowledge it; I've been remiss; but -I won't let to-morrow go by without stopping up them holes." - -"Oh, I wouldn't hurry; next year 'll do.  Matilda Angelina Araminta -_Phelps!_" - -Whack comes the thimble, and the child snatches her claws out of the -sugar-bowl without fooling around any.  Just then the nigger woman steps -on to the passage, and says: - -"Missus, dey's a sheet gone." - -"A _sheet_ gone!  Well, for the land's sake!" - -"I'll stop up them holes to-day," says Uncle Silas, looking sorrowful. - -"Oh, _do_ shet up!—s'pose the rats took the _sheet_?  _where's_ it gone, -Lize?" - -"Clah to goodness I hain't no notion, Miss' Sally.  She wuz on de -clo'sline yistiddy, but she done gone:  she ain' dah no mo' now." - -"I reckon the world _is_ coming to an end.  I _never_ see the beat of it -in all my born days.  A shirt, and a sheet, and a spoon, and six can—" - -"Missus," comes a young yaller wench, "dey's a brass cannelstick -miss'n." - -"Cler out from here, you hussy, er I'll take a skillet to ye!" - -Well, she was just a-biling.  I begun to lay for a chance; I reckoned -I would sneak out and go for the woods till the weather moderated.  She -kept a-raging right along, running her insurrection all by herself, and -everybody else mighty meek and quiet; and at last Uncle Silas, looking -kind of foolish, fishes up that spoon out of his pocket.  She stopped, -with her mouth open and her hands up; and as for me, I wished I was in -Jeruslem or somewheres. But not long, because she says: - -"It's _just_ as I expected.  So you had it in your pocket all the time; -and like as not you've got the other things there, too.  How'd it get -there?" - -"I reely don't know, Sally," he says, kind of apologizing, "or you know -I would tell.  I was a-studying over my text in Acts Seventeen before -breakfast, and I reckon I put it in there, not noticing, meaning to put -my Testament in, and it must be so, because my Testament ain't in; but -I'll go and see; and if the Testament is where I had it, I'll know I -didn't put it in, and that will show that I laid the Testament down and -took up the spoon, and—" - -"Oh, for the land's sake!  Give a body a rest!  Go 'long now, the whole -kit and biling of ye; and don't come nigh me again till I've got back my -peace of mind." - -I'D a heard her if she'd a said it to herself, let alone speaking it -out; and I'd a got up and obeyed her if I'd a been dead.  As we was -passing through the setting-room the old man he took up his hat, and the -shingle-nail fell out on the floor, and he just merely picked it up and -laid it on the mantel-shelf, and never said nothing, and went out.  Tom -see him do it, and remembered about the spoon, and says: - -"Well, it ain't no use to send things by _him_ no more, he ain't -reliable." Then he says:  "But he done us a good turn with the spoon, -anyway, without knowing it, and so we'll go and do him one without _him_ -knowing it—stop up his rat-holes." - -There was a noble good lot of them down cellar, and it took us a whole -hour, but we done the job tight and good and shipshape.  Then we heard -steps on the stairs, and blowed out our light and hid; and here comes -the old man, with a candle in one hand and a bundle of stuff in t'other, -looking as absent-minded as year before last.  He went a mooning around, -first to one rat-hole and then another, till he'd been to them all. - Then he stood about five minutes, picking tallow-drip off of his candle -and thinking.  Then he turns off slow and dreamy towards the stairs, -saying: - -"Well, for the life of me I can't remember when I done it.  I could -show her now that I warn't to blame on account of the rats.  But never -mind—let it go.  I reckon it wouldn't do no good." - -And so he went on a-mumbling up stairs, and then we left.  He was a -mighty nice old man.  And always is. - -Tom was a good deal bothered about what to do for a spoon, but he said -we'd got to have it; so he took a think.  When he had ciphered it out -he told me how we was to do; then we went and waited around the -spoon-basket till we see Aunt Sally coming, and then Tom went to -counting the spoons and laying them out to one side, and I slid one of -them up my sleeve, and Tom says: - -"Why, Aunt Sally, there ain't but nine spoons _yet_." - -She says: - -"Go 'long to your play, and don't bother me.  I know better, I counted -'m myself." - -"Well, I've counted them twice, Aunty, and I can't make but nine." - -She looked out of all patience, but of course she come to count—anybody -would. - -"I declare to gracious ther' _ain't_ but nine!" she says.  "Why, what in -the world—plague _take_ the things, I'll count 'm again." - -So I slipped back the one I had, and when she got done counting, she -says: - -"Hang the troublesome rubbage, ther's _ten_ now!" and she looked huffy -and bothered both.  But Tom says: - -"Why, Aunty, I don't think there's ten." - -"You numskull, didn't you see me _count 'm?_" - -"I know, but—" - -"Well, I'll count 'm _again_." - -So I smouched one, and they come out nine, same as the other time. - Well, she _was_ in a tearing way—just a-trembling all over, she was so -mad.  But she counted and counted till she got that addled she'd start -to count in the basket for a spoon sometimes; and so, three times they -come out right, and three times they come out wrong.  Then she grabbed -up the basket and slammed it across the house and knocked the cat -galley-west; and she said cle'r out and let her have some peace, and if -we come bothering around her again betwixt that and dinner she'd skin -us.  So we had the odd spoon, and dropped it in her apron-pocket whilst -she was a-giving us our sailing orders, and Jim got it all right, along -with her shingle nail, before noon.  We was very well satisfied with -this business, and Tom allowed it was worth twice the trouble it took, -because he said _now_ she couldn't ever count them spoons twice alike -again to save her life; and wouldn't believe she'd counted them right if -she _did_; and said that after she'd about counted her head off for the -next three days he judged she'd give it up and offer to kill anybody -that wanted her to ever count them any more. - -So we put the sheet back on the line that night, and stole one out of -her closet; and kept on putting it back and stealing it again for a -couple of days till she didn't know how many sheets she had any more, -and she didn't _care_, and warn't a-going to bullyrag the rest of her -soul out about it, and wouldn't count them again not to save her life; -she druther die first. - -So we was all right now, as to the shirt and the sheet and the spoon -and the candles, by the help of the calf and the rats and the mixed-up -counting; and as to the candlestick, it warn't no consequence, it would -blow over by and by. - -But that pie was a job; we had no end of trouble with that pie.  We -fixed it up away down in the woods, and cooked it there; and we got it -done at last, and very satisfactory, too; but not all in one day; and we -had to use up three wash-pans full of flour before we got through, and -we got burnt pretty much all over, in places, and eyes put out with -the smoke; because, you see, we didn't want nothing but a crust, and we -couldn't prop it up right, and she would always cave in.  But of course -we thought of the right way at last—which was to cook the ladder, too, -in the pie.  So then we laid in with Jim the second night, and tore -up the sheet all in little strings and twisted them together, and long -before daylight we had a lovely rope that you could a hung a person -with.  We let on it took nine months to make it. - -And in the forenoon we took it down to the woods, but it wouldn't go -into the pie.  Being made of a whole sheet, that way, there was rope -enough for forty pies if we'd a wanted them, and plenty left over -for soup, or sausage, or anything you choose.  We could a had a whole -dinner. - -But we didn't need it.  All we needed was just enough for the pie, and -so we throwed the rest away.  We didn't cook none of the pies in the -wash-pan—afraid the solder would melt; but Uncle Silas he had a noble -brass warming-pan which he thought considerable of, because it belonged -to one of his ancesters with a long wooden handle that come over from -England with William the Conqueror in the Mayflower or one of them early -ships and was hid away up garret with a lot of other old pots and things -that was valuable, not on account of being any account, because they -warn't, but on account of them being relicts, you know, and we snaked -her out, private, and took her down there, but she failed on the first -pies, because we didn't know how, but she come up smiling on the last -one.  We took and lined her with dough, and set her in the coals, and -loaded her up with rag rope, and put on a dough roof, and shut down the -lid, and put hot embers on top, and stood off five foot, with the long -handle, cool and comfortable, and in fifteen minutes she turned out a -pie that was a satisfaction to look at. But the person that et it would -want to fetch a couple of kags of toothpicks along, for if that rope -ladder wouldn't cramp him down to business I don't know nothing what I'm -talking about, and lay him in enough stomach-ache to last him till next -time, too. - -Nat didn't look when we put the witch pie in Jim's pan; and we put the -three tin plates in the bottom of the pan under the vittles; and so Jim -got everything all right, and as soon as he was by himself he busted -into the pie and hid the rope ladder inside of his straw tick, -and scratched some marks on a tin plate and throwed it out of the -window-hole. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVIII. - -MAKING them pens was a distressid tough job, and so was the saw; and Jim -allowed the inscription was going to be the toughest of all.  That's the -one which the prisoner has to scrabble on the wall.  But he had to have -it; Tom said he'd _got_ to; there warn't no case of a state prisoner not -scrabbling his inscription to leave behind, and his coat of arms. - -"Look at Lady Jane Grey," he says; "look at Gilford Dudley; look at old -Northumberland!  Why, Huck, s'pose it _is_ considerble trouble?—what -you going to do?—how you going to get around it?  Jim's _got_ to do his -inscription and coat of arms.  They all do." - -Jim says: - -"Why, Mars Tom, I hain't got no coat o' arm; I hain't got nuffn but dish -yer ole shirt, en you knows I got to keep de journal on dat." - -"Oh, you don't understand, Jim; a coat of arms is very different." - -"Well," I says, "Jim's right, anyway, when he says he ain't got no coat -of arms, because he hain't." - -"I reckon I knowed that," Tom says, "but you bet he'll have one before -he goes out of this—because he's going out _right_, and there ain't -going to be no flaws in his record." - -So whilst me and Jim filed away at the pens on a brickbat apiece, Jim -a-making his'n out of the brass and I making mine out of the spoon, -Tom set to work to think out the coat of arms.  By and by he said he'd -struck so many good ones he didn't hardly know which to take, but there -was one which he reckoned he'd decide on.  He says: - -"On the scutcheon we'll have a bend _or_ in the dexter base, a saltire -_murrey_ in the fess, with a dog, couchant, for common charge, and under -his foot a chain embattled, for slavery, with a chevron _vert_ in a -chief engrailed, and three invected lines on a field _azure_, with the -nombril points rampant on a dancette indented; crest, a runaway nigger, -_sable_, with his bundle over his shoulder on a bar sinister; and a -couple of gules for supporters, which is you and me; motto, _Maggiore -Fretta, Minore Otto._  Got it out of a book—means the more haste the -less speed." - -"Geewhillikins," I says, "but what does the rest of it mean?" - -"We ain't got no time to bother over that," he says; "we got to dig in -like all git-out." - -"Well, anyway," I says, "what's _some_ of it?  What's a fess?" - -"A fess—a fess is—_you_ don't need to know what a fess is.  I'll show -him how to make it when he gets to it." - -"Shucks, Tom," I says, "I think you might tell a person.  What's a bar -sinister?" - -"Oh, I don't know.  But he's got to have it.  All the nobility does." - -That was just his way.  If it didn't suit him to explain a thing to you, -he wouldn't do it.  You might pump at him a week, it wouldn't make no -difference. - -He'd got all that coat of arms business fixed, so now he started in to -finish up the rest of that part of the work, which was to plan out a -mournful inscription—said Jim got to have one, like they all done.  He -made up a lot, and wrote them out on a paper, and read them off, so: - -1.  Here a captive heart busted. 2.  Here a poor prisoner, forsook by -the world and friends, fretted his sorrowful life. 3.  Here a lonely -heart broke, and a worn spirit went to its rest, after thirty-seven -years of solitary captivity. 4.  Here, homeless and friendless, after -thirty-seven years of bitter captivity, perished a noble stranger, -natural son of Louis XIV. - -Tom's voice trembled whilst he was reading them, and he most broke down. -When he got done he couldn't no way make up his mind which one for Jim -to scrabble on to the wall, they was all so good; but at last he allowed -he would let him scrabble them all on.  Jim said it would take him a -year to scrabble such a lot of truck on to the logs with a nail, and he -didn't know how to make letters, besides; but Tom said he would block -them out for him, and then he wouldn't have nothing to do but just -follow the lines.  Then pretty soon he says: - -"Come to think, the logs ain't a-going to do; they don't have log walls -in a dungeon:  we got to dig the inscriptions into a rock.  We'll fetch -a rock." - -Jim said the rock was worse than the logs; he said it would take him -such a pison long time to dig them into a rock he wouldn't ever get out. - But Tom said he would let me help him do it.  Then he took a look to -see how me and Jim was getting along with the pens.  It was most pesky -tedious hard work and slow, and didn't give my hands no show to get -well of the sores, and we didn't seem to make no headway, hardly; so Tom -says: - -"I know how to fix it.  We got to have a rock for the coat of arms and -mournful inscriptions, and we can kill two birds with that same rock. -There's a gaudy big grindstone down at the mill, and we'll smouch it, -and carve the things on it, and file out the pens and the saw on it, -too." - -It warn't no slouch of an idea; and it warn't no slouch of a grindstone -nuther; but we allowed we'd tackle it.  It warn't quite midnight yet, -so we cleared out for the mill, leaving Jim at work.  We smouched the -grindstone, and set out to roll her home, but it was a most nation tough -job. Sometimes, do what we could, we couldn't keep her from falling -over, and she come mighty near mashing us every time.  Tom said she was -going to get one of us, sure, before we got through.  We got her half -way; and then we was plumb played out, and most drownded with sweat.  We -see it warn't no use; we got to go and fetch Jim. So he raised up his -bed and slid the chain off of the bed-leg, and wrapt it round and round -his neck, and we crawled out through our hole and down there, and Jim -and me laid into that grindstone and walked her along like nothing; and -Tom superintended.  He could out-superintend any boy I ever see.  He -knowed how to do everything. - -Our hole was pretty big, but it warn't big enough to get the grindstone -through; but Jim he took the pick and soon made it big enough.  Then Tom -marked out them things on it with the nail, and set Jim to work on them, -with the nail for a chisel and an iron bolt from the rubbage in the -lean-to for a hammer, and told him to work till the rest of his candle -quit on him, and then he could go to bed, and hide the grindstone under -his straw tick and sleep on it.  Then we helped him fix his chain back -on the bed-leg, and was ready for bed ourselves.  But Tom thought of -something, and says: - -"You got any spiders in here, Jim?" - -"No, sah, thanks to goodness I hain't, Mars Tom." - -"All right, we'll get you some." - -"But bless you, honey, I doan' _want_ none.  I's afeard un um.  I jis' -'s soon have rattlesnakes aroun'." - -Tom thought a minute or two, and says: - -"It's a good idea.  And I reckon it's been done.  It _must_ a been done; -it stands to reason.  Yes, it's a prime good idea.  Where could you keep -it?" - -"Keep what, Mars Tom?" - -"Why, a rattlesnake." - -"De goodness gracious alive, Mars Tom!  Why, if dey was a rattlesnake to -come in heah I'd take en bust right out thoo dat log wall, I would, wid -my head." - -"Why, Jim, you wouldn't be afraid of it after a little.  You could tame -it." - -"_Tame_ it!" - -"Yes—easy enough.  Every animal is grateful for kindness and petting, -and they wouldn't _think_ of hurting a person that pets them.  Any book -will tell you that.  You try—that's all I ask; just try for two or three -days. Why, you can get him so, in a little while, that he'll love you; -and sleep with you; and won't stay away from you a minute; and will let -you wrap him round your neck and put his head in your mouth." - -"_Please_, Mars Tom—_doan_' talk so!  I can't _stan_' it!  He'd _let_ -me shove his head in my mouf—fer a favor, hain't it?  I lay he'd wait a -pow'ful long time 'fo' I _ast_ him.  En mo' en dat, I doan' _want_ him -to sleep wid me." - -"Jim, don't act so foolish.  A prisoner's _got_ to have some kind of a -dumb pet, and if a rattlesnake hain't ever been tried, why, there's more -glory to be gained in your being the first to ever try it than any other -way you could ever think of to save your life." - -"Why, Mars Tom, I doan' _want_ no sich glory.  Snake take 'n bite -Jim's chin off, den _whah_ is de glory?  No, sah, I doan' want no sich -doin's." - -"Blame it, can't you _try_?  I only _want_ you to try—you needn't keep -it up if it don't work." - -"But de trouble all _done_ ef de snake bite me while I's a tryin' him. -Mars Tom, I's willin' to tackle mos' anything 'at ain't onreasonable, -but ef you en Huck fetches a rattlesnake in heah for me to tame, I's -gwyne to _leave_, dat's _shore_." - -"Well, then, let it go, let it go, if you're so bull-headed about it. - We can get you some garter-snakes, and you can tie some buttons on -their tails, and let on they're rattlesnakes, and I reckon that 'll have -to do." - -"I k'n stan' _dem_, Mars Tom, but blame' 'f I couldn' get along widout -um, I tell you dat.  I never knowed b'fo' 't was so much bother and -trouble to be a prisoner." - -"Well, it _always_ is when it's done right.  You got any rats around -here?" - -"No, sah, I hain't seed none." - -"Well, we'll get you some rats." - -"Why, Mars Tom, I doan' _want_ no rats.  Dey's de dadblamedest creturs -to 'sturb a body, en rustle roun' over 'im, en bite his feet, when he's -tryin' to sleep, I ever see.  No, sah, gimme g'yarter-snakes, 'f I's -got to have 'm, but doan' gimme no rats; I hain' got no use f'r um, -skasely." - -"But, Jim, you _got_ to have 'em—they all do.  So don't make no more -fuss about it.  Prisoners ain't ever without rats.  There ain't no -instance of it.  And they train them, and pet them, and learn them -tricks, and they get to be as sociable as flies.  But you got to play -music to them.  You got anything to play music on?" - -"I ain' got nuffn but a coase comb en a piece o' paper, en a juice-harp; -but I reck'n dey wouldn' take no stock in a juice-harp." - -"Yes they would _they_ don't care what kind of music 'tis.  A -jews-harp's plenty good enough for a rat.  All animals like music—in a -prison they dote on it.  Specially, painful music; and you can't get no -other kind out of a jews-harp.  It always interests them; they come out -to see what's the matter with you.  Yes, you're all right; you're fixed -very well.  You want to set on your bed nights before you go to sleep, -and early in the mornings, and play your jews-harp; play 'The Last Link -is Broken'—that's the thing that 'll scoop a rat quicker 'n anything -else; and when you've played about two minutes you'll see all the rats, -and the snakes, and spiders, and things begin to feel worried about you, -and come.  And they'll just fairly swarm over you, and have a noble good -time." - -"Yes, _dey_ will, I reck'n, Mars Tom, but what kine er time is _Jim_ -havin'? Blest if I kin see de pint.  But I'll do it ef I got to.  I -reck'n I better keep de animals satisfied, en not have no trouble in de -house." - -Tom waited to think it over, and see if there wasn't nothing else; and -pretty soon he says: - -"Oh, there's one thing I forgot.  Could you raise a flower here, do you -reckon?" - -"I doan know but maybe I could, Mars Tom; but it's tolable dark in heah, -en I ain' got no use f'r no flower, nohow, en she'd be a pow'ful sight -o' trouble." - -"Well, you try it, anyway.  Some other prisoners has done it." - -"One er dem big cat-tail-lookin' mullen-stalks would grow in heah, Mars -Tom, I reck'n, but she wouldn't be wuth half de trouble she'd coss." - -"Don't you believe it.  We'll fetch you a little one and you plant it in -the corner over there, and raise it.  And don't call it mullen, call it -Pitchiola—that's its right name when it's in a prison.  And you want to -water it with your tears." - -"Why, I got plenty spring water, Mars Tom." - -"You don't _want_ spring water; you want to water it with your tears. - It's the way they always do." - -"Why, Mars Tom, I lay I kin raise one er dem mullen-stalks twyste wid -spring water whiles another man's a _start'n_ one wid tears." - -"That ain't the idea.  You _got_ to do it with tears." - -"She'll die on my han's, Mars Tom, she sholy will; kase I doan' skasely -ever cry." - -So Tom was stumped.  But he studied it over, and then said Jim would -have to worry along the best he could with an onion.  He promised -he would go to the nigger cabins and drop one, private, in Jim's -coffee-pot, in the morning. Jim said he would "jis' 's soon have -tobacker in his coffee;" and found so much fault with it, and with the -work and bother of raising the mullen, and jews-harping the rats, and -petting and flattering up the snakes and spiders and things, on top of -all the other work he had to do on pens, and inscriptions, and journals, -and things, which made it more trouble and worry and responsibility to -be a prisoner than anything he ever undertook, that Tom most lost all -patience with him; and said he was just loadened down with more gaudier -chances than a prisoner ever had in the world to make a name for -himself, and yet he didn't know enough to appreciate them, and they was -just about wasted on him.  So Jim he was sorry, and said he wouldn't -behave so no more, and then me and Tom shoved for bed. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIX. - -IN the morning we went up to the village and bought a wire rat-trap and -fetched it down, and unstopped the best rat-hole, and in about an hour -we had fifteen of the bulliest kind of ones; and then we took it and put -it in a safe place under Aunt Sally's bed.  But while we was gone for -spiders little Thomas Franklin Benjamin Jefferson Elexander Phelps found -it there, and opened the door of it to see if the rats would come out, -and they did; and Aunt Sally she come in, and when we got back she was -a-standing on top of the bed raising Cain, and the rats was doing what -they could to keep off the dull times for her.  So she took and dusted -us both with the hickry, and we was as much as two hours catching -another fifteen or sixteen, drat that meddlesome cub, and they warn't -the likeliest, nuther, because the first haul was the pick of the flock. - I never see a likelier lot of rats than what that first haul was. - -We got a splendid stock of sorted spiders, and bugs, and frogs, and -caterpillars, and one thing or another; and we like to got a hornet's -nest, but we didn't.  The family was at home.  We didn't give it right -up, but stayed with them as long as we could; because we allowed we'd -tire them out or they'd got to tire us out, and they done it.  Then we -got allycumpain and rubbed on the places, and was pretty near all right -again, but couldn't set down convenient.  And so we went for the snakes, -and grabbed a couple of dozen garters and house-snakes, and put them in -a bag, and put it in our room, and by that time it was supper-time, and -a rattling good honest day's work:  and hungry?—oh, no, I reckon not! - And there warn't a blessed snake up there when we went back—we didn't -half tie the sack, and they worked out somehow, and left.  But it didn't -matter much, because they was still on the premises somewheres.  So -we judged we could get some of them again.  No, there warn't no real -scarcity of snakes about the house for a considerable spell.  You'd see -them dripping from the rafters and places every now and then; and they -generly landed in your plate, or down the back of your neck, and most -of the time where you didn't want them.  Well, they was handsome and -striped, and there warn't no harm in a million of them; but that never -made no difference to Aunt Sally; she despised snakes, be the breed what -they might, and she couldn't stand them no way you could fix it; and -every time one of them flopped down on her, it didn't make no difference -what she was doing, she would just lay that work down and light out.  I -never see such a woman.  And you could hear her whoop to Jericho.  You -couldn't get her to take a-holt of one of them with the tongs.  And if -she turned over and found one in bed she would scramble out and lift a -howl that you would think the house was afire.  She disturbed the old -man so that he said he could most wish there hadn't ever been no snakes -created.  Why, after every last snake had been gone clear out of the -house for as much as a week Aunt Sally warn't over it yet; she warn't -near over it; when she was setting thinking about something you could -touch her on the back of her neck with a feather and she would jump -right out of her stockings.  It was very curious.  But Tom said all -women was just so.  He said they was made that way for some reason or -other. - -We got a licking every time one of our snakes come in her way, and she -allowed these lickings warn't nothing to what she would do if we ever -loaded up the place again with them.  I didn't mind the lickings, -because they didn't amount to nothing; but I minded the trouble we -had to lay in another lot.  But we got them laid in, and all the other -things; and you never see a cabin as blithesome as Jim's was when they'd -all swarm out for music and go for him.  Jim didn't like the spiders, -and the spiders didn't like Jim; and so they'd lay for him, and make it -mighty warm for him.  And he said that between the rats and the snakes -and the grindstone there warn't no room in bed for him, skasely; and -when there was, a body couldn't sleep, it was so lively, and it was -always lively, he said, because _they_ never all slept at one time, but -took turn about, so when the snakes was asleep the rats was on deck, and -when the rats turned in the snakes come on watch, so he always had one -gang under him, in his way, and t'other gang having a circus over him, -and if he got up to hunt a new place the spiders would take a chance at -him as he crossed over. He said if he ever got out this time he wouldn't -ever be a prisoner again, not for a salary. - -Well, by the end of three weeks everything was in pretty good shape. - The shirt was sent in early, in a pie, and every time a rat bit Jim he -would get up and write a little in his journal whilst the ink was fresh; -the pens was made, the inscriptions and so on was all carved on the -grindstone; the bed-leg was sawed in two, and we had et up the sawdust, -and it give us a most amazing stomach-ache.  We reckoned we was all -going to die, but didn't.  It was the most undigestible sawdust I ever -see; and Tom said the same./ - -But as I was saying, we'd got all the work done now, at last; and we was -all pretty much fagged out, too, but mainly Jim.  The old man had wrote -a couple of times to the plantation below Orleans to come and get their -runaway nigger, but hadn't got no answer, because there warn't no such -plantation; so he allowed he would advertise Jim in the St. Louis and -New Orleans papers; and when he mentioned the St. Louis ones it give me -the cold shivers, and I see we hadn't no time to lose. So Tom said, now -for the nonnamous letters. - -"What's them?"  I says. - -"Warnings to the people that something is up.  Sometimes it's done one -way, sometimes another.  But there's always somebody spying around that -gives notice to the governor of the castle.  When Louis XVI. was going -to light out of the Tooleries, a servant-girl done it.  It's a very good -way, and so is the nonnamous letters.  We'll use them both.  And it's -usual for the prisoner's mother to change clothes with him, and she -stays in, and he slides out in her clothes.  We'll do that, too." - -"But looky here, Tom, what do we want to _warn_ anybody for that -something's up?  Let them find it out for themselves—it's their -lookout." - -"Yes, I know; but you can't depend on them.  It's the way they've acted -from the very start—left us to do _everything_.  They're so confiding -and mullet-headed they don't take notice of nothing at all.  So if we -don't _give_ them notice there won't be nobody nor nothing to interfere -with us, and so after all our hard work and trouble this escape 'll go -off perfectly flat; won't amount to nothing—won't be nothing _to_ it." - -"Well, as for me, Tom, that's the way I'd like." - -"Shucks!" he says, and looked disgusted.  So I says: - -"But I ain't going to make no complaint.  Any way that suits you suits -me. What you going to do about the servant-girl?" - -"You'll be her.  You slide in, in the middle of the night, and hook that -yaller girl's frock." - -"Why, Tom, that 'll make trouble next morning; because, of course, she -prob'bly hain't got any but that one." - -"I know; but you don't want it but fifteen minutes, to carry the -nonnamous letter and shove it under the front door." - -"All right, then, I'll do it; but I could carry it just as handy in my -own togs." - -"You wouldn't look like a servant-girl _then_, would you?" - -"No, but there won't be nobody to see what I look like, _anyway_." - -"That ain't got nothing to do with it.  The thing for us to do is just -to do our _duty_, and not worry about whether anybody _sees_ us do it or -not. Hain't you got no principle at all?" - -"All right, I ain't saying nothing; I'm the servant-girl.  Who's Jim's -mother?" - -"I'm his mother.  I'll hook a gown from Aunt Sally." - -"Well, then, you'll have to stay in the cabin when me and Jim leaves." - -"Not much.  I'll stuff Jim's clothes full of straw and lay it on his bed -to represent his mother in disguise, and Jim 'll take the nigger woman's -gown off of me and wear it, and we'll all evade together.  When a -prisoner of style escapes it's called an evasion.  It's always called -so when a king escapes, f'rinstance.  And the same with a king's son; -it don't make no difference whether he's a natural one or an unnatural -one." - -So Tom he wrote the nonnamous letter, and I smouched the yaller wench's -frock that night, and put it on, and shoved it under the front door, the -way Tom told me to.  It said: - -Beware.  Trouble is brewing.  Keep a sharp lookout. _Unknown_ _Friend_. - -Next night we stuck a picture, which Tom drawed in blood, of a skull and -crossbones on the front door; and next night another one of a coffin on -the back door.  I never see a family in such a sweat.  They couldn't a -been worse scared if the place had a been full of ghosts laying for them -behind everything and under the beds and shivering through the air.  If -a door banged, Aunt Sally she jumped and said "ouch!" if anything fell, -she jumped and said "ouch!" if you happened to touch her, when she -warn't noticing, she done the same; she couldn't face noway and be -satisfied, because she allowed there was something behind her every -time—so she was always a-whirling around sudden, and saying "ouch," and -before she'd got two-thirds around she'd whirl back again, and say it -again; and she was afraid to go to bed, but she dasn't set up.  So the -thing was working very well, Tom said; he said he never see a thing work -more satisfactory. He said it showed it was done right. - -So he said, now for the grand bulge!  So the very next morning at the -streak of dawn we got another letter ready, and was wondering what we -better do with it, because we heard them say at supper they was going -to have a nigger on watch at both doors all night.  Tom he went down the -lightning-rod to spy around; and the nigger at the back door was asleep, -and he stuck it in the back of his neck and come back.  This letter -said: - -Don't betray me, I wish to be your friend.  There is a desprate gang of -cutthroats from over in the Indian Territory going to steal your runaway -nigger to-night, and they have been trying to scare you so as you will -stay in the house and not bother them.  I am one of the gang, but have -got religgion and wish to quit it and lead an honest life again, and -will betray the helish design. They will sneak down from northards, -along the fence, at midnight exact, with a false key, and go in the -nigger's cabin to get him. I am to be off a piece and blow a tin horn -if I see any danger; but stead of that I will _baa_ like a sheep soon as -they get in and not blow at all; then whilst they are getting his -chains loose, you slip there and lock them in, and can kill them at your -leasure.  Don't do anything but just the way I am telling you, if you do -they will suspicion something and raise whoop-jamboreehoo. I do not wish -any reward but to know I have done the right thing. _Unknown Friend._ - - - - -CHAPTER XL. - -WE was feeling pretty good after breakfast, and took my canoe and went -over the river a-fishing, with a lunch, and had a good time, and took a -look at the raft and found her all right, and got home late to supper, -and found them in such a sweat and worry they didn't know which end they -was standing on, and made us go right off to bed the minute we was done -supper, and wouldn't tell us what the trouble was, and never let on a -word about the new letter, but didn't need to, because we knowed as much -about it as anybody did, and as soon as we was half up stairs and her -back was turned we slid for the cellar cupboard and loaded up a good -lunch and took it up to our room and went to bed, and got up about -half-past eleven, and Tom put on Aunt Sally's dress that he stole and -was going to start with the lunch, but says: - -"Where's the butter?" - -"I laid out a hunk of it," I says, "on a piece of a corn-pone." - -"Well, you _left_ it laid out, then—it ain't here." - -"We can get along without it," I says. - -"We can get along _with_ it, too," he says; "just you slide down cellar -and fetch it.  And then mosey right down the lightning-rod and come -along. I'll go and stuff the straw into Jim's clothes to represent his -mother in disguise, and be ready to _baa_ like a sheep and shove soon as -you get there." - -So out he went, and down cellar went I. The hunk of butter, big as -a person's fist, was where I had left it, so I took up the slab of -corn-pone with it on, and blowed out my light, and started up stairs -very stealthy, and got up to the main floor all right, but here comes -Aunt Sally with a candle, and I clapped the truck in my hat, and clapped -my hat on my head, and the next second she see me; and she says: - -"You been down cellar?" - -"Yes'm." - -"What you been doing down there?" - -"Noth'n." - -"_Noth'n!_" - -"No'm." - -"Well, then, what possessed you to go down there this time of night?" - -"I don't know 'm." - -"You don't _know_?  Don't answer me that way. Tom, I want to know what -you been _doing_ down there." - -"I hain't been doing a single thing, Aunt Sally, I hope to gracious if I -have." - -I reckoned she'd let me go now, and as a generl thing she would; but I -s'pose there was so many strange things going on she was just in a sweat -about every little thing that warn't yard-stick straight; so she says, -very decided: - -"You just march into that setting-room and stay there till I come.  You -been up to something you no business to, and I lay I'll find out what it -is before I'M done with you." - -So she went away as I opened the door and walked into the setting-room. -My, but there was a crowd there!  Fifteen farmers, and every one of them -had a gun.  I was most powerful sick, and slunk to a chair and set down. -They was setting around, some of them talking a little, in a low voice, -and all of them fidgety and uneasy, but trying to look like they warn't; -but I knowed they was, because they was always taking off their hats, -and putting them on, and scratching their heads, and changing their -seats, and fumbling with their buttons.  I warn't easy myself, but I -didn't take my hat off, all the same. - -I did wish Aunt Sally would come, and get done with me, and lick me, if -she wanted to, and let me get away and tell Tom how we'd overdone this -thing, and what a thundering hornet's-nest we'd got ourselves into, so -we could stop fooling around straight off, and clear out with Jim before -these rips got out of patience and come for us. - -At last she come and begun to ask me questions, but I _couldn't_ answer -them straight, I didn't know which end of me was up; because these men -was in such a fidget now that some was wanting to start right NOW and -lay for them desperadoes, and saying it warn't but a few minutes to -midnight; and others was trying to get them to hold on and wait for the -sheep-signal; and here was Aunty pegging away at the questions, and -me a-shaking all over and ready to sink down in my tracks I was -that scared; and the place getting hotter and hotter, and the butter -beginning to melt and run down my neck and behind my ears; and pretty -soon, when one of them says, "I'M for going and getting in the cabin -_first_ and right _now_, and catching them when they come," I most -dropped; and a streak of butter come a-trickling down my forehead, and -Aunt Sally she see it, and turns white as a sheet, and says: - -"For the land's sake, what _is_ the matter with the child?  He's got the -brain-fever as shore as you're born, and they're oozing out!" - -And everybody runs to see, and she snatches off my hat, and out comes -the bread and what was left of the butter, and she grabbed me, and -hugged me, and says: - -"Oh, what a turn you did give me! and how glad and grateful I am it -ain't no worse; for luck's against us, and it never rains but it pours, -and when I see that truck I thought we'd lost you, for I knowed by -the color and all it was just like your brains would be if—Dear, -dear, whyd'nt you _tell_ me that was what you'd been down there for, I -wouldn't a cared.  Now cler out to bed, and don't lemme see no more of -you till morning!" - -I was up stairs in a second, and down the lightning-rod in another one, -and shinning through the dark for the lean-to.  I couldn't hardly get my -words out, I was so anxious; but I told Tom as quick as I could we must -jump for it now, and not a minute to lose—the house full of men, yonder, -with guns! - -His eyes just blazed; and he says: - -"No!—is that so?  _ain't_ it bully!  Why, Huck, if it was to do over -again, I bet I could fetch two hundred!  If we could put it off till—" - -"Hurry!  _Hurry_!"  I says.  "Where's Jim?" - -"Right at your elbow; if you reach out your arm you can touch him. - He's dressed, and everything's ready.  Now we'll slide out and give the -sheep-signal." - -But then we heard the tramp of men coming to the door, and heard them -begin to fumble with the pad-lock, and heard a man say: - -"I _told_ you we'd be too soon; they haven't come—the door is locked. -Here, I'll lock some of you into the cabin, and you lay for 'em in the -dark and kill 'em when they come; and the rest scatter around a piece, -and listen if you can hear 'em coming." - -So in they come, but couldn't see us in the dark, and most trod on -us whilst we was hustling to get under the bed.  But we got under all -right, and out through the hole, swift but soft—Jim first, me next, -and Tom last, which was according to Tom's orders.  Now we was in the -lean-to, and heard trampings close by outside.  So we crept to the door, -and Tom stopped us there and put his eye to the crack, but couldn't make -out nothing, it was so dark; and whispered and said he would listen -for the steps to get further, and when he nudged us Jim must glide out -first, and him last.  So he set his ear to the crack and listened, and -listened, and listened, and the steps a-scraping around out there all -the time; and at last he nudged us, and we slid out, and stooped down, -not breathing, and not making the least noise, and slipped stealthy -towards the fence in Injun file, and got to it all right, and me and Jim -over it; but Tom's britches catched fast on a splinter on the top -rail, and then he hear the steps coming, so he had to pull loose, which -snapped the splinter and made a noise; and as he dropped in our tracks -and started somebody sings out: - -"Who's that?  Answer, or I'll shoot!" - -But we didn't answer; we just unfurled our heels and shoved.  Then there -was a rush, and a _Bang, Bang, Bang!_ and the bullets fairly whizzed -around us! We heard them sing out: - -"Here they are!  They've broke for the river!  After 'em, boys, and turn -loose the dogs!" - -So here they come, full tilt.  We could hear them because they wore -boots and yelled, but we didn't wear no boots and didn't yell.  We was -in the path to the mill; and when they got pretty close on to us we -dodged into the bush and let them go by, and then dropped in behind -them.  They'd had all the dogs shut up, so they wouldn't scare off the -robbers; but by this time somebody had let them loose, and here they -come, making powwow enough for a million; but they was our dogs; so we -stopped in our tracks till they catched up; and when they see it warn't -nobody but us, and no excitement to offer them, they only just said -howdy, and tore right ahead towards the shouting and clattering; and -then we up-steam again, and whizzed along after them till we was nearly -to the mill, and then struck up through the bush to where my canoe was -tied, and hopped in and pulled for dear life towards the middle of the -river, but didn't make no more noise than we was obleeged to. Then we -struck out, easy and comfortable, for the island where my raft was; and -we could hear them yelling and barking at each other all up and down the -bank, till we was so far away the sounds got dim and died out.  And when -we stepped on to the raft I says: - -"_Now_, old Jim, you're a free man again, and I bet you won't ever be a -slave no more." - -"En a mighty good job it wuz, too, Huck.  It 'uz planned beautiful, en -it 'uz done beautiful; en dey ain't _nobody_ kin git up a plan dat's mo' -mixed-up en splendid den what dat one wuz." - -We was all glad as we could be, but Tom was the gladdest of all because -he had a bullet in the calf of his leg. - -When me and Jim heard that we didn't feel so brash as what we did -before. It was hurting him considerable, and bleeding; so we laid him in -the wigwam and tore up one of the duke's shirts for to bandage him, but -he says: - -"Gimme the rags; I can do it myself.  Don't stop now; don't fool around -here, and the evasion booming along so handsome; man the sweeps, and set -her loose!  Boys, we done it elegant!—'deed we did.  I wish _we'd_ a -had the handling of Louis XVI., there wouldn't a been no 'Son of Saint -Louis, ascend to heaven!' wrote down in _his_ biography; no, sir, we'd -a whooped him over the _border_—that's what we'd a done with _him_—and -done it just as slick as nothing at all, too.  Man the sweeps—man the -sweeps!" - -But me and Jim was consulting—and thinking.  And after we'd thought a -minute, I says: - -"Say it, Jim." - -So he says: - -"Well, den, dis is de way it look to me, Huck.  Ef it wuz _him_ dat 'uz -bein' sot free, en one er de boys wuz to git shot, would he say, 'Go on -en save me, nemmine 'bout a doctor f'r to save dis one?'  Is dat like -Mars Tom Sawyer?  Would he say dat?  You _bet_ he wouldn't!  _well_, -den, is _Jim_ gywne to say it?  No, sah—I doan' budge a step out'n dis -place 'dout a _doctor_, not if it's forty year!" - -I knowed he was white inside, and I reckoned he'd say what he did say—so -it was all right now, and I told Tom I was a-going for a doctor. - He raised considerable row about it, but me and Jim stuck to it and -wouldn't budge; so he was for crawling out and setting the raft loose -himself; but we wouldn't let him.  Then he give us a piece of his mind, -but it didn't do no good. - -So when he sees me getting the canoe ready, he says: - -"Well, then, if you're bound to go, I'll tell you the way to do when you -get to the village.  Shut the door and blindfold the doctor tight and -fast, and make him swear to be silent as the grave, and put a purse -full of gold in his hand, and then take and lead him all around the -back alleys and everywheres in the dark, and then fetch him here in the -canoe, in a roundabout way amongst the islands, and search him and take -his chalk away from him, and don't give it back to him till you get him -back to the village, or else he will chalk this raft so he can find it -again. It's the way they all do." - -So I said I would, and left, and Jim was to hide in the woods when he -see the doctor coming till he was gone again. - - - - -CHAPTER XLI. - -THE doctor was an old man; a very nice, kind-looking old man when I got -him up.  I told him me and my brother was over on Spanish Island hunting -yesterday afternoon, and camped on a piece of a raft we found, and about -midnight he must a kicked his gun in his dreams, for it went off and -shot him in the leg, and we wanted him to go over there and fix it and -not say nothing about it, nor let anybody know, because we wanted to -come home this evening and surprise the folks. - -"Who is your folks?" he says. - -"The Phelpses, down yonder." - -"Oh," he says.  And after a minute, he says: - -"How'd you say he got shot?" - -"He had a dream," I says, "and it shot him." - -"Singular dream," he says. - -So he lit up his lantern, and got his saddle-bags, and we started.  But -when he sees the canoe he didn't like the look of her—said she was big -enough for one, but didn't look pretty safe for two.  I says: - -"Oh, you needn't be afeard, sir, she carried the three of us easy -enough." - -"What three?" - -"Why, me and Sid, and—and—and _the guns_; that's what I mean." - -"Oh," he says. - -But he put his foot on the gunnel and rocked her, and shook his head, -and said he reckoned he'd look around for a bigger one.  But they was -all locked and chained; so he took my canoe, and said for me to wait -till he come back, or I could hunt around further, or maybe I better -go down home and get them ready for the surprise if I wanted to.  But -I said I didn't; so I told him just how to find the raft, and then he -started. - -I struck an idea pretty soon.  I says to myself, spos'n he can't fix -that leg just in three shakes of a sheep's tail, as the saying is? -spos'n it takes him three or four days?  What are we going to do?—lay -around there till he lets the cat out of the bag?  No, sir; I know what -_I'll_ do.  I'll wait, and when he comes back if he says he's got to -go any more I'll get down there, too, if I swim; and we'll take and tie -him, and keep him, and shove out down the river; and when Tom's done -with him we'll give him what it's worth, or all we got, and then let him -get ashore. - -So then I crept into a lumber-pile to get some sleep; and next time I -waked up the sun was away up over my head!  I shot out and went for the -doctor's house, but they told me he'd gone away in the night some time -or other, and warn't back yet.  Well, thinks I, that looks powerful bad -for Tom, and I'll dig out for the island right off.  So away I shoved, -and turned the corner, and nearly rammed my head into Uncle Silas's -stomach! He says: - -"Why, _Tom!_  Where you been all this time, you rascal?" - -"I hain't been nowheres," I says, "only just hunting for the runaway -nigger—me and Sid." - -"Why, where ever did you go?" he says.  "Your aunt's been mighty -uneasy." - -"She needn't," I says, "because we was all right.  We followed the men -and the dogs, but they outrun us, and we lost them; but we thought we -heard them on the water, so we got a canoe and took out after them and -crossed over, but couldn't find nothing of them; so we cruised along -up-shore till we got kind of tired and beat out; and tied up the canoe -and went to sleep, and never waked up till about an hour ago; then we -paddled over here to hear the news, and Sid's at the post-office to see -what he can hear, and I'm a-branching out to get something to eat for -us, and then we're going home." - -So then we went to the post-office to get "Sid"; but just as I -suspicioned, he warn't there; so the old man he got a letter out of the -office, and we waited awhile longer, but Sid didn't come; so the old man -said, come along, let Sid foot it home, or canoe it, when he got done -fooling around—but we would ride.  I couldn't get him to let me stay -and wait for Sid; and he said there warn't no use in it, and I must come -along, and let Aunt Sally see we was all right. - -When we got home Aunt Sally was that glad to see me she laughed and -cried both, and hugged me, and give me one of them lickings of hern that -don't amount to shucks, and said she'd serve Sid the same when he come. - -And the place was plum full of farmers and farmers' wives, to dinner; -and such another clack a body never heard.  Old Mrs. Hotchkiss was the -worst; her tongue was a-going all the time.  She says: - -"Well, Sister Phelps, I've ransacked that-air cabin over, an' I b'lieve -the nigger was crazy.  I says to Sister Damrell—didn't I, Sister -Damrell?—s'I, he's crazy, s'I—them's the very words I said.  You all -hearn me: he's crazy, s'I; everything shows it, s'I.  Look at that-air -grindstone, s'I; want to tell _me_'t any cretur 't's in his right mind -'s a goin' to scrabble all them crazy things onto a grindstone, s'I? - Here sich 'n' sich a person busted his heart; 'n' here so 'n' so -pegged along for thirty-seven year, 'n' all that—natcherl son o' Louis -somebody, 'n' sich everlast'n rubbage.  He's plumb crazy, s'I; it's what -I says in the fust place, it's what I says in the middle, 'n' it's what -I says last 'n' all the time—the nigger's crazy—crazy 's Nebokoodneezer, -s'I." - -"An' look at that-air ladder made out'n rags, Sister Hotchkiss," says -old Mrs. Damrell; "what in the name o' goodness _could_ he ever want -of—" - -"The very words I was a-sayin' no longer ago th'n this minute to Sister -Utterback, 'n' she'll tell you so herself.  Sh-she, look at that-air rag -ladder, sh-she; 'n' s'I, yes, _look_ at it, s'I—what _could_ he a-wanted -of it, s'I.  Sh-she, Sister Hotchkiss, sh-she—" - -"But how in the nation'd they ever _git_ that grindstone _in_ there, -_anyway_? 'n' who dug that-air _hole_? 'n' who—" - -"My very _words_, Brer Penrod!  I was a-sayin'—pass that-air sasser o' -m'lasses, won't ye?—I was a-sayin' to Sister Dunlap, jist this minute, -how _did_ they git that grindstone in there, s'I.  Without _help_, mind -you—'thout _help_!  _that's_ wher 'tis.  Don't tell _me_, s'I; there -_wuz_ help, s'I; 'n' ther' wuz a _plenty_ help, too, s'I; ther's ben a -_dozen_ a-helpin' that nigger, 'n' I lay I'd skin every last nigger on -this place but _I'd_ find out who done it, s'I; 'n' moreover, s'I—" - -"A _dozen_ says you!—_forty_ couldn't a done every thing that's been -done. Look at them case-knife saws and things, how tedious they've been -made; look at that bed-leg sawed off with 'm, a week's work for six men; -look at that nigger made out'n straw on the bed; and look at—" - -"You may _well_ say it, Brer Hightower!  It's jist as I was a-sayin' -to Brer Phelps, his own self.  S'e, what do _you_ think of it, Sister -Hotchkiss, s'e? Think o' what, Brer Phelps, s'I?  Think o' that bed-leg -sawed off that a way, s'e?  _think_ of it, s'I?  I lay it never sawed -_itself_ off, s'I—somebody _sawed_ it, s'I; that's my opinion, take it -or leave it, it mayn't be no 'count, s'I, but sich as 't is, it's my -opinion, s'I, 'n' if any body k'n start a better one, s'I, let him _do_ -it, s'I, that's all.  I says to Sister Dunlap, s'I—" - -"Why, dog my cats, they must a ben a house-full o' niggers in there -every night for four weeks to a done all that work, Sister Phelps.  Look -at that shirt—every last inch of it kivered over with secret African -writ'n done with blood!  Must a ben a raft uv 'm at it right along, all -the time, amost.  Why, I'd give two dollars to have it read to me; 'n' -as for the niggers that wrote it, I 'low I'd take 'n' lash 'm t'll—" - -"People to _help_ him, Brother Marples!  Well, I reckon you'd _think_ -so if you'd a been in this house for a while back.  Why, they've stole -everything they could lay their hands on—and we a-watching all the time, -mind you. They stole that shirt right off o' the line! and as for that -sheet they made the rag ladder out of, ther' ain't no telling how -many times they _didn't_ steal that; and flour, and candles, and -candlesticks, and spoons, and the old warming-pan, and most a thousand -things that I disremember now, and my new calico dress; and me and -Silas and my Sid and Tom on the constant watch day _and_ night, as I was -a-telling you, and not a one of us could catch hide nor hair nor sight -nor sound of them; and here at the last minute, lo and behold you, they -slides right in under our noses and fools us, and not only fools _us_ -but the Injun Territory robbers too, and actuly gets _away_ with that -nigger safe and sound, and that with sixteen men and twenty-two dogs -right on their very heels at that very time!  I tell you, it just bangs -anything I ever _heard_ of. Why, _sperits_ couldn't a done better and -been no smarter. And I reckon they must a _been_ sperits—because, _you_ -know our dogs, and ther' ain't no better; well, them dogs never even got -on the _track_ of 'm once!  You explain _that_ to me if you can!—_any_ -of you!" - -"Well, it does beat—" - -"Laws alive, I never—" - -"So help me, I wouldn't a be—" - -"_House_-thieves as well as—" - -"Goodnessgracioussakes, I'd a ben afeard to live in sich a—" - -"'Fraid to _live_!—why, I was that scared I dasn't hardly go to bed, or -get up, or lay down, or _set_ down, Sister Ridgeway.  Why, they'd steal -the very—why, goodness sakes, you can guess what kind of a fluster I was -in by the time midnight come last night.  I hope to gracious if I warn't -afraid they'd steal some o' the family!  I was just to that pass I -didn't have no reasoning faculties no more.  It looks foolish enough -_now_, in the daytime; but I says to myself, there's my two poor boys -asleep, 'way up stairs in that lonesome room, and I declare to goodness -I was that uneasy 't I crep' up there and locked 'em in!  I _did_.  And -anybody would. Because, you know, when you get scared that way, and it -keeps running on, and getting worse and worse all the time, and your -wits gets to addling, and you get to doing all sorts o' wild things, -and by and by you think to yourself, spos'n I was a boy, and was away up -there, and the door ain't locked, and you—" She stopped, looking kind -of wondering, and then she turned her head around slow, and when her eye -lit on me—I got up and took a walk. - -Says I to myself, I can explain better how we come to not be in that -room this morning if I go out to one side and study over it a little. - So I done it.  But I dasn't go fur, or she'd a sent for me.  And when -it was late in the day the people all went, and then I come in and -told her the noise and shooting waked up me and "Sid," and the door was -locked, and we wanted to see the fun, so we went down the lightning-rod, -and both of us got hurt a little, and we didn't never want to try _that_ -no more.  And then I went on and told her all what I told Uncle Silas -before; and then she said she'd forgive us, and maybe it was all right -enough anyway, and about what a body might expect of boys, for all boys -was a pretty harum-scarum lot as fur as she could see; and so, as long -as no harm hadn't come of it, she judged she better put in her time -being grateful we was alive and well and she had us still, stead of -fretting over what was past and done.  So then she kissed me, and patted -me on the head, and dropped into a kind of a brown study; and pretty -soon jumps up, and says: - -"Why, lawsamercy, it's most night, and Sid not come yet!  What _has_ -become of that boy?" - -I see my chance; so I skips up and says: - -"I'll run right up to town and get him," I says. - -"No you won't," she says.  "You'll stay right wher' you are; _one's_ -enough to be lost at a time.  If he ain't here to supper, your uncle 'll -go." - -Well, he warn't there to supper; so right after supper uncle went. - -He come back about ten a little bit uneasy; hadn't run across Tom's -track. Aunt Sally was a good _deal_ uneasy; but Uncle Silas he said -there warn't no occasion to be—boys will be boys, he said, and you'll -see this one turn up in the morning all sound and right.  So she had -to be satisfied.  But she said she'd set up for him a while anyway, and -keep a light burning so he could see it. - -And then when I went up to bed she come up with me and fetched her -candle, and tucked me in, and mothered me so good I felt mean, and like -I couldn't look her in the face; and she set down on the bed and talked -with me a long time, and said what a splendid boy Sid was, and didn't -seem to want to ever stop talking about him; and kept asking me every -now and then if I reckoned he could a got lost, or hurt, or maybe -drownded, and might be laying at this minute somewheres suffering or -dead, and she not by him to help him, and so the tears would drip down -silent, and I would tell her that Sid was all right, and would be home -in the morning, sure; and she would squeeze my hand, or maybe kiss me, -and tell me to say it again, and keep on saying it, because it done her -good, and she was in so much trouble.  And when she was going away she -looked down in my eyes so steady and gentle, and says: - -"The door ain't going to be locked, Tom, and there's the window and -the rod; but you'll be good, _won't_ you?  And you won't go?  For _my_ -sake." - -Laws knows I _wanted_ to go bad enough to see about Tom, and was all -intending to go; but after that I wouldn't a went, not for kingdoms. - -But she was on my mind and Tom was on my mind, so I slept very restless. -And twice I went down the rod away in the night, and slipped around -front, and see her setting there by her candle in the window with her -eyes towards the road and the tears in them; and I wished I could do -something for her, but I couldn't, only to swear that I wouldn't never -do nothing to grieve her any more.  And the third time I waked up at -dawn, and slid down, and she was there yet, and her candle was most out, -and her old gray head was resting on her hand, and she was asleep. - - - - -CHAPTER XLII. - -THE old man was uptown again before breakfast, but couldn't get no -track of Tom; and both of them set at the table thinking, and not saying -nothing, and looking mournful, and their coffee getting cold, and not -eating anything. And by and by the old man says: - -"Did I give you the letter?" - -"What letter?" - -"The one I got yesterday out of the post-office." - -"No, you didn't give me no letter." - -"Well, I must a forgot it." - -So he rummaged his pockets, and then went off somewheres where he had -laid it down, and fetched it, and give it to her.  She says: - -"Why, it's from St. Petersburg—it's from Sis." - -I allowed another walk would do me good; but I couldn't stir.  But -before she could break it open she dropped it and run—for she see -something. And so did I. It was Tom Sawyer on a mattress; and that old -doctor; and Jim, in _her_ calico dress, with his hands tied behind him; -and a lot of people.  I hid the letter behind the first thing that come -handy, and rushed.  She flung herself at Tom, crying, and says: - -"Oh, he's dead, he's dead, I know he's dead!" - -And Tom he turned his head a little, and muttered something or other, -which showed he warn't in his right mind; then she flung up her hands, -and says: - -"He's alive, thank God!  And that's enough!" and she snatched a kiss of -him, and flew for the house to get the bed ready, and scattering orders -right and left at the niggers and everybody else, as fast as her tongue -could go, every jump of the way. - -I followed the men to see what they was going to do with Jim; and the -old doctor and Uncle Silas followed after Tom into the house.  The men -was very huffy, and some of them wanted to hang Jim for an example to -all the other niggers around there, so they wouldn't be trying to run -away like Jim done, and making such a raft of trouble, and keeping a -whole family scared most to death for days and nights.  But the others -said, don't do it, it wouldn't answer at all; he ain't our nigger, and -his owner would turn up and make us pay for him, sure.  So that cooled -them down a little, because the people that's always the most anxious -for to hang a nigger that hain't done just right is always the very -ones that ain't the most anxious to pay for him when they've got their -satisfaction out of him. - -They cussed Jim considerble, though, and give him a cuff or two side the -head once in a while, but Jim never said nothing, and he never let on to -know me, and they took him to the same cabin, and put his own clothes -on him, and chained him again, and not to no bed-leg this time, but to -a big staple drove into the bottom log, and chained his hands, too, and -both legs, and said he warn't to have nothing but bread and water to -eat after this till his owner come, or he was sold at auction because -he didn't come in a certain length of time, and filled up our hole, and -said a couple of farmers with guns must stand watch around about the -cabin every night, and a bulldog tied to the door in the daytime; and -about this time they was through with the job and was tapering off with -a kind of generl good-bye cussing, and then the old doctor comes and -takes a look, and says: - -"Don't be no rougher on him than you're obleeged to, because he ain't -a bad nigger.  When I got to where I found the boy I see I couldn't cut -the bullet out without some help, and he warn't in no condition for -me to leave to go and get help; and he got a little worse and a little -worse, and after a long time he went out of his head, and wouldn't let -me come a-nigh him any more, and said if I chalked his raft he'd kill -me, and no end of wild foolishness like that, and I see I couldn't do -anything at all with him; so I says, I got to have _help_ somehow; and -the minute I says it out crawls this nigger from somewheres and says -he'll help, and he done it, too, and done it very well.  Of course I -judged he must be a runaway nigger, and there I _was_! and there I had -to stick right straight along all the rest of the day and all night.  It -was a fix, I tell you! I had a couple of patients with the chills, and -of course I'd of liked to run up to town and see them, but I dasn't, -because the nigger might get away, and then I'd be to blame; and yet -never a skiff come close enough for me to hail.  So there I had to stick -plumb until daylight this morning; and I never see a nigger that was a -better nuss or faithfuller, and yet he was risking his freedom to do it, -and was all tired out, too, and I see plain enough he'd been worked -main hard lately.  I liked the nigger for that; I tell you, gentlemen, a -nigger like that is worth a thousand dollars—and kind treatment, too.  I -had everything I needed, and the boy was doing as well there as he -would a done at home—better, maybe, because it was so quiet; but there I -_was_, with both of 'm on my hands, and there I had to stick till about -dawn this morning; then some men in a skiff come by, and as good luck -would have it the nigger was setting by the pallet with his head propped -on his knees sound asleep; so I motioned them in quiet, and they slipped -up on him and grabbed him and tied him before he knowed what he was -about, and we never had no trouble. And the boy being in a kind of a -flighty sleep, too, we muffled the oars and hitched the raft on, and -towed her over very nice and quiet, and the nigger never made the least -row nor said a word from the start.  He ain't no bad nigger, gentlemen; -that's what I think about him." - -Somebody says: - -"Well, it sounds very good, doctor, I'm obleeged to say." - -Then the others softened up a little, too, and I was mighty thankful -to that old doctor for doing Jim that good turn; and I was glad it was -according to my judgment of him, too; because I thought he had a good -heart in him and was a good man the first time I see him.  Then they -all agreed that Jim had acted very well, and was deserving to have some -notice took of it, and reward.  So every one of them promised, right out -and hearty, that they wouldn't cuss him no more. - -Then they come out and locked him up.  I hoped they was going to say he -could have one or two of the chains took off, because they was rotten -heavy, or could have meat and greens with his bread and water; but they -didn't think of it, and I reckoned it warn't best for me to mix in, but -I judged I'd get the doctor's yarn to Aunt Sally somehow or other as -soon as I'd got through the breakers that was laying just ahead of -me—explanations, I mean, of how I forgot to mention about Sid being shot -when I was telling how him and me put in that dratted night paddling -around hunting the runaway nigger. - -But I had plenty time.  Aunt Sally she stuck to the sick-room all day -and all night, and every time I see Uncle Silas mooning around I dodged -him. - -Next morning I heard Tom was a good deal better, and they said Aunt -Sally was gone to get a nap.  So I slips to the sick-room, and if I -found him awake I reckoned we could put up a yarn for the family that -would wash. But he was sleeping, and sleeping very peaceful, too; and -pale, not fire-faced the way he was when he come.  So I set down and -laid for him to wake.  In about half an hour Aunt Sally comes gliding -in, and there I was, up a stump again!  She motioned me to be still, and -set down by me, and begun to whisper, and said we could all be joyful -now, because all the symptoms was first-rate, and he'd been sleeping -like that for ever so long, and looking better and peacefuller all the -time, and ten to one he'd wake up in his right mind. - -So we set there watching, and by and by he stirs a bit, and opened his -eyes very natural, and takes a look, and says: - -"Hello!—why, I'm at _home_!  How's that?  Where's the raft?" - -"It's all right," I says. - -"And _Jim_?" - -"The same," I says, but couldn't say it pretty brash.  But he never -noticed, but says: - -"Good!  Splendid!  _Now_ we're all right and safe! Did you tell Aunty?" - -I was going to say yes; but she chipped in and says:  "About what, Sid?" - -"Why, about the way the whole thing was done." - -"What whole thing?" - -"Why, _the_ whole thing.  There ain't but one; how we set the runaway -nigger free—me and Tom." - -"Good land!  Set the run—What _is_ the child talking about!  Dear, dear, -out of his head again!" - -"_No_, I ain't out of my _head_; I know all what I'm talking about.  We -_did_ set him free—me and Tom.  We laid out to do it, and we _done_ it. - And we done it elegant, too."  He'd got a start, and she never checked -him up, just set and stared and stared, and let him clip along, and -I see it warn't no use for _me_ to put in.  "Why, Aunty, it cost us a -power of work—weeks of it—hours and hours, every night, whilst you was -all asleep. And we had to steal candles, and the sheet, and the shirt, -and your dress, and spoons, and tin plates, and case-knives, and the -warming-pan, and the grindstone, and flour, and just no end of things, -and you can't think what work it was to make the saws, and pens, and -inscriptions, and one thing or another, and you can't think _half_ the -fun it was.  And we had to make up the pictures of coffins and things, -and nonnamous letters from the robbers, and get up and down the -lightning-rod, and dig the hole into the cabin, and made the rope ladder -and send it in cooked up in a pie, and send in spoons and things to work -with in your apron pocket—" - -"Mercy sakes!" - -"—and load up the cabin with rats and snakes and so on, for company for -Jim; and then you kept Tom here so long with the butter in his hat that -you come near spiling the whole business, because the men come before -we was out of the cabin, and we had to rush, and they heard us and let -drive at us, and I got my share, and we dodged out of the path and let -them go by, and when the dogs come they warn't interested in us, but -went for the most noise, and we got our canoe, and made for the -raft, and was all safe, and Jim was a free man, and we done it all by -ourselves, and _wasn't_ it bully, Aunty!" - -"Well, I never heard the likes of it in all my born days!  So it was -_you_, you little rapscallions, that's been making all this trouble, -and turned everybody's wits clean inside out and scared us all most to -death.  I've as good a notion as ever I had in my life to take it out -o' you this very minute.  To think, here I've been, night after night, -a—_you_ just get well once, you young scamp, and I lay I'll tan the Old -Harry out o' both o' ye!" - -But Tom, he _was_ so proud and joyful, he just _couldn't_ hold in, -and his tongue just _went_ it—she a-chipping in, and spitting fire all -along, and both of them going it at once, like a cat convention; and she -says: - -"_Well_, you get all the enjoyment you can out of it _now_, for mind I -tell you if I catch you meddling with him again—" - -"Meddling with _who_?"  Tom says, dropping his smile and looking -surprised. - -"With _who_?  Why, the runaway nigger, of course.  Who'd you reckon?" - -Tom looks at me very grave, and says: - -"Tom, didn't you just tell me he was all right?  Hasn't he got away?" - -"_Him_?" says Aunt Sally; "the runaway nigger?  'Deed he hasn't. - They've got him back, safe and sound, and he's in that cabin again, -on bread and water, and loaded down with chains, till he's claimed or -sold!" - -Tom rose square up in bed, with his eye hot, and his nostrils opening -and shutting like gills, and sings out to me: - -"They hain't no _right_ to shut him up!  SHOVE!—and don't you lose a -minute.  Turn him loose! he ain't no slave; he's as free as any cretur -that walks this earth!" - -"What _does_ the child mean?" - -"I mean every word I _say_, Aunt Sally, and if somebody don't go, _I'll_ -go. I've knowed him all his life, and so has Tom, there.  Old Miss -Watson died two months ago, and she was ashamed she ever was going to -sell him down the river, and _said_ so; and she set him free in her -will." - -"Then what on earth did _you_ want to set him free for, seeing he was -already free?" - -"Well, that _is_ a question, I must say; and just like women!  Why, -I wanted the _adventure_ of it; and I'd a waded neck-deep in blood -to—goodness alive, _Aunt Polly!_" - -If she warn't standing right there, just inside the door, looking as -sweet and contented as an angel half full of pie, I wish I may never! - -Aunt Sally jumped for her, and most hugged the head off of her, and -cried over her, and I found a good enough place for me under the bed, -for it was getting pretty sultry for us, seemed to me.  And I peeped -out, and in a little while Tom's Aunt Polly shook herself loose and -stood there looking across at Tom over her spectacles—kind of grinding -him into the earth, you know.  And then she says: - -"Yes, you _better_ turn y'r head away—I would if I was you, Tom." - -"Oh, deary me!" says Aunt Sally; "_Is_ he changed so?  Why, that ain't -_Tom_, it's Sid; Tom's—Tom's—why, where is Tom?  He was here a minute -ago." - -"You mean where's Huck _Finn_—that's what you mean!  I reckon I hain't -raised such a scamp as my Tom all these years not to know him when I -_see_ him.  That _would_ be a pretty howdy-do. Come out from under that -bed, Huck Finn." - -So I done it.  But not feeling brash. - -Aunt Sally she was one of the mixed-upest-looking persons I ever -see—except one, and that was Uncle Silas, when he come in and they told -it all to him.  It kind of made him drunk, as you may say, and he didn't -know nothing at all the rest of the day, and preached a prayer-meeting -sermon that night that gave him a rattling ruputation, because the -oldest man in the world couldn't a understood it.  So Tom's Aunt Polly, -she told all about who I was, and what; and I had to up and tell how -I was in such a tight place that when Mrs. Phelps took me for Tom -Sawyer—she chipped in and says, "Oh, go on and call me Aunt Sally, I'm -used to it now, and 'tain't no need to change"—that when Aunt Sally took -me for Tom Sawyer I had to stand it—there warn't no other way, and -I knowed he wouldn't mind, because it would be nuts for him, being -a mystery, and he'd make an adventure out of it, and be perfectly -satisfied.  And so it turned out, and he let on to be Sid, and made -things as soft as he could for me. - -And his Aunt Polly she said Tom was right about old Miss Watson setting -Jim free in her will; and so, sure enough, Tom Sawyer had gone and took -all that trouble and bother to set a free nigger free! and I couldn't -ever understand before, until that minute and that talk, how he _could_ -help a body set a nigger free with his bringing-up. - -Well, Aunt Polly she said that when Aunt Sally wrote to her that Tom and -_Sid_ had come all right and safe, she says to herself: - -"Look at that, now!  I might have expected it, letting him go off that -way without anybody to watch him.  So now I got to go and trapse all -the way down the river, eleven hundred mile, and find out what that -creetur's up to _this_ time, as long as I couldn't seem to get any -answer out of you about it." - -"Why, I never heard nothing from you," says Aunt Sally. - -"Well, I wonder!  Why, I wrote you twice to ask you what you could mean -by Sid being here." - -"Well, I never got 'em, Sis." - -Aunt Polly she turns around slow and severe, and says: - -"You, Tom!" - -"Well—_what_?" he says, kind of pettish. - -"Don't you what _me_, you impudent thing—hand out them letters." - -"What letters?" - -"_Them_ letters.  I be bound, if I have to take a-holt of you I'll—" - -"They're in the trunk.  There, now.  And they're just the same as they -was when I got them out of the office.  I hain't looked into them, I -hain't touched them.  But I knowed they'd make trouble, and I thought if -you warn't in no hurry, I'd—" - -"Well, you _do_ need skinning, there ain't no mistake about it.  And I -wrote another one to tell you I was coming; and I s'pose he—" - -"No, it come yesterday; I hain't read it yet, but _it's_ all right, I've -got that one." - -I wanted to offer to bet two dollars she hadn't, but I reckoned maybe it -was just as safe to not to.  So I never said nothing. - - - - -CHAPTER THE LAST - -THE first time I catched Tom private I asked him what was his idea, time -of the evasion?—what it was he'd planned to do if the evasion worked all -right and he managed to set a nigger free that was already free before? -And he said, what he had planned in his head from the start, if we got -Jim out all safe, was for us to run him down the river on the raft, and -have adventures plumb to the mouth of the river, and then tell him about -his being free, and take him back up home on a steamboat, in style, -and pay him for his lost time, and write word ahead and get out all -the niggers around, and have them waltz him into town with a torchlight -procession and a brass-band, and then he would be a hero, and so would -we.  But I reckoned it was about as well the way it was. - -We had Jim out of the chains in no time, and when Aunt Polly and Uncle -Silas and Aunt Sally found out how good he helped the doctor nurse Tom, -they made a heap of fuss over him, and fixed him up prime, and give him -all he wanted to eat, and a good time, and nothing to do.  And we had -him up to the sick-room, and had a high talk; and Tom give Jim forty -dollars for being prisoner for us so patient, and doing it up so good, -and Jim was pleased most to death, and busted out, and says: - -"Dah, now, Huck, what I tell you?—what I tell you up dah on Jackson -islan'?  I _tole_ you I got a hairy breas', en what's de sign un it; en -I _tole_ you I ben rich wunst, en gwineter to be rich _agin_; en it's -come true; en heah she is!  _dah_, now! doan' talk to _me_—signs is -_signs_, mine I tell you; en I knowed jis' 's well 'at I 'uz gwineter be -rich agin as I's a-stannin' heah dis minute!" - -And then Tom he talked along and talked along, and says, le's all three -slide out of here one of these nights and get an outfit, and go for -howling adventures amongst the Injuns, over in the Territory, for a -couple of weeks or two; and I says, all right, that suits me, but I -ain't got no money for to buy the outfit, and I reckon I couldn't get -none from home, because it's likely pap's been back before now, and got -it all away from Judge Thatcher and drunk it up. - -"No, he hain't," Tom says; "it's all there yet—six thousand dollars -and more; and your pap hain't ever been back since.  Hadn't when I come -away, anyhow." - -Jim says, kind of solemn: - -"He ain't a-comin' back no mo', Huck." - -I says: - -"Why, Jim?" - -"Nemmine why, Huck—but he ain't comin' back no mo." - -But I kept at him; so at last he says: - -"Doan' you 'member de house dat was float'n down de river, en dey wuz a -man in dah, kivered up, en I went in en unkivered him and didn' let you -come in?  Well, den, you kin git yo' money when you wants it, kase dat -wuz him." - -Tom's most well now, and got his bullet around his neck on a watch-guard -for a watch, and is always seeing what time it is, and so there ain't -nothing more to write about, and I am rotten glad of it, because if I'd -a knowed what a trouble it was to make a book I wouldn't a tackled it, -and ain't a-going to no more.  But I reckon I got to light out for the -Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me -and sivilize me, and I can't stand it.  I been there before. - -THE END. YOURS TRULY, _HUCK FINN_. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, -Complete, by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUCKLEBERRY FINN *** - -***** This file should be named 76-h.htm or 76-h.zip ***** This and -all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.net/7/76/ - -Produced by David Widger. Previous editions produced by Ron Burkey and -Internet Wiretap - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be -renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission -and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland + +Author: Lewis Carroll + +Posting Date: June 25, 2008 [EBook #11] +Release Date: March, 1994 +[Last updated: December 20, 2011] + +Language: English + + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND *** + + + + + + + + + + +ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND + +Lewis Carroll + +THE MILLENNIUM FULCRUM EDITION 3.0 + + + + +CHAPTER I. Down the Rabbit-Hole + +Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the +bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the +book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in +it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice 'without pictures or +conversation?' + +So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the +hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure +of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and +picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran +close by her. + +There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so +VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, 'Oh dear! +Oh dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it +occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time +it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH +OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT-POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on, +Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had +never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch +to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field +after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large +rabbit-hole under the hedge. + +In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how +in the world she was to get out again. + +The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then +dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think +about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep +well. + +Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had +plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was +going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what +she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she +looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with +cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures +hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as +she passed; it was labelled 'ORANGE MARMALADE', but to her great +disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear +of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as +she fell past it. + +'Well!' thought Alice to herself, 'after such a fall as this, I shall +think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at +home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top +of the house!' (Which was very likely true.) + +Down, down, down. Would the fall NEVER come to an end! 'I wonder how +many miles I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud. 'I must be getting +somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four +thousand miles down, I think--' (for, you see, Alice had learnt several +things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this +was not a VERY good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there +was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) +'--yes, that's about the right distance--but then I wonder what Latitude +or Longitude I've got to?' (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or +Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.) + +Presently she began again. 'I wonder if I shall fall right THROUGH the +earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with +their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think--' (she was rather glad +there WAS no one listening, this time, as it didn't sound at all the +right word) '--but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country +is, you know. Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia?' (and +she tried to curtsey as she spoke--fancy CURTSEYING as you're falling +through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) 'And what an +ignorant little girl she'll think me for asking! No, it'll never do to +ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.' + +Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began +talking again. 'Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I should think!' +(Dinah was the cat.) 'I hope they'll remember her saucer of milk at +tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are no +mice in the air, I'm afraid, but you might catch a bat, and that's very +like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?' And here Alice +began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy +sort of way, 'Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?' and sometimes, 'Do +bats eat cats?' for, you see, as she couldn't answer either question, +it didn't much matter which way she put it. She felt that she was dozing +off, and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with +Dinah, and saying to her very earnestly, 'Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: +did you ever eat a bat?' when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon +a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over. + +Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a moment: +she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another +long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. +There was not a moment to be lost: away went Alice like the wind, and +was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, 'Oh my ears +and whiskers, how late it's getting!' She was close behind it when she +turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she found +herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging +from the roof. + +There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked; and when +Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every +door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to +get out again. + +Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid +glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key, and Alice's +first thought was that it might belong to one of the doors of the hall; +but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, +but at any rate it would not open any of them. However, on the second +time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and +behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: she tried the +little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted! + +Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not +much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and looked along the passage +into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of +that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and +those cool fountains, but she could not even get her head through the +doorway; 'and even if my head would go through,' thought poor Alice, 'it +would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could +shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only know how to begin.' +For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, +that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really +impossible. + +There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she went +back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on it, or at +any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes: this +time she found a little bottle on it, ('which certainly was not here +before,' said Alice,) and round the neck of the bottle was a paper +label, with the words 'DRINK ME' beautifully printed on it in large +letters. + +It was all very well to say 'Drink me,' but the wise little Alice was +not going to do THAT in a hurry. 'No, I'll look first,' she said, 'and +see whether it's marked "poison" or not'; for she had read several nice +little histories about children who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild +beasts and other unpleasant things, all because they WOULD not remember +the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot +poker will burn you if you hold it too long; and that if you cut your +finger VERY deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never +forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked 'poison,' it is +almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later. + +However, this bottle was NOT marked 'poison,' so Alice ventured to taste +it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour +of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot +buttered toast,) she very soon finished it off. + + * * * * * * * + + * * * * * * + + * * * * * * * + +'What a curious feeling!' said Alice; 'I must be shutting up like a +telescope.' + +And so it was indeed: she was now only ten inches high, and her face +brightened up at the thought that she was now the right size for going +through the little door into that lovely garden. First, however, she +waited for a few minutes to see if she was going to shrink any further: +she felt a little nervous about this; 'for it might end, you know,' said +Alice to herself, 'in my going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder +what I should be like then?' And she tried to fancy what the flame of a +candle is like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember +ever having seen such a thing. + +After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided on going +into the garden at once; but, alas for poor Alice! when she got to the +door, she found she had forgotten the little golden key, and when she +went back to the table for it, she found she could not possibly reach +it: she could see it quite plainly through the glass, and she tried her +best to climb up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery; +and when she had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing +sat down and cried. + +'Come, there's no use in crying like that!' said Alice to herself, +rather sharply; 'I advise you to leave off this minute!' She generally +gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it), +and sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into +her eyes; and once she remembered trying to box her own ears for having +cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself, +for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people. +'But it's no use now,' thought poor Alice, 'to pretend to be two people! +Why, there's hardly enough of me left to make ONE respectable person!' + +Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table: +she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which the words +'EAT ME' were beautifully marked in currants. 'Well, I'll eat it,' said +Alice, 'and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it +makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door; so either way I'll +get into the garden, and I don't care which happens!' + +She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself, 'Which way? Which +way?', holding her hand on the top of her head to feel which way it was +growing, and she was quite surprised to find that she remained the same +size: to be sure, this generally happens when one eats cake, but Alice +had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way +things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on +in the common way. + +So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake. + + * * * * * * * + + * * * * * * + + * * * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER II. The Pool of Tears + +'Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that +for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English); 'now I'm +opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!' +(for when she looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of +sight, they were getting so far off). 'Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder +who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I'm sure +_I_ shan't be able! I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble +myself about you: you must manage the best way you can;--but I must be +kind to them,' thought Alice, 'or perhaps they won't walk the way I want +to go! Let me see: I'll give them a new pair of boots every Christmas.' + +And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it. 'They must +go by the carrier,' she thought; 'and how funny it'll seem, sending +presents to one's own feet! And how odd the directions will look! + + ALICE'S RIGHT FOOT, ESQ. + HEARTHRUG, + NEAR THE FENDER, + (WITH ALICE'S LOVE). + +Oh dear, what nonsense I'm talking!' + +Just then her head struck against the roof of the hall: in fact she was +now more than nine feet high, and she at once took up the little golden +key and hurried off to the garden door. + +Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying down on one side, to +look through into the garden with one eye; but to get through was more +hopeless than ever: she sat down and began to cry again. + +'You ought to be ashamed of yourself,' said Alice, 'a great girl like +you,' (she might well say this), 'to go on crying in this way! Stop this +moment, I tell you!' But she went on all the same, shedding gallons of +tears, until there was a large pool all round her, about four inches +deep and reaching half down the hall. + +After a time she heard a little pattering of feet in the distance, and +she hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming. It was the White +Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kid gloves in +one hand and a large fan in the other: he came trotting along in a great +hurry, muttering to himself as he came, 'Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! +Oh! won't she be savage if I've kept her waiting!' Alice felt so +desperate that she was ready to ask help of any one; so, when the Rabbit +came near her, she began, in a low, timid voice, 'If you please, sir--' +The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid gloves and the fan, +and skurried away into the darkness as hard as he could go. + +Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she +kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking: 'Dear, dear! How +queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. +I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the +same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a +little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who +in the world am I? Ah, THAT'S the great puzzle!' And she began thinking +over all the children she knew that were of the same age as herself, to +see if she could have been changed for any of them. + +'I'm sure I'm not Ada,' she said, 'for her hair goes in such long +ringlets, and mine doesn't go in ringlets at all; and I'm sure I can't +be Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she, oh! she knows such a +very little! Besides, SHE'S she, and I'm I, and--oh dear, how puzzling +it all is! I'll try if I know all the things I used to know. Let me +see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and +four times seven is--oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate! +However, the Multiplication Table doesn't signify: let's try Geography. +London is the capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome, and +Rome--no, THAT'S all wrong, I'm certain! I must have been changed for +Mabel! I'll try and say "How doth the little--"' and she crossed her +hands on her lap as if she were saying lessons, and began to repeat it, +but her voice sounded hoarse and strange, and the words did not come the +same as they used to do:-- + + 'How doth the little crocodile + Improve his shining tail, + And pour the waters of the Nile + On every golden scale! + + 'How cheerfully he seems to grin, + How neatly spread his claws, + And welcome little fishes in + With gently smiling jaws!' + +'I'm sure those are not the right words,' said poor Alice, and her eyes +filled with tears again as she went on, 'I must be Mabel after all, and +I shall have to go and live in that poky little house, and have next to +no toys to play with, and oh! ever so many lessons to learn! No, I've +made up my mind about it; if I'm Mabel, I'll stay down here! It'll be no +use their putting their heads down and saying "Come up again, dear!" I +shall only look up and say "Who am I then? Tell me that first, and then, +if I like being that person, I'll come up: if not, I'll stay down here +till I'm somebody else"--but, oh dear!' cried Alice, with a sudden burst +of tears, 'I do wish they WOULD put their heads down! I am so VERY tired +of being all alone here!' + +As she said this she looked down at her hands, and was surprised to see +that she had put on one of the Rabbit's little white kid gloves while +she was talking. 'How CAN I have done that?' she thought. 'I must +be growing small again.' She got up and went to the table to measure +herself by it, and found that, as nearly as she could guess, she was now +about two feet high, and was going on shrinking rapidly: she soon found +out that the cause of this was the fan she was holding, and she dropped +it hastily, just in time to avoid shrinking away altogether. + +'That WAS a narrow escape!' said Alice, a good deal frightened at the +sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in existence; 'and +now for the garden!' and she ran with all speed back to the little door: +but, alas! the little door was shut again, and the little golden key was +lying on the glass table as before, 'and things are worse than ever,' +thought the poor child, 'for I never was so small as this before, never! +And I declare it's too bad, that it is!' + +As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another moment, splash! +she was up to her chin in salt water. Her first idea was that she +had somehow fallen into the sea, 'and in that case I can go back by +railway,' she said to herself. (Alice had been to the seaside once in +her life, and had come to the general conclusion, that wherever you go +to on the English coast you find a number of bathing machines in the +sea, some children digging in the sand with wooden spades, then a row +of lodging houses, and behind them a railway station.) However, she soon +made out that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she +was nine feet high. + +'I wish I hadn't cried so much!' said Alice, as she swam about, trying +to find her way out. 'I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by +being drowned in my own tears! That WILL be a queer thing, to be sure! +However, everything is queer to-day.' + +Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a little way +off, and she swam nearer to make out what it was: at first she thought +it must be a walrus or hippopotamus, but then she remembered how small +she was now, and she soon made out that it was only a mouse that had +slipped in like herself. + +'Would it be of any use, now,' thought Alice, 'to speak to this mouse? +Everything is so out-of-the-way down here, that I should think very +likely it can talk: at any rate, there's no harm in trying.' So she +began: 'O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired +of swimming about here, O Mouse!' (Alice thought this must be the right +way of speaking to a mouse: she had never done such a thing before, but +she remembered having seen in her brother's Latin Grammar, 'A mouse--of +a mouse--to a mouse--a mouse--O mouse!') The Mouse looked at her rather +inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little eyes, +but it said nothing. + +'Perhaps it doesn't understand English,' thought Alice; 'I daresay it's +a French mouse, come over with William the Conqueror.' (For, with all +her knowledge of history, Alice had no very clear notion how long ago +anything had happened.) So she began again: 'Ou est ma chatte?' which +was the first sentence in her French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a +sudden leap out of the water, and seemed to quiver all over with fright. +'Oh, I beg your pardon!' cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt +the poor animal's feelings. 'I quite forgot you didn't like cats.' + +'Not like cats!' cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate voice. 'Would +YOU like cats if you were me?' + +'Well, perhaps not,' said Alice in a soothing tone: 'don't be angry +about it. And yet I wish I could show you our cat Dinah: I think you'd +take a fancy to cats if you could only see her. She is such a dear quiet +thing,' Alice went on, half to herself, as she swam lazily about in the +pool, 'and she sits purring so nicely by the fire, licking her paws and +washing her face--and she is such a nice soft thing to nurse--and she's +such a capital one for catching mice--oh, I beg your pardon!' cried +Alice again, for this time the Mouse was bristling all over, and she +felt certain it must be really offended. 'We won't talk about her any +more if you'd rather not.' + +'We indeed!' cried the Mouse, who was trembling down to the end of his +tail. 'As if I would talk on such a subject! Our family always HATED +cats: nasty, low, vulgar things! Don't let me hear the name again!' + +'I won't indeed!' said Alice, in a great hurry to change the subject of +conversation. 'Are you--are you fond--of--of dogs?' The Mouse did not +answer, so Alice went on eagerly: 'There is such a nice little dog near +our house I should like to show you! A little bright-eyed terrier, you +know, with oh, such long curly brown hair! And it'll fetch things when +you throw them, and it'll sit up and beg for its dinner, and all sorts +of things--I can't remember half of them--and it belongs to a farmer, +you know, and he says it's so useful, it's worth a hundred pounds! He +says it kills all the rats and--oh dear!' cried Alice in a sorrowful +tone, 'I'm afraid I've offended it again!' For the Mouse was swimming +away from her as hard as it could go, and making quite a commotion in +the pool as it went. + +So she called softly after it, 'Mouse dear! Do come back again, and we +won't talk about cats or dogs either, if you don't like them!' When the +Mouse heard this, it turned round and swam slowly back to her: its +face was quite pale (with passion, Alice thought), and it said in a low +trembling voice, 'Let us get to the shore, and then I'll tell you my +history, and you'll understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.' + +It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded with the +birds and animals that had fallen into it: there were a Duck and a Dodo, +a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious creatures. Alice led the +way, and the whole party swam to the shore. + + + + +CHAPTER III. A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale + +They were indeed a queer-looking party that assembled on the bank--the +birds with draggled feathers, the animals with their fur clinging close +to them, and all dripping wet, cross, and uncomfortable. + +The first question of course was, how to get dry again: they had a +consultation about this, and after a few minutes it seemed quite natural +to Alice to find herself talking familiarly with them, as if she had +known them all her life. Indeed, she had quite a long argument with the +Lory, who at last turned sulky, and would only say, 'I am older than +you, and must know better'; and this Alice would not allow without +knowing how old it was, and, as the Lory positively refused to tell its +age, there was no more to be said. + +At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority among them, +called out, 'Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'LL soon make you +dry enough!' They all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse +in the middle. Alice kept her eyes anxiously fixed on it, for she felt +sure she would catch a bad cold if she did not get dry very soon. + +'Ahem!' said the Mouse with an important air, 'are you all ready? This +is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please! "William +the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was soon submitted +to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late much +accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of +Mercia and Northumbria--"' + +'Ugh!' said the Lory, with a shiver. + +'I beg your pardon!' said the Mouse, frowning, but very politely: 'Did +you speak?' + +'Not I!' said the Lory hastily. + +'I thought you did,' said the Mouse. '--I proceed. "Edwin and Morcar, +the earls of Mercia and Northumbria, declared for him: and even Stigand, +the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury, found it advisable--"' + +'Found WHAT?' said the Duck. + +'Found IT,' the Mouse replied rather crossly: 'of course you know what +"it" means.' + +'I know what "it" means well enough, when I find a thing,' said the +Duck: 'it's generally a frog or a worm. The question is, what did the +archbishop find?' + +The Mouse did not notice this question, but hurriedly went on, '"--found +it advisable to go with Edgar Atheling to meet William and offer him the +crown. William's conduct at first was moderate. But the insolence of his +Normans--" How are you getting on now, my dear?' it continued, turning +to Alice as it spoke. + +'As wet as ever,' said Alice in a melancholy tone: 'it doesn't seem to +dry me at all.' + +'In that case,' said the Dodo solemnly, rising to its feet, 'I move +that the meeting adjourn, for the immediate adoption of more energetic +remedies--' + +'Speak English!' said the Eaglet. 'I don't know the meaning of half +those long words, and, what's more, I don't believe you do either!' And +the Eaglet bent down its head to hide a smile: some of the other birds +tittered audibly. + +'What I was going to say,' said the Dodo in an offended tone, 'was, that +the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race.' + +'What IS a Caucus-race?' said Alice; not that she wanted much to know, +but the Dodo had paused as if it thought that SOMEBODY ought to speak, +and no one else seemed inclined to say anything. + +'Why,' said the Dodo, 'the best way to explain it is to do it.' (And, as +you might like to try the thing yourself, some winter day, I will tell +you how the Dodo managed it.) + +First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, ('the exact +shape doesn't matter,' it said,) and then all the party were placed +along the course, here and there. There was no 'One, two, three, and +away,' but they began running when they liked, and left off when they +liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, +when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, +the Dodo suddenly called out 'The race is over!' and they all crowded +round it, panting, and asking, 'But who has won?' + +This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, +and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead +(the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures +of him), while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said, +'EVERYBODY has won, and all must have prizes.' + +'But who is to give the prizes?' quite a chorus of voices asked. + +'Why, SHE, of course,' said the Dodo, pointing to Alice with one finger; +and the whole party at once crowded round her, calling out in a confused +way, 'Prizes! Prizes!' + +Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair she put her hand in her +pocket, and pulled out a box of comfits, (luckily the salt water had +not got into it), and handed them round as prizes. There was exactly one +a-piece all round. + +'But she must have a prize herself, you know,' said the Mouse. + +'Of course,' the Dodo replied very gravely. 'What else have you got in +your pocket?' he went on, turning to Alice. + +'Only a thimble,' said Alice sadly. + +'Hand it over here,' said the Dodo. + +Then they all crowded round her once more, while the Dodo solemnly +presented the thimble, saying 'We beg your acceptance of this elegant +thimble'; and, when it had finished this short speech, they all cheered. + +Alice thought the whole thing very absurd, but they all looked so grave +that she did not dare to laugh; and, as she could not think of anything +to say, she simply bowed, and took the thimble, looking as solemn as she +could. + +The next thing was to eat the comfits: this caused some noise and +confusion, as the large birds complained that they could not taste +theirs, and the small ones choked and had to be patted on the back. +However, it was over at last, and they sat down again in a ring, and +begged the Mouse to tell them something more. + +'You promised to tell me your history, you know,' said Alice, 'and why +it is you hate--C and D,' she added in a whisper, half afraid that it +would be offended again. + +'Mine is a long and a sad tale!' said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and +sighing. + +'It IS a long tail, certainly,' said Alice, looking down with wonder at +the Mouse's tail; 'but why do you call it sad?' And she kept on puzzling +about it while the Mouse was speaking, so that her idea of the tale was +something like this:-- + + 'Fury said to a + mouse, That he + met in the + house, + "Let us + both go to + law: I will + prosecute + YOU.--Come, + I'll take no + denial; We + must have a + trial: For + really this + morning I've + nothing + to do." + Said the + mouse to the + cur, "Such + a trial, + dear Sir, + With + no jury + or judge, + would be + wasting + our + breath." + "I'll be + judge, I'll + be jury," + Said + cunning + old Fury: + "I'll + try the + whole + cause, + and + condemn + you + to + death."' + + +'You are not attending!' said the Mouse to Alice severely. 'What are you +thinking of?' + +'I beg your pardon,' said Alice very humbly: 'you had got to the fifth +bend, I think?' + +'I had NOT!' cried the Mouse, sharply and very angrily. + +'A knot!' said Alice, always ready to make herself useful, and looking +anxiously about her. 'Oh, do let me help to undo it!' + +'I shall do nothing of the sort,' said the Mouse, getting up and walking +away. 'You insult me by talking such nonsense!' + +'I didn't mean it!' pleaded poor Alice. 'But you're so easily offended, +you know!' + +The Mouse only growled in reply. + +'Please come back and finish your story!' Alice called after it; and the +others all joined in chorus, 'Yes, please do!' but the Mouse only shook +its head impatiently, and walked a little quicker. + +'What a pity it wouldn't stay!' sighed the Lory, as soon as it was quite +out of sight; and an old Crab took the opportunity of saying to her +daughter 'Ah, my dear! Let this be a lesson to you never to lose +YOUR temper!' 'Hold your tongue, Ma!' said the young Crab, a little +snappishly. 'You're enough to try the patience of an oyster!' + +'I wish I had our Dinah here, I know I do!' said Alice aloud, addressing +nobody in particular. 'She'd soon fetch it back!' + +'And who is Dinah, if I might venture to ask the question?' said the +Lory. + +Alice replied eagerly, for she was always ready to talk about her pet: +'Dinah's our cat. And she's such a capital one for catching mice you +can't think! And oh, I wish you could see her after the birds! Why, +she'll eat a little bird as soon as look at it!' + +This speech caused a remarkable sensation among the party. Some of the +birds hurried off at once: one old Magpie began wrapping itself up very +carefully, remarking, 'I really must be getting home; the night-air +doesn't suit my throat!' and a Canary called out in a trembling voice to +its children, 'Come away, my dears! It's high time you were all in bed!' +On various pretexts they all moved off, and Alice was soon left alone. + +'I wish I hadn't mentioned Dinah!' she said to herself in a melancholy +tone. 'Nobody seems to like her, down here, and I'm sure she's the best +cat in the world! Oh, my dear Dinah! I wonder if I shall ever see you +any more!' And here poor Alice began to cry again, for she felt very +lonely and low-spirited. In a little while, however, she again heard +a little pattering of footsteps in the distance, and she looked up +eagerly, half hoping that the Mouse had changed his mind, and was coming +back to finish his story. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill + +It was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly back again, and looking +anxiously about as it went, as if it had lost something; and she heard +it muttering to itself 'The Duchess! The Duchess! Oh my dear paws! Oh +my fur and whiskers! She'll get me executed, as sure as ferrets are +ferrets! Where CAN I have dropped them, I wonder?' Alice guessed in a +moment that it was looking for the fan and the pair of white kid gloves, +and she very good-naturedly began hunting about for them, but they were +nowhere to be seen--everything seemed to have changed since her swim in +the pool, and the great hall, with the glass table and the little door, +had vanished completely. + +Very soon the Rabbit noticed Alice, as she went hunting about, and +called out to her in an angry tone, 'Why, Mary Ann, what ARE you doing +out here? Run home this moment, and fetch me a pair of gloves and a fan! +Quick, now!' And Alice was so much frightened that she ran off at once +in the direction it pointed to, without trying to explain the mistake it +had made. + +'He took me for his housemaid,' she said to herself as she ran. 'How +surprised he'll be when he finds out who I am! But I'd better take him +his fan and gloves--that is, if I can find them.' As she said this, she +came upon a neat little house, on the door of which was a bright brass +plate with the name 'W. RABBIT' engraved upon it. She went in without +knocking, and hurried upstairs, in great fear lest she should meet the +real Mary Ann, and be turned out of the house before she had found the +fan and gloves. + +'How queer it seems,' Alice said to herself, 'to be going messages for +a rabbit! I suppose Dinah'll be sending me on messages next!' And she +began fancying the sort of thing that would happen: '"Miss Alice! Come +here directly, and get ready for your walk!" "Coming in a minute, +nurse! But I've got to see that the mouse doesn't get out." Only I don't +think,' Alice went on, 'that they'd let Dinah stop in the house if it +began ordering people about like that!' + +By this time she had found her way into a tidy little room with a table +in the window, and on it (as she had hoped) a fan and two or three pairs +of tiny white kid gloves: she took up the fan and a pair of the gloves, +and was just going to leave the room, when her eye fell upon a little +bottle that stood near the looking-glass. There was no label this time +with the words 'DRINK ME,' but nevertheless she uncorked it and put it +to her lips. 'I know SOMETHING interesting is sure to happen,' she said +to herself, 'whenever I eat or drink anything; so I'll just see what +this bottle does. I do hope it'll make me grow large again, for really +I'm quite tired of being such a tiny little thing!' + +It did so indeed, and much sooner than she had expected: before she had +drunk half the bottle, she found her head pressing against the ceiling, +and had to stoop to save her neck from being broken. She hastily put +down the bottle, saying to herself 'That's quite enough--I hope I shan't +grow any more--As it is, I can't get out at the door--I do wish I hadn't +drunk quite so much!' + +Alas! it was too late to wish that! She went on growing, and growing, +and very soon had to kneel down on the floor: in another minute there +was not even room for this, and she tried the effect of lying down with +one elbow against the door, and the other arm curled round her head. +Still she went on growing, and, as a last resource, she put one arm out +of the window, and one foot up the chimney, and said to herself 'Now I +can do no more, whatever happens. What WILL become of me?' + +Luckily for Alice, the little magic bottle had now had its full effect, +and she grew no larger: still it was very uncomfortable, and, as there +seemed to be no sort of chance of her ever getting out of the room +again, no wonder she felt unhappy. + +'It was much pleasanter at home,' thought poor Alice, 'when one wasn't +always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and +rabbits. I almost wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole--and yet--and +yet--it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life! I do wonder what +CAN have happened to me! When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that +kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one! +There ought to be a book written about me, that there ought! And when I +grow up, I'll write one--but I'm grown up now,' she added in a sorrowful +tone; 'at least there's no room to grow up any more HERE.' + +'But then,' thought Alice, 'shall I NEVER get any older than I am +now? That'll be a comfort, one way--never to be an old woman--but +then--always to have lessons to learn! Oh, I shouldn't like THAT!' + +'Oh, you foolish Alice!' she answered herself. 'How can you learn +lessons in here? Why, there's hardly room for YOU, and no room at all +for any lesson-books!' + +And so she went on, taking first one side and then the other, and making +quite a conversation of it altogether; but after a few minutes she heard +a voice outside, and stopped to listen. + +'Mary Ann! Mary Ann!' said the voice. 'Fetch me my gloves this moment!' +Then came a little pattering of feet on the stairs. Alice knew it was +the Rabbit coming to look for her, and she trembled till she shook the +house, quite forgetting that she was now about a thousand times as large +as the Rabbit, and had no reason to be afraid of it. + +Presently the Rabbit came up to the door, and tried to open it; but, as +the door opened inwards, and Alice's elbow was pressed hard against it, +that attempt proved a failure. Alice heard it say to itself 'Then I'll +go round and get in at the window.' + +'THAT you won't' thought Alice, and, after waiting till she fancied +she heard the Rabbit just under the window, she suddenly spread out her +hand, and made a snatch in the air. She did not get hold of anything, +but she heard a little shriek and a fall, and a crash of broken glass, +from which she concluded that it was just possible it had fallen into a +cucumber-frame, or something of the sort. + +Next came an angry voice--the Rabbit's--'Pat! Pat! Where are you?' And +then a voice she had never heard before, 'Sure then I'm here! Digging +for apples, yer honour!' + +'Digging for apples, indeed!' said the Rabbit angrily. 'Here! Come and +help me out of THIS!' (Sounds of more broken glass.) + +'Now tell me, Pat, what's that in the window?' + +'Sure, it's an arm, yer honour!' (He pronounced it 'arrum.') + +'An arm, you goose! Who ever saw one that size? Why, it fills the whole +window!' + +'Sure, it does, yer honour: but it's an arm for all that.' + +'Well, it's got no business there, at any rate: go and take it away!' + +There was a long silence after this, and Alice could only hear whispers +now and then; such as, 'Sure, I don't like it, yer honour, at all, at +all!' 'Do as I tell you, you coward!' and at last she spread out her +hand again, and made another snatch in the air. This time there were +TWO little shrieks, and more sounds of broken glass. 'What a number of +cucumber-frames there must be!' thought Alice. 'I wonder what they'll do +next! As for pulling me out of the window, I only wish they COULD! I'm +sure I don't want to stay in here any longer!' + +She waited for some time without hearing anything more: at last came a +rumbling of little cartwheels, and the sound of a good many voices +all talking together: she made out the words: 'Where's the other +ladder?--Why, I hadn't to bring but one; Bill's got the other--Bill! +fetch it here, lad!--Here, put 'em up at this corner--No, tie 'em +together first--they don't reach half high enough yet--Oh! they'll +do well enough; don't be particular--Here, Bill! catch hold of this +rope--Will the roof bear?--Mind that loose slate--Oh, it's coming +down! Heads below!' (a loud crash)--'Now, who did that?--It was Bill, I +fancy--Who's to go down the chimney?--Nay, I shan't! YOU do it!--That I +won't, then!--Bill's to go down--Here, Bill! the master says you're to +go down the chimney!' + +'Oh! So Bill's got to come down the chimney, has he?' said Alice to +herself. 'Shy, they seem to put everything upon Bill! I wouldn't be in +Bill's place for a good deal: this fireplace is narrow, to be sure; but +I THINK I can kick a little!' + +She drew her foot as far down the chimney as she could, and waited +till she heard a little animal (she couldn't guess of what sort it was) +scratching and scrambling about in the chimney close above her: then, +saying to herself 'This is Bill,' she gave one sharp kick, and waited to +see what would happen next. + +The first thing she heard was a general chorus of 'There goes Bill!' +then the Rabbit's voice along--'Catch him, you by the hedge!' then +silence, and then another confusion of voices--'Hold up his head--Brandy +now--Don't choke him--How was it, old fellow? What happened to you? Tell +us all about it!' + +Last came a little feeble, squeaking voice, ('That's Bill,' thought +Alice,) 'Well, I hardly know--No more, thank ye; I'm better now--but I'm +a deal too flustered to tell you--all I know is, something comes at me +like a Jack-in-the-box, and up I goes like a sky-rocket!' + +'So you did, old fellow!' said the others. + +'We must burn the house down!' said the Rabbit's voice; and Alice called +out as loud as she could, 'If you do. I'll set Dinah at you!' + +There was a dead silence instantly, and Alice thought to herself, 'I +wonder what they WILL do next! If they had any sense, they'd take the +roof off.' After a minute or two, they began moving about again, and +Alice heard the Rabbit say, 'A barrowful will do, to begin with.' + +'A barrowful of WHAT?' thought Alice; but she had not long to doubt, +for the next moment a shower of little pebbles came rattling in at the +window, and some of them hit her in the face. 'I'll put a stop to this,' +she said to herself, and shouted out, 'You'd better not do that again!' +which produced another dead silence. + +Alice noticed with some surprise that the pebbles were all turning into +little cakes as they lay on the floor, and a bright idea came into her +head. 'If I eat one of these cakes,' she thought, 'it's sure to make +SOME change in my size; and as it can't possibly make me larger, it must +make me smaller, I suppose.' + +So she swallowed one of the cakes, and was delighted to find that she +began shrinking directly. As soon as she was small enough to get through +the door, she ran out of the house, and found quite a crowd of little +animals and birds waiting outside. The poor little Lizard, Bill, was +in the middle, being held up by two guinea-pigs, who were giving it +something out of a bottle. They all made a rush at Alice the moment she +appeared; but she ran off as hard as she could, and soon found herself +safe in a thick wood. + +'The first thing I've got to do,' said Alice to herself, as she wandered +about in the wood, 'is to grow to my right size again; and the second +thing is to find my way into that lovely garden. I think that will be +the best plan.' + +It sounded an excellent plan, no doubt, and very neatly and simply +arranged; the only difficulty was, that she had not the smallest idea +how to set about it; and while she was peering about anxiously among +the trees, a little sharp bark just over her head made her look up in a +great hurry. + +An enormous puppy was looking down at her with large round eyes, and +feebly stretching out one paw, trying to touch her. 'Poor little thing!' +said Alice, in a coaxing tone, and she tried hard to whistle to it; but +she was terribly frightened all the time at the thought that it might be +hungry, in which case it would be very likely to eat her up in spite of +all her coaxing. + +Hardly knowing what she did, she picked up a little bit of stick, and +held it out to the puppy; whereupon the puppy jumped into the air off +all its feet at once, with a yelp of delight, and rushed at the stick, +and made believe to worry it; then Alice dodged behind a great thistle, +to keep herself from being run over; and the moment she appeared on the +other side, the puppy made another rush at the stick, and tumbled head +over heels in its hurry to get hold of it; then Alice, thinking it was +very like having a game of play with a cart-horse, and expecting every +moment to be trampled under its feet, ran round the thistle again; then +the puppy began a series of short charges at the stick, running a very +little way forwards each time and a long way back, and barking hoarsely +all the while, till at last it sat down a good way off, panting, with +its tongue hanging out of its mouth, and its great eyes half shut. + +This seemed to Alice a good opportunity for making her escape; so she +set off at once, and ran till she was quite tired and out of breath, and +till the puppy's bark sounded quite faint in the distance. + +'And yet what a dear little puppy it was!' said Alice, as she leant +against a buttercup to rest herself, and fanned herself with one of the +leaves: 'I should have liked teaching it tricks very much, if--if I'd +only been the right size to do it! Oh dear! I'd nearly forgotten that +I've got to grow up again! Let me see--how IS it to be managed? I +suppose I ought to eat or drink something or other; but the great +question is, what?' + +The great question certainly was, what? Alice looked all round her at +the flowers and the blades of grass, but she did not see anything that +looked like the right thing to eat or drink under the circumstances. +There was a large mushroom growing near her, about the same height as +herself; and when she had looked under it, and on both sides of it, and +behind it, it occurred to her that she might as well look and see what +was on the top of it. + +She stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped over the edge of the +mushroom, and her eyes immediately met those of a large caterpillar, +that was sitting on the top with its arms folded, quietly smoking a long +hookah, and taking not the smallest notice of her or of anything else. + + + + +CHAPTER V. Advice from a Caterpillar + +The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: +at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed +her in a languid, sleepy voice. + +'Who are YOU?' said the Caterpillar. + +This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, +rather shyly, 'I--I hardly know, sir, just at present--at least I know +who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been +changed several times since then.' + +'What do you mean by that?' said the Caterpillar sternly. 'Explain +yourself!' + +'I can't explain MYSELF, I'm afraid, sir' said Alice, 'because I'm not +myself, you see.' + +'I don't see,' said the Caterpillar. + +'I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly,' Alice replied very politely, +'for I can't understand it myself to begin with; and being so many +different sizes in a day is very confusing.' + +'It isn't,' said the Caterpillar. + +'Well, perhaps you haven't found it so yet,' said Alice; 'but when you +have to turn into a chrysalis--you will some day, you know--and then +after that into a butterfly, I should think you'll feel it a little +queer, won't you?' + +'Not a bit,' said the Caterpillar. + +'Well, perhaps your feelings may be different,' said Alice; 'all I know +is, it would feel very queer to ME.' + +'You!' said the Caterpillar contemptuously. 'Who are YOU?' + +Which brought them back again to the beginning of the conversation. +Alice felt a little irritated at the Caterpillar's making such VERY +short remarks, and she drew herself up and said, very gravely, 'I think, +you ought to tell me who YOU are, first.' + +'Why?' said the Caterpillar. + +Here was another puzzling question; and as Alice could not think of any +good reason, and as the Caterpillar seemed to be in a VERY unpleasant +state of mind, she turned away. + +'Come back!' the Caterpillar called after her. 'I've something important +to say!' + +This sounded promising, certainly: Alice turned and came back again. + +'Keep your temper,' said the Caterpillar. + +'Is that all?' said Alice, swallowing down her anger as well as she +could. + +'No,' said the Caterpillar. + +Alice thought she might as well wait, as she had nothing else to do, and +perhaps after all it might tell her something worth hearing. For some +minutes it puffed away without speaking, but at last it unfolded its +arms, took the hookah out of its mouth again, and said, 'So you think +you're changed, do you?' + +'I'm afraid I am, sir,' said Alice; 'I can't remember things as I +used--and I don't keep the same size for ten minutes together!' + +'Can't remember WHAT things?' said the Caterpillar. + +'Well, I've tried to say "HOW DOTH THE LITTLE BUSY BEE," but it all came +different!' Alice replied in a very melancholy voice. + +'Repeat, "YOU ARE OLD, FATHER WILLIAM,"' said the Caterpillar. + +Alice folded her hands, and began:-- + + 'You are old, Father William,' the young man said, + 'And your hair has become very white; + And yet you incessantly stand on your head-- + Do you think, at your age, it is right?' + + 'In my youth,' Father William replied to his son, + 'I feared it might injure the brain; + But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none, + Why, I do it again and again.' + + 'You are old,' said the youth, 'as I mentioned before, + And have grown most uncommonly fat; + Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door-- + Pray, what is the reason of that?' + + 'In my youth,' said the sage, as he shook his grey locks, + 'I kept all my limbs very supple + By the use of this ointment--one shilling the box-- + Allow me to sell you a couple?' + + 'You are old,' said the youth, 'and your jaws are too weak + For anything tougher than suet; + Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak-- + Pray how did you manage to do it?' + + 'In my youth,' said his father, 'I took to the law, + And argued each case with my wife; + And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw, + Has lasted the rest of my life.' + + 'You are old,' said the youth, 'one would hardly suppose + That your eye was as steady as ever; + Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose-- + What made you so awfully clever?' + + 'I have answered three questions, and that is enough,' + Said his father; 'don't give yourself airs! + Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff? + Be off, or I'll kick you down stairs!' + + +'That is not said right,' said the Caterpillar. + +'Not QUITE right, I'm afraid,' said Alice, timidly; 'some of the words +have got altered.' + +'It is wrong from beginning to end,' said the Caterpillar decidedly, and +there was silence for some minutes. + +The Caterpillar was the first to speak. + +'What size do you want to be?' it asked. + +'Oh, I'm not particular as to size,' Alice hastily replied; 'only one +doesn't like changing so often, you know.' + +'I DON'T know,' said the Caterpillar. + +Alice said nothing: she had never been so much contradicted in her life +before, and she felt that she was losing her temper. + +'Are you content now?' said the Caterpillar. + +'Well, I should like to be a LITTLE larger, sir, if you wouldn't mind,' +said Alice: 'three inches is such a wretched height to be.' + +'It is a very good height indeed!' said the Caterpillar angrily, rearing +itself upright as it spoke (it was exactly three inches high). + +'But I'm not used to it!' pleaded poor Alice in a piteous tone. And +she thought of herself, 'I wish the creatures wouldn't be so easily +offended!' + +'You'll get used to it in time,' said the Caterpillar; and it put the +hookah into its mouth and began smoking again. + +This time Alice waited patiently until it chose to speak again. In +a minute or two the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth +and yawned once or twice, and shook itself. Then it got down off the +mushroom, and crawled away in the grass, merely remarking as it went, +'One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you +grow shorter.' + +'One side of WHAT? The other side of WHAT?' thought Alice to herself. + +'Of the mushroom,' said the Caterpillar, just as if she had asked it +aloud; and in another moment it was out of sight. + +Alice remained looking thoughtfully at the mushroom for a minute, trying +to make out which were the two sides of it; and as it was perfectly +round, she found this a very difficult question. However, at last she +stretched her arms round it as far as they would go, and broke off a bit +of the edge with each hand. + +'And now which is which?' she said to herself, and nibbled a little of +the right-hand bit to try the effect: the next moment she felt a violent +blow underneath her chin: it had struck her foot! + +She was a good deal frightened by this very sudden change, but she felt +that there was no time to be lost, as she was shrinking rapidly; so she +set to work at once to eat some of the other bit. Her chin was pressed +so closely against her foot, that there was hardly room to open her +mouth; but she did it at last, and managed to swallow a morsel of the +lefthand bit. + + + * * * * * * * + + * * * * * * + + * * * * * * * + +'Come, my head's free at last!' said Alice in a tone of delight, which +changed into alarm in another moment, when she found that her shoulders +were nowhere to be found: all she could see, when she looked down, was +an immense length of neck, which seemed to rise like a stalk out of a +sea of green leaves that lay far below her. + +'What CAN all that green stuff be?' said Alice. 'And where HAVE my +shoulders got to? And oh, my poor hands, how is it I can't see you?' +She was moving them about as she spoke, but no result seemed to follow, +except a little shaking among the distant green leaves. + +As there seemed to be no chance of getting her hands up to her head, she +tried to get her head down to them, and was delighted to find that her +neck would bend about easily in any direction, like a serpent. She had +just succeeded in curving it down into a graceful zigzag, and was going +to dive in among the leaves, which she found to be nothing but the tops +of the trees under which she had been wandering, when a sharp hiss made +her draw back in a hurry: a large pigeon had flown into her face, and +was beating her violently with its wings. + +'Serpent!' screamed the Pigeon. + +'I'm NOT a serpent!' said Alice indignantly. 'Let me alone!' + +'Serpent, I say again!' repeated the Pigeon, but in a more subdued tone, +and added with a kind of sob, 'I've tried every way, and nothing seems +to suit them!' + +'I haven't the least idea what you're talking about,' said Alice. + +'I've tried the roots of trees, and I've tried banks, and I've tried +hedges,' the Pigeon went on, without attending to her; 'but those +serpents! There's no pleasing them!' + +Alice was more and more puzzled, but she thought there was no use in +saying anything more till the Pigeon had finished. + +'As if it wasn't trouble enough hatching the eggs,' said the Pigeon; +'but I must be on the look-out for serpents night and day! Why, I +haven't had a wink of sleep these three weeks!' + +'I'm very sorry you've been annoyed,' said Alice, who was beginning to +see its meaning. + +'And just as I'd taken the highest tree in the wood,' continued the +Pigeon, raising its voice to a shriek, 'and just as I was thinking I +should be free of them at last, they must needs come wriggling down from +the sky! Ugh, Serpent!' + +'But I'm NOT a serpent, I tell you!' said Alice. 'I'm a--I'm a--' + +'Well! WHAT are you?' said the Pigeon. 'I can see you're trying to +invent something!' + +'I--I'm a little girl,' said Alice, rather doubtfully, as she remembered +the number of changes she had gone through that day. + +'A likely story indeed!' said the Pigeon in a tone of the deepest +contempt. 'I've seen a good many little girls in my time, but never ONE +with such a neck as that! No, no! You're a serpent; and there's no use +denying it. I suppose you'll be telling me next that you never tasted an +egg!' + +'I HAVE tasted eggs, certainly,' said Alice, who was a very truthful +child; 'but little girls eat eggs quite as much as serpents do, you +know.' + +'I don't believe it,' said the Pigeon; 'but if they do, why then they're +a kind of serpent, that's all I can say.' + +This was such a new idea to Alice, that she was quite silent for a +minute or two, which gave the Pigeon the opportunity of adding, 'You're +looking for eggs, I know THAT well enough; and what does it matter to me +whether you're a little girl or a serpent?' + +'It matters a good deal to ME,' said Alice hastily; 'but I'm not looking +for eggs, as it happens; and if I was, I shouldn't want YOURS: I don't +like them raw.' + +'Well, be off, then!' said the Pigeon in a sulky tone, as it settled +down again into its nest. Alice crouched down among the trees as well as +she could, for her neck kept getting entangled among the branches, and +every now and then she had to stop and untwist it. After a while she +remembered that she still held the pieces of mushroom in her hands, and +she set to work very carefully, nibbling first at one and then at the +other, and growing sometimes taller and sometimes shorter, until she had +succeeded in bringing herself down to her usual height. + +It was so long since she had been anything near the right size, that it +felt quite strange at first; but she got used to it in a few minutes, +and began talking to herself, as usual. 'Come, there's half my plan done +now! How puzzling all these changes are! I'm never sure what I'm going +to be, from one minute to another! However, I've got back to my right +size: the next thing is, to get into that beautiful garden--how IS that +to be done, I wonder?' As she said this, she came suddenly upon an open +place, with a little house in it about four feet high. 'Whoever lives +there,' thought Alice, 'it'll never do to come upon them THIS size: why, +I should frighten them out of their wits!' So she began nibbling at the +righthand bit again, and did not venture to go near the house till she +had brought herself down to nine inches high. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. Pig and Pepper + +For a minute or two she stood looking at the house, and wondering what +to do next, when suddenly a footman in livery came running out of the +wood--(she considered him to be a footman because he was in livery: +otherwise, judging by his face only, she would have called him a +fish)--and rapped loudly at the door with his knuckles. It was opened +by another footman in livery, with a round face, and large eyes like a +frog; and both footmen, Alice noticed, had powdered hair that curled all +over their heads. She felt very curious to know what it was all about, +and crept a little way out of the wood to listen. + +The Fish-Footman began by producing from under his arm a great letter, +nearly as large as himself, and this he handed over to the other, +saying, in a solemn tone, 'For the Duchess. An invitation from the Queen +to play croquet.' The Frog-Footman repeated, in the same solemn tone, +only changing the order of the words a little, 'From the Queen. An +invitation for the Duchess to play croquet.' + +Then they both bowed low, and their curls got entangled together. + +Alice laughed so much at this, that she had to run back into the +wood for fear of their hearing her; and when she next peeped out the +Fish-Footman was gone, and the other was sitting on the ground near the +door, staring stupidly up into the sky. + +Alice went timidly up to the door, and knocked. + +'There's no sort of use in knocking,' said the Footman, 'and that for +two reasons. First, because I'm on the same side of the door as you +are; secondly, because they're making such a noise inside, no one could +possibly hear you.' And certainly there was a most extraordinary noise +going on within--a constant howling and sneezing, and every now and then +a great crash, as if a dish or kettle had been broken to pieces. + +'Please, then,' said Alice, 'how am I to get in?' + +'There might be some sense in your knocking,' the Footman went on +without attending to her, 'if we had the door between us. For instance, +if you were INSIDE, you might knock, and I could let you out, you know.' +He was looking up into the sky all the time he was speaking, and this +Alice thought decidedly uncivil. 'But perhaps he can't help it,' she +said to herself; 'his eyes are so VERY nearly at the top of his head. +But at any rate he might answer questions.--How am I to get in?' she +repeated, aloud. + +'I shall sit here,' the Footman remarked, 'till tomorrow--' + +At this moment the door of the house opened, and a large plate came +skimming out, straight at the Footman's head: it just grazed his nose, +and broke to pieces against one of the trees behind him. + +'--or next day, maybe,' the Footman continued in the same tone, exactly +as if nothing had happened. + +'How am I to get in?' asked Alice again, in a louder tone. + +'ARE you to get in at all?' said the Footman. 'That's the first +question, you know.' + +It was, no doubt: only Alice did not like to be told so. 'It's really +dreadful,' she muttered to herself, 'the way all the creatures argue. +It's enough to drive one crazy!' + +The Footman seemed to think this a good opportunity for repeating his +remark, with variations. 'I shall sit here,' he said, 'on and off, for +days and days.' + +'But what am I to do?' said Alice. + +'Anything you like,' said the Footman, and began whistling. + +'Oh, there's no use in talking to him,' said Alice desperately: 'he's +perfectly idiotic!' And she opened the door and went in. + +The door led right into a large kitchen, which was full of smoke from +one end to the other: the Duchess was sitting on a three-legged stool in +the middle, nursing a baby; the cook was leaning over the fire, stirring +a large cauldron which seemed to be full of soup. + +'There's certainly too much pepper in that soup!' Alice said to herself, +as well as she could for sneezing. + +There was certainly too much of it in the air. Even the Duchess +sneezed occasionally; and as for the baby, it was sneezing and howling +alternately without a moment's pause. The only things in the kitchen +that did not sneeze, were the cook, and a large cat which was sitting on +the hearth and grinning from ear to ear. + +'Please would you tell me,' said Alice, a little timidly, for she was +not quite sure whether it was good manners for her to speak first, 'why +your cat grins like that?' + +'It's a Cheshire cat,' said the Duchess, 'and that's why. Pig!' + +She said the last word with such sudden violence that Alice quite +jumped; but she saw in another moment that it was addressed to the baby, +and not to her, so she took courage, and went on again:-- + +'I didn't know that Cheshire cats always grinned; in fact, I didn't know +that cats COULD grin.' + +'They all can,' said the Duchess; 'and most of 'em do.' + +'I don't know of any that do,' Alice said very politely, feeling quite +pleased to have got into a conversation. + +'You don't know much,' said the Duchess; 'and that's a fact.' + +Alice did not at all like the tone of this remark, and thought it would +be as well to introduce some other subject of conversation. While she +was trying to fix on one, the cook took the cauldron of soup off the +fire, and at once set to work throwing everything within her reach at +the Duchess and the baby--the fire-irons came first; then followed a +shower of saucepans, plates, and dishes. The Duchess took no notice of +them even when they hit her; and the baby was howling so much already, +that it was quite impossible to say whether the blows hurt it or not. + +'Oh, PLEASE mind what you're doing!' cried Alice, jumping up and down in +an agony of terror. 'Oh, there goes his PRECIOUS nose'; as an unusually +large saucepan flew close by it, and very nearly carried it off. + +'If everybody minded their own business,' the Duchess said in a hoarse +growl, 'the world would go round a deal faster than it does.' + +'Which would NOT be an advantage,' said Alice, who felt very glad to get +an opportunity of showing off a little of her knowledge. 'Just think of +what work it would make with the day and night! You see the earth takes +twenty-four hours to turn round on its axis--' + +'Talking of axes,' said the Duchess, 'chop off her head!' + +Alice glanced rather anxiously at the cook, to see if she meant to take +the hint; but the cook was busily stirring the soup, and seemed not to +be listening, so she went on again: 'Twenty-four hours, I THINK; or is +it twelve? I--' + +'Oh, don't bother ME,' said the Duchess; 'I never could abide figures!' +And with that she began nursing her child again, singing a sort of +lullaby to it as she did so, and giving it a violent shake at the end of +every line: + + 'Speak roughly to your little boy, + And beat him when he sneezes: + He only does it to annoy, + Because he knows it teases.' + + CHORUS. + + (In which the cook and the baby joined):-- + + 'Wow! wow! wow!' + +While the Duchess sang the second verse of the song, she kept tossing +the baby violently up and down, and the poor little thing howled so, +that Alice could hardly hear the words:-- + + 'I speak severely to my boy, + I beat him when he sneezes; + For he can thoroughly enjoy + The pepper when he pleases!' + + CHORUS. + + 'Wow! wow! wow!' + +'Here! you may nurse it a bit, if you like!' the Duchess said to Alice, +flinging the baby at her as she spoke. 'I must go and get ready to play +croquet with the Queen,' and she hurried out of the room. The cook threw +a frying-pan after her as she went out, but it just missed her. + +Alice caught the baby with some difficulty, as it was a queer-shaped +little creature, and held out its arms and legs in all directions, 'just +like a star-fish,' thought Alice. The poor little thing was snorting +like a steam-engine when she caught it, and kept doubling itself up and +straightening itself out again, so that altogether, for the first minute +or two, it was as much as she could do to hold it. + +As soon as she had made out the proper way of nursing it, (which was to +twist it up into a sort of knot, and then keep tight hold of its right +ear and left foot, so as to prevent its undoing itself,) she carried +it out into the open air. 'IF I don't take this child away with me,' +thought Alice, 'they're sure to kill it in a day or two: wouldn't it be +murder to leave it behind?' She said the last words out loud, and the +little thing grunted in reply (it had left off sneezing by this time). +'Don't grunt,' said Alice; 'that's not at all a proper way of expressing +yourself.' + +The baby grunted again, and Alice looked very anxiously into its face to +see what was the matter with it. There could be no doubt that it had +a VERY turn-up nose, much more like a snout than a real nose; also its +eyes were getting extremely small for a baby: altogether Alice did not +like the look of the thing at all. 'But perhaps it was only sobbing,' +she thought, and looked into its eyes again, to see if there were any +tears. + +No, there were no tears. 'If you're going to turn into a pig, my dear,' +said Alice, seriously, 'I'll have nothing more to do with you. Mind +now!' The poor little thing sobbed again (or grunted, it was impossible +to say which), and they went on for some while in silence. + +Alice was just beginning to think to herself, 'Now, what am I to do with +this creature when I get it home?' when it grunted again, so violently, +that she looked down into its face in some alarm. This time there could +be NO mistake about it: it was neither more nor less than a pig, and she +felt that it would be quite absurd for her to carry it further. + +So she set the little creature down, and felt quite relieved to see +it trot away quietly into the wood. 'If it had grown up,' she said +to herself, 'it would have made a dreadfully ugly child: but it makes +rather a handsome pig, I think.' And she began thinking over other +children she knew, who might do very well as pigs, and was just saying +to herself, 'if one only knew the right way to change them--' when she +was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of a +tree a few yards off. + +The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she +thought: still it had VERY long claws and a great many teeth, so she +felt that it ought to be treated with respect. + +'Cheshire Puss,' she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know +whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. +'Come, it's pleased so far,' thought Alice, and she went on. 'Would you +tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?' + +'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat. + +'I don't much care where--' said Alice. + +'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat. + +'--so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation. + +'Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, 'if you only walk long +enough.' + +Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another question. +'What sort of people live about here?' + +'In THAT direction,' the Cat said, waving its right paw round, 'lives +a Hatter: and in THAT direction,' waving the other paw, 'lives a March +Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad.' + +'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked. + +'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. +You're mad.' + +'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice. + +'You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you wouldn't have come here.' + +Alice didn't think that proved it at all; however, she went on 'And how +do you know that you're mad?' + +'To begin with,' said the Cat, 'a dog's not mad. You grant that?' + +'I suppose so,' said Alice. + +'Well, then,' the Cat went on, 'you see, a dog growls when it's angry, +and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and +wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad.' + +'I call it purring, not growling,' said Alice. + +'Call it what you like,' said the Cat. 'Do you play croquet with the +Queen to-day?' + +'I should like it very much,' said Alice, 'but I haven't been invited +yet.' + +'You'll see me there,' said the Cat, and vanished. + +Alice was not much surprised at this, she was getting so used to queer +things happening. While she was looking at the place where it had been, +it suddenly appeared again. + +'By-the-bye, what became of the baby?' said the Cat. 'I'd nearly +forgotten to ask.' + +'It turned into a pig,' Alice quietly said, just as if it had come back +in a natural way. + +'I thought it would,' said the Cat, and vanished again. + +Alice waited a little, half expecting to see it again, but it did not +appear, and after a minute or two she walked on in the direction in +which the March Hare was said to live. 'I've seen hatters before,' she +said to herself; 'the March Hare will be much the most interesting, and +perhaps as this is May it won't be raving mad--at least not so mad as +it was in March.' As she said this, she looked up, and there was the Cat +again, sitting on a branch of a tree. + +'Did you say pig, or fig?' said the Cat. + +'I said pig,' replied Alice; 'and I wish you wouldn't keep appearing and +vanishing so suddenly: you make one quite giddy.' + +'All right,' said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, +beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which +remained some time after the rest of it had gone. + +'Well! I've often seen a cat without a grin,' thought Alice; 'but a grin +without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!' + +She had not gone much farther before she came in sight of the house +of the March Hare: she thought it must be the right house, because the +chimneys were shaped like ears and the roof was thatched with fur. It +was so large a house, that she did not like to go nearer till she had +nibbled some more of the lefthand bit of mushroom, and raised herself to +about two feet high: even then she walked up towards it rather timidly, +saying to herself 'Suppose it should be raving mad after all! I almost +wish I'd gone to see the Hatter instead!' + + + + +CHAPTER VII. A Mad Tea-Party + +There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the +March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting +between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a +cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head. 'Very +uncomfortable for the Dormouse,' thought Alice; 'only, as it's asleep, I +suppose it doesn't mind.' + +The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at +one corner of it: 'No room! No room!' they cried out when they saw Alice +coming. 'There's PLENTY of room!' said Alice indignantly, and she sat +down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table. + +'Have some wine,' the March Hare said in an encouraging tone. + +Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea. +'I don't see any wine,' she remarked. + +'There isn't any,' said the March Hare. + +'Then it wasn't very civil of you to offer it,' said Alice angrily. + +'It wasn't very civil of you to sit down without being invited,' said +the March Hare. + +'I didn't know it was YOUR table,' said Alice; 'it's laid for a great +many more than three.' + +'Your hair wants cutting,' said the Hatter. He had been looking at Alice +for some time with great curiosity, and this was his first speech. + +'You should learn not to make personal remarks,' Alice said with some +severity; 'it's very rude.' + +The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he SAID +was, 'Why is a raven like a writing-desk?' + +'Come, we shall have some fun now!' thought Alice. 'I'm glad they've +begun asking riddles.--I believe I can guess that,' she added aloud. + +'Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?' said the +March Hare. + +'Exactly so,' said Alice. + +'Then you should say what you mean,' the March Hare went on. + +'I do,' Alice hastily replied; 'at least--at least I mean what I +say--that's the same thing, you know.' + +'Not the same thing a bit!' said the Hatter. 'You might just as well say +that "I see what I eat" is the same thing as "I eat what I see"!' + +'You might just as well say,' added the March Hare, 'that "I like what I +get" is the same thing as "I get what I like"!' + +'You might just as well say,' added the Dormouse, who seemed to be +talking in his sleep, 'that "I breathe when I sleep" is the same thing +as "I sleep when I breathe"!' + +'It IS the same thing with you,' said the Hatter, and here the +conversation dropped, and the party sat silent for a minute, while Alice +thought over all she could remember about ravens and writing-desks, +which wasn't much. + +The Hatter was the first to break the silence. 'What day of the month +is it?' he said, turning to Alice: he had taken his watch out of his +pocket, and was looking at it uneasily, shaking it every now and then, +and holding it to his ear. + +Alice considered a little, and then said 'The fourth.' + +'Two days wrong!' sighed the Hatter. 'I told you butter wouldn't suit +the works!' he added looking angrily at the March Hare. + +'It was the BEST butter,' the March Hare meekly replied. + +'Yes, but some crumbs must have got in as well,' the Hatter grumbled: +'you shouldn't have put it in with the bread-knife.' + +The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dipped +it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could think of +nothing better to say than his first remark, 'It was the BEST butter, +you know.' + +Alice had been looking over his shoulder with some curiosity. 'What a +funny watch!' she remarked. 'It tells the day of the month, and doesn't +tell what o'clock it is!' + +'Why should it?' muttered the Hatter. 'Does YOUR watch tell you what +year it is?' + +'Of course not,' Alice replied very readily: 'but that's because it +stays the same year for such a long time together.' + +'Which is just the case with MINE,' said the Hatter. + +Alice felt dreadfully puzzled. The Hatter's remark seemed to have no +sort of meaning in it, and yet it was certainly English. 'I don't quite +understand you,' she said, as politely as she could. + +'The Dormouse is asleep again,' said the Hatter, and he poured a little +hot tea upon its nose. + +The Dormouse shook its head impatiently, and said, without opening its +eyes, 'Of course, of course; just what I was going to remark myself.' + +'Have you guessed the riddle yet?' the Hatter said, turning to Alice +again. + +'No, I give it up,' Alice replied: 'what's the answer?' + +'I haven't the slightest idea,' said the Hatter. + +'Nor I,' said the March Hare. + +Alice sighed wearily. 'I think you might do something better with the +time,' she said, 'than waste it in asking riddles that have no answers.' + +'If you knew Time as well as I do,' said the Hatter, 'you wouldn't talk +about wasting IT. It's HIM.' + +'I don't know what you mean,' said Alice. + +'Of course you don't!' the Hatter said, tossing his head contemptuously. +'I dare say you never even spoke to Time!' + +'Perhaps not,' Alice cautiously replied: 'but I know I have to beat time +when I learn music.' + +'Ah! that accounts for it,' said the Hatter. 'He won't stand beating. +Now, if you only kept on good terms with him, he'd do almost anything +you liked with the clock. For instance, suppose it were nine o'clock in +the morning, just time to begin lessons: you'd only have to whisper a +hint to Time, and round goes the clock in a twinkling! Half-past one, +time for dinner!' + +('I only wish it was,' the March Hare said to itself in a whisper.) + +'That would be grand, certainly,' said Alice thoughtfully: 'but then--I +shouldn't be hungry for it, you know.' + +'Not at first, perhaps,' said the Hatter: 'but you could keep it to +half-past one as long as you liked.' + +'Is that the way YOU manage?' Alice asked. + +The Hatter shook his head mournfully. 'Not I!' he replied. 'We +quarrelled last March--just before HE went mad, you know--' (pointing +with his tea spoon at the March Hare,) '--it was at the great concert +given by the Queen of Hearts, and I had to sing + + "Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! + How I wonder what you're at!" + +You know the song, perhaps?' + +'I've heard something like it,' said Alice. + +'It goes on, you know,' the Hatter continued, 'in this way:-- + + "Up above the world you fly, + Like a tea-tray in the sky. + Twinkle, twinkle--"' + +Here the Dormouse shook itself, and began singing in its sleep 'Twinkle, +twinkle, twinkle, twinkle--' and went on so long that they had to pinch +it to make it stop. + +'Well, I'd hardly finished the first verse,' said the Hatter, 'when the +Queen jumped up and bawled out, "He's murdering the time! Off with his +head!"' + +'How dreadfully savage!' exclaimed Alice. + +'And ever since that,' the Hatter went on in a mournful tone, 'he won't +do a thing I ask! It's always six o'clock now.' + +A bright idea came into Alice's head. 'Is that the reason so many +tea-things are put out here?' she asked. + +'Yes, that's it,' said the Hatter with a sigh: 'it's always tea-time, +and we've no time to wash the things between whiles.' + +'Then you keep moving round, I suppose?' said Alice. + +'Exactly so,' said the Hatter: 'as the things get used up.' + +'But what happens when you come to the beginning again?' Alice ventured +to ask. + +'Suppose we change the subject,' the March Hare interrupted, yawning. +'I'm getting tired of this. I vote the young lady tells us a story.' + +'I'm afraid I don't know one,' said Alice, rather alarmed at the +proposal. + +'Then the Dormouse shall!' they both cried. 'Wake up, Dormouse!' And +they pinched it on both sides at once. + +The Dormouse slowly opened his eyes. 'I wasn't asleep,' he said in a +hoarse, feeble voice: 'I heard every word you fellows were saying.' + +'Tell us a story!' said the March Hare. + +'Yes, please do!' pleaded Alice. + +'And be quick about it,' added the Hatter, 'or you'll be asleep again +before it's done.' + +'Once upon a time there were three little sisters,' the Dormouse began +in a great hurry; 'and their names were Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie; and +they lived at the bottom of a well--' + +'What did they live on?' said Alice, who always took a great interest in +questions of eating and drinking. + +'They lived on treacle,' said the Dormouse, after thinking a minute or +two. + +'They couldn't have done that, you know,' Alice gently remarked; 'they'd +have been ill.' + +'So they were,' said the Dormouse; 'VERY ill.' + +Alice tried to fancy to herself what such an extraordinary ways of +living would be like, but it puzzled her too much, so she went on: 'But +why did they live at the bottom of a well?' + +'Take some more tea,' the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. + +'I've had nothing yet,' Alice replied in an offended tone, 'so I can't +take more.' + +'You mean you can't take LESS,' said the Hatter: 'it's very easy to take +MORE than nothing.' + +'Nobody asked YOUR opinion,' said Alice. + +'Who's making personal remarks now?' the Hatter asked triumphantly. + +Alice did not quite know what to say to this: so she helped herself +to some tea and bread-and-butter, and then turned to the Dormouse, and +repeated her question. 'Why did they live at the bottom of a well?' + +The Dormouse again took a minute or two to think about it, and then +said, 'It was a treacle-well.' + +'There's no such thing!' Alice was beginning very angrily, but the +Hatter and the March Hare went 'Sh! sh!' and the Dormouse sulkily +remarked, 'If you can't be civil, you'd better finish the story for +yourself.' + +'No, please go on!' Alice said very humbly; 'I won't interrupt again. I +dare say there may be ONE.' + +'One, indeed!' said the Dormouse indignantly. However, he consented to +go on. 'And so these three little sisters--they were learning to draw, +you know--' + +'What did they draw?' said Alice, quite forgetting her promise. + +'Treacle,' said the Dormouse, without considering at all this time. + +'I want a clean cup,' interrupted the Hatter: 'let's all move one place +on.' + +He moved on as he spoke, and the Dormouse followed him: the March Hare +moved into the Dormouse's place, and Alice rather unwillingly took +the place of the March Hare. The Hatter was the only one who got any +advantage from the change: and Alice was a good deal worse off than +before, as the March Hare had just upset the milk-jug into his plate. + +Alice did not wish to offend the Dormouse again, so she began very +cautiously: 'But I don't understand. Where did they draw the treacle +from?' + +'You can draw water out of a water-well,' said the Hatter; 'so I should +think you could draw treacle out of a treacle-well--eh, stupid?' + +'But they were IN the well,' Alice said to the Dormouse, not choosing to +notice this last remark. + +'Of course they were', said the Dormouse; '--well in.' + +This answer so confused poor Alice, that she let the Dormouse go on for +some time without interrupting it. + +'They were learning to draw,' the Dormouse went on, yawning and rubbing +its eyes, for it was getting very sleepy; 'and they drew all manner of +things--everything that begins with an M--' + +'Why with an M?' said Alice. + +'Why not?' said the March Hare. + +Alice was silent. + +The Dormouse had closed its eyes by this time, and was going off into +a doze; but, on being pinched by the Hatter, it woke up again with +a little shriek, and went on: '--that begins with an M, such as +mouse-traps, and the moon, and memory, and muchness--you know you say +things are "much of a muchness"--did you ever see such a thing as a +drawing of a muchness?' + +'Really, now you ask me,' said Alice, very much confused, 'I don't +think--' + +'Then you shouldn't talk,' said the Hatter. + +This piece of rudeness was more than Alice could bear: she got up in +great disgust, and walked off; the Dormouse fell asleep instantly, and +neither of the others took the least notice of her going, though she +looked back once or twice, half hoping that they would call after her: +the last time she saw them, they were trying to put the Dormouse into +the teapot. + +'At any rate I'll never go THERE again!' said Alice as she picked her +way through the wood. 'It's the stupidest tea-party I ever was at in all +my life!' + +Just as she said this, she noticed that one of the trees had a door +leading right into it. 'That's very curious!' she thought. 'But +everything's curious today. I think I may as well go in at once.' And in +she went. + +Once more she found herself in the long hall, and close to the little +glass table. 'Now, I'll manage better this time,' she said to herself, +and began by taking the little golden key, and unlocking the door that +led into the garden. Then she went to work nibbling at the mushroom (she +had kept a piece of it in her pocket) till she was about a foot high: +then she walked down the little passage: and THEN--she found herself at +last in the beautiful garden, among the bright flower-beds and the cool +fountains. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. The Queen's Croquet-Ground + +A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden: the roses +growing on it were white, but there were three gardeners at it, busily +painting them red. Alice thought this a very curious thing, and she went +nearer to watch them, and just as she came up to them she heard one of +them say, 'Look out now, Five! Don't go splashing paint over me like +that!' + +'I couldn't help it,' said Five, in a sulky tone; 'Seven jogged my +elbow.' + +On which Seven looked up and said, 'That's right, Five! Always lay the +blame on others!' + +'YOU'D better not talk!' said Five. 'I heard the Queen say only +yesterday you deserved to be beheaded!' + +'What for?' said the one who had spoken first. + +'That's none of YOUR business, Two!' said Seven. + +'Yes, it IS his business!' said Five, 'and I'll tell him--it was for +bringing the cook tulip-roots instead of onions.' + +Seven flung down his brush, and had just begun 'Well, of all the unjust +things--' when his eye chanced to fall upon Alice, as she stood watching +them, and he checked himself suddenly: the others looked round also, and +all of them bowed low. + +'Would you tell me,' said Alice, a little timidly, 'why you are painting +those roses?' + +Five and Seven said nothing, but looked at Two. Two began in a low +voice, 'Why the fact is, you see, Miss, this here ought to have been a +RED rose-tree, and we put a white one in by mistake; and if the Queen +was to find it out, we should all have our heads cut off, you know. +So you see, Miss, we're doing our best, afore she comes, to--' At this +moment Five, who had been anxiously looking across the garden, called +out 'The Queen! The Queen!' and the three gardeners instantly threw +themselves flat upon their faces. There was a sound of many footsteps, +and Alice looked round, eager to see the Queen. + +First came ten soldiers carrying clubs; these were all shaped like +the three gardeners, oblong and flat, with their hands and feet at the +corners: next the ten courtiers; these were ornamented all over with +diamonds, and walked two and two, as the soldiers did. After these came +the royal children; there were ten of them, and the little dears came +jumping merrily along hand in hand, in couples: they were all ornamented +with hearts. Next came the guests, mostly Kings and Queens, and among +them Alice recognised the White Rabbit: it was talking in a hurried +nervous manner, smiling at everything that was said, and went by without +noticing her. Then followed the Knave of Hearts, carrying the King's +crown on a crimson velvet cushion; and, last of all this grand +procession, came THE KING AND QUEEN OF HEARTS. + +Alice was rather doubtful whether she ought not to lie down on her face +like the three gardeners, but she could not remember ever having heard +of such a rule at processions; 'and besides, what would be the use of +a procession,' thought she, 'if people had all to lie down upon their +faces, so that they couldn't see it?' So she stood still where she was, +and waited. + +When the procession came opposite to Alice, they all stopped and looked +at her, and the Queen said severely 'Who is this?' She said it to the +Knave of Hearts, who only bowed and smiled in reply. + +'Idiot!' said the Queen, tossing her head impatiently; and, turning to +Alice, she went on, 'What's your name, child?' + +'My name is Alice, so please your Majesty,' said Alice very politely; +but she added, to herself, 'Why, they're only a pack of cards, after +all. I needn't be afraid of them!' + +'And who are THESE?' said the Queen, pointing to the three gardeners who +were lying round the rosetree; for, you see, as they were lying on their +faces, and the pattern on their backs was the same as the rest of the +pack, she could not tell whether they were gardeners, or soldiers, or +courtiers, or three of her own children. + +'How should I know?' said Alice, surprised at her own courage. 'It's no +business of MINE.' + +The Queen turned crimson with fury, and, after glaring at her for a +moment like a wild beast, screamed 'Off with her head! Off--' + +'Nonsense!' said Alice, very loudly and decidedly, and the Queen was +silent. + +The King laid his hand upon her arm, and timidly said 'Consider, my +dear: she is only a child!' + +The Queen turned angrily away from him, and said to the Knave 'Turn them +over!' + +The Knave did so, very carefully, with one foot. + +'Get up!' said the Queen, in a shrill, loud voice, and the three +gardeners instantly jumped up, and began bowing to the King, the Queen, +the royal children, and everybody else. + +'Leave off that!' screamed the Queen. 'You make me giddy.' And then, +turning to the rose-tree, she went on, 'What HAVE you been doing here?' + +'May it please your Majesty,' said Two, in a very humble tone, going +down on one knee as he spoke, 'we were trying--' + +'I see!' said the Queen, who had meanwhile been examining the roses. +'Off with their heads!' and the procession moved on, three of the +soldiers remaining behind to execute the unfortunate gardeners, who ran +to Alice for protection. + +'You shan't be beheaded!' said Alice, and she put them into a large +flower-pot that stood near. The three soldiers wandered about for a +minute or two, looking for them, and then quietly marched off after the +others. + +'Are their heads off?' shouted the Queen. + +'Their heads are gone, if it please your Majesty!' the soldiers shouted +in reply. + +'That's right!' shouted the Queen. 'Can you play croquet?' + +The soldiers were silent, and looked at Alice, as the question was +evidently meant for her. + +'Yes!' shouted Alice. + +'Come on, then!' roared the Queen, and Alice joined the procession, +wondering very much what would happen next. + +'It's--it's a very fine day!' said a timid voice at her side. She was +walking by the White Rabbit, who was peeping anxiously into her face. + +'Very,' said Alice: '--where's the Duchess?' + +'Hush! Hush!' said the Rabbit in a low, hurried tone. He looked +anxiously over his shoulder as he spoke, and then raised himself upon +tiptoe, put his mouth close to her ear, and whispered 'She's under +sentence of execution.' + +'What for?' said Alice. + +'Did you say "What a pity!"?' the Rabbit asked. + +'No, I didn't,' said Alice: 'I don't think it's at all a pity. I said +"What for?"' + +'She boxed the Queen's ears--' the Rabbit began. Alice gave a little +scream of laughter. 'Oh, hush!' the Rabbit whispered in a frightened +tone. 'The Queen will hear you! You see, she came rather late, and the +Queen said--' + +'Get to your places!' shouted the Queen in a voice of thunder, and +people began running about in all directions, tumbling up against each +other; however, they got settled down in a minute or two, and the game +began. Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in +her life; it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were live hedgehogs, +the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves +up and to stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches. + +The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo: +she succeeded in getting its body tucked away, comfortably enough, under +her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got +its neck nicely straightened out, and was going to give the hedgehog a +blow with its head, it WOULD twist itself round and look up in her face, +with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out +laughing: and when she had got its head down, and was going to begin +again, it was very provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled +itself, and was in the act of crawling away: besides all this, there was +generally a ridge or furrow in the way wherever she wanted to send the +hedgehog to, and, as the doubled-up soldiers were always getting up +and walking off to other parts of the ground, Alice soon came to the +conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed. + +The players all played at once without waiting for turns, quarrelling +all the while, and fighting for the hedgehogs; and in a very short +time the Queen was in a furious passion, and went stamping about, and +shouting 'Off with his head!' or 'Off with her head!' about once in a +minute. + +Alice began to feel very uneasy: to be sure, she had not as yet had any +dispute with the Queen, but she knew that it might happen any minute, +'and then,' thought she, 'what would become of me? They're dreadfully +fond of beheading people here; the great wonder is, that there's any one +left alive!' + +She was looking about for some way of escape, and wondering whether she +could get away without being seen, when she noticed a curious appearance +in the air: it puzzled her very much at first, but, after watching it +a minute or two, she made it out to be a grin, and she said to herself +'It's the Cheshire Cat: now I shall have somebody to talk to.' + +'How are you getting on?' said the Cat, as soon as there was mouth +enough for it to speak with. + +Alice waited till the eyes appeared, and then nodded. 'It's no use +speaking to it,' she thought, 'till its ears have come, or at least one +of them.' In another minute the whole head appeared, and then Alice put +down her flamingo, and began an account of the game, feeling very glad +she had someone to listen to her. The Cat seemed to think that there was +enough of it now in sight, and no more of it appeared. + +'I don't think they play at all fairly,' Alice began, in rather a +complaining tone, 'and they all quarrel so dreadfully one can't hear +oneself speak--and they don't seem to have any rules in particular; +at least, if there are, nobody attends to them--and you've no idea how +confusing it is all the things being alive; for instance, there's the +arch I've got to go through next walking about at the other end of the +ground--and I should have croqueted the Queen's hedgehog just now, only +it ran away when it saw mine coming!' + +'How do you like the Queen?' said the Cat in a low voice. + +'Not at all,' said Alice: 'she's so extremely--' Just then she noticed +that the Queen was close behind her, listening: so she went on, +'--likely to win, that it's hardly worth while finishing the game.' + +The Queen smiled and passed on. + +'Who ARE you talking to?' said the King, going up to Alice, and looking +at the Cat's head with great curiosity. + +'It's a friend of mine--a Cheshire Cat,' said Alice: 'allow me to +introduce it.' + +'I don't like the look of it at all,' said the King: 'however, it may +kiss my hand if it likes.' + +'I'd rather not,' the Cat remarked. + +'Don't be impertinent,' said the King, 'and don't look at me like that!' +He got behind Alice as he spoke. + +'A cat may look at a king,' said Alice. 'I've read that in some book, +but I don't remember where.' + +'Well, it must be removed,' said the King very decidedly, and he called +the Queen, who was passing at the moment, 'My dear! I wish you would +have this cat removed!' + +The Queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. +'Off with his head!' she said, without even looking round. + +'I'll fetch the executioner myself,' said the King eagerly, and he +hurried off. + +Alice thought she might as well go back, and see how the game was going +on, as she heard the Queen's voice in the distance, screaming with +passion. She had already heard her sentence three of the players to be +executed for having missed their turns, and she did not like the look +of things at all, as the game was in such confusion that she never knew +whether it was her turn or not. So she went in search of her hedgehog. + +The hedgehog was engaged in a fight with another hedgehog, which seemed +to Alice an excellent opportunity for croqueting one of them with the +other: the only difficulty was, that her flamingo was gone across to the +other side of the garden, where Alice could see it trying in a helpless +sort of way to fly up into a tree. + +By the time she had caught the flamingo and brought it back, the fight +was over, and both the hedgehogs were out of sight: 'but it doesn't +matter much,' thought Alice, 'as all the arches are gone from this side +of the ground.' So she tucked it away under her arm, that it might not +escape again, and went back for a little more conversation with her +friend. + +When she got back to the Cheshire Cat, she was surprised to find quite a +large crowd collected round it: there was a dispute going on between +the executioner, the King, and the Queen, who were all talking at once, +while all the rest were quite silent, and looked very uncomfortable. + +The moment Alice appeared, she was appealed to by all three to settle +the question, and they repeated their arguments to her, though, as they +all spoke at once, she found it very hard indeed to make out exactly +what they said. + +The executioner's argument was, that you couldn't cut off a head unless +there was a body to cut it off from: that he had never had to do such a +thing before, and he wasn't going to begin at HIS time of life. + +The King's argument was, that anything that had a head could be +beheaded, and that you weren't to talk nonsense. + +The Queen's argument was, that if something wasn't done about it in less +than no time she'd have everybody executed, all round. (It was this last +remark that had made the whole party look so grave and anxious.) + +Alice could think of nothing else to say but 'It belongs to the Duchess: +you'd better ask HER about it.' + +'She's in prison,' the Queen said to the executioner: 'fetch her here.' +And the executioner went off like an arrow. + + The Cat's head began fading away the moment he was gone, and, +by the time he had come back with the Duchess, it had entirely +disappeared; so the King and the executioner ran wildly up and down +looking for it, while the rest of the party went back to the game. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. The Mock Turtle's Story + +'You can't think how glad I am to see you again, you dear old thing!' +said the Duchess, as she tucked her arm affectionately into Alice's, and +they walked off together. + +Alice was very glad to find her in such a pleasant temper, and thought +to herself that perhaps it was only the pepper that had made her so +savage when they met in the kitchen. + +'When I'M a Duchess,' she said to herself, (not in a very hopeful tone +though), 'I won't have any pepper in my kitchen AT ALL. Soup does very +well without--Maybe it's always pepper that makes people hot-tempered,' +she went on, very much pleased at having found out a new kind of +rule, 'and vinegar that makes them sour--and camomile that makes +them bitter--and--and barley-sugar and such things that make children +sweet-tempered. I only wish people knew that: then they wouldn't be so +stingy about it, you know--' + +She had quite forgotten the Duchess by this time, and was a little +startled when she heard her voice close to her ear. 'You're thinking +about something, my dear, and that makes you forget to talk. I can't +tell you just now what the moral of that is, but I shall remember it in +a bit.' + +'Perhaps it hasn't one,' Alice ventured to remark. + +'Tut, tut, child!' said the Duchess. 'Everything's got a moral, if only +you can find it.' And she squeezed herself up closer to Alice's side as +she spoke. + +Alice did not much like keeping so close to her: first, because the +Duchess was VERY ugly; and secondly, because she was exactly the +right height to rest her chin upon Alice's shoulder, and it was an +uncomfortably sharp chin. However, she did not like to be rude, so she +bore it as well as she could. + +'The game's going on rather better now,' she said, by way of keeping up +the conversation a little. + +''Tis so,' said the Duchess: 'and the moral of that is--"Oh, 'tis love, +'tis love, that makes the world go round!"' + +'Somebody said,' Alice whispered, 'that it's done by everybody minding +their own business!' + +'Ah, well! It means much the same thing,' said the Duchess, digging her +sharp little chin into Alice's shoulder as she added, 'and the moral +of THAT is--"Take care of the sense, and the sounds will take care of +themselves."' + +'How fond she is of finding morals in things!' Alice thought to herself. + +'I dare say you're wondering why I don't put my arm round your waist,' +the Duchess said after a pause: 'the reason is, that I'm doubtful about +the temper of your flamingo. Shall I try the experiment?' + +'HE might bite,' Alice cautiously replied, not feeling at all anxious to +have the experiment tried. + +'Very true,' said the Duchess: 'flamingoes and mustard both bite. And +the moral of that is--"Birds of a feather flock together."' + +'Only mustard isn't a bird,' Alice remarked. + +'Right, as usual,' said the Duchess: 'what a clear way you have of +putting things!' + +'It's a mineral, I THINK,' said Alice. + +'Of course it is,' said the Duchess, who seemed ready to agree to +everything that Alice said; 'there's a large mustard-mine near here. And +the moral of that is--"The more there is of mine, the less there is of +yours."' + +'Oh, I know!' exclaimed Alice, who had not attended to this last remark, +'it's a vegetable. It doesn't look like one, but it is.' + +'I quite agree with you,' said the Duchess; 'and the moral of that +is--"Be what you would seem to be"--or if you'd like it put more +simply--"Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might +appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise +than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise."' + +'I think I should understand that better,' Alice said very politely, 'if +I had it written down: but I can't quite follow it as you say it.' + +'That's nothing to what I could say if I chose,' the Duchess replied, in +a pleased tone. + +'Pray don't trouble yourself to say it any longer than that,' said +Alice. + +'Oh, don't talk about trouble!' said the Duchess. 'I make you a present +of everything I've said as yet.' + +'A cheap sort of present!' thought Alice. 'I'm glad they don't give +birthday presents like that!' But she did not venture to say it out +loud. + +'Thinking again?' the Duchess asked, with another dig of her sharp +little chin. + +'I've a right to think,' said Alice sharply, for she was beginning to +feel a little worried. + +'Just about as much right,' said the Duchess, 'as pigs have to fly; and +the m--' + +But here, to Alice's great surprise, the Duchess's voice died away, even +in the middle of her favourite word 'moral,' and the arm that was linked +into hers began to tremble. Alice looked up, and there stood the Queen +in front of them, with her arms folded, frowning like a thunderstorm. + +'A fine day, your Majesty!' the Duchess began in a low, weak voice. + +'Now, I give you fair warning,' shouted the Queen, stamping on the +ground as she spoke; 'either you or your head must be off, and that in +about half no time! Take your choice!' + +The Duchess took her choice, and was gone in a moment. + +'Let's go on with the game,' the Queen said to Alice; and Alice was +too much frightened to say a word, but slowly followed her back to the +croquet-ground. + +The other guests had taken advantage of the Queen's absence, and were +resting in the shade: however, the moment they saw her, they hurried +back to the game, the Queen merely remarking that a moment's delay would +cost them their lives. + +All the time they were playing the Queen never left off quarrelling with +the other players, and shouting 'Off with his head!' or 'Off with her +head!' Those whom she sentenced were taken into custody by the soldiers, +who of course had to leave off being arches to do this, so that by +the end of half an hour or so there were no arches left, and all the +players, except the King, the Queen, and Alice, were in custody and +under sentence of execution. + +Then the Queen left off, quite out of breath, and said to Alice, 'Have +you seen the Mock Turtle yet?' + +'No,' said Alice. 'I don't even know what a Mock Turtle is.' + +'It's the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from,' said the Queen. + +'I never saw one, or heard of one,' said Alice. + +'Come on, then,' said the Queen, 'and he shall tell you his history,' + +As they walked off together, Alice heard the King say in a low voice, +to the company generally, 'You are all pardoned.' 'Come, THAT'S a good +thing!' she said to herself, for she had felt quite unhappy at the +number of executions the Queen had ordered. + +They very soon came upon a Gryphon, lying fast asleep in the sun. +(IF you don't know what a Gryphon is, look at the picture.) 'Up, lazy +thing!' said the Queen, 'and take this young lady to see the Mock +Turtle, and to hear his history. I must go back and see after some +executions I have ordered'; and she walked off, leaving Alice alone with +the Gryphon. Alice did not quite like the look of the creature, but on +the whole she thought it would be quite as safe to stay with it as to go +after that savage Queen: so she waited. + +The Gryphon sat up and rubbed its eyes: then it watched the Queen till +she was out of sight: then it chuckled. 'What fun!' said the Gryphon, +half to itself, half to Alice. + +'What IS the fun?' said Alice. + +'Why, SHE,' said the Gryphon. 'It's all her fancy, that: they never +executes nobody, you know. Come on!' + +'Everybody says "come on!" here,' thought Alice, as she went slowly +after it: 'I never was so ordered about in all my life, never!' + +They had not gone far before they saw the Mock Turtle in the distance, +sitting sad and lonely on a little ledge of rock, and, as they came +nearer, Alice could hear him sighing as if his heart would break. She +pitied him deeply. 'What is his sorrow?' she asked the Gryphon, and the +Gryphon answered, very nearly in the same words as before, 'It's all his +fancy, that: he hasn't got no sorrow, you know. Come on!' + +So they went up to the Mock Turtle, who looked at them with large eyes +full of tears, but said nothing. + +'This here young lady,' said the Gryphon, 'she wants for to know your +history, she do.' + +'I'll tell it her,' said the Mock Turtle in a deep, hollow tone: 'sit +down, both of you, and don't speak a word till I've finished.' + +So they sat down, and nobody spoke for some minutes. Alice thought to +herself, 'I don't see how he can EVEN finish, if he doesn't begin.' But +she waited patiently. + +'Once,' said the Mock Turtle at last, with a deep sigh, 'I was a real +Turtle.' + +These words were followed by a very long silence, broken only by an +occasional exclamation of 'Hjckrrh!' from the Gryphon, and the constant +heavy sobbing of the Mock Turtle. Alice was very nearly getting up and +saying, 'Thank you, sir, for your interesting story,' but she could +not help thinking there MUST be more to come, so she sat still and said +nothing. + +'When we were little,' the Mock Turtle went on at last, more calmly, +though still sobbing a little now and then, 'we went to school in the +sea. The master was an old Turtle--we used to call him Tortoise--' + +'Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn't one?' Alice asked. + +'We called him Tortoise because he taught us,' said the Mock Turtle +angrily: 'really you are very dull!' + +'You ought to be ashamed of yourself for asking such a simple question,' +added the Gryphon; and then they both sat silent and looked at poor +Alice, who felt ready to sink into the earth. At last the Gryphon said +to the Mock Turtle, 'Drive on, old fellow! Don't be all day about it!' +and he went on in these words: + +'Yes, we went to school in the sea, though you mayn't believe it--' + +'I never said I didn't!' interrupted Alice. + +'You did,' said the Mock Turtle. + +'Hold your tongue!' added the Gryphon, before Alice could speak again. +The Mock Turtle went on. + +'We had the best of educations--in fact, we went to school every day--' + +'I'VE been to a day-school, too,' said Alice; 'you needn't be so proud +as all that.' + +'With extras?' asked the Mock Turtle a little anxiously. + +'Yes,' said Alice, 'we learned French and music.' + +'And washing?' said the Mock Turtle. + +'Certainly not!' said Alice indignantly. + +'Ah! then yours wasn't a really good school,' said the Mock Turtle in +a tone of great relief. 'Now at OURS they had at the end of the bill, +"French, music, AND WASHING--extra."' + +'You couldn't have wanted it much,' said Alice; 'living at the bottom of +the sea.' + +'I couldn't afford to learn it.' said the Mock Turtle with a sigh. 'I +only took the regular course.' + +'What was that?' inquired Alice. + +'Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,' the Mock Turtle +replied; 'and then the different branches of Arithmetic--Ambition, +Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.' + +'I never heard of "Uglification,"' Alice ventured to say. 'What is it?' + +The Gryphon lifted up both its paws in surprise. 'What! Never heard of +uglifying!' it exclaimed. 'You know what to beautify is, I suppose?' + +'Yes,' said Alice doubtfully: 'it means--to--make--anything--prettier.' + +'Well, then,' the Gryphon went on, 'if you don't know what to uglify is, +you ARE a simpleton.' + +Alice did not feel encouraged to ask any more questions about it, so she +turned to the Mock Turtle, and said 'What else had you to learn?' + +'Well, there was Mystery,' the Mock Turtle replied, counting off +the subjects on his flappers, '--Mystery, ancient and modern, with +Seaography: then Drawling--the Drawling-master was an old conger-eel, +that used to come once a week: HE taught us Drawling, Stretching, and +Fainting in Coils.' + +'What was THAT like?' said Alice. + +'Well, I can't show it you myself,' the Mock Turtle said: 'I'm too +stiff. And the Gryphon never learnt it.' + +'Hadn't time,' said the Gryphon: 'I went to the Classics master, though. +He was an old crab, HE was.' + +'I never went to him,' the Mock Turtle said with a sigh: 'he taught +Laughing and Grief, they used to say.' + +'So he did, so he did,' said the Gryphon, sighing in his turn; and both +creatures hid their faces in their paws. + +'And how many hours a day did you do lessons?' said Alice, in a hurry to +change the subject. + +'Ten hours the first day,' said the Mock Turtle: 'nine the next, and so +on.' + +'What a curious plan!' exclaimed Alice. + +'That's the reason they're called lessons,' the Gryphon remarked: +'because they lessen from day to day.' + +This was quite a new idea to Alice, and she thought it over a little +before she made her next remark. 'Then the eleventh day must have been a +holiday?' + +'Of course it was,' said the Mock Turtle. + +'And how did you manage on the twelfth?' Alice went on eagerly. + +'That's enough about lessons,' the Gryphon interrupted in a very decided +tone: 'tell her something about the games now.' + + + + +CHAPTER X. The Lobster Quadrille + +The Mock Turtle sighed deeply, and drew the back of one flapper across +his eyes. He looked at Alice, and tried to speak, but for a minute or +two sobs choked his voice. 'Same as if he had a bone in his throat,' +said the Gryphon: and it set to work shaking him and punching him in +the back. At last the Mock Turtle recovered his voice, and, with tears +running down his cheeks, he went on again:-- + +'You may not have lived much under the sea--' ('I haven't,' said +Alice)--'and perhaps you were never even introduced to a lobster--' +(Alice began to say 'I once tasted--' but checked herself hastily, and +said 'No, never') '--so you can have no idea what a delightful thing a +Lobster Quadrille is!' + +'No, indeed,' said Alice. 'What sort of a dance is it?' + +'Why,' said the Gryphon, 'you first form into a line along the +sea-shore--' + +'Two lines!' cried the Mock Turtle. 'Seals, turtles, salmon, and so on; +then, when you've cleared all the jelly-fish out of the way--' + +'THAT generally takes some time,' interrupted the Gryphon. + +'--you advance twice--' + +'Each with a lobster as a partner!' cried the Gryphon. + +'Of course,' the Mock Turtle said: 'advance twice, set to partners--' + +'--change lobsters, and retire in same order,' continued the Gryphon. + +'Then, you know,' the Mock Turtle went on, 'you throw the--' + +'The lobsters!' shouted the Gryphon, with a bound into the air. + +'--as far out to sea as you can--' + +'Swim after them!' screamed the Gryphon. + +'Turn a somersault in the sea!' cried the Mock Turtle, capering wildly +about. + +'Change lobsters again!' yelled the Gryphon at the top of its voice. + +'Back to land again, and that's all the first figure,' said the Mock +Turtle, suddenly dropping his voice; and the two creatures, who had been +jumping about like mad things all this time, sat down again very sadly +and quietly, and looked at Alice. + +'It must be a very pretty dance,' said Alice timidly. + +'Would you like to see a little of it?' said the Mock Turtle. + +'Very much indeed,' said Alice. + +'Come, let's try the first figure!' said the Mock Turtle to the Gryphon. +'We can do without lobsters, you know. Which shall sing?' + +'Oh, YOU sing,' said the Gryphon. 'I've forgotten the words.' + +So they began solemnly dancing round and round Alice, every now and +then treading on her toes when they passed too close, and waving their +forepaws to mark the time, while the Mock Turtle sang this, very slowly +and sadly:-- + + '"Will you walk a little faster?" said a whiting to a snail. + "There's a porpoise close behind us, and he's treading on my tail. + + See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance! + They are waiting on the shingle--will you come and join the dance? + + Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance? + Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance? + + "You can really have no notion how delightful it will be + When they take us up and throw us, with the lobsters, out to sea!" + But the snail replied "Too far, too far!" and gave a look askance-- + Said he thanked the whiting kindly, but he would not join the dance. + + Would not, could not, would not, could not, would not join the dance. + Would not, could not, would not, could not, could not join the dance. + + '"What matters it how far we go?" his scaly friend replied. + "There is another shore, you know, upon the other side. + The further off from England the nearer is to France-- + Then turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and join the dance. + + Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance? + Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance?"' + +'Thank you, it's a very interesting dance to watch,' said Alice, feeling +very glad that it was over at last: 'and I do so like that curious song +about the whiting!' + +'Oh, as to the whiting,' said the Mock Turtle, 'they--you've seen them, +of course?' + +'Yes,' said Alice, 'I've often seen them at dinn--' she checked herself +hastily. + +'I don't know where Dinn may be,' said the Mock Turtle, 'but if you've +seen them so often, of course you know what they're like.' + +'I believe so,' Alice replied thoughtfully. 'They have their tails in +their mouths--and they're all over crumbs.' + +'You're wrong about the crumbs,' said the Mock Turtle: 'crumbs would all +wash off in the sea. But they HAVE their tails in their mouths; and the +reason is--' here the Mock Turtle yawned and shut his eyes.--'Tell her +about the reason and all that,' he said to the Gryphon. + +'The reason is,' said the Gryphon, 'that they WOULD go with the lobsters +to the dance. So they got thrown out to sea. So they had to fall a long +way. So they got their tails fast in their mouths. So they couldn't get +them out again. That's all.' + +'Thank you,' said Alice, 'it's very interesting. I never knew so much +about a whiting before.' + +'I can tell you more than that, if you like,' said the Gryphon. 'Do you +know why it's called a whiting?' + +'I never thought about it,' said Alice. 'Why?' + +'IT DOES THE BOOTS AND SHOES.' the Gryphon replied very solemnly. + +Alice was thoroughly puzzled. 'Does the boots and shoes!' she repeated +in a wondering tone. + +'Why, what are YOUR shoes done with?' said the Gryphon. 'I mean, what +makes them so shiny?' + +Alice looked down at them, and considered a little before she gave her +answer. 'They're done with blacking, I believe.' + +'Boots and shoes under the sea,' the Gryphon went on in a deep voice, +'are done with a whiting. Now you know.' + +'And what are they made of?' Alice asked in a tone of great curiosity. + +'Soles and eels, of course,' the Gryphon replied rather impatiently: +'any shrimp could have told you that.' + +'If I'd been the whiting,' said Alice, whose thoughts were still running +on the song, 'I'd have said to the porpoise, "Keep back, please: we +don't want YOU with us!"' + +'They were obliged to have him with them,' the Mock Turtle said: 'no +wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise.' + +'Wouldn't it really?' said Alice in a tone of great surprise. + +'Of course not,' said the Mock Turtle: 'why, if a fish came to ME, and +told me he was going a journey, I should say "With what porpoise?"' + +'Don't you mean "purpose"?' said Alice. + +'I mean what I say,' the Mock Turtle replied in an offended tone. And +the Gryphon added 'Come, let's hear some of YOUR adventures.' + +'I could tell you my adventures--beginning from this morning,' said +Alice a little timidly: 'but it's no use going back to yesterday, +because I was a different person then.' + +'Explain all that,' said the Mock Turtle. + +'No, no! The adventures first,' said the Gryphon in an impatient tone: +'explanations take such a dreadful time.' + +So Alice began telling them her adventures from the time when she first +saw the White Rabbit. She was a little nervous about it just at first, +the two creatures got so close to her, one on each side, and opened +their eyes and mouths so VERY wide, but she gained courage as she went +on. Her listeners were perfectly quiet till she got to the part about +her repeating 'YOU ARE OLD, FATHER WILLIAM,' to the Caterpillar, and the +words all coming different, and then the Mock Turtle drew a long breath, +and said 'That's very curious.' + +'It's all about as curious as it can be,' said the Gryphon. + +'It all came different!' the Mock Turtle repeated thoughtfully. 'I +should like to hear her try and repeat something now. Tell her to +begin.' He looked at the Gryphon as if he thought it had some kind of +authority over Alice. + +'Stand up and repeat "'TIS THE VOICE OF THE SLUGGARD,"' said the +Gryphon. + +'How the creatures order one about, and make one repeat lessons!' +thought Alice; 'I might as well be at school at once.' However, she +got up, and began to repeat it, but her head was so full of the Lobster +Quadrille, that she hardly knew what she was saying, and the words came +very queer indeed:-- + + ''Tis the voice of the Lobster; I heard him declare, + "You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair." + As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose + Trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his toes.' + + [later editions continued as follows + When the sands are all dry, he is gay as a lark, + And will talk in contemptuous tones of the Shark, + But, when the tide rises and sharks are around, + His voice has a timid and tremulous sound.] + +'That's different from what I used to say when I was a child,' said the +Gryphon. + +'Well, I never heard it before,' said the Mock Turtle; 'but it sounds +uncommon nonsense.' + +Alice said nothing; she had sat down with her face in her hands, +wondering if anything would EVER happen in a natural way again. + +'I should like to have it explained,' said the Mock Turtle. + +'She can't explain it,' said the Gryphon hastily. 'Go on with the next +verse.' + +'But about his toes?' the Mock Turtle persisted. 'How COULD he turn them +out with his nose, you know?' + +'It's the first position in dancing.' Alice said; but was dreadfully +puzzled by the whole thing, and longed to change the subject. + +'Go on with the next verse,' the Gryphon repeated impatiently: 'it +begins "I passed by his garden."' + +Alice did not dare to disobey, though she felt sure it would all come +wrong, and she went on in a trembling voice:-- + + 'I passed by his garden, and marked, with one eye, + How the Owl and the Panther were sharing a pie--' + + [later editions continued as follows + The Panther took pie-crust, and gravy, and meat, + While the Owl had the dish as its share of the treat. + When the pie was all finished, the Owl, as a boon, + Was kindly permitted to pocket the spoon: + While the Panther received knife and fork with a growl, + And concluded the banquet--] + +'What IS the use of repeating all that stuff,' the Mock Turtle +interrupted, 'if you don't explain it as you go on? It's by far the most +confusing thing I ever heard!' + +'Yes, I think you'd better leave off,' said the Gryphon: and Alice was +only too glad to do so. + +'Shall we try another figure of the Lobster Quadrille?' the Gryphon went +on. 'Or would you like the Mock Turtle to sing you a song?' + +'Oh, a song, please, if the Mock Turtle would be so kind,' Alice +replied, so eagerly that the Gryphon said, in a rather offended tone, +'Hm! No accounting for tastes! Sing her "Turtle Soup," will you, old +fellow?' + +The Mock Turtle sighed deeply, and began, in a voice sometimes choked +with sobs, to sing this:-- + + 'Beautiful Soup, so rich and green, + Waiting in a hot tureen! + Who for such dainties would not stoop? + Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup! + Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup! + Beau--ootiful Soo--oop! + Beau--ootiful Soo--oop! + Soo--oop of the e--e--evening, + Beautiful, beautiful Soup! + + 'Beautiful Soup! Who cares for fish, + Game, or any other dish? + Who would not give all else for two + Pennyworth only of beautiful Soup? + Pennyworth only of beautiful Soup? + Beau--ootiful Soo--oop! + Beau--ootiful Soo--oop! + Soo--oop of the e--e--evening, + Beautiful, beauti--FUL SOUP!' + +'Chorus again!' cried the Gryphon, and the Mock Turtle had just begun +to repeat it, when a cry of 'The trial's beginning!' was heard in the +distance. + +'Come on!' cried the Gryphon, and, taking Alice by the hand, it hurried +off, without waiting for the end of the song. + +'What trial is it?' Alice panted as she ran; but the Gryphon only +answered 'Come on!' and ran the faster, while more and more faintly +came, carried on the breeze that followed them, the melancholy words:-- + + 'Soo--oop of the e--e--evening, + Beautiful, beautiful Soup!' + + + + +CHAPTER XI. Who Stole the Tarts? + +The King and Queen of Hearts were seated on their throne when they +arrived, with a great crowd assembled about them--all sorts of little +birds and beasts, as well as the whole pack of cards: the Knave was +standing before them, in chains, with a soldier on each side to guard +him; and near the King was the White Rabbit, with a trumpet in one hand, +and a scroll of parchment in the other. In the very middle of the court +was a table, with a large dish of tarts upon it: they looked so good, +that it made Alice quite hungry to look at them--'I wish they'd get the +trial done,' she thought, 'and hand round the refreshments!' But there +seemed to be no chance of this, so she began looking at everything about +her, to pass away the time. + +Alice had never been in a court of justice before, but she had read +about them in books, and she was quite pleased to find that she knew +the name of nearly everything there. 'That's the judge,' she said to +herself, 'because of his great wig.' + +The judge, by the way, was the King; and as he wore his crown over the +wig, (look at the frontispiece if you want to see how he did it,) he did +not look at all comfortable, and it was certainly not becoming. + +'And that's the jury-box,' thought Alice, 'and those twelve creatures,' +(she was obliged to say 'creatures,' you see, because some of them were +animals, and some were birds,) 'I suppose they are the jurors.' She said +this last word two or three times over to herself, being rather proud of +it: for she thought, and rightly too, that very few little girls of her +age knew the meaning of it at all. However, 'jury-men' would have done +just as well. + +The twelve jurors were all writing very busily on slates. 'What are they +doing?' Alice whispered to the Gryphon. 'They can't have anything to put +down yet, before the trial's begun.' + +'They're putting down their names,' the Gryphon whispered in reply, 'for +fear they should forget them before the end of the trial.' + +'Stupid things!' Alice began in a loud, indignant voice, but she stopped +hastily, for the White Rabbit cried out, 'Silence in the court!' and the +King put on his spectacles and looked anxiously round, to make out who +was talking. + +Alice could see, as well as if she were looking over their shoulders, +that all the jurors were writing down 'stupid things!' on their slates, +and she could even make out that one of them didn't know how to spell +'stupid,' and that he had to ask his neighbour to tell him. 'A nice +muddle their slates'll be in before the trial's over!' thought Alice. + +One of the jurors had a pencil that squeaked. This of course, Alice +could not stand, and she went round the court and got behind him, and +very soon found an opportunity of taking it away. She did it so quickly +that the poor little juror (it was Bill, the Lizard) could not make out +at all what had become of it; so, after hunting all about for it, he was +obliged to write with one finger for the rest of the day; and this was +of very little use, as it left no mark on the slate. + +'Herald, read the accusation!' said the King. + +On this the White Rabbit blew three blasts on the trumpet, and then +unrolled the parchment scroll, and read as follows:-- + + 'The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts, + All on a summer day: + The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts, + And took them quite away!' + +'Consider your verdict,' the King said to the jury. + +'Not yet, not yet!' the Rabbit hastily interrupted. 'There's a great +deal to come before that!' + +'Call the first witness,' said the King; and the White Rabbit blew three +blasts on the trumpet, and called out, 'First witness!' + +The first witness was the Hatter. He came in with a teacup in one +hand and a piece of bread-and-butter in the other. 'I beg pardon, your +Majesty,' he began, 'for bringing these in: but I hadn't quite finished +my tea when I was sent for.' + +'You ought to have finished,' said the King. 'When did you begin?' + +The Hatter looked at the March Hare, who had followed him into the +court, arm-in-arm with the Dormouse. 'Fourteenth of March, I think it +was,' he said. + +'Fifteenth,' said the March Hare. + +'Sixteenth,' added the Dormouse. + +'Write that down,' the King said to the jury, and the jury eagerly +wrote down all three dates on their slates, and then added them up, and +reduced the answer to shillings and pence. + +'Take off your hat,' the King said to the Hatter. + +'It isn't mine,' said the Hatter. + +'Stolen!' the King exclaimed, turning to the jury, who instantly made a +memorandum of the fact. + +'I keep them to sell,' the Hatter added as an explanation; 'I've none of +my own. I'm a hatter.' + +Here the Queen put on her spectacles, and began staring at the Hatter, +who turned pale and fidgeted. + +'Give your evidence,' said the King; 'and don't be nervous, or I'll have +you executed on the spot.' + +This did not seem to encourage the witness at all: he kept shifting +from one foot to the other, looking uneasily at the Queen, and in +his confusion he bit a large piece out of his teacup instead of the +bread-and-butter. + +Just at this moment Alice felt a very curious sensation, which puzzled +her a good deal until she made out what it was: she was beginning to +grow larger again, and she thought at first she would get up and leave +the court; but on second thoughts she decided to remain where she was as +long as there was room for her. + +'I wish you wouldn't squeeze so.' said the Dormouse, who was sitting +next to her. 'I can hardly breathe.' + +'I can't help it,' said Alice very meekly: 'I'm growing.' + +'You've no right to grow here,' said the Dormouse. + +'Don't talk nonsense,' said Alice more boldly: 'you know you're growing +too.' + +'Yes, but I grow at a reasonable pace,' said the Dormouse: 'not in that +ridiculous fashion.' And he got up very sulkily and crossed over to the +other side of the court. + +All this time the Queen had never left off staring at the Hatter, and, +just as the Dormouse crossed the court, she said to one of the officers +of the court, 'Bring me the list of the singers in the last concert!' on +which the wretched Hatter trembled so, that he shook both his shoes off. + +'Give your evidence,' the King repeated angrily, 'or I'll have you +executed, whether you're nervous or not.' + +'I'm a poor man, your Majesty,' the Hatter began, in a trembling voice, +'--and I hadn't begun my tea--not above a week or so--and what with the +bread-and-butter getting so thin--and the twinkling of the tea--' + +'The twinkling of the what?' said the King. + +'It began with the tea,' the Hatter replied. + +'Of course twinkling begins with a T!' said the King sharply. 'Do you +take me for a dunce? Go on!' + +'I'm a poor man,' the Hatter went on, 'and most things twinkled after +that--only the March Hare said--' + +'I didn't!' the March Hare interrupted in a great hurry. + +'You did!' said the Hatter. + +'I deny it!' said the March Hare. + +'He denies it,' said the King: 'leave out that part.' + +'Well, at any rate, the Dormouse said--' the Hatter went on, looking +anxiously round to see if he would deny it too: but the Dormouse denied +nothing, being fast asleep. + +'After that,' continued the Hatter, 'I cut some more bread-and-butter--' + +'But what did the Dormouse say?' one of the jury asked. + +'That I can't remember,' said the Hatter. + +'You MUST remember,' remarked the King, 'or I'll have you executed.' + +The miserable Hatter dropped his teacup and bread-and-butter, and went +down on one knee. 'I'm a poor man, your Majesty,' he began. + +'You're a very poor speaker,' said the King. + +Here one of the guinea-pigs cheered, and was immediately suppressed by +the officers of the court. (As that is rather a hard word, I will just +explain to you how it was done. They had a large canvas bag, which tied +up at the mouth with strings: into this they slipped the guinea-pig, +head first, and then sat upon it.) + +'I'm glad I've seen that done,' thought Alice. 'I've so often read +in the newspapers, at the end of trials, "There was some attempts +at applause, which was immediately suppressed by the officers of the +court," and I never understood what it meant till now.' + +'If that's all you know about it, you may stand down,' continued the +King. + +'I can't go no lower,' said the Hatter: 'I'm on the floor, as it is.' + +'Then you may SIT down,' the King replied. + +Here the other guinea-pig cheered, and was suppressed. + +'Come, that finished the guinea-pigs!' thought Alice. 'Now we shall get +on better.' + +'I'd rather finish my tea,' said the Hatter, with an anxious look at the +Queen, who was reading the list of singers. + +'You may go,' said the King, and the Hatter hurriedly left the court, +without even waiting to put his shoes on. + +'--and just take his head off outside,' the Queen added to one of the +officers: but the Hatter was out of sight before the officer could get +to the door. + +'Call the next witness!' said the King. + +The next witness was the Duchess's cook. She carried the pepper-box in +her hand, and Alice guessed who it was, even before she got into the +court, by the way the people near the door began sneezing all at once. + +'Give your evidence,' said the King. + +'Shan't,' said the cook. + +The King looked anxiously at the White Rabbit, who said in a low voice, +'Your Majesty must cross-examine THIS witness.' + +'Well, if I must, I must,' the King said, with a melancholy air, and, +after folding his arms and frowning at the cook till his eyes were +nearly out of sight, he said in a deep voice, 'What are tarts made of?' + +'Pepper, mostly,' said the cook. + +'Treacle,' said a sleepy voice behind her. + +'Collar that Dormouse,' the Queen shrieked out. 'Behead that Dormouse! +Turn that Dormouse out of court! Suppress him! Pinch him! Off with his +whiskers!' + +For some minutes the whole court was in confusion, getting the Dormouse +turned out, and, by the time they had settled down again, the cook had +disappeared. + +'Never mind!' said the King, with an air of great relief. 'Call the next +witness.' And he added in an undertone to the Queen, 'Really, my dear, +YOU must cross-examine the next witness. It quite makes my forehead +ache!' + +Alice watched the White Rabbit as he fumbled over the list, feeling very +curious to see what the next witness would be like, '--for they haven't +got much evidence YET,' she said to herself. Imagine her surprise, when +the White Rabbit read out, at the top of his shrill little voice, the +name 'Alice!' + + + + +CHAPTER XII. Alice's Evidence + + +'Here!' cried Alice, quite forgetting in the flurry of the moment how +large she had grown in the last few minutes, and she jumped up in such +a hurry that she tipped over the jury-box with the edge of her skirt, +upsetting all the jurymen on to the heads of the crowd below, and there +they lay sprawling about, reminding her very much of a globe of goldfish +she had accidentally upset the week before. + +'Oh, I BEG your pardon!' she exclaimed in a tone of great dismay, and +began picking them up again as quickly as she could, for the accident of +the goldfish kept running in her head, and she had a vague sort of idea +that they must be collected at once and put back into the jury-box, or +they would die. + +'The trial cannot proceed,' said the King in a very grave voice, 'until +all the jurymen are back in their proper places--ALL,' he repeated with +great emphasis, looking hard at Alice as he said do. + +Alice looked at the jury-box, and saw that, in her haste, she had put +the Lizard in head downwards, and the poor little thing was waving its +tail about in a melancholy way, being quite unable to move. She soon got +it out again, and put it right; 'not that it signifies much,' she said +to herself; 'I should think it would be QUITE as much use in the trial +one way up as the other.' + +As soon as the jury had a little recovered from the shock of being +upset, and their slates and pencils had been found and handed back to +them, they set to work very diligently to write out a history of the +accident, all except the Lizard, who seemed too much overcome to do +anything but sit with its mouth open, gazing up into the roof of the +court. + +'What do you know about this business?' the King said to Alice. + +'Nothing,' said Alice. + +'Nothing WHATEVER?' persisted the King. + +'Nothing whatever,' said Alice. + +'That's very important,' the King said, turning to the jury. They were +just beginning to write this down on their slates, when the White Rabbit +interrupted: 'UNimportant, your Majesty means, of course,' he said in a +very respectful tone, but frowning and making faces at him as he spoke. + +'UNimportant, of course, I meant,' the King hastily said, and went on +to himself in an undertone, + +'important--unimportant--unimportant--important--' as if he were trying +which word sounded best. + +Some of the jury wrote it down 'important,' and some 'unimportant.' +Alice could see this, as she was near enough to look over their slates; +'but it doesn't matter a bit,' she thought to herself. + +At this moment the King, who had been for some time busily writing in +his note-book, cackled out 'Silence!' and read out from his book, 'Rule +Forty-two. ALL PERSONS MORE THAN A MILE HIGH TO LEAVE THE COURT.' + +Everybody looked at Alice. + +'I'M not a mile high,' said Alice. + +'You are,' said the King. + +'Nearly two miles high,' added the Queen. + +'Well, I shan't go, at any rate,' said Alice: 'besides, that's not a +regular rule: you invented it just now.' + +'It's the oldest rule in the book,' said the King. + +'Then it ought to be Number One,' said Alice. + +The King turned pale, and shut his note-book hastily. 'Consider your +verdict,' he said to the jury, in a low, trembling voice. + +'There's more evidence to come yet, please your Majesty,' said the White +Rabbit, jumping up in a great hurry; 'this paper has just been picked +up.' + +'What's in it?' said the Queen. + +'I haven't opened it yet,' said the White Rabbit, 'but it seems to be a +letter, written by the prisoner to--to somebody.' + +'It must have been that,' said the King, 'unless it was written to +nobody, which isn't usual, you know.' + +'Who is it directed to?' said one of the jurymen. + +'It isn't directed at all,' said the White Rabbit; 'in fact, there's +nothing written on the OUTSIDE.' He unfolded the paper as he spoke, and +added 'It isn't a letter, after all: it's a set of verses.' + +'Are they in the prisoner's handwriting?' asked another of the jurymen. + +'No, they're not,' said the White Rabbit, 'and that's the queerest thing +about it.' (The jury all looked puzzled.) + +'He must have imitated somebody else's hand,' said the King. (The jury +all brightened up again.) + +'Please your Majesty,' said the Knave, 'I didn't write it, and they +can't prove I did: there's no name signed at the end.' + +'If you didn't sign it,' said the King, 'that only makes the matter +worse. You MUST have meant some mischief, or else you'd have signed your +name like an honest man.' + +There was a general clapping of hands at this: it was the first really +clever thing the King had said that day. + +'That PROVES his guilt,' said the Queen. + +'It proves nothing of the sort!' said Alice. 'Why, you don't even know +what they're about!' + +'Read them,' said the King. + +The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. 'Where shall I begin, please +your Majesty?' he asked. + +'Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely, 'and go on till you +come to the end: then stop.' + +These were the verses the White Rabbit read:-- + + 'They told me you had been to her, + And mentioned me to him: + She gave me a good character, + But said I could not swim. + + He sent them word I had not gone + (We know it to be true): + If she should push the matter on, + What would become of you? + + I gave her one, they gave him two, + You gave us three or more; + They all returned from him to you, + Though they were mine before. + + If I or she should chance to be + Involved in this affair, + He trusts to you to set them free, + Exactly as we were. + + My notion was that you had been + (Before she had this fit) + An obstacle that came between + Him, and ourselves, and it. + + Don't let him know she liked them best, + For this must ever be + A secret, kept from all the rest, + Between yourself and me.' + +'That's the most important piece of evidence we've heard yet,' said the +King, rubbing his hands; 'so now let the jury--' + +'If any one of them can explain it,' said Alice, (she had grown so large +in the last few minutes that she wasn't a bit afraid of interrupting +him,) 'I'll give him sixpence. _I_ don't believe there's an atom of +meaning in it.' + +The jury all wrote down on their slates, 'SHE doesn't believe there's an +atom of meaning in it,' but none of them attempted to explain the paper. + +'If there's no meaning in it,' said the King, 'that saves a world of +trouble, you know, as we needn't try to find any. And yet I don't know,' +he went on, spreading out the verses on his knee, and looking at them +with one eye; 'I seem to see some meaning in them, after all. "--SAID +I COULD NOT SWIM--" you can't swim, can you?' he added, turning to the +Knave. + +The Knave shook his head sadly. 'Do I look like it?' he said. (Which he +certainly did NOT, being made entirely of cardboard.) + +'All right, so far,' said the King, and he went on muttering over +the verses to himself: '"WE KNOW IT TO BE TRUE--" that's the jury, of +course--"I GAVE HER ONE, THEY GAVE HIM TWO--" why, that must be what he +did with the tarts, you know--' + +'But, it goes on "THEY ALL RETURNED FROM HIM TO YOU,"' said Alice. + +'Why, there they are!' said the King triumphantly, pointing to the tarts +on the table. 'Nothing can be clearer than THAT. Then again--"BEFORE SHE +HAD THIS FIT--" you never had fits, my dear, I think?' he said to the +Queen. + +'Never!' said the Queen furiously, throwing an inkstand at the Lizard +as she spoke. (The unfortunate little Bill had left off writing on his +slate with one finger, as he found it made no mark; but he now hastily +began again, using the ink, that was trickling down his face, as long as +it lasted.) + +'Then the words don't FIT you,' said the King, looking round the court +with a smile. There was a dead silence. + +'It's a pun!' the King added in an offended tone, and everybody laughed, +'Let the jury consider their verdict,' the King said, for about the +twentieth time that day. + +'No, no!' said the Queen. 'Sentence first--verdict afterwards.' + +'Stuff and nonsense!' said Alice loudly. 'The idea of having the +sentence first!' + +'Hold your tongue!' said the Queen, turning purple. + +'I won't!' said Alice. + +'Off with her head!' the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. Nobody +moved. + +'Who cares for you?' said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this +time.) 'You're nothing but a pack of cards!' + +At this the whole pack rose up into the air, and came flying down upon +her: she gave a little scream, half of fright and half of anger, and +tried to beat them off, and found herself lying on the bank, with her +head in the lap of her sister, who was gently brushing away some dead +leaves that had fluttered down from the trees upon her face. + +'Wake up, Alice dear!' said her sister; 'Why, what a long sleep you've +had!' + +'Oh, I've had such a curious dream!' said Alice, and she told her +sister, as well as she could remember them, all these strange Adventures +of hers that you have just been reading about; and when she had +finished, her sister kissed her, and said, 'It WAS a curious dream, +dear, certainly: but now run in to your tea; it's getting late.' So +Alice got up and ran off, thinking while she ran, as well she might, +what a wonderful dream it had been. + +But her sister sat still just as she left her, leaning her head on her +hand, watching the setting sun, and thinking of little Alice and all her +wonderful Adventures, till she too began dreaming after a fashion, and +this was her dream:-- + +First, she dreamed of little Alice herself, and once again the tiny +hands were clasped upon her knee, and the bright eager eyes were looking +up into hers--she could hear the very tones of her voice, and see that +queer little toss of her head to keep back the wandering hair that +WOULD always get into her eyes--and still as she listened, or seemed to +listen, the whole place around her became alive with the strange creatures +of her little sister's dream. + +The long grass rustled at her feet as the White Rabbit hurried by--the +frightened Mouse splashed his way through the neighbouring pool--she +could hear the rattle of the teacups as the March Hare and his friends +shared their never-ending meal, and the shrill voice of the Queen +ordering off her unfortunate guests to execution--once more the pig-baby +was sneezing on the Duchess's knee, while plates and dishes crashed +around it--once more the shriek of the Gryphon, the squeaking of the +Lizard's slate-pencil, and the choking of the suppressed guinea-pigs, +filled the air, mixed up with the distant sobs of the miserable Mock +Turtle. + +So she sat on, with closed eyes, and half believed herself in +Wonderland, though she knew she had but to open them again, and all +would change to dull reality--the grass would be only rustling in the +wind, and the pool rippling to the waving of the reeds--the rattling +teacups would change to tinkling sheep-bells, and the Queen's shrill +cries to the voice of the shepherd boy--and the sneeze of the baby, the +shriek of the Gryphon, and all the other queer noises, would change (she +knew) to the confused clamour of the busy farm-yard--while the lowing +of the cattle in the distance would take the place of the Mock Turtle's +heavy sobs. + +Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers +would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would +keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her +childhood: and how she would gather about her other little children, and +make THEIR eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even +with the dream of Wonderland of long ago: and how she would feel with +all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, +remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days. + + THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 11.txt or 11.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/11/ + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs index b989341..28070fb 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs @@ -29,6 +29,12 @@ protected int MinQueryLength get { return m_MinQueryLength; } } + public long Size { + get { + return m_InnerTrie.Size(); + } + } + public IEnumerable Retrieve(string query) { return diff --git a/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs index b9a3427..50fe8c5 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs @@ -23,6 +23,12 @@ private SuffixTrie(Trie innerTrie, int minSuffixLength) m_MinSuffixLength = minSuffixLength; } + public long Size { + get { + return m_InnerTrie.Size(); + } + } + public IEnumerable Retrieve(string query) { return diff --git a/TrieNet/_Trie/TrieNodeBase.cs b/TrieNet/_Trie/TrieNodeBase.cs index eb3e350..e69127c 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Trie/TrieNodeBase.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Trie/TrieNodeBase.cs @@ -16,6 +16,10 @@ public abstract class TrieNodeBase protected abstract IEnumerable> Children(); + public long Size() { + return Children().Sum(o => o.Size()) + 1; + } + public void Add(string key, int position, TValue value) { if (key == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("key"); diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs index b4b8814..f2753c4 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs @@ -18,7 +18,13 @@ public Node() _data = new HashSet(); } - + public IEnumerable> Children() { + return _edges.Values.Select(e => e.Target); + } + + public long Size() { + return Children().Sum(o => o.Size()) + 1; + } public IEnumerable GetData() { diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs index 00b9197..90eda9f 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs @@ -1,18 +1,19 @@ using System; using System.Collections.Generic; +using System.Diagnostics; using System.Linq; namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { - public class UkkonenTrie : ITrie + public class UkkonenTrie// : ITrie { private readonly int _minSuffixLength; //The root of the suffix tree - private readonly Node _root; + private readonly Node> _root; //The last leaf that was added during the update operation - private Node _activeLeaf; + private Node> _activeLeaf; public UkkonenTrie() : this(0) { @@ -21,16 +22,22 @@ public UkkonenTrie() : this(0) public UkkonenTrie(int minSuffixLength) { _minSuffixLength = minSuffixLength; - _root = new Node(); + _root = new Node>(); _activeLeaf = _root; } - public IEnumerable Retrieve(string word) + public long Size { + get { + return _root.Size(); + } + } + + public IEnumerable> Retrieve(string word) { - if (word.Length < _minSuffixLength) return Enumerable.Empty(); + if (word.Length < _minSuffixLength) return Enumerable.Empty>(); var tmpNode = SearchNode(word); return tmpNode == null - ? Enumerable.Empty() + ? Enumerable.Empty>() : tmpNode.GetData(); } @@ -49,7 +56,7 @@ private static bool RegionMatches(string first, int toffset, string second, int /** * Returns the tree NodeA (if present) that corresponds to the given string. */ - private Node SearchNode(string word) + private Node> SearchNode(string word) { /* * Verifies if exists a path from the root to a NodeA such that the concatenation @@ -110,7 +117,7 @@ public void Add(string key, T value) //text = text.Intern(); // line 7: update the tree with the new transitions due to this new char - var active = Update(s, text, remainder.Substring(i), value); + var active = Update(s, text, remainder.Substring(i), new WordPosition(i, value)); // line 8: make sure the active Tuple is canonical active = Canonize(active.Item1, active.Item2); @@ -146,7 +153,7 @@ public void Add(string key, T value) * the last NodeA that can be reached by following the path denoted by stringPart starting from inputs * */ - private static Tuple> TestAndSplit(Node inputs, string stringPart, char t, string remainder, T value) + private static Tuple>> TestAndSplit(Node> inputs, string stringPart, char t, string remainder, WordPosition value) { // descend the tree as far as possible var ret = Canonize(inputs, stringPart); @@ -161,16 +168,16 @@ private static Tuple> TestAndSplit(Node inputs, string stringPa // must see whether "str" is substring of the label of an EdgeA if (label.Length > str.Length && label[str.Length] == t) { - return new Tuple>(true, s); + return new Tuple>>(true, s); } // need to split the EdgeA var newlabel = label.Substring(str.Length); //assert (label.startsWith(str)); // build a new NodeA - var r = new Node(); + var r = new Node>(); // build a new EdgeA - var newedge = new Edge(str, r); + var newedge = new Edge>(str, r); g.Label = newlabel; @@ -178,37 +185,37 @@ private static Tuple> TestAndSplit(Node inputs, string stringPa r.AddEdge(newlabel[0], g); s.AddEdge(str[0], newedge); - return new Tuple>(false, r); + return new Tuple>>(false, r); } var e = s.GetEdge(t); if (null == e) { // if there is no t-transtion from s - return new Tuple>(false, s); + return new Tuple>>(false, s); } if (remainder.Equals(e.Label)) { // update payload of destination NodeA e.Target.AddRef(value); - return new Tuple>(true, s); + return new Tuple>>(true, s); } if (remainder.StartsWith(e.Label)) { - return new Tuple>(true, s); + return new Tuple>>(true, s); } if (!e.Label.StartsWith(remainder)) { - return new Tuple>(true, s); + return new Tuple>>(true, s); } // need to split as above - var newNode = new Node(); + var newNode = new Node>(); newNode.AddRef(value); - var newEdge = new Edge(remainder, newNode); + var newEdge = new Edge>(remainder, newNode); e.Label = e.Label.Substring(remainder.Length); newNode.AddEdge(e.Label[0], e); s.AddEdge(t, newEdge); - return new Tuple>(false, s); + return new Tuple>>(false, s); // they are different words. No prefix. but they may still share some common substr } @@ -218,18 +225,18 @@ private static Tuple> TestAndSplit(Node inputs, string stringPa * a prefix of inputstr and remainder will be string that must be * appended to the concatenation of labels from s to n to get inpustr. */ - private static Tuple, string> Canonize(Node s, string inputstr) + private static Tuple>, string> Canonize(Node> s, string inputstr) { if (string.Empty.Equals(inputstr)) { - return new Tuple, string>(s, inputstr); + return new Tuple>, string>(s, inputstr); } var currentNode = s; var str = inputstr; var g = s.GetEdge(str[0]); // descend the tree as long as a proper label is found - while (g != null && str.StartsWith(g.Label)) + while (g != null && str.Length >= g.Label.Length && str.StartsWith(g.Label)) { str = str.Substring(g.Label.Length); currentNode = g.Target; @@ -239,7 +246,7 @@ private static Tuple, string> Canonize(Node s, string inputstr) } } - return new Tuple, string>(currentNode, str); + return new Tuple>, string>(currentNode, str); } /** @@ -258,7 +265,7 @@ private static Tuple, string> Canonize(Node s, string inputstr) * @param rest the rest of the string * @param value the value to add to the index */ - private Tuple, string> Update(Node inputNode, string stringPart, string rest, T value) + private Tuple>, string> Update(Node> inputNode, string stringPart, string rest, WordPosition value) { var s = inputNode; var tempstr = stringPart; @@ -278,7 +285,7 @@ private Tuple, string> Update(Node inputNode, string stringPart, stri { // line 3 var tempEdge = r.GetEdge(newChar); - Node leaf; + Node> leaf; if (null != tempEdge) { // such a NodeA is already present. This is one of the main differences from Ukkonen's case: @@ -288,9 +295,9 @@ private Tuple, string> Update(Node inputNode, string stringPart, stri else { // must build a new leaf - leaf = new Node(); + leaf = new Node>(); leaf.AddRef(value); - var newedge = new Edge(rest, leaf); + var newedge = new Edge>(rest, leaf); r.AddEdge(newChar, newedge); } @@ -339,7 +346,7 @@ private Tuple, string> Update(Node inputNode, string stringPart, stri oldroot.Suffix = r; } - return new Tuple, string>(s, tempstr); + return new Tuple>, string>(s, tempstr); } private static string SafeCutLastChar(string seq) diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/WordPosition.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/WordPosition.cs new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e4724e --- /dev/null +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/WordPosition.cs @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +// This code is distributed under MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 George Mamaladze +// See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php + +namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { + public class WordPosition + { + private readonly long m_CharPosition; + private readonly T m_Value; + + public WordPosition(long charPosition, T value) + { + m_CharPosition = charPosition; + m_Value = value; + } + + public T Value + { + get { return m_Value; } + } + + public long CharPosition + { + get { return m_CharPosition; } + } + + public override string ToString() + { + return + string.Format( + "( Pos {0} ) {1}", + CharPosition, + Value); + } + } +} \ No newline at end of file From df7057365a70b1607404ced4b32724d989a1c532 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2022 20:16:32 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 03/25] Fix StackOverflow --- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs index f2753c4..f44354a 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs @@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ public void AddRef(T value) if (iter._data.Contains(value)) break; - iter.AddRef(value); + iter._data.Add(value); iter = iter.Suffix; } } From 993d1e8f84e12817b0b83ed35730ed0e8400b3e4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2022 20:16:56 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 04/25] Ultra optimized memory --- TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj | 2 +- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Edge.cs | 8 ++++--- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs | 42 +++++++++++++++++---------------- 3 files changed, 28 insertions(+), 24 deletions(-) diff --git a/TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj b/TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj index 153e4c2..74cb7ab 100644 --- a/TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj +++ b/TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ - netstandard2.0;net461 + net6.0 TrieNet TrieNet George Mamaladze diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Edge.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Edge.cs index 04f2a3c..d39b369 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Edge.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Edge.cs @@ -1,14 +1,16 @@ -namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch +using System; + +namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { internal class Edge { - public Edge(string label, Node target) + public Edge(ReadOnlyMemory label, Node target) { this.Label = label; this.Target = target; } - public string Label { get; set; } + public ReadOnlyMemory Label { get; set; } public Node Target { get; private set; } } diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs index 90eda9f..588c989 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs @@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ public IEnumerable> Retrieve(string word) } - private static bool RegionMatches(string first, int toffset, string second, int ooffset, int len) + private static bool RegionMatches(string first, int toffset, ReadOnlySpan second, int ooffset, int len) { for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) { @@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ private Node> SearchNode(string word) // there is no EdgeA starting with this char return null; } - var label = currentEdge.Label; + var label = currentEdge.Label.Span; var lenToMatch = Math.Min(word.Length - i, label.Length); if (!RegionMatches(word, i, label, 0, lenToMatch)) @@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ public void Add(string key, T value) // reset activeLeaf _activeLeaf = _root; - var remainder = key; + var remainder = key.AsMemory(); var s = _root; // proceed with tree construction (closely related to procedure in @@ -111,13 +111,13 @@ public void Add(string key, T value) for (var i = 0; i < remainder.Length; i++) { // line 6 - text += remainder[i]; + text += remainder.Span[i]; // use intern to make sure the resulting string is in the pool. //TODO Check if needed //text = text.Intern(); // line 7: update the tree with the new transitions due to this new char - var active = Update(s, text, remainder.Substring(i), new WordPosition(i, value)); + var active = Update(s, text, remainder.Slice(i), new WordPosition(i, value)); // line 8: make sure the active Tuple is canonical active = Canonize(active.Item1, active.Item2); @@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ public void Add(string key, T value) * the last NodeA that can be reached by following the path denoted by stringPart starting from inputs * */ - private static Tuple>> TestAndSplit(Node> inputs, string stringPart, char t, string remainder, WordPosition value) + private static Tuple>> TestAndSplit(Node> inputs, string stringPart, char t, ReadOnlyMemory remainder, WordPosition value) { // descend the tree as far as possible var ret = Canonize(inputs, stringPart); @@ -166,23 +166,23 @@ private static Tuple>> TestAndSplit(Node - if (label.Length > str.Length && label[str.Length] == t) + if (label.Length > str.Length && label.Span[str.Length] == t) { return new Tuple>>(true, s); } // need to split the EdgeA - var newlabel = label.Substring(str.Length); + var newlabel = label.Slice(str.Length); //assert (label.startsWith(str)); // build a new NodeA var r = new Node>(); // build a new EdgeA - var newedge = new Edge>(str, r); + var newedge = new Edge>(str.AsMemory(), r); g.Label = newlabel; // link s -> r - r.AddEdge(newlabel[0], g); + r.AddEdge(newlabel.Span[0], g); s.AddEdge(str[0], newedge); return new Tuple>>(false, r); @@ -193,17 +193,19 @@ private static Tuple>> TestAndSplit(Node>>(false, s); } - if (remainder.Equals(e.Label)) + var eLabelSpan = e.Label.Span; + var remainderSpan = remainder.Span; + if (remainderSpan.SequenceEqual(eLabelSpan)) { // update payload of destination NodeA e.Target.AddRef(value); return new Tuple>>(true, s); } - if (remainder.StartsWith(e.Label)) + if (remainderSpan.StartsWith(eLabelSpan)) { return new Tuple>>(true, s); } - if (!e.Label.StartsWith(remainder)) + if (!eLabelSpan.StartsWith(remainderSpan)) { return new Tuple>>(true, s); } @@ -212,8 +214,8 @@ private static Tuple>> TestAndSplit(Node>(remainder, newNode); - e.Label = e.Label.Substring(remainder.Length); - newNode.AddEdge(e.Label[0], e); + e.Label = e.Label.Slice(remainder.Length); + newNode.AddEdge(e.Label.Span[0], e); s.AddEdge(t, newEdge); return new Tuple>>(false, s); // they are different words. No prefix. but they may still share some common substr @@ -233,12 +235,12 @@ private static Tuple>, string> Canonize(Node>, string>(s, inputstr); } var currentNode = s; - var str = inputstr; + var str = inputstr.AsSpan(); var g = s.GetEdge(str[0]); // descend the tree as long as a proper label is found - while (g != null && str.Length >= g.Label.Length && str.StartsWith(g.Label)) + while (g != null && str.Length >= g.Label.Length && str.StartsWith(g.Label.Span)) { - str = str.Substring(g.Label.Length); + str = str.Slice(g.Label.Length); currentNode = g.Target; if (str.Length > 0) { @@ -246,7 +248,7 @@ private static Tuple>, string> Canonize(Node>, string>(currentNode, str); + return new Tuple>, string>(currentNode, str.ToString()); } /** @@ -265,7 +267,7 @@ private static Tuple>, string> Canonize(Node>, string> Update(Node> inputNode, string stringPart, string rest, WordPosition value) + private Tuple>, string> Update(Node> inputNode, string stringPart, ReadOnlyMemory rest, WordPosition value) { var s = inputNode; var tempstr = stringPart; From 211369a07ea1619f41fe63dbeb77bbaa4f9b2f90 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2022 22:01:11 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 05/25] fixed demo preview & stuff --- DemoApp2/MainForm.cs | 37 +- ...ures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt | 12361 ++++++++++++++++ ...Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm.txt | 9569 ++++++++++++ DemoApp2/texts/Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.txt | 6648 +++++++++ DemoApp2/texts/QuickBrownFox.txt | 1 + TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj | 2 +- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs | 1 - TrieNet/_Ukkonen/WordPosition.cs | 2 +- 8 files changed, 28600 insertions(+), 21 deletions(-) create mode 100644 DemoApp2/texts/Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt create mode 100644 DemoApp2/texts/Grimms' Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm.txt create mode 100644 DemoApp2/texts/Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.txt create mode 100644 DemoApp2/texts/QuickBrownFox.txt diff --git a/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs b/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs index ea52c6e..6123aab 100644 --- a/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs +++ b/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs @@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ public MainForm() { private void LoadFile(string fileName) { var word = File.ReadAllText(fileName); - m_Trie.Add(word, fileName); + m_Trie.Add(word, Path.GetFileName(fileName)); /*Tuple[] words = GetWords(fileName).ToArray(); foreach (var word in words) { string text = word.Item2; @@ -81,24 +81,25 @@ private void textBox1_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { } private void listBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { - var item = listBox1.SelectedItem as WordPosition; - if (item == null) return; - using (FileStream file = File.Open(item.Value, FileMode.Open)) { - const int bifferSize = 300; - long position = Math.Max(item.CharPosition - bifferSize / 2, 0); - file.Seek(position, SeekOrigin.Begin); - var buffer = new byte[bifferSize]; - file.Read(buffer, 0, bifferSize); - string line = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(buffer); - richTextBox1.Text = line; + var item = (WordPosition)listBox1.SelectedItem; + var word = File.ReadAllText(Path.Combine("texts", item.Value)); + //if (item == null) return; + //using (FileStream file = File.Open(Path.Combine("texts", item.Value), FileMode.Open)) { + const int bifferSize = 300; + int position = Math.Max((int)item.CharPosition - bifferSize / 2, 0); + //file.Seek(position, SeekOrigin.Begin); + //var buffer = new byte[bifferSize]; + //file.Read(buffer, 0, bifferSize); + //string line = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(buffer); + string line = word.Substring(position, bifferSize); + richTextBox1.Text = line; - string serachText = textBox1.Text; - int index = richTextBox1.Text.IndexOf(serachText, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase); - if (index < 0) return; - richTextBox1.Select(index, serachText.Length); - richTextBox1.SelectionBackColor = Color.Yellow; - richTextBox1.DeselectAll(); - } + string serachText = textBox1.Text; + int index = richTextBox1.Text.IndexOf(serachText, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase); + if (index < 0) return; + richTextBox1.Select(index, serachText.Length); + richTextBox1.SelectionBackColor = Color.Yellow; + richTextBox1.DeselectAll(); } private void buttonBrowse_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { diff --git a/DemoApp2/texts/Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt b/DemoApp2/texts/Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a366dc0 --- /dev/null +++ b/DemoApp2/texts/Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12361 @@ + + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Complete +by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost +no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use +it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this +eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + +Title: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Complete + +Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +Release Date: August 20, 2006 [EBook #76] + +Last Updated: October 20, 2012] + +Language: English + + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUCKLEBERRY FINN *** + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +ADVENTURES + +OF + +HUCKLEBERRY FINN + +(Tom Sawyer's Comrade) + +By Mark Twain + +Complete + + + + +CONTENTS. + +CHAPTER I. Civilizing Huck.—Miss Watson.—Tom Sawyer Waits. + +CHAPTER II. The Boys Escape Jim.—Torn Sawyer's Gang.—Deep-laid Plans. + +CHAPTER III. A Good Going-over.—Grace Triumphant.—"One of Tom Sawyers's +Lies". + +CHAPTER IV. Huck and the Judge.—Superstition. + +CHAPTER V. Huck's Father.—The Fond Parent.—Reform. + +CHAPTER VI. He Went for Judge Thatcher.—Huck Decided to Leave.—Political +Economy.—Thrashing Around. + +CHAPTER VII. Laying for Him.—Locked in the Cabin.—Sinking the +Body.—Resting. + +CHAPTER VIII. Sleeping in the Woods.—Raising the Dead.—Exploring the +Island.—Finding Jim.—Jim's Escape.—Signs.—Balum. + +CHAPTER IX. The Cave.—The Floating House. + +CHAPTER X. The Find.—Old Hank Bunker.—In Disguise. + +CHAPTER XI. Huck and the Woman.—The Search.—Prevarication.—Going to +Goshen. + +CHAPTER XII. Slow Navigation.—Borrowing Things.—Boarding the Wreck.—The +Plotters.—Hunting for the Boat. + +CHAPTER XIII. Escaping from the Wreck.—The Watchman.—Sinking. + +CHAPTER XIV. A General Good Time.—The Harem.—French. + +CHAPTER XV. Huck Loses the Raft.—In the Fog.—Huck Finds the Raft.—Trash. + +CHAPTER XVI. Expectation.—A White Lie.—Floating Currency.—Running by +Cairo.—Swimming Ashore. + +CHAPTER XVII. An Evening Call.—The Farm in Arkansaw.—Interior +Decorations.—Stephen Dowling Bots.—Poetical Effusions. + +CHAPTER XVIII. Col. Grangerford.—Aristocracy.—Feuds.—The +Testament.—Recovering the Raft.—The Wood—pile.—Pork and Cabbage. + +CHAPTER XIX. Tying Up Day—times.—An Astronomical Theory.—Running a +Temperance Revival.—The Duke of Bridgewater.—The Troubles of Royalty. + +CHAPTER XX. Huck Explains.—Laying Out a Campaign.—Working the +Camp—meeting.—A Pirate at the Camp—meeting.—The Duke as a Printer. + +CHAPTER XXI. Sword Exercise.—Hamlet's Soliloquy.—They Loafed Around +Town.—A Lazy Town.—Old Boggs.—Dead. + +CHAPTER XXII. Sherburn.—Attending the Circus.—Intoxication in the +Ring.—The Thrilling Tragedy. + +CHAPTER XXIII. Sold.—Royal Comparisons.—Jim Gets Home-sick. + +CHAPTER XXIV. Jim in Royal Robes.—They Take a Passenger.—Getting +Information.—Family Grief. + +CHAPTER XXV. Is It Them?—Singing the "Doxologer."—Awful Square—Funeral +Orgies.—A Bad Investment . + +CHAPTER XXVI. A Pious King.—The King's Clergy.—She Asked His +Pardon.—Hiding in the Room.—Huck Takes the Money. + +CHAPTER XXVII. The Funeral.—Satisfying Curiosity.—Suspicious of +Huck,—Quick Sales and Small. + +CHAPTER XXVIII. The Trip to England.—"The Brute!"—Mary Jane Decides to +Leave.—Huck Parting with Mary Jane.—Mumps.—The Opposition Line. + +CHAPTER XXIX. Contested Relationship.—The King Explains the Loss.—A +Question of Handwriting.—Digging up the Corpse.—Huck Escapes. + +CHAPTER XXX. The King Went for Him.—A Royal Row.—Powerful Mellow. + +CHAPTER XXXI. Ominous Plans.—News from Jim.—Old Recollections.—A Sheep +Story.—Valuable Information. + +CHAPTER XXXII. Still and Sunday—like.—Mistaken Identity.—Up a Stump.—In +a Dilemma. + +CHAPTER XXXIII. A Nigger Stealer.—Southern Hospitality.—A Pretty Long +Blessing.—Tar and Feathers. + +CHAPTER XXXIV. The Hut by the Ash Hopper.—Outrageous.—Climbing the +Lightning Rod.—Troubled with Witches. + +CHAPTER XXXV. Escaping Properly.—Dark Schemes.—Discrimination in +Stealing.—A Deep Hole. + +CHAPTER XXXVI. The Lightning Rod.—His Level Best.—A Bequest to +Posterity.—A High Figure. + +CHAPTER XXXVII. The Last Shirt.—Mooning Around.—Sailing Orders.—The +Witch Pie. + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Coat of Arms.—A Skilled Superintendent.—Unpleasant +Glory.—A Tearful Subject. + +CHAPTER XXXIX. Rats.—Lively Bed—fellows.—The Straw Dummy. + +CHAPTER XL. Fishing.—The Vigilance Committee.—A Lively Run.—Jim Advises +a Doctor. + +CHAPTER XLI. The Doctor.—Uncle Silas.—Sister Hotchkiss.—Aunt Sally in +Trouble. + +CHAPTER XLII. Tom Sawyer Wounded.—The Doctor's Story.—Tom +Confesses.—Aunt Polly Arrives.—Hand Out Them Letters    . + +CHAPTER THE LAST. Out of Bondage.—Paying the Captive.—Yours Truly, Huck +Finn. + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + +The Widows + +Moses and the "Bulrushers" + +Miss Watson + +Huck Stealing Away + +They Tip-toed Along + +Jim + +Tom Sawyer's Band of Robbers   + +Huck Creeps into his Window + +Miss Watson's Lecture + +The Robbers Dispersed + +Rubbing the Lamp + +! ! ! ! + +Judge Thatcher surprised + +Jim Listening + +"Pap" + +Huck and his Father + +Reforming the Drunkard + +Falling from Grace + +The Widows + +Moses and the "Bulrushers" + +Miss Watson + +Huck Stealing Away + +They Tip-toed Along + +Jim + +Tom Sawyer's Band of Robbers   + +Huck Creeps into his Window + +Miss Watson's Lecture + +The Robbers Dispersed + +Rubbing the Lamp + +! ! ! ! + +Judge Thatcher surprised + +Jim Listening + +"Pap" + +Huck and his Father + +Reforming the Drunkard + +Falling from Grace + +Getting out of the Way + +Solid Comfort + +Thinking it Over + +Raising a Howl + +"Git Up" + +The Shanty + +Shooting the Pig + +Taking a Rest + +In the Woods + +Watching the Boat + +Discovering the Camp Fire + +Jim and the Ghost + +Misto Bradish's Nigger + +Exploring the Cave + +In the Cave + +Jim sees a Dead Man + +They Found Eight Dollars + +Jim and the Snake + +Old Hank Bunker + +"A Fair Fit" + +"Come In" + +"Him and another Man" + +She puts up a Snack + +"Hump Yourself" + +On the Raft + +He sometimes Lifted a Chicken + +"Please don't, Bill" + +"It ain't Good Morals" + +"Oh! Lordy, Lordy!" + +In a Fix + +"Hello, What's Up?" + +The Wreck + +We turned in and Slept + +Turning over the Truck + +Solomon and his Million Wives + +The story of "Sollermun" + +"We Would Sell the Raft" + +Among the Snags + +Asleep on the Raft + +"Something being Raftsman" + +"Boy, that's a Lie" + +"Here I is, Huck" + +Climbing up the Bank + +"Who's There?" + +"Buck" + +"It made Her look Spidery" + +"They got him out and emptied Him"   + +The House + +Col. Grangerford + +Young Harney Shepherdson + +Miss Charlotte + +"And asked me if I Liked Her" + +"Behind the Wood-pile" + +Hiding Day-times + +"And Dogs a-Coming" + +"By rights I am a Duke!" + +"I am the Late Dauphin" + +Tail Piece + +On the Raft + +The King as Juliet + +"Courting on the Sly" + +"A Pirate for Thirty Years" + +Another little Job + +Practizing + +Hamlet's Soliloquy + +"Gimme a Chaw" + +A Little Monthly Drunk + +The Death of Boggs + +Sherburn steps out + +A Dead Head + +He shed Seventeen Suits + +Tragedy + +Their Pockets Bulged + +Henry the Eighth in Boston Harbor + +Harmless + +Adolphus + +He fairly emptied that Young Fellow + +"Alas, our Poor Brother" + +"You Bet it is" + +Leaking + +Making up the "Deffisit" + +Going for him + +The Doctor + +The Bag of Money + +The Cubby + +Supper with the Hare-Lip + +Honest Injun + +The Duke looks under the Bed + +Huck takes the Money + +A Crack in the Dining-room Door + +The Undertaker + +"He had a Rat!" + +"Was you in my Room?" + +Jawing + +In Trouble + +Indignation + +How to Find Them + +He Wrote + +Hannah with the Mumps + +The Auction + +The True Brothers + +The Doctor leads Huck + +The Duke Wrote + +"Gentlemen, Gentlemen!" + +"Jim Lit Out" + +The King shakes Huck + +The Duke went for Him + +Spanish Moss + +"Who Nailed Him?" + +Thinking + +He gave him Ten Cents + +Striking for the Back Country + +Still and Sunday-like + +She hugged him tight + +"Who do you reckon it is?" + +"It was Tom Sawyer" + +"Mr. Archibald Nichols, I presume?" + +A pretty long Blessing + +Traveling By Rail + +Vittles + +A Simple Job + +Witches + +Getting Wood + +One of the Best Authorities + +The Breakfast-Horn + +Smouching the Knives + +Going down the Lightning-Rod + +Stealing spoons + +Tom advises a Witch Pie + +The Rubbage-Pile + +"Missus, dey's a Sheet Gone" + +In a Tearing Way + +One of his Ancestors + +Jim's Coat of Arms + +A Tough Job + +Buttons on their Tails + +Irrigation + +Keeping off Dull Times + +Sawdust Diet + +Trouble is Brewing + +Fishing + +Every one had a Gun + +Tom caught on a Splinter + +Jim advises a Doctor + +The Doctor + +Uncle Silas in Danger + +Old Mrs. Hotchkiss + +Aunt Sally talks to Huck + +Tom Sawyer wounded + +The Doctor speaks for Jim + +Tom rose square up in Bed + +"Hand out them Letters" + +Out of Bondage + +Tom's Liberality + +Yours Truly + + + + +EXPLANATORY + +IN this book a number of dialects are used, to wit:  the Missouri negro +dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect; the +ordinary "Pike County" dialect; and four modified varieties of this +last. The shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion, or by +guesswork; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and +support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech. + +I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers +would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and +not succeeding. + +THE AUTHOR. + + + + +HUCKLEBERRY FINN + +Scene:  The Mississippi Valley Time:  Forty to fifty years ago + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +YOU don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The +Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter.  That book was made +by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly.  There was things +which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.  That is nothing.  I +never seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt +Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary.  Aunt Polly—Tom's Aunt Polly, she +is—and Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told about in that book, which +is mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I said before. + +Now the way that the book winds up is this:  Tom and me found the money +that the robbers hid in the cave, and it made us rich.  We got six +thousand dollars apiece—all gold.  It was an awful sight of money when +it was piled up.  Well, Judge Thatcher he took it and put it out +at interest, and it fetched us a dollar a day apiece all the year +round—more than a body could tell what to do with.  The Widow Douglas +she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was +rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular +and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand +it no longer I lit out.  I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead +again, and was free and satisfied.  But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and +said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I +would go back to the widow and be respectable.  So I went back. + +The widow she cried over me, and called me a poor lost lamb, and she +called me a lot of other names, too, but she never meant no harm by +it. She put me in them new clothes again, and I couldn't do nothing but +sweat and sweat, and feel all cramped up.  Well, then, the old thing +commenced again.  The widow rung a bell for supper, and you had to come +to time. When you got to the table you couldn't go right to eating, but +you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little +over the victuals, though there warn't really anything the matter with +them,—that is, nothing only everything was cooked by itself.  In a +barrel of odds and ends it is different; things get mixed up, and the +juice kind of swaps around, and the things go better. + +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 didn't care no more about him, because I don't take no stock in +dead people. + +Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me.  But she +wouldn't.  She said it was a mean practice and wasn't 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 don't 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 couldn't stood it much longer.  Then for +an hour it was deadly dull, and I was fidgety.  Miss Watson would say, +"Don't put your feet up there, Huckleberry;" and "Don't scrunch up +like that, Huckleberry—set up straight;" and pretty soon she would +say, "Don't gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry—why don't you try to +behave?"  Then she told me all about the bad place, and I said I wished +I was there. She got mad then, but I didn't mean no harm.  All I wanted +was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change, I warn't particular. + She said it was wicked to say what I said; said she wouldn't say it for +the whole world; she was going to live so as to go to the good place. + Well, I couldn't see no advantage in going where she was going, so I +made up my mind I wouldn't try for it.  But I never said so, because it +would only make trouble, and wouldn't 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 didn't 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 warn't 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 couldn't 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 that's on its mind and can't make itself understood, and so +can't 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 didn't 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 hadn't no confidence.  You do that when you've lost a horseshoe that +you've found, instead of nailing it up over the door, but I hadn't ever +heard anybody say it was any way to keep off bad luck when you'd 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 wouldn't +know. Well, after a long time I heard the clock away off in the town +go boom—boom—boom—twelve licks; and all still again—stiller than +ever. Pretty soon I heard a twig snap down in the dark amongst the +trees—something was a stirring.  I set still and listened.  Directly I +could just barely hear a "me-yow! me-yow!" down there.  That was good! + Says I, "me-yow! me-yow!" 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 widow's garden, stooping down so as the branches wouldn't 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 Watson's 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: + +"Who dah?" + +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 warn't a sound, and we all there so close +together.  There was a place on my ankle that got to itching, but I +dasn't scratch it; and then my ear begun to itch; and next my back, +right between my shoulders.  Seemed like I'd die if I couldn't scratch. + Well, I've noticed that thing plenty times since.  If you are with +the quality, or at a funeral, or trying to go to sleep when you ain't +sleepy—if you are anywheres where it won't do for you to scratch, why +you will itch all over in upwards of a thousand places. Pretty soon Jim +says: + +"Say, who is you?  Whar is you?  Dog my cats ef I didn' hear sumf'n. +Well, I know what I's gwyne to do:  I's gwyne to set down here and +listen tell I hears it agin." + +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 dasn't scratch.  Then it begun to itch on the inside. +Next I got to itching underneath.  I didn't 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 couldn't stand it more'n 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 snore—and then I was pretty soon +comfortable again. + +Tom he made a sign to me—kind of a little noise with his mouth—and 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 they'd find out I +warn't in. Then Tom said he hadn't got candles enough, and he would slip +in the kitchen and get some more.  I didn't 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 Jim's hat off of his head and hung it +on a limb right over him, and Jim stirred a little, but he didn't 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 wouldn't 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, "Hm!  What you know 'bout witches?" 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 wouldn't touch +it, because the devil had had his hands on it.  Jim was most ruined for +a servant, because he got stuck up on account of having seen the devil +and been rode by witches. + +Well, when Tom and me got to the edge of the hilltop we looked away down +into the village and could see three or four lights twinkling, where +there was sick folks, maybe; and the stars over us was sparkling ever +so fine; and down by the village was the river, a whole mile broad, and +awful still and grand.  We went down the hill and found Jo Harper and +Ben Rogers, and two or three more of the boys, hid in the old tanyard. + So we unhitched a skiff and pulled down the river two mile and a half, +to the big scar on the hillside, and went ashore. + +We went to a clump of bushes, and Tom made everybody swear to keep the +secret, and then showed them a hole in the hill, right in the thickest +part of the bushes.  Then we lit the candles, and crawled in on our +hands and knees.  We went about two hundred yards, and then the cave +opened up. Tom poked about amongst the passages, and pretty soon ducked +under a wall where you wouldn't a noticed that there was a hole.  We +went along a narrow place and got into a kind of room, all damp and +sweaty and cold, and there we stopped.  Tom says: + +"Now, we'll start this band of robbers and call it Tom Sawyer's Gang. +Everybody that wants to join has got to take an oath, and write his name +in blood." + +Everybody was willing.  So Tom got out a sheet of paper that he had +wrote the oath on, and read it.  It swore every boy to stick to the +band, and never tell any of the secrets; and if anybody done anything to +any boy in the band, whichever boy was ordered to kill that person and +his family must do it, and he mustn't eat and he mustn't sleep till he +had killed them and hacked a cross in their breasts, which was the sign +of the band. And nobody that didn't belong to the band could use that +mark, and if he did he must be sued; and if he done it again he must be +killed.  And if anybody that belonged to the band told the secrets, he +must have his throat cut, and then have his carcass burnt up and the +ashes scattered all around, and his name blotted off of the list with +blood and never mentioned again by the gang, but have a curse put on it +and be forgot forever. + +Everybody said it was a real beautiful oath, and asked Tom if he got +it out of his own head.  He said, some of it, but the rest was out of +pirate-books and robber-books, and every gang that was high-toned had +it. + +Some thought it would be good to kill the _families_ of boys that told +the secrets.  Tom said it was a good idea, so he took a pencil and wrote +it in. Then Ben Rogers says: + +"Here's Huck Finn, he hain't got no family; what you going to do 'bout +him?" + +"Well, hain't he got a father?" says Tom Sawyer. + +"Yes, he's got a father, but you can't never find him these days.  He +used to lay drunk with the hogs in the tanyard, but he hain't been seen +in these parts for a year or more." + +They talked it over, and they was going to rule me out, because they +said every boy must have a family or somebody to kill, or else it +wouldn't be fair and square for the others.  Well, nobody could think of +anything to do—everybody was stumped, and set still.  I was most ready +to cry; but all at once I thought of a way, and so I offered them Miss +Watson—they could kill her.  Everybody said: + +"Oh, she'll do.  That's all right.  Huck can come in." + +Then they all stuck a pin in their fingers to get blood to sign with, +and I made my mark on the paper. + +"Now," says Ben Rogers, "what's the line of business of this Gang?" + +"Nothing only robbery and murder," Tom said. + +"But who are we going to rob?—houses, or cattle, or—" + +"Stuff! stealing cattle and such things ain't robbery; it's burglary," +says Tom Sawyer.  "We ain't burglars.  That ain't no sort of style.  We +are highwaymen.  We stop stages and carriages on the road, with masks +on, and kill the people and take their watches and money." + +"Must we always kill the people?" + +"Oh, certainly.  It's best.  Some authorities think different, but +mostly it's considered best to kill them—except some that you bring to +the cave here, and keep them till they're ransomed." + +"Ransomed?  What's that?" + +"I don't know.  But that's what they do.  I've seen it in books; and so +of course that's what we've got to do." + +"But how can we do it if we don't know what it is?" + +"Why, blame it all, we've _got_ to do it.  Don't I tell you it's in the +books?  Do you want to go to doing different from what's in the books, +and get things all muddled up?" + +"Oh, that's all very fine to _say_, Tom Sawyer, but how in the nation +are these fellows going to be ransomed if we don't know how to do it +to them?—that's the thing I want to get at.  Now, what do you reckon it +is?" + +"Well, I don't know.  But per'aps if we keep them till they're ransomed, +it means that we keep them till they're dead." + +"Now, that's something _like_.  That'll answer.  Why couldn't you said +that before?  We'll keep them till they're ransomed to death; and a +bothersome lot they'll be, too—eating up everything, and always trying +to get loose." + +"How you talk, Ben Rogers.  How can they get loose when there's a guard +over them, ready to shoot them down if they move a peg?" + +"A guard!  Well, that _is_ good.  So somebody's got to set up all night +and never get any sleep, just so as to watch them.  I think that's +foolishness. Why can't a body take a club and ransom them as soon as +they get here?" + +"Because it ain't in the books so—that's why.  Now, Ben Rogers, do you +want to do things regular, or don't you?—that's the idea.  Don't you +reckon that the people that made the books knows what's the correct +thing to do?  Do you reckon _you_ can learn 'em anything?  Not by a good +deal. No, sir, we'll just go on and ransom them in the regular way." + +"All right.  I don't mind; but I say it's a fool way, anyhow.  Say, do +we kill the women, too?" + +"Well, Ben Rogers, if I was as ignorant as you I wouldn't let on.  Kill +the women?  No; nobody ever saw anything in the books like that.  You +fetch them to the cave, and you're always as polite as pie to them; +and by and by they fall in love with you, and never want to go home any +more." + +"Well, if that's the way I'm agreed, but I don't take no stock in it. +Mighty soon we'll have the cave so cluttered up with women, and fellows +waiting to be ransomed, that there won't be no place for the robbers. +But go ahead, I ain't got nothing to say." + +Little Tommy Barnes was asleep now, and when they waked him up he was +scared, and cried, and said he wanted to go home to his ma, and didn't +want to be a robber any more. + +So they all made fun of him, and called him cry-baby, and that made him +mad, and he said he would go straight and tell all the secrets.  But +Tom give him five cents to keep quiet, and said we would all go home and +meet next week, and rob somebody and kill some people. + +Ben Rogers said he couldn't get out much, only Sundays, and so he wanted +to begin next Sunday; but all the boys said it would be wicked to do it +on Sunday, and that settled the thing.  They agreed to get together and +fix a day as soon as they could, and then we elected Tom Sawyer first +captain and Jo Harper second captain of the Gang, and so started home. + +I clumb up the shed and crept into my window just before day was +breaking. My new clothes was all greased up and clayey, and I was +dog-tired. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +WELL, I got a good going-over in the morning from old Miss Watson on +account of my clothes; but the widow she didn't scold, but only cleaned +off the grease and clay, and looked so sorry that I thought I would +behave awhile if I could.  Then Miss Watson she took me in the closet +and prayed, but nothing come of it.  She told me to pray every day, and +whatever I asked for I would get it.  But it warn't so.  I tried it. +Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks.  It warn't any good to me without +hooks.  I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I +couldn't make it work.  By and by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to +try for me, but she said I was a fool.  She never told me why, and I +couldn't make it out no way. + +I set down one time back in the woods, and had a long think about it. + I says to myself, if a body can get anything they pray for, why don't +Deacon Winn get back the money he lost on pork?  Why can't the widow get +back her silver snuffbox that was stole?  Why can't Miss Watson fat up? +No, says I to my self, there ain't nothing in it.  I went and told the +widow about it, and she said the thing a body could get by praying for +it was "spiritual gifts."  This was too many for me, but she told me +what she meant—I must help other people, and do everything I could for +other people, and look out for them all the time, and never think about +myself. This was including Miss Watson, as I took it.  I went out in the +woods and turned it over in my mind a long time, but I couldn't see no +advantage about it—except for the other people; so at last I reckoned +I wouldn't worry about it any more, but just let it go.  Sometimes the +widow would take me one side and talk about Providence in a way to make +a body's mouth water; but maybe next day Miss Watson would take hold +and knock it all down again.  I judged I could see that there was two +Providences, and a poor chap would stand considerable show with the +widow's Providence, but if Miss Watson's got him there warn't no help +for him any more.  I thought it all out, and reckoned I would belong +to the widow's if he wanted me, though I couldn't make out how he was +a-going to be any better off then than what he was before, seeing I was +so ignorant, and so kind of low-down and ornery. + +Pap he hadn't been seen for more than a year, and that was comfortable +for me; I didn't want to see him no more.  He used to always whale me +when he was sober and could get his hands on me; though I used to take +to the woods most of the time when he was around.  Well, about this time +he was found in the river drownded, about twelve mile above town, so +people said.  They judged it was him, anyway; said this drownded man was +just his size, and was ragged, and had uncommon long hair, which was all +like pap; but they couldn't make nothing out of the face, because it had +been in the water so long it warn't much like a face at all.  They said +he was floating on his back in the water.  They took him and buried him +on the bank.  But I warn't comfortable long, because I happened to think +of something.  I knowed mighty well that a drownded man don't float on +his back, but on his face.  So I knowed, then, that this warn't pap, but +a woman dressed up in a man's clothes.  So I was uncomfortable again. + I judged the old man would turn up again by and by, though I wished he +wouldn't. + +We played robber now and then about a month, and then I resigned.  All +the boys did.  We hadn't robbed nobody, hadn't killed any people, but +only just pretended.  We used to hop out of the woods and go charging +down on hog-drivers and women in carts taking garden stuff to market, +but we never hived any of them.  Tom Sawyer called the hogs "ingots," +and he called the turnips and stuff "julery," and we would go to the +cave and powwow over what we had done, and how many people we had killed +and marked.  But I couldn't see no profit in it.  One time Tom sent a +boy to run about town with a blazing stick, which he called a slogan +(which was the sign for the Gang to get together), and then he said he +had got secret news by his spies that next day a whole parcel of Spanish +merchants and rich A-rabs was going to camp in Cave Hollow with two +hundred elephants, and six hundred camels, and over a thousand "sumter" +mules, all loaded down with di'monds, and they didn't have only a guard +of four hundred soldiers, and so we would lay in ambuscade, as he called +it, and kill the lot and scoop the things.  He said we must slick up +our swords and guns, and get ready.  He never could go after even a +turnip-cart but he must have the swords and guns all scoured up for it, +though they was only lath and broomsticks, and you might scour at them +till you rotted, and then they warn't worth a mouthful of ashes more +than what they was before.  I didn't believe we could lick such a crowd +of Spaniards and A-rabs, but I wanted to see the camels and elephants, +so I was on hand next day, Saturday, in the ambuscade; and when we got +the word we rushed out of the woods and down the hill.  But there warn't +no Spaniards and A-rabs, and there warn't no camels nor no elephants. + It warn't anything but a Sunday-school picnic, and only a primer-class +at that.  We busted it up, and chased the children up the hollow; but we +never got anything but some doughnuts and jam, though Ben Rogers got +a rag doll, and Jo Harper got a hymn-book and a tract; and then the +teacher charged in, and made us drop everything and cut. + + I didn't see no di'monds, and I told Tom Sawyer so.  He said there was +loads of them there, anyway; and he said there was A-rabs there, too, +and elephants and things.  I said, why couldn't we see them, then?  He +said if I warn't so ignorant, but had read a book called Don Quixote, I +would know without asking.  He said it was all done by enchantment.  He +said there was hundreds of soldiers there, and elephants and treasure, +and so on, but we had enemies which he called magicians; and they had +turned the whole thing into an infant Sunday-school, just out of spite. + I said, all right; then the thing for us to do was to go for the +magicians.  Tom Sawyer said I was a numskull. + +"Why," said he, "a magician could call up a lot of genies, and they +would hash you up like nothing before you could say Jack Robinson.  They +are as tall as a tree and as big around as a church." + +"Well," I says, "s'pose we got some genies to help _us_—can't we lick +the other crowd then?" + +"How you going to get them?" + +"I don't know.  How do _they_ get them?" + +"Why, they rub an old tin lamp or an iron ring, and then the genies +come tearing in, with the thunder and lightning a-ripping around and the +smoke a-rolling, and everything they're told to do they up and do it. + They don't think nothing of pulling a shot-tower up by the roots, and +belting a Sunday-school superintendent over the head with it—or any +other man." + +"Who makes them tear around so?" + +"Why, whoever rubs the lamp or the ring.  They belong to whoever rubs +the lamp or the ring, and they've got to do whatever he says.  If he +tells them to build a palace forty miles long out of di'monds, and fill +it full of chewing-gum, or whatever you want, and fetch an emperor's +daughter from China for you to marry, they've got to do it—and they've +got to do it before sun-up next morning, too.  And more:  they've got +to waltz that palace around over the country wherever you want it, you +understand." + +"Well," says I, "I think they are a pack of flat-heads for not keeping +the palace themselves 'stead of fooling them away like that.  And what's +more—if I was one of them I would see a man in Jericho before I would +drop my business and come to him for the rubbing of an old tin lamp." + +"How you talk, Huck Finn.  Why, you'd _have_ to come when he rubbed it, +whether you wanted to or not." + +"What! and I as high as a tree and as big as a church?  All right, then; +I _would_ come; but I lay I'd make that man climb the highest tree there +was in the country." + +"Shucks, it ain't no use to talk to you, Huck Finn.  You don't seem to +know anything, somehow—perfect saphead." + +I thought all this over for two or three days, and then I reckoned I +would see if there was anything in it.  I got an old tin lamp and an +iron ring, and went out in the woods and rubbed and rubbed till I sweat +like an Injun, calculating to build a palace and sell it; but it warn't +no use, none of the genies come.  So then I judged that all that stuff +was only just one of Tom Sawyer's lies.  I reckoned he believed in the +A-rabs and the elephants, but as for me I think different.  It had all +the marks of a Sunday-school. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +WELL, three or four months run along, and it was well into the winter +now. I had been to school most all the time and could spell and read and +write just a little, and could say the multiplication table up to six +times seven is thirty-five, and I don't reckon I could ever get any +further than that if I was to live forever.  I don't take no stock in +mathematics, anyway. + +At first I hated the school, but by and by I got so I could stand it. +Whenever I got uncommon tired I played hookey, and the hiding I got next +day done me good and cheered me up.  So the longer I went to school the +easier it got to be.  I was getting sort of used to the widow's ways, +too, and they warn't so raspy on me.  Living in a house and sleeping in +a bed pulled on me pretty tight mostly, but before the cold weather I +used to slide out and sleep in the woods sometimes, and so that was a +rest to me.  I liked the old ways best, but I was getting so I liked the +new ones, too, a little bit. The widow said I was coming along slow but +sure, and doing very satisfactory.  She said she warn't ashamed of me. + +One morning I happened to turn over the salt-cellar at breakfast. + I reached for some of it as quick as I could to throw over my left +shoulder and keep off the bad luck, but Miss Watson was in ahead of me, +and crossed me off. She says, "Take your hands away, Huckleberry; what +a mess you are always making!"  The widow put in a good word for me, but +that warn't going to keep off the bad luck, I knowed that well enough. + I started out, after breakfast, feeling worried and shaky, and +wondering where it was going to fall on me, and what it was going to be. + There is ways to keep off some kinds of bad luck, but this wasn't one +of them kind; so I never tried to do anything, but just poked along +low-spirited and on the watch-out. + +I went down to the front garden and clumb over the stile where you go +through the high board fence.  There was an inch of new snow on the +ground, and I seen somebody's tracks.  They had come up from the quarry +and stood around the stile a while, and then went on around the garden +fence.  It was funny they hadn't come in, after standing around so.  I +couldn't make it out.  It was very curious, somehow.  I was going to +follow around, but I stooped down to look at the tracks first.  I didn't +notice anything at first, but next I did.  There was a cross in the left +boot-heel made with big nails, to keep off the devil. + +I was up in a second and shinning down the hill.  I looked over my +shoulder every now and then, but I didn't see nobody.  I was at Judge +Thatcher's as quick as I could get there.  He said: + +"Why, my boy, you are all out of breath.  Did you come for your +interest?" + +"No, sir," I says; "is there some for me?" + +"Oh, yes, a half-yearly is in last night—over a hundred and fifty +dollars.  Quite a fortune for you.  You had better let me invest it +along with your six thousand, because if you take it you'll spend it." + +"No, sir," I says, "I don't want to spend it.  I don't want it at +all—nor the six thousand, nuther.  I want you to take it; I want to give +it to you—the six thousand and all." + +He looked surprised.  He couldn't seem to make it out.  He says: + +"Why, what can you mean, my boy?" + +I says, "Don't you ask me no questions about it, please.  You'll take +it—won't you?" + +He says: + +"Well, I'm puzzled.  Is something the matter?" + +"Please take it," says I, "and don't ask me nothing—then I won't have to +tell no lies." + +He studied a while, and then he says: + +"Oho-o!  I think I see.  You want to _sell_ all your property to me—not +give it.  That's the correct idea." + +Then he wrote something on a paper and read it over, and says: + +"There; you see it says 'for a consideration.'  That means I have bought +it of you and paid you for it.  Here's a dollar for you.  Now you sign +it." + +So I signed it, and left. + +Miss Watson's nigger, Jim, had a hair-ball as big as your fist, which +had been took out of the fourth stomach of an ox, and he used to do +magic with it.  He said there was a spirit inside of it, and it knowed +everything.  So I went to him that night and told him pap was here +again, for I found his tracks in the snow.  What I wanted to know was, +what he was going to do, and was he going to stay?  Jim got out his +hair-ball and said something over it, and then he held it up and dropped +it on the floor.  It fell pretty solid, and only rolled about an inch. + Jim tried it again, and then another time, and it acted just the same. + Jim got down on his knees, and put his ear against it and listened. + But it warn't no use; he said it wouldn't talk. He said sometimes it +wouldn't talk without money.  I told him I had an old slick counterfeit +quarter that warn't no good because the brass showed through the silver +a little, and it wouldn't pass nohow, even if the brass didn't show, +because it was so slick it felt greasy, and so that would tell on it +every time.  (I reckoned I wouldn't say nothing about the dollar I got +from the judge.) I said it was pretty bad money, but maybe the hair-ball +would take it, because maybe it wouldn't know the difference.  Jim smelt +it and bit it and rubbed it, and said he would manage so the hair-ball +would think it was good.  He said he would split open a raw Irish potato +and stick the quarter in between and keep it there all night, and next +morning you couldn't see no brass, and it wouldn't feel greasy no more, +and so anybody in town would take it in a minute, let alone a hair-ball. + Well, I knowed a potato would do that before, but I had forgot it. + +Jim put the quarter under the hair-ball, and got down and listened +again. This time he said the hair-ball was all right.  He said it +would tell my whole fortune if I wanted it to.  I says, go on.  So the +hair-ball talked to Jim, and Jim told it to me.  He says: + +"Yo' ole father doan' know yit what he's a-gwyne to do.  Sometimes he +spec he'll go 'way, en den agin he spec he'll stay.  De bes' way is to +res' easy en let de ole man take his own way.  Dey's two angels hoverin' +roun' 'bout him.  One uv 'em is white en shiny, en t'other one is black. +De white one gits him to go right a little while, den de black one sail +in en bust it all up.  A body can't tell yit which one gwyne to fetch +him at de las'.  But you is all right.  You gwyne to have considable +trouble in yo' life, en considable joy.  Sometimes you gwyne to git +hurt, en sometimes you gwyne to git sick; but every time you's gwyne +to git well agin.  Dey's two gals flyin' 'bout you in yo' life.  One +uv 'em's light en t'other one is dark. One is rich en t'other is po'. + You's gwyne to marry de po' one fust en de rich one by en by.  You +wants to keep 'way fum de water as much as you kin, en don't run no +resk, 'kase it's down in de bills dat you's gwyne to git hung." + +When I lit my candle and went up to my room that night there sat pap his +own self! + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +I had shut the door to.  Then I turned around and there he was.  I used +to be scared of him all the time, he tanned me so much.  I reckoned I +was scared now, too; but in a minute I see I was mistaken—that is, after +the first jolt, as you may say, when my breath sort of hitched, he being +so unexpected; but right away after I see I warn't scared of him worth +bothring about. + +He was most fifty, and he looked it.  His hair was long and tangled and +greasy, and hung down, and you could see his eyes shining through +like he was behind vines.  It was all black, no gray; so was his long, +mixed-up whiskers.  There warn't no color in his face, where his face +showed; it was white; not like another man's white, but a white to make +a body sick, a white to make a body's flesh crawl—a tree-toad white, a +fish-belly white.  As for his clothes—just rags, that was all.  He had +one ankle resting on t'other knee; the boot on that foot was busted, and +two of his toes stuck through, and he worked them now and then.  His hat +was laying on the floor—an old black slouch with the top caved in, like +a lid. + +I stood a-looking at him; he set there a-looking at me, with his chair +tilted back a little.  I set the candle down.  I noticed the window was +up; so he had clumb in by the shed.  He kept a-looking me all over.  By +and by he says: + +"Starchy clothes—very.  You think you're a good deal of a big-bug, +_don't_ you?" + +"Maybe I am, maybe I ain't," I says. + +"Don't you give me none o' your lip," says he.  "You've put on +considerable many frills since I been away.  I'll take you down a peg +before I get done with you.  You're educated, too, they say—can read and +write.  You think you're better'n your father, now, don't you, because +he can't?  _I'll_ take it out of you.  Who told you you might meddle +with such hifalut'n foolishness, hey?—who told you you could?" + +"The widow.  She told me." + +"The widow, hey?—and who told the widow she could put in her shovel +about a thing that ain't none of her business?" + +"Nobody never told her." + +"Well, I'll learn her how to meddle.  And looky here—you drop that +school, you hear?  I'll learn people to bring up a boy to put on airs +over his own father and let on to be better'n what _he_ is.  You lemme +catch you fooling around that school again, you hear?  Your mother +couldn't read, and she couldn't write, nuther, before she died.  None +of the family couldn't before _they_ died.  I can't; and here you're +a-swelling yourself up like this.  I ain't the man to stand it—you hear? +Say, lemme hear you read." + +I took up a book and begun something about General Washington and the +wars. When I'd read about a half a minute, he fetched the book a whack +with his hand and knocked it across the house.  He says: + +"It's so.  You can do it.  I had my doubts when you told me.  Now looky +here; you stop that putting on frills.  I won't have it.  I'll lay for +you, my smarty; and if I catch you about that school I'll tan you good. +First you know you'll get religion, too.  I never see such a son." + +He took up a little blue and yaller picture of some cows and a boy, and +says: + +"What's this?" + +"It's something they give me for learning my lessons good." + +He tore it up, and says: + +"I'll give you something better—I'll give you a cowhide." + +He set there a-mumbling and a-growling a minute, and then he says: + +"_Ain't_ you a sweet-scented dandy, though?  A bed; and bedclothes; and +a look'n'-glass; and a piece of carpet on the floor—and your own father +got to sleep with the hogs in the tanyard.  I never see such a son.  I +bet I'll take some o' these frills out o' you before I'm done with you. +Why, there ain't no end to your airs—they say you're rich.  Hey?—how's +that?" + +"They lie—that's how." + +"Looky here—mind how you talk to me; I'm a-standing about all I can +stand now—so don't gimme no sass.  I've been in town two days, and I +hain't heard nothing but about you bein' rich.  I heard about it +away down the river, too.  That's why I come.  You git me that money +to-morrow—I want it." + +"I hain't got no money." + +"It's a lie.  Judge Thatcher's got it.  You git it.  I want it." + +"I hain't got no money, I tell you.  You ask Judge Thatcher; he'll tell +you the same." + +"All right.  I'll ask him; and I'll make him pungle, too, or I'll know +the reason why.  Say, how much you got in your pocket?  I want it." + +"I hain't got only a dollar, and I want that to—" + +"It don't make no difference what you want it for—you just shell it +out." + +He took it and bit it to see if it was good, and then he said he was +going down town to get some whisky; said he hadn't had a drink all day. +When he had got out on the shed he put his head in again, and cussed +me for putting on frills and trying to be better than him; and when I +reckoned he was gone he come back and put his head in again, and told me +to mind about that school, because he was going to lay for me and lick +me if I didn't drop that. + +Next day he was drunk, and he went to Judge Thatcher's and bullyragged +him, and tried to make him give up the money; but he couldn't, and then +he swore he'd make the law force him. + +The judge and the widow went to law to get the court to take me away +from him and let one of them be my guardian; but it was a new judge that +had just come, and he didn't know the old man; so he said courts mustn't +interfere and separate families if they could help it; said he'd druther +not take a child away from its father.  So Judge Thatcher and the widow +had to quit on the business. + +That pleased the old man till he couldn't rest.  He said he'd cowhide +me till I was black and blue if I didn't raise some money for him.  I +borrowed three dollars from Judge Thatcher, and pap took it and got +drunk, and went a-blowing around and cussing and whooping and carrying +on; and he kept it up all over town, with a tin pan, till most midnight; +then they jailed him, and next day they had him before court, and jailed +him again for a week.  But he said _he_ was satisfied; said he was boss +of his son, and he'd make it warm for _him_. + +When he got out the new judge said he was a-going to make a man of him. +So he took him to his own house, and dressed him up clean and nice, and +had him to breakfast and dinner and supper with the family, and was just +old pie to him, so to speak.  And after supper he talked to him about +temperance and such things till the old man cried, and said he'd been +a fool, and fooled away his life; but now he was a-going to turn over +a new leaf and be a man nobody wouldn't be ashamed of, and he hoped the +judge would help him and not look down on him.  The judge said he could +hug him for them words; so he cried, and his wife she cried again; pap +said he'd been a man that had always been misunderstood before, and the +judge said he believed it.  The old man said that what a man wanted +that was down was sympathy, and the judge said it was so; so they cried +again.  And when it was bedtime the old man rose up and held out his +hand, and says: + +"Look at it, gentlemen and ladies all; take a-hold of it; shake it. +There's a hand that was the hand of a hog; but it ain't so no more; it's +the hand of a man that's started in on a new life, and'll die before +he'll go back.  You mark them words—don't forget I said them.  It's a +clean hand now; shake it—don't be afeard." + +So they shook it, one after the other, all around, and cried.  The +judge's wife she kissed it.  Then the old man he signed a pledge—made +his mark. The judge said it was the holiest time on record, or something +like that. Then they tucked the old man into a beautiful room, which was +the spare room, and in the night some time he got powerful thirsty and +clumb out on to the porch-roof and slid down a stanchion and traded his +new coat for a jug of forty-rod, and clumb back again and had a good old +time; and towards daylight he crawled out again, drunk as a fiddler, and +rolled off the porch and broke his left arm in two places, and was most +froze to death when somebody found him after sun-up.  And when they come +to look at that spare room they had to take soundings before they could +navigate it. + +The judge he felt kind of sore.  He said he reckoned a body could reform +the old man with a shotgun, maybe, but he didn't know no other way. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +WELL, pretty soon the old man was up and around again, and then he went +for Judge Thatcher in the courts to make him give up that money, and he +went for me, too, for not stopping school.  He catched me a couple of +times and thrashed me, but I went to school just the same, and dodged +him or outrun him most of the time.  I didn't want to go to school much +before, but I reckoned I'd go now to spite pap.  That law trial was a +slow business—appeared like they warn't ever going to get started on it; +so every now and then I'd borrow two or three dollars off of the judge +for him, to keep from getting a cowhiding.  Every time he got money he +got drunk; and every time he got drunk he raised Cain around town; and +every time he raised Cain he got jailed.  He was just suited—this kind +of thing was right in his line. + +He got to hanging around the widow's too much and so she told him at +last that if he didn't quit using around there she would make trouble +for him. Well, _wasn't_ he mad?  He said he would show who was Huck +Finn's boss.  So he watched out for me one day in the spring, and +catched me, and took me up the river about three mile in a skiff, and +crossed over to the Illinois shore where it was woody and there warn't +no houses but an old log hut in a place where the timber was so thick +you couldn't find it if you didn't know where it was. + +He kept me with him all the time, and I never got a chance to run off. +We lived in that old cabin, and he always locked the door and put the +key under his head nights.  He had a gun which he had stole, I reckon, +and we fished and hunted, and that was what we lived on.  Every little +while he locked me in and went down to the store, three miles, to the +ferry, and traded fish and game for whisky, and fetched it home and got +drunk and had a good time, and licked me.  The widow she found out where +I was by and by, and she sent a man over to try to get hold of me; but +pap drove him off with the gun, and it warn't long after that till I was +used to being where I was, and liked it—all but the cowhide part. + +It was kind of lazy and jolly, laying off comfortable all day, smoking +and fishing, and no books nor study.  Two months or more run along, and +my clothes got to be all rags and dirt, and I didn't see how I'd ever +got to like it so well at the widow's, where you had to wash, and eat on +a plate, and comb up, and go to bed and get up regular, and be forever +bothering over a book, and have old Miss Watson pecking at you all the +time.  I didn't want to go back no more.  I had stopped cussing, because +the widow didn't like it; but now I took to it again because pap hadn't +no objections.  It was pretty good times up in the woods there, take it +all around. + +But by and by pap got too handy with his hick'ry, and I couldn't stand +it. I was all over welts.  He got to going away so much, too, and +locking me in.  Once he locked me in and was gone three days.  It was +dreadful lonesome.  I judged he had got drownded, and I wasn't ever +going to get out any more.  I was scared.  I made up my mind I would fix +up some way to leave there.  I had tried to get out of that cabin many +a time, but I couldn't find no way.  There warn't a window to it big +enough for a dog to get through.  I couldn't get up the chimbly; it +was too narrow.  The door was thick, solid oak slabs.  Pap was pretty +careful not to leave a knife or anything in the cabin when he was away; +I reckon I had hunted the place over as much as a hundred times; well, I +was most all the time at it, because it was about the only way to put in +the time.  But this time I found something at last; I found an old rusty +wood-saw without any handle; it was laid in between a rafter and the +clapboards of the roof. I greased it up and went to work.  There was an +old horse-blanket nailed against the logs at the far end of the cabin +behind the table, to keep the wind from blowing through the chinks and +putting the candle out.  I got under the table and raised the blanket, +and went to work to saw a section of the big bottom log out—big enough +to let me through.  Well, it was a good long job, but I was getting +towards the end of it when I heard pap's gun in the woods.  I got rid of +the signs of my work, and dropped the blanket and hid my saw, and pretty +soon pap come in. + +Pap warn't in a good humor—so he was his natural self.  He said he was +down town, and everything was going wrong.  His lawyer said he reckoned +he would win his lawsuit and get the money if they ever got started on +the trial; but then there was ways to put it off a long time, and Judge +Thatcher knowed how to do it. And he said people allowed there'd be +another trial to get me away from him and give me to the widow for my +guardian, and they guessed it would win this time.  This shook me up +considerable, because I didn't want to go back to the widow's any more +and be so cramped up and sivilized, as they called it.  Then the old man +got to cussing, and cussed everything and everybody he could think of, +and then cussed them all over again to make sure he hadn't skipped any, +and after that he polished off with a kind of a general cuss all round, +including a considerable parcel of people which he didn't know the names +of, and so called them what's-his-name when he got to them, and went +right along with his cussing. + +He said he would like to see the widow get me.  He said he would watch +out, and if they tried to come any such game on him he knowed of a place +six or seven mile off to stow me in, where they might hunt till they +dropped and they couldn't find me.  That made me pretty uneasy again, +but only for a minute; I reckoned I wouldn't stay on hand till he got +that chance. + +The old man made me go to the skiff and fetch the things he had +got. There was a fifty-pound sack of corn meal, and a side of bacon, +ammunition, and a four-gallon jug of whisky, and an old book and two +newspapers for wadding, besides some tow.  I toted up a load, and went +back and set down on the bow of the skiff to rest.  I thought it all +over, and I reckoned I would walk off with the gun and some lines, and +take to the woods when I run away.  I guessed I wouldn't stay in one +place, but just tramp right across the country, mostly night times, and +hunt and fish to keep alive, and so get so far away that the old man nor +the widow couldn't ever find me any more.  I judged I would saw out and +leave that night if pap got drunk enough, and I reckoned he would.  I +got so full of it I didn't notice how long I was staying till the old +man hollered and asked me whether I was asleep or drownded. + +I got the things all up to the cabin, and then it was about dark.  While +I was cooking supper the old man took a swig or two and got sort of +warmed up, and went to ripping again.  He had been drunk over in town, +and laid in the gutter all night, and he was a sight to look at.  A body +would a thought he was Adam—he was just all mud.  Whenever his liquor +begun to work he most always went for the govment, this time he says: + +"Call this a govment! why, just look at it and see what it's like. +Here's the law a-standing ready to take a man's son away from him—a +man's own son, which he has had all the trouble and all the anxiety +and all the expense of raising.  Yes, just as that man has got that +son raised at last, and ready to go to work and begin to do suthin' for +_him_ and give him a rest, the law up and goes for him.  And they call +_that_ govment!  That ain't all, nuther.  The law backs that old Judge +Thatcher up and helps him to keep me out o' my property.  Here's what +the law does:  The law takes a man worth six thousand dollars and +up'ards, and jams him into an old trap of a cabin like this, and lets +him go round in clothes that ain't fitten for a hog. They call that +govment!  A man can't get his rights in a govment like this. Sometimes +I've a mighty notion to just leave the country for good and all. Yes, +and I _told_ 'em so; I told old Thatcher so to his face.  Lots of 'em +heard me, and can tell what I said.  Says I, for two cents I'd leave the +blamed country and never come a-near it agin.  Them's the very words.  I +says look at my hat—if you call it a hat—but the lid raises up and the +rest of it goes down till it's below my chin, and then it ain't rightly +a hat at all, but more like my head was shoved up through a jint o' +stove-pipe.  Look at it, says I—such a hat for me to wear—one of the +wealthiest men in this town if I could git my rights. + +"Oh, yes, this is a wonderful govment, wonderful.  Why, looky here. +There was a free nigger there from Ohio—a mulatter, most as white as +a white man.  He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the +shiniest hat; and there ain't a man in that town that's got as fine +clothes as what he had; and he had a gold watch and chain, and a +silver-headed cane—the awfulest old gray-headed nabob in the State.  And +what do you think?  They said he was a p'fessor in a college, and could +talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything.  And that ain't the +wust. They said he could _vote_ when he was at home.  Well, that let me +out. Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to?  It was 'lection day, +and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn't too drunk to get +there; but when they told me there was a State in this country where +they'd let that nigger vote, I drawed out.  I says I'll never vote agin. + Them's the very words I said; they all heard me; and the country may +rot for all me—I'll never vote agin as long as I live.  And to see the +cool way of that nigger—why, he wouldn't a give me the road if I hadn't +shoved him out o' the way.  I says to the people, why ain't this nigger +put up at auction and sold?—that's what I want to know.  And what do you +reckon they said? Why, they said he couldn't be sold till he'd been in +the State six months, and he hadn't been there that long yet.  There, +now—that's a specimen.  They call that a govment that can't sell a free +nigger till he's been in the State six months.  Here's a govment that +calls itself a govment, and lets on to be a govment, and thinks it is a +govment, and yet's got to set stock-still for six whole months before +it can take a hold of a prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free +nigger, and—" + +Pap was agoing on so he never noticed where his old limber legs was +taking him to, so he went head over heels over the tub of salt pork and +barked both shins, and the rest of his speech was all the hottest kind +of language—mostly hove at the nigger and the govment, though he give +the tub some, too, all along, here and there.  He hopped around the +cabin considerable, first on one leg and then on the other, holding +first one shin and then the other one, and at last he let out with his +left foot all of a sudden and fetched the tub a rattling kick.  But it +warn't good judgment, because that was the boot that had a couple of his +toes leaking out of the front end of it; so now he raised a howl that +fairly made a body's hair raise, and down he went in the dirt, and +rolled there, and held his toes; and the cussing he done then laid over +anything he had ever done previous.  He said so his own self afterwards. + He had heard old Sowberry Hagan in his best days, and he said it laid +over him, too; but I reckon that was sort of piling it on, maybe. + +After supper pap took the jug, and said he had enough whisky there +for two drunks and one delirium tremens.  That was always his word.  I +judged he would be blind drunk in about an hour, and then I would steal +the key, or saw myself out, one or t'other.  He drank and drank, and +tumbled down on his blankets by and by; but luck didn't run my way. + He didn't go sound asleep, but was uneasy.  He groaned and moaned and +thrashed around this way and that for a long time.  At last I got so +sleepy I couldn't keep my eyes open all I could do, and so before I +knowed what I was about I was sound asleep, and the candle burning. + +I don't know how long I was asleep, but all of a sudden there was an +awful scream and I was up.  There was pap looking wild, and skipping +around every which way and yelling about snakes.  He said they was +crawling up his legs; and then he would give a jump and scream, and say +one had bit him on the cheek—but I couldn't see no snakes.  He started +and run round and round the cabin, hollering "Take him off! take him +off! he's biting me on the neck!"  I never see a man look so wild in the +eyes. Pretty soon he was all fagged out, and fell down panting; then he +rolled over and over wonderful fast, kicking things every which way, +and striking and grabbing at the air with his hands, and screaming and +saying there was devils a-hold of him.  He wore out by and by, and laid +still a while, moaning.  Then he laid stiller, and didn't make a sound. + I could hear the owls and the wolves away off in the woods, and it +seemed terrible still.  He was laying over by the corner. By and by he +raised up part way and listened, with his head to one side.  He says, +very low: + +"Tramp—tramp—tramp; that's the dead; tramp—tramp—tramp; they're coming +after me; but I won't go.  Oh, they're here! don't touch me—don't! hands +off—they're cold; let go.  Oh, let a poor devil alone!" + +Then he went down on all fours and crawled off, begging them to let him +alone, and he rolled himself up in his blanket and wallowed in under the +old pine table, still a-begging; and then he went to crying.  I could +hear him through the blanket. + +By and by he rolled out and jumped up on his feet looking wild, and he +see me and went for me.  He chased me round and round the place with a +clasp-knife, calling me the Angel of Death, and saying he would kill me, +and then I couldn't come for him no more.  I begged, and told him I +was only Huck; but he laughed _such_ a screechy laugh, and roared and +cussed, and kept on chasing me up.  Once when I turned short and +dodged under his arm he made a grab and got me by the jacket between my +shoulders, and I thought I was gone; but I slid out of the jacket quick +as lightning, and saved myself. Pretty soon he was all tired out, and +dropped down with his back against the door, and said he would rest a +minute and then kill me. He put his knife under him, and said he would +sleep and get strong, and then he would see who was who. + +So he dozed off pretty soon.  By and by I got the old split-bottom chair +and clumb up as easy as I could, not to make any noise, and got down the +gun.  I slipped the ramrod down it to make sure it was loaded, then I +laid it across the turnip barrel, pointing towards pap, and set down +behind it to wait for him to stir.  And how slow and still the time did +drag along. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +"GIT up!  What you 'bout?" + +I opened my eyes and looked around, trying to make out where I was.  It +was after sun-up, and I had been sound asleep.  Pap was standing over me +looking sour and sick, too.  He says: + +"What you doin' with this gun?" + +I judged he didn't know nothing about what he had been doing, so I says: + +"Somebody tried to get in, so I was laying for him." + +"Why didn't you roust me out?" + +"Well, I tried to, but I couldn't; I couldn't budge you." + +"Well, all right.  Don't stand there palavering all day, but out with +you and see if there's a fish on the lines for breakfast.  I'll be along +in a minute." + +He unlocked the door, and I cleared out up the river-bank.  I noticed +some pieces of limbs and such things floating down, and a sprinkling of +bark; so I knowed the river had begun to rise.  I reckoned I would have +great times now if I was over at the town.  The June rise used to be +always luck for me; because as soon as that rise begins here comes +cordwood floating down, and pieces of log rafts—sometimes a dozen logs +together; so all you have to do is to catch them and sell them to the +wood-yards and the sawmill. + +I went along up the bank with one eye out for pap and t'other one out +for what the rise might fetch along.  Well, all at once here comes a +canoe; just a beauty, too, about thirteen or fourteen foot long, riding +high like a duck.  I shot head-first off of the bank like a frog, +clothes and all on, and struck out for the canoe.  I just expected +there'd be somebody laying down in it, because people often done that +to fool folks, and when a chap had pulled a skiff out most to it they'd +raise up and laugh at him.  But it warn't so this time.  It was a +drift-canoe sure enough, and I clumb in and paddled her ashore.  Thinks +I, the old man will be glad when he sees this—she's worth ten dollars. + But when I got to shore pap wasn't in sight yet, and as I was running +her into a little creek like a gully, all hung over with vines and +willows, I struck another idea:  I judged I'd hide her good, and then, +'stead of taking to the woods when I run off, I'd go down the river +about fifty mile and camp in one place for good, and not have such a +rough time tramping on foot. + +It was pretty close to the shanty, and I thought I heard the old man +coming all the time; but I got her hid; and then I out and looked around +a bunch of willows, and there was the old man down the path a piece just +drawing a bead on a bird with his gun.  So he hadn't seen anything. + +When he got along I was hard at it taking up a "trot" line.  He abused +me a little for being so slow; but I told him I fell in the river, and +that was what made me so long.  I knowed he would see I was wet, and +then he would be asking questions.  We got five catfish off the lines +and went home. + +While we laid off after breakfast to sleep up, both of us being about +wore out, I got to thinking that if I could fix up some way to keep pap +and the widow from trying to follow me, it would be a certainer thing +than trusting to luck to get far enough off before they missed me; you +see, all kinds of things might happen.  Well, I didn't see no way for a +while, but by and by pap raised up a minute to drink another barrel of +water, and he says: + +"Another time a man comes a-prowling round here you roust me out, you +hear? That man warn't here for no good.  I'd a shot him.  Next time you +roust me out, you hear?" + +Then he dropped down and went to sleep again; but what he had been +saying give me the very idea I wanted.  I says to myself, I can fix it +now so nobody won't think of following me. + +About twelve o'clock we turned out and went along up the bank.  The +river was coming up pretty fast, and lots of driftwood going by on the +rise. By and by along comes part of a log raft—nine logs fast together. + We went out with the skiff and towed it ashore.  Then we had dinner. +Anybody but pap would a waited and seen the day through, so as to catch +more stuff; but that warn't pap's style.  Nine logs was enough for one +time; he must shove right over to town and sell.  So he locked me in and +took the skiff, and started off towing the raft about half-past three. + I judged he wouldn't come back that night.  I waited till I reckoned he +had got a good start; then I out with my saw, and went to work on that +log again.  Before he was t'other side of the river I was out of the +hole; him and his raft was just a speck on the water away off yonder. + +I took the sack of corn meal and took it to where the canoe was hid, and +shoved the vines and branches apart and put it in; then I done the same +with the side of bacon; then the whisky-jug.  I took all the coffee and +sugar there was, and all the ammunition; I took the wadding; I took the +bucket and gourd; I took a dipper and a tin cup, and my old saw and two +blankets, and the skillet and the coffee-pot.  I took fish-lines and +matches and other things—everything that was worth a cent.  I cleaned +out the place.  I wanted an axe, but there wasn't any, only the one out +at the woodpile, and I knowed why I was going to leave that.  I fetched +out the gun, and now I was done. + +I had wore the ground a good deal crawling out of the hole and dragging +out so many things.  So I fixed that as good as I could from the outside +by scattering dust on the place, which covered up the smoothness and the +sawdust.  Then I fixed the piece of log back into its place, and put two +rocks under it and one against it to hold it there, for it was bent up +at that place and didn't quite touch ground.  If you stood four or five +foot away and didn't know it was sawed, you wouldn't never notice +it; and besides, this was the back of the cabin, and it warn't likely +anybody would go fooling around there. + +It was all grass clear to the canoe, so I hadn't left a track.  I +followed around to see.  I stood on the bank and looked out over the +river.  All safe.  So I took the gun and went up a piece into the woods, +and was hunting around for some birds when I see a wild pig; hogs soon +went wild in them bottoms after they had got away from the prairie +farms. I shot this fellow and took him into camp. + +I took the axe and smashed in the door.  I beat it and hacked it +considerable a-doing it.  I fetched the pig in, and took him back nearly +to the table and hacked into his throat with the axe, and laid him down +on the ground to bleed; I say ground because it was ground—hard packed, +and no boards.  Well, next I took an old sack and put a lot of big rocks +in it—all I could drag—and I started it from the pig, and dragged it to +the door and through the woods down to the river and dumped it in, and +down it sunk, out of sight.  You could easy see that something had been +dragged over the ground.  I did wish Tom Sawyer was there; I knowed he +would take an interest in this kind of business, and throw in the fancy +touches.  Nobody could spread himself like Tom Sawyer in such a thing as +that. + +Well, last I pulled out some of my hair, and blooded the axe good, and +stuck it on the back side, and slung the axe in the corner.  Then I +took up the pig and held him to my breast with my jacket (so he couldn't +drip) till I got a good piece below the house and then dumped him into +the river.  Now I thought of something else.  So I went and got the bag +of meal and my old saw out of the canoe, and fetched them to the house. + I took the bag to where it used to stand, and ripped a hole in the +bottom of it with the saw, for there warn't no knives and forks on the +place—pap done everything with his clasp-knife about the cooking.  Then +I carried the sack about a hundred yards across the grass and through +the willows east of the house, to a shallow lake that was five mile wide +and full of rushes—and ducks too, you might say, in the season.  There +was a slough or a creek leading out of it on the other side that went +miles away, I don't know where, but it didn't go to the river.  The meal +sifted out and made a little track all the way to the lake.  I dropped +pap's whetstone there too, so as to look like it had been done by +accident. Then I tied up the rip in the meal sack with a string, so it +wouldn't leak no more, and took it and my saw to the canoe again. + +It was about dark now; so I dropped the canoe down the river under some +willows that hung over the bank, and waited for the moon to rise.  I +made fast to a willow; then I took a bite to eat, and by and by laid +down in the canoe to smoke a pipe and lay out a plan.  I says to myself, +they'll follow the track of that sackful of rocks to the shore and then +drag the river for me.  And they'll follow that meal track to the lake +and go browsing down the creek that leads out of it to find the robbers +that killed me and took the things.  They won't ever hunt the river for +anything but my dead carcass. They'll soon get tired of that, and won't +bother no more about me.  All right; I can stop anywhere I want to. +Jackson's Island is good enough for me; I know that island pretty well, +and nobody ever comes there.  And then I can paddle over to town nights, +and slink around and pick up things I want. Jackson's Island's the +place. + +I was pretty tired, and the first thing I knowed I was asleep.  When +I woke up I didn't know where I was for a minute.  I set up and looked +around, a little scared.  Then I remembered.  The river looked miles and +miles across.  The moon was so bright I could a counted the drift logs +that went a-slipping along, black and still, hundreds of yards out from +shore. Everything was dead quiet, and it looked late, and _smelt_ late. +You know what I mean—I don't know the words to put it in. + +I took a good gap and a stretch, and was just going to unhitch and start +when I heard a sound away over the water.  I listened.  Pretty soon I +made it out.  It was that dull kind of a regular sound that comes from +oars working in rowlocks when it's a still night.  I peeped out through +the willow branches, and there it was—a skiff, away across the water. + I couldn't tell how many was in it.  It kept a-coming, and when it was +abreast of me I see there warn't but one man in it.  Think's I, maybe +it's pap, though I warn't expecting him.  He dropped below me with the +current, and by and by he came a-swinging up shore in the easy water, +and he went by so close I could a reached out the gun and touched him. + Well, it _was_ pap, sure enough—and sober, too, by the way he laid his +oars. + +I didn't lose no time.  The next minute I was a-spinning down stream +soft but quick in the shade of the bank.  I made two mile and a half, +and then struck out a quarter of a mile or more towards the middle of +the river, because pretty soon I would be passing the ferry landing, and +people might see me and hail me.  I got out amongst the driftwood, and +then laid down in the bottom of the canoe and let her float. + + I laid there, and had a good rest and a smoke out of my pipe, looking +away into the sky; not a cloud in it.  The sky looks ever so deep when +you lay down on your back in the moonshine; I never knowed it before. + And how far a body can hear on the water such nights!  I heard people +talking at the ferry landing. I heard what they said, too—every word +of it.  One man said it was getting towards the long days and the short +nights now.  T'other one said _this_ warn't one of the short ones, he +reckoned—and then they laughed, and he said it over again, and they +laughed again; then they waked up another fellow and told him, and +laughed, but he didn't laugh; he ripped out something brisk, and said +let him alone.  The first fellow said he 'lowed to tell it to his +old woman—she would think it was pretty good; but he said that warn't +nothing to some things he had said in his time. I heard one man say it +was nearly three o'clock, and he hoped daylight wouldn't wait more than +about a week longer.  After that the talk got further and further away, +and I couldn't make out the words any more; but I could hear the mumble, +and now and then a laugh, too, but it seemed a long ways off. + +I was away below the ferry now.  I rose up, and there was Jackson's +Island, about two mile and a half down stream, heavy timbered and +standing up out of the middle of the river, big and dark and solid, like +a steamboat without any lights.  There warn't any signs of the bar at +the head—it was all under water now. + +It didn't take me long to get there.  I shot past the head at a ripping +rate, the current was so swift, and then I got into the dead water and +landed on the side towards the Illinois shore.  I run the canoe into +a deep dent in the bank that I knowed about; I had to part the willow +branches to get in; and when I made fast nobody could a seen the canoe +from the outside. + +I went up and set down on a log at the head of the island, and looked +out on the big river and the black driftwood and away over to the town, +three mile away, where there was three or four lights twinkling.  A +monstrous big lumber-raft was about a mile up stream, coming along down, +with a lantern in the middle of it.  I watched it come creeping down, +and when it was most abreast of where I stood I heard a man say, "Stern +oars, there! heave her head to stabboard!"  I heard that just as plain +as if the man was by my side. + +There was a little gray in the sky now; so I stepped into the woods, and +laid down for a nap before breakfast. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE sun was up so high when I waked that I judged it was after eight +o'clock.  I laid there in the grass and the cool shade thinking about +things, and feeling rested and ruther comfortable and satisfied.  I +could see the sun out at one or two holes, but mostly it was big trees +all about, and gloomy in there amongst them.  There was freckled places +on the ground where the light sifted down through the leaves, and the +freckled places swapped about a little, showing there was a little +breeze up there.  A couple of squirrels set on a limb and jabbered at me +very friendly. + +I was powerful lazy and comfortable—didn't want to get up and cook +breakfast.  Well, I was dozing off again when I thinks I hears a deep +sound of "boom!" away up the river.  I rouses up, and rests on my elbow +and listens; pretty soon I hears it again.  I 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.  And there was the +ferryboat full of people floating along down.  I knowed what was the +matter now.  "Boom!" I see the white smoke squirt out of the ferryboat's +side.  You see, they was firing cannon over the water, trying to make my +carcass come to the top. + +I was pretty hungry, but it warn't going to do for me to start a fire, +because they might see the smoke.  So I set there and watched the +cannon-smoke and listened to the boom.  The 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. Well, 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.  So, says I, I'll keep a lookout, and +if any of them's floating around after me I'll give them a show.  I +changed to the Illinois edge of the island to see what luck I could +have, and I warn't disappointed.  A big double loaf come along, and I +most got it with a long stick, but my foot slipped and she floated out +further.  Of course I was where the current set in the closest to the +shore—I knowed enough for that.  But by and by along comes another one, +and this time I won.  I took out the plug and shook out the little dab +of quicksilver, and set my teeth in.  It was "baker's bread"—what the +quality eat; none of your low-down corn-pone. + +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 ain't no doubt but there is something in that +thing—that 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. + +I lit a pipe and had a good long smoke, and went on watching.  The +ferryboat was floating with the current, and I allowed I'd have a chance +to see who was aboard when she come along, because she would come in +close, where the bread did.  When she'd 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: + +"Look sharp, now; the current sets in the closest here, and maybe he's +washed ashore and got tangled amongst the brush at the water's edge.  I +hope so, anyway." + +I didn't 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 couldn't see me.  Then the captain sung out: + +"Stand away!" 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 they'd a had some bullets in, I reckon they'd +a got the corpse they was after.  Well, I see I warn't 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 didn't 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 didn't 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 couldn't 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 ain't no better way to put in time when you are lonesome; you +can't stay so, you soon get over it. + +And so for three days and nights.  No difference—just 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 warn't +far from the foot of the island.  I had my gun along, but I hadn't 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 couldn't 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 warn't feeling very brash, there warn't much sand +in my craw; but I says, this ain't 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 year's camp, and then clumb a tree. + +I reckon I was up in the tree two hours; but I didn't see nothing, +I didn't hear nothing—I only _thought_ I heard and seen as much as a +thousand things.  Well, I couldn't 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 bank—about 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 people's 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 hadn't got far when I +hear a man say: + +"We better camp here if we can find a good place; the horses is about +beat out.  Let's look around." + +I didn't wait, but shoved out and paddled away easy.  I tied up in the +old place, and reckoned I would sleep in the canoe. + +I didn't sleep much.  I couldn't, somehow, for thinking.  And every time +I waked up I thought somebody had me by the neck.  So the sleep didn't +do me no good.  By and by I says to myself, I can't live this way; I'm +a-going to find out who it is that's here on the island with me; I'll +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 hadn't no luck somehow; I couldn't 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 Watson's Jim!  I bet I was glad to see +him.  I says: + +"Hello, Jim!" 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: + +"Doan' hurt me—don't!  I hain't ever done no harm to a ghos'.  I alwuz +liked dead people, en done all I could for 'em.  You go en git in de +river agin, whah you b'longs, en doan' do nuffn to Ole Jim, 'at 'uz +awluz yo' fren'." + +Well, I warn't long making him understand I warn't dead.  I was ever so +glad to see Jim.  I warn't lonesome now.  I told him I warn't 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: + +"It's good daylight.  Le's get breakfast.  Make up your camp fire good." + +"What's de use er makin' up de camp fire to cook strawbries en sich +truck? But you got a gun, hain't you?  Den we kin git sumfn better den +strawbries." + +"Strawberries and such truck," I says.  "Is that what you live on?" + +"I couldn' git nuffn else," he says. + +"Why, how long you been on the island, Jim?" + +"I come heah de night arter you's killed." + +"What, all that time?" + +"Yes—indeedy." + +"And ain't you had nothing but that kind of rubbage to eat?" + +"No, sah—nuffn else." + +"Well, you must be most starved, ain't you?" + +"I reck'n I could eat a hoss.  I think I could. How long you ben on de +islan'?" + +"Since the night I got killed." + +"No!  W'y, what has you lived on?  But you got a gun.  Oh, yes, you got +a gun.  Dat's good.  Now you kill sumfn en I'll make up de fire." + +So 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. I catched a good big catfish, too, and Jim cleaned him +with his knife, and fried him. + +When breakfast was ready we lolled on the grass and eat it smoking hot. +Jim laid it in with all his might, for he was most about starved.  Then +when we had got pretty well stuffed, we laid off and lazied.  By and by +Jim says: + +"But looky here, Huck, who wuz it dat 'uz killed in dat shanty ef it +warn't you?" + +Then I told him the whole thing, and he said it was smart.  He said Tom +Sawyer couldn't get up no better plan than what I had.  Then I says: + +"How do you come to be here, Jim, and how'd you get here?" + +He looked pretty uneasy, and didn't say nothing for a minute.  Then he +says: + +"Maybe I better not tell." + +"Why, Jim?" + +"Well, dey's reasons.  But you wouldn' tell on me ef I uz to tell you, +would you, Huck?" + +"Blamed if I would, Jim." + +"Well, I b'lieve you, Huck.  I—_I run off_." + +"Jim!" + +"But mind, you said you wouldn' tell—you know you said you wouldn' tell, +Huck." + +"Well, I did.  I said I wouldn't, and I'll stick to it.  Honest _injun_, +I will.  People would call me a low-down Abolitionist and despise me for +keeping mum—but that don't make no difference.  I ain't a-going to tell, +and I ain't a-going back there, anyways.  So, now, le's know all about +it." + +"Well, you see, it 'uz dis way.  Ole missus—dat's Miss Watson—she pecks +on me all de time, en treats me pooty rough, but she awluz said she +wouldn' sell me down to Orleans.  But I noticed dey wuz a nigger trader +roun' de place considable lately, en I begin to git oneasy.  Well, one +night I creeps to de do' pooty late, en de do' warn't quite shet, en I +hear old missus tell de widder she gwyne to sell me down to Orleans, but +she didn' want to, but she could git eight hund'd dollars for me, en it +'uz sich a big stack o' money she couldn' resis'.  De widder she try to +git her to say she wouldn' do it, but I never waited to hear de res'.  I +lit out mighty quick, I tell you. + +"I tuck out en shin down de hill, en 'spec to steal a skift 'long de +sho' som'ers 'bove de town, but dey wuz people a-stirring yit, so I hid +in de ole tumble-down cooper-shop on de bank to wait for everybody to +go 'way. Well, I wuz dah all night.  Dey wuz somebody roun' all de time. + 'Long 'bout six in de mawnin' skifts begin to go by, en 'bout eight er +nine every skift dat went 'long wuz talkin' 'bout how yo' pap come over +to de town en say you's killed.  Dese las' skifts wuz full o' ladies en +genlmen a-goin' over for to see de place.  Sometimes dey'd pull up at +de sho' en take a res' b'fo' dey started acrost, so by de talk I got to +know all 'bout de killin'.  I 'uz powerful sorry you's killed, Huck, but +I ain't no mo' now. + +"I laid dah under de shavin's all day.  I 'uz hungry, but I warn't +afeard; bekase I knowed ole missus en de widder wuz goin' to start to +de camp-meet'n' right arter breakfas' en be gone all day, en dey knows +I goes off wid de cattle 'bout daylight, so dey wouldn' 'spec to see me +roun' de place, en so dey wouldn' miss me tell arter dark in de evenin'. +De yuther servants wouldn' miss me, kase dey'd shin out en take holiday +soon as de ole folks 'uz out'n de way. + +"Well, when it come dark I tuck out up de river road, en went 'bout two +mile er more to whah dey warn't no houses.  I'd made up my mine 'bout +what I's agwyne to do.  You see, ef I kep' on tryin' to git away afoot, +de dogs 'ud track me; ef I stole a skift to cross over, dey'd miss dat +skift, you see, en dey'd know 'bout whah I'd lan' on de yuther side, en +whah to pick up my track.  So I says, a raff is what I's arter; it doan' +_make_ no track. + +"I see a light a-comin' roun' de p'int bymeby, so I wade' in en shove' +a log ahead o' me en swum more'n half way acrost de river, en got in +'mongst de drift-wood, en kep' my head down low, en kinder swum agin de +current tell de raff come along.  Den I swum to de stern uv it en tuck +a-holt.  It clouded up en 'uz pooty dark for a little while.  So I clumb +up en laid down on de planks.  De men 'uz all 'way yonder in de middle, +whah de lantern wuz.  De river wuz a-risin', en dey wuz a good current; +so I reck'n'd 'at by fo' in de mawnin' I'd be twenty-five mile down de +river, en den I'd slip in jis b'fo' daylight en swim asho', en take to +de woods on de Illinois side. + +"But I didn' have no luck.  When we 'uz mos' down to de head er de +islan' a man begin to come aft wid de lantern, I see it warn't no use +fer to wait, so I slid overboard en struck out fer de islan'.  Well, I +had a notion I could lan' mos' anywhers, but I couldn't—bank too bluff. + I 'uz mos' to de foot er de islan' b'fo' I found' a good place.  I went +into de woods en jedged I wouldn' fool wid raffs no mo', long as dey +move de lantern roun' so.  I had my pipe en a plug er dog-leg, en some +matches in my cap, en dey warn't wet, so I 'uz all right." + +"And so you ain't had no meat nor bread to eat all this time?  Why +didn't you get mud-turkles?" + +"How you gwyne to git 'm?  You can't slip up on um en grab um; en how's +a body gwyne to hit um wid a rock?  How could a body do it in de night? + En I warn't gwyne to show mysef on de bank in de daytime." + +"Well, that's so.  You've had to keep in the woods all the time, of +course. Did you hear 'em shooting the cannon?" + +"Oh, yes.  I knowed dey was arter you.  I see um go by heah—watched um +thoo de bushes." + +Some young birds come along, flying a yard or two at a time and +lighting. Jim said it was a sign it was going to rain.  He said it was +a sign when young chickens flew that way, and so he reckoned it was the +same way when young birds done it.  I was going to catch some of them, +but Jim wouldn't let me.  He said it was death.  He said his father laid +mighty sick once, and some of them catched a bird, and his old granny +said his father would die, and he did. + +And Jim said you mustn't count the things you are going to cook for +dinner, because that would bring bad luck.  The same if you shook the +table-cloth after sundown.  And he said if a man owned a beehive +and that man died, the bees must be told about it before sun-up next +morning, or else the bees would all weaken down and quit work and die. + Jim said bees wouldn't sting idiots; but I didn't believe that, because +I had tried them lots of times myself, and they wouldn't sting me. + +I had heard about some of these things before, but not all of them.  Jim +knowed all kinds of signs.  He said he knowed most everything.  I said +it looked to me like all the signs was about bad luck, and so I asked +him if there warn't any good-luck signs.  He says: + +"Mighty few—an' _dey_ ain't no use to a body.  What you want to know +when good luck's a-comin' for?  Want to keep it off?"  And he said:  "Ef +you's got hairy arms en a hairy breas', it's a sign dat you's agwyne +to be rich. Well, dey's some use in a sign like dat, 'kase it's so fur +ahead. You see, maybe you's got to be po' a long time fust, en so you +might git discourage' en kill yo'sef 'f you didn' know by de sign dat +you gwyne to be rich bymeby." + +"Have you got hairy arms and a hairy breast, Jim?" + +"What's de use to ax dat question?  Don't you see I has?" + +"Well, are you rich?" + +"No, but I ben rich wunst, and gwyne to be rich agin.  Wunst I had +foteen dollars, but I tuck to specalat'n', en got busted out." + +"What did you speculate in, Jim?" + +"Well, fust I tackled stock." + +"What kind of stock?" + +"Why, live stock—cattle, you know.  I put ten dollars in a cow.  But +I ain' gwyne to resk no mo' money in stock.  De cow up 'n' died on my +han's." + +"So you lost the ten dollars." + +"No, I didn't lose it all.  I on'y los' 'bout nine of it.  I sole de +hide en taller for a dollar en ten cents." + +"You had five dollars and ten cents left.  Did you speculate any more?" + +"Yes.  You know that one-laigged nigger dat b'longs to old Misto +Bradish? Well, he sot up a bank, en say anybody dat put in a dollar +would git fo' dollars mo' at de en' er de year.  Well, all de niggers +went in, but dey didn't have much.  I wuz de on'y one dat had much.  So +I stuck out for mo' dan fo' dollars, en I said 'f I didn' git it I'd +start a bank mysef. Well, o' course dat nigger want' to keep me out er +de business, bekase he says dey warn't business 'nough for two banks, so +he say I could put in my five dollars en he pay me thirty-five at de en' +er de year. + +"So I done it.  Den I reck'n'd I'd inves' de thirty-five dollars right +off en keep things a-movin'.  Dey wuz a nigger name' Bob, dat had +ketched a wood-flat, en his marster didn' know it; en I bought it off'n +him en told him to take de thirty-five dollars when de en' er de +year come; but somebody stole de wood-flat dat night, en nex day de +one-laigged nigger say de bank's busted.  So dey didn' none uv us git no +money." + +"What did you do with the ten cents, Jim?" + +"Well, I 'uz gwyne to spen' it, but I had a dream, en de dream tole me +to give it to a nigger name' Balum—Balum's Ass dey call him for short; +he's one er dem chuckleheads, you know.  But he's lucky, dey say, en I +see I warn't lucky.  De dream say let Balum inves' de ten cents en he'd +make a raise for me.  Well, Balum he tuck de money, en when he wuz in +church he hear de preacher say dat whoever give to de po' len' to de +Lord, en boun' to git his money back a hund'd times.  So Balum he tuck +en give de ten cents to de po', en laid low to see what wuz gwyne to +come of it." + +"Well, what did come of it, Jim?" + +"Nuffn never come of it.  I couldn' manage to k'leck dat money no way; +en Balum he couldn'.  I ain' gwyne to len' no mo' money 'dout I see de +security.  Boun' to git yo' money back a hund'd times, de preacher says! +Ef I could git de ten _cents_ back, I'd call it squah, en be glad er de +chanst." + +"Well, it's all right anyway, Jim, long as you're going to be rich again +some time or other." + +"Yes; en I's rich now, come to look at it.  I owns mysef, en I's wuth +eight hund'd dollars.  I wisht I had de money, I wouldn' want no mo'." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +I wanted to go and look at a place right about the middle of the island +that I'd found when I was exploring; so we started and soon got to it, +because the island was only three miles long and a quarter of a mile +wide. + +This place was a tolerable long, steep hill or ridge about forty foot +high. We had a rough time getting to the top, the sides was so steep and +the bushes so thick.  We tramped and clumb around all over it, and by +and by found a good big cavern in the rock, most up to the top on the +side towards Illinois.  The cavern was as big as two or three rooms +bunched together, and Jim could stand up straight in it.  It was cool in +there. Jim was for putting our traps in there right away, but I said we +didn't want to be climbing up and down there all the time. + +Jim said if we had the canoe hid in a good place, and had all the traps +in the cavern, we could rush there if anybody was to come to the island, +and they would never find us without dogs.  And, besides, he said them +little birds had said it was going to rain, and did I want the things to +get wet? + +So we went back and got the canoe, and paddled up abreast the cavern, +and lugged all the traps up there.  Then we hunted up a place close by +to hide the canoe in, amongst the thick willows.  We took some fish off +of the lines and set them again, and begun to get ready for dinner. + +The door of the cavern was big enough to roll a hogshead in, and on one +side of the door the floor stuck out a little bit, and was flat and a +good place to build a fire on.  So we built it there and cooked dinner. + +We spread the blankets inside for a carpet, and eat our dinner in there. +We put all the other things handy at the back of the cavern.  Pretty +soon it darkened up, and begun to thunder and lighten; so the birds was +right about it.  Directly it begun to rain, and it rained like all fury, +too, and I never see the wind blow so.  It was one of these regular +summer storms.  It would get so dark that it looked all blue-black +outside, and lovely; and the rain would thrash along by so thick that +the trees off a little ways looked dim and spider-webby; and here would +come a blast of wind that would bend the trees down and turn up the +pale underside of the leaves; and then a perfect ripper of a gust would +follow along and set the branches to tossing their arms as if they +was just wild; and next, when it was just about the bluest and +blackest—_FST_! it was as bright as glory, and you'd have a little +glimpse of tree-tops a-plunging about away off yonder in the storm, +hundreds of yards further than you could see before; dark as sin again +in a second, and now you'd hear the thunder let go with an awful crash, +and then go rumbling, grumbling, tumbling, down the sky towards the +under side of the world, like rolling empty barrels down stairs—where +it's long stairs and they bounce a good deal, you know. + +"Jim, this is nice," I says.  "I wouldn't want to be nowhere else but +here. Pass me along another hunk of fish and some hot corn-bread." + +"Well, you wouldn't a ben here 'f it hadn't a ben for Jim.  You'd a ben +down dah in de woods widout any dinner, en gittn' mos' drownded, too; +dat you would, honey.  Chickens knows when it's gwyne to rain, en so do +de birds, chile." + +The river went on raising and raising for ten or twelve days, till at +last it was over the banks.  The water was three or four foot deep on +the island in the low places and on the Illinois bottom.  On that side +it was a good many miles wide, but on the Missouri side it was the same +old distance across—a half a mile—because the Missouri shore was just a +wall of high bluffs. + +Daytimes we paddled all over the island in the canoe, It was mighty cool +and shady in the deep woods, even if the sun was blazing outside.  We +went winding in and out amongst the trees, and sometimes the vines hung +so thick we had to back away and go some other way.  Well, on every old +broken-down tree you could see rabbits and snakes and such things; and +when the island had been overflowed a day or two they got so tame, on +account of being hungry, that you could paddle right up and put your +hand on them if you wanted to; but not the snakes and turtles—they would +slide off in the water.  The ridge our cavern was in was full of them. +We could a had pets enough if we'd wanted them. + +One night we catched a little section of a lumber raft—nice pine planks. +It was twelve foot wide and about fifteen or sixteen foot long, and +the top stood above water six or seven inches—a solid, level floor.  We +could see saw-logs go by in the daylight sometimes, but we let them go; +we didn't show ourselves in daylight. + +Another night when we was up at the head of the island, just before +daylight, here comes a frame-house down, on the west side.  She was +a two-story, and tilted over considerable.  We paddled out and got +aboard—clumb in at an upstairs window.  But it was too dark to see yet, +so we made the canoe fast and set in her to wait for daylight. + +The light begun to come before we got to the foot of the island.  Then +we looked in at the window.  We could make out a bed, and a table, and +two old chairs, and lots of things around about on the floor, and there +was clothes hanging against the wall.  There was something laying on the +floor in the far corner that looked like a man.  So Jim says: + +"Hello, you!" + +But it didn't budge.  So I hollered again, and then Jim says: + +"De man ain't asleep—he's dead.  You hold still—I'll go en see." + +He went, and bent down and looked, and says: + +"It's a dead man.  Yes, indeedy; naked, too.  He's ben shot in de back. +I reck'n he's ben dead two er three days.  Come in, Huck, but doan' look +at his face—it's too gashly." + +I didn't look at him at all.  Jim throwed some old rags over him, but +he needn't done it; I didn't want to see him.  There was heaps of old +greasy cards scattered around over the floor, and old whisky bottles, +and a couple of masks made out of black cloth; and all over the walls +was the ignorantest kind of words and pictures made with charcoal. + There was two old dirty calico dresses, and a sun-bonnet, and some +women's underclothes hanging against the wall, and some men's clothing, +too.  We put the lot into the canoe—it might come good.  There was a +boy's old speckled straw hat on the floor; I took that, too.  And there +was a bottle that had had milk in it, and it had a rag stopper for a +baby to suck.  We would a took the bottle, but it was broke.  There was +a seedy old chest, and an old hair trunk with the hinges broke.  They +stood open, but there warn't nothing left in them that was any account. + The way things was scattered about we reckoned the people left in a +hurry, and warn't fixed so as to carry off most of their stuff. + +We got an old tin lantern, and a butcher-knife without any handle, and +a bran-new Barlow knife worth two bits in any store, and a lot of tallow +candles, and a tin candlestick, and a gourd, and a tin cup, and a ratty +old bedquilt off the bed, and a reticule with needles and pins and +beeswax and buttons and thread and all such truck in it, and a hatchet +and some nails, and a fishline as thick as my little finger with some +monstrous hooks on it, and a roll of buckskin, and a leather dog-collar, +and a horseshoe, and some vials of medicine that didn't have no label +on them; and just as we was leaving I found a tolerable good curry-comb, +and Jim he found a ratty old fiddle-bow, and a wooden leg.  The straps +was broke off of it, but, barring that, it was a good enough leg, though +it was too long for me and not long enough for Jim, and we couldn't find +the other one, though we hunted all around. + +And so, take it all around, we made a good haul.  When we was ready to +shove off we was a quarter of a mile below the island, and it was pretty +broad day; so I made Jim lay down in the canoe and cover up with the +quilt, because if he set up people could tell he was a nigger a good +ways off.  I paddled over to the Illinois shore, and drifted down most +a half a mile doing it.  I crept up the dead water under the bank, and +hadn't no accidents and didn't see nobody.  We got home all safe. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +AFTER breakfast I wanted to talk about the dead man and guess out how he +come to be killed, but Jim didn't want to.  He said it would fetch bad +luck; and besides, he said, he might come and ha'nt us; he said a man +that warn't buried was more likely to go a-ha'nting around than one +that was planted and comfortable.  That sounded pretty reasonable, so +I didn't say no more; but I couldn't keep from studying over it and +wishing I knowed who shot the man, and what they done it for. + +We rummaged the clothes we'd got, and found eight dollars in silver +sewed up in the lining of an old blanket overcoat.  Jim said he reckoned +the people in that house stole the coat, because if they'd a knowed the +money was there they wouldn't a left it.  I said I reckoned they killed +him, too; but Jim didn't want to talk about that.  I says: + +"Now you think it's bad luck; but what did you say when I fetched in the +snake-skin that I found on the top of the ridge day before yesterday? +You said it was the worst bad luck in the world to touch a snake-skin +with my hands.  Well, here's your bad luck!  We've raked in all this +truck and eight dollars besides.  I wish we could have some bad luck +like this every day, Jim." + +"Never you mind, honey, never you mind.  Don't you git too peart.  It's +a-comin'.  Mind I tell you, it's a-comin'." + +It did come, too.  It was a Tuesday that we had that talk.  Well, after +dinner Friday we was laying around in the grass at the upper end of the +ridge, and got out of tobacco.  I went to the cavern to get some, and +found a rattlesnake in there.  I killed him, and curled him up on the +foot of Jim's blanket, ever so natural, thinking there'd be some fun +when Jim found him there.  Well, by night I forgot all about the snake, +and when Jim flung himself down on the blanket while I struck a light +the snake's mate was there, and bit him. + +He jumped up yelling, and the first thing the light showed was the +varmint curled up and ready for another spring.  I laid him out in a +second with a stick, and Jim grabbed pap's whisky-jug and begun to pour +it down. + +He was barefooted, and the snake bit him right on the heel.  That all +comes of my being such a fool as to not remember that wherever you leave +a dead snake its mate always comes there and curls around it.  Jim told +me to chop off the snake's head and throw it away, and then skin the +body and roast a piece of it.  I done it, and he eat it and said it +would help cure him. He made me take off the rattles and tie them around +his wrist, too.  He said that that would help.  Then I slid out quiet +and throwed the snakes clear away amongst the bushes; for I warn't going +to let Jim find out it was all my fault, not if I could help it. + +Jim sucked and sucked at the jug, and now and then he got out of his +head and pitched around and yelled; but every time he come to himself he +went to sucking at the jug again.  His foot swelled up pretty big, and +so did his leg; but by and by the drunk begun to come, and so I judged +he was all right; but I'd druther been bit with a snake than pap's +whisky. + +Jim was laid up for four days and nights.  Then the swelling was all +gone and he was around again.  I made up my mind I wouldn't ever take +a-holt of a snake-skin again with my hands, now that I see what had come +of it. Jim said he reckoned I would believe him next time.  And he said +that handling a snake-skin was such awful bad luck that maybe we hadn't +got to the end of it yet.  He said he druther see the new moon over his +left shoulder as much as a thousand times than take up a snake-skin +in his hand.  Well, I was getting to feel that way myself, though I've +always reckoned that looking at the new moon over your left shoulder is +one of the carelessest and foolishest things a body can do.  Old Hank +Bunker done it once, and bragged about it; and in less than two years he +got drunk and fell off of the shot-tower, and spread himself out so +that he was just a kind of a layer, as you may say; and they slid him +edgeways between two barn doors for a coffin, and buried him so, so +they say, but I didn't see it.  Pap told me.  But anyway it all come of +looking at the moon that way, like a fool. + +Well, the days went along, and the river went down between its banks +again; and about the first thing we done was to bait one of the big +hooks with a skinned rabbit and set it and catch a catfish that was +as big as a man, being six foot two inches long, and weighed over two +hundred pounds. We couldn't handle him, of course; he would a flung us +into Illinois.  We just set there and watched him rip and tear around +till he drownded.  We found a brass button in his stomach and a round +ball, and lots of rubbage.  We split the ball open with the hatchet, +and there was a spool in it.  Jim said he'd had it there a long time, to +coat it over so and make a ball of it.  It was as big a fish as was ever +catched in the Mississippi, I reckon.  Jim said he hadn't ever seen +a bigger one.  He would a been worth a good deal over at the village. + They peddle out such a fish as that by the pound in the market-house +there; everybody buys some of him; his meat's as white as snow and makes +a good fry. + +Next morning I said it was getting slow and dull, and I wanted to get a +stirring up some way.  I said I reckoned I would slip over the river and +find out what was going on.  Jim liked that notion; but he said I +must go in the dark and look sharp.  Then he studied it over and said, +couldn't I put on some of them old things and dress up like a girl? + That was a good notion, too.  So we shortened up one of the calico +gowns, and I turned up my trouser-legs to my knees and got into it.  Jim +hitched it behind with the hooks, and it was a fair fit.  I put on the +sun-bonnet and tied it under my chin, and then for a body to look in +and see my face was like looking down a joint of stove-pipe.  Jim said +nobody would know me, even in the daytime, hardly.  I practiced around +all day to get the hang of the things, and by and by I could do pretty +well in them, only Jim said I didn't walk like a girl; and he said +I must quit pulling up my gown to get at my britches-pocket.  I took +notice, and done better. + +I started up the Illinois shore in the canoe just after dark. + +I started across to the town from a little below the ferry-landing, and +the drift of the current fetched me in at the bottom of the town.  I +tied up and started along the bank.  There was a light burning in a +little shanty that hadn't been lived in for a long time, and I wondered +who had took up quarters there.  I slipped up and peeped in at the +window.  There was a woman about forty year old in there knitting by +a candle that was on a pine table.  I didn't know her face; she was a +stranger, for you couldn't start a face in that town that I didn't know. + Now this was lucky, because I was weakening; I was getting afraid I had +come; people might know my voice and find me out.  But if this woman had +been in such a little town two days she could tell me all I wanted to +know; so I knocked at the door, and made up my mind I wouldn't forget I +was a girl. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +"COME in," says the woman, and I did.  She says:  "Take a cheer." + +I done it.  She looked me all over with her little shiny eyes, and says: + +"What might your name be?" + +"Sarah Williams." + +"Where 'bouts do you live?  In this neighborhood?' + +"No'm.  In Hookerville, seven mile below.  I've walked all the way and +I'm all tired out." + +"Hungry, too, I reckon.  I'll find you something." + +"No'm, I ain't hungry.  I was so hungry I had to stop two miles below +here at a farm; so I ain't hungry no more.  It's what makes me so late. +My mother's down sick, and out of money and everything, and I come to +tell my uncle Abner Moore.  He lives at the upper end of the town, she +says.  I hain't ever been here before.  Do you know him?" + +"No; but I don't know everybody yet.  I haven't lived here quite two +weeks. It's a considerable ways to the upper end of the town.  You +better stay here all night.  Take off your bonnet." + +"No," I says; "I'll rest a while, I reckon, and go on.  I ain't afeared +of the dark." + +She said she wouldn't let me go by myself, but her husband would be in +by and by, maybe in a hour and a half, and she'd send him along with me. +Then she got to talking about her husband, and about her relations up +the river, and her relations down the river, and about how much better +off they used to was, and how they didn't know but they'd made a mistake +coming to our town, instead of letting well alone—and so on and so on, +till I was afeard I had made a mistake coming to her to find out what +was going on in the town; but by and by she dropped on to pap and the +murder, and then I was pretty willing to let her clatter right along. + 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 murdered.  I +says: + +"Who done it?  We've heard considerable about these goings on down in +Hookerville, but we don't know who 'twas that killed Huck Finn." + +"Well, I reckon there's a right smart chance of people _here_ that'd +like to know who killed him.  Some think old Finn done it himself." + +"No—is that so?" + +"Most everybody thought it at first.  He'll never know how nigh he come +to getting lynched.  But before night they changed around and judged it +was done by a runaway nigger named Jim." + +"Why _he_—" + +I stopped.  I reckoned I better keep still.  She run on, and never +noticed I had put in at all: + +"The nigger run off the very night Huck Finn was killed.  So there's a +reward out for him—three hundred dollars.  And there's a reward out for +old Finn, too—two hundred dollars.  You see, he come to town the +morning after the murder, and told about it, and was out with 'em on the +ferryboat hunt, and right away after he up and left.  Before night they +wanted to lynch him, but he was gone, you see.  Well, next day they +found out the nigger was gone; they found out he hadn't ben seen sence +ten o'clock the night the murder 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 boo-hooing to Judge Thatcher to get money to hunt for the +nigger all over Illinois with. The judge gave him some, and that evening +he got drunk, and was around till after midnight with a couple of mighty +hard-looking strangers, and then went off with them.  Well, he hain't +come back sence, and they ain't looking for him back till this thing +blows over a little, for people thinks now that he killed his boy and +fixed things so folks would think robbers done it, and then he'd get +Huck's money without having to bother a long time with a lawsuit. + People do say he warn't any too good to do it.  Oh, he's sly, I reckon. + If he don't come back for a year he'll be all right.  You can't prove +anything on him, you know; everything will be quieted down then, and +he'll walk in Huck's money as easy as nothing." + +"Yes, I reckon so, 'm.  I don't see nothing in the way of it.  Has +everybody quit thinking the nigger done it?" + +"Oh, no, not everybody.  A good many thinks he done it.  But they'll get +the nigger pretty soon now, and maybe they can scare it out of him." + +"Why, are they after him yet?" + +"Well, you're innocent, ain't you!  Does three hundred dollars lay +around every day for people to pick up?  Some folks think the nigger +ain't far from here.  I'm one of them—but I hain't talked it around.  A +few days ago I was talking with an old couple that lives next door in +the log shanty, and they happened to say hardly anybody ever goes to +that island over yonder that they call Jackson's Island.  Don't anybody +live there? says I. No, nobody, says they.  I didn't say any more, but +I done some thinking.  I was pretty near certain I'd 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 nigger's hiding over there; anyway, says +I, it's worth the trouble to give the place a hunt.  I hain't seen any +smoke sence, so I reckon maybe he's gone, if it was him; but husband's +going over to see—him and another man.  He was gone up the river; but he +got back to-day, and I told him as soon as he got here two hours ago." + +I had got so uneasy I couldn't 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 interested—and I was, too—and says: + +"Three hundred dollars is a power of money.  I wish my mother could get +it. Is your husband going over there to-night?" + +"Oh, 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.  They'll go over after +midnight." + +"Couldn't they see better if they was to wait till daytime?" + +"Yes.  And couldn't the nigger see better, too?  After midnight he'll +likely be asleep, and they can slip around through the woods and hunt up +his camp fire all the better for the dark, if he's got one." + +"I didn't think of that." + +The woman kept looking at me pretty curious, and I didn't feel a bit +comfortable.  Pretty soon she says, + +"What did you say your name was, honey?" + +"M—Mary Williams." + +Somehow it didn't seem to me that I said it was Mary before, so I didn't +look up—seemed 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: + +"Honey, I thought you said it was Sarah when you first come in?" + +"Oh, yes'm, I did.  Sarah Mary Williams.  Sarah's my first name.  Some +calls me Sarah, some calls me Mary." + +"Oh, that's the way of it?" + +"Yes'm." + +I was feeling better then, but I wished I was out of there, anyway.  I +couldn't 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. You'd 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 wouldn't 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 she'd wrenched her arm a day or two ago, and didn't +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 +"Ouch!" 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 didn't let on.  I got the thing, and the first rat that showed his +nose I let drive, and if he'd a stayed where he was he'd 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 husband's matters.  But she broke off +to say: + +"Keep your eye on the rats.  You better have the lead in your lap, +handy." + +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: + +"Come, now, what's your real name?" + +"Wh—what, mum?" + +"What's your real name?  Is it Bill, or Tom, or Bob?—or what is it?" + +I reckon I shook like a leaf, and I didn't know hardly what to do.  But +I says: + +"Please to don't poke fun at a poor girl like me, mum.  If I'm in the +way here, I'll—" + +"No, you won't.  Set down and stay where you are.  I ain't going to hurt +you, and I ain't going to tell on you, nuther.  You just tell me your +secret, and trust me.  I'll keep it; and, what's more, I'll help +you. So'll my old man if you want him to.  You see, you're a runaway +'prentice, that's all.  It ain't anything.  There ain't no harm in it. +You've been treated bad, and you made up your mind to cut.  Bless you, +child, I wouldn't tell on you.  Tell me all about it now, that's a good +boy." + +So I said it wouldn't be no use to try to play it any longer, and I +would just make a clean breast and tell her everything, but she musn't +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 couldn't 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 daughter's 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. + +"Goshen, child?  This ain't Goshen.  This is St. Petersburg.  Goshen's +ten mile further up the river.  Who told you this was Goshen?" + +"Why, 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." + +"He was drunk, I reckon.  He told you just exactly wrong." + +"Well, he did act like he was drunk, but it ain't no matter now.  I got +to be moving along.  I'll fetch Goshen before daylight." + +"Hold on a minute.  I'll put you up a snack to eat.  You might want it." + +So she put me up a snack, and says: + +"Say, when a cow's laying down, which end of her gets up first?  Answer +up prompt now—don't stop to study over it.  Which end gets up first?" + +"The hind end, mum." + +"Well, then, a horse?" + +"The for'rard end, mum." + +"Which side of a tree does the moss grow on?" + +"North side." + +"If fifteen cows is browsing on a hillside, how many of them eats with +their heads pointed the same direction?" + +"The whole fifteen, mum." + +"Well, I reckon you _have_ lived in the country.  I thought maybe you +was trying to hocus me again.  What's your real name, now?" + +"George Peters, mum." + +"Well, try to remember it, George.  Don't forget and tell me it's +Elexander before you go, and then get out by saying it's George +Elexander when I catch you.  And don't 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 don't hold the +thread still and fetch the needle up to it; hold the needle still and +poke the thread at it; that's the way a woman most always does, but a +man always does t'other 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 don't 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 I'll 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 road's a rocky one, +and your feet'll be in a condition when you get to Goshen, I reckon." + +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 didn't 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 clear—eleven.  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: + +"Git up and hump yourself, Jim!  There ain't a minute to lose.  They're +after us!" + +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 didn't 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 couldn't see it, for stars and shadows +ain't good to see by.  Then we got out the raft and slipped along down +in the shade, past the foot of the island dead still—never saying a +word. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +IT must a been close on to one o'clock when we got below the island at +last, and the raft did seem to go mighty slow.  If a boat was to come +along we was going to take to the canoe and break for the Illinois +shore; and it was well a boat didn't come, for we hadn't ever thought to +put the gun in the canoe, or a fishing-line, or anything to eat.  We +was in ruther too much of a sweat to think of so many things.  It warn't +good judgment to put _everything_ on the raft. + +If the men went to the island I just expect they found the camp fire I +built, and watched it all night for Jim to come.  Anyways, they stayed +away from us, and if my building the fire never fooled them it warn't no +fault of mine.  I played it as low down on them as I could. + +When the first streak of day began to show we tied up to a towhead in a +big bend on the Illinois side, and hacked off cottonwood branches with +the hatchet, and covered up the raft with them so she looked like there +had been a cave-in in the bank there.  A tow-head is a sandbar that has +cottonwoods on it as thick as harrow-teeth. + +We had mountains on the Missouri shore and heavy timber on the Illinois +side, and the channel was down the Missouri shore at that place, so we +warn't afraid of anybody running across us.  We laid there all day, +and watched the rafts and steamboats spin down the Missouri shore, and +up-bound steamboats fight the big river in the middle.  I told Jim all +about the time I had jabbering with that woman; and Jim said she was +a smart one, and if she was to start after us herself she wouldn't set +down and watch a camp fire—no, sir, she'd fetch a dog.  Well, then, I +said, why couldn't she tell her husband to fetch a dog?  Jim said he +bet she did think of it by the time the men was ready to start, and he +believed they must a gone up-town to get a dog and so they lost all that +time, or else we wouldn't be here on a towhead sixteen or seventeen mile +below the village—no, indeedy, we would be in that same old town again. + So I said I didn't care what was the reason they didn't get us as long +as they didn't. + +When it was beginning to come on dark we poked our heads out of the +cottonwood thicket, and looked up and down and across; nothing in sight; +so Jim took up some of the top planks of the raft and built a snug +wigwam to get under in blazing weather and rainy, and to keep the things +dry. Jim made a floor for the wigwam, and raised it a foot or more above +the level of the raft, so now the blankets and all the traps was out of +reach of steamboat waves.  Right in the middle of the wigwam we made a +layer of dirt about five or six inches deep with a frame around it for +to hold it to its place; this was to build a fire on in sloppy weather +or chilly; the wigwam would keep it from being seen.  We made an extra +steering-oar, too, because one of the others might get broke on a snag +or something. We fixed up a short forked stick to hang the old lantern +on, because we must always light the lantern whenever we see a steamboat +coming down-stream, to keep from getting run over; but we wouldn't have +to light it for up-stream boats unless we see we was in what they call +a "crossing"; for the river was pretty high yet, very low banks being +still a little under water; so up-bound boats didn't always run the +channel, but hunted easy water. + +This second night we run between seven and eight hours, with a current +that was making over four mile an hour.  We catched fish and talked, +and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness.  It was kind of +solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying on our backs looking +up at the stars, and we didn't ever feel like talking loud, and it +warn't often that we laughed—only a little kind of a low chuckle.  We +had mighty good weather as a general thing, and nothing ever happened to +us at all—that night, nor the next, nor the next. + +Every night we passed towns, some of them away up on black hillsides, +nothing but just a shiny bed of lights; not a house could you see.  The +fifth night we passed St. Louis, and it was like the whole world lit up. +In St. Petersburg they used to say there was twenty or thirty thousand +people in St. Louis, but I never believed it till I see that wonderful +spread of lights at two o'clock that still night.  There warn't a sound +there; everybody was asleep. + +Every night now I used to slip ashore towards ten o'clock at some little +village, and buy ten or fifteen cents' worth of meal or bacon or other +stuff to eat; and sometimes I lifted a chicken that warn't roosting +comfortable, and took him along.  Pap always said, take a chicken when +you get a chance, because if you don't want him yourself you can easy +find somebody that does, and a good deed ain't ever forgot.  I never see +pap when he didn't want the chicken himself, but that is what he used to +say, anyway. + +Mornings before daylight I slipped into cornfields and borrowed a +watermelon, or a mushmelon, or a punkin, or some new corn, or things of +that kind.  Pap always said it warn't no harm to borrow things if you +was meaning to pay them back some time; but the widow said it warn't +anything but a soft name for stealing, and no decent body would do it. + Jim said he reckoned the widow was partly right and pap was partly +right; so the best way would be for us to pick out two or three things +from the list and say we wouldn't borrow them any more—then he reckoned +it wouldn't be no harm to borrow the others.  So we talked it over all +one night, drifting along down the river, trying to make up our minds +whether to drop the watermelons, or the cantelopes, or the mushmelons, +or what.  But towards daylight we got it all settled satisfactory, and +concluded to drop crabapples and p'simmons.  We warn't feeling just +right before that, but it was all comfortable now.  I was glad the way +it come out, too, because crabapples ain't ever good, and the p'simmons +wouldn't be ripe for two or three months yet. + +We shot a water-fowl now and then that got up too early in the morning +or didn't go to bed early enough in the evening.  Take it all round, we +lived pretty high. + +The fifth night below St. Louis we had a big storm after midnight, with +a power of thunder and lightning, and the rain poured down in a solid +sheet. We stayed in the wigwam and let the raft take care of itself. +When the lightning glared out we could see a big straight river ahead, +and high, rocky bluffs on both sides.  By and by says I, "Hel-_lo_, Jim, +looky yonder!" It was a steamboat that had killed herself on a rock. + We was drifting straight down for her.  The lightning showed her very +distinct.  She was leaning over, with part of her upper deck above +water, and you could see every little chimbly-guy clean and clear, and a +chair by the big bell, with an old slouch hat hanging on the back of it, +when the flashes come. + +Well, it being away in the night and stormy, and all so mysterious-like, +I felt just the way any other boy would a felt when I see that wreck +laying there so mournful and lonesome in the middle of the river.  I +wanted to get aboard of her and slink around a little, and see what +there was there.  So I says: + +"Le's land on her, Jim." + +But Jim was dead against it at first.  He says: + +"I doan' want to go fool'n 'long er no wrack.  We's doin' blame' well, +en we better let blame' well alone, as de good book says.  Like as not +dey's a watchman on dat wrack." + +"Watchman your grandmother," I says; "there ain't nothing to watch but +the texas and the pilot-house; and do you reckon anybody's going to resk +his life for a texas and a pilot-house such a night as this, when +it's likely to break up and wash off down the river any minute?"  Jim +couldn't say nothing to that, so he didn't try.  "And besides," I says, +"we might borrow something worth having out of the captain's stateroom. + Seegars, I bet you—and cost five cents apiece, solid cash.  Steamboat +captains is always rich, and get sixty dollars a month, and _they_ don't +care a cent what a thing costs, you know, long as they want it.  Stick a +candle in your pocket; I can't rest, Jim, till we give her a rummaging. + Do you reckon Tom Sawyer would ever go by this thing?  Not for pie, he +wouldn't. He'd call it an adventure—that's what he'd call it; and he'd +land on that wreck if it was his last act.  And wouldn't he throw style +into it?—wouldn't he spread himself, nor nothing?  Why, you'd think it +was Christopher C'lumbus discovering Kingdom-Come.  I wish Tom Sawyer +_was_ here." + +Jim he grumbled a little, but give in.  He said we mustn't talk any more +than we could help, and then talk mighty low.  The lightning showed us +the wreck again just in time, and we fetched the stabboard derrick, and +made fast there. + +The deck was high out here.  We went sneaking down the slope of it to +labboard, in the dark, towards the texas, feeling our way slow with our +feet, and spreading our hands out to fend off the guys, for it was so +dark we couldn't see no sign of them.  Pretty soon we struck the forward +end of the skylight, and clumb on to it; and the next step fetched us in +front of the captain's door, which was open, and by Jimminy, away down +through the texas-hall we see a light! and all in the same second we +seem to hear low voices in yonder! + +Jim whispered and said he was feeling powerful sick, and told me to come +along.  I says, all right, and was going to start for the raft; but just +then I heard a voice wail out and say: + +"Oh, please don't, boys; I swear I won't ever tell!" + +Another voice said, pretty loud: + +"It's a lie, Jim Turner.  You've acted this way before.  You always want +more'n your share of the truck, and you've always got it, too, because +you've swore 't if you didn't you'd tell.  But this time you've said +it jest one time too many.  You're the meanest, treacherousest hound in +this country." + +By this time Jim was gone for the raft.  I was just a-biling with +curiosity; and I says to myself, Tom Sawyer wouldn't back out now, +and so I won't either; I'm a-going to see what's going on here.  So I +dropped on my hands and knees in the little passage, and crept aft +in the dark till there warn't but one stateroom betwixt me and the +cross-hall of the texas.  Then in there I see a man stretched on the +floor and tied hand and foot, and two men standing over him, and one +of them had a dim lantern in his hand, and the other one had a pistol. + This one kept pointing the pistol at the man's head on the floor, and +saying: + +"I'd _like_ to!  And I orter, too—a mean skunk!" + +The man on the floor would shrivel up and say, "Oh, please don't, Bill; +I hain't ever goin' to tell." + +And every time he said that the man with the lantern would laugh and +say: + +"'Deed you _ain't!_  You never said no truer thing 'n that, you bet +you." And once he said:  "Hear him beg! and yit if we hadn't got the +best of him and tied him he'd a killed us both.  And what _for_?  Jist +for noth'n. Jist because we stood on our _rights_—that's what for.  But +I lay you ain't a-goin' to threaten nobody any more, Jim Turner.  Put +_up_ that pistol, Bill." + +Bill says: + +"I don't want to, Jake Packard.  I'm for killin' him—and didn't he kill +old Hatfield jist the same way—and don't he deserve it?" + +"But I don't _want_ him killed, and I've got my reasons for it." + +"Bless yo' heart for them words, Jake Packard!  I'll never forgit you +long's I live!" says the man on the floor, sort of blubbering. + +Packard didn't take no notice of that, but hung up his lantern on a nail +and started towards where I was there in the dark, and motioned Bill +to come.  I crawfished as fast as I could about two yards, but the boat +slanted so that I couldn't make very good time; so to keep from getting +run over and catched I crawled into a stateroom on the upper side. + The man came a-pawing along in the dark, and when Packard got to my +stateroom, he says: + +"Here—come in here." + +And in he come, and Bill after him.  But before they got in I was up +in the upper berth, cornered, and sorry I come.  Then they stood there, +with their hands on the ledge of the berth, and talked.  I couldn't see +them, but I could tell where they was by the whisky they'd been having. + I was glad I didn't drink whisky; but it wouldn't made much difference +anyway, because most of the time they couldn't a treed me because I +didn't breathe.  I was too scared.  And, besides, a body _couldn't_ +breathe and hear such talk.  They talked low and earnest.  Bill wanted +to kill Turner.  He says: + +"He's said he'll tell, and he will.  If we was to give both our shares +to him _now_ it wouldn't make no difference after the row and the way +we've served him.  Shore's you're born, he'll turn State's evidence; now +you hear _me_.  I'm for putting him out of his troubles." + +"So'm I," says Packard, very quiet. + +"Blame it, I'd sorter begun to think you wasn't.  Well, then, that's all +right.  Le's go and do it." + +"Hold on a minute; I hain't had my say yit.  You listen to me. +Shooting's good, but there's quieter ways if the thing's _got_ to be +done. But what I say is this:  it ain't good sense to go court'n around +after a halter if you can git at what you're up to in some way that's +jist as good and at the same time don't bring you into no resks.  Ain't +that so?" + +"You bet it is.  But how you goin' to manage it this time?" + +"Well, my idea is this:  we'll rustle around and gather up whatever +pickins we've overlooked in the staterooms, and shove for shore and hide +the truck. Then we'll wait.  Now I say it ain't a-goin' to be more'n two +hours befo' this wrack breaks up and washes off down the river.  See? +He'll be drownded, and won't have nobody to blame for it but his own +self.  I reckon that's a considerble sight better 'n killin' of him. + I'm unfavorable to killin' a man as long as you can git aroun' it; it +ain't good sense, it ain't good morals.  Ain't I right?" + +"Yes, I reck'n you are.  But s'pose she _don't_ break up and wash off?" + +"Well, we can wait the two hours anyway and see, can't we?" + +"All right, then; come along." + +So they started, and I lit out, all in a cold sweat, and scrambled +forward. It was dark as pitch there; but I said, in a kind of a coarse +whisper, "Jim!" and he answered up, right at my elbow, with a sort of a +moan, and I says: + +"Quick, Jim, it ain't no time for fooling around and moaning; there's a +gang of murderers in yonder, and if we don't hunt up their boat and set +her drifting down the river so these fellows can't get away from the +wreck there's one of 'em going to be in a bad fix.  But if we find their +boat we can put _all_ of 'em in a bad fix—for the sheriff 'll get 'em. +Quick—hurry!  I'll hunt the labboard side, you hunt the stabboard. You +start at the raft, and—" + +"Oh, my lordy, lordy!  _raf'_?  Dey ain' no raf' no mo'; she done broke +loose en gone I—en here we is!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +WELL, I catched my breath and most fainted.  Shut up on a wreck with +such a gang as that!  But it warn't no time to be sentimentering.  We'd +_got_ to find that boat now—had to have it for ourselves.  So we went +a-quaking and shaking down the stabboard side, and slow work it was, +too—seemed a week before we got to the stern.  No sign of a boat.  Jim +said he didn't believe he could go any further—so scared he hadn't +hardly any strength left, he said.  But I said, come on, if we get left +on this wreck we are in a fix, sure.  So on we prowled again.  We struck +for the stern of the texas, and found it, and then scrabbled along +forwards on the skylight, hanging on from shutter to shutter, for the +edge of the skylight was in the water.  When we got pretty close to the +cross-hall door there was the skiff, sure enough!  I could just barely +see her.  I felt ever so thankful.  In another second I would a been +aboard of her, but just then the door opened.  One of the men stuck his +head out only about a couple of foot from me, and I thought I was gone; +but he jerked it in again, and says: + +"Heave that blame lantern out o' sight, Bill!" + +He flung a bag of something into the boat, and then got in himself and +set down.  It was Packard.  Then Bill _he_ come out and got in.  Packard +says, in a low voice: + +"All ready—shove off!" + +I couldn't hardly hang on to the shutters, I was so weak.  But Bill +says: + +"Hold on—'d you go through him?" + +"No.  Didn't you?" + +"No.  So he's got his share o' the cash yet." + +"Well, then, come along; no use to take truck and leave money." + +"Say, won't he suspicion what we're up to?" + +"Maybe he won't.  But we got to have it anyway. Come along." + +So they got out and went in. + +The door slammed to because it was on the careened side; and in a half +second I was in the boat, and Jim come tumbling after me.  I out with my +knife and cut the rope, and away we went! + +We didn't touch an oar, and we didn't speak nor whisper, nor hardly even +breathe.  We went gliding swift along, dead silent, past the tip of the +paddle-box, and past the stern; then in a second or two more we was a +hundred yards below the wreck, and the darkness soaked her up, every +last sign of her, and we was safe, and knowed it. + +When we was three or four hundred yards down-stream we see the lantern +show like a little spark at the texas door for a second, and we knowed +by that that the rascals had missed their boat, and was beginning to +understand that they was in just as much trouble now as Jim Turner was. + +Then Jim manned the oars, and we took out after our raft.  Now was the +first time that I begun to worry about the men—I reckon I hadn't +had time to before.  I begun to think how dreadful it was, even for +murderers, to be in such a fix.  I says to myself, there ain't no +telling but I might come to be a murderer myself yet, and then how would +I like it?  So says I to Jim: + +"The first light we see we'll land a hundred yards below it or above +it, in a place where it's a good hiding-place for you and the skiff, and +then I'll go and fix up some kind of a yarn, and get somebody to go for +that gang and get them out of their scrape, so they can be hung when +their time comes." + +But that idea was a failure; for pretty soon it begun to storm again, +and this time worse than ever.  The rain poured down, and never a light +showed; everybody in bed, I reckon.  We boomed along down the river, +watching for lights and watching for our raft.  After a long time the +rain let up, but the clouds stayed, and the lightning kept whimpering, +and by and by a flash showed us a black thing ahead, floating, and we +made for it. + +It was the raft, and mighty glad was we to get aboard of it again.  We +seen a light now away down to the right, on shore.  So I said I would +go for it. The skiff was half full of plunder which that gang had stole +there on the wreck.  We hustled it on to the raft in a pile, and I told +Jim to float along down, and show a light when he judged he had gone +about two mile, and keep it burning till I come; then I manned my oars +and shoved for the light.  As I got down towards it three or four more +showed—up on a hillside.  It was a village.  I closed in above the shore +light, and laid on my oars and floated.  As I went by I see it was a +lantern hanging on the jackstaff of a double-hull ferryboat.  I skimmed +around for the watchman, a-wondering whereabouts he slept; and by and +by I found him roosting on the bitts forward, with his head down between +his knees.  I gave his shoulder two or three little shoves, and begun to +cry. + +He stirred up in a kind of a startlish way; but when he see it was only +me he took a good gap and stretch, and then he says: + +"Hello, what's up?  Don't cry, bub.  What's the trouble?" + +I says: + +"Pap, and mam, and sis, and—" + +Then I broke down.  He says: + +"Oh, dang it now, _don't_ take on so; we all has to have our troubles, +and this 'n 'll come out all right.  What's the matter with 'em?" + +"They're—they're—are you the watchman of the boat?" + +"Yes," he says, kind of pretty-well-satisfied like.  "I'm the captain +and the owner and the mate and the pilot and watchman and head +deck-hand; and sometimes I'm the freight and passengers.  I ain't as +rich as old Jim Hornback, and I can't be so blame' generous and good +to Tom, Dick, and Harry as what he is, and slam around money the way he +does; but I've told him a many a time 't I wouldn't trade places with +him; for, says I, a sailor's life's the life for me, and I'm derned if +_I'd_ live two mile out o' town, where there ain't nothing ever goin' +on, not for all his spondulicks and as much more on top of it.  Says I—" + +I broke in and says: + +"They're in an awful peck of trouble, and—" + +"_Who_ is?" + +"Why, pap and mam and sis and Miss Hooker; and if you'd take your +ferryboat and go up there—" + +"Up where?  Where are they?" + +"On the wreck." + +"What wreck?" + +"Why, there ain't but one." + +"What, you don't mean the Walter Scott?" + +"Yes." + +"Good land! what are they doin' _there_, for gracious sakes?" + +"Well, they didn't go there a-purpose." + +"I bet they didn't!  Why, great goodness, there ain't no chance for 'em +if they don't git off mighty quick!  Why, how in the nation did they +ever git into such a scrape?" + +"Easy enough.  Miss Hooker was a-visiting up there to the town—" + +"Yes, Booth's Landing—go on." + +"She was a-visiting there at Booth's Landing, and just in the edge of +the evening she started over with her nigger woman in the horse-ferry +to stay all night at her friend's house, Miss What-you-may-call-her I +disremember her name—and they lost their steering-oar, and swung +around and went a-floating down, stern first, about two mile, and +saddle-baggsed on the wreck, and the ferryman and the nigger woman and +the horses was all lost, but Miss Hooker she made a grab and got aboard +the wreck.  Well, about an hour after dark we come along down in our +trading-scow, and it was so dark we didn't notice the wreck till we was +right on it; and so _we_ saddle-baggsed; but all of us was saved but +Bill Whipple—and oh, he _was_ the best cretur!—I most wish 't it had +been me, I do." + +"My George!  It's the beatenest thing I ever struck.  And _then_ what +did you all do?" + +"Well, we hollered and took on, but it's so wide there we couldn't +make nobody hear.  So pap said somebody got to get ashore and get help +somehow. I was the only one that could swim, so I made a dash for it, +and Miss Hooker she said if I didn't strike help sooner, come here and +hunt up her uncle, and he'd fix the thing.  I made the land about a mile +below, and been fooling along ever since, trying to get people to do +something, but they said, 'What, in such a night and such a current? +There ain't no sense in it; go for the steam ferry.'  Now if you'll go +and—" + +"By Jackson, I'd _like_ to, and, blame it, I don't know but I will; but +who in the dingnation's a-going' to _pay_ for it?  Do you reckon your +pap—" + +"Why _that's_ all right.  Miss Hooker she tole me, _particular_, that +her uncle Hornback—" + +"Great guns! is _he_ her uncle?  Looky here, you break for that light +over yonder-way, and turn out west when you git there, and about a +quarter of a mile out you'll come to the tavern; tell 'em to dart you +out to Jim Hornback's, and he'll foot the bill.  And don't you fool +around any, because he'll want to know the news.  Tell him I'll have +his niece all safe before he can get to town.  Hump yourself, now; I'm +a-going up around the corner here to roust out my engineer." + +I struck for the light, but as soon as he turned the corner I went back +and got into my skiff and bailed her out, and then pulled up shore in +the easy water about six hundred yards, and tucked myself in among +some woodboats; for I couldn't rest easy till I could see the ferryboat +start. But take it all around, I was feeling ruther comfortable on +accounts of taking all this trouble for that gang, for not many would +a done it.  I wished the widow knowed about it.  I judged she would be +proud of me for helping these rapscallions, because rapscallions and +dead beats is the kind the widow and good people takes the most interest +in. + +Well, before long here comes the wreck, dim and dusky, sliding along +down! A kind of cold shiver went through me, and then I struck out for +her.  She was very deep, and I see in a minute there warn't much chance +for anybody being alive in her.  I pulled all around her and hollered +a little, but there wasn't any answer; all dead still.  I felt a little +bit heavy-hearted about the gang, but not much, for I reckoned if they +could stand it I could. + +Then here comes the ferryboat; so I shoved for the middle of the river +on a long down-stream slant; and when I judged I was out of eye-reach +I laid on my oars, and looked back and see her go and smell around the +wreck for Miss Hooker's remainders, because the captain would know her +uncle Hornback would want them; and then pretty soon the ferryboat give +it up and went for the shore, and I laid into my work and went a-booming +down the river. + +It did seem a powerful long time before Jim's light showed up; and when +it did show it looked like it was a thousand mile off.  By the time I +got there the sky was beginning to get a little gray in the east; so we +struck for an island, and hid the raft, and sunk the skiff, and turned +in and slept like dead people. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +BY and by, when we got up, we turned over the truck the gang had stole +off of the wreck, and found boots, and blankets, and clothes, and all +sorts of other things, and a lot of books, and a spyglass, and three +boxes of seegars.  We hadn't ever been this rich before in neither of +our lives.  The seegars was prime.  We laid off all the afternoon in the +woods talking, and me reading the books, and having a general good +time. I told Jim all about what happened inside the wreck and at the +ferryboat, and I said these kinds of things was adventures; but he said +he didn't want no more adventures.  He said that when I went in the +texas and he crawled back to get on the raft and found her gone he +nearly died, because he judged it was all up with _him_ anyway it could +be fixed; for if he didn't get saved he would get drownded; and if he +did get saved, whoever saved him would send him back home so as to get +the reward, and then Miss Watson would sell him South, sure.  Well, he +was right; he was most always right; he had an uncommon level head for a +nigger. + +I read considerable to Jim about kings and dukes and earls and such, and +how gaudy they dressed, and how much style they put on, and called each +other your majesty, and your grace, and your lordship, and so on, 'stead +of mister; and Jim's eyes bugged out, and he was interested.  He says: + +"I didn' know dey was so many un um.  I hain't hearn 'bout none un um, +skasely, but ole King Sollermun, onless you counts dem kings dat's in a +pack er k'yards.  How much do a king git?" + +"Get?"  I says; "why, they get a thousand dollars a month if they want +it; they can have just as much as they want; everything belongs to +them." + +"_Ain'_ dat gay?  En what dey got to do, Huck?" + +"_They_ don't do nothing!  Why, how you talk! They just set around." + +"No; is dat so?" + +"Of course it is.  They just set around—except, maybe, when there's a +war; then they go to the war.  But other times they just lazy around; or +go hawking—just hawking and sp—Sh!—d' you hear a noise?" + +We skipped out and looked; but it warn't nothing but the flutter of a +steamboat's wheel away down, coming around the point; so we come back. + +"Yes," says I, "and other times, when things is dull, they fuss with the +parlyment; and if everybody don't go just so he whacks their heads off. +But mostly they hang round the harem." + +"Roun' de which?" + +"Harem." + +"What's de harem?" + +"The place where he keeps his wives.  Don't you know about the harem? +Solomon had one; he had about a million wives." + +"Why, yes, dat's so; I—I'd done forgot it.  A harem's a bo'd'n-house, I +reck'n.  Mos' likely dey has rackety times in de nussery.  En I reck'n +de wives quarrels considable; en dat 'crease de racket.  Yit dey say +Sollermun de wises' man dat ever live'.  I doan' take no stock in +dat. Bekase why: would a wise man want to live in de mids' er sich a +blim-blammin' all de time?  No—'deed he wouldn't.  A wise man 'ud take +en buil' a biler-factry; en den he could shet _down_ de biler-factry +when he want to res'." + +"Well, but he _was_ the wisest man, anyway; because the widow she told +me so, her own self." + +"I doan k'yer what de widder say, he _warn't_ no wise man nuther.  He +had some er de dad-fetchedes' ways I ever see.  Does you know 'bout dat +chile dat he 'uz gwyne to chop in two?" + +"Yes, the widow told me all about it." + +"_Well_, den!  Warn' dat de beatenes' notion in de worl'?  You jes' +take en look at it a minute.  Dah's de stump, dah—dat's one er de women; +heah's you—dat's de yuther one; I's Sollermun; en dish yer dollar bill's +de chile.  Bofe un you claims it.  What does I do?  Does I shin aroun' +mongs' de neighbors en fine out which un you de bill _do_ b'long to, en +han' it over to de right one, all safe en soun', de way dat anybody dat +had any gumption would?  No; I take en whack de bill in _two_, en give +half un it to you, en de yuther half to de yuther woman.  Dat's de way +Sollermun was gwyne to do wid de chile.  Now I want to ast you:  what's +de use er dat half a bill?—can't buy noth'n wid it.  En what use is a +half a chile?  I wouldn' give a dern for a million un um." + +"But hang it, Jim, you've clean missed the point—blame it, you've missed +it a thousand mile." + +"Who?  Me?  Go 'long.  Doan' talk to me 'bout yo' pints.  I reck'n I +knows sense when I sees it; en dey ain' no sense in sich doin's as +dat. De 'spute warn't 'bout a half a chile, de 'spute was 'bout a whole +chile; en de man dat think he kin settle a 'spute 'bout a whole chile +wid a half a chile doan' know enough to come in out'n de rain.  Doan' +talk to me 'bout Sollermun, Huck, I knows him by de back." + +"But I tell you you don't get the point." + +"Blame de point!  I reck'n I knows what I knows.  En mine you, de _real_ +pint is down furder—it's down deeper.  It lays in de way Sollermun was +raised.  You take a man dat's got on'y one or two chillen; is dat man +gwyne to be waseful o' chillen?  No, he ain't; he can't 'ford it.  _He_ +know how to value 'em.  But you take a man dat's got 'bout five million +chillen runnin' roun' de house, en it's diffunt.  _He_ as soon chop a +chile in two as a cat. Dey's plenty mo'.  A chile er two, mo' er less, +warn't no consekens to Sollermun, dad fatch him!" + +I never see such a nigger.  If he got a notion in his head once, there +warn't no getting it out again.  He was the most down on Solomon of +any nigger I ever see.  So I went to talking about other kings, and let +Solomon slide.  I told about Louis Sixteenth that got his head cut off +in France long time ago; and about his little boy the dolphin, that +would a been a king, but they took and shut him up in jail, and some say +he died there. + +"Po' little chap." + +"But some says he got out and got away, and come to America." + +"Dat's good!  But he'll be pooty lonesome—dey ain' no kings here, is +dey, Huck?" + +"No." + +"Den he cain't git no situation.  What he gwyne to do?" + +"Well, I don't know.  Some of them gets on the police, and some of them +learns people how to talk French." + +"Why, Huck, doan' de French people talk de same way we does?" + +"_No_, Jim; you couldn't understand a word they said—not a single word." + +"Well, now, I be ding-busted!  How do dat come?" + +"I don't know; but it's so.  I got some of their jabber out of a book. +S'pose a man was to come to you and say Polly-voo-franzy—what would you +think?" + +"I wouldn' think nuff'n; I'd take en bust him over de head—dat is, if he +warn't white.  I wouldn't 'low no nigger to call me dat." + +"Shucks, it ain't calling you anything.  It's only saying, do you know +how to talk French?" + +"Well, den, why couldn't he _say_ it?" + +"Why, he _is_ a-saying it.  That's a Frenchman's _way_ of saying it." + +"Well, it's a blame ridicklous way, en I doan' want to hear no mo' 'bout +it.  Dey ain' no sense in it." + +"Looky here, Jim; does a cat talk like we do?" + +"No, a cat don't." + +"Well, does a cow?" + +"No, a cow don't, nuther." + +"Does a cat talk like a cow, or a cow talk like a cat?" + +"No, dey don't." + +"It's natural and right for 'em to talk different from each other, ain't +it?" + +"Course." + +"And ain't it natural and right for a cat and a cow to talk different +from _us_?" + +"Why, mos' sholy it is." + +"Well, then, why ain't it natural and right for a _Frenchman_ to talk +different from us?  You answer me that." + +"Is a cat a man, Huck?" + +"No." + +"Well, den, dey ain't no sense in a cat talkin' like a man.  Is a cow a +man?—er is a cow a cat?" + +"No, she ain't either of them." + +"Well, den, she ain't got no business to talk like either one er the +yuther of 'em.  Is a Frenchman a man?" + +"Yes." + +"_Well_, den!  Dad blame it, why doan' he _talk_ like a man?  You answer +me _dat_!" + +I see it warn't no use wasting words—you can't learn a nigger to argue. +So I quit. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +WE judged that three nights more would fetch us to Cairo, at the bottom +of Illinois, where the Ohio River comes in, and that was what we was +after.  We would sell the raft and get on a steamboat and go way up the +Ohio amongst the free States, and then be out of trouble. + +Well, the second night a fog begun to come on, and we made for a towhead +to tie to, for it wouldn't do to try to run in a fog; but when I paddled +ahead in the canoe, with the line to make fast, there warn't anything +but little saplings to tie to.  I passed the line around one of them +right on the edge of the cut bank, but there was a stiff current, and +the raft come booming down so lively she tore it out by the roots and +away she went.  I see the fog closing down, and it made me so sick and +scared I couldn't budge for most a half a minute it seemed to me—and +then there warn't no raft in sight; you couldn't see twenty yards.  I +jumped into the canoe and run back to the stern, and grabbed the paddle +and set her back a stroke.  But she didn't come.  I was in such a hurry +I hadn't untied her.  I got up and tried to untie her, but I was so +excited my hands shook so I couldn't hardly do anything with them. + +As soon as I got started I took out after the raft, hot and heavy, right +down the towhead.  That was all right as far as it went, but the towhead +warn't sixty yards long, and the minute I flew by the foot of it I shot +out into the solid white fog, and hadn't no more idea which way I was +going than a dead man. + +Thinks I, it won't do to paddle; first I know I'll run into the bank +or a towhead or something; I got to set still and float, and yet it's +mighty fidgety business to have to hold your hands still at such a time. + I whooped and listened.  Away down there somewheres I hears a small +whoop, and up comes my spirits.  I went tearing after it, listening +sharp to hear it again.  The next time it come I see I warn't heading +for it, but heading away to the right of it.  And the next time I was +heading away to the left of it—and not gaining on it much either, for +I was flying around, this way and that and t'other, but it was going +straight ahead all the time. + +I did wish the fool would think to beat a tin pan, and beat it all the +time, but he never did, and it was the still places between the whoops +that was making the trouble for me.  Well, I fought along, and directly +I hears the whoop _behind_ me.  I was tangled good now.  That was +somebody else's whoop, or else I was turned around. + +I throwed the paddle down.  I heard the whoop again; it was behind me +yet, but in a different place; it kept coming, and kept changing its +place, and I kept answering, till by and by it was in front of me again, +and I knowed the current had swung the canoe's head down-stream, and I +was all right if that was Jim and not some other raftsman hollering. + I couldn't tell nothing about voices in a fog, for nothing don't look +natural nor sound natural in a fog. + +The whooping went on, and in about a minute I come a-booming down on a +cut bank with smoky ghosts of big trees on it, and the current throwed +me off to the left and shot by, amongst a lot of snags that fairly +roared, the currrent was tearing by them so swift. + +In another second or two it was solid white and still again.  I set +perfectly still then, listening to my heart thump, and I reckon I didn't +draw a breath while it thumped a hundred. + +I just give up then.  I knowed what the matter was.  That cut bank +was an island, and Jim had gone down t'other side of it.  It warn't no +towhead that you could float by in ten minutes.  It had the big timber +of a regular island; it might be five or six miles long and more than +half a mile wide. + +I kept quiet, with my ears cocked, about fifteen minutes, I reckon.  I +was floating along, of course, four or five miles an hour; but you don't +ever think of that.  No, you _feel_ like you are laying dead still on +the water; and if a little glimpse of a snag slips by you don't think to +yourself how fast _you're_ going, but you catch your breath and think, +my! how that snag's tearing along.  If you think it ain't dismal and +lonesome out in a fog that way by yourself in the night, you try it +once—you'll see. + +Next, for about a half an hour, I whoops now and then; at last I hears +the answer a long ways off, and tries to follow it, but I couldn't do +it, and directly I judged I'd got into a nest of towheads, for I had +little dim glimpses of them on both sides of me—sometimes just a narrow +channel between, and some that I couldn't see I knowed was there because +I'd hear the wash of the current against the old dead brush and trash +that hung over the banks.  Well, I warn't long loosing the whoops down +amongst the towheads; and I only tried to chase them a little while, +anyway, because it was worse than chasing a Jack-o'-lantern.  You never +knowed a sound dodge around so, and swap places so quick and so much. + +I had to claw away from the bank pretty lively four or five times, to +keep from knocking the islands out of the river; and so I judged the +raft must be butting into the bank every now and then, or else it would +get further ahead and clear out of hearing—it was floating a little +faster than what I was. + +Well, I seemed to be in the open river again by and by, but I couldn't +hear no sign of a whoop nowheres.  I reckoned Jim had fetched up on a +snag, maybe, and it was all up with him.  I was good and tired, so I +laid down in the canoe and said I wouldn't bother no more.  I didn't +want to go to sleep, of course; but I was so sleepy I couldn't help it; +so I thought I would take jest one little cat-nap. + +But I reckon it was more than a cat-nap, for when I waked up the stars +was shining bright, the fog was all gone, and I was spinning down a +big bend stern first.  First I didn't know where I was; I thought I was +dreaming; and when things began to come back to me they seemed to come +up dim out of last week. + +It was a monstrous big river here, with the tallest and the thickest +kind of timber on both banks; just a solid wall, as well as I could see +by the stars.  I looked away down-stream, and seen a black speck on the +water. I took after it; but when I got to it it warn't nothing but a +couple of sawlogs made fast together.  Then I see another speck, and +chased that; then another, and this time I was right.  It was the raft. + +When I got to it Jim was setting there with his head down between his +knees, asleep, with his right arm hanging over the steering-oar.  The +other oar was smashed off, and the raft was littered up with leaves and +branches and dirt.  So she'd had a rough time. + +I made fast and laid down under Jim's nose on the raft, and began to +gap, and stretch my fists out against Jim, and says: + +"Hello, Jim, have I been asleep?  Why didn't you stir me up?" + +"Goodness gracious, is dat you, Huck?  En you ain' dead—you ain' +drownded—you's back agin?  It's too good for true, honey, it's too good +for true. Lemme look at you chile, lemme feel o' you.  No, you ain' +dead! you's back agin, 'live en soun', jis de same ole Huck—de same ole +Huck, thanks to goodness!" + +"What's the matter with you, Jim?  You been a-drinking?" + +"Drinkin'?  Has I ben a-drinkin'?  Has I had a chance to be a-drinkin'?" + +"Well, then, what makes you talk so wild?" + +"How does I talk wild?" + +"_How_?  Why, hain't you been talking about my coming back, and all that +stuff, as if I'd been gone away?" + +"Huck—Huck Finn, you look me in de eye; look me in de eye.  _Hain't_ you +ben gone away?" + +"Gone away?  Why, what in the nation do you mean?  I hain't been gone +anywheres.  Where would I go to?" + +"Well, looky here, boss, dey's sumf'n wrong, dey is.  Is I _me_, or who +_is_ I? Is I heah, or whah _is_ I?  Now dat's what I wants to know." + +"Well, I think you're here, plain enough, but I think you're a +tangle-headed old fool, Jim." + +"I is, is I?  Well, you answer me dis:  Didn't you tote out de line in +de canoe fer to make fas' to de tow-head?" + +"No, I didn't.  What tow-head?  I hain't see no tow-head." + +"You hain't seen no towhead?  Looky here, didn't de line pull loose en +de raf' go a-hummin' down de river, en leave you en de canoe behine in +de fog?" + +"What fog?" + +"Why, de fog!—de fog dat's been aroun' all night.  En didn't you whoop, +en didn't I whoop, tell we got mix' up in de islands en one un us got +los' en t'other one was jis' as good as los', 'kase he didn' know whah +he wuz? En didn't I bust up agin a lot er dem islands en have a turrible +time en mos' git drownded?  Now ain' dat so, boss—ain't it so?  You +answer me dat." + +"Well, this is too many for me, Jim.  I hain't seen no fog, nor no +islands, nor no troubles, nor nothing.  I been setting here talking with +you all night till you went to sleep about ten minutes ago, and I reckon +I done the same.  You couldn't a got drunk in that time, so of course +you've been dreaming." + +"Dad fetch it, how is I gwyne to dream all dat in ten minutes?" + +"Well, hang it all, you did dream it, because there didn't any of it +happen." + +"But, Huck, it's all jis' as plain to me as—" + +"It don't make no difference how plain it is; there ain't nothing in it. +I know, because I've been here all the time." + +Jim didn't say nothing for about five minutes, but set there studying +over it.  Then he says: + +"Well, den, I reck'n I did dream it, Huck; but dog my cats ef it ain't +de powerfullest dream I ever see.  En I hain't ever had no dream b'fo' +dat's tired me like dis one." + +"Oh, well, that's all right, because a dream does tire a body like +everything sometimes.  But this one was a staving dream; tell me all +about it, Jim." + +So Jim went to work and told me the whole thing right through, just as +it happened, only he painted it up considerable.  Then he said he must +start in and "'terpret" it, because it was sent for a warning.  He said +the first towhead stood for a man that would try to do us some good, but +the current was another man that would get us away from him.  The whoops +was warnings that would come to us every now and then, and if we didn't +try hard to make out to understand them they'd just take us into bad +luck, 'stead of keeping us out of it.  The lot of towheads was troubles +we was going to get into with quarrelsome people and all kinds of mean +folks, but if we minded our business and didn't talk back and aggravate +them, we would pull through and get out of the fog and into the big +clear river, which was the free States, and wouldn't have no more +trouble. + +It had clouded up pretty dark just after I got on to the raft, but it +was clearing up again now. + +"Oh, well, that's all interpreted well enough as far as it goes, Jim," I +says; "but what does _these_ things stand for?" + +It was the leaves and rubbish on the raft and the smashed oar.  You +could see them first-rate now. + +Jim looked at the trash, and then looked at me, and back at the trash +again.  He had got the dream fixed so strong in his head that he +couldn't seem to shake it loose and get the facts back into its place +again right away.  But when he did get the thing straightened around he +looked at me steady without ever smiling, and says: + +"What do dey stan' for?  I'se gwyne to tell you.  When I got all wore +out wid work, en wid de callin' for you, en went to sleep, my heart wuz +mos' broke bekase you wuz los', en I didn' k'yer no' mo' what become +er me en de raf'.  En when I wake up en fine you back agin, all safe +en soun', de tears come, en I could a got down on my knees en kiss yo' +foot, I's so thankful. En all you wuz thinkin' 'bout wuz how you could +make a fool uv ole Jim wid a lie.  Dat truck dah is _trash_; en trash +is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren's en makes 'em +ashamed." + +Then he got up slow and walked to the wigwam, and went in there without +saying anything but that.  But that was enough.  It made me feel so mean +I could almost kissed _his_ foot to get him to take it back. + +It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble +myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it +afterwards, neither.  I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I +wouldn't done that one if I'd a knowed it would make him feel that way. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +WE slept most all day, and started out at night, a little ways behind a +monstrous long raft that was as long going by as a procession.  She had +four long sweeps at each end, so we judged she carried as many as thirty +men, likely.  She had five big wigwams aboard, wide apart, and an open +camp fire in the middle, and a tall flag-pole at each end.  There was a +power of style about her.  It _amounted_ to something being a raftsman +on such a craft as that. + +We went drifting down into a big bend, and the night clouded up and got +hot.  The river was very wide, and was walled with solid timber on +both sides; you couldn't see a break in it hardly ever, or a light.  We +talked about Cairo, and wondered whether we would know it when we got to +it.  I said likely we wouldn't, because I had heard say there warn't but +about a dozen houses there, and if they didn't happen to have them lit +up, how was we going to know we was passing a town?  Jim said if the two +big rivers joined together there, that would show.  But I said maybe +we might think we was passing the foot of an island and coming into the +same old river again. That disturbed Jim—and me too.  So the question +was, what to do?  I said, paddle ashore the first time a light showed, +and tell them pap was behind, coming along with a trading-scow, and +was a green hand at the business, and wanted to know how far it was to +Cairo.  Jim thought it was a good idea, so we took a smoke on it and +waited. + +There warn't nothing to do now but to look out sharp for the town, and +not pass it without seeing it.  He said he'd be mighty sure to see it, +because he'd be a free man the minute he seen it, but if he missed it +he'd be in a slave country again and no more show for freedom.  Every +little while he jumps up and says: + +"Dah she is?" + +But it warn't.  It was Jack-o'-lanterns, or lightning bugs; so he set +down again, and went to watching, same as before.  Jim said it made him +all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom.  Well, I can +tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, +because I begun to get it through my head that he _was_ most free—and +who was to blame for it?  Why, _me_.  I couldn't get that out of my +conscience, no how nor no way. It got to troubling me so I couldn't +rest; I couldn't stay still in one place.  It hadn't ever come home to +me before, what this thing was that I was doing.  But now it did; and it +stayed with me, and scorched me more and more.  I tried to make out to +myself that I warn't to blame, because I didn't run Jim off from his +rightful owner; but it warn't no use, conscience up and says, every +time, "But you knowed he was running for his freedom, and you could a +paddled ashore and told somebody."  That was so—I couldn't get around +that noway.  That was where it pinched.  Conscience says to me, "What +had poor Miss Watson done to you that you could see her nigger go off +right under your eyes and never say one single word?  What did that poor +old woman do to you that you could treat her so mean?  Why, she tried to +learn you your book, she tried to learn you your manners, she tried to +be good to you every way she knowed how.  _That's_ what she done." + +I got to feeling so mean and so miserable I most wished I was dead.  I +fidgeted up and down the raft, abusing myself to myself, and Jim was +fidgeting up and down past me.  We neither of us could keep still. + Every time he danced around and says, "Dah's Cairo!" it went through me +like a shot, and I thought if it _was_ Cairo I reckoned I would die of +miserableness. + +Jim talked out loud all the time while I was talking to myself.  He was +saying how the first thing he would do when he got to a free State he +would go to saving up money and never spend a single cent, and when he +got enough he would buy his wife, which was owned on a farm close to +where Miss Watson lived; and then they would both work to buy the +two children, and if their master wouldn't sell them, they'd get an +Ab'litionist to go and steal them. + +It most froze me to hear such talk.  He wouldn't ever dared to talk such +talk in his life before.  Just see what a difference it made in him the +minute he judged he was about free.  It was according to the old saying, +"Give a nigger an inch and he'll take an ell."  Thinks I, this is what +comes of my not thinking.  Here was this nigger, which I had as good +as helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would +steal his children—children that belonged to a man I didn't even know; a +man that hadn't ever done me no harm. + +I was sorry to hear Jim say that, it was such a lowering of him.  My +conscience got to stirring me up hotter than ever, until at last I says +to it, "Let up on me—it ain't too late yet—I'll paddle ashore at the +first light and tell."  I felt easy and happy and light as a feather +right off.  All my troubles was gone.  I went to looking out sharp for a +light, and sort of singing to myself.  By and by one showed.  Jim sings +out: + +"We's safe, Huck, we's safe!  Jump up and crack yo' heels!  Dat's de +good ole Cairo at las', I jis knows it!" + +I says: + +"I'll take the canoe and go and see, Jim.  It mightn't be, you know." + +He jumped and got the canoe ready, and put his old coat in the bottom +for me to set on, and give me the paddle; and as I shoved off, he says: + +"Pooty soon I'll be a-shout'n' for joy, en I'll say, it's all on +accounts o' Huck; I's a free man, en I couldn't ever ben free ef it +hadn' ben for Huck; Huck done it.  Jim won't ever forgit you, Huck; +you's de bes' fren' Jim's ever had; en you's de _only_ fren' ole Jim's +got now." + +I was paddling off, all in a sweat to tell on him; but when he says +this, it seemed to kind of take the tuck all out of me.  I went along +slow then, and I warn't right down certain whether I was glad I started +or whether I warn't.  When I was fifty yards off, Jim says: + +"Dah you goes, de ole true Huck; de on'y white genlman dat ever kep' his +promise to ole Jim." + +Well, I just felt sick.  But I says, I _got_ to do it—I can't get _out_ +of it.  Right then along comes a skiff with two men in it with guns, and +they stopped and I stopped.  One of them says: + +"What's that yonder?" + +"A piece of a raft," I says. + +"Do you belong on it?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Any men on it?" + +"Only one, sir." + +"Well, there's five niggers run off to-night up yonder, above the head +of the bend.  Is your man white or black?" + +I didn't answer up prompt.  I tried to, but the words wouldn't come. I +tried for a second or two to brace up and out with it, but I warn't man +enough—hadn't the spunk of a rabbit.  I see I was weakening; so I just +give up trying, and up and says: + +"He's white." + +"I reckon we'll go and see for ourselves." + +"I wish you would," says I, "because it's pap that's there, and maybe +you'd help me tow the raft ashore where the light is.  He's sick—and so +is mam and Mary Ann." + +"Oh, the devil! we're in a hurry, boy.  But I s'pose we've got to. + Come, buckle to your paddle, and let's get along." + +I buckled to my paddle and they laid to their oars.  When we had made a +stroke or two, I says: + +"Pap'll be mighty much obleeged to you, I can tell you.  Everybody goes +away when I want them to help me tow the raft ashore, and I can't do it +by myself." + +"Well, that's infernal mean.  Odd, too.  Say, boy, what's the matter +with your father?" + +"It's the—a—the—well, it ain't anything much." + +They stopped pulling.  It warn't but a mighty little ways to the raft +now. One says: + +"Boy, that's a lie.  What _is_ the matter with your pap?  Answer up +square now, and it'll be the better for you." + +"I will, sir, I will, honest—but don't leave us, please.  It's +the—the—Gentlemen, if you'll only pull ahead, and let me heave you the +headline, you won't have to come a-near the raft—please do." + +"Set her back, John, set her back!" says one.  They backed water.  "Keep +away, boy—keep to looard.  Confound it, I just expect the wind has +blowed it to us.  Your pap's got the small-pox, and you know it precious +well.  Why didn't you come out and say so?  Do you want to spread it all +over?" + +"Well," says I, a-blubbering, "I've told everybody before, and they just +went away and left us." + +"Poor devil, there's something in that.  We are right down sorry for +you, but we—well, hang it, we don't want the small-pox, you see.  Look +here, I'll tell you what to do.  Don't you try to land by yourself, or +you'll smash everything to pieces.  You float along down about twenty +miles, and you'll come to a town on the left-hand side of the river.  It +will be long after sun-up then, and when you ask for help you tell them +your folks are all down with chills and fever.  Don't be a fool again, +and let people guess what is the matter.  Now we're trying to do you a +kindness; so you just put twenty miles between us, that's a good boy. + It wouldn't do any good to land yonder where the light is—it's only a +wood-yard. Say, I reckon your father's poor, and I'm bound to say he's +in pretty hard luck.  Here, I'll put a twenty-dollar gold piece on this +board, and you get it when it floats by.  I feel mighty mean to leave +you; but my kingdom! it won't do to fool with small-pox, don't you see?" + +"Hold on, Parker," says the other man, "here's a twenty to put on the +board for me.  Good-bye, boy; you do as Mr. Parker told you, and you'll +be all right." + +"That's so, my boy—good-bye, good-bye.  If you see any runaway niggers +you get help and nab them, and you can make some money by it." + +"Good-bye, sir," says I; "I won't let no runaway niggers get by me if I +can help it." + +They went off and I got aboard the raft, feeling bad and low, because I +knowed very well I had done wrong, and I see it warn't no use for me +to try to learn to do right; a body that don't get _started_ right when +he's little ain't got no show—when the pinch comes there ain't nothing +to back him up and keep him to his work, and so he gets beat.  Then I +thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on; s'pose you'd a done right +and give Jim up, would you felt better than what you do now?  No, says +I, I'd feel bad—I'd feel just the same way I do now.  Well, then, says +I, what's the use you learning to do right when it's troublesome to do +right and ain't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same? + I was stuck.  I couldn't answer that.  So I reckoned I wouldn't bother +no more about it, but after this always do whichever come handiest at +the time. + +I went into the wigwam; Jim warn't there.  I looked all around; he +warn't anywhere.  I says: + +"Jim!" + +"Here I is, Huck.  Is dey out o' sight yit?  Don't talk loud." + +He was in the river under the stern oar, with just his nose out.  I told +him they were out of sight, so he come aboard.  He says: + +"I was a-listenin' to all de talk, en I slips into de river en was gwyne +to shove for sho' if dey come aboard.  Den I was gwyne to swim to de +raf' agin when dey was gone.  But lawsy, how you did fool 'em, Huck! + Dat _wuz_ de smartes' dodge!  I tell you, chile, I'spec it save' ole +Jim—ole Jim ain't going to forgit you for dat, honey." + +Then we talked about the money.  It was a pretty good raise—twenty +dollars apiece.  Jim said we could take deck passage on a steamboat +now, and the money would last us as far as we wanted to go in the free +States. He said twenty mile more warn't far for the raft to go, but he +wished we was already there. + +Towards daybreak we tied up, and Jim was mighty particular about hiding +the raft good.  Then he worked all day fixing things in bundles, and +getting all ready to quit rafting. + +That night about ten we hove in sight of the lights of a town away down +in a left-hand bend. + +I went off in the canoe to ask about it.  Pretty soon I found a man out +in the river with a skiff, setting a trot-line.  I ranged up and says: + +"Mister, is that town Cairo?" + +"Cairo? no.  You must be a blame' fool." + +"What town is it, mister?" + +"If you want to know, go and find out.  If you stay here botherin' +around me for about a half a minute longer you'll get something you +won't want." + +I paddled to the raft.  Jim was awful disappointed, but I said never +mind, Cairo would be the next place, I reckoned. + +We passed another town before daylight, and I was going out again; but +it was high ground, so I didn't go.  No high ground about Cairo, Jim +said. I had forgot it.  We laid up for the day on a towhead tolerable +close to the left-hand bank.  I begun to suspicion something.  So did +Jim.  I says: + +"Maybe we went by Cairo in the fog that night." + +He says: + +"Doan' le's talk about it, Huck.  Po' niggers can't have no luck.  I +awluz 'spected dat rattlesnake-skin warn't done wid its work." + +"I wish I'd never seen that snake-skin, Jim—I do wish I'd never laid +eyes on it." + +"It ain't yo' fault, Huck; you didn' know.  Don't you blame yo'self +'bout it." + +When it was daylight, here was the clear Ohio water inshore, sure +enough, and outside was the old regular Muddy!  So it was all up with +Cairo. + +We talked it all over.  It wouldn't do to take to the shore; we couldn't +take the raft up the stream, of course.  There warn't no way but to wait +for dark, and start back in the canoe and take the chances.  So we slept +all day amongst the cottonwood thicket, so as to be fresh for the work, +and when we went back to the raft about dark the canoe was gone! + +We didn't say a word for a good while.  There warn't anything to +say.  We both knowed well enough it was some more work of the +rattlesnake-skin; so what was the use to talk about it?  It would only +look like we was finding fault, and that would be bound to fetch more +bad luck—and keep on fetching it, too, till we knowed enough to keep +still. + +By and by we talked about what we better do, and found there warn't no +way but just to go along down with the raft till we got a chance to buy +a canoe to go back in.  We warn't going to borrow it when there warn't +anybody around, the way pap would do, for that might set people after +us. + +So we shoved out after dark on the raft. + +Anybody that don't believe yet that it's foolishness to handle a +snake-skin, after all that that snake-skin done for us, will believe it +now if they read on and see what more it done for us. + +The place to buy canoes is off of rafts laying up at shore.  But we +didn't see no rafts laying up; so we went along during three hours and +more.  Well, the night got gray and ruther thick, which is the next +meanest thing to fog.  You can't tell the shape of the river, and you +can't see no distance. It got to be very late and still, and then along +comes a steamboat up the river.  We lit the lantern, and judged she +would see it.  Up-stream boats didn't generly come close to us; they +go out and follow the bars and hunt for easy water under the reefs; but +nights like this they bull right up the channel against the whole river. + +We could hear her pounding along, but we didn't see her good till she +was close.  She aimed right for us.  Often they do that and try to see +how close they can come without touching; sometimes the wheel bites off +a sweep, and then the pilot sticks his head out and laughs, and thinks +he's mighty smart.  Well, here she comes, and we said she was going to +try and shave us; but she didn't seem to be sheering off a bit.  She +was a big one, and she was coming in a hurry, too, looking like a black +cloud with rows of glow-worms around it; but all of a sudden she bulged +out, big and scary, with a long row of wide-open furnace doors shining +like red-hot teeth, and her monstrous bows and guards hanging right +over us.  There was a yell at us, and a jingling of bells to stop the +engines, a powwow of cussing, and whistling of steam—and as Jim went +overboard on one side and I on the other, she come smashing straight +through the raft. + +I dived—and I aimed to find the bottom, too, for a thirty-foot wheel +had got to go over me, and I wanted it to have plenty of room.  I could +always stay under water a minute; this time I reckon I stayed under a +minute and a half.  Then I bounced for the top in a hurry, for I was +nearly busting.  I popped out to my armpits and blowed the water out of +my nose, and puffed a bit.  Of course there was a booming current; and +of course that boat started her engines again ten seconds after she +stopped them, for they never cared much for raftsmen; so now she was +churning along up the river, out of sight in the thick weather, though I +could hear her. + +I sung out for Jim about a dozen times, but I didn't get any answer; +so I grabbed a plank that touched me while I was "treading water," and +struck out for shore, shoving it ahead of me.  But I made out to see +that the drift of the current was towards the left-hand shore, which +meant that I was in a crossing; so I changed off and went that way. + +It was one of these long, slanting, two-mile crossings; so I was a good +long time in getting over.  I made a safe landing, and clumb up the +bank. I couldn't see but a little ways, but I went poking along over +rough ground for a quarter of a mile or more, and then I run across a +big old-fashioned double log-house before I noticed it.  I was going to +rush by and get away, but a lot of dogs jumped out and went to howling +and barking at me, and I knowed better than to move another peg. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +IN about a minute somebody spoke out of a window without putting his +head out, and says: + +"Be done, boys!  Who's there?" + +I says: + +"It's me." + +"Who's me?" + +"George Jackson, sir." + +"What do you want?" + +"I don't want nothing, sir.  I only want to go along by, but the dogs +won't let me." + +"What are you prowling around here this time of night for—hey?" + +"I warn't prowling around, sir, I fell overboard off of the steamboat." + +"Oh, you did, did you?  Strike a light there, somebody.  What did you +say your name was?" + +"George Jackson, sir.  I'm only a boy." + +"Look here, if you're telling the truth you needn't be afraid—nobody'll +hurt you.  But don't try to budge; stand right where you are.  Rouse out +Bob and Tom, some of you, and fetch the guns.  George Jackson, is there +anybody with you?" + +"No, sir, nobody." + +I heard the people stirring around in the house now, and see a light. +The man sung out: + +"Snatch that light away, Betsy, you old fool—ain't you got any sense? +Put it on the floor behind the front door.  Bob, if you and Tom are +ready, take your places." + +"All ready." + +"Now, George Jackson, do you know the Shepherdsons?" + +"No, sir; I never heard of them." + +"Well, that may be so, and it mayn't.  Now, all ready.  Step forward, +George Jackson.  And mind, don't you hurry—come mighty slow.  If there's +anybody with you, let him keep back—if he shows himself he'll be shot. +Come along now.  Come slow; push the door open yourself—just enough to +squeeze in, d' you hear?" + +I didn't hurry; I couldn't if I'd a wanted to.  I took one slow step at +a time and there warn't a sound, only I thought I could hear my heart. + The dogs were as still as the humans, but they followed a little behind +me. When I got to the three log doorsteps I heard them unlocking and +unbarring and unbolting.  I put my hand on the door and pushed it a +little and a little more till somebody said, "There, that's enough—put +your head in." I done it, but I judged they would take it off. + +The candle was on the floor, and there they all was, looking at me, and +me at them, for about a quarter of a minute:  Three big men with guns +pointed at me, which made me wince, I tell you; the oldest, gray +and about sixty, the other two thirty or more—all of them fine and +handsome—and the sweetest old gray-headed lady, and back of her two +young women which I couldn't see right well.  The old gentleman says: + +"There; I reckon it's all right.  Come in." + +As soon as I was in the old gentleman he locked the door and barred it +and bolted it, and told the young men to come in with their guns, and +they all went in a big parlor that had a new rag carpet on the floor, +and got together in a corner that was out of the range of the front +windows—there warn't none on the side.  They held the candle, and took a +good look at me, and all said, "Why, _he_ ain't a Shepherdson—no, there +ain't any Shepherdson about him."  Then the old man said he hoped I +wouldn't mind being searched for arms, because he didn't mean no harm by +it—it was only to make sure.  So he didn't pry into my pockets, but only +felt outside with his hands, and said it was all right.  He told me to +make myself easy and at home, and tell all about myself; but the old +lady says: + +"Why, bless you, Saul, the poor thing's as wet as he can be; and don't +you reckon it may be he's hungry?" + +"True for you, Rachel—I forgot." + +So the old lady says: + +"Betsy" (this was a nigger woman), "you fly around and get him something +to eat as quick as you can, poor thing; and one of you girls go and wake +up Buck and tell him—oh, here he is himself.  Buck, take this little +stranger and get the wet clothes off from him and dress him up in some +of yours that's dry." + +Buck looked about as old as me—thirteen or fourteen or along there, +though he was a little bigger than me.  He hadn't on anything but a +shirt, and he was very frowzy-headed.  He came in gaping and digging one +fist into his eyes, and he was dragging a gun along with the other one. +He says: + +"Ain't they no Shepherdsons around?" + +They said, no, 'twas a false alarm. + +"Well," he says, "if they'd a ben some, I reckon I'd a got one." + +They all laughed, and Bob says: + +"Why, Buck, they might have scalped us all, you've been so slow in +coming." + +"Well, nobody come after me, and it ain't right I'm always kept down; I +don't get no show." + +"Never mind, Buck, my boy," says the old man, "you'll have show enough, +all in good time, don't you fret about that.  Go 'long with you now, and +do as your mother told you." + +When we got up-stairs to his room he got me a coarse shirt and a +roundabout and pants of his, and I put them on.  While I was at it he +asked me what my name was, but before I could tell him he started to +tell me about a bluejay and a young rabbit he had catched in the woods +day before yesterday, and he asked me where Moses was when the candle +went out.  I said I didn't know; I hadn't heard about it before, no way. + +"Well, guess," he says. + +"How'm I going to guess," says I, "when I never heard tell of it +before?" + +"But you can guess, can't you?  It's just as easy." + +"_Which_ candle?"  I says. + +"Why, any candle," he says. + +"I don't know where he was," says I; "where was he?" + +"Why, he was in the _dark_!  That's where he was!" + +"Well, if you knowed where he was, what did you ask me for?" + +"Why, blame it, it's a riddle, don't you see?  Say, how long are you +going to stay here?  You got to stay always.  We can just have booming +times—they don't have no school now.  Do you own a dog?  I've got a +dog—and he'll go in the river and bring out chips that you throw in.  Do +you like to comb up Sundays, and all that kind of foolishness?  You bet +I don't, but ma she makes me.  Confound these ole britches!  I reckon +I'd better put 'em on, but I'd ruther not, it's so warm.  Are you all +ready? All right.  Come along, old hoss." + +Cold corn-pone, cold corn-beef, butter and buttermilk—that is what they +had for me down there, and there ain't nothing better that ever I've +come across yet.  Buck and his ma and all of them smoked cob pipes, +except the nigger woman, which was gone, and the two young women.  They +all smoked and talked, and I eat and talked.  The young women had +quilts around them, and their hair down their backs.  They all asked me +questions, and I told them how pap and me and all the family was living +on a little farm down at the bottom of Arkansaw, and my sister Mary Ann +run off and got married and never was heard of no more, and Bill went +to hunt them and he warn't heard of no more, and Tom and Mort died, +and then there warn't nobody but just me and pap left, and he was just +trimmed down to nothing, on account of his troubles; so when he died +I took what there was left, because the farm didn't belong to us, and +started up the river, deck passage, and fell overboard; and that was how +I come to be here.  So they said I could have a home there as long as I +wanted it.  Then it was most daylight and everybody went to bed, and I +went to bed with Buck, and when I waked up in the morning, drat it all, +I had forgot what my name was. So I laid there about an hour trying to +think, and when Buck waked up I says: + +"Can you spell, Buck?" + +"Yes," he says. + +"I bet you can't spell my name," says I. + +"I bet you what you dare I can," says he. + +"All right," says I, "go ahead." + +"G-e-o-r-g-e J-a-x-o-n—there now," he says. + +"Well," says I, "you done it, but I didn't think you could.  It ain't no +slouch of a name to spell—right off without studying." + +I set it down, private, because somebody might want _me_ to spell it +next, and so I wanted to be handy with it and rattle it off like I was +used to it. + +It was a mighty nice family, and a mighty nice house, too.  I hadn't +seen no house out in the country before that was so nice and had so much +style.  It didn't have an iron latch on the front door, nor a wooden one +with a buckskin string, but a brass knob to turn, the same as houses in +town. There warn't no bed in the parlor, nor a sign of a bed; but heaps +of parlors in towns has beds in them.  There was a big fireplace that +was bricked on the bottom, and the bricks was kept clean and red by +pouring water on them and scrubbing them with another brick; sometimes +they wash them over with red water-paint that they call Spanish-brown, +same as they do in town.  They had big brass dog-irons that could hold +up a saw-log. There was a clock on the middle of the mantelpiece, with +a picture of a town painted on the bottom half of the glass front, and +a round place in the middle of it for the sun, and you could see the +pendulum swinging behind it.  It was beautiful to hear that clock tick; +and sometimes when one of these peddlers had been along and scoured her +up and got her in good shape, she would start in and strike a hundred +and fifty before she got tuckered out.  They wouldn't took any money for +her. + +Well, there was a big outlandish parrot on each side of the clock, +made out of something like chalk, and painted up gaudy.  By one of the +parrots was a cat made of crockery, and a crockery dog by the other; +and when you pressed down on them they squeaked, but didn't open +their mouths nor look different nor interested.  They squeaked through +underneath.  There was a couple of big wild-turkey-wing fans spread out +behind those things.  On the table in the middle of the room was a kind +of a lovely crockery basket that had apples and oranges and peaches and +grapes piled up in it, which was much redder and yellower and prettier +than real ones is, but they warn't real because you could see where +pieces had got chipped off and showed the white chalk, or whatever it +was, underneath. + +This table had a cover made out of beautiful oilcloth, with a red and +blue spread-eagle painted on it, and a painted border all around.  It +come all the way from Philadelphia, they said.  There was some books, +too, piled up perfectly exact, on each corner of the table.  One was a +big family Bible full of pictures.  One was Pilgrim's Progress, about a +man that left his family, it didn't say why.  I read considerable in it +now and then.  The statements was interesting, but tough.  Another was +Friendship's Offering, full of beautiful stuff and poetry; but I didn't +read the poetry.  Another was Henry Clay's Speeches, and another was Dr. +Gunn's Family Medicine, which told you all about what to do if a body +was sick or dead.  There was a hymn book, and a lot of other books.  And +there was nice split-bottom chairs, and perfectly sound, too—not bagged +down in the middle and busted, like an old basket. + +They had pictures hung on the walls—mainly Washingtons and Lafayettes, +and battles, and Highland Marys, and one called "Signing the +Declaration." There was some that they called crayons, which one of the +daughters which was dead made her own self when she was only +fifteen years old.  They was different from any pictures I ever see +before—blacker, mostly, than is common.  One was a woman in a slim black +dress, belted small under the armpits, with bulges like a cabbage in +the middle of the sleeves, and a large black scoop-shovel bonnet with +a black veil, and white slim ankles crossed about with black tape, and +very wee black slippers, like a chisel, and she was leaning pensive on a +tombstone on her right elbow, under a weeping willow, and her other hand +hanging down her side holding a white handkerchief and a reticule, +and underneath the picture it said "Shall I Never See Thee More Alas." + Another one was a young lady with her hair all combed up straight +to the top of her head, and knotted there in front of a comb like a +chair-back, and she was crying into a handkerchief and had a dead bird +laying on its back in her other hand with its heels up, and underneath +the picture it said "I Shall Never Hear Thy Sweet Chirrup More Alas." + There was one where a young lady was at a window looking up at the +moon, and tears running down her cheeks; and she had an open letter in +one hand with black sealing wax showing on one edge of it, and she was +mashing a locket with a chain to it against her mouth, and underneath +the picture it said "And Art Thou Gone Yes Thou Art Gone Alas."  These +was all nice pictures, I reckon, but I didn't somehow seem to take +to them, because if ever I was down a little they always give me the +fan-tods.  Everybody was sorry she died, because she had laid out a lot +more of these pictures to do, and a body could see by what she had done +what they had lost.  But I reckoned that with her disposition she was +having a better time in the graveyard.  She was at work on what they +said was her greatest picture when she took sick, and every day and +every night it was her prayer to be allowed to live till she got it +done, but she never got the chance.  It was a picture of a young woman +in a long white gown, standing on the rail of a bridge all ready to jump +off, with her hair all down her back, and looking up to the moon, with +the tears running down her face, and she had two arms folded across her +breast, and two arms stretched out in front, and two more reaching up +towards the moon—and the idea was to see which pair would look best, +and then scratch out all the other arms; but, as I was saying, she died +before she got her mind made up, and now they kept this picture over the +head of the bed in her room, and every time her birthday come they hung +flowers on it.  Other times it was hid with a little curtain.  The young +woman in the picture had a kind of a nice sweet face, but there was so +many arms it made her look too spidery, seemed to me. + +This young girl kept a scrap-book when she was alive, and used to paste +obituaries and accidents and cases of patient suffering in it out of the +Presbyterian Observer, and write poetry after them out of her own head. +It was very good poetry. This is what she wrote about a boy by the name +of Stephen Dowling Bots that fell down a well and was drownded: + +ODE TO STEPHEN DOWLING BOTS, DEC'D + +And did young Stephen sicken,    And did young Stephen die? And did the +sad hearts thicken,    And did the mourners cry? + +No; such was not the fate of    Young Stephen Dowling Bots; Though sad +hearts round him thickened,    'Twas not from sickness' shots. + +No whooping-cough did rack his frame,    Nor measles drear with spots; +Not these impaired the sacred name    Of Stephen Dowling Bots. + +Despised love struck not with woe    That head of curly knots, Nor +stomach troubles laid him low,    Young Stephen Dowling Bots. + +O no. Then list with tearful eye,    Whilst I his fate do tell. His soul +did from this cold world fly    By falling down a well. + +They got him out and emptied him;    Alas it was too late; His spirit +was gone for to sport aloft    In the realms of the good and great. + +If Emmeline Grangerford could make poetry like that before she was +fourteen, there ain't no telling what she could a done by and by.  Buck +said she could rattle off poetry like nothing.  She didn't ever have to +stop to think.  He said she would slap down a line, and if she couldn't +find anything to rhyme with it would just scratch it out and slap down +another one, and go ahead. She warn't particular; she could write about +anything you choose to give her to write about just so it was sadful. +Every time a man died, or a woman died, or a child died, she would be on +hand with her "tribute" before he was cold.  She called them tributes. +The neighbors said it was the doctor first, then Emmeline, then the +undertaker—the undertaker never got in ahead of Emmeline but once, and +then she hung fire on a rhyme for the dead person's name, which was +Whistler.  She warn't ever the same after that; she never complained, +but she kinder pined away and did not live long.  Poor thing, many's the +time I made myself go up to the little room that used to be hers and get +out her poor old scrap-book and read in it when her pictures had been +aggravating me and I had soured on her a little.  I liked all that +family, dead ones and all, and warn't going to let anything come between +us.  Poor Emmeline made poetry about all the dead people when she was +alive, and it didn't seem right that there warn't nobody to make some +about her now she was gone; so I tried to sweat out a verse or two +myself, but I couldn't seem to make it go somehow.  They kept Emmeline's +room trim and nice, and all the things fixed in it just the way she +liked to have them when she was alive, and nobody ever slept there. + The old lady took care of the room herself, though there was plenty +of niggers, and she sewed there a good deal and read her Bible there +mostly. + +Well, as I was saying about the parlor, there was beautiful curtains on +the windows:  white, with pictures painted on them of castles with vines +all down the walls, and cattle coming down to drink.  There was a little +old piano, too, that had tin pans in it, I reckon, and nothing was ever +so lovely as to hear the young ladies sing "The Last Link is Broken" +and play "The Battle of Prague" on it.  The walls of all the rooms was +plastered, and most had carpets on the floors, and the whole house was +whitewashed on the outside. + +It was a double house, and the big open place betwixt them was roofed +and floored, and sometimes the table was set there in the middle of the +day, and it was a cool, comfortable place.  Nothing couldn't be better. + And warn't the cooking good, and just bushels of it too! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +COL.  Grangerford was a gentleman, you see.  He was a gentleman all +over; and so was his family.  He was well born, as the saying is, and +that's worth as much in a man as it is in a horse, so the Widow Douglas +said, and nobody ever denied that she was of the first aristocracy +in our town; and pap he always said it, too, though he warn't no more +quality than a mudcat himself.  Col.  Grangerford was very tall and +very slim, and had a darkish-paly complexion, not a sign of red in it +anywheres; he was clean shaved every morning all over his thin face, and +he had the thinnest kind of lips, and the thinnest kind of nostrils, and +a high nose, and heavy eyebrows, and the blackest kind of eyes, sunk so +deep back that they seemed like they was looking out of caverns at +you, as you may say.  His forehead was high, and his hair was black and +straight and hung to his shoulders. His hands was long and thin, and +every day of his life he put on a clean shirt and a full suit from head +to foot made out of linen so white it hurt your eyes to look at it; +and on Sundays he wore a blue tail-coat with brass buttons on it.  He +carried a mahogany cane with a silver head to it.  There warn't no +frivolishness about him, not a bit, and he warn't ever loud.  He was +as kind as he could be—you could feel that, you know, and so you had +confidence.  Sometimes he smiled, and it was good to see; but when he +straightened himself up like a liberty-pole, and the lightning begun to +flicker out from under his eyebrows, you wanted to climb a tree first, +and find out what the matter was afterwards.  He didn't ever have to +tell anybody to mind their manners—everybody was always good-mannered +where he was.  Everybody loved to have him around, too; he was sunshine +most always—I mean he made it seem like good weather.  When he turned +into a cloudbank it was awful dark for half a minute, and that was +enough; there wouldn't nothing go wrong again for a week. + +When him and the old lady come down in the morning all the family got +up out of their chairs and give them good-day, and didn't set down again +till they had set down.  Then Tom and Bob went to the sideboard where +the decanter was, and mixed a glass of bitters and handed it to him, and +he held it in his hand and waited till Tom's and Bob's was mixed, and +then they bowed and said, "Our duty to you, sir, and madam;" and _they_ +bowed the least bit in the world and said thank you, and so they drank, +all three, and Bob and Tom poured a spoonful of water on the sugar and +the mite of whisky or apple brandy in the bottom of their tumblers, and +give it to me and Buck, and we drank to the old people too. + +Bob was the oldest and Tom next—tall, beautiful men with very broad +shoulders and brown faces, and long black hair and black eyes.  They +dressed in white linen from head to foot, like the old gentleman, and +wore broad Panama hats. + +Then there was Miss Charlotte; she was twenty-five, and tall and proud +and grand, but as good as she could be when she warn't stirred up; but +when she was she had a look that would make you wilt in your tracks, +like her father.  She was beautiful. + +So was her sister, Miss Sophia, but it was a different kind.  She was +gentle and sweet like a dove, and she was only twenty. + +Each person had their own nigger to wait on them—Buck too.  My nigger +had a monstrous easy time, because I warn't used to having anybody do +anything for me, but Buck's was on the jump most of the time. + +This was all there was of the family now, but there used to be +more—three sons; they got killed; and Emmeline that died. + +The old gentleman owned a lot of farms and over a hundred niggers. +Sometimes a stack of people would come there, horseback, from ten or +fifteen mile around, and stay five or six days, and have such junketings +round about and on the river, and dances and picnics in the woods +daytimes, and balls at the house nights.  These people was mostly +kinfolks of the family.  The men brought their guns with them.  It was a +handsome lot of quality, I tell you. + +There was another clan of aristocracy around there—five or six +families—mostly of the name of Shepherdson.  They was as high-toned +and well born and rich and grand as the tribe of Grangerfords.  The +Shepherdsons and Grangerfords used the same steamboat landing, which was +about two mile above our house; so sometimes when I went up there with a +lot of our folks I used to see a lot of the Shepherdsons there on their +fine horses. + +One day Buck and me was away out in the woods hunting, and heard a horse +coming.  We was crossing the road.  Buck says: + +"Quick!  Jump for the woods!" + +We done it, and then peeped down the woods through the leaves.  Pretty +soon a splendid young man come galloping down the road, setting his +horse easy and looking like a soldier.  He had his gun across his +pommel.  I had seen him before.  It was young Harney Shepherdson.  I +heard Buck's gun go off at my ear, and Harney's hat tumbled off from his +head.  He grabbed his gun and rode straight to the place where we was +hid.  But we didn't wait.  We started through the woods on a run.  The +woods warn't thick, so I looked over my shoulder to dodge the bullet, +and twice I seen Harney cover Buck with his gun; and then he rode away +the way he come—to get his hat, I reckon, but I couldn't see.  We never +stopped running till we got home.  The old gentleman's eyes blazed a +minute—'twas pleasure, mainly, I judged—then his face sort of smoothed +down, and he says, kind of gentle: + +"I don't like that shooting from behind a bush.  Why didn't you step +into the road, my boy?" + +"The Shepherdsons don't, father.  They always take advantage." + +Miss Charlotte she held her head up like a queen while Buck was telling +his tale, and her nostrils spread and her eyes snapped.  The two young +men looked dark, but never said nothing.  Miss Sophia she turned pale, +but the color come back when she found the man warn't hurt. + +Soon as I could get Buck down by the corn-cribs under the trees by +ourselves, I says: + +"Did you want to kill him, Buck?" + +"Well, I bet I did." + +"What did he do to you?" + +"Him?  He never done nothing to me." + +"Well, then, what did you want to kill him for?" + +"Why, nothing—only it's on account of the feud." + +"What's a feud?" + +"Why, where was you raised?  Don't you know what a feud is?" + +"Never heard of it before—tell me about it." + +"Well," says Buck, "a feud is this way:  A man has a quarrel with +another man, and kills him; then that other man's brother kills _him_; +then the other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the +_cousins_ chip in—and by and by everybody's killed off, and there ain't +no more feud.  But it's kind of slow, and takes a long time." + +"Has this one been going on long, Buck?" + +"Well, I should _reckon_!  It started thirty year ago, or som'ers along +there.  There was trouble 'bout something, and then a lawsuit to settle +it; and the suit went agin one of the men, and so he up and shot the +man that won the suit—which he would naturally do, of course.  Anybody +would." + +"What was the trouble about, Buck?—land?" + +"I reckon maybe—I don't know." + +"Well, who done the shooting?  Was it a Grangerford or a Shepherdson?" + +"Laws, how do I know?  It was so long ago." + +"Don't anybody know?" + +"Oh, yes, pa knows, I reckon, and some of the other old people; but they +don't know now what the row was about in the first place." + +"Has there been many killed, Buck?" + +"Yes; right smart chance of funerals.  But they don't always kill.  Pa's +got a few buckshot in him; but he don't mind it 'cuz he don't weigh +much, anyway.  Bob's been carved up some with a bowie, and Tom's been +hurt once or twice." + +"Has anybody been killed this year, Buck?" + +"Yes; we got one and they got one.  'Bout three months ago my cousin +Bud, fourteen year old, was riding through the woods on t'other side +of the river, and didn't have no weapon with him, which was blame' +foolishness, and in a lonesome place he hears a horse a-coming behind +him, and sees old Baldy Shepherdson a-linkin' after him with his gun in +his hand and his white hair a-flying in the wind; and 'stead of jumping +off and taking to the brush, Bud 'lowed he could out-run him; so they +had it, nip and tuck, for five mile or more, the old man a-gaining all +the time; so at last Bud seen it warn't any use, so he stopped and faced +around so as to have the bullet holes in front, you know, and the old +man he rode up and shot him down.  But he didn't git much chance to +enjoy his luck, for inside of a week our folks laid _him_ out." + +"I reckon that old man was a coward, Buck." + +"I reckon he _warn't_ a coward.  Not by a blame' sight.  There ain't a +coward amongst them Shepherdsons—not a one.  And there ain't no cowards +amongst the Grangerfords either.  Why, that old man kep' up his end in a +fight one day for half an hour against three Grangerfords, and come +out winner.  They was all a-horseback; he lit off of his horse and got +behind a little woodpile, and kep' his horse before him to stop the +bullets; but the Grangerfords stayed on their horses and capered around +the old man, and peppered away at him, and he peppered away at them. + Him and his horse both went home pretty leaky and crippled, but the +Grangerfords had to be _fetched_ home—and one of 'em was dead, and +another died the next day.  No, sir; if a body's out hunting for cowards +he don't want to fool away any time amongst them Shepherdsons, becuz +they don't breed any of that _kind_." + +Next Sunday we all went to church, about three mile, everybody +a-horseback. The men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept +them between their knees or stood them handy against the wall.  The +Shepherdsons done the same.  It was pretty ornery preaching—all about +brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness; but everybody said it was +a good sermon, and they all talked it over going home, and had such +a powerful lot to say about faith and good works and free grace and +preforeordestination, and I don't know what all, that it did seem to me +to be one of the roughest Sundays I had run across yet. + +About an hour after dinner everybody was dozing around, some in their +chairs and some in their rooms, and it got to be pretty dull.  Buck and +a dog was stretched out on the grass in the sun sound asleep.  I went up +to our room, and judged I would take a nap myself.  I found that sweet +Miss Sophia standing in her door, which was next to ours, and she took +me in her room and shut the door very soft, and asked me if I liked her, +and I said I did; and she asked me if I would do something for her and +not tell anybody, and I said I would.  Then she said she'd forgot her +Testament, and left it in the seat at church between two other books, +and would I slip out quiet and go there and fetch it to her, and not say +nothing to nobody.  I said I would. So I slid out and slipped off up the +road, and there warn't anybody at the church, except maybe a hog or two, +for there warn't any lock on the door, and hogs likes a puncheon floor +in summer-time because it's cool.  If you notice, most folks don't go to +church only when they've got to; but a hog is different. + +Says I to myself, something's up; it ain't natural for a girl to be in +such a sweat about a Testament.  So I give it a shake, and out drops a +little piece of paper with "HALF-PAST TWO" wrote on it with a pencil.  I +ransacked it, but couldn't find anything else.  I couldn't make anything +out of that, so I put the paper in the book again, and when I got home +and upstairs there was Miss Sophia in her door waiting for me.  She +pulled me in and shut the door; then she looked in the Testament till +she found the paper, and as soon as she read it she looked glad; and +before a body could think she grabbed me and give me a squeeze, and +said I was the best boy in the world, and not to tell anybody.  She was +mighty red in the face for a minute, and her eyes lighted up, and it +made her powerful pretty.  I was a good deal astonished, but when I got +my breath I asked her what the paper was about, and she asked me if I +had read it, and I said no, and she asked me if I could read writing, +and I told her "no, only coarse-hand," and then she said the paper +warn't anything but a book-mark to keep her place, and I might go and +play now. + +I went off down to the river, studying over this thing, and pretty soon +I noticed that my nigger was following along behind.  When we was out +of sight of the house he looked back and around a second, and then comes +a-running, and says: + +"Mars Jawge, if you'll come down into de swamp I'll show you a whole +stack o' water-moccasins." + +Thinks I, that's mighty curious; he said that yesterday.  He oughter +know a body don't love water-moccasins enough to go around hunting for +them. What is he up to, anyway?  So I says: + +"All right; trot ahead." + +I followed a half a mile; then he struck out over the swamp, and waded +ankle deep as much as another half-mile.  We come to a little flat piece +of land which was dry and very thick with trees and bushes and vines, +and he says: + +"You shove right in dah jist a few steps, Mars Jawge; dah's whah dey is. +I's seed 'm befo'; I don't k'yer to see 'em no mo'." + +Then he slopped right along and went away, and pretty soon the trees hid +him.  I poked into the place a-ways and come to a little open patch +as big as a bedroom all hung around with vines, and found a man laying +there asleep—and, by jings, it was my old Jim! + +I waked him up, and I reckoned it was going to be a grand surprise to +him to see me again, but it warn't.  He nearly cried he was so glad, but +he warn't surprised.  Said he swum along behind me that night, and heard +me yell every time, but dasn't answer, because he didn't want nobody to +pick _him_ up and take him into slavery again.  Says he: + +"I got hurt a little, en couldn't swim fas', so I wuz a considable ways +behine you towards de las'; when you landed I reck'ned I could ketch +up wid you on de lan' 'dout havin' to shout at you, but when I see dat +house I begin to go slow.  I 'uz off too fur to hear what dey say to +you—I wuz 'fraid o' de dogs; but when it 'uz all quiet agin I knowed +you's in de house, so I struck out for de woods to wait for day.  Early +in de mawnin' some er de niggers come along, gwyne to de fields, en dey +tuk me en showed me dis place, whah de dogs can't track me on accounts +o' de water, en dey brings me truck to eat every night, en tells me how +you's a-gitt'n along." + +"Why didn't you tell my Jack to fetch me here sooner, Jim?" + +"Well, 'twarn't no use to 'sturb you, Huck, tell we could do sumfn—but +we's all right now.  I ben a-buyin' pots en pans en vittles, as I got a +chanst, en a-patchin' up de raf' nights when—" + +"_What_ raft, Jim?" + +"Our ole raf'." + +"You mean to say our old raft warn't smashed all to flinders?" + +"No, she warn't.  She was tore up a good deal—one en' of her was; but +dey warn't no great harm done, on'y our traps was mos' all los'.  Ef we +hadn' dive' so deep en swum so fur under water, en de night hadn' ben +so dark, en we warn't so sk'yerd, en ben sich punkin-heads, as de sayin' +is, we'd a seed de raf'.  But it's jis' as well we didn't, 'kase now +she's all fixed up agin mos' as good as new, en we's got a new lot o' +stuff, in de place o' what 'uz los'." + +"Why, how did you get hold of the raft again, Jim—did you catch her?" + +"How I gwyne to ketch her en I out in de woods?  No; some er de niggers +foun' her ketched on a snag along heah in de ben', en dey hid her in a +crick 'mongst de willows, en dey wuz so much jawin' 'bout which un 'um +she b'long to de mos' dat I come to heah 'bout it pooty soon, so I ups +en settles de trouble by tellin' 'um she don't b'long to none uv um, but +to you en me; en I ast 'm if dey gwyne to grab a young white genlman's +propaty, en git a hid'n for it?  Den I gin 'm ten cents apiece, en dey +'uz mighty well satisfied, en wisht some mo' raf's 'ud come along en +make 'm rich agin. Dey's mighty good to me, dese niggers is, en whatever +I wants 'm to do fur me I doan' have to ast 'm twice, honey.  Dat Jack's +a good nigger, en pooty smart." + +"Yes, he is.  He ain't ever told me you was here; told me to come, and +he'd show me a lot of water-moccasins.  If anything happens _he_ ain't +mixed up in it.  He can say he never seen us together, and it 'll be the +truth." + +I don't want to talk much about the next day.  I reckon I'll cut it +pretty short.  I waked up about dawn, and was a-going to turn over and +go to sleep again when I noticed how still it was—didn't seem to be +anybody stirring.  That warn't usual.  Next I noticed that Buck was +up and gone. Well, I gets up, a-wondering, and goes down stairs—nobody +around; everything as still as a mouse.  Just the same outside.  Thinks +I, what does it mean?  Down by the wood-pile I comes across my Jack, and +says: + +"What's it all about?" + +Says he: + +"Don't you know, Mars Jawge?" + +"No," says I, "I don't." + +"Well, den, Miss Sophia's run off! 'deed she has.  She run off in de +night some time—nobody don't know jis' when; run off to get married +to dat young Harney Shepherdson, you know—leastways, so dey 'spec.  De +fambly foun' it out 'bout half an hour ago—maybe a little mo'—en' I +_tell_ you dey warn't no time los'.  Sich another hurryin' up guns +en hosses _you_ never see!  De women folks has gone for to stir up de +relations, en ole Mars Saul en de boys tuck dey guns en rode up de +river road for to try to ketch dat young man en kill him 'fo' he kin +git acrost de river wid Miss Sophia.  I reck'n dey's gwyne to be mighty +rough times." + +"Buck went off 'thout waking me up." + +"Well, I reck'n he _did_!  Dey warn't gwyne to mix you up in it. + Mars Buck he loaded up his gun en 'lowed he's gwyne to fetch home a +Shepherdson or bust. Well, dey'll be plenty un 'm dah, I reck'n, en you +bet you he'll fetch one ef he gits a chanst." + +I took up the river road as hard as I could put.  By and by I begin to +hear guns a good ways off.  When I come in sight of the log store and +the woodpile where the steamboats lands I worked along under the trees +and brush till I got to a good place, and then I clumb up into the +forks of a cottonwood that was out of reach, and watched.  There was a +wood-rank four foot high a little ways in front of the tree, and first I +was going to hide behind that; but maybe it was luckier I didn't. + +There was four or five men cavorting around on their horses in the open +place before the log store, cussing and yelling, and trying to get at +a couple of young chaps that was behind the wood-rank alongside of the +steamboat landing; but they couldn't come it.  Every time one of them +showed himself on the river side of the woodpile he got shot at.  The +two boys was squatting back to back behind the pile, so they could watch +both ways. + +By and by the men stopped cavorting around and yelling.  They started +riding towards the store; then up gets one of the boys, draws a steady +bead over the wood-rank, and drops one of them out of his saddle.  All +the men jumped off of their horses and grabbed the hurt one and started +to carry him to the store; and that minute the two boys started on the +run.  They got half way to the tree I was in before the men noticed. +Then the men see them, and jumped on their horses and took out after +them.  They gained on the boys, but it didn't do no good, the boys had +too good a start; they got to the woodpile that was in front of my tree, +and slipped in behind it, and so they had the bulge on the men again. +One of the boys was Buck, and the other was a slim young chap about +nineteen years old. + +The men ripped around awhile, and then rode away.  As soon as they was +out of sight I sung out to Buck and told him.  He didn't know what +to make of my voice coming out of the tree at first.  He was awful +surprised.  He told me to watch out sharp and let him know when the +men come in sight again; said they was up to some devilment or +other—wouldn't be gone long.  I wished I was out of that tree, but I +dasn't come down.  Buck begun to cry and rip, and 'lowed that him and +his cousin Joe (that was the other young chap) would make up for this +day yet.  He said his father and his two brothers was killed, and two +or three of the enemy.  Said the Shepherdsons laid for them in +ambush.  Buck said his father and brothers ought to waited for their +relations—the Shepherdsons was too strong for them.  I asked him what +was become of young Harney and Miss Sophia.  He said they'd got across +the river and was safe.  I was glad of that; but the way Buck did take +on because he didn't manage to kill Harney that day he shot at him—I +hain't ever heard anything like it. + +All of a sudden, bang! bang! bang! goes three or four guns—the men had +slipped around through the woods and come in from behind without their +horses!  The boys jumped for the river—both of them hurt—and as they +swum down the current the men run along the bank shooting at them and +singing out, "Kill them, kill them!"  It made me so sick I most fell out +of the tree.  I ain't a-going to tell _all_ that happened—it would make +me sick again if I was to do that.  I wished I hadn't ever come ashore +that night to see such things.  I ain't ever going to get shut of +them—lots of times I dream about them. + +I stayed in the tree till it begun to get dark, afraid to come down. +Sometimes I heard guns away off in the woods; and twice I seen little +gangs of men gallop past the log store with guns; so I reckoned the +trouble was still a-going on.  I was mighty downhearted; so I made up my +mind I wouldn't ever go anear that house again, because I reckoned I +was to blame, somehow. I judged that that piece of paper meant that Miss +Sophia was to meet Harney somewheres at half-past two and run off; and +I judged I ought to told her father about that paper and the curious way +she acted, and then maybe he would a locked her up, and this awful mess +wouldn't ever happened. + +When I got down out of the tree I crept along down the river bank a +piece, and found the two bodies laying in the edge of the water, and +tugged at them till I got them ashore; then I covered up their faces, +and got away as quick as I could.  I cried a little when I was covering +up Buck's face, for he was mighty good to me. + +It was just dark now.  I never went near the house, but struck through +the woods and made for the swamp.  Jim warn't on his island, so I +tramped off in a hurry for the crick, and crowded through the willows, +red-hot to jump aboard and get out of that awful country.  The raft was +gone!  My souls, but I was scared!  I couldn't get my breath for most +a minute. Then I raised a yell.  A voice not twenty-five foot from me +says: + +"Good lan'! is dat you, honey?  Doan' make no noise." + +It was Jim's voice—nothing ever sounded so good before.  I run along the +bank a piece and got aboard, and Jim he grabbed me and hugged me, he was +so glad to see me.  He says: + +"Laws bless you, chile, I 'uz right down sho' you's dead agin.  Jack's +been heah; he say he reck'n you's ben shot, kase you didn' come home no +mo'; so I's jes' dis minute a startin' de raf' down towards de mouf er +de crick, so's to be all ready for to shove out en leave soon as Jack +comes agin en tells me for certain you _is_ dead.  Lawsy, I's mighty +glad to git you back again, honey." + +I says: + +"All right—that's mighty good; they won't find me, and they'll think +I've been killed, and floated down the river—there's something up there +that 'll help them think so—so don't you lose no time, Jim, but just +shove off for the big water as fast as ever you can." + +I never felt easy till the raft was two mile below there and out in +the middle of the Mississippi.  Then we hung up our signal lantern, and +judged that we was free and safe once more.  I hadn't had a bite to eat +since yesterday, so Jim he got out some corn-dodgers and buttermilk, +and pork and cabbage and greens—there ain't nothing in the world so good +when it's cooked right—and whilst I eat my supper we talked and had a +good time.  I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was +Jim to get away from the swamp.  We said there warn't no home like a +raft, after all.  Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a +raft don't.  You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +TWO or three days and nights went by; I reckon I might say they swum by, +they slid along so quiet and smooth and lovely.  Here is the way we put +in the time.  It was a monstrous big river down there—sometimes a mile +and a half wide; we run nights, and laid up and hid daytimes; soon as +night was most gone we stopped navigating and tied up—nearly always +in the dead water under a towhead; and then cut young cottonwoods and +willows, and hid the raft with them.  Then we set out the lines.  Next +we slid into the river and had a swim, so as to freshen up and cool +off; then we set down on the sandy bottom where the water was about knee +deep, and watched the daylight come.  Not a sound anywheres—perfectly +still—just like the whole world was asleep, only sometimes the bullfrogs +a-cluttering, maybe.  The first thing to see, looking away over the +water, was a kind of dull line—that was the woods on t'other side; you +couldn't make nothing else out; then a pale place in the sky; then more +paleness spreading around; then the river softened up away off, and +warn't black any more, but gray; you could see little dark spots +drifting along ever so far away—trading scows, and such things; and +long black streaks—rafts; sometimes you could hear a sweep screaking; or +jumbled up voices, it was so still, and sounds come so far; and by and +by you could see a streak on the water which you know by the look of the +streak that there's a snag there in a swift current which breaks on it +and makes that streak look that way; and you see the mist curl up off +of the water, and the east reddens up, and the river, and you make out a +log-cabin in the edge of the woods, away on the bank on t'other side of +the river, being a woodyard, likely, and piled by them cheats so you can +throw a dog through it anywheres; then the nice breeze springs up, and +comes fanning you from over there, so cool and fresh and sweet to smell +on account of the woods and the flowers; but sometimes not that way, +because they've left dead fish laying around, gars and such, and they +do get pretty rank; and next you've got the full day, and everything +smiling in the sun, and the song-birds just going it! + +A little smoke couldn't be noticed now, so we would take some fish off +of the lines and cook up a hot breakfast.  And afterwards we would watch +the lonesomeness of the river, and kind of lazy along, and by and by +lazy off to sleep.  Wake up by and by, and look to see what done it, and +maybe see a steamboat coughing along up-stream, so far off towards the +other side you couldn't tell nothing about her only whether she was +a stern-wheel or side-wheel; then for about an hour there wouldn't be +nothing to hear nor nothing to see—just solid lonesomeness.  Next +you'd see a raft sliding by, away off yonder, and maybe a galoot on it +chopping, because they're most always doing it on a raft; you'd see the +axe flash and come down—you don't hear nothing; you see that axe go +up again, and by the time it's above the man's head then you hear the +_k'chunk_!—it had took all that time to come over the water.  So we +would put in the day, lazying around, listening to the stillness.  Once +there was a thick fog, and the rafts and things that went by was beating +tin pans so the steamboats wouldn't run over them.  A scow or a +raft went by so close we could hear them talking and cussing and +laughing—heard them plain; but we couldn't see no sign of them; it made +you feel crawly; it was like spirits carrying on that way in the air. + Jim said he believed it was spirits; but I says: + +"No; spirits wouldn't say, 'Dern the dern fog.'" + +Soon as it was night out we shoved; when we got her out to about the +middle we let her alone, and let her float wherever the current wanted +her to; then we lit the pipes, and dangled our legs in the water, and +talked about all kinds of things—we was always naked, day and night, +whenever the mosquitoes would let us—the new clothes Buck's folks made +for me was too good to be comfortable, and besides I didn't go much on +clothes, nohow. + +Sometimes we'd have that whole river all to ourselves for the longest +time. Yonder was the banks and the islands, across the water; and maybe +a spark—which was a candle in a cabin window; and sometimes on the water +you could see a spark or two—on a raft or a scow, you know; and maybe +you could hear a fiddle or a song coming over from one of them crafts. +It's lovely to live on a raft.  We had the sky up there, all speckled +with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and +discuss about whether they was made or only just happened.  Jim he +allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened; I judged it would +have took too long to _make_ so many.  Jim said the moon could a _laid_ +them; well, that looked kind of reasonable, so I didn't say nothing +against it, because I've seen a frog lay most as many, so of course it +could be done. We used to watch the stars that fell, too, and see them +streak down.  Jim allowed they'd got spoiled and was hove out of the +nest. + +Once or twice of a night we would see a steamboat slipping along in the +dark, and now and then she would belch a whole world of sparks up out +of her chimbleys, and they would rain down in the river and look awful +pretty; then she would turn a corner and her lights would wink out and +her powwow shut off and leave the river still again; and by and by her +waves would get to us, a long time after she was gone, and joggle the +raft a bit, and after that you wouldn't hear nothing for you couldn't +tell how long, except maybe frogs or something. + +After midnight the people on shore went to bed, and then for two or +three hours the shores was black—no more sparks in the cabin windows. + These sparks was our clock—the first one that showed again meant +morning was coming, so we hunted a place to hide and tie up right away. + +One morning about daybreak I found a canoe and crossed over a chute to +the main shore—it was only two hundred yards—and paddled about a mile +up a crick amongst the cypress woods, to see if I couldn't get some +berries. Just as I was passing a place where a kind of a cowpath crossed +the crick, here comes a couple of men tearing up the path as tight as +they could foot it.  I thought I was a goner, for whenever anybody was +after anybody I judged it was _me_—or maybe Jim.  I was about to dig out +from there in a hurry, but they was pretty close to me then, and sung +out and begged me to save their lives—said they hadn't been doing +nothing, and was being chased for it—said there was men and dogs +a-coming.  They wanted to jump right in, but I says: + +"Don't you do it.  I don't hear the dogs and horses yet; you've got time +to crowd through the brush and get up the crick a little ways; then you +take to the water and wade down to me and get in—that'll throw the dogs +off the scent." + +They done it, and soon as they was aboard I lit out for our towhead, +and in about five or ten minutes we heard the dogs and the men away off, +shouting. We heard them come along towards the crick, but couldn't +see them; they seemed to stop and fool around a while; then, as we got +further and further away all the time, we couldn't hardly hear them at +all; by the time we had left a mile of woods behind us and struck the +river, everything was quiet, and we paddled over to the towhead and hid +in the cottonwoods and was safe. + +One of these fellows was about seventy or upwards, and had a bald head +and very gray whiskers.  He had an old battered-up slouch hat on, and +a greasy blue woollen shirt, and ragged old blue jeans britches stuffed +into his boot-tops, and home-knit galluses—no, he only had one.  He had +an old long-tailed blue jeans coat with slick brass buttons flung over +his arm, and both of them had big, fat, ratty-looking carpet-bags. + +The other fellow was about thirty, and dressed about as ornery.  After +breakfast we all laid off and talked, and the first thing that come out +was that these chaps didn't know one another. + +"What got you into trouble?" says the baldhead to t'other chap. + +"Well, I'd been selling an article to take the tartar off the teeth—and +it does take it off, too, and generly the enamel along with it—but I +stayed about one night longer than I ought to, and was just in the act +of sliding out when I ran across you on the trail this side of town, and +you told me they were coming, and begged me to help you to get off.  So +I told you I was expecting trouble myself, and would scatter out _with_ +you. That's the whole yarn—what's yourn? + +"Well, I'd ben a-running' a little temperance revival thar 'bout a week, +and was the pet of the women folks, big and little, for I was makin' it +mighty warm for the rummies, I _tell_ you, and takin' as much as five +or six dollars a night—ten cents a head, children and niggers free—and +business a-growin' all the time, when somehow or another a little report +got around last night that I had a way of puttin' in my time with a +private jug on the sly.  A nigger rousted me out this mornin', and told +me the people was getherin' on the quiet with their dogs and horses, and +they'd be along pretty soon and give me 'bout half an hour's start, +and then run me down if they could; and if they got me they'd tar +and feather me and ride me on a rail, sure.  I didn't wait for no +breakfast—I warn't hungry." + +"Old man," said the young one, "I reckon we might double-team it +together; what do you think?" + +"I ain't undisposed.  What's your line—mainly?" + +"Jour printer by trade; do a little in patent medicines; +theater-actor—tragedy, you know; take a turn to mesmerism and phrenology +when there's a chance; teach singing-geography school for a change; +sling a lecture sometimes—oh, I do lots of things—most anything that +comes handy, so it ain't work.  What's your lay?" + +"I've done considerble in the doctoring way in my time.  Layin' on o' +hands is my best holt—for cancer and paralysis, and sich things; and I +k'n tell a fortune pretty good when I've got somebody along to find out +the facts for me.  Preachin's my line, too, and workin' camp-meetin's, +and missionaryin' around." + +Nobody never said anything for a while; then the young man hove a sigh +and says: + +"Alas!" + +"What 're you alassin' about?" says the bald-head. + +"To think I should have lived to be leading such a life, and be degraded +down into such company."  And he begun to wipe the corner of his eye +with a rag. + +"Dern your skin, ain't the company good enough for you?" says the +baldhead, pretty pert and uppish. + +"Yes, it _is_ good enough for me; it's as good as I deserve; for who +fetched me so low when I was so high?  I did myself.  I don't blame +_you_, gentlemen—far from it; I don't blame anybody.  I deserve it +all.  Let the cold world do its worst; one thing I know—there's a grave +somewhere for me. The world may go on just as it's always done, and take +everything from me—loved ones, property, everything; but it can't take +that. Some day I'll lie down in it and forget it all, and my poor broken +heart will be at rest."  He went on a-wiping. + +"Drot your pore broken heart," says the baldhead; "what are you heaving +your pore broken heart at _us_ f'r?  _we_ hain't done nothing." + +"No, I know you haven't.  I ain't blaming you, gentlemen.  I brought +myself down—yes, I did it myself.  It's right I should suffer—perfectly +right—I don't make any moan." + +"Brought you down from whar?  Whar was you brought down from?" + +"Ah, you would not believe me; the world never believes—let it pass—'tis +no matter.  The secret of my birth—" + +"The secret of your birth!  Do you mean to say—" + +"Gentlemen," says the young man, very solemn, "I will reveal it to you, +for I feel I may have confidence in you.  By rights I am a duke!" + +Jim's eyes bugged out when he heard that; and I reckon mine did, too. +Then the baldhead says:  "No! you can't mean it?" + +"Yes.  My great-grandfather, eldest son of the Duke of Bridgewater, fled +to this country about the end of the last century, to breathe the pure +air of freedom; married here, and died, leaving a son, his own father +dying about the same time.  The second son of the late duke seized the +titles and estates—the infant real duke was ignored.  I am the lineal +descendant of that infant—I am the rightful Duke of Bridgewater; and +here am I, forlorn, torn from my high estate, hunted of men, despised +by the cold world, ragged, worn, heart-broken, and degraded to the +companionship of felons on a raft!" + +Jim pitied him ever so much, and so did I. We tried to comfort him, but +he said it warn't much use, he couldn't be much comforted; said if we +was a mind to acknowledge him, that would do him more good than most +anything else; so we said we would, if he would tell us how.  He said we +ought to bow when we spoke to him, and say "Your Grace," or "My Lord," +or "Your Lordship"—and he wouldn't mind it if we called him plain +"Bridgewater," which, he said, was a title anyway, and not a name; and +one of us ought to wait on him at dinner, and do any little thing for +him he wanted done. + +Well, that was all easy, so we done it.  All through dinner Jim stood +around and waited on him, and says, "Will yo' Grace have some o' dis or +some o' dat?" and so on, and a body could see it was mighty pleasing to +him. + +But the old man got pretty silent by and by—didn't have much to say, and +didn't look pretty comfortable over all that petting that was going on +around that duke.  He seemed to have something on his mind.  So, along +in the afternoon, he says: + +"Looky here, Bilgewater," he says, "I'm nation sorry for you, but you +ain't the only person that's had troubles like that." + +"No?" + +"No you ain't.  You ain't the only person that's ben snaked down +wrongfully out'n a high place." + +"Alas!" + +"No, you ain't the only person that's had a secret of his birth."  And, +by jings, _he_ begins to cry. + +"Hold!  What do you mean?" + +"Bilgewater, kin I trust you?" says the old man, still sort of sobbing. + +"To the bitter death!"  He took the old man by the hand and squeezed it, +and says, "That secret of your being:  speak!" + +"Bilgewater, I am the late Dauphin!" + +You bet you, Jim and me stared this time.  Then the duke says: + +"You are what?" + +"Yes, my friend, it is too true—your eyes is lookin' at this very moment +on the pore disappeared Dauphin, Looy the Seventeen, son of Looy the +Sixteen and Marry Antonette." + +"You!  At your age!  No!  You mean you're the late Charlemagne; you must +be six or seven hundred years old, at the very least." + +"Trouble has done it, Bilgewater, trouble has done it; trouble has brung +these gray hairs and this premature balditude.  Yes, gentlemen, you +see before you, in blue jeans and misery, the wanderin', exiled, +trampled-on, and sufferin' rightful King of France." + +Well, he cried and took on so that me and Jim didn't know hardly what to +do, we was so sorry—and so glad and proud we'd got him with us, too. + So we set in, like we done before with the duke, and tried to comfort +_him_. But he said it warn't no use, nothing but to be dead and done +with it all could do him any good; though he said it often made him feel +easier and better for a while if people treated him according to his +rights, and got down on one knee to speak to him, and always called him +"Your Majesty," and waited on him first at meals, and didn't set down +in his presence till he asked them. So Jim and me set to majestying him, +and doing this and that and t'other for him, and standing up till he +told us we might set down.  This done him heaps of good, and so he +got cheerful and comfortable.  But the duke kind of soured on him, and +didn't look a bit satisfied with the way things was going; still, +the king acted real friendly towards him, and said the duke's +great-grandfather and all the other Dukes of Bilgewater was a good +deal thought of by _his_ father, and was allowed to come to the palace +considerable; but the duke stayed huffy a good while, till by and by the +king says: + +"Like as not we got to be together a blamed long time on this h-yer +raft, Bilgewater, and so what's the use o' your bein' sour?  It 'll only +make things oncomfortable.  It ain't my fault I warn't born a duke, +it ain't your fault you warn't born a king—so what's the use to worry? + Make the best o' things the way you find 'em, says I—that's my motto. + This ain't no bad thing that we've struck here—plenty grub and an easy +life—come, give us your hand, duke, and le's all be friends." + +The duke done it, and Jim and me was pretty glad to see it.  It took +away all the uncomfortableness and we felt mighty good over it, because +it would a been a miserable business to have any unfriendliness on the +raft; for what you want, above all things, on a raft, is for everybody +to be satisfied, and feel right and kind towards the others. + +It didn't take me long to make up my mind that these liars warn't no +kings nor dukes at all, but just low-down humbugs and frauds.  But I +never said nothing, never let on; kept it to myself; it's the best way; +then you don't have no quarrels, and don't get into no trouble.  If they +wanted us to call them kings and dukes, I hadn't no objections, 'long as +it would keep peace in the family; and it warn't no use to tell Jim, so +I didn't tell him.  If I never learnt nothing else out of pap, I learnt +that the best way to get along with his kind of people is to let them +have their own way. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +THEY asked us considerable many questions; wanted to know what we +covered up the raft that way for, and laid by in the daytime instead of +running—was Jim a runaway nigger?  Says I: + +"Goodness sakes! would a runaway nigger run _south_?" + +No, they allowed he wouldn't.  I had to account for things some way, so +I says: + +"My folks was living in Pike County, in Missouri, where I was born, and +they all died off but me and pa and my brother Ike.  Pa, he 'lowed +he'd break up and go down and live with Uncle Ben, who's got a little +one-horse place on the river, forty-four mile below Orleans.  Pa was +pretty poor, and had some debts; so when he'd squared up there warn't +nothing left but sixteen dollars and our nigger, Jim.  That warn't +enough to take us fourteen hundred mile, deck passage nor no other way. + Well, when the river rose pa had a streak of luck one day; he ketched +this piece of a raft; so we reckoned we'd go down to Orleans on it. + Pa's luck didn't hold out; a steamboat run over the forrard corner of +the raft one night, and we all went overboard and dove under the wheel; +Jim and me come up all right, but pa was drunk, and Ike was only four +years old, so they never come up no more.  Well, for the next day or +two we had considerable trouble, because people was always coming out in +skiffs and trying to take Jim away from me, saying they believed he was +a runaway nigger.  We don't run daytimes no more now; nights they don't +bother us." + +The duke says: + +"Leave me alone to cipher out a way so we can run in the daytime if we +want to.  I'll think the thing over—I'll invent a plan that'll fix it. +We'll let it alone for to-day, because of course we don't want to go by +that town yonder in daylight—it mightn't be healthy." + +Towards night it begun to darken up and look like rain; the heat +lightning was squirting around low down in the sky, and the leaves was +beginning to shiver—it was going to be pretty ugly, it was easy to see +that.  So the duke and the king went to overhauling our wigwam, to see +what the beds was like.  My bed was a straw tick better than Jim's, +which was a corn-shuck tick; there's always cobs around about in a shuck +tick, and they poke into you and hurt; and when you roll over the dry +shucks sound like you was rolling over in a pile of dead leaves; it +makes such a rustling that you wake up.  Well, the duke allowed he would +take my bed; but the king allowed he wouldn't.  He says: + +"I should a reckoned the difference in rank would a sejested to you that +a corn-shuck bed warn't just fitten for me to sleep on.  Your Grace 'll +take the shuck bed yourself." + +Jim and me was in a sweat again for a minute, being afraid there was +going to be some more trouble amongst them; so we was pretty glad when +the duke says: + +"'Tis my fate to be always ground into the mire under the iron heel of +oppression.  Misfortune has broken my once haughty spirit; I yield, I +submit; 'tis my fate.  I am alone in the world—let me suffer; can bear +it." + +We got away as soon as it was good and dark.  The king told us to stand +well out towards the middle of the river, and not show a light till we +got a long ways below the town.  We come in sight of the little bunch of +lights by and by—that was the town, you know—and slid by, about a half +a mile out, all right.  When we was three-quarters of a mile below we +hoisted up our signal lantern; and about ten o'clock it come on to rain +and blow and thunder and lighten like everything; so the king told us +to both stay on watch till the weather got better; then him and the duke +crawled into the wigwam and turned in for the night.  It was my watch +below till twelve, but I wouldn't a turned in anyway if I'd had a bed, +because a body don't see such a storm as that every day in the week, not +by a long sight.  My souls, how the wind did scream along!  And every +second or two there'd come a glare that lit up the white-caps for a half +a mile around, and you'd see the islands looking dusty through the rain, +and the trees thrashing around in the wind; then comes a H-WHACK!—bum! +bum! bumble-umble-um-bum-bum-bum-bum—and the thunder would go rumbling +and grumbling away, and quit—and then RIP comes another flash and +another sockdolager.  The waves most washed me off the raft sometimes, +but I hadn't any clothes on, and didn't mind.  We didn't have no trouble +about snags; the lightning was glaring and flittering around so constant +that we could see them plenty soon enough to throw her head this way or +that and miss them. + +I had the middle watch, you know, but I was pretty sleepy by that time, +so Jim he said he would stand the first half of it for me; he was always +mighty good that way, Jim was.  I crawled into the wigwam, but the king +and the duke had their legs sprawled around so there warn't no show for +me; so I laid outside—I didn't mind the rain, because it was warm, and +the waves warn't running so high now.  About two they come up again, +though, and Jim was going to call me; but he changed his mind, because +he reckoned they warn't high enough yet to do any harm; but he was +mistaken about that, for pretty soon all of a sudden along comes a +regular ripper and washed me overboard.  It most killed Jim a-laughing. + He was the easiest nigger to laugh that ever was, anyway. + +I took the watch, and Jim he laid down and snored away; and by and by +the storm let up for good and all; and the first cabin-light that showed +I rousted him out, and we slid the raft into hiding quarters for the +day. + +The king got out an old ratty deck of cards after breakfast, and him +and the duke played seven-up a while, five cents a game.  Then they got +tired of it, and allowed they would "lay out a campaign," as they called +it. The duke went down into his carpet-bag, and fetched up a lot of +little printed bills and read them out loud.  One bill said, "The +celebrated Dr. Armand de Montalban, of Paris," would "lecture on the +Science of Phrenology" at such and such a place, on the blank day of +blank, at ten cents admission, and "furnish charts of character at +twenty-five cents apiece."  The duke said that was _him_.  In another +bill he was the "world-renowned Shakespearian tragedian, Garrick the +Younger, of Drury Lane, London."  In other bills he had a lot of other +names and done other wonderful things, like finding water and gold with +a "divining-rod," "dissipating witch spells," and so on.  By and by he +says: + +"But the histrionic muse is the darling.  Have you ever trod the boards, +Royalty?" + +"No," says the king. + +"You shall, then, before you're three days older, Fallen Grandeur," says +the duke.  "The first good town we come to we'll hire a hall and do the +sword fight in Richard III. and the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. +How does that strike you?" + +"I'm in, up to the hub, for anything that will pay, Bilgewater; but, you +see, I don't know nothing about play-actin', and hain't ever seen much +of it.  I was too small when pap used to have 'em at the palace.  Do you +reckon you can learn me?" + +"Easy!" + +"All right.  I'm jist a-freezn' for something fresh, anyway.  Le's +commence right away." + +So the duke he told him all about who Romeo was and who Juliet was, and +said he was used to being Romeo, so the king could be Juliet. + +"But if Juliet's such a young gal, duke, my peeled head and my white +whiskers is goin' to look oncommon odd on her, maybe." + +"No, don't you worry; these country jakes won't ever think of that. +Besides, you know, you'll be in costume, and that makes all the +difference in the world; Juliet's in a balcony, enjoying the moonlight +before she goes to bed, and she's got on her night-gown and her ruffled +nightcap.  Here are the costumes for the parts." + +He got out two or three curtain-calico suits, which he said was +meedyevil armor for Richard III. and t'other chap, and a long white +cotton nightshirt and a ruffled nightcap to match.  The king was +satisfied; so the duke got out his book and read the parts over in the +most splendid spread-eagle way, prancing around and acting at the same +time, to show how it had got to be done; then he give the book to the +king and told him to get his part by heart. + +There was a little one-horse town about three mile down the bend, and +after dinner the duke said he had ciphered out his idea about how to run +in daylight without it being dangersome for Jim; so he allowed he would +go down to the town and fix that thing.  The king allowed he would go, +too, and see if he couldn't strike something.  We was out of coffee, so +Jim said I better go along with them in the canoe and get some. + +When we got there there warn't nobody stirring; streets empty, and +perfectly dead and still, like Sunday.  We found a sick nigger sunning +himself in a back yard, and he said everybody that warn't too young or +too sick or too old was gone to camp-meeting, about two mile back in the +woods.  The king got the directions, and allowed he'd go and work that +camp-meeting for all it was worth, and I might go, too. + +The duke said what he was after was a printing-office.  We found it; +a little bit of a concern, up over a carpenter shop—carpenters and +printers all gone to the meeting, and no doors locked.  It was a dirty, +littered-up place, and had ink marks, and handbills with pictures of +horses and runaway niggers on them, all over the walls.  The duke shed +his coat and said he was all right now.  So me and the king lit out for +the camp-meeting. + +We got there in about a half an hour fairly dripping, for it was a most +awful hot day.  There was as much as a thousand people there from +twenty mile around.  The woods was full of teams and wagons, hitched +everywheres, feeding out of the wagon-troughs and stomping to keep +off the flies.  There was sheds made out of poles and roofed over with +branches, where they had lemonade and gingerbread to sell, and piles of +watermelons and green corn and such-like truck. + +The preaching was going on under the same kinds of sheds, only they was +bigger and held crowds of people.  The benches was made out of outside +slabs of logs, with holes bored in the round side to drive sticks into +for legs. They didn't have no backs.  The preachers had high platforms +to stand on at one end of the sheds.  The women had on sun-bonnets; +and some had linsey-woolsey frocks, some gingham ones, and a few of the +young ones had on calico.  Some of the young men was barefooted, and +some of the children didn't have on any clothes but just a tow-linen +shirt.  Some of the old women was knitting, and some of the young folks +was courting on the sly. + +The first shed we come to the preacher was lining out a hymn.  He lined +out two lines, everybody sung it, and it was kind of grand to hear it, +there was so many of them and they done it in such a rousing way; then +he lined out two more for them to sing—and so on.  The people woke up +more and more, and sung louder and louder; and towards the end some +begun to groan, and some begun to shout.  Then the preacher begun to +preach, and begun in earnest, too; and went weaving first to one side of +the platform and then the other, and then a-leaning down over the front +of it, with his arms and his body going all the time, and shouting his +words out with all his might; and every now and then he would hold up +his Bible and spread it open, and kind of pass it around this way and +that, shouting, "It's the brazen serpent in the wilderness!  Look upon +it and live!"  And people would shout out, "Glory!—A-a-_men_!"  And so +he went on, and the people groaning and crying and saying amen: + +"Oh, come to the mourners' bench! come, black with sin! (_Amen_!) come, +sick and sore! (_Amen_!) come, lame and halt and blind! (_Amen_!) come, +pore and needy, sunk in shame! (_A-A-Men_!) come, all that's worn and +soiled and suffering!—come with a broken spirit! come with a contrite +heart! come in your rags and sin and dirt! the waters that cleanse +is free, the door of heaven stands open—oh, enter in and be at rest!" +(_A-A-Men_!  _Glory, Glory Hallelujah!_) + +And so on.  You couldn't make out what the preacher said any more, on +account of the shouting and crying.  Folks got up everywheres in the +crowd, and worked their way just by main strength to the mourners' +bench, with the tears running down their faces; and when all the +mourners had got up there to the front benches in a crowd, they sung and +shouted and flung themselves down on the straw, just crazy and wild. + +Well, the first I knowed the king got a-going, and you could hear him +over everybody; and next he went a-charging up on to the platform, and +the preacher he begged him to speak to the people, and he done it.  He +told them he was a pirate—been a pirate for thirty years out in the +Indian Ocean—and his crew was thinned out considerable last spring in +a fight, and he was home now to take out some fresh men, and thanks to +goodness he'd been robbed last night and put ashore off of a steamboat +without a cent, and he was glad of it; it was the blessedest thing that +ever happened to him, because he was a changed man now, and happy for +the first time in his life; and, poor as he was, he was going to start +right off and work his way back to the Indian Ocean, and put in the rest +of his life trying to turn the pirates into the true path; for he could +do it better than anybody else, being acquainted with all pirate crews +in that ocean; and though it would take him a long time to get there +without money, he would get there anyway, and every time he convinced +a pirate he would say to him, "Don't you thank me, don't you give me no +credit; it all belongs to them dear people in Pokeville camp-meeting, +natural brothers and benefactors of the race, and that dear preacher +there, the truest friend a pirate ever had!" + +And then he busted into tears, and so did everybody.  Then somebody +sings out, "Take up a collection for him, take up a collection!"  Well, +a half a dozen made a jump to do it, but somebody sings out, "Let _him_ +pass the hat around!"  Then everybody said it, the preacher too. + +So the king went all through the crowd with his hat swabbing his eyes, +and blessing the people and praising them and thanking them for being +so good to the poor pirates away off there; and every little while the +prettiest kind of girls, with the tears running down their cheeks, would +up and ask him would he let them kiss him for to remember him by; and he +always done it; and some of them he hugged and kissed as many as five or +six times—and he was invited to stay a week; and everybody wanted him to +live in their houses, and said they'd think it was an honor; but he said +as this was the last day of the camp-meeting he couldn't do no good, and +besides he was in a sweat to get to the Indian Ocean right off and go to +work on the pirates. + +When we got back to the raft and he come to count up he found he had +collected eighty-seven dollars and seventy-five cents.  And then he had +fetched away a three-gallon jug of whisky, too, that he found under a +wagon when he was starting home through the woods.  The king said, +take it all around, it laid over any day he'd ever put in in the +missionarying line.  He said it warn't no use talking, heathens don't +amount to shucks alongside of pirates to work a camp-meeting with. + +The duke was thinking _he'd_ been doing pretty well till the king come +to show up, but after that he didn't think so so much.  He had set +up and printed off two little jobs for farmers in that +printing-office—horse bills—and took the money, four dollars.  And he +had got in ten dollars' worth of advertisements for the paper, which he +said he would put in for four dollars if they would pay in advance—so +they done it. The price of the paper was two dollars a year, but he took +in three subscriptions for half a dollar apiece on condition of them +paying him in advance; they were going to pay in cordwood and onions as +usual, but he said he had just bought the concern and knocked down the +price as low as he could afford it, and was going to run it for cash. + He set up a little piece of poetry, which he made, himself, out of +his own head—three verses—kind of sweet and saddish—the name of it was, +"Yes, crush, cold world, this breaking heart"—and he left that all set +up and ready to print in the paper, and didn't charge nothing for it. + Well, he took in nine dollars and a half, and said he'd done a pretty +square day's work for it. + +Then he showed us another little job he'd printed and hadn't charged +for, because it was for us.  It had a picture of a runaway nigger with +a bundle on a stick over his shoulder, and "$200 reward" under it.  The +reading was all about Jim, and just described him to a dot.  It said +he run away from St. Jacques' plantation, forty mile below New Orleans, +last winter, and likely went north, and whoever would catch him and send +him back he could have the reward and expenses. + +"Now," says the duke, "after to-night we can run in the daytime if we +want to.  Whenever we see anybody coming we can tie Jim hand and foot +with a rope, and lay him in the wigwam and show this handbill and say we +captured him up the river, and were too poor to travel on a steamboat, +so we got this little raft on credit from our friends and are going down +to get the reward.  Handcuffs and chains would look still better on Jim, +but it wouldn't go well with the story of us being so poor.  Too much +like jewelry.  Ropes are the correct thing—we must preserve the unities, +as we say on the boards." + +We all said the duke was pretty smart, and there couldn't be no trouble +about running daytimes.  We judged we could make miles enough that night +to get out of the reach of the powwow we reckoned the duke's work in +the printing office was going to make in that little town; then we could +boom right along if we wanted to. + +We laid low and kept still, and never shoved out till nearly ten +o'clock; then we slid by, pretty wide away from the town, and didn't +hoist our lantern till we was clear out of sight of it. + +When Jim called me to take the watch at four in the morning, he says: + +"Huck, does you reck'n we gwyne to run acrost any mo' kings on dis +trip?" + +"No," I says, "I reckon not." + +"Well," says he, "dat's all right, den.  I doan' mine one er two kings, +but dat's enough.  Dis one's powerful drunk, en de duke ain' much +better." + +I found Jim had been trying to get him to talk French, so he could hear +what it was like; but he said he had been in this country so long, and +had so much trouble, he'd forgot it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +IT was after sun-up now, but we went right on and didn't tie up.  The +king and the duke turned out by and by looking pretty rusty; but after +they'd jumped overboard and took a swim it chippered them up a good +deal. After breakfast the king he took a seat on the corner of the raft, +and pulled off his boots and rolled up his britches, and let his legs +dangle in the water, so as to be comfortable, and lit his pipe, and went +to getting his Romeo and Juliet by heart.  When he had got it pretty +good him and the duke begun to practice it together.  The duke had to +learn him over and over again how to say every speech; and he made him +sigh, and put his hand on his heart, and after a while he said he done +it pretty well; "only," he says, "you mustn't bellow out _Romeo_! +that way, like a bull—you must say it soft and sick and languishy, +so—R-o-o-meo! that is the idea; for Juliet's a dear sweet mere child of +a girl, you know, and she doesn't bray like a jackass." + +Well, next they got out a couple of long swords that the duke made out +of oak laths, and begun to practice the sword fight—the duke called +himself Richard III.; and the way they laid on and pranced around +the raft was grand to see.  But by and by the king tripped and fell +overboard, and after that they took a rest, and had a talk about all +kinds of adventures they'd had in other times along the river. + +After dinner the duke says: + +"Well, Capet, we'll want to make this a first-class show, you know, so +I guess we'll add a little more to it.  We want a little something to +answer encores with, anyway." + +"What's onkores, Bilgewater?" + +The duke told him, and then says: + +"I'll answer by doing the Highland fling or the sailor's hornpipe; and +you—well, let me see—oh, I've got it—you can do Hamlet's soliloquy." + +"Hamlet's which?" + +"Hamlet's soliloquy, you know; the most celebrated thing in Shakespeare. +Ah, it's sublime, sublime!  Always fetches the house.  I haven't got +it in the book—I've only got one volume—but I reckon I can piece it out +from memory.  I'll just walk up and down a minute, and see if I can call +it back from recollection's vaults." + +So he went to marching up and down, thinking, and frowning horrible +every now and then; then he would hoist up his eyebrows; next he would +squeeze his hand on his forehead and stagger back and kind of moan; next +he would sigh, and next he'd let on to drop a tear.  It was beautiful +to see him. By and by he got it.  He told us to give attention.  Then +he strikes a most noble attitude, with one leg shoved forwards, and his +arms stretched away up, and his head tilted back, looking up at the sky; +and then he begins to rip and rave and grit his teeth; and after that, +all through his speech, he howled, and spread around, and swelled up his +chest, and just knocked the spots out of any acting ever I see before. + This is the speech—I learned it, easy enough, while he was learning it +to the king: + +To be, or not to be; that is the bare bodkin That makes calamity of +so long life; For who would fardels bear, till Birnam Wood do come +to Dunsinane, But that the fear of something after death Murders the +innocent sleep, Great nature's second course, And makes us rather sling +the arrows of outrageous fortune Than fly to others that we know not of. +There's the respect must give us pause: Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I +would thou couldst; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The +oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The law's delay, and the +quietus which his pangs might take. In the dead waste and middle of the +night, when churchyards yawn In customary suits of solemn black, But +that the undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns, +Breathes forth contagion on the world, And thus the native hue of +resolution, like the poor cat i' the adage, Is sicklied o'er with care. +And all the clouds that lowered o'er our housetops, With this +regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. 'Tis a +consummation devoutly to be wished. But soft you, the fair Ophelia: Ope +not thy ponderous and marble jaws. But get thee to a nunnery—go! + +Well, the old man he liked that speech, and he mighty soon got it so he +could do it first rate. It seemed like he was just born for it; and when +he had his hand in and was excited, it was perfectly lovely the way he +would rip and tear and rair up behind when he was getting it off. + +The first chance we got, the duke he had some show bills printed; and +after that, for two or three days as we floated along, the raft was a +most uncommon lively place, for there warn't nothing but sword-fighting +and rehearsing—as the duke called it—going on all the time. One morning, +when we was pretty well down the State of Arkansaw, we come in sight +of a little one-horse town in a big bend; so we tied up about +three-quarters of a mile above it, in the mouth of a crick which was +shut in like a tunnel by the cypress trees, and all of us but Jim took +the canoe and went down there to see if there was any chance in that +place for our show. + +We struck it mighty lucky; there was going to be a circus there that +afternoon, and the country people was already beginning to come in, in +all kinds of old shackly wagons, and on horses. The circus would leave +before night, so our show would have a pretty good chance. The duke he +hired the court house, and we went around and stuck up our bills. They +read like this: + +Shaksperean Revival!!! + +Wonderful Attraction! + +For One Night Only! The world renowned tragedians, + +David Garrick the younger, of Drury Lane Theatre, London, + +and + +Edmund Kean the elder, of the Royal Haymarket Theatre, Whitechapel, +Pudding Lane, Piccadilly, London, and the Royal Continental Theatres, in +their sublime Shaksperean Spectacle entitled The Balcony Scene in + +Romeo and Juliet!!! + +Romeo...................................... Mr. Garrick. + +Juliet..................................... Mr. Kean. + +Assisted by the whole strength of the company! + +New costumes, new scenery, new appointments! + +Also: + +The thrilling, masterly, and blood-curdling Broad-sword conflict In +Richard III.!!! + +Richard III................................ Mr. Garrick. + +Richmond................................... Mr. Kean. + +also: + +(by special request,) + +Hamlet's Immortal Soliloquy!! + +By the Illustrious Kean! + +Done by him 300 consecutive nights in Paris! + +For One Night Only, + +On account of imperative European engagements! + +Admission 25 cents; children and servants, 10 cents. + +Then we went loafing around the town. The stores and houses was most all +old shackly dried-up frame concerns that hadn't ever been painted; they +was set up three or four foot above ground on stilts, so as to be out of +reach of the water when the river was overflowed. The houses had little +gardens around them, but they didn't seem to raise hardly anything in +them but jimpson weeds, and sunflowers, and ash-piles, and old curled-up +boots and shoes, and pieces of bottles, and rags, and played-out +tin-ware. The fences was made of different kinds of boards, nailed on +at different times; and they leaned every which-way, and had gates that +didn't generly have but one hinge—a leather one. Some of the fences +had been whitewashed, some time or another, but the duke said it was in +Clumbus's time, like enough. There was generly hogs in the garden, and +people driving them out. + +All the stores was along one street.  They had white domestic awnings in +front, and the country people hitched their horses to the awning-posts. +There was empty drygoods boxes under the awnings, and loafers roosting +on them all day long, whittling them with their Barlow knives; and +chawing tobacco, and gaping and yawning and stretching—a mighty ornery +lot. They generly had on yellow straw hats most as wide as an umbrella, +but didn't wear no coats nor waistcoats, they called one another Bill, +and Buck, and Hank, and Joe, and Andy, and talked lazy and drawly, and +used considerable many cuss words.  There was as many as one loafer +leaning up against every awning-post, and he most always had his hands +in his britches-pockets, except when he fetched them out to lend a chaw +of tobacco or scratch.  What a body was hearing amongst them all the +time was: + +"Gimme a chaw 'v tobacker, Hank." + +"Cain't; I hain't got but one chaw left.  Ask Bill." + +Maybe Bill he gives him a chaw; maybe he lies and says he ain't got +none. Some of them kinds of loafers never has a cent in the world, nor a +chaw of tobacco of their own.  They get all their chawing by borrowing; +they say to a fellow, "I wisht you'd len' me a chaw, Jack, I jist this +minute give Ben Thompson the last chaw I had"—which is a lie pretty +much everytime; it don't fool nobody but a stranger; but Jack ain't no +stranger, so he says: + +"_You_ give him a chaw, did you?  So did your sister's cat's +grandmother. You pay me back the chaws you've awready borry'd off'n me, +Lafe Buckner, then I'll loan you one or two ton of it, and won't charge +you no back intrust, nuther." + +"Well, I _did_ pay you back some of it wunst." + +"Yes, you did—'bout six chaws.  You borry'd store tobacker and paid back +nigger-head." + +Store tobacco is flat black plug, but these fellows mostly chaws the +natural leaf twisted.  When they borrow a chaw they don't generly cut it +off with a knife, but set the plug in between their teeth, and gnaw with +their teeth and tug at the plug with their hands till they get it in +two; then sometimes the one that owns the tobacco looks mournful at it +when it's handed back, and says, sarcastic: + +"Here, gimme the _chaw_, and you take the _plug_." + +All the streets and lanes was just mud; they warn't nothing else _but_ +mud—mud as black as tar and nigh about a foot deep in some places, +and two or three inches deep in _all_ the places.  The hogs loafed and +grunted around everywheres.  You'd see a muddy sow and a litter of pigs +come lazying along the street and whollop herself right down in the way, +where folks had to walk around her, and she'd stretch out and shut her +eyes and wave her ears whilst the pigs was milking her, and look as +happy as if she was on salary. And pretty soon you'd hear a loafer +sing out, "Hi!  _so_ boy! sick him, Tige!" and away the sow would go, +squealing most horrible, with a dog or two swinging to each ear, and +three or four dozen more a-coming; and then you would see all the +loafers get up and watch the thing out of sight, and laugh at the fun +and look grateful for the noise.  Then they'd settle back again till +there was a dog fight.  There couldn't anything wake them up all over, +and make them happy all over, like a dog fight—unless it might be +putting turpentine on a stray dog and setting fire to him, or tying a +tin pan to his tail and see him run himself to death. + +On the river front some of the houses was sticking out over the bank, +and they was bowed and bent, and about ready to tumble in, The people +had moved out of them.  The bank was caved away under one corner of some +others, and that corner was hanging over.  People lived in them yet, but +it was dangersome, because sometimes a strip of land as wide as a house +caves in at a time.  Sometimes a belt of land a quarter of a mile deep +will start in and cave along and cave along till it all caves into the +river in one summer. Such a town as that has to be always moving back, +and back, and back, because the river's always gnawing at it. + +The nearer it got to noon that day the thicker and thicker was the +wagons and horses in the streets, and more coming all the time. + Families fetched their dinners with them from the country, and eat them +in the wagons.  There was considerable whisky drinking going on, and I +seen three fights.  By and by somebody sings out: + +"Here comes old Boggs!—in from the country for his little old monthly +drunk; here he comes, boys!" + +All the loafers looked glad; I reckoned they was used to having fun out +of Boggs.  One of them says: + +"Wonder who he's a-gwyne to chaw up this time.  If he'd a-chawed up all +the men he's ben a-gwyne to chaw up in the last twenty year he'd have +considerable ruputation now." + +Another one says, "I wisht old Boggs 'd threaten me, 'cuz then I'd know +I warn't gwyne to die for a thousan' year." + +Boggs comes a-tearing along on his horse, whooping and yelling like an +Injun, and singing out: + +"Cler the track, thar.  I'm on the waw-path, and the price uv coffins is +a-gwyne to raise." + +He was drunk, and weaving about in his saddle; he was over fifty year +old, and had a very red face.  Everybody yelled at him and laughed at +him and sassed him, and he sassed back, and said he'd attend to them and +lay them out in their regular turns, but he couldn't wait now because +he'd come to town to kill old Colonel Sherburn, and his motto was, "Meat +first, and spoon vittles to top off on." + +He see me, and rode up and says: + +"Whar'd you come f'm, boy?  You prepared to die?" + +Then he rode on.  I was scared, but a man says: + +"He don't mean nothing; he's always a-carryin' on like that when he's +drunk.  He's the best naturedest old fool in Arkansaw—never hurt nobody, +drunk nor sober." + +Boggs rode up before the biggest store in town, and bent his head down +so he could see under the curtain of the awning and yells: + +"Come out here, Sherburn! Come out and meet the man you've swindled. +You're the houn' I'm after, and I'm a-gwyne to have you, too!" + +And so he went on, calling Sherburn everything he could lay his tongue +to, and the whole street packed with people listening and laughing and +going on.  By and by a proud-looking man about fifty-five—and he was a +heap the best dressed man in that town, too—steps out of the store, and +the crowd drops back on each side to let him come.  He says to Boggs, +mighty ca'm and slow—he says: + +"I'm tired of this, but I'll endure it till one o'clock.  Till one +o'clock, mind—no longer.  If you open your mouth against me only once +after that time you can't travel so far but I will find you." + +Then he turns and goes in.  The crowd looked mighty sober; nobody +stirred, and there warn't no more laughing.  Boggs rode off +blackguarding Sherburn as loud as he could yell, all down the street; +and pretty soon back he comes and stops before the store, still keeping +it up.  Some men crowded around him and tried to get him to shut up, +but he wouldn't; they told him it would be one o'clock in about fifteen +minutes, and so he _must_ go home—he must go right away.  But it didn't +do no good.  He cussed away with all his might, and throwed his hat down +in the mud and rode over it, and pretty soon away he went a-raging down +the street again, with his gray hair a-flying. Everybody that could get +a chance at him tried their best to coax him off of his horse so they +could lock him up and get him sober; but it warn't no use—up the street +he would tear again, and give Sherburn another cussing.  By and by +somebody says: + +"Go for his daughter!—quick, go for his daughter; sometimes he'll listen +to her.  If anybody can persuade him, she can." + +So somebody started on a run.  I walked down street a ways and stopped. +In about five or ten minutes here comes Boggs again, but not on his +horse.  He was a-reeling across the street towards me, bare-headed, with +a friend on both sides of him a-holt of his arms and hurrying him along. +He was quiet, and looked uneasy; and he warn't hanging back any, but was +doing some of the hurrying himself.  Somebody sings out: + +"Boggs!" + +I looked over there to see who said it, and it was that Colonel +Sherburn. He was standing perfectly still in the street, and had a +pistol raised in his right hand—not aiming it, but holding it out with +the barrel tilted up towards the sky.  The same second I see a young +girl coming on the run, and two men with her.  Boggs and the men turned +round to see who called him, and when they see the pistol the men +jumped to one side, and the pistol-barrel come down slow and steady to +a level—both barrels cocked. Boggs throws up both of his hands and says, +"O Lord, don't shoot!"  Bang! goes the first shot, and he staggers back, +clawing at the air—bang! goes the second one, and he tumbles backwards +on to the ground, heavy and solid, with his arms spread out.  That young +girl screamed out and comes rushing, and down she throws herself on her +father, crying, and saying, "Oh, he's killed him, he's killed him!"  The +crowd closed up around them, and shouldered and jammed one another, with +their necks stretched, trying to see, and people on the inside trying to +shove them back and shouting, "Back, back! give him air, give him air!" + +Colonel Sherburn he tossed his pistol on to the ground, and turned +around on his heels and walked off. + +They took Boggs to a little drug store, the crowd pressing around just +the same, and the whole town following, and I rushed and got a good +place at the window, where I was close to him and could see in.  They +laid him on the floor and put one large Bible under his head, and opened +another one and spread it on his breast; but they tore open his shirt +first, and I seen where one of the bullets went in.  He made about a +dozen long gasps, his breast lifting the Bible up when he drawed in his +breath, and letting it down again when he breathed it out—and after that +he laid still; he was dead.  Then they pulled his daughter away from +him, screaming and crying, and took her off.  She was about sixteen, and +very sweet and gentle looking, but awful pale and scared. + +Well, pretty soon the whole town was there, squirming and scrouging and +pushing and shoving to get at the window and have a look, but people +that had the places wouldn't give them up, and folks behind them was +saying all the time, "Say, now, you've looked enough, you fellows; +'tain't right and 'tain't fair for you to stay thar all the time, and +never give nobody a chance; other folks has their rights as well as +you." + +There was considerable jawing back, so I slid out, thinking maybe +there was going to be trouble.  The streets was full, and everybody was +excited. Everybody that seen the shooting was telling how it happened, +and there was a big crowd packed around each one of these fellows, +stretching their necks and listening.  One long, lanky man, with long +hair and a big white fur stovepipe hat on the back of his head, and a +crooked-handled cane, marked out the places on the ground where Boggs +stood and where Sherburn stood, and the people following him around from +one place to t'other and watching everything he done, and bobbing their +heads to show they understood, and stooping a little and resting their +hands on their thighs to watch him mark the places on the ground with +his cane; and then he stood up straight and stiff where Sherburn had +stood, frowning and having his hat-brim down over his eyes, and sung +out, "Boggs!" and then fetched his cane down slow to a level, and says +"Bang!" staggered backwards, says "Bang!" again, and fell down flat on +his back. The people that had seen the thing said he done it perfect; +said it was just exactly the way it all happened.  Then as much as a +dozen people got out their bottles and treated him. + +Well, by and by somebody said Sherburn ought to be lynched.  In about a +minute everybody was saying it; so away they went, mad and yelling, and +snatching down every clothes-line they come to to do the hanging with. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +THEY swarmed up towards Sherburn's house, a-whooping and raging like +Injuns, and everything had to clear the way or get run over and tromped +to mush, and it was awful to see.  Children was heeling it ahead of the +mob, screaming and trying to get out of the way; and every window along +the road was full of women's heads, and there was nigger boys in every +tree, and bucks and wenches looking over every fence; and as soon as the +mob would get nearly to them they would break and skaddle back out of +reach.  Lots of the women and girls was crying and taking on, scared +most to death. + +They swarmed up in front of Sherburn's palings as thick as they could +jam together, and you couldn't hear yourself think for the noise.  It +was a little twenty-foot yard.  Some sung out "Tear down the fence! tear +down the fence!"  Then there was a racket of ripping and tearing and +smashing, and down she goes, and the front wall of the crowd begins to +roll in like a wave. + +Just then Sherburn steps out on to the roof of his little front porch, +with a double-barrel gun in his hand, and takes his stand, perfectly +ca'm and deliberate, not saying a word.  The racket stopped, and the +wave sucked back. + +Sherburn never said a word—just stood there, looking down.  The +stillness was awful creepy and uncomfortable.  Sherburn run his eye slow +along the crowd; and wherever it struck the people tried a little to +out-gaze him, but they couldn't; they dropped their eyes and looked +sneaky. Then pretty soon Sherburn sort of laughed; not the pleasant +kind, but the kind that makes you feel like when you are eating bread +that's got sand in it. + +Then he says, slow and scornful: + +"The idea of _you_ lynching anybody!  It's amusing.  The idea of you +thinking you had pluck enough to lynch a _man_!  Because you're brave +enough to tar and feather poor friendless cast-out women that come along +here, did that make you think you had grit enough to lay your hands on a +_man_?  Why, a _man's_ safe in the hands of ten thousand of your kind—as +long as it's daytime and you're not behind him. + +"Do I know you?  I know you clear through was born and raised in the +South, and I've lived in the North; so I know the average all around. +The average man's a coward.  In the North he lets anybody walk over him +that wants to, and goes home and prays for a humble spirit to bear it. +In the South one man all by himself, has stopped a stage full of men +in the daytime, and robbed the lot.  Your newspapers call you a +brave people so much that you think you are braver than any other +people—whereas you're just _as_ brave, and no braver.  Why don't your +juries hang murderers?  Because they're afraid the man's friends will +shoot them in the back, in the dark—and it's just what they _would_ do. + +"So they always acquit; and then a _man_ goes in the night, with a +hundred masked cowards at his back and lynches the rascal.  Your mistake +is, that you didn't bring a man with you; that's one mistake, and the +other is that you didn't come in the dark and fetch your masks.  You +brought _part_ of a man—Buck Harkness, there—and if you hadn't had him +to start you, you'd a taken it out in blowing. + +"You didn't want to come.  The average man don't like trouble and +danger. _You_ don't like trouble and danger.  But if only _half_ a +man—like Buck Harkness, there—shouts 'Lynch him! lynch him!' you're +afraid to back down—afraid you'll be found out to be what you +are—_cowards_—and so you raise a yell, and hang yourselves on to that +half-a-man's coat-tail, and come raging up here, swearing what big +things you're going to do. The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that's +what an army is—a mob; they don't fight with courage that's born in +them, but with courage that's borrowed from their mass, and from their +officers.  But a mob without any _man_ at the head of it is _beneath_ +pitifulness.  Now the thing for _you_ to do is to droop your tails and +go home and crawl in a hole.  If any real lynching's going to be done it +will be done in the dark, Southern fashion; and when they come they'll +bring their masks, and fetch a _man_ along.  Now _leave_—and take your +half-a-man with you"—tossing his gun up across his left arm and cocking +it when he says this. + +The crowd washed back sudden, and then broke all apart, and went tearing +off every which way, and Buck Harkness he heeled it after them, looking +tolerable cheap.  I could a stayed if I wanted to, but I didn't want to. + +I went to the circus and loafed around the back side till the watchman +went by, and then dived in under the tent.  I had my twenty-dollar gold +piece and some other money, but I reckoned I better save it, because +there ain't no telling how soon you are going to need it, away from +home and amongst strangers that way.  You can't be too careful.  I ain't +opposed to spending money on circuses when there ain't no other way, but +there ain't no use in _wasting_ it on them. + +It was a real bully circus.  It was the splendidest sight that ever was +when they all come riding in, two and two, a gentleman and lady, side +by side, the men just in their drawers and undershirts, and no shoes +nor stirrups, and resting their hands on their thighs easy and +comfortable—there must a been twenty of them—and every lady with a +lovely complexion, and perfectly beautiful, and looking just like a gang +of real sure-enough queens, and dressed in clothes that cost millions of +dollars, and just littered with diamonds.  It was a powerful fine sight; +I never see anything so lovely.  And then one by one they got up +and stood, and went a-weaving around the ring so gentle and wavy and +graceful, the men looking ever so tall and airy and straight, with their +heads bobbing and skimming along, away up there under the tent-roof, and +every lady's rose-leafy dress flapping soft and silky around her hips, +and she looking like the most loveliest parasol. + +And then faster and faster they went, all of them dancing, first one +foot out in the air and then the other, the horses leaning more and +more, and the ringmaster going round and round the center-pole, cracking +his whip and shouting "Hi!—hi!" and the clown cracking jokes behind +him; and by and by all hands dropped the reins, and every lady put her +knuckles on her hips and every gentleman folded his arms, and then how +the horses did lean over and hump themselves!  And so one after the +other they all skipped off into the ring, and made the sweetest bow I +ever see, and then scampered out, and everybody clapped their hands and +went just about wild. + +Well, all through the circus they done the most astonishing things; and +all the time that clown carried on so it most killed the people.  The +ringmaster couldn't ever say a word to him but he was back at him quick +as a wink with the funniest things a body ever said; and how he ever +_could_ think of so many of them, and so sudden and so pat, was what I +couldn't noway understand. Why, I couldn't a thought of them in a year. +And by and by a drunk man tried to get into the ring—said he wanted to +ride; said he could ride as well as anybody that ever was.  They argued +and tried to keep him out, but he wouldn't listen, and the whole show +come to a standstill.  Then the people begun to holler at him and make +fun of him, and that made him mad, and he begun to rip and tear; so that +stirred up the people, and a lot of men begun to pile down off of the +benches and swarm towards the ring, saying, "Knock him down! throw him +out!" and one or two women begun to scream.  So, then, the ringmaster +he made a little speech, and said he hoped there wouldn't be no +disturbance, and if the man would promise he wouldn't make no more +trouble he would let him ride if he thought he could stay on the horse. + So everybody laughed and said all right, and the man got on. The minute +he was on, the horse begun to rip and tear and jump and cavort around, +with two circus men hanging on to his bridle trying to hold him, and the +drunk man hanging on to his neck, and his heels flying in the air every +jump, and the whole crowd of people standing up shouting and laughing +till tears rolled down.  And at last, sure enough, all the circus men +could do, the horse broke loose, and away he went like the very nation, +round and round the ring, with that sot laying down on him and hanging +to his neck, with first one leg hanging most to the ground on one side, +and then t'other one on t'other side, and the people just crazy.  It +warn't funny to me, though; I was all of a tremble to see his danger. + But pretty soon he struggled up astraddle and grabbed the bridle, +a-reeling this way and that; and the next minute he sprung up and +dropped the bridle and stood! and the horse a-going like a house afire +too.  He just stood up there, a-sailing around as easy and comfortable +as if he warn't ever drunk in his life—and then he begun to pull off his +clothes and sling them.  He shed them so thick they kind of clogged up +the air, and altogether he shed seventeen suits. And, then, there he +was, slim and handsome, and dressed the gaudiest and prettiest you +ever saw, and he lit into that horse with his whip and made him fairly +hum—and finally skipped off, and made his bow and danced off to +the dressing-room, and everybody just a-howling with pleasure and +astonishment. + +Then the ringmaster he see how he had been fooled, and he _was_ the +sickest ringmaster you ever see, I reckon.  Why, it was one of his own +men!  He had got up that joke all out of his own head, and never let on +to nobody. Well, I felt sheepish enough to be took in so, but I wouldn't +a been in that ringmaster's place, not for a thousand dollars.  I don't +know; there may be bullier circuses than what that one was, but I +never struck them yet. Anyways, it was plenty good enough for _me_; and +wherever I run across it, it can have all of _my_ custom every time. + +Well, that night we had _our_ show; but there warn't only about twelve +people there—just enough to pay expenses.  And they laughed all the +time, and that made the duke mad; and everybody left, anyway, before +the show was over, but one boy which was asleep.  So the duke said these +Arkansaw lunkheads couldn't come up to Shakespeare; what they wanted +was low comedy—and maybe something ruther worse than low comedy, he +reckoned.  He said he could size their style.  So next morning he got +some big sheets of wrapping paper and some black paint, and drawed off +some handbills, and stuck them up all over the village.  The bills said: + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +WELL, all day him and the king was hard at it, rigging up a stage and +a curtain and a row of candles for footlights; and that night the house +was jam full of men in no time.  When the place couldn't hold no more, +the duke he quit tending door and went around the back way and come on +to the stage and stood up before the curtain and made a little speech, +and praised up this tragedy, and said it was the most thrillingest one +that ever was; and so he went on a-bragging about the tragedy, and about +Edmund Kean the Elder, which was to play the main principal part in it; +and at last when he'd got everybody's expectations up high enough, he +rolled up the curtain, and the next minute the king come a-prancing +out on all fours, naked; and he was painted all over, +ring-streaked-and-striped, all sorts of colors, as splendid as a +rainbow.  And—but never mind the rest of his outfit; it was just wild, +but it was awful funny. The people most killed themselves laughing; and +when the king got done capering and capered off behind the scenes, they +roared and clapped and stormed and haw-hawed till he come back and done +it over again, and after that they made him do it another time. Well, it +would make a cow laugh to see the shines that old idiot cut. + +Then the duke he lets the curtain down, and bows to the people, and says +the great tragedy will be performed only two nights more, on accounts of +pressing London engagements, where the seats is all sold already for it +in Drury Lane; and then he makes them another bow, and says if he has +succeeded in pleasing them and instructing them, he will be deeply +obleeged if they will mention it to their friends and get them to come +and see it. + +Twenty people sings out: + +"What, is it over?  Is that _all_?" + +The duke says yes.  Then there was a fine time.  Everybody sings +out, "Sold!" and rose up mad, and was a-going for that stage and them +tragedians.  But a big, fine looking man jumps up on a bench and shouts: + +"Hold on!  Just a word, gentlemen."  They stopped to listen.  "We are +sold—mighty badly sold.  But we don't want to be the laughing stock of +this whole town, I reckon, and never hear the last of this thing as long +as we live.  _No_.  What we want is to go out of here quiet, and talk +this show up, and sell the _rest_ of the town!  Then we'll all be in the +same boat.  Ain't that sensible?" ("You bet it is!—the jedge is right!" +everybody sings out.) "All right, then—not a word about any sell.  Go +along home, and advise everybody to come and see the tragedy." + +Next day you couldn't hear nothing around that town but how splendid +that show was.  House was jammed again that night, and we sold this +crowd the same way.  When me and the king and the duke got home to the +raft we all had a supper; and by and by, about midnight, they made Jim +and me back her out and float her down the middle of the river, and +fetch her in and hide her about two mile below town. + +The third night the house was crammed again—and they warn't new-comers +this time, but people that was at the show the other two nights.  I +stood by the duke at the door, and I see that every man that went in had +his pockets bulging, or something muffled up under his coat—and I see it +warn't no perfumery, neither, not by a long sight.  I smelt sickly eggs +by the barrel, and rotten cabbages, and such things; and if I know the +signs of a dead cat being around, and I bet I do, there was sixty-four +of them went in.  I shoved in there for a minute, but it was too various +for me; I couldn't stand it.  Well, when the place couldn't hold no more +people the duke he give a fellow a quarter and told him to tend door +for him a minute, and then he started around for the stage door, I after +him; but the minute we turned the corner and was in the dark he says: + +"Walk fast now till you get away from the houses, and then shin for the +raft like the dickens was after you!" + +I done it, and he done the same.  We struck the raft at the same time, +and in less than two seconds we was gliding down stream, all dark and +still, and edging towards the middle of the river, nobody saying a +word. I reckoned the poor king was in for a gaudy time of it with the +audience, but nothing of the sort; pretty soon he crawls out from under +the wigwam, and says: + +"Well, how'd the old thing pan out this time, duke?"  He hadn't been +up-town at all. + +We never showed a light till we was about ten mile below the village. +Then we lit up and had a supper, and the king and the duke fairly +laughed their bones loose over the way they'd served them people.  The +duke says: + +"Greenhorns, flatheads!  I knew the first house would keep mum and let +the rest of the town get roped in; and I knew they'd lay for us the +third night, and consider it was _their_ turn now.  Well, it _is_ their +turn, and I'd give something to know how much they'd take for it.  I +_would_ just like to know how they're putting in their opportunity. + They can turn it into a picnic if they want to—they brought plenty +provisions." + +Them rapscallions took in four hundred and sixty-five dollars in that +three nights.  I never see money hauled in by the wagon-load like that +before.  By and by, when they was asleep and snoring, Jim says: + +"Don't it s'prise you de way dem kings carries on, Huck?" + +"No," I says, "it don't." + +"Why don't it, Huck?" + +"Well, it don't, because it's in the breed.  I reckon they're all +alike." + +"But, Huck, dese kings o' ourn is reglar rapscallions; dat's jist what +dey is; dey's reglar rapscallions." + +"Well, that's what I'm a-saying; all kings is mostly rapscallions, as +fur as I can make out." + +"Is dat so?" + +"You read about them once—you'll see.  Look at Henry the Eight; this 'n +'s a Sunday-school Superintendent to _him_.  And look at Charles Second, +and Louis Fourteen, and Louis Fifteen, and James Second, and Edward +Second, and Richard Third, and forty more; besides all them Saxon +heptarchies that used to rip around so in old times and raise Cain.  My, +you ought to seen old Henry the Eight when he was in bloom.  He _was_ a +blossom.  He used to marry a new wife every day, and chop off her head +next morning.  And he would do it just as indifferent as if he was +ordering up eggs.  'Fetch up Nell Gwynn,' he says.  They fetch her up. +Next morning, 'Chop off her head!'  And they chop it off.  'Fetch up +Jane Shore,' he says; and up she comes, Next morning, 'Chop off her +head'—and they chop it off.  'Ring up Fair Rosamun.'  Fair Rosamun +answers the bell.  Next morning, 'Chop off her head.'  And he made every +one of them tell him a tale every night; and he kept that up till he had +hogged a thousand and one tales that way, and then he put them all in a +book, and called it Domesday Book—which was a good name and stated the +case.  You don't know kings, Jim, but I know them; and this old rip +of ourn is one of the cleanest I've struck in history.  Well, Henry he +takes a notion he wants to get up some trouble with this country. How +does he go at it—give notice?—give the country a show?  No.  All of a +sudden he heaves all the tea in Boston Harbor overboard, and whacks +out a declaration of independence, and dares them to come on.  That was +_his_ style—he never give anybody a chance.  He had suspicions of his +father, the Duke of Wellington.  Well, what did he do?  Ask him to show +up?  No—drownded him in a butt of mamsey, like a cat.  S'pose people +left money laying around where he was—what did he do?  He collared it. + S'pose he contracted to do a thing, and you paid him, and didn't set +down there and see that he done it—what did he do?  He always done the +other thing. S'pose he opened his mouth—what then?  If he didn't shut it +up powerful quick he'd lose a lie every time.  That's the kind of a bug +Henry was; and if we'd a had him along 'stead of our kings he'd a fooled +that town a heap worse than ourn done.  I don't say that ourn is lambs, +because they ain't, when you come right down to the cold facts; but they +ain't nothing to _that_ old ram, anyway.  All I say is, kings is kings, +and you got to make allowances.  Take them all around, they're a mighty +ornery lot. It's the way they're raised." + +"But dis one do _smell_ so like de nation, Huck." + +"Well, they all do, Jim.  We can't help the way a king smells; history +don't tell no way." + +"Now de duke, he's a tolerble likely man in some ways." + +"Yes, a duke's different.  But not very different.  This one's +a middling hard lot for a duke.  When he's drunk there ain't no +near-sighted man could tell him from a king." + +"Well, anyways, I doan' hanker for no mo' un um, Huck.  Dese is all I +kin stan'." + +"It's the way I feel, too, Jim.  But we've got them on our hands, and we +got to remember what they are, and make allowances.  Sometimes I wish we +could hear of a country that's out of kings." + +What was the use to tell Jim these warn't real kings and dukes?  It +wouldn't a done no good; and, besides, it was just as I said:  you +couldn't tell them from the real kind. + +I went to sleep, and Jim didn't call me when it was my turn.  He often +done that.  When I waked up just at daybreak he was sitting there with +his head down betwixt his knees, moaning and mourning to himself.  I +didn't take notice nor let on.  I knowed what it was about.  He was +thinking about his wife and his children, away up yonder, and he was low +and homesick; because he hadn't ever been away from home before in his +life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white +folks does for their'n.  It don't seem natural, but I reckon it's so. + He was often moaning and mourning that way nights, when he judged I +was asleep, and saying, "Po' little 'Lizabeth! po' little Johnny! it's +mighty hard; I spec' I ain't ever gwyne to see you no mo', no mo'!"  He +was a mighty good nigger, Jim was. + +But this time I somehow got to talking to him about his wife and young +ones; and by and by he says: + +"What makes me feel so bad dis time 'uz bekase I hear sumpn over yonder +on de bank like a whack, er a slam, while ago, en it mine me er de time +I treat my little 'Lizabeth so ornery.  She warn't on'y 'bout fo' year +ole, en she tuck de sk'yarlet fever, en had a powful rough spell; but +she got well, en one day she was a-stannin' aroun', en I says to her, I +says: + +"'Shet de do'.' + +"She never done it; jis' stood dah, kiner smilin' up at me.  It make me +mad; en I says agin, mighty loud, I says: + +"'Doan' you hear me?  Shet de do'!' + +"She jis stood de same way, kiner smilin' up.  I was a-bilin'!  I says: + +"'I lay I _make_ you mine!' + +"En wid dat I fetch' her a slap side de head dat sont her a-sprawlin'. +Den I went into de yuther room, en 'uz gone 'bout ten minutes; en when +I come back dah was dat do' a-stannin' open _yit_, en dat chile stannin' +mos' right in it, a-lookin' down and mournin', en de tears runnin' down. + My, but I _wuz_ mad!  I was a-gwyne for de chile, but jis' den—it was a +do' dat open innerds—jis' den, 'long come de wind en slam it to, behine +de chile, ker-BLAM!—en my lan', de chile never move'!  My breff mos' +hop outer me; en I feel so—so—I doan' know HOW I feel.  I crope out, +all a-tremblin', en crope aroun' en open de do' easy en slow, en poke my +head in behine de chile, sof' en still, en all uv a sudden I says POW! +jis' as loud as I could yell.  _She never budge!_  Oh, Huck, I bust out +a-cryin' en grab her up in my arms, en say, 'Oh, de po' little thing! + De Lord God Amighty fogive po' ole Jim, kaze he never gwyne to fogive +hisself as long's he live!'  Oh, she was plumb deef en dumb, Huck, plumb +deef en dumb—en I'd ben a-treat'n her so!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +NEXT day, towards night, we laid up under a little willow towhead out in +the middle, where there was a village on each side of the river, and the +duke and the king begun to lay out a plan for working them towns.  Jim +he spoke to the duke, and said he hoped it wouldn't take but a few +hours, because it got mighty heavy and tiresome to him when he had to +lay all day in the wigwam tied with the rope.  You see, when we left him +all alone we had to tie him, because if anybody happened on to him all +by himself and not tied it wouldn't look much like he was a runaway +nigger, you know. So the duke said it _was_ kind of hard to have to lay +roped all day, and he'd cipher out some way to get around it. + +He was uncommon bright, the duke was, and he soon struck it.  He dressed +Jim up in King Lear's outfit—it was a long curtain-calico gown, and a +white horse-hair wig and whiskers; and then he took his theater paint +and painted Jim's face and hands and ears and neck all over a dead, +dull, solid blue, like a man that's been drownded nine days.  Blamed if +he warn't the horriblest looking outrage I ever see.  Then the duke took +and wrote out a sign on a shingle so: + +Sick Arab—but harmless when not out of his head. + +And he nailed that shingle to a lath, and stood the lath up four or five +foot in front of the wigwam.  Jim was satisfied.  He said it was a sight +better than lying tied a couple of years every day, and trembling all +over every time there was a sound.  The duke told him to make himself +free and easy, and if anybody ever come meddling around, he must hop +out of the wigwam, and carry on a little, and fetch a howl or two like +a wild beast, and he reckoned they would light out and leave him alone. + Which was sound enough judgment; but you take the average man, and he +wouldn't wait for him to howl.  Why, he didn't only look like he was +dead, he looked considerable more than that. + +These rapscallions wanted to try the Nonesuch again, because there was +so much money in it, but they judged it wouldn't be safe, because maybe +the news might a worked along down by this time.  They couldn't hit no +project that suited exactly; so at last the duke said he reckoned he'd +lay off and work his brains an hour or two and see if he couldn't put up +something on the Arkansaw village; and the king he allowed he would drop +over to t'other village without any plan, but just trust in Providence +to lead him the profitable way—meaning the devil, I reckon.  We had all +bought store clothes where we stopped last; and now the king put his'n +on, and he told me to put mine on.  I done it, of course.  The king's +duds was all black, and he did look real swell and starchy.  I never +knowed how clothes could change a body before.  Why, before, he looked +like the orneriest old rip that ever was; but now, when he'd take off +his new white beaver and make a bow and do a smile, he looked that grand +and good and pious that you'd say he had walked right out of the ark, +and maybe was old Leviticus himself.  Jim cleaned up the canoe, and I +got my paddle ready.  There was a big steamboat laying at the shore away +up under the point, about three mile above the town—been there a couple +of hours, taking on freight.  Says the king: + +"Seein' how I'm dressed, I reckon maybe I better arrive down from St. +Louis or Cincinnati, or some other big place.  Go for the steamboat, +Huckleberry; we'll come down to the village on her." + +I didn't have to be ordered twice to go and take a steamboat ride. + I fetched the shore a half a mile above the village, and then went +scooting along the bluff bank in the easy water.  Pretty soon we come to +a nice innocent-looking young country jake setting on a log swabbing the +sweat off of his face, for it was powerful warm weather; and he had a +couple of big carpet-bags by him. + +"Run her nose in shore," says the king.  I done it.  "Wher' you bound +for, young man?" + +"For the steamboat; going to Orleans." + +"Git aboard," says the king.  "Hold on a minute, my servant 'll he'p you +with them bags.  Jump out and he'p the gentleman, Adolphus"—meaning me, +I see. + +I done so, and then we all three started on again.  The young chap was +mighty thankful; said it was tough work toting his baggage such weather. +He asked the king where he was going, and the king told him he'd come +down the river and landed at the other village this morning, and now he +was going up a few mile to see an old friend on a farm up there.  The +young fellow says: + +"When I first see you I says to myself, 'It's Mr. Wilks, sure, and he +come mighty near getting here in time.'  But then I says again, 'No, I +reckon it ain't him, or else he wouldn't be paddling up the river.'  You +_ain't_ him, are you?" + +"No, my name's Blodgett—Elexander Blodgett—_Reverend_ Elexander +Blodgett, I s'pose I must say, as I'm one o' the Lord's poor servants. + But still I'm jist as able to be sorry for Mr. Wilks for not arriving +in time, all the same, if he's missed anything by it—which I hope he +hasn't." + +"Well, he don't miss any property by it, because he'll get that all +right; but he's missed seeing his brother Peter die—which he mayn't +mind, nobody can tell as to that—but his brother would a give anything +in this world to see _him_ before he died; never talked about nothing +else all these three weeks; hadn't seen him since they was boys +together—and hadn't ever seen his brother William at all—that's the deef +and dumb one—William ain't more than thirty or thirty-five.  Peter and +George were the only ones that come out here; George was the married +brother; him and his wife both died last year.  Harvey and William's the +only ones that's left now; and, as I was saying, they haven't got here +in time." + +"Did anybody send 'em word?" + +"Oh, yes; a month or two ago, when Peter was first took; because Peter +said then that he sorter felt like he warn't going to get well this +time. You see, he was pretty old, and George's g'yirls was too young to +be much company for him, except Mary Jane, the red-headed one; and so he +was kinder lonesome after George and his wife died, and didn't seem +to care much to live.  He most desperately wanted to see Harvey—and +William, too, for that matter—because he was one of them kind that can't +bear to make a will.  He left a letter behind for Harvey, and said he'd +told in it where his money was hid, and how he wanted the rest of the +property divided up so George's g'yirls would be all right—for George +didn't leave nothing.  And that letter was all they could get him to put +a pen to." + +"Why do you reckon Harvey don't come?  Wher' does he live?" + +"Oh, he lives in England—Sheffield—preaches there—hasn't ever been in +this country.  He hasn't had any too much time—and besides he mightn't a +got the letter at all, you know." + +"Too bad, too bad he couldn't a lived to see his brothers, poor soul. +You going to Orleans, you say?" + +"Yes, but that ain't only a part of it.  I'm going in a ship, next +Wednesday, for Ryo Janeero, where my uncle lives." + +"It's a pretty long journey.  But it'll be lovely; wisht I was a-going. +Is Mary Jane the oldest?  How old is the others?" + +"Mary Jane's nineteen, Susan's fifteen, and Joanna's about +fourteen—that's the one that gives herself to good works and has a +hare-lip." + +"Poor things! to be left alone in the cold world so." + +"Well, they could be worse off.  Old Peter had friends, and they +ain't going to let them come to no harm.  There's Hobson, the Babtis' +preacher; and Deacon Lot Hovey, and Ben Rucker, and Abner Shackleford, +and Levi Bell, the lawyer; and Dr. Robinson, and their wives, and the +widow Bartley, and—well, there's a lot of them; but these are the ones +that Peter was thickest with, and used to write about sometimes, when +he wrote home; so Harvey 'll know where to look for friends when he gets +here." + +Well, the old man went on asking questions till he just fairly emptied +that young fellow.  Blamed if he didn't inquire about everybody and +everything in that blessed town, and all about the Wilkses; and about +Peter's business—which was a tanner; and about George's—which was a +carpenter; and about Harvey's—which was a dissentering minister; and so +on, and so on.  Then he says: + +"What did you want to walk all the way up to the steamboat for?" + +"Because she's a big Orleans boat, and I was afeard she mightn't stop +there.  When they're deep they won't stop for a hail.  A Cincinnati boat +will, but this is a St. Louis one." + +"Was Peter Wilks well off?" + +"Oh, yes, pretty well off.  He had houses and land, and it's reckoned he +left three or four thousand in cash hid up som'ers." + +"When did you say he died?" + +"I didn't say, but it was last night." + +"Funeral to-morrow, likely?" + +"Yes, 'bout the middle of the day." + +"Well, it's all terrible sad; but we've all got to go, one time or +another. So what we want to do is to be prepared; then we're all right." + +"Yes, sir, it's the best way.  Ma used to always say that." + +When we struck the boat she was about done loading, and pretty soon she +got off.  The king never said nothing about going aboard, so I lost +my ride, after all.  When the boat was gone the king made me paddle up +another mile to a lonesome place, and then he got ashore and says: + +"Now hustle back, right off, and fetch the duke up here, and the new +carpet-bags.  And if he's gone over to t'other side, go over there and +git him.  And tell him to git himself up regardless.  Shove along, now." + +I see what _he_ was up to; but I never said nothing, of course.  When +I got back with the duke we hid the canoe, and then they set down on a +log, and the king told him everything, just like the young fellow had +said it—every last word of it.  And all the time he was a-doing it he +tried to talk like an Englishman; and he done it pretty well, too, for +a slouch. I can't imitate him, and so I ain't a-going to try to; but he +really done it pretty good.  Then he says: + +"How are you on the deef and dumb, Bilgewater?" + +The duke said, leave him alone for that; said he had played a deef +and dumb person on the histronic boards.  So then they waited for a +steamboat. + +About the middle of the afternoon a couple of little boats come along, +but they didn't come from high enough up the river; but at last there +was a big one, and they hailed her.  She sent out her yawl, and we went +aboard, and she was from Cincinnati; and when they found we only wanted +to go four or five mile they was booming mad, and gave us a cussing, and +said they wouldn't land us.  But the king was ca'm.  He says: + +"If gentlemen kin afford to pay a dollar a mile apiece to be took on and +put off in a yawl, a steamboat kin afford to carry 'em, can't it?" + +So they softened down and said it was all right; and when we got to the +village they yawled us ashore.  About two dozen men flocked down when +they see the yawl a-coming, and when the king says: + +"Kin any of you gentlemen tell me wher' Mr. Peter Wilks lives?" they +give a glance at one another, and nodded their heads, as much as to say, +"What d' I tell you?"  Then one of them says, kind of soft and gentle: + +"I'm sorry sir, but the best we can do is to tell you where he _did_ +live yesterday evening." + +Sudden as winking the ornery old cretur went an to smash, and fell up +against the man, and put his chin on his shoulder, and cried down his +back, and says: + +"Alas, alas, our poor brother—gone, and we never got to see him; oh, +it's too, too hard!" + +Then he turns around, blubbering, and makes a lot of idiotic signs to +the duke on his hands, and blamed if he didn't drop a carpet-bag and +bust out a-crying.  If they warn't the beatenest lot, them two frauds, +that ever I struck. + +Well, the men gathered around and sympathized with them, and said all +sorts of kind things to them, and carried their carpet-bags up the hill +for them, and let them lean on them and cry, and told the king all about +his brother's last moments, and the king he told it all over again on +his hands to the duke, and both of them took on about that dead tanner +like they'd lost the twelve disciples.  Well, if ever I struck anything +like it, I'm a nigger. It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human +race. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE news was all over town in two minutes, and you could see the people +tearing down on the run from every which way, some of them putting on +their coats as they come.  Pretty soon we was in the middle of a crowd, +and the noise of the tramping was like a soldier march.  The windows and +dooryards was full; and every minute somebody would say, over a fence: + +"Is it _them_?" + +And somebody trotting along with the gang would answer back and say: + +"You bet it is." + +When we got to the house the street in front of it was packed, and the +three girls was standing in the door.  Mary Jane _was_ red-headed, but +that don't make no difference, she was most awful beautiful, and her +face and her eyes was all lit up like glory, she was so glad her uncles +was come. The king he spread his arms, and Mary Jane she jumped for +them, and the hare-lip jumped for the duke, and there they had it! + Everybody most, leastways women, cried for joy to see them meet again +at last and have such good times. + +Then the king he hunched the duke private—I see him do it—and then he +looked around and see the coffin, over in the corner on two chairs; so +then him and the duke, with a hand across each other's shoulder, and +t'other hand to their eyes, walked slow and solemn over there, everybody +dropping back to give them room, and all the talk and noise stopping, +people saying "Sh!" and all the men taking their hats off and drooping +their heads, so you could a heard a pin fall.  And when they got there +they bent over and looked in the coffin, and took one sight, and then +they bust out a-crying so you could a heard them to Orleans, most; and +then they put their arms around each other's necks, and hung their chins +over each other's shoulders; and then for three minutes, or maybe four, +I never see two men leak the way they done.  And, mind you, everybody +was doing the same; and the place was that damp I never see anything +like it. Then one of them got on one side of the coffin, and t'other on +t'other side, and they kneeled down and rested their foreheads on the +coffin, and let on to pray all to themselves.  Well, when it come +to that it worked the crowd like you never see anything like it, and +everybody broke down and went to sobbing right out loud—the poor girls, +too; and every woman, nearly, went up to the girls, without saying a +word, and kissed them, solemn, on the forehead, and then put their hand +on their head, and looked up towards the sky, with the tears running +down, and then busted out and went off sobbing and swabbing, and give +the next woman a show.  I never see anything so disgusting. + +Well, by and by the king he gets up and comes forward a little, and +works himself up and slobbers out a speech, all full of tears and +flapdoodle about its being a sore trial for him and his poor brother +to lose the diseased, and to miss seeing diseased alive after the long +journey of four thousand mile, but it's a trial that's sweetened and +sanctified to us by this dear sympathy and these holy tears, and so he +thanks them out of his heart and out of his brother's heart, because out +of their mouths they can't, words being too weak and cold, and all that +kind of rot and slush, till it was just sickening; and then he blubbers +out a pious goody-goody Amen, and turns himself loose and goes to crying +fit to bust. + +And the minute the words were out of his mouth somebody over in the +crowd struck up the doxolojer, and everybody joined in with all their +might, and it just warmed you up and made you feel as good as church +letting out. Music is a good thing; and after all that soul-butter and +hogwash I never see it freshen up things so, and sound so honest and +bully. + +Then the king begins to work his jaw again, and says how him and his +nieces would be glad if a few of the main principal friends of the +family would take supper here with them this evening, and help set up +with the ashes of the diseased; and says if his poor brother laying +yonder could speak he knows who he would name, for they was names that +was very dear to him, and mentioned often in his letters; and so he will +name the same, to wit, as follows, vizz.:—Rev. Mr. Hobson, and Deacon +Lot Hovey, and Mr. Ben Rucker, and Abner Shackleford, and Levi Bell, and +Dr. Robinson, and their wives, and the widow Bartley. + +Rev. Hobson and Dr. Robinson was down to the end of the town a-hunting +together—that is, I mean the doctor was shipping a sick man to t'other +world, and the preacher was pinting him right.  Lawyer Bell was away up +to Louisville on business.  But the rest was on hand, and so they all +come and shook hands with the king and thanked him and talked to him; +and then they shook hands with the duke and didn't say nothing, but just +kept a-smiling and bobbing their heads like a passel of sapheads whilst +he made all sorts of signs with his hands and said "Goo-goo—goo-goo-goo" +all the time, like a baby that can't talk. + +So the king he blattered along, and managed to inquire about pretty +much everybody and dog in town, by his name, and mentioned all sorts +of little things that happened one time or another in the town, or to +George's family, or to Peter.  And he always let on that Peter wrote him +the things; but that was a lie:  he got every blessed one of them out of +that young flathead that we canoed up to the steamboat. + +Then Mary Jane she fetched the letter her father left behind, and the +king he read it out loud and cried over it.  It give the dwelling-house +and three thousand dollars, gold, to the girls; and it give the tanyard +(which was doing a good business), along with some other houses and +land (worth about seven thousand), and three thousand dollars in gold +to Harvey and William, and told where the six thousand cash was hid down +cellar.  So these two frauds said they'd go and fetch it up, and have +everything square and above-board; and told me to come with a candle. + We shut the cellar door behind us, and when they found the bag +they spilt it out on the floor, and it was a lovely sight, all them +yaller-boys.  My, the way the king's eyes did shine!  He slaps the duke +on the shoulder and says: + +"Oh, _this_ ain't bully nor noth'n!  Oh, no, I reckon not!  Why, +_bully_, it beats the Nonesuch, _don't_ it?" + +The duke allowed it did.  They pawed the yaller-boys, and sifted them +through their fingers and let them jingle down on the floor; and the +king says: + +"It ain't no use talkin'; bein' brothers to a rich dead man and +representatives of furrin heirs that's got left is the line for you and +me, Bilge.  Thish yer comes of trust'n to Providence.  It's the best +way, in the long run.  I've tried 'em all, and ther' ain't no better +way." + +Most everybody would a been satisfied with the pile, and took it on +trust; but no, they must count it.  So they counts it, and it comes out +four hundred and fifteen dollars short.  Says the king: + +"Dern him, I wonder what he done with that four hundred and fifteen +dollars?" + +They worried over that awhile, and ransacked all around for it.  Then +the duke says: + +"Well, he was a pretty sick man, and likely he made a mistake—I reckon +that's the way of it.  The best way's to let it go, and keep still about +it.  We can spare it." + +"Oh, shucks, yes, we can _spare_ it.  I don't k'yer noth'n 'bout +that—it's the _count_ I'm thinkin' about.  We want to be awful square +and open and above-board here, you know.  We want to lug this h-yer +money up stairs and count it before everybody—then ther' ain't noth'n +suspicious.  But when the dead man says ther's six thous'n dollars, you +know, we don't want to—" + +"Hold on," says the duke.  "Le's make up the deffisit," and he begun to +haul out yaller-boys out of his pocket. + +"It's a most amaz'n' good idea, duke—you _have_ got a rattlin' clever +head on you," says the king.  "Blest if the old Nonesuch ain't a heppin' +us out agin," and _he_ begun to haul out yaller-jackets and stack them +up. + +It most busted them, but they made up the six thousand clean and clear. + +"Say," says the duke, "I got another idea.  Le's go up stairs and count +this money, and then take and _give it to the girls_." + +"Good land, duke, lemme hug you!  It's the most dazzling idea 'at ever a +man struck.  You have cert'nly got the most astonishin' head I ever see. +Oh, this is the boss dodge, ther' ain't no mistake 'bout it.  Let 'em +fetch along their suspicions now if they want to—this 'll lay 'em out." + +When we got up-stairs everybody gethered around the table, and the king +he counted it and stacked it up, three hundred dollars in a pile—twenty +elegant little piles.  Everybody looked hungry at it, and licked their +chops.  Then they raked it into the bag again, and I see the king begin +to swell himself up for another speech.  He says: + +"Friends all, my poor brother that lays yonder has done generous by +them that's left behind in the vale of sorrers.  He has done generous by +these yer poor little lambs that he loved and sheltered, and that's left +fatherless and motherless.  Yes, and we that knowed him knows that he +would a done _more_ generous by 'em if he hadn't ben afeard o' woundin' +his dear William and me.  Now, _wouldn't_ he?  Ther' ain't no question +'bout it in _my_ mind.  Well, then, what kind o' brothers would it be +that 'd stand in his way at sech a time?  And what kind o' uncles would +it be that 'd rob—yes, _rob_—sech poor sweet lambs as these 'at he loved +so at sech a time?  If I know William—and I _think_ I do—he—well, I'll +jest ask him." He turns around and begins to make a lot of signs to +the duke with his hands, and the duke he looks at him stupid and +leather-headed a while; then all of a sudden he seems to catch his +meaning, and jumps for the king, goo-gooing with all his might for joy, +and hugs him about fifteen times before he lets up.  Then the king says, +"I knowed it; I reckon _that 'll_ convince anybody the way _he_ feels +about it.  Here, Mary Jane, Susan, Joanner, take the money—take it +_all_.  It's the gift of him that lays yonder, cold but joyful." + +Mary Jane she went for him, Susan and the hare-lip went for the +duke, and then such another hugging and kissing I never see yet.  And +everybody crowded up with the tears in their eyes, and most shook the +hands off of them frauds, saying all the time: + +"You _dear_ good souls!—how _lovely_!—how _could_ you!" + +Well, then, pretty soon all hands got to talking about the diseased +again, and how good he was, and what a loss he was, and all that; and +before long a big iron-jawed man worked himself in there from outside, +and stood a-listening and looking, and not saying anything; and nobody +saying anything to him either, because the king was talking and they was +all busy listening.  The king was saying—in the middle of something he'd +started in on— + +"—they bein' partickler friends o' the diseased.  That's why they're +invited here this evenin'; but tomorrow we want _all_ to come—everybody; +for he respected everybody, he liked everybody, and so it's fitten that +his funeral orgies sh'd be public." + +And so he went a-mooning on and on, liking to hear himself talk, and +every little while he fetched in his funeral orgies again, till the duke +he couldn't stand it no more; so he writes on a little scrap of paper, +"_Obsequies_, you old fool," and folds it up, and goes to goo-gooing and +reaching it over people's heads to him.  The king he reads it and puts +it in his pocket, and says: + +"Poor William, afflicted as he is, his _heart's_ aluz right.  Asks me +to invite everybody to come to the funeral—wants me to make 'em all +welcome.  But he needn't a worried—it was jest what I was at." + +Then he weaves along again, perfectly ca'm, and goes to dropping in his +funeral orgies again every now and then, just like he done before.  And +when he done it the third time he says: + +"I say orgies, not because it's the common term, because it +ain't—obsequies bein' the common term—but because orgies is the right +term. Obsequies ain't used in England no more now—it's gone out.  We +say orgies now in England.  Orgies is better, because it means the thing +you're after more exact.  It's a word that's made up out'n the Greek +_orgo_, outside, open, abroad; and the Hebrew _jeesum_, to plant, cover +up; hence in_ter._  So, you see, funeral orgies is an open er public +funeral." + +He was the _worst_ I ever struck.  Well, the iron-jawed man he laughed +right in his face.  Everybody was shocked.  Everybody says, "Why, +_doctor_!" and Abner Shackleford says: + +"Why, Robinson, hain't you heard the news?  This is Harvey Wilks." + +The king he smiled eager, and shoved out his flapper, and says: + +"Is it my poor brother's dear good friend and physician?  I—" + +"Keep your hands off of me!" says the doctor.  "_You_ talk like an +Englishman, _don't_ you?  It's the worst imitation I ever heard.  _You_ +Peter Wilks's brother!  You're a fraud, that's what you are!" + +Well, how they all took on!  They crowded around the doctor and tried to +quiet him down, and tried to explain to him and tell him how Harvey 'd +showed in forty ways that he _was_ Harvey, and knowed everybody by name, +and the names of the very dogs, and begged and _begged_ him not to hurt +Harvey's feelings and the poor girl's feelings, and all that.  But it +warn't no use; he stormed right along, and said any man that pretended +to be an Englishman and couldn't imitate the lingo no better than what +he did was a fraud and a liar.  The poor girls was hanging to the king +and crying; and all of a sudden the doctor ups and turns on _them_.  He +says: + +"I was your father's friend, and I'm your friend; and I warn you as a +friend, and an honest one that wants to protect you and keep you out of +harm and trouble, to turn your backs on that scoundrel and have nothing +to do with him, the ignorant tramp, with his idiotic Greek and Hebrew, +as he calls it.  He is the thinnest kind of an impostor—has come here +with a lot of empty names and facts which he picked up somewheres, and +you take them for _proofs_, and are helped to fool yourselves by these +foolish friends here, who ought to know better.  Mary Jane Wilks, you +know me for your friend, and for your unselfish friend, too.  Now listen +to me; turn this pitiful rascal out—I _beg_ you to do it.  Will you?" + +Mary Jane straightened herself up, and my, but she was handsome!  She +says: + +"_Here_ is my answer."  She hove up the bag of money and put it in the +king's hands, and says, "Take this six thousand dollars, and invest for +me and my sisters any way you want to, and don't give us no receipt for +it." + +Then she put her arm around the king on one side, and Susan and the +hare-lip done the same on the other.  Everybody clapped their hands and +stomped on the floor like a perfect storm, whilst the king held up his +head and smiled proud.  The doctor says: + +"All right; I wash _my_ hands of the matter.  But I warn you all that a +time 's coming when you're going to feel sick whenever you think of this +day." And away he went. + +"All right, doctor," says the king, kinder mocking him; "we'll try and +get 'em to send for you;" which made them all laugh, and they said it +was a prime good hit. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +WELL, when they was all gone the king he asks Mary Jane how they was off +for spare rooms, and she said she had one spare room, which would do for +Uncle William, and she'd give her own room to Uncle Harvey, which was +a little bigger, and she would turn into the room with her sisters and +sleep on a cot; and up garret was a little cubby, with a pallet in it. +The king said the cubby would do for his valley—meaning me. + +So Mary Jane took us up, and she showed them their rooms, which was +plain but nice.  She said she'd have her frocks and a lot of other traps +took out of her room if they was in Uncle Harvey's way, but he said +they warn't.  The frocks was hung along the wall, and before them was +a curtain made out of calico that hung down to the floor.  There was an +old hair trunk in one corner, and a guitar-box in another, and all sorts +of little knickknacks and jimcracks around, like girls brisken up a room +with.  The king said it was all the more homely and more pleasanter for +these fixings, and so don't disturb them.  The duke's room was pretty +small, but plenty good enough, and so was my cubby. + +That night they had a big supper, and all them men and women was there, +and I stood behind the king and the duke's chairs and waited on them, +and the niggers waited on the rest.  Mary Jane she set at the head of +the table, with Susan alongside of her, and said how bad the biscuits +was, and how mean the preserves was, and how ornery and tough the fried +chickens was—and all that kind of rot, the way women always do for to +force out compliments; and the people all knowed everything was tiptop, +and said so—said "How _do_ you get biscuits to brown so nice?" and +"Where, for the land's sake, _did_ you get these amaz'n pickles?" and +all that kind of humbug talky-talk, just the way people always does at a +supper, you know. + +And when it was all done me and the hare-lip had supper in the kitchen +off of the leavings, whilst the others was helping the niggers clean up +the things.  The hare-lip she got to pumping me about England, and blest +if I didn't think the ice was getting mighty thin sometimes.  She says: + +"Did you ever see the king?" + +"Who?  William Fourth?  Well, I bet I have—he goes to our church."  I +knowed he was dead years ago, but I never let on.  So when I says he +goes to our church, she says: + +"What—regular?" + +"Yes—regular.  His pew's right over opposite ourn—on t'other side the +pulpit." + +"I thought he lived in London?" + +"Well, he does.  Where _would_ he live?" + +"But I thought _you_ lived in Sheffield?" + +I see I was up a stump.  I had to let on to get choked with a chicken +bone, so as to get time to think how to get down again.  Then I says: + +"I mean he goes to our church regular when he's in Sheffield.  That's +only in the summer time, when he comes there to take the sea baths." + +"Why, how you talk—Sheffield ain't on the sea." + +"Well, who said it was?" + +"Why, you did." + +"I _didn't_ nuther." + +"You did!" + +"I didn't." + +"You did." + +"I never said nothing of the kind." + +"Well, what _did_ you say, then?" + +"Said he come to take the sea _baths_—that's what I said." + +"Well, then, how's he going to take the sea baths if it ain't on the +sea?" + +"Looky here," I says; "did you ever see any Congress-water?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, did you have to go to Congress to get it?" + +"Why, no." + +"Well, neither does William Fourth have to go to the sea to get a sea +bath." + +"How does he get it, then?" + +"Gets it the way people down here gets Congress-water—in barrels.  There +in the palace at Sheffield they've got furnaces, and he wants his water +hot.  They can't bile that amount of water away off there at the sea. +They haven't got no conveniences for it." + +"Oh, I see, now.  You might a said that in the first place and saved +time." + +When she said that I see I was out of the woods again, and so I was +comfortable and glad.  Next, she says: + +"Do you go to church, too?" + +"Yes—regular." + +"Where do you set?" + +"Why, in our pew." + +"_Whose_ pew?" + +"Why, _ourn_—your Uncle Harvey's." + +"His'n?  What does _he_ want with a pew?" + +"Wants it to set in.  What did you _reckon_ he wanted with it?" + +"Why, I thought he'd be in the pulpit." + +Rot him, I forgot he was a preacher.  I see I was up a stump again, so I +played another chicken bone and got another think.  Then I says: + +"Blame it, do you suppose there ain't but one preacher to a church?" + +"Why, what do they want with more?" + +"What!—to preach before a king?  I never did see such a girl as you. +They don't have no less than seventeen." + +"Seventeen!  My land!  Why, I wouldn't set out such a string as that, +not if I _never_ got to glory.  It must take 'em a week." + +"Shucks, they don't _all_ of 'em preach the same day—only _one_ of 'em." + +"Well, then, what does the rest of 'em do?" + +"Oh, nothing much.  Loll around, pass the plate—and one thing or +another.  But mainly they don't do nothing." + +"Well, then, what are they _for_?" + +"Why, they're for _style_.  Don't you know nothing?" + +"Well, I don't _want_ to know no such foolishness as that.  How is +servants treated in England?  Do they treat 'em better 'n we treat our +niggers?" + +"_No_!  A servant ain't nobody there.  They treat them worse than dogs." + +"Don't they give 'em holidays, the way we do, Christmas and New Year's +week, and Fourth of July?" + +"Oh, just listen!  A body could tell _you_ hain't ever been to England +by that.  Why, Hare-l—why, Joanna, they never see a holiday from year's +end to year's end; never go to the circus, nor theater, nor nigger +shows, nor nowheres." + +"Nor church?" + +"Nor church." + +"But _you_ always went to church." + +Well, I was gone up again.  I forgot I was the old man's servant.  But +next minute I whirled in on a kind of an explanation how a valley was +different from a common servant and _had_ to go to church whether he +wanted to or not, and set with the family, on account of its being the +law.  But I didn't do it pretty good, and when I got done I see she +warn't satisfied.  She says: + +"Honest injun, now, hain't you been telling me a lot of lies?" + +"Honest injun," says I. + +"None of it at all?" + +"None of it at all.  Not a lie in it," says I. + +"Lay your hand on this book and say it." + +I see it warn't nothing but a dictionary, so I laid my hand on it and +said it.  So then she looked a little better satisfied, and says: + +"Well, then, I'll believe some of it; but I hope to gracious if I'll +believe the rest." + +"What is it you won't believe, Joe?" says Mary Jane, stepping in with +Susan behind her.  "It ain't right nor kind for you to talk so to him, +and him a stranger and so far from his people.  How would you like to be +treated so?" + +"That's always your way, Maim—always sailing in to help somebody before +they're hurt.  I hain't done nothing to him.  He's told some stretchers, +I reckon, and I said I wouldn't swallow it all; and that's every bit +and grain I _did_ say.  I reckon he can stand a little thing like that, +can't he?" + +"I don't care whether 'twas little or whether 'twas big; he's here in +our house and a stranger, and it wasn't good of you to say it.  If you +was in his place it would make you feel ashamed; and so you oughtn't to +say a thing to another person that will make _them_ feel ashamed." + +"Why, Mam, he said—" + +"It don't make no difference what he _said_—that ain't the thing.  The +thing is for you to treat him _kind_, and not be saying things to make +him remember he ain't in his own country and amongst his own folks." + +I says to myself, _this_ is a girl that I'm letting that old reptile rob +her of her money! + +Then Susan _she_ waltzed in; and if you'll believe me, she did give +Hare-lip hark from the tomb! + +Says I to myself, and this is _another_ one that I'm letting him rob her +of her money! + +Then Mary Jane she took another inning, and went in sweet and lovely +again—which was her way; but when she got done there warn't hardly +anything left o' poor Hare-lip.  So she hollered. + +"All right, then," says the other girls; "you just ask his pardon." + +She done it, too; and she done it beautiful.  She done it so beautiful +it was good to hear; and I wished I could tell her a thousand lies, so +she could do it again. + +I says to myself, this is _another_ one that I'm letting him rob her of +her money.  And when she got through they all jest laid theirselves +out to make me feel at home and know I was amongst friends.  I felt so +ornery and low down and mean that I says to myself, my mind's made up; +I'll hive that money for them or bust. + +So then I lit out—for bed, I said, meaning some time or another.  When +I got by myself I went to thinking the thing over.  I says to myself, +shall I go to that doctor, private, and blow on these frauds?  No—that +won't do. He might tell who told him; then the king and the duke would +make it warm for me.  Shall I go, private, and tell Mary Jane?  No—I +dasn't do it. Her face would give them a hint, sure; they've got the +money, and they'd slide right out and get away with it.  If she was to +fetch in help I'd get mixed up in the business before it was done with, +I judge.  No; there ain't no good way but one.  I got to steal that +money, somehow; and I got to steal it some way that they won't suspicion +that I done it. They've got a good thing here, and they ain't a-going +to leave till they've played this family and this town for all they're +worth, so I'll find a chance time enough. I'll steal it and hide it; and +by and by, when I'm away down the river, I'll write a letter and tell +Mary Jane where it's hid.  But I better hive it tonight if I can, +because the doctor maybe hasn't let up as much as he lets on he has; he +might scare them out of here yet. + +So, thinks I, I'll go and search them rooms.  Upstairs the hall was +dark, but I found the duke's room, and started to paw around it with +my hands; but I recollected it wouldn't be much like the king to let +anybody else take care of that money but his own self; so then I went to +his room and begun to paw around there.  But I see I couldn't do nothing +without a candle, and I dasn't light one, of course.  So I judged I'd +got to do the other thing—lay for them and eavesdrop.  About that time +I hears their footsteps coming, and was going to skip under the bed; I +reached for it, but it wasn't where I thought it would be; but I touched +the curtain that hid Mary Jane's frocks, so I jumped in behind that and +snuggled in amongst the gowns, and stood there perfectly still. + +They come in and shut the door; and the first thing the duke done was to +get down and look under the bed.  Then I was glad I hadn't found the bed +when I wanted it.  And yet, you know, it's kind of natural to hide under +the bed when you are up to anything private.  They sets down then, and +the king says: + +"Well, what is it?  And cut it middlin' short, because it's better for +us to be down there a-whoopin' up the mournin' than up here givin' 'em a +chance to talk us over." + +"Well, this is it, Capet.  I ain't easy; I ain't comfortable.  That +doctor lays on my mind.  I wanted to know your plans.  I've got a +notion, and I think it's a sound one." + +"What is it, duke?" + +"That we better glide out of this before three in the morning, and clip +it down the river with what we've got.  Specially, seeing we got it so +easy—_given_ back to us, flung at our heads, as you may say, when of +course we allowed to have to steal it back.  I'm for knocking off and +lighting out." + +That made me feel pretty bad.  About an hour or two ago it would a been +a little different, but now it made me feel bad and disappointed, The +king rips out and says: + +"What!  And not sell out the rest o' the property?  March off like +a passel of fools and leave eight or nine thous'n' dollars' worth o' +property layin' around jest sufferin' to be scooped in?—and all good, +salable stuff, too." + +The duke he grumbled; said the bag of gold was enough, and he didn't +want to go no deeper—didn't want to rob a lot of orphans of _everything_ +they had. + +"Why, how you talk!" says the king.  "We sha'n't rob 'em of nothing at +all but jest this money.  The people that _buys_ the property is the +suff'rers; because as soon 's it's found out 'at we didn't own it—which +won't be long after we've slid—the sale won't be valid, and it 'll all +go back to the estate.  These yer orphans 'll git their house back agin, +and that's enough for _them_; they're young and spry, and k'n easy +earn a livin'.  _they_ ain't a-goin to suffer.  Why, jest think—there's +thous'n's and thous'n's that ain't nigh so well off.  Bless you, _they_ +ain't got noth'n' to complain of." + +Well, the king he talked him blind; so at last he give in, and said all +right, but said he believed it was blamed foolishness to stay, and that +doctor hanging over them.  But the king says: + +"Cuss the doctor!  What do we k'yer for _him_?  Hain't we got all the +fools in town on our side?  And ain't that a big enough majority in any +town?" + +So they got ready to go down stairs again.  The duke says: + +"I don't think we put that money in a good place." + +That cheered me up.  I'd begun to think I warn't going to get a hint of +no kind to help me.  The king says: + +"Why?" + +"Because Mary Jane 'll be in mourning from this out; and first you know +the nigger that does up the rooms will get an order to box these duds +up and put 'em away; and do you reckon a nigger can run across money and +not borrow some of it?" + +"Your head's level agin, duke," says the king; and he comes a-fumbling +under the curtain two or three foot from where I was.  I stuck tight to +the wall and kept mighty still, though quivery; and I wondered what them +fellows would say to me if they catched me; and I tried to think what +I'd better do if they did catch me.  But the king he got the bag before +I could think more than about a half a thought, and he never suspicioned +I was around.  They took and shoved the bag through a rip in the straw +tick that was under the feather-bed, and crammed it in a foot or two +amongst the straw and said it was all right now, because a nigger only +makes up the feather-bed, and don't turn over the straw tick only about +twice a year, and so it warn't in no danger of getting stole now. + +But I knowed better.  I had it out of there before they was half-way +down stairs.  I groped along up to my cubby, and hid it there till I +could get a chance to do better.  I judged I better hide it outside +of the house somewheres, because if they missed it they would give the +house a good ransacking:  I knowed that very well.  Then I turned in, +with my clothes all on; but I couldn't a gone to sleep if I'd a wanted +to, I was in such a sweat to get through with the business.  By and by I +heard the king and the duke come up; so I rolled off my pallet and laid +with my chin at the top of my ladder, and waited to see if anything was +going to happen.  But nothing did. + +So I held on till all the late sounds had quit and the early ones hadn't +begun yet; and then I slipped down the ladder. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +I crept to their doors and listened; they was snoring.  So I tiptoed +along, and got down stairs all right.  There warn't a sound anywheres. + I peeped through a crack of the dining-room door, and see the men that +was watching the corpse all sound asleep on their chairs.  The door +was open into the parlor, where the corpse was laying, and there was a +candle in both rooms. I passed along, and the parlor door was open; but +I see there warn't nobody in there but the remainders of Peter; so I +shoved on by; but the front door was locked, and the key wasn't there. + Just then I heard somebody coming down the stairs, back behind me.  I +run in the parlor and took a swift look around, and the only place I +see to hide the bag was in the coffin.  The lid was shoved along about +a foot, showing the dead man's face down in there, with a wet cloth over +it, and his shroud on.  I tucked the money-bag in under the lid, just +down beyond where his hands was crossed, which made me creep, they was +so cold, and then I run back across the room and in behind the door. + +The person coming was Mary Jane.  She went to the coffin, very soft, and +kneeled down and looked in; then she put up her handkerchief, and I see +she begun to cry, though I couldn't hear her, and her back was to me.  I +slid out, and as I passed the dining-room I thought I'd make sure them +watchers hadn't seen me; so I looked through the crack, and everything +was all right.  They hadn't stirred. + +I slipped up to bed, feeling ruther blue, on accounts of the thing +playing out that way after I had took so much trouble and run so much +resk about it.  Says I, if it could stay where it is, all right; because +when we get down the river a hundred mile or two I could write back to +Mary Jane, and she could dig him up again and get it; but that ain't the +thing that's going to happen; the thing that's going to happen is, the +money 'll be found when they come to screw on the lid.  Then the king +'ll get it again, and it 'll be a long day before he gives anybody +another chance to smouch it from him. Of course I _wanted_ to slide +down and get it out of there, but I dasn't try it.  Every minute it was +getting earlier now, and pretty soon some of them watchers would begin +to stir, and I might get catched—catched with six thousand dollars in my +hands that nobody hadn't hired me to take care of.  I don't wish to be +mixed up in no such business as that, I says to myself. + +When I got down stairs in the morning the parlor was shut up, and the +watchers was gone.  There warn't nobody around but the family and the +widow Bartley and our tribe.  I watched their faces to see if anything +had been happening, but I couldn't tell. + +Towards the middle of the day the undertaker come with his man, and they +set the coffin in the middle of the room on a couple of chairs, and then +set all our chairs in rows, and borrowed more from the neighbors till +the hall and the parlor and the dining-room was full.  I see the coffin +lid was the way it was before, but I dasn't go to look in under it, with +folks around. + +Then the people begun to flock in, and the beats and the girls took +seats in the front row at the head of the coffin, and for a half an hour +the people filed around slow, in single rank, and looked down at the +dead man's face a minute, and some dropped in a tear, and it was +all very still and solemn, only the girls and the beats holding +handkerchiefs to their eyes and keeping their heads bent, and sobbing a +little.  There warn't no other sound but the scraping of the feet on +the floor and blowing noses—because people always blows them more at a +funeral than they do at other places except church. + +When the place was packed full the undertaker he slid around in his +black gloves with his softy soothering ways, putting on the last +touches, and getting people and things all ship-shape and comfortable, +and making no more sound than a cat.  He never spoke; he moved people +around, he squeezed in late ones, he opened up passageways, and done +it with nods, and signs with his hands.  Then he took his place over +against the wall. He was the softest, glidingest, stealthiest man I ever +see; and there warn't no more smile to him than there is to a ham. + +They had borrowed a melodeum—a sick one; and when everything was ready +a young woman set down and worked it, and it was pretty skreeky and +colicky, and everybody joined in and sung, and Peter was the only one +that had a good thing, according to my notion.  Then the Reverend Hobson +opened up, slow and solemn, and begun to talk; and straight off the most +outrageous row busted out in the cellar a body ever heard; it was only +one dog, but he made a most powerful racket, and he kept it up right +along; the parson he had to stand there, over the coffin, and wait—you +couldn't hear yourself think.  It was right down awkward, and nobody +didn't seem to know what to do.  But pretty soon they see that +long-legged undertaker make a sign to the preacher as much as to say, +"Don't you worry—just depend on me."  Then he stooped down and begun +to glide along the wall, just his shoulders showing over the people's +heads.  So he glided along, and the powwow and racket getting more and +more outrageous all the time; and at last, when he had gone around two +sides of the room, he disappears down cellar.  Then in about two seconds +we heard a whack, and the dog he finished up with a most amazing howl or +two, and then everything was dead still, and the parson begun his solemn +talk where he left off.  In a minute or two here comes this undertaker's +back and shoulders gliding along the wall again; and so he glided and +glided around three sides of the room, and then rose up, and shaded his +mouth with his hands, and stretched his neck out towards the preacher, +over the people's heads, and says, in a kind of a coarse whisper, "_He +had a rat_!"  Then he drooped down and glided along the wall again to +his place.  You could see it was a great satisfaction to the people, +because naturally they wanted to know.  A little thing like that don't +cost nothing, and it's just the little things that makes a man to be +looked up to and liked.  There warn't no more popular man in town than +what that undertaker was. + +Well, the funeral sermon was very good, but pison long and tiresome; and +then the king he shoved in and got off some of his usual rubbage, and +at last the job was through, and the undertaker begun to sneak up on the +coffin with his screw-driver.  I was in a sweat then, and watched him +pretty keen. But he never meddled at all; just slid the lid along as +soft as mush, and screwed it down tight and fast.  So there I was!  I +didn't know whether the money was in there or not.  So, says I, s'pose +somebody has hogged that bag on the sly?—now how do I know whether +to write to Mary Jane or not? S'pose she dug him up and didn't find +nothing, what would she think of me? Blame it, I says, I might get +hunted up and jailed; I'd better lay low and keep dark, and not write at +all; the thing's awful mixed now; trying to better it, I've worsened it +a hundred times, and I wish to goodness I'd just let it alone, dad fetch +the whole business! + +They buried him, and we come back home, and I went to watching faces +again—I couldn't help it, and I couldn't rest easy.  But nothing come of +it; the faces didn't tell me nothing. + +The king he visited around in the evening, and sweetened everybody up, +and made himself ever so friendly; and he give out the idea that his +congregation over in England would be in a sweat about him, so he must +hurry and settle up the estate right away and leave for home.  He was +very sorry he was so pushed, and so was everybody; they wished he could +stay longer, but they said they could see it couldn't be done.  And he +said of course him and William would take the girls home with them; and +that pleased everybody too, because then the girls would be well fixed +and amongst their own relations; and it pleased the girls, too—tickled +them so they clean forgot they ever had a trouble in the world; and told +him to sell out as quick as he wanted to, they would be ready.  Them +poor things was that glad and happy it made my heart ache to see them +getting fooled and lied to so, but I didn't see no safe way for me to +chip in and change the general tune. + +Well, blamed if the king didn't bill the house and the niggers and all +the property for auction straight off—sale two days after the funeral; +but anybody could buy private beforehand if they wanted to. + +So the next day after the funeral, along about noon-time, the girls' joy +got the first jolt.  A couple of nigger traders come along, and the king +sold them the niggers reasonable, for three-day drafts as they called +it, and away they went, the two sons up the river to Memphis, and their +mother down the river to Orleans.  I thought them poor girls and them +niggers would break their hearts for grief; they cried around each +other, and took on so it most made me down sick to see it.  The girls +said they hadn't ever dreamed of seeing the family separated or sold +away from the town.  I can't ever get it out of my memory, the sight of +them poor miserable girls and niggers hanging around each other's necks +and crying; and I reckon I couldn't a stood it all, but would a had +to bust out and tell on our gang if I hadn't knowed the sale warn't no +account and the niggers would be back home in a week or two. + +The thing made a big stir in the town, too, and a good many come out +flatfooted and said it was scandalous to separate the mother and the +children that way.  It injured the frauds some; but the old fool he +bulled right along, spite of all the duke could say or do, and I tell +you the duke was powerful uneasy. + +Next day was auction day.  About broad day in the morning the king and +the duke come up in the garret and woke me up, and I see by their look +that there was trouble.  The king says: + +"Was you in my room night before last?" + +"No, your majesty"—which was the way I always called him when nobody but +our gang warn't around. + +"Was you in there yisterday er last night?" + +"No, your majesty." + +"Honor bright, now—no lies." + +"Honor bright, your majesty, I'm telling you the truth.  I hain't been +a-near your room since Miss Mary Jane took you and the duke and showed +it to you." + +The duke says: + +"Have you seen anybody else go in there?" + +"No, your grace, not as I remember, I believe." + +"Stop and think." + +I studied awhile and see my chance; then I says: + +"Well, I see the niggers go in there several times." + +Both of them gave a little jump, and looked like they hadn't ever +expected it, and then like they _had_.  Then the duke says: + +"What, all of them?" + +"No—leastways, not all at once—that is, I don't think I ever see them +all come _out_ at once but just one time." + +"Hello!  When was that?" + +"It was the day we had the funeral.  In the morning.  It warn't early, +because I overslept.  I was just starting down the ladder, and I see +them." + +"Well, go on, _go_ on!  What did they do?  How'd they act?" + +"They didn't do nothing.  And they didn't act anyway much, as fur as I +see. They tiptoed away; so I seen, easy enough, that they'd shoved in +there to do up your majesty's room, or something, s'posing you was up; +and found you _warn't_ up, and so they was hoping to slide out of the +way of trouble without waking you up, if they hadn't already waked you +up." + +"Great guns, _this_ is a go!" says the king; and both of them looked +pretty sick and tolerable silly.  They stood there a-thinking and +scratching their heads a minute, and the duke he bust into a kind of a +little raspy chuckle, and says: + +"It does beat all how neat the niggers played their hand.  They let on +to be _sorry_ they was going out of this region!  And I believed they +_was_ sorry, and so did you, and so did everybody.  Don't ever tell _me_ +any more that a nigger ain't got any histrionic talent.  Why, the way +they played that thing it would fool _anybody_.  In my opinion, there's +a fortune in 'em.  If I had capital and a theater, I wouldn't want a +better lay-out than that—and here we've gone and sold 'em for a song. + Yes, and ain't privileged to sing the song yet.  Say, where _is_ that +song—that draft?" + +"In the bank for to be collected.  Where _would_ it be?" + +"Well, _that's_ all right then, thank goodness." + +Says I, kind of timid-like: + +"Is something gone wrong?" + +The king whirls on me and rips out: + +"None o' your business!  You keep your head shet, and mind y'r own +affairs—if you got any.  Long as you're in this town don't you forgit +_that_—you hear?"  Then he says to the duke, "We got to jest swaller it +and say noth'n':  mum's the word for _us_." + +As they was starting down the ladder the duke he chuckles again, and +says: + +"Quick sales _and_ small profits!  It's a good business—yes." + +The king snarls around on him and says: + +"I was trying to do for the best in sellin' 'em out so quick.  If the +profits has turned out to be none, lackin' considable, and none to +carry, is it my fault any more'n it's yourn?" + +"Well, _they'd_ be in this house yet and we _wouldn't_ if I could a got +my advice listened to." + +The king sassed back as much as was safe for him, and then swapped +around and lit into _me_ again.  He give me down the banks for not +coming and _telling_ him I see the niggers come out of his room acting +that way—said any fool would a _knowed_ something was up.  And then +waltzed in and cussed _himself_ awhile, and said it all come of him not +laying late and taking his natural rest that morning, and he'd be +blamed if he'd ever do it again.  So they went off a-jawing; and I felt +dreadful glad I'd worked it all off on to the niggers, and yet hadn't +done the niggers no harm by it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +BY and by it was getting-up time.  So I come down the ladder and started +for down-stairs; but as I come to the girls' room the door was open, and +I see Mary Jane setting by her old hair trunk, which was open and she'd +been packing things in it—getting ready to go to England.  But she +had stopped now with a folded gown in her lap, and had her face in her +hands, crying.  I felt awful bad to see it; of course anybody would.  I +went in there and says: + +"Miss Mary Jane, you can't a-bear to see people in trouble, and I +can't—most always.  Tell me about it." + +So she done it.  And it was the niggers—I just expected it.  She said +the beautiful trip to England was most about spoiled for her; she didn't +know _how_ she was ever going to be happy there, knowing the mother and +the children warn't ever going to see each other no more—and then busted +out bitterer than ever, and flung up her hands, and says: + +"Oh, dear, dear, to think they ain't _ever_ going to see each other any +more!" + +"But they _will_—and inside of two weeks—and I _know_ it!" says I. + +Laws, it was out before I could think!  And before I could budge she +throws her arms around my neck and told me to say it _again_, say it +_again_, say it _again_! + +I see I had spoke too sudden and said too much, and was in a close +place. I asked her to let me think a minute; and she set there, very +impatient and excited and handsome, but looking kind of happy and +eased-up, like a person that's had a tooth pulled out.  So I went to +studying it out.  I says to myself, I reckon a body that ups and tells +the truth when he is in a tight place is taking considerable many resks, +though I ain't had no experience, and can't say for certain; but it +looks so to me, anyway; and yet here's a case where I'm blest if it +don't look to me like the truth is better and actuly _safer_ than a lie. + I must lay it by in my mind, and think it over some time or other, it's +so kind of strange and unregular. I never see nothing like it.  Well, I +says to myself at last, I'm a-going to chance it; I'll up and tell the +truth this time, though it does seem most like setting down on a kag of +powder and touching it off just to see where you'll go to. Then I says: + +"Miss Mary Jane, is there any place out of town a little ways where you +could go and stay three or four days?" + +"Yes; Mr. Lothrop's.  Why?" + +"Never mind why yet.  If I'll tell you how I know the niggers will see +each other again inside of two weeks—here in this house—and _prove_ how +I know it—will you go to Mr. Lothrop's and stay four days?" + +"Four days!" she says; "I'll stay a year!" + +"All right," I says, "I don't want nothing more out of _you_ than just +your word—I druther have it than another man's kiss-the-Bible."  She +smiled and reddened up very sweet, and I says, "If you don't mind it, +I'll shut the door—and bolt it." + +Then I come back and set down again, and says: + +"Don't you holler.  Just set still and take it like a man.  I got to +tell the truth, and you want to brace up, Miss Mary, because it's a +bad kind, and going to be hard to take, but there ain't no help for +it.  These uncles of yourn ain't no uncles at all; they're a couple of +frauds—regular dead-beats.  There, now we're over the worst of it, you +can stand the rest middling easy." + +It jolted her up like everything, of course; but I was over the shoal +water now, so I went right along, her eyes a-blazing higher and higher +all the time, and told her every blame thing, from where we first struck +that young fool going up to the steamboat, clear through to where she +flung herself on to the king's breast at the front door and he kissed +her sixteen or seventeen times—and then up she jumps, with her face +afire like sunset, and says: + +"The brute!  Come, don't waste a minute—not a _second_—we'll have them +tarred and feathered, and flung in the river!" + +Says I: + +"Cert'nly.  But do you mean _before_ you go to Mr. Lothrop's, or—" + +"Oh," she says, "what am I _thinking_ about!" she says, and set right +down again.  "Don't mind what I said—please don't—you _won't,_ now, +_will_ you?" Laying her silky hand on mine in that kind of a way that +I said I would die first.  "I never thought, I was so stirred up," she +says; "now go on, and I won't do so any more.  You tell me what to do, +and whatever you say I'll do it." + +"Well," I says, "it's a rough gang, them two frauds, and I'm fixed so +I got to travel with them a while longer, whether I want to or not—I +druther not tell you why; and if you was to blow on them this town would +get me out of their claws, and I'd be all right; but there'd be another +person that you don't know about who'd be in big trouble.  Well, we +got to save _him_, hain't we?  Of course.  Well, then, we won't blow on +them." + +Saying them words put a good idea in my head.  I see how maybe I could +get me and Jim rid of the frauds; get them jailed here, and then leave. +But I didn't want to run the raft in the daytime without anybody aboard +to answer questions but me; so I didn't want the plan to begin working +till pretty late to-night.  I says: + +"Miss Mary Jane, I'll tell you what we'll do, and you won't have to stay +at Mr. Lothrop's so long, nuther.  How fur is it?" + +"A little short of four miles—right out in the country, back here." + +"Well, that 'll answer.  Now you go along out there, and lay low +till nine or half-past to-night, and then get them to fetch you home +again—tell them you've thought of something.  If you get here before +eleven put a candle in this window, and if I don't turn up wait _till_ +eleven, and _then_ if I don't turn up it means I'm gone, and out of the +way, and safe. Then you come out and spread the news around, and get +these beats jailed." + +"Good," she says, "I'll do it." + +"And if it just happens so that I don't get away, but get took up along +with them, you must up and say I told you the whole thing beforehand, +and you must stand by me all you can." + +"Stand by you! indeed I will.  They sha'n't touch a hair of your head!" +she says, and I see her nostrils spread and her eyes snap when she said +it, too. + +"If I get away I sha'n't be here," I says, "to prove these rapscallions +ain't your uncles, and I couldn't do it if I _was_ here.  I could swear +they was beats and bummers, that's all, though that's worth something. +Well, there's others can do that better than what I can, and they're +people that ain't going to be doubted as quick as I'd be.  I'll tell you +how to find them.  Gimme a pencil and a piece of paper.  There—'Royal +Nonesuch, Bricksville.'  Put it away, and don't lose it.  When the +court wants to find out something about these two, let them send up to +Bricksville and say they've got the men that played the Royal Nonesuch, +and ask for some witnesses—why, you'll have that entire town down here +before you can hardly wink, Miss Mary.  And they'll come a-biling, too." + +I judged we had got everything fixed about right now.  So I says: + +"Just let the auction go right along, and don't worry.  Nobody don't +have to pay for the things they buy till a whole day after the auction +on accounts of the short notice, and they ain't going out of this till +they get that money; and the way we've fixed it the sale ain't going to +count, and they ain't going to get no money.  It's just like the way +it was with the niggers—it warn't no sale, and the niggers will be +back before long.  Why, they can't collect the money for the _niggers_ +yet—they're in the worst kind of a fix, Miss Mary." + +"Well," she says, "I'll run down to breakfast now, and then I'll start +straight for Mr. Lothrop's." + +"'Deed, _that_ ain't the ticket, Miss Mary Jane," I says, "by no manner +of means; go _before_ breakfast." + +"Why?" + +"What did you reckon I wanted you to go at all for, Miss Mary?" + +"Well, I never thought—and come to think, I don't know.  What was it?" + +"Why, it's because you ain't one of these leather-face people.  I don't +want no better book than what your face is.  A body can set down and +read it off like coarse print.  Do you reckon you can go and face your +uncles when they come to kiss you good-morning, and never—" + +"There, there, don't!  Yes, I'll go before breakfast—I'll be glad to. +And leave my sisters with them?" + +"Yes; never mind about them.  They've got to stand it yet a while.  They +might suspicion something if all of you was to go.  I don't want you to +see them, nor your sisters, nor nobody in this town; if a neighbor was +to ask how is your uncles this morning your face would tell something. + No, you go right along, Miss Mary Jane, and I'll fix it with all of +them. I'll tell Miss Susan to give your love to your uncles and say +you've went away for a few hours for to get a little rest and change, or +to see a friend, and you'll be back to-night or early in the morning." + +"Gone to see a friend is all right, but I won't have my love given to +them." + +"Well, then, it sha'n't be."  It was well enough to tell _her_ so—no +harm in it.  It was only a little thing to do, and no trouble; and it's +the little things that smooths people's roads the most, down here below; +it would make Mary Jane comfortable, and it wouldn't cost nothing.  Then +I says:  "There's one more thing—that bag of money." + +"Well, they've got that; and it makes me feel pretty silly to think +_how_ they got it." + +"No, you're out, there.  They hain't got it." + +"Why, who's got it?" + +"I wish I knowed, but I don't.  I _had_ it, because I stole it from +them; and I stole it to give to you; and I know where I hid it, but I'm +afraid it ain't there no more.  I'm awful sorry, Miss Mary Jane, I'm +just as sorry as I can be; but I done the best I could; I did honest.  I +come nigh getting caught, and I had to shove it into the first place I +come to, and run—and it warn't a good place." + +"Oh, stop blaming yourself—it's too bad to do it, and I won't allow +it—you couldn't help it; it wasn't your fault.  Where did you hide it?" + +I didn't want to set her to thinking about her troubles again; and I +couldn't seem to get my mouth to tell her what would make her see that +corpse laying in the coffin with that bag of money on his stomach.  So +for a minute I didn't say nothing; then I says: + +"I'd ruther not _tell_ you where I put it, Miss Mary Jane, if you don't +mind letting me off; but I'll write it for you on a piece of paper, and +you can read it along the road to Mr. Lothrop's, if you want to.  Do you +reckon that 'll do?" + +"Oh, yes." + +So I wrote:  "I put it in the coffin.  It was in there when you was +crying there, away in the night.  I was behind the door, and I was +mighty sorry for you, Miss Mary Jane." + +It made my eyes water a little to remember her crying there all by +herself in the night, and them devils laying there right under her own +roof, shaming her and robbing her; and when I folded it up and give it +to her I see the water come into her eyes, too; and she shook me by the +hand, hard, and says: + +"_Good_-bye.  I'm going to do everything just as you've told me; and if +I don't ever see you again, I sha'n't ever forget you and I'll think of +you a many and a many a time, and I'll _pray_ for you, too!"—and she was +gone. + +Pray for me!  I reckoned if she knowed me she'd take a job that was more +nearer her size.  But I bet she done it, just the same—she was just that +kind.  She had the grit to pray for Judus if she took the notion—there +warn't no back-down to her, I judge.  You may say what you want to, but +in my opinion she had more sand in her than any girl I ever see; in +my opinion she was just full of sand.  It sounds like flattery, but it +ain't no flattery.  And when it comes to beauty—and goodness, too—she +lays over them all.  I hain't ever seen her since that time that I see +her go out of that door; no, I hain't ever seen her since, but I reckon +I've thought of her a many and a many a million times, and of her saying +she would pray for me; and if ever I'd a thought it would do any good +for me to pray for _her_, blamed if I wouldn't a done it or bust. + +Well, Mary Jane she lit out the back way, I reckon; because nobody see +her go.  When I struck Susan and the hare-lip, I says: + +"What's the name of them people over on t'other side of the river that +you all goes to see sometimes?" + +They says: + +"There's several; but it's the Proctors, mainly." + +"That's the name," I says; "I most forgot it.  Well, Miss Mary Jane she +told me to tell you she's gone over there in a dreadful hurry—one of +them's sick." + +"Which one?" + +"I don't know; leastways, I kinder forget; but I thinks it's—" + +"Sakes alive, I hope it ain't _Hanner_?" + +"I'm sorry to say it," I says, "but Hanner's the very one." + +"My goodness, and she so well only last week!  Is she took bad?" + +"It ain't no name for it.  They set up with her all night, Miss Mary +Jane said, and they don't think she'll last many hours." + +"Only think of that, now!  What's the matter with her?" + +I couldn't think of anything reasonable, right off that way, so I says: + +"Mumps." + +"Mumps your granny!  They don't set up with people that's got the +mumps." + +"They don't, don't they?  You better bet they do with _these_ mumps. + These mumps is different.  It's a new kind, Miss Mary Jane said." + +"How's it a new kind?" + +"Because it's mixed up with other things." + +"What other things?" + +"Well, measles, and whooping-cough, and erysiplas, and consumption, and +yaller janders, and brain-fever, and I don't know what all." + +"My land!  And they call it the _mumps_?" + +"That's what Miss Mary Jane said." + +"Well, what in the nation do they call it the _mumps_ for?" + +"Why, because it _is_ the mumps.  That's what it starts with." + +"Well, ther' ain't no sense in it.  A body might stump his toe, and take +pison, and fall down the well, and break his neck, and bust his brains +out, and somebody come along and ask what killed him, and some numskull +up and say, 'Why, he stumped his _toe_.'  Would ther' be any sense +in that? _No_.  And ther' ain't no sense in _this_, nuther.  Is it +ketching?" + +"Is it _ketching_?  Why, how you talk.  Is a _harrow_ catching—in the +dark? If you don't hitch on to one tooth, you're bound to on another, +ain't you? And you can't get away with that tooth without fetching the +whole harrow along, can you?  Well, these kind of mumps is a kind of a +harrow, as you may say—and it ain't no slouch of a harrow, nuther, you +come to get it hitched on good." + +"Well, it's awful, I think," says the hare-lip.  "I'll go to Uncle +Harvey and—" + +"Oh, yes," I says, "I _would_.  Of _course_ I would.  I wouldn't lose no +time." + +"Well, why wouldn't you?" + +"Just look at it a minute, and maybe you can see.  Hain't your uncles +obleegd to get along home to England as fast as they can?  And do you +reckon they'd be mean enough to go off and leave you to go all that +journey by yourselves?  _you_ know they'll wait for you.  So fur, so +good. Your uncle Harvey's a preacher, ain't he?  Very well, then; is a +_preacher_ going to deceive a steamboat clerk? is he going to deceive +a _ship clerk?_—so as to get them to let Miss Mary Jane go aboard?  Now +_you_ know he ain't.  What _will_ he do, then?  Why, he'll say, 'It's a +great pity, but my church matters has got to get along the best way they +can; for my niece has been exposed to the dreadful pluribus-unum mumps, +and so it's my bounden duty to set down here and wait the three months +it takes to show on her if she's got it.'  But never mind, if you think +it's best to tell your uncle Harvey—" + +"Shucks, and stay fooling around here when we could all be having good +times in England whilst we was waiting to find out whether Mary Jane's +got it or not?  Why, you talk like a muggins." + +"Well, anyway, maybe you'd better tell some of the neighbors." + +"Listen at that, now.  You do beat all for natural stupidness.  Can't +you _see_ that _they'd_ go and tell?  Ther' ain't no way but just to not +tell anybody at _all_." + +"Well, maybe you're right—yes, I judge you _are_ right." + +"But I reckon we ought to tell Uncle Harvey she's gone out a while, +anyway, so he won't be uneasy about her?" + +"Yes, Miss Mary Jane she wanted you to do that.  She says, 'Tell them to +give Uncle Harvey and William my love and a kiss, and say I've run over +the river to see Mr.'—Mr.—what _is_ the name of that rich family your +uncle Peter used to think so much of?—I mean the one that—" + +"Why, you must mean the Apthorps, ain't it?" + +"Of course; bother them kind of names, a body can't ever seem to +remember them, half the time, somehow.  Yes, she said, say she has run +over for to ask the Apthorps to be sure and come to the auction and buy +this house, because she allowed her uncle Peter would ruther they had +it than anybody else; and she's going to stick to them till they say +they'll come, and then, if she ain't too tired, she's coming home; and +if she is, she'll be home in the morning anyway.  She said, don't say +nothing about the Proctors, but only about the Apthorps—which 'll be +perfectly true, because she is going there to speak about their buying +the house; I know it, because she told me so herself." + +"All right," they said, and cleared out to lay for their uncles, and +give them the love and the kisses, and tell them the message. + +Everything was all right now.  The girls wouldn't say nothing because +they wanted to go to England; and the king and the duke would ruther +Mary Jane was off working for the auction than around in reach of +Doctor Robinson.  I felt very good; I judged I had done it pretty neat—I +reckoned Tom Sawyer couldn't a done it no neater himself.  Of course he +would a throwed more style into it, but I can't do that very handy, not +being brung up to it. + +Well, they held the auction in the public square, along towards the end +of the afternoon, and it strung along, and strung along, and the old man +he was on hand and looking his level pisonest, up there longside of the +auctioneer, and chipping in a little Scripture now and then, or a little +goody-goody saying of some kind, and the duke he was around goo-gooing +for sympathy all he knowed how, and just spreading himself generly. + +But by and by the thing dragged through, and everything was +sold—everything but a little old trifling lot in the graveyard.  So +they'd got to work that off—I never see such a girafft as the king was +for wanting to swallow _everything_.  Well, whilst they was at it a +steamboat landed, and in about two minutes up comes a crowd a-whooping +and yelling and laughing and carrying on, and singing out: + +"_Here's_ your opposition line! here's your two sets o' heirs to old +Peter Wilks—and you pays your money and you takes your choice!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +THEY was fetching a very nice-looking old gentleman along, and a +nice-looking younger one, with his right arm in a sling.  And, my souls, +how the people yelled and laughed, and kept it up.  But I didn't see no +joke about it, and I judged it would strain the duke and the king some +to see any.  I reckoned they'd turn pale.  But no, nary a pale did +_they_ turn. The duke he never let on he suspicioned what was up, but +just went a goo-gooing around, happy and satisfied, like a jug that's +googling out buttermilk; and as for the king, he just gazed and gazed +down sorrowful on them new-comers like it give him the stomach-ache in +his very heart to think there could be such frauds and rascals in the +world.  Oh, he done it admirable.  Lots of the principal people +gethered around the king, to let him see they was on his side.  That old +gentleman that had just come looked all puzzled to death.  Pretty +soon he begun to speak, and I see straight off he pronounced _like_ an +Englishman—not the king's way, though the king's _was_ pretty good for +an imitation.  I can't give the old gent's words, nor I can't imitate +him; but he turned around to the crowd, and says, about like this: + +"This is a surprise to me which I wasn't looking for; and I'll +acknowledge, candid and frank, I ain't very well fixed to meet it and +answer it; for my brother and me has had misfortunes; he's broke his +arm, and our baggage got put off at a town above here last night in the +night by a mistake.  I am Peter Wilks' brother Harvey, and this is his +brother William, which can't hear nor speak—and can't even make signs to +amount to much, now't he's only got one hand to work them with.  We are +who we say we are; and in a day or two, when I get the baggage, I can +prove it. But up till then I won't say nothing more, but go to the hotel +and wait." + +So him and the new dummy started off; and the king he laughs, and +blethers out: + +"Broke his arm—_very_ likely, _ain't_ it?—and very convenient, too, +for a fraud that's got to make signs, and ain't learnt how.  Lost +their baggage! That's _mighty_ good!—and mighty ingenious—under the +_circumstances_!" + +So he laughed again; and so did everybody else, except three or four, +or maybe half a dozen.  One of these was that doctor; another one was +a sharp-looking gentleman, with a carpet-bag of the old-fashioned kind +made out of carpet-stuff, that had just come off of the steamboat and +was talking to him in a low voice, and glancing towards the king now and +then and nodding their heads—it was Levi Bell, the lawyer that was gone +up to Louisville; and another one was a big rough husky that come along +and listened to all the old gentleman said, and was listening to the +king now. And when the king got done this husky up and says: + +"Say, looky here; if you are Harvey Wilks, when'd you come to this +town?" + +"The day before the funeral, friend," says the king. + +"But what time o' day?" + +"In the evenin'—'bout an hour er two before sundown." + +"_How'd_ you come?" + +"I come down on the Susan Powell from Cincinnati." + +"Well, then, how'd you come to be up at the Pint in the _mornin_'—in a +canoe?" + +"I warn't up at the Pint in the mornin'." + +"It's a lie." + +Several of them jumped for him and begged him not to talk that way to an +old man and a preacher. + +"Preacher be hanged, he's a fraud and a liar.  He was up at the Pint +that mornin'.  I live up there, don't I?  Well, I was up there, and +he was up there.  I see him there.  He come in a canoe, along with Tim +Collins and a boy." + +The doctor he up and says: + +"Would you know the boy again if you was to see him, Hines?" + +"I reckon I would, but I don't know.  Why, yonder he is, now.  I know +him perfectly easy." + +It was me he pointed at.  The doctor says: + +"Neighbors, I don't know whether the new couple is frauds or not; but if +_these_ two ain't frauds, I am an idiot, that's all.  I think it's our +duty to see that they don't get away from here till we've looked into +this thing. Come along, Hines; come along, the rest of you.  We'll take +these fellows to the tavern and affront them with t'other couple, and I +reckon we'll find out _something_ before we get through." + +It was nuts for the crowd, though maybe not for the king's friends; so +we all started.  It was about sundown.  The doctor he led me along by +the hand, and was plenty kind enough, but he never let go my hand. + +We all got in a big room in the hotel, and lit up some candles, and +fetched in the new couple.  First, the doctor says: + +"I don't wish to be too hard on these two men, but I think they're +frauds, and they may have complices that we don't know nothing about. + If they have, won't the complices get away with that bag of gold Peter +Wilks left?  It ain't unlikely.  If these men ain't frauds, they won't +object to sending for that money and letting us keep it till they prove +they're all right—ain't that so?" + +Everybody agreed to that.  So I judged they had our gang in a pretty +tight place right at the outstart.  But the king he only looked +sorrowful, and says: + +"Gentlemen, I wish the money was there, for I ain't got no disposition +to throw anything in the way of a fair, open, out-and-out investigation +o' this misable business; but, alas, the money ain't there; you k'n send +and see, if you want to." + +"Where is it, then?" + +"Well, when my niece give it to me to keep for her I took and hid it +inside o' the straw tick o' my bed, not wishin' to bank it for the few +days we'd be here, and considerin' the bed a safe place, we not bein' +used to niggers, and suppos'n' 'em honest, like servants in England. + The niggers stole it the very next mornin' after I had went down +stairs; and when I sold 'em I hadn't missed the money yit, so they got +clean away with it.  My servant here k'n tell you 'bout it, gentlemen." + +The doctor and several said "Shucks!" and I see nobody didn't altogether +believe him.  One man asked me if I see the niggers steal it.  I said +no, but I see them sneaking out of the room and hustling away, and I +never thought nothing, only I reckoned they was afraid they had waked up +my master and was trying to get away before he made trouble with them. + That was all they asked me.  Then the doctor whirls on me and says: + +"Are _you_ English, too?" + +I says yes; and him and some others laughed, and said, "Stuff!" + +Well, then they sailed in on the general investigation, and there we had +it, up and down, hour in, hour out, and nobody never said a word about +supper, nor ever seemed to think about it—and so they kept it up, and +kept it up; and it _was_ the worst mixed-up thing you ever see.  They +made the king tell his yarn, and they made the old gentleman tell his'n; +and anybody but a lot of prejudiced chuckleheads would a _seen_ that the +old gentleman was spinning truth and t'other one lies.  And by and by +they had me up to tell what I knowed.  The king he give me a left-handed +look out of the corner of his eye, and so I knowed enough to talk on the +right side.  I begun to tell about Sheffield, and how we lived there, +and all about the English Wilkses, and so on; but I didn't get pretty +fur till the doctor begun to laugh; and Levi Bell, the lawyer, says: + +"Set down, my boy; I wouldn't strain myself if I was you.  I reckon +you ain't used to lying, it don't seem to come handy; what you want is +practice.  You do it pretty awkward." + +I didn't care nothing for the compliment, but I was glad to be let off, +anyway. + +The doctor he started to say something, and turns and says: + +"If you'd been in town at first, Levi Bell—" The king broke in and +reached out his hand, and says: + +"Why, is this my poor dead brother's old friend that he's wrote so often +about?" + +The lawyer and him shook hands, and the lawyer smiled and looked +pleased, and they talked right along awhile, and then got to one side +and talked low; and at last the lawyer speaks up and says: + +"That 'll fix it.  I'll take the order and send it, along with your +brother's, and then they'll know it's all right." + +So they got some paper and a pen, and the king he set down and twisted +his head to one side, and chawed his tongue, and scrawled off something; +and then they give the pen to the duke—and then for the first time the +duke looked sick.  But he took the pen and wrote.  So then the lawyer +turns to the new old gentleman and says: + +"You and your brother please write a line or two and sign your names." + +The old gentleman wrote, but nobody couldn't read it.  The lawyer looked +powerful astonished, and says: + +"Well, it beats _me_"—and snaked a lot of old letters out of his pocket, +and examined them, and then examined the old man's writing, and then +_them_ again; and then says:  "These old letters is from Harvey Wilks; +and here's _these_ two handwritings, and anybody can see they didn't +write them" (the king and the duke looked sold and foolish, I tell +you, to see how the lawyer had took them in), "and here's _this_ old +gentleman's hand writing, and anybody can tell, easy enough, _he_ didn't +write them—fact is, the scratches he makes ain't properly _writing_ at +all.  Now, here's some letters from—" + +The new old gentleman says: + +"If you please, let me explain.  Nobody can read my hand but my brother +there—so he copies for me.  It's _his_ hand you've got there, not mine." + +"_Well_!" says the lawyer, "this _is_ a state of things.  I've got some +of William's letters, too; so if you'll get him to write a line or so we +can com—" + +"He _can't_ write with his left hand," says the old gentleman.  "If he +could use his right hand, you would see that he wrote his own letters +and mine too.  Look at both, please—they're by the same hand." + +The lawyer done it, and says: + +"I believe it's so—and if it ain't so, there's a heap stronger +resemblance than I'd noticed before, anyway.  Well, well, well!  I +thought we was right on the track of a solution, but it's gone to grass, +partly.  But anyway, one thing is proved—_these_ two ain't either of 'em +Wilkses"—and he wagged his head towards the king and the duke. + +Well, what do you think?  That muleheaded old fool wouldn't give in +_then_! Indeed he wouldn't.  Said it warn't no fair test.  Said his +brother William was the cussedest joker in the world, and hadn't tried +to write—_he_ see William was going to play one of his jokes the minute +he put the pen to paper.  And so he warmed up and went warbling and +warbling right along till he was actuly beginning to believe what he was +saying _himself_; but pretty soon the new gentleman broke in, and says: + +"I've thought of something.  Is there anybody here that helped to lay +out my br—helped to lay out the late Peter Wilks for burying?" + +"Yes," says somebody, "me and Ab Turner done it.  We're both here." + +Then the old man turns towards the king, and says: + +"Perhaps this gentleman can tell me what was tattooed on his breast?" + +Blamed if the king didn't have to brace up mighty quick, or he'd a +squshed down like a bluff bank that the river has cut under, it took +him so sudden; and, mind you, it was a thing that was calculated to make +most _anybody_ sqush to get fetched such a solid one as that without any +notice, because how was _he_ going to know what was tattooed on the man? + He whitened a little; he couldn't help it; and it was mighty still in +there, and everybody bending a little forwards and gazing at him.  Says +I to myself, _now_ he'll throw up the sponge—there ain't no more use. + Well, did he?  A body can't hardly believe it, but he didn't.  I reckon +he thought he'd keep the thing up till he tired them people out, so +they'd thin out, and him and the duke could break loose and get away. + Anyway, he set there, and pretty soon he begun to smile, and says: + +"Mf!  It's a _very_ tough question, _ain't_ it!  _yes_, sir, I k'n +tell you what's tattooed on his breast.  It's jest a small, thin, blue +arrow—that's what it is; and if you don't look clost, you can't see it. + _now_ what do you say—hey?" + +Well, I never see anything like that old blister for clean out-and-out +cheek. + +The new old gentleman turns brisk towards Ab Turner and his pard, and +his eye lights up like he judged he'd got the king _this_ time, and +says: + +"There—you've heard what he said!  Was there any such mark on Peter +Wilks' breast?" + +Both of them spoke up and says: + +"We didn't see no such mark." + +"Good!" says the old gentleman.  "Now, what you _did_ see on his breast +was a small dim P, and a B (which is an initial he dropped when he was +young), and a W, with dashes between them, so:  P—B—W"—and he marked +them that way on a piece of paper.  "Come, ain't that what you saw?" + +Both of them spoke up again, and says: + +"No, we _didn't_.  We never seen any marks at all." + +Well, everybody _was_ in a state of mind now, and they sings out: + +"The whole _bilin_' of 'm 's frauds!  Le's duck 'em! le's drown 'em! +le's ride 'em on a rail!" and everybody was whooping at once, and there +was a rattling powwow.  But the lawyer he jumps on the table and yells, +and says: + +"Gentlemen—gentle_men!_  Hear me just a word—just a _single_ word—if you +_please_!  There's one way yet—let's go and dig up the corpse and look." + +That took them. + +"Hooray!" they all shouted, and was starting right off; but the lawyer +and the doctor sung out: + +"Hold on, hold on!  Collar all these four men and the boy, and fetch +_them_ along, too!" + +"We'll do it!" they all shouted; "and if we don't find them marks we'll +lynch the whole gang!" + +I _was_ scared, now, I tell you.  But there warn't no getting away, you +know. They gripped us all, and marched us right along, straight for the +graveyard, which was a mile and a half down the river, and the whole +town at our heels, for we made noise enough, and it was only nine in the +evening. + +As we went by our house I wished I hadn't sent Mary Jane out of town; +because now if I could tip her the wink she'd light out and save me, and +blow on our dead-beats. + +Well, we swarmed along down the river road, just carrying on like +wildcats; and to make it more scary the sky was darking up, and the +lightning beginning to wink and flitter, and the wind to shiver amongst +the leaves. This was the most awful trouble and most dangersome I ever +was in; and I was kinder stunned; everything was going so different from +what I had allowed for; stead of being fixed so I could take my own time +if I wanted to, and see all the fun, and have Mary Jane at my back to +save me and set me free when the close-fit come, here was nothing in the +world betwixt me and sudden death but just them tattoo-marks.  If they +didn't find them— + +I couldn't bear to think about it; and yet, somehow, I couldn't think +about nothing else.  It got darker and darker, and it was a beautiful +time to give the crowd the slip; but that big husky had me by the +wrist—Hines—and a body might as well try to give Goliar the slip.  He +dragged me right along, he was so excited, and I had to run to keep up. + +When they got there they swarmed into the graveyard and washed over it +like an overflow.  And when they got to the grave they found they had +about a hundred times as many shovels as they wanted, but nobody hadn't +thought to fetch a lantern.  But they sailed into digging anyway by the +flicker of the lightning, and sent a man to the nearest house, a half a +mile off, to borrow one. + +So they dug and dug like everything; and it got awful dark, and the rain +started, and the wind swished and swushed along, and the lightning come +brisker and brisker, and the thunder boomed; but them people never took +no notice of it, they was so full of this business; and one minute +you could see everything and every face in that big crowd, and the +shovelfuls of dirt sailing up out of the grave, and the next second the +dark wiped it all out, and you couldn't see nothing at all. + +At last they got out the coffin and begun to unscrew the lid, and then +such another crowding and shouldering and shoving as there was, to +scrouge in and get a sight, you never see; and in the dark, that way, it +was awful.  Hines he hurt my wrist dreadful pulling and tugging so, +and I reckon he clean forgot I was in the world, he was so excited and +panting. + +All of a sudden the lightning let go a perfect sluice of white glare, +and somebody sings out: + +"By the living jingo, here's the bag of gold on his breast!" + +Hines let out a whoop, like everybody else, and dropped my wrist and +give a big surge to bust his way in and get a look, and the way I lit +out and shinned for the road in the dark there ain't nobody can tell. + +I had the road all to myself, and I fairly flew—leastways, I had it all +to myself except the solid dark, and the now-and-then glares, and the +buzzing of the rain, and the thrashing of the wind, and the splitting of +the thunder; and sure as you are born I did clip it along! + +When I struck the town I see there warn't nobody out in the storm, so +I never hunted for no back streets, but humped it straight through the +main one; and when I begun to get towards our house I aimed my eye and +set it. No light there; the house all dark—which made me feel sorry and +disappointed, I didn't know why.  But at last, just as I was sailing by, +_flash_ comes the light in Mary Jane's window! and my heart swelled up +sudden, like to bust; and the same second the house and all was behind +me in the dark, and wasn't ever going to be before me no more in this +world. She _was_ the best girl I ever see, and had the most sand. + +The minute I was far enough above the town to see I could make the +towhead, I begun to look sharp for a boat to borrow, and the first +time the lightning showed me one that wasn't chained I snatched it and +shoved. It was a canoe, and warn't fastened with nothing but a rope. + The towhead was a rattling big distance off, away out there in the +middle of the river, but I didn't lose no time; and when I struck the +raft at last I was so fagged I would a just laid down to blow and gasp +if I could afforded it.  But I didn't.  As I sprung aboard I sung out: + +"Out with you, Jim, and set her loose!  Glory be to goodness, we're shut +of them!" + +Jim lit out, and was a-coming for me with both arms spread, he was so +full of joy; but when I glimpsed him in the lightning my heart shot up +in my mouth and I went overboard backwards; for I forgot he was old King +Lear and a drownded A-rab all in one, and it most scared the livers and +lights out of me.  But Jim fished me out, and was going to hug me and +bless me, and so on, he was so glad I was back and we was shut of the +king and the duke, but I says: + +"Not now; have it for breakfast, have it for breakfast!  Cut loose and +let her slide!" + +So in two seconds away we went a-sliding down the river, and it _did_ +seem so good to be free again and all by ourselves on the big river, and +nobody to bother us.  I had to skip around a bit, and jump up and crack +my heels a few times—I couldn't help it; but about the third crack +I noticed a sound that I knowed mighty well, and held my breath and +listened and waited; and sure enough, when the next flash busted out +over the water, here they come!—and just a-laying to their oars and +making their skiff hum!  It was the king and the duke. + +So I wilted right down on to the planks then, and give up; and it was +all I could do to keep from crying. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +WHEN they got aboard the king went for me, and shook me by the collar, +and says: + +"Tryin' to give us the slip, was ye, you pup!  Tired of our company, +hey?" + +I says: + +"No, your majesty, we warn't—_please_ don't, your majesty!" + +"Quick, then, and tell us what _was_ your idea, or I'll shake the +insides out o' you!" + +"Honest, I'll tell you everything just as it happened, your majesty. + The man that had a-holt of me was very good to me, and kept saying he +had a boy about as big as me that died last year, and he was sorry +to see a boy in such a dangerous fix; and when they was all took by +surprise by finding the gold, and made a rush for the coffin, he lets go +of me and whispers, 'Heel it now, or they'll hang ye, sure!' and I lit +out.  It didn't seem no good for _me_ to stay—I couldn't do nothing, +and I didn't want to be hung if I could get away.  So I never stopped +running till I found the canoe; and when I got here I told Jim to hurry, +or they'd catch me and hang me yet, and said I was afeard you and the +duke wasn't alive now, and I was awful sorry, and so was Jim, and was +awful glad when we see you coming; you may ask Jim if I didn't." + +Jim said it was so; and the king told him to shut up, and said, "Oh, +yes, it's _mighty_ likely!" and shook me up again, and said he reckoned +he'd drownd me.  But the duke says: + +"Leggo the boy, you old idiot!  Would _you_ a done any different?  Did +you inquire around for _him_ when you got loose?  I don't remember it." + +So the king let go of me, and begun to cuss that town and everybody in +it. But the duke says: + +"You better a blame' sight give _yourself_ a good cussing, for you're +the one that's entitled to it most.  You hain't done a thing from the +start that had any sense in it, except coming out so cool and cheeky +with that imaginary blue-arrow mark.  That _was_ bright—it was right +down bully; and it was the thing that saved us.  For if it hadn't been +for that they'd a jailed us till them Englishmen's baggage come—and +then—the penitentiary, you bet! But that trick took 'em to the +graveyard, and the gold done us a still bigger kindness; for if the +excited fools hadn't let go all holts and made that rush to get a +look we'd a slept in our cravats to-night—cravats warranted to _wear_, +too—longer than _we'd_ need 'em." + +They was still a minute—thinking; then the king says, kind of +absent-minded like: + +"Mf!  And we reckoned the _niggers_ stole it!" + +That made me squirm! + +"Yes," says the duke, kinder slow and deliberate and sarcastic, "_we_ +did." + +After about a half a minute the king drawls out: + +"Leastways, I did." + +The duke says, the same way: + +"On the contrary, I did." + +The king kind of ruffles up, and says: + +"Looky here, Bilgewater, what'r you referrin' to?" + +The duke says, pretty brisk: + +"When it comes to that, maybe you'll let me ask, what was _you_ +referring to?" + +"Shucks!" says the king, very sarcastic; "but I don't know—maybe you was +asleep, and didn't know what you was about." + +The duke bristles up now, and says: + +"Oh, let _up_ on this cussed nonsense; do you take me for a blame' fool? +Don't you reckon I know who hid that money in that coffin?" + +"_Yes_, sir!  I know you _do_ know, because you done it yourself!" + +"It's a lie!"—and the duke went for him.  The king sings out: + +"Take y'r hands off!—leggo my throat!—I take it all back!" + +The duke says: + +"Well, you just own up, first, that you _did_ hide that money there, +intending to give me the slip one of these days, and come back and dig +it up, and have it all to yourself." + +"Wait jest a minute, duke—answer me this one question, honest and fair; +if you didn't put the money there, say it, and I'll b'lieve you, and +take back everything I said." + +"You old scoundrel, I didn't, and you know I didn't.  There, now!" + +"Well, then, I b'lieve you.  But answer me only jest this one more—now +_don't_ git mad; didn't you have it in your mind to hook the money and +hide it?" + +The duke never said nothing for a little bit; then he says: + +"Well, I don't care if I _did_, I didn't _do_ it, anyway.  But you not +only had it in mind to do it, but you _done_ it." + +"I wisht I never die if I done it, duke, and that's honest.  I won't say +I warn't goin' to do it, because I _was_; but you—I mean somebody—got in +ahead o' me." + +"It's a lie!  You done it, and you got to _say_ you done it, or—" + +The king began to gurgle, and then he gasps out: + +"'Nough!—I _own up!_" + +I was very glad to hear him say that; it made me feel much more easier +than what I was feeling before.  So the duke took his hands off and +says: + +"If you ever deny it again I'll drown you.  It's _well_ for you to set +there and blubber like a baby—it's fitten for you, after the way +you've acted. I never see such an old ostrich for wanting to gobble +everything—and I a-trusting you all the time, like you was my own +father.  You ought to been ashamed of yourself to stand by and hear it +saddled on to a lot of poor niggers, and you never say a word for 'em. + It makes me feel ridiculous to think I was soft enough to _believe_ +that rubbage.  Cuss you, I can see now why you was so anxious to make +up the deffisit—you wanted to get what money I'd got out of the Nonesuch +and one thing or another, and scoop it _all_!" + +The king says, timid, and still a-snuffling: + +"Why, duke, it was you that said make up the deffisit; it warn't me." + +"Dry up!  I don't want to hear no more out of you!" says the duke.  "And +_now_ you see what you GOT by it.  They've got all their own money back, +and all of _ourn_ but a shekel or two _besides_.  G'long to bed, and +don't you deffersit _me_ no more deffersits, long 's _you_ live!" + +So the king sneaked into the wigwam and took to his bottle for comfort, +and before long the duke tackled HIS bottle; and so in about a half an +hour they was as thick as thieves again, and the tighter they got the +lovinger they got, and went off a-snoring in each other's arms.  They +both got powerful mellow, but I noticed the king didn't get mellow +enough to forget to remember to not deny about hiding the money-bag +again.  That made me feel easy and satisfied.  Of course when they got +to snoring we had a long gabble, and I told Jim everything. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +WE dasn't stop again at any town for days and days; kept right along +down the river.  We was down south in the warm weather now, and a mighty +long ways from home.  We begun to come to trees with Spanish moss on +them, hanging down from the limbs like long, gray beards.  It was the +first I ever see it growing, and it made the woods look solemn and +dismal.  So now the frauds reckoned they was out of danger, and they +begun to work the villages again. + +First they done a lecture on temperance; but they didn't make enough +for them both to get drunk on.  Then in another village they started +a dancing-school; but they didn't know no more how to dance than a +kangaroo does; so the first prance they made the general public jumped +in and pranced them out of town.  Another time they tried to go at +yellocution; but they didn't yellocute long till the audience got up and +give them a solid good cussing, and made them skip out.  They tackled +missionarying, and mesmerizing, and doctoring, and telling fortunes, and +a little of everything; but they couldn't seem to have no luck.  So at +last they got just about dead broke, and laid around the raft as she +floated along, thinking and thinking, and never saying nothing, by the +half a day at a time, and dreadful blue and desperate. + +And at last they took a change and begun to lay their heads together in +the wigwam and talk low and confidential two or three hours at a time. +Jim and me got uneasy.  We didn't like the look of it.  We judged they +was studying up some kind of worse deviltry than ever.  We turned it +over and over, and at last we made up our minds they was going to break +into somebody's house or store, or was going into the counterfeit-money +business, or something. So then we was pretty scared, and made up an +agreement that we wouldn't have nothing in the world to do with such +actions, and if we ever got the least show we would give them the cold +shake and clear out and leave them behind. Well, early one morning we +hid the raft in a good, safe place about two mile below a little bit of +a shabby village named Pikesville, and the king he went ashore and told +us all to stay hid whilst he went up to town and smelt around to see +if anybody had got any wind of the Royal Nonesuch there yet. ("House to +rob, you _mean_," says I to myself; "and when you get through robbing it +you'll come back here and wonder what has become of me and Jim and the +raft—and you'll have to take it out in wondering.") And he said if he +warn't back by midday the duke and me would know it was all right, and +we was to come along. + +So we stayed where we was.  The duke he fretted and sweated around, and +was in a mighty sour way.  He scolded us for everything, and we couldn't +seem to do nothing right; he found fault with every little thing. +Something was a-brewing, sure.  I was good and glad when midday come +and no king; we could have a change, anyway—and maybe a chance for _the_ +change on top of it.  So me and the duke went up to the village, and +hunted around there for the king, and by and by we found him in the +back room of a little low doggery, very tight, and a lot of loafers +bullyragging him for sport, and he a-cussing and a-threatening with all +his might, and so tight he couldn't walk, and couldn't do nothing to +them.  The duke he begun to abuse him for an old fool, and the king +begun to sass back, and the minute they was fairly at it I lit out and +shook the reefs out of my hind legs, and spun down the river road like +a deer, for I see our chance; and I made up my mind that it would be a +long day before they ever see me and Jim again.  I got down there all +out of breath but loaded up with joy, and sung out: + +"Set her loose, Jim! we're all right now!" + +But there warn't no answer, and nobody come out of the wigwam.  Jim was +gone!  I set up a shout—and then another—and then another one; and run +this way and that in the woods, whooping and screeching; but it warn't +no use—old Jim was gone.  Then I set down and cried; I couldn't help +it. But I couldn't set still long.  Pretty soon I went out on the road, +trying to think what I better do, and I run across a boy walking, and +asked him if he'd seen a strange nigger dressed so and so, and he says: + +"Yes." + +"Whereabouts?" says I. + +"Down to Silas Phelps' place, two mile below here.  He's a runaway +nigger, and they've got him.  Was you looking for him?" + +"You bet I ain't!  I run across him in the woods about an hour or two +ago, and he said if I hollered he'd cut my livers out—and told me to lay +down and stay where I was; and I done it.  Been there ever since; afeard +to come out." + +"Well," he says, "you needn't be afeard no more, becuz they've got him. +He run off f'm down South, som'ers." + +"It's a good job they got him." + +"Well, I _reckon_!  There's two hunderd dollars reward on him.  It's +like picking up money out'n the road." + +"Yes, it is—and I could a had it if I'd been big enough; I see him +_first_. Who nailed him?" + +"It was an old fellow—a stranger—and he sold out his chance in him for +forty dollars, becuz he's got to go up the river and can't wait.  Think +o' that, now!  You bet _I'd_ wait, if it was seven year." + +"That's me, every time," says I.  "But maybe his chance ain't worth +no more than that, if he'll sell it so cheap.  Maybe there's something +ain't straight about it." + +"But it _is_, though—straight as a string.  I see the handbill myself. + It tells all about him, to a dot—paints him like a picture, and tells +the plantation he's frum, below Newr_leans_.  No-sirree-_bob_, they +ain't no trouble 'bout _that_ speculation, you bet you.  Say, gimme a +chaw tobacker, won't ye?" + +I didn't have none, so he left.  I went to the raft, and set down in the +wigwam to think.  But I couldn't come to nothing.  I thought till I wore +my head sore, but I couldn't see no way out of the trouble.  After all +this long journey, and after all we'd done for them scoundrels, here it +was all come to nothing, everything all busted up and ruined, because +they could have the heart to serve Jim such a trick as that, and make +him a slave again all his life, and amongst strangers, too, for forty +dirty dollars. + +Once I said to myself it would be a thousand times better for Jim to +be a slave at home where his family was, as long as he'd _got_ to be a +slave, and so I'd better write a letter to Tom Sawyer and tell him to +tell Miss Watson where he was.  But I soon give up that notion for two +things: she'd be mad and disgusted at his rascality and ungratefulness +for leaving her, and so she'd sell him straight down the river again; +and if she didn't, everybody naturally despises an ungrateful nigger, +and they'd make Jim feel it all the time, and so he'd feel ornery and +disgraced. And then think of _me_!  It would get all around that Huck +Finn helped a nigger to get his freedom; and if I was ever to see +anybody from that town again I'd be ready to get down and lick his boots +for shame.  That's just the way:  a person does a low-down thing, and +then he don't want to take no consequences of it. Thinks as long as he +can hide it, it ain't no disgrace.  That was my fix exactly. The more I +studied about this the more my conscience went to grinding me, and the +more wicked and low-down and ornery I got to feeling. And at last, when +it hit me all of a sudden that here was the plain hand of Providence +slapping me in the face and letting me know my wickedness was being +watched all the time from up there in heaven, whilst I was stealing a +poor old woman's nigger that hadn't ever done me no harm, and now was +showing me there's One that's always on the lookout, and ain't a-going +to allow no such miserable doings to go only just so fur and no further, +I most dropped in my tracks I was so scared.  Well, I tried the best I +could to kinder soften it up somehow for myself by saying I was brung +up wicked, and so I warn't so much to blame; but something inside of me +kept saying, "There was the Sunday-school, you could a gone to it; and +if you'd a done it they'd a learnt you there that people that acts as +I'd been acting about that nigger goes to everlasting fire." + +It made me shiver.  And I about made up my mind to pray, and see if I +couldn't try to quit being the kind of a boy I was and be better.  So +I kneeled down.  But the words wouldn't come.  Why wouldn't they?  It +warn't no use to try and hide it from Him.  Nor from _me_, neither.  I +knowed very well why they wouldn't come.  It was because my heart warn't +right; it was because I warn't square; it was because I was playing +double.  I was letting _on_ to give up sin, but away inside of me I was +holding on to the biggest one of all.  I was trying to make my mouth +_say_ I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write +to that nigger's owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I +knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it.  You can't pray a lie—I found +that out. + +So I was full of trouble, full as I could be; and didn't know what to +do. At last I had an idea; and I says, I'll go and write the letter—and +then see if I can pray.  Why, it was astonishing, the way I felt as +light as a feather right straight off, and my troubles all gone.  So I +got a piece of paper and a pencil, all glad and excited, and set down +and wrote: + +Miss Watson, your runaway nigger Jim is down here two mile below +Pikesville, and Mr. Phelps has got him and he will give him up for the +reward if you send. + +_Huck Finn._ + +I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever +felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now.  But I didn't do it +straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking—thinking +how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost +and going to hell.  And went on thinking.  And got to thinking over our +trip down the river; and I see Jim before me all the time:  in the day +and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we +a-floating along, talking and singing and laughing.  But somehow I +couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the +other kind.  I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, 'stead of +calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when +I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, +up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call +me honey, and pet me and do everything he could think of for me, and how +good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling +the men we had small-pox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was +the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the _only_ one he's +got now; and then I happened to look around and see that paper. + +It was a close place.  I took it up, and held it in my hand.  I was +a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and +I knowed it.  I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then +says to myself: + +"All right, then, I'll _go_ to hell"—and tore it up. + +It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said.  And I let +them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming.  I shoved the +whole thing out of my head, and said I would take up wickedness again, +which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other warn't.  And +for a starter I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; +and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as +long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog. + +Then I set to thinking over how to get at it, and turned over some +considerable many ways in my mind; and at last fixed up a plan that +suited me.  So then I took the bearings of a woody island that was down +the river a piece, and as soon as it was fairly dark I crept out with my +raft and went for it, and hid it there, and then turned in.  I slept the +night through, and got up before it was light, and had my breakfast, +and put on my store clothes, and tied up some others and one thing or +another in a bundle, and took the canoe and cleared for shore.  I landed +below where I judged was Phelps's place, and hid my bundle in the woods, +and then filled up the canoe with water, and loaded rocks into her and +sunk her where I could find her again when I wanted her, about a quarter +of a mile below a little steam sawmill that was on the bank. + +Then I struck up the road, and when I passed the mill I see a sign on +it, "Phelps's Sawmill," and when I come to the farm-houses, two or +three hundred yards further along, I kept my eyes peeled, but didn't +see nobody around, though it was good daylight now.  But I didn't mind, +because I didn't want to see nobody just yet—I only wanted to get the +lay of the land. According to my plan, I was going to turn up there from +the village, not from below.  So I just took a look, and shoved along, +straight for town. Well, the very first man I see when I got there was +the duke.  He was sticking up a bill for the Royal Nonesuch—three-night +performance—like that other time.  They had the cheek, them frauds!  I +was right on him before I could shirk.  He looked astonished, and says: + +"Hel-_lo_!  Where'd _you_ come from?"  Then he says, kind of glad and +eager, "Where's the raft?—got her in a good place?" + +I says: + +"Why, that's just what I was going to ask your grace." + +Then he didn't look so joyful, and says: + +"What was your idea for asking _me_?" he says. + +"Well," I says, "when I see the king in that doggery yesterday I says +to myself, we can't get him home for hours, till he's soberer; so I went +a-loafing around town to put in the time and wait.  A man up and offered +me ten cents to help him pull a skiff over the river and back to fetch +a sheep, and so I went along; but when we was dragging him to the boat, +and the man left me a-holt of the rope and went behind him to shove him +along, he was too strong for me and jerked loose and run, and we after +him.  We didn't have no dog, and so we had to chase him all over the +country till we tired him out.  We never got him till dark; then we +fetched him over, and I started down for the raft.  When I got there and +see it was gone, I says to myself, 'They've got into trouble and had to +leave; and they've took my nigger, which is the only nigger I've got in +the world, and now I'm in a strange country, and ain't got no property +no more, nor nothing, and no way to make my living;' so I set down and +cried.  I slept in the woods all night.  But what _did_ become of the +raft, then?—and Jim—poor Jim!" + +"Blamed if I know—that is, what's become of the raft.  That old fool had +made a trade and got forty dollars, and when we found him in the doggery +the loafers had matched half-dollars with him and got every cent but +what he'd spent for whisky; and when I got him home late last night and +found the raft gone, we said, 'That little rascal has stole our raft and +shook us, and run off down the river.'" + +"I wouldn't shake my _nigger_, would I?—the only nigger I had in the +world, and the only property." + +"We never thought of that.  Fact is, I reckon we'd come to consider him +_our_ nigger; yes, we did consider him so—goodness knows we had trouble +enough for him.  So when we see the raft was gone and we flat broke, +there warn't anything for it but to try the Royal Nonesuch another +shake. And I've pegged along ever since, dry as a powder-horn.  Where's +that ten cents? Give it here." + +I had considerable money, so I give him ten cents, but begged him to +spend it for something to eat, and give me some, because it was all the +money I had, and I hadn't had nothing to eat since yesterday.  He never +said nothing.  The next minute he whirls on me and says: + +"Do you reckon that nigger would blow on us?  We'd skin him if he done +that!" + +"How can he blow?  Hain't he run off?" + +"No!  That old fool sold him, and never divided with me, and the money's +gone." + +"_Sold_ him?"  I says, and begun to cry; "why, he was _my_ nigger, and +that was my money.  Where is he?—I want my nigger." + +"Well, you can't _get_ your nigger, that's all—so dry up your +blubbering. Looky here—do you think _you'd_ venture to blow on us? + Blamed if I think I'd trust you.  Why, if you _was_ to blow on us—" + +He stopped, but I never see the duke look so ugly out of his eyes +before. I went on a-whimpering, and says: + +"I don't want to blow on nobody; and I ain't got no time to blow, nohow. +I got to turn out and find my nigger." + +He looked kinder bothered, and stood there with his bills fluttering on +his arm, thinking, and wrinkling up his forehead.  At last he says: + +"I'll tell you something.  We got to be here three days.  If you'll +promise you won't blow, and won't let the nigger blow, I'll tell you +where to find him." + +So I promised, and he says: + +"A farmer by the name of Silas Ph—" and then he stopped.  You see, he +started to tell me the truth; but when he stopped that way, and begun to +study and think again, I reckoned he was changing his mind.  And so he +was. He wouldn't trust me; he wanted to make sure of having me out of +the way the whole three days.  So pretty soon he says: + +"The man that bought him is named Abram Foster—Abram G. Foster—and he +lives forty mile back here in the country, on the road to Lafayette." + +"All right," I says, "I can walk it in three days.  And I'll start this +very afternoon." + +"No you wont, you'll start _now_; and don't you lose any time about it, +neither, nor do any gabbling by the way.  Just keep a tight tongue in +your head and move right along, and then you won't get into trouble with +_us_, d'ye hear?" + +That was the order I wanted, and that was the one I played for.  I +wanted to be left free to work my plans. + +"So clear out," he says; "and you can tell Mr. Foster whatever you want +to. Maybe you can get him to believe that Jim _is_ your nigger—some +idiots don't require documents—leastways I've heard there's such down +South here.  And when you tell him the handbill and the reward's bogus, +maybe he'll believe you when you explain to him what the idea was for +getting 'em out.  Go 'long now, and tell him anything you want to; but +mind you don't work your jaw any _between_ here and there." + +So I left, and struck for the back country.  I didn't look around, but I +kinder felt like he was watching me.  But I knowed I could tire him out +at that.  I went straight out in the country as much as a mile before +I stopped; then I doubled back through the woods towards Phelps'.  I +reckoned I better start in on my plan straight off without fooling +around, because I wanted to stop Jim's mouth till these fellows could +get away.  I didn't want no trouble with their kind.  I'd seen all I +wanted to of them, and wanted to get entirely shut of them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +WHEN I got there it was all still and Sunday-like, and hot and sunshiny; +the hands was gone to the fields; and there was them kind of faint +dronings of bugs and flies in the air that makes it seem so lonesome and +like everybody's dead and gone; and if a breeze fans along and quivers +the leaves it makes you feel mournful, because you feel like it's +spirits whispering—spirits that's been dead ever so many years—and you +always think they're talking about _you_.  As a general thing it makes a +body wish _he_ was dead, too, and done with it all. + +Phelps' was one of these little one-horse cotton plantations, and they +all look alike.  A rail fence round a two-acre yard; a stile made out +of logs sawed off and up-ended in steps, like barrels of a different +length, to climb over the fence with, and for the women to stand on when +they are going to jump on to a horse; some sickly grass-patches in the +big yard, but mostly it was bare and smooth, like an old hat with the +nap rubbed off; big double log-house for the white folks—hewed logs, +with the chinks stopped up with mud or mortar, and these mud-stripes +been whitewashed some time or another; round-log kitchen, with a big +broad, open but roofed passage joining it to the house; log smoke-house +back of the kitchen; three little log nigger-cabins in a row t'other +side the smoke-house; one little hut all by itself away down against +the back fence, and some outbuildings down a piece the other side; +ash-hopper and big kettle to bile soap in by the little hut; bench by +the kitchen door, with bucket of water and a gourd; hound asleep there +in the sun; more hounds asleep round about; about three shade trees away +off in a corner; some currant bushes and gooseberry bushes in one place +by the fence; outside of the fence a garden and a watermelon patch; then +the cotton fields begins, and after the fields the woods. + +I went around and clumb over the back stile by the ash-hopper, and +started for the kitchen.  When I got a little ways I heard the dim hum +of a spinning-wheel wailing along up and sinking along down again; +and then I knowed for certain I wished I was dead—for that _is_ the +lonesomest sound in the whole world. + +I went right along, not fixing up any particular plan, but just trusting +to Providence to put the right words in my mouth when the time come; for +I'd noticed that Providence always did put the right words in my mouth +if I left it alone. + +When I got half-way, first one hound and then another got up and went +for me, and of course I stopped and faced them, and kept still.  And +such another powwow as they made!  In a quarter of a minute I was a kind +of a hub of a wheel, as you may say—spokes made out of dogs—circle of +fifteen of them packed together around me, with their necks and noses +stretched up towards me, a-barking and howling; and more a-coming; you +could see them sailing over fences and around corners from everywheres. + +A nigger woman come tearing out of the kitchen with a rolling-pin in her +hand, singing out, "Begone _you_ Tige! you Spot! begone sah!" and she +fetched first one and then another of them a clip and sent them howling, +and then the rest followed; and the next second half of them come back, +wagging their tails around me, and making friends with me.  There ain't +no harm in a hound, nohow. + +And behind the woman comes a little nigger girl and two little nigger +boys without anything on but tow-linen shirts, and they hung on to their +mother's gown, and peeped out from behind her at me, bashful, the way +they always do.  And here comes the white woman running from the house, +about forty-five or fifty year old, bareheaded, and her spinning-stick +in her hand; and behind her comes her little white children, acting the +same way the little niggers was doing.  She was smiling all over so she +could hardly stand—and says: + +"It's _you_, at last!—_ain't_ it?" + +I out with a "Yes'm" before I thought. + +She grabbed me and hugged me tight; and then gripped me by both hands +and shook and shook; and the tears come in her eyes, and run down over; +and she couldn't seem to hug and shake enough, and kept saying, "You +don't look as much like your mother as I reckoned you would; but law +sakes, I don't care for that, I'm so glad to see you!  Dear, dear, it +does seem like I could eat you up!  Children, it's your cousin Tom!—tell +him howdy." + +But they ducked their heads, and put their fingers in their mouths, and +hid behind her.  So she run on: + +"Lize, hurry up and get him a hot breakfast right away—or did you get +your breakfast on the boat?" + +I said I had got it on the boat.  So then she started for the house, +leading me by the hand, and the children tagging after.  When we got +there she set me down in a split-bottomed chair, and set herself down on +a little low stool in front of me, holding both of my hands, and says: + +"Now I can have a _good_ look at you; and, laws-a-me, I've been hungry +for it a many and a many a time, all these long years, and it's come +at last! We been expecting you a couple of days and more.  What kep' +you?—boat get aground?" + +"Yes'm—she—" + +"Don't say yes'm—say Aunt Sally.  Where'd she get aground?" + +I didn't rightly know what to say, because I didn't know whether the +boat would be coming up the river or down.  But I go a good deal on +instinct; and my instinct said she would be coming up—from down towards +Orleans. That didn't help me much, though; for I didn't know the names +of bars down that way.  I see I'd got to invent a bar, or forget the +name of the one we got aground on—or—Now I struck an idea, and fetched +it out: + +"It warn't the grounding—that didn't keep us back but a little.  We +blowed out a cylinder-head." + +"Good gracious! anybody hurt?" + +"No'm.  Killed a nigger." + +"Well, it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.  Two years ago +last Christmas your uncle Silas was coming up from Newrleans on the old +Lally Rook, and she blowed out a cylinder-head and crippled a man.  And +I think he died afterwards.  He was a Baptist.  Your uncle Silas knowed +a family in Baton Rouge that knowed his people very well.  Yes, I +remember now, he _did_ die.  Mortification set in, and they had to +amputate him. But it didn't save him.  Yes, it was mortification—that +was it.  He turned blue all over, and died in the hope of a glorious +resurrection. They say he was a sight to look at.  Your uncle's been up +to the town every day to fetch you. And he's gone again, not more'n an +hour ago; he'll be back any minute now. You must a met him on the road, +didn't you?—oldish man, with a—" + +"No, I didn't see nobody, Aunt Sally.  The boat landed just at daylight, +and I left my baggage on the wharf-boat and went looking around the town +and out a piece in the country, to put in the time and not get here too +soon; and so I come down the back way." + +"Who'd you give the baggage to?" + +"Nobody." + +"Why, child, it 'll be stole!" + +"Not where I hid it I reckon it won't," I says. + +"How'd you get your breakfast so early on the boat?" + +It was kinder thin ice, but I says: + +"The captain see me standing around, and told me I better have something +to eat before I went ashore; so he took me in the texas to the officers' +lunch, and give me all I wanted." + +I was getting so uneasy I couldn't listen good.  I had my mind on the +children all the time; I wanted to get them out to one side and pump +them a little, and find out who I was.  But I couldn't get no show, Mrs. +Phelps kept it up and run on so.  Pretty soon she made the cold chills +streak all down my back, because she says: + +"But here we're a-running on this way, and you hain't told me a word +about Sis, nor any of them.  Now I'll rest my works a little, and you +start up yourn; just tell me _everything_—tell me all about 'm all every +one of 'm; and how they are, and what they're doing, and what they told +you to tell me; and every last thing you can think of." + +Well, I see I was up a stump—and up it good.  Providence had stood by +me this fur all right, but I was hard and tight aground now.  I see it +warn't a bit of use to try to go ahead—I'd got to throw up my hand.  So +I says to myself, here's another place where I got to resk the truth. + I opened my mouth to begin; but she grabbed me and hustled me in behind +the bed, and says: + +"Here he comes!  Stick your head down lower—there, that'll do; you can't +be seen now.  Don't you let on you're here.  I'll play a joke on him. +Children, don't you say a word." + +I see I was in a fix now.  But it warn't no use to worry; there warn't +nothing to do but just hold still, and try and be ready to stand from +under when the lightning struck. + +I had just one little glimpse of the old gentleman when he come in; then +the bed hid him.  Mrs. Phelps she jumps for him, and says: + +"Has he come?" + +"No," says her husband. + +"Good-_ness_ gracious!" she says, "what in the warld can have become of +him?" + +"I can't imagine," says the old gentleman; "and I must say it makes me +dreadful uneasy." + +"Uneasy!" she says; "I'm ready to go distracted!  He _must_ a come; and +you've missed him along the road.  I _know_ it's so—something tells me +so." + +"Why, Sally, I _couldn't_ miss him along the road—_you_ know that." + +"But oh, dear, dear, what _will_ Sis say!  He must a come!  You must a +missed him.  He—" + +"Oh, don't distress me any more'n I'm already distressed.  I don't know +what in the world to make of it.  I'm at my wit's end, and I don't mind +acknowledging 't I'm right down scared.  But there's no hope that he's +come; for he _couldn't_ come and me miss him.  Sally, it's terrible—just +terrible—something's happened to the boat, sure!" + +"Why, Silas!  Look yonder!—up the road!—ain't that somebody coming?" + +He sprung to the window at the head of the bed, and that give Mrs. +Phelps the chance she wanted.  She stooped down quick at the foot of the +bed and give me a pull, and out I come; and when he turned back from the +window there she stood, a-beaming and a-smiling like a house afire, and +I standing pretty meek and sweaty alongside.  The old gentleman stared, +and says: + +"Why, who's that?" + +"Who do you reckon 't is?" + +"I hain't no idea.  Who _is_ it?" + +"It's _Tom Sawyer!_" + +By jings, I most slumped through the floor!  But there warn't no time to +swap knives; the old man grabbed me by the hand and shook, and kept on +shaking; and all the time how the woman did dance around and laugh and +cry; and then how they both did fire off questions about Sid, and Mary, +and the rest of the tribe. + +But if they was joyful, it warn't nothing to what I was; for it was like +being born again, I was so glad to find out who I was.  Well, they froze +to me for two hours; and at last, when my chin was so tired it couldn't +hardly go any more, I had told them more about my family—I mean the +Sawyer family—than ever happened to any six Sawyer families.  And I +explained all about how we blowed out a cylinder-head at the mouth of +White River, and it took us three days to fix it.  Which was all right, +and worked first-rate; because _they_ didn't know but what it would take +three days to fix it.  If I'd a called it a bolthead it would a done +just as well. + +Now I was feeling pretty comfortable all down one side, and pretty +uncomfortable all up the other.  Being Tom Sawyer was easy and +comfortable, and it stayed easy and comfortable till by and by I hear a +steamboat coughing along down the river.  Then I says to myself, s'pose +Tom Sawyer comes down on that boat?  And s'pose he steps in here any +minute, and sings out my name before I can throw him a wink to keep +quiet? + +Well, I couldn't _have_ it that way; it wouldn't do at all.  I must go +up the road and waylay him.  So I told the folks I reckoned I would go +up to the town and fetch down my baggage.  The old gentleman was for +going along with me, but I said no, I could drive the horse myself, and +I druther he wouldn't take no trouble about me. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +SO I started for town in the wagon, and when I was half-way I see a +wagon coming, and sure enough it was Tom Sawyer, and I stopped and +waited till he come along.  I says "Hold on!" and it stopped alongside, +and his mouth opened up like a trunk, and stayed so; and he swallowed +two or three times like a person that's got a dry throat, and then says: + +"I hain't ever done you no harm.  You know that.  So, then, what you +want to come back and ha'nt _me_ for?" + +I says: + +"I hain't come back—I hain't been _gone_." + +When he heard my voice it righted him up some, but he warn't quite +satisfied yet.  He says: + +"Don't you play nothing on me, because I wouldn't on you.  Honest injun +now, you ain't a ghost?" + +"Honest injun, I ain't," I says. + +"Well—I—I—well, that ought to settle it, of course; but I can't somehow +seem to understand it no way.  Looky here, warn't you ever murdered _at +all?_" + +"No.  I warn't ever murdered at all—I played it on them.  You come in +here and feel of me if you don't believe me." + +So he done it; and it satisfied him; and he was that glad to see me +again he didn't know what to do.  And he wanted to know all about it +right off, because it was a grand adventure, and mysterious, and so it +hit him where he lived.  But I said, leave it alone till by and by; and +told his driver to wait, and we drove off a little piece, and I told +him the kind of a fix I was in, and what did he reckon we better do?  He +said, let him alone a minute, and don't disturb him.  So he thought and +thought, and pretty soon he says: + +"It's all right; I've got it.  Take my trunk in your wagon, and let on +it's your'n; and you turn back and fool along slow, so as to get to the +house about the time you ought to; and I'll go towards town a piece, and +take a fresh start, and get there a quarter or a half an hour after you; +and you needn't let on to know me at first." + +I says: + +"All right; but wait a minute.  There's one more thing—a thing that +_nobody_ don't know but me.  And that is, there's a nigger here that +I'm a-trying to steal out of slavery, and his name is _Jim_—old Miss +Watson's Jim." + +He says: + +"What!  Why, Jim is—" + +He stopped and went to studying.  I says: + +"I know what you'll say.  You'll say it's dirty, low-down business; but +what if it is?  I'm low down; and I'm a-going to steal him, and I want +you keep mum and not let on.  Will you?" + +His eye lit up, and he says: + +"I'll _help_ you steal him!" + +Well, I let go all holts then, like I was shot.  It was the most +astonishing speech I ever heard—and I'm bound to say Tom Sawyer fell +considerable in my estimation.  Only I couldn't believe it.  Tom Sawyer +a _nigger-stealer!_ + +"Oh, shucks!"  I says; "you're joking." + +"I ain't joking, either." + +"Well, then," I says, "joking or no joking, if you hear anything said +about a runaway nigger, don't forget to remember that _you_ don't know +nothing about him, and I don't know nothing about him." + +Then we took the trunk and put it in my wagon, and he drove off his +way and I drove mine.  But of course I forgot all about driving slow on +accounts of being glad and full of thinking; so I got home a heap too +quick for that length of a trip.  The old gentleman was at the door, and +he says: + +"Why, this is wonderful!  Whoever would a thought it was in that mare +to do it?  I wish we'd a timed her.  And she hain't sweated a hair—not +a hair. It's wonderful.  Why, I wouldn't take a hundred dollars for that +horse now—I wouldn't, honest; and yet I'd a sold her for fifteen before, +and thought 'twas all she was worth." + +That's all he said.  He was the innocentest, best old soul I ever see. +But it warn't surprising; because he warn't only just a farmer, he was +a preacher, too, and had a little one-horse log church down back of the +plantation, which he built it himself at his own expense, for a church +and schoolhouse, and never charged nothing for his preaching, and it was +worth it, too.  There was plenty other farmer-preachers like that, and +done the same way, down South. + +In about half an hour Tom's wagon drove up to the front stile, and Aunt +Sally she see it through the window, because it was only about fifty +yards, and says: + +"Why, there's somebody come!  I wonder who 'tis?  Why, I do believe it's +a stranger.  Jimmy" (that's one of the children) "run and tell Lize to +put on another plate for dinner." + +Everybody made a rush for the front door, because, of course, a stranger +don't come _every_ year, and so he lays over the yaller-fever, for +interest, when he does come.  Tom was over the stile and starting for +the house; the wagon was spinning up the road for the village, and we +was all bunched in the front door.  Tom had his store clothes on, and an +audience—and that was always nuts for Tom Sawyer.  In them circumstances +it warn't no trouble to him to throw in an amount of style that was +suitable.  He warn't a boy to meeky along up that yard like a sheep; no, +he come ca'm and important, like the ram.  When he got a-front of us he +lifts his hat ever so gracious and dainty, like it was the lid of a box +that had butterflies asleep in it and he didn't want to disturb them, +and says: + +"Mr. Archibald Nichols, I presume?" + +"No, my boy," says the old gentleman, "I'm sorry to say 't your driver +has deceived you; Nichols's place is down a matter of three mile more. +Come in, come in." + +Tom he took a look back over his shoulder, and says, "Too late—he's out +of sight." + +"Yes, he's gone, my son, and you must come in and eat your dinner with +us; and then we'll hitch up and take you down to Nichols's." + +"Oh, I _can't_ make you so much trouble; I couldn't think of it.  I'll +walk—I don't mind the distance." + +"But we won't _let_ you walk—it wouldn't be Southern hospitality to do +it. Come right in." + +"Oh, _do_," says Aunt Sally; "it ain't a bit of trouble to us, not a +bit in the world.  You must stay.  It's a long, dusty three mile, and +we can't let you walk.  And, besides, I've already told 'em to put on +another plate when I see you coming; so you mustn't disappoint us.  Come +right in and make yourself at home." + +So Tom he thanked them very hearty and handsome, and let himself be +persuaded, and come in; and when he was in he said he was a stranger +from Hicksville, Ohio, and his name was William Thompson—and he made +another bow. + +Well, he run on, and on, and on, making up stuff about Hicksville and +everybody in it he could invent, and I getting a little nervious, and +wondering how this was going to help me out of my scrape; and at last, +still talking along, he reached over and kissed Aunt Sally right on the +mouth, and then settled back again in his chair comfortable, and was +going on talking; but she jumped up and wiped it off with the back of +her hand, and says: + +"You owdacious puppy!" + +He looked kind of hurt, and says: + +"I'm surprised at you, m'am." + +"You're s'rp—Why, what do you reckon I am?  I've a good notion to take +and—Say, what do you mean by kissing me?" + +He looked kind of humble, and says: + +"I didn't mean nothing, m'am.  I didn't mean no harm.  I—I—thought you'd +like it." + +"Why, you born fool!"  She took up the spinning stick, and it looked +like it was all she could do to keep from giving him a crack with it. + "What made you think I'd like it?" + +"Well, I don't know.  Only, they—they—told me you would." + +"_They_ told you I would.  Whoever told you's _another_ lunatic.  I +never heard the beat of it.  Who's _they_?" + +"Why, everybody.  They all said so, m'am." + +It was all she could do to hold in; and her eyes snapped, and her +fingers worked like she wanted to scratch him; and she says: + +"Who's 'everybody'?  Out with their names, or ther'll be an idiot +short." + +He got up and looked distressed, and fumbled his hat, and says: + +"I'm sorry, and I warn't expecting it.  They told me to.  They all told +me to.  They all said, kiss her; and said she'd like it.  They all said +it—every one of them.  But I'm sorry, m'am, and I won't do it no more—I +won't, honest." + +"You won't, won't you?  Well, I sh'd _reckon_ you won't!" + +"No'm, I'm honest about it; I won't ever do it again—till you ask me." + +"Till I _ask_ you!  Well, I never see the beat of it in my born days! + I lay you'll be the Methusalem-numskull of creation before ever I ask +you—or the likes of you." + +"Well," he says, "it does surprise me so.  I can't make it out, somehow. +They said you would, and I thought you would.  But—" He stopped and +looked around slow, like he wished he could run across a friendly eye +somewheres, and fetched up on the old gentleman's, and says, "Didn't +_you_ think she'd like me to kiss her, sir?" + +"Why, no; I—I—well, no, I b'lieve I didn't." + +Then he looks on around the same way to me, and says: + +"Tom, didn't _you_ think Aunt Sally 'd open out her arms and say, 'Sid +Sawyer—'" + +"My land!" she says, breaking in and jumping for him, "you impudent +young rascal, to fool a body so—" and was going to hug him, but he +fended her off, and says: + +"No, not till you've asked me first." + +So she didn't lose no time, but asked him; and hugged him and kissed +him over and over again, and then turned him over to the old man, and he +took what was left.  And after they got a little quiet again she says: + +"Why, dear me, I never see such a surprise.  We warn't looking for _you_ +at all, but only Tom.  Sis never wrote to me about anybody coming but +him." + +"It's because it warn't _intended_ for any of us to come but Tom," he +says; "but I begged and begged, and at the last minute she let me +come, too; so, coming down the river, me and Tom thought it would be a +first-rate surprise for him to come here to the house first, and for me +to by and by tag along and drop in, and let on to be a stranger.  But it +was a mistake, Aunt Sally.  This ain't no healthy place for a stranger +to come." + +"No—not impudent whelps, Sid.  You ought to had your jaws boxed; I +hain't been so put out since I don't know when.  But I don't care, I +don't mind the terms—I'd be willing to stand a thousand such jokes to +have you here. Well, to think of that performance!  I don't deny it, I +was most putrified with astonishment when you give me that smack." + +We had dinner out in that broad open passage betwixt the house and +the kitchen; and there was things enough on that table for seven +families—and all hot, too; none of your flabby, tough meat that's laid +in a cupboard in a damp cellar all night and tastes like a hunk of +old cold cannibal in the morning.  Uncle Silas he asked a pretty long +blessing over it, but it was worth it; and it didn't cool it a bit, +neither, the way I've seen them kind of interruptions do lots of times. + There was a considerable good deal of talk all the afternoon, and me +and Tom was on the lookout all the time; but it warn't no use, they +didn't happen to say nothing about any runaway nigger, and we was afraid +to try to work up to it.  But at supper, at night, one of the little +boys says: + +"Pa, mayn't Tom and Sid and me go to the show?" + +"No," says the old man, "I reckon there ain't going to be any; and you +couldn't go if there was; because the runaway nigger told Burton and +me all about that scandalous show, and Burton said he would tell the +people; so I reckon they've drove the owdacious loafers out of town +before this time." + +So there it was!—but I couldn't help it.  Tom and me was to sleep in the +same room and bed; so, being tired, we bid good-night and went up to +bed right after supper, and clumb out of the window and down the +lightning-rod, and shoved for the town; for I didn't believe anybody was +going to give the king and the duke a hint, and so if I didn't hurry up +and give them one they'd get into trouble sure. + +On the road Tom he told me all about how it was reckoned I was murdered, +and how pap disappeared pretty soon, and didn't come back no more, and +what a stir there was when Jim run away; and I told Tom all about our +Royal Nonesuch rapscallions, and as much of the raft voyage as I had +time to; and as we struck into the town and up through the the middle of +it--it was as much as half-after eight, then—here comes a raging rush of +people with torches, and an awful whooping and yelling, and banging tin +pans and blowing horns; and we jumped to one side to let them go by; +and as they went by I see they had the king and the duke astraddle of a +rail—that is, I knowed it _was_ the king and the duke, though they was +all over tar and feathers, and didn't look like nothing in the +world that was human—just looked like a couple of monstrous big +soldier-plumes.  Well, it made me sick to see it; and I was sorry for +them poor pitiful rascals, it seemed like I couldn't ever feel any +hardness against them any more in the world.  It was a dreadful thing to +see.  Human beings _can_ be awful cruel to one another. + +We see we was too late—couldn't do no good.  We asked some stragglers +about it, and they said everybody went to the show looking very +innocent; and laid low and kept dark till the poor old king was in the +middle of his cavortings on the stage; then somebody give a signal, and +the house rose up and went for them. + +So we poked along back home, and I warn't feeling so brash as I was +before, but kind of ornery, and humble, and to blame, somehow—though +I hadn't done nothing.  But that's always the way; it don't make no +difference whether you do right or wrong, a person's conscience ain't +got no sense, and just goes for him anyway.  If I had a yaller dog that +didn't know no more than a person's conscience does I would pison him. +It takes up more room than all the rest of a person's insides, and yet +ain't no good, nohow.  Tom Sawyer he says the same. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +WE stopped talking, and got to thinking.  By and by Tom says: + +"Looky here, Huck, what fools we are to not think of it before!  I bet I +know where Jim is." + +"No!  Where?" + +"In that hut down by the ash-hopper.  Why, looky here.  When we was at +dinner, didn't you see a nigger man go in there with some vittles?" + +"Yes." + +"What did you think the vittles was for?" + +"For a dog." + +"So 'd I. Well, it wasn't for a dog." + +"Why?" + +"Because part of it was watermelon." + +"So it was—I noticed it.  Well, it does beat all that I never thought +about a dog not eating watermelon.  It shows how a body can see and +don't see at the same time." + +"Well, the nigger unlocked the padlock when he went in, and he locked it +again when he came out.  He fetched uncle a key about the time we got up +from table—same key, I bet.  Watermelon shows man, lock shows prisoner; +and it ain't likely there's two prisoners on such a little plantation, +and where the people's all so kind and good.  Jim's the prisoner.  All +right—I'm glad we found it out detective fashion; I wouldn't give shucks +for any other way.  Now you work your mind, and study out a plan to +steal Jim, and I will study out one, too; and we'll take the one we like +the best." + +What a head for just a boy to have!  If I had Tom Sawyer's head I +wouldn't trade it off to be a duke, nor mate of a steamboat, nor clown +in a circus, nor nothing I can think of.  I went to thinking out a plan, +but only just to be doing something; I knowed very well where the right +plan was going to come from.  Pretty soon Tom says: + +"Ready?" + +"Yes," I says. + +"All right—bring it out." + +"My plan is this," I says.  "We can easy find out if it's Jim in there. +Then get up my canoe to-morrow night, and fetch my raft over from the +island.  Then the first dark night that comes steal the key out of the +old man's britches after he goes to bed, and shove off down the river +on the raft with Jim, hiding daytimes and running nights, the way me and +Jim used to do before.  Wouldn't that plan work?" + +"_Work_?  Why, cert'nly it would work, like rats a-fighting.  But it's +too blame' simple; there ain't nothing _to_ it.  What's the good of a +plan that ain't no more trouble than that?  It's as mild as goose-milk. + Why, Huck, it wouldn't make no more talk than breaking into a soap +factory." + +I never said nothing, because I warn't expecting nothing different; but +I knowed mighty well that whenever he got _his_ plan ready it wouldn't +have none of them objections to it. + +And it didn't.  He told me what it was, and I see in a minute it was +worth fifteen of mine for style, and would make Jim just as free a man +as mine would, and maybe get us all killed besides.  So I was satisfied, +and said we would waltz in on it.  I needn't tell what it was here, +because I knowed it wouldn't stay the way, it was.  I knowed he would be +changing it around every which way as we went along, and heaving in new +bullinesses wherever he got a chance.  And that is what he done. + +Well, one thing was dead sure, and that was that Tom Sawyer was in +earnest, and was actuly going to help steal that nigger out of slavery. +That was the thing that was too many for me.  Here was a boy that was +respectable and well brung up; and had a character to lose; and folks at +home that had characters; and he was bright and not leather-headed; and +knowing and not ignorant; and not mean, but kind; and yet here he was, +without any more pride, or rightness, or feeling, than to stoop to +this business, and make himself a shame, and his family a shame, +before everybody.  I _couldn't_ understand it no way at all.  It was +outrageous, and I knowed I ought to just up and tell him so; and so be +his true friend, and let him quit the thing right where he was and save +himself. And I _did_ start to tell him; but he shut me up, and says: + +"Don't you reckon I know what I'm about?  Don't I generly know what I'm +about?" + +"Yes." + +"Didn't I _say_ I was going to help steal the nigger?" + +"Yes." + +"_Well_, then." + +That's all he said, and that's all I said.  It warn't no use to say any +more; because when he said he'd do a thing, he always done it.  But I +couldn't make out how he was willing to go into this thing; so I just +let it go, and never bothered no more about it.  If he was bound to have +it so, I couldn't help it. + +When we got home the house was all dark and still; so we went on down to +the hut by the ash-hopper for to examine it.  We went through the yard +so as to see what the hounds would do.  They knowed us, and didn't make +no more noise than country dogs is always doing when anything comes by +in the night.  When we got to the cabin we took a look at the front and +the two sides; and on the side I warn't acquainted with—which was the +north side—we found a square window-hole, up tolerable high, with just +one stout board nailed across it.  I says: + +"Here's the ticket.  This hole's big enough for Jim to get through if we +wrench off the board." + +Tom says: + +"It's as simple as tit-tat-toe, three-in-a-row, and as easy as +playing hooky.  I should _hope_ we can find a way that's a little more +complicated than _that_, Huck Finn." + +"Well, then," I says, "how 'll it do to saw him out, the way I done +before I was murdered that time?" + +"That's more _like_," he says.  "It's real mysterious, and troublesome, +and good," he says; "but I bet we can find a way that's twice as long. + There ain't no hurry; le's keep on looking around." + +Betwixt the hut and the fence, on the back side, was a lean-to that +joined the hut at the eaves, and was made out of plank.  It was as long +as the hut, but narrow—only about six foot wide.  The door to it was at +the south end, and was padlocked.  Tom he went to the soap-kettle and +searched around, and fetched back the iron thing they lift the lid with; +so he took it and prized out one of the staples.  The chain fell down, +and we opened the door and went in, and shut it, and struck a match, +and see the shed was only built against a cabin and hadn't no connection +with it; and there warn't no floor to the shed, nor nothing in it but +some old rusty played-out hoes and spades and picks and a crippled plow. + The match went out, and so did we, and shoved in the staple again, and +the door was locked as good as ever. Tom was joyful.  He says; + +"Now we're all right.  We'll _dig_ him out.  It 'll take about a week!" + +Then we started for the house, and I went in the back door—you only have +to pull a buckskin latch-string, they don't fasten the doors—but that +warn't romantical enough for Tom Sawyer; no way would do him but he must +climb up the lightning-rod.  But after he got up half way about three +times, and missed fire and fell every time, and the last time most +busted his brains out, he thought he'd got to give it up; but after he +was rested he allowed he would give her one more turn for luck, and this +time he made the trip. + +In the morning we was up at break of day, and down to the nigger cabins +to pet the dogs and make friends with the nigger that fed Jim—if it +_was_ Jim that was being fed.  The niggers was just getting through +breakfast and starting for the fields; and Jim's nigger was piling up +a tin pan with bread and meat and things; and whilst the others was +leaving, the key come from the house. + +This nigger had a good-natured, chuckle-headed face, and his wool was +all tied up in little bunches with thread.  That was to keep witches +off.  He said the witches was pestering him awful these nights, and +making him see all kinds of strange things, and hear all kinds of +strange words and noises, and he didn't believe he was ever witched so +long before in his life.  He got so worked up, and got to running on so +about his troubles, he forgot all about what he'd been a-going to do. + So Tom says: + +"What's the vittles for?  Going to feed the dogs?" + +The nigger kind of smiled around gradually over his face, like when you +heave a brickbat in a mud-puddle, and he says: + +"Yes, Mars Sid, A dog.  Cur'us dog, too.  Does you want to go en look at +'im?" + +"Yes." + +I hunched Tom, and whispers: + +"You going, right here in the daybreak?  _that_ warn't the plan." + +"No, it warn't; but it's the plan _now_." + +So, drat him, we went along, but I didn't like it much.  When we got in +we couldn't hardly see anything, it was so dark; but Jim was there, sure +enough, and could see us; and he sings out: + +"Why, _Huck_!  En good _lan_'! ain' dat Misto Tom?" + +I just knowed how it would be; I just expected it.  I didn't know +nothing to do; and if I had I couldn't a done it, because that nigger +busted in and says: + +"Why, de gracious sakes! do he know you genlmen?" + +We could see pretty well now.  Tom he looked at the nigger, steady and +kind of wondering, and says: + +"Does _who_ know us?" + +"Why, dis-yer runaway nigger." + +"I don't reckon he does; but what put that into your head?" + +"What _put_ it dar?  Didn' he jis' dis minute sing out like he knowed +you?" + +Tom says, in a puzzled-up kind of way: + +"Well, that's mighty curious.  _Who_ sung out? _when_ did he sing out? + _what_ did he sing out?" And turns to me, perfectly ca'm, and says, +"Did _you_ hear anybody sing out?" + +Of course there warn't nothing to be said but the one thing; so I says: + +"No; I ain't heard nobody say nothing." + +Then he turns to Jim, and looks him over like he never see him before, +and says: + +"Did you sing out?" + +"No, sah," says Jim; "I hain't said nothing, sah." + +"Not a word?" + +"No, sah, I hain't said a word." + +"Did you ever see us before?" + +"No, sah; not as I knows on." + +So Tom turns to the nigger, which was looking wild and distressed, and +says, kind of severe: + +"What do you reckon's the matter with you, anyway?  What made you think +somebody sung out?" + +"Oh, it's de dad-blame' witches, sah, en I wisht I was dead, I do. + Dey's awluz at it, sah, en dey do mos' kill me, dey sk'yers me so. + Please to don't tell nobody 'bout it sah, er ole Mars Silas he'll scole +me; 'kase he say dey _ain't_ no witches.  I jis' wish to goodness he was +heah now—_den_ what would he say!  I jis' bet he couldn' fine no way to +git aroun' it _dis_ time.  But it's awluz jis' so; people dat's _sot_, +stays sot; dey won't look into noth'n'en fine it out f'r deyselves, en +when _you_ fine it out en tell um 'bout it, dey doan' b'lieve you." + +Tom give him a dime, and said we wouldn't tell nobody; and told him to +buy some more thread to tie up his wool with; and then looks at Jim, and +says: + +"I wonder if Uncle Silas is going to hang this nigger.  If I was to +catch a nigger that was ungrateful enough to run away, I wouldn't give +him up, I'd hang him."  And whilst the nigger stepped to the door to +look at the dime and bite it to see if it was good, he whispers to Jim +and says: + +"Don't ever let on to know us.  And if you hear any digging going on +nights, it's us; we're going to set you free." + +Jim only had time to grab us by the hand and squeeze it; then the nigger +come back, and we said we'd come again some time if the nigger wanted +us to; and he said he would, more particular if it was dark, because the +witches went for him mostly in the dark, and it was good to have folks +around then. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +IT would be most an hour yet till breakfast, so we left and struck down +into the woods; because Tom said we got to have _some_ light to see how +to dig by, and a lantern makes too much, and might get us into trouble; +what we must have was a lot of them rotten chunks that's called +fox-fire, and just makes a soft kind of a glow when you lay them in a +dark place.  We fetched an armful and hid it in the weeds, and set down +to rest, and Tom says, kind of dissatisfied: + +"Blame it, this whole thing is just as easy and awkward as it can be. +And so it makes it so rotten difficult to get up a difficult plan. + There ain't no watchman to be drugged—now there _ought_ to be a +watchman.  There ain't even a dog to give a sleeping-mixture to.  And +there's Jim chained by one leg, with a ten-foot chain, to the leg of his +bed:  why, all you got to do is to lift up the bedstead and slip off +the chain.  And Uncle Silas he trusts everybody; sends the key to the +punkin-headed nigger, and don't send nobody to watch the nigger.  Jim +could a got out of that window-hole before this, only there wouldn't be +no use trying to travel with a ten-foot chain on his leg.  Why, drat it, +Huck, it's the stupidest arrangement I ever see. You got to invent _all_ +the difficulties.  Well, we can't help it; we got to do the best we can +with the materials we've got. Anyhow, there's one thing—there's more +honor in getting him out through a lot of difficulties and dangers, +where there warn't one of them furnished to you by the people who it was +their duty to furnish them, and you had to contrive them all out of your +own head.  Now look at just that one thing of the lantern.  When you +come down to the cold facts, we simply got to _let on_ that a lantern's +resky.  Why, we could work with a torchlight procession if we wanted to, +I believe.  Now, whilst I think of it, we got to hunt up something to +make a saw out of the first chance we get." + +"What do we want of a saw?" + +"What do we _want_ of it?  Hain't we got to saw the leg of Jim's bed +off, so as to get the chain loose?" + +"Why, you just said a body could lift up the bedstead and slip the chain +off." + +"Well, if that ain't just like you, Huck Finn.  You _can_ get up the +infant-schooliest ways of going at a thing.  Why, hain't you ever read +any books at all?—Baron Trenck, nor Casanova, nor Benvenuto Chelleeny, +nor Henri IV., nor none of them heroes?  Who ever heard of getting a +prisoner loose in such an old-maidy way as that?  No; the way all the +best authorities does is to saw the bed-leg in two, and leave it just +so, and swallow the sawdust, so it can't be found, and put some dirt and +grease around the sawed place so the very keenest seneskal can't see +no sign of it's being sawed, and thinks the bed-leg is perfectly sound. +Then, the night you're ready, fetch the leg a kick, down she goes; slip +off your chain, and there you are.  Nothing to do but hitch your +rope ladder to the battlements, shin down it, break your leg in the +moat—because a rope ladder is nineteen foot too short, you know—and +there's your horses and your trusty vassles, and they scoop you up and +fling you across a saddle, and away you go to your native Langudoc, or +Navarre, or wherever it is. It's gaudy, Huck.  I wish there was a moat +to this cabin. If we get time, the night of the escape, we'll dig one." + +I says: + +"What do we want of a moat when we're going to snake him out from under +the cabin?" + +But he never heard me.  He had forgot me and everything else.  He had +his chin in his hand, thinking.  Pretty soon he sighs and shakes his +head; then sighs again, and says: + +"No, it wouldn't do—there ain't necessity enough for it." + +"For what?"  I says. + +"Why, to saw Jim's leg off," he says. + +"Good land!"  I says; "why, there ain't _no_ necessity for it.  And what +would you want to saw his leg off for, anyway?" + +"Well, some of the best authorities has done it.  They couldn't get the +chain off, so they just cut their hand off and shoved.  And a leg would +be better still.  But we got to let that go.  There ain't necessity +enough in this case; and, besides, Jim's a nigger, and wouldn't +understand the reasons for it, and how it's the custom in Europe; so +we'll let it go.  But there's one thing—he can have a rope ladder; we +can tear up our sheets and make him a rope ladder easy enough.  And we +can send it to him in a pie; it's mostly done that way.  And I've et +worse pies." + +"Why, Tom Sawyer, how you talk," I says; "Jim ain't got no use for a +rope ladder." + +"He _has_ got use for it.  How _you_ talk, you better say; you don't +know nothing about it.  He's _got_ to have a rope ladder; they all do." + +"What in the nation can he _do_ with it?" + +"_Do_ with it?  He can hide it in his bed, can't he?"  That's what they +all do; and _he's_ got to, too.  Huck, you don't ever seem to want to do +anything that's regular; you want to be starting something fresh all the +time. S'pose he _don't_ do nothing with it? ain't it there in his bed, +for a clew, after he's gone? and don't you reckon they'll want clews? + Of course they will.  And you wouldn't leave them any?  That would be a +_pretty_ howdy-do, _wouldn't_ it!  I never heard of such a thing." + +"Well," I says, "if it's in the regulations, and he's got to have +it, all right, let him have it; because I don't wish to go back on no +regulations; but there's one thing, Tom Sawyer—if we go to tearing up +our sheets to make Jim a rope ladder, we're going to get into trouble +with Aunt Sally, just as sure as you're born.  Now, the way I look at +it, a hickry-bark ladder don't cost nothing, and don't waste nothing, +and is just as good to load up a pie with, and hide in a straw tick, +as any rag ladder you can start; and as for Jim, he ain't had no +experience, and so he don't care what kind of a—" + +"Oh, shucks, Huck Finn, if I was as ignorant as you I'd keep +still—that's what I'D do.  Who ever heard of a state prisoner escaping +by a hickry-bark ladder?  Why, it's perfectly ridiculous." + +"Well, all right, Tom, fix it your own way; but if you'll take my +advice, you'll let me borrow a sheet off of the clothesline." + +He said that would do.  And that gave him another idea, and he says: + +"Borrow a shirt, too." + +"What do we want of a shirt, Tom?" + +"Want it for Jim to keep a journal on." + +"Journal your granny—_Jim_ can't write." + +"S'pose he _can't_ write—he can make marks on the shirt, can't he, if +we make him a pen out of an old pewter spoon or a piece of an old iron +barrel-hoop?" + +"Why, Tom, we can pull a feather out of a goose and make him a better +one; and quicker, too." + +"_Prisoners_ don't have geese running around the donjon-keep to pull +pens out of, you muggins.  They _always_ make their pens out of the +hardest, toughest, troublesomest piece of old brass candlestick or +something like that they can get their hands on; and it takes them weeks +and weeks and months and months to file it out, too, because they've got +to do it by rubbing it on the wall.  _They_ wouldn't use a goose-quill +if they had it. It ain't regular." + +"Well, then, what'll we make him the ink out of?" + +"Many makes it out of iron-rust and tears; but that's the common sort +and women; the best authorities uses their own blood.  Jim can do that; +and when he wants to send any little common ordinary mysterious message +to let the world know where he's captivated, he can write it on the +bottom of a tin plate with a fork and throw it out of the window.  The +Iron Mask always done that, and it's a blame' good way, too." + +"Jim ain't got no tin plates.  They feed him in a pan." + +"That ain't nothing; we can get him some." + +"Can't nobody _read_ his plates." + +"That ain't got anything to _do_ with it, Huck Finn.  All _he's_ got to +do is to write on the plate and throw it out.  You don't _have_ to be +able to read it. Why, half the time you can't read anything a prisoner +writes on a tin plate, or anywhere else." + +"Well, then, what's the sense in wasting the plates?" + +"Why, blame it all, it ain't the _prisoner's_ plates." + +"But it's _somebody's_ plates, ain't it?" + +"Well, spos'n it is?  What does the _prisoner_ care whose—" + +He broke off there, because we heard the breakfast-horn blowing.  So we +cleared out for the house. + +Along during the morning I borrowed a sheet and a white shirt off of the +clothes-line; and I found an old sack and put them in it, and we went +down and got the fox-fire, and put that in too.  I called it borrowing, +because that was what pap always called it; but Tom said it warn't +borrowing, it was stealing.  He said we was representing prisoners; and +prisoners don't care how they get a thing so they get it, and nobody +don't blame them for it, either.  It ain't no crime in a prisoner to +steal the thing he needs to get away with, Tom said; it's his right; and +so, as long as we was representing a prisoner, we had a perfect right to +steal anything on this place we had the least use for to get ourselves +out of prison with.  He said if we warn't prisoners it would be a very +different thing, and nobody but a mean, ornery person would steal when +he warn't a prisoner.  So we allowed we would steal everything there was +that come handy.  And yet he made a mighty fuss, one day, after that, +when I stole a watermelon out of the nigger-patch and eat it; and he +made me go and give the niggers a dime without telling them what it +was for. Tom said that what he meant was, we could steal anything we +_needed_. Well, I says, I needed the watermelon.  But he said I didn't +need it to get out of prison with; there's where the difference was. + He said if I'd a wanted it to hide a knife in, and smuggle it to Jim +to kill the seneskal with, it would a been all right.  So I let it go at +that, though I couldn't see no advantage in my representing a prisoner +if I got to set down and chaw over a lot of gold-leaf distinctions like +that every time I see a chance to hog a watermelon. + +Well, as I was saying, we waited that morning till everybody was settled +down to business, and nobody in sight around the yard; then Tom he +carried the sack into the lean-to whilst I stood off a piece to keep +watch.  By and by he come out, and we went and set down on the woodpile +to talk.  He says: + +"Everything's all right now except tools; and that's easy fixed." + +"Tools?"  I says. + +"Yes." + +"Tools for what?" + +"Why, to dig with.  We ain't a-going to _gnaw_ him out, are we?" + +"Ain't them old crippled picks and things in there good enough to dig a +nigger out with?"  I says. + +He turns on me, looking pitying enough to make a body cry, and says: + +"Huck Finn, did you _ever_ hear of a prisoner having picks and shovels, +and all the modern conveniences in his wardrobe to dig himself out with? + Now I want to ask you—if you got any reasonableness in you at all—what +kind of a show would _that_ give him to be a hero?  Why, they might as +well lend him the key and done with it.  Picks and shovels—why, they +wouldn't furnish 'em to a king." + +"Well, then," I says, "if we don't want the picks and shovels, what do +we want?" + +"A couple of case-knives." + +"To dig the foundations out from under that cabin with?" + +"Yes." + +"Confound it, it's foolish, Tom." + +"It don't make no difference how foolish it is, it's the _right_ way—and +it's the regular way.  And there ain't no _other_ way, that ever I heard +of, and I've read all the books that gives any information about these +things. They always dig out with a case-knife—and not through dirt, mind +you; generly it's through solid rock.  And it takes them weeks and weeks +and weeks, and for ever and ever.  Why, look at one of them prisoners in +the bottom dungeon of the Castle Deef, in the harbor of Marseilles, that +dug himself out that way; how long was _he_ at it, you reckon?" + +"I don't know." + +"Well, guess." + +"I don't know.  A month and a half." + +"_Thirty-seven year_—and he come out in China.  _That's_ the kind.  I +wish the bottom of _this_ fortress was solid rock." + +"_Jim_ don't know nobody in China." + +"What's _that_ got to do with it?  Neither did that other fellow.  But +you're always a-wandering off on a side issue.  Why can't you stick to +the main point?" + +"All right—I don't care where he comes out, so he _comes_ out; and Jim +don't, either, I reckon.  But there's one thing, anyway—Jim's too old to +be dug out with a case-knife.  He won't last." + +"Yes he will _last_, too.  You don't reckon it's going to take +thirty-seven years to dig out through a _dirt_ foundation, do you?" + +"How long will it take, Tom?" + +"Well, we can't resk being as long as we ought to, because it mayn't +take very long for Uncle Silas to hear from down there by New Orleans. + He'll hear Jim ain't from there.  Then his next move will be to +advertise Jim, or something like that.  So we can't resk being as long +digging him out as we ought to.  By rights I reckon we ought to be +a couple of years; but we can't.  Things being so uncertain, what I +recommend is this:  that we really dig right in, as quick as we can; +and after that, we can _let on_, to ourselves, that we was at it +thirty-seven years.  Then we can snatch him out and rush him away the +first time there's an alarm.  Yes, I reckon that 'll be the best way." + +"Now, there's _sense_ in that," I says.  "Letting on don't cost nothing; +letting on ain't no trouble; and if it's any object, I don't mind +letting on we was at it a hundred and fifty year.  It wouldn't strain +me none, after I got my hand in.  So I'll mosey along now, and smouch a +couple of case-knives." + +"Smouch three," he says; "we want one to make a saw out of." + +"Tom, if it ain't unregular and irreligious to sejest it," I says, +"there's an old rusty saw-blade around yonder sticking under the +weather-boarding behind the smoke-house." + +He looked kind of weary and discouraged-like, and says: + +"It ain't no use to try to learn you nothing, Huck.  Run along and +smouch the knives—three of them."  So I done it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +AS soon as we reckoned everybody was asleep that night we went down the +lightning-rod, and shut ourselves up in the lean-to, and got out our +pile of fox-fire, and went to work.  We cleared everything out of the +way, about four or five foot along the middle of the bottom log.  Tom +said he was right behind Jim's bed now, and we'd dig in under it, and +when we got through there couldn't nobody in the cabin ever know there +was any hole there, because Jim's counter-pin hung down most to the +ground, and you'd have to raise it up and look under to see the hole. + So we dug and dug with the case-knives till most midnight; and then +we was dog-tired, and our hands was blistered, and yet you couldn't see +we'd done anything hardly.  At last I says: + +"This ain't no thirty-seven year job; this is a thirty-eight year job, +Tom Sawyer." + +He never said nothing.  But he sighed, and pretty soon he stopped +digging, and then for a good little while I knowed that he was thinking. +Then he says: + +"It ain't no use, Huck, it ain't a-going to work.  If we was prisoners +it would, because then we'd have as many years as we wanted, and no +hurry; and we wouldn't get but a few minutes to dig, every day, while +they was changing watches, and so our hands wouldn't get blistered, and +we could keep it up right along, year in and year out, and do it right, +and the way it ought to be done.  But _we_ can't fool along; we got to +rush; we ain't got no time to spare.  If we was to put in another +night this way we'd have to knock off for a week to let our hands get +well—couldn't touch a case-knife with them sooner." + +"Well, then, what we going to do, Tom?" + +"I'll tell you.  It ain't right, and it ain't moral, and I wouldn't like +it to get out; but there ain't only just the one way:  we got to dig him +out with the picks, and _let on_ it's case-knives." + +"_Now_ you're _talking_!"  I says; "your head gets leveler and leveler +all the time, Tom Sawyer," I says.  "Picks is the thing, moral or no +moral; and as for me, I don't care shucks for the morality of it, nohow. + When I start in to steal a nigger, or a watermelon, or a Sunday-school +book, I ain't no ways particular how it's done so it's done.  What I +want is my nigger; or what I want is my watermelon; or what I want is my +Sunday-school book; and if a pick's the handiest thing, that's the thing +I'm a-going to dig that nigger or that watermelon or that Sunday-school +book out with; and I don't give a dead rat what the authorities thinks +about it nuther." + +"Well," he says, "there's excuse for picks and letting-on in a case like +this; if it warn't so, I wouldn't approve of it, nor I wouldn't stand by +and see the rules broke—because right is right, and wrong is wrong, +and a body ain't got no business doing wrong when he ain't ignorant and +knows better.  It might answer for _you_ to dig Jim out with a pick, +_without_ any letting on, because you don't know no better; but it +wouldn't for me, because I do know better.  Gimme a case-knife." + +He had his own by him, but I handed him mine.  He flung it down, and +says: + +"Gimme a _case-knife_." + +I didn't know just what to do—but then I thought.  I scratched around +amongst the old tools, and got a pickaxe and give it to him, and he took +it and went to work, and never said a word. + +He was always just that particular.  Full of principle. + +So then I got a shovel, and then we picked and shoveled, turn about, +and made the fur fly.  We stuck to it about a half an hour, which was as +long as we could stand up; but we had a good deal of a hole to show for +it. When I got up stairs I looked out at the window and see Tom doing +his level best with the lightning-rod, but he couldn't come it, his +hands was so sore.  At last he says: + +"It ain't no use, it can't be done.  What you reckon I better do?  Can't +you think of no way?" + +"Yes," I says, "but I reckon it ain't regular.  Come up the stairs, and +let on it's a lightning-rod." + +So he done it. + +Next day Tom stole a pewter spoon and a brass candlestick in the house, +for to make some pens for Jim out of, and six tallow candles; and I +hung around the nigger cabins and laid for a chance, and stole three tin +plates.  Tom says it wasn't enough; but I said nobody wouldn't ever see +the plates that Jim throwed out, because they'd fall in the dog-fennel +and jimpson weeds under the window-hole—then we could tote them back and +he could use them over again.  So Tom was satisfied.  Then he says: + +"Now, the thing to study out is, how to get the things to Jim." + +"Take them in through the hole," I says, "when we get it done." + +He only just looked scornful, and said something about nobody ever heard +of such an idiotic idea, and then he went to studying.  By and by he +said he had ciphered out two or three ways, but there warn't no need to +decide on any of them yet.  Said we'd got to post Jim first. + +That night we went down the lightning-rod a little after ten, and took +one of the candles along, and listened under the window-hole, and heard +Jim snoring; so we pitched it in, and it didn't wake him.  Then we +whirled in with the pick and shovel, and in about two hours and a half +the job was done.  We crept in under Jim's bed and into the cabin, and +pawed around and found the candle and lit it, and stood over Jim awhile, +and found him looking hearty and healthy, and then we woke him up gentle +and gradual.  He was so glad to see us he most cried; and called us +honey, and all the pet names he could think of; and was for having us +hunt up a cold-chisel to cut the chain off of his leg with right away, +and clearing out without losing any time.  But Tom he showed him how +unregular it would be, and set down and told him all about our plans, +and how we could alter them in a minute any time there was an alarm; and +not to be the least afraid, because we would see he got away, _sure_. + So Jim he said it was all right, and we set there and talked over old +times awhile, and then Tom asked a lot of questions, and when Jim told +him Uncle Silas come in every day or two to pray with him, and Aunt +Sally come in to see if he was comfortable and had plenty to eat, and +both of them was kind as they could be, Tom says: + +"_Now_ I know how to fix it.  We'll send you some things by them." + +I said, "Don't do nothing of the kind; it's one of the most jackass +ideas I ever struck;" but he never paid no attention to me; went right +on.  It was his way when he'd got his plans set. + +So he told Jim how we'd have to smuggle in the rope-ladder pie and other +large things by Nat, the nigger that fed him, and he must be on the +lookout, and not be surprised, and not let Nat see him open them; and +we would put small things in uncle's coat-pockets and he must steal them +out; and we would tie things to aunt's apron-strings or put them in her +apron-pocket, if we got a chance; and told him what they would be and +what they was for.  And told him how to keep a journal on the shirt with +his blood, and all that. He told him everything.  Jim he couldn't see +no sense in the most of it, but he allowed we was white folks and knowed +better than him; so he was satisfied, and said he would do it all just +as Tom said. + +Jim had plenty corn-cob pipes and tobacco; so we had a right down good +sociable time; then we crawled out through the hole, and so home to +bed, with hands that looked like they'd been chawed.  Tom was in high +spirits. He said it was the best fun he ever had in his life, and the +most intellectural; and said if he only could see his way to it we would +keep it up all the rest of our lives and leave Jim to our children to +get out; for he believed Jim would come to like it better and better the +more he got used to it.  He said that in that way it could be strung out +to as much as eighty year, and would be the best time on record.  And he +said it would make us all celebrated that had a hand in it. + +In the morning we went out to the woodpile and chopped up the brass +candlestick into handy sizes, and Tom put them and the pewter spoon in +his pocket.  Then we went to the nigger cabins, and while I got Nat's +notice off, Tom shoved a piece of candlestick into the middle of a +corn-pone that was in Jim's pan, and we went along with Nat to see how +it would work, and it just worked noble; when Jim bit into it it most +mashed all his teeth out; and there warn't ever anything could a worked +better. Tom said so himself. Jim he never let on but what it was only +just a piece of rock or something like that that's always getting into +bread, you know; but after that he never bit into nothing but what he +jabbed his fork into it in three or four places first. + +And whilst we was a-standing there in the dimmish light, here comes a +couple of the hounds bulging in from under Jim's bed; and they kept on +piling in till there was eleven of them, and there warn't hardly room +in there to get your breath.  By jings, we forgot to fasten that lean-to +door!  The nigger Nat he only just hollered "Witches" once, and keeled +over on to the floor amongst the dogs, and begun to groan like he was +dying.  Tom jerked the door open and flung out a slab of Jim's meat, +and the dogs went for it, and in two seconds he was out himself and back +again and shut the door, and I knowed he'd fixed the other door too. +Then he went to work on the nigger, coaxing him and petting him, and +asking him if he'd been imagining he saw something again.  He raised up, +and blinked his eyes around, and says: + +"Mars Sid, you'll say I's a fool, but if I didn't b'lieve I see most a +million dogs, er devils, er some'n, I wisht I may die right heah in dese +tracks.  I did, mos' sholy.  Mars Sid, I _felt_ um—I _felt_ um, sah; dey +was all over me.  Dad fetch it, I jis' wisht I could git my han's on one +er dem witches jis' wunst—on'y jis' wunst—it's all I'd ast.  But mos'ly +I wisht dey'd lemme 'lone, I does." + +Tom says: + +"Well, I tell you what I think.  What makes them come here just at this +runaway nigger's breakfast-time?  It's because they're hungry; that's +the reason.  You make them a witch pie; that's the thing for _you_ to +do." + +"But my lan', Mars Sid, how's I gwyne to make 'm a witch pie?  I doan' +know how to make it.  I hain't ever hearn er sich a thing b'fo'." + +"Well, then, I'll have to make it myself." + +"Will you do it, honey?—will you?  I'll wusshup de groun' und' yo' foot, +I will!" + +"All right, I'll do it, seeing it's you, and you've been good to us and +showed us the runaway nigger.  But you got to be mighty careful.  When +we come around, you turn your back; and then whatever we've put in the +pan, don't you let on you see it at all.  And don't you look when Jim +unloads the pan—something might happen, I don't know what.  And above +all, don't you _handle_ the witch-things." + +"_Hannel 'M_, Mars Sid?  What _is_ you a-talkin' 'bout?  I wouldn' +lay de weight er my finger on um, not f'r ten hund'd thous'n billion +dollars, I wouldn't." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +THAT was all fixed.  So then we went away and went to the rubbage-pile +in the back yard, where they keep the old boots, and rags, and pieces +of bottles, and wore-out tin things, and all such truck, and scratched +around and found an old tin washpan, and stopped up the holes as well as +we could, to bake the pie in, and took it down cellar and stole it full +of flour and started for breakfast, and found a couple of shingle-nails +that Tom said would be handy for a prisoner to scrabble his name and +sorrows on the dungeon walls with, and dropped one of them in Aunt +Sally's apron-pocket which was hanging on a chair, and t'other we stuck +in the band of Uncle Silas's hat, which was on the bureau, because we +heard the children say their pa and ma was going to the runaway nigger's +house this morning, and then went to breakfast, and Tom dropped the +pewter spoon in Uncle Silas's coat-pocket, and Aunt Sally wasn't come +yet, so we had to wait a little while. + +And when she come she was hot and red and cross, and couldn't hardly +wait for the blessing; and then she went to sluicing out coffee with one +hand and cracking the handiest child's head with her thimble with the +other, and says: + +"I've hunted high and I've hunted low, and it does beat all what _has_ +become of your other shirt." + +My heart fell down amongst my lungs and livers and things, and a hard +piece of corn-crust started down my throat after it and got met on the +road with a cough, and was shot across the table, and took one of the +children in the eye and curled him up like a fishing-worm, and let a cry +out of him the size of a warwhoop, and Tom he turned kinder blue around +the gills, and it all amounted to a considerable state of things for +about a quarter of a minute or as much as that, and I would a sold out +for half price if there was a bidder.  But after that we was all right +again—it was the sudden surprise of it that knocked us so kind of cold. +Uncle Silas he says: + +"It's most uncommon curious, I can't understand it.  I know perfectly +well I took it _off_, because—" + +"Because you hain't got but one _on_.  Just _listen_ at the man!  I know +you took it off, and know it by a better way than your wool-gethering +memory, too, because it was on the clo's-line yesterday—I see it there +myself. But it's gone, that's the long and the short of it, and you'll +just have to change to a red flann'l one till I can get time to make a +new one. And it 'll be the third I've made in two years.  It just keeps +a body on the jump to keep you in shirts; and whatever you do manage to +_do_ with 'm all is more'n I can make out.  A body 'd think you _would_ +learn to take some sort of care of 'em at your time of life." + +"I know it, Sally, and I do try all I can.  But it oughtn't to be +altogether my fault, because, you know, I don't see them nor have +nothing to do with them except when they're on me; and I don't believe +I've ever lost one of them _off_ of me." + +"Well, it ain't _your_ fault if you haven't, Silas; you'd a done it +if you could, I reckon.  And the shirt ain't all that's gone, nuther. + Ther's a spoon gone; and _that_ ain't all.  There was ten, and now +ther's only nine. The calf got the shirt, I reckon, but the calf never +took the spoon, _that's_ certain." + +"Why, what else is gone, Sally?" + +"Ther's six _candles_ gone—that's what.  The rats could a got the +candles, and I reckon they did; I wonder they don't walk off with the +whole place, the way you're always going to stop their holes and don't +do it; and if they warn't fools they'd sleep in your hair, Silas—_you'd_ +never find it out; but you can't lay the _spoon_ on the rats, and that I +know." + +"Well, Sally, I'm in fault, and I acknowledge it; I've been remiss; but +I won't let to-morrow go by without stopping up them holes." + +"Oh, I wouldn't hurry; next year 'll do.  Matilda Angelina Araminta +_Phelps!_" + +Whack comes the thimble, and the child snatches her claws out of the +sugar-bowl without fooling around any.  Just then the nigger woman steps +on to the passage, and says: + +"Missus, dey's a sheet gone." + +"A _sheet_ gone!  Well, for the land's sake!" + +"I'll stop up them holes to-day," says Uncle Silas, looking sorrowful. + +"Oh, _do_ shet up!—s'pose the rats took the _sheet_?  _where's_ it gone, +Lize?" + +"Clah to goodness I hain't no notion, Miss' Sally.  She wuz on de +clo'sline yistiddy, but she done gone:  she ain' dah no mo' now." + +"I reckon the world _is_ coming to an end.  I _never_ see the beat of it +in all my born days.  A shirt, and a sheet, and a spoon, and six can—" + +"Missus," comes a young yaller wench, "dey's a brass cannelstick +miss'n." + +"Cler out from here, you hussy, er I'll take a skillet to ye!" + +Well, she was just a-biling.  I begun to lay for a chance; I reckoned +I would sneak out and go for the woods till the weather moderated.  She +kept a-raging right along, running her insurrection all by herself, and +everybody else mighty meek and quiet; and at last Uncle Silas, looking +kind of foolish, fishes up that spoon out of his pocket.  She stopped, +with her mouth open and her hands up; and as for me, I wished I was in +Jeruslem or somewheres. But not long, because she says: + +"It's _just_ as I expected.  So you had it in your pocket all the time; +and like as not you've got the other things there, too.  How'd it get +there?" + +"I reely don't know, Sally," he says, kind of apologizing, "or you know +I would tell.  I was a-studying over my text in Acts Seventeen before +breakfast, and I reckon I put it in there, not noticing, meaning to put +my Testament in, and it must be so, because my Testament ain't in; but +I'll go and see; and if the Testament is where I had it, I'll know I +didn't put it in, and that will show that I laid the Testament down and +took up the spoon, and—" + +"Oh, for the land's sake!  Give a body a rest!  Go 'long now, the whole +kit and biling of ye; and don't come nigh me again till I've got back my +peace of mind." + +I'D a heard her if she'd a said it to herself, let alone speaking it +out; and I'd a got up and obeyed her if I'd a been dead.  As we was +passing through the setting-room the old man he took up his hat, and the +shingle-nail fell out on the floor, and he just merely picked it up and +laid it on the mantel-shelf, and never said nothing, and went out.  Tom +see him do it, and remembered about the spoon, and says: + +"Well, it ain't no use to send things by _him_ no more, he ain't +reliable." Then he says:  "But he done us a good turn with the spoon, +anyway, without knowing it, and so we'll go and do him one without _him_ +knowing it—stop up his rat-holes." + +There was a noble good lot of them down cellar, and it took us a whole +hour, but we done the job tight and good and shipshape.  Then we heard +steps on the stairs, and blowed out our light and hid; and here comes +the old man, with a candle in one hand and a bundle of stuff in t'other, +looking as absent-minded as year before last.  He went a mooning around, +first to one rat-hole and then another, till he'd been to them all. + Then he stood about five minutes, picking tallow-drip off of his candle +and thinking.  Then he turns off slow and dreamy towards the stairs, +saying: + +"Well, for the life of me I can't remember when I done it.  I could +show her now that I warn't to blame on account of the rats.  But never +mind—let it go.  I reckon it wouldn't do no good." + +And so he went on a-mumbling up stairs, and then we left.  He was a +mighty nice old man.  And always is. + +Tom was a good deal bothered about what to do for a spoon, but he said +we'd got to have it; so he took a think.  When he had ciphered it out +he told me how we was to do; then we went and waited around the +spoon-basket till we see Aunt Sally coming, and then Tom went to +counting the spoons and laying them out to one side, and I slid one of +them up my sleeve, and Tom says: + +"Why, Aunt Sally, there ain't but nine spoons _yet_." + +She says: + +"Go 'long to your play, and don't bother me.  I know better, I counted +'m myself." + +"Well, I've counted them twice, Aunty, and I can't make but nine." + +She looked out of all patience, but of course she come to count—anybody +would. + +"I declare to gracious ther' _ain't_ but nine!" she says.  "Why, what in +the world—plague _take_ the things, I'll count 'm again." + +So I slipped back the one I had, and when she got done counting, she +says: + +"Hang the troublesome rubbage, ther's _ten_ now!" and she looked huffy +and bothered both.  But Tom says: + +"Why, Aunty, I don't think there's ten." + +"You numskull, didn't you see me _count 'm?_" + +"I know, but—" + +"Well, I'll count 'm _again_." + +So I smouched one, and they come out nine, same as the other time. + Well, she _was_ in a tearing way—just a-trembling all over, she was so +mad.  But she counted and counted till she got that addled she'd start +to count in the basket for a spoon sometimes; and so, three times they +come out right, and three times they come out wrong.  Then she grabbed +up the basket and slammed it across the house and knocked the cat +galley-west; and she said cle'r out and let her have some peace, and if +we come bothering around her again betwixt that and dinner she'd skin +us.  So we had the odd spoon, and dropped it in her apron-pocket whilst +she was a-giving us our sailing orders, and Jim got it all right, along +with her shingle nail, before noon.  We was very well satisfied with +this business, and Tom allowed it was worth twice the trouble it took, +because he said _now_ she couldn't ever count them spoons twice alike +again to save her life; and wouldn't believe she'd counted them right if +she _did_; and said that after she'd about counted her head off for the +next three days he judged she'd give it up and offer to kill anybody +that wanted her to ever count them any more. + +So we put the sheet back on the line that night, and stole one out of +her closet; and kept on putting it back and stealing it again for a +couple of days till she didn't know how many sheets she had any more, +and she didn't _care_, and warn't a-going to bullyrag the rest of her +soul out about it, and wouldn't count them again not to save her life; +she druther die first. + +So we was all right now, as to the shirt and the sheet and the spoon +and the candles, by the help of the calf and the rats and the mixed-up +counting; and as to the candlestick, it warn't no consequence, it would +blow over by and by. + +But that pie was a job; we had no end of trouble with that pie.  We +fixed it up away down in the woods, and cooked it there; and we got it +done at last, and very satisfactory, too; but not all in one day; and we +had to use up three wash-pans full of flour before we got through, and +we got burnt pretty much all over, in places, and eyes put out with +the smoke; because, you see, we didn't want nothing but a crust, and we +couldn't prop it up right, and she would always cave in.  But of course +we thought of the right way at last—which was to cook the ladder, too, +in the pie.  So then we laid in with Jim the second night, and tore +up the sheet all in little strings and twisted them together, and long +before daylight we had a lovely rope that you could a hung a person +with.  We let on it took nine months to make it. + +And in the forenoon we took it down to the woods, but it wouldn't go +into the pie.  Being made of a whole sheet, that way, there was rope +enough for forty pies if we'd a wanted them, and plenty left over +for soup, or sausage, or anything you choose.  We could a had a whole +dinner. + +But we didn't need it.  All we needed was just enough for the pie, and +so we throwed the rest away.  We didn't cook none of the pies in the +wash-pan—afraid the solder would melt; but Uncle Silas he had a noble +brass warming-pan which he thought considerable of, because it belonged +to one of his ancesters with a long wooden handle that come over from +England with William the Conqueror in the Mayflower or one of them early +ships and was hid away up garret with a lot of other old pots and things +that was valuable, not on account of being any account, because they +warn't, but on account of them being relicts, you know, and we snaked +her out, private, and took her down there, but she failed on the first +pies, because we didn't know how, but she come up smiling on the last +one.  We took and lined her with dough, and set her in the coals, and +loaded her up with rag rope, and put on a dough roof, and shut down the +lid, and put hot embers on top, and stood off five foot, with the long +handle, cool and comfortable, and in fifteen minutes she turned out a +pie that was a satisfaction to look at. But the person that et it would +want to fetch a couple of kags of toothpicks along, for if that rope +ladder wouldn't cramp him down to business I don't know nothing what I'm +talking about, and lay him in enough stomach-ache to last him till next +time, too. + +Nat didn't look when we put the witch pie in Jim's pan; and we put the +three tin plates in the bottom of the pan under the vittles; and so Jim +got everything all right, and as soon as he was by himself he busted +into the pie and hid the rope ladder inside of his straw tick, +and scratched some marks on a tin plate and throwed it out of the +window-hole. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +MAKING them pens was a distressid tough job, and so was the saw; and Jim +allowed the inscription was going to be the toughest of all.  That's the +one which the prisoner has to scrabble on the wall.  But he had to have +it; Tom said he'd _got_ to; there warn't no case of a state prisoner not +scrabbling his inscription to leave behind, and his coat of arms. + +"Look at Lady Jane Grey," he says; "look at Gilford Dudley; look at old +Northumberland!  Why, Huck, s'pose it _is_ considerble trouble?—what +you going to do?—how you going to get around it?  Jim's _got_ to do his +inscription and coat of arms.  They all do." + +Jim says: + +"Why, Mars Tom, I hain't got no coat o' arm; I hain't got nuffn but dish +yer ole shirt, en you knows I got to keep de journal on dat." + +"Oh, you don't understand, Jim; a coat of arms is very different." + +"Well," I says, "Jim's right, anyway, when he says he ain't got no coat +of arms, because he hain't." + +"I reckon I knowed that," Tom says, "but you bet he'll have one before +he goes out of this—because he's going out _right_, and there ain't +going to be no flaws in his record." + +So whilst me and Jim filed away at the pens on a brickbat apiece, Jim +a-making his'n out of the brass and I making mine out of the spoon, +Tom set to work to think out the coat of arms.  By and by he said he'd +struck so many good ones he didn't hardly know which to take, but there +was one which he reckoned he'd decide on.  He says: + +"On the scutcheon we'll have a bend _or_ in the dexter base, a saltire +_murrey_ in the fess, with a dog, couchant, for common charge, and under +his foot a chain embattled, for slavery, with a chevron _vert_ in a +chief engrailed, and three invected lines on a field _azure_, with the +nombril points rampant on a dancette indented; crest, a runaway nigger, +_sable_, with his bundle over his shoulder on a bar sinister; and a +couple of gules for supporters, which is you and me; motto, _Maggiore +Fretta, Minore Otto._  Got it out of a book—means the more haste the +less speed." + +"Geewhillikins," I says, "but what does the rest of it mean?" + +"We ain't got no time to bother over that," he says; "we got to dig in +like all git-out." + +"Well, anyway," I says, "what's _some_ of it?  What's a fess?" + +"A fess—a fess is—_you_ don't need to know what a fess is.  I'll show +him how to make it when he gets to it." + +"Shucks, Tom," I says, "I think you might tell a person.  What's a bar +sinister?" + +"Oh, I don't know.  But he's got to have it.  All the nobility does." + +That was just his way.  If it didn't suit him to explain a thing to you, +he wouldn't do it.  You might pump at him a week, it wouldn't make no +difference. + +He'd got all that coat of arms business fixed, so now he started in to +finish up the rest of that part of the work, which was to plan out a +mournful inscription—said Jim got to have one, like they all done.  He +made up a lot, and wrote them out on a paper, and read them off, so: + +1.  Here a captive heart busted. 2.  Here a poor prisoner, forsook by +the world and friends, fretted his sorrowful life. 3.  Here a lonely +heart broke, and a worn spirit went to its rest, after thirty-seven +years of solitary captivity. 4.  Here, homeless and friendless, after +thirty-seven years of bitter captivity, perished a noble stranger, +natural son of Louis XIV. + +Tom's voice trembled whilst he was reading them, and he most broke down. +When he got done he couldn't no way make up his mind which one for Jim +to scrabble on to the wall, they was all so good; but at last he allowed +he would let him scrabble them all on.  Jim said it would take him a +year to scrabble such a lot of truck on to the logs with a nail, and he +didn't know how to make letters, besides; but Tom said he would block +them out for him, and then he wouldn't have nothing to do but just +follow the lines.  Then pretty soon he says: + +"Come to think, the logs ain't a-going to do; they don't have log walls +in a dungeon:  we got to dig the inscriptions into a rock.  We'll fetch +a rock." + +Jim said the rock was worse than the logs; he said it would take him +such a pison long time to dig them into a rock he wouldn't ever get out. + But Tom said he would let me help him do it.  Then he took a look to +see how me and Jim was getting along with the pens.  It was most pesky +tedious hard work and slow, and didn't give my hands no show to get +well of the sores, and we didn't seem to make no headway, hardly; so Tom +says: + +"I know how to fix it.  We got to have a rock for the coat of arms and +mournful inscriptions, and we can kill two birds with that same rock. +There's a gaudy big grindstone down at the mill, and we'll smouch it, +and carve the things on it, and file out the pens and the saw on it, +too." + +It warn't no slouch of an idea; and it warn't no slouch of a grindstone +nuther; but we allowed we'd tackle it.  It warn't quite midnight yet, +so we cleared out for the mill, leaving Jim at work.  We smouched the +grindstone, and set out to roll her home, but it was a most nation tough +job. Sometimes, do what we could, we couldn't keep her from falling +over, and she come mighty near mashing us every time.  Tom said she was +going to get one of us, sure, before we got through.  We got her half +way; and then we was plumb played out, and most drownded with sweat.  We +see it warn't no use; we got to go and fetch Jim. So he raised up his +bed and slid the chain off of the bed-leg, and wrapt it round and round +his neck, and we crawled out through our hole and down there, and Jim +and me laid into that grindstone and walked her along like nothing; and +Tom superintended.  He could out-superintend any boy I ever see.  He +knowed how to do everything. + +Our hole was pretty big, but it warn't big enough to get the grindstone +through; but Jim he took the pick and soon made it big enough.  Then Tom +marked out them things on it with the nail, and set Jim to work on them, +with the nail for a chisel and an iron bolt from the rubbage in the +lean-to for a hammer, and told him to work till the rest of his candle +quit on him, and then he could go to bed, and hide the grindstone under +his straw tick and sleep on it.  Then we helped him fix his chain back +on the bed-leg, and was ready for bed ourselves.  But Tom thought of +something, and says: + +"You got any spiders in here, Jim?" + +"No, sah, thanks to goodness I hain't, Mars Tom." + +"All right, we'll get you some." + +"But bless you, honey, I doan' _want_ none.  I's afeard un um.  I jis' +'s soon have rattlesnakes aroun'." + +Tom thought a minute or two, and says: + +"It's a good idea.  And I reckon it's been done.  It _must_ a been done; +it stands to reason.  Yes, it's a prime good idea.  Where could you keep +it?" + +"Keep what, Mars Tom?" + +"Why, a rattlesnake." + +"De goodness gracious alive, Mars Tom!  Why, if dey was a rattlesnake to +come in heah I'd take en bust right out thoo dat log wall, I would, wid +my head." + +"Why, Jim, you wouldn't be afraid of it after a little.  You could tame +it." + +"_Tame_ it!" + +"Yes—easy enough.  Every animal is grateful for kindness and petting, +and they wouldn't _think_ of hurting a person that pets them.  Any book +will tell you that.  You try—that's all I ask; just try for two or three +days. Why, you can get him so, in a little while, that he'll love you; +and sleep with you; and won't stay away from you a minute; and will let +you wrap him round your neck and put his head in your mouth." + +"_Please_, Mars Tom—_doan_' talk so!  I can't _stan_' it!  He'd _let_ +me shove his head in my mouf—fer a favor, hain't it?  I lay he'd wait a +pow'ful long time 'fo' I _ast_ him.  En mo' en dat, I doan' _want_ him +to sleep wid me." + +"Jim, don't act so foolish.  A prisoner's _got_ to have some kind of a +dumb pet, and if a rattlesnake hain't ever been tried, why, there's more +glory to be gained in your being the first to ever try it than any other +way you could ever think of to save your life." + +"Why, Mars Tom, I doan' _want_ no sich glory.  Snake take 'n bite +Jim's chin off, den _whah_ is de glory?  No, sah, I doan' want no sich +doin's." + +"Blame it, can't you _try_?  I only _want_ you to try—you needn't keep +it up if it don't work." + +"But de trouble all _done_ ef de snake bite me while I's a tryin' him. +Mars Tom, I's willin' to tackle mos' anything 'at ain't onreasonable, +but ef you en Huck fetches a rattlesnake in heah for me to tame, I's +gwyne to _leave_, dat's _shore_." + +"Well, then, let it go, let it go, if you're so bull-headed about it. + We can get you some garter-snakes, and you can tie some buttons on +their tails, and let on they're rattlesnakes, and I reckon that 'll have +to do." + +"I k'n stan' _dem_, Mars Tom, but blame' 'f I couldn' get along widout +um, I tell you dat.  I never knowed b'fo' 't was so much bother and +trouble to be a prisoner." + +"Well, it _always_ is when it's done right.  You got any rats around +here?" + +"No, sah, I hain't seed none." + +"Well, we'll get you some rats." + +"Why, Mars Tom, I doan' _want_ no rats.  Dey's de dadblamedest creturs +to 'sturb a body, en rustle roun' over 'im, en bite his feet, when he's +tryin' to sleep, I ever see.  No, sah, gimme g'yarter-snakes, 'f I's +got to have 'm, but doan' gimme no rats; I hain' got no use f'r um, +skasely." + +"But, Jim, you _got_ to have 'em—they all do.  So don't make no more +fuss about it.  Prisoners ain't ever without rats.  There ain't no +instance of it.  And they train them, and pet them, and learn them +tricks, and they get to be as sociable as flies.  But you got to play +music to them.  You got anything to play music on?" + +"I ain' got nuffn but a coase comb en a piece o' paper, en a juice-harp; +but I reck'n dey wouldn' take no stock in a juice-harp." + +"Yes they would _they_ don't care what kind of music 'tis.  A +jews-harp's plenty good enough for a rat.  All animals like music—in a +prison they dote on it.  Specially, painful music; and you can't get no +other kind out of a jews-harp.  It always interests them; they come out +to see what's the matter with you.  Yes, you're all right; you're fixed +very well.  You want to set on your bed nights before you go to sleep, +and early in the mornings, and play your jews-harp; play 'The Last Link +is Broken'—that's the thing that 'll scoop a rat quicker 'n anything +else; and when you've played about two minutes you'll see all the rats, +and the snakes, and spiders, and things begin to feel worried about you, +and come.  And they'll just fairly swarm over you, and have a noble good +time." + +"Yes, _dey_ will, I reck'n, Mars Tom, but what kine er time is _Jim_ +havin'? Blest if I kin see de pint.  But I'll do it ef I got to.  I +reck'n I better keep de animals satisfied, en not have no trouble in de +house." + +Tom waited to think it over, and see if there wasn't nothing else; and +pretty soon he says: + +"Oh, there's one thing I forgot.  Could you raise a flower here, do you +reckon?" + +"I doan know but maybe I could, Mars Tom; but it's tolable dark in heah, +en I ain' got no use f'r no flower, nohow, en she'd be a pow'ful sight +o' trouble." + +"Well, you try it, anyway.  Some other prisoners has done it." + +"One er dem big cat-tail-lookin' mullen-stalks would grow in heah, Mars +Tom, I reck'n, but she wouldn't be wuth half de trouble she'd coss." + +"Don't you believe it.  We'll fetch you a little one and you plant it in +the corner over there, and raise it.  And don't call it mullen, call it +Pitchiola—that's its right name when it's in a prison.  And you want to +water it with your tears." + +"Why, I got plenty spring water, Mars Tom." + +"You don't _want_ spring water; you want to water it with your tears. + It's the way they always do." + +"Why, Mars Tom, I lay I kin raise one er dem mullen-stalks twyste wid +spring water whiles another man's a _start'n_ one wid tears." + +"That ain't the idea.  You _got_ to do it with tears." + +"She'll die on my han's, Mars Tom, she sholy will; kase I doan' skasely +ever cry." + +So Tom was stumped.  But he studied it over, and then said Jim would +have to worry along the best he could with an onion.  He promised +he would go to the nigger cabins and drop one, private, in Jim's +coffee-pot, in the morning. Jim said he would "jis' 's soon have +tobacker in his coffee;" and found so much fault with it, and with the +work and bother of raising the mullen, and jews-harping the rats, and +petting and flattering up the snakes and spiders and things, on top of +all the other work he had to do on pens, and inscriptions, and journals, +and things, which made it more trouble and worry and responsibility to +be a prisoner than anything he ever undertook, that Tom most lost all +patience with him; and said he was just loadened down with more gaudier +chances than a prisoner ever had in the world to make a name for +himself, and yet he didn't know enough to appreciate them, and they was +just about wasted on him.  So Jim he was sorry, and said he wouldn't +behave so no more, and then me and Tom shoved for bed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +IN the morning we went up to the village and bought a wire rat-trap and +fetched it down, and unstopped the best rat-hole, and in about an hour +we had fifteen of the bulliest kind of ones; and then we took it and put +it in a safe place under Aunt Sally's bed.  But while we was gone for +spiders little Thomas Franklin Benjamin Jefferson Elexander Phelps found +it there, and opened the door of it to see if the rats would come out, +and they did; and Aunt Sally she come in, and when we got back she was +a-standing on top of the bed raising Cain, and the rats was doing what +they could to keep off the dull times for her.  So she took and dusted +us both with the hickry, and we was as much as two hours catching +another fifteen or sixteen, drat that meddlesome cub, and they warn't +the likeliest, nuther, because the first haul was the pick of the flock. + I never see a likelier lot of rats than what that first haul was. + +We got a splendid stock of sorted spiders, and bugs, and frogs, and +caterpillars, and one thing or another; and we like to got a hornet's +nest, but we didn't.  The family was at home.  We didn't give it right +up, but stayed with them as long as we could; because we allowed we'd +tire them out or they'd got to tire us out, and they done it.  Then we +got allycumpain and rubbed on the places, and was pretty near all right +again, but couldn't set down convenient.  And so we went for the snakes, +and grabbed a couple of dozen garters and house-snakes, and put them in +a bag, and put it in our room, and by that time it was supper-time, and +a rattling good honest day's work:  and hungry?—oh, no, I reckon not! + And there warn't a blessed snake up there when we went back—we didn't +half tie the sack, and they worked out somehow, and left.  But it didn't +matter much, because they was still on the premises somewheres.  So +we judged we could get some of them again.  No, there warn't no real +scarcity of snakes about the house for a considerable spell.  You'd see +them dripping from the rafters and places every now and then; and they +generly landed in your plate, or down the back of your neck, and most +of the time where you didn't want them.  Well, they was handsome and +striped, and there warn't no harm in a million of them; but that never +made no difference to Aunt Sally; she despised snakes, be the breed what +they might, and she couldn't stand them no way you could fix it; and +every time one of them flopped down on her, it didn't make no difference +what she was doing, she would just lay that work down and light out.  I +never see such a woman.  And you could hear her whoop to Jericho.  You +couldn't get her to take a-holt of one of them with the tongs.  And if +she turned over and found one in bed she would scramble out and lift a +howl that you would think the house was afire.  She disturbed the old +man so that he said he could most wish there hadn't ever been no snakes +created.  Why, after every last snake had been gone clear out of the +house for as much as a week Aunt Sally warn't over it yet; she warn't +near over it; when she was setting thinking about something you could +touch her on the back of her neck with a feather and she would jump +right out of her stockings.  It was very curious.  But Tom said all +women was just so.  He said they was made that way for some reason or +other. + +We got a licking every time one of our snakes come in her way, and she +allowed these lickings warn't nothing to what she would do if we ever +loaded up the place again with them.  I didn't mind the lickings, +because they didn't amount to nothing; but I minded the trouble we +had to lay in another lot.  But we got them laid in, and all the other +things; and you never see a cabin as blithesome as Jim's was when they'd +all swarm out for music and go for him.  Jim didn't like the spiders, +and the spiders didn't like Jim; and so they'd lay for him, and make it +mighty warm for him.  And he said that between the rats and the snakes +and the grindstone there warn't no room in bed for him, skasely; and +when there was, a body couldn't sleep, it was so lively, and it was +always lively, he said, because _they_ never all slept at one time, but +took turn about, so when the snakes was asleep the rats was on deck, and +when the rats turned in the snakes come on watch, so he always had one +gang under him, in his way, and t'other gang having a circus over him, +and if he got up to hunt a new place the spiders would take a chance at +him as he crossed over. He said if he ever got out this time he wouldn't +ever be a prisoner again, not for a salary. + +Well, by the end of three weeks everything was in pretty good shape. + The shirt was sent in early, in a pie, and every time a rat bit Jim he +would get up and write a little in his journal whilst the ink was fresh; +the pens was made, the inscriptions and so on was all carved on the +grindstone; the bed-leg was sawed in two, and we had et up the sawdust, +and it give us a most amazing stomach-ache.  We reckoned we was all +going to die, but didn't.  It was the most undigestible sawdust I ever +see; and Tom said the same./ + +But as I was saying, we'd got all the work done now, at last; and we was +all pretty much fagged out, too, but mainly Jim.  The old man had wrote +a couple of times to the plantation below Orleans to come and get their +runaway nigger, but hadn't got no answer, because there warn't no such +plantation; so he allowed he would advertise Jim in the St. Louis and +New Orleans papers; and when he mentioned the St. Louis ones it give me +the cold shivers, and I see we hadn't no time to lose. So Tom said, now +for the nonnamous letters. + +"What's them?"  I says. + +"Warnings to the people that something is up.  Sometimes it's done one +way, sometimes another.  But there's always somebody spying around that +gives notice to the governor of the castle.  When Louis XVI. was going +to light out of the Tooleries, a servant-girl done it.  It's a very good +way, and so is the nonnamous letters.  We'll use them both.  And it's +usual for the prisoner's mother to change clothes with him, and she +stays in, and he slides out in her clothes.  We'll do that, too." + +"But looky here, Tom, what do we want to _warn_ anybody for that +something's up?  Let them find it out for themselves—it's their +lookout." + +"Yes, I know; but you can't depend on them.  It's the way they've acted +from the very start—left us to do _everything_.  They're so confiding +and mullet-headed they don't take notice of nothing at all.  So if we +don't _give_ them notice there won't be nobody nor nothing to interfere +with us, and so after all our hard work and trouble this escape 'll go +off perfectly flat; won't amount to nothing—won't be nothing _to_ it." + +"Well, as for me, Tom, that's the way I'd like." + +"Shucks!" he says, and looked disgusted.  So I says: + +"But I ain't going to make no complaint.  Any way that suits you suits +me. What you going to do about the servant-girl?" + +"You'll be her.  You slide in, in the middle of the night, and hook that +yaller girl's frock." + +"Why, Tom, that 'll make trouble next morning; because, of course, she +prob'bly hain't got any but that one." + +"I know; but you don't want it but fifteen minutes, to carry the +nonnamous letter and shove it under the front door." + +"All right, then, I'll do it; but I could carry it just as handy in my +own togs." + +"You wouldn't look like a servant-girl _then_, would you?" + +"No, but there won't be nobody to see what I look like, _anyway_." + +"That ain't got nothing to do with it.  The thing for us to do is just +to do our _duty_, and not worry about whether anybody _sees_ us do it or +not. Hain't you got no principle at all?" + +"All right, I ain't saying nothing; I'm the servant-girl.  Who's Jim's +mother?" + +"I'm his mother.  I'll hook a gown from Aunt Sally." + +"Well, then, you'll have to stay in the cabin when me and Jim leaves." + +"Not much.  I'll stuff Jim's clothes full of straw and lay it on his bed +to represent his mother in disguise, and Jim 'll take the nigger woman's +gown off of me and wear it, and we'll all evade together.  When a +prisoner of style escapes it's called an evasion.  It's always called +so when a king escapes, f'rinstance.  And the same with a king's son; +it don't make no difference whether he's a natural one or an unnatural +one." + +So Tom he wrote the nonnamous letter, and I smouched the yaller wench's +frock that night, and put it on, and shoved it under the front door, the +way Tom told me to.  It said: + +Beware.  Trouble is brewing.  Keep a sharp lookout. _Unknown_ _Friend_. + +Next night we stuck a picture, which Tom drawed in blood, of a skull and +crossbones on the front door; and next night another one of a coffin on +the back door.  I never see a family in such a sweat.  They couldn't a +been worse scared if the place had a been full of ghosts laying for them +behind everything and under the beds and shivering through the air.  If +a door banged, Aunt Sally she jumped and said "ouch!" if anything fell, +she jumped and said "ouch!" if you happened to touch her, when she +warn't noticing, she done the same; she couldn't face noway and be +satisfied, because she allowed there was something behind her every +time—so she was always a-whirling around sudden, and saying "ouch," and +before she'd got two-thirds around she'd whirl back again, and say it +again; and she was afraid to go to bed, but she dasn't set up.  So the +thing was working very well, Tom said; he said he never see a thing work +more satisfactory. He said it showed it was done right. + +So he said, now for the grand bulge!  So the very next morning at the +streak of dawn we got another letter ready, and was wondering what we +better do with it, because we heard them say at supper they was going +to have a nigger on watch at both doors all night.  Tom he went down the +lightning-rod to spy around; and the nigger at the back door was asleep, +and he stuck it in the back of his neck and come back.  This letter +said: + +Don't betray me, I wish to be your friend.  There is a desprate gang of +cutthroats from over in the Indian Territory going to steal your runaway +nigger to-night, and they have been trying to scare you so as you will +stay in the house and not bother them.  I am one of the gang, but have +got religgion and wish to quit it and lead an honest life again, and +will betray the helish design. They will sneak down from northards, +along the fence, at midnight exact, with a false key, and go in the +nigger's cabin to get him. I am to be off a piece and blow a tin horn +if I see any danger; but stead of that I will _baa_ like a sheep soon as +they get in and not blow at all; then whilst they are getting his +chains loose, you slip there and lock them in, and can kill them at your +leasure.  Don't do anything but just the way I am telling you, if you do +they will suspicion something and raise whoop-jamboreehoo. I do not wish +any reward but to know I have done the right thing. _Unknown Friend._ + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +WE was feeling pretty good after breakfast, and took my canoe and went +over the river a-fishing, with a lunch, and had a good time, and took a +look at the raft and found her all right, and got home late to supper, +and found them in such a sweat and worry they didn't know which end they +was standing on, and made us go right off to bed the minute we was done +supper, and wouldn't tell us what the trouble was, and never let on a +word about the new letter, but didn't need to, because we knowed as much +about it as anybody did, and as soon as we was half up stairs and her +back was turned we slid for the cellar cupboard and loaded up a good +lunch and took it up to our room and went to bed, and got up about +half-past eleven, and Tom put on Aunt Sally's dress that he stole and +was going to start with the lunch, but says: + +"Where's the butter?" + +"I laid out a hunk of it," I says, "on a piece of a corn-pone." + +"Well, you _left_ it laid out, then—it ain't here." + +"We can get along without it," I says. + +"We can get along _with_ it, too," he says; "just you slide down cellar +and fetch it.  And then mosey right down the lightning-rod and come +along. I'll go and stuff the straw into Jim's clothes to represent his +mother in disguise, and be ready to _baa_ like a sheep and shove soon as +you get there." + +So out he went, and down cellar went I. The hunk of butter, big as +a person's fist, was where I had left it, so I took up the slab of +corn-pone with it on, and blowed out my light, and started up stairs +very stealthy, and got up to the main floor all right, but here comes +Aunt Sally with a candle, and I clapped the truck in my hat, and clapped +my hat on my head, and the next second she see me; and she says: + +"You been down cellar?" + +"Yes'm." + +"What you been doing down there?" + +"Noth'n." + +"_Noth'n!_" + +"No'm." + +"Well, then, what possessed you to go down there this time of night?" + +"I don't know 'm." + +"You don't _know_?  Don't answer me that way. Tom, I want to know what +you been _doing_ down there." + +"I hain't been doing a single thing, Aunt Sally, I hope to gracious if I +have." + +I reckoned she'd let me go now, and as a generl thing she would; but I +s'pose there was so many strange things going on she was just in a sweat +about every little thing that warn't yard-stick straight; so she says, +very decided: + +"You just march into that setting-room and stay there till I come.  You +been up to something you no business to, and I lay I'll find out what it +is before I'M done with you." + +So she went away as I opened the door and walked into the setting-room. +My, but there was a crowd there!  Fifteen farmers, and every one of them +had a gun.  I was most powerful sick, and slunk to a chair and set down. +They was setting around, some of them talking a little, in a low voice, +and all of them fidgety and uneasy, but trying to look like they warn't; +but I knowed they was, because they was always taking off their hats, +and putting them on, and scratching their heads, and changing their +seats, and fumbling with their buttons.  I warn't easy myself, but I +didn't take my hat off, all the same. + +I did wish Aunt Sally would come, and get done with me, and lick me, if +she wanted to, and let me get away and tell Tom how we'd overdone this +thing, and what a thundering hornet's-nest we'd got ourselves into, so +we could stop fooling around straight off, and clear out with Jim before +these rips got out of patience and come for us. + +At last she come and begun to ask me questions, but I _couldn't_ answer +them straight, I didn't know which end of me was up; because these men +was in such a fidget now that some was wanting to start right NOW and +lay for them desperadoes, and saying it warn't but a few minutes to +midnight; and others was trying to get them to hold on and wait for the +sheep-signal; and here was Aunty pegging away at the questions, and +me a-shaking all over and ready to sink down in my tracks I was +that scared; and the place getting hotter and hotter, and the butter +beginning to melt and run down my neck and behind my ears; and pretty +soon, when one of them says, "I'M for going and getting in the cabin +_first_ and right _now_, and catching them when they come," I most +dropped; and a streak of butter come a-trickling down my forehead, and +Aunt Sally she see it, and turns white as a sheet, and says: + +"For the land's sake, what _is_ the matter with the child?  He's got the +brain-fever as shore as you're born, and they're oozing out!" + +And everybody runs to see, and she snatches off my hat, and out comes +the bread and what was left of the butter, and she grabbed me, and +hugged me, and says: + +"Oh, what a turn you did give me! and how glad and grateful I am it +ain't no worse; for luck's against us, and it never rains but it pours, +and when I see that truck I thought we'd lost you, for I knowed by +the color and all it was just like your brains would be if—Dear, +dear, whyd'nt you _tell_ me that was what you'd been down there for, I +wouldn't a cared.  Now cler out to bed, and don't lemme see no more of +you till morning!" + +I was up stairs in a second, and down the lightning-rod in another one, +and shinning through the dark for the lean-to.  I couldn't hardly get my +words out, I was so anxious; but I told Tom as quick as I could we must +jump for it now, and not a minute to lose—the house full of men, yonder, +with guns! + +His eyes just blazed; and he says: + +"No!—is that so?  _ain't_ it bully!  Why, Huck, if it was to do over +again, I bet I could fetch two hundred!  If we could put it off till—" + +"Hurry!  _Hurry_!"  I says.  "Where's Jim?" + +"Right at your elbow; if you reach out your arm you can touch him. + He's dressed, and everything's ready.  Now we'll slide out and give the +sheep-signal." + +But then we heard the tramp of men coming to the door, and heard them +begin to fumble with the pad-lock, and heard a man say: + +"I _told_ you we'd be too soon; they haven't come—the door is locked. +Here, I'll lock some of you into the cabin, and you lay for 'em in the +dark and kill 'em when they come; and the rest scatter around a piece, +and listen if you can hear 'em coming." + +So in they come, but couldn't see us in the dark, and most trod on +us whilst we was hustling to get under the bed.  But we got under all +right, and out through the hole, swift but soft—Jim first, me next, +and Tom last, which was according to Tom's orders.  Now we was in the +lean-to, and heard trampings close by outside.  So we crept to the door, +and Tom stopped us there and put his eye to the crack, but couldn't make +out nothing, it was so dark; and whispered and said he would listen +for the steps to get further, and when he nudged us Jim must glide out +first, and him last.  So he set his ear to the crack and listened, and +listened, and listened, and the steps a-scraping around out there all +the time; and at last he nudged us, and we slid out, and stooped down, +not breathing, and not making the least noise, and slipped stealthy +towards the fence in Injun file, and got to it all right, and me and Jim +over it; but Tom's britches catched fast on a splinter on the top +rail, and then he hear the steps coming, so he had to pull loose, which +snapped the splinter and made a noise; and as he dropped in our tracks +and started somebody sings out: + +"Who's that?  Answer, or I'll shoot!" + +But we didn't answer; we just unfurled our heels and shoved.  Then there +was a rush, and a _Bang, Bang, Bang!_ and the bullets fairly whizzed +around us! We heard them sing out: + +"Here they are!  They've broke for the river!  After 'em, boys, and turn +loose the dogs!" + +So here they come, full tilt.  We could hear them because they wore +boots and yelled, but we didn't wear no boots and didn't yell.  We was +in the path to the mill; and when they got pretty close on to us we +dodged into the bush and let them go by, and then dropped in behind +them.  They'd had all the dogs shut up, so they wouldn't scare off the +robbers; but by this time somebody had let them loose, and here they +come, making powwow enough for a million; but they was our dogs; so we +stopped in our tracks till they catched up; and when they see it warn't +nobody but us, and no excitement to offer them, they only just said +howdy, and tore right ahead towards the shouting and clattering; and +then we up-steam again, and whizzed along after them till we was nearly +to the mill, and then struck up through the bush to where my canoe was +tied, and hopped in and pulled for dear life towards the middle of the +river, but didn't make no more noise than we was obleeged to. Then we +struck out, easy and comfortable, for the island where my raft was; and +we could hear them yelling and barking at each other all up and down the +bank, till we was so far away the sounds got dim and died out.  And when +we stepped on to the raft I says: + +"_Now_, old Jim, you're a free man again, and I bet you won't ever be a +slave no more." + +"En a mighty good job it wuz, too, Huck.  It 'uz planned beautiful, en +it 'uz done beautiful; en dey ain't _nobody_ kin git up a plan dat's mo' +mixed-up en splendid den what dat one wuz." + +We was all glad as we could be, but Tom was the gladdest of all because +he had a bullet in the calf of his leg. + +When me and Jim heard that we didn't feel so brash as what we did +before. It was hurting him considerable, and bleeding; so we laid him in +the wigwam and tore up one of the duke's shirts for to bandage him, but +he says: + +"Gimme the rags; I can do it myself.  Don't stop now; don't fool around +here, and the evasion booming along so handsome; man the sweeps, and set +her loose!  Boys, we done it elegant!—'deed we did.  I wish _we'd_ a +had the handling of Louis XVI., there wouldn't a been no 'Son of Saint +Louis, ascend to heaven!' wrote down in _his_ biography; no, sir, we'd +a whooped him over the _border_—that's what we'd a done with _him_—and +done it just as slick as nothing at all, too.  Man the sweeps—man the +sweeps!" + +But me and Jim was consulting—and thinking.  And after we'd thought a +minute, I says: + +"Say it, Jim." + +So he says: + +"Well, den, dis is de way it look to me, Huck.  Ef it wuz _him_ dat 'uz +bein' sot free, en one er de boys wuz to git shot, would he say, 'Go on +en save me, nemmine 'bout a doctor f'r to save dis one?'  Is dat like +Mars Tom Sawyer?  Would he say dat?  You _bet_ he wouldn't!  _well_, +den, is _Jim_ gywne to say it?  No, sah—I doan' budge a step out'n dis +place 'dout a _doctor_, not if it's forty year!" + +I knowed he was white inside, and I reckoned he'd say what he did say—so +it was all right now, and I told Tom I was a-going for a doctor. + He raised considerable row about it, but me and Jim stuck to it and +wouldn't budge; so he was for crawling out and setting the raft loose +himself; but we wouldn't let him.  Then he give us a piece of his mind, +but it didn't do no good. + +So when he sees me getting the canoe ready, he says: + +"Well, then, if you're bound to go, I'll tell you the way to do when you +get to the village.  Shut the door and blindfold the doctor tight and +fast, and make him swear to be silent as the grave, and put a purse +full of gold in his hand, and then take and lead him all around the +back alleys and everywheres in the dark, and then fetch him here in the +canoe, in a roundabout way amongst the islands, and search him and take +his chalk away from him, and don't give it back to him till you get him +back to the village, or else he will chalk this raft so he can find it +again. It's the way they all do." + +So I said I would, and left, and Jim was to hide in the woods when he +see the doctor coming till he was gone again. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +THE doctor was an old man; a very nice, kind-looking old man when I got +him up.  I told him me and my brother was over on Spanish Island hunting +yesterday afternoon, and camped on a piece of a raft we found, and about +midnight he must a kicked his gun in his dreams, for it went off and +shot him in the leg, and we wanted him to go over there and fix it and +not say nothing about it, nor let anybody know, because we wanted to +come home this evening and surprise the folks. + +"Who is your folks?" he says. + +"The Phelpses, down yonder." + +"Oh," he says.  And after a minute, he says: + +"How'd you say he got shot?" + +"He had a dream," I says, "and it shot him." + +"Singular dream," he says. + +So he lit up his lantern, and got his saddle-bags, and we started.  But +when he sees the canoe he didn't like the look of her—said she was big +enough for one, but didn't look pretty safe for two.  I says: + +"Oh, you needn't be afeard, sir, she carried the three of us easy +enough." + +"What three?" + +"Why, me and Sid, and—and—and _the guns_; that's what I mean." + +"Oh," he says. + +But he put his foot on the gunnel and rocked her, and shook his head, +and said he reckoned he'd look around for a bigger one.  But they was +all locked and chained; so he took my canoe, and said for me to wait +till he come back, or I could hunt around further, or maybe I better +go down home and get them ready for the surprise if I wanted to.  But +I said I didn't; so I told him just how to find the raft, and then he +started. + +I struck an idea pretty soon.  I says to myself, spos'n he can't fix +that leg just in three shakes of a sheep's tail, as the saying is? +spos'n it takes him three or four days?  What are we going to do?—lay +around there till he lets the cat out of the bag?  No, sir; I know what +_I'll_ do.  I'll wait, and when he comes back if he says he's got to +go any more I'll get down there, too, if I swim; and we'll take and tie +him, and keep him, and shove out down the river; and when Tom's done +with him we'll give him what it's worth, or all we got, and then let him +get ashore. + +So then I crept into a lumber-pile to get some sleep; and next time I +waked up the sun was away up over my head!  I shot out and went for the +doctor's house, but they told me he'd gone away in the night some time +or other, and warn't back yet.  Well, thinks I, that looks powerful bad +for Tom, and I'll dig out for the island right off.  So away I shoved, +and turned the corner, and nearly rammed my head into Uncle Silas's +stomach! He says: + +"Why, _Tom!_  Where you been all this time, you rascal?" + +"I hain't been nowheres," I says, "only just hunting for the runaway +nigger—me and Sid." + +"Why, where ever did you go?" he says.  "Your aunt's been mighty +uneasy." + +"She needn't," I says, "because we was all right.  We followed the men +and the dogs, but they outrun us, and we lost them; but we thought we +heard them on the water, so we got a canoe and took out after them and +crossed over, but couldn't find nothing of them; so we cruised along +up-shore till we got kind of tired and beat out; and tied up the canoe +and went to sleep, and never waked up till about an hour ago; then we +paddled over here to hear the news, and Sid's at the post-office to see +what he can hear, and I'm a-branching out to get something to eat for +us, and then we're going home." + +So then we went to the post-office to get "Sid"; but just as I +suspicioned, he warn't there; so the old man he got a letter out of the +office, and we waited awhile longer, but Sid didn't come; so the old man +said, come along, let Sid foot it home, or canoe it, when he got done +fooling around—but we would ride.  I couldn't get him to let me stay +and wait for Sid; and he said there warn't no use in it, and I must come +along, and let Aunt Sally see we was all right. + +When we got home Aunt Sally was that glad to see me she laughed and +cried both, and hugged me, and give me one of them lickings of hern that +don't amount to shucks, and said she'd serve Sid the same when he come. + +And the place was plum full of farmers and farmers' wives, to dinner; +and such another clack a body never heard.  Old Mrs. Hotchkiss was the +worst; her tongue was a-going all the time.  She says: + +"Well, Sister Phelps, I've ransacked that-air cabin over, an' I b'lieve +the nigger was crazy.  I says to Sister Damrell—didn't I, Sister +Damrell?—s'I, he's crazy, s'I—them's the very words I said.  You all +hearn me: he's crazy, s'I; everything shows it, s'I.  Look at that-air +grindstone, s'I; want to tell _me_'t any cretur 't's in his right mind +'s a goin' to scrabble all them crazy things onto a grindstone, s'I? + Here sich 'n' sich a person busted his heart; 'n' here so 'n' so +pegged along for thirty-seven year, 'n' all that—natcherl son o' Louis +somebody, 'n' sich everlast'n rubbage.  He's plumb crazy, s'I; it's what +I says in the fust place, it's what I says in the middle, 'n' it's what +I says last 'n' all the time—the nigger's crazy—crazy 's Nebokoodneezer, +s'I." + +"An' look at that-air ladder made out'n rags, Sister Hotchkiss," says +old Mrs. Damrell; "what in the name o' goodness _could_ he ever want +of—" + +"The very words I was a-sayin' no longer ago th'n this minute to Sister +Utterback, 'n' she'll tell you so herself.  Sh-she, look at that-air rag +ladder, sh-she; 'n' s'I, yes, _look_ at it, s'I—what _could_ he a-wanted +of it, s'I.  Sh-she, Sister Hotchkiss, sh-she—" + +"But how in the nation'd they ever _git_ that grindstone _in_ there, +_anyway_? 'n' who dug that-air _hole_? 'n' who—" + +"My very _words_, Brer Penrod!  I was a-sayin'—pass that-air sasser o' +m'lasses, won't ye?—I was a-sayin' to Sister Dunlap, jist this minute, +how _did_ they git that grindstone in there, s'I.  Without _help_, mind +you—'thout _help_!  _that's_ wher 'tis.  Don't tell _me_, s'I; there +_wuz_ help, s'I; 'n' ther' wuz a _plenty_ help, too, s'I; ther's ben a +_dozen_ a-helpin' that nigger, 'n' I lay I'd skin every last nigger on +this place but _I'd_ find out who done it, s'I; 'n' moreover, s'I—" + +"A _dozen_ says you!—_forty_ couldn't a done every thing that's been +done. Look at them case-knife saws and things, how tedious they've been +made; look at that bed-leg sawed off with 'm, a week's work for six men; +look at that nigger made out'n straw on the bed; and look at—" + +"You may _well_ say it, Brer Hightower!  It's jist as I was a-sayin' +to Brer Phelps, his own self.  S'e, what do _you_ think of it, Sister +Hotchkiss, s'e? Think o' what, Brer Phelps, s'I?  Think o' that bed-leg +sawed off that a way, s'e?  _think_ of it, s'I?  I lay it never sawed +_itself_ off, s'I—somebody _sawed_ it, s'I; that's my opinion, take it +or leave it, it mayn't be no 'count, s'I, but sich as 't is, it's my +opinion, s'I, 'n' if any body k'n start a better one, s'I, let him _do_ +it, s'I, that's all.  I says to Sister Dunlap, s'I—" + +"Why, dog my cats, they must a ben a house-full o' niggers in there +every night for four weeks to a done all that work, Sister Phelps.  Look +at that shirt—every last inch of it kivered over with secret African +writ'n done with blood!  Must a ben a raft uv 'm at it right along, all +the time, amost.  Why, I'd give two dollars to have it read to me; 'n' +as for the niggers that wrote it, I 'low I'd take 'n' lash 'm t'll—" + +"People to _help_ him, Brother Marples!  Well, I reckon you'd _think_ +so if you'd a been in this house for a while back.  Why, they've stole +everything they could lay their hands on—and we a-watching all the time, +mind you. They stole that shirt right off o' the line! and as for that +sheet they made the rag ladder out of, ther' ain't no telling how +many times they _didn't_ steal that; and flour, and candles, and +candlesticks, and spoons, and the old warming-pan, and most a thousand +things that I disremember now, and my new calico dress; and me and +Silas and my Sid and Tom on the constant watch day _and_ night, as I was +a-telling you, and not a one of us could catch hide nor hair nor sight +nor sound of them; and here at the last minute, lo and behold you, they +slides right in under our noses and fools us, and not only fools _us_ +but the Injun Territory robbers too, and actuly gets _away_ with that +nigger safe and sound, and that with sixteen men and twenty-two dogs +right on their very heels at that very time!  I tell you, it just bangs +anything I ever _heard_ of. Why, _sperits_ couldn't a done better and +been no smarter. And I reckon they must a _been_ sperits—because, _you_ +know our dogs, and ther' ain't no better; well, them dogs never even got +on the _track_ of 'm once!  You explain _that_ to me if you can!—_any_ +of you!" + +"Well, it does beat—" + +"Laws alive, I never—" + +"So help me, I wouldn't a be—" + +"_House_-thieves as well as—" + +"Goodnessgracioussakes, I'd a ben afeard to live in sich a—" + +"'Fraid to _live_!—why, I was that scared I dasn't hardly go to bed, or +get up, or lay down, or _set_ down, Sister Ridgeway.  Why, they'd steal +the very—why, goodness sakes, you can guess what kind of a fluster I was +in by the time midnight come last night.  I hope to gracious if I warn't +afraid they'd steal some o' the family!  I was just to that pass I +didn't have no reasoning faculties no more.  It looks foolish enough +_now_, in the daytime; but I says to myself, there's my two poor boys +asleep, 'way up stairs in that lonesome room, and I declare to goodness +I was that uneasy 't I crep' up there and locked 'em in!  I _did_.  And +anybody would. Because, you know, when you get scared that way, and it +keeps running on, and getting worse and worse all the time, and your +wits gets to addling, and you get to doing all sorts o' wild things, +and by and by you think to yourself, spos'n I was a boy, and was away up +there, and the door ain't locked, and you—" She stopped, looking kind +of wondering, and then she turned her head around slow, and when her eye +lit on me—I got up and took a walk. + +Says I to myself, I can explain better how we come to not be in that +room this morning if I go out to one side and study over it a little. + So I done it.  But I dasn't go fur, or she'd a sent for me.  And when +it was late in the day the people all went, and then I come in and +told her the noise and shooting waked up me and "Sid," and the door was +locked, and we wanted to see the fun, so we went down the lightning-rod, +and both of us got hurt a little, and we didn't never want to try _that_ +no more.  And then I went on and told her all what I told Uncle Silas +before; and then she said she'd forgive us, and maybe it was all right +enough anyway, and about what a body might expect of boys, for all boys +was a pretty harum-scarum lot as fur as she could see; and so, as long +as no harm hadn't come of it, she judged she better put in her time +being grateful we was alive and well and she had us still, stead of +fretting over what was past and done.  So then she kissed me, and patted +me on the head, and dropped into a kind of a brown study; and pretty +soon jumps up, and says: + +"Why, lawsamercy, it's most night, and Sid not come yet!  What _has_ +become of that boy?" + +I see my chance; so I skips up and says: + +"I'll run right up to town and get him," I says. + +"No you won't," she says.  "You'll stay right wher' you are; _one's_ +enough to be lost at a time.  If he ain't here to supper, your uncle 'll +go." + +Well, he warn't there to supper; so right after supper uncle went. + +He come back about ten a little bit uneasy; hadn't run across Tom's +track. Aunt Sally was a good _deal_ uneasy; but Uncle Silas he said +there warn't no occasion to be—boys will be boys, he said, and you'll +see this one turn up in the morning all sound and right.  So she had +to be satisfied.  But she said she'd set up for him a while anyway, and +keep a light burning so he could see it. + +And then when I went up to bed she come up with me and fetched her +candle, and tucked me in, and mothered me so good I felt mean, and like +I couldn't look her in the face; and she set down on the bed and talked +with me a long time, and said what a splendid boy Sid was, and didn't +seem to want to ever stop talking about him; and kept asking me every +now and then if I reckoned he could a got lost, or hurt, or maybe +drownded, and might be laying at this minute somewheres suffering or +dead, and she not by him to help him, and so the tears would drip down +silent, and I would tell her that Sid was all right, and would be home +in the morning, sure; and she would squeeze my hand, or maybe kiss me, +and tell me to say it again, and keep on saying it, because it done her +good, and she was in so much trouble.  And when she was going away she +looked down in my eyes so steady and gentle, and says: + +"The door ain't going to be locked, Tom, and there's the window and +the rod; but you'll be good, _won't_ you?  And you won't go?  For _my_ +sake." + +Laws knows I _wanted_ to go bad enough to see about Tom, and was all +intending to go; but after that I wouldn't a went, not for kingdoms. + +But she was on my mind and Tom was on my mind, so I slept very restless. +And twice I went down the rod away in the night, and slipped around +front, and see her setting there by her candle in the window with her +eyes towards the road and the tears in them; and I wished I could do +something for her, but I couldn't, only to swear that I wouldn't never +do nothing to grieve her any more.  And the third time I waked up at +dawn, and slid down, and she was there yet, and her candle was most out, +and her old gray head was resting on her hand, and she was asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +THE old man was uptown again before breakfast, but couldn't get no +track of Tom; and both of them set at the table thinking, and not saying +nothing, and looking mournful, and their coffee getting cold, and not +eating anything. And by and by the old man says: + +"Did I give you the letter?" + +"What letter?" + +"The one I got yesterday out of the post-office." + +"No, you didn't give me no letter." + +"Well, I must a forgot it." + +So he rummaged his pockets, and then went off somewheres where he had +laid it down, and fetched it, and give it to her.  She says: + +"Why, it's from St. Petersburg—it's from Sis." + +I allowed another walk would do me good; but I couldn't stir.  But +before she could break it open she dropped it and run—for she see +something. And so did I. It was Tom Sawyer on a mattress; and that old +doctor; and Jim, in _her_ calico dress, with his hands tied behind him; +and a lot of people.  I hid the letter behind the first thing that come +handy, and rushed.  She flung herself at Tom, crying, and says: + +"Oh, he's dead, he's dead, I know he's dead!" + +And Tom he turned his head a little, and muttered something or other, +which showed he warn't in his right mind; then she flung up her hands, +and says: + +"He's alive, thank God!  And that's enough!" and she snatched a kiss of +him, and flew for the house to get the bed ready, and scattering orders +right and left at the niggers and everybody else, as fast as her tongue +could go, every jump of the way. + +I followed the men to see what they was going to do with Jim; and the +old doctor and Uncle Silas followed after Tom into the house.  The men +was very huffy, and some of them wanted to hang Jim for an example to +all the other niggers around there, so they wouldn't be trying to run +away like Jim done, and making such a raft of trouble, and keeping a +whole family scared most to death for days and nights.  But the others +said, don't do it, it wouldn't answer at all; he ain't our nigger, and +his owner would turn up and make us pay for him, sure.  So that cooled +them down a little, because the people that's always the most anxious +for to hang a nigger that hain't done just right is always the very +ones that ain't the most anxious to pay for him when they've got their +satisfaction out of him. + +They cussed Jim considerble, though, and give him a cuff or two side the +head once in a while, but Jim never said nothing, and he never let on to +know me, and they took him to the same cabin, and put his own clothes +on him, and chained him again, and not to no bed-leg this time, but to +a big staple drove into the bottom log, and chained his hands, too, and +both legs, and said he warn't to have nothing but bread and water to +eat after this till his owner come, or he was sold at auction because +he didn't come in a certain length of time, and filled up our hole, and +said a couple of farmers with guns must stand watch around about the +cabin every night, and a bulldog tied to the door in the daytime; and +about this time they was through with the job and was tapering off with +a kind of generl good-bye cussing, and then the old doctor comes and +takes a look, and says: + +"Don't be no rougher on him than you're obleeged to, because he ain't +a bad nigger.  When I got to where I found the boy I see I couldn't cut +the bullet out without some help, and he warn't in no condition for +me to leave to go and get help; and he got a little worse and a little +worse, and after a long time he went out of his head, and wouldn't let +me come a-nigh him any more, and said if I chalked his raft he'd kill +me, and no end of wild foolishness like that, and I see I couldn't do +anything at all with him; so I says, I got to have _help_ somehow; and +the minute I says it out crawls this nigger from somewheres and says +he'll help, and he done it, too, and done it very well.  Of course I +judged he must be a runaway nigger, and there I _was_! and there I had +to stick right straight along all the rest of the day and all night.  It +was a fix, I tell you! I had a couple of patients with the chills, and +of course I'd of liked to run up to town and see them, but I dasn't, +because the nigger might get away, and then I'd be to blame; and yet +never a skiff come close enough for me to hail.  So there I had to stick +plumb until daylight this morning; and I never see a nigger that was a +better nuss or faithfuller, and yet he was risking his freedom to do it, +and was all tired out, too, and I see plain enough he'd been worked +main hard lately.  I liked the nigger for that; I tell you, gentlemen, a +nigger like that is worth a thousand dollars—and kind treatment, too.  I +had everything I needed, and the boy was doing as well there as he +would a done at home—better, maybe, because it was so quiet; but there I +_was_, with both of 'm on my hands, and there I had to stick till about +dawn this morning; then some men in a skiff come by, and as good luck +would have it the nigger was setting by the pallet with his head propped +on his knees sound asleep; so I motioned them in quiet, and they slipped +up on him and grabbed him and tied him before he knowed what he was +about, and we never had no trouble. And the boy being in a kind of a +flighty sleep, too, we muffled the oars and hitched the raft on, and +towed her over very nice and quiet, and the nigger never made the least +row nor said a word from the start.  He ain't no bad nigger, gentlemen; +that's what I think about him." + +Somebody says: + +"Well, it sounds very good, doctor, I'm obleeged to say." + +Then the others softened up a little, too, and I was mighty thankful +to that old doctor for doing Jim that good turn; and I was glad it was +according to my judgment of him, too; because I thought he had a good +heart in him and was a good man the first time I see him.  Then they +all agreed that Jim had acted very well, and was deserving to have some +notice took of it, and reward.  So every one of them promised, right out +and hearty, that they wouldn't cuss him no more. + +Then they come out and locked him up.  I hoped they was going to say he +could have one or two of the chains took off, because they was rotten +heavy, or could have meat and greens with his bread and water; but they +didn't think of it, and I reckoned it warn't best for me to mix in, but +I judged I'd get the doctor's yarn to Aunt Sally somehow or other as +soon as I'd got through the breakers that was laying just ahead of +me—explanations, I mean, of how I forgot to mention about Sid being shot +when I was telling how him and me put in that dratted night paddling +around hunting the runaway nigger. + +But I had plenty time.  Aunt Sally she stuck to the sick-room all day +and all night, and every time I see Uncle Silas mooning around I dodged +him. + +Next morning I heard Tom was a good deal better, and they said Aunt +Sally was gone to get a nap.  So I slips to the sick-room, and if I +found him awake I reckoned we could put up a yarn for the family that +would wash. But he was sleeping, and sleeping very peaceful, too; and +pale, not fire-faced the way he was when he come.  So I set down and +laid for him to wake.  In about half an hour Aunt Sally comes gliding +in, and there I was, up a stump again!  She motioned me to be still, and +set down by me, and begun to whisper, and said we could all be joyful +now, because all the symptoms was first-rate, and he'd been sleeping +like that for ever so long, and looking better and peacefuller all the +time, and ten to one he'd wake up in his right mind. + +So we set there watching, and by and by he stirs a bit, and opened his +eyes very natural, and takes a look, and says: + +"Hello!—why, I'm at _home_!  How's that?  Where's the raft?" + +"It's all right," I says. + +"And _Jim_?" + +"The same," I says, but couldn't say it pretty brash.  But he never +noticed, but says: + +"Good!  Splendid!  _Now_ we're all right and safe! Did you tell Aunty?" + +I was going to say yes; but she chipped in and says:  "About what, Sid?" + +"Why, about the way the whole thing was done." + +"What whole thing?" + +"Why, _the_ whole thing.  There ain't but one; how we set the runaway +nigger free—me and Tom." + +"Good land!  Set the run—What _is_ the child talking about!  Dear, dear, +out of his head again!" + +"_No_, I ain't out of my _head_; I know all what I'm talking about.  We +_did_ set him free—me and Tom.  We laid out to do it, and we _done_ it. + And we done it elegant, too."  He'd got a start, and she never checked +him up, just set and stared and stared, and let him clip along, and +I see it warn't no use for _me_ to put in.  "Why, Aunty, it cost us a +power of work—weeks of it—hours and hours, every night, whilst you was +all asleep. And we had to steal candles, and the sheet, and the shirt, +and your dress, and spoons, and tin plates, and case-knives, and the +warming-pan, and the grindstone, and flour, and just no end of things, +and you can't think what work it was to make the saws, and pens, and +inscriptions, and one thing or another, and you can't think _half_ the +fun it was.  And we had to make up the pictures of coffins and things, +and nonnamous letters from the robbers, and get up and down the +lightning-rod, and dig the hole into the cabin, and made the rope ladder +and send it in cooked up in a pie, and send in spoons and things to work +with in your apron pocket—" + +"Mercy sakes!" + +"—and load up the cabin with rats and snakes and so on, for company for +Jim; and then you kept Tom here so long with the butter in his hat that +you come near spiling the whole business, because the men come before +we was out of the cabin, and we had to rush, and they heard us and let +drive at us, and I got my share, and we dodged out of the path and let +them go by, and when the dogs come they warn't interested in us, but +went for the most noise, and we got our canoe, and made for the +raft, and was all safe, and Jim was a free man, and we done it all by +ourselves, and _wasn't_ it bully, Aunty!" + +"Well, I never heard the likes of it in all my born days!  So it was +_you_, you little rapscallions, that's been making all this trouble, +and turned everybody's wits clean inside out and scared us all most to +death.  I've as good a notion as ever I had in my life to take it out +o' you this very minute.  To think, here I've been, night after night, +a—_you_ just get well once, you young scamp, and I lay I'll tan the Old +Harry out o' both o' ye!" + +But Tom, he _was_ so proud and joyful, he just _couldn't_ hold in, +and his tongue just _went_ it—she a-chipping in, and spitting fire all +along, and both of them going it at once, like a cat convention; and she +says: + +"_Well_, you get all the enjoyment you can out of it _now_, for mind I +tell you if I catch you meddling with him again—" + +"Meddling with _who_?"  Tom says, dropping his smile and looking +surprised. + +"With _who_?  Why, the runaway nigger, of course.  Who'd you reckon?" + +Tom looks at me very grave, and says: + +"Tom, didn't you just tell me he was all right?  Hasn't he got away?" + +"_Him_?" says Aunt Sally; "the runaway nigger?  'Deed he hasn't. + They've got him back, safe and sound, and he's in that cabin again, +on bread and water, and loaded down with chains, till he's claimed or +sold!" + +Tom rose square up in bed, with his eye hot, and his nostrils opening +and shutting like gills, and sings out to me: + +"They hain't no _right_ to shut him up!  SHOVE!—and don't you lose a +minute.  Turn him loose! he ain't no slave; he's as free as any cretur +that walks this earth!" + +"What _does_ the child mean?" + +"I mean every word I _say_, Aunt Sally, and if somebody don't go, _I'll_ +go. I've knowed him all his life, and so has Tom, there.  Old Miss +Watson died two months ago, and she was ashamed she ever was going to +sell him down the river, and _said_ so; and she set him free in her +will." + +"Then what on earth did _you_ want to set him free for, seeing he was +already free?" + +"Well, that _is_ a question, I must say; and just like women!  Why, +I wanted the _adventure_ of it; and I'd a waded neck-deep in blood +to—goodness alive, _Aunt Polly!_" + +If she warn't standing right there, just inside the door, looking as +sweet and contented as an angel half full of pie, I wish I may never! + +Aunt Sally jumped for her, and most hugged the head off of her, and +cried over her, and I found a good enough place for me under the bed, +for it was getting pretty sultry for us, seemed to me.  And I peeped +out, and in a little while Tom's Aunt Polly shook herself loose and +stood there looking across at Tom over her spectacles—kind of grinding +him into the earth, you know.  And then she says: + +"Yes, you _better_ turn y'r head away—I would if I was you, Tom." + +"Oh, deary me!" says Aunt Sally; "_Is_ he changed so?  Why, that ain't +_Tom_, it's Sid; Tom's—Tom's—why, where is Tom?  He was here a minute +ago." + +"You mean where's Huck _Finn_—that's what you mean!  I reckon I hain't +raised such a scamp as my Tom all these years not to know him when I +_see_ him.  That _would_ be a pretty howdy-do. Come out from under that +bed, Huck Finn." + +So I done it.  But not feeling brash. + +Aunt Sally she was one of the mixed-upest-looking persons I ever +see—except one, and that was Uncle Silas, when he come in and they told +it all to him.  It kind of made him drunk, as you may say, and he didn't +know nothing at all the rest of the day, and preached a prayer-meeting +sermon that night that gave him a rattling ruputation, because the +oldest man in the world couldn't a understood it.  So Tom's Aunt Polly, +she told all about who I was, and what; and I had to up and tell how +I was in such a tight place that when Mrs. Phelps took me for Tom +Sawyer—she chipped in and says, "Oh, go on and call me Aunt Sally, I'm +used to it now, and 'tain't no need to change"—that when Aunt Sally took +me for Tom Sawyer I had to stand it—there warn't no other way, and +I knowed he wouldn't mind, because it would be nuts for him, being +a mystery, and he'd make an adventure out of it, and be perfectly +satisfied.  And so it turned out, and he let on to be Sid, and made +things as soft as he could for me. + +And his Aunt Polly she said Tom was right about old Miss Watson setting +Jim free in her will; and so, sure enough, Tom Sawyer had gone and took +all that trouble and bother to set a free nigger free! and I couldn't +ever understand before, until that minute and that talk, how he _could_ +help a body set a nigger free with his bringing-up. + +Well, Aunt Polly she said that when Aunt Sally wrote to her that Tom and +_Sid_ had come all right and safe, she says to herself: + +"Look at that, now!  I might have expected it, letting him go off that +way without anybody to watch him.  So now I got to go and trapse all +the way down the river, eleven hundred mile, and find out what that +creetur's up to _this_ time, as long as I couldn't seem to get any +answer out of you about it." + +"Why, I never heard nothing from you," says Aunt Sally. + +"Well, I wonder!  Why, I wrote you twice to ask you what you could mean +by Sid being here." + +"Well, I never got 'em, Sis." + +Aunt Polly she turns around slow and severe, and says: + +"You, Tom!" + +"Well—_what_?" he says, kind of pettish. + +"Don't you what _me_, you impudent thing—hand out them letters." + +"What letters?" + +"_Them_ letters.  I be bound, if I have to take a-holt of you I'll—" + +"They're in the trunk.  There, now.  And they're just the same as they +was when I got them out of the office.  I hain't looked into them, I +hain't touched them.  But I knowed they'd make trouble, and I thought if +you warn't in no hurry, I'd—" + +"Well, you _do_ need skinning, there ain't no mistake about it.  And I +wrote another one to tell you I was coming; and I s'pose he—" + +"No, it come yesterday; I hain't read it yet, but _it's_ all right, I've +got that one." + +I wanted to offer to bet two dollars she hadn't, but I reckoned maybe it +was just as safe to not to.  So I never said nothing. + + + + +CHAPTER THE LAST + +THE first time I catched Tom private I asked him what was his idea, time +of the evasion?—what it was he'd planned to do if the evasion worked all +right and he managed to set a nigger free that was already free before? +And he said, what he had planned in his head from the start, if we got +Jim out all safe, was for us to run him down the river on the raft, and +have adventures plumb to the mouth of the river, and then tell him about +his being free, and take him back up home on a steamboat, in style, +and pay him for his lost time, and write word ahead and get out all +the niggers around, and have them waltz him into town with a torchlight +procession and a brass-band, and then he would be a hero, and so would +we.  But I reckoned it was about as well the way it was. + +We had Jim out of the chains in no time, and when Aunt Polly and Uncle +Silas and Aunt Sally found out how good he helped the doctor nurse Tom, +they made a heap of fuss over him, and fixed him up prime, and give him +all he wanted to eat, and a good time, and nothing to do.  And we had +him up to the sick-room, and had a high talk; and Tom give Jim forty +dollars for being prisoner for us so patient, and doing it up so good, +and Jim was pleased most to death, and busted out, and says: + +"Dah, now, Huck, what I tell you?—what I tell you up dah on Jackson +islan'?  I _tole_ you I got a hairy breas', en what's de sign un it; en +I _tole_ you I ben rich wunst, en gwineter to be rich _agin_; en it's +come true; en heah she is!  _dah_, now! doan' talk to _me_—signs is +_signs_, mine I tell you; en I knowed jis' 's well 'at I 'uz gwineter be +rich agin as I's a-stannin' heah dis minute!" + +And then Tom he talked along and talked along, and says, le's all three +slide out of here one of these nights and get an outfit, and go for +howling adventures amongst the Injuns, over in the Territory, for a +couple of weeks or two; and I says, all right, that suits me, but I +ain't got no money for to buy the outfit, and I reckon I couldn't get +none from home, because it's likely pap's been back before now, and got +it all away from Judge Thatcher and drunk it up. + +"No, he hain't," Tom says; "it's all there yet—six thousand dollars +and more; and your pap hain't ever been back since.  Hadn't when I come +away, anyhow." + +Jim says, kind of solemn: + +"He ain't a-comin' back no mo', Huck." + +I says: + +"Why, Jim?" + +"Nemmine why, Huck—but he ain't comin' back no mo." + +But I kept at him; so at last he says: + +"Doan' you 'member de house dat was float'n down de river, en dey wuz a +man in dah, kivered up, en I went in en unkivered him and didn' let you +come in?  Well, den, you kin git yo' money when you wants it, kase dat +wuz him." + +Tom's most well now, and got his bullet around his neck on a watch-guard +for a watch, and is always seeing what time it is, and so there ain't +nothing more to write about, and I am rotten glad of it, because if I'd +a knowed what a trouble it was to make a book I wouldn't a tackled it, +and ain't a-going to no more.  But I reckon I got to light out for the +Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me +and sivilize me, and I can't stand it.  I been there before. + +THE END. YOURS TRULY, _HUCK FINN_. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, +Complete, by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUCKLEBERRY FINN *** + +***** This file should be named 76-h.htm or 76-h.zip ***** This and +all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.net/7/76/ + +Produced by David Widger. Previous editions produced by Ron Burkey and +Internet Wiretap + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be +renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one +owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and +you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission +and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily keep eBooks +in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + +http://www.gutenberg.net + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, including +how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe to +our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/DemoApp2/texts/Grimms' Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm.txt b/DemoApp2/texts/Grimms' Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..66e5304 --- /dev/null +++ b/DemoApp2/texts/Grimms' Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9569 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Grimms' Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Grimms' Fairy Tales + +Author: The Brothers Grimm + +Translator: Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes + +Posting Date: December 14, 2008 [EBook #2591] +Release Date: April, 2001 + +Language: English + + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRIMMS' FAIRY TALES *** + + + + +Produced by Emma Dudding, John Bickers, and Dagny + + + + + +FAIRY TALES + +By The Brothers Grimm + + + +PREPARER'S NOTE + + The text is based on translations from + the Grimms' Kinder und Hausmarchen by + Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes. + + + + +CONTENTS: + + THE GOLDEN BIRD + HANS IN LUCK + JORINDA AND JORINDEL + THE TRAVELLING MUSICIANS + OLD SULTAN + THE STRAW, THE COAL, AND THE BEAN + BRIAR ROSE + THE DOG AND THE SPARROW + THE TWELVE DANCING PRINCESSES + THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE + THE WILLOW-WREN AND THE BEAR + THE FROG-PRINCE + CAT AND MOUSE IN PARTNERSHIP + THE GOOSE-GIRL + THE ADVENTURES OF CHANTICLEER AND PARTLET + 1. HOW THEY WENT TO THE MOUNTAINS TO EAT NUTS + 2. HOW CHANTICLEER AND PARTLET WENT TO VISIT MR KORBES + RAPUNZEL + FUNDEVOGEL + THE VALIANT LITTLE TAILOR + HANSEL AND GRETEL + THE MOUSE, THE BIRD, AND THE SAUSAGE + MOTHER HOLLE + LITTLE RED-CAP [LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD] + THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM + TOM THUMB + RUMPELSTILTSKIN + CLEVER GRETEL + THE OLD MAN AND HIS GRANDSON + THE LITTLE PEASANT + FREDERICK AND CATHERINE + SWEETHEART ROLAND + SNOWDROP + THE PINK + CLEVER ELSIE + THE MISER IN THE BUSH + ASHPUTTEL + THE WHITE SNAKE + THE WOLF AND THE SEVEN LITTLE KIDS + THE QUEEN BEE + THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKER + THE JUNIPER-TREE + the juniper-tree. + THE TURNIP + CLEVER HANS + THE THREE LANGUAGES + THE FOX AND THE CAT + THE FOUR CLEVER BROTHERS + LILY AND THE LION + THE FOX AND THE HORSE + THE BLUE LIGHT + THE RAVEN + THE GOLDEN GOOSE + THE WATER OF LIFE + THE TWELVE HUNTSMEN + THE KING OF THE GOLDEN MOUNTAIN + DOCTOR KNOWALL + THE SEVEN RAVENS + THE WEDDING OF MRS FOX + FIRST STORY + SECOND STORY + THE SALAD + THE STORY OF THE YOUTH WHO WENT FORTH TO LEARN WHAT FEAR WAS + KING GRISLY-BEARD + IRON HANS + CAT-SKIN + SNOW-WHITE AND ROSE-RED + + + + +THE BROTHERS GRIMM FAIRY TALES + + + + +THE GOLDEN BIRD + +A certain king had a beautiful garden, and in the garden stood a tree +which bore golden apples. These apples were always counted, and about +the time when they began to grow ripe it was found that every night one +of them was gone. The king became very angry at this, and ordered the +gardener to keep watch all night under the tree. The gardener set his +eldest son to watch; but about twelve o'clock he fell asleep, and in +the morning another of the apples was missing. Then the second son was +ordered to watch; and at midnight he too fell asleep, and in the morning +another apple was gone. Then the third son offered to keep watch; but +the gardener at first would not let him, for fear some harm should come +to him: however, at last he consented, and the young man laid himself +under the tree to watch. As the clock struck twelve he heard a rustling +noise in the air, and a bird came flying that was of pure gold; and as +it was snapping at one of the apples with its beak, the gardener's son +jumped up and shot an arrow at it. But the arrow did the bird no harm; +only it dropped a golden feather from its tail, and then flew away. +The golden feather was brought to the king in the morning, and all the +council was called together. Everyone agreed that it was worth more than +all the wealth of the kingdom: but the king said, 'One feather is of no +use to me, I must have the whole bird.' + +Then the gardener's eldest son set out and thought to find the golden +bird very easily; and when he had gone but a little way, he came to a +wood, and by the side of the wood he saw a fox sitting; so he took his +bow and made ready to shoot at it. Then the fox said, 'Do not shoot me, +for I will give you good counsel; I know what your business is, and +that you want to find the golden bird. You will reach a village in the +evening; and when you get there, you will see two inns opposite to each +other, one of which is very pleasant and beautiful to look at: go not in +there, but rest for the night in the other, though it may appear to you +to be very poor and mean.' But the son thought to himself, 'What can +such a beast as this know about the matter?' So he shot his arrow at +the fox; but he missed it, and it set up its tail above its back and +ran into the wood. Then he went his way, and in the evening came to +the village where the two inns were; and in one of these were people +singing, and dancing, and feasting; but the other looked very dirty, +and poor. 'I should be very silly,' said he, 'if I went to that shabby +house, and left this charming place'; so he went into the smart house, +and ate and drank at his ease, and forgot the bird, and his country too. + +Time passed on; and as the eldest son did not come back, and no tidings +were heard of him, the second son set out, and the same thing happened +to him. He met the fox, who gave him the good advice: but when he came +to the two inns, his eldest brother was standing at the window where +the merrymaking was, and called to him to come in; and he could not +withstand the temptation, but went in, and forgot the golden bird and +his country in the same manner. + +Time passed on again, and the youngest son too wished to set out into +the wide world to seek for the golden bird; but his father would not +listen to it for a long while, for he was very fond of his son, and +was afraid that some ill luck might happen to him also, and prevent his +coming back. However, at last it was agreed he should go, for he would +not rest at home; and as he came to the wood, he met the fox, and heard +the same good counsel. But he was thankful to the fox, and did not +attempt his life as his brothers had done; so the fox said, 'Sit upon my +tail, and you will travel faster.' So he sat down, and the fox began to +run, and away they went over stock and stone so quick that their hair +whistled in the wind. + +When they came to the village, the son followed the fox's counsel, and +without looking about him went to the shabby inn and rested there all +night at his ease. In the morning came the fox again and met him as he +was beginning his journey, and said, 'Go straight forward, till you come +to a castle, before which lie a whole troop of soldiers fast asleep and +snoring: take no notice of them, but go into the castle and pass on and +on till you come to a room, where the golden bird sits in a wooden cage; +close by it stands a beautiful golden cage; but do not try to take the +bird out of the shabby cage and put it into the handsome one, otherwise +you will repent it.' Then the fox stretched out his tail again, and the +young man sat himself down, and away they went over stock and stone till +their hair whistled in the wind. + +Before the castle gate all was as the fox had said: so the son went in +and found the chamber where the golden bird hung in a wooden cage, and +below stood the golden cage, and the three golden apples that had been +lost were lying close by it. Then thought he to himself, 'It will be a +very droll thing to bring away such a fine bird in this shabby cage'; so +he opened the door and took hold of it and put it into the golden cage. +But the bird set up such a loud scream that all the soldiers awoke, and +they took him prisoner and carried him before the king. The next morning +the court sat to judge him; and when all was heard, it sentenced him to +die, unless he should bring the king the golden horse which could run as +swiftly as the wind; and if he did this, he was to have the golden bird +given him for his own. + +So he set out once more on his journey, sighing, and in great despair, +when on a sudden his friend the fox met him, and said, 'You see now +what has happened on account of your not listening to my counsel. I will +still, however, tell you how to find the golden horse, if you will do as +I bid you. You must go straight on till you come to the castle where the +horse stands in his stall: by his side will lie the groom fast asleep +and snoring: take away the horse quietly, but be sure to put the old +leathern saddle upon him, and not the golden one that is close by it.' +Then the son sat down on the fox's tail, and away they went over stock +and stone till their hair whistled in the wind. + +All went right, and the groom lay snoring with his hand upon the golden +saddle. But when the son looked at the horse, he thought it a great pity +to put the leathern saddle upon it. 'I will give him the good one,' +said he; 'I am sure he deserves it.' As he took up the golden saddle the +groom awoke and cried out so loud, that all the guards ran in and took +him prisoner, and in the morning he was again brought before the court +to be judged, and was sentenced to die. But it was agreed, that, if he +could bring thither the beautiful princess, he should live, and have the +bird and the horse given him for his own. + +Then he went his way very sorrowful; but the old fox came and said, 'Why +did not you listen to me? If you had, you would have carried away +both the bird and the horse; yet will I once more give you counsel. Go +straight on, and in the evening you will arrive at a castle. At twelve +o'clock at night the princess goes to the bathing-house: go up to her +and give her a kiss, and she will let you lead her away; but take care +you do not suffer her to go and take leave of her father and mother.' +Then the fox stretched out his tail, and so away they went over stock +and stone till their hair whistled again. + +As they came to the castle, all was as the fox had said, and at twelve +o'clock the young man met the princess going to the bath and gave her the +kiss, and she agreed to run away with him, but begged with many tears +that he would let her take leave of her father. At first he refused, +but she wept still more and more, and fell at his feet, till at last +he consented; but the moment she came to her father's house the guards +awoke and he was taken prisoner again. + +Then he was brought before the king, and the king said, 'You shall never +have my daughter unless in eight days you dig away the hill that stops +the view from my window.' Now this hill was so big that the whole world +could not take it away: and when he had worked for seven days, and had +done very little, the fox came and said. 'Lie down and go to sleep; I +will work for you.' And in the morning he awoke and the hill was gone; +so he went merrily to the king, and told him that now that it was +removed he must give him the princess. + +Then the king was obliged to keep his word, and away went the young man +and the princess; and the fox came and said to him, 'We will have all +three, the princess, the horse, and the bird.' 'Ah!' said the young man, +'that would be a great thing, but how can you contrive it?' + +'If you will only listen,' said the fox, 'it can be done. When you come +to the king, and he asks for the beautiful princess, you must say, "Here +she is!" Then he will be very joyful; and you will mount the golden +horse that they are to give you, and put out your hand to take leave of +them; but shake hands with the princess last. Then lift her quickly on +to the horse behind you; clap your spurs to his side, and gallop away as +fast as you can.' + +All went right: then the fox said, 'When you come to the castle where +the bird is, I will stay with the princess at the door, and you will +ride in and speak to the king; and when he sees that it is the right +horse, he will bring out the bird; but you must sit still, and say that +you want to look at it, to see whether it is the true golden bird; and +when you get it into your hand, ride away.' + +This, too, happened as the fox said; they carried off the bird, the +princess mounted again, and they rode on to a great wood. Then the fox +came, and said, 'Pray kill me, and cut off my head and my feet.' But the +young man refused to do it: so the fox said, 'I will at any rate give +you good counsel: beware of two things; ransom no one from the gallows, +and sit down by the side of no river.' Then away he went. 'Well,' +thought the young man, 'it is no hard matter to keep that advice.' + +He rode on with the princess, till at last he came to the village where +he had left his two brothers. And there he heard a great noise and +uproar; and when he asked what was the matter, the people said, 'Two men +are going to be hanged.' As he came nearer, he saw that the two men were +his brothers, who had turned robbers; so he said, 'Cannot they in any +way be saved?' But the people said 'No,' unless he would bestow all his +money upon the rascals and buy their liberty. Then he did not stay to +think about the matter, but paid what was asked, and his brothers were +given up, and went on with him towards their home. + +And as they came to the wood where the fox first met them, it was so +cool and pleasant that the two brothers said, 'Let us sit down by the +side of the river, and rest a while, to eat and drink.' So he said, +'Yes,' and forgot the fox's counsel, and sat down on the side of the +river; and while he suspected nothing, they came behind, and threw him +down the bank, and took the princess, the horse, and the bird, and went +home to the king their master, and said. 'All this have we won by our +labour.' Then there was great rejoicing made; but the horse would not +eat, the bird would not sing, and the princess wept. + +The youngest son fell to the bottom of the river's bed: luckily it was +nearly dry, but his bones were almost broken, and the bank was so steep +that he could find no way to get out. Then the old fox came once more, +and scolded him for not following his advice; otherwise no evil would +have befallen him: 'Yet,' said he, 'I cannot leave you here, so lay hold +of my tail and hold fast.' Then he pulled him out of the river, and said +to him, as he got upon the bank, 'Your brothers have set watch to kill +you, if they find you in the kingdom.' So he dressed himself as a poor +man, and came secretly to the king's court, and was scarcely within the +doors when the horse began to eat, and the bird to sing, and the princess +left off weeping. Then he went to the king, and told him all his +brothers' roguery; and they were seized and punished, and he had the +princess given to him again; and after the king's death he was heir to +his kingdom. + +A long while after, he went to walk one day in the wood, and the old fox +met him, and besought him with tears in his eyes to kill him, and cut +off his head and feet. And at last he did so, and in a moment the +fox was changed into a man, and turned out to be the brother of the +princess, who had been lost a great many many years. + + + + +HANS IN LUCK + +Some men are born to good luck: all they do or try to do comes +right--all that falls to them is so much gain--all their geese are +swans--all their cards are trumps--toss them which way you will, they +will always, like poor puss, alight upon their legs, and only move on so +much the faster. The world may very likely not always think of them as +they think of themselves, but what care they for the world? what can it +know about the matter? + +One of these lucky beings was neighbour Hans. Seven long years he had +worked hard for his master. At last he said, 'Master, my time is up; I +must go home and see my poor mother once more: so pray pay me my wages +and let me go.' And the master said, 'You have been a faithful and good +servant, Hans, so your pay shall be handsome.' Then he gave him a lump +of silver as big as his head. + +Hans took out his pocket-handkerchief, put the piece of silver into it, +threw it over his shoulder, and jogged off on his road homewards. As he +went lazily on, dragging one foot after another, a man came in sight, +trotting gaily along on a capital horse. 'Ah!' said Hans aloud, 'what a +fine thing it is to ride on horseback! There he sits as easy and happy +as if he was at home, in the chair by his fireside; he trips against no +stones, saves shoe-leather, and gets on he hardly knows how.' Hans did +not speak so softly but the horseman heard it all, and said, 'Well, +friend, why do you go on foot then?' 'Ah!' said he, 'I have this load to +carry: to be sure it is silver, but it is so heavy that I can't hold up +my head, and you must know it hurts my shoulder sadly.' 'What do you say +of making an exchange?' said the horseman. 'I will give you my horse, +and you shall give me the silver; which will save you a great deal of +trouble in carrying such a heavy load about with you.' 'With all my +heart,' said Hans: 'but as you are so kind to me, I must tell you one +thing--you will have a weary task to draw that silver about with you.' +However, the horseman got off, took the silver, helped Hans up, gave him +the bridle into one hand and the whip into the other, and said, 'When +you want to go very fast, smack your lips loudly together, and cry +"Jip!"' + +Hans was delighted as he sat on the horse, drew himself up, squared his +elbows, turned out his toes, cracked his whip, and rode merrily off, one +minute whistling a merry tune, and another singing, + + 'No care and no sorrow, + A fig for the morrow! + We'll laugh and be merry, + Sing neigh down derry!' + +After a time he thought he should like to go a little faster, so he +smacked his lips and cried 'Jip!' Away went the horse full gallop; and +before Hans knew what he was about, he was thrown off, and lay on his +back by the road-side. His horse would have ran off, if a shepherd who +was coming by, driving a cow, had not stopped it. Hans soon came to +himself, and got upon his legs again, sadly vexed, and said to the +shepherd, 'This riding is no joke, when a man has the luck to get upon +a beast like this that stumbles and flings him off as if it would break +his neck. However, I'm off now once for all: I like your cow now a great +deal better than this smart beast that played me this trick, and has +spoiled my best coat, you see, in this puddle; which, by the by, smells +not very like a nosegay. One can walk along at one's leisure behind that +cow--keep good company, and have milk, butter, and cheese, every day, +into the bargain. What would I give to have such a prize!' 'Well,' said +the shepherd, 'if you are so fond of her, I will change my cow for your +horse; I like to do good to my neighbours, even though I lose by it +myself.' 'Done!' said Hans, merrily. 'What a noble heart that good man +has!' thought he. Then the shepherd jumped upon the horse, wished Hans +and the cow good morning, and away he rode. + +Hans brushed his coat, wiped his face and hands, rested a while, and +then drove off his cow quietly, and thought his bargain a very lucky +one. 'If I have only a piece of bread (and I certainly shall always be +able to get that), I can, whenever I like, eat my butter and cheese with +it; and when I am thirsty I can milk my cow and drink the milk: and what +can I wish for more?' When he came to an inn, he halted, ate up all his +bread, and gave away his last penny for a glass of beer. When he had +rested himself he set off again, driving his cow towards his mother's +village. But the heat grew greater as soon as noon came on, till at +last, as he found himself on a wide heath that would take him more than +an hour to cross, he began to be so hot and parched that his tongue +clave to the roof of his mouth. 'I can find a cure for this,' thought +he; 'now I will milk my cow and quench my thirst': so he tied her to the +stump of a tree, and held his leathern cap to milk into; but not a drop +was to be had. Who would have thought that this cow, which was to bring +him milk and butter and cheese, was all that time utterly dry? Hans had +not thought of looking to that. + +While he was trying his luck in milking, and managing the matter very +clumsily, the uneasy beast began to think him very troublesome; and at +last gave him such a kick on the head as knocked him down; and there he +lay a long while senseless. Luckily a butcher soon came by, driving a +pig in a wheelbarrow. 'What is the matter with you, my man?' said the +butcher, as he helped him up. Hans told him what had happened, how he +was dry, and wanted to milk his cow, but found the cow was dry too. Then +the butcher gave him a flask of ale, saying, 'There, drink and refresh +yourself; your cow will give you no milk: don't you see she is an old +beast, good for nothing but the slaughter-house?' 'Alas, alas!' said +Hans, 'who would have thought it? What a shame to take my horse, and +give me only a dry cow! If I kill her, what will she be good for? I hate +cow-beef; it is not tender enough for me. If it were a pig now--like +that fat gentleman you are driving along at his ease--one could do +something with it; it would at any rate make sausages.' 'Well,' said +the butcher, 'I don't like to say no, when one is asked to do a kind, +neighbourly thing. To please you I will change, and give you my fine fat +pig for the cow.' 'Heaven reward you for your kindness and self-denial!' +said Hans, as he gave the butcher the cow; and taking the pig off the +wheel-barrow, drove it away, holding it by the string that was tied to +its leg. + +So on he jogged, and all seemed now to go right with him: he had met +with some misfortunes, to be sure; but he was now well repaid for all. +How could it be otherwise with such a travelling companion as he had at +last got? + +The next man he met was a countryman carrying a fine white goose. The +countryman stopped to ask what was o'clock; this led to further chat; +and Hans told him all his luck, how he had so many good bargains, and +how all the world went gay and smiling with him. The countryman then +began to tell his tale, and said he was going to take the goose to a +christening. 'Feel,' said he, 'how heavy it is, and yet it is only eight +weeks old. Whoever roasts and eats it will find plenty of fat upon it, +it has lived so well!' 'You're right,' said Hans, as he weighed it in +his hand; 'but if you talk of fat, my pig is no trifle.' Meantime the +countryman began to look grave, and shook his head. 'Hark ye!' said he, +'my worthy friend, you seem a good sort of fellow, so I can't help doing +you a kind turn. Your pig may get you into a scrape. In the village I +just came from, the squire has had a pig stolen out of his sty. I was +dreadfully afraid when I saw you that you had got the squire's pig. If +you have, and they catch you, it will be a bad job for you. The least +they will do will be to throw you into the horse-pond. Can you swim?' + +Poor Hans was sadly frightened. 'Good man,' cried he, 'pray get me out +of this scrape. I know nothing of where the pig was either bred or born; +but he may have been the squire's for aught I can tell: you know this +country better than I do, take my pig and give me the goose.' 'I ought +to have something into the bargain,' said the countryman; 'give a fat +goose for a pig, indeed! 'Tis not everyone would do so much for you as +that. However, I will not be hard upon you, as you are in trouble.' Then +he took the string in his hand, and drove off the pig by a side path; +while Hans went on the way homewards free from care. 'After all,' +thought he, 'that chap is pretty well taken in. I don't care whose pig +it is, but wherever it came from it has been a very good friend to me. I +have much the best of the bargain. First there will be a capital roast; +then the fat will find me in goose-grease for six months; and then there +are all the beautiful white feathers. I will put them into my pillow, +and then I am sure I shall sleep soundly without rocking. How happy my +mother will be! Talk of a pig, indeed! Give me a fine fat goose.' + +As he came to the next village, he saw a scissor-grinder with his wheel, +working and singing, + + 'O'er hill and o'er dale + So happy I roam, + Work light and live well, + All the world is my home; + Then who so blythe, so merry as I?' + +Hans stood looking on for a while, and at last said, 'You must be well +off, master grinder! you seem so happy at your work.' 'Yes,' said the +other, 'mine is a golden trade; a good grinder never puts his hand +into his pocket without finding money in it--but where did you get that +beautiful goose?' 'I did not buy it, I gave a pig for it.' 'And where +did you get the pig?' 'I gave a cow for it.' 'And the cow?' 'I gave a +horse for it.' 'And the horse?' 'I gave a lump of silver as big as my +head for it.' 'And the silver?' 'Oh! I worked hard for that seven long +years.' 'You have thriven well in the world hitherto,' said the grinder, +'now if you could find money in your pocket whenever you put your hand +in it, your fortune would be made.' 'Very true: but how is that to be +managed?' 'How? Why, you must turn grinder like myself,' said the other; +'you only want a grindstone; the rest will come of itself. Here is one +that is but little the worse for wear: I would not ask more than the +value of your goose for it--will you buy?' 'How can you ask?' said +Hans; 'I should be the happiest man in the world, if I could have money +whenever I put my hand in my pocket: what could I want more? there's +the goose.' 'Now,' said the grinder, as he gave him a common rough stone +that lay by his side, 'this is a most capital stone; do but work it well +enough, and you can make an old nail cut with it.' + +Hans took the stone, and went his way with a light heart: his eyes +sparkled for joy, and he said to himself, 'Surely I must have been born +in a lucky hour; everything I could want or wish for comes of itself. +People are so kind; they seem really to think I do them a favour in +letting them make me rich, and giving me good bargains.' + +Meantime he began to be tired, and hungry too, for he had given away his +last penny in his joy at getting the cow. + +At last he could go no farther, for the stone tired him sadly: and he +dragged himself to the side of a river, that he might take a drink of +water, and rest a while. So he laid the stone carefully by his side on +the bank: but, as he stooped down to drink, he forgot it, pushed it a +little, and down it rolled, plump into the stream. + +For a while he watched it sinking in the deep clear water; then sprang +up and danced for joy, and again fell upon his knees and thanked Heaven, +with tears in his eyes, for its kindness in taking away his only plague, +the ugly heavy stone. + +'How happy am I!' cried he; 'nobody was ever so lucky as I.' Then up he +got with a light heart, free from all his troubles, and walked on till +he reached his mother's house, and told her how very easy the road to +good luck was. + + + + +JORINDA AND JORINDEL + +There was once an old castle, that stood in the middle of a deep gloomy +wood, and in the castle lived an old fairy. Now this fairy could take +any shape she pleased. All the day long she flew about in the form of +an owl, or crept about the country like a cat; but at night she always +became an old woman again. When any young man came within a hundred +paces of her castle, he became quite fixed, and could not move a step +till she came and set him free; which she would not do till he had given +her his word never to come there again: but when any pretty maiden came +within that space she was changed into a bird, and the fairy put her +into a cage, and hung her up in a chamber in the castle. There were +seven hundred of these cages hanging in the castle, and all with +beautiful birds in them. + +Now there was once a maiden whose name was Jorinda. She was prettier +than all the pretty girls that ever were seen before, and a shepherd +lad, whose name was Jorindel, was very fond of her, and they were soon +to be married. One day they went to walk in the wood, that they might be +alone; and Jorindel said, 'We must take care that we don't go too near +to the fairy's castle.' It was a beautiful evening; the last rays of the +setting sun shone bright through the long stems of the trees upon +the green underwood beneath, and the turtle-doves sang from the tall +birches. + +Jorinda sat down to gaze upon the sun; Jorindel sat by her side; and +both felt sad, they knew not why; but it seemed as if they were to be +parted from one another for ever. They had wandered a long way; and when +they looked to see which way they should go home, they found themselves +at a loss to know what path to take. + +The sun was setting fast, and already half of its circle had sunk behind +the hill: Jorindel on a sudden looked behind him, and saw through the +bushes that they had, without knowing it, sat down close under the old +walls of the castle. Then he shrank for fear, turned pale, and trembled. +Jorinda was just singing, + + 'The ring-dove sang from the willow spray, + Well-a-day! Well-a-day! + He mourn'd for the fate of his darling mate, + Well-a-day!' + +when her song stopped suddenly. Jorindel turned to see the reason, and +beheld his Jorinda changed into a nightingale, so that her song ended +with a mournful _jug, jug_. An owl with fiery eyes flew three times +round them, and three times screamed: + + 'Tu whu! Tu whu! Tu whu!' + +Jorindel could not move; he stood fixed as a stone, and could neither +weep, nor speak, nor stir hand or foot. And now the sun went quite down; +the gloomy night came; the owl flew into a bush; and a moment after the +old fairy came forth pale and meagre, with staring eyes, and a nose and +chin that almost met one another. + +She mumbled something to herself, seized the nightingale, and went away +with it in her hand. Poor Jorindel saw the nightingale was gone--but +what could he do? He could not speak, he could not move from the spot +where he stood. At last the fairy came back and sang with a hoarse +voice: + + 'Till the prisoner is fast, + And her doom is cast, + There stay! Oh, stay! + When the charm is around her, + And the spell has bound her, + Hie away! away!' + +On a sudden Jorindel found himself free. Then he fell on his knees +before the fairy, and prayed her to give him back his dear Jorinda: but +she laughed at him, and said he should never see her again; then she +went her way. + +He prayed, he wept, he sorrowed, but all in vain. 'Alas!' he said, 'what +will become of me?' He could not go back to his own home, so he went to +a strange village, and employed himself in keeping sheep. Many a time +did he walk round and round as near to the hated castle as he dared go, +but all in vain; he heard or saw nothing of Jorinda. + +At last he dreamt one night that he found a beautiful purple flower, +and that in the middle of it lay a costly pearl; and he dreamt that he +plucked the flower, and went with it in his hand into the castle, and +that everything he touched with it was disenchanted, and that there he +found his Jorinda again. + +In the morning when he awoke, he began to search over hill and dale for +this pretty flower; and eight long days he sought for it in vain: but +on the ninth day, early in the morning, he found the beautiful purple +flower; and in the middle of it was a large dewdrop, as big as a costly +pearl. Then he plucked the flower, and set out and travelled day and +night, till he came again to the castle. + +He walked nearer than a hundred paces to it, and yet he did not become +fixed as before, but found that he could go quite close up to the door. +Jorindel was very glad indeed to see this. Then he touched the door with +the flower, and it sprang open; so that he went in through the court, +and listened when he heard so many birds singing. At last he came to the +chamber where the fairy sat, with the seven hundred birds singing in +the seven hundred cages. When she saw Jorindel she was very angry, and +screamed with rage; but she could not come within two yards of him, for +the flower he held in his hand was his safeguard. He looked around at +the birds, but alas! there were many, many nightingales, and how then +should he find out which was his Jorinda? While he was thinking what to +do, he saw the fairy had taken down one of the cages, and was making the +best of her way off through the door. He ran or flew after her, touched +the cage with the flower, and Jorinda stood before him, and threw her +arms round his neck looking as beautiful as ever, as beautiful as when +they walked together in the wood. + +Then he touched all the other birds with the flower, so that they all +took their old forms again; and he took Jorinda home, where they were +married, and lived happily together many years: and so did a good many +other lads, whose maidens had been forced to sing in the old fairy's +cages by themselves, much longer than they liked. + + + + +THE TRAVELLING MUSICIANS + +An honest farmer had once an ass that had been a faithful servant to him +a great many years, but was now growing old and every day more and more +unfit for work. His master therefore was tired of keeping him and +began to think of putting an end to him; but the ass, who saw that some +mischief was in the wind, took himself slyly off, and began his journey +towards the great city, 'For there,' thought he, 'I may turn musician.' + +After he had travelled a little way, he spied a dog lying by the +roadside and panting as if he were tired. 'What makes you pant so, my +friend?' said the ass. 'Alas!' said the dog, 'my master was going to +knock me on the head, because I am old and weak, and can no longer make +myself useful to him in hunting; so I ran away; but what can I do to +earn my livelihood?' 'Hark ye!' said the ass, 'I am going to the great +city to turn musician: suppose you go with me, and try what you can +do in the same way?' The dog said he was willing, and they jogged on +together. + +They had not gone far before they saw a cat sitting in the middle of the +road and making a most rueful face. 'Pray, my good lady,' said the ass, +'what's the matter with you? You look quite out of spirits!' 'Ah, me!' +said the cat, 'how can one be in good spirits when one's life is in +danger? Because I am beginning to grow old, and had rather lie at my +ease by the fire than run about the house after the mice, my mistress +laid hold of me, and was going to drown me; and though I have been lucky +enough to get away from her, I do not know what I am to live upon.' +'Oh,' said the ass, 'by all means go with us to the great city; you are +a good night singer, and may make your fortune as a musician.' The cat +was pleased with the thought, and joined the party. + +Soon afterwards, as they were passing by a farmyard, they saw a cock +perched upon a gate, and screaming out with all his might and main. +'Bravo!' said the ass; 'upon my word, you make a famous noise; pray what +is all this about?' 'Why,' said the cock, 'I was just now saying that +we should have fine weather for our washing-day, and yet my mistress and +the cook don't thank me for my pains, but threaten to cut off my +head tomorrow, and make broth of me for the guests that are coming +on Sunday!' 'Heaven forbid!' said the ass, 'come with us Master +Chanticleer; it will be better, at any rate, than staying here to have +your head cut off! Besides, who knows? If we care to sing in tune, we +may get up some kind of a concert; so come along with us.' 'With all my +heart,' said the cock: so they all four went on jollily together. + +They could not, however, reach the great city the first day; so when +night came on, they went into a wood to sleep. The ass and the dog laid +themselves down under a great tree, and the cat climbed up into the +branches; while the cock, thinking that the higher he sat the safer he +should be, flew up to the very top of the tree, and then, according to +his custom, before he went to sleep, looked out on all sides of him to +see that everything was well. In doing this, he saw afar off something +bright and shining and calling to his companions said, 'There must be a +house no great way off, for I see a light.' 'If that be the case,' said +the ass, 'we had better change our quarters, for our lodging is not the +best in the world!' 'Besides,' added the dog, 'I should not be the +worse for a bone or two, or a bit of meat.' So they walked off together +towards the spot where Chanticleer had seen the light, and as they drew +near it became larger and brighter, till they at last came close to a +house in which a gang of robbers lived. + +The ass, being the tallest of the company, marched up to the window and +peeped in. 'Well, Donkey,' said Chanticleer, 'what do you see?' 'What +do I see?' replied the ass. 'Why, I see a table spread with all kinds of +good things, and robbers sitting round it making merry.' 'That would +be a noble lodging for us,' said the cock. 'Yes,' said the ass, 'if we +could only get in'; so they consulted together how they should contrive +to get the robbers out; and at last they hit upon a plan. The ass placed +himself upright on his hind legs, with his forefeet resting against the +window; the dog got upon his back; the cat scrambled up to the dog's +shoulders, and the cock flew up and sat upon the cat's head. When +all was ready a signal was given, and they began their music. The ass +brayed, the dog barked, the cat mewed, and the cock screamed; and then +they all broke through the window at once, and came tumbling into +the room, amongst the broken glass, with a most hideous clatter! The +robbers, who had been not a little frightened by the opening concert, +had now no doubt that some frightful hobgoblin had broken in upon them, +and scampered away as fast as they could. + +The coast once clear, our travellers soon sat down and dispatched what +the robbers had left, with as much eagerness as if they had not expected +to eat again for a month. As soon as they had satisfied themselves, they +put out the lights, and each once more sought out a resting-place to +his own liking. The donkey laid himself down upon a heap of straw in +the yard, the dog stretched himself upon a mat behind the door, the +cat rolled herself up on the hearth before the warm ashes, and the +cock perched upon a beam on the top of the house; and, as they were all +rather tired with their journey, they soon fell asleep. + +But about midnight, when the robbers saw from afar that the lights were +out and that all seemed quiet, they began to think that they had been in +too great a hurry to run away; and one of them, who was bolder than +the rest, went to see what was going on. Finding everything still, he +marched into the kitchen, and groped about till he found a match in +order to light a candle; and then, espying the glittering fiery eyes of +the cat, he mistook them for live coals, and held the match to them to +light it. But the cat, not understanding this joke, sprang at his face, +and spat, and scratched at him. This frightened him dreadfully, and away +he ran to the back door; but there the dog jumped up and bit him in the +leg; and as he was crossing over the yard the ass kicked him; and the +cock, who had been awakened by the noise, crowed with all his might. At +this the robber ran back as fast as he could to his comrades, and told +the captain how a horrid witch had got into the house, and had spat at +him and scratched his face with her long bony fingers; how a man with a +knife in his hand had hidden himself behind the door, and stabbed him +in the leg; how a black monster stood in the yard and struck him with a +club, and how the devil had sat upon the top of the house and cried out, +'Throw the rascal up here!' After this the robbers never dared to go +back to the house; but the musicians were so pleased with their quarters +that they took up their abode there; and there they are, I dare say, at +this very day. + + + + +OLD SULTAN + +A shepherd had a faithful dog, called Sultan, who was grown very old, +and had lost all his teeth. And one day when the shepherd and his wife +were standing together before the house the shepherd said, 'I will shoot +old Sultan tomorrow morning, for he is of no use now.' But his wife +said, 'Pray let the poor faithful creature live; he has served us well a +great many years, and we ought to give him a livelihood for the rest of +his days.' 'But what can we do with him?' said the shepherd, 'he has not +a tooth in his head, and the thieves don't care for him at all; to +be sure he has served us, but then he did it to earn his livelihood; +tomorrow shall be his last day, depend upon it.' + +Poor Sultan, who was lying close by them, heard all that the shepherd +and his wife said to one another, and was very much frightened to think +tomorrow would be his last day; so in the evening he went to his good +friend the wolf, who lived in the wood, and told him all his sorrows, +and how his master meant to kill him in the morning. 'Make yourself +easy,' said the wolf, 'I will give you some good advice. Your master, +you know, goes out every morning very early with his wife into the +field; and they take their little child with them, and lay it down +behind the hedge in the shade while they are at work. Now do you lie +down close by the child, and pretend to be watching it, and I will come +out of the wood and run away with it; you must run after me as fast as +you can, and I will let it drop; then you may carry it back, and they +will think you have saved their child, and will be so thankful to you +that they will take care of you as long as you live.' The dog liked this +plan very well; and accordingly so it was managed. The wolf ran with the +child a little way; the shepherd and his wife screamed out; but Sultan +soon overtook him, and carried the poor little thing back to his master +and mistress. Then the shepherd patted him on the head, and said, 'Old +Sultan has saved our child from the wolf, and therefore he shall live +and be well taken care of, and have plenty to eat. Wife, go home, and +give him a good dinner, and let him have my old cushion to sleep on +as long as he lives.' So from this time forward Sultan had all that he +could wish for. + +Soon afterwards the wolf came and wished him joy, and said, 'Now, my +good fellow, you must tell no tales, but turn your head the other way +when I want to taste one of the old shepherd's fine fat sheep.' 'No,' +said the Sultan; 'I will be true to my master.' However, the wolf +thought he was in joke, and came one night to get a dainty morsel. But +Sultan had told his master what the wolf meant to do; so he laid wait +for him behind the barn door, and when the wolf was busy looking out for +a good fat sheep, he had a stout cudgel laid about his back, that combed +his locks for him finely. + +Then the wolf was very angry, and called Sultan 'an old rogue,' and +swore he would have his revenge. So the next morning the wolf sent the +boar to challenge Sultan to come into the wood to fight the matter. Now +Sultan had nobody he could ask to be his second but the shepherd's old +three-legged cat; so he took her with him, and as the poor thing limped +along with some trouble, she stuck up her tail straight in the air. + +The wolf and the wild boar were first on the ground; and when they +espied their enemies coming, and saw the cat's long tail standing +straight in the air, they thought she was carrying a sword for Sultan to +fight with; and every time she limped, they thought she was picking up +a stone to throw at them; so they said they should not like this way of +fighting, and the boar lay down behind a bush, and the wolf jumped +up into a tree. Sultan and the cat soon came up, and looked about and +wondered that no one was there. The boar, however, had not quite hidden +himself, for his ears stuck out of the bush; and when he shook one of +them a little, the cat, seeing something move, and thinking it was a +mouse, sprang upon it, and bit and scratched it, so that the boar jumped +up and grunted, and ran away, roaring out, 'Look up in the tree, there +sits the one who is to blame.' So they looked up, and espied the wolf +sitting amongst the branches; and they called him a cowardly rascal, +and would not suffer him to come down till he was heartily ashamed of +himself, and had promised to be good friends again with old Sultan. + + + + +THE STRAW, THE COAL, AND THE BEAN + +In a village dwelt a poor old woman, who had gathered together a dish +of beans and wanted to cook them. So she made a fire on her hearth, and +that it might burn the quicker, she lighted it with a handful of straw. +When she was emptying the beans into the pan, one dropped without her +observing it, and lay on the ground beside a straw, and soon afterwards +a burning coal from the fire leapt down to the two. Then the straw +began and said: 'Dear friends, from whence do you come here?' The coal +replied: 'I fortunately sprang out of the fire, and if I had not escaped +by sheer force, my death would have been certain,--I should have been +burnt to ashes.' The bean said: 'I too have escaped with a whole skin, +but if the old woman had got me into the pan, I should have been made +into broth without any mercy, like my comrades.' 'And would a better +fate have fallen to my lot?' said the straw. 'The old woman has +destroyed all my brethren in fire and smoke; she seized sixty of them at +once, and took their lives. I luckily slipped through her fingers.' + +'But what are we to do now?' said the coal. + +'I think,' answered the bean, 'that as we have so fortunately escaped +death, we should keep together like good companions, and lest a new +mischance should overtake us here, we should go away together, and +repair to a foreign country.' + +The proposition pleased the two others, and they set out on their way +together. Soon, however, they came to a little brook, and as there was +no bridge or foot-plank, they did not know how they were to get over +it. The straw hit on a good idea, and said: 'I will lay myself straight +across, and then you can walk over on me as on a bridge.' The straw +therefore stretched itself from one bank to the other, and the coal, +who was of an impetuous disposition, tripped quite boldly on to the +newly-built bridge. But when she had reached the middle, and heard the +water rushing beneath her, she was after all, afraid, and stood still, +and ventured no farther. The straw, however, began to burn, broke in +two pieces, and fell into the stream. The coal slipped after her, hissed +when she got into the water, and breathed her last. The bean, who had +prudently stayed behind on the shore, could not but laugh at the event, +was unable to stop, and laughed so heartily that she burst. It would +have been all over with her, likewise, if, by good fortune, a tailor who +was travelling in search of work, had not sat down to rest by the brook. +As he had a compassionate heart he pulled out his needle and thread, +and sewed her together. The bean thanked him most prettily, but as the +tailor used black thread, all beans since then have a black seam. + + + + +BRIAR ROSE + +A king and queen once upon a time reigned in a country a great way off, +where there were in those days fairies. Now this king and queen had +plenty of money, and plenty of fine clothes to wear, and plenty of +good things to eat and drink, and a coach to ride out in every day: but +though they had been married many years they had no children, and this +grieved them very much indeed. But one day as the queen was walking +by the side of the river, at the bottom of the garden, she saw a poor +little fish, that had thrown itself out of the water, and lay gasping +and nearly dead on the bank. Then the queen took pity on the little +fish, and threw it back again into the river; and before it swam away +it lifted its head out of the water and said, 'I know what your wish is, +and it shall be fulfilled, in return for your kindness to me--you will +soon have a daughter.' What the little fish had foretold soon came to +pass; and the queen had a little girl, so very beautiful that the king +could not cease looking on it for joy, and said he would hold a great +feast and make merry, and show the child to all the land. So he asked +his kinsmen, and nobles, and friends, and neighbours. But the queen +said, 'I will have the fairies also, that they might be kind and good +to our little daughter.' Now there were thirteen fairies in the kingdom; +but as the king and queen had only twelve golden dishes for them to eat +out of, they were forced to leave one of the fairies without asking her. +So twelve fairies came, each with a high red cap on her head, and red +shoes with high heels on her feet, and a long white wand in her hand: +and after the feast was over they gathered round in a ring and gave all +their best gifts to the little princess. One gave her goodness, another +beauty, another riches, and so on till she had all that was good in the +world. + +Just as eleven of them had done blessing her, a great noise was heard in +the courtyard, and word was brought that the thirteenth fairy was +come, with a black cap on her head, and black shoes on her feet, and a +broomstick in her hand: and presently up she came into the dining-hall. +Now, as she had not been asked to the feast she was very angry, and +scolded the king and queen very much, and set to work to take her +revenge. So she cried out, 'The king's daughter shall, in her fifteenth +year, be wounded by a spindle, and fall down dead.' Then the twelfth of +the friendly fairies, who had not yet given her gift, came forward, and +said that the evil wish must be fulfilled, but that she could soften its +mischief; so her gift was, that the king's daughter, when the spindle +wounded her, should not really die, but should only fall asleep for a +hundred years. + +However, the king hoped still to save his dear child altogether from +the threatened evil; so he ordered that all the spindles in the kingdom +should be bought up and burnt. But all the gifts of the first eleven +fairies were in the meantime fulfilled; for the princess was so +beautiful, and well behaved, and good, and wise, that everyone who knew +her loved her. + +It happened that, on the very day she was fifteen years old, the king +and queen were not at home, and she was left alone in the palace. So she +roved about by herself, and looked at all the rooms and chambers, till +at last she came to an old tower, to which there was a narrow staircase +ending with a little door. In the door there was a golden key, and when +she turned it the door sprang open, and there sat an old lady spinning +away very busily. 'Why, how now, good mother,' said the princess; 'what +are you doing there?' 'Spinning,' said the old lady, and nodded her +head, humming a tune, while buzz! went the wheel. 'How prettily that +little thing turns round!' said the princess, and took the spindle +and began to try and spin. But scarcely had she touched it, before the +fairy's prophecy was fulfilled; the spindle wounded her, and she fell +down lifeless on the ground. + +However, she was not dead, but had only fallen into a deep sleep; and +the king and the queen, who had just come home, and all their court, +fell asleep too; and the horses slept in the stables, and the dogs in +the court, the pigeons on the house-top, and the very flies slept upon +the walls. Even the fire on the hearth left off blazing, and went to +sleep; the jack stopped, and the spit that was turning about with a +goose upon it for the king's dinner stood still; and the cook, who was +at that moment pulling the kitchen-boy by the hair to give him a box +on the ear for something he had done amiss, let him go, and both fell +asleep; the butler, who was slyly tasting the ale, fell asleep with the +jug at his lips: and thus everything stood still, and slept soundly. + +A large hedge of thorns soon grew round the palace, and every year it +became higher and thicker; till at last the old palace was surrounded +and hidden, so that not even the roof or the chimneys could be seen. But +there went a report through all the land of the beautiful sleeping Briar +Rose (for so the king's daughter was called): so that, from time to +time, several kings' sons came, and tried to break through the thicket +into the palace. This, however, none of them could ever do; for the +thorns and bushes laid hold of them, as it were with hands; and there +they stuck fast, and died wretchedly. + +After many, many years there came a king's son into that land: and an +old man told him the story of the thicket of thorns; and how a beautiful +palace stood behind it, and how a wonderful princess, called Briar Rose, +lay in it asleep, with all her court. He told, too, how he had heard +from his grandfather that many, many princes had come, and had tried to +break through the thicket, but that they had all stuck fast in it, and +died. Then the young prince said, 'All this shall not frighten me; I +will go and see this Briar Rose.' The old man tried to hinder him, but +he was bent upon going. + +Now that very day the hundred years were ended; and as the prince came +to the thicket he saw nothing but beautiful flowering shrubs, through +which he went with ease, and they shut in after him as thick as ever. +Then he came at last to the palace, and there in the court lay the dogs +asleep; and the horses were standing in the stables; and on the roof sat +the pigeons fast asleep, with their heads under their wings. And when he +came into the palace, the flies were sleeping on the walls; the spit +was standing still; the butler had the jug of ale at his lips, going +to drink a draught; the maid sat with a fowl in her lap ready to be +plucked; and the cook in the kitchen was still holding up her hand, as +if she was going to beat the boy. + +Then he went on still farther, and all was so still that he could hear +every breath he drew; till at last he came to the old tower, and opened +the door of the little room in which Briar Rose was; and there she lay, +fast asleep on a couch by the window. She looked so beautiful that he +could not take his eyes off her, so he stooped down and gave her a kiss. +But the moment he kissed her she opened her eyes and awoke, and smiled +upon him; and they went out together; and soon the king and queen also +awoke, and all the court, and gazed on each other with great wonder. +And the horses shook themselves, and the dogs jumped up and barked; the +pigeons took their heads from under their wings, and looked about and +flew into the fields; the flies on the walls buzzed again; the fire in +the kitchen blazed up; round went the jack, and round went the spit, +with the goose for the king's dinner upon it; the butler finished his +draught of ale; the maid went on plucking the fowl; and the cook gave +the boy the box on his ear. + +And then the prince and Briar Rose were married, and the wedding feast +was given; and they lived happily together all their lives long. + + + + +THE DOG AND THE SPARROW + +A shepherd's dog had a master who took no care of him, but often let him +suffer the greatest hunger. At last he could bear it no longer; so he +took to his heels, and off he ran in a very sad and sorrowful mood. +On the road he met a sparrow that said to him, 'Why are you so sad, +my friend?' 'Because,' said the dog, 'I am very very hungry, and have +nothing to eat.' 'If that be all,' answered the sparrow, 'come with me +into the next town, and I will soon find you plenty of food.' So on they +went together into the town: and as they passed by a butcher's shop, +the sparrow said to the dog, 'Stand there a little while till I peck you +down a piece of meat.' So the sparrow perched upon the shelf: and having +first looked carefully about her to see if anyone was watching her, she +pecked and scratched at a steak that lay upon the edge of the shelf, +till at last down it fell. Then the dog snapped it up, and scrambled +away with it into a corner, where he soon ate it all up. 'Well,' said +the sparrow, 'you shall have some more if you will; so come with me to +the next shop, and I will peck you down another steak.' When the dog had +eaten this too, the sparrow said to him, 'Well, my good friend, have you +had enough now?' 'I have had plenty of meat,' answered he, 'but I should +like to have a piece of bread to eat after it.' 'Come with me then,' +said the sparrow, 'and you shall soon have that too.' So she took him +to a baker's shop, and pecked at two rolls that lay in the window, till +they fell down: and as the dog still wished for more, she took him to +another shop and pecked down some more for him. When that was eaten, the +sparrow asked him whether he had had enough now. 'Yes,' said he; 'and +now let us take a walk a little way out of the town.' So they both went +out upon the high road; but as the weather was warm, they had not gone +far before the dog said, 'I am very much tired--I should like to take a +nap.' 'Very well,' answered the sparrow, 'do so, and in the meantime +I will perch upon that bush.' So the dog stretched himself out on the +road, and fell fast asleep. Whilst he slept, there came by a carter with +a cart drawn by three horses, and loaded with two casks of wine. The +sparrow, seeing that the carter did not turn out of the way, but would +go on in the track in which the dog lay, so as to drive over him, called +out, 'Stop! stop! Mr Carter, or it shall be the worse for you.' But the +carter, grumbling to himself, 'You make it the worse for me, indeed! +what can you do?' cracked his whip, and drove his cart over the poor +dog, so that the wheels crushed him to death. 'There,' cried the +sparrow, 'thou cruel villain, thou hast killed my friend the dog. Now +mind what I say. This deed of thine shall cost thee all thou art worth.' +'Do your worst, and welcome,' said the brute, 'what harm can you do me?' +and passed on. But the sparrow crept under the tilt of the cart, and +pecked at the bung of one of the casks till she loosened it; and then +all the wine ran out, without the carter seeing it. At last he looked +round, and saw that the cart was dripping, and the cask quite empty. +'What an unlucky wretch I am!' cried he. 'Not wretch enough yet!' said +the sparrow, as she alighted upon the head of one of the horses, and +pecked at him till he reared up and kicked. When the carter saw this, +he drew out his hatchet and aimed a blow at the sparrow, meaning to kill +her; but she flew away, and the blow fell upon the poor horse's head +with such force, that he fell down dead. 'Unlucky wretch that I am!' +cried he. 'Not wretch enough yet!' said the sparrow. And as the carter +went on with the other two horses, she again crept under the tilt of the +cart, and pecked out the bung of the second cask, so that all the wine +ran out. When the carter saw this, he again cried out, 'Miserable wretch +that I am!' But the sparrow answered, 'Not wretch enough yet!' and +perched on the head of the second horse, and pecked at him too. The +carter ran up and struck at her again with his hatchet; but away she +flew, and the blow fell upon the second horse and killed him on the +spot. 'Unlucky wretch that I am!' said he. 'Not wretch enough yet!' said +the sparrow; and perching upon the third horse, she began to peck him +too. The carter was mad with fury; and without looking about him, or +caring what he was about, struck again at the sparrow; but killed his +third horse as he done the other two. 'Alas! miserable wretch that I +am!' cried he. 'Not wretch enough yet!' answered the sparrow as she flew +away; 'now will I plague and punish thee at thy own house.' The +carter was forced at last to leave his cart behind him, and to go home +overflowing with rage and vexation. 'Alas!' said he to his wife, 'what +ill luck has befallen me!--my wine is all spilt, and my horses all three +dead.' 'Alas! husband,' replied she, 'and a wicked bird has come into +the house, and has brought with her all the birds in the world, I am +sure, and they have fallen upon our corn in the loft, and are eating it +up at such a rate!' Away ran the husband upstairs, and saw thousands of +birds sitting upon the floor eating up his corn, with the sparrow in the +midst of them. 'Unlucky wretch that I am!' cried the carter; for he saw +that the corn was almost all gone. 'Not wretch enough yet!' said the +sparrow; 'thy cruelty shall cost thee thy life yet!' and away she flew. + +The carter seeing that he had thus lost all that he had, went down +into his kitchen; and was still not sorry for what he had done, but sat +himself angrily and sulkily in the chimney corner. But the sparrow sat +on the outside of the window, and cried 'Carter! thy cruelty shall cost +thee thy life!' With that he jumped up in a rage, seized his hatchet, +and threw it at the sparrow; but it missed her, and only broke the +window. The sparrow now hopped in, perched upon the window-seat, and +cried, 'Carter! it shall cost thee thy life!' Then he became mad and +blind with rage, and struck the window-seat with such force that he +cleft it in two: and as the sparrow flew from place to place, the carter +and his wife were so furious, that they broke all their furniture, +glasses, chairs, benches, the table, and at last the walls, without +touching the bird at all. In the end, however, they caught her: and the +wife said, 'Shall I kill her at once?' 'No,' cried he, 'that is letting +her off too easily: she shall die a much more cruel death; I will eat +her.' But the sparrow began to flutter about, and stretch out her neck +and cried, 'Carter! it shall cost thee thy life yet!' With that he +could wait no longer: so he gave his wife the hatchet, and cried, 'Wife, +strike at the bird and kill her in my hand.' And the wife struck; but +she missed her aim, and hit her husband on the head so that he fell down +dead, and the sparrow flew quietly home to her nest. + + + + +THE TWELVE DANCING PRINCESSES + +There was a king who had twelve beautiful daughters. They slept in +twelve beds all in one room; and when they went to bed, the doors were +shut and locked up; but every morning their shoes were found to be quite +worn through as if they had been danced in all night; and yet nobody +could find out how it happened, or where they had been. + +Then the king made it known to all the land, that if any person could +discover the secret, and find out where it was that the princesses +danced in the night, he should have the one he liked best for his +wife, and should be king after his death; but whoever tried and did not +succeed, after three days and nights, should be put to death. + +A king's son soon came. He was well entertained, and in the evening was +taken to the chamber next to the one where the princesses lay in their +twelve beds. There he was to sit and watch where they went to dance; +and, in order that nothing might pass without his hearing it, the door +of his chamber was left open. But the king's son soon fell asleep; and +when he awoke in the morning he found that the princesses had all been +dancing, for the soles of their shoes were full of holes. The same thing +happened the second and third night: so the king ordered his head to be +cut off. After him came several others; but they had all the same luck, +and all lost their lives in the same manner. + +Now it chanced that an old soldier, who had been wounded in battle +and could fight no longer, passed through the country where this king +reigned: and as he was travelling through a wood, he met an old woman, +who asked him where he was going. 'I hardly know where I am going, or +what I had better do,' said the soldier; 'but I think I should like very +well to find out where it is that the princesses dance, and then in time +I might be a king.' 'Well,' said the old dame, 'that is no very hard +task: only take care not to drink any of the wine which one of the +princesses will bring to you in the evening; and as soon as she leaves +you pretend to be fast asleep.' + +Then she gave him a cloak, and said, 'As soon as you put that on +you will become invisible, and you will then be able to follow the +princesses wherever they go.' When the soldier heard all this good +counsel, he determined to try his luck: so he went to the king, and said +he was willing to undertake the task. + +He was as well received as the others had been, and the king ordered +fine royal robes to be given him; and when the evening came he was led +to the outer chamber. Just as he was going to lie down, the eldest of +the princesses brought him a cup of wine; but the soldier threw it all +away secretly, taking care not to drink a drop. Then he laid himself +down on his bed, and in a little while began to snore very loud as if +he was fast asleep. When the twelve princesses heard this they laughed +heartily; and the eldest said, 'This fellow too might have done a wiser +thing than lose his life in this way!' Then they rose up and opened +their drawers and boxes, and took out all their fine clothes, and +dressed themselves at the glass, and skipped about as if they were eager +to begin dancing. But the youngest said, 'I don't know how it is, while +you are so happy I feel very uneasy; I am sure some mischance will +befall us.' 'You simpleton,' said the eldest, 'you are always afraid; +have you forgotten how many kings' sons have already watched in vain? +And as for this soldier, even if I had not given him his sleeping +draught, he would have slept soundly enough.' + +When they were all ready, they went and looked at the soldier; but he +snored on, and did not stir hand or foot: so they thought they were +quite safe; and the eldest went up to her own bed and clapped her hands, +and the bed sank into the floor and a trap-door flew open. The soldier +saw them going down through the trap-door one after another, the eldest +leading the way; and thinking he had no time to lose, he jumped up, put +on the cloak which the old woman had given him, and followed them; +but in the middle of the stairs he trod on the gown of the youngest +princess, and she cried out to her sisters, 'All is not right; someone +took hold of my gown.' 'You silly creature!' said the eldest, 'it is +nothing but a nail in the wall.' Then down they all went, and at the +bottom they found themselves in a most delightful grove of trees; and +the leaves were all of silver, and glittered and sparkled beautifully. +The soldier wished to take away some token of the place; so he broke +off a little branch, and there came a loud noise from the tree. Then the +youngest daughter said again, 'I am sure all is not right--did not you +hear that noise? That never happened before.' But the eldest said, 'It +is only our princes, who are shouting for joy at our approach.' + +Then they came to another grove of trees, where all the leaves were of +gold; and afterwards to a third, where the leaves were all glittering +diamonds. And the soldier broke a branch from each; and every time there +was a loud noise, which made the youngest sister tremble with fear; but +the eldest still said, it was only the princes, who were crying for joy. +So they went on till they came to a great lake; and at the side of the +lake there lay twelve little boats with twelve handsome princes in them, +who seemed to be waiting there for the princesses. + +One of the princesses went into each boat, and the soldier stepped into +the same boat with the youngest. As they were rowing over the lake, the +prince who was in the boat with the youngest princess and the soldier +said, 'I do not know why it is, but though I am rowing with all my might +we do not get on so fast as usual, and I am quite tired: the boat +seems very heavy today.' 'It is only the heat of the weather,' said the +princess: 'I feel it very warm too.' + +On the other side of the lake stood a fine illuminated castle, from +which came the merry music of horns and trumpets. There they all landed, +and went into the castle, and each prince danced with his princess; and +the soldier, who was all the time invisible, danced with them too; and +when any of the princesses had a cup of wine set by her, he drank it +all up, so that when she put the cup to her mouth it was empty. At this, +too, the youngest sister was terribly frightened, but the eldest always +silenced her. They danced on till three o'clock in the morning, and then +all their shoes were worn out, so that they were obliged to leave off. +The princes rowed them back again over the lake (but this time the +soldier placed himself in the boat with the eldest princess); and on the +opposite shore they took leave of each other, the princesses promising +to come again the next night. + +When they came to the stairs, the soldier ran on before the princesses, +and laid himself down; and as the twelve sisters slowly came up very +much tired, they heard him snoring in his bed; so they said, 'Now all +is quite safe'; then they undressed themselves, put away their fine +clothes, pulled off their shoes, and went to bed. In the morning the +soldier said nothing about what had happened, but determined to see more +of this strange adventure, and went again the second and third night; +and every thing happened just as before; the princesses danced each time +till their shoes were worn to pieces, and then returned home. However, +on the third night the soldier carried away one of the golden cups as a +token of where he had been. + +As soon as the time came when he was to declare the secret, he was taken +before the king with the three branches and the golden cup; and the +twelve princesses stood listening behind the door to hear what he would +say. And when the king asked him. 'Where do my twelve daughters dance at +night?' he answered, 'With twelve princes in a castle under ground.' And +then he told the king all that had happened, and showed him the three +branches and the golden cup which he had brought with him. Then the king +called for the princesses, and asked them whether what the soldier said +was true: and when they saw that they were discovered, and that it was +of no use to deny what had happened, they confessed it all. And the king +asked the soldier which of them he would choose for his wife; and he +answered, 'I am not very young, so I will have the eldest.'--And they +were married that very day, and the soldier was chosen to be the king's +heir. + + + + +THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE + +There was once a fisherman who lived with his wife in a pigsty, close +by the seaside. The fisherman used to go out all day long a-fishing; and +one day, as he sat on the shore with his rod, looking at the sparkling +waves and watching his line, all on a sudden his float was dragged away +deep into the water: and in drawing it up he pulled out a great fish. +But the fish said, 'Pray let me live! I am not a real fish; I am an +enchanted prince: put me in the water again, and let me go!' 'Oh, ho!' +said the man, 'you need not make so many words about the matter; I will +have nothing to do with a fish that can talk: so swim away, sir, as soon +as you please!' Then he put him back into the water, and the fish darted +straight down to the bottom, and left a long streak of blood behind him +on the wave. + +When the fisherman went home to his wife in the pigsty, he told her how +he had caught a great fish, and how it had told him it was an enchanted +prince, and how, on hearing it speak, he had let it go again. 'Did not +you ask it for anything?' said the wife, 'we live very wretchedly here, +in this nasty dirty pigsty; do go back and tell the fish we want a snug +little cottage.' + +The fisherman did not much like the business: however, he went to the +seashore; and when he came back there the water looked all yellow and +green. And he stood at the water's edge, and said: + + 'O man of the sea! + Hearken to me! + My wife Ilsabill + Will have her own will, + And hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!' + +Then the fish came swimming to him, and said, 'Well, what is her will? +What does your wife want?' 'Ah!' said the fisherman, 'she says that when +I had caught you, I ought to have asked you for something before I let +you go; she does not like living any longer in the pigsty, and wants +a snug little cottage.' 'Go home, then,' said the fish; 'she is in the +cottage already!' So the man went home, and saw his wife standing at the +door of a nice trim little cottage. 'Come in, come in!' said she; 'is +not this much better than the filthy pigsty we had?' And there was a +parlour, and a bedchamber, and a kitchen; and behind the cottage there +was a little garden, planted with all sorts of flowers and fruits; and +there was a courtyard behind, full of ducks and chickens. 'Ah!' said the +fisherman, 'how happily we shall live now!' 'We will try to do so, at +least,' said his wife. + +Everything went right for a week or two, and then Dame Ilsabill said, +'Husband, there is not near room enough for us in this cottage; the +courtyard and the garden are a great deal too small; I should like to +have a large stone castle to live in: go to the fish again and tell him +to give us a castle.' 'Wife,' said the fisherman, 'I don't like to go to +him again, for perhaps he will be angry; we ought to be easy with this +pretty cottage to live in.' 'Nonsense!' said the wife; 'he will do it +very willingly, I know; go along and try!' + +The fisherman went, but his heart was very heavy: and when he came to +the sea, it looked blue and gloomy, though it was very calm; and he went +close to the edge of the waves, and said: + + 'O man of the sea! + Hearken to me! + My wife Ilsabill + Will have her own will, + And hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!' + +'Well, what does she want now?' said the fish. 'Ah!' said the man, +dolefully, 'my wife wants to live in a stone castle.' 'Go home, then,' +said the fish; 'she is standing at the gate of it already.' So away went +the fisherman, and found his wife standing before the gate of a great +castle. 'See,' said she, 'is not this grand?' With that they went into +the castle together, and found a great many servants there, and the +rooms all richly furnished, and full of golden chairs and tables; and +behind the castle was a garden, and around it was a park half a +mile long, full of sheep, and goats, and hares, and deer; and in the +courtyard were stables and cow-houses. 'Well,' said the man, 'now we +will live cheerful and happy in this beautiful castle for the rest of +our lives.' 'Perhaps we may,' said the wife; 'but let us sleep upon it, +before we make up our minds to that.' So they went to bed. + +The next morning when Dame Ilsabill awoke it was broad daylight, and +she jogged the fisherman with her elbow, and said, 'Get up, husband, +and bestir yourself, for we must be king of all the land.' 'Wife, wife,' +said the man, 'why should we wish to be the king? I will not be king.' +'Then I will,' said she. 'But, wife,' said the fisherman, 'how can you +be king--the fish cannot make you a king?' 'Husband,' said she, 'say +no more about it, but go and try! I will be king.' So the man went away +quite sorrowful to think that his wife should want to be king. This time +the sea looked a dark grey colour, and was overspread with curling waves +and the ridges of foam as he cried out: + + 'O man of the sea! + Hearken to me! + My wife Ilsabill + Will have her own will, + And hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!' + +'Well, what would she have now?' said the fish. 'Alas!' said the poor +man, 'my wife wants to be king.' 'Go home,' said the fish; 'she is king +already.' + +Then the fisherman went home; and as he came close to the palace he saw +a troop of soldiers, and heard the sound of drums and trumpets. And when +he went in he saw his wife sitting on a throne of gold and diamonds, +with a golden crown upon her head; and on each side of her stood six +fair maidens, each a head taller than the other. 'Well, wife,' said the +fisherman, 'are you king?' 'Yes,' said she, 'I am king.' And when he had +looked at her for a long time, he said, 'Ah, wife! what a fine thing it +is to be king! Now we shall never have anything more to wish for as long +as we live.' 'I don't know how that may be,' said she; 'never is a long +time. I am king, it is true; but I begin to be tired of that, and I +think I should like to be emperor.' 'Alas, wife! why should you wish to +be emperor?' said the fisherman. 'Husband,' said she, 'go to the fish! +I say I will be emperor.' 'Ah, wife!' replied the fisherman, 'the fish +cannot make an emperor, I am sure, and I should not like to ask him for +such a thing.' 'I am king,' said Ilsabill, 'and you are my slave; so go +at once!' + +So the fisherman was forced to go; and he muttered as he went along, +'This will come to no good, it is too much to ask; the fish will be +tired at last, and then we shall be sorry for what we have done.' He +soon came to the seashore; and the water was quite black and muddy, and +a mighty whirlwind blew over the waves and rolled them about, but he +went as near as he could to the water's brink, and said: + + 'O man of the sea! + Hearken to me! + My wife Ilsabill + Will have her own will, + And hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!' + +'What would she have now?' said the fish. 'Ah!' said the fisherman, +'she wants to be emperor.' 'Go home,' said the fish; 'she is emperor +already.' + +So he went home again; and as he came near he saw his wife Ilsabill +sitting on a very lofty throne made of solid gold, with a great crown on +her head full two yards high; and on each side of her stood her guards +and attendants in a row, each one smaller than the other, from the +tallest giant down to a little dwarf no bigger than my finger. And +before her stood princes, and dukes, and earls: and the fisherman went +up to her and said, 'Wife, are you emperor?' 'Yes,' said she, 'I am +emperor.' 'Ah!' said the man, as he gazed upon her, 'what a fine thing +it is to be emperor!' 'Husband,' said she, 'why should we stop at being +emperor? I will be pope next.' 'O wife, wife!' said he, 'how can you be +pope? there is but one pope at a time in Christendom.' 'Husband,' said +she, 'I will be pope this very day.' 'But,' replied the husband, 'the +fish cannot make you pope.' 'What nonsense!' said she; 'if he can make +an emperor, he can make a pope: go and try him.' + +So the fisherman went. But when he came to the shore the wind was raging +and the sea was tossed up and down in boiling waves, and the ships were +in trouble, and rolled fearfully upon the tops of the billows. In the +middle of the heavens there was a little piece of blue sky, but towards +the south all was red, as if a dreadful storm was rising. At this sight +the fisherman was dreadfully frightened, and he trembled so that his +knees knocked together: but still he went down near to the shore, and +said: + + 'O man of the sea! + Hearken to me! + My wife Ilsabill + Will have her own will, + And hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!' + +'What does she want now?' said the fish. 'Ah!' said the fisherman, 'my +wife wants to be pope.' 'Go home,' said the fish; 'she is pope already.' + +Then the fisherman went home, and found Ilsabill sitting on a throne +that was two miles high. And she had three great crowns on her head, and +around her stood all the pomp and power of the Church. And on each side +of her were two rows of burning lights, of all sizes, the greatest as +large as the highest and biggest tower in the world, and the least no +larger than a small rushlight. 'Wife,' said the fisherman, as he looked +at all this greatness, 'are you pope?' 'Yes,' said she, 'I am pope.' +'Well, wife,' replied he, 'it is a grand thing to be pope; and now +you must be easy, for you can be nothing greater.' 'I will think about +that,' said the wife. Then they went to bed: but Dame Ilsabill could not +sleep all night for thinking what she should be next. At last, as she +was dropping asleep, morning broke, and the sun rose. 'Ha!' thought she, +as she woke up and looked at it through the window, 'after all I cannot +prevent the sun rising.' At this thought she was very angry, and wakened +her husband, and said, 'Husband, go to the fish and tell him I must +be lord of the sun and moon.' The fisherman was half asleep, but the +thought frightened him so much that he started and fell out of bed. +'Alas, wife!' said he, 'cannot you be easy with being pope?' 'No,' +said she, 'I am very uneasy as long as the sun and moon rise without my +leave. Go to the fish at once!' + +Then the man went shivering with fear; and as he was going down to +the shore a dreadful storm arose, so that the trees and the very rocks +shook. And all the heavens became black with stormy clouds, and the +lightnings played, and the thunders rolled; and you might have seen in +the sea great black waves, swelling up like mountains with crowns of +white foam upon their heads. And the fisherman crept towards the sea, +and cried out, as well as he could: + + 'O man of the sea! + Hearken to me! + My wife Ilsabill + Will have her own will, + And hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!' + +'What does she want now?' said the fish. 'Ah!' said he, 'she wants to +be lord of the sun and moon.' 'Go home,' said the fish, 'to your pigsty +again.' + +And there they live to this very day. + + + + +THE WILLOW-WREN AND THE BEAR + +Once in summer-time the bear and the wolf were walking in the forest, +and the bear heard a bird singing so beautifully that he said: 'Brother +wolf, what bird is it that sings so well?' 'That is the King of birds,' +said the wolf, 'before whom we must bow down.' In reality the bird was +the willow-wren. 'IF that's the case,' said the bear, 'I should very +much like to see his royal palace; come, take me thither.' 'That is not +done quite as you seem to think,' said the wolf; 'you must wait until +the Queen comes,' Soon afterwards, the Queen arrived with some food in +her beak, and the lord King came too, and they began to feed their young +ones. The bear would have liked to go at once, but the wolf held him +back by the sleeve, and said: 'No, you must wait until the lord and lady +Queen have gone away again.' So they took stock of the hole where the +nest lay, and trotted away. The bear, however, could not rest until he +had seen the royal palace, and when a short time had passed, went to it +again. The King and Queen had just flown out, so he peeped in and saw +five or six young ones lying there. 'Is that the royal palace?' cried +the bear; 'it is a wretched palace, and you are not King's children, you +are disreputable children!' When the young wrens heard that, they were +frightfully angry, and screamed: 'No, that we are not! Our parents are +honest people! Bear, you will have to pay for that!' + +The bear and the wolf grew uneasy, and turned back and went into their +holes. The young willow-wrens, however, continued to cry and scream, and +when their parents again brought food they said: 'We will not so much as +touch one fly's leg, no, not if we were dying of hunger, until you have +settled whether we are respectable children or not; the bear has been +here and has insulted us!' Then the old King said: 'Be easy, he shall +be punished,' and he at once flew with the Queen to the bear's cave, and +called in: 'Old Growler, why have you insulted my children? You shall +suffer for it--we will punish you by a bloody war.' Thus war was +announced to the Bear, and all four-footed animals were summoned to take +part in it, oxen, asses, cows, deer, and every other animal the earth +contained. And the willow-wren summoned everything which flew in the +air, not only birds, large and small, but midges, and hornets, bees and +flies had to come. + +When the time came for the war to begin, the willow-wren sent out spies +to discover who was the enemy's commander-in-chief. The gnat, who was +the most crafty, flew into the forest where the enemy was assembled, +and hid herself beneath a leaf of the tree where the password was to be +announced. There stood the bear, and he called the fox before him +and said: 'Fox, you are the most cunning of all animals, you shall be +general and lead us.' 'Good,' said the fox, 'but what signal shall we +agree upon?' No one knew that, so the fox said: 'I have a fine long +bushy tail, which almost looks like a plume of red feathers. When I lift +my tail up quite high, all is going well, and you must charge; but if I +let it hang down, run away as fast as you can.' When the gnat had heard +that, she flew away again, and revealed everything, down to the minutest +detail, to the willow-wren. When day broke, and the battle was to begin, +all the four-footed animals came running up with such a noise that the +earth trembled. The willow-wren with his army also came flying through +the air with such a humming, and whirring, and swarming that every one +was uneasy and afraid, and on both sides they advanced against each +other. But the willow-wren sent down the hornet, with orders to settle +beneath the fox's tail, and sting with all his might. When the fox felt +the first string, he started so that he lifted one leg, from pain, but +he bore it, and still kept his tail high in the air; at the second +sting, he was forced to put it down for a moment; at the third, he could +hold out no longer, screamed, and put his tail between his legs. When +the animals saw that, they thought all was lost, and began to flee, each +into his hole, and the birds had won the battle. + +Then the King and Queen flew home to their children and cried: +'Children, rejoice, eat and drink to your heart's content, we have won +the battle!' But the young wrens said: 'We will not eat yet, the bear +must come to the nest, and beg for pardon and say that we are honourable +children, before we will do that.' Then the willow-wren flew to the +bear's hole and cried: 'Growler, you are to come to the nest to my +children, and beg their pardon, or else every rib of your body shall +be broken.' So the bear crept thither in the greatest fear, and begged +their pardon. And now at last the young wrens were satisfied, and sat +down together and ate and drank, and made merry till quite late into the +night. + + + + +THE FROG-PRINCE + +One fine evening a young princess put on her bonnet and clogs, and went +out to take a walk by herself in a wood; and when she came to a cool +spring of water, that rose in the midst of it, she sat herself down +to rest a while. Now she had a golden ball in her hand, which was her +favourite plaything; and she was always tossing it up into the air, and +catching it again as it fell. After a time she threw it up so high that +she missed catching it as it fell; and the ball bounded away, and rolled +along upon the ground, till at last it fell down into the spring. The +princess looked into the spring after her ball, but it was very deep, so +deep that she could not see the bottom of it. Then she began to bewail +her loss, and said, 'Alas! if I could only get my ball again, I would +give all my fine clothes and jewels, and everything that I have in the +world.' + +Whilst she was speaking, a frog put its head out of the water, and said, +'Princess, why do you weep so bitterly?' 'Alas!' said she, 'what can you +do for me, you nasty frog? My golden ball has fallen into the spring.' +The frog said, 'I want not your pearls, and jewels, and fine clothes; +but if you will love me, and let me live with you and eat from off +your golden plate, and sleep upon your bed, I will bring you your ball +again.' 'What nonsense,' thought the princess, 'this silly frog is +talking! He can never even get out of the spring to visit me, though +he may be able to get my ball for me, and therefore I will tell him he +shall have what he asks.' So she said to the frog, 'Well, if you will +bring me my ball, I will do all you ask.' Then the frog put his head +down, and dived deep under the water; and after a little while he came +up again, with the ball in his mouth, and threw it on the edge of the +spring. As soon as the young princess saw her ball, she ran to pick +it up; and she was so overjoyed to have it in her hand again, that she +never thought of the frog, but ran home with it as fast as she could. +The frog called after her, 'Stay, princess, and take me with you as you +said,' But she did not stop to hear a word. + +The next day, just as the princess had sat down to dinner, she heard a +strange noise--tap, tap--plash, plash--as if something was coming up the +marble staircase: and soon afterwards there was a gentle knock at the +door, and a little voice cried out and said: + + 'Open the door, my princess dear, + Open the door to thy true love here! + And mind the words that thou and I said + By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.' + +Then the princess ran to the door and opened it, and there she saw +the frog, whom she had quite forgotten. At this sight she was sadly +frightened, and shutting the door as fast as she could came back to her +seat. The king, her father, seeing that something had frightened her, +asked her what was the matter. 'There is a nasty frog,' said she, 'at +the door, that lifted my ball for me out of the spring this morning: I +told him that he should live with me here, thinking that he could never +get out of the spring; but there he is at the door, and he wants to come +in.' + +While she was speaking the frog knocked again at the door, and said: + + 'Open the door, my princess dear, + Open the door to thy true love here! + And mind the words that thou and I said + By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.' + +Then the king said to the young princess, 'As you have given your word +you must keep it; so go and let him in.' She did so, and the frog hopped +into the room, and then straight on--tap, tap--plash, plash--from the +bottom of the room to the top, till he came up close to the table where +the princess sat. 'Pray lift me upon chair,' said he to the princess, +'and let me sit next to you.' As soon as she had done this, the frog +said, 'Put your plate nearer to me, that I may eat out of it.' This +she did, and when he had eaten as much as he could, he said, 'Now I am +tired; carry me upstairs, and put me into your bed.' And the princess, +though very unwilling, took him up in her hand, and put him upon the +pillow of her own bed, where he slept all night long. As soon as it was +light he jumped up, hopped downstairs, and went out of the house. +'Now, then,' thought the princess, 'at last he is gone, and I shall be +troubled with him no more.' + +But she was mistaken; for when night came again she heard the same +tapping at the door; and the frog came once more, and said: + + 'Open the door, my princess dear, + Open the door to thy true love here! + And mind the words that thou and I said + By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.' + +And when the princess opened the door the frog came in, and slept upon +her pillow as before, till the morning broke. And the third night he did +the same. But when the princess awoke on the following morning she was +astonished to see, instead of the frog, a handsome prince, gazing on her +with the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen, and standing at the head +of her bed. + +He told her that he had been enchanted by a spiteful fairy, who had +changed him into a frog; and that he had been fated so to abide till +some princess should take him out of the spring, and let him eat from +her plate, and sleep upon her bed for three nights. 'You,' said the +prince, 'have broken his cruel charm, and now I have nothing to wish for +but that you should go with me into my father's kingdom, where I will +marry you, and love you as long as you live.' + +The young princess, you may be sure, was not long in saying 'Yes' to +all this; and as they spoke a gay coach drove up, with eight beautiful +horses, decked with plumes of feathers and a golden harness; and behind +the coach rode the prince's servant, faithful Heinrich, who had bewailed +the misfortunes of his dear master during his enchantment so long and so +bitterly, that his heart had well-nigh burst. + +They then took leave of the king, and got into the coach with eight +horses, and all set out, full of joy and merriment, for the prince's +kingdom, which they reached safely; and there they lived happily a great +many years. + + + + +CAT AND MOUSE IN PARTNERSHIP + +A certain cat had made the acquaintance of a mouse, and had said so much +to her about the great love and friendship she felt for her, that at +length the mouse agreed that they should live and keep house together. +'But we must make a provision for winter, or else we shall suffer +from hunger,' said the cat; 'and you, little mouse, cannot venture +everywhere, or you will be caught in a trap some day.' The good advice +was followed, and a pot of fat was bought, but they did not know where +to put it. At length, after much consideration, the cat said: 'I know no +place where it will be better stored up than in the church, for no one +dares take anything away from there. We will set it beneath the altar, +and not touch it until we are really in need of it.' So the pot was +placed in safety, but it was not long before the cat had a great +yearning for it, and said to the mouse: 'I want to tell you something, +little mouse; my cousin has brought a little son into the world, and has +asked me to be godmother; he is white with brown spots, and I am to hold +him over the font at the christening. Let me go out today, and you look +after the house by yourself.' 'Yes, yes,' answered the mouse, 'by all +means go, and if you get anything very good to eat, think of me. I +should like a drop of sweet red christening wine myself.' All this, +however, was untrue; the cat had no cousin, and had not been asked to +be godmother. She went straight to the church, stole to the pot of fat, +began to lick at it, and licked the top of the fat off. Then she took a +walk upon the roofs of the town, looked out for opportunities, and then +stretched herself in the sun, and licked her lips whenever she thought +of the pot of fat, and not until it was evening did she return home. +'Well, here you are again,' said the mouse, 'no doubt you have had a +merry day.' 'All went off well,' answered the cat. 'What name did they +give the child?' 'Top off!' said the cat quite coolly. 'Top off!' cried +the mouse, 'that is a very odd and uncommon name, is it a usual one in +your family?' 'What does that matter,' said the cat, 'it is no worse +than Crumb-stealer, as your godchildren are called.' + +Before long the cat was seized by another fit of yearning. She said to +the mouse: 'You must do me a favour, and once more manage the house for +a day alone. I am again asked to be godmother, and, as the child has a +white ring round its neck, I cannot refuse.' The good mouse consented, +but the cat crept behind the town walls to the church, and devoured +half the pot of fat. 'Nothing ever seems so good as what one keeps to +oneself,' said she, and was quite satisfied with her day's work. When +she went home the mouse inquired: 'And what was the child christened?' +'Half-done,' answered the cat. 'Half-done! What are you saying? I +never heard the name in my life, I'll wager anything it is not in the +calendar!' + +The cat's mouth soon began to water for some more licking. 'All good +things go in threes,' said she, 'I am asked to stand godmother again. +The child is quite black, only it has white paws, but with that +exception, it has not a single white hair on its whole body; this only +happens once every few years, you will let me go, won't you?' 'Top-off! +Half-done!' answered the mouse, 'they are such odd names, they make me +very thoughtful.' 'You sit at home,' said the cat, 'in your dark-grey +fur coat and long tail, and are filled with fancies, that's because +you do not go out in the daytime.' During the cat's absence the mouse +cleaned the house, and put it in order, but the greedy cat entirely +emptied the pot of fat. 'When everything is eaten up one has some +peace,' said she to herself, and well filled and fat she did not return +home till night. The mouse at once asked what name had been given to +the third child. 'It will not please you more than the others,' said the +cat. 'He is called All-gone.' 'All-gone,' cried the mouse 'that is the +most suspicious name of all! I have never seen it in print. All-gone; +what can that mean?' and she shook her head, curled herself up, and lay +down to sleep. + +From this time forth no one invited the cat to be godmother, but +when the winter had come and there was no longer anything to be found +outside, the mouse thought of their provision, and said: 'Come, cat, +we will go to our pot of fat which we have stored up for ourselves--we +shall enjoy that.' 'Yes,' answered the cat, 'you will enjoy it as much +as you would enjoy sticking that dainty tongue of yours out of the +window.' They set out on their way, but when they arrived, the pot of +fat certainly was still in its place, but it was empty. 'Alas!' said the +mouse, 'now I see what has happened, now it comes to light! You are a true +friend! You have devoured all when you were standing godmother. First +top off, then half-done, then--' 'Will you hold your tongue,' cried the +cat, 'one word more, and I will eat you too.' 'All-gone' was already on +the poor mouse's lips; scarcely had she spoken it before the cat sprang +on her, seized her, and swallowed her down. Verily, that is the way of +the world. + + + + +THE GOOSE-GIRL + +The king of a great land died, and left his queen to take care of their +only child. This child was a daughter, who was very beautiful; and her +mother loved her dearly, and was very kind to her. And there was a good +fairy too, who was fond of the princess, and helped her mother to watch +over her. When she grew up, she was betrothed to a prince who lived a +great way off; and as the time drew near for her to be married, she +got ready to set off on her journey to his country. Then the queen her +mother, packed up a great many costly things; jewels, and gold, and +silver; trinkets, fine dresses, and in short everything that became a +royal bride. And she gave her a waiting-maid to ride with her, and give +her into the bridegroom's hands; and each had a horse for the journey. +Now the princess's horse was the fairy's gift, and it was called Falada, +and could speak. + +When the time came for them to set out, the fairy went into her +bed-chamber, and took a little knife, and cut off a lock of her hair, +and gave it to the princess, and said, 'Take care of it, dear child; for +it is a charm that may be of use to you on the road.' Then they all took +a sorrowful leave of the princess; and she put the lock of hair into +her bosom, got upon her horse, and set off on her journey to her +bridegroom's kingdom. + +One day, as they were riding along by a brook, the princess began to +feel very thirsty: and she said to her maid, 'Pray get down, and fetch +me some water in my golden cup out of yonder brook, for I want to +drink.' 'Nay,' said the maid, 'if you are thirsty, get off yourself, and +stoop down by the water and drink; I shall not be your waiting-maid any +longer.' Then she was so thirsty that she got down, and knelt over the +little brook, and drank; for she was frightened, and dared not bring out +her golden cup; and she wept and said, 'Alas! what will become of me?' +And the lock answered her, and said: + + 'Alas! alas! if thy mother knew it, + Sadly, sadly, would she rue it.' + +But the princess was very gentle and meek, so she said nothing to her +maid's ill behaviour, but got upon her horse again. + +Then all rode farther on their journey, till the day grew so warm, and +the sun so scorching, that the bride began to feel very thirsty again; +and at last, when they came to a river, she forgot her maid's rude +speech, and said, 'Pray get down, and fetch me some water to drink in +my golden cup.' But the maid answered her, and even spoke more haughtily +than before: 'Drink if you will, but I shall not be your waiting-maid.' +Then the princess was so thirsty that she got off her horse, and lay +down, and held her head over the running stream, and cried and said, +'What will become of me?' And the lock of hair answered her again: + + 'Alas! alas! if thy mother knew it, + Sadly, sadly, would she rue it.' + +And as she leaned down to drink, the lock of hair fell from her bosom, +and floated away with the water. Now she was so frightened that she did +not see it; but her maid saw it, and was very glad, for she knew the +charm; and she saw that the poor bride would be in her power, now that +she had lost the hair. So when the bride had done drinking, and would +have got upon Falada again, the maid said, 'I shall ride upon Falada, +and you may have my horse instead'; so she was forced to give up her +horse, and soon afterwards to take off her royal clothes and put on her +maid's shabby ones. + +At last, as they drew near the end of their journey, this treacherous +servant threatened to kill her mistress if she ever told anyone what had +happened. But Falada saw it all, and marked it well. + +Then the waiting-maid got upon Falada, and the real bride rode upon the +other horse, and they went on in this way till at last they came to the +royal court. There was great joy at their coming, and the prince flew to +meet them, and lifted the maid from her horse, thinking she was the one +who was to be his wife; and she was led upstairs to the royal chamber; +but the true princess was told to stay in the court below. + +Now the old king happened just then to have nothing else to do; so he +amused himself by sitting at his kitchen window, looking at what was +going on; and he saw her in the courtyard. As she looked very pretty, +and too delicate for a waiting-maid, he went up into the royal chamber +to ask the bride who it was she had brought with her, that was thus left +standing in the court below. 'I brought her with me for the sake of her +company on the road,' said she; 'pray give the girl some work to do, +that she may not be idle.' The old king could not for some time think +of any work for her to do; but at last he said, 'I have a lad who takes +care of my geese; she may go and help him.' Now the name of this lad, +that the real bride was to help in watching the king's geese, was +Curdken. + +But the false bride said to the prince, 'Dear husband, pray do me one +piece of kindness.' 'That I will,' said the prince. 'Then tell one of +your slaughterers to cut off the head of the horse I rode upon, for it +was very unruly, and plagued me sadly on the road'; but the truth was, +she was very much afraid lest Falada should some day or other speak, and +tell all she had done to the princess. She carried her point, and the +faithful Falada was killed; but when the true princess heard of it, she +wept, and begged the man to nail up Falada's head against a large +dark gate of the city, through which she had to pass every morning +and evening, that there she might still see him sometimes. Then the +slaughterer said he would do as she wished; and cut off the head, and +nailed it up under the dark gate. + +Early the next morning, as she and Curdken went out through the gate, +she said sorrowfully: + + 'Falada, Falada, there thou hangest!' + +and the head answered: + + 'Bride, bride, there thou gangest! + Alas! alas! if thy mother knew it, + Sadly, sadly, would she rue it.' + +Then they went out of the city, and drove the geese on. And when she +came to the meadow, she sat down upon a bank there, and let down her +waving locks of hair, which were all of pure silver; and when Curdken +saw it glitter in the sun, he ran up, and would have pulled some of the +locks out, but she cried: + + 'Blow, breezes, blow! + Let Curdken's hat go! + Blow, breezes, blow! + Let him after it go! + O'er hills, dales, and rocks, + Away be it whirl'd + Till the silvery locks + Are all comb'd and curl'd! + +Then there came a wind, so strong that it blew off Curdken's hat; and +away it flew over the hills: and he was forced to turn and run after +it; till, by the time he came back, she had done combing and curling her +hair, and had put it up again safe. Then he was very angry and sulky, +and would not speak to her at all; but they watched the geese until it +grew dark in the evening, and then drove them homewards. + +The next morning, as they were going through the dark gate, the poor +girl looked up at Falada's head, and cried: + + 'Falada, Falada, there thou hangest!' + +and the head answered: + + 'Bride, bride, there thou gangest! + Alas! alas! if thy mother knew it, + Sadly, sadly, would she rue it.' + +Then she drove on the geese, and sat down again in the meadow, and began +to comb out her hair as before; and Curdken ran up to her, and wanted to +take hold of it; but she cried out quickly: + + 'Blow, breezes, blow! + Let Curdken's hat go! + Blow, breezes, blow! + Let him after it go! + O'er hills, dales, and rocks, + Away be it whirl'd + Till the silvery locks + Are all comb'd and curl'd! + +Then the wind came and blew away his hat; and off it flew a great way, +over the hills and far away, so that he had to run after it; and when +he came back she had bound up her hair again, and all was safe. So they +watched the geese till it grew dark. + +In the evening, after they came home, Curdken went to the old king, and +said, 'I cannot have that strange girl to help me to keep the geese any +longer.' 'Why?' said the king. 'Because, instead of doing any good, she +does nothing but tease me all day long.' Then the king made him tell him +what had happened. And Curdken said, 'When we go in the morning through +the dark gate with our flock of geese, she cries and talks with the head +of a horse that hangs upon the wall, and says: + + 'Falada, Falada, there thou hangest!' + +and the head answers: + + 'Bride, bride, there thou gangest! + Alas! alas! if thy mother knew it, + Sadly, sadly, would she rue it.' + +And Curdken went on telling the king what had happened upon the meadow +where the geese fed; how his hat was blown away; and how he was forced +to run after it, and to leave his flock of geese to themselves. But the +old king told the boy to go out again the next day: and when morning +came, he placed himself behind the dark gate, and heard how she spoke +to Falada, and how Falada answered. Then he went into the field, and +hid himself in a bush by the meadow's side; and he soon saw with his own +eyes how they drove the flock of geese; and how, after a little time, +she let down her hair that glittered in the sun. And then he heard her +say: + + 'Blow, breezes, blow! + Let Curdken's hat go! + Blow, breezes, blow! + Let him after it go! + O'er hills, dales, and rocks, + Away be it whirl'd + Till the silvery locks + Are all comb'd and curl'd! + +And soon came a gale of wind, and carried away Curdken's hat, and away +went Curdken after it, while the girl went on combing and curling her +hair. All this the old king saw: so he went home without being seen; and +when the little goose-girl came back in the evening he called her aside, +and asked her why she did so: but she burst into tears, and said, 'That +I must not tell you or any man, or I shall lose my life.' + +But the old king begged so hard, that she had no peace till she had told +him all the tale, from beginning to end, word for word. And it was very +lucky for her that she did so, for when she had done the king ordered +royal clothes to be put upon her, and gazed on her with wonder, she was +so beautiful. Then he called his son and told him that he had only a +false bride; for that she was merely a waiting-maid, while the true +bride stood by. And the young king rejoiced when he saw her beauty, and +heard how meek and patient she had been; and without saying anything to +the false bride, the king ordered a great feast to be got ready for all +his court. The bridegroom sat at the top, with the false princess on one +side, and the true one on the other; but nobody knew her again, for her +beauty was quite dazzling to their eyes; and she did not seem at all +like the little goose-girl, now that she had her brilliant dress on. + +When they had eaten and drank, and were very merry, the old king said +he would tell them a tale. So he began, and told all the story of the +princess, as if it was one that he had once heard; and he asked the +true waiting-maid what she thought ought to be done to anyone who would +behave thus. 'Nothing better,' said this false bride, 'than that she +should be thrown into a cask stuck round with sharp nails, and that +two white horses should be put to it, and should drag it from street to +street till she was dead.' 'Thou art she!' said the old king; 'and as +thou has judged thyself, so shall it be done to thee.' And the young +king was then married to his true wife, and they reigned over the +kingdom in peace and happiness all their lives; and the good fairy came +to see them, and restored the faithful Falada to life again. + + + + +THE ADVENTURES OF CHANTICLEER AND PARTLET + + +1. HOW THEY WENT TO THE MOUNTAINS TO EAT NUTS + +'The nuts are quite ripe now,' said Chanticleer to his wife Partlet, +'suppose we go together to the mountains, and eat as many as we can, +before the squirrel takes them all away.' 'With all my heart,' said +Partlet, 'let us go and make a holiday of it together.' + +So they went to the mountains; and as it was a lovely day, they stayed +there till the evening. Now, whether it was that they had eaten so many +nuts that they could not walk, or whether they were lazy and would not, +I do not know: however, they took it into their heads that it did not +become them to go home on foot. So Chanticleer began to build a little +carriage of nutshells: and when it was finished, Partlet jumped into +it and sat down, and bid Chanticleer harness himself to it and draw her +home. 'That's a good joke!' said Chanticleer; 'no, that will never do; +I had rather by half walk home; I'll sit on the box and be coachman, +if you like, but I'll not draw.' While this was passing, a duck came +quacking up and cried out, 'You thieving vagabonds, what business have +you in my grounds? I'll give it you well for your insolence!' and upon +that she fell upon Chanticleer most lustily. But Chanticleer was no +coward, and returned the duck's blows with his sharp spurs so fiercely +that she soon began to cry out for mercy; which was only granted her +upon condition that she would draw the carriage home for them. This she +agreed to do; and Chanticleer got upon the box, and drove, crying, 'Now, +duck, get on as fast as you can.' And away they went at a pretty good +pace. + +After they had travelled along a little way, they met a needle and a pin +walking together along the road: and the needle cried out, 'Stop, stop!' +and said it was so dark that they could hardly find their way, and such +dirty walking they could not get on at all: he told them that he and his +friend, the pin, had been at a public-house a few miles off, and had sat +drinking till they had forgotten how late it was; he begged therefore +that the travellers would be so kind as to give them a lift in their +carriage. Chanticleer observing that they were but thin fellows, and not +likely to take up much room, told them they might ride, but made them +promise not to dirty the wheels of the carriage in getting in, nor to +tread on Partlet's toes. + +Late at night they arrived at an inn; and as it was bad travelling in +the dark, and the duck seemed much tired, and waddled about a good +deal from one side to the other, they made up their minds to fix their +quarters there: but the landlord at first was unwilling, and said his +house was full, thinking they might not be very respectable company: +however, they spoke civilly to him, and gave him the egg which Partlet +had laid by the way, and said they would give him the duck, who was in +the habit of laying one every day: so at last he let them come in, and +they bespoke a handsome supper, and spent the evening very jollily. + +Early in the morning, before it was quite light, and when nobody was +stirring in the inn, Chanticleer awakened his wife, and, fetching the +egg, they pecked a hole in it, ate it up, and threw the shells into the +fireplace: they then went to the pin and needle, who were fast asleep, +and seizing them by the heads, stuck one into the landlord's easy chair +and the other into his handkerchief; and, having done this, they crept +away as softly as possible. However, the duck, who slept in the open +air in the yard, heard them coming, and jumping into the brook which ran +close by the inn, soon swam out of their reach. + +An hour or two afterwards the landlord got up, and took his handkerchief +to wipe his face, but the pin ran into him and pricked him: then he +walked into the kitchen to light his pipe at the fire, but when he +stirred it up the eggshells flew into his eyes, and almost blinded him. +'Bless me!' said he, 'all the world seems to have a design against my +head this morning': and so saying, he threw himself sulkily into his +easy chair; but, oh dear! the needle ran into him; and this time the +pain was not in his head. He now flew into a very great passion, and, +suspecting the company who had come in the night before, he went to look +after them, but they were all off; so he swore that he never again +would take in such a troop of vagabonds, who ate a great deal, paid no +reckoning, and gave him nothing for his trouble but their apish tricks. + + +2. HOW CHANTICLEER AND PARTLET WENT TO VISIT MR KORBES + +Another day, Chanticleer and Partlet wished to ride out together; +so Chanticleer built a handsome carriage with four red wheels, and +harnessed six mice to it; and then he and Partlet got into the carriage, +and away they drove. Soon afterwards a cat met them, and said, 'Where +are you going?' And Chanticleer replied, + + 'All on our way + A visit to pay + To Mr Korbes, the fox, today.' + +Then the cat said, 'Take me with you,' Chanticleer said, 'With all my +heart: get up behind, and be sure you do not fall off.' + + 'Take care of this handsome coach of mine, + Nor dirty my pretty red wheels so fine! + Now, mice, be ready, + And, wheels, run steady! + For we are going a visit to pay + To Mr Korbes, the fox, today.' + +Soon after came up a millstone, an egg, a duck, and a pin; and +Chanticleer gave them all leave to get into the carriage and go with +them. + +When they arrived at Mr Korbes's house, he was not at home; so the mice +drew the carriage into the coach-house, Chanticleer and Partlet flew +upon a beam, the cat sat down in the fireplace, the duck got into +the washing cistern, the pin stuck himself into the bed pillow, the +millstone laid himself over the house door, and the egg rolled himself +up in the towel. + +When Mr Korbes came home, he went to the fireplace to make a fire; but +the cat threw all the ashes in his eyes: so he ran to the kitchen to +wash himself; but there the duck splashed all the water in his face; and +when he tried to wipe himself, the egg broke to pieces in the towel all +over his face and eyes. Then he was very angry, and went without his +supper to bed; but when he laid his head on the pillow, the pin ran into +his cheek: at this he became quite furious, and, jumping up, would have +run out of the house; but when he came to the door, the millstone fell +down on his head, and killed him on the spot. + + +3. HOW PARTLET DIED AND WAS BURIED, AND HOW CHANTICLEER DIED OF GRIEF + +Another day Chanticleer and Partlet agreed to go again to the mountains +to eat nuts; and it was settled that all the nuts which they found +should be shared equally between them. Now Partlet found a very large +nut; but she said nothing about it to Chanticleer, and kept it all to +herself: however, it was so big that she could not swallow it, and it +stuck in her throat. Then she was in a great fright, and cried out to +Chanticleer, 'Pray run as fast as you can, and fetch me some water, or I +shall be choked.' Chanticleer ran as fast as he could to the river, and +said, 'River, give me some water, for Partlet lies in the mountain, and +will be choked by a great nut.' The river said, 'Run first to the bride, +and ask her for a silken cord to draw up the water.' Chanticleer ran to +the bride, and said, 'Bride, you must give me a silken cord, for then +the river will give me water, and the water I will carry to Partlet, who +lies on the mountain, and will be choked by a great nut.' But the bride +said, 'Run first, and bring me my garland that is hanging on a willow +in the garden.' Then Chanticleer ran to the garden, and took the garland +from the bough where it hung, and brought it to the bride; and then +the bride gave him the silken cord, and he took the silken cord to +the river, and the river gave him water, and he carried the water to +Partlet; but in the meantime she was choked by the great nut, and lay +quite dead, and never moved any more. + +Then Chanticleer was very sorry, and cried bitterly; and all the beasts +came and wept with him over poor Partlet. And six mice built a little +hearse to carry her to her grave; and when it was ready they harnessed +themselves before it, and Chanticleer drove them. On the way they +met the fox. 'Where are you going, Chanticleer?' said he. 'To bury my +Partlet,' said the other. 'May I go with you?' said the fox. 'Yes; but +you must get up behind, or my horses will not be able to draw you.' Then +the fox got up behind; and presently the wolf, the bear, the goat, and +all the beasts of the wood, came and climbed upon the hearse. + +So on they went till they came to a rapid stream. 'How shall we get +over?' said Chanticleer. Then said a straw, 'I will lay myself across, +and you may pass over upon me.' But as the mice were going over, the +straw slipped away and fell into the water, and the six mice all fell in +and were drowned. What was to be done? Then a large log of wood came +and said, 'I am big enough; I will lay myself across the stream, and you +shall pass over upon me.' So he laid himself down; but they managed +so clumsily, that the log of wood fell in and was carried away by the +stream. Then a stone, who saw what had happened, came up and kindly +offered to help poor Chanticleer by laying himself across the stream; +and this time he got safely to the other side with the hearse, and +managed to get Partlet out of it; but the fox and the other mourners, +who were sitting behind, were too heavy, and fell back into the water +and were all carried away by the stream and drowned. + +Thus Chanticleer was left alone with his dead Partlet; and having dug +a grave for her, he laid her in it, and made a little hillock over her. +Then he sat down by the grave, and wept and mourned, till at last he +died too; and so all were dead. + + + + +RAPUNZEL + +There were once a man and a woman who had long in vain wished for a +child. At length the woman hoped that God was about to grant her desire. +These people had a little window at the back of their house from which +a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the most beautiful +flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no +one dared to go into it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had +great power and was dreaded by all the world. One day the woman was +standing by this window and looking down into the garden, when she saw a +bed which was planted with the most beautiful rampion (rapunzel), and it +looked so fresh and green that she longed for it, she quite pined away, +and began to look pale and miserable. Then her husband was alarmed, and +asked: 'What ails you, dear wife?' 'Ah,' she replied, 'if I can't eat +some of the rampion, which is in the garden behind our house, I shall +die.' The man, who loved her, thought: 'Sooner than let your wife die, +bring her some of the rampion yourself, let it cost what it will.' +At twilight, he clambered down over the wall into the garden of the +enchantress, hastily clutched a handful of rampion, and took it to his +wife. She at once made herself a salad of it, and ate it greedily. It +tasted so good to her--so very good, that the next day she longed for it +three times as much as before. If he was to have any rest, her husband +must once more descend into the garden. In the gloom of evening +therefore, he let himself down again; but when he had clambered down the +wall he was terribly afraid, for he saw the enchantress standing before +him. 'How can you dare,' said she with angry look, 'descend into my +garden and steal my rampion like a thief? You shall suffer for it!' +'Ah,' answered he, 'let mercy take the place of justice, I only made +up my mind to do it out of necessity. My wife saw your rampion from the +window, and felt such a longing for it that she would have died if she +had not got some to eat.' Then the enchantress allowed her anger to be +softened, and said to him: 'If the case be as you say, I will allow +you to take away with you as much rampion as you will, only I make one +condition, you must give me the child which your wife will bring into +the world; it shall be well treated, and I will care for it like a +mother.' The man in his terror consented to everything, and when the +woman was brought to bed, the enchantress appeared at once, gave the +child the name of Rapunzel, and took it away with her. + +Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was +twelve years old, the enchantress shut her into a tower, which lay in +a forest, and had neither stairs nor door, but quite at the top was a +little window. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed herself +beneath it and cried: + + 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, + Let down your hair to me.' + +Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when she +heard the voice of the enchantress she unfastened her braided tresses, +wound them round one of the hooks of the window above, and then the hair +fell twenty ells down, and the enchantress climbed up by it. + +After a year or two, it came to pass that the king's son rode through +the forest and passed by the tower. Then he heard a song, which was so +charming that he stood still and listened. This was Rapunzel, who in her +solitude passed her time in letting her sweet voice resound. The king's +son wanted to climb up to her, and looked for the door of the tower, +but none was to be found. He rode home, but the singing had so deeply +touched his heart, that every day he went out into the forest and +listened to it. Once when he was thus standing behind a tree, he saw +that an enchantress came there, and he heard how she cried: + + 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, + Let down your hair to me.' + +Then Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the enchantress +climbed up to her. 'If that is the ladder by which one mounts, I too +will try my fortune,' said he, and the next day when it began to grow +dark, he went to the tower and cried: + + 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, + Let down your hair to me.' + +Immediately the hair fell down and the king's son climbed up. + +At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man, such as her eyes +had never yet beheld, came to her; but the king's son began to talk to +her quite like a friend, and told her that his heart had been so stirred +that it had let him have no rest, and he had been forced to see her. +Then Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if she would take +him for her husband, and she saw that he was young and handsome, she +thought: 'He will love me more than old Dame Gothel does'; and she said +yes, and laid her hand in his. She said: 'I will willingly go away with +you, but I do not know how to get down. Bring with you a skein of silk +every time that you come, and I will weave a ladder with it, and when +that is ready I will descend, and you will take me on your horse.' They +agreed that until that time he should come to her every evening, for the +old woman came by day. The enchantress remarked nothing of this, until +once Rapunzel said to her: 'Tell me, Dame Gothel, how it happens that +you are so much heavier for me to draw up than the young king's son--he +is with me in a moment.' 'Ah! you wicked child,' cried the enchantress. +'What do I hear you say! I thought I had separated you from all +the world, and yet you have deceived me!' In her anger she clutched +Rapunzel's beautiful tresses, wrapped them twice round her left hand, +seized a pair of scissors with the right, and snip, snap, they were cut +off, and the lovely braids lay on the ground. And she was so pitiless +that she took poor Rapunzel into a desert where she had to live in great +grief and misery. + +On the same day that she cast out Rapunzel, however, the enchantress +fastened the braids of hair, which she had cut off, to the hook of the +window, and when the king's son came and cried: + + 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, + Let down your hair to me.' + +she let the hair down. The king's son ascended, but instead of finding +his dearest Rapunzel, he found the enchantress, who gazed at him with +wicked and venomous looks. 'Aha!' she cried mockingly, 'you would fetch +your dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the nest; +the cat has got it, and will scratch out your eyes as well. Rapunzel is +lost to you; you will never see her again.' The king's son was beside +himself with pain, and in his despair he leapt down from the tower. He +escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell pierced his +eyes. Then he wandered quite blind about the forest, ate nothing but +roots and berries, and did naught but lament and weep over the loss of +his dearest wife. Thus he roamed about in misery for some years, and at +length came to the desert where Rapunzel, with the twins to which she +had given birth, a boy and a girl, lived in wretchedness. He heard a +voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that he went towards it, and +when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck and wept. Two +of her tears wetted his eyes and they grew clear again, and he could +see with them as before. He led her to his kingdom where he was +joyfully received, and they lived for a long time afterwards, happy and +contented. + + + + +FUNDEVOGEL + +There was once a forester who went into the forest to hunt, and as +he entered it he heard a sound of screaming as if a little child were +there. He followed the sound, and at last came to a high tree, and at +the top of this a little child was sitting, for the mother had fallen +asleep under the tree with the child, and a bird of prey had seen it in +her arms, had flown down, snatched it away, and set it on the high tree. + +The forester climbed up, brought the child down, and thought to himself: +'You will take him home with you, and bring him up with your Lina.' He +took it home, therefore, and the two children grew up together. And the +one, which he had found on a tree was called Fundevogel, because a bird +had carried it away. Fundevogel and Lina loved each other so dearly that +when they did not see each other they were sad. + +Now the forester had an old cook, who one evening took two pails and +began to fetch water, and did not go once only, but many times, out +to the spring. Lina saw this and said, 'Listen, old Sanna, why are you +fetching so much water?' 'If you will never repeat it to anyone, I will +tell you why.' So Lina said, no, she would never repeat it to anyone, +and then the cook said: 'Early tomorrow morning, when the forester +is out hunting, I will heat the water, and when it is boiling in the +kettle, I will throw in Fundevogel, and will boil him in it.' + +Early next morning the forester got up and went out hunting, and when he +was gone the children were still in bed. Then Lina said to Fundevogel: +'If you will never leave me, I too will never leave you.' Fundevogel +said: 'Neither now, nor ever will I leave you.' Then said Lina: 'Then +will I tell you. Last night, old Sanna carried so many buckets of water +into the house that I asked her why she was doing that, and she said +that if I would promise not to tell anyone, and she said that early +tomorrow morning when father was out hunting, she would set the kettle +full of water, throw you into it and boil you; but we will get up +quickly, dress ourselves, and go away together.' + +The two children therefore got up, dressed themselves quickly, and went +away. When the water in the kettle was boiling, the cook went into the +bedroom to fetch Fundevogel and throw him into it. But when she came in, +and went to the beds, both the children were gone. Then she was terribly +alarmed, and she said to herself: 'What shall I say now when the +forester comes home and sees that the children are gone? They must be +followed instantly to get them back again.' + +Then the cook sent three servants after them, who were to run and +overtake the children. The children, however, were sitting outside the +forest, and when they saw from afar the three servants running, Lina +said to Fundevogel: 'Never leave me, and I will never leave you.' +Fundevogel said: 'Neither now, nor ever.' Then said Lina: 'Do you become +a rose-tree, and I the rose upon it.' When the three servants came to +the forest, nothing was there but a rose-tree and one rose on it, but +the children were nowhere. Then said they: 'There is nothing to be done +here,' and they went home and told the cook that they had seen nothing +in the forest but a little rose-bush with one rose on it. Then the +old cook scolded and said: 'You simpletons, you should have cut the +rose-bush in two, and have broken off the rose and brought it home with +you; go, and do it at once.' They had therefore to go out and look for +the second time. The children, however, saw them coming from a distance. +Then Lina said: 'Fundevogel, never leave me, and I will never leave +you.' Fundevogel said: 'Neither now; nor ever.' Said Lina: 'Then do you +become a church, and I'll be the chandelier in it.' So when the three +servants came, nothing was there but a church, with a chandelier in +it. They said therefore to each other: 'What can we do here, let us go +home.' When they got home, the cook asked if they had not found them; +so they said no, they had found nothing but a church, and there was a +chandelier in it. And the cook scolded them and said: 'You fools! why +did you not pull the church to pieces, and bring the chandelier home +with you?' And now the old cook herself got on her legs, and went with +the three servants in pursuit of the children. The children, however, +saw from afar that the three servants were coming, and the cook waddling +after them. Then said Lina: 'Fundevogel, never leave me, and I will +never leave you.' Then said Fundevogel: 'Neither now, nor ever.' +Said Lina: 'Be a fishpond, and I will be the duck upon it.' The cook, +however, came up to them, and when she saw the pond she lay down by it, +and was about to drink it up. But the duck swam quickly to her, seized +her head in its beak and drew her into the water, and there the old +witch had to drown. Then the children went home together, and were +heartily delighted, and if they have not died, they are living still. + + + + +THE VALIANT LITTLE TAILOR + +One summer's morning a little tailor was sitting on his table by the +window; he was in good spirits, and sewed with all his might. Then came +a peasant woman down the street crying: 'Good jams, cheap! Good jams, +cheap!' This rang pleasantly in the tailor's ears; he stretched his +delicate head out of the window, and called: 'Come up here, dear woman; +here you will get rid of your goods.' The woman came up the three steps +to the tailor with her heavy basket, and he made her unpack all the pots +for him. He inspected each one, lifted it up, put his nose to it, and +at length said: 'The jam seems to me to be good, so weigh me out four +ounces, dear woman, and if it is a quarter of a pound that is of no +consequence.' The woman who had hoped to find a good sale, gave him +what he desired, but went away quite angry and grumbling. 'Now, this jam +shall be blessed by God,' cried the little tailor, 'and give me health +and strength'; so he brought the bread out of the cupboard, cut himself +a piece right across the loaf and spread the jam over it. 'This won't +taste bitter,' said he, 'but I will just finish the jacket before I +take a bite.' He laid the bread near him, sewed on, and in his joy, made +bigger and bigger stitches. In the meantime the smell of the sweet jam +rose to where the flies were sitting in great numbers, and they were +attracted and descended on it in hosts. 'Hi! who invited you?' said the +little tailor, and drove the unbidden guests away. The flies, however, +who understood no German, would not be turned away, but came back +again in ever-increasing companies. The little tailor at last lost all +patience, and drew a piece of cloth from the hole under his work-table, +and saying: 'Wait, and I will give it to you,' struck it mercilessly on +them. When he drew it away and counted, there lay before him no fewer +than seven, dead and with legs stretched out. 'Are you a fellow of that +sort?' said he, and could not help admiring his own bravery. 'The whole +town shall know of this!' And the little tailor hastened to cut himself +a girdle, stitched it, and embroidered on it in large letters: 'Seven at +one stroke!' 'What, the town!' he continued, 'the whole world shall hear +of it!' and his heart wagged with joy like a lamb's tail. The tailor +put on the girdle, and resolved to go forth into the world, because he +thought his workshop was too small for his valour. Before he went away, +he sought about in the house to see if there was anything which he could +take with him; however, he found nothing but an old cheese, and that +he put in his pocket. In front of the door he observed a bird which +had caught itself in the thicket. It had to go into his pocket with the +cheese. Now he took to the road boldly, and as he was light and nimble, +he felt no fatigue. The road led him up a mountain, and when he had +reached the highest point of it, there sat a powerful giant looking +peacefully about him. The little tailor went bravely up, spoke to him, +and said: 'Good day, comrade, so you are sitting there overlooking the +wide-spread world! I am just on my way thither, and want to try my luck. +Have you any inclination to go with me?' The giant looked contemptuously +at the tailor, and said: 'You ragamuffin! You miserable creature!' + +'Oh, indeed?' answered the little tailor, and unbuttoned his coat, and +showed the giant the girdle, 'there may you read what kind of a man I +am!' The giant read: 'Seven at one stroke,' and thought that they had +been men whom the tailor had killed, and began to feel a little respect +for the tiny fellow. Nevertheless, he wished to try him first, and took +a stone in his hand and squeezed it together so that water dropped out +of it. 'Do that likewise,' said the giant, 'if you have strength.' 'Is +that all?' said the tailor, 'that is child's play with us!' and put his +hand into his pocket, brought out the soft cheese, and pressed it until +the liquid ran out of it. 'Faith,' said he, 'that was a little better, +wasn't it?' The giant did not know what to say, and could not believe it +of the little man. Then the giant picked up a stone and threw it so high +that the eye could scarcely follow it. 'Now, little mite of a man, do +that likewise,' 'Well thrown,' said the tailor, 'but after all the stone +came down to earth again; I will throw you one which shall never come +back at all,' and he put his hand into his pocket, took out the bird, +and threw it into the air. The bird, delighted with its liberty, +rose, flew away and did not come back. 'How does that shot please you, +comrade?' asked the tailor. 'You can certainly throw,' said the giant, +'but now we will see if you are able to carry anything properly.' He +took the little tailor to a mighty oak tree which lay there felled on +the ground, and said: 'If you are strong enough, help me to carry the +tree out of the forest.' 'Readily,' answered the little man; 'take you +the trunk on your shoulders, and I will raise up the branches and twigs; +after all, they are the heaviest.' The giant took the trunk on his +shoulder, but the tailor seated himself on a branch, and the giant, who +could not look round, had to carry away the whole tree, and the little +tailor into the bargain: he behind, was quite merry and happy, and +whistled the song: 'Three tailors rode forth from the gate,' as if +carrying the tree were child's play. The giant, after he had dragged the +heavy burden part of the way, could go no further, and cried: 'Hark +you, I shall have to let the tree fall!' The tailor sprang nimbly down, +seized the tree with both arms as if he had been carrying it, and said +to the giant: 'You are such a great fellow, and yet cannot even carry +the tree!' + +They went on together, and as they passed a cherry-tree, the giant laid +hold of the top of the tree where the ripest fruit was hanging, bent it +down, gave it into the tailor's hand, and bade him eat. But the little +tailor was much too weak to hold the tree, and when the giant let it go, +it sprang back again, and the tailor was tossed into the air with it. +When he had fallen down again without injury, the giant said: 'What is +this? Have you not strength enough to hold the weak twig?' 'There is no +lack of strength,' answered the little tailor. 'Do you think that could +be anything to a man who has struck down seven at one blow? I leapt over +the tree because the huntsmen are shooting down there in the thicket. +Jump as I did, if you can do it.' The giant made the attempt but he +could not get over the tree, and remained hanging in the branches, so +that in this also the tailor kept the upper hand. + +The giant said: 'If you are such a valiant fellow, come with me into our +cavern and spend the night with us.' The little tailor was willing, and +followed him. When they went into the cave, other giants were sitting +there by the fire, and each of them had a roasted sheep in his hand and +was eating it. The little tailor looked round and thought: 'It is much +more spacious here than in my workshop.' The giant showed him a bed, and +said he was to lie down in it and sleep. The bed, however, was too +big for the little tailor; he did not lie down in it, but crept into +a corner. When it was midnight, and the giant thought that the little +tailor was lying in a sound sleep, he got up, took a great iron bar, +cut through the bed with one blow, and thought he had finished off the +grasshopper for good. With the earliest dawn the giants went into the +forest, and had quite forgotten the little tailor, when all at once he +walked up to them quite merrily and boldly. The giants were terrified, +they were afraid that he would strike them all dead, and ran away in a +great hurry. + +The little tailor went onwards, always following his own pointed nose. +After he had walked for a long time, he came to the courtyard of a royal +palace, and as he felt weary, he lay down on the grass and fell asleep. +Whilst he lay there, the people came and inspected him on all sides, and +read on his girdle: 'Seven at one stroke.' 'Ah!' said they, 'what does +the great warrior want here in the midst of peace? He must be a mighty +lord.' They went and announced him to the king, and gave it as their +opinion that if war should break out, this would be a weighty and useful +man who ought on no account to be allowed to depart. The counsel pleased +the king, and he sent one of his courtiers to the little tailor to offer +him military service when he awoke. The ambassador remained standing by +the sleeper, waited until he stretched his limbs and opened his eyes, +and then conveyed to him this proposal. 'For this very reason have +I come here,' the tailor replied, 'I am ready to enter the king's +service.' He was therefore honourably received, and a special dwelling +was assigned him. + +The soldiers, however, were set against the little tailor, and wished +him a thousand miles away. 'What is to be the end of this?' they said +among themselves. 'If we quarrel with him, and he strikes about him, +seven of us will fall at every blow; not one of us can stand against +him.' They came therefore to a decision, betook themselves in a body to +the king, and begged for their dismissal. 'We are not prepared,' said +they, 'to stay with a man who kills seven at one stroke.' The king was +sorry that for the sake of one he should lose all his faithful servants, +wished that he had never set eyes on the tailor, and would willingly +have been rid of him again. But he did not venture to give him his +dismissal, for he dreaded lest he should strike him and all his people +dead, and place himself on the royal throne. He thought about it for a +long time, and at last found good counsel. He sent to the little tailor +and caused him to be informed that as he was a great warrior, he had one +request to make to him. In a forest of his country lived two giants, +who caused great mischief with their robbing, murdering, ravaging, +and burning, and no one could approach them without putting himself in +danger of death. If the tailor conquered and killed these two giants, he +would give him his only daughter to wife, and half of his kingdom as a +dowry, likewise one hundred horsemen should go with him to assist him. +'That would indeed be a fine thing for a man like me!' thought the +little tailor. 'One is not offered a beautiful princess and half a +kingdom every day of one's life!' 'Oh, yes,' he replied, 'I will soon +subdue the giants, and do not require the help of the hundred horsemen +to do it; he who can hit seven with one blow has no need to be afraid of +two.' + +The little tailor went forth, and the hundred horsemen followed him. +When he came to the outskirts of the forest, he said to his followers: +'Just stay waiting here, I alone will soon finish off the giants.' Then +he bounded into the forest and looked about right and left. After a +while he perceived both giants. They lay sleeping under a tree, and +snored so that the branches waved up and down. The little tailor, not +idle, gathered two pocketsful of stones, and with these climbed up the +tree. When he was halfway up, he slipped down by a branch, until he sat +just above the sleepers, and then let one stone after another fall on +the breast of one of the giants. For a long time the giant felt nothing, +but at last he awoke, pushed his comrade, and said: 'Why are you +knocking me?' 'You must be dreaming,' said the other, 'I am not knocking +you.' They laid themselves down to sleep again, and then the tailor +threw a stone down on the second. 'What is the meaning of this?' cried +the other 'Why are you pelting me?' 'I am not pelting you,' answered +the first, growling. They disputed about it for a time, but as they were +weary they let the matter rest, and their eyes closed once more. The +little tailor began his game again, picked out the biggest stone, and +threw it with all his might on the breast of the first giant. 'That +is too bad!' cried he, and sprang up like a madman, and pushed his +companion against the tree until it shook. The other paid him back in +the same coin, and they got into such a rage that they tore up trees and +belaboured each other so long, that at last they both fell down dead on +the ground at the same time. Then the little tailor leapt down. 'It is +a lucky thing,' said he, 'that they did not tear up the tree on which +I was sitting, or I should have had to sprint on to another like a +squirrel; but we tailors are nimble.' He drew out his sword and gave +each of them a couple of thrusts in the breast, and then went out to the +horsemen and said: 'The work is done; I have finished both of them +off, but it was hard work! They tore up trees in their sore need, and +defended themselves with them, but all that is to no purpose when a man +like myself comes, who can kill seven at one blow.' 'But are you not +wounded?' asked the horsemen. 'You need not concern yourself about +that,' answered the tailor, 'they have not bent one hair of mine.' The +horsemen would not believe him, and rode into the forest; there they +found the giants swimming in their blood, and all round about lay the +torn-up trees. + +The little tailor demanded of the king the promised reward; he, however, +repented of his promise, and again bethought himself how he could get +rid of the hero. 'Before you receive my daughter, and the half of my +kingdom,' said he to him, 'you must perform one more heroic deed. In +the forest roams a unicorn which does great harm, and you must catch +it first.' 'I fear one unicorn still less than two giants. Seven at one +blow, is my kind of affair.' He took a rope and an axe with him, went +forth into the forest, and again bade those who were sent with him to +wait outside. He had not long to seek. The unicorn soon came towards +him, and rushed directly on the tailor, as if it would gore him with its +horn without more ado. 'Softly, softly; it can't be done as quickly as +that,' said he, and stood still and waited until the animal was quite +close, and then sprang nimbly behind the tree. The unicorn ran against +the tree with all its strength, and stuck its horn so fast in the trunk +that it had not the strength enough to draw it out again, and thus it +was caught. 'Now, I have got the bird,' said the tailor, and came out +from behind the tree and put the rope round its neck, and then with his +axe he hewed the horn out of the tree, and when all was ready he led the +beast away and took it to the king. + +The king still would not give him the promised reward, and made a third +demand. Before the wedding the tailor was to catch him a wild boar that +made great havoc in the forest, and the huntsmen should give him their +help. 'Willingly,' said the tailor, 'that is child's play!' He did not +take the huntsmen with him into the forest, and they were well pleased +that he did not, for the wild boar had several times received them in +such a manner that they had no inclination to lie in wait for him. When +the boar perceived the tailor, it ran on him with foaming mouth and +whetted tusks, and was about to throw him to the ground, but the hero +fled and sprang into a chapel which was near and up to the window at +once, and in one bound out again. The boar ran after him, but the tailor +ran round outside and shut the door behind it, and then the raging +beast, which was much too heavy and awkward to leap out of the window, +was caught. The little tailor called the huntsmen thither that they +might see the prisoner with their own eyes. The hero, however, went to +the king, who was now, whether he liked it or not, obliged to keep his +promise, and gave his daughter and the half of his kingdom. Had he known +that it was no warlike hero, but a little tailor who was standing before +him, it would have gone to his heart still more than it did. The wedding +was held with great magnificence and small joy, and out of a tailor a +king was made. + +After some time the young queen heard her husband say in his dreams at +night: 'Boy, make me the doublet, and patch the pantaloons, or else I +will rap the yard-measure over your ears.' Then she discovered in what +state of life the young lord had been born, and next morning complained +of her wrongs to her father, and begged him to help her to get rid of +her husband, who was nothing else but a tailor. The king comforted her +and said: 'Leave your bedroom door open this night, and my servants +shall stand outside, and when he has fallen asleep shall go in, bind +him, and take him on board a ship which shall carry him into the wide +world.' The woman was satisfied with this; but the king's armour-bearer, +who had heard all, was friendly with the young lord, and informed him of +the whole plot. 'I'll put a screw into that business,' said the little +tailor. At night he went to bed with his wife at the usual time, and +when she thought that he had fallen asleep, she got up, opened the door, +and then lay down again. The little tailor, who was only pretending to +be asleep, began to cry out in a clear voice: 'Boy, make me the doublet +and patch me the pantaloons, or I will rap the yard-measure over your +ears. I smote seven at one blow. I killed two giants, I brought away one +unicorn, and caught a wild boar, and am I to fear those who are standing +outside the room.' When these men heard the tailor speaking thus, they +were overcome by a great dread, and ran as if the wild huntsman were +behind them, and none of them would venture anything further against +him. So the little tailor was and remained a king to the end of his +life. + + + + +HANSEL AND GRETEL + +Hard by a great forest dwelt a poor wood-cutter with his wife and his +two children. The boy was called Hansel and the girl Gretel. He had +little to bite and to break, and once when great dearth fell on the +land, he could no longer procure even daily bread. Now when he thought +over this by night in his bed, and tossed about in his anxiety, he +groaned and said to his wife: 'What is to become of us? How are we +to feed our poor children, when we no longer have anything even for +ourselves?' 'I'll tell you what, husband,' answered the woman, 'early +tomorrow morning we will take the children out into the forest to where +it is the thickest; there we will light a fire for them, and give each +of them one more piece of bread, and then we will go to our work and +leave them alone. They will not find the way home again, and we shall be +rid of them.' 'No, wife,' said the man, 'I will not do that; how can I +bear to leave my children alone in the forest?--the wild animals would +soon come and tear them to pieces.' 'O, you fool!' said she, 'then we +must all four die of hunger, you may as well plane the planks for our +coffins,' and she left him no peace until he consented. 'But I feel very +sorry for the poor children, all the same,' said the man. + +The two children had also not been able to sleep for hunger, and had +heard what their stepmother had said to their father. Gretel wept +bitter tears, and said to Hansel: 'Now all is over with us.' 'Be quiet, +Gretel,' said Hansel, 'do not distress yourself, I will soon find a way +to help us.' And when the old folks had fallen asleep, he got up, put +on his little coat, opened the door below, and crept outside. The moon +shone brightly, and the white pebbles which lay in front of the house +glittered like real silver pennies. Hansel stooped and stuffed the +little pocket of his coat with as many as he could get in. Then he went +back and said to Gretel: 'Be comforted, dear little sister, and sleep in +peace, God will not forsake us,' and he lay down again in his bed. When +day dawned, but before the sun had risen, the woman came and awoke the +two children, saying: 'Get up, you sluggards! we are going into the +forest to fetch wood.' She gave each a little piece of bread, and said: +'There is something for your dinner, but do not eat it up before then, +for you will get nothing else.' Gretel took the bread under her apron, +as Hansel had the pebbles in his pocket. Then they all set out together +on the way to the forest. When they had walked a short time, Hansel +stood still and peeped back at the house, and did so again and again. +His father said: 'Hansel, what are you looking at there and staying +behind for? Pay attention, and do not forget how to use your legs.' 'Ah, +father,' said Hansel, 'I am looking at my little white cat, which is +sitting up on the roof, and wants to say goodbye to me.' The wife said: +'Fool, that is not your little cat, that is the morning sun which is +shining on the chimneys.' Hansel, however, had not been looking back at +the cat, but had been constantly throwing one of the white pebble-stones +out of his pocket on the road. + +When they had reached the middle of the forest, the father said: 'Now, +children, pile up some wood, and I will light a fire that you may not +be cold.' Hansel and Gretel gathered brushwood together, as high as a +little hill. The brushwood was lighted, and when the flames were burning +very high, the woman said: 'Now, children, lay yourselves down by the +fire and rest, we will go into the forest and cut some wood. When we +have done, we will come back and fetch you away.' + +Hansel and Gretel sat by the fire, and when noon came, each ate a little +piece of bread, and as they heard the strokes of the wood-axe they +believed that their father was near. It was not the axe, however, but +a branch which he had fastened to a withered tree which the wind was +blowing backwards and forwards. And as they had been sitting such a long +time, their eyes closed with fatigue, and they fell fast asleep. When +at last they awoke, it was already dark night. Gretel began to cry and +said: 'How are we to get out of the forest now?' But Hansel comforted +her and said: 'Just wait a little, until the moon has risen, and then we +will soon find the way.' And when the full moon had risen, Hansel took +his little sister by the hand, and followed the pebbles which shone like +newly-coined silver pieces, and showed them the way. + +They walked the whole night long, and by break of day came once more +to their father's house. They knocked at the door, and when the woman +opened it and saw that it was Hansel and Gretel, she said: 'You naughty +children, why have you slept so long in the forest?--we thought you were +never coming back at all!' The father, however, rejoiced, for it had cut +him to the heart to leave them behind alone. + +Not long afterwards, there was once more great dearth throughout the +land, and the children heard their mother saying at night to their +father: 'Everything is eaten again, we have one half loaf left, and that +is the end. The children must go, we will take them farther into the +wood, so that they will not find their way out again; there is no other +means of saving ourselves!' The man's heart was heavy, and he thought: +'It would be better for you to share the last mouthful with your +children.' The woman, however, would listen to nothing that he had to +say, but scolded and reproached him. He who says A must say B, likewise, +and as he had yielded the first time, he had to do so a second time +also. + +The children, however, were still awake and had heard the conversation. +When the old folks were asleep, Hansel again got up, and wanted to go +out and pick up pebbles as he had done before, but the woman had locked +the door, and Hansel could not get out. Nevertheless he comforted his +little sister, and said: 'Do not cry, Gretel, go to sleep quietly, the +good God will help us.' + +Early in the morning came the woman, and took the children out of their +beds. Their piece of bread was given to them, but it was still smaller +than the time before. On the way into the forest Hansel crumbled his +in his pocket, and often stood still and threw a morsel on the ground. +'Hansel, why do you stop and look round?' said the father, 'go on.' 'I +am looking back at my little pigeon which is sitting on the roof, and +wants to say goodbye to me,' answered Hansel. 'Fool!' said the woman, +'that is not your little pigeon, that is the morning sun that is shining +on the chimney.' Hansel, however little by little, threw all the crumbs +on the path. + +The woman led the children still deeper into the forest, where they had +never in their lives been before. Then a great fire was again made, and +the mother said: 'Just sit there, you children, and when you are tired +you may sleep a little; we are going into the forest to cut wood, and in +the evening when we are done, we will come and fetch you away.' When +it was noon, Gretel shared her piece of bread with Hansel, who had +scattered his by the way. Then they fell asleep and evening passed, but +no one came to the poor children. They did not awake until it was dark +night, and Hansel comforted his little sister and said: 'Just wait, +Gretel, until the moon rises, and then we shall see the crumbs of bread +which I have strewn about, they will show us our way home again.' When +the moon came they set out, but they found no crumbs, for the many +thousands of birds which fly about in the woods and fields had picked +them all up. Hansel said to Gretel: 'We shall soon find the way,' but +they did not find it. They walked the whole night and all the next day +too from morning till evening, but they did not get out of the forest, +and were very hungry, for they had nothing to eat but two or three +berries, which grew on the ground. And as they were so weary that their +legs would carry them no longer, they lay down beneath a tree and fell +asleep. + +It was now three mornings since they had left their father's house. They +began to walk again, but they always came deeper into the forest, and if +help did not come soon, they must die of hunger and weariness. When it +was mid-day, they saw a beautiful snow-white bird sitting on a bough, +which sang so delightfully that they stood still and listened to it. And +when its song was over, it spread its wings and flew away before them, +and they followed it until they reached a little house, on the roof of +which it alighted; and when they approached the little house they saw +that it was built of bread and covered with cakes, but that the windows +were of clear sugar. 'We will set to work on that,' said Hansel, 'and +have a good meal. I will eat a bit of the roof, and you Gretel, can eat +some of the window, it will taste sweet.' Hansel reached up above, and +broke off a little of the roof to try how it tasted, and Gretel leant +against the window and nibbled at the panes. Then a soft voice cried +from the parlour: + + 'Nibble, nibble, gnaw, + Who is nibbling at my little house?' + +The children answered: + + 'The wind, the wind, + The heaven-born wind,' + +and went on eating without disturbing themselves. Hansel, who liked the +taste of the roof, tore down a great piece of it, and Gretel pushed out +the whole of one round window-pane, sat down, and enjoyed herself with +it. Suddenly the door opened, and a woman as old as the hills, who +supported herself on crutches, came creeping out. Hansel and Gretel were +so terribly frightened that they let fall what they had in their +hands. The old woman, however, nodded her head, and said: 'Oh, you dear +children, who has brought you here? do come in, and stay with me. No +harm shall happen to you.' She took them both by the hand, and led them +into her little house. Then good food was set before them, milk and +pancakes, with sugar, apples, and nuts. Afterwards two pretty little +beds were covered with clean white linen, and Hansel and Gretel lay down +in them, and thought they were in heaven. + +The old woman had only pretended to be so kind; she was in reality +a wicked witch, who lay in wait for children, and had only built the +little house of bread in order to entice them there. When a child fell +into her power, she killed it, cooked and ate it, and that was a feast +day with her. Witches have red eyes, and cannot see far, but they have +a keen scent like the beasts, and are aware when human beings draw near. +When Hansel and Gretel came into her neighbourhood, she laughed with +malice, and said mockingly: 'I have them, they shall not escape me +again!' Early in the morning before the children were awake, she was +already up, and when she saw both of them sleeping and looking so +pretty, with their plump and rosy cheeks she muttered to herself: 'That +will be a dainty mouthful!' Then she seized Hansel with her shrivelled +hand, carried him into a little stable, and locked him in behind a +grated door. Scream as he might, it would not help him. Then she went to +Gretel, shook her till she awoke, and cried: 'Get up, lazy thing, fetch +some water, and cook something good for your brother, he is in the +stable outside, and is to be made fat. When he is fat, I will eat him.' +Gretel began to weep bitterly, but it was all in vain, for she was +forced to do what the wicked witch commanded. + +And now the best food was cooked for poor Hansel, but Gretel got nothing +but crab-shells. Every morning the woman crept to the little stable, and +cried: 'Hansel, stretch out your finger that I may feel if you will soon +be fat.' Hansel, however, stretched out a little bone to her, and +the old woman, who had dim eyes, could not see it, and thought it was +Hansel's finger, and was astonished that there was no way of fattening +him. When four weeks had gone by, and Hansel still remained thin, she +was seized with impatience and would not wait any longer. 'Now, then, +Gretel,' she cried to the girl, 'stir yourself, and bring some water. +Let Hansel be fat or lean, tomorrow I will kill him, and cook him.' Ah, +how the poor little sister did lament when she had to fetch the water, +and how her tears did flow down her cheeks! 'Dear God, do help us,' she +cried. 'If the wild beasts in the forest had but devoured us, we should +at any rate have died together.' 'Just keep your noise to yourself,' +said the old woman, 'it won't help you at all.' + +Early in the morning, Gretel had to go out and hang up the cauldron with +the water, and light the fire. 'We will bake first,' said the old woman, +'I have already heated the oven, and kneaded the dough.' She pushed poor +Gretel out to the oven, from which flames of fire were already darting. +'Creep in,' said the witch, 'and see if it is properly heated, so that +we can put the bread in.' And once Gretel was inside, she intended to +shut the oven and let her bake in it, and then she would eat her, too. +But Gretel saw what she had in mind, and said: 'I do not know how I am +to do it; how do I get in?' 'Silly goose,' said the old woman. 'The door +is big enough; just look, I can get in myself!' and she crept up and +thrust her head into the oven. Then Gretel gave her a push that drove +her far into it, and shut the iron door, and fastened the bolt. Oh! then +she began to howl quite horribly, but Gretel ran away and the godless +witch was miserably burnt to death. + +Gretel, however, ran like lightning to Hansel, opened his little stable, +and cried: 'Hansel, we are saved! The old witch is dead!' Then Hansel +sprang like a bird from its cage when the door is opened. How they did +rejoice and embrace each other, and dance about and kiss each other! And +as they had no longer any need to fear her, they went into the witch's +house, and in every corner there stood chests full of pearls and jewels. +'These are far better than pebbles!' said Hansel, and thrust into his +pockets whatever could be got in, and Gretel said: 'I, too, will take +something home with me,' and filled her pinafore full. 'But now we must +be off,' said Hansel, 'that we may get out of the witch's forest.' + +When they had walked for two hours, they came to a great stretch of +water. 'We cannot cross,' said Hansel, 'I see no foot-plank, and no +bridge.' 'And there is also no ferry,' answered Gretel, 'but a white +duck is swimming there: if I ask her, she will help us over.' Then she +cried: + + 'Little duck, little duck, dost thou see, + Hansel and Gretel are waiting for thee? + There's never a plank, or bridge in sight, + Take us across on thy back so white.' + +The duck came to them, and Hansel seated himself on its back, and told +his sister to sit by him. 'No,' replied Gretel, 'that will be too heavy +for the little duck; she shall take us across, one after the other.' The +good little duck did so, and when they were once safely across and had +walked for a short time, the forest seemed to be more and more familiar +to them, and at length they saw from afar their father's house. Then +they began to run, rushed into the parlour, and threw themselves round +their father's neck. The man had not known one happy hour since he had +left the children in the forest; the woman, however, was dead. Gretel +emptied her pinafore until pearls and precious stones ran about the +room, and Hansel threw one handful after another out of his pocket to +add to them. Then all anxiety was at an end, and they lived together +in perfect happiness. My tale is done, there runs a mouse; whosoever +catches it, may make himself a big fur cap out of it. + + + + +THE MOUSE, THE BIRD, AND THE SAUSAGE + +Once upon a time, a mouse, a bird, and a sausage, entered into +partnership and set up house together. For a long time all went well; +they lived in great comfort, and prospered so far as to be able to add +considerably to their stores. The bird's duty was to fly daily into the +wood and bring in fuel; the mouse fetched the water, and the sausage saw +to the cooking. + +When people are too well off they always begin to long for something +new. And so it came to pass, that the bird, while out one day, met a +fellow bird, to whom he boastfully expatiated on the excellence of his +household arrangements. But the other bird sneered at him for being a +poor simpleton, who did all the hard work, while the other two stayed +at home and had a good time of it. For, when the mouse had made the fire +and fetched in the water, she could retire into her little room and rest +until it was time to set the table. The sausage had only to watch the +pot to see that the food was properly cooked, and when it was near +dinner-time, he just threw himself into the broth, or rolled in and out +among the vegetables three or four times, and there they were, buttered, +and salted, and ready to be served. Then, when the bird came home and +had laid aside his burden, they sat down to table, and when they had +finished their meal, they could sleep their fill till the following +morning: and that was really a very delightful life. + +Influenced by those remarks, the bird next morning refused to bring in +the wood, telling the others that he had been their servant long enough, +and had been a fool into the bargain, and that it was now time to make a +change, and to try some other way of arranging the work. Beg and pray +as the mouse and the sausage might, it was of no use; the bird remained +master of the situation, and the venture had to be made. They therefore +drew lots, and it fell to the sausage to bring in the wood, to the mouse +to cook, and to the bird to fetch the water. + +And now what happened? The sausage started in search of wood, the bird +made the fire, and the mouse put on the pot, and then these two waited +till the sausage returned with the fuel for the following day. But the +sausage remained so long away, that they became uneasy, and the bird +flew out to meet him. He had not flown far, however, when he came across +a dog who, having met the sausage, had regarded him as his legitimate +booty, and so seized and swallowed him. The bird complained to the dog +of this bare-faced robbery, but nothing he said was of any avail, for +the dog answered that he found false credentials on the sausage, and +that was the reason his life had been forfeited. + +He picked up the wood, and flew sadly home, and told the mouse all he +had seen and heard. They were both very unhappy, but agreed to make the +best of things and to remain with one another. + +So now the bird set the table, and the mouse looked after the food and, +wishing to prepare it in the same way as the sausage, by rolling in and +out among the vegetables to salt and butter them, she jumped into the +pot; but she stopped short long before she reached the bottom, having +already parted not only with her skin and hair, but also with life. + +Presently the bird came in and wanted to serve up the dinner, but he +could nowhere see the cook. In his alarm and flurry, he threw the wood +here and there about the floor, called and searched, but no cook was to +be found. Then some of the wood that had been carelessly thrown down, +caught fire and began to blaze. The bird hastened to fetch some water, +but his pail fell into the well, and he after it, and as he was unable +to recover himself, he was drowned. + + + + +MOTHER HOLLE + +Once upon a time there was a widow who had two daughters; one of them +was beautiful and industrious, the other ugly and lazy. The mother, +however, loved the ugly and lazy one best, because she was her own +daughter, and so the other, who was only her stepdaughter, was made +to do all the work of the house, and was quite the Cinderella of the +family. Her stepmother sent her out every day to sit by the well in +the high road, there to spin until she made her fingers bleed. Now it +chanced one day that some blood fell on to the spindle, and as the girl +stopped over the well to wash it off, the spindle suddenly sprang out +of her hand and fell into the well. She ran home crying to tell of her +misfortune, but her stepmother spoke harshly to her, and after giving +her a violent scolding, said unkindly, 'As you have let the spindle fall +into the well you may go yourself and fetch it out.' + +The girl went back to the well not knowing what to do, and at last in +her distress she jumped into the water after the spindle. + +She remembered nothing more until she awoke and found herself in a +beautiful meadow, full of sunshine, and with countless flowers blooming +in every direction. + +She walked over the meadow, and presently she came upon a baker's oven +full of bread, and the loaves cried out to her, 'Take us out, take us +out, or alas! we shall be burnt to a cinder; we were baked through long +ago.' So she took the bread-shovel and drew them all out. + +She went on a little farther, till she came to a tree full of apples. +'Shake me, shake me, I pray,' cried the tree; 'my apples, one and all, +are ripe.' So she shook the tree, and the apples came falling down upon +her like rain; but she continued shaking until there was not a single +apple left upon it. Then she carefully gathered the apples together in a +heap and walked on again. + +The next thing she came to was a little house, and there she saw an old +woman looking out, with such large teeth, that she was terrified, and +turned to run away. But the old woman called after her, 'What are you +afraid of, dear child? Stay with me; if you will do the work of my house +properly for me, I will make you very happy. You must be very careful, +however, to make my bed in the right way, for I wish you always to shake +it thoroughly, so that the feathers fly about; then they say, down there +in the world, that it is snowing; for I am Mother Holle.' The old woman +spoke so kindly, that the girl summoned up courage and agreed to enter +into her service. + +She took care to do everything according to the old woman's bidding and +every time she made the bed she shook it with all her might, so that the +feathers flew about like so many snowflakes. The old woman was as good +as her word: she never spoke angrily to her, and gave her roast and +boiled meats every day. + +So she stayed on with Mother Holle for some time, and then she began +to grow unhappy. She could not at first tell why she felt sad, but she +became conscious at last of great longing to go home; then she knew she +was homesick, although she was a thousand times better off with Mother +Holle than with her mother and sister. After waiting awhile, she went +to Mother Holle and said, 'I am so homesick, that I cannot stay with +you any longer, for although I am so happy here, I must return to my own +people.' + +Then Mother Holle said, 'I am pleased that you should want to go back +to your own people, and as you have served me so well and faithfully, I +will take you home myself.' + +Thereupon she led the girl by the hand up to a broad gateway. The gate +was opened, and as the girl passed through, a shower of gold fell upon +her, and the gold clung to her, so that she was covered with it from +head to foot. + +'That is a reward for your industry,' said Mother Holle, and as she +spoke she handed her the spindle which she had dropped into the well. + +The gate was then closed, and the girl found herself back in the old +world close to her mother's house. As she entered the courtyard, the +cock who was perched on the well, called out: + + 'Cock-a-doodle-doo! + Your golden daughter's come back to you.' + +Then she went in to her mother and sister, and as she was so richly +covered with gold, they gave her a warm welcome. She related to them +all that had happened, and when the mother heard how she had come by her +great riches, she thought she should like her ugly, lazy daughter to go +and try her fortune. So she made the sister go and sit by the well +and spin, and the girl pricked her finger and thrust her hand into a +thorn-bush, so that she might drop some blood on to the spindle; then +she threw it into the well, and jumped in herself. + +Like her sister she awoke in the beautiful meadow, and walked over it +till she came to the oven. 'Take us out, take us out, or alas! we shall +be burnt to a cinder; we were baked through long ago,' cried the loaves +as before. But the lazy girl answered, 'Do you think I am going to dirty +my hands for you?' and walked on. + +Presently she came to the apple-tree. 'Shake me, shake me, I pray; my +apples, one and all, are ripe,' it cried. But she only answered, 'A nice +thing to ask me to do, one of the apples might fall on my head,' and +passed on. + +At last she came to Mother Holle's house, and as she had heard all about +the large teeth from her sister, she was not afraid of them, and engaged +herself without delay to the old woman. + +The first day she was very obedient and industrious, and exerted herself +to please Mother Holle, for she thought of the gold she should get in +return. The next day, however, she began to dawdle over her work, and +the third day she was more idle still; then she began to lie in bed in +the mornings and refused to get up. Worse still, she neglected to +make the old woman's bed properly, and forgot to shake it so that the +feathers might fly about. So Mother Holle very soon got tired of her, +and told her she might go. The lazy girl was delighted at this, and +thought to herself, 'The gold will soon be mine.' Mother Holle led her, +as she had led her sister, to the broad gateway; but as she was passing +through, instead of the shower of gold, a great bucketful of pitch came +pouring over her. + +'That is in return for your services,' said the old woman, and she shut +the gate. + +So the lazy girl had to go home covered with pitch, and the cock on the +well called out as she saw her: + + 'Cock-a-doodle-doo! + Your dirty daughter's come back to you.' + +But, try what she would, she could not get the pitch off and it stuck to +her as long as she lived. + + + + +LITTLE RED-CAP [LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD] + +Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was loved by everyone +who looked at her, but most of all by her grandmother, and there was +nothing that she would not have given to the child. Once she gave her a +little cap of red velvet, which suited her so well that she would never +wear anything else; so she was always called 'Little Red-Cap.' + +One day her mother said to her: 'Come, Little Red-Cap, here is a piece +of cake and a bottle of wine; take them to your grandmother, she is ill +and weak, and they will do her good. Set out before it gets hot, and +when you are going, walk nicely and quietly and do not run off the path, +or you may fall and break the bottle, and then your grandmother will +get nothing; and when you go into her room, don't forget to say, "Good +morning", and don't peep into every corner before you do it.' + +'I will take great care,' said Little Red-Cap to her mother, and gave +her hand on it. + +The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the village, +and just as Little Red-Cap entered the wood, a wolf met her. Red-Cap +did not know what a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of +him. + +'Good day, Little Red-Cap,' said he. + +'Thank you kindly, wolf.' + +'Whither away so early, Little Red-Cap?' + +'To my grandmother's.' + +'What have you got in your apron?' + +'Cake and wine; yesterday was baking-day, so poor sick grandmother is to +have something good, to make her stronger.' + +'Where does your grandmother live, Little Red-Cap?' + +'A good quarter of a league farther on in the wood; her house stands +under the three large oak-trees, the nut-trees are just below; you +surely must know it,' replied Little Red-Cap. + +The wolf thought to himself: 'What a tender young creature! what a nice +plump mouthful--she will be better to eat than the old woman. I must +act craftily, so as to catch both.' So he walked for a short time by +the side of Little Red-Cap, and then he said: 'See, Little Red-Cap, how +pretty the flowers are about here--why do you not look round? I believe, +too, that you do not hear how sweetly the little birds are singing; you +walk gravely along as if you were going to school, while everything else +out here in the wood is merry.' + +Little Red-Cap raised her eyes, and when she saw the sunbeams dancing +here and there through the trees, and pretty flowers growing everywhere, +she thought: 'Suppose I take grandmother a fresh nosegay; that would +please her too. It is so early in the day that I shall still get there +in good time'; and so she ran from the path into the wood to look for +flowers. And whenever she had picked one, she fancied that she saw a +still prettier one farther on, and ran after it, and so got deeper and +deeper into the wood. + +Meanwhile the wolf ran straight to the grandmother's house and knocked +at the door. + +'Who is there?' + +'Little Red-Cap,' replied the wolf. 'She is bringing cake and wine; open +the door.' + +'Lift the latch,' called out the grandmother, 'I am too weak, and cannot +get up.' + +The wolf lifted the latch, the door sprang open, and without saying a +word he went straight to the grandmother's bed, and devoured her. Then +he put on her clothes, dressed himself in her cap laid himself in bed +and drew the curtains. + +Little Red-Cap, however, had been running about picking flowers, +and when she had gathered so many that she could carry no more, she +remembered her grandmother, and set out on the way to her. + +She was surprised to find the cottage-door standing open, and when she +went into the room, she had such a strange feeling that she said to +herself: 'Oh dear! how uneasy I feel today, and at other times I like +being with grandmother so much.' She called out: 'Good morning,' but +received no answer; so she went to the bed and drew back the curtains. +There lay her grandmother with her cap pulled far over her face, and +looking very strange. + +'Oh! grandmother,' she said, 'what big ears you have!' + +'The better to hear you with, my child,' was the reply. + +'But, grandmother, what big eyes you have!' she said. + +'The better to see you with, my dear.' + +'But, grandmother, what large hands you have!' + +'The better to hug you with.' + +'Oh! but, grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have!' + +'The better to eat you with!' + +And scarcely had the wolf said this, than with one bound he was out of +bed and swallowed up Red-Cap. + +When the wolf had appeased his appetite, he lay down again in the bed, +fell asleep and began to snore very loud. The huntsman was just passing +the house, and thought to himself: 'How the old woman is snoring! I must +just see if she wants anything.' So he went into the room, and when he +came to the bed, he saw that the wolf was lying in it. 'Do I find you +here, you old sinner!' said he. 'I have long sought you!' Then just as +he was going to fire at him, it occurred to him that the wolf might have +devoured the grandmother, and that she might still be saved, so he did +not fire, but took a pair of scissors, and began to cut open the stomach +of the sleeping wolf. When he had made two snips, he saw the little +Red-Cap shining, and then he made two snips more, and the little girl +sprang out, crying: 'Ah, how frightened I have been! How dark it was +inside the wolf'; and after that the aged grandmother came out alive +also, but scarcely able to breathe. Red-Cap, however, quickly fetched +great stones with which they filled the wolf's belly, and when he awoke, +he wanted to run away, but the stones were so heavy that he collapsed at +once, and fell dead. + +Then all three were delighted. The huntsman drew off the wolf's skin and +went home with it; the grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine which +Red-Cap had brought, and revived, but Red-Cap thought to herself: 'As +long as I live, I will never by myself leave the path, to run into the +wood, when my mother has forbidden me to do so.' + + + + +It also related that once when Red-Cap was again taking cakes to the old +grandmother, another wolf spoke to her, and tried to entice her from the +path. Red-Cap, however, was on her guard, and went straight forward on +her way, and told her grandmother that she had met the wolf, and that he +had said 'good morning' to her, but with such a wicked look in his eyes, +that if they had not been on the public road she was certain he would +have eaten her up. 'Well,' said the grandmother, 'we will shut the door, +that he may not come in.' Soon afterwards the wolf knocked, and cried: +'Open the door, grandmother, I am Little Red-Cap, and am bringing you +some cakes.' But they did not speak, or open the door, so the grey-beard +stole twice or thrice round the house, and at last jumped on the roof, +intending to wait until Red-Cap went home in the evening, and then to +steal after her and devour her in the darkness. But the grandmother +saw what was in his thoughts. In front of the house was a great stone +trough, so she said to the child: 'Take the pail, Red-Cap; I made some +sausages yesterday, so carry the water in which I boiled them to the +trough.' Red-Cap carried until the great trough was quite full. Then the +smell of the sausages reached the wolf, and he sniffed and peeped down, +and at last stretched out his neck so far that he could no longer keep +his footing and began to slip, and slipped down from the roof straight +into the great trough, and was drowned. But Red-Cap went joyously home, +and no one ever did anything to harm her again. + + + + +THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM + +There was once a miller who had one beautiful daughter, and as she was +grown up, he was anxious that she should be well married and provided +for. He said to himself, 'I will give her to the first suitable man who +comes and asks for her hand.' Not long after a suitor appeared, and as +he appeared to be very rich and the miller could see nothing in him with +which to find fault, he betrothed his daughter to him. But the girl did +not care for the man as a girl ought to care for her betrothed husband. +She did not feel that she could trust him, and she could not look at him +nor think of him without an inward shudder. One day he said to her, 'You +have not yet paid me a visit, although we have been betrothed for some +time.' 'I do not know where your house is,' she answered. 'My house is +out there in the dark forest,' he said. She tried to excuse herself by +saying that she would not be able to find the way thither. Her betrothed +only replied, 'You must come and see me next Sunday; I have already +invited guests for that day, and that you may not mistake the way, I +will strew ashes along the path.' + +When Sunday came, and it was time for the girl to start, a feeling of +dread came over her which she could not explain, and that she might +be able to find her path again, she filled her pockets with peas and +lentils to sprinkle on the ground as she went along. On reaching the +entrance to the forest she found the path strewed with ashes, and these +she followed, throwing down some peas on either side of her at every +step she took. She walked the whole day until she came to the deepest, +darkest part of the forest. There she saw a lonely house, looking so +grim and mysterious, that it did not please her at all. She stepped +inside, but not a soul was to be seen, and a great silence reigned +throughout. Suddenly a voice cried: + + 'Turn back, turn back, young maiden fair, + Linger not in this murderers' lair.' + +The girl looked up and saw that the voice came from a bird hanging in a +cage on the wall. Again it cried: + + 'Turn back, turn back, young maiden fair, + Linger not in this murderers' lair.' + +The girl passed on, going from room to room of the house, but they were +all empty, and still she saw no one. At last she came to the cellar, +and there sat a very, very old woman, who could not keep her head from +shaking. 'Can you tell me,' asked the girl, 'if my betrothed husband +lives here?' + +'Ah, you poor child,' answered the old woman, 'what a place for you to +come to! This is a murderers' den. You think yourself a promised bride, +and that your marriage will soon take place, but it is with death that +you will keep your marriage feast. Look, do you see that large cauldron +of water which I am obliged to keep on the fire! As soon as they have +you in their power they will kill you without mercy, and cook and eat +you, for they are eaters of men. If I did not take pity on you and save +you, you would be lost.' + +Thereupon the old woman led her behind a large cask, which quite hid her +from view. 'Keep as still as a mouse,' she said; 'do not move or speak, +or it will be all over with you. Tonight, when the robbers are +all asleep, we will flee together. I have long been waiting for an +opportunity to escape.' + +The words were hardly out of her mouth when the godless crew returned, +dragging another young girl along with them. They were all drunk, and +paid no heed to her cries and lamentations. They gave her wine to drink, +three glasses full, one of white wine, one of red, and one of yellow, +and with that her heart gave way and she died. Then they tore off her +dainty clothing, laid her on a table, and cut her beautiful body into +pieces, and sprinkled salt upon it. + +The poor betrothed girl crouched trembling and shuddering behind the +cask, for she saw what a terrible fate had been intended for her by +the robbers. One of them now noticed a gold ring still remaining on +the little finger of the murdered girl, and as he could not draw it off +easily, he took a hatchet and cut off the finger; but the finger sprang +into the air, and fell behind the cask into the lap of the girl who was +hiding there. The robber took a light and began looking for it, but he +could not find it. 'Have you looked behind the large cask?' said one of +the others. But the old woman called out, 'Come and eat your suppers, +and let the thing be till tomorrow; the finger won't run away.' + +'The old woman is right,' said the robbers, and they ceased looking for +the finger and sat down. + +The old woman then mixed a sleeping draught with their wine, and before +long they were all lying on the floor of the cellar, fast asleep and +snoring. As soon as the girl was assured of this, she came from behind +the cask. She was obliged to step over the bodies of the sleepers, who +were lying close together, and every moment she was filled with renewed +dread lest she should awaken them. But God helped her, so that she +passed safely over them, and then she and the old woman went upstairs, +opened the door, and hastened as fast as they could from the murderers' +den. They found the ashes scattered by the wind, but the peas and +lentils had sprouted, and grown sufficiently above the ground, to guide +them in the moonlight along the path. All night long they walked, and it +was morning before they reached the mill. Then the girl told her father +all that had happened. + +The day came that had been fixed for the marriage. The bridegroom +arrived and also a large company of guests, for the miller had taken +care to invite all his friends and relations. As they sat at the feast, +each guest in turn was asked to tell a tale; the bride sat still and did +not say a word. + +'And you, my love,' said the bridegroom, turning to her, 'is there no +tale you know? Tell us something.' + +'I will tell you a dream, then,' said the bride. 'I went alone through a +forest and came at last to a house; not a soul could I find within, but +a bird that was hanging in a cage on the wall cried: + + 'Turn back, turn back, young maiden fair, + Linger not in this murderers' lair.' + +and again a second time it said these words.' + +'My darling, this is only a dream.' + +'I went on through the house from room to room, but they were all empty, +and everything was so grim and mysterious. At last I went down to the +cellar, and there sat a very, very old woman, who could not keep her +head still. I asked her if my betrothed lived here, and she answered, +"Ah, you poor child, you are come to a murderers' den; your betrothed +does indeed live here, but he will kill you without mercy and afterwards +cook and eat you."' + +'My darling, this is only a dream.' + +'The old woman hid me behind a large cask, and scarcely had she done +this when the robbers returned home, dragging a young girl along with +them. They gave her three kinds of wine to drink, white, red, and +yellow, and with that she died.' + +'My darling, this is only a dream.' + +'Then they tore off her dainty clothing, and cut her beautiful body into +pieces and sprinkled salt upon it.' + +'My darling, this is only a dream.' + +'And one of the robbers saw that there was a gold ring still left on her +finger, and as it was difficult to draw off, he took a hatchet and cut +off her finger; but the finger sprang into the air and fell behind the +great cask into my lap. And here is the finger with the ring.' And +with these words the bride drew forth the finger and shewed it to the +assembled guests. + +The bridegroom, who during this recital had grown deadly pale, up and +tried to escape, but the guests seized him and held him fast. They +delivered him up to justice, and he and all his murderous band were +condemned to death for their wicked deeds. + + + + +TOM THUMB + +A poor woodman sat in his cottage one night, smoking his pipe by the +fireside, while his wife sat by his side spinning. 'How lonely it is, +wife,' said he, as he puffed out a long curl of smoke, 'for you and me +to sit here by ourselves, without any children to play about and amuse +us while other people seem so happy and merry with their children!' +'What you say is very true,' said the wife, sighing, and turning round +her wheel; 'how happy should I be if I had but one child! If it were +ever so small--nay, if it were no bigger than my thumb--I should be very +happy, and love it dearly.' Now--odd as you may think it--it came to +pass that this good woman's wish was fulfilled, just in the very way she +had wished it; for, not long afterwards, she had a little boy, who was +quite healthy and strong, but was not much bigger than my thumb. So +they said, 'Well, we cannot say we have not got what we wished for, and, +little as he is, we will love him dearly.' And they called him Thomas +Thumb. + +They gave him plenty of food, yet for all they could do he never grew +bigger, but kept just the same size as he had been when he was born. +Still, his eyes were sharp and sparkling, and he soon showed himself to +be a clever little fellow, who always knew well what he was about. + +One day, as the woodman was getting ready to go into the wood to cut +fuel, he said, 'I wish I had someone to bring the cart after me, for I +want to make haste.' 'Oh, father,' cried Tom, 'I will take care of that; +the cart shall be in the wood by the time you want it.' Then the woodman +laughed, and said, 'How can that be? you cannot reach up to the horse's +bridle.' 'Never mind that, father,' said Tom; 'if my mother will only +harness the horse, I will get into his ear and tell him which way to +go.' 'Well,' said the father, 'we will try for once.' + +When the time came the mother harnessed the horse to the cart, and put +Tom into his ear; and as he sat there the little man told the beast how +to go, crying out, 'Go on!' and 'Stop!' as he wanted: and thus the horse +went on just as well as if the woodman had driven it himself into the +wood. It happened that as the horse was going a little too fast, and Tom +was calling out, 'Gently! gently!' two strangers came up. 'What an odd +thing that is!' said one: 'there is a cart going along, and I hear a +carter talking to the horse, but yet I can see no one.' 'That is queer, +indeed,' said the other; 'let us follow the cart, and see where it +goes.' So they went on into the wood, till at last they came to the +place where the woodman was. Then Tom Thumb, seeing his father, cried +out, 'See, father, here I am with the cart, all right and safe! now take +me down!' So his father took hold of the horse with one hand, and with +the other took his son out of the horse's ear, and put him down upon a +straw, where he sat as merry as you please. + +The two strangers were all this time looking on, and did not know what +to say for wonder. At last one took the other aside, and said, 'That +little urchin will make our fortune, if we can get him, and carry him +about from town to town as a show; we must buy him.' So they went up to +the woodman, and asked him what he would take for the little man. 'He +will be better off,' said they, 'with us than with you.' 'I won't sell +him at all,' said the father; 'my own flesh and blood is dearer to me +than all the silver and gold in the world.' But Tom, hearing of the +bargain they wanted to make, crept up his father's coat to his shoulder +and whispered in his ear, 'Take the money, father, and let them have me; +I'll soon come back to you.' + +So the woodman at last said he would sell Tom to the strangers for a +large piece of gold, and they paid the price. 'Where would you like to +sit?' said one of them. 'Oh, put me on the rim of your hat; that will be +a nice gallery for me; I can walk about there and see the country as we +go along.' So they did as he wished; and when Tom had taken leave of his +father they took him away with them. + +They journeyed on till it began to be dusky, and then the little man +said, 'Let me get down, I'm tired.' So the man took off his hat, and +put him down on a clod of earth, in a ploughed field by the side of the +road. But Tom ran about amongst the furrows, and at last slipped into +an old mouse-hole. 'Good night, my masters!' said he, 'I'm off! mind and +look sharp after me the next time.' Then they ran at once to the place, +and poked the ends of their sticks into the mouse-hole, but all in vain; +Tom only crawled farther and farther in; and at last it became quite +dark, so that they were forced to go their way without their prize, as +sulky as could be. + +When Tom found they were gone, he came out of his hiding-place. 'What +dangerous walking it is,' said he, 'in this ploughed field! If I were to +fall from one of these great clods, I should undoubtedly break my neck.' +At last, by good luck, he found a large empty snail-shell. 'This is +lucky,' said he, 'I can sleep here very well'; and in he crept. + +Just as he was falling asleep, he heard two men passing by, chatting +together; and one said to the other, 'How can we rob that rich parson's +house of his silver and gold?' 'I'll tell you!' cried Tom. 'What noise +was that?' said the thief, frightened; 'I'm sure I heard someone speak.' +They stood still listening, and Tom said, 'Take me with you, and I'll +soon show you how to get the parson's money.' 'But where are you?' said +they. 'Look about on the ground,' answered he, 'and listen where the +sound comes from.' At last the thieves found him out, and lifted him +up in their hands. 'You little urchin!' they said, 'what can you do for +us?' 'Why, I can get between the iron window-bars of the parson's house, +and throw you out whatever you want.' 'That's a good thought,' said the +thieves; 'come along, we shall see what you can do.' + +When they came to the parson's house, Tom slipped through the +window-bars into the room, and then called out as loud as he could bawl, +'Will you have all that is here?' At this the thieves were frightened, +and said, 'Softly, softly! Speak low, that you may not awaken anybody.' +But Tom seemed as if he did not understand them, and bawled out again, +'How much will you have? Shall I throw it all out?' Now the cook lay in +the next room; and hearing a noise she raised herself up in her bed and +listened. Meantime the thieves were frightened, and ran off a little +way; but at last they plucked up their hearts, and said, 'The little +urchin is only trying to make fools of us.' So they came back and +whispered softly to him, saying, 'Now let us have no more of your +roguish jokes; but throw us out some of the money.' Then Tom called out +as loud as he could, 'Very well! hold your hands! here it comes.' + +The cook heard this quite plain, so she sprang out of bed, and ran to +open the door. The thieves ran off as if a wolf was at their tails: and +the maid, having groped about and found nothing, went away for a light. +By the time she came back, Tom had slipped off into the barn; and when +she had looked about and searched every hole and corner, and found +nobody, she went to bed, thinking she must have been dreaming with her +eyes open. + +The little man crawled about in the hay-loft, and at last found a snug +place to finish his night's rest in; so he laid himself down, meaning +to sleep till daylight, and then find his way home to his father and +mother. But alas! how woefully he was undone! what crosses and sorrows +happen to us all in this world! The cook got up early, before daybreak, +to feed the cows; and going straight to the hay-loft, carried away +a large bundle of hay, with the little man in the middle of it, fast +asleep. He still, however, slept on, and did not awake till he found +himself in the mouth of the cow; for the cook had put the hay into the +cow's rick, and the cow had taken Tom up in a mouthful of it. 'Good +lack-a-day!' said he, 'how came I to tumble into the mill?' But he soon +found out where he really was; and was forced to have all his wits about +him, that he might not get between the cow's teeth, and so be crushed to +death. At last down he went into her stomach. 'It is rather dark,' said +he; 'they forgot to build windows in this room to let the sun in; a +candle would be no bad thing.' + +Though he made the best of his bad luck, he did not like his quarters at +all; and the worst of it was, that more and more hay was always coming +down, and the space left for him became smaller and smaller. At last he +cried out as loud as he could, 'Don't bring me any more hay! Don't bring +me any more hay!' + +The maid happened to be just then milking the cow; and hearing someone +speak, but seeing nobody, and yet being quite sure it was the same voice +that she had heard in the night, she was so frightened that she fell off +her stool, and overset the milk-pail. As soon as she could pick herself +up out of the dirt, she ran off as fast as she could to her master the +parson, and said, 'Sir, sir, the cow is talking!' But the parson +said, 'Woman, thou art surely mad!' However, he went with her into the +cow-house, to try and see what was the matter. + +Scarcely had they set foot on the threshold, when Tom called out, 'Don't +bring me any more hay!' Then the parson himself was frightened; and +thinking the cow was surely bewitched, told his man to kill her on the +spot. So the cow was killed, and cut up; and the stomach, in which Tom +lay, was thrown out upon a dunghill. + +Tom soon set himself to work to get out, which was not a very easy +task; but at last, just as he had made room to get his head out, fresh +ill-luck befell him. A hungry wolf sprang out, and swallowed up the +whole stomach, with Tom in it, at one gulp, and ran away. + +Tom, however, was still not disheartened; and thinking the wolf would +not dislike having some chat with him as he was going along, he called +out, 'My good friend, I can show you a famous treat.' 'Where's that?' +said the wolf. 'In such and such a house,' said Tom, describing his own +father's house. 'You can crawl through the drain into the kitchen and +then into the pantry, and there you will find cakes, ham, beef, cold +chicken, roast pig, apple-dumplings, and everything that your heart can +wish.' + +The wolf did not want to be asked twice; so that very night he went to +the house and crawled through the drain into the kitchen, and then into +the pantry, and ate and drank there to his heart's content. As soon as +he had had enough he wanted to get away; but he had eaten so much that +he could not go out by the same way he came in. + +This was just what Tom had reckoned upon; and now he began to set up a +great shout, making all the noise he could. 'Will you be easy?' said the +wolf; 'you'll awaken everybody in the house if you make such a clatter.' +'What's that to me?' said the little man; 'you have had your frolic, now +I've a mind to be merry myself'; and he began, singing and shouting as +loud as he could. + +The woodman and his wife, being awakened by the noise, peeped through +a crack in the door; but when they saw a wolf was there, you may well +suppose that they were sadly frightened; and the woodman ran for his +axe, and gave his wife a scythe. 'Do you stay behind,' said the woodman, +'and when I have knocked him on the head you must rip him up with the +scythe.' Tom heard all this, and cried out, 'Father, father! I am here, +the wolf has swallowed me.' And his father said, 'Heaven be praised! we +have found our dear child again'; and he told his wife not to use the +scythe for fear she should hurt him. Then he aimed a great blow, and +struck the wolf on the head, and killed him on the spot! and when he was +dead they cut open his body, and set Tommy free. 'Ah!' said the father, +'what fears we have had for you!' 'Yes, father,' answered he; 'I have +travelled all over the world, I think, in one way or other, since we +parted; and now I am very glad to come home and get fresh air again.' +'Why, where have you been?' said his father. 'I have been in a +mouse-hole--and in a snail-shell--and down a cow's throat--and in the +wolf's belly; and yet here I am again, safe and sound.' + +'Well,' said they, 'you are come back, and we will not sell you again +for all the riches in the world.' + +Then they hugged and kissed their dear little son, and gave him plenty +to eat and drink, for he was very hungry; and then they fetched new +clothes for him, for his old ones had been quite spoiled on his journey. +So Master Thumb stayed at home with his father and mother, in peace; for +though he had been so great a traveller, and had done and seen so many +fine things, and was fond enough of telling the whole story, he always +agreed that, after all, there's no place like HOME! + + + + +RUMPELSTILTSKIN + +By the side of a wood, in a country a long way off, ran a fine stream +of water; and upon the stream there stood a mill. The miller's house was +close by, and the miller, you must know, had a very beautiful daughter. +She was, moreover, very shrewd and clever; and the miller was so proud +of her, that he one day told the king of the land, who used to come and +hunt in the wood, that his daughter could spin gold out of straw. Now +this king was very fond of money; and when he heard the miller's boast +his greediness was raised, and he sent for the girl to be brought before +him. Then he led her to a chamber in his palace where there was a great +heap of straw, and gave her a spinning-wheel, and said, 'All this must +be spun into gold before morning, as you love your life.' It was in vain +that the poor maiden said that it was only a silly boast of her father, +for that she could do no such thing as spin straw into gold: the chamber +door was locked, and she was left alone. + +She sat down in one corner of the room, and began to bewail her hard +fate; when on a sudden the door opened, and a droll-looking little man +hobbled in, and said, 'Good morrow to you, my good lass; what are you +weeping for?' 'Alas!' said she, 'I must spin this straw into gold, and +I know not how.' 'What will you give me,' said the hobgoblin, 'to do it +for you?' 'My necklace,' replied the maiden. He took her at her word, +and sat himself down to the wheel, and whistled and sang: + + 'Round about, round about, + Lo and behold! + Reel away, reel away, + Straw into gold!' + +And round about the wheel went merrily; the work was quickly done, and +the straw was all spun into gold. + +When the king came and saw this, he was greatly astonished and pleased; +but his heart grew still more greedy of gain, and he shut up the poor +miller's daughter again with a fresh task. Then she knew not what to do, +and sat down once more to weep; but the dwarf soon opened the door, and +said, 'What will you give me to do your task?' 'The ring on my finger,' +said she. So her little friend took the ring, and began to work at the +wheel again, and whistled and sang: + + 'Round about, round about, + Lo and behold! + Reel away, reel away, + Straw into gold!' + +till, long before morning, all was done again. + +The king was greatly delighted to see all this glittering treasure; +but still he had not enough: so he took the miller's daughter to a yet +larger heap, and said, 'All this must be spun tonight; and if it is, +you shall be my queen.' As soon as she was alone that dwarf came in, and +said, 'What will you give me to spin gold for you this third time?' +'I have nothing left,' said she. 'Then say you will give me,' said +the little man, 'the first little child that you may have when you are +queen.' 'That may never be,' thought the miller's daughter: and as she +knew no other way to get her task done, she said she would do what he +asked. Round went the wheel again to the old song, and the manikin once +more spun the heap into gold. The king came in the morning, and, finding +all he wanted, was forced to keep his word; so he married the miller's +daughter, and she really became queen. + +At the birth of her first little child she was very glad, and forgot the +dwarf, and what she had said. But one day he came into her room, where +she was sitting playing with her baby, and put her in mind of it. Then +she grieved sorely at her misfortune, and said she would give him all +the wealth of the kingdom if he would let her off, but in vain; till at +last her tears softened him, and he said, 'I will give you three days' +grace, and if during that time you tell me my name, you shall keep your +child.' + +Now the queen lay awake all night, thinking of all the odd names that +she had ever heard; and she sent messengers all over the land to find +out new ones. The next day the little man came, and she began with +TIMOTHY, ICHABOD, BENJAMIN, JEREMIAH, and all the names she could +remember; but to all and each of them he said, 'Madam, that is not my +name.' + +The second day she began with all the comical names she could hear of, +BANDY-LEGS, HUNCHBACK, CROOK-SHANKS, and so on; but the little gentleman +still said to every one of them, 'Madam, that is not my name.' + +The third day one of the messengers came back, and said, 'I have +travelled two days without hearing of any other names; but yesterday, as +I was climbing a high hill, among the trees of the forest where the fox +and the hare bid each other good night, I saw a little hut; and before +the hut burnt a fire; and round about the fire a funny little dwarf was +dancing upon one leg, and singing: + + "Merrily the feast I'll make. + Today I'll brew, tomorrow bake; + Merrily I'll dance and sing, + For next day will a stranger bring. + Little does my lady dream + Rumpelstiltskin is my name!" + +When the queen heard this she jumped for joy, and as soon as her little +friend came she sat down upon her throne, and called all her court round +to enjoy the fun; and the nurse stood by her side with the baby in her +arms, as if it was quite ready to be given up. Then the little man began +to chuckle at the thought of having the poor child, to take home with +him to his hut in the woods; and he cried out, 'Now, lady, what is my +name?' 'Is it JOHN?' asked she. 'No, madam!' 'Is it TOM?' 'No, madam!' +'Is it JEMMY?' 'It is not.' 'Can your name be RUMPELSTILTSKIN?' said the +lady slyly. 'Some witch told you that!--some witch told you that!' cried +the little man, and dashed his right foot in a rage so deep into the +floor, that he was forced to lay hold of it with both hands to pull it +out. + +Then he made the best of his way off, while the nurse laughed and the +baby crowed; and all the court jeered at him for having had so much +trouble for nothing, and said, 'We wish you a very good morning, and a +merry feast, Mr RUMPLESTILTSKIN!' + + + + +CLEVER GRETEL + +There was once a cook named Gretel, who wore shoes with red heels, and +when she walked out with them on, she turned herself this way and that, +was quite happy and thought: 'You certainly are a pretty girl!' And when +she came home she drank, in her gladness of heart, a draught of wine, +and as wine excites a desire to eat, she tasted the best of whatever she +was cooking until she was satisfied, and said: 'The cook must know what +the food is like.' + +It came to pass that the master one day said to her: 'Gretel, there is a +guest coming this evening; prepare me two fowls very daintily.' 'I will +see to it, master,' answered Gretel. She killed two fowls, scalded them, +plucked them, put them on the spit, and towards evening set them before +the fire, that they might roast. The fowls began to turn brown, and were +nearly ready, but the guest had not yet arrived. Then Gretel called out +to her master: 'If the guest does not come, I must take the fowls away +from the fire, but it will be a sin and a shame if they are not eaten +the moment they are at their juiciest.' The master said: 'I will run +myself, and fetch the guest.' When the master had turned his back, +Gretel laid the spit with the fowls on one side, and thought: 'Standing +so long by the fire there, makes one sweat and thirsty; who knows +when they will come? Meanwhile, I will run into the cellar, and take a +drink.' She ran down, set a jug, said: 'God bless it for you, Gretel,' +and took a good drink, and thought that wine should flow on, and should +not be interrupted, and took yet another hearty draught. + +Then she went and put the fowls down again to the fire, basted them, +and drove the spit merrily round. But as the roast meat smelt so good, +Gretel thought: 'Something might be wrong, it ought to be tasted!' +She touched it with her finger, and said: 'Ah! how good fowls are! It +certainly is a sin and a shame that they are not eaten at the right +time!' She ran to the window, to see if the master was not coming with +his guest, but she saw no one, and went back to the fowls and thought: +'One of the wings is burning! I had better take it off and eat it.' +So she cut it off, ate it, and enjoyed it, and when she had done, she +thought: 'The other must go down too, or else master will observe that +something is missing.' When the two wings were eaten, she went and +looked for her master, and did not see him. It suddenly occurred to +her: 'Who knows? They are perhaps not coming at all, and have turned in +somewhere.' Then she said: 'Well, Gretel, enjoy yourself, one fowl has +been cut into, take another drink, and eat it up entirely; when it is +eaten you will have some peace, why should God's good gifts be spoilt?' +So she ran into the cellar again, took an enormous drink and ate up the +one chicken in great glee. When one of the chickens was swallowed down, +and still her master did not come, Gretel looked at the other and said: +'What one is, the other should be likewise, the two go together; what's +right for the one is right for the other; I think if I were to take +another draught it would do me no harm.' So she took another hearty +drink, and let the second chicken follow the first. + +While she was making the most of it, her master came and cried: 'Hurry +up, Gretel, the guest is coming directly after me!' 'Yes, sir, I will +soon serve up,' answered Gretel. Meantime the master looked to see that +the table was properly laid, and took the great knife, wherewith he was +going to carve the chickens, and sharpened it on the steps. Presently +the guest came, and knocked politely and courteously at the house-door. +Gretel ran, and looked to see who was there, and when she saw the guest, +she put her finger to her lips and said: 'Hush! hush! go away as quickly +as you can, if my master catches you it will be the worse for you; he +certainly did ask you to supper, but his intention is to cut off your +two ears. Just listen how he is sharpening the knife for it!' The guest +heard the sharpening, and hurried down the steps again as fast as he +could. Gretel was not idle; she ran screaming to her master, and cried: +'You have invited a fine guest!' 'Why, Gretel? What do you mean by +that?' 'Yes,' said she, 'he has taken the chickens which I was just +going to serve up, off the dish, and has run away with them!' 'That's a +nice trick!' said her master, and lamented the fine chickens. 'If he had +but left me one, so that something remained for me to eat.' He called to +him to stop, but the guest pretended not to hear. Then he ran after him +with the knife still in his hand, crying: 'Just one, just one,' meaning +that the guest should leave him just one chicken, and not take both. The +guest, however, thought no otherwise than that he was to give up one of +his ears, and ran as if fire were burning under him, in order to take +them both with him. + + + + +THE OLD MAN AND HIS GRANDSON + +There was once a very old man, whose eyes had become dim, his ears dull +of hearing, his knees trembled, and when he sat at table he could hardly +hold the spoon, and spilt the broth upon the table-cloth or let it run +out of his mouth. His son and his son's wife were disgusted at this, so +the old grandfather at last had to sit in the corner behind the stove, +and they gave him his food in an earthenware bowl, and not even enough +of it. And he used to look towards the table with his eyes full of +tears. Once, too, his trembling hands could not hold the bowl, and it +fell to the ground and broke. The young wife scolded him, but he said +nothing and only sighed. Then they brought him a wooden bowl for a few +half-pence, out of which he had to eat. + +They were once sitting thus when the little grandson of four years old +began to gather together some bits of wood upon the ground. 'What are +you doing there?' asked the father. 'I am making a little trough,' +answered the child, 'for father and mother to eat out of when I am big.' + +The man and his wife looked at each other for a while, and presently +began to cry. Then they took the old grandfather to the table, and +henceforth always let him eat with them, and likewise said nothing if he +did spill a little of anything. + + + + +THE LITTLE PEASANT + +There was a certain village wherein no one lived but really rich +peasants, and just one poor one, whom they called the little peasant. He +had not even so much as a cow, and still less money to buy one, and +yet he and his wife did so wish to have one. One day he said to her: +'Listen, I have a good idea, there is our gossip the carpenter, he shall +make us a wooden calf, and paint it brown, so that it looks like any +other, and in time it will certainly get big and be a cow.' the woman +also liked the idea, and their gossip the carpenter cut and planed +the calf, and painted it as it ought to be, and made it with its head +hanging down as if it were eating. + +Next morning when the cows were being driven out, the little peasant +called the cow-herd in and said: 'Look, I have a little calf there, +but it is still small and has to be carried.' The cow-herd said: 'All +right,' and took it in his arms and carried it to the pasture, and set +it among the grass. The little calf always remained standing like one +which was eating, and the cow-herd said: 'It will soon run by itself, +just look how it eats already!' At night when he was going to drive the +herd home again, he said to the calf: 'If you can stand there and eat +your fill, you can also go on your four legs; I don't care to drag you +home again in my arms.' But the little peasant stood at his door, and +waited for his little calf, and when the cow-herd drove the cows through +the village, and the calf was missing, he inquired where it was. The +cow-herd answered: 'It is still standing out there eating. It would not +stop and come with us.' But the little peasant said: 'Oh, but I must +have my beast back again.' Then they went back to the meadow together, +but someone had stolen the calf, and it was gone. The cow-herd said: 'It +must have run away.' The peasant, however, said: 'Don't tell me +that,' and led the cow-herd before the mayor, who for his carelessness +condemned him to give the peasant a cow for the calf which had run away. + +And now the little peasant and his wife had the cow for which they had +so long wished, and they were heartily glad, but they had no food for +it, and could give it nothing to eat, so it soon had to be killed. They +salted the flesh, and the peasant went into the town and wanted to sell +the skin there, so that he might buy a new calf with the proceeds. On +the way he passed by a mill, and there sat a raven with broken wings, +and out of pity he took him and wrapped him in the skin. But as the +weather grew so bad and there was a storm of rain and wind, he could +go no farther, and turned back to the mill and begged for shelter. The +miller's wife was alone in the house, and said to the peasant: 'Lay +yourself on the straw there,' and gave him a slice of bread and cheese. +The peasant ate it, and lay down with his skin beside him, and the woman +thought: 'He is tired and has gone to sleep.' In the meantime came the +parson; the miller's wife received him well, and said: 'My husband is +out, so we will have a feast.' The peasant listened, and when he heard +them talk about feasting he was vexed that he had been forced to make +shift with a slice of bread and cheese. Then the woman served up four +different things, roast meat, salad, cakes, and wine. + +Just as they were about to sit down and eat, there was a knocking +outside. The woman said: 'Oh, heavens! It is my husband!' she quickly +hid the roast meat inside the tiled stove, the wine under the pillow, +the salad on the bed, the cakes under it, and the parson in the closet +on the porch. Then she opened the door for her husband, and said: 'Thank +heaven, you are back again! There is such a storm, it looks as if the +world were coming to an end.' The miller saw the peasant lying on the +straw, and asked, 'What is that fellow doing there?' 'Ah,' said the +wife, 'the poor knave came in the storm and rain, and begged for +shelter, so I gave him a bit of bread and cheese, and showed him where +the straw was.' The man said: 'I have no objection, but be quick and get +me something to eat.' The woman said: 'But I have nothing but bread and +cheese.' 'I am contented with anything,' replied the husband, 'so far as +I am concerned, bread and cheese will do,' and looked at the peasant and +said: 'Come and eat some more with me.' The peasant did not require to +be invited twice, but got up and ate. After this the miller saw the skin +in which the raven was, lying on the ground, and asked: 'What have you +there?' The peasant answered: 'I have a soothsayer inside it.' 'Can +he foretell anything to me?' said the miller. 'Why not?' answered +the peasant: 'but he only says four things, and the fifth he keeps to +himself.' The miller was curious, and said: 'Let him foretell something +for once.' Then the peasant pinched the raven's head, so that he croaked +and made a noise like krr, krr. The miller said: 'What did he say?' The +peasant answered: 'In the first place, he says that there is some wine +hidden under the pillow.' 'Bless me!' cried the miller, and went there +and found the wine. 'Now go on,' said he. The peasant made the raven +croak again, and said: 'In the second place, he says that there is some +roast meat in the tiled stove.' 'Upon my word!' cried the miller, and +went thither, and found the roast meat. The peasant made the raven +prophesy still more, and said: 'Thirdly, he says that there is some +salad on the bed.' 'That would be a fine thing!' cried the miller, and +went there and found the salad. At last the peasant pinched the raven +once more till he croaked, and said: 'Fourthly, he says that there +are some cakes under the bed.' 'That would be a fine thing!' cried the +miller, and looked there, and found the cakes. + +And now the two sat down to the table together, but the miller's wife +was frightened to death, and went to bed and took all the keys with +her. The miller would have liked much to know the fifth, but the little +peasant said: 'First, we will quickly eat the four things, for the fifth +is something bad.' So they ate, and after that they bargained how much +the miller was to give for the fifth prophecy, until they agreed on +three hundred talers. Then the peasant once more pinched the raven's +head till he croaked loudly. The miller asked: 'What did he say?' The +peasant replied: 'He says that the Devil is hiding outside there in +the closet on the porch.' The miller said: 'The Devil must go out,' and +opened the house-door; then the woman was forced to give up the keys, +and the peasant unlocked the closet. The parson ran out as fast as he +could, and the miller said: 'It was true; I saw the black rascal with my +own eyes.' The peasant, however, made off next morning by daybreak with +the three hundred talers. + +At home the small peasant gradually launched out; he built a beautiful +house, and the peasants said: 'The small peasant has certainly been to +the place where golden snow falls, and people carry the gold home in +shovels.' Then the small peasant was brought before the mayor, and +bidden to say from whence his wealth came. He answered: 'I sold my cow's +skin in the town, for three hundred talers.' When the peasants heard +that, they too wished to enjoy this great profit, and ran home, killed +all their cows, and stripped off their skins in order to sell them in +the town to the greatest advantage. The mayor, however, said: 'But my +servant must go first.' When she came to the merchant in the town, he +did not give her more than two talers for a skin, and when the others +came, he did not give them so much, and said: 'What can I do with all +these skins?' + +Then the peasants were vexed that the small peasant should have thus +outwitted them, wanted to take vengeance on him, and accused him of this +treachery before the mayor. The innocent little peasant was unanimously +sentenced to death, and was to be rolled into the water, in a barrel +pierced full of holes. He was led forth, and a priest was brought who +was to say a mass for his soul. The others were all obliged to retire to +a distance, and when the peasant looked at the priest, he recognized the +man who had been with the miller's wife. He said to him: 'I set you free +from the closet, set me free from the barrel.' At this same moment up +came, with a flock of sheep, the very shepherd whom the peasant knew had +long been wishing to be mayor, so he cried with all his might: 'No, I +will not do it; if the whole world insists on it, I will not do it!' The +shepherd hearing that, came up to him, and asked: 'What are you about? +What is it that you will not do?' The peasant said: 'They want to make +me mayor, if I will but put myself in the barrel, but I will not do it.' +The shepherd said: 'If nothing more than that is needful in order to be +mayor, I would get into the barrel at once.' The peasant said: 'If you +will get in, you will be mayor.' The shepherd was willing, and got in, +and the peasant shut the top down on him; then he took the shepherd's +flock for himself, and drove it away. The parson went to the crowd, +and declared that the mass had been said. Then they came and rolled the +barrel towards the water. When the barrel began to roll, the shepherd +cried: 'I am quite willing to be mayor.' They believed no otherwise than +that it was the peasant who was saying this, and answered: 'That is +what we intend, but first you shall look about you a little down below +there,' and they rolled the barrel down into the water. + +After that the peasants went home, and as they were entering the +village, the small peasant also came quietly in, driving a flock of +sheep and looking quite contented. Then the peasants were astonished, +and said: 'Peasant, from whence do you come? Have you come out of the +water?' 'Yes, truly,' replied the peasant, 'I sank deep, deep down, +until at last I got to the bottom; I pushed the bottom out of the +barrel, and crept out, and there were pretty meadows on which a number +of lambs were feeding, and from thence I brought this flock away with +me.' Said the peasants: 'Are there any more there?' 'Oh, yes,' said he, +'more than I could want.' Then the peasants made up their minds that +they too would fetch some sheep for themselves, a flock apiece, but the +mayor said: 'I come first.' So they went to the water together, and just +then there were some of the small fleecy clouds in the blue sky, which +are called little lambs, and they were reflected in the water, whereupon +the peasants cried: 'We already see the sheep down below!' The mayor +pressed forward and said: 'I will go down first, and look about me, and +if things promise well I'll call you.' So he jumped in; splash! went +the water; it sounded as if he were calling them, and the whole crowd +plunged in after him as one man. Then the entire village was dead, and +the small peasant, as sole heir, became a rich man. + + + + +FREDERICK AND CATHERINE + +There was once a man called Frederick: he had a wife whose name was +Catherine, and they had not long been married. One day Frederick said. +'Kate! I am going to work in the fields; when I come back I shall be +hungry so let me have something nice cooked, and a good draught of ale.' +'Very well,' said she, 'it shall all be ready.' When dinner-time drew +nigh, Catherine took a nice steak, which was all the meat she had, and +put it on the fire to fry. The steak soon began to look brown, and to +crackle in the pan; and Catherine stood by with a fork and turned it: +then she said to herself, 'The steak is almost ready, I may as well go +to the cellar for the ale.' So she left the pan on the fire and took a +large jug and went into the cellar and tapped the ale cask. The beer ran +into the jug and Catherine stood looking on. At last it popped into her +head, 'The dog is not shut up--he may be running away with the steak; +that's well thought of.' So up she ran from the cellar; and sure enough +the rascally cur had got the steak in his mouth, and was making off with +it. + +Away ran Catherine, and away ran the dog across the field: but he ran +faster than she, and stuck close to the steak. 'It's all gone, and "what +can't be cured must be endured",' said Catherine. So she turned round; +and as she had run a good way and was tired, she walked home leisurely +to cool herself. + +Now all this time the ale was running too, for Catherine had not turned +the cock; and when the jug was full the liquor ran upon the floor till +the cask was empty. When she got to the cellar stairs she saw what had +happened. 'My stars!' said she, 'what shall I do to keep Frederick from +seeing all this slopping about?' So she thought a while; and at last +remembered that there was a sack of fine meal bought at the last fair, +and that if she sprinkled this over the floor it would suck up the ale +nicely. 'What a lucky thing,' said she, 'that we kept that meal! we have +now a good use for it.' So away she went for it: but she managed to set +it down just upon the great jug full of beer, and upset it; and thus +all the ale that had been saved was set swimming on the floor also. 'Ah! +well,' said she, 'when one goes another may as well follow.' Then she +strewed the meal all about the cellar, and was quite pleased with her +cleverness, and said, 'How very neat and clean it looks!' + +At noon Frederick came home. 'Now, wife,' cried he, 'what have you for +dinner?' 'O Frederick!' answered she, 'I was cooking you a steak; but +while I went down to draw the ale, the dog ran away with it; and while +I ran after him, the ale ran out; and when I went to dry up the ale +with the sack of meal that we got at the fair, I upset the jug: but the +cellar is now quite dry, and looks so clean!' 'Kate, Kate,' said he, +'how could you do all this?' Why did you leave the steak to fry, and the +ale to run, and then spoil all the meal?' 'Why, Frederick,' said she, 'I +did not know I was doing wrong; you should have told me before.' + +The husband thought to himself, 'If my wife manages matters thus, I must +look sharp myself.' Now he had a good deal of gold in the house: so he +said to Catherine, 'What pretty yellow buttons these are! I shall put +them into a box and bury them in the garden; but take care that you +never go near or meddle with them.' 'No, Frederick,' said she, 'that +I never will.' As soon as he was gone, there came by some pedlars with +earthenware plates and dishes, and they asked her whether she would buy. +'Oh dear me, I should like to buy very much, but I have no money: if +you had any use for yellow buttons, I might deal with you.' 'Yellow +buttons!' said they: 'let us have a look at them.' 'Go into the garden +and dig where I tell you, and you will find the yellow buttons: I dare +not go myself.' So the rogues went: and when they found what these +yellow buttons were, they took them all away, and left her plenty of +plates and dishes. Then she set them all about the house for a show: +and when Frederick came back, he cried out, 'Kate, what have you been +doing?' 'See,' said she, 'I have bought all these with your yellow +buttons: but I did not touch them myself; the pedlars went themselves +and dug them up.' 'Wife, wife,' said Frederick, 'what a pretty piece of +work you have made! those yellow buttons were all my money: how came you +to do such a thing?' 'Why,' answered she, 'I did not know there was any +harm in it; you should have told me.' + +Catherine stood musing for a while, and at last said to her husband, +'Hark ye, Frederick, we will soon get the gold back: let us run after +the thieves.' 'Well, we will try,' answered he; 'but take some butter +and cheese with you, that we may have something to eat by the way.' +'Very well,' said she; and they set out: and as Frederick walked the +fastest, he left his wife some way behind. 'It does not matter,' thought +she: 'when we turn back, I shall be so much nearer home than he.' + +Presently she came to the top of a hill, down the side of which there +was a road so narrow that the cart wheels always chafed the trees +on each side as they passed. 'Ah, see now,' said she, 'how they have +bruised and wounded those poor trees; they will never get well.' So she +took pity on them, and made use of the butter to grease them all, so +that the wheels might not hurt them so much. While she was doing this +kind office one of her cheeses fell out of the basket, and rolled down +the hill. Catherine looked, but could not see where it had gone; so she +said, 'Well, I suppose the other will go the same way and find you; he +has younger legs than I have.' Then she rolled the other cheese after +it; and away it went, nobody knows where, down the hill. But she said +she supposed that they knew the road, and would follow her, and she +could not stay there all day waiting for them. + +At last she overtook Frederick, who desired her to give him something to +eat. Then she gave him the dry bread. 'Where are the butter and cheese?' +said he. 'Oh!' answered she, 'I used the butter to grease those poor +trees that the wheels chafed so: and one of the cheeses ran away so I +sent the other after it to find it, and I suppose they are both on +the road together somewhere.' 'What a goose you are to do such silly +things!' said the husband. 'How can you say so?' said she; 'I am sure +you never told me not.' + +They ate the dry bread together; and Frederick said, 'Kate, I hope you +locked the door safe when you came away.' 'No,' answered she, 'you did +not tell me.' 'Then go home, and do it now before we go any farther,' +said Frederick, 'and bring with you something to eat.' + +Catherine did as he told her, and thought to herself by the way, +'Frederick wants something to eat; but I don't think he is very fond of +butter and cheese: I'll bring him a bag of fine nuts, and the vinegar, +for I have often seen him take some.' + +When she reached home, she bolted the back door, but the front door she +took off the hinges, and said, 'Frederick told me to lock the door, but +surely it can nowhere be so safe if I take it with me.' So she took +her time by the way; and when she overtook her husband she cried +out, 'There, Frederick, there is the door itself, you may watch it as +carefully as you please.' 'Alas! alas!' said he, 'what a clever wife I +have! I sent you to make the house fast, and you take the door away, so +that everybody may go in and out as they please--however, as you have +brought the door, you shall carry it about with you for your pains.' +'Very well,' answered she, 'I'll carry the door; but I'll not carry the +nuts and vinegar bottle also--that would be too much of a load; so if +you please, I'll fasten them to the door.' + +Frederick of course made no objection to that plan, and they set off +into the wood to look for the thieves; but they could not find them: and +when it grew dark, they climbed up into a tree to spend the night there. +Scarcely were they up, than who should come by but the very rogues they +were looking for. They were in truth great rascals, and belonged to that +class of people who find things before they are lost; they were tired; +so they sat down and made a fire under the very tree where Frederick and +Catherine were. Frederick slipped down on the other side, and picked up +some stones. Then he climbed up again, and tried to hit the thieves on +the head with them: but they only said, 'It must be near morning, for +the wind shakes the fir-apples down.' + +Catherine, who had the door on her shoulder, began to be very tired; +but she thought it was the nuts upon it that were so heavy: so she said +softly, 'Frederick, I must let the nuts go.' 'No,' answered he, 'not +now, they will discover us.' 'I can't help that: they must go.' 'Well, +then, make haste and throw them down, if you will.' Then away rattled +the nuts down among the boughs and one of the thieves cried, 'Bless me, +it is hailing.' + +A little while after, Catherine thought the door was still very heavy: +so she whispered to Frederick, 'I must throw the vinegar down.' 'Pray +don't,' answered he, 'it will discover us.' 'I can't help that,' said +she, 'go it must.' So she poured all the vinegar down; and the thieves +said, 'What a heavy dew there is!' + +At last it popped into Catherine's head that it was the door itself that +was so heavy all the time: so she whispered, 'Frederick, I must throw +the door down soon.' But he begged and prayed her not to do so, for he +was sure it would betray them. 'Here goes, however,' said she: and down +went the door with such a clatter upon the thieves, that they cried +out 'Murder!' and not knowing what was coming, ran away as fast as they +could, and left all the gold. So when Frederick and Catherine came down, +there they found all their money safe and sound. + + + + +SWEETHEART ROLAND + +There was once upon a time a woman who was a real witch and had two +daughters, one ugly and wicked, and this one she loved because she was +her own daughter, and one beautiful and good, and this one she hated, +because she was her stepdaughter. The stepdaughter once had a pretty +apron, which the other fancied so much that she became envious, and +told her mother that she must and would have that apron. 'Be quiet, my +child,' said the old woman, 'and you shall have it. Your stepsister has +long deserved death; tonight when she is asleep I will come and cut her +head off. Only be careful that you are at the far side of the bed, and +push her well to the front.' It would have been all over with the poor +girl if she had not just then been standing in a corner, and heard +everything. All day long she dared not go out of doors, and when bedtime +had come, the witch's daughter got into bed first, so as to lie at the +far side, but when she was asleep, the other pushed her gently to the +front, and took for herself the place at the back, close by the wall. In +the night, the old woman came creeping in, she held an axe in her right +hand, and felt with her left to see if anyone were lying at the outside, +and then she grasped the axe with both hands, and cut her own child's +head off. + +When she had gone away, the girl got up and went to her sweetheart, who +was called Roland, and knocked at his door. When he came out, she said +to him: 'Listen, dearest Roland, we must fly in all haste; my stepmother +wanted to kill me, but has struck her own child. When daylight comes, +and she sees what she has done, we shall be lost.' 'But,' said Roland, +'I counsel you first to take away her magic wand, or we cannot escape +if she pursues us.' The maiden fetched the magic wand, and she took the +dead girl's head and dropped three drops of blood on the ground, one in +front of the bed, one in the kitchen, and one on the stairs. Then she +hurried away with her lover. + +When the old witch got up next morning, she called her daughter, and +wanted to give her the apron, but she did not come. Then the witch +cried: 'Where are you?' 'Here, on the stairs, I am sweeping,' answered +the first drop of blood. The old woman went out, but saw no one on the +stairs, and cried again: 'Where are you?' 'Here in the kitchen, I am +warming myself,' cried the second drop of blood. She went into the +kitchen, but found no one. Then she cried again: 'Where are you?' 'Ah, +here in the bed, I am sleeping,' cried the third drop of blood. She went +into the room to the bed. What did she see there? Her own child, +whose head she had cut off, bathed in her blood. The witch fell into +a passion, sprang to the window, and as she could look forth quite far +into the world, she perceived her stepdaughter hurrying away with her +sweetheart Roland. 'That shall not help you,' cried she, 'even if you +have got a long way off, you shall still not escape me.' She put on her +many-league boots, in which she covered an hour's walk at every step, +and it was not long before she overtook them. The girl, however, when +she saw the old woman striding towards her, changed, with her magic +wand, her sweetheart Roland into a lake, and herself into a duck +swimming in the middle of it. The witch placed herself on the shore, +threw breadcrumbs in, and went to endless trouble to entice the duck; +but the duck did not let herself be enticed, and the old woman had to +go home at night as she had come. At this the girl and her sweetheart +Roland resumed their natural shapes again, and they walked on the whole +night until daybreak. Then the maiden changed herself into a beautiful +flower which stood in the midst of a briar hedge, and her sweetheart +Roland into a fiddler. It was not long before the witch came striding up +towards them, and said to the musician: 'Dear musician, may I pluck that +beautiful flower for myself?' 'Oh, yes,' he replied, 'I will play to +you while you do it.' As she was hastily creeping into the hedge and was +just going to pluck the flower, knowing perfectly well who the flower +was, he began to play, and whether she would or not, she was forced +to dance, for it was a magical dance. The faster he played, the more +violent springs was she forced to make, and the thorns tore her clothes +from her body, and pricked her and wounded her till she bled, and as he +did not stop, she had to dance till she lay dead on the ground. + +As they were now set free, Roland said: 'Now I will go to my father and +arrange for the wedding.' 'Then in the meantime I will stay here and +wait for you,' said the girl, 'and that no one may recognize me, I will +change myself into a red stone landmark.' Then Roland went away, and the +girl stood like a red landmark in the field and waited for her beloved. +But when Roland got home, he fell into the snares of another, who so +fascinated him that he forgot the maiden. The poor girl remained there a +long time, but at length, as he did not return at all, she was sad, and +changed herself into a flower, and thought: 'Someone will surely come +this way, and trample me down.' + +It befell, however, that a shepherd kept his sheep in the field and saw +the flower, and as it was so pretty, plucked it, took it with him, and +laid it away in his chest. From that time forth, strange things happened +in the shepherd's house. When he arose in the morning, all the work was +already done, the room was swept, the table and benches cleaned, the +fire in the hearth was lighted, and the water was fetched, and at noon, +when he came home, the table was laid, and a good dinner served. He +could not conceive how this came to pass, for he never saw a human being +in his house, and no one could have concealed himself in it. He was +certainly pleased with this good attendance, but still at last he was so +afraid that he went to a wise woman and asked for her advice. The wise +woman said: 'There is some enchantment behind it, listen very early some +morning if anything is moving in the room, and if you see anything, no +matter what it is, throw a white cloth over it, and then the magic will +be stopped.' + +The shepherd did as she bade him, and next morning just as day dawned, +he saw the chest open, and the flower come out. Swiftly he +sprang towards it, and threw a white cloth over it. Instantly the +transformation came to an end, and a beautiful girl stood before him, +who admitted to him that she had been the flower, and that up to this +time she had attended to his house-keeping. She told him her story, +and as she pleased him he asked her if she would marry him, but she +answered: 'No,' for she wanted to remain faithful to her sweetheart +Roland, although he had deserted her. Nevertheless, she promised not to +go away, but to continue keeping house for the shepherd. + +And now the time drew near when Roland's wedding was to be celebrated, +and then, according to an old custom in the country, it was announced +that all the girls were to be present at it, and sing in honour of the +bridal pair. When the faithful maiden heard of this, she grew so sad +that she thought her heart would break, and she would not go thither, +but the other girls came and took her. When it came to her turn to sing, +she stepped back, until at last she was the only one left, and then she +could not refuse. But when she began her song, and it reached Roland's +ears, he sprang up and cried: 'I know the voice, that is the true +bride, I will have no other!' Everything he had forgotten, and which had +vanished from his mind, had suddenly come home again to his heart. Then +the faithful maiden held her wedding with her sweetheart Roland, and +grief came to an end and joy began. + + + + +SNOWDROP + +It was the middle of winter, when the broad flakes of snow were falling +around, that the queen of a country many thousand miles off sat working +at her window. The frame of the window was made of fine black ebony, and +as she sat looking out upon the snow, she pricked her finger, and three +drops of blood fell upon it. Then she gazed thoughtfully upon the red +drops that sprinkled the white snow, and said, 'Would that my little +daughter may be as white as that snow, as red as that blood, and as +black as this ebony windowframe!' And so the little girl really did grow +up; her skin was as white as snow, her cheeks as rosy as the blood, and +her hair as black as ebony; and she was called Snowdrop. + +But this queen died; and the king soon married another wife, who became +queen, and was very beautiful, but so vain that she could not bear +to think that anyone could be handsomer than she was. She had a fairy +looking-glass, to which she used to go, and then she would gaze upon +herself in it, and say: + + 'Tell me, glass, tell me true! + Of all the ladies in the land, + Who is fairest, tell me, who?' + +And the glass had always answered: + + 'Thou, queen, art the fairest in all the land.' + +But Snowdrop grew more and more beautiful; and when she was seven years +old she was as bright as the day, and fairer than the queen herself. +Then the glass one day answered the queen, when she went to look in it +as usual: + + 'Thou, queen, art fair, and beauteous to see, + But Snowdrop is lovelier far than thee!' + +When she heard this she turned pale with rage and envy, and called to +one of her servants, and said, 'Take Snowdrop away into the wide wood, +that I may never see her any more.' Then the servant led her away; but +his heart melted when Snowdrop begged him to spare her life, and he +said, 'I will not hurt you, thou pretty child.' So he left her by +herself; and though he thought it most likely that the wild beasts would +tear her in pieces, he felt as if a great weight were taken off his +heart when he had made up his mind not to kill her but to leave her to +her fate, with the chance of someone finding and saving her. + +Then poor Snowdrop wandered along through the wood in great fear; and +the wild beasts roared about her, but none did her any harm. In the +evening she came to a cottage among the hills, and went in to rest, for +her little feet would carry her no further. Everything was spruce and +neat in the cottage: on the table was spread a white cloth, and there +were seven little plates, seven little loaves, and seven little glasses +with wine in them; and seven knives and forks laid in order; and by +the wall stood seven little beds. As she was very hungry, she picked +a little piece of each loaf and drank a very little wine out of each +glass; and after that she thought she would lie down and rest. So she +tried all the little beds; but one was too long, and another was too +short, till at last the seventh suited her: and there she laid herself +down and went to sleep. + +By and by in came the masters of the cottage. Now they were seven little +dwarfs, that lived among the mountains, and dug and searched for gold. +They lighted up their seven lamps, and saw at once that all was not +right. The first said, 'Who has been sitting on my stool?' The second, +'Who has been eating off my plate?' The third, 'Who has been picking my +bread?' The fourth, 'Who has been meddling with my spoon?' The fifth, +'Who has been handling my fork?' The sixth, 'Who has been cutting with +my knife?' The seventh, 'Who has been drinking my wine?' Then the first +looked round and said, 'Who has been lying on my bed?' And the rest came +running to him, and everyone cried out that somebody had been upon his +bed. But the seventh saw Snowdrop, and called all his brethren to come +and see her; and they cried out with wonder and astonishment and brought +their lamps to look at her, and said, 'Good heavens! what a lovely child +she is!' And they were very glad to see her, and took care not to wake +her; and the seventh dwarf slept an hour with each of the other dwarfs +in turn, till the night was gone. + +In the morning Snowdrop told them all her story; and they pitied her, +and said if she would keep all things in order, and cook and wash and +knit and spin for them, she might stay where she was, and they would +take good care of her. Then they went out all day long to their work, +seeking for gold and silver in the mountains: but Snowdrop was left at +home; and they warned her, and said, 'The queen will soon find out where +you are, so take care and let no one in.' + +But the queen, now that she thought Snowdrop was dead, believed that she +must be the handsomest lady in the land; and she went to her glass and +said: + + 'Tell me, glass, tell me true! + Of all the ladies in the land, + Who is fairest, tell me, who?' + +And the glass answered: + + 'Thou, queen, art the fairest in all this land: + But over the hills, in the greenwood shade, + Where the seven dwarfs their dwelling have made, + There Snowdrop is hiding her head; and she + Is lovelier far, O queen! than thee.' + +Then the queen was very much frightened; for she knew that the glass +always spoke the truth, and was sure that the servant had betrayed her. +And she could not bear to think that anyone lived who was more beautiful +than she was; so she dressed herself up as an old pedlar, and went +her way over the hills, to the place where the dwarfs dwelt. Then she +knocked at the door, and cried, 'Fine wares to sell!' Snowdrop looked +out at the window, and said, 'Good day, good woman! what have you to +sell?' 'Good wares, fine wares,' said she; 'laces and bobbins of all +colours.' 'I will let the old lady in; she seems to be a very good +sort of body,' thought Snowdrop, as she ran down and unbolted the door. +'Bless me!' said the old woman, 'how badly your stays are laced! Let me +lace them up with one of my nice new laces.' Snowdrop did not dream of +any mischief; so she stood before the old woman; but she set to work +so nimbly, and pulled the lace so tight, that Snowdrop's breath was +stopped, and she fell down as if she were dead. 'There's an end to all +thy beauty,' said the spiteful queen, and went away home. + +In the evening the seven dwarfs came home; and I need not say how +grieved they were to see their faithful Snowdrop stretched out upon the +ground, as if she was quite dead. However, they lifted her up, and when +they found what ailed her, they cut the lace; and in a little time she +began to breathe, and very soon came to life again. Then they said, 'The +old woman was the queen herself; take care another time, and let no one +in when we are away.' + +When the queen got home, she went straight to her glass, and spoke to it +as before; but to her great grief it still said: + + 'Thou, queen, art the fairest in all this land: + But over the hills, in the greenwood shade, + Where the seven dwarfs their dwelling have made, + There Snowdrop is hiding her head; and she + Is lovelier far, O queen! than thee.' + +Then the blood ran cold in her heart with spite and malice, to see that +Snowdrop still lived; and she dressed herself up again, but in quite +another dress from the one she wore before, and took with her a poisoned +comb. When she reached the dwarfs' cottage, she knocked at the door, and +cried, 'Fine wares to sell!' But Snowdrop said, 'I dare not let anyone +in.' Then the queen said, 'Only look at my beautiful combs!' and gave +her the poisoned one. And it looked so pretty, that she took it up and +put it into her hair to try it; but the moment it touched her head, +the poison was so powerful that she fell down senseless. 'There you may +lie,' said the queen, and went her way. But by good luck the dwarfs +came in very early that evening; and when they saw Snowdrop lying on +the ground, they thought what had happened, and soon found the poisoned +comb. And when they took it away she got well, and told them all that +had passed; and they warned her once more not to open the door to +anyone. + +Meantime the queen went home to her glass, and shook with rage when she +read the very same answer as before; and she said, 'Snowdrop shall die, +if it cost me my life.' So she went by herself into her chamber, and got +ready a poisoned apple: the outside looked very rosy and tempting, but +whoever tasted it was sure to die. Then she dressed herself up as a +peasant's wife, and travelled over the hills to the dwarfs' cottage, +and knocked at the door; but Snowdrop put her head out of the window and +said, 'I dare not let anyone in, for the dwarfs have told me not.' 'Do +as you please,' said the old woman, 'but at any rate take this pretty +apple; I will give it you.' 'No,' said Snowdrop, 'I dare not take it.' +'You silly girl!' answered the other, 'what are you afraid of? Do you +think it is poisoned? Come! do you eat one part, and I will eat the +other.' Now the apple was so made up that one side was good, though the +other side was poisoned. Then Snowdrop was much tempted to taste, for +the apple looked so very nice; and when she saw the old woman eat, she +could wait no longer. But she had scarcely put the piece into her mouth, +when she fell down dead upon the ground. 'This time nothing will save +thee,' said the queen; and she went home to her glass, and at last it +said: + + 'Thou, queen, art the fairest of all the fair.' + +And then her wicked heart was glad, and as happy as such a heart could +be. + +When evening came, and the dwarfs had gone home, they found Snowdrop +lying on the ground: no breath came from her lips, and they were afraid +that she was quite dead. They lifted her up, and combed her hair, and +washed her face with wine and water; but all was in vain, for the little +girl seemed quite dead. So they laid her down upon a bier, and all seven +watched and bewailed her three whole days; and then they thought they +would bury her: but her cheeks were still rosy; and her face looked just +as it did while she was alive; so they said, 'We will never bury her in +the cold ground.' And they made a coffin of glass, so that they might +still look at her, and wrote upon it in golden letters what her name +was, and that she was a king's daughter. And the coffin was set among +the hills, and one of the dwarfs always sat by it and watched. And the +birds of the air came too, and bemoaned Snowdrop; and first of all came +an owl, and then a raven, and at last a dove, and sat by her side. + +And thus Snowdrop lay for a long, long time, and still only looked as +though she was asleep; for she was even now as white as snow, and as red +as blood, and as black as ebony. At last a prince came and called at the +dwarfs' house; and he saw Snowdrop, and read what was written in golden +letters. Then he offered the dwarfs money, and prayed and besought them +to let him take her away; but they said, 'We will not part with her for +all the gold in the world.' At last, however, they had pity on him, and +gave him the coffin; but the moment he lifted it up to carry it home +with him, the piece of apple fell from between her lips, and Snowdrop +awoke, and said, 'Where am I?' And the prince said, 'Thou art quite safe +with me.' + +Then he told her all that had happened, and said, 'I love you far better +than all the world; so come with me to my father's palace, and you shall +be my wife.' And Snowdrop consented, and went home with the prince; +and everything was got ready with great pomp and splendour for their +wedding. + +To the feast was asked, among the rest, Snowdrop's old enemy the queen; +and as she was dressing herself in fine rich clothes, she looked in the +glass and said: + + 'Tell me, glass, tell me true! + Of all the ladies in the land, + Who is fairest, tell me, who?' + +And the glass answered: + + 'Thou, lady, art loveliest here, I ween; + But lovelier far is the new-made queen.' + +When she heard this she started with rage; but her envy and curiosity +were so great, that she could not help setting out to see the bride. And +when she got there, and saw that it was no other than Snowdrop, who, as +she thought, had been dead a long while, she choked with rage, and fell +down and died: but Snowdrop and the prince lived and reigned happily +over that land many, many years; and sometimes they went up into the +mountains, and paid a visit to the little dwarfs, who had been so kind +to Snowdrop in her time of need. + + + + +THE PINK + +There was once upon a time a queen to whom God had given no children. +Every morning she went into the garden and prayed to God in heaven to +bestow on her a son or a daughter. Then an angel from heaven came to her +and said: 'Be at rest, you shall have a son with the power of wishing, +so that whatsoever in the world he wishes for, that shall he have.' Then +she went to the king, and told him the joyful tidings, and when the time +was come she gave birth to a son, and the king was filled with gladness. + +Every morning she went with the child to the garden where the wild +beasts were kept, and washed herself there in a clear stream. It +happened once when the child was a little older, that it was lying in +her arms and she fell asleep. Then came the old cook, who knew that the +child had the power of wishing, and stole it away, and he took a hen, +and cut it in pieces, and dropped some of its blood on the queen's apron +and on her dress. Then he carried the child away to a secret place, +where a nurse was obliged to suckle it, and he ran to the king and +accused the queen of having allowed her child to be taken from her by +the wild beasts. When the king saw the blood on her apron, he believed +this, fell into such a passion that he ordered a high tower to be built, +in which neither sun nor moon could be seen and had his wife put into +it, and walled up. Here she was to stay for seven years without meat +or drink, and die of hunger. But God sent two angels from heaven in the +shape of white doves, which flew to her twice a day, and carried her +food until the seven years were over. + +The cook, however, thought to himself: 'If the child has the power of +wishing, and I am here, he might very easily get me into trouble.' So +he left the palace and went to the boy, who was already big enough to +speak, and said to him: 'Wish for a beautiful palace for yourself with +a garden, and all else that pertains to it.' Scarcely were the words out +of the boy's mouth, when everything was there that he had wished for. +After a while the cook said to him: 'It is not well for you to be so +alone, wish for a pretty girl as a companion.' Then the king's son +wished for one, and she immediately stood before him, and was more +beautiful than any painter could have painted her. The two played +together, and loved each other with all their hearts, and the old cook +went out hunting like a nobleman. The thought occurred to him, however, +that the king's son might some day wish to be with his father, and thus +bring him into great peril. So he went out and took the maiden aside, +and said: 'Tonight when the boy is asleep, go to his bed and plunge this +knife into his heart, and bring me his heart and tongue, and if you do +not do it, you shall lose your life.' Thereupon he went away, and when +he returned next day she had not done it, and said: 'Why should I shed +the blood of an innocent boy who has never harmed anyone?' The cook once +more said: 'If you do not do it, it shall cost you your own life.' When +he had gone away, she had a little hind brought to her, and ordered her +to be killed, and took her heart and tongue, and laid them on a plate, +and when she saw the old man coming, she said to the boy: 'Lie down in +your bed, and draw the clothes over you.' Then the wicked wretch came in +and said: 'Where are the boy's heart and tongue?' The girl reached the +plate to him, but the king's son threw off the quilt, and said: 'You old +sinner, why did you want to kill me? Now will I pronounce thy sentence. +You shall become a black poodle and have a gold collar round your neck, +and shall eat burning coals, till the flames burst forth from your +throat.' And when he had spoken these words, the old man was changed +into a poodle dog, and had a gold collar round his neck, and the cooks +were ordered to bring up some live coals, and these he ate, until the +flames broke forth from his throat. The king's son remained there a +short while longer, and he thought of his mother, and wondered if she +were still alive. At length he said to the maiden: 'I will go home to my +own country; if you will go with me, I will provide for you.' 'Ah,' +she replied, 'the way is so long, and what shall I do in a strange land +where I am unknown?' As she did not seem quite willing, and as they +could not be parted from each other, he wished that she might be changed +into a beautiful pink, and took her with him. Then he went away to his +own country, and the poodle had to run after him. He went to the tower +in which his mother was confined, and as it was so high, he wished for +a ladder which would reach up to the very top. Then he mounted up and +looked inside, and cried: 'Beloved mother, Lady Queen, are you still +alive, or are you dead?' She answered: 'I have just eaten, and am still +satisfied,' for she thought the angels were there. Said he: 'I am your +dear son, whom the wild beasts were said to have torn from your arms; +but I am alive still, and will soon set you free.' Then he descended +again, and went to his father, and caused himself to be announced as a +strange huntsman, and asked if he could offer him service. The king said +yes, if he was skilful and could get game for him, he should come to +him, but that deer had never taken up their quarters in any part of the +district or country. Then the huntsman promised to procure as much game +for him as he could possibly use at the royal table. So he summoned all +the huntsmen together, and bade them go out into the forest with him. +And he went with them and made them form a great circle, open at one end +where he stationed himself, and began to wish. Two hundred deer and more +came running inside the circle at once, and the huntsmen shot them. +Then they were all placed on sixty country carts, and driven home to the +king, and for once he was able to deck his table with game, after having +had none at all for years. + +Now the king felt great joy at this, and commanded that his entire +household should eat with him next day, and made a great feast. When +they were all assembled together, he said to the huntsman: 'As you are +so clever, you shall sit by me.' He replied: 'Lord King, your majesty +must excuse me, I am a poor huntsman.' But the king insisted on it, +and said: 'You shall sit by me,' until he did it. Whilst he was sitting +there, he thought of his dearest mother, and wished that one of the +king's principal servants would begin to speak of her, and would ask how +it was faring with the queen in the tower, and if she were alive still, +or had perished. Hardly had he formed the wish than the marshal began, +and said: 'Your majesty, we live joyously here, but how is the queen +living in the tower? Is she still alive, or has she died?' But the king +replied: 'She let my dear son be torn to pieces by wild beasts; I will +not have her named.' Then the huntsman arose and said: 'Gracious lord +father she is alive still, and I am her son, and I was not carried away +by wild beasts, but by that wretch the old cook, who tore me from her +arms when she was asleep, and sprinkled her apron with the blood of a +chicken.' Thereupon he took the dog with the golden collar, and said: +'That is the wretch!' and caused live coals to be brought, and these the +dog was compelled to devour before the sight of all, until flames burst +forth from its throat. On this the huntsman asked the king if he would +like to see the dog in his true shape, and wished him back into the form +of the cook, in the which he stood immediately, with his white apron, +and his knife by his side. When the king saw him he fell into a passion, +and ordered him to be cast into the deepest dungeon. Then the huntsman +spoke further and said: 'Father, will you see the maiden who brought me +up so tenderly and who was afterwards to murder me, but did not do it, +though her own life depended on it?' The king replied: 'Yes, I would +like to see her.' The son said: 'Most gracious father, I will show her +to you in the form of a beautiful flower,' and he thrust his hand into +his pocket and brought forth the pink, and placed it on the royal table, +and it was so beautiful that the king had never seen one to equal it. +Then the son said: 'Now will I show her to you in her own form,' and +wished that she might become a maiden, and she stood there looking so +beautiful that no painter could have made her look more so. + +And the king sent two waiting-maids and two attendants into the tower, +to fetch the queen and bring her to the royal table. But when she was +led in she ate nothing, and said: 'The gracious and merciful God who has +supported me in the tower, will soon set me free.' She lived three days +more, and then died happily, and when she was buried, the two white +doves which had brought her food to the tower, and were angels of +heaven, followed her body and seated themselves on her grave. The aged +king ordered the cook to be torn in four pieces, but grief consumed the +king's own heart, and he soon died. His son married the beautiful maiden +whom he had brought with him as a flower in his pocket, and whether they +are still alive or not, is known to God. + + + + +CLEVER ELSIE + +There was once a man who had a daughter who was called Clever Elsie. And +when she had grown up her father said: 'We will get her married.' 'Yes,' +said the mother, 'if only someone would come who would have her.' At +length a man came from a distance and wooed her, who was called Hans; +but he stipulated that Clever Elsie should be really smart. 'Oh,' said +the father, 'she has plenty of good sense'; and the mother said: 'Oh, +she can see the wind coming up the street, and hear the flies coughing.' +'Well,' said Hans, 'if she is not really smart, I won't have her.' When +they were sitting at dinner and had eaten, the mother said: 'Elsie, go +into the cellar and fetch some beer.' Then Clever Elsie took the pitcher +from the wall, went into the cellar, and tapped the lid briskly as she +went, so that the time might not appear long. When she was below she +fetched herself a chair, and set it before the barrel so that she had +no need to stoop, and did not hurt her back or do herself any unexpected +injury. Then she placed the can before her, and turned the tap, and +while the beer was running she would not let her eyes be idle, but +looked up at the wall, and after much peering here and there, saw a +pick-axe exactly above her, which the masons had accidentally left +there. + +Then Clever Elsie began to weep and said: 'If I get Hans, and we have +a child, and he grows big, and we send him into the cellar here to draw +beer, then the pick-axe will fall on his head and kill him.' Then she +sat and wept and screamed with all the strength of her body, over the +misfortune which lay before her. Those upstairs waited for the drink, +but Clever Elsie still did not come. Then the woman said to the servant: +'Just go down into the cellar and see where Elsie is.' The maid went and +found her sitting in front of the barrel, screaming loudly. 'Elsie why +do you weep?' asked the maid. 'Ah,' she answered, 'have I not reason to +weep? If I get Hans, and we have a child, and he grows big, and has to +draw beer here, the pick-axe will perhaps fall on his head, and kill +him.' Then said the maid: 'What a clever Elsie we have!' and sat down +beside her and began loudly to weep over the misfortune. After a while, +as the maid did not come back, and those upstairs were thirsty for the +beer, the man said to the boy: 'Just go down into the cellar and see +where Elsie and the girl are.' The boy went down, and there sat Clever +Elsie and the girl both weeping together. Then he asked: 'Why are you +weeping?' 'Ah,' said Elsie, 'have I not reason to weep? If I get Hans, +and we have a child, and he grows big, and has to draw beer here, the +pick-axe will fall on his head and kill him.' Then said the boy: 'What +a clever Elsie we have!' and sat down by her, and likewise began to +howl loudly. Upstairs they waited for the boy, but as he still did not +return, the man said to the woman: 'Just go down into the cellar and see +where Elsie is!' The woman went down, and found all three in the midst +of their lamentations, and inquired what was the cause; then Elsie told +her also that her future child was to be killed by the pick-axe, when it +grew big and had to draw beer, and the pick-axe fell down. Then said the +mother likewise: 'What a clever Elsie we have!' and sat down and wept +with them. The man upstairs waited a short time, but as his wife did not +come back and his thirst grew ever greater, he said: 'I must go into the +cellar myself and see where Elsie is.' But when he got into the cellar, +and they were all sitting together crying, and he heard the reason, and +that Elsie's child was the cause, and the Elsie might perhaps bring one +into the world some day, and that he might be killed by the pick-axe, if +he should happen to be sitting beneath it, drawing beer just at the very +time when it fell down, he cried: 'Oh, what a clever Elsie!' and sat +down, and likewise wept with them. The bridegroom stayed upstairs alone +for a long time; then as no one would come back he thought: 'They must be +waiting for me below: I too must go there and see what they are about.' +When he got down, the five of them were sitting screaming and lamenting +quite piteously, each out-doing the other. 'What misfortune has happened +then?' asked he. 'Ah, dear Hans,' said Elsie, 'if we marry each other +and have a child, and he is big, and we perhaps send him here to draw +something to drink, then the pick-axe which has been left up there might +dash his brains out if it were to fall down, so have we not reason to +weep?' 'Come,' said Hans, 'more understanding than that is not needed +for my household, as you are such a clever Elsie, I will have you,' and +seized her hand, took her upstairs with him, and married her. + +After Hans had had her some time, he said: 'Wife, I am going out to work +and earn some money for us; go into the field and cut the corn that we +may have some bread.' 'Yes, dear Hans, I will do that.' After Hans had +gone away, she cooked herself some good broth and took it into the field +with her. When she came to the field she said to herself: 'What shall I +do; shall I cut first, or shall I eat first? Oh, I will eat first.' Then +she drank her cup of broth and when she was fully satisfied, she once +more said: 'What shall I do? Shall I cut first, or shall I sleep first? +I will sleep first.' Then she lay down among the corn and fell asleep. +Hans had been at home for a long time, but Elsie did not come; then said +he: 'What a clever Elsie I have; she is so industrious that she does not +even come home to eat.' But when evening came and she still stayed away, +Hans went out to see what she had cut, but nothing was cut, and she +was lying among the corn asleep. Then Hans hastened home and brought +a fowler's net with little bells and hung it round about her, and she +still went on sleeping. Then he ran home, shut the house-door, and sat +down in his chair and worked. At length, when it was quite dark, Clever +Elsie awoke and when she got up there was a jingling all round about +her, and the bells rang at each step which she took. Then she was +alarmed, and became uncertain whether she really was Clever Elsie or +not, and said: 'Is it I, or is it not I?' But she knew not what answer +to make to this, and stood for a time in doubt; at length she thought: +'I will go home and ask if it be I, or if it be not I, they will be sure +to know.' She ran to the door of her own house, but it was shut; then +she knocked at the window and cried: 'Hans, is Elsie within?' 'Yes,' +answered Hans, 'she is within.' Hereupon she was terrified, and said: +'Ah, heavens! Then it is not I,' and went to another door; but when the +people heard the jingling of the bells they would not open it, and she +could get in nowhere. Then she ran out of the village, and no one has +seen her since. + + + + +THE MISER IN THE BUSH + +A farmer had a faithful and diligent servant, who had worked hard for +him three years, without having been paid any wages. At last it came +into the man's head that he would not go on thus without pay any longer; +so he went to his master, and said, 'I have worked hard for you a long +time, I will trust to you to give me what I deserve to have for my +trouble.' The farmer was a sad miser, and knew that his man was very +simple-hearted; so he took out threepence, and gave him for every year's +service a penny. The poor fellow thought it was a great deal of money to +have, and said to himself, 'Why should I work hard, and live here on bad +fare any longer? I can now travel into the wide world, and make myself +merry.' With that he put his money into his purse, and set out, roaming +over hill and valley. + +As he jogged along over the fields, singing and dancing, a little dwarf +met him, and asked him what made him so merry. 'Why, what should make +me down-hearted?' said he; 'I am sound in health and rich in purse, what +should I care for? I have saved up my three years' earnings and have it +all safe in my pocket.' 'How much may it come to?' said the little man. +'Full threepence,' replied the countryman. 'I wish you would give them +to me,' said the other; 'I am very poor.' Then the man pitied him, and +gave him all he had; and the little dwarf said in return, 'As you have +such a kind honest heart, I will grant you three wishes--one for every +penny; so choose whatever you like.' Then the countryman rejoiced at +his good luck, and said, 'I like many things better than money: first, I +will have a bow that will bring down everything I shoot at; secondly, +a fiddle that will set everyone dancing that hears me play upon it; and +thirdly, I should like that everyone should grant what I ask.' The dwarf +said he should have his three wishes; so he gave him the bow and fiddle, +and went his way. + +Our honest friend journeyed on his way too; and if he was merry before, +he was now ten times more so. He had not gone far before he met an old +miser: close by them stood a tree, and on the topmost twig sat a thrush +singing away most joyfully. 'Oh, what a pretty bird!' said the miser; 'I +would give a great deal of money to have such a one.' 'If that's all,' +said the countryman, 'I will soon bring it down.' Then he took up his +bow, and down fell the thrush into the bushes at the foot of the tree. +The miser crept into the bush to find it; but directly he had got into +the middle, his companion took up his fiddle and played away, and the +miser began to dance and spring about, capering higher and higher in +the air. The thorns soon began to tear his clothes till they all hung +in rags about him, and he himself was all scratched and wounded, so that +the blood ran down. 'Oh, for heaven's sake!' cried the miser, 'Master! +master! pray let the fiddle alone. What have I done to deserve this?' +'Thou hast shaved many a poor soul close enough,' said the other; 'thou +art only meeting thy reward': so he played up another tune. Then the +miser began to beg and promise, and offered money for his liberty; but +he did not come up to the musician's price for some time, and he danced +him along brisker and brisker, and the miser bid higher and higher, till +at last he offered a round hundred of florins that he had in his purse, +and had just gained by cheating some poor fellow. When the countryman +saw so much money, he said, 'I will agree to your proposal.' So he took +the purse, put up his fiddle, and travelled on very pleased with his +bargain. + +Meanwhile the miser crept out of the bush half-naked and in a piteous +plight, and began to ponder how he should take his revenge, and serve +his late companion some trick. At last he went to the judge, and +complained that a rascal had robbed him of his money, and beaten him +into the bargain; and that the fellow who did it carried a bow at his +back and a fiddle hung round his neck. Then the judge sent out his +officers to bring up the accused wherever they should find him; and he +was soon caught and brought up to be tried. + +The miser began to tell his tale, and said he had been robbed of +his money. 'No, you gave it me for playing a tune to you.' said the +countryman; but the judge told him that was not likely, and cut the +matter short by ordering him off to the gallows. + +So away he was taken; but as he stood on the steps he said, 'My Lord +Judge, grant me one last request.' 'Anything but thy life,' replied the +other. 'No,' said he, 'I do not ask my life; only to let me play upon +my fiddle for the last time.' The miser cried out, 'Oh, no! no! for +heaven's sake don't listen to him! don't listen to him!' But the judge +said, 'It is only this once, he will soon have done.' The fact was, he +could not refuse the request, on account of the dwarf's third gift. + +Then the miser said, 'Bind me fast, bind me fast, for pity's sake.' But +the countryman seized his fiddle, and struck up a tune, and at the first +note judge, clerks, and jailer were in motion; all began capering, and +no one could hold the miser. At the second note the hangman let his +prisoner go, and danced also, and by the time he had played the first +bar of the tune, all were dancing together--judge, court, and miser, and +all the people who had followed to look on. At first the thing was merry +and pleasant enough; but when it had gone on a while, and there seemed +to be no end of playing or dancing, they began to cry out, and beg him +to leave off; but he stopped not a whit the more for their entreaties, +till the judge not only gave him his life, but promised to return him +the hundred florins. + +Then he called to the miser, and said, 'Tell us now, you vagabond, where +you got that gold, or I shall play on for your amusement only,' 'I stole +it,' said the miser in the presence of all the people; 'I acknowledge +that I stole it, and that you earned it fairly.' Then the countryman +stopped his fiddle, and left the miser to take his place at the gallows. + + + + +ASHPUTTEL + +The wife of a rich man fell sick; and when she felt that her end drew +nigh, she called her only daughter to her bed-side, and said, 'Always be +a good girl, and I will look down from heaven and watch over you.' Soon +afterwards she shut her eyes and died, and was buried in the garden; +and the little girl went every day to her grave and wept, and was always +good and kind to all about her. And the snow fell and spread a beautiful +white covering over the grave; but by the time the spring came, and the +sun had melted it away again, her father had married another wife. This +new wife had two daughters of her own, that she brought home with her; +they were fair in face but foul at heart, and it was now a sorry time +for the poor little girl. 'What does the good-for-nothing want in the +parlour?' said they; 'they who would eat bread should first earn it; +away with the kitchen-maid!' Then they took away her fine clothes, and +gave her an old grey frock to put on, and laughed at her, and turned her +into the kitchen. + +There she was forced to do hard work; to rise early before daylight, to +bring the water, to make the fire, to cook and to wash. Besides that, +the sisters plagued her in all sorts of ways, and laughed at her. In the +evening when she was tired, she had no bed to lie down on, but was made +to lie by the hearth among the ashes; and as this, of course, made her +always dusty and dirty, they called her Ashputtel. + +It happened once that the father was going to the fair, and asked his +wife's daughters what he should bring them. 'Fine clothes,' said the +first; 'Pearls and diamonds,' cried the second. 'Now, child,' said he +to his own daughter, 'what will you have?' 'The first twig, dear +father, that brushes against your hat when you turn your face to come +homewards,' said she. Then he bought for the first two the fine clothes +and pearls and diamonds they had asked for: and on his way home, as he +rode through a green copse, a hazel twig brushed against him, and almost +pushed off his hat: so he broke it off and brought it away; and when he +got home he gave it to his daughter. Then she took it, and went to +her mother's grave and planted it there; and cried so much that it was +watered with her tears; and there it grew and became a fine tree. Three +times every day she went to it and cried; and soon a little bird came +and built its nest upon the tree, and talked with her, and watched over +her, and brought her whatever she wished for. + +Now it happened that the king of that land held a feast, which was to +last three days; and out of those who came to it his son was to choose +a bride for himself. Ashputtel's two sisters were asked to come; so they +called her up, and said, 'Now, comb our hair, brush our shoes, and tie +our sashes for us, for we are going to dance at the king's feast.' +Then she did as she was told; but when all was done she could not help +crying, for she thought to herself, she should so have liked to have +gone with them to the ball; and at last she begged her mother very hard +to let her go. 'You, Ashputtel!' said she; 'you who have nothing to +wear, no clothes at all, and who cannot even dance--you want to go to +the ball? And when she kept on begging, she said at last, to get rid of +her, 'I will throw this dishful of peas into the ash-heap, and if in +two hours' time you have picked them all out, you shall go to the feast +too.' + +Then she threw the peas down among the ashes, but the little maiden ran +out at the back door into the garden, and cried out: + + 'Hither, hither, through the sky, + Turtle-doves and linnets, fly! + Blackbird, thrush, and chaffinch gay, + Hither, hither, haste away! + One and all come help me, quick! + Haste ye, haste ye!--pick, pick, pick!' + +Then first came two white doves, flying in at the kitchen window; next +came two turtle-doves; and after them came all the little birds under +heaven, chirping and fluttering in: and they flew down into the ashes. +And the little doves stooped their heads down and set to work, pick, +pick, pick; and then the others began to pick, pick, pick: and among +them all they soon picked out all the good grain, and put it into a dish +but left the ashes. Long before the end of the hour the work was quite +done, and all flew out again at the windows. + +Then Ashputtel brought the dish to her mother, overjoyed at the thought +that now she should go to the ball. But the mother said, 'No, no! you +slut, you have no clothes, and cannot dance; you shall not go.' And when +Ashputtel begged very hard to go, she said, 'If you can in one hour's +time pick two of those dishes of peas out of the ashes, you shall go +too.' And thus she thought she should at least get rid of her. So she +shook two dishes of peas into the ashes. + +But the little maiden went out into the garden at the back of the house, +and cried out as before: + + 'Hither, hither, through the sky, + Turtle-doves and linnets, fly! + Blackbird, thrush, and chaffinch gay, + Hither, hither, haste away! + One and all come help me, quick! + Haste ye, haste ye!--pick, pick, pick!' + +Then first came two white doves in at the kitchen window; next came two +turtle-doves; and after them came all the little birds under heaven, +chirping and hopping about. And they flew down into the ashes; and the +little doves put their heads down and set to work, pick, pick, pick; and +then the others began pick, pick, pick; and they put all the good grain +into the dishes, and left all the ashes. Before half an hour's time all +was done, and out they flew again. And then Ashputtel took the dishes to +her mother, rejoicing to think that she should now go to the ball. +But her mother said, 'It is all of no use, you cannot go; you have no +clothes, and cannot dance, and you would only put us to shame': and off +she went with her two daughters to the ball. + +Now when all were gone, and nobody left at home, Ashputtel went +sorrowfully and sat down under the hazel-tree, and cried out: + + 'Shake, shake, hazel-tree, + Gold and silver over me!' + +Then her friend the bird flew out of the tree, and brought a gold and +silver dress for her, and slippers of spangled silk; and she put them +on, and followed her sisters to the feast. But they did not know her, +and thought it must be some strange princess, she looked so fine and +beautiful in her rich clothes; and they never once thought of Ashputtel, +taking it for granted that she was safe at home in the dirt. + +The king's son soon came up to her, and took her by the hand and danced +with her, and no one else: and he never left her hand; but when anyone +else came to ask her to dance, he said, 'This lady is dancing with me.' + +Thus they danced till a late hour of the night; and then she wanted to +go home: and the king's son said, 'I shall go and take care of you to +your home'; for he wanted to see where the beautiful maiden lived. But +she slipped away from him, unawares, and ran off towards home; and as +the prince followed her, she jumped up into the pigeon-house and shut +the door. Then he waited till her father came home, and told him that +the unknown maiden, who had been at the feast, had hid herself in the +pigeon-house. But when they had broken open the door they found no one +within; and as they came back into the house, Ashputtel was lying, as +she always did, in her dirty frock by the ashes, and her dim little +lamp was burning in the chimney. For she had run as quickly as she could +through the pigeon-house and on to the hazel-tree, and had there taken +off her beautiful clothes, and put them beneath the tree, that the bird +might carry them away, and had lain down again amid the ashes in her +little grey frock. + +The next day when the feast was again held, and her father, mother, and +sisters were gone, Ashputtel went to the hazel-tree, and said: + + 'Shake, shake, hazel-tree, + Gold and silver over me!' + +And the bird came and brought a still finer dress than the one she +had worn the day before. And when she came in it to the ball, everyone +wondered at her beauty: but the king's son, who was waiting for her, +took her by the hand, and danced with her; and when anyone asked her to +dance, he said as before, 'This lady is dancing with me.' + +When night came she wanted to go home; and the king's son followed here +as before, that he might see into what house she went: but she sprang +away from him all at once into the garden behind her father's house. +In this garden stood a fine large pear-tree full of ripe fruit; and +Ashputtel, not knowing where to hide herself, jumped up into it without +being seen. Then the king's son lost sight of her, and could not find +out where she was gone, but waited till her father came home, and said +to him, 'The unknown lady who danced with me has slipped away, and I +think she must have sprung into the pear-tree.' The father thought to +himself, 'Can it be Ashputtel?' So he had an axe brought; and they cut +down the tree, but found no one upon it. And when they came back into +the kitchen, there lay Ashputtel among the ashes; for she had slipped +down on the other side of the tree, and carried her beautiful clothes +back to the bird at the hazel-tree, and then put on her little grey +frock. + +The third day, when her father and mother and sisters were gone, she +went again into the garden, and said: + + 'Shake, shake, hazel-tree, + Gold and silver over me!' + +Then her kind friend the bird brought a dress still finer than the +former one, and slippers which were all of gold: so that when she came +to the feast no one knew what to say, for wonder at her beauty: and the +king's son danced with nobody but her; and when anyone else asked her to +dance, he said, 'This lady is _my_ partner, sir.' + +When night came she wanted to go home; and the king's son would go with +her, and said to himself, 'I will not lose her this time'; but, however, +she again slipped away from him, though in such a hurry that she dropped +her left golden slipper upon the stairs. + +The prince took the shoe, and went the next day to the king his father, +and said, 'I will take for my wife the lady that this golden slipper +fits.' Then both the sisters were overjoyed to hear it; for they +had beautiful feet, and had no doubt that they could wear the golden +slipper. The eldest went first into the room where the slipper was, and +wanted to try it on, and the mother stood by. But her great toe could +not go into it, and the shoe was altogether much too small for her. Then +the mother gave her a knife, and said, 'Never mind, cut it off; when you +are queen you will not care about toes; you will not want to walk.' So +the silly girl cut off her great toe, and thus squeezed on the shoe, +and went to the king's son. Then he took her for his bride, and set her +beside him on his horse, and rode away with her homewards. + +But on their way home they had to pass by the hazel-tree that Ashputtel +had planted; and on the branch sat a little dove singing: + + 'Back again! back again! look to the shoe! + The shoe is too small, and not made for you! + Prince! prince! look again for thy bride, + For she's not the true one that sits by thy side.' + +Then the prince got down and looked at her foot; and he saw, by the +blood that streamed from it, what a trick she had played him. So he +turned his horse round, and brought the false bride back to her home, +and said, 'This is not the right bride; let the other sister try and put +on the slipper.' Then she went into the room and got her foot into the +shoe, all but the heel, which was too large. But her mother squeezed it +in till the blood came, and took her to the king's son: and he set her +as his bride by his side on his horse, and rode away with her. + +But when they came to the hazel-tree the little dove sat there still, +and sang: + + 'Back again! back again! look to the shoe! + The shoe is too small, and not made for you! + Prince! prince! look again for thy bride, + For she's not the true one that sits by thy side.' + +Then he looked down, and saw that the blood streamed so much from the +shoe, that her white stockings were quite red. So he turned his horse +and brought her also back again. 'This is not the true bride,' said he +to the father; 'have you no other daughters?' 'No,' said he; 'there is +only a little dirty Ashputtel here, the child of my first wife; I am +sure she cannot be the bride.' The prince told him to send her. But the +mother said, 'No, no, she is much too dirty; she will not dare to show +herself.' However, the prince would have her come; and she first washed +her face and hands, and then went in and curtsied to him, and he reached +her the golden slipper. Then she took her clumsy shoe off her left foot, +and put on the golden slipper; and it fitted her as if it had been made +for her. And when he drew near and looked at her face he knew her, and +said, 'This is the right bride.' But the mother and both the sisters +were frightened, and turned pale with anger as he took Ashputtel on his +horse, and rode away with her. And when they came to the hazel-tree, the +white dove sang: + + 'Home! home! look at the shoe! + Princess! the shoe was made for you! + Prince! prince! take home thy bride, + For she is the true one that sits by thy side!' + +And when the dove had done its song, it came flying, and perched upon +her right shoulder, and so went home with her. + + + + +THE WHITE SNAKE + +A long time ago there lived a king who was famed for his wisdom through +all the land. Nothing was hidden from him, and it seemed as if news of +the most secret things was brought to him through the air. But he had a +strange custom; every day after dinner, when the table was cleared, +and no one else was present, a trusty servant had to bring him one more +dish. It was covered, however, and even the servant did not know what +was in it, neither did anyone know, for the king never took off the +cover to eat of it until he was quite alone. + +This had gone on for a long time, when one day the servant, who took +away the dish, was overcome with such curiosity that he could not help +carrying the dish into his room. When he had carefully locked the door, +he lifted up the cover, and saw a white snake lying on the dish. But +when he saw it he could not deny himself the pleasure of tasting it, +so he cut of a little bit and put it into his mouth. No sooner had it +touched his tongue than he heard a strange whispering of little voices +outside his window. He went and listened, and then noticed that it was +the sparrows who were chattering together, and telling one another of +all kinds of things which they had seen in the fields and woods. Eating +the snake had given him power of understanding the language of animals. + +Now it so happened that on this very day the queen lost her most +beautiful ring, and suspicion of having stolen it fell upon this trusty +servant, who was allowed to go everywhere. The king ordered the man to +be brought before him, and threatened with angry words that unless he +could before the morrow point out the thief, he himself should be looked +upon as guilty and executed. In vain he declared his innocence; he was +dismissed with no better answer. + +In his trouble and fear he went down into the courtyard and took thought +how to help himself out of his trouble. Now some ducks were sitting +together quietly by a brook and taking their rest; and, whilst they +were making their feathers smooth with their bills, they were having a +confidential conversation together. The servant stood by and listened. +They were telling one another of all the places where they had been +waddling about all the morning, and what good food they had found; and +one said in a pitiful tone: 'Something lies heavy on my stomach; as +I was eating in haste I swallowed a ring which lay under the queen's +window.' The servant at once seized her by the neck, carried her to the +kitchen, and said to the cook: 'Here is a fine duck; pray, kill her.' +'Yes,' said the cook, and weighed her in his hand; 'she has spared +no trouble to fatten herself, and has been waiting to be roasted long +enough.' So he cut off her head, and as she was being dressed for the +spit, the queen's ring was found inside her. + +The servant could now easily prove his innocence; and the king, to make +amends for the wrong, allowed him to ask a favour, and promised him +the best place in the court that he could wish for. The servant refused +everything, and only asked for a horse and some money for travelling, as +he had a mind to see the world and go about a little. When his request +was granted he set out on his way, and one day came to a pond, where he +saw three fishes caught in the reeds and gasping for water. Now, though +it is said that fishes are dumb, he heard them lamenting that they must +perish so miserably, and, as he had a kind heart, he got off his +horse and put the three prisoners back into the water. They leapt with +delight, put out their heads, and cried to him: 'We will remember you +and repay you for saving us!' + +He rode on, and after a while it seemed to him that he heard a voice in +the sand at his feet. He listened, and heard an ant-king complain: 'Why +cannot folks, with their clumsy beasts, keep off our bodies? That stupid +horse, with his heavy hoofs, has been treading down my people without +mercy!' So he turned on to a side path and the ant-king cried out to +him: 'We will remember you--one good turn deserves another!' + +The path led him into a wood, and there he saw two old ravens standing +by their nest, and throwing out their young ones. 'Out with you, you +idle, good-for-nothing creatures!' cried they; 'we cannot find food for +you any longer; you are big enough, and can provide for yourselves.' +But the poor young ravens lay upon the ground, flapping their wings, and +crying: 'Oh, what helpless chicks we are! We must shift for ourselves, +and yet we cannot fly! What can we do, but lie here and starve?' So the +good young fellow alighted and killed his horse with his sword, and gave +it to them for food. Then they came hopping up to it, satisfied their +hunger, and cried: 'We will remember you--one good turn deserves +another!' + +And now he had to use his own legs, and when he had walked a long +way, he came to a large city. There was a great noise and crowd in +the streets, and a man rode up on horseback, crying aloud: 'The king's +daughter wants a husband; but whoever seeks her hand must perform a hard +task, and if he does not succeed he will forfeit his life.' Many had +already made the attempt, but in vain; nevertheless when the youth +saw the king's daughter he was so overcome by her great beauty that he +forgot all danger, went before the king, and declared himself a suitor. + +So he was led out to the sea, and a gold ring was thrown into it, before +his eyes; then the king ordered him to fetch this ring up from the +bottom of the sea, and added: 'If you come up again without it you will +be thrown in again and again until you perish amid the waves.' All the +people grieved for the handsome youth; then they went away, leaving him +alone by the sea. + +He stood on the shore and considered what he should do, when suddenly +he saw three fishes come swimming towards him, and they were the very +fishes whose lives he had saved. The one in the middle held a mussel in +its mouth, which it laid on the shore at the youth's feet, and when he +had taken it up and opened it, there lay the gold ring in the shell. +Full of joy he took it to the king and expected that he would grant him +the promised reward. + +But when the proud princess perceived that he was not her equal in +birth, she scorned him, and required him first to perform another +task. She went down into the garden and strewed with her own hands ten +sacksful of millet-seed on the grass; then she said: 'Tomorrow morning +before sunrise these must be picked up, and not a single grain be +wanting.' + +The youth sat down in the garden and considered how it might be possible +to perform this task, but he could think of nothing, and there he sat +sorrowfully awaiting the break of day, when he should be led to death. +But as soon as the first rays of the sun shone into the garden he saw +all the ten sacks standing side by side, quite full, and not a single +grain was missing. The ant-king had come in the night with thousands +and thousands of ants, and the grateful creatures had by great industry +picked up all the millet-seed and gathered them into the sacks. + +Presently the king's daughter herself came down into the garden, and was +amazed to see that the young man had done the task she had given him. +But she could not yet conquer her proud heart, and said: 'Although he +has performed both the tasks, he shall not be my husband until he had +brought me an apple from the Tree of Life.' The youth did not know where +the Tree of Life stood, but he set out, and would have gone on for ever, +as long as his legs would carry him, though he had no hope of finding +it. After he had wandered through three kingdoms, he came one evening to +a wood, and lay down under a tree to sleep. But he heard a rustling in +the branches, and a golden apple fell into his hand. At the same time +three ravens flew down to him, perched themselves upon his knee, and +said: 'We are the three young ravens whom you saved from starving; when +we had grown big, and heard that you were seeking the Golden Apple, +we flew over the sea to the end of the world, where the Tree of Life +stands, and have brought you the apple.' The youth, full of joy, set out +homewards, and took the Golden Apple to the king's beautiful daughter, +who had now no more excuses left to make. They cut the Apple of Life in +two and ate it together; and then her heart became full of love for him, +and they lived in undisturbed happiness to a great age. + + + + +THE WOLF AND THE SEVEN LITTLE KIDS + +There was once upon a time an old goat who had seven little kids, and +loved them with all the love of a mother for her children. One day she +wanted to go into the forest and fetch some food. So she called all +seven to her and said: 'Dear children, I have to go into the forest, +be on your guard against the wolf; if he comes in, he will devour you +all--skin, hair, and everything. The wretch often disguises himself, but +you will know him at once by his rough voice and his black feet.' The +kids said: 'Dear mother, we will take good care of ourselves; you may go +away without any anxiety.' Then the old one bleated, and went on her way +with an easy mind. + +It was not long before someone knocked at the house-door and called: +'Open the door, dear children; your mother is here, and has brought +something back with her for each of you.' But the little kids knew that +it was the wolf, by the rough voice. 'We will not open the door,' cried +they, 'you are not our mother. She has a soft, pleasant voice, but +your voice is rough; you are the wolf!' Then the wolf went away to a +shopkeeper and bought himself a great lump of chalk, ate this and made +his voice soft with it. Then he came back, knocked at the door of the +house, and called: 'Open the door, dear children, your mother is here +and has brought something back with her for each of you.' But the wolf +had laid his black paws against the window, and the children saw them +and cried: 'We will not open the door, our mother has not black feet +like you: you are the wolf!' Then the wolf ran to a baker and said: 'I +have hurt my feet, rub some dough over them for me.' And when the baker +had rubbed his feet over, he ran to the miller and said: 'Strew some +white meal over my feet for me.' The miller thought to himself: 'The +wolf wants to deceive someone,' and refused; but the wolf said: 'If you +will not do it, I will devour you.' Then the miller was afraid, and made +his paws white for him. Truly, this is the way of mankind. + +So now the wretch went for the third time to the house-door, knocked at +it and said: 'Open the door for me, children, your dear little mother +has come home, and has brought every one of you something back from the +forest with her.' The little kids cried: 'First show us your paws that +we may know if you are our dear little mother.' Then he put his paws +in through the window and when the kids saw that they were white, they +believed that all he said was true, and opened the door. But who should +come in but the wolf! They were terrified and wanted to hide themselves. +One sprang under the table, the second into the bed, the third into the +stove, the fourth into the kitchen, the fifth into the cupboard, the +sixth under the washing-bowl, and the seventh into the clock-case. But +the wolf found them all, and used no great ceremony; one after the +other he swallowed them down his throat. The youngest, who was in +the clock-case, was the only one he did not find. When the wolf had +satisfied his appetite he took himself off, laid himself down under a +tree in the green meadow outside, and began to sleep. Soon afterwards +the old goat came home again from the forest. Ah! what a sight she saw +there! The house-door stood wide open. The table, chairs, and benches +were thrown down, the washing-bowl lay broken to pieces, and the quilts +and pillows were pulled off the bed. She sought her children, but they +were nowhere to be found. She called them one after another by name, but +no one answered. At last, when she came to the youngest, a soft voice +cried: 'Dear mother, I am in the clock-case.' She took the kid out, and +it told her that the wolf had come and had eaten all the others. Then +you may imagine how she wept over her poor children. + +At length in her grief she went out, and the youngest kid ran with her. +When they came to the meadow, there lay the wolf by the tree and snored +so loud that the branches shook. She looked at him on every side and +saw that something was moving and struggling in his gorged belly. 'Ah, +heavens,' she said, 'is it possible that my poor children whom he has +swallowed down for his supper, can be still alive?' Then the kid had to +run home and fetch scissors, and a needle and thread, and the goat cut +open the monster's stomach, and hardly had she made one cut, than one +little kid thrust its head out, and when she had cut farther, all six +sprang out one after another, and were all still alive, and had suffered +no injury whatever, for in his greediness the monster had swallowed them +down whole. What rejoicing there was! They embraced their dear mother, +and jumped like a tailor at his wedding. The mother, however, said: 'Now +go and look for some big stones, and we will fill the wicked beast's +stomach with them while he is still asleep.' Then the seven kids dragged +the stones thither with all speed, and put as many of them into this +stomach as they could get in; and the mother sewed him up again in the +greatest haste, so that he was not aware of anything and never once +stirred. + +When the wolf at length had had his fill of sleep, he got on his legs, +and as the stones in his stomach made him very thirsty, he wanted to +go to a well to drink. But when he began to walk and to move about, the +stones in his stomach knocked against each other and rattled. Then cried +he: + + 'What rumbles and tumbles + Against my poor bones? + I thought 'twas six kids, + But it feels like big stones.' + +And when he got to the well and stooped over the water to drink, the +heavy stones made him fall in, and he drowned miserably. When the seven +kids saw that, they came running to the spot and cried aloud: 'The wolf +is dead! The wolf is dead!' and danced for joy round about the well with +their mother. + + + + +THE QUEEN BEE + +Two kings' sons once upon a time went into the world to seek their +fortunes; but they soon fell into a wasteful foolish way of living, so +that they could not return home again. Then their brother, who was a +little insignificant dwarf, went out to seek for his brothers: but when +he had found them they only laughed at him, to think that he, who was so +young and simple, should try to travel through the world, when they, who +were so much wiser, had been unable to get on. However, they all set +out on their journey together, and came at last to an ant-hill. The two +elder brothers would have pulled it down, in order to see how the poor +ants in their fright would run about and carry off their eggs. But the +little dwarf said, 'Let the poor things enjoy themselves, I will not +suffer you to trouble them.' + +So on they went, and came to a lake where many many ducks were swimming +about. The two brothers wanted to catch two, and roast them. But the +dwarf said, 'Let the poor things enjoy themselves, you shall not kill +them.' Next they came to a bees'-nest in a hollow tree, and there was +so much honey that it ran down the trunk; and the two brothers wanted to +light a fire under the tree and kill the bees, so as to get their honey. +But the dwarf held them back, and said, 'Let the pretty insects enjoy +themselves, I cannot let you burn them.' + +At length the three brothers came to a castle: and as they passed by the +stables they saw fine horses standing there, but all were of marble, and +no man was to be seen. Then they went through all the rooms, till they +came to a door on which were three locks: but in the middle of the door +was a wicket, so that they could look into the next room. There they saw +a little grey old man sitting at a table; and they called to him once or +twice, but he did not hear: however, they called a third time, and then +he rose and came out to them. + +He said nothing, but took hold of them and led them to a beautiful +table covered with all sorts of good things: and when they had eaten and +drunk, he showed each of them to a bed-chamber. + +The next morning he came to the eldest and took him to a marble table, +where there were three tablets, containing an account of the means by +which the castle might be disenchanted. The first tablet said: 'In the +wood, under the moss, lie the thousand pearls belonging to the king's +daughter; they must all be found: and if one be missing by set of sun, +he who seeks them will be turned into marble.' + +The eldest brother set out, and sought for the pearls the whole day: +but the evening came, and he had not found the first hundred: so he was +turned into stone as the tablet had foretold. + +The next day the second brother undertook the task; but he succeeded no +better than the first; for he could only find the second hundred of the +pearls; and therefore he too was turned into stone. + +At last came the little dwarf's turn; and he looked in the moss; but it +was so hard to find the pearls, and the job was so tiresome!--so he sat +down upon a stone and cried. And as he sat there, the king of the ants +(whose life he had saved) came to help him, with five thousand ants; and +it was not long before they had found all the pearls and laid them in a +heap. + +The second tablet said: 'The key of the princess's bed-chamber must be +fished up out of the lake.' And as the dwarf came to the brink of it, +he saw the two ducks whose lives he had saved swimming about; and they +dived down and soon brought in the key from the bottom. + +The third task was the hardest. It was to choose out the youngest and +the best of the king's three daughters. Now they were all beautiful, and +all exactly alike: but he was told that the eldest had eaten a piece of +sugar, the next some sweet syrup, and the youngest a spoonful of honey; +so he was to guess which it was that had eaten the honey. + +Then came the queen of the bees, who had been saved by the little dwarf +from the fire, and she tried the lips of all three; but at last she sat +upon the lips of the one that had eaten the honey: and so the dwarf knew +which was the youngest. Thus the spell was broken, and all who had been +turned into stones awoke, and took their proper forms. And the dwarf +married the youngest and the best of the princesses, and was king after +her father's death; but his two brothers married the other two sisters. + + + + +THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKER + +There was once a shoemaker, who worked very hard and was very honest: +but still he could not earn enough to live upon; and at last all he +had in the world was gone, save just leather enough to make one pair of +shoes. + +Then he cut his leather out, all ready to make up the next day, meaning +to rise early in the morning to his work. His conscience was clear and +his heart light amidst all his troubles; so he went peaceably to bed, +left all his cares to Heaven, and soon fell asleep. In the morning after +he had said his prayers, he sat himself down to his work; when, to his +great wonder, there stood the shoes all ready made, upon the table. The +good man knew not what to say or think at such an odd thing happening. +He looked at the workmanship; there was not one false stitch in the +whole job; all was so neat and true, that it was quite a masterpiece. + +The same day a customer came in, and the shoes suited him so well that +he willingly paid a price higher than usual for them; and the poor +shoemaker, with the money, bought leather enough to make two pairs more. +In the evening he cut out the work, and went to bed early, that he might +get up and begin betimes next day; but he was saved all the trouble, for +when he got up in the morning the work was done ready to his hand. Soon +in came buyers, who paid him handsomely for his goods, so that he bought +leather enough for four pair more. He cut out the work again overnight +and found it done in the morning, as before; and so it went on for some +time: what was got ready in the evening was always done by daybreak, and +the good man soon became thriving and well off again. + +One evening, about Christmas-time, as he and his wife were sitting over +the fire chatting together, he said to her, 'I should like to sit up and +watch tonight, that we may see who it is that comes and does my work for +me.' The wife liked the thought; so they left a light burning, and hid +themselves in a corner of the room, behind a curtain that was hung up +there, and watched what would happen. + +As soon as it was midnight, there came in two little naked dwarfs; and +they sat themselves upon the shoemaker's bench, took up all the work +that was cut out, and began to ply with their little fingers, stitching +and rapping and tapping away at such a rate, that the shoemaker was all +wonder, and could not take his eyes off them. And on they went, till the +job was quite done, and the shoes stood ready for use upon the table. +This was long before daybreak; and then they bustled away as quick as +lightning. + +The next day the wife said to the shoemaker. 'These little wights have +made us rich, and we ought to be thankful to them, and do them a good +turn if we can. I am quite sorry to see them run about as they do; and +indeed it is not very decent, for they have nothing upon their backs to +keep off the cold. I'll tell you what, I will make each of them a shirt, +and a coat and waistcoat, and a pair of pantaloons into the bargain; and +do you make each of them a little pair of shoes.' + +The thought pleased the good cobbler very much; and one evening, when +all the things were ready, they laid them on the table, instead of the +work that they used to cut out, and then went and hid themselves, to +watch what the little elves would do. + +About midnight in they came, dancing and skipping, hopped round the +room, and then went to sit down to their work as usual; but when they +saw the clothes lying for them, they laughed and chuckled, and seemed +mightily delighted. + +Then they dressed themselves in the twinkling of an eye, and danced and +capered and sprang about, as merry as could be; till at last they danced +out at the door, and away over the green. + +The good couple saw them no more; but everything went well with them +from that time forward, as long as they lived. + + + + +THE JUNIPER-TREE + +Long, long ago, some two thousand years or so, there lived a rich +man with a good and beautiful wife. They loved each other dearly, but +sorrowed much that they had no children. So greatly did they desire +to have one, that the wife prayed for it day and night, but still they +remained childless. + +In front of the house there was a court, in which grew a juniper-tree. +One winter's day the wife stood under the tree to peel some apples, and +as she was peeling them, she cut her finger, and the blood fell on the +snow. 'Ah,' sighed the woman heavily, 'if I had but a child, as red as +blood and as white as snow,' and as she spoke the words, her heart grew +light within her, and it seemed to her that her wish was granted, and +she returned to the house feeling glad and comforted. A month passed, +and the snow had all disappeared; then another month went by, and all +the earth was green. So the months followed one another, and first the +trees budded in the woods, and soon the green branches grew thickly +intertwined, and then the blossoms began to fall. Once again the wife +stood under the juniper-tree, and it was so full of sweet scent that her +heart leaped for joy, and she was so overcome with her happiness, that +she fell on her knees. Presently the fruit became round and firm, and +she was glad and at peace; but when they were fully ripe she picked the +berries and ate eagerly of them, and then she grew sad and ill. A little +while later she called her husband, and said to him, weeping. 'If I +die, bury me under the juniper-tree.' Then she felt comforted and happy +again, and before another month had passed she had a little child, and +when she saw that it was as white as snow and as red as blood, her joy +was so great that she died. + +Her husband buried her under the juniper-tree, and wept bitterly for +her. By degrees, however, his sorrow grew less, and although at times he +still grieved over his loss, he was able to go about as usual, and later +on he married again. + +He now had a little daughter born to him; the child of his first wife +was a boy, who was as red as blood and as white as snow. The mother +loved her daughter very much, and when she looked at her and then looked +at the boy, it pierced her heart to think that he would always stand in +the way of her own child, and she was continually thinking how she could +get the whole of the property for her. This evil thought took possession +of her more and more, and made her behave very unkindly to the boy. She +drove him from place to place with cuffings and buffetings, so that the +poor child went about in fear, and had no peace from the time he left +school to the time he went back. + +One day the little daughter came running to her mother in the +store-room, and said, 'Mother, give me an apple.' 'Yes, my child,' said +the wife, and she gave her a beautiful apple out of the chest; the chest +had a very heavy lid and a large iron lock. + +'Mother,' said the little daughter again, 'may not brother have one +too?' The mother was angry at this, but she answered, 'Yes, when he +comes out of school.' + +Just then she looked out of the window and saw him coming, and it seemed +as if an evil spirit entered into her, for she snatched the apple out +of her little daughter's hand, and said, 'You shall not have one before +your brother.' She threw the apple into the chest and shut it to. The +little boy now came in, and the evil spirit in the wife made her say +kindly to him, 'My son, will you have an apple?' but she gave him a +wicked look. 'Mother,' said the boy, 'how dreadful you look! Yes, give +me an apple.' The thought came to her that she would kill him. 'Come +with me,' she said, and she lifted up the lid of the chest; 'take one +out for yourself.' And as he bent over to do so, the evil spirit urged +her, and crash! down went the lid, and off went the little boy's head. +Then she was overwhelmed with fear at the thought of what she had done. +'If only I can prevent anyone knowing that I did it,' she thought. So +she went upstairs to her room, and took a white handkerchief out of +her top drawer; then she set the boy's head again on his shoulders, and +bound it with the handkerchief so that nothing could be seen, and placed +him on a chair by the door with an apple in his hand. + +Soon after this, little Marleen came up to her mother who was stirring +a pot of boiling water over the fire, and said, 'Mother, brother is +sitting by the door with an apple in his hand, and he looks so pale; +and when I asked him to give me the apple, he did not answer, and that +frightened me.' + +'Go to him again,' said her mother, 'and if he does not answer, give him +a box on the ear.' So little Marleen went, and said, 'Brother, give me +that apple,' but he did not say a word; then she gave him a box on the +ear, and his head rolled off. She was so terrified at this, that she ran +crying and screaming to her mother. 'Oh!' she said, 'I have knocked off +brother's head,' and then she wept and wept, and nothing would stop her. + +'What have you done!' said her mother, 'but no one must know about it, +so you must keep silence; what is done can't be undone; we will make +him into puddings.' And she took the little boy and cut him up, made him +into puddings, and put him in the pot. But Marleen stood looking on, +and wept and wept, and her tears fell into the pot, so that there was no +need of salt. + +Presently the father came home and sat down to his dinner; he asked, +'Where is my son?' The mother said nothing, but gave him a large dish of +black pudding, and Marleen still wept without ceasing. + +The father again asked, 'Where is my son?' + +'Oh,' answered the wife, 'he is gone into the country to his mother's +great uncle; he is going to stay there some time.' + +'What has he gone there for, and he never even said goodbye to me!' + +'Well, he likes being there, and he told me he should be away quite six +weeks; he is well looked after there.' + +'I feel very unhappy about it,' said the husband, 'in case it should not +be all right, and he ought to have said goodbye to me.' + +With this he went on with his dinner, and said, 'Little Marleen, why do +you weep? Brother will soon be back.' Then he asked his wife for more +pudding, and as he ate, he threw the bones under the table. + +Little Marleen went upstairs and took her best silk handkerchief out of +her bottom drawer, and in it she wrapped all the bones from under the +table and carried them outside, and all the time she did nothing but +weep. Then she laid them in the green grass under the juniper-tree, and +she had no sooner done so, then all her sadness seemed to leave her, +and she wept no more. And now the juniper-tree began to move, and the +branches waved backwards and forwards, first away from one another, and +then together again, as it might be someone clapping their hands for +joy. After this a mist came round the tree, and in the midst of it there +was a burning as of fire, and out of the fire there flew a beautiful +bird, that rose high into the air, singing magnificently, and when it +could no more be seen, the juniper-tree stood there as before, and the +silk handkerchief and the bones were gone. + +Little Marleen now felt as lighthearted and happy as if her brother were +still alive, and she went back to the house and sat down cheerfully to +the table and ate. + +The bird flew away and alighted on the house of a goldsmith and began to +sing: + + 'My mother killed her little son; + My father grieved when I was gone; + My sister loved me best of all; + She laid her kerchief over me, + And took my bones that they might lie + Underneath the juniper-tree + Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!' + +The goldsmith was in his workshop making a gold chain, when he heard the +song of the bird on his roof. He thought it so beautiful that he got +up and ran out, and as he crossed the threshold he lost one of his +slippers. But he ran on into the middle of the street, with a slipper on +one foot and a sock on the other; he still had on his apron, and still +held the gold chain and the pincers in his hands, and so he stood gazing +up at the bird, while the sun came shining brightly down on the street. + +'Bird,' he said, 'how beautifully you sing! Sing me that song again.' + +'Nay,' said the bird, 'I do not sing twice for nothing. Give that gold +chain, and I will sing it you again.' + +'Here is the chain, take it,' said the goldsmith. 'Only sing me that +again.' + +The bird flew down and took the gold chain in his right claw, and then +he alighted again in front of the goldsmith and sang: + + 'My mother killed her little son; + My father grieved when I was gone; + My sister loved me best of all; + She laid her kerchief over me, + And took my bones that they might lie + Underneath the juniper-tree + Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!' + +Then he flew away, and settled on the roof of a shoemaker's house and +sang: + + 'My mother killed her little son; + My father grieved when I was gone; + My sister loved me best of all; + She laid her kerchief over me, + And took my bones that they might lie + Underneath the juniper-tree + Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!' + +The shoemaker heard him, and he jumped up and ran out in his +shirt-sleeves, and stood looking up at the bird on the roof with his +hand over his eyes to keep himself from being blinded by the sun. + +'Bird,' he said, 'how beautifully you sing!' Then he called through the +door to his wife: 'Wife, come out; here is a bird, come and look at it +and hear how beautifully it sings.' Then he called his daughter and the +children, then the apprentices, girls and boys, and they all ran up the +street to look at the bird, and saw how splendid it was with its red +and green feathers, and its neck like burnished gold, and eyes like two +bright stars in its head. + +'Bird,' said the shoemaker, 'sing me that song again.' + +'Nay,' answered the bird, 'I do not sing twice for nothing; you must +give me something.' + +'Wife,' said the man, 'go into the garret; on the upper shelf you will +see a pair of red shoes; bring them to me.' The wife went in and fetched +the shoes. + +'There, bird,' said the shoemaker, 'now sing me that song again.' + +The bird flew down and took the red shoes in his left claw, and then he +went back to the roof and sang: + + 'My mother killed her little son; + My father grieved when I was gone; + My sister loved me best of all; + She laid her kerchief over me, + And took my bones that they might lie + Underneath the juniper-tree + Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!' + +When he had finished, he flew away. He had the chain in his right claw +and the shoes in his left, and he flew right away to a mill, and the +mill went 'Click clack, click clack, click clack.' Inside the mill were +twenty of the miller's men hewing a stone, and as they went 'Hick hack, +hick hack, hick hack,' the mill went 'Click clack, click clack, click +clack.' + +The bird settled on a lime-tree in front of the mill and sang: + + 'My mother killed her little son; + +then one of the men left off, + + My father grieved when I was gone; + +two more men left off and listened, + + My sister loved me best of all; + +then four more left off, + + She laid her kerchief over me, + And took my bones that they might lie + +now there were only eight at work, + + Underneath + +And now only five, + + the juniper-tree. + +And now only one, + + Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!' + +then he looked up and the last one had left off work. + +'Bird,' he said, 'what a beautiful song that is you sing! Let me hear it +too; sing it again.' + +'Nay,' answered the bird, 'I do not sing twice for nothing; give me that +millstone, and I will sing it again.' + +'If it belonged to me alone,' said the man, 'you should have it.' + +'Yes, yes,' said the others: 'if he will sing again, he can have it.' + +The bird came down, and all the twenty millers set to and lifted up the +stone with a beam; then the bird put his head through the hole and took +the stone round his neck like a collar, and flew back with it to the +tree and sang-- + + 'My mother killed her little son; + My father grieved when I was gone; + My sister loved me best of all; + She laid her kerchief over me, + And took my bones that they might lie + Underneath the juniper-tree + Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!' + +And when he had finished his song, he spread his wings, and with the +chain in his right claw, the shoes in his left, and the millstone round +his neck, he flew right away to his father's house. + +The father, the mother, and little Marleen were having their dinner. + +'How lighthearted I feel,' said the father, 'so pleased and cheerful.' + +'And I,' said the mother, 'I feel so uneasy, as if a heavy thunderstorm +were coming.' + +But little Marleen sat and wept and wept. + +Then the bird came flying towards the house and settled on the roof. + +'I do feel so happy,' said the father, 'and how beautifully the sun +shines; I feel just as if I were going to see an old friend again.' + +'Ah!' said the wife, 'and I am so full of distress and uneasiness that +my teeth chatter, and I feel as if there were a fire in my veins,' and +she tore open her dress; and all the while little Marleen sat in the +corner and wept, and the plate on her knees was wet with her tears. + +The bird now flew to the juniper-tree and began singing: + + 'My mother killed her little son; + +the mother shut her eyes and her ears, that she might see and hear +nothing, but there was a roaring sound in her ears like that of a +violent storm, and in her eyes a burning and flashing like lightning: + + My father grieved when I was gone; + +'Look, mother,' said the man, 'at the beautiful bird that is singing so +magnificently; and how warm and bright the sun is, and what a delicious +scent of spice in the air!' + + My sister loved me best of all; + +then little Marleen laid her head down on her knees and sobbed. + +'I must go outside and see the bird nearer,' said the man. + +'Ah, do not go!' cried the wife. 'I feel as if the whole house were in +flames!' + +But the man went out and looked at the bird. + + She laid her kerchief over me, + And took my bones that they might lie + Underneath the juniper-tree + Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!' + +With that the bird let fall the gold chain, and it fell just round the +man's neck, so that it fitted him exactly. + +He went inside, and said, 'See, what a splendid bird that is; he has +given me this beautiful gold chain, and looks so beautiful himself.' + +But the wife was in such fear and trouble, that she fell on the floor, +and her cap fell from her head. + +Then the bird began again: + + 'My mother killed her little son; + +'Ah me!' cried the wife, 'if I were but a thousand feet beneath the +earth, that I might not hear that song.' + + My father grieved when I was gone; + +then the woman fell down again as if dead. + + My sister loved me best of all; + +'Well,' said little Marleen, 'I will go out too and see if the bird will +give me anything.' + +So she went out. + + She laid her kerchief over me, + And took my bones that they might lie + +and he threw down the shoes to her, + + Underneath the juniper-tree + Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!' + +And she now felt quite happy and lighthearted; she put on the shoes and +danced and jumped about in them. 'I was so miserable,' she said, 'when I +came out, but that has all passed away; that is indeed a splendid bird, +and he has given me a pair of red shoes.' + +The wife sprang up, with her hair standing out from her head like flames +of fire. 'Then I will go out too,' she said, 'and see if it will lighten +my misery, for I feel as if the world were coming to an end.' + +But as she crossed the threshold, crash! the bird threw the millstone +down on her head, and she was crushed to death. + +The father and little Marleen heard the sound and ran out, but they only +saw mist and flame and fire rising from the spot, and when these had +passed, there stood the little brother, and he took the father and +little Marleen by the hand; then they all three rejoiced, and went +inside together and sat down to their dinners and ate. + + + + +THE TURNIP + +There were two brothers who were both soldiers; the one was rich and +the other poor. The poor man thought he would try to better himself; so, +pulling off his red coat, he became a gardener, and dug his ground well, +and sowed turnips. + +When the seed came up, there was one plant bigger than all the rest; and +it kept getting larger and larger, and seemed as if it would never cease +growing; so that it might have been called the prince of turnips for +there never was such a one seen before, and never will again. At last it +was so big that it filled a cart, and two oxen could hardly draw it; and +the gardener knew not what in the world to do with it, nor whether it +would be a blessing or a curse to him. One day he said to himself, 'What +shall I do with it? if I sell it, it will bring no more than another; +and for eating, the little turnips are better than this; the best thing +perhaps is to carry it and give it to the king as a mark of respect.' + +Then he yoked his oxen, and drew the turnip to the court, and gave it +to the king. 'What a wonderful thing!' said the king; 'I have seen many +strange things, but such a monster as this I never saw. Where did you +get the seed? or is it only your good luck? If so, you are a true child +of fortune.' 'Ah, no!' answered the gardener, 'I am no child of fortune; +I am a poor soldier, who never could get enough to live upon; so I +laid aside my red coat, and set to work, tilling the ground. I have a +brother, who is rich, and your majesty knows him well, and all the world +knows him; but because I am poor, everybody forgets me.' + +The king then took pity on him, and said, 'You shall be poor no +longer. I will give you so much that you shall be even richer than your +brother.' Then he gave him gold and lands and flocks, and made him so +rich that his brother's fortune could not at all be compared with his. + +When the brother heard of all this, and how a turnip had made the +gardener so rich, he envied him sorely, and bethought himself how he +could contrive to get the same good fortune for himself. However, he +determined to manage more cleverly than his brother, and got together a +rich present of gold and fine horses for the king; and thought he must +have a much larger gift in return; for if his brother had received so +much for only a turnip, what must his present be worth? + +The king took the gift very graciously, and said he knew not what to +give in return more valuable and wonderful than the great turnip; so +the soldier was forced to put it into a cart, and drag it home with him. +When he reached home, he knew not upon whom to vent his rage and spite; +and at length wicked thoughts came into his head, and he resolved to +kill his brother. + +So he hired some villains to murder him; and having shown them where to +lie in ambush, he went to his brother, and said, 'Dear brother, I have +found a hidden treasure; let us go and dig it up, and share it between +us.' The other had no suspicions of his roguery: so they went out +together, and as they were travelling along, the murderers rushed out +upon him, bound him, and were going to hang him on a tree. + +But whilst they were getting all ready, they heard the trampling of a +horse at a distance, which so frightened them that they pushed their +prisoner neck and shoulders together into a sack, and swung him up by a +cord to the tree, where they left him dangling, and ran away. Meantime +he worked and worked away, till he made a hole large enough to put out +his head. + +When the horseman came up, he proved to be a student, a merry fellow, +who was journeying along on his nag, and singing as he went. As soon as +the man in the sack saw him passing under the tree, he cried out, 'Good +morning! good morning to thee, my friend!' The student looked about +everywhere; and seeing no one, and not knowing where the voice came +from, cried out, 'Who calls me?' + +Then the man in the tree answered, 'Lift up thine eyes, for behold here +I sit in the sack of wisdom; here have I, in a short time, learned great +and wondrous things. Compared to this seat, all the learning of the +schools is as empty air. A little longer, and I shall know all that man +can know, and shall come forth wiser than the wisest of mankind. Here +I discern the signs and motions of the heavens and the stars; the laws +that control the winds; the number of the sands on the seashore; the +healing of the sick; the virtues of all simples, of birds, and of +precious stones. Wert thou but once here, my friend, though wouldst feel +and own the power of knowledge. + +The student listened to all this and wondered much; at last he said, +'Blessed be the day and hour when I found you; cannot you contrive to +let me into the sack for a little while?' Then the other answered, as if +very unwillingly, 'A little space I may allow thee to sit here, if thou +wilt reward me well and entreat me kindly; but thou must tarry yet an +hour below, till I have learnt some little matters that are yet unknown +to me.' + +So the student sat himself down and waited a while; but the time hung +heavy upon him, and he begged earnestly that he might ascend forthwith, +for his thirst for knowledge was great. Then the other pretended to give +way, and said, 'Thou must let the sack of wisdom descend, by untying +yonder cord, and then thou shalt enter.' So the student let him down, +opened the sack, and set him free. 'Now then,' cried he, 'let me ascend +quickly.' As he began to put himself into the sack heels first, 'Wait a +while,' said the gardener, 'that is not the way.' Then he pushed him +in head first, tied up the sack, and soon swung up the searcher after +wisdom dangling in the air. 'How is it with thee, friend?' said he, +'dost thou not feel that wisdom comes unto thee? Rest there in peace, +till thou art a wiser man than thou wert.' + +So saying, he trotted off on the student's nag, and left the poor fellow +to gather wisdom till somebody should come and let him down. + + + + +CLEVER HANS + +The mother of Hans said: 'Whither away, Hans?' Hans answered: 'To +Gretel.' 'Behave well, Hans.' 'Oh, I'll behave well. Goodbye, mother.' +'Goodbye, Hans.' Hans comes to Gretel. 'Good day, Gretel.' 'Good day, +Hans. What do you bring that is good?' 'I bring nothing, I want to have +something given me.' Gretel presents Hans with a needle, Hans says: +'Goodbye, Gretel.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' + +Hans takes the needle, sticks it into a hay-cart, and follows the cart +home. 'Good evening, mother.' 'Good evening, Hans. Where have you been?' +'With Gretel.' 'What did you take her?' 'Took nothing; had something +given me.' 'What did Gretel give you?' 'Gave me a needle.' 'Where is the +needle, Hans?' 'Stuck in the hay-cart.' 'That was ill done, Hans. You +should have stuck the needle in your sleeve.' 'Never mind, I'll do +better next time.' + +'Whither away, Hans?' 'To Gretel, mother.' 'Behave well, Hans.' 'Oh, +I'll behave well. Goodbye, mother.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' Hans comes to +Gretel. 'Good day, Gretel.' 'Good day, Hans. What do you bring that is +good?' 'I bring nothing. I want to have something given to me.' Gretel +presents Hans with a knife. 'Goodbye, Gretel.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' Hans +takes the knife, sticks it in his sleeve, and goes home. 'Good evening, +mother.' 'Good evening, Hans. Where have you been?' 'With Gretel.' What +did you take her?' 'Took her nothing, she gave me something.' 'What did +Gretel give you?' 'Gave me a knife.' 'Where is the knife, Hans?' 'Stuck +in my sleeve.' 'That's ill done, Hans, you should have put the knife in +your pocket.' 'Never mind, will do better next time.' + +'Whither away, Hans?' 'To Gretel, mother.' 'Behave well, Hans.' 'Oh, +I'll behave well. Goodbye, mother.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' Hans comes to +Gretel. 'Good day, Gretel.' 'Good day, Hans. What good thing do you +bring?' 'I bring nothing, I want something given me.' Gretel presents +Hans with a young goat. 'Goodbye, Gretel.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' Hans takes +the goat, ties its legs, and puts it in his pocket. When he gets home it +is suffocated. 'Good evening, mother.' 'Good evening, Hans. Where have +you been?' 'With Gretel.' 'What did you take her?' 'Took nothing, she +gave me something.' 'What did Gretel give you?' 'She gave me a goat.' +'Where is the goat, Hans?' 'Put it in my pocket.' 'That was ill done, +Hans, you should have put a rope round the goat's neck.' 'Never mind, +will do better next time.' + +'Whither away, Hans?' 'To Gretel, mother.' 'Behave well, Hans.' 'Oh, +I'll behave well. Goodbye, mother.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' Hans comes to +Gretel. 'Good day, Gretel.' 'Good day, Hans. What good thing do you +bring?' 'I bring nothing, I want something given me.' Gretel presents +Hans with a piece of bacon. 'Goodbye, Gretel.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' + +Hans takes the bacon, ties it to a rope, and drags it away behind him. +The dogs come and devour the bacon. When he gets home, he has the rope +in his hand, and there is no longer anything hanging on to it. 'Good +evening, mother.' 'Good evening, Hans. Where have you been?' 'With +Gretel.' 'What did you take her?' 'I took her nothing, she gave me +something.' 'What did Gretel give you?' 'Gave me a bit of bacon.' 'Where +is the bacon, Hans?' 'I tied it to a rope, brought it home, dogs took +it.' 'That was ill done, Hans, you should have carried the bacon on your +head.' 'Never mind, will do better next time.' + +'Whither away, Hans?' 'To Gretel, mother.' 'Behave well, Hans.' 'I'll +behave well. Goodbye, mother.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' Hans comes to Gretel. +'Good day, Gretel.' 'Good day, Hans, What good thing do you bring?' 'I +bring nothing, but would have something given.' Gretel presents Hans +with a calf. 'Goodbye, Gretel.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' + +Hans takes the calf, puts it on his head, and the calf kicks his face. +'Good evening, mother.' 'Good evening, Hans. Where have you been?' 'With +Gretel.' 'What did you take her?' 'I took nothing, but had something +given me.' 'What did Gretel give you?' 'A calf.' 'Where have you the +calf, Hans?' 'I set it on my head and it kicked my face.' 'That was +ill done, Hans, you should have led the calf, and put it in the stall.' +'Never mind, will do better next time.' + +'Whither away, Hans?' 'To Gretel, mother.' 'Behave well, Hans.' 'I'll +behave well. Goodbye, mother.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' + +Hans comes to Gretel. 'Good day, Gretel.' 'Good day, Hans. What good +thing do you bring?' 'I bring nothing, but would have something given.' +Gretel says to Hans: 'I will go with you.' + +Hans takes Gretel, ties her to a rope, leads her to the rack, and binds +her fast. Then Hans goes to his mother. 'Good evening, mother.' 'Good +evening, Hans. Where have you been?' 'With Gretel.' 'What did you take +her?' 'I took her nothing.' 'What did Gretel give you?' 'She gave me +nothing, she came with me.' 'Where have you left Gretel?' 'I led her by +the rope, tied her to the rack, and scattered some grass for her.' 'That +was ill done, Hans, you should have cast friendly eyes on her.' 'Never +mind, will do better.' + +Hans went into the stable, cut out all the calves' and sheep's eyes, +and threw them in Gretel's face. Then Gretel became angry, tore herself +loose and ran away, and was no longer the bride of Hans. + + + + +THE THREE LANGUAGES + +An aged count once lived in Switzerland, who had an only son, but he +was stupid, and could learn nothing. Then said the father: 'Hark you, +my son, try as I will I can get nothing into your head. You must go from +hence, I will give you into the care of a celebrated master, who shall +see what he can do with you.' The youth was sent into a strange town, +and remained a whole year with the master. At the end of this time, +he came home again, and his father asked: 'Now, my son, what have you +learnt?' 'Father, I have learnt what the dogs say when they bark.' 'Lord +have mercy on us!' cried the father; 'is that all you have learnt? I +will send you into another town, to another master.' The youth was taken +thither, and stayed a year with this master likewise. When he came back +the father again asked: 'My son, what have you learnt?' He answered: +'Father, I have learnt what the birds say.' Then the father fell into a +rage and said: 'Oh, you lost man, you have spent the precious time and +learnt nothing; are you not ashamed to appear before my eyes? I will +send you to a third master, but if you learn nothing this time also, I +will no longer be your father.' The youth remained a whole year with the +third master also, and when he came home again, and his father inquired: +'My son, what have you learnt?' he answered: 'Dear father, I have this +year learnt what the frogs croak.' Then the father fell into the most +furious anger, sprang up, called his people thither, and said: 'This man +is no longer my son, I drive him forth, and command you to take him +out into the forest, and kill him.' They took him forth, but when they +should have killed him, they could not do it for pity, and let him go, +and they cut the eyes and tongue out of a deer that they might carry +them to the old man as a token. + +The youth wandered on, and after some time came to a fortress where he +begged for a night's lodging. 'Yes,' said the lord of the castle, 'if +you will pass the night down there in the old tower, go thither; but I +warn you, it is at the peril of your life, for it is full of wild dogs, +which bark and howl without stopping, and at certain hours a man has to +be given to them, whom they at once devour.' The whole district was in +sorrow and dismay because of them, and yet no one could do anything to +stop this. The youth, however, was without fear, and said: 'Just let me +go down to the barking dogs, and give me something that I can throw to +them; they will do nothing to harm me.' As he himself would have it so, +they gave him some food for the wild animals, and led him down to the +tower. When he went inside, the dogs did not bark at him, but wagged +their tails quite amicably around him, ate what he set before them, and +did not hurt one hair of his head. Next morning, to the astonishment of +everyone, he came out again safe and unharmed, and said to the lord of +the castle: 'The dogs have revealed to me, in their own language, why +they dwell there, and bring evil on the land. They are bewitched, and +are obliged to watch over a great treasure which is below in the tower, +and they can have no rest until it is taken away, and I have likewise +learnt, from their discourse, how that is to be done.' Then all who +heard this rejoiced, and the lord of the castle said he would adopt him +as a son if he accomplished it successfully. He went down again, and +as he knew what he had to do, he did it thoroughly, and brought a chest +full of gold out with him. The howling of the wild dogs was henceforth +heard no more; they had disappeared, and the country was freed from the +trouble. + +After some time he took it in his head that he would travel to Rome. On +the way he passed by a marsh, in which a number of frogs were sitting +croaking. He listened to them, and when he became aware of what they +were saying, he grew very thoughtful and sad. At last he arrived in +Rome, where the Pope had just died, and there was great doubt among +the cardinals as to whom they should appoint as his successor. They at +length agreed that the person should be chosen as pope who should be +distinguished by some divine and miraculous token. And just as that was +decided on, the young count entered into the church, and suddenly two +snow-white doves flew on his shoulders and remained sitting there. The +ecclesiastics recognized therein the token from above, and asked him on +the spot if he would be pope. He was undecided, and knew not if he were +worthy of this, but the doves counselled him to do it, and at length he +said yes. Then was he anointed and consecrated, and thus was fulfilled +what he had heard from the frogs on his way, which had so affected him, +that he was to be his Holiness the Pope. Then he had to sing a mass, and +did not know one word of it, but the two doves sat continually on his +shoulders, and said it all in his ear. + + + + +THE FOX AND THE CAT + +It happened that the cat met the fox in a forest, and as she thought to +herself: 'He is clever and full of experience, and much esteemed in the +world,' she spoke to him in a friendly way. 'Good day, dear Mr Fox, +how are you? How is all with you? How are you getting on in these hard +times?' The fox, full of all kinds of arrogance, looked at the cat from +head to foot, and for a long time did not know whether he would give +any answer or not. At last he said: 'Oh, you wretched beard-cleaner, you +piebald fool, you hungry mouse-hunter, what can you be thinking of? Have +you the cheek to ask how I am getting on? What have you learnt? How +many arts do you understand?' 'I understand but one,' replied the +cat, modestly. 'What art is that?' asked the fox. 'When the hounds are +following me, I can spring into a tree and save myself.' 'Is that all?' +said the fox. 'I am master of a hundred arts, and have into the bargain +a sackful of cunning. You make me sorry for you; come with me, I will +teach you how people get away from the hounds.' Just then came a hunter +with four dogs. The cat sprang nimbly up a tree, and sat down at the top +of it, where the branches and foliage quite concealed her. 'Open your +sack, Mr Fox, open your sack,' cried the cat to him, but the dogs had +already seized him, and were holding him fast. 'Ah, Mr Fox,' cried the +cat. 'You with your hundred arts are left in the lurch! Had you been +able to climb like me, you would not have lost your life.' + + + + +THE FOUR CLEVER BROTHERS + +'Dear children,' said a poor man to his four sons, 'I have nothing to +give you; you must go out into the wide world and try your luck. Begin +by learning some craft or another, and see how you can get on.' So the +four brothers took their walking-sticks in their hands, and their little +bundles on their shoulders, and after bidding their father goodbye, went +all out at the gate together. When they had got on some way they came +to four crossways, each leading to a different country. Then the eldest +said, 'Here we must part; but this day four years we will come back +to this spot, and in the meantime each must try what he can do for +himself.' + +So each brother went his way; and as the eldest was hastening on a man +met him, and asked him where he was going, and what he wanted. 'I am +going to try my luck in the world, and should like to begin by learning +some art or trade,' answered he. 'Then,' said the man, 'go with me, and +I will teach you to become the cunningest thief that ever was.' 'No,' +said the other, 'that is not an honest calling, and what can one look +to earn by it in the end but the gallows?' 'Oh!' said the man, 'you need +not fear the gallows; for I will only teach you to steal what will be +fair game: I meddle with nothing but what no one else can get or care +anything about, and where no one can find you out.' So the young man +agreed to follow his trade, and he soon showed himself so clever, that +nothing could escape him that he had once set his mind upon. + +The second brother also met a man, who, when he found out what he was +setting out upon, asked him what craft he meant to follow. 'I do not +know yet,' said he. 'Then come with me, and be a star-gazer. It is a +noble art, for nothing can be hidden from you, when once you understand +the stars.' The plan pleased him much, and he soon became such a skilful +star-gazer, that when he had served out his time, and wanted to leave +his master, he gave him a glass, and said, 'With this you can see all +that is passing in the sky and on earth, and nothing can be hidden from +you.' + +The third brother met a huntsman, who took him with him, and taught him +so well all that belonged to hunting, that he became very clever in the +craft of the woods; and when he left his master he gave him a bow, and +said, 'Whatever you shoot at with this bow you will be sure to hit.' + +The youngest brother likewise met a man who asked him what he wished to +do. 'Would not you like,' said he, 'to be a tailor?' 'Oh, no!' said +the young man; 'sitting cross-legged from morning to night, working +backwards and forwards with a needle and goose, will never suit me.' +'Oh!' answered the man, 'that is not my sort of tailoring; come with me, +and you will learn quite another kind of craft from that.' Not knowing +what better to do, he came into the plan, and learnt tailoring from the +beginning; and when he left his master, he gave him a needle, and said, +'You can sew anything with this, be it as soft as an egg or as hard as +steel; and the joint will be so fine that no seam will be seen.' + +After the space of four years, at the time agreed upon, the four +brothers met at the four cross-roads; and having welcomed each other, +set off towards their father's home, where they told him all that had +happened to them, and how each had learned some craft. + +Then, one day, as they were sitting before the house under a very high +tree, the father said, 'I should like to try what each of you can do in +this way.' So he looked up, and said to the second son, 'At the top of +this tree there is a chaffinch's nest; tell me how many eggs there are +in it.' The star-gazer took his glass, looked up, and said, 'Five.' +'Now,' said the father to the eldest son, 'take away the eggs without +letting the bird that is sitting upon them and hatching them know +anything of what you are doing.' So the cunning thief climbed up the +tree, and brought away to his father the five eggs from under the bird; +and it never saw or felt what he was doing, but kept sitting on at its +ease. Then the father took the eggs, and put one on each corner of the +table, and the fifth in the middle, and said to the huntsman, 'Cut all +the eggs in two pieces at one shot.' The huntsman took up his bow, and +at one shot struck all the five eggs as his father wished. + +'Now comes your turn,' said he to the young tailor; 'sew the eggs and +the young birds in them together again, so neatly that the shot shall +have done them no harm.' Then the tailor took his needle, and sewed the +eggs as he was told; and when he had done, the thief was sent to take +them back to the nest, and put them under the bird without its knowing +it. Then she went on sitting, and hatched them: and in a few days they +crawled out, and had only a little red streak across their necks, where +the tailor had sewn them together. + +'Well done, sons!' said the old man; 'you have made good use of your +time, and learnt something worth the knowing; but I am sure I do not +know which ought to have the prize. Oh, that a time might soon come for +you to turn your skill to some account!' + +Not long after this there was a great bustle in the country; for the +king's daughter had been carried off by a mighty dragon, and the king +mourned over his loss day and night, and made it known that whoever +brought her back to him should have her for a wife. Then the four +brothers said to each other, 'Here is a chance for us; let us try +what we can do.' And they agreed to see whether they could not set the +princess free. 'I will soon find out where she is, however,' said the +star-gazer, as he looked through his glass; and he soon cried out, 'I +see her afar off, sitting upon a rock in the sea, and I can spy the +dragon close by, guarding her.' Then he went to the king, and asked for +a ship for himself and his brothers; and they sailed together over the +sea, till they came to the right place. There they found the princess +sitting, as the star-gazer had said, on the rock; and the dragon was +lying asleep, with his head upon her lap. 'I dare not shoot at him,' +said the huntsman, 'for I should kill the beautiful young lady also.' +'Then I will try my skill,' said the thief, and went and stole her away +from under the dragon, so quietly and gently that the beast did not know +it, but went on snoring. + +Then away they hastened with her full of joy in their boat towards the +ship; but soon came the dragon roaring behind them through the air; for +he awoke and missed the princess. But when he got over the boat, and +wanted to pounce upon them and carry off the princess, the huntsman took +up his bow and shot him straight through the heart so that he fell down +dead. They were still not safe; for he was such a great beast that in +his fall he overset the boat, and they had to swim in the open sea +upon a few planks. So the tailor took his needle, and with a few large +stitches put some of the planks together; and he sat down upon these, +and sailed about and gathered up all pieces of the boat; and then tacked +them together so quickly that the boat was soon ready, and they then +reached the ship and got home safe. + +When they had brought home the princess to her father, there was great +rejoicing; and he said to the four brothers, 'One of you shall marry +her, but you must settle amongst yourselves which it is to be.' Then +there arose a quarrel between them; and the star-gazer said, 'If I had +not found the princess out, all your skill would have been of no use; +therefore she ought to be mine.' 'Your seeing her would have been of +no use,' said the thief, 'if I had not taken her away from the dragon; +therefore she ought to be mine.' 'No, she is mine,' said the huntsman; +'for if I had not killed the dragon, he would, after all, have torn you +and the princess into pieces.' 'And if I had not sewn the boat together +again,' said the tailor, 'you would all have been drowned, therefore she +is mine.' Then the king put in a word, and said, 'Each of you is right; +and as all cannot have the young lady, the best way is for neither of +you to have her: for the truth is, there is somebody she likes a great +deal better. But to make up for your loss, I will give each of you, as a +reward for his skill, half a kingdom.' So the brothers agreed that this +plan would be much better than either quarrelling or marrying a lady who +had no mind to have them. And the king then gave to each half a kingdom, +as he had said; and they lived very happily the rest of their days, and +took good care of their father; and somebody took better care of the +young lady, than to let either the dragon or one of the craftsmen have +her again. + + + + +LILY AND THE LION + +A merchant, who had three daughters, was once setting out upon a +journey; but before he went he asked each daughter what gift he should +bring back for her. The eldest wished for pearls; the second for jewels; +but the third, who was called Lily, said, 'Dear father, bring me a +rose.' Now it was no easy task to find a rose, for it was the middle +of winter; yet as she was his prettiest daughter, and was very fond of +flowers, her father said he would try what he could do. So he kissed all +three, and bid them goodbye. + +And when the time came for him to go home, he had bought pearls and +jewels for the two eldest, but he had sought everywhere in vain for the +rose; and when he went into any garden and asked for such a thing, the +people laughed at him, and asked him whether he thought roses grew in +snow. This grieved him very much, for Lily was his dearest child; and as +he was journeying home, thinking what he should bring her, he came to a +fine castle; and around the castle was a garden, in one half of which it +seemed to be summer-time and in the other half winter. On one side the +finest flowers were in full bloom, and on the other everything looked +dreary and buried in the snow. 'A lucky hit!' said he, as he called to +his servant, and told him to go to a beautiful bed of roses that was +there, and bring him away one of the finest flowers. + +This done, they were riding away well pleased, when up sprang a fierce +lion, and roared out, 'Whoever has stolen my roses shall be eaten up +alive!' Then the man said, 'I knew not that the garden belonged to you; +can nothing save my life?' 'No!' said the lion, 'nothing, unless you +undertake to give me whatever meets you on your return home; if you +agree to this, I will give you your life, and the rose too for your +daughter.' But the man was unwilling to do so and said, 'It may be my +youngest daughter, who loves me most, and always runs to meet me when +I go home.' Then the servant was greatly frightened, and said, 'It may +perhaps be only a cat or a dog.' And at last the man yielded with a +heavy heart, and took the rose; and said he would give the lion whatever +should meet him first on his return. + +And as he came near home, it was Lily, his youngest and dearest +daughter, that met him; she came running, and kissed him, and welcomed +him home; and when she saw that he had brought her the rose, she was +still more glad. But her father began to be very sorrowful, and to weep, +saying, 'Alas, my dearest child! I have bought this flower at a high +price, for I have said I would give you to a wild lion; and when he has +you, he will tear you in pieces, and eat you.' Then he told her all that +had happened, and said she should not go, let what would happen. + +But she comforted him, and said, 'Dear father, the word you have given +must be kept; I will go to the lion, and soothe him: perhaps he will let +me come safe home again.' + +The next morning she asked the way she was to go, and took leave of her +father, and went forth with a bold heart into the wood. But the lion was +an enchanted prince. By day he and all his court were lions, but in the +evening they took their right forms again. And when Lily came to the +castle, he welcomed her so courteously that she agreed to marry him. The +wedding-feast was held, and they lived happily together a long time. The +prince was only to be seen as soon as evening came, and then he held his +court; but every morning he left his bride, and went away by himself, +she knew not whither, till the night came again. + +After some time he said to her, 'Tomorrow there will be a great feast in +your father's house, for your eldest sister is to be married; and if +you wish to go and visit her my lions shall lead you thither.' Then she +rejoiced much at the thoughts of seeing her father once more, and set +out with the lions; and everyone was overjoyed to see her, for they had +thought her dead long since. But she told them how happy she was, and +stayed till the feast was over, and then went back to the wood. + +Her second sister was soon after married, and when Lily was asked to +go to the wedding, she said to the prince, 'I will not go alone this +time--you must go with me.' But he would not, and said that it would be +a very hazardous thing; for if the least ray of the torch-light should +fall upon him his enchantment would become still worse, for he should be +changed into a dove, and be forced to wander about the world for seven +long years. However, she gave him no rest, and said she would take care +no light should fall upon him. So at last they set out together, and +took with them their little child; and she chose a large hall with thick +walls for him to sit in while the wedding-torches were lighted; but, +unluckily, no one saw that there was a crack in the door. Then the +wedding was held with great pomp, but as the train came from the church, +and passed with the torches before the hall, a very small ray of light +fell upon the prince. In a moment he disappeared, and when his wife came +in and looked for him, she found only a white dove; and it said to her, +'Seven years must I fly up and down over the face of the earth, but +every now and then I will let fall a white feather, that will show you +the way I am going; follow it, and at last you may overtake and set me +free.' + +This said, he flew out at the door, and poor Lily followed; and every +now and then a white feather fell, and showed her the way she was to +journey. Thus she went roving on through the wide world, and looked +neither to the right hand nor to the left, nor took any rest, for seven +years. Then she began to be glad, and thought to herself that the time +was fast coming when all her troubles should end; yet repose was still +far off, for one day as she was travelling on she missed the white +feather, and when she lifted up her eyes she could nowhere see the dove. +'Now,' thought she to herself, 'no aid of man can be of use to me.' So +she went to the sun and said, 'Thou shinest everywhere, on the hill's +top and the valley's depth--hast thou anywhere seen my white dove?' +'No,' said the sun, 'I have not seen it; but I will give thee a +casket--open it when thy hour of need comes.' + +So she thanked the sun, and went on her way till eventide; and when +the moon arose, she cried unto it, and said, 'Thou shinest through the +night, over field and grove--hast thou nowhere seen my white dove?' +'No,' said the moon, 'I cannot help thee but I will give thee an +egg--break it when need comes.' + +Then she thanked the moon, and went on till the night-wind blew; and she +raised up her voice to it, and said, 'Thou blowest through every tree +and under every leaf--hast thou not seen my white dove?' 'No,' said the +night-wind, 'but I will ask three other winds; perhaps they have seen +it.' Then the east wind and the west wind came, and said they too had +not seen it, but the south wind said, 'I have seen the white dove--he +has fled to the Red Sea, and is changed once more into a lion, for the +seven years are passed away, and there he is fighting with a dragon; +and the dragon is an enchanted princess, who seeks to separate him from +you.' Then the night-wind said, 'I will give thee counsel. Go to the +Red Sea; on the right shore stand many rods--count them, and when thou +comest to the eleventh, break it off, and smite the dragon with it; and +so the lion will have the victory, and both of them will appear to you +in their own forms. Then look round and thou wilt see a griffin, winged +like bird, sitting by the Red Sea; jump on to his back with thy beloved +one as quickly as possible, and he will carry you over the waters to +your home. I will also give thee this nut,' continued the night-wind. +'When you are half-way over, throw it down, and out of the waters will +immediately spring up a high nut-tree on which the griffin will be able +to rest, otherwise he would not have the strength to bear you the whole +way; if, therefore, thou dost forget to throw down the nut, he will let +you both fall into the sea.' + +So our poor wanderer went forth, and found all as the night-wind had +said; and she plucked the eleventh rod, and smote the dragon, and the +lion forthwith became a prince, and the dragon a princess again. But +no sooner was the princess released from the spell, than she seized +the prince by the arm and sprang on to the griffin's back, and went off +carrying the prince away with her. + +Thus the unhappy traveller was again forsaken and forlorn; but she +took heart and said, 'As far as the wind blows, and so long as the cock +crows, I will journey on, till I find him once again.' She went on for +a long, long way, till at length she came to the castle whither the +princess had carried the prince; and there was a feast got ready, and +she heard that the wedding was about to be held. 'Heaven aid me now!' +said she; and she took the casket that the sun had given her, and found +that within it lay a dress as dazzling as the sun itself. So she put it +on, and went into the palace, and all the people gazed upon her; and +the dress pleased the bride so much that she asked whether it was to be +sold. 'Not for gold and silver.' said she, 'but for flesh and blood.' +The princess asked what she meant, and she said, 'Let me speak with the +bridegroom this night in his chamber, and I will give thee the dress.' +At last the princess agreed, but she told her chamberlain to give the +prince a sleeping draught, that he might not hear or see her. When +evening came, and the prince had fallen asleep, she was led into +his chamber, and she sat herself down at his feet, and said: 'I have +followed thee seven years. I have been to the sun, the moon, and the +night-wind, to seek thee, and at last I have helped thee to overcome +the dragon. Wilt thou then forget me quite?' But the prince all the time +slept so soundly, that her voice only passed over him, and seemed like +the whistling of the wind among the fir-trees. + +Then poor Lily was led away, and forced to give up the golden dress; and +when she saw that there was no help for her, she went out into a meadow, +and sat herself down and wept. But as she sat she bethought herself of +the egg that the moon had given her; and when she broke it, there ran +out a hen and twelve chickens of pure gold, that played about, and then +nestled under the old one's wings, so as to form the most beautiful +sight in the world. And she rose up and drove them before her, till the +bride saw them from her window, and was so pleased that she came forth +and asked her if she would sell the brood. 'Not for gold or silver, but +for flesh and blood: let me again this evening speak with the bridegroom +in his chamber, and I will give thee the whole brood.' + +Then the princess thought to betray her as before, and agreed to +what she asked: but when the prince went to his chamber he asked +the chamberlain why the wind had whistled so in the night. And the +chamberlain told him all--how he had given him a sleeping draught, and +how a poor maiden had come and spoken to him in his chamber, and was +to come again that night. Then the prince took care to throw away the +sleeping draught; and when Lily came and began again to tell him what +woes had befallen her, and how faithful and true to him she had been, +he knew his beloved wife's voice, and sprang up, and said, 'You have +awakened me as from a dream, for the strange princess had thrown a spell +around me, so that I had altogether forgotten you; but Heaven hath sent +you to me in a lucky hour.' + +And they stole away out of the palace by night unawares, and seated +themselves on the griffin, who flew back with them over the Red Sea. +When they were half-way across Lily let the nut fall into the water, +and immediately a large nut-tree arose from the sea, whereon the griffin +rested for a while, and then carried them safely home. There they found +their child, now grown up to be comely and fair; and after all their +troubles they lived happily together to the end of their days. + + + + +THE FOX AND THE HORSE + +A farmer had a horse that had been an excellent faithful servant to +him: but he was now grown too old to work; so the farmer would give him +nothing more to eat, and said, 'I want you no longer, so take yourself +off out of my stable; I shall not take you back again until you are +stronger than a lion.' Then he opened the door and turned him adrift. + +The poor horse was very melancholy, and wandered up and down in the +wood, seeking some little shelter from the cold wind and rain. Presently +a fox met him: 'What's the matter, my friend?' said he, 'why do you hang +down your head and look so lonely and woe-begone?' 'Ah!' replied the +horse, 'justice and avarice never dwell in one house; my master has +forgotten all that I have done for him so many years, and because I +can no longer work he has turned me adrift, and says unless I become +stronger than a lion he will not take me back again; what chance can I +have of that? he knows I have none, or he would not talk so.' + +However, the fox bid him be of good cheer, and said, 'I will help you; +lie down there, stretch yourself out quite stiff, and pretend to be +dead.' The horse did as he was told, and the fox went straight to the +lion who lived in a cave close by, and said to him, 'A little way off +lies a dead horse; come with me and you may make an excellent meal of +his carcase.' The lion was greatly pleased, and set off immediately; and +when they came to the horse, the fox said, 'You will not be able to eat +him comfortably here; I'll tell you what--I will tie you fast to +his tail, and then you can draw him to your den, and eat him at your +leisure.' + +This advice pleased the lion, so he laid himself down quietly for the +fox to make him fast to the horse. But the fox managed to tie his legs +together and bound all so hard and fast that with all his strength he +could not set himself free. When the work was done, the fox clapped the +horse on the shoulder, and said, 'Jip! Dobbin! Jip!' Then up he sprang, +and moved off, dragging the lion behind him. The beast began to roar +and bellow, till all the birds of the wood flew away for fright; but the +horse let him sing on, and made his way quietly over the fields to his +master's house. + +'Here he is, master,' said he, 'I have got the better of him': and when +the farmer saw his old servant, his heart relented, and he said. 'Thou +shalt stay in thy stable and be well taken care of.' And so the poor old +horse had plenty to eat, and lived--till he died. + + + + +THE BLUE LIGHT + +There was once upon a time a soldier who for many years had served the +king faithfully, but when the war came to an end could serve no longer +because of the many wounds which he had received. The king said to him: +'You may return to your home, I need you no longer, and you will not +receive any more money, for he only receives wages who renders me +service for them.' Then the soldier did not know how to earn a living, +went away greatly troubled, and walked the whole day, until in the +evening he entered a forest. When darkness came on, he saw a light, +which he went up to, and came to a house wherein lived a witch. 'Do give +me one night's lodging, and a little to eat and drink,' said he to +her, 'or I shall starve.' 'Oho!' she answered, 'who gives anything to a +run-away soldier? Yet will I be compassionate, and take you in, if you +will do what I wish.' 'What do you wish?' said the soldier. 'That you +should dig all round my garden for me, tomorrow.' The soldier consented, +and next day laboured with all his strength, but could not finish it by +the evening. 'I see well enough,' said the witch, 'that you can do no +more today, but I will keep you yet another night, in payment for +which you must tomorrow chop me a load of wood, and chop it small.' The +soldier spent the whole day in doing it, and in the evening the witch +proposed that he should stay one night more. 'Tomorrow, you shall only +do me a very trifling piece of work. Behind my house, there is an old +dry well, into which my light has fallen, it burns blue, and never goes +out, and you shall bring it up again.' Next day the old woman took him +to the well, and let him down in a basket. He found the blue light, and +made her a signal to draw him up again. She did draw him up, but when he +came near the edge, she stretched down her hand and wanted to take the +blue light away from him. 'No,' said he, perceiving her evil intention, +'I will not give you the light until I am standing with both feet upon +the ground.' The witch fell into a passion, let him fall again into the +well, and went away. + +The poor soldier fell without injury on the moist ground, and the blue +light went on burning, but of what use was that to him? He saw very well +that he could not escape death. He sat for a while very sorrowfully, +then suddenly he felt in his pocket and found his tobacco pipe, which +was still half full. 'This shall be my last pleasure,' thought he, +pulled it out, lit it at the blue light and began to smoke. When the +smoke had circled about the cavern, suddenly a little black dwarf stood +before him, and said: 'Lord, what are your commands?' 'What my commands +are?' replied the soldier, quite astonished. 'I must do everything you +bid me,' said the little man. 'Good,' said the soldier; 'then in the +first place help me out of this well.' The little man took him by the +hand, and led him through an underground passage, but he did not forget +to take the blue light with him. On the way the dwarf showed him the +treasures which the witch had collected and hidden there, and the +soldier took as much gold as he could carry. When he was above, he said +to the little man: 'Now go and bind the old witch, and carry her before +the judge.' In a short time she came by like the wind, riding on a wild +tom-cat and screaming frightfully. Nor was it long before the little man +reappeared. 'It is all done,' said he, 'and the witch is already hanging +on the gallows. What further commands has my lord?' inquired the dwarf. +'At this moment, none,' answered the soldier; 'you can return home, only +be at hand immediately, if I summon you.' 'Nothing more is needed than +that you should light your pipe at the blue light, and I will appear +before you at once.' Thereupon he vanished from his sight. + +The soldier returned to the town from which he came. He went to the +best inn, ordered himself handsome clothes, and then bade the landlord +furnish him a room as handsome as possible. When it was ready and the +soldier had taken possession of it, he summoned the little black manikin +and said: 'I have served the king faithfully, but he has dismissed me, +and left me to hunger, and now I want to take my revenge.' 'What am I to +do?' asked the little man. 'Late at night, when the king's daughter is +in bed, bring her here in her sleep, she shall do servant's work for +me.' The manikin said: 'That is an easy thing for me to do, but a very +dangerous thing for you, for if it is discovered, you will fare ill.' +When twelve o'clock had struck, the door sprang open, and the manikin +carried in the princess. 'Aha! are you there?' cried the soldier, 'get +to your work at once! Fetch the broom and sweep the chamber.' When +she had done this, he ordered her to come to his chair, and then he +stretched out his feet and said: 'Pull off my boots,' and then he +threw them in her face, and made her pick them up again, and clean +and brighten them. She, however, did everything he bade her, without +opposition, silently and with half-shut eyes. When the first cock +crowed, the manikin carried her back to the royal palace, and laid her +in her bed. + +Next morning when the princess arose she went to her father, and told +him that she had had a very strange dream. 'I was carried through the +streets with the rapidity of lightning,' said she, 'and taken into a +soldier's room, and I had to wait upon him like a servant, sweep his +room, clean his boots, and do all kinds of menial work. It was only a +dream, and yet I am just as tired as if I really had done everything.' +'The dream may have been true,' said the king. 'I will give you a piece +of advice. Fill your pocket full of peas, and make a small hole in the +pocket, and then if you are carried away again, they will fall out and +leave a track in the streets.' But unseen by the king, the manikin was +standing beside him when he said that, and heard all. At night when +the sleeping princess was again carried through the streets, some peas +certainly did fall out of her pocket, but they made no track, for the +crafty manikin had just before scattered peas in every street there +was. And again the princess was compelled to do servant's work until +cock-crow. + +Next morning the king sent his people out to seek the track, but it was +all in vain, for in every street poor children were sitting, picking up +peas, and saying: 'It must have rained peas, last night.' 'We must think +of something else,' said the king; 'keep your shoes on when you go to +bed, and before you come back from the place where you are taken, hide +one of them there, I will soon contrive to find it.' The black manikin +heard this plot, and at night when the soldier again ordered him to +bring the princess, revealed it to him, and told him that he knew of no +expedient to counteract this stratagem, and that if the shoe were found +in the soldier's house it would go badly with him. 'Do what I bid you,' +replied the soldier, and again this third night the princess was obliged +to work like a servant, but before she went away, she hid her shoe under +the bed. + +Next morning the king had the entire town searched for his daughter's +shoe. It was found at the soldier's, and the soldier himself, who at the +entreaty of the dwarf had gone outside the gate, was soon brought back, +and thrown into prison. In his flight he had forgotten the most valuable +things he had, the blue light and the gold, and had only one ducat in +his pocket. And now loaded with chains, he was standing at the window of +his dungeon, when he chanced to see one of his comrades passing by. The +soldier tapped at the pane of glass, and when this man came up, said to +him: 'Be so kind as to fetch me the small bundle I have left lying in +the inn, and I will give you a ducat for doing it.' His comrade ran +thither and brought him what he wanted. As soon as the soldier was alone +again, he lighted his pipe and summoned the black manikin. 'Have no +fear,' said the latter to his master. 'Go wheresoever they take you, and +let them do what they will, only take the blue light with you.' Next day +the soldier was tried, and though he had done nothing wicked, the judge +condemned him to death. When he was led forth to die, he begged a last +favour of the king. 'What is it?' asked the king. 'That I may smoke one +more pipe on my way.' 'You may smoke three,' answered the king, 'but do +not imagine that I will spare your life.' Then the soldier pulled out +his pipe and lighted it at the blue light, and as soon as a few wreaths +of smoke had ascended, the manikin was there with a small cudgel in his +hand, and said: 'What does my lord command?' 'Strike down to earth that +false judge there, and his constable, and spare not the king who has +treated me so ill.' Then the manikin fell on them like lightning, +darting this way and that way, and whosoever was so much as touched by +his cudgel fell to earth, and did not venture to stir again. The king +was terrified; he threw himself on the soldier's mercy, and merely to +be allowed to live at all, gave him his kingdom for his own, and his +daughter to wife. + + + + +THE RAVEN + +There was once a queen who had a little daughter, still too young to run +alone. One day the child was very troublesome, and the mother could not +quiet it, do what she would. She grew impatient, and seeing the ravens +flying round the castle, she opened the window, and said: 'I wish you +were a raven and would fly away, then I should have a little peace.' +Scarcely were the words out of her mouth, when the child in her arms was +turned into a raven, and flew away from her through the open window. The +bird took its flight to a dark wood and remained there for a long time, +and meanwhile the parents could hear nothing of their child. + +Long after this, a man was making his way through the wood when he heard +a raven calling, and he followed the sound of the voice. As he drew +near, the raven said, 'I am by birth a king's daughter, but am now under +the spell of some enchantment; you can, however, set me free.' 'What +am I to do?' he asked. She replied, 'Go farther into the wood until you +come to a house, wherein lives an old woman; she will offer you food and +drink, but you must not take of either; if you do, you will fall into +a deep sleep, and will not be able to help me. In the garden behind the +house is a large tan-heap, and on that you must stand and watch for me. +I shall drive there in my carriage at two o'clock in the afternoon for +three successive days; the first day it will be drawn by four white, the +second by four chestnut, and the last by four black horses; but if you +fail to keep awake and I find you sleeping, I shall not be set free.' + +The man promised to do all that she wished, but the raven said, 'Alas! I +know even now that you will take something from the woman and be unable +to save me.' The man assured her again that he would on no account touch +a thing to eat or drink. + +When he came to the house and went inside, the old woman met him, and +said, 'Poor man! how tired you are! Come in and rest and let me give you +something to eat and drink.' + +'No,' answered the man, 'I will neither eat not drink.' + +But she would not leave him alone, and urged him saying, 'If you will +not eat anything, at least you might take a draught of wine; one drink +counts for nothing,' and at last he allowed himself to be persuaded, and +drank. + +As it drew towards the appointed hour, he went outside into the garden +and mounted the tan-heap to await the raven. Suddenly a feeling of +fatigue came over him, and unable to resist it, he lay down for a little +while, fully determined, however, to keep awake; but in another minute +his eyes closed of their own accord, and he fell into such a deep sleep, +that all the noises in the world would not have awakened him. At two +o'clock the raven came driving along, drawn by her four white horses; +but even before she reached the spot, she said to herself, sighing, 'I +know he has fallen asleep.' When she entered the garden, there she found +him as she had feared, lying on the tan-heap, fast asleep. She got out +of her carriage and went to him; she called him and shook him, but it +was all in vain, he still continued sleeping. + +The next day at noon, the old woman came to him again with food and +drink which he at first refused. At last, overcome by her persistent +entreaties that he would take something, he lifted the glass and drank +again. + +Towards two o'clock he went into the garden and on to the tan-heap to +watch for the raven. He had not been there long before he began to feel +so tired that his limbs seemed hardly able to support him, and he could +not stand upright any longer; so again he lay down and fell fast asleep. +As the raven drove along her four chestnut horses, she said sorrowfully +to herself, 'I know he has fallen asleep.' She went as before to look +for him, but he slept, and it was impossible to awaken him. + +The following day the old woman said to him, 'What is this? You are not +eating or drinking anything, do you want to kill yourself?' + +He answered, 'I may not and will not either eat or drink.' + +But she put down the dish of food and the glass of wine in front of him, +and when he smelt the wine, he was unable to resist the temptation, and +took a deep draught. + +When the hour came round again he went as usual on to the tan-heap in +the garden to await the king's daughter, but he felt even more overcome +with weariness than on the two previous days, and throwing himself down, +he slept like a log. At two o'clock the raven could be seen approaching, +and this time her coachman and everything about her, as well as her +horses, were black. + +She was sadder than ever as she drove along, and said mournfully, 'I +know he has fallen asleep, and will not be able to set me free.' She +found him sleeping heavily, and all her efforts to awaken him were of no +avail. Then she placed beside him a loaf, and some meat, and a flask +of wine, of such a kind, that however much he took of them, they would +never grow less. After that she drew a gold ring, on which her name was +engraved, off her finger, and put it upon one of his. Finally, she laid +a letter near him, in which, after giving him particulars of the food +and drink she had left for him, she finished with the following words: +'I see that as long as you remain here you will never be able to set me +free; if, however, you still wish to do so, come to the golden castle +of Stromberg; this is well within your power to accomplish.' She then +returned to her carriage and drove to the golden castle of Stromberg. + +When the man awoke and found that he had been sleeping, he was grieved +at heart, and said, 'She has no doubt been here and driven away again, +and it is now too late for me to save her.' Then his eyes fell on the +things which were lying beside him; he read the letter, and knew from it +all that had happened. He rose up without delay, eager to start on his +way and to reach the castle of Stromberg, but he had no idea in which +direction he ought to go. He travelled about a long time in search of it +and came at last to a dark forest, through which he went on walking for +fourteen days and still could not find a way out. Once more the night +came on, and worn out he lay down under a bush and fell asleep. Again +the next day he pursued his way through the forest, and that evening, +thinking to rest again, he lay down as before, but he heard such a +howling and wailing that he found it impossible to sleep. He waited till +it was darker and people had begun to light up their houses, and then +seeing a little glimmer ahead of him, he went towards it. + +He found that the light came from a house which looked smaller than +it really was, from the contrast of its height with that of an immense +giant who stood in front of it. He thought to himself, 'If the giant +sees me going in, my life will not be worth much.' However, after a +while he summoned up courage and went forward. When the giant saw him, +he called out, 'It is lucky for that you have come, for I have not had +anything to eat for a long time. I can have you now for my supper.' 'I +would rather you let that alone,' said the man, 'for I do not willingly +give myself up to be eaten; if you are wanting food I have enough to +satisfy your hunger.' 'If that is so,' replied the giant, 'I will leave +you in peace; I only thought of eating you because I had nothing else.' + +So they went indoors together and sat down, and the man brought out the +bread, meat, and wine, which although he had eaten and drunk of them, +were still unconsumed. The giant was pleased with the good cheer, and +ate and drank to his heart's content. When he had finished his supper +the man asked him if he could direct him to the castle of Stromberg. +The giant said, 'I will look on my map; on it are marked all the towns, +villages, and houses.' So he fetched his map, and looked for the castle, +but could not find it. 'Never mind,' he said, 'I have larger maps +upstairs in the cupboard, we will look on those,' but they searched in +vain, for the castle was not marked even on these. The man now thought +he should like to continue his journey, but the giant begged him to +remain for a day or two longer until the return of his brother, who was +away in search of provisions. When the brother came home, they asked him +about the castle of Stromberg, and he told them he would look on his own +maps as soon as he had eaten and appeased his hunger. Accordingly, when +he had finished his supper, they all went up together to his room and +looked through his maps, but the castle was not to be found. Then he +fetched other older maps, and they went on looking for the castle until +at last they found it, but it was many thousand miles away. 'How shall I +be able to get there?' asked the man. 'I have two hours to spare,' said +the giant, 'and I will carry you into the neighbourhood of the castle; I +must then return to look after the child who is in our care.' + +The giant, thereupon, carried the man to within about a hundred leagues +of the castle, where he left him, saying, 'You will be able to walk the +remainder of the way yourself.' The man journeyed on day and night +till he reached the golden castle of Stromberg. He found it situated, +however, on a glass mountain, and looking up from the foot he saw the +enchanted maiden drive round her castle and then go inside. He was +overjoyed to see her, and longed to get to the top of the mountain, but +the sides were so slippery that every time he attempted to climb he +fell back again. When he saw that it was impossible to reach her, he was +greatly grieved, and said to himself, 'I will remain here and wait for +her,' so he built himself a little hut, and there he sat and watched for +a whole year, and every day he saw the king's daughter driving round her +castle, but still was unable to get nearer to her. + +Looking out from his hut one day he saw three robbers fighting and he +called out to them, 'God be with you.' They stopped when they heard the +call, but looking round and seeing nobody, they went on again with their +fighting, which now became more furious. 'God be with you,' he cried +again, and again they paused and looked about, but seeing no one went +back to their fighting. A third time he called out, 'God be with you,' +and then thinking he should like to know the cause of dispute between +the three men, he went out and asked them why they were fighting so +angrily with one another. One of them said that he had found a stick, +and that he had but to strike it against any door through which he +wished to pass, and it immediately flew open. Another told him that he +had found a cloak which rendered its wearer invisible; and the third had +caught a horse which would carry its rider over any obstacle, and even +up the glass mountain. They had been unable to decide whether they +would keep together and have the things in common, or whether they would +separate. On hearing this, the man said, 'I will give you something in +exchange for those three things; not money, for that I have not got, +but something that is of far more value. I must first, however, prove +whether all you have told me about your three things is true.' The +robbers, therefore, made him get on the horse, and handed him the stick +and the cloak, and when he had put this round him he was no longer +visible. Then he fell upon them with the stick and beat them one after +another, crying, 'There, you idle vagabonds, you have got what you +deserve; are you satisfied now!' + +After this he rode up the glass mountain. When he reached the gate of +the castle, he found it closed, but he gave it a blow with his stick, +and it flew wide open at once and he passed through. He mounted the +steps and entered the room where the maiden was sitting, with a golden +goblet full of wine in front of her. She could not see him for he still +wore his cloak. He took the ring which she had given him off his finger, +and threw it into the goblet, so that it rang as it touched the bottom. +'That is my own ring,' she exclaimed, 'and if that is so the man must +also be here who is coming to set me free.' + +She sought for him about the castle, but could find him nowhere. +Meanwhile he had gone outside again and mounted his horse and thrown off +the cloak. When therefore she came to the castle gate she saw him, and +cried aloud for joy. Then he dismounted and took her in his arms; and +she kissed him, and said, 'Now you have indeed set me free, and tomorrow +we will celebrate our marriage.' + + + + +THE GOLDEN GOOSE + +There was a man who had three sons, the youngest of whom was called +Dummling,[*] and was despised, mocked, and sneered at on every occasion. + +It happened that the eldest wanted to go into the forest to hew wood, +and before he went his mother gave him a beautiful sweet cake and a +bottle of wine in order that he might not suffer from hunger or thirst. + +When he entered the forest he met a little grey-haired old man who bade +him good day, and said: 'Do give me a piece of cake out of your pocket, +and let me have a draught of your wine; I am so hungry and thirsty.' But +the clever son answered: 'If I give you my cake and wine, I shall have +none for myself; be off with you,' and he left the little man standing +and went on. + +But when he began to hew down a tree, it was not long before he made a +false stroke, and the axe cut him in the arm, so that he had to go home +and have it bound up. And this was the little grey man's doing. + +After this the second son went into the forest, and his mother gave him, +like the eldest, a cake and a bottle of wine. The little old grey man +met him likewise, and asked him for a piece of cake and a drink of wine. +But the second son, too, said sensibly enough: 'What I give you will be +taken away from myself; be off!' and he left the little man standing and +went on. His punishment, however, was not delayed; when he had made a +few blows at the tree he struck himself in the leg, so that he had to be +carried home. + +Then Dummling said: 'Father, do let me go and cut wood.' The father +answered: 'Your brothers have hurt themselves with it, leave it alone, +you do not understand anything about it.' But Dummling begged so long +that at last he said: 'Just go then, you will get wiser by hurting +yourself.' His mother gave him a cake made with water and baked in the +cinders, and with it a bottle of sour beer. + +When he came to the forest the little old grey man met him likewise, +and greeting him, said: 'Give me a piece of your cake and a drink out +of your bottle; I am so hungry and thirsty.' Dummling answered: 'I have +only cinder-cake and sour beer; if that pleases you, we will sit +down and eat.' So they sat down, and when Dummling pulled out his +cinder-cake, it was a fine sweet cake, and the sour beer had become good +wine. So they ate and drank, and after that the little man said: 'Since +you have a good heart, and are willing to divide what you have, I will +give you good luck. There stands an old tree, cut it down, and you will +find something at the roots.' Then the little man took leave of him. + +Dummling went and cut down the tree, and when it fell there was a goose +sitting in the roots with feathers of pure gold. He lifted her up, and +taking her with him, went to an inn where he thought he would stay the +night. Now the host had three daughters, who saw the goose and were +curious to know what such a wonderful bird might be, and would have +liked to have one of its golden feathers. + +The eldest thought: 'I shall soon find an opportunity of pulling out a +feather,' and as soon as Dummling had gone out she seized the goose by +the wing, but her finger and hand remained sticking fast to it. + +The second came soon afterwards, thinking only of how she might get a +feather for herself, but she had scarcely touched her sister than she +was held fast. + +At last the third also came with the like intent, and the others +screamed out: 'Keep away; for goodness' sake keep away!' But she did +not understand why she was to keep away. 'The others are there,' she +thought, 'I may as well be there too,' and ran to them; but as soon as +she had touched her sister, she remained sticking fast to her. So they +had to spend the night with the goose. + +The next morning Dummling took the goose under his arm and set out, +without troubling himself about the three girls who were hanging on to +it. They were obliged to run after him continually, now left, now right, +wherever his legs took him. + +In the middle of the fields the parson met them, and when he saw the +procession he said: 'For shame, you good-for-nothing girls, why are you +running across the fields after this young man? Is that seemly?' At the +same time he seized the youngest by the hand in order to pull her away, +but as soon as he touched her he likewise stuck fast, and was himself +obliged to run behind. + +Before long the sexton came by and saw his master, the parson, running +behind three girls. He was astonished at this and called out: 'Hi! +your reverence, whither away so quickly? Do not forget that we have a +christening today!' and running after him he took him by the sleeve, but +was also held fast to it. + +Whilst the five were trotting thus one behind the other, two labourers +came with their hoes from the fields; the parson called out to them +and begged that they would set him and the sexton free. But they had +scarcely touched the sexton when they were held fast, and now there were +seven of them running behind Dummling and the goose. + +Soon afterwards he came to a city, where a king ruled who had a daughter +who was so serious that no one could make her laugh. So he had put forth +a decree that whosoever should be able to make her laugh should marry +her. When Dummling heard this, he went with his goose and all her train +before the king's daughter, and as soon as she saw the seven people +running on and on, one behind the other, she began to laugh quite +loudly, and as if she would never stop. Thereupon Dummling asked to have +her for his wife; but the king did not like the son-in-law, and made all +manner of excuses and said he must first produce a man who could drink +a cellarful of wine. Dummling thought of the little grey man, who could +certainly help him; so he went into the forest, and in the same place +where he had felled the tree, he saw a man sitting, who had a very +sorrowful face. Dummling asked him what he was taking to heart so +sorely, and he answered: 'I have such a great thirst and cannot quench +it; cold water I cannot stand, a barrel of wine I have just emptied, but +that to me is like a drop on a hot stone!' + +'There, I can help you,' said Dummling, 'just come with me and you shall +be satisfied.' + +He led him into the king's cellar, and the man bent over the huge +barrels, and drank and drank till his loins hurt, and before the day was +out he had emptied all the barrels. Then Dummling asked once more +for his bride, but the king was vexed that such an ugly fellow, whom +everyone called Dummling, should take away his daughter, and he made a +new condition; he must first find a man who could eat a whole mountain +of bread. Dummling did not think long, but went straight into the +forest, where in the same place there sat a man who was tying up his +body with a strap, and making an awful face, and saying: 'I have eaten a +whole ovenful of rolls, but what good is that when one has such a hunger +as I? My stomach remains empty, and I must tie myself up if I am not to +die of hunger.' + +At this Dummling was glad, and said: 'Get up and come with me; you shall +eat yourself full.' He led him to the king's palace where all the +flour in the whole Kingdom was collected, and from it he caused a huge +mountain of bread to be baked. The man from the forest stood before it, +began to eat, and by the end of one day the whole mountain had vanished. +Then Dummling for the third time asked for his bride; but the king again +sought a way out, and ordered a ship which could sail on land and on +water. 'As soon as you come sailing back in it,' said he, 'you shall +have my daughter for wife.' + +Dummling went straight into the forest, and there sat the little grey +man to whom he had given his cake. When he heard what Dummling wanted, +he said: 'Since you have given me to eat and to drink, I will give you +the ship; and I do all this because you once were kind to me.' Then he +gave him the ship which could sail on land and water, and when the king +saw that, he could no longer prevent him from having his daughter. The +wedding was celebrated, and after the king's death, Dummling inherited +his kingdom and lived for a long time contentedly with his wife. + + [*] Simpleton + + + + +THE WATER OF LIFE + +Long before you or I were born, there reigned, in a country a great way +off, a king who had three sons. This king once fell very ill--so ill +that nobody thought he could live. His sons were very much grieved +at their father's sickness; and as they were walking together very +mournfully in the garden of the palace, a little old man met them and +asked what was the matter. They told him that their father was very ill, +and that they were afraid nothing could save him. 'I know what would,' +said the little old man; 'it is the Water of Life. If he could have a +draught of it he would be well again; but it is very hard to get.' Then +the eldest son said, 'I will soon find it': and he went to the sick +king, and begged that he might go in search of the Water of Life, as +it was the only thing that could save him. 'No,' said the king. 'I had +rather die than place you in such great danger as you must meet with in +your journey.' But he begged so hard that the king let him go; and the +prince thought to himself, 'If I bring my father this water, he will +make me sole heir to his kingdom.' + +Then he set out: and when he had gone on his way some time he came to a +deep valley, overhung with rocks and woods; and as he looked around, he +saw standing above him on one of the rocks a little ugly dwarf, with a +sugarloaf cap and a scarlet cloak; and the dwarf called to him and said, +'Prince, whither so fast?' 'What is that to thee, you ugly imp?' said +the prince haughtily, and rode on. + +But the dwarf was enraged at his behaviour, and laid a fairy spell +of ill-luck upon him; so that as he rode on the mountain pass became +narrower and narrower, and at last the way was so straitened that he +could not go to step forward: and when he thought to have turned his +horse round and go back the way he came, he heard a loud laugh ringing +round him, and found that the path was closed behind him, so that he was +shut in all round. He next tried to get off his horse and make his way +on foot, but again the laugh rang in his ears, and he found himself +unable to move a step, and thus he was forced to abide spellbound. + +Meantime the old king was lingering on in daily hope of his son's +return, till at last the second son said, 'Father, I will go in search +of the Water of Life.' For he thought to himself, 'My brother is surely +dead, and the kingdom will fall to me if I find the water.' The king was +at first very unwilling to let him go, but at last yielded to his wish. +So he set out and followed the same road which his brother had done, +and met with the same elf, who stopped him at the same spot in the +mountains, saying, as before, 'Prince, prince, whither so fast?' 'Mind +your own affairs, busybody!' said the prince scornfully, and rode on. + +But the dwarf put the same spell upon him as he put on his elder +brother, and he, too, was at last obliged to take up his abode in the +heart of the mountains. Thus it is with proud silly people, who think +themselves above everyone else, and are too proud to ask or take advice. + +When the second prince had thus been gone a long time, the youngest son +said he would go and search for the Water of Life, and trusted he should +soon be able to make his father well again. So he set out, and the dwarf +met him too at the same spot in the valley, among the mountains, and +said, 'Prince, whither so fast?' And the prince said, 'I am going in +search of the Water of Life, because my father is ill, and like to die: +can you help me? Pray be kind, and aid me if you can!' 'Do you know +where it is to be found?' asked the dwarf. 'No,' said the prince, 'I do +not. Pray tell me if you know.' 'Then as you have spoken to me kindly, +and are wise enough to seek for advice, I will tell you how and where to +go. The water you seek springs from a well in an enchanted castle; and, +that you may be able to reach it in safety, I will give you an iron wand +and two little loaves of bread; strike the iron door of the castle three +times with the wand, and it will open: two hungry lions will be lying +down inside gaping for their prey, but if you throw them the bread they +will let you pass; then hasten on to the well, and take some of the +Water of Life before the clock strikes twelve; for if you tarry longer +the door will shut upon you for ever.' + +Then the prince thanked his little friend with the scarlet cloak for his +friendly aid, and took the wand and the bread, and went travelling on +and on, over sea and over land, till he came to his journey's end, and +found everything to be as the dwarf had told him. The door flew open at +the third stroke of the wand, and when the lions were quieted he went on +through the castle and came at length to a beautiful hall. Around it he +saw several knights sitting in a trance; then he pulled off their rings +and put them on his own fingers. In another room he saw on a table a +sword and a loaf of bread, which he also took. Further on he came to a +room where a beautiful young lady sat upon a couch; and she welcomed him +joyfully, and said, if he would set her free from the spell that bound +her, the kingdom should be his, if he would come back in a year and +marry her. Then she told him that the well that held the Water of Life +was in the palace gardens; and bade him make haste, and draw what he +wanted before the clock struck twelve. + +He walked on; and as he walked through beautiful gardens he came to a +delightful shady spot in which stood a couch; and he thought to himself, +as he felt tired, that he would rest himself for a while, and gaze on +the lovely scenes around him. So he laid himself down, and sleep +fell upon him unawares, so that he did not wake up till the clock was +striking a quarter to twelve. Then he sprang from the couch dreadfully +frightened, ran to the well, filled a cup that was standing by him full +of water, and hastened to get away in time. Just as he was going out of +the iron door it struck twelve, and the door fell so quickly upon him +that it snapped off a piece of his heel. + +When he found himself safe, he was overjoyed to think that he had got +the Water of Life; and as he was going on his way homewards, he passed +by the little dwarf, who, when he saw the sword and the loaf, said, 'You +have made a noble prize; with the sword you can at a blow slay whole +armies, and the bread will never fail you.' Then the prince thought +to himself, 'I cannot go home to my father without my brothers'; so he +said, 'My dear friend, cannot you tell me where my two brothers are, who +set out in search of the Water of Life before me, and never came back?' +'I have shut them up by a charm between two mountains,' said the dwarf, +'because they were proud and ill-behaved, and scorned to ask advice.' +The prince begged so hard for his brothers, that the dwarf at last set +them free, though unwillingly, saying, 'Beware of them, for they have +bad hearts.' Their brother, however, was greatly rejoiced to see them, +and told them all that had happened to him; how he had found the Water +of Life, and had taken a cup full of it; and how he had set a beautiful +princess free from a spell that bound her; and how she had engaged to +wait a whole year, and then to marry him, and to give him the kingdom. + +Then they all three rode on together, and on their way home came to a +country that was laid waste by war and a dreadful famine, so that it was +feared all must die for want. But the prince gave the king of the land +the bread, and all his kingdom ate of it. And he lent the king the +wonderful sword, and he slew the enemy's army with it; and thus the +kingdom was once more in peace and plenty. In the same manner he +befriended two other countries through which they passed on their way. + +When they came to the sea, they got into a ship and during their voyage +the two eldest said to themselves, 'Our brother has got the water which +we could not find, therefore our father will forsake us and give him the +kingdom, which is our right'; so they were full of envy and revenge, and +agreed together how they could ruin him. Then they waited till he was +fast asleep, and poured the Water of Life out of the cup, and took it +for themselves, giving him bitter sea-water instead. + +When they came to their journey's end, the youngest son brought his cup +to the sick king, that he might drink and be healed. Scarcely, however, +had he tasted the bitter sea-water when he became worse even than he was +before; and then both the elder sons came in, and blamed the youngest +for what they had done; and said that he wanted to poison their father, +but that they had found the Water of Life, and had brought it with them. +He no sooner began to drink of what they brought him, than he felt his +sickness leave him, and was as strong and well as in his younger days. +Then they went to their brother, and laughed at him, and said, 'Well, +brother, you found the Water of Life, did you? You have had the trouble +and we shall have the reward. Pray, with all your cleverness, why did +not you manage to keep your eyes open? Next year one of us will take +away your beautiful princess, if you do not take care. You had better +say nothing about this to our father, for he does not believe a word you +say; and if you tell tales, you shall lose your life into the bargain: +but be quiet, and we will let you off.' + +The old king was still very angry with his youngest son, and thought +that he really meant to have taken away his life; so he called his court +together, and asked what should be done, and all agreed that he ought to +be put to death. The prince knew nothing of what was going on, till one +day, when the king's chief huntsmen went a-hunting with him, and they +were alone in the wood together, the huntsman looked so sorrowful that +the prince said, 'My friend, what is the matter with you?' 'I cannot and +dare not tell you,' said he. But the prince begged very hard, and said, +'Only tell me what it is, and do not think I shall be angry, for I will +forgive you.' 'Alas!' said the huntsman; 'the king has ordered me to +shoot you.' The prince started at this, and said, 'Let me live, and I +will change dresses with you; you shall take my royal coat to show to my +father, and do you give me your shabby one.' 'With all my heart,' said +the huntsman; 'I am sure I shall be glad to save you, for I could not +have shot you.' Then he took the prince's coat, and gave him the shabby +one, and went away through the wood. + +Some time after, three grand embassies came to the old king's court, +with rich gifts of gold and precious stones for his youngest son; now +all these were sent from the three kings to whom he had lent his sword +and loaf of bread, in order to rid them of their enemy and feed their +people. This touched the old king's heart, and he thought his son might +still be guiltless, and said to his court, 'O that my son were still +alive! how it grieves me that I had him killed!' 'He is still alive,' +said the huntsman; 'and I am glad that I had pity on him, but let him +go in peace, and brought home his royal coat.' At this the king was +overwhelmed with joy, and made it known throughout all his kingdom, that +if his son would come back to his court he would forgive him. + +Meanwhile the princess was eagerly waiting till her deliverer should +come back; and had a road made leading up to her palace all of shining +gold; and told her courtiers that whoever came on horseback, and rode +straight up to the gate upon it, was her true lover; and that they must +let him in: but whoever rode on one side of it, they must be sure was +not the right one; and that they must send him away at once. + +The time soon came, when the eldest brother thought that he would make +haste to go to the princess, and say that he was the one who had set +her free, and that he should have her for his wife, and the kingdom with +her. As he came before the palace and saw the golden road, he stopped to +look at it, and he thought to himself, 'It is a pity to ride upon this +beautiful road'; so he turned aside and rode on the right-hand side of +it. But when he came to the gate, the guards, who had seen the road +he took, said to him, he could not be what he said he was, and must go +about his business. + +The second prince set out soon afterwards on the same errand; and when +he came to the golden road, and his horse had set one foot upon it, +he stopped to look at it, and thought it very beautiful, and said to +himself, 'What a pity it is that anything should tread here!' Then he +too turned aside and rode on the left side of it. But when he came to +the gate the guards said he was not the true prince, and that he too +must go away about his business; and away he went. + +Now when the full year was come round, the third brother left the forest +in which he had lain hid for fear of his father's anger, and set out in +search of his betrothed bride. So he journeyed on, thinking of her all +the way, and rode so quickly that he did not even see what the road was +made of, but went with his horse straight over it; and as he came to the +gate it flew open, and the princess welcomed him with joy, and said +he was her deliverer, and should now be her husband and lord of the +kingdom. When the first joy at their meeting was over, the princess told +him she had heard of his father having forgiven him, and of his wish to +have him home again: so, before his wedding with the princess, he went +to visit his father, taking her with him. Then he told him everything; +how his brothers had cheated and robbed him, and yet that he had borne +all those wrongs for the love of his father. And the old king was very +angry, and wanted to punish his wicked sons; but they made their escape, +and got into a ship and sailed away over the wide sea, and where they +went to nobody knew and nobody cared. + +And now the old king gathered together his court, and asked all his +kingdom to come and celebrate the wedding of his son and the princess. +And young and old, noble and squire, gentle and simple, came at once +on the summons; and among the rest came the friendly dwarf, with the +sugarloaf hat, and a new scarlet cloak. + + And the wedding was held, and the merry bells run. + And all the good people they danced and they sung, + And feasted and frolick'd I can't tell how long. + + + + +THE TWELVE HUNTSMEN + +There was once a king's son who had a bride whom he loved very much. And +when he was sitting beside her and very happy, news came that his father +lay sick unto death, and desired to see him once again before his end. +Then he said to his beloved: 'I must now go and leave you, I give you +a ring as a remembrance of me. When I am king, I will return and fetch +you.' So he rode away, and when he reached his father, the latter was +dangerously ill, and near his death. He said to him: 'Dear son, I wished +to see you once again before my end, promise me to marry as I wish,' and +he named a certain king's daughter who was to be his wife. The son was +in such trouble that he did not think what he was doing, and said: 'Yes, +dear father, your will shall be done,' and thereupon the king shut his +eyes, and died. + +When therefore the son had been proclaimed king, and the time of +mourning was over, he was forced to keep the promise which he had given +his father, and caused the king's daughter to be asked in marriage, and +she was promised to him. His first betrothed heard of this, and fretted +so much about his faithfulness that she nearly died. Then her father +said to her: 'Dearest child, why are you so sad? You shall have +whatsoever you will.' She thought for a moment and said: 'Dear father, +I wish for eleven girls exactly like myself in face, figure, and size.' +The father said: 'If it be possible, your desire shall be fulfilled,' +and he caused a search to be made in his whole kingdom, until eleven +young maidens were found who exactly resembled his daughter in face, +figure, and size. + +When they came to the king's daughter, she had twelve suits of +huntsmen's clothes made, all alike, and the eleven maidens had to put +on the huntsmen's clothes, and she herself put on the twelfth suit. +Thereupon she took her leave of her father, and rode away with them, +and rode to the court of her former betrothed, whom she loved so dearly. +Then she asked if he required any huntsmen, and if he would take all of +them into his service. The king looked at her and did not know her, but +as they were such handsome fellows, he said: 'Yes,' and that he would +willingly take them, and now they were the king's twelve huntsmen. + +The king, however, had a lion which was a wondrous animal, for he knew +all concealed and secret things. It came to pass that one evening he +said to the king: 'You think you have twelve huntsmen?' 'Yes,' said the +king, 'they are twelve huntsmen.' The lion continued: 'You are mistaken, +they are twelve girls.' The king said: 'That cannot be true! How +will you prove that to me?' 'Oh, just let some peas be strewn in the +ante-chamber,' answered the lion, 'and then you will soon see. Men have +a firm step, and when they walk over peas none of them stir, but girls +trip and skip, and drag their feet, and the peas roll about.' The king +was well pleased with the counsel, and caused the peas to be strewn. + +There was, however, a servant of the king's who favoured the huntsmen, +and when he heard that they were going to be put to this test he went to +them and repeated everything, and said: 'The lion wants to make the king +believe that you are girls.' Then the king's daughter thanked him, and +said to her maidens: 'Show some strength, and step firmly on the peas.' +So next morning when the king had the twelve huntsmen called before +him, and they came into the ante-chamber where the peas were lying, they +stepped so firmly on them, and had such a strong, sure walk, that not +one of the peas either rolled or stirred. Then they went away again, +and the king said to the lion: 'You have lied to me, they walk just like +men.' The lion said: 'They have been informed that they were going to +be put to the test, and have assumed some strength. Just let twelve +spinning-wheels be brought into the ante-chamber, and they will go to +them and be pleased with them, and that is what no man would do.' +The king liked the advice, and had the spinning-wheels placed in the +ante-chamber. + +But the servant, who was well disposed to the huntsmen, went to them, +and disclosed the project. So when they were alone the king's daughter +said to her eleven girls: 'Show some constraint, and do not look round +at the spinning-wheels.' And next morning when the king had his twelve +huntsmen summoned, they went through the ante-chamber, and never once +looked at the spinning-wheels. Then the king again said to the lion: +'You have deceived me, they are men, for they have not looked at the +spinning-wheels.' The lion replied: 'They have restrained themselves.' +The king, however, would no longer believe the lion. + +The twelve huntsmen always followed the king to the chase, and his +liking for them continually increased. Now it came to pass that +once when they were out hunting, news came that the king's bride was +approaching. When the true bride heard that, it hurt her so much that +her heart was almost broken, and she fell fainting to the ground. The +king thought something had happened to his dear huntsman, ran up to him, +wanted to help him, and drew his glove off. Then he saw the ring which +he had given to his first bride, and when he looked in her face he +recognized her. Then his heart was so touched that he kissed her, and +when she opened her eyes he said: 'You are mine, and I am yours, and +no one in the world can alter that.' He sent a messenger to the other +bride, and entreated her to return to her own kingdom, for he had a wife +already, and someone who had just found an old key did not require a new +one. Thereupon the wedding was celebrated, and the lion was again taken +into favour, because, after all, he had told the truth. + + + + +THE KING OF THE GOLDEN MOUNTAIN + +There was once a merchant who had only one child, a son, that was very +young, and barely able to run alone. He had two richly laden ships then +making a voyage upon the seas, in which he had embarked all his wealth, +in the hope of making great gains, when the news came that both were +lost. Thus from being a rich man he became all at once so very poor that +nothing was left to him but one small plot of land; and there he often +went in an evening to take his walk, and ease his mind of a little of +his trouble. + +One day, as he was roaming along in a brown study, thinking with no +great comfort on what he had been and what he now was, and was like +to be, all on a sudden there stood before him a little, rough-looking, +black dwarf. 'Prithee, friend, why so sorrowful?' said he to the +merchant; 'what is it you take so deeply to heart?' 'If you would do me +any good I would willingly tell you,' said the merchant. 'Who knows but +I may?' said the little man: 'tell me what ails you, and perhaps you +will find I may be of some use.' Then the merchant told him how all his +wealth was gone to the bottom of the sea, and how he had nothing left +but that little plot of land. 'Oh, trouble not yourself about that,' +said the dwarf; 'only undertake to bring me here, twelve years hence, +whatever meets you first on your going home, and I will give you as much +as you please.' The merchant thought this was no great thing to ask; +that it would most likely be his dog or his cat, or something of that +sort, but forgot his little boy Heinel; so he agreed to the bargain, and +signed and sealed the bond to do what was asked of him. + +But as he drew near home, his little boy was so glad to see him that he +crept behind him, and laid fast hold of his legs, and looked up in +his face and laughed. Then the father started, trembling with fear and +horror, and saw what it was that he had bound himself to do; but as no +gold was come, he made himself easy by thinking that it was only a joke +that the dwarf was playing him, and that, at any rate, when the money +came, he should see the bearer, and would not take it in. + +About a month afterwards he went upstairs into a lumber-room to look +for some old iron, that he might sell it and raise a little money; and +there, instead of his iron, he saw a large pile of gold lying on the +floor. At the sight of this he was overjoyed, and forgetting all about +his son, went into trade again, and became a richer merchant than +before. + +Meantime little Heinel grew up, and as the end of the twelve years drew +near the merchant began to call to mind his bond, and became very sad +and thoughtful; so that care and sorrow were written upon his face. The +boy one day asked what was the matter, but his father would not tell for +some time; at last, however, he said that he had, without knowing it, +sold him for gold to a little, ugly-looking, black dwarf, and that the +twelve years were coming round when he must keep his word. Then Heinel +said, 'Father, give yourself very little trouble about that; I shall be +too much for the little man.' + +When the time came, the father and son went out together to the place +agreed upon: and the son drew a circle on the ground, and set himself +and his father in the middle of it. The little black dwarf soon came, +and walked round and round about the circle, but could not find any way +to get into it, and he either could not, or dared not, jump over it. At +last the boy said to him. 'Have you anything to say to us, my friend, or +what do you want?' Now Heinel had found a friend in a good fairy, that +was fond of him, and had told him what to do; for this fairy knew what +good luck was in store for him. 'Have you brought me what you said you +would?' said the dwarf to the merchant. The old man held his tongue, but +Heinel said again, 'What do you want here?' The dwarf said, 'I come to +talk with your father, not with you.' 'You have cheated and taken in my +father,' said the son; 'pray give him up his bond at once.' 'Fair and +softly,' said the little old man; 'right is right; I have paid my money, +and your father has had it, and spent it; so be so good as to let me +have what I paid it for.' 'You must have my consent to that first,' said +Heinel, 'so please to step in here, and let us talk it over.' The old +man grinned, and showed his teeth, as if he should have been very glad +to get into the circle if he could. Then at last, after a long talk, +they came to terms. Heinel agreed that his father must give him up, and +that so far the dwarf should have his way: but, on the other hand, the +fairy had told Heinel what fortune was in store for him, if he followed +his own course; and he did not choose to be given up to his hump-backed +friend, who seemed so anxious for his company. + +So, to make a sort of drawn battle of the matter, it was settled that +Heinel should be put into an open boat, that lay on the sea-shore hard +by; that the father should push him off with his own hand, and that he +should thus be set adrift, and left to the bad or good luck of wind and +weather. Then he took leave of his father, and set himself in the boat, +but before it got far off a wave struck it, and it fell with one side +low in the water, so the merchant thought that poor Heinel was lost, and +went home very sorrowful, while the dwarf went his way, thinking that at +any rate he had had his revenge. + +The boat, however, did not sink, for the good fairy took care of her +friend, and soon raised the boat up again, and it went safely on. The +young man sat safe within, till at length it ran ashore upon an unknown +land. As he jumped upon the shore he saw before him a beautiful castle +but empty and dreary within, for it was enchanted. 'Here,' said he to +himself, 'must I find the prize the good fairy told me of.' So he once +more searched the whole palace through, till at last he found a white +snake, lying coiled up on a cushion in one of the chambers. + +Now the white snake was an enchanted princess; and she was very glad +to see him, and said, 'Are you at last come to set me free? Twelve +long years have I waited here for the fairy to bring you hither as she +promised, for you alone can save me. This night twelve men will come: +their faces will be black, and they will be dressed in chain armour. +They will ask what you do here, but give no answer; and let them do +what they will--beat, whip, pinch, prick, or torment you--bear all; only +speak not a word, and at twelve o'clock they must go away. The second +night twelve others will come: and the third night twenty-four, who +will even cut off your head; but at the twelfth hour of that night their +power is gone, and I shall be free, and will come and bring you the +Water of Life, and will wash you with it, and bring you back to life +and health.' And all came to pass as she had said; Heinel bore all, and +spoke not a word; and the third night the princess came, and fell on his +neck and kissed him. Joy and gladness burst forth throughout the castle, +the wedding was celebrated, and he was crowned king of the Golden +Mountain. + +They lived together very happily, and the queen had a son. And thus +eight years had passed over their heads, when the king thought of his +father; and he began to long to see him once again. But the queen was +against his going, and said, 'I know well that misfortunes will come +upon us if you go.' However, he gave her no rest till she agreed. At his +going away she gave him a wishing-ring, and said, 'Take this ring, and +put it on your finger; whatever you wish it will bring you; only promise +never to make use of it to bring me hence to your father's house.' Then +he said he would do what she asked, and put the ring on his finger, and +wished himself near the town where his father lived. + +Heinel found himself at the gates in a moment; but the guards would +not let him go in, because he was so strangely clad. So he went up to a +neighbouring hill, where a shepherd dwelt, and borrowed his old frock, +and thus passed unknown into the town. When he came to his father's +house, he said he was his son; but the merchant would not believe him, +and said he had had but one son, his poor Heinel, who he knew was long +since dead: and as he was only dressed like a poor shepherd, he would +not even give him anything to eat. The king, however, still vowed that +he was his son, and said, 'Is there no mark by which you would know me +if I am really your son?' 'Yes,' said his mother, 'our Heinel had a mark +like a raspberry on his right arm.' Then he showed them the mark, and +they knew that what he had said was true. + +He next told them how he was king of the Golden Mountain, and was +married to a princess, and had a son seven years old. But the merchant +said, 'that can never be true; he must be a fine king truly who travels +about in a shepherd's frock!' At this the son was vexed; and forgetting +his word, turned his ring, and wished for his queen and son. In an +instant they stood before him; but the queen wept, and said he had +broken his word, and bad luck would follow. He did all he could to +soothe her, and she at last seemed to be appeased; but she was not so in +truth, and was only thinking how she should punish him. + +One day he took her to walk with him out of the town, and showed her +the spot where the boat was set adrift upon the wide waters. Then he sat +himself down, and said, 'I am very much tired; sit by me, I will rest my +head in your lap, and sleep a while.' As soon as he had fallen asleep, +however, she drew the ring from his finger, and crept softly away, and +wished herself and her son at home in their kingdom. And when he awoke +he found himself alone, and saw that the ring was gone from his finger. +'I can never go back to my father's house,' said he; 'they would say I +am a sorcerer: I will journey forth into the world, till I come again to +my kingdom.' + +So saying he set out and travelled till he came to a hill, where three +giants were sharing their father's goods; and as they saw him pass they +cried out and said, 'Little men have sharp wits; he shall part the goods +between us.' Now there was a sword that cut off an enemy's head whenever +the wearer gave the words, 'Heads off!'; a cloak that made the owner +invisible, or gave him any form he pleased; and a pair of boots that +carried the wearer wherever he wished. Heinel said they must first let +him try these wonderful things, then he might know how to set a value +upon them. Then they gave him the cloak, and he wished himself a fly, +and in a moment he was a fly. 'The cloak is very well,' said he: 'now +give me the sword.' 'No,' said they; 'not unless you undertake not to +say, "Heads off!" for if you do we are all dead men.' So they gave it +him, charging him to try it on a tree. He next asked for the boots also; +and the moment he had all three in his power, he wished himself at +the Golden Mountain; and there he was at once. So the giants were left +behind with no goods to share or quarrel about. + +As Heinel came near his castle he heard the sound of merry music; and +the people around told him that his queen was about to marry another +husband. Then he threw his cloak around him, and passed through the +castle hall, and placed himself by the side of the queen, where no one +saw him. But when anything to eat was put upon her plate, he took it +away and ate it himself; and when a glass of wine was handed to her, he +took it and drank it; and thus, though they kept on giving her meat and +drink, her plate and cup were always empty. + +Upon this, fear and remorse came over her, and she went into her chamber +alone, and sat there weeping; and he followed her there. 'Alas!' said +she to herself, 'was I not once set free? Why then does this enchantment +still seem to bind me?' + +'False and fickle one!' said he. 'One indeed came who set thee free, and +he is now near thee again; but how have you used him? Ought he to +have had such treatment from thee?' Then he went out and sent away the +company, and said the wedding was at an end, for that he was come back +to the kingdom. But the princes, peers, and great men mocked at him. +However, he would enter into no parley with them, but only asked them +if they would go in peace or not. Then they turned upon him and tried +to seize him; but he drew his sword. 'Heads Off!' cried he; and with the +word the traitors' heads fell before him, and Heinel was once more king +of the Golden Mountain. + + + + +DOCTOR KNOWALL + +There was once upon a time a poor peasant called Crabb, who drove with +two oxen a load of wood to the town, and sold it to a doctor for two +talers. When the money was being counted out to him, it so happened that +the doctor was sitting at table, and when the peasant saw how well he +ate and drank, his heart desired what he saw, and would willingly +have been a doctor too. So he remained standing a while, and at length +inquired if he too could not be a doctor. 'Oh, yes,' said the doctor, +'that is soon managed.' 'What must I do?' asked the peasant. 'In the +first place buy yourself an A B C book of the kind which has a cock on +the frontispiece; in the second, turn your cart and your two oxen into +money, and get yourself some clothes, and whatsoever else pertains to +medicine; thirdly, have a sign painted for yourself with the words: "I +am Doctor Knowall," and have that nailed up above your house-door.' The +peasant did everything that he had been told to do. When he had doctored +people awhile, but not long, a rich and great lord had some money +stolen. Then he was told about Doctor Knowall who lived in such and such +a village, and must know what had become of the money. So the lord had +the horses harnessed to his carriage, drove out to the village, and +asked Crabb if he were Doctor Knowall. Yes, he was, he said. Then he was +to go with him and bring back the stolen money. 'Oh, yes, but Grete, my +wife, must go too.' The lord was willing, and let both of them have a +seat in the carriage, and they all drove away together. When they came +to the nobleman's castle, the table was spread, and Crabb was told to +sit down and eat. 'Yes, but my wife, Grete, too,' said he, and he seated +himself with her at the table. And when the first servant came with a +dish of delicate fare, the peasant nudged his wife, and said: 'Grete, +that was the first,' meaning that was the servant who brought the first +dish. The servant, however, thought he intended by that to say: 'That is +the first thief,' and as he actually was so, he was terrified, and said +to his comrade outside: 'The doctor knows all: we shall fare ill, he +said I was the first.' The second did not want to go in at all, but was +forced. So when he went in with his dish, the peasant nudged his wife, +and said: 'Grete, that is the second.' This servant was equally alarmed, +and he got out as fast as he could. The third fared no better, for the +peasant again said: 'Grete, that is the third.' The fourth had to carry +in a dish that was covered, and the lord told the doctor that he was to +show his skill, and guess what was beneath the cover. Actually, there +were crabs. The doctor looked at the dish, had no idea what to say, and +cried: 'Ah, poor Crabb.' When the lord heard that, he cried: 'There! he +knows it; he must also know who has the money!' + +On this the servants looked terribly uneasy, and made a sign to the +doctor that they wished him to step outside for a moment. When therefore +he went out, all four of them confessed to him that they had stolen +the money, and said that they would willingly restore it and give him a +heavy sum into the bargain, if he would not denounce them, for if he +did they would be hanged. They led him to the spot where the money was +concealed. With this the doctor was satisfied, and returned to the hall, +sat down to the table, and said: 'My lord, now will I search in my book +where the gold is hidden.' The fifth servant, however, crept into the +stove to hear if the doctor knew still more. But the doctor sat still +and opened his A B C book, turned the pages backwards and forwards, and +looked for the cock. As he could not find it immediately he said: 'I +know you are there, so you had better come out!' Then the fellow in the +stove thought that the doctor meant him, and full of terror, sprang out, +crying: 'That man knows everything!' Then Doctor Knowall showed the lord +where the money was, but did not say who had stolen it, and received +from both sides much money in reward, and became a renowned man. + + + + +THE SEVEN RAVENS + +There was once a man who had seven sons, and last of all one daughter. +Although the little girl was very pretty, she was so weak and small that +they thought she could not live; but they said she should at once be +christened. + +So the father sent one of his sons in haste to the spring to get some +water, but the other six ran with him. Each wanted to be first at +drawing the water, and so they were in such a hurry that all let their +pitchers fall into the well, and they stood very foolishly looking at +one another, and did not know what to do, for none dared go home. In the +meantime the father was uneasy, and could not tell what made the +young men stay so long. 'Surely,' said he, 'the whole seven must have +forgotten themselves over some game of play'; and when he had waited +still longer and they yet did not come, he flew into a rage and wished +them all turned into ravens. Scarcely had he spoken these words when he +heard a croaking over his head, and looked up and saw seven ravens as +black as coal flying round and round. Sorry as he was to see his wish +so fulfilled, he did not know how what was done could be undone, and +comforted himself as well as he could for the loss of his seven sons +with his dear little daughter, who soon became stronger and every day +more beautiful. + +For a long time she did not know that she had ever had any brothers; for +her father and mother took care not to speak of them before her: but one +day by chance she heard the people about her speak of them. 'Yes,' said +they, 'she is beautiful indeed, but still 'tis a pity that her brothers +should have been lost for her sake.' Then she was much grieved, and went +to her father and mother, and asked if she had any brothers, and what +had become of them. So they dared no longer hide the truth from her, but +said it was the will of Heaven, and that her birth was only the innocent +cause of it; but the little girl mourned sadly about it every day, and +thought herself bound to do all she could to bring her brothers back; +and she had neither rest nor ease, till at length one day she stole +away, and set out into the wide world to find her brothers, wherever +they might be, and free them, whatever it might cost her. + +She took nothing with her but a little ring which her father and mother +had given her, a loaf of bread in case she should be hungry, a little +pitcher of water in case she should be thirsty, and a little stool +to rest upon when she should be weary. Thus she went on and on, and +journeyed till she came to the world's end; then she came to the sun, +but the sun looked much too hot and fiery; so she ran away quickly to +the moon, but the moon was cold and chilly, and said, 'I smell flesh +and blood this way!' so she took herself away in a hurry and came to the +stars, and the stars were friendly and kind to her, and each star sat +upon his own little stool; but the morning star rose up and gave her a +little piece of wood, and said, 'If you have not this little piece of +wood, you cannot unlock the castle that stands on the glass-mountain, +and there your brothers live.' The little girl took the piece of wood, +rolled it up in a little cloth, and went on again until she came to the +glass-mountain, and found the door shut. Then she felt for the little +piece of wood; but when she unwrapped the cloth it was not there, and +she saw she had lost the gift of the good stars. What was to be done? +She wanted to save her brothers, and had no key of the castle of the +glass-mountain; so this faithful little sister took a knife out of her +pocket and cut off her little finger, that was just the size of the +piece of wood she had lost, and put it in the door and opened it. + +As she went in, a little dwarf came up to her, and said, 'What are you +seeking for?' 'I seek for my brothers, the seven ravens,' answered she. +Then the dwarf said, 'My masters are not at home; but if you will wait +till they come, pray step in.' Now the little dwarf was getting their +dinner ready, and he brought their food upon seven little plates, and +their drink in seven little glasses, and set them upon the table, and +out of each little plate their sister ate a small piece, and out of each +little glass she drank a small drop; but she let the ring that she had +brought with her fall into the last glass. + +On a sudden she heard a fluttering and croaking in the air, and the +dwarf said, 'Here come my masters.' When they came in, they wanted to +eat and drink, and looked for their little plates and glasses. Then said +one after the other, + +'Who has eaten from my little plate? And who has been drinking out of my +little glass?' + + 'Caw! Caw! well I ween + Mortal lips have this way been.' + +When the seventh came to the bottom of his glass, and found there the +ring, he looked at it, and knew that it was his father's and mother's, +and said, 'O that our little sister would but come! then we should be +free.' When the little girl heard this (for she stood behind the door +all the time and listened), she ran forward, and in an instant all +the ravens took their right form again; and all hugged and kissed each +other, and went merrily home. + + + + +THE WEDDING OF MRS FOX + + +FIRST STORY + +There was once upon a time an old fox with nine tails, who believed that +his wife was not faithful to him, and wished to put her to the test. He +stretched himself out under the bench, did not move a limb, and behaved +as if he were stone dead. Mrs Fox went up to her room, shut herself in, +and her maid, Miss Cat, sat by the fire, and did the cooking. When it +became known that the old fox was dead, suitors presented themselves. +The maid heard someone standing at the house-door, knocking. She went +and opened it, and it was a young fox, who said: + + 'What may you be about, Miss Cat? + Do you sleep or do you wake?' + +She answered: + + 'I am not sleeping, I am waking, + Would you know what I am making? + I am boiling warm beer with butter, + Will you be my guest for supper?' + +'No, thank you, miss,' said the fox, 'what is Mrs Fox doing?' The maid +replied: + + 'She is sitting in her room, + Moaning in her gloom, + Weeping her little eyes quite red, + Because old Mr Fox is dead.' + +'Do just tell her, miss, that a young fox is here, who would like to woo +her.' 'Certainly, young sir.' + + The cat goes up the stairs trip, trap, + The door she knocks at tap, tap, tap, + 'Mistress Fox, are you inside?' + 'Oh, yes, my little cat,' she cried. + 'A wooer he stands at the door out there.' + 'What does he look like, my dear?' + +'Has he nine as beautiful tails as the late Mr Fox?' 'Oh, no,' answered +the cat, 'he has only one.' 'Then I will not have him.' + +Miss Cat went downstairs and sent the wooer away. Soon afterwards there +was another knock, and another fox was at the door who wished to woo Mrs +Fox. He had two tails, but he did not fare better than the first. After +this still more came, each with one tail more than the other, but they +were all turned away, until at last one came who had nine tails, like +old Mr Fox. When the widow heard that, she said joyfully to the cat: + + 'Now open the gates and doors all wide, + And carry old Mr Fox outside.' + +But just as the wedding was going to be solemnized, old Mr Fox stirred +under the bench, and cudgelled all the rabble, and drove them and Mrs +Fox out of the house. + + +SECOND STORY + +When old Mr Fox was dead, the wolf came as a suitor, and knocked at the +door, and the cat who was servant to Mrs Fox, opened it for him. The +wolf greeted her, and said: + + 'Good day, Mrs Cat of Kehrewit, + How comes it that alone you sit? + What are you making good?' + +The cat replied: + + 'In milk I'm breaking bread so sweet, + Will you be my guest, and eat?' + +'No, thank you, Mrs Cat,' answered the wolf. 'Is Mrs Fox not at home?' + +The cat said: + + 'She sits upstairs in her room, + Bewailing her sorrowful doom, + Bewailing her trouble so sore, + For old Mr Fox is no more.' + +The wolf answered: + + 'If she's in want of a husband now, + Then will it please her to step below?' + The cat runs quickly up the stair, + And lets her tail fly here and there, + Until she comes to the parlour door. + With her five gold rings at the door she knocks: + 'Are you within, good Mistress Fox? + If you're in want of a husband now, + Then will it please you to step below? + +Mrs Fox asked: 'Has the gentleman red stockings on, and has he a pointed +mouth?' 'No,' answered the cat. 'Then he won't do for me.' + +When the wolf was gone, came a dog, a stag, a hare, a bear, a lion, and +all the beasts of the forest, one after the other. But one of the good +qualities which old Mr Fox had possessed, was always lacking, and the +cat had continually to send the suitors away. At length came a young +fox. Then Mrs Fox said: 'Has the gentleman red stockings on, and has a +little pointed mouth?' 'Yes,' said the cat, 'he has.' 'Then let him come +upstairs,' said Mrs Fox, and ordered the servant to prepare the wedding +feast. + + 'Sweep me the room as clean as you can, + Up with the window, fling out my old man! + For many a fine fat mouse he brought, + Yet of his wife he never thought, + But ate up every one he caught.' + +Then the wedding was solemnized with young Mr Fox, and there was much +rejoicing and dancing; and if they have not left off, they are dancing +still. + + + + +THE SALAD + +As a merry young huntsman was once going briskly along through a wood, +there came up a little old woman, and said to him, 'Good day, good day; +you seem merry enough, but I am hungry and thirsty; do pray give me +something to eat.' The huntsman took pity on her, and put his hand in +his pocket and gave her what he had. Then he wanted to go his way; but +she took hold of him, and said, 'Listen, my friend, to what I am going +to tell you; I will reward you for your kindness; go your way, and after +a little time you will come to a tree where you will see nine birds +sitting on a cloak. Shoot into the midst of them, and one will fall down +dead: the cloak will fall too; take it, it is a wishing-cloak, and when +you wear it you will find yourself at any place where you may wish to +be. Cut open the dead bird, take out its heart and keep it, and you will +find a piece of gold under your pillow every morning when you rise. It +is the bird's heart that will bring you this good luck.' + +The huntsman thanked her, and thought to himself, 'If all this does +happen, it will be a fine thing for me.' When he had gone a hundred +steps or so, he heard a screaming and chirping in the branches over him, +and looked up and saw a flock of birds pulling a cloak with their bills +and feet; screaming, fighting, and tugging at each other as if +each wished to have it himself. 'Well,' said the huntsman, 'this is +wonderful; this happens just as the old woman said'; then he shot into +the midst of them so that their feathers flew all about. Off went the +flock chattering away; but one fell down dead, and the cloak with it. +Then the huntsman did as the old woman told him, cut open the bird, took +out the heart, and carried the cloak home with him. + +The next morning when he awoke he lifted up his pillow, and there lay +the piece of gold glittering underneath; the same happened next day, and +indeed every day when he arose. He heaped up a great deal of gold, and +at last thought to himself, 'Of what use is this gold to me whilst I am +at home? I will go out into the world and look about me.' + +Then he took leave of his friends, and hung his bag and bow about his +neck, and went his way. It so happened that his road one day led through +a thick wood, at the end of which was a large castle in a green meadow, +and at one of the windows stood an old woman with a very beautiful young +lady by her side looking about them. Now the old woman was a witch, and +said to the young lady, 'There is a young man coming out of the wood who +carries a wonderful prize; we must get it away from him, my dear child, +for it is more fit for us than for him. He has a bird's heart that +brings a piece of gold under his pillow every morning.' Meantime the +huntsman came nearer and looked at the lady, and said to himself, 'I +have been travelling so long that I should like to go into this castle +and rest myself, for I have money enough to pay for anything I want'; +but the real reason was, that he wanted to see more of the beautiful +lady. Then he went into the house, and was welcomed kindly; and it was +not long before he was so much in love that he thought of nothing else +but looking at the lady's eyes, and doing everything that she wished. +Then the old woman said, 'Now is the time for getting the bird's heart.' +So the lady stole it away, and he never found any more gold under his +pillow, for it lay now under the young lady's, and the old woman took it +away every morning; but he was so much in love that he never missed his +prize. + +'Well,' said the old witch, 'we have got the bird's heart, but not the +wishing-cloak yet, and that we must also get.' 'Let us leave him that,' +said the young lady; 'he has already lost his wealth.' Then the witch +was very angry, and said, 'Such a cloak is a very rare and wonderful +thing, and I must and will have it.' So she did as the old woman told +her, and set herself at the window, and looked about the country and +seemed very sorrowful; then the huntsman said, 'What makes you so sad?' +'Alas! dear sir,' said she, 'yonder lies the granite rock where all the +costly diamonds grow, and I want so much to go there, that whenever I +think of it I cannot help being sorrowful, for who can reach it? only +the birds and the flies--man cannot.' 'If that's all your grief,' said +the huntsman, 'I'll take you there with all my heart'; so he drew her under +his cloak, and the moment he wished to be on the granite mountain they +were both there. The diamonds glittered so on all sides that they were +delighted with the sight and picked up the finest. But the old witch +made a deep sleep come upon him, and he said to the young lady, 'Let us +sit down and rest ourselves a little, I am so tired that I cannot stand +any longer.' So they sat down, and he laid his head in her lap and +fell asleep; and whilst he was sleeping on she took the cloak from +his shoulders, hung it on her own, picked up the diamonds, and wished +herself home again. + +When he awoke and found that his lady had tricked him, and left him +alone on the wild rock, he said, 'Alas! what roguery there is in the +world!' and there he sat in great grief and fear, not knowing what to +do. Now this rock belonged to fierce giants who lived upon it; and as +he saw three of them striding about, he thought to himself, 'I can only +save myself by feigning to be asleep'; so he laid himself down as if he +were in a sound sleep. When the giants came up to him, the first pushed +him with his foot, and said, 'What worm is this that lies here curled +up?' 'Tread upon him and kill him,' said the second. 'It's not worth the +trouble,' said the third; 'let him live, he'll go climbing higher up the +mountain, and some cloud will come rolling and carry him away.' And they +passed on. But the huntsman had heard all they said; and as soon as they +were gone, he climbed to the top of the mountain, and when he had sat +there a short time a cloud came rolling around him, and caught him in a +whirlwind and bore him along for some time, till it settled in a garden, +and he fell quite gently to the ground amongst the greens and cabbages. + +Then he looked around him, and said, 'I wish I had something to eat, if +not I shall be worse off than before; for here I see neither apples +nor pears, nor any kind of fruits, nothing but vegetables.' At last he +thought to himself, 'I can eat salad, it will refresh and strengthen +me.' So he picked out a fine head and ate of it; but scarcely had he +swallowed two bites when he felt himself quite changed, and saw with +horror that he was turned into an ass. However, he still felt very +hungry, and the salad tasted very nice; so he ate on till he came +to another kind of salad, and scarcely had he tasted it when he felt +another change come over him, and soon saw that he was lucky enough to +have found his old shape again. + +Then he laid himself down and slept off a little of his weariness; and +when he awoke the next morning he broke off a head both of the good and +the bad salad, and thought to himself, 'This will help me to my fortune +again, and enable me to pay off some folks for their treachery.' So he +went away to try and find the castle of his friends; and after wandering +about a few days he luckily found it. Then he stained his face all over +brown, so that even his mother would not have known him, and went into +the castle and asked for a lodging; 'I am so tired,' said he, 'that I +can go no farther.' 'Countryman,' said the witch, 'who are you? and what +is your business?' 'I am,' said he, 'a messenger sent by the king to +find the finest salad that grows under the sun. I have been lucky +enough to find it, and have brought it with me; but the heat of the sun +scorches so that it begins to wither, and I don't know that I can carry +it farther.' + +When the witch and the young lady heard of his beautiful salad, they +longed to taste it, and said, 'Dear countryman, let us just taste it.' +'To be sure,' answered he; 'I have two heads of it with me, and will +give you one'; so he opened his bag and gave them the bad. Then the +witch herself took it into the kitchen to be dressed; and when it was +ready she could not wait till it was carried up, but took a few leaves +immediately and put them in her mouth, and scarcely were they swallowed +when she lost her own form and ran braying down into the court in the +form of an ass. Now the servant-maid came into the kitchen, and seeing +the salad ready, was going to carry it up; but on the way she too felt a +wish to taste it as the old woman had done, and ate some leaves; so she +also was turned into an ass and ran after the other, letting the dish +with the salad fall on the ground. The messenger sat all this time with +the beautiful young lady, and as nobody came with the salad and she +longed to taste it, she said, 'I don't know where the salad can be.' +Then he thought something must have happened, and said, 'I will go +into the kitchen and see.' And as he went he saw two asses in the court +running about, and the salad lying on the ground. 'All right!' said +he; 'those two have had their share.' Then he took up the rest of +the leaves, laid them on the dish and brought them to the young lady, +saying, 'I bring you the dish myself that you may not wait any longer.' +So she ate of it, and like the others ran off into the court braying +away. + +Then the huntsman washed his face and went into the court that they +might know him. 'Now you shall be paid for your roguery,' said he; and +tied them all three to a rope and took them along with him till he +came to a mill and knocked at the window. 'What's the matter?' said the +miller. 'I have three tiresome beasts here,' said the other; 'if you +will take them, give them food and room, and treat them as I tell you, +I will pay you whatever you ask.' 'With all my heart,' said the miller; +'but how shall I treat them?' Then the huntsman said, 'Give the old +one stripes three times a day and hay once; give the next (who was +the servant-maid) stripes once a day and hay three times; and give +the youngest (who was the beautiful lady) hay three times a day and +no stripes': for he could not find it in his heart to have her beaten. +After this he went back to the castle, where he found everything he +wanted. + +Some days after, the miller came to him and told him that the old ass +was dead; 'The other two,' said he, 'are alive and eat, but are so +sorrowful that they cannot last long.' Then the huntsman pitied them, +and told the miller to drive them back to him, and when they came, he +gave them some of the good salad to eat. And the beautiful young lady +fell upon her knees before him, and said, 'O dearest huntsman! forgive +me all the ill I have done you; my mother forced me to it, it was +against my will, for I always loved you very much. Your wishing-cloak +hangs up in the closet, and as for the bird's heart, I will give it you +too.' But he said, 'Keep it, it will be just the same thing, for I mean +to make you my wife.' So they were married, and lived together very +happily till they died. + + + + +THE STORY OF THE YOUTH WHO WENT FORTH TO LEARN WHAT FEAR WAS + +A certain father had two sons, the elder of who was smart and sensible, +and could do everything, but the younger was stupid and could neither +learn nor understand anything, and when people saw him they said: +'There's a fellow who will give his father some trouble!' When anything +had to be done, it was always the elder who was forced to do it; but +if his father bade him fetch anything when it was late, or in the +night-time, and the way led through the churchyard, or any other dismal +place, he answered: 'Oh, no father, I'll not go there, it makes me +shudder!' for he was afraid. Or when stories were told by the fire at +night which made the flesh creep, the listeners sometimes said: 'Oh, +it makes us shudder!' The younger sat in a corner and listened with +the rest of them, and could not imagine what they could mean. 'They are +always saying: "It makes me shudder, it makes me shudder!" It does not +make me shudder,' thought he. 'That, too, must be an art of which I +understand nothing!' + +Now it came to pass that his father said to him one day: 'Hearken to me, +you fellow in the corner there, you are growing tall and strong, and you +too must learn something by which you can earn your bread. Look how your +brother works, but you do not even earn your salt.' 'Well, father,' he +replied, 'I am quite willing to learn something--indeed, if it could but +be managed, I should like to learn how to shudder. I don't understand +that at all yet.' The elder brother smiled when he heard that, and +thought to himself: 'Goodness, what a blockhead that brother of mine is! +He will never be good for anything as long as he lives! He who wants to +be a sickle must bend himself betimes.' + +The father sighed, and answered him: 'You shall soon learn what it is to +shudder, but you will not earn your bread by that.' + +Soon after this the sexton came to the house on a visit, and the father +bewailed his trouble, and told him how his younger son was so backward +in every respect that he knew nothing and learnt nothing. 'Just think,' +said he, 'when I asked him how he was going to earn his bread, he +actually wanted to learn to shudder.' 'If that be all,' replied the +sexton, 'he can learn that with me. Send him to me, and I will soon +polish him.' The father was glad to do it, for he thought: 'It will +train the boy a little.' The sexton therefore took him into his house, +and he had to ring the church bell. After a day or two, the sexton awoke +him at midnight, and bade him arise and go up into the church tower and +ring the bell. 'You shall soon learn what shuddering is,' thought he, +and secretly went there before him; and when the boy was at the top of +the tower and turned round, and was just going to take hold of the bell +rope, he saw a white figure standing on the stairs opposite the sounding +hole. 'Who is there?' cried he, but the figure made no reply, and did +not move or stir. 'Give an answer,' cried the boy, 'or take yourself +off, you have no business here at night.' + +The sexton, however, remained standing motionless that the boy might +think he was a ghost. The boy cried a second time: 'What do you want +here?--speak if you are an honest fellow, or I will throw you down the +steps!' The sexton thought: 'He can't mean to be as bad as his words,' +uttered no sound and stood as if he were made of stone. Then the boy +called to him for the third time, and as that was also to no purpose, +he ran against him and pushed the ghost down the stairs, so that it fell +down the ten steps and remained lying there in a corner. Thereupon he +rang the bell, went home, and without saying a word went to bed, and +fell asleep. The sexton's wife waited a long time for her husband, but +he did not come back. At length she became uneasy, and wakened the boy, +and asked: 'Do you know where my husband is? He climbed up the tower +before you did.' 'No, I don't know,' replied the boy, 'but someone was +standing by the sounding hole on the other side of the steps, and as he +would neither gave an answer nor go away, I took him for a scoundrel, +and threw him downstairs. Just go there and you will see if it was he. +I should be sorry if it were.' The woman ran away and found her husband, +who was lying moaning in the corner, and had broken his leg. + +She carried him down, and then with loud screams she hastened to the +boy's father, 'Your boy,' cried she, 'has been the cause of a great +misfortune! He has thrown my husband down the steps so that he broke his +leg. Take the good-for-nothing fellow out of our house.' The father was +terrified, and ran thither and scolded the boy. 'What wicked tricks +are these?' said he. 'The devil must have put them into your head.' +'Father,' he replied, 'do listen to me. I am quite innocent. He was +standing there by night like one intent on doing evil. I did not know +who it was, and I entreated him three times either to speak or to go +away.' 'Ah,' said the father, 'I have nothing but unhappiness with you. +Go out of my sight. I will see you no more.' + +'Yes, father, right willingly, wait only until it is day. Then will I +go forth and learn how to shudder, and then I shall, at any rate, +understand one art which will support me.' 'Learn what you will,' spoke +the father, 'it is all the same to me. Here are fifty talers for you. +Take these and go into the wide world, and tell no one from whence you +come, and who is your father, for I have reason to be ashamed of you.' +'Yes, father, it shall be as you will. If you desire nothing more than +that, I can easily keep it in mind.' + +When the day dawned, therefore, the boy put his fifty talers into his +pocket, and went forth on the great highway, and continually said to +himself: 'If I could but shudder! If I could but shudder!' Then a man +approached who heard this conversation which the youth was holding with +himself, and when they had walked a little farther to where they could +see the gallows, the man said to him: 'Look, there is the tree where +seven men have married the ropemaker's daughter, and are now learning +how to fly. Sit down beneath it, and wait till night comes, and you will +soon learn how to shudder.' 'If that is all that is wanted,' answered +the youth, 'it is easily done; but if I learn how to shudder as fast as +that, you shall have my fifty talers. Just come back to me early in the +morning.' Then the youth went to the gallows, sat down beneath it, and +waited till evening came. And as he was cold, he lighted himself a fire, +but at midnight the wind blew so sharply that in spite of his fire, he +could not get warm. And as the wind knocked the hanged men against each +other, and they moved backwards and forwards, he thought to himself: +'If you shiver below by the fire, how those up above must freeze and +suffer!' And as he felt pity for them, he raised the ladder, and climbed +up, unbound one of them after the other, and brought down all seven. +Then he stoked the fire, blew it, and set them all round it to warm +themselves. But they sat there and did not stir, and the fire caught +their clothes. So he said: 'Take care, or I will hang you up again.' The +dead men, however, did not hear, but were quite silent, and let their +rags go on burning. At this he grew angry, and said: 'If you will not +take care, I cannot help you, I will not be burnt with you,' and he hung +them up again each in his turn. Then he sat down by his fire and fell +asleep, and the next morning the man came to him and wanted to have +the fifty talers, and said: 'Well do you know how to shudder?' 'No,' +answered he, 'how should I know? Those fellows up there did not open +their mouths, and were so stupid that they let the few old rags which +they had on their bodies get burnt.' Then the man saw that he would not +get the fifty talers that day, and went away saying: 'Such a youth has +never come my way before.' + +The youth likewise went his way, and once more began to mutter to +himself: 'Ah, if I could but shudder! Ah, if I could but shudder!' A +waggoner who was striding behind him heard this and asked: 'Who are +you?' 'I don't know,' answered the youth. Then the waggoner asked: 'From +whence do you come?' 'I know not.' 'Who is your father?' 'That I may +not tell you.' 'What is it that you are always muttering between your +teeth?' 'Ah,' replied the youth, 'I do so wish I could shudder, but +no one can teach me how.' 'Enough of your foolish chatter,' said the +waggoner. 'Come, go with me, I will see about a place for you.' The +youth went with the waggoner, and in the evening they arrived at an inn +where they wished to pass the night. Then at the entrance of the parlour +the youth again said quite loudly: 'If I could but shudder! If I could +but shudder!' The host who heard this, laughed and said: 'If that is +your desire, there ought to be a good opportunity for you here.' 'Ah, +be silent,' said the hostess, 'so many prying persons have already lost +their lives, it would be a pity and a shame if such beautiful eyes as +these should never see the daylight again.' + +But the youth said: 'However difficult it may be, I will learn it. For +this purpose indeed have I journeyed forth.' He let the host have +no rest, until the latter told him, that not far from thence stood a +haunted castle where anyone could very easily learn what shuddering was, +if he would but watch in it for three nights. The king had promised that +he who would venture should have his daughter to wife, and she was the +most beautiful maiden the sun shone on. Likewise in the castle lay great +treasures, which were guarded by evil spirits, and these treasures would +then be freed, and would make a poor man rich enough. Already many men +had gone into the castle, but as yet none had come out again. Then the +youth went next morning to the king, and said: 'If it be allowed, I will +willingly watch three nights in the haunted castle.' + +The king looked at him, and as the youth pleased him, he said: 'You may +ask for three things to take into the castle with you, but they must +be things without life.' Then he answered: 'Then I ask for a fire, a +turning lathe, and a cutting-board with the knife.' + +The king had these things carried into the castle for him during the +day. When night was drawing near, the youth went up and made himself +a bright fire in one of the rooms, placed the cutting-board and knife +beside it, and seated himself by the turning-lathe. 'Ah, if I could +but shudder!' said he, 'but I shall not learn it here either.' Towards +midnight he was about to poke his fire, and as he was blowing it, +something cried suddenly from one corner: 'Au, miau! how cold we are!' +'You fools!' cried he, 'what are you crying about? If you are cold, come +and take a seat by the fire and warm yourselves.' And when he had said +that, two great black cats came with one tremendous leap and sat down +on each side of him, and looked savagely at him with their fiery +eyes. After a short time, when they had warmed themselves, they said: +'Comrade, shall we have a game of cards?' 'Why not?' he replied, 'but +just show me your paws.' Then they stretched out their claws. 'Oh,' said +he, 'what long nails you have! Wait, I must first cut them for you.' +Thereupon he seized them by the throats, put them on the cutting-board +and screwed their feet fast. 'I have looked at your fingers,' said he, +'and my fancy for card-playing has gone,' and he struck them dead and +threw them out into the water. But when he had made away with these two, +and was about to sit down again by his fire, out from every hole and +corner came black cats and black dogs with red-hot chains, and more +and more of them came until he could no longer move, and they yelled +horribly, and got on his fire, pulled it to pieces, and tried to put +it out. He watched them for a while quietly, but at last when they were +going too far, he seized his cutting-knife, and cried: 'Away with you, +vermin,' and began to cut them down. Some of them ran away, the others +he killed, and threw out into the fish-pond. When he came back he fanned +the embers of his fire again and warmed himself. And as he thus sat, his +eyes would keep open no longer, and he felt a desire to sleep. Then he +looked round and saw a great bed in the corner. 'That is the very thing +for me,' said he, and got into it. When he was just going to shut his +eyes, however, the bed began to move of its own accord, and went over +the whole of the castle. 'That's right,' said he, 'but go faster.' Then +the bed rolled on as if six horses were harnessed to it, up and down, +over thresholds and stairs, but suddenly hop, hop, it turned over upside +down, and lay on him like a mountain. But he threw quilts and pillows up +in the air, got out and said: 'Now anyone who likes, may drive,' and +lay down by his fire, and slept till it was day. In the morning the king +came, and when he saw him lying there on the ground, he thought the evil +spirits had killed him and he was dead. Then said he: 'After all it is a +pity,--for so handsome a man.' The youth heard it, got up, and said: 'It +has not come to that yet.' Then the king was astonished, but very glad, +and asked how he had fared. 'Very well indeed,' answered he; 'one +night is past, the two others will pass likewise.' Then he went to the +innkeeper, who opened his eyes very wide, and said: 'I never expected to +see you alive again! Have you learnt how to shudder yet?' 'No,' said he, +'it is all in vain. If someone would but tell me!' + +The second night he again went up into the old castle, sat down by the +fire, and once more began his old song: 'If I could but shudder!' When +midnight came, an uproar and noise of tumbling about was heard; at +first it was low, but it grew louder and louder. Then it was quiet for +a while, and at length with a loud scream, half a man came down the +chimney and fell before him. 'Hullo!' cried he, 'another half belongs +to this. This is not enough!' Then the uproar began again, there was a +roaring and howling, and the other half fell down likewise. 'Wait,' said +he, 'I will just stoke up the fire a little for you.' When he had done +that and looked round again, the two pieces were joined together, and a +hideous man was sitting in his place. 'That is no part of our bargain,' +said the youth, 'the bench is mine.' The man wanted to push him away; +the youth, however, would not allow that, but thrust him off with all +his strength, and seated himself again in his own place. Then still more +men fell down, one after the other; they brought nine dead men's legs +and two skulls, and set them up and played at nine-pins with them. The +youth also wanted to play and said: 'Listen you, can I join you?' 'Yes, +if you have any money.' 'Money enough,' replied he, 'but your balls are +not quite round.' Then he took the skulls and put them in the lathe and +turned them till they were round. 'There, now they will roll better!' +said he. 'Hurrah! now we'll have fun!' He played with them and lost some +of his money, but when it struck twelve, everything vanished from his +sight. He lay down and quietly fell asleep. Next morning the king came +to inquire after him. 'How has it fared with you this time?' asked he. +'I have been playing at nine-pins,' he answered, 'and have lost a couple +of farthings.' 'Have you not shuddered then?' 'What?' said he, 'I have +had a wonderful time! If I did but know what it was to shudder!' + +The third night he sat down again on his bench and said quite sadly: +'If I could but shudder.' When it grew late, six tall men came in and +brought a coffin. Then he said: 'Ha, ha, that is certainly my little +cousin, who died only a few days ago,' and he beckoned with his finger, +and cried: 'Come, little cousin, come.' They placed the coffin on the +ground, but he went to it and took the lid off, and a dead man lay +therein. He felt his face, but it was cold as ice. 'Wait,' said he, 'I +will warm you a little,' and went to the fire and warmed his hand and +laid it on the dead man's face, but he remained cold. Then he took him +out, and sat down by the fire and laid him on his breast and rubbed his +arms that the blood might circulate again. As this also did no good, he +thought to himself: 'When two people lie in bed together, they warm each +other,' and carried him to the bed, covered him over and lay down by +him. After a short time the dead man became warm too, and began to move. +Then said the youth, 'See, little cousin, have I not warmed you?' The +dead man, however, got up and cried: 'Now will I strangle you.' + +'What!' said he, 'is that the way you thank me? You shall at once go +into your coffin again,' and he took him up, threw him into it, and shut +the lid. Then came the six men and carried him away again. 'I cannot +manage to shudder,' said he. 'I shall never learn it here as long as I +live.' + +Then a man entered who was taller than all others, and looked terrible. +He was old, however, and had a long white beard. 'You wretch,' cried he, +'you shall soon learn what it is to shudder, for you shall die.' 'Not so +fast,' replied the youth. 'If I am to die, I shall have to have a say +in it.' 'I will soon seize you,' said the fiend. 'Softly, softly, do not +talk so big. I am as strong as you are, and perhaps even stronger.' +'We shall see,' said the old man. 'If you are stronger, I will let you +go--come, we will try.' Then he led him by dark passages to a smith's +forge, took an axe, and with one blow struck an anvil into the ground. +'I can do better than that,' said the youth, and went to the other +anvil. The old man placed himself near and wanted to look on, and his +white beard hung down. Then the youth seized the axe, split the anvil +with one blow, and in it caught the old man's beard. 'Now I have you,' +said the youth. 'Now it is your turn to die.' Then he seized an iron bar +and beat the old man till he moaned and entreated him to stop, when he +would give him great riches. The youth drew out the axe and let him go. +The old man led him back into the castle, and in a cellar showed him +three chests full of gold. 'Of these,' said he, 'one part is for the +poor, the other for the king, the third yours.' In the meantime it +struck twelve, and the spirit disappeared, so that the youth stood in +darkness. 'I shall still be able to find my way out,' said he, and felt +about, found the way into the room, and slept there by his fire. +Next morning the king came and said: 'Now you must have learnt what +shuddering is?' 'No,' he answered; 'what can it be? My dead cousin was +here, and a bearded man came and showed me a great deal of money down +below, but no one told me what it was to shudder.' 'Then,' said the +king, 'you have saved the castle, and shall marry my daughter.' 'That +is all very well,' said he, 'but still I do not know what it is to +shudder!' + +Then the gold was brought up and the wedding celebrated; but howsoever +much the young king loved his wife, and however happy he was, he still +said always: 'If I could but shudder--if I could but shudder.' And this +at last angered her. Her waiting-maid said: 'I will find a cure for him; +he shall soon learn what it is to shudder.' She went out to the stream +which flowed through the garden, and had a whole bucketful of gudgeons +brought to her. At night when the young king was sleeping, his wife was +to draw the clothes off him and empty the bucket full of cold water +with the gudgeons in it over him, so that the little fishes would +sprawl about him. Then he woke up and cried: 'Oh, what makes me shudder +so?--what makes me shudder so, dear wife? Ah! now I know what it is to +shudder!' + + + + +KING GRISLY-BEARD + +A great king of a land far away in the East had a daughter who was very +beautiful, but so proud, and haughty, and conceited, that none of the +princes who came to ask her in marriage was good enough for her, and she +only made sport of them. + +Once upon a time the king held a great feast, and asked thither all +her suitors; and they all sat in a row, ranged according to their +rank--kings, and princes, and dukes, and earls, and counts, and barons, +and knights. Then the princess came in, and as she passed by them she +had something spiteful to say to every one. The first was too fat: 'He's +as round as a tub,' said she. The next was too tall: 'What a maypole!' +said she. The next was too short: 'What a dumpling!' said she. The +fourth was too pale, and she called him 'Wallface.' The fifth was too +red, so she called him 'Coxcomb.' The sixth was not straight enough; +so she said he was like a green stick, that had been laid to dry over +a baker's oven. And thus she had some joke to crack upon every one: but +she laughed more than all at a good king who was there. 'Look at +him,' said she; 'his beard is like an old mop; he shall be called +Grisly-beard.' So the king got the nickname of Grisly-beard. + +But the old king was very angry when he saw how his daughter behaved, +and how she ill-treated all his guests; and he vowed that, willing or +unwilling, she should marry the first man, be he prince or beggar, that +came to the door. + +Two days after there came by a travelling fiddler, who began to play +under the window and beg alms; and when the king heard him, he said, +'Let him come in.' So they brought in a dirty-looking fellow; and when +he had sung before the king and the princess, he begged a boon. Then the +king said, 'You have sung so well, that I will give you my daughter for +your wife.' The princess begged and prayed; but the king said, 'I have +sworn to give you to the first comer, and I will keep my word.' So words +and tears were of no avail; the parson was sent for, and she was married +to the fiddler. When this was over the king said, 'Now get ready to +go--you must not stay here--you must travel on with your husband.' + +Then the fiddler went his way, and took her with him, and they soon came +to a great wood. 'Pray,' said she, 'whose is this wood?' 'It belongs +to King Grisly-beard,' answered he; 'hadst thou taken him, all had been +thine.' 'Ah! unlucky wretch that I am!' sighed she; 'would that I had +married King Grisly-beard!' Next they came to some fine meadows. 'Whose +are these beautiful green meadows?' said she. 'They belong to King +Grisly-beard, hadst thou taken him, they had all been thine.' 'Ah! +unlucky wretch that I am!' said she; 'would that I had married King +Grisly-beard!' + +Then they came to a great city. 'Whose is this noble city?' said she. +'It belongs to King Grisly-beard; hadst thou taken him, it had all been +thine.' 'Ah! wretch that I am!' sighed she; 'why did I not marry King +Grisly-beard?' 'That is no business of mine,' said the fiddler: 'why +should you wish for another husband? Am not I good enough for you?' + +At last they came to a small cottage. 'What a paltry place!' said she; +'to whom does that little dirty hole belong?' Then the fiddler said, +'That is your and my house, where we are to live.' 'Where are your +servants?' cried she. 'What do we want with servants?' said he; 'you +must do for yourself whatever is to be done. Now make the fire, and put +on water and cook my supper, for I am very tired.' But the princess knew +nothing of making fires and cooking, and the fiddler was forced to help +her. When they had eaten a very scanty meal they went to bed; but the +fiddler called her up very early in the morning to clean the house. Thus +they lived for two days: and when they had eaten up all there was in the +cottage, the man said, 'Wife, we can't go on thus, spending money and +earning nothing. You must learn to weave baskets.' Then he went out and +cut willows, and brought them home, and she began to weave; but it made +her fingers very sore. 'I see this work won't do,' said he: 'try and +spin; perhaps you will do that better.' So she sat down and tried to +spin; but the threads cut her tender fingers till the blood ran. 'See +now,' said the fiddler, 'you are good for nothing; you can do no work: +what a bargain I have got! However, I'll try and set up a trade in pots +and pans, and you shall stand in the market and sell them.' 'Alas!' +sighed she, 'if any of my father's court should pass by and see me +standing in the market, how they will laugh at me!' + +But her husband did not care for that, and said she must work, if she +did not wish to die of hunger. At first the trade went well; for many +people, seeing such a beautiful woman, went to buy her wares, and paid +their money without thinking of taking away the goods. They lived on +this as long as it lasted; and then her husband bought a fresh lot of +ware, and she sat herself down with it in the corner of the market; but +a drunken soldier soon came by, and rode his horse against her stall, +and broke all her goods into a thousand pieces. Then she began to cry, +and knew not what to do. 'Ah! what will become of me?' said she; 'what +will my husband say?' So she ran home and told him all. 'Who would +have thought you would have been so silly,' said he, 'as to put an +earthenware stall in the corner of the market, where everybody passes? +but let us have no more crying; I see you are not fit for this sort of +work, so I have been to the king's palace, and asked if they did not +want a kitchen-maid; and they say they will take you, and there you will +have plenty to eat.' + +Thus the princess became a kitchen-maid, and helped the cook to do all +the dirtiest work; but she was allowed to carry home some of the meat +that was left, and on this they lived. + +She had not been there long before she heard that the king's eldest son +was passing by, going to be married; and she went to one of the windows +and looked out. Everything was ready, and all the pomp and brightness of +the court was there. Then she bitterly grieved for the pride and folly +which had brought her so low. And the servants gave her some of the rich +meats, which she put into her basket to take home. + +All on a sudden, as she was going out, in came the king's son in golden +clothes; and when he saw a beautiful woman at the door, he took her +by the hand, and said she should be his partner in the dance; but she +trembled for fear, for she saw that it was King Grisly-beard, who was +making sport of her. However, he kept fast hold, and led her in; and the +cover of the basket came off, so that the meats in it fell about. Then +everybody laughed and jeered at her; and she was so abashed, that she +wished herself a thousand feet deep in the earth. She sprang to the +door to run away; but on the steps King Grisly-beard overtook her, and +brought her back and said, 'Fear me not! I am the fiddler who has lived +with you in the hut. I brought you there because I really loved you. I +am also the soldier that overset your stall. I have done all this only +to cure you of your silly pride, and to show you the folly of your +ill-treatment of me. Now all is over: you have learnt wisdom, and it is +time to hold our marriage feast.' + +Then the chamberlains came and brought her the most beautiful robes; and +her father and his whole court were there already, and welcomed her home +on her marriage. Joy was in every face and every heart. The feast was +grand; they danced and sang; all were merry; and I only wish that you +and I had been of the party. + + + + +IRON HANS + +There was once upon a time a king who had a great forest near his +palace, full of all kinds of wild animals. One day he sent out a +huntsman to shoot him a roe, but he did not come back. 'Perhaps some +accident has befallen him,' said the king, and the next day he sent out +two more huntsmen who were to search for him, but they too stayed away. +Then on the third day, he sent for all his huntsmen, and said: 'Scour +the whole forest through, and do not give up until you have found all +three.' But of these also, none came home again, none were seen again. +From that time forth, no one would any longer venture into the forest, +and it lay there in deep stillness and solitude, and nothing was seen +of it, but sometimes an eagle or a hawk flying over it. This lasted for +many years, when an unknown huntsman announced himself to the king as +seeking a situation, and offered to go into the dangerous forest. The +king, however, would not give his consent, and said: 'It is not safe in +there; I fear it would fare with you no better than with the others, +and you would never come out again.' The huntsman replied: 'Lord, I will +venture it at my own risk, of fear I know nothing.' + +The huntsman therefore betook himself with his dog to the forest. It was +not long before the dog fell in with some game on the way, and wanted to +pursue it; but hardly had the dog run two steps when it stood before a +deep pool, could go no farther, and a naked arm stretched itself out of +the water, seized it, and drew it under. When the huntsman saw that, he +went back and fetched three men to come with buckets and bale out the +water. When they could see to the bottom there lay a wild man whose body +was brown like rusty iron, and whose hair hung over his face down to his +knees. They bound him with cords, and led him away to the castle. There +was great astonishment over the wild man; the king, however, had him put +in an iron cage in his courtyard, and forbade the door to be opened +on pain of death, and the queen herself was to take the key into her +keeping. And from this time forth everyone could again go into the +forest with safety. + +The king had a son of eight years, who was once playing in the +courtyard, and while he was playing, his golden ball fell into the cage. +The boy ran thither and said: 'Give me my ball out.' 'Not till you have +opened the door for me,' answered the man. 'No,' said the boy, 'I will +not do that; the king has forbidden it,' and ran away. The next day he +again went and asked for his ball; the wild man said: 'Open my door,' +but the boy would not. On the third day the king had ridden out hunting, +and the boy went once more and said: 'I cannot open the door even if I +wished, for I have not the key.' Then the wild man said: 'It lies under +your mother's pillow, you can get it there.' The boy, who wanted to have +his ball back, cast all thought to the winds, and brought the key. The +door opened with difficulty, and the boy pinched his fingers. When it +was open the wild man stepped out, gave him the golden ball, and hurried +away. The boy had become afraid; he called and cried after him: 'Oh, +wild man, do not go away, or I shall be beaten!' The wild man turned +back, took him up, set him on his shoulder, and went with hasty steps +into the forest. When the king came home, he observed the empty cage, +and asked the queen how that had happened. She knew nothing about it, +and sought the key, but it was gone. She called the boy, but no one +answered. The king sent out people to seek for him in the fields, but +they did not find him. Then he could easily guess what had happened, and +much grief reigned in the royal court. + +When the wild man had once more reached the dark forest, he took the boy +down from his shoulder, and said to him: 'You will never see your father +and mother again, but I will keep you with me, for you have set me free, +and I have compassion on you. If you do all I bid you, you shall fare +well. Of treasure and gold have I enough, and more than anyone in the +world.' He made a bed of moss for the boy on which he slept, and the +next morning the man took him to a well, and said: 'Behold, the gold +well is as bright and clear as crystal, you shall sit beside it, and +take care that nothing falls into it, or it will be polluted. I will +come every evening to see if you have obeyed my order.' The boy placed +himself by the brink of the well, and often saw a golden fish or a +golden snake show itself therein, and took care that nothing fell in. +As he was thus sitting, his finger hurt him so violently that he +involuntarily put it in the water. He drew it quickly out again, but saw +that it was quite gilded, and whatsoever pains he took to wash the gold +off again, all was to no purpose. In the evening Iron Hans came back, +looked at the boy, and said: 'What has happened to the well?' 'Nothing +nothing,' he answered, and held his finger behind his back, that the +man might not see it. But he said: 'You have dipped your finger into +the water, this time it may pass, but take care you do not again let +anything go in.' By daybreak the boy was already sitting by the well and +watching it. His finger hurt him again and he passed it over his head, +and then unhappily a hair fell down into the well. He took it quickly +out, but it was already quite gilded. Iron Hans came, and already knew +what had happened. 'You have let a hair fall into the well,' said he. +'I will allow you to watch by it once more, but if this happens for the +third time then the well is polluted and you can no longer remain with +me.' + +On the third day, the boy sat by the well, and did not stir his finger, +however much it hurt him. But the time was long to him, and he looked at +the reflection of his face on the surface of the water. And as he +still bent down more and more while he was doing so, and trying to look +straight into the eyes, his long hair fell down from his shoulders into +the water. He raised himself up quickly, but the whole of the hair of +his head was already golden and shone like the sun. You can imagine how +terrified the poor boy was! He took his pocket-handkerchief and tied it +round his head, in order that the man might not see it. When he came he +already knew everything, and said: 'Take the handkerchief off.' Then the +golden hair streamed forth, and let the boy excuse himself as he might, +it was of no use. 'You have not stood the trial and can stay here no +longer. Go forth into the world, there you will learn what poverty is. +But as you have not a bad heart, and as I mean well by you, there is +one thing I will grant you; if you fall into any difficulty, come to the +forest and cry: "Iron Hans," and then I will come and help you. My +power is great, greater than you think, and I have gold and silver in +abundance.' + +Then the king's son left the forest, and walked by beaten and unbeaten +paths ever onwards until at length he reached a great city. There he +looked for work, but could find none, and he learnt nothing by which he +could help himself. At length he went to the palace, and asked if they +would take him in. The people about court did not at all know what use +they could make of him, but they liked him, and told him to stay. At +length the cook took him into his service, and said he might carry wood +and water, and rake the cinders together. Once when it so happened that +no one else was at hand, the cook ordered him to carry the food to the +royal table, but as he did not like to let his golden hair be seen, he +kept his little cap on. Such a thing as that had never yet come under +the king's notice, and he said: 'When you come to the royal table you +must take your hat off.' He answered: 'Ah, Lord, I cannot; I have a bad +sore place on my head.' Then the king had the cook called before him +and scolded him, and asked how he could take such a boy as that into his +service; and that he was to send him away at once. The cook, however, +had pity on him, and exchanged him for the gardener's boy. + +And now the boy had to plant and water the garden, hoe and dig, and bear +the wind and bad weather. Once in summer when he was working alone in +the garden, the day was so warm he took his little cap off that the air +might cool him. As the sun shone on his hair it glittered and flashed so +that the rays fell into the bedroom of the king's daughter, and up she +sprang to see what that could be. Then she saw the boy, and cried to +him: 'Boy, bring me a wreath of flowers.' He put his cap on with all +haste, and gathered wild field-flowers and bound them together. When he +was ascending the stairs with them, the gardener met him, and said: 'How +can you take the king's daughter a garland of such common flowers? Go +quickly, and get another, and seek out the prettiest and rarest.' 'Oh, +no,' replied the boy, 'the wild ones have more scent, and will please +her better.' When he got into the room, the king's daughter said: 'Take +your cap off, it is not seemly to keep it on in my presence.' He again +said: 'I may not, I have a sore head.' She, however, caught at his +cap and pulled it off, and then his golden hair rolled down on his +shoulders, and it was splendid to behold. He wanted to run out, but she +held him by the arm, and gave him a handful of ducats. With these he +departed, but he cared nothing for the gold pieces. He took them to the +gardener, and said: 'I present them to your children, they can play with +them.' The following day the king's daughter again called to him that he +was to bring her a wreath of field-flowers, and then he went in with it, +she instantly snatched at his cap, and wanted to take it away from him, +but he held it fast with both hands. She again gave him a handful of +ducats, but he would not keep them, and gave them to the gardener for +playthings for his children. On the third day things went just the +same; she could not get his cap away from him, and he would not have her +money. + +Not long afterwards, the country was overrun by war. The king gathered +together his people, and did not know whether or not he could offer any +opposition to the enemy, who was superior in strength and had a mighty +army. Then said the gardener's boy: 'I am grown up, and will go to the +wars also, only give me a horse.' The others laughed, and said: 'Seek +one for yourself when we are gone, we will leave one behind us in the +stable for you.' When they had gone forth, he went into the stable, and +led the horse out; it was lame of one foot, and limped hobblety jib, +hobblety jib; nevertheless he mounted it, and rode away to the dark +forest. When he came to the outskirts, he called 'Iron Hans' three +times so loudly that it echoed through the trees. Thereupon the wild man +appeared immediately, and said: 'What do you desire?' 'I want a strong +steed, for I am going to the wars.' 'That you shall have, and still more +than you ask for.' Then the wild man went back into the forest, and it +was not long before a stable-boy came out of it, who led a horse that +snorted with its nostrils, and could hardly be restrained, and behind +them followed a great troop of warriors entirely equipped in iron, and +their swords flashed in the sun. The youth made over his three-legged +horse to the stable-boy, mounted the other, and rode at the head of the +soldiers. When he got near the battlefield a great part of the king's +men had already fallen, and little was wanting to make the rest give +way. Then the youth galloped thither with his iron soldiers, broke like +a hurricane over the enemy, and beat down all who opposed him. They +began to flee, but the youth pursued, and never stopped, until there +was not a single man left. Instead of returning to the king, however, he +conducted his troop by byways back to the forest, and called forth Iron +Hans. 'What do you desire?' asked the wild man. 'Take back your horse +and your troops, and give me my three-legged horse again.' All that he +asked was done, and soon he was riding on his three-legged horse. When +the king returned to his palace, his daughter went to meet him, and +wished him joy of his victory. 'I am not the one who carried away the +victory,' said he, 'but a strange knight who came to my assistance with +his soldiers.' The daughter wanted to hear who the strange knight was, +but the king did not know, and said: 'He followed the enemy, and I did +not see him again.' She inquired of the gardener where his boy was, but +he smiled, and said: 'He has just come home on his three-legged horse, +and the others have been mocking him, and crying: "Here comes our +hobblety jib back again!" They asked, too: "Under what hedge have you +been lying sleeping all the time?" So he said: "I did the best of all, +and it would have gone badly without me." And then he was still more +ridiculed.' + +The king said to his daughter: 'I will proclaim a great feast that shall +last for three days, and you shall throw a golden apple. Perhaps the +unknown man will show himself.' When the feast was announced, the youth +went out to the forest, and called Iron Hans. 'What do you desire?' +asked he. 'That I may catch the king's daughter's golden apple.' 'It is +as safe as if you had it already,' said Iron Hans. 'You shall likewise +have a suit of red armour for the occasion, and ride on a spirited +chestnut-horse.' When the day came, the youth galloped to the spot, took +his place amongst the knights, and was recognized by no one. The king's +daughter came forward, and threw a golden apple to the knights, but none +of them caught it but he, only as soon as he had it he galloped away. + +On the second day Iron Hans equipped him as a white knight, and gave him +a white horse. Again he was the only one who caught the apple, and +he did not linger an instant, but galloped off with it. The king grew +angry, and said: 'That is not allowed; he must appear before me and tell +his name.' He gave the order that if the knight who caught the apple, +should go away again they should pursue him, and if he would not come +back willingly, they were to cut him down and stab him. + +On the third day, he received from Iron Hans a suit of black armour and +a black horse, and again he caught the apple. But when he was riding off +with it, the king's attendants pursued him, and one of them got so near +him that he wounded the youth's leg with the point of his sword. The +youth nevertheless escaped from them, but his horse leapt so violently +that the helmet fell from the youth's head, and they could see that he +had golden hair. They rode back and announced this to the king. + +The following day the king's daughter asked the gardener about his +boy. 'He is at work in the garden; the queer creature has been at the +festival too, and only came home yesterday evening; he has likewise +shown my children three golden apples which he has won.' + +The king had him summoned into his presence, and he came and again had +his little cap on his head. But the king's daughter went up to him and +took it off, and then his golden hair fell down over his shoulders, and +he was so handsome that all were amazed. 'Are you the knight who came +every day to the festival, always in different colours, and who caught +the three golden apples?' asked the king. 'Yes,' answered he, 'and here +the apples are,' and he took them out of his pocket, and returned them +to the king. 'If you desire further proof, you may see the wound which +your people gave me when they followed me. But I am likewise the knight +who helped you to your victory over your enemies.' 'If you can perform +such deeds as that, you are no gardener's boy; tell me, who is your +father?' 'My father is a mighty king, and gold have I in plenty as great +as I require.' 'I well see,' said the king, 'that I owe my thanks to +you; can I do anything to please you?' 'Yes,' answered he, 'that indeed +you can. Give me your daughter to wife.' The maiden laughed, and said: +'He does not stand much on ceremony, but I have already seen by his +golden hair that he was no gardener's boy,' and then she went and +kissed him. His father and mother came to the wedding, and were in great +delight, for they had given up all hope of ever seeing their dear +son again. And as they were sitting at the marriage-feast, the music +suddenly stopped, the doors opened, and a stately king came in with a +great retinue. He went up to the youth, embraced him and said: 'I am +Iron Hans, and was by enchantment a wild man, but you have set me free; +all the treasures which I possess, shall be your property.' + + + + +CAT-SKIN + +There was once a king, whose queen had hair of the purest gold, and was +so beautiful that her match was not to be met with on the whole face of +the earth. But this beautiful queen fell ill, and when she felt that her +end drew near she called the king to her and said, 'Promise me that you +will never marry again, unless you meet with a wife who is as beautiful +as I am, and who has golden hair like mine.' Then when the king in his +grief promised all she asked, she shut her eyes and died. But the king +was not to be comforted, and for a long time never thought of taking +another wife. At last, however, his wise men said, 'this will not do; +the king must marry again, that we may have a queen.' So messengers were +sent far and wide, to seek for a bride as beautiful as the late queen. +But there was no princess in the world so beautiful; and if there had +been, still there was not one to be found who had golden hair. So the +messengers came home, and had had all their trouble for nothing. + +Now the king had a daughter, who was just as beautiful as her mother, +and had the same golden hair. And when she was grown up, the king looked +at her and saw that she was just like this late queen: then he said to +his courtiers, 'May I not marry my daughter? She is the very image of my +dead wife: unless I have her, I shall not find any bride upon the whole +earth, and you say there must be a queen.' When the courtiers heard this +they were shocked, and said, 'Heaven forbid that a father should marry +his daughter! Out of so great a sin no good can come.' And his daughter +was also shocked, but hoped the king would soon give up such thoughts; +so she said to him, 'Before I marry anyone I must have three dresses: +one must be of gold, like the sun; another must be of shining silver, +like the moon; and a third must be dazzling as the stars: besides this, +I want a mantle of a thousand different kinds of fur put together, to +which every beast in the kingdom must give a part of his skin.' And thus +she thought he would think of the matter no more. But the king made the +most skilful workmen in his kingdom weave the three dresses: one golden, +like the sun; another silvery, like the moon; and a third sparkling, +like the stars: and his hunters were told to hunt out all the beasts in +his kingdom, and to take the finest fur out of their skins: and thus a +mantle of a thousand furs was made. + +When all were ready, the king sent them to her; but she got up in the +night when all were asleep, and took three of her trinkets, a golden +ring, a golden necklace, and a golden brooch, and packed the three +dresses--of the sun, the moon, and the stars--up in a nutshell, and +wrapped herself up in the mantle made of all sorts of fur, and besmeared +her face and hands with soot. Then she threw herself upon Heaven for +help in her need, and went away, and journeyed on the whole night, till +at last she came to a large wood. As she was very tired, she sat herself +down in the hollow of a tree and soon fell asleep: and there she slept +on till it was midday. + +Now as the king to whom the wood belonged was hunting in it, his dogs +came to the tree, and began to snuff about, and run round and round, and +bark. 'Look sharp!' said the king to the huntsmen, 'and see what sort +of game lies there.' And the huntsmen went up to the tree, and when they +came back again said, 'In the hollow tree there lies a most wonderful +beast, such as we never saw before; its skin seems to be of a thousand +kinds of fur, but there it lies fast asleep.' 'See,' said the king, 'if +you can catch it alive, and we will take it with us.' So the huntsmen +took it up, and the maiden awoke and was greatly frightened, and said, +'I am a poor child that has neither father nor mother left; have pity on +me and take me with you.' Then they said, 'Yes, Miss Cat-skin, you will +do for the kitchen; you can sweep up the ashes, and do things of that +sort.' So they put her into the coach, and took her home to the king's +palace. Then they showed her a little corner under the staircase, where +no light of day ever peeped in, and said, 'Cat-skin, you may lie and +sleep there.' And she was sent into the kitchen, and made to fetch wood +and water, to blow the fire, pluck the poultry, pick the herbs, sift the +ashes, and do all the dirty work. + +Thus Cat-skin lived for a long time very sorrowfully. 'Ah! pretty +princess!' thought she, 'what will now become of thee?' But it happened +one day that a feast was to be held in the king's castle, so she said to +the cook, 'May I go up a little while and see what is going on? I will +take care and stand behind the door.' And the cook said, 'Yes, you may +go, but be back again in half an hour's time, to rake out the ashes.' +Then she took her little lamp, and went into her cabin, and took off the +fur skin, and washed the soot from off her face and hands, so that her +beauty shone forth like the sun from behind the clouds. She next opened +her nutshell, and brought out of it the dress that shone like the sun, +and so went to the feast. Everyone made way for her, for nobody knew +her, and they thought she could be no less than a king's daughter. But +the king came up to her, and held out his hand and danced with her; and +he thought in his heart, 'I never saw any one half so beautiful.' + +When the dance was at an end she curtsied; and when the king looked +round for her, she was gone, no one knew wither. The guards that stood +at the castle gate were called in: but they had seen no one. The truth +was, that she had run into her little cabin, pulled off her dress, +blackened her face and hands, put on the fur-skin cloak, and was +Cat-skin again. When she went into the kitchen to her work, and began +to rake the ashes, the cook said, 'Let that alone till the morning, and +heat the king's soup; I should like to run up now and give a peep: but +take care you don't let a hair fall into it, or you will run a chance of +never eating again.' + +As soon as the cook went away, Cat-skin heated the king's soup, and +toasted a slice of bread first, as nicely as ever she could; and when it +was ready, she went and looked in the cabin for her little golden ring, +and put it into the dish in which the soup was. When the dance was over, +the king ordered his soup to be brought in; and it pleased him so well, +that he thought he had never tasted any so good before. At the bottom +he saw a gold ring lying; and as he could not make out how it had got +there, he ordered the cook to be sent for. The cook was frightened when +he heard the order, and said to Cat-skin, 'You must have let a hair fall +into the soup; if it be so, you will have a good beating.' Then he went +before the king, and he asked him who had cooked the soup. 'I did,' +answered the cook. But the king said, 'That is not true; it was better +done than you could do it.' Then he answered, 'To tell the truth I did +not cook it, but Cat-skin did.' 'Then let Cat-skin come up,' said the +king: and when she came he said to her, 'Who are you?' 'I am a poor +child,' said she, 'that has lost both father and mother.' 'How came you +in my palace?' asked he. 'I am good for nothing,' said she, 'but to be +scullion-girl, and to have boots and shoes thrown at my head.' 'But how +did you get the ring that was in the soup?' asked the king. Then she +would not own that she knew anything about the ring; so the king sent +her away again about her business. + +After a time there was another feast, and Cat-skin asked the cook to let +her go up and see it as before. 'Yes,' said he, 'but come again in half +an hour, and cook the king the soup that he likes so much.' Then she +ran to her little cabin, washed herself quickly, and took her dress +out which was silvery as the moon, and put it on; and when she went in, +looking like a king's daughter, the king went up to her, and rejoiced at +seeing her again, and when the dance began he danced with her. After the +dance was at an end she managed to slip out, so slyly that the king did +not see where she was gone; but she sprang into her little cabin, and +made herself into Cat-skin again, and went into the kitchen to cook the +soup. Whilst the cook was above stairs, she got the golden necklace and +dropped it into the soup; then it was brought to the king, who ate it, +and it pleased him as well as before; so he sent for the cook, who +was again forced to tell him that Cat-skin had cooked it. Cat-skin was +brought again before the king, but she still told him that she was only +fit to have boots and shoes thrown at her head. + +But when the king had ordered a feast to be got ready for the third +time, it happened just the same as before. 'You must be a witch, +Cat-skin,' said the cook; 'for you always put something into your soup, +so that it pleases the king better than mine.' However, he let her go up +as before. Then she put on her dress which sparkled like the stars, and +went into the ball-room in it; and the king danced with her again, and +thought she had never looked so beautiful as she did then. So whilst +he was dancing with her, he put a gold ring on her finger without her +seeing it, and ordered that the dance should be kept up a long time. +When it was at an end, he would have held her fast by the hand, but she +slipped away, and sprang so quickly through the crowd that he lost sight +of her: and she ran as fast as she could into her little cabin under +the stairs. But this time she kept away too long, and stayed beyond the +half-hour; so she had not time to take off her fine dress, and threw her +fur mantle over it, and in her haste did not blacken herself all over +with soot, but left one of her fingers white. + +Then she ran into the kitchen, and cooked the king's soup; and as soon +as the cook was gone, she put the golden brooch into the dish. When the +king got to the bottom, he ordered Cat-skin to be called once more, and +soon saw the white finger, and the ring that he had put on it whilst +they were dancing: so he seized her hand, and kept fast hold of it, and +when she wanted to loose herself and spring away, the fur cloak fell off +a little on one side, and the starry dress sparkled underneath it. + +Then he got hold of the fur and tore it off, and her golden hair and +beautiful form were seen, and she could no longer hide herself: so she +washed the soot and ashes from her face, and showed herself to be the +most beautiful princess upon the face of the earth. But the king said, +'You are my beloved bride, and we will never more be parted from each +other.' And the wedding feast was held, and a merry day it was, as ever +was heard of or seen in that country, or indeed in any other. + + + + +SNOW-WHITE AND ROSE-RED + +There was once a poor widow who lived in a lonely cottage. In front of +the cottage was a garden wherein stood two rose-trees, one of which bore +white and the other red roses. She had two children who were like the +two rose-trees, and one was called Snow-white, and the other Rose-red. +They were as good and happy, as busy and cheerful as ever two children +in the world were, only Snow-white was more quiet and gentle than +Rose-red. Rose-red liked better to run about in the meadows and fields +seeking flowers and catching butterflies; but Snow-white sat at home +with her mother, and helped her with her housework, or read to her when +there was nothing to do. + +The two children were so fond of one another that they always held each +other by the hand when they went out together, and when Snow-white said: +'We will not leave each other,' Rose-red answered: 'Never so long as we +live,' and their mother would add: 'What one has she must share with the +other.' + +They often ran about the forest alone and gathered red berries, and no +beasts did them any harm, but came close to them trustfully. The little +hare would eat a cabbage-leaf out of their hands, the roe grazed by +their side, the stag leapt merrily by them, and the birds sat still upon +the boughs, and sang whatever they knew. + +No mishap overtook them; if they had stayed too late in the forest, and +night came on, they laid themselves down near one another upon the moss, +and slept until morning came, and their mother knew this and did not +worry on their account. + +Once when they had spent the night in the wood and the dawn had roused +them, they saw a beautiful child in a shining white dress sitting near +their bed. He got up and looked quite kindly at them, but said nothing +and went into the forest. And when they looked round they found that +they had been sleeping quite close to a precipice, and would certainly +have fallen into it in the darkness if they had gone only a few paces +further. And their mother told them that it must have been the angel who +watches over good children. + +Snow-white and Rose-red kept their mother's little cottage so neat that +it was a pleasure to look inside it. In the summer Rose-red took care +of the house, and every morning laid a wreath of flowers by her mother's +bed before she awoke, in which was a rose from each tree. In the winter +Snow-white lit the fire and hung the kettle on the hob. The kettle +was of brass and shone like gold, so brightly was it polished. In the +evening, when the snowflakes fell, the mother said: 'Go, Snow-white, and +bolt the door,' and then they sat round the hearth, and the mother took +her spectacles and read aloud out of a large book, and the two girls +listened as they sat and spun. And close by them lay a lamb upon the +floor, and behind them upon a perch sat a white dove with its head +hidden beneath its wings. + +One evening, as they were thus sitting comfortably together, someone +knocked at the door as if he wished to be let in. The mother said: +'Quick, Rose-red, open the door, it must be a traveller who is seeking +shelter.' Rose-red went and pushed back the bolt, thinking that it was a +poor man, but it was not; it was a bear that stretched his broad, black +head within the door. + +Rose-red screamed and sprang back, the lamb bleated, the dove fluttered, +and Snow-white hid herself behind her mother's bed. But the bear began +to speak and said: 'Do not be afraid, I will do you no harm! I am +half-frozen, and only want to warm myself a little beside you.' + +'Poor bear,' said the mother, 'lie down by the fire, only take care that +you do not burn your coat.' Then she cried: 'Snow-white, Rose-red, come +out, the bear will do you no harm, he means well.' So they both came +out, and by-and-by the lamb and dove came nearer, and were not afraid +of him. The bear said: 'Here, children, knock the snow out of my coat a +little'; so they brought the broom and swept the bear's hide clean; +and he stretched himself by the fire and growled contentedly and +comfortably. It was not long before they grew quite at home, and played +tricks with their clumsy guest. They tugged his hair with their hands, +put their feet upon his back and rolled him about, or they took a +hazel-switch and beat him, and when he growled they laughed. But the +bear took it all in good part, only when they were too rough he called +out: 'Leave me alive, children, + + Snow-white, Rose-red, + Will you beat your wooer dead?' + +When it was bed-time, and the others went to bed, the mother said to the +bear: 'You can lie there by the hearth, and then you will be safe from +the cold and the bad weather.' As soon as day dawned the two children +let him out, and he trotted across the snow into the forest. + +Henceforth the bear came every evening at the same time, laid himself +down by the hearth, and let the children amuse themselves with him as +much as they liked; and they got so used to him that the doors were +never fastened until their black friend had arrived. + +When spring had come and all outside was green, the bear said one +morning to Snow-white: 'Now I must go away, and cannot come back for the +whole summer.' 'Where are you going, then, dear bear?' asked Snow-white. +'I must go into the forest and guard my treasures from the wicked +dwarfs. In the winter, when the earth is frozen hard, they are obliged +to stay below and cannot work their way through; but now, when the sun +has thawed and warmed the earth, they break through it, and come out to +pry and steal; and what once gets into their hands, and in their caves, +does not easily see daylight again.' + +Snow-white was quite sorry at his departure, and as she unbolted the +door for him, and the bear was hurrying out, he caught against the bolt +and a piece of his hairy coat was torn off, and it seemed to Snow-white +as if she had seen gold shining through it, but she was not sure about +it. The bear ran away quickly, and was soon out of sight behind the +trees. + +A short time afterwards the mother sent her children into the forest +to get firewood. There they found a big tree which lay felled on the +ground, and close by the trunk something was jumping backwards and +forwards in the grass, but they could not make out what it was. When +they came nearer they saw a dwarf with an old withered face and a +snow-white beard a yard long. The end of the beard was caught in a +crevice of the tree, and the little fellow was jumping about like a dog +tied to a rope, and did not know what to do. + +He glared at the girls with his fiery red eyes and cried: 'Why do you +stand there? Can you not come here and help me?' 'What are you up to, +little man?' asked Rose-red. 'You stupid, prying goose!' answered the +dwarf: 'I was going to split the tree to get a little wood for cooking. +The little bit of food that we people get is immediately burnt up with +heavy logs; we do not swallow so much as you coarse, greedy folk. I had +just driven the wedge safely in, and everything was going as I wished; +but the cursed wedge was too smooth and suddenly sprang out, and the +tree closed so quickly that I could not pull out my beautiful white +beard; so now it is tight and I cannot get away, and the silly, sleek, +milk-faced things laugh! Ugh! how odious you are!' + +The children tried very hard, but they could not pull the beard out, it +was caught too fast. 'I will run and fetch someone,' said Rose-red. 'You +senseless goose!' snarled the dwarf; 'why should you fetch someone? You +are already two too many for me; can you not think of something better?' +'Don't be impatient,' said Snow-white, 'I will help you,' and she pulled +her scissors out of her pocket, and cut off the end of the beard. + +As soon as the dwarf felt himself free he laid hold of a bag which lay +amongst the roots of the tree, and which was full of gold, and lifted it +up, grumbling to himself: 'Uncouth people, to cut off a piece of my fine +beard. Bad luck to you!' and then he swung the bag upon his back, and +went off without even once looking at the children. + +Some time afterwards Snow-white and Rose-red went to catch a dish +of fish. As they came near the brook they saw something like a large +grasshopper jumping towards the water, as if it were going to leap in. +They ran to it and found it was the dwarf. 'Where are you going?' said +Rose-red; 'you surely don't want to go into the water?' 'I am not such +a fool!' cried the dwarf; 'don't you see that the accursed fish wants +to pull me in?' The little man had been sitting there fishing, and +unluckily the wind had tangled up his beard with the fishing-line; a +moment later a big fish made a bite and the feeble creature had not +strength to pull it out; the fish kept the upper hand and pulled the +dwarf towards him. He held on to all the reeds and rushes, but it was of +little good, for he was forced to follow the movements of the fish, and +was in urgent danger of being dragged into the water. + +The girls came just in time; they held him fast and tried to free his +beard from the line, but all in vain, beard and line were entangled fast +together. There was nothing to do but to bring out the scissors and cut +the beard, whereby a small part of it was lost. When the dwarf saw that +he screamed out: 'Is that civil, you toadstool, to disfigure a man's +face? Was it not enough to clip off the end of my beard? Now you have +cut off the best part of it. I cannot let myself be seen by my people. +I wish you had been made to run the soles off your shoes!' Then he took +out a sack of pearls which lay in the rushes, and without another word +he dragged it away and disappeared behind a stone. + +It happened that soon afterwards the mother sent the two children to the +town to buy needles and thread, and laces and ribbons. The road led them +across a heath upon which huge pieces of rock lay strewn about. There +they noticed a large bird hovering in the air, flying slowly round and +round above them; it sank lower and lower, and at last settled near a +rock not far away. Immediately they heard a loud, piteous cry. They ran +up and saw with horror that the eagle had seized their old acquaintance +the dwarf, and was going to carry him off. + +The children, full of pity, at once took tight hold of the little man, +and pulled against the eagle so long that at last he let his booty go. +As soon as the dwarf had recovered from his first fright he cried +with his shrill voice: 'Could you not have done it more carefully! You +dragged at my brown coat so that it is all torn and full of holes, you +clumsy creatures!' Then he took up a sack full of precious stones, and +slipped away again under the rock into his hole. The girls, who by +this time were used to his ingratitude, went on their way and did their +business in town. + +As they crossed the heath again on their way home they surprised the +dwarf, who had emptied out his bag of precious stones in a clean spot, +and had not thought that anyone would come there so late. The evening +sun shone upon the brilliant stones; they glittered and sparkled with +all colours so beautifully that the children stood still and stared +at them. 'Why do you stand gaping there?' cried the dwarf, and his +ashen-grey face became copper-red with rage. He was still cursing when a +loud growling was heard, and a black bear came trotting towards them out +of the forest. The dwarf sprang up in a fright, but he could not reach +his cave, for the bear was already close. Then in the dread of his heart +he cried: 'Dear Mr Bear, spare me, I will give you all my treasures; +look, the beautiful jewels lying there! Grant me my life; what do you +want with such a slender little fellow as I? you would not feel me +between your teeth. Come, take these two wicked girls, they are tender +morsels for you, fat as young quails; for mercy's sake eat them!' The +bear took no heed of his words, but gave the wicked creature a single +blow with his paw, and he did not move again. + +The girls had run away, but the bear called to them: 'Snow-white and +Rose-red, do not be afraid; wait, I will come with you.' Then they +recognized his voice and waited, and when he came up to them suddenly +his bearskin fell off, and he stood there a handsome man, clothed all in +gold. 'I am a king's son,' he said, 'and I was bewitched by that wicked +dwarf, who had stolen my treasures; I have had to run about the forest +as a savage bear until I was freed by his death. Now he has got his +well-deserved punishment. + +Snow-white was married to him, and Rose-red to his brother, and they +divided between them the great treasure which the dwarf had gathered +together in his cave. The old mother lived peacefully and happily with +her children for many years. She took the two rose-trees with her, and +they stood before her window, and every year bore the most beautiful +roses, white and red. + + +***** + + +The Brothers Grimm, Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859), were born +in Hanau, near Frankfurt, in the German state of Hesse. Throughout +their lives they remained close friends, and both studied law at Marburg +University. Jacob was a pioneer in the study of German philology, +and although Wilhelm's work was hampered by poor health the brothers +collaborated in the creation of a German dictionary, not completed until +a century after their deaths. But they were best (and universally) known +for the collection of over two hundred folk tales they made from oral +sources and published in two volumes of 'Nursery and Household Tales' in +1812 and 1814. Although their intention was to preserve such material as +part of German cultural and literary history, and their collection was +first published with scholarly notes and no illustration, the tales soon +came into the possession of young readers. This was in part due to Edgar +Taylor, who made the first English translation in 1823, selecting about +fifty stories 'with the amusement of some young friends principally in +view.' They have been an essential ingredient of children's reading ever +since. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Grimms' Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRIMMS' FAIRY TALES *** + +***** This file should be named 2591.txt or 2591.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/9/2591/ + +Produced by Emma Dudding, John Bickers, and Dagny + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/DemoApp2/texts/Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.txt b/DemoApp2/texts/Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a2ee53a --- /dev/null +++ b/DemoApp2/texts/Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6648 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peter Pan, by James M. Barrie + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +** This is a COPYRIGHTED Project Gutenberg eBook, Details Below ** +** Please follow the copyright guidelines in this file. ** + +Title: Peter Pan + Peter Pan and Wendy + +Author: James M. Barrie + +Posting Date: June 25, 2008 [EBook #16] +Release Date: July, 1991 +[Last updated: May 25, 2011] + +Language: English + + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETER PAN *** + + + + + + + + + + +PETER PAN + +[PETER AND WENDY] + +By J. M. Barrie [James Matthew Barrie] + +A Millennium Fulcrum Edition (c)1991 by Duncan Research + + + + +Contents: + +Chapter 1 PETER BREAKS THROUGH + +Chapter 2 THE SHADOW + +Chapter 3 COME AWAY, COME AWAY! + +Chapter 4 THE FLIGHT + +Chapter 5 THE ISLAND COME TRUE + +Chapter 6 THE LITTLE HOUSE + +Chapter 7 THE HOME UNDER THE GROUND + +Chapter 8 THE MERMAID'S LAGOON + +Chapter 9 THE NEVER BIRD + +Chapter 10 THE HAPPY HOME + +Chapter 11 WENDY'S STORY + +Chapter 12 THE CHILDREN ARE CARRIED OFF + +Chapter 13 DO YOU BELIEVE IN FAIRIES? + +Chapter 14 THE PIRATE SHIP + +Chapter 15 "HOOK OR ME THIS TIME" + +Chapter 16 THE RETURN HOME + +Chapter 17 WHEN WENDY GREW UP + + + + +Chapter 1 PETER BREAKS THROUGH + +All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow +up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old +she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with +it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for +Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, "Oh, why can't you +remain like this for ever!" This was all that passed between them on +the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always +know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end. + +Of course they lived at 14 [their house number on their street], and +until Wendy came her mother was the chief one. She was a lovely lady, +with a romantic mind and such a sweet mocking mouth. Her romantic +mind was like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from the +puzzling East, however many you discover there is always one more; and +her sweet mocking mouth had one kiss on it that Wendy could never get, +though there it was, perfectly conspicuous in the right-hand corner. + +The way Mr. Darling won her was this: the many gentlemen who had been +boys when she was a girl discovered simultaneously that they loved her, +and they all ran to her house to propose to her except Mr. Darling, who +took a cab and nipped in first, and so he got her. He got all of her, +except the innermost box and the kiss. He never knew about the box, and +in time he gave up trying for the kiss. Wendy thought Napoleon could +have got it, but I can picture him trying, and then going off in a +passion, slamming the door. + +Mr. Darling used to boast to Wendy that her mother not only loved him +but respected him. He was one of those deep ones who know about stocks +and shares. Of course no one really knows, but he quite seemed to know, +and he often said stocks were up and shares were down in a way that +would have made any woman respect him. + +Mrs. Darling was married in white, and at first she kept the books +perfectly, almost gleefully, as if it were a game, not so much as a +Brussels sprout was missing; but by and by whole cauliflowers dropped +out, and instead of them there were pictures of babies without faces. +She drew them when she should have been totting up. They were Mrs. +Darling's guesses. + +Wendy came first, then John, then Michael. + +For a week or two after Wendy came it was doubtful whether they would +be able to keep her, as she was another mouth to feed. Mr. Darling was +frightfully proud of her, but he was very honourable, and he sat on the +edge of Mrs. Darling's bed, holding her hand and calculating expenses, +while she looked at him imploringly. She wanted to risk it, come what +might, but that was not his way; his way was with a pencil and a piece +of paper, and if she confused him with suggestions he had to begin at +the beginning again. + +"Now don't interrupt," he would beg of her. + +"I have one pound seventeen here, and two and six at the office; I can +cut off my coffee at the office, say ten shillings, making two nine +and six, with your eighteen and three makes three nine seven, with five +naught naught in my cheque-book makes eight nine seven--who is that +moving?--eight nine seven, dot and carry seven--don't speak, my own--and +the pound you lent to that man who came to the door--quiet, child--dot +and carry child--there, you've done it!--did I say nine nine seven? yes, +I said nine nine seven; the question is, can we try it for a year on +nine nine seven?" + +"Of course we can, George," she cried. But she was prejudiced in Wendy's +favour, and he was really the grander character of the two. + +"Remember mumps," he warned her almost threateningly, and off he went +again. "Mumps one pound, that is what I have put down, but I daresay +it will be more like thirty shillings--don't speak--measles one five, +German measles half a guinea, makes two fifteen six--don't waggle your +finger--whooping-cough, say fifteen shillings"--and so on it went, and +it added up differently each time; but at last Wendy just got through, +with mumps reduced to twelve six, and the two kinds of measles treated +as one. + +There was the same excitement over John, and Michael had even a narrower +squeak; but both were kept, and soon, you might have seen the three of +them going in a row to Miss Fulsom's Kindergarten school, accompanied by +their nurse. + +Mrs. Darling loved to have everything just so, and Mr. Darling had a +passion for being exactly like his neighbours; so, of course, they had +a nurse. As they were poor, owing to the amount of milk the children +drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog, called Nana, who had +belonged to no one in particular until the Darlings engaged her. She had +always thought children important, however, and the Darlings had become +acquainted with her in Kensington Gardens, where she spent most of her +spare time peeping into perambulators, and was much hated by careless +nursemaids, whom she followed to their homes and complained of to their +mistresses. She proved to be quite a treasure of a nurse. How thorough +she was at bath-time, and up at any moment of the night if one of her +charges made the slightest cry. Of course her kennel was in the nursery. +She had a genius for knowing when a cough is a thing to have no patience +with and when it needs stocking around your throat. She believed to her +last day in old-fashioned remedies like rhubarb leaf, and made sounds of +contempt over all this new-fangled talk about germs, and so on. It was a +lesson in propriety to see her escorting the children to school, walking +sedately by their side when they were well behaved, and butting them +back into line if they strayed. On John's footer [in England soccer +was called football, "footer" for short] days she never once forgot his +sweater, and she usually carried an umbrella in her mouth in case of +rain. There is a room in the basement of Miss Fulsom's school where the +nurses wait. They sat on forms, while Nana lay on the floor, but that +was the only difference. They affected to ignore her as of an inferior +social status to themselves, and she despised their light talk. She +resented visits to the nursery from Mrs. Darling's friends, but if they +did come she first whipped off Michael's pinafore and put him into the +one with blue braiding, and smoothed out Wendy and made a dash at John's +hair. + +No nursery could possibly have been conducted more correctly, and +Mr. Darling knew it, yet he sometimes wondered uneasily whether the +neighbours talked. + +He had his position in the city to consider. + +Nana also troubled him in another way. He had sometimes a feeling that +she did not admire him. "I know she admires you tremendously, George," +Mrs. Darling would assure him, and then she would sign to the children +to be specially nice to father. Lovely dances followed, in which the +only other servant, Liza, was sometimes allowed to join. Such a midget +she looked in her long skirt and maid's cap, though she had sworn, when +engaged, that she would never see ten again. The gaiety of those romps! +And gayest of all was Mrs. Darling, who would pirouette so wildly that +all you could see of her was the kiss, and then if you had dashed at her +you might have got it. There never was a simpler happier family until +the coming of Peter Pan. + +Mrs. Darling first heard of Peter when she was tidying up her children's +minds. It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children +are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next +morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have +wandered during the day. If you could keep awake (but of course you +can't) you would see your own mother doing this, and you would find it +very interesting to watch her. It is quite like tidying up drawers. You +would see her on her knees, I expect, lingering humorously over some of +your contents, wondering where on earth you had picked this thing up, +making discoveries sweet and not so sweet, pressing this to her cheek as +if it were as nice as a kitten, and hurriedly stowing that out of sight. +When you wake in the morning, the naughtiness and evil passions with +which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom +of your mind and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out your +prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on. + +I don't know whether you have ever seen a map of a person's mind. +Doctors sometimes draw maps of other parts of you, and your own map can +become intensely interesting, but catch them trying to draw a map of a +child's mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round all +the time. There are zigzag lines on it, just like your temperature on a +card, and these are probably roads in the island, for the Neverland is +always more or less an island, with astonishing splashes of colour here +and there, and coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing, and +savages and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors, and caves +through which a river runs, and princes with six elder brothers, and a +hut fast going to decay, and one very small old lady with a hooked nose. +It would be an easy map if that were all, but there is also first day +at school, religion, fathers, the round pond, needle-work, murders, +hangings, verbs that take the dative, chocolate pudding day, getting +into braces, say ninety-nine, three-pence for pulling out your tooth +yourself, and so on, and either these are part of the island or they are +another map showing through, and it is all rather confusing, especially +as nothing will stand still. + +Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal. John's, for instance, had a +lagoon with flamingoes flying over it at which John was shooting, while +Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over +it. John lived in a boat turned upside down on the sands, Michael in +a wigwam, Wendy in a house of leaves deftly sewn together. John had no +friends, Michael had friends at night, Wendy had a pet wolf forsaken by +its parents, but on the whole the Neverlands have a family resemblance, +and if they stood still in a row you could say of them that they have +each other's nose, and so forth. On these magic shores children at play +are for ever beaching their coracles [simple boat]. We too have been +there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no +more. + +Of all delectable islands the Neverland is the snuggest and most +compact, not large and sprawly, you know, with tedious distances between +one adventure and another, but nicely crammed. When you play at it by +day with the chairs and table-cloth, it is not in the least alarming, +but in the two minutes before you go to sleep it becomes very real. That +is why there are night-lights. + +Occasionally in her travels through her children's minds Mrs. Darling +found things she could not understand, and of these quite the most +perplexing was the word Peter. She knew of no Peter, and yet he was +here and there in John and Michael's minds, while Wendy's began to be +scrawled all over with him. The name stood out in bolder letters than +any of the other words, and as Mrs. Darling gazed she felt that it had +an oddly cocky appearance. + +"Yes, he is rather cocky," Wendy admitted with regret. Her mother had +been questioning her. + +"But who is he, my pet?" + +"He is Peter Pan, you know, mother." + +At first Mrs. Darling did not know, but after thinking back into her +childhood she just remembered a Peter Pan who was said to live with the +fairies. There were odd stories about him, as that when children died he +went part of the way with them, so that they should not be frightened. +She had believed in him at the time, but now that she was married and +full of sense she quite doubted whether there was any such person. + +"Besides," she said to Wendy, "he would be grown up by this time." + +"Oh no, he isn't grown up," Wendy assured her confidently, "and he is +just my size." She meant that he was her size in both mind and body; she +didn't know how she knew, she just knew it. + +Mrs. Darling consulted Mr. Darling, but he smiled pooh-pooh. "Mark my +words," he said, "it is some nonsense Nana has been putting into their +heads; just the sort of idea a dog would have. Leave it alone, and it +will blow over." + +But it would not blow over and soon the troublesome boy gave Mrs. +Darling quite a shock. + +Children have the strangest adventures without being troubled by them. +For instance, they may remember to mention, a week after the event +happened, that when they were in the wood they had met their dead +father and had a game with him. It was in this casual way that Wendy one +morning made a disquieting revelation. Some leaves of a tree had been +found on the nursery floor, which certainly were not there when the +children went to bed, and Mrs. Darling was puzzling over them when Wendy +said with a tolerant smile: + +"I do believe it is that Peter again!" + +"Whatever do you mean, Wendy?" + +"It is so naughty of him not to wipe his feet," Wendy said, sighing. She +was a tidy child. + +She explained in quite a matter-of-fact way that she thought Peter +sometimes came to the nursery in the night and sat on the foot of her +bed and played on his pipes to her. Unfortunately she never woke, so she +didn't know how she knew, she just knew. + +"What nonsense you talk, precious. No one can get into the house without +knocking." + +"I think he comes in by the window," she said. + +"My love, it is three floors up." + +"Were not the leaves at the foot of the window, mother?" + +It was quite true; the leaves had been found very near the window. + +Mrs. Darling did not know what to think, for it all seemed so natural to +Wendy that you could not dismiss it by saying she had been dreaming. + +"My child," the mother cried, "why did you not tell me of this before?" + +"I forgot," said Wendy lightly. She was in a hurry to get her breakfast. + +Oh, surely she must have been dreaming. + +But, on the other hand, there were the leaves. Mrs. Darling examined +them very carefully; they were skeleton leaves, but she was sure they +did not come from any tree that grew in England. She crawled about the +floor, peering at it with a candle for marks of a strange foot. She +rattled the poker up the chimney and tapped the walls. She let down a +tape from the window to the pavement, and it was a sheer drop of thirty +feet, without so much as a spout to climb up by. + +Certainly Wendy had been dreaming. + +But Wendy had not been dreaming, as the very next night showed, the +night on which the extraordinary adventures of these children may be +said to have begun. + +On the night we speak of all the children were once more in bed. It +happened to be Nana's evening off, and Mrs. Darling had bathed them and +sung to them till one by one they had let go her hand and slid away into +the land of sleep. + +All were looking so safe and cosy that she smiled at her fears now and +sat down tranquilly by the fire to sew. + +It was something for Michael, who on his birthday was getting into +shirts. The fire was warm, however, and the nursery dimly lit by three +night-lights, and presently the sewing lay on Mrs. Darling's lap. Then +her head nodded, oh, so gracefully. She was asleep. Look at the four of +them, Wendy and Michael over there, John here, and Mrs. Darling by the +fire. There should have been a fourth night-light. + +While she slept she had a dream. She dreamt that the Neverland had come +too near and that a strange boy had broken through from it. He did not +alarm her, for she thought she had seen him before in the faces of many +women who have no children. Perhaps he is to be found in the faces of +some mothers also. But in her dream he had rent the film that obscures +the Neverland, and she saw Wendy and John and Michael peeping through +the gap. + +The dream by itself would have been a trifle, but while she was dreaming +the window of the nursery blew open, and a boy did drop on the floor. +He was accompanied by a strange light, no bigger than your fist, which +darted about the room like a living thing and I think it must have been +this light that wakened Mrs. Darling. + +She started up with a cry, and saw the boy, and somehow she knew at once +that he was Peter Pan. If you or I or Wendy had been there we should +have seen that he was very like Mrs. Darling's kiss. He was a lovely +boy, clad in skeleton leaves and the juices that ooze out of trees but +the most entrancing thing about him was that he had all his first teeth. +When he saw she was a grown-up, he gnashed the little pearls at her. + + + + +Chapter 2 THE SHADOW + +Mrs. Darling screamed, and, as if in answer to a bell, the door opened, +and Nana entered, returned from her evening out. She growled and sprang +at the boy, who leapt lightly through the window. Again Mrs. Darling +screamed, this time in distress for him, for she thought he was killed, +and she ran down into the street to look for his little body, but it +was not there; and she looked up, and in the black night she could see +nothing but what she thought was a shooting star. + +She returned to the nursery, and found Nana with something in her mouth, +which proved to be the boy's shadow. As he leapt at the window Nana had +closed it quickly, too late to catch him, but his shadow had not had +time to get out; slam went the window and snapped it off. + +You may be sure Mrs. Darling examined the shadow carefully, but it was +quite the ordinary kind. + +Nana had no doubt of what was the best thing to do with this shadow. She +hung it out at the window, meaning "He is sure to come back for it; let +us put it where he can get it easily without disturbing the children." + +But unfortunately Mrs. Darling could not leave it hanging out at the +window, it looked so like the washing and lowered the whole tone of the +house. She thought of showing it to Mr. Darling, but he was totting up +winter great-coats for John and Michael, with a wet towel around his +head to keep his brain clear, and it seemed a shame to trouble him; +besides, she knew exactly what he would say: "It all comes of having a +dog for a nurse." + +She decided to roll the shadow up and put it away carefully in a drawer, +until a fitting opportunity came for telling her husband. Ah me! + +The opportunity came a week later, on that never-to-be-forgotten Friday. +Of course it was a Friday. + +"I ought to have been specially careful on a Friday," she used to say +afterwards to her husband, while perhaps Nana was on the other side of +her, holding her hand. + +"No, no," Mr. Darling always said, "I am responsible for it all. I, +George Darling, did it. MEA CULPA, MEA CULPA." He had had a classical +education. + +They sat thus night after night recalling that fatal Friday, till every +detail of it was stamped on their brains and came through on the other +side like the faces on a bad coinage. + +"If only I had not accepted that invitation to dine at 27," Mrs. Darling +said. + +"If only I had not poured my medicine into Nana's bowl," said Mr. +Darling. + +"If only I had pretended to like the medicine," was what Nana's wet eyes +said. + +"My liking for parties, George." + +"My fatal gift of humour, dearest." + +"My touchiness about trifles, dear master and mistress." + +Then one or more of them would break down altogether; Nana at the +thought, "It's true, it's true, they ought not to have had a dog for +a nurse." Many a time it was Mr. Darling who put the handkerchief to +Nana's eyes. + +"That fiend!" Mr. Darling would cry, and Nana's bark was the echo of +it, but Mrs. Darling never upbraided Peter; there was something in the +right-hand corner of her mouth that wanted her not to call Peter names. + +They would sit there in the empty nursery, recalling fondly every +smallest detail of that dreadful evening. It had begun so uneventfully, +so precisely like a hundred other evenings, with Nana putting on the +water for Michael's bath and carrying him to it on her back. + +"I won't go to bed," he had shouted, like one who still believed that he +had the last word on the subject, "I won't, I won't. Nana, it isn't six +o'clock yet. Oh dear, oh dear, I shan't love you any more, Nana. I tell +you I won't be bathed, I won't, I won't!" + +Then Mrs. Darling had come in, wearing her white evening-gown. She had +dressed early because Wendy so loved to see her in her evening-gown, +with the necklace George had given her. She was wearing Wendy's bracelet +on her arm; she had asked for the loan of it. Wendy loved to lend her +bracelet to her mother. + +She had found her two older children playing at being herself and father +on the occasion of Wendy's birth, and John was saying: + +"I am happy to inform you, Mrs. Darling, that you are now a mother," +in just such a tone as Mr. Darling himself may have used on the real +occasion. + +Wendy had danced with joy, just as the real Mrs. Darling must have done. + +Then John was born, with the extra pomp that he conceived due to the +birth of a male, and Michael came from his bath to ask to be born also, +but John said brutally that they did not want any more. + +Michael had nearly cried. "Nobody wants me," he said, and of course the +lady in the evening-dress could not stand that. + +"I do," she said, "I so want a third child." + +"Boy or girl?" asked Michael, not too hopefully. + +"Boy." + +Then he had leapt into her arms. Such a little thing for Mr. and Mrs. +Darling and Nana to recall now, but not so little if that was to be +Michael's last night in the nursery. + +They go on with their recollections. + +"It was then that I rushed in like a tornado, wasn't it?" Mr. Darling +would say, scorning himself; and indeed he had been like a tornado. + +Perhaps there was some excuse for him. He, too, had been dressing for +the party, and all had gone well with him until he came to his tie. It +is an astounding thing to have to tell, but this man, though he knew +about stocks and shares, had no real mastery of his tie. Sometimes the +thing yielded to him without a contest, but there were occasions when it +would have been better for the house if he had swallowed his pride and +used a made-up tie. + +This was such an occasion. He came rushing into the nursery with the +crumpled little brute of a tie in his hand. + +"Why, what is the matter, father dear?" + +"Matter!" he yelled; he really yelled. "This tie, it will not tie." He +became dangerously sarcastic. "Not round my neck! Round the bed-post! +Oh yes, twenty times have I made it up round the bed-post, but round my +neck, no! Oh dear no! begs to be excused!" + +He thought Mrs. Darling was not sufficiently impressed, and he went on +sternly, "I warn you of this, mother, that unless this tie is round my +neck we don't go out to dinner to-night, and if I don't go out to dinner +to-night, I never go to the office again, and if I don't go to the +office again, you and I starve, and our children will be flung into the +streets." + +Even then Mrs. Darling was placid. "Let me try, dear," she said, and +indeed that was what he had come to ask her to do, and with her nice +cool hands she tied his tie for him, while the children stood around to +see their fate decided. Some men would have resented her being able to +do it so easily, but Mr. Darling had far too fine a nature for that; he +thanked her carelessly, at once forgot his rage, and in another moment +was dancing round the room with Michael on his back. + +"How wildly we romped!" says Mrs. Darling now, recalling it. + +"Our last romp!" Mr. Darling groaned. + +"O George, do you remember Michael suddenly said to me, 'How did you get +to know me, mother?'" + +"I remember!" + +"They were rather sweet, don't you think, George?" + +"And they were ours, ours! and now they are gone." + +The romp had ended with the appearance of Nana, and most unluckily Mr. +Darling collided against her, covering his trousers with hairs. They +were not only new trousers, but they were the first he had ever had +with braid on them, and he had had to bite his lip to prevent the tears +coming. Of course Mrs. Darling brushed him, but he began to talk again +about its being a mistake to have a dog for a nurse. + +"George, Nana is a treasure." + +"No doubt, but I have an uneasy feeling at times that she looks upon the +children as puppies." + +"Oh no, dear one, I feel sure she knows they have souls." + +"I wonder," Mr. Darling said thoughtfully, "I wonder." It was an +opportunity, his wife felt, for telling him about the boy. At first he +pooh-poohed the story, but he became thoughtful when she showed him the +shadow. + +"It is nobody I know," he said, examining it carefully, "but it does +look a scoundrel." + +"We were still discussing it, you remember," says Mr. Darling, "when +Nana came in with Michael's medicine. You will never carry the bottle in +your mouth again, Nana, and it is all my fault." + +Strong man though he was, there is no doubt that he had behaved rather +foolishly over the medicine. If he had a weakness, it was for thinking +that all his life he had taken medicine boldly, and so now, when Michael +dodged the spoon in Nana's mouth, he had said reprovingly, "Be a man, +Michael." + +"Won't; won't!" Michael cried naughtily. Mrs. Darling left the room to +get a chocolate for him, and Mr. Darling thought this showed want of +firmness. + +"Mother, don't pamper him," he called after her. "Michael, when I was +your age I took medicine without a murmur. I said, 'Thank you, kind +parents, for giving me bottles to make me well.'" + +He really thought this was true, and Wendy, who was now in her +night-gown, believed it also, and she said, to encourage Michael, "That +medicine you sometimes take, father, is much nastier, isn't it?" + +"Ever so much nastier," Mr. Darling said bravely, "and I would take it +now as an example to you, Michael, if I hadn't lost the bottle." + +He had not exactly lost it; he had climbed in the dead of night to the +top of the wardrobe and hidden it there. What he did not know was that +the faithful Liza had found it, and put it back on his wash-stand. + +"I know where it is, father," Wendy cried, always glad to be of service. +"I'll bring it," and she was off before he could stop her. Immediately +his spirits sank in the strangest way. + +"John," he said, shuddering, "it's most beastly stuff. It's that nasty, +sticky, sweet kind." + +"It will soon be over, father," John said cheerily, and then in rushed +Wendy with the medicine in a glass. + +"I have been as quick as I could," she panted. + +"You have been wonderfully quick," her father retorted, with a +vindictive politeness that was quite thrown away upon her. "Michael +first," he said doggedly. + +"Father first," said Michael, who was of a suspicious nature. + +"I shall be sick, you know," Mr. Darling said threateningly. + +"Come on, father," said John. + +"Hold your tongue, John," his father rapped out. + +Wendy was quite puzzled. "I thought you took it quite easily, father." + +"That is not the point," he retorted. "The point is, that there is +more in my glass than in Michael's spoon." His proud heart was nearly +bursting. "And it isn't fair: I would say it though it were with my last +breath; it isn't fair." + +"Father, I am waiting," said Michael coldly. + +"It's all very well to say you are waiting; so am I waiting." + +"Father's a cowardly custard." + +"So are you a cowardly custard." + +"I'm not frightened." + +"Neither am I frightened." + +"Well, then, take it." + +"Well, then, you take it." + +Wendy had a splendid idea. "Why not both take it at the same time?" + +"Certainly," said Mr. Darling. "Are you ready, Michael?" + +Wendy gave the words, one, two, three, and Michael took his medicine, +but Mr. Darling slipped his behind his back. + +There was a yell of rage from Michael, and "O father!" Wendy exclaimed. + +"What do you mean by 'O father'?" Mr. Darling demanded. "Stop that row, +Michael. I meant to take mine, but I--I missed it." + +It was dreadful the way all the three were looking at him, just as if +they did not admire him. "Look here, all of you," he said entreatingly, +as soon as Nana had gone into the bathroom. "I have just thought of a +splendid joke. I shall pour my medicine into Nana's bowl, and she will +drink it, thinking it is milk!" + +It was the colour of milk; but the children did not have their father's +sense of humour, and they looked at him reproachfully as he poured the +medicine into Nana's bowl. "What fun!" he said doubtfully, and they did +not dare expose him when Mrs. Darling and Nana returned. + +"Nana, good dog," he said, patting her, "I have put a little milk into +your bowl, Nana." + +Nana wagged her tail, ran to the medicine, and began lapping it. Then +she gave Mr. Darling such a look, not an angry look: she showed him the +great red tear that makes us so sorry for noble dogs, and crept into her +kennel. + +Mr. Darling was frightfully ashamed of himself, but he would not give +in. In a horrid silence Mrs. Darling smelt the bowl. "O George," she +said, "it's your medicine!" + +"It was only a joke," he roared, while she comforted her boys, and Wendy +hugged Nana. "Much good," he said bitterly, "my wearing myself to the +bone trying to be funny in this house." + +And still Wendy hugged Nana. "That's right," he shouted. "Coddle her! +Nobody coddles me. Oh dear no! I am only the breadwinner, why should I +be coddled--why, why, why!" + +"George," Mrs. Darling entreated him, "not so loud; the servants +will hear you." Somehow they had got into the way of calling Liza the +servants. + +"Let them!" he answered recklessly. "Bring in the whole world. But I +refuse to allow that dog to lord it in my nursery for an hour longer." + +The children wept, and Nana ran to him beseechingly, but he waved her +back. He felt he was a strong man again. "In vain, in vain," he cried; +"the proper place for you is the yard, and there you go to be tied up +this instant." + +"George, George," Mrs. Darling whispered, "remember what I told you +about that boy." + +Alas, he would not listen. He was determined to show who was master in +that house, and when commands would not draw Nana from the kennel, he +lured her out of it with honeyed words, and seizing her roughly, dragged +her from the nursery. He was ashamed of himself, and yet he did it. +It was all owing to his too affectionate nature, which craved for +admiration. When he had tied her up in the back-yard, the wretched +father went and sat in the passage, with his knuckles to his eyes. + +In the meantime Mrs. Darling had put the children to bed in unwonted +silence and lit their night-lights. They could hear Nana barking, and +John whimpered, "It is because he is chaining her up in the yard," but +Wendy was wiser. + +"That is not Nana's unhappy bark," she said, little guessing what was +about to happen; "that is her bark when she smells danger." + +Danger! + +"Are you sure, Wendy?" + +"Oh, yes." + +Mrs. Darling quivered and went to the window. It was securely fastened. +She looked out, and the night was peppered with stars. They were +crowding round the house, as if curious to see what was to take place +there, but she did not notice this, nor that one or two of the smaller +ones winked at her. Yet a nameless fear clutched at her heart and made +her cry, "Oh, how I wish that I wasn't going to a party to-night!" + +Even Michael, already half asleep, knew that she was perturbed, and he +asked, "Can anything harm us, mother, after the night-lights are lit?" + +"Nothing, precious," she said; "they are the eyes a mother leaves behind +her to guard her children." + +She went from bed to bed singing enchantments over them, and little +Michael flung his arms round her. "Mother," he cried, "I'm glad of you." +They were the last words she was to hear from him for a long time. + +No. 27 was only a few yards distant, but there had been a slight fall of +snow, and Father and Mother Darling picked their way over it deftly not +to soil their shoes. They were already the only persons in the street, +and all the stars were watching them. Stars are beautiful, but they may +not take an active part in anything, they must just look on for ever. It +is a punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that no +star now knows what it was. So the older ones have become glassy-eyed +and seldom speak (winking is the star language), but the little +ones still wonder. They are not really friendly to Peter, who had a +mischievous way of stealing up behind them and trying to blow them out; +but they are so fond of fun that they were on his side to-night, and +anxious to get the grown-ups out of the way. So as soon as the door +of 27 closed on Mr. and Mrs. Darling there was a commotion in the +firmament, and the smallest of all the stars in the Milky Way screamed +out: + +"Now, Peter!" + + + + +Chapter 3 COME AWAY, COME AWAY! + +For a moment after Mr. and Mrs. Darling left the house the night-lights +by the beds of the three children continued to burn clearly. They were +awfully nice little night-lights, and one cannot help wishing that they +could have kept awake to see Peter; but Wendy's light blinked and gave +such a yawn that the other two yawned also, and before they could close +their mouths all the three went out. + +There was another light in the room now, a thousand times brighter than +the night-lights, and in the time we have taken to say this, it had been +in all the drawers in the nursery, looking for Peter's shadow, rummaged +the wardrobe and turned every pocket inside out. It was not really a +light; it made this light by flashing about so quickly, but when it came +to rest for a second you saw it was a fairy, no longer than your hand, +but still growing. It was a girl called Tinker Bell exquisitely gowned +in a skeleton leaf, cut low and square, through which her figure could +be seen to the best advantage. She was slightly inclined to EMBONPOINT. +[plump hourglass figure] + +A moment after the fairy's entrance the window was blown open by the +breathing of the little stars, and Peter dropped in. He had carried +Tinker Bell part of the way, and his hand was still messy with the fairy +dust. + +"Tinker Bell," he called softly, after making sure that the children +were asleep, "Tink, where are you?" She was in a jug for the moment, and +liking it extremely; she had never been in a jug before. + +"Oh, do come out of that jug, and tell me, do you know where they put my +shadow?" + +The loveliest tinkle as of golden bells answered him. It is the fairy +language. You ordinary children can never hear it, but if you were to +hear it you would know that you had heard it once before. + +Tink said that the shadow was in the big box. She meant the chest of +drawers, and Peter jumped at the drawers, scattering their contents to +the floor with both hands, as kings toss ha'pence to the crowd. In a +moment he had recovered his shadow, and in his delight he forgot that he +had shut Tinker Bell up in the drawer. + +If he thought at all, but I don't believe he ever thought, it was that +he and his shadow, when brought near each other, would join like drops +of water, and when they did not he was appalled. He tried to stick it +on with soap from the bathroom, but that also failed. A shudder passed +through Peter, and he sat on the floor and cried. + +His sobs woke Wendy, and she sat up in bed. She was not alarmed to see +a stranger crying on the nursery floor; she was only pleasantly +interested. + +"Boy," she said courteously, "why are you crying?" + +Peter could be exceeding polite also, having learned the grand manner at +fairy ceremonies, and he rose and bowed to her beautifully. She was much +pleased, and bowed beautifully to him from the bed. + +"What's your name?" he asked. + +"Wendy Moira Angela Darling," she replied with some satisfaction. "What +is your name?" + +"Peter Pan." + +She was already sure that he must be Peter, but it did seem a +comparatively short name. + +"Is that all?" + +"Yes," he said rather sharply. He felt for the first time that it was a +shortish name. + +"I'm so sorry," said Wendy Moira Angela. + +"It doesn't matter," Peter gulped. + +She asked where he lived. + +"Second to the right," said Peter, "and then straight on till morning." + +"What a funny address!" + +Peter had a sinking. For the first time he felt that perhaps it was a +funny address. + +"No, it isn't," he said. + +"I mean," Wendy said nicely, remembering that she was hostess, "is that +what they put on the letters?" + +He wished she had not mentioned letters. + +"Don't get any letters," he said contemptuously. + +"But your mother gets letters?" + +"Don't have a mother," he said. Not only had he no mother, but he had +not the slightest desire to have one. He thought them very over-rated +persons. Wendy, however, felt at once that she was in the presence of a +tragedy. + +"O Peter, no wonder you were crying," she said, and got out of bed and +ran to him. + +"I wasn't crying about mothers," he said rather indignantly. "I was +crying because I can't get my shadow to stick on. Besides, I wasn't +crying." + +"It has come off?" + +"Yes." + +Then Wendy saw the shadow on the floor, looking so draggled, and she was +frightfully sorry for Peter. "How awful!" she said, but she could not +help smiling when she saw that he had been trying to stick it on with +soap. How exactly like a boy! + +Fortunately she knew at once what to do. "It must be sewn on," she said, +just a little patronisingly. + +"What's sewn?" he asked. + +"You're dreadfully ignorant." + +"No, I'm not." + +But she was exulting in his ignorance. "I shall sew it on for you, my +little man," she said, though he was tall as herself, and she got out +her housewife [sewing bag], and sewed the shadow on to Peter's foot. + +"I daresay it will hurt a little," she warned him. + +"Oh, I shan't cry," said Peter, who was already of the opinion that he +had never cried in his life. And he clenched his teeth and did not +cry, and soon his shadow was behaving properly, though still a little +creased. + +"Perhaps I should have ironed it," Wendy said thoughtfully, but Peter, +boylike, was indifferent to appearances, and he was now jumping about in +the wildest glee. Alas, he had already forgotten that he owed his bliss +to Wendy. He thought he had attached the shadow himself. "How clever I +am!" he crowed rapturously, "oh, the cleverness of me!" + +It is humiliating to have to confess that this conceit of Peter was +one of his most fascinating qualities. To put it with brutal frankness, +there never was a cockier boy. + +But for the moment Wendy was shocked. "You conceit [braggart]," she +exclaimed, with frightful sarcasm; "of course I did nothing!" + +"You did a little," Peter said carelessly, and continued to dance. + +"A little!" she replied with hauteur [pride]; "if I am no use I can at +least withdraw," and she sprang in the most dignified way into bed and +covered her face with the blankets. + +To induce her to look up he pretended to be going away, and when this +failed he sat on the end of the bed and tapped her gently with his foot. +"Wendy," he said, "don't withdraw. I can't help crowing, Wendy, when +I'm pleased with myself." Still she would not look up, though she was +listening eagerly. "Wendy," he continued, in a voice that no woman has +ever yet been able to resist, "Wendy, one girl is more use than twenty +boys." + +Now Wendy was every inch a woman, though there were not very many +inches, and she peeped out of the bed-clothes. + +"Do you really think so, Peter?" + +"Yes, I do." + +"I think it's perfectly sweet of you," she declared, "and I'll get up +again," and she sat with him on the side of the bed. She also said +she would give him a kiss if he liked, but Peter did not know what she +meant, and he held out his hand expectantly. + +"Surely you know what a kiss is?" she asked, aghast. + +"I shall know when you give it to me," he replied stiffly, and not to +hurt his feeling she gave him a thimble. + +"Now," said he, "shall I give you a kiss?" and she replied with a slight +primness, "If you please." She made herself rather cheap by inclining +her face toward him, but he merely dropped an acorn button into her +hand, so she slowly returned her face to where it had been before, and +said nicely that she would wear his kiss on the chain around her neck. +It was lucky that she did put it on that chain, for it was afterwards to +save her life. + +When people in our set are introduced, it is customary for them to +ask each other's age, and so Wendy, who always liked to do the correct +thing, asked Peter how old he was. It was not really a happy question to +ask him; it was like an examination paper that asks grammar, when what +you want to be asked is Kings of England. + +"I don't know," he replied uneasily, "but I am quite young." He really +knew nothing about it, he had merely suspicions, but he said at a +venture, "Wendy, I ran away the day I was born." + +Wendy was quite surprised, but interested; and she indicated in the +charming drawing-room manner, by a touch on her night-gown, that he +could sit nearer her. + +"It was because I heard father and mother," he explained in a low +voice, "talking about what I was to be when I became a man." He was +extraordinarily agitated now. "I don't want ever to be a man," he said +with passion. "I want always to be a little boy and to have fun. So +I ran away to Kensington Gardens and lived a long long time among the +fairies." + +She gave him a look of the most intense admiration, and he thought it +was because he had run away, but it was really because he knew fairies. +Wendy had lived such a home life that to know fairies struck her as +quite delightful. She poured out questions about them, to his surprise, +for they were rather a nuisance to him, getting in his way and so on, +and indeed he sometimes had to give them a hiding [spanking]. Still, he +liked them on the whole, and he told her about the beginning of fairies. + +"You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its +laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, +and that was the beginning of fairies." + +Tedious talk this, but being a stay-at-home she liked it. + +"And so," he went on good-naturedly, "there ought to be one fairy for +every boy and girl." + +"Ought to be? Isn't there?" + +"No. You see children know such a lot now, they soon don't believe in +fairies, and every time a child says, 'I don't believe in fairies,' +there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead." + +Really, he thought they had now talked enough about fairies, and it +struck him that Tinker Bell was keeping very quiet. "I can't think where +she has gone to," he said, rising, and he called Tink by name. Wendy's +heart went flutter with a sudden thrill. + +"Peter," she cried, clutching him, "you don't mean to tell me that there +is a fairy in this room!" + +"She was here just now," he said a little impatiently. "You don't hear +her, do you?" and they both listened. + +"The only sound I hear," said Wendy, "is like a tinkle of bells." + +"Well, that's Tink, that's the fairy language. I think I hear her too." + +The sound came from the chest of drawers, and Peter made a merry face. +No one could ever look quite so merry as Peter, and the loveliest of +gurgles was his laugh. He had his first laugh still. + +"Wendy," he whispered gleefully, "I do believe I shut her up in the +drawer!" + +He let poor Tink out of the drawer, and she flew about the nursery +screaming with fury. "You shouldn't say such things," Peter retorted. +"Of course I'm very sorry, but how could I know you were in the drawer?" + +Wendy was not listening to him. "O Peter," she cried, "if she would only +stand still and let me see her!" + +"They hardly ever stand still," he said, but for one moment Wendy saw +the romantic figure come to rest on the cuckoo clock. "O the lovely!" +she cried, though Tink's face was still distorted with passion. + +"Tink," said Peter amiably, "this lady says she wishes you were her +fairy." + +Tinker Bell answered insolently. + +"What does she say, Peter?" + +He had to translate. "She is not very polite. She says you are a great +[huge] ugly girl, and that she is my fairy." + +He tried to argue with Tink. "You know you can't be my fairy, Tink, +because I am an gentleman and you are a lady." + +To this Tink replied in these words, "You silly ass," and disappeared +into the bathroom. "She is quite a common fairy," Peter explained +apologetically, "she is called Tinker Bell because she mends the pots +and kettles [tinker = tin worker]." [Similar to "cinder" plus "elle" to +get Cinderella] + +They were together in the armchair by this time, and Wendy plied him +with more questions. + +"If you don't live in Kensington Gardens now--" + +"Sometimes I do still." + +"But where do you live mostly now?" + +"With the lost boys." + +"Who are they?" + +"They are the children who fall out of their perambulators when the +nurse is looking the other way. If they are not claimed in seven +days they are sent far away to the Neverland to defray expenses. I'm +captain." + +"What fun it must be!" + +"Yes," said cunning Peter, "but we are rather lonely. You see we have no +female companionship." + +"Are none of the others girls?" + +"Oh, no; girls, you know, are much too clever to fall out of their +prams." + +This flattered Wendy immensely. "I think," she said, "it is perfectly +lovely the way you talk about girls; John there just despises us." + +For reply Peter rose and kicked John out of bed, blankets and all; one +kick. This seemed to Wendy rather forward for a first meeting, and she +told him with spirit that he was not captain in her house. However, +John continued to sleep so placidly on the floor that she allowed him +to remain there. "And I know you meant to be kind," she said, relenting, +"so you may give me a kiss." + +For the moment she had forgotten his ignorance about kisses. "I thought +you would want it back," he said a little bitterly, and offered to +return her the thimble. + +"Oh dear," said the nice Wendy, "I don't mean a kiss, I mean a thimble." + +"What's that?" + +"It's like this." She kissed him. + +"Funny!" said Peter gravely. "Now shall I give you a thimble?" + +"If you wish to," said Wendy, keeping her head erect this time. + +Peter thimbled her, and almost immediately she screeched. "What is it, +Wendy?" + +"It was exactly as if someone were pulling my hair." + +"That must have been Tink. I never knew her so naughty before." + +And indeed Tink was darting about again, using offensive language. + +"She says she will do that to you, Wendy, every time I give you a +thimble." + +"But why?" + +"Why, Tink?" + +Again Tink replied, "You silly ass." Peter could not understand why, +but Wendy understood, and she was just slightly disappointed when he +admitted that he came to the nursery window not to see her but to listen +to stories. + +"You see, I don't know any stories. None of the lost boys knows any +stories." + +"How perfectly awful," Wendy said. + +"Do you know," Peter asked "why swallows build in the eaves of houses? +It is to listen to the stories. O Wendy, your mother was telling you +such a lovely story." + +"Which story was it?" + +"About the prince who couldn't find the lady who wore the glass +slipper." + +"Peter," said Wendy excitedly, "that was Cinderella, and he found her, +and they lived happily ever after." + +Peter was so glad that he rose from the floor, where they had been +sitting, and hurried to the window. + +"Where are you going?" she cried with misgiving. + +"To tell the other boys." + +"Don't go Peter," she entreated, "I know such lots of stories." + +Those were her precise words, so there can be no denying that it was she +who first tempted him. + +He came back, and there was a greedy look in his eyes now which ought to +have alarmed her, but did not. + +"Oh, the stories I could tell to the boys!" she cried, and then Peter +gripped her and began to draw her toward the window. + +"Let me go!" she ordered him. + +"Wendy, do come with me and tell the other boys." + +Of course she was very pleased to be asked, but she said, "Oh dear, I +can't. Think of mummy! Besides, I can't fly." + +"I'll teach you." + +"Oh, how lovely to fly." + +"I'll teach you how to jump on the wind's back, and then away we go." + +"Oo!" she exclaimed rapturously. + +"Wendy, Wendy, when you are sleeping in your silly bed you might be +flying about with me saying funny things to the stars." + +"Oo!" + +"And, Wendy, there are mermaids." + +"Mermaids! With tails?" + +"Such long tails." + +"Oh," cried Wendy, "to see a mermaid!" + +He had become frightfully cunning. "Wendy," he said, "how we should all +respect you." + +She was wriggling her body in distress. It was quite as if she were +trying to remain on the nursery floor. + +But he had no pity for her. + +"Wendy," he said, the sly one, "you could tuck us in at night." + +"Oo!" + +"None of us has ever been tucked in at night." + +"Oo," and her arms went out to him. + +"And you could darn our clothes, and make pockets for us. None of us has +any pockets." + +How could she resist. "Of course it's awfully fascinating!" she cried. +"Peter, would you teach John and Michael to fly too?" + +"If you like," he said indifferently, and she ran to John and Michael +and shook them. "Wake up," she cried, "Peter Pan has come and he is to +teach us to fly." + +John rubbed his eyes. "Then I shall get up," he said. Of course he was +on the floor already. "Hallo," he said, "I am up!" + +Michael was up by this time also, looking as sharp as a knife with six +blades and a saw, but Peter suddenly signed silence. Their faces assumed +the awful craftiness of children listening for sounds from the grown-up +world. All was as still as salt. Then everything was right. No, stop! +Everything was wrong. Nana, who had been barking distressfully all the +evening, was quiet now. It was her silence they had heard. + +"Out with the light! Hide! Quick!" cried John, taking command for the +only time throughout the whole adventure. And thus when Liza entered, +holding Nana, the nursery seemed quite its old self, very dark, and +you would have sworn you heard its three wicked inmates breathing +angelically as they slept. They were really doing it artfully from +behind the window curtains. + +Liza was in a bad temper, for she was mixing the Christmas puddings in +the kitchen, and had been drawn from them, with a raisin still on her +cheek, by Nana's absurd suspicions. She thought the best way of getting +a little quiet was to take Nana to the nursery for a moment, but in +custody of course. + +"There, you suspicious brute," she said, not sorry that Nana was in +disgrace. "They are perfectly safe, aren't they? Every one of the little +angels sound asleep in bed. Listen to their gentle breathing." + +Here Michael, encouraged by his success, breathed so loudly that they +were nearly detected. Nana knew that kind of breathing, and she tried to +drag herself out of Liza's clutches. + +But Liza was dense. "No more of it, Nana," she said sternly, pulling +her out of the room. "I warn you if you bark again I shall go straight +for master and missus and bring them home from the party, and then, oh, +won't master whip you, just." + +She tied the unhappy dog up again, but do you think Nana ceased to bark? +Bring master and missus home from the party! Why, that was just what she +wanted. Do you think she cared whether she was whipped so long as her +charges were safe? Unfortunately Liza returned to her puddings, and +Nana, seeing that no help would come from her, strained and strained at +the chain until at last she broke it. In another moment she had burst +into the dining-room of 27 and flung up her paws to heaven, her most +expressive way of making a communication. Mr. and Mrs. Darling knew at +once that something terrible was happening in their nursery, and without +a good-bye to their hostess they rushed into the street. + +But it was now ten minutes since three scoundrels had been breathing +behind the curtains, and Peter Pan can do a great deal in ten minutes. + +We now return to the nursery. + +"It's all right," John announced, emerging from his hiding-place. "I +say, Peter, can you really fly?" + +Instead of troubling to answer him Peter flew around the room, taking +the mantelpiece on the way. + +"How topping!" said John and Michael. + +"How sweet!" cried Wendy. + +"Yes, I'm sweet, oh, I am sweet!" said Peter, forgetting his manners +again. + +It looked delightfully easy, and they tried it first from the floor and +then from the beds, but they always went down instead of up. + +"I say, how do you do it?" asked John, rubbing his knee. He was quite a +practical boy. + +"You just think lovely wonderful thoughts," Peter explained, "and they +lift you up in the air." + +He showed them again. + +"You're so nippy at it," John said, "couldn't you do it very slowly +once?" + +Peter did it both slowly and quickly. "I've got it now, Wendy!" cried +John, but soon he found he had not. Not one of them could fly an inch, +though even Michael was in words of two syllables, and Peter did not +know A from Z. + +Of course Peter had been trifling with them, for no one can fly unless +the fairy dust has been blown on him. Fortunately, as we have mentioned, +one of his hands was messy with it, and he blew some on each of them, +with the most superb results. + +"Now just wiggle your shoulders this way," he said, "and let go." + +They were all on their beds, and gallant Michael let go first. He did +not quite mean to let go, but he did it, and immediately he was borne +across the room. + +"I flewed!" he screamed while still in mid-air. + +John let go and met Wendy near the bathroom. + +"Oh, lovely!" + +"Oh, ripping!" + +"Look at me!" + +"Look at me!" + +"Look at me!" + +They were not nearly so elegant as Peter, they could not help kicking a +little, but their heads were bobbing against the ceiling, and there is +almost nothing so delicious as that. Peter gave Wendy a hand at first, +but had to desist, Tink was so indignant. + +Up and down they went, and round and round. Heavenly was Wendy's word. + +"I say," cried John, "why shouldn't we all go out?" + +Of course it was to this that Peter had been luring them. + +Michael was ready: he wanted to see how long it took him to do a billion +miles. But Wendy hesitated. + +"Mermaids!" said Peter again. + +"Oo!" + +"And there are pirates." + +"Pirates," cried John, seizing his Sunday hat, "let us go at once." + +It was just at this moment that Mr. and Mrs. Darling hurried with Nana +out of 27. They ran into the middle of the street to look up at the +nursery window; and, yes, it was still shut, but the room was ablaze +with light, and most heart-gripping sight of all, they could see in +shadow on the curtain three little figures in night attire circling +round and round, not on the floor but in the air. + +Not three figures, four! + +In a tremble they opened the street door. Mr. Darling would have rushed +upstairs, but Mrs. Darling signed him to go softly. She even tried to +make her heart go softly. + +Will they reach the nursery in time? If so, how delightful for them, and +we shall all breathe a sigh of relief, but there will be no story. On +the other hand, if they are not in time, I solemnly promise that it will +all come right in the end. + +They would have reached the nursery in time had it not been that the +little stars were watching them. Once again the stars blew the window +open, and that smallest star of all called out: + +"Cave, Peter!" + +Then Peter knew that there was not a moment to lose. "Come," he cried +imperiously, and soared out at once into the night, followed by John and +Michael and Wendy. + +Mr. and Mrs. Darling and Nana rushed into the nursery too late. The +birds were flown. + + + + +Chapter 4 THE FLIGHT + +"Second to the right, and straight on till morning." + +That, Peter had told Wendy, was the way to the Neverland; but even +birds, carrying maps and consulting them at windy corners, could not +have sighted it with these instructions. Peter, you see, just said +anything that came into his head. + +At first his companions trusted him implicitly, and so great were the +delights of flying that they wasted time circling round church spires or +any other tall objects on the way that took their fancy. + +John and Michael raced, Michael getting a start. + +They recalled with contempt that not so long ago they had thought +themselves fine fellows for being able to fly round a room. + +Not long ago. But how long ago? They were flying over the sea before +this thought began to disturb Wendy seriously. John thought it was their +second sea and their third night. + +Sometimes it was dark and sometimes light, and now they were very cold +and again too warm. Did they really feel hungry at times, or were they +merely pretending, because Peter had such a jolly new way of feeding +them? His way was to pursue birds who had food in their mouths suitable +for humans and snatch it from them; then the birds would follow and +snatch it back; and they would all go chasing each other gaily for +miles, parting at last with mutual expressions of good-will. But Wendy +noticed with gentle concern that Peter did not seem to know that this +was rather an odd way of getting your bread and butter, nor even that +there are other ways. + +Certainly they did not pretend to be sleepy, they were sleepy; and that +was a danger, for the moment they popped off, down they fell. The awful +thing was that Peter thought this funny. + +"There he goes again!" he would cry gleefully, as Michael suddenly +dropped like a stone. + +"Save him, save him!" cried Wendy, looking with horror at the cruel +sea far below. Eventually Peter would dive through the air, and catch +Michael just before he could strike the sea, and it was lovely the way +he did it; but he always waited till the last moment, and you felt it +was his cleverness that interested him and not the saving of human life. +Also he was fond of variety, and the sport that engrossed him one moment +would suddenly cease to engage him, so there was always the possibility +that the next time you fell he would let you go. + +He could sleep in the air without falling, by merely lying on his back +and floating, but this was, partly at least, because he was so light +that if you got behind him and blew he went faster. + +"Do be more polite to him," Wendy whispered to John, when they were +playing "Follow my Leader." + +"Then tell him to stop showing off," said John. + +When playing Follow my Leader, Peter would fly close to the water and +touch each shark's tail in passing, just as in the street you may run +your finger along an iron railing. They could not follow him in this +with much success, so perhaps it was rather like showing off, especially +as he kept looking behind to see how many tails they missed. + +"You must be nice to him," Wendy impressed on her brothers. "What could +we do if he were to leave us!" + +"We could go back," Michael said. + +"How could we ever find our way back without him?" + +"Well, then, we could go on," said John. + +"That is the awful thing, John. We should have to go on, for we don't +know how to stop." + +This was true, Peter had forgotten to show them how to stop. + +John said that if the worst came to the worst, all they had to do was to +go straight on, for the world was round, and so in time they must come +back to their own window. + +"And who is to get food for us, John?" + +"I nipped a bit out of that eagle's mouth pretty neatly, Wendy." + +"After the twentieth try," Wendy reminded him. "And even though we +became good at picking up food, see how we bump against clouds and things +if he is not near to give us a hand." + +Indeed they were constantly bumping. They could now fly strongly, though +they still kicked far too much; but if they saw a cloud in front of +them, the more they tried to avoid it, the more certainly did they bump +into it. If Nana had been with them, she would have had a bandage round +Michael's forehead by this time. + +Peter was not with them for the moment, and they felt rather lonely up +there by themselves. He could go so much faster than they that he would +suddenly shoot out of sight, to have some adventure in which they had no +share. He would come down laughing over something fearfully funny he had +been saying to a star, but he had already forgotten what it was, or he +would come up with mermaid scales still sticking to him, and yet not be +able to say for certain what had been happening. It was really rather +irritating to children who had never seen a mermaid. + +"And if he forgets them so quickly," Wendy argued, "how can we expect +that he will go on remembering us?" + +Indeed, sometimes when he returned he did not remember them, at least +not well. Wendy was sure of it. She saw recognition come into his eyes +as he was about to pass them the time of day and go on; once even she +had to call him by name. + +"I'm Wendy," she said agitatedly. + +He was very sorry. "I say, Wendy," he whispered to her, "always if you +see me forgetting you, just keep on saying 'I'm Wendy,' and then I'll +remember." + +Of course this was rather unsatisfactory. However, to make amends he +showed them how to lie out flat on a strong wind that was going their +way, and this was such a pleasant change that they tried it several +times and found that they could sleep thus with security. Indeed they +would have slept longer, but Peter tired quickly of sleeping, and soon +he would cry in his captain voice, "We get off here." So with occasional +tiffs, but on the whole rollicking, they drew near the Neverland; for +after many moons they did reach it, and, what is more, they had been +going pretty straight all the time, not perhaps so much owing to the +guidance of Peter or Tink as because the island was looking for them. It +is only thus that any one may sight those magic shores. + +"There it is," said Peter calmly. + +"Where, where?" + +"Where all the arrows are pointing." + +Indeed a million golden arrows were pointing it out to the children, all +directed by their friend the sun, who wanted them to be sure of their +way before leaving them for the night. + +Wendy and John and Michael stood on tip-toe in the air to get their +first sight of the island. Strange to say, they all recognized it at +once, and until fear fell upon them they hailed it, not as something +long dreamt of and seen at last, but as a familiar friend to whom they +were returning home for the holidays. + +"John, there's the lagoon." + +"Wendy, look at the turtles burying their eggs in the sand." + +"I say, John, I see your flamingo with the broken leg!" + +"Look, Michael, there's your cave!" + +"John, what's that in the brushwood?" + +"It's a wolf with her whelps. Wendy, I do believe that's your little +whelp!" + +"There's my boat, John, with her sides stove in!" + +"No, it isn't. Why, we burned your boat." + +"That's her, at any rate. I say, John, I see the smoke of the redskin +camp!" + +"Where? Show me, and I'll tell you by the way smoke curls whether they +are on the war-path." + +"There, just across the Mysterious River." + +"I see now. Yes, they are on the war-path right enough." + +Peter was a little annoyed with them for knowing so much, but if he +wanted to lord it over them his triumph was at hand, for have I not told +you that anon fear fell upon them? + +It came as the arrows went, leaving the island in gloom. + +In the old days at home the Neverland had always begun to look a little +dark and threatening by bedtime. Then unexplored patches arose in it +and spread, black shadows moved about in them, the roar of the beasts of +prey was quite different now, and above all, you lost the certainty that +you would win. You were quite glad that the night-lights were on. You +even liked Nana to say that this was just the mantelpiece over here, and +that the Neverland was all make-believe. + +Of course the Neverland had been make-believe in those days, but it +was real now, and there were no night-lights, and it was getting darker +every moment, and where was Nana? + +They had been flying apart, but they huddled close to Peter now. His +careless manner had gone at last, his eyes were sparkling, and a tingle +went through them every time they touched his body. They were now over +the fearsome island, flying so low that sometimes a tree grazed their +feet. Nothing horrid was visible in the air, yet their progress had +become slow and laboured, exactly as if they were pushing their way +through hostile forces. Sometimes they hung in the air until Peter had +beaten on it with his fists. + +"They don't want us to land," he explained. + +"Who are they?" Wendy whispered, shuddering. + +But he could not or would not say. Tinker Bell had been asleep on his +shoulder, but now he wakened her and sent her on in front. + +Sometimes he poised himself in the air, listening intently, with his +hand to his ear, and again he would stare down with eyes so bright that +they seemed to bore two holes to earth. Having done these things, he +went on again. + +His courage was almost appalling. "Would you like an adventure now," he +said casually to John, "or would you like to have your tea first?" + +Wendy said "tea first" quickly, and Michael pressed her hand in +gratitude, but the braver John hesitated. + +"What kind of adventure?" he asked cautiously. + +"There's a pirate asleep in the pampas just beneath us," Peter told him. +"If you like, we'll go down and kill him." + +"I don't see him," John said after a long pause. + +"I do." + +"Suppose," John said, a little huskily, "he were to wake up." + +Peter spoke indignantly. "You don't think I would kill him while he was +sleeping! I would wake him first, and then kill him. That's the way I +always do." + +"I say! Do you kill many?" + +"Tons." + +John said "How ripping," but decided to have tea first. He asked if +there were many pirates on the island just now, and Peter said he had +never known so many. + +"Who is captain now?" + +"Hook," answered Peter, and his face became very stern as he said that +hated word. + +"Jas. Hook?" + +"Ay." + +Then indeed Michael began to cry, and even John could speak in gulps +only, for they knew Hook's reputation. + +"He was Blackbeard's bo'sun," John whispered huskily. "He is the worst +of them all. He is the only man of whom Barbecue was afraid." + +"That's him," said Peter. + +"What is he like? Is he big?" + +"He is not so big as he was." + +"How do you mean?" + +"I cut off a bit of him." + +"You!" + +"Yes, me," said Peter sharply. + +"I wasn't meaning to be disrespectful." + +"Oh, all right." + +"But, I say, what bit?" + +"His right hand." + +"Then he can't fight now?" + +"Oh, can't he just!" + +"Left-hander?" + +"He has an iron hook instead of a right hand, and he claws with it." + +"Claws!" + +"I say, John," said Peter. + +"Yes." + +"Say, 'Ay, ay, sir.'" + +"Ay, ay, sir." + +"There is one thing," Peter continued, "that every boy who serves under +me has to promise, and so must you." + +John paled. + +"It is this, if we meet Hook in open fight, you must leave him to me." + +"I promise," John said loyally. + +For the moment they were feeling less eerie, because Tink was flying +with them, and in her light they could distinguish each other. +Unfortunately she could not fly so slowly as they, and so she had to go +round and round them in a circle in which they moved as in a halo. Wendy +quite liked it, until Peter pointed out the drawbacks. + +"She tells me," he said, "that the pirates sighted us before the +darkness came, and got Long Tom out." + +"The big gun?" + +"Yes. And of course they must see her light, and if they guess we are +near it they are sure to let fly." + +"Wendy!" + +"John!" + +"Michael!" + +"Tell her to go away at once, Peter," the three cried simultaneously, +but he refused. + +"She thinks we have lost the way," he replied stiffly, "and she is +rather frightened. You don't think I would send her away all by herself +when she is frightened!" + +For a moment the circle of light was broken, and something gave Peter a +loving little pinch. + +"Then tell her," Wendy begged, "to put out her light." + +"She can't put it out. That is about the only thing fairies can't do. It +just goes out of itself when she falls asleep, same as the stars." + +"Then tell her to sleep at once," John almost ordered. + +"She can't sleep except when she's sleepy. It is the only other thing +fairies can't do." + +"Seems to me," growled John, "these are the only two things worth +doing." + +Here he got a pinch, but not a loving one. + +"If only one of us had a pocket," Peter said, "we could carry her in +it." However, they had set off in such a hurry that there was not a +pocket between the four of them. + +He had a happy idea. John's hat! + +Tink agreed to travel by hat if it was carried in the hand. John carried +it, though she had hoped to be carried by Peter. Presently Wendy took +the hat, because John said it struck against his knee as he flew; and +this, as we shall see, led to mischief, for Tinker Bell hated to be +under an obligation to Wendy. + +In the black topper the light was completely hidden, and they flew on in +silence. It was the stillest silence they had ever known, broken once by +a distant lapping, which Peter explained was the wild beasts drinking at +the ford, and again by a rasping sound that might have been the branches +of trees rubbing together, but he said it was the redskins sharpening +their knives. + +Even these noises ceased. To Michael the loneliness was dreadful. "If +only something would make a sound!" he cried. + +As if in answer to his request, the air was rent by the most tremendous +crash he had ever heard. The pirates had fired Long Tom at them. + +The roar of it echoed through the mountains, and the echoes seemed to +cry savagely, "Where are they, where are they, where are they?" + +Thus sharply did the terrified three learn the difference between an +island of make-believe and the same island come true. + +When at last the heavens were steady again, John and Michael +found themselves alone in the darkness. John was treading the air +mechanically, and Michael without knowing how to float was floating. + +"Are you shot?" John whispered tremulously. + +"I haven't tried [myself out] yet," Michael whispered back. + +We know now that no one had been hit. Peter, however, had been carried +by the wind of the shot far out to sea, while Wendy was blown upwards +with no companion but Tinker Bell. + +It would have been well for Wendy if at that moment she had dropped the +hat. + +I don't know whether the idea came suddenly to Tink, or whether she had +planned it on the way, but she at once popped out of the hat and began +to lure Wendy to her destruction. + +Tink was not all bad; or, rather, she was all bad just now, but, on the +other hand, sometimes she was all good. Fairies have to be one thing or +the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one +feeling only at a time. They are, however, allowed to change, only it +must be a complete change. At present she was full of jealousy of Wendy. +What she said in her lovely tinkle Wendy could not of course understand, +and I believe some of it was bad words, but it sounded kind, and she +flew back and forward, plainly meaning "Follow me, and all will be +well." + +What else could poor Wendy do? She called to Peter and John and Michael, +and got only mocking echoes in reply. She did not yet know that Tink +hated her with the fierce hatred of a very woman. And so, bewildered, +and now staggering in her flight, she followed Tink to her doom. + + + + +Chapter 5 THE ISLAND COME TRUE + +Feeling that Peter was on his way back, the Neverland had again woke +into life. We ought to use the pluperfect and say wakened, but woke is +better and was always used by Peter. + +In his absence things are usually quiet on the island. The fairies take +an hour longer in the morning, the beasts attend to their young, the +redskins feed heavily for six days and nights, and when pirates and +lost boys meet they merely bite their thumbs at each other. But with the +coming of Peter, who hates lethargy, they are under way again: if you +put your ear to the ground now, you would hear the whole island seething +with life. + +On this evening the chief forces of the island were disposed as follows. +The lost boys were out looking for Peter, the pirates were out looking +for the lost boys, the redskins were out looking for the pirates, and +the beasts were out looking for the redskins. They were going round and +round the island, but they did not meet because all were going at the +same rate. + +All wanted blood except the boys, who liked it as a rule, but to-night +were out to greet their captain. The boys on the island vary, of course, +in numbers, according as they get killed and so on; and when they seem +to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out; but +at this time there were six of them, counting the twins as two. Let us +pretend to lie here among the sugar-cane and watch them as they steal by +in single file, each with his hand on his dagger. + +They are forbidden by Peter to look in the least like him, and they wear +the skins of the bears slain by themselves, in which they are so round +and furry that when they fall they roll. They have therefore become very +sure-footed. + +The first to pass is Tootles, not the least brave but the most +unfortunate of all that gallant band. He had been in fewer adventures +than any of them, because the big things constantly happened just when +he had stepped round the corner; all would be quiet, he would take the +opportunity of going off to gather a few sticks for firewood, and +then when he returned the others would be sweeping up the blood. This +ill-luck had given a gentle melancholy to his countenance, but instead +of souring his nature had sweetened it, so that he was quite the +humblest of the boys. Poor kind Tootles, there is danger in the air for +you to-night. Take care lest an adventure is now offered you, which, if +accepted, will plunge you in deepest woe. Tootles, the fairy Tink, who +is bent on mischief this night is looking for a tool [for doing her +mischief], and she thinks you are the most easily tricked of the boys. +'Ware Tinker Bell. + +Would that he could hear us, but we are not really on the island, and he +passes by, biting his knuckles. + +Next comes Nibs, the gay and debonair, followed by Slightly, who cuts +whistles out of the trees and dances ecstatically to his own tunes. +Slightly is the most conceited of the boys. He thinks he remembers the +days before he was lost, with their manners and customs, and this has +given his nose an offensive tilt. Curly is fourth; he is a pickle, [a +person who gets in pickles-predicaments] and so often has he had to +deliver up his person when Peter said sternly, "Stand forth the one who +did this thing," that now at the command he stands forth automatically +whether he has done it or not. Last come the Twins, who cannot be +described because we should be sure to be describing the wrong one. +Peter never quite knew what twins were, and his band were not allowed +to know anything he did not know, so these two were always vague about +themselves, and did their best to give satisfaction by keeping close +together in an apologetic sort of way. + +The boys vanish in the gloom, and after a pause, but not a long pause, +for things go briskly on the island, come the pirates on their track. We +hear them before they are seen, and it is always the same dreadful song: + + "Avast belay, yo ho, heave to, + A-pirating we go, + And if we're parted by a shot + We're sure to meet below!" + +A more villainous-looking lot never hung in a row on Execution dock. +Here, a little in advance, ever and again with his head to the +ground listening, his great arms bare, pieces of eight in his ears as +ornaments, is the handsome Italian Cecco, who cut his name in letters +of blood on the back of the governor of the prison at Gao. That gigantic +black behind him has had many names since he dropped the one with +which dusky mothers still terrify their children on the banks of the +Guadjo-mo. Here is Bill Jukes, every inch of him tattooed, the same Bill +Jukes who got six dozen on the WALRUS from Flint before he would drop +the bag of moidores [Portuguese gold pieces]; and Cookson, said to +be Black Murphy's brother (but this was never proved), and Gentleman +Starkey, once an usher in a public school and still dainty in his ways +of killing; and Skylights (Morgan's Skylights); and the Irish bo'sun +Smee, an oddly genial man who stabbed, so to speak, without offence, +and was the only Non-conformist in Hook's crew; and Noodler, whose +hands were fixed on backwards; and Robt. Mullins and Alf Mason and many +another ruffian long known and feared on the Spanish Main. + +In the midst of them, the blackest and largest in that dark setting, +reclined James Hook, or as he wrote himself, Jas. Hook, of whom it is +said he was the only man that the Sea-Cook feared. He lay at his ease in +a rough chariot drawn and propelled by his men, and instead of a right +hand he had the iron hook with which ever and anon he encouraged them +to increase their pace. As dogs this terrible man treated and addressed +them, and as dogs they obeyed him. In person he was cadaverous [dead +looking] and blackavized [dark faced], and his hair was dressed in long +curls, which at a little distance looked like black candles, and gave a +singularly threatening expression to his handsome countenance. His eyes +were of the blue of the forget-me-not, and of a profound melancholy, +save when he was plunging his hook into you, at which time two red spots +appeared in them and lit them up horribly. In manner, something of the +grand seigneur still clung to him, so that he even ripped you up with +an air, and I have been told that he was a RACONTEUR [storyteller] of +repute. He was never more sinister than when he was most polite, +which is probably the truest test of breeding; and the elegance of his +diction, even when he was swearing, no less than the distinction of his +demeanour, showed him one of a different cast from his crew. A man of +indomitable courage, it was said that the only thing he shied at was +the sight of his own blood, which was thick and of an unusual colour. +In dress he somewhat aped the attire associated with the name of Charles +II, having heard it said in some earlier period of his career that he +bore a strange resemblance to the ill-fated Stuarts; and in his mouth +he had a holder of his own contrivance which enabled him to smoke two +cigars at once. But undoubtedly the grimmest part of him was his iron +claw. + +Let us now kill a pirate, to show Hook's method. Skylights will do. As +they pass, Skylights lurches clumsily against him, ruffling his lace +collar; the hook shoots forth, there is a tearing sound and one screech, +then the body is kicked aside, and the pirates pass on. He has not even +taken the cigars from his mouth. + +Such is the terrible man against whom Peter Pan is pitted. Which will +win? + +On the trail of the pirates, stealing noiselessly down the war-path, +which is not visible to inexperienced eyes, come the redskins, every one +of them with his eyes peeled. They carry tomahawks and knives, and their +naked bodies gleam with paint and oil. Strung around them are scalps, of +boys as well as of pirates, for these are the Piccaninny tribe, and not +to be confused with the softer-hearted Delawares or the Hurons. In +the van, on all fours, is Great Big Little Panther, a brave of so many +scalps that in his present position they somewhat impede his progress. +Bringing up the rear, the place of greatest danger, comes Tiger Lily, +proudly erect, a princess in her own right. She is the most beautiful +of dusky Dianas [Diana = goddess of the woods] and the belle of the +Piccaninnies, coquettish [flirting], cold and amorous [loving] by turns; +there is not a brave who would not have the wayward thing to wife, but +she staves off the altar with a hatchet. Observe how they pass over +fallen twigs without making the slightest noise. The only sound to be +heard is their somewhat heavy breathing. The fact is that they are all a +little fat just now after the heavy gorging, but in time they will work +this off. For the moment, however, it constitutes their chief danger. + +The redskins disappear as they have come like shadows, and soon their +place is taken by the beasts, a great and motley procession: lions, +tigers, bears, and the innumerable smaller savage things that flee +from them, for every kind of beast, and, more particularly, all the +man-eaters, live cheek by jowl on the favoured island. Their tongues are +hanging out, they are hungry to-night. + +When they have passed, comes the last figure of all, a gigantic +crocodile. We shall see for whom she is looking presently. + +The crocodile passes, but soon the boys appear again, for the procession +must continue indefinitely until one of the parties stops or changes its +pace. Then quickly they will be on top of each other. + +All are keeping a sharp look-out in front, but none suspects that the +danger may be creeping up from behind. This shows how real the island +was. + +The first to fall out of the moving circle was the boys. They flung +themselves down on the sward [turf], close to their underground home. + +"I do wish Peter would come back," every one of them said nervously, +though in height and still more in breadth they were all larger than +their captain. + +"I am the only one who is not afraid of the pirates," Slightly said, in +the tone that prevented his being a general favourite; but perhaps some +distant sound disturbed him, for he added hastily, "but I wish he +would come back, and tell us whether he has heard anything more about +Cinderella." + +They talked of Cinderella, and Tootles was confident that his mother +must have been very like her. + +It was only in Peter's absence that they could speak of mothers, the +subject being forbidden by him as silly. + +"All I remember about my mother," Nibs told them, "is that she often +said to my father, 'Oh, how I wish I had a cheque-book of my own!' I +don't know what a cheque-book is, but I should just love to give my +mother one." + +While they talked they heard a distant sound. You or I, not being wild +things of the woods, would have heard nothing, but they heard it, and it +was the grim song: + + "Yo ho, yo ho, the pirate life, + The flag o' skull and bones, + A merry hour, a hempen rope, + And hey for Davy Jones." + +At once the lost boys--but where are they? They are no longer there. +Rabbits could not have disappeared more quickly. + +I will tell you where they are. With the exception of Nibs, who has +darted away to reconnoitre [look around], they are already in their home +under the ground, a very delightful residence of which we shall see +a good deal presently. But how have they reached it? for there is no +entrance to be seen, not so much as a large stone, which if rolled away, +would disclose the mouth of a cave. Look closely, however, and you may +note that there are here seven large trees, each with a hole in its +hollow trunk as large as a boy. These are the seven entrances to the +home under the ground, for which Hook has been searching in vain these +many moons. Will he find it tonight? + +As the pirates advanced, the quick eye of Starkey sighted Nibs +disappearing through the wood, and at once his pistol flashed out. But +an iron claw gripped his shoulder. + +"Captain, let go!" he cried, writhing. + +Now for the first time we hear the voice of Hook. It was a black voice. +"Put back that pistol first," it said threateningly. + +"It was one of those boys you hate. I could have shot him dead." + +"Ay, and the sound would have brought Tiger Lily's redskins upon us. Do +you want to lose your scalp?" + +"Shall I after him, Captain," asked pathetic Smee, "and tickle him +with Johnny Corkscrew?" Smee had pleasant names for everything, and his +cutlass was Johnny Corkscrew, because he wiggled it in the wound. One +could mention many lovable traits in Smee. For instance, after killing, +it was his spectacles he wiped instead of his weapon. + +"Johnny's a silent fellow," he reminded Hook. + +"Not now, Smee," Hook said darkly. "He is only one, and I want to +mischief all the seven. Scatter and look for them." + +The pirates disappeared among the trees, and in a moment their Captain +and Smee were alone. Hook heaved a heavy sigh, and I know not why it +was, perhaps it was because of the soft beauty of the evening, but there +came over him a desire to confide to his faithful bo'sun the story of +his life. He spoke long and earnestly, but what it was all about Smee, +who was rather stupid, did not know in the least. + +Anon [later] he caught the word Peter. + +"Most of all," Hook was saying passionately, "I want their captain, +Peter Pan. 'Twas he cut off my arm." He brandished the hook +threateningly. "I've waited long to shake his hand with this. Oh, I'll +tear him!" + +"And yet," said Smee, "I have often heard you say that hook was worth a +score of hands, for combing the hair and other homely uses." + +"Ay," the captain answered, "if I was a mother I would pray to have my +children born with this instead of that," and he cast a look of pride +upon his iron hand and one of scorn upon the other. Then again he +frowned. + +"Peter flung my arm," he said, wincing, "to a crocodile that happened to +be passing by." + +"I have often," said Smee, "noticed your strange dread of crocodiles." + +"Not of crocodiles," Hook corrected him, "but of that one crocodile." He +lowered his voice. "It liked my arm so much, Smee, that it has followed +me ever since, from sea to sea and from land to land, licking its lips +for the rest of me." + +"In a way," said Smee, "it's sort of a compliment." + +"I want no such compliments," Hook barked petulantly. "I want Peter Pan, +who first gave the brute its taste for me." + +He sat down on a large mushroom, and now there was a quiver in his +voice. "Smee," he said huskily, "that crocodile would have had me before +this, but by a lucky chance it swallowed a clock which goes tick tick +inside it, and so before it can reach me I hear the tick and bolt." He +laughed, but in a hollow way. + +"Some day," said Smee, "the clock will run down, and then he'll get +you." + +Hook wetted his dry lips. "Ay," he said, "that's the fear that haunts +me." + +Since sitting down he had felt curiously warm. "Smee," he said, "this +seat is hot." He jumped up. "Odds bobs, hammer and tongs I'm burning." + +They examined the mushroom, which was of a size and solidity unknown +on the mainland; they tried to pull it up, and it came away at once in +their hands, for it had no root. Stranger still, smoke began at once +to ascend. The pirates looked at each other. "A chimney!" they both +exclaimed. + +They had indeed discovered the chimney of the home under the ground. It +was the custom of the boys to stop it with a mushroom when enemies were +in the neighbourhood. + +Not only smoke came out of it. There came also children's voices, for +so safe did the boys feel in their hiding-place that they were gaily +chattering. The pirates listened grimly, and then replaced the mushroom. +They looked around them and noted the holes in the seven trees. + +"Did you hear them say Peter Pan's from home?" Smee whispered, fidgeting +with Johnny Corkscrew. + +Hook nodded. He stood for a long time lost in thought, and at last a +curdling smile lit up his swarthy face. Smee had been waiting for it. +"Unrip your plan, captain," he cried eagerly. + +"To return to the ship," Hook replied slowly through his teeth, "and +cook a large rich cake of a jolly thickness with green sugar on it. +There can be but one room below, for there is but one chimney. The silly +moles had not the sense to see that they did not need a door apiece. +That shows they have no mother. We will leave the cake on the shore +of the Mermaids' Lagoon. These boys are always swimming about there, +playing with the mermaids. They will find the cake and they will gobble +it up, because, having no mother, they don't know how dangerous 'tis to +eat rich damp cake." He burst into laughter, not hollow laughter now, +but honest laughter. "Aha, they will die." + +Smee had listened with growing admiration. + +"It's the wickedest, prettiest policy ever I heard of!" he cried, and in +their exultation they danced and sang: + + "Avast, belay, when I appear, + By fear they're overtook; + Nought's left upon your bones when you + Have shaken claws with Hook." + +They began the verse, but they never finished it, for another sound +broke in and stilled them. There was at first such a tiny sound that a +leaf might have fallen on it and smothered it, but as it came nearer it +was more distinct. + +Tick tick tick tick! + +Hook stood shuddering, one foot in the air. + +"The crocodile!" he gasped, and bounded away, followed by his bo'sun. + +It was indeed the crocodile. It had passed the redskins, who were now on +the trail of the other pirates. It oozed on after Hook. + +Once more the boys emerged into the open; but the dangers of the night +were not yet over, for presently Nibs rushed breathless into their +midst, pursued by a pack of wolves. The tongues of the pursuers were +hanging out; the baying of them was horrible. + +"Save me, save me!" cried Nibs, falling on the ground. + +"But what can we do, what can we do?" + +It was a high compliment to Peter that at that dire moment their +thoughts turned to him. + +"What would Peter do?" they cried simultaneously. + +Almost in the same breath they cried, "Peter would look at them through +his legs." + +And then, "Let us do what Peter would do." + +It is quite the most successful way of defying wolves, and as one boy +they bent and looked through their legs. The next moment is the long +one, but victory came quickly, for as the boys advanced upon them in the +terrible attitude, the wolves dropped their tails and fled. + +Now Nibs rose from the ground, and the others thought that his staring +eyes still saw the wolves. But it was not wolves he saw. + +"I have seen a wonderfuller thing," he cried, as they gathered round him +eagerly. "A great white bird. It is flying this way." + +"What kind of a bird, do you think?" + +"I don't know," Nibs said, awestruck, "but it looks so weary, and as it +flies it moans, 'Poor Wendy,'" + +"Poor Wendy?" + +"I remember," said Slightly instantly, "there are birds called Wendies." + +"See, it comes!" cried Curly, pointing to Wendy in the heavens. + +Wendy was now almost overhead, and they could hear her plaintive cry. +But more distinct came the shrill voice of Tinker Bell. The jealous +fairy had now cast off all disguise of friendship, and was darting +at her victim from every direction, pinching savagely each time she +touched. + +"Hullo, Tink," cried the wondering boys. + +Tink's reply rang out: "Peter wants you to shoot the Wendy." + +It was not in their nature to question when Peter ordered. "Let us do +what Peter wishes!" cried the simple boys. "Quick, bows and arrows!" + +All but Tootles popped down their trees. He had a bow and arrow with +him, and Tink noted it, and rubbed her little hands. + +"Quick, Tootles, quick," she screamed. "Peter will be so pleased." + +Tootles excitedly fitted the arrow to his bow. "Out of the way, Tink," +he shouted, and then he fired, and Wendy fluttered to the ground with an +arrow in her breast. + + + + +Chapter 6 THE LITTLE HOUSE + +Foolish Tootles was standing like a conqueror over Wendy's body when the +other boys sprang, armed, from their trees. + +"You are too late," he cried proudly, "I have shot the Wendy. Peter will +be so pleased with me." + +Overhead Tinker Bell shouted "Silly ass!" and darted into hiding. The +others did not hear her. They had crowded round Wendy, and as they +looked a terrible silence fell upon the wood. If Wendy's heart had been +beating they would all have heard it. + +Slightly was the first to speak. "This is no bird," he said in a scared +voice. "I think this must be a lady." + +"A lady?" said Tootles, and fell a-trembling. + +"And we have killed her," Nibs said hoarsely. + +They all whipped off their caps. + +"Now I see," Curly said: "Peter was bringing her to us." He threw +himself sorrowfully on the ground. + +"A lady to take care of us at last," said one of the twins, "and you +have killed her!" + +They were sorry for him, but sorrier for themselves, and when he took a +step nearer them they turned from him. + +Tootles' face was very white, but there was a dignity about him now that +had never been there before. + +"I did it," he said, reflecting. "When ladies used to come to me in +dreams, I said, 'Pretty mother, pretty mother.' But when at last she +really came, I shot her." + +He moved slowly away. + +"Don't go," they called in pity. + +"I must," he answered, shaking; "I am so afraid of Peter." + +It was at this tragic moment that they heard a sound which made the +heart of every one of them rise to his mouth. They heard Peter crow. + +"Peter!" they cried, for it was always thus that he signalled his +return. + +"Hide her," they whispered, and gathered hastily around Wendy. But +Tootles stood aloof. + +Again came that ringing crow, and Peter dropped in front of them. +"Greetings, boys," he cried, and mechanically they saluted, and then +again was silence. + +He frowned. + +"I am back," he said hotly, "why do you not cheer?" + +They opened their mouths, but the cheers would not come. He overlooked +it in his haste to tell the glorious tidings. + +"Great news, boys," he cried, "I have brought at last a mother for you +all." + +Still no sound, except a little thud from Tootles as he dropped on his +knees. + +"Have you not seen her?" asked Peter, becoming troubled. "She flew this +way." + +"Ah me!" once voice said, and another said, "Oh, mournful day." + +Tootles rose. "Peter," he said quietly, "I will show her to you," and +when the others would still have hidden her he said, "Back, twins, let +Peter see." + +So they all stood back, and let him see, and after he had looked for a +little time he did not know what to do next. + +"She is dead," he said uncomfortably. "Perhaps she is frightened at +being dead." + +He thought of hopping off in a comic sort of way till he was out of +sight of her, and then never going near the spot any more. They would +all have been glad to follow if he had done this. + +But there was the arrow. He took it from her heart and faced his band. + +"Whose arrow?" he demanded sternly. + +"Mine, Peter," said Tootles on his knees. + +"Oh, dastard hand," Peter said, and he raised the arrow to use it as a +dagger. + +Tootles did not flinch. He bared his breast. "Strike, Peter," he said +firmly, "strike true." + +Twice did Peter raise the arrow, and twice did his hand fall. "I cannot +strike," he said with awe, "there is something stays my hand." + +All looked at him in wonder, save Nibs, who fortunately looked at Wendy. + +"It is she," he cried, "the Wendy lady, see, her arm!" + +Wonderful to relate [tell], Wendy had raised her arm. Nibs bent over +her and listened reverently. "I think she said, 'Poor Tootles,'" he +whispered. + +"She lives," Peter said briefly. + +Slightly cried instantly, "The Wendy lady lives." + +Then Peter knelt beside her and found his button. You remember she had +put it on a chain that she wore round her neck. + +"See," he said, "the arrow struck against this. It is the kiss I gave +her. It has saved her life." + +"I remember kisses," Slightly interposed quickly, "let me see it. Ay, +that's a kiss." + +Peter did not hear him. He was begging Wendy to get better quickly, so +that he could show her the mermaids. Of course she could not answer yet, +being still in a frightful faint; but from overhead came a wailing note. + +"Listen to Tink," said Curly, "she is crying because the Wendy lives." + +Then they had to tell Peter of Tink's crime, and almost never had they +seen him look so stern. + +"Listen, Tinker Bell," he cried, "I am your friend no more. Begone from +me for ever." + +She flew on to his shoulder and pleaded, but he brushed her off. Not +until Wendy again raised her arm did he relent sufficiently to say, +"Well, not for ever, but for a whole week." + +Do you think Tinker Bell was grateful to Wendy for raising her arm? Oh +dear no, never wanted to pinch her so much. Fairies indeed are strange, +and Peter, who understood them best, often cuffed [slapped] them. + +But what to do with Wendy in her present delicate state of health? + +"Let us carry her down into the house," Curly suggested. + +"Ay," said Slightly, "that is what one does with ladies." + +"No, no," Peter said, "you must not touch her. It would not be +sufficiently respectful." + +"That," said Slightly, "is what I was thinking." + +"But if she lies there," Tootles said, "she will die." + +"Ay, she will die," Slightly admitted, "but there is no way out." + +"Yes, there is," cried Peter. "Let us build a little house round her." + +They were all delighted. "Quick," he ordered them, "bring me each of you +the best of what we have. Gut our house. Be sharp." + +In a moment they were as busy as tailors the night before a wedding. +They skurried this way and that, down for bedding, up for firewood, and +while they were at it, who should appear but John and Michael. As they +dragged along the ground they fell asleep standing, stopped, woke up, +moved another step and slept again. + +"John, John," Michael would cry, "wake up! Where is Nana, John, and +mother?" + +And then John would rub his eyes and mutter, "It is true, we did fly." + +You may be sure they were very relieved to find Peter. + +"Hullo, Peter," they said. + +"Hullo," replied Peter amicably, though he had quite forgotten them. +He was very busy at the moment measuring Wendy with his feet to see +how large a house she would need. Of course he meant to leave room for +chairs and a table. John and Michael watched him. + +"Is Wendy asleep?" they asked. + +"Yes." + +"John," Michael proposed, "let us wake her and get her to make supper +for us," but as he said it some of the other boys rushed on carrying +branches for the building of the house. "Look at them!" he cried. + +"Curly," said Peter in his most captainy voice, "see that these boys +help in the building of the house." + +"Ay, ay, sir." + +"Build a house?" exclaimed John. + +"For the Wendy," said Curly. + +"For Wendy?" John said, aghast. "Why, she is only a girl!" + +"That," explained Curly, "is why we are her servants." + +"You? Wendy's servants!" + +"Yes," said Peter, "and you also. Away with them." + +The astounded brothers were dragged away to hack and hew and carry. +"Chairs and a fender [fireplace] first," Peter ordered. "Then we shall +build a house round them." + +"Ay," said Slightly, "that is how a house is built; it all comes back to +me." + +Peter thought of everything. "Slightly," he cried, "fetch a doctor." + +"Ay, ay," said Slightly at once, and disappeared, scratching his head. +But he knew Peter must be obeyed, and he returned in a moment, wearing +John's hat and looking solemn. + +"Please, sir," said Peter, going to him, "are you a doctor?" + +The difference between him and the other boys at such a time was that +they knew it was make-believe, while to him make-believe and true were +exactly the same thing. This sometimes troubled them, as when they had +to make-believe that they had had their dinners. + +If they broke down in their make-believe he rapped them on the knuckles. + +"Yes, my little man," Slightly anxiously replied, who had chapped +knuckles. + +"Please, sir," Peter explained, "a lady lies very ill." + +She was lying at their feet, but Slightly had the sense not to see her. + +"Tut, tut, tut," he said, "where does she lie?" + +"In yonder glade." + +"I will put a glass thing in her mouth," said Slightly, and he +made-believe to do it, while Peter waited. It was an anxious moment when +the glass thing was withdrawn. + +"How is she?" inquired Peter. + +"Tut, tut, tut," said Slightly, "this has cured her." + +"I am glad!" Peter cried. + +"I will call again in the evening," Slightly said; "give her beef tea +out of a cup with a spout to it;" but after he had returned the hat +to John he blew big breaths, which was his habit on escaping from a +difficulty. + +In the meantime the wood had been alive with the sound of axes; almost +everything needed for a cosy dwelling already lay at Wendy's feet. + +"If only we knew," said one, "the kind of house she likes best." + +"Peter," shouted another, "she is moving in her sleep." + +"Her mouth opens," cried a third, looking respectfully into it. "Oh, +lovely!" + +"Perhaps she is going to sing in her sleep," said Peter. "Wendy, sing +the kind of house you would like to have." + +Immediately, without opening her eyes, Wendy began to sing: + + "I wish I had a pretty house, + The littlest ever seen, + With funny little red walls + And roof of mossy green." + +They gurgled with joy at this, for by the greatest good luck the +branches they had brought were sticky with red sap, and all the ground +was carpeted with moss. As they rattled up the little house they broke +into song themselves: + + "We've built the little walls and roof + And made a lovely door, + So tell us, mother Wendy, + What are you wanting more?" + +To this she answered greedily: + + "Oh, really next I think I'll have + Gay windows all about, + With roses peeping in, you know, + And babies peeping out." + +With a blow of their fists they made windows, and large yellow leaves +were the blinds. But roses--? + +"Roses," cried Peter sternly. + +Quickly they made-believe to grow the loveliest roses up the walls. + +Babies? + +To prevent Peter ordering babies they hurried into song again: + + "We've made the roses peeping out, + The babes are at the door, + We cannot make ourselves, you know, + 'cos we've been made before." + +Peter, seeing this to be a good idea, at once pretended that it was his +own. The house was quite beautiful, and no doubt Wendy was very cosy +within, though, of course, they could no longer see her. Peter strode +up and down, ordering finishing touches. Nothing escaped his eagle eyes. +Just when it seemed absolutely finished: + +"There's no knocker on the door," he said. + +They were very ashamed, but Tootles gave the sole of his shoe, and it +made an excellent knocker. + +Absolutely finished now, they thought. + +Not of bit of it. "There's no chimney," Peter said; "we must have a +chimney." + +"It certainly does need a chimney," said John importantly. This gave +Peter an idea. He snatched the hat off John's head, knocked out the +bottom [top], and put the hat on the roof. The little house was so +pleased to have such a capital chimney that, as if to say thank you, +smoke immediately began to come out of the hat. + +Now really and truly it was finished. Nothing remained to do but to +knock. + +"All look your best," Peter warned them; "first impressions are awfully +important." + +He was glad no one asked him what first impressions are; they were all +too busy looking their best. + +He knocked politely, and now the wood was as still as the children, not +a sound to be heard except from Tinker Bell, who was watching from a +branch and openly sneering. + +What the boys were wondering was, would any one answer the knock? If a +lady, what would she be like? + +The door opened and a lady came out. It was Wendy. They all whipped off +their hats. + +She looked properly surprised, and this was just how they had hoped she +would look. + +"Where am I?" she said. + +Of course Slightly was the first to get his word in. "Wendy lady," he +said rapidly, "for you we built this house." + +"Oh, say you're pleased," cried Nibs. + +"Lovely, darling house," Wendy said, and they were the very words they +had hoped she would say. + +"And we are your children," cried the twins. + +Then all went on their knees, and holding out their arms cried, "O Wendy +lady, be our mother." + +"Ought I?" Wendy said, all shining. "Of course it's frightfully +fascinating, but you see I am only a little girl. I have no real +experience." + +"That doesn't matter," said Peter, as if he were the only person present +who knew all about it, though he was really the one who knew least. +"What we need is just a nice motherly person." + +"Oh dear!" Wendy said, "you see, I feel that is exactly what I am." + +"It is, it is," they all cried; "we saw it at once." + +"Very well," she said, "I will do my best. Come inside at once, you +naughty children; I am sure your feet are damp. And before I put you to +bed I have just time to finish the story of Cinderella." + +In they went; I don't know how there was room for them, but you can +squeeze very tight in the Neverland. And that was the first of the many +joyous evenings they had with Wendy. By and by she tucked them up in the +great bed in the home under the trees, but she herself slept that night +in the little house, and Peter kept watch outside with drawn sword, for +the pirates could be heard carousing far away and the wolves were on the +prowl. The little house looked so cosy and safe in the darkness, with +a bright light showing through its blinds, and the chimney smoking +beautifully, and Peter standing on guard. After a time he fell asleep, +and some unsteady fairies had to climb over him on their way home from +an orgy. Any of the other boys obstructing the fairy path at night they +would have mischiefed, but they just tweaked Peter's nose and passed on. + + + + +Chapter 7 THE HOME UNDER THE GROUND + +One of the first things Peter did next day was to measure Wendy and John +and Michael for hollow trees. Hook, you remember, had sneered at the +boys for thinking they needed a tree apiece, but this was ignorance, for +unless your tree fitted you it was difficult to go up and down, and no +two of the boys were quite the same size. Once you fitted, you drew in +[let out] your breath at the top, and down you went at exactly the +right speed, while to ascend you drew in and let out alternately, and so +wriggled up. Of course, when you have mastered the action you are able +to do these things without thinking of them, and nothing can be more +graceful. + +But you simply must fit, and Peter measures you for your tree as +carefully as for a suit of clothes: the only difference being that the +clothes are made to fit you, while you have to be made to fit the tree. +Usually it is done quite easily, as by your wearing too many garments +or too few, but if you are bumpy in awkward places or the only available +tree is an odd shape, Peter does some things to you, and after that you +fit. Once you fit, great care must be taken to go on fitting, and this, +as Wendy was to discover to her delight, keeps a whole family in perfect +condition. + +Wendy and Michael fitted their trees at the first try, but John had to +be altered a little. + +After a few days' practice they could go up and down as gaily as buckets +in a well. And how ardently they grew to love their home under the +ground; especially Wendy. It consisted of one large room, as all houses +should do, with a floor in which you could dig [for worms] if you wanted +to go fishing, and in this floor grew stout mushrooms of a charming +colour, which were used as stools. A Never tree tried hard to grow in +the centre of the room, but every morning they sawed the trunk through, +level with the floor. By tea-time it was always about two feet high, and +then they put a door on top of it, the whole thus becoming a table; +as soon as they cleared away, they sawed off the trunk again, and thus +there was more room to play. There was an enormous fireplace which was +in almost any part of the room where you cared to light it, and across +this Wendy stretched strings, made of fibre, from which she suspended +her washing. The bed was tilted against the wall by day, and let down at +6:30, when it filled nearly half the room; and all the boys slept in it, +except Michael, lying like sardines in a tin. There was a strict rule +against turning round until one gave the signal, when all turned at +once. Michael should have used it also, but Wendy would have [desired] +a baby, and he was the littlest, and you know what women are, and the +short and long of it is that he was hung up in a basket. + +It was rough and simple, and not unlike what baby bears would have made +of an underground house in the same circumstances. But there was one +recess in the wall, no larger than a bird-cage, which was the private +apartment of Tinker Bell. It could be shut off from the rest of +the house by a tiny curtain, which Tink, who was most fastidious +[particular], always kept drawn when dressing or undressing. No woman, +however large, could have had a more exquisite boudoir [dressing room] +and bed-chamber combined. The couch, as she always called it, was +a genuine Queen Mab, with club legs; and she varied the bedspreads +according to what fruit-blossom was in season. Her mirror was a +Puss-in-Boots, of which there are now only three, unchipped, known to +fairy dealers; the washstand was Pie-crust and reversible, the chest +of drawers an authentic Charming the Sixth, and the carpet and rugs the +best (the early) period of Margery and Robin. There was a chandelier +from Tiddlywinks for the look of the thing, but of course she lit the +residence herself. Tink was very contemptuous of the rest of the house, +as indeed was perhaps inevitable, and her chamber, though beautiful, +looked rather conceited, having the appearance of a nose permanently +turned up. + +I suppose it was all especially entrancing to Wendy, because those +rampagious boys of hers gave her so much to do. Really there were whole +weeks when, except perhaps with a stocking in the evening, she was never +above ground. The cooking, I can tell you, kept her nose to the pot, and +even if there was nothing in it, even if there was no pot, she had to +keep watching that it came aboil just the same. You never exactly +knew whether there would be a real meal or just a make-believe, it all +depended upon Peter's whim: he could eat, really eat, if it was part of +a game, but he could not stodge [cram down the food] just to feel +stodgy [stuffed with food], which is what most children like better than +anything else; the next best thing being to talk about it. Make-believe +was so real to him that during a meal of it you could see him getting +rounder. Of course it was trying, but you simply had to follow his lead, +and if you could prove to him that you were getting loose for your tree +he let you stodge. + +Wendy's favourite time for sewing and darning was after they had all +gone to bed. Then, as she expressed it, she had a breathing time for +herself; and she occupied it in making new things for them, and putting +double pieces on the knees, for they were all most frightfully hard on +their knees. + +When she sat down to a basketful of their stockings, every heel with a +hole in it, she would fling up her arms and exclaim, "Oh dear, I am sure +I sometimes think spinsters are to be envied!" + +Her face beamed when she exclaimed this. + +You remember about her pet wolf. Well, it very soon discovered that she +had come to the island and it found her out, and they just ran into each +other's arms. After that it followed her about everywhere. + +As time wore on did she think much about the beloved parents she had +left behind her? This is a difficult question, because it is quite +impossible to say how time does wear on in the Neverland, where it is +calculated by moons and suns, and there are ever so many more of them +than on the mainland. But I am afraid that Wendy did not really worry +about her father and mother; she was absolutely confident that they +would always keep the window open for her to fly back by, and this gave +her complete ease of mind. What did disturb her at times was that John +remembered his parents vaguely only, as people he had once known, while +Michael was quite willing to believe that she was really his mother. +These things scared her a little, and nobly anxious to do her duty, she +tried to fix the old life in their minds by setting them examination +papers on it, as like as possible to the ones she used to do at school. +The other boys thought this awfully interesting, and insisted on +joining, and they made slates for themselves, and sat round the table, +writing and thinking hard about the questions she had written on another +slate and passed round. They were the most ordinary questions--"What +was the colour of Mother's eyes? Which was taller, Father or Mother? Was +Mother blonde or brunette? Answer all three questions if possible." +"(A) Write an essay of not less than 40 words on How I spent my last +Holidays, or The Characters of Father and Mother compared. Only one of +these to be attempted." Or "(1) Describe Mother's laugh; (2) Describe +Father's laugh; (3) Describe Mother's Party Dress; (4) Describe the +Kennel and its Inmate." + +They were just everyday questions like these, and when you could not +answer them you were told to make a cross; and it was really dreadful +what a number of crosses even John made. Of course the only boy who +replied to every question was Slightly, and no one could have been more +hopeful of coming out first, but his answers were perfectly ridiculous, +and he really came out last: a melancholy thing. + +Peter did not compete. For one thing he despised all mothers except +Wendy, and for another he was the only boy on the island who could +neither write nor spell; not the smallest word. He was above all that +sort of thing. + +By the way, the questions were all written in the past tense. What +was the colour of Mother's eyes, and so on. Wendy, you see, had been +forgetting, too. + +Adventures, of course, as we shall see, were of daily occurrence; but +about this time Peter invented, with Wendy's help, a new game that +fascinated him enormously, until he suddenly had no more interest in it, +which, as you have been told, was what always happened with his games. +It consisted in pretending not to have adventures, in doing the sort of +thing John and Michael had been doing all their lives, sitting on stools +flinging balls in the air, pushing each other, going out for walks and +coming back without having killed so much as a grizzly. To see Peter +doing nothing on a stool was a great sight; he could not help looking +solemn at such times, to sit still seemed to him such a comic thing to +do. He boasted that he had gone walking for the good of his health. For +several suns these were the most novel of all adventures to him; and +John and Michael had to pretend to be delighted also; otherwise he would +have treated them severely. + +He often went out alone, and when he came back you were never absolutely +certain whether he had had an adventure or not. He might have forgotten +it so completely that he said nothing about it; and then when you went +out you found the body; and, on the other hand, he might say a great +deal about it, and yet you could not find the body. Sometimes he came +home with his head bandaged, and then Wendy cooed over him and bathed +it in lukewarm water, while he told a dazzling tale. But she was never +quite sure, you know. There were, however, many adventures which she +knew to be true because she was in them herself, and there were still +more that were at least partly true, for the other boys were in them and +said they were wholly true. To describe them all would require a book as +large as an English-Latin, Latin-English Dictionary, and the most we can +do is to give one as a specimen of an average hour on the island. The +difficulty is which one to choose. Should we take the brush with the +redskins at Slightly Gulch? It was a sanguinary [cheerful] affair, and +especially interesting as showing one of Peter's peculiarities, which +was that in the middle of a fight he would suddenly change sides. At the +Gulch, when victory was still in the balance, sometimes leaning this way +and sometimes that, he called out, "I'm redskin to-day; what are you, +Tootles?" And Tootles answered, "Redskin; what are you, Nibs?" and +Nibs said, "Redskin; what are you Twin?" and so on; and they were all +redskins; and of course this would have ended the fight had not the real +redskins fascinated by Peter's methods, agreed to be lost boys for that +once, and so at it they all went again, more fiercely than ever. + +The extraordinary upshot of this adventure was--but we have not decided +yet that this is the adventure we are to narrate. Perhaps a better one +would be the night attack by the redskins on the house under the ground, +when several of them stuck in the hollow trees and had to be pulled out +like corks. Or we might tell how Peter saved Tiger Lily's life in the +Mermaids' Lagoon, and so made her his ally. + +Or we could tell of that cake the pirates cooked so that the boys might +eat it and perish; and how they placed it in one cunning spot after +another; but always Wendy snatched it from the hands of her children, so +that in time it lost its succulence, and became as hard as a stone, and +was used as a missile, and Hook fell over it in the dark. + +Or suppose we tell of the birds that were Peter's friends, particularly +of the Never bird that built in a tree overhanging the lagoon, and how +the nest fell into the water, and still the bird sat on her eggs, and +Peter gave orders that she was not to be disturbed. That is a pretty +story, and the end shows how grateful a bird can be; but if we tell +it we must also tell the whole adventure of the lagoon, which would +of course be telling two adventures rather than just one. A shorter +adventure, and quite as exciting, was Tinker Bell's attempt, with the +help of some street fairies, to have the sleeping Wendy conveyed on a +great floating leaf to the mainland. Fortunately the leaf gave way and +Wendy woke, thinking it was bath-time, and swam back. Or again, we might +choose Peter's defiance of the lions, when he drew a circle round him +on the ground with an arrow and dared them to cross it; and though he +waited for hours, with the other boys and Wendy looking on breathlessly +from trees, not one of them dared to accept his challenge. + +Which of these adventures shall we choose? The best way will be to toss +for it. + +I have tossed, and the lagoon has won. This almost makes one wish that +the gulch or the cake or Tink's leaf had won. Of course I could do it +again, and make it best out of three; however, perhaps fairest to stick +to the lagoon. + + + + +Chapter 8 THE MERMAIDS' LAGOON + +If you shut your eyes and are a lucky one, you may see at times a +shapeless pool of lovely pale colours suspended in the darkness; then +if you squeeze your eyes tighter, the pool begins to take shape, and the +colours become so vivid that with another squeeze they must go on fire. +But just before they go on fire you see the lagoon. This is the nearest +you ever get to it on the mainland, just one heavenly moment; if there +could be two moments you might see the surf and hear the mermaids +singing. + +The children often spent long summer days on this lagoon, swimming or +floating most of the time, playing the mermaid games in the water, +and so forth. You must not think from this that the mermaids were on +friendly terms with them: on the contrary, it was among Wendy's lasting +regrets that all the time she was on the island she never had a civil +word from one of them. When she stole softly to the edge of the lagoon +she might see them by the score, especially on Marooners' Rock, where +they loved to bask, combing out their hair in a lazy way that quite +irritated her; or she might even swim, on tiptoe as it were, to within +a yard of them, but then they saw her and dived, probably splashing her +with their tails, not by accident, but intentionally. + +They treated all the boys in the same way, except of course Peter, who +chatted with them on Marooners' Rock by the hour, and sat on their tails +when they got cheeky. He gave Wendy one of their combs. + +The most haunting time at which to see them is at the turn of the moon, +when they utter strange wailing cries; but the lagoon is dangerous for +mortals then, and until the evening of which we have now to tell, Wendy +had never seen the lagoon by moonlight, less from fear, for of course +Peter would have accompanied her, than because she had strict rules +about every one being in bed by seven. She was often at the lagoon, +however, on sunny days after rain, when the mermaids come up in +extraordinary numbers to play with their bubbles. The bubbles of many +colours made in rainbow water they treat as balls, hitting them gaily +from one to another with their tails, and trying to keep them in the +rainbow till they burst. The goals are at each end of the rainbow, and +the keepers only are allowed to use their hands. Sometimes a dozen of +these games will be going on in the lagoon at a time, and it is quite a +pretty sight. + +But the moment the children tried to join in they had to play by +themselves, for the mermaids immediately disappeared. Nevertheless we +have proof that they secretly watched the interlopers, and were not +above taking an idea from them; for John introduced a new way of hitting +the bubble, with the head instead of the hand, and the mermaids adopted +it. This is the one mark that John has left on the Neverland. + +It must also have been rather pretty to see the children resting on a +rock for half an hour after their mid-day meal. Wendy insisted on +their doing this, and it had to be a real rest even though the meal was +make-believe. So they lay there in the sun, and their bodies glistened +in it, while she sat beside them and looked important. + +It was one such day, and they were all on Marooners' Rock. The rock was +not much larger than their great bed, but of course they all knew how +not to take up much room, and they were dozing, or at least lying with +their eyes shut, and pinching occasionally when they thought Wendy was +not looking. She was very busy, stitching. + +While she stitched a change came to the lagoon. Little shivers ran over +it, and the sun went away and shadows stole across the water, turning +it cold. Wendy could no longer see to thread her needle, and when she +looked up, the lagoon that had always hitherto been such a laughing +place seemed formidable and unfriendly. + +It was not, she knew, that night had come, but something as dark as +night had come. No, worse than that. It had not come, but it had sent +that shiver through the sea to say that it was coming. What was it? + +There crowded upon her all the stories she had been told of Marooners' +Rock, so called because evil captains put sailors on it and leave +them there to drown. They drown when the tide rises, for then it is +submerged. + +Of course she should have roused the children at once; not merely +because of the unknown that was stalking toward them, but because it was +no longer good for them to sleep on a rock grown chilly. But she was +a young mother and she did not know this; she thought you simply must +stick to your rule about half an hour after the mid-day meal. So, though +fear was upon her, and she longed to hear male voices, she would not +waken them. Even when she heard the sound of muffled oars, though her +heart was in her mouth, she did not waken them. She stood over them to +let them have their sleep out. Was it not brave of Wendy? + +It was well for those boys then that there was one among them who could +sniff danger even in his sleep. Peter sprang erect, as wide awake at +once as a dog, and with one warning cry he roused the others. + +He stood motionless, one hand to his ear. + +"Pirates!" he cried. The others came closer to him. A strange smile was +playing about his face, and Wendy saw it and shuddered. While that smile +was on his face no one dared address him; all they could do was to stand +ready to obey. The order came sharp and incisive. + +"Dive!" + +There was a gleam of legs, and instantly the lagoon seemed deserted. +Marooners' Rock stood alone in the forbidding waters as if it were +itself marooned. + +The boat drew nearer. It was the pirate dinghy, with three figures in +her, Smee and Starkey, and the third a captive, no other than Tiger +Lily. Her hands and ankles were tied, and she knew what was to be her +fate. She was to be left on the rock to perish, an end to one of her +race more terrible than death by fire or torture, for is it not written +in the book of the tribe that there is no path through water to the +happy hunting-ground? Yet her face was impassive; she was the daughter +of a chief, she must die as a chief's daughter, it is enough. + +They had caught her boarding the pirate ship with a knife in her mouth. +No watch was kept on the ship, it being Hook's boast that the wind of +his name guarded the ship for a mile around. Now her fate would help to +guard it also. One more wail would go the round in that wind by night. + +In the gloom that they brought with them the two pirates did not see the +rock till they crashed into it. + +"Luff, you lubber," cried an Irish voice that was Smee's; "here's the +rock. Now, then, what we have to do is to hoist the redskin on to it and +leave her here to drown." + +It was the work of one brutal moment to land the beautiful girl on the +rock; she was too proud to offer a vain resistance. + +Quite near the rock, but out of sight, two heads were bobbing up and +down, Peter's and Wendy's. Wendy was crying, for it was the first +tragedy she had seen. Peter had seen many tragedies, but he had +forgotten them all. He was less sorry than Wendy for Tiger Lily: it was +two against one that angered him, and he meant to save her. An easy way +would have been to wait until the pirates had gone, but he was never one +to choose the easy way. + +There was almost nothing he could not do, and he now imitated the voice +of Hook. + +"Ahoy there, you lubbers!" he called. It was a marvellous imitation. + +"The captain!" said the pirates, staring at each other in surprise. + +"He must be swimming out to us," Starkey said, when they had looked for +him in vain. + +"We are putting the redskin on the rock," Smee called out. + +"Set her free," came the astonishing answer. + +"Free!" + +"Yes, cut her bonds and let her go." + +"But, captain--" + +"At once, d'ye hear," cried Peter, "or I'll plunge my hook in you." + +"This is queer!" Smee gasped. + +"Better do what the captain orders," said Starkey nervously. + +"Ay, ay." Smee said, and he cut Tiger Lily's cords. At once like an eel +she slid between Starkey's legs into the water. + +Of course Wendy was very elated over Peter's cleverness; but she knew +that he would be elated also and very likely crow and thus betray +himself, so at once her hand went out to cover his mouth. But it was +stayed even in the act, for "Boat ahoy!" rang over the lagoon in Hook's +voice, and this time it was not Peter who had spoken. + +Peter may have been about to crow, but his face puckered in a whistle of +surprise instead. + +"Boat ahoy!" again came the voice. + +Now Wendy understood. The real Hook was also in the water. + +He was swimming to the boat, and as his men showed a light to guide him +he had soon reached them. In the light of the lantern Wendy saw his hook +grip the boat's side; she saw his evil swarthy face as he rose dripping +from the water, and, quaking, she would have liked to swim away, but +Peter would not budge. He was tingling with life and also top-heavy with +conceit. "Am I not a wonder, oh, I am a wonder!" he whispered to her, +and though she thought so also, she was really glad for the sake of his +reputation that no one heard him except herself. + +He signed to her to listen. + +The two pirates were very curious to know what had brought their captain +to them, but he sat with his head on his hook in a position of profound +melancholy. + +"Captain, is all well?" they asked timidly, but he answered with a +hollow moan. + +"He sighs," said Smee. + +"He sighs again," said Starkey. + +"And yet a third time he sighs," said Smee. + +Then at last he spoke passionately. + +"The game's up," he cried, "those boys have found a mother." + +Affrighted though she was, Wendy swelled with pride. + +"O evil day!" cried Starkey. + +"What's a mother?" asked the ignorant Smee. + +Wendy was so shocked that she exclaimed. "He doesn't know!" and always +after this she felt that if you could have a pet pirate Smee would be +her one. + +Peter pulled her beneath the water, for Hook had started up, crying, +"What was that?" + +"I heard nothing," said Starkey, raising the lantern over the waters, +and as the pirates looked they saw a strange sight. It was the nest I +have told you of, floating on the lagoon, and the Never bird was sitting +on it. + +"See," said Hook in answer to Smee's question, "that is a mother. What +a lesson! The nest must have fallen into the water, but would the mother +desert her eggs? No." + +There was a break in his voice, as if for a moment he recalled innocent +days when--but he brushed away this weakness with his hook. + +Smee, much impressed, gazed at the bird as the nest was borne past, but +the more suspicious Starkey said, "If she is a mother, perhaps she is +hanging about here to help Peter." + +Hook winced. "Ay," he said, "that is the fear that haunts me." + +He was roused from this dejection by Smee's eager voice. + +"Captain," said Smee, "could we not kidnap these boys' mother and make +her our mother?" + +"It is a princely scheme," cried Hook, and at once it took practical +shape in his great brain. "We will seize the children and carry them to +the boat: the boys we will make walk the plank, and Wendy shall be our +mother." + +Again Wendy forgot herself. + +"Never!" she cried, and bobbed. + +"What was that?" + +But they could see nothing. They thought it must have been a leaf in the +wind. "Do you agree, my bullies?" asked Hook. + +"There is my hand on it," they both said. + +"And there is my hook. Swear." + +They all swore. By this time they were on the rock, and suddenly Hook +remembered Tiger Lily. + +"Where is the redskin?" he demanded abruptly. + +He had a playful humour at moments, and they thought this was one of the +moments. + +"That is all right, captain," Smee answered complacently; "we let her +go." + +"Let her go!" cried Hook. + +"'Twas your own orders," the bo'sun faltered. + +"You called over the water to us to let her go," said Starkey. + +"Brimstone and gall," thundered Hook, "what cozening [cheating] is +going on here!" His face had gone black with rage, but he saw that they +believed their words, and he was startled. "Lads," he said, shaking a +little, "I gave no such order." + +"It is passing queer," Smee said, and they all fidgeted uncomfortably. +Hook raised his voice, but there was a quiver in it. + +"Spirit that haunts this dark lagoon to-night," he cried, "dost hear +me?" + +Of course Peter should have kept quiet, but of course he did not. He +immediately answered in Hook's voice: + +"Odds, bobs, hammer and tongs, I hear you." + +In that supreme moment Hook did not blanch, even at the gills, but Smee +and Starkey clung to each other in terror. + +"Who are you, stranger? Speak!" Hook demanded. + +"I am James Hook," replied the voice, "captain of the JOLLY ROGER." + +"You are not; you are not," Hook cried hoarsely. + +"Brimstone and gall," the voice retorted, "say that again, and I'll cast +anchor in you." + +Hook tried a more ingratiating manner. "If you are Hook," he said almost +humbly, "come tell me, who am I?" + +"A codfish," replied the voice, "only a codfish." + +"A codfish!" Hook echoed blankly, and it was then, but not till then, +that his proud spirit broke. He saw his men draw back from him. + +"Have we been captained all this time by a codfish!" they muttered. "It +is lowering to our pride." + +They were his dogs snapping at him, but, tragic figure though he had +become, he scarcely heeded them. Against such fearful evidence it was +not their belief in him that he needed, it was his own. He felt his ego +slipping from him. "Don't desert me, bully," he whispered hoarsely to +it. + +In his dark nature there was a touch of the feminine, as in all the +great pirates, and it sometimes gave him intuitions. Suddenly he tried +the guessing game. + +"Hook," he called, "have you another voice?" + +Now Peter could never resist a game, and he answered blithely in his own +voice, "I have." + +"And another name?" + +"Ay, ay." + +"Vegetable?" asked Hook. + +"No." + +"Mineral?" + +"No." + +"Animal?" + +"Yes." + +"Man?" + +"No!" This answer rang out scornfully. + +"Boy?" + +"Yes." + +"Ordinary boy?" + +"No!" + +"Wonderful boy?" + +To Wendy's pain the answer that rang out this time was "Yes." + +"Are you in England?" + +"No." + +"Are you here?" + +"Yes." + +Hook was completely puzzled. "You ask him some questions," he said to +the others, wiping his damp brow. + +Smee reflected. "I can't think of a thing," he said regretfully. + +"Can't guess, can't guess!" crowed Peter. "Do you give it up?" + +Of course in his pride he was carrying the game too far, and the +miscreants [villains] saw their chance. + +"Yes, yes," they answered eagerly. + +"Well, then," he cried, "I am Peter Pan." + +Pan! + +In a moment Hook was himself again, and Smee and Starkey were his +faithful henchmen. + +"Now we have him," Hook shouted. "Into the water, Smee. Starkey, mind +the boat. Take him dead or alive!" + +He leaped as he spoke, and simultaneously came the gay voice of Peter. + +"Are you ready, boys?" + +"Ay, ay," from various parts of the lagoon. + +"Then lam into the pirates." + +The fight was short and sharp. First to draw blood was John, who +gallantly climbed into the boat and held Starkey. There was fierce +struggle, in which the cutlass was torn from the pirate's grasp. He +wriggled overboard and John leapt after him. The dinghy drifted away. + +Here and there a head bobbed up in the water, and there was a flash +of steel followed by a cry or a whoop. In the confusion some struck at +their own side. The corkscrew of Smee got Tootles in the fourth rib, but +he was himself pinked [nicked] in turn by Curly. Farther from the rock +Starkey was pressing Slightly and the twins hard. + +Where all this time was Peter? He was seeking bigger game. + +The others were all brave boys, and they must not be blamed for backing +from the pirate captain. His iron claw made a circle of dead water round +him, from which they fled like affrighted fishes. + +But there was one who did not fear him: there was one prepared to enter +that circle. + +Strangely, it was not in the water that they met. Hook rose to the rock +to breathe, and at the same moment Peter scaled it on the opposite +side. The rock was slippery as a ball, and they had to crawl rather than +climb. Neither knew that the other was coming. Each feeling for a grip +met the other's arm: in surprise they raised their heads; their faces +were almost touching; so they met. + +Some of the greatest heroes have confessed that just before they fell to +[began combat] they had a sinking [feeling in the stomach]. Had it been +so with Peter at that moment I would admit it. After all, he was the +only man that the Sea-Cook had feared. But Peter had no sinking, he had +one feeling only, gladness; and he gnashed his pretty teeth with joy. +Quick as thought he snatched a knife from Hook's belt and was about to +drive it home, when he saw that he was higher up the rock that his foe. +It would not have been fighting fair. He gave the pirate a hand to help +him up. + +It was then that Hook bit him. + +Not the pain of this but its unfairness was what dazed Peter. It made +him quite helpless. He could only stare, horrified. Every child is +affected thus the first time he is treated unfairly. All he thinks he +has a right to when he comes to you to be yours is fairness. After +you have been unfair to him he will love you again, but will never +afterwards be quite the same boy. No one ever gets over the first +unfairness; no one except Peter. He often met it, but he always forgot +it. I suppose that was the real difference between him and all the rest. + +So when he met it now it was like the first time; and he could just +stare, helpless. Twice the iron hand clawed him. + +A few moments afterwards the other boys saw Hook in the water striking +wildly for the ship; no elation on the pestilent face now, only white +fear, for the crocodile was in dogged pursuit of him. On ordinary +occasions the boys would have swum alongside cheering; but now they were +uneasy, for they had lost both Peter and Wendy, and were scouring the +lagoon for them, calling them by name. They found the dinghy and went +home in it, shouting "Peter, Wendy" as they went, but no answer came +save mocking laughter from the mermaids. "They must be swimming back or +flying," the boys concluded. They were not very anxious, because they +had such faith in Peter. They chuckled, boylike, because they would be +late for bed; and it was all mother Wendy's fault! + +When their voices died away there came cold silence over the lagoon, and +then a feeble cry. + +"Help, help!" + +Two small figures were beating against the rock; the girl had fainted +and lay on the boy's arm. With a last effort Peter pulled her up the +rock and then lay down beside her. Even as he also fainted he saw that +the water was rising. He knew that they would soon be drowned, but he +could do no more. + +As they lay side by side a mermaid caught Wendy by the feet, and began +pulling her softly into the water. Peter, feeling her slip from him, +woke with a start, and was just in time to draw her back. But he had to +tell her the truth. + +"We are on the rock, Wendy," he said, "but it is growing smaller. Soon +the water will be over it." + +She did not understand even now. + +"We must go," she said, almost brightly. + +"Yes," he answered faintly. + +"Shall we swim or fly, Peter?" + +He had to tell her. + +"Do you think you could swim or fly as far as the island, Wendy, without +my help?" + +She had to admit that she was too tired. + +He moaned. + +"What is it?" she asked, anxious about him at once. + +"I can't help you, Wendy. Hook wounded me. I can neither fly nor swim." + +"Do you mean we shall both be drowned?" + +"Look how the water is rising." + +They put their hands over their eyes to shut out the sight. They thought +they would soon be no more. As they sat thus something brushed against +Peter as light as a kiss, and stayed there, as if saying timidly, "Can I +be of any use?" + +It was the tail of a kite, which Michael had made some days before. It +had torn itself out of his hand and floated away. + +"Michael's kite," Peter said without interest, but next moment he had +seized the tail, and was pulling the kite toward him. + +"It lifted Michael off the ground," he cried; "why should it not carry +you?" + +"Both of us!" + +"It can't lift two; Michael and Curly tried." + +"Let us draw lots," Wendy said bravely. + +"And you a lady; never." Already he had tied the tail round her. She +clung to him; she refused to go without him; but with a "Good-bye, +Wendy," he pushed her from the rock; and in a few minutes she was borne +out of his sight. Peter was alone on the lagoon. + +The rock was very small now; soon it would be submerged. Pale rays of +light tiptoed across the waters; and by and by there was to be heard a +sound at once the most musical and the most melancholy in the world: the +mermaids calling to the moon. + +Peter was not quite like other boys; but he was afraid at last. A +tremour ran through him, like a shudder passing over the sea; but on +the sea one shudder follows another till there are hundreds of them, and +Peter felt just the one. Next moment he was standing erect on the rock +again, with that smile on his face and a drum beating within him. It was +saying, "To die will be an awfully big adventure." + + + + +Chapter 9 THE NEVER BIRD + +The last sound Peter heard before he was quite alone were the mermaids +retiring one by one to their bedchambers under the sea. He was too far +away to hear their doors shut; but every door in the coral caves where +they live rings a tiny bell when it opens or closes (as in all the +nicest houses on the mainland), and he heard the bells. + +Steadily the waters rose till they were nibbling at his feet; and to +pass the time until they made their final gulp, he watched the only +thing on the lagoon. He thought it was a piece of floating paper, +perhaps part of the kite, and wondered idly how long it would take to +drift ashore. + +Presently he noticed as an odd thing that it was undoubtedly out upon +the lagoon with some definite purpose, for it was fighting the tide, +and sometimes winning; and when it won, Peter, always sympathetic to +the weaker side, could not help clapping; it was such a gallant piece of +paper. + +It was not really a piece of paper; it was the Never bird, making +desperate efforts to reach Peter on the nest. By working her wings, in a +way she had learned since the nest fell into the water, she was able to +some extent to guide her strange craft, but by the time Peter recognised +her she was very exhausted. She had come to save him, to give him her +nest, though there were eggs in it. I rather wonder at the bird, for +though he had been nice to her, he had also sometimes tormented her. I +can suppose only that, like Mrs. Darling and the rest of them, she was +melted because he had all his first teeth. + +She called out to him what she had come for, and he called out to her +what she was doing there; but of course neither of them understood +the other's language. In fanciful stories people can talk to the birds +freely, and I wish for the moment I could pretend that this were such a +story, and say that Peter replied intelligently to the Never bird; but +truth is best, and I want to tell you only what really happened. Well, +not only could they not understand each other, but they forgot their +manners. + +"I--want--you--to--get--into--the--nest," the bird called, speaking as +slowly and distinctly as possible, "and--then--you--can--drift--ashore, +but--I--am--too--tired--to--bring--it--any--nearer--so--you--must--try +to--swim--to--it." + +"What are you quacking about?" Peter answered. "Why don't you let the +nest drift as usual?" + +"I--want--you--" the bird said, and repeated it all over. + +Then Peter tried slow and distinct. + +"What--are--you--quacking--about?" and so on. + +The Never bird became irritated; they have very short tempers. + +"You dunderheaded little jay," she screamed, "Why don't you do as I tell +you?" + +Peter felt that she was calling him names, and at a venture he retorted +hotly: + +"So are you!" + +Then rather curiously they both snapped out the same remark: + +"Shut up!" + +"Shut up!" + +Nevertheless the bird was determined to save him if she could, and by +one last mighty effort she propelled the nest against the rock. Then up +she flew; deserting her eggs, so as to make her meaning clear. + +Then at last he understood, and clutched the nest and waved his thanks +to the bird as she fluttered overhead. It was not to receive his thanks, +however, that she hung there in the sky; it was not even to watch him +get into the nest; it was to see what he did with her eggs. + +There were two large white eggs, and Peter lifted them up and reflected. +The bird covered her face with her wings, so as not to see the last of +them; but she could not help peeping between the feathers. + +I forget whether I have told you that there was a stave on the rock, +driven into it by some buccaneers of long ago to mark the site of buried +treasure. The children had discovered the glittering hoard, and when in +a mischievous mood used to fling showers of moidores, diamonds, pearls +and pieces of eight to the gulls, who pounced upon them for food, and +then flew away, raging at the scurvy trick that had been played upon +them. The stave was still there, and on it Starkey had hung his hat, a +deep tarpaulin, watertight, with a broad brim. Peter put the eggs into +this hat and set it on the lagoon. It floated beautifully. + +The Never bird saw at once what he was up to, and screamed her +admiration of him; and, alas, Peter crowed his agreement with her. Then +he got into the nest, reared the stave in it as a mast, and hung up his +shirt for a sail. At the same moment the bird fluttered down upon the +hat and once more sat snugly on her eggs. She drifted in one direction, +and he was borne off in another, both cheering. + +Of course when Peter landed he beached his barque [small ship, actually +the Never Bird's nest in this particular case in point] in a place where +the bird would easily find it; but the hat was such a great success that +she abandoned the nest. It drifted about till it went to pieces, and +often Starkey came to the shore of the lagoon, and with many bitter +feelings watched the bird sitting on his hat. As we shall not see her +again, it may be worth mentioning here that all Never birds now build +in that shape of nest, with a broad brim on which the youngsters take an +airing. + +Great were the rejoicings when Peter reached the home under the ground +almost as soon as Wendy, who had been carried hither and thither by +the kite. Every boy had adventures to tell; but perhaps the biggest +adventure of all was that they were several hours late for bed. This so +inflated them that they did various dodgy things to get staying up still +longer, such as demanding bandages; but Wendy, though glorying in having +them all home again safe and sound, was scandalised by the lateness of +the hour, and cried, "To bed, to bed," in a voice that had to be obeyed. +Next day, however, she was awfully tender, and gave out bandages to +every one, and they played till bed-time at limping about and carrying +their arms in slings. + + + + +Chapter 10 THE HAPPY HOME + +One important result of the brush [with the pirates] on the lagoon was +that it made the redskins their friends. Peter had saved Tiger Lily from +a dreadful fate, and now there was nothing she and her braves would not +do for him. All night they sat above, keeping watch over the home under +the ground and awaiting the big attack by the pirates which obviously +could not be much longer delayed. Even by day they hung about, smoking +the pipe of peace, and looking almost as if they wanted tit-bits to eat. + +They called Peter the Great White Father, prostrating themselves [lying +down] before him; and he liked this tremendously, so that it was not +really good for him. + +"The great white father," he would say to them in a very lordly manner, +as they grovelled at his feet, "is glad to see the Piccaninny warriors +protecting his wigwam from the pirates." + +"Me Tiger Lily," that lovely creature would reply. "Peter Pan save me, +me his velly nice friend. Me no let pirates hurt him." + +She was far too pretty to cringe in this way, but Peter thought it his +due, and he would answer condescendingly, "It is good. Peter Pan has +spoken." + +Always when he said, "Peter Pan has spoken," it meant that they must now +shut up, and they accepted it humbly in that spirit; but they were by +no means so respectful to the other boys, whom they looked upon as just +ordinary braves. They said "How-do?" to them, and things like that; and +what annoyed the boys was that Peter seemed to think this all right. + +Secretly Wendy sympathised with them a little, but she was far too loyal +a housewife to listen to any complaints against father. "Father knows +best," she always said, whatever her private opinion must be. Her +private opinion was that the redskins should not call her a squaw. + +We have now reached the evening that was to be known among them as the +Night of Nights, because of its adventures and their upshot. The day, as +if quietly gathering its forces, had been almost uneventful, and now the +redskins in their blankets were at their posts above, while, below, the +children were having their evening meal; all except Peter, who had gone +out to get the time. The way you got the time on the island was to find +the crocodile, and then stay near him till the clock struck. + +The meal happened to be a make-believe tea, and they sat around the +board, guzzling in their greed; and really, what with their chatter and +recriminations, the noise, as Wendy said, was positively deafening. +To be sure, she did not mind noise, but she simply would not have them +grabbing things, and then excusing themselves by saying that Tootles had +pushed their elbow. There was a fixed rule that they must never hit back +at meals, but should refer the matter of dispute to Wendy by raising +the right arm politely and saying, "I complain of so-and-so;" but what +usually happened was that they forgot to do this or did it too much. + +"Silence," cried Wendy when for the twentieth time she had told them +that they were not all to speak at once. "Is your mug empty, Slightly +darling?" + +"Not quite empty, mummy," Slightly said, after looking into an imaginary +mug. + +"He hasn't even begun to drink his milk," Nibs interposed. + +This was telling, and Slightly seized his chance. + +"I complain of Nibs," he cried promptly. + +John, however, had held up his hand first. + +"Well, John?" + +"May I sit in Peter's chair, as he is not here?" + +"Sit in father's chair, John!" Wendy was scandalised. "Certainly not." + +"He is not really our father," John answered. "He didn't even know how a +father does till I showed him." + +This was grumbling. "We complain of John," cried the twins. + +Tootles held up his hand. He was so much the humblest of them, indeed he +was the only humble one, that Wendy was specially gentle with him. + +"I don't suppose," Tootles said diffidently [bashfully or timidly], +"that I could be father." + +"No, Tootles." + +Once Tootles began, which was not very often, he had a silly way of +going on. + +"As I can't be father," he said heavily, "I don't suppose, Michael, you +would let me be baby?" + +"No, I won't," Michael rapped out. He was already in his basket. + +"As I can't be baby," Tootles said, getting heavier and heavier and +heavier, "do you think I could be a twin?" + +"No, indeed," replied the twins; "it's awfully difficult to be a twin." + +"As I can't be anything important," said Tootles, "would any of you like +to see me do a trick?" + +"No," they all replied. + +Then at last he stopped. "I hadn't really any hope," he said. + +The hateful telling broke out again. + +"Slightly is coughing on the table." + +"The twins began with cheese-cakes." + +"Curly is taking both butter and honey." + +"Nibs is speaking with his mouth full." + +"I complain of the twins." + +"I complain of Curly." + +"I complain of Nibs." + +"Oh dear, oh dear," cried Wendy, "I'm sure I sometimes think that +spinsters are to be envied." + +She told them to clear away, and sat down to her work-basket, a heavy +load of stockings and every knee with a hole in it as usual. + +"Wendy," remonstrated [scolded] Michael, "I'm too big for a cradle." + +"I must have somebody in a cradle," she said almost tartly, "and you +are the littlest. A cradle is such a nice homely thing to have about a +house." + +While she sewed they played around her; such a group of happy faces +and dancing limbs lit up by that romantic fire. It had become a very +familiar scene, this, in the home under the ground, but we are looking +on it for the last time. + +There was a step above, and Wendy, you may be sure, was the first to +recognize it. + +"Children, I hear your father's step. He likes you to meet him at the +door." + +Above, the redskins crouched before Peter. + +"Watch well, braves. I have spoken." + +And then, as so often before, the gay children dragged him from his +tree. As so often before, but never again. + +He had brought nuts for the boys as well as the correct time for Wendy. + +"Peter, you just spoil them, you know," Wendy simpered [exaggerated a +smile]. + +"Ah, old lady," said Peter, hanging up his gun. + +"It was me told him mothers are called old lady," Michael whispered to +Curly. + +"I complain of Michael," said Curly instantly. + +The first twin came to Peter. "Father, we want to dance." + +"Dance away, my little man," said Peter, who was in high good humour. + +"But we want you to dance." + +Peter was really the best dancer among them, but he pretended to be +scandalised. + +"Me! My old bones would rattle!" + +"And mummy too." + +"What," cried Wendy, "the mother of such an armful, dance!" + +"But on a Saturday night," Slightly insinuated. + +It was not really Saturday night, at least it may have been, for +they had long lost count of the days; but always if they wanted to do +anything special they said this was Saturday night, and then they did +it. + +"Of course it is Saturday night, Peter," Wendy said, relenting. + +"People of our figure, Wendy!" + +"But it is only among our own progeny [children]." + +"True, true." + +So they were told they could dance, but they must put on their nighties +first. + +"Ah, old lady," Peter said aside to Wendy, warming himself by the fire +and looking down at her as she sat turning a heel, "there is nothing +more pleasant of an evening for you and me when the day's toil is over +than to rest by the fire with the little ones near by." + +"It is sweet, Peter, isn't it?" Wendy said, frightfully gratified. +"Peter, I think Curly has your nose." + +"Michael takes after you." + +She went to him and put her hand on his shoulder. + +"Dear Peter," she said, "with such a large family, of course, I have now +passed my best, but you don't want to [ex]change me, do you?" + +"No, Wendy." + +Certainly he did not want a change, but he looked at her uncomfortably, +blinking, you know, like one not sure whether he was awake or asleep. + +"Peter, what is it?" + +"I was just thinking," he said, a little scared. "It is only +make-believe, isn't it, that I am their father?" + +"Oh yes," Wendy said primly [formally and properly]. + +"You see," he continued apologetically, "it would make me seem so old to +be their real father." + +"But they are ours, Peter, yours and mine." + +"But not really, Wendy?" he asked anxiously. + +"Not if you don't wish it," she replied; and she distinctly heard his +sigh of relief. "Peter," she asked, trying to speak firmly, "what are +your exact feelings to [about] me?" + +"Those of a devoted son, Wendy." + +"I thought so," she said, and went and sat by herself at the extreme end +of the room. + +"You are so queer," he said, frankly puzzled, "and Tiger Lily is just +the same. There is something she wants to be to me, but she says it is +not my mother." + +"No, indeed, it is not," Wendy replied with frightful emphasis. Now we +know why she was prejudiced against the redskins. + +"Then what is it?" + +"It isn't for a lady to tell." + +"Oh, very well," Peter said, a little nettled. "Perhaps Tinker Bell will +tell me." + +"Oh yes, Tinker Bell will tell you," Wendy retorted scornfully. "She is +an abandoned little creature." + +Here Tink, who was in her bedroom, eavesdropping, squeaked out something +impudent. + +"She says she glories in being abandoned," Peter interpreted. + +He had a sudden idea. "Perhaps Tink wants to be my mother?" + +"You silly ass!" cried Tinker Bell in a passion. + +She had said it so often that Wendy needed no translation. + +"I almost agree with her," Wendy snapped. Fancy Wendy snapping! But she +had been much tried, and she little knew what was to happen before the +night was out. If she had known she would not have snapped. + +None of them knew. Perhaps it was best not to know. Their ignorance +gave them one more glad hour; and as it was to be their last hour on the +island, let us rejoice that there were sixty glad minutes in it. They +sang and danced in their night-gowns. Such a deliciously creepy song +it was, in which they pretended to be frightened at their own shadows, +little witting that so soon shadows would close in upon them, from whom +they would shrink in real fear. So uproariously gay was the dance, and +how they buffeted each other on the bed and out of it! It was a pillow +fight rather than a dance, and when it was finished, the pillows +insisted on one bout more, like partners who know that they may never +meet again. The stories they told, before it was time for Wendy's +good-night story! Even Slightly tried to tell a story that night, but +the beginning was so fearfully dull that it appalled not only the others +but himself, and he said happily: + +"Yes, it is a dull beginning. I say, let us pretend that it is the end." + +And then at last they all got into bed for Wendy's story, the story they +loved best, the story Peter hated. Usually when she began to tell this +story he left the room or put his hands over his ears; and possibly if +he had done either of those things this time they might all still be on +the island. But to-night he remained on his stool; and we shall see what +happened. + + + + +Chapter 11 WENDY'S STORY + +"Listen, then," said Wendy, settling down to her story, with Michael at +her feet and seven boys in the bed. "There was once a gentleman--" + +"I had rather he had been a lady," Curly said. + +"I wish he had been a white rat," said Nibs. + +"Quiet," their mother admonished [cautioned] them. "There was a lady +also, and--" + +"Oh, mummy," cried the first twin, "you mean that there is a lady also, +don't you? She is not dead, is she?" + +"Oh, no." + +"I am awfully glad she isn't dead," said Tootles. "Are you glad, John?" + +"Of course I am." + +"Are you glad, Nibs?" + +"Rather." + +"Are you glad, Twins?" + +"We are glad." + +"Oh dear," sighed Wendy. + +"Little less noise there," Peter called out, determined that she should +have fair play, however beastly a story it might be in his opinion. + +"The gentleman's name," Wendy continued, "was Mr. Darling, and her name +was Mrs. Darling." + +"I knew them," John said, to annoy the others. + +"I think I knew them," said Michael rather doubtfully. + +"They were married, you know," explained Wendy, "and what do you think +they had?" + +"White rats," cried Nibs, inspired. + +"No." + +"It's awfully puzzling," said Tootles, who knew the story by heart. + +"Quiet, Tootles. They had three descendants." + +"What is descendants?" + +"Well, you are one, Twin." + +"Did you hear that, John? I am a descendant." + +"Descendants are only children," said John. + +"Oh dear, oh dear," sighed Wendy. "Now these three children had a +faithful nurse called Nana; but Mr. Darling was angry with her and +chained her up in the yard, and so all the children flew away." + +"It's an awfully good story," said Nibs. + +"They flew away," Wendy continued, "to the Neverland, where the lost +children are." + +"I just thought they did," Curly broke in excitedly. "I don't know how +it is, but I just thought they did!" + +"O Wendy," cried Tootles, "was one of the lost children called Tootles?" + +"Yes, he was." + +"I am in a story. Hurrah, I am in a story, Nibs." + +"Hush. Now I want you to consider the feelings of the unhappy parents +with all their children flown away." + +"Oo!" they all moaned, though they were not really considering the +feelings of the unhappy parents one jot. + +"Think of the empty beds!" + +"Oo!" + +"It's awfully sad," the first twin said cheerfully. + +"I don't see how it can have a happy ending," said the second twin. "Do +you, Nibs?" + +"I'm frightfully anxious." + +"If you knew how great is a mother's love," Wendy told them +triumphantly, "you would have no fear." She had now come to the part +that Peter hated. + +"I do like a mother's love," said Tootles, hitting Nibs with a pillow. +"Do you like a mother's love, Nibs?" + +"I do just," said Nibs, hitting back. + +"You see," Wendy said complacently, "our heroine knew that the mother +would always leave the window open for her children to fly back by; so +they stayed away for years and had a lovely time." + +"Did they ever go back?" + +"Let us now," said Wendy, bracing herself up for her finest effort, +"take a peep into the future;" and they all gave themselves the twist +that makes peeps into the future easier. "Years have rolled by, and who +is this elegant lady of uncertain age alighting at London Station?" + +"O Wendy, who is she?" cried Nibs, every bit as excited as if he didn't +know. + +"Can it be--yes--no--it is--the fair Wendy!" + +"Oh!" + +"And who are the two noble portly figures accompanying her, now grown to +man's estate? Can they be John and Michael? They are!" + +"Oh!" + +"'See, dear brothers,' says Wendy pointing upwards, 'there is the window +still standing open. Ah, now we are rewarded for our sublime faith in a +mother's love.' So up they flew to their mummy and daddy, and pen cannot +describe the happy scene, over which we draw a veil." + +That was the story, and they were as pleased with it as the fair +narrator herself. Everything just as it should be, you see. Off we skip +like the most heartless things in the world, which is what children are, +but so attractive; and we have an entirely selfish time, and then when +we have need of special attention we nobly return for it, confident that +we shall be rewarded instead of smacked. + +So great indeed was their faith in a mother's love that they felt they +could afford to be callous for a bit longer. + +But there was one there who knew better, and when Wendy finished he +uttered a hollow groan. + +"What is it, Peter?" she cried, running to him, thinking he was ill. She +felt him solicitously, lower down than his chest. "Where is it, Peter?" + +"It isn't that kind of pain," Peter replied darkly. + +"Then what kind is it?" + +"Wendy, you are wrong about mothers." + +They all gathered round him in affright, so alarming was his agitation; +and with a fine candour he told them what he had hitherto concealed. + +"Long ago," he said, "I thought like you that my mother would always +keep the window open for me, so I stayed away for moons and moons and +moons, and then flew back; but the window was barred, for mother had +forgotten all about me, and there was another little boy sleeping in my +bed." + +I am not sure that this was true, but Peter thought it was true; and it +scared them. + +"Are you sure mothers are like that?" + +"Yes." + +So this was the truth about mothers. The toads! + +Still it is best to be careful; and no one knows so quickly as a child +when he should give in. "Wendy, let us [let's] go home," cried John and +Michael together. + +"Yes," she said, clutching them. + +"Not to-night?" asked the lost boys bewildered. They knew in what they +called their hearts that one can get on quite well without a mother, and +that it is only the mothers who think you can't. + +"At once," Wendy replied resolutely, for the horrible thought had come +to her: "Perhaps mother is in half mourning by this time." + +This dread made her forgetful of what must be Peter's feelings, and +she said to him rather sharply, "Peter, will you make the necessary +arrangements?" + +"If you wish it," he replied, as coolly as if she had asked him to pass +the nuts. + +Not so much as a sorry-to-lose-you between them! If she did not mind the +parting, he was going to show her, was Peter, that neither did he. + +But of course he cared very much; and he was so full of wrath against +grown-ups, who, as usual, were spoiling everything, that as soon as he +got inside his tree he breathed intentionally quick short breaths at the +rate of about five to a second. He did this because there is a saying in +the Neverland that, every time you breathe, a grown-up dies; and Peter +was killing them off vindictively as fast as possible. + +Then having given the necessary instructions to the redskins he returned +to the home, where an unworthy scene had been enacted in his absence. +Panic-stricken at the thought of losing Wendy the lost boys had advanced +upon her threateningly. + +"It will be worse than before she came," they cried. + +"We shan't let her go." + +"Let's keep her prisoner." + +"Ay, chain her up." + +In her extremity an instinct told her to which of them to turn. + +"Tootles," she cried, "I appeal to you." + +Was it not strange? She appealed to Tootles, quite the silliest one. + +Grandly, however, did Tootles respond. For that one moment he dropped +his silliness and spoke with dignity. + +"I am just Tootles," he said, "and nobody minds me. But the first who +does not behave to Wendy like an English gentleman I will blood him +severely." + +He drew back his hanger; and for that instant his sun was at noon. The +others held back uneasily. Then Peter returned, and they saw at once +that they would get no support from him. He would keep no girl in the +Neverland against her will. + +"Wendy," he said, striding up and down, "I have asked the redskins to +guide you through the wood, as flying tires you so." + +"Thank you, Peter." + +"Then," he continued, in the short sharp voice of one accustomed to be +obeyed, "Tinker Bell will take you across the sea. Wake her, Nibs." + +Nibs had to knock twice before he got an answer, though Tink had really +been sitting up in bed listening for some time. + +"Who are you? How dare you? Go away," she cried. + +"You are to get up, Tink," Nibs called, "and take Wendy on a journey." + +Of course Tink had been delighted to hear that Wendy was going; but +she was jolly well determined not to be her courier, and she said so in +still more offensive language. Then she pretended to be asleep again. + +"She says she won't!" Nibs exclaimed, aghast at such insubordination, +whereupon Peter went sternly toward the young lady's chamber. + +"Tink," he rapped out, "if you don't get up and dress at once I will +open the curtains, and then we shall all see you in your negligee +[nightgown]." + +This made her leap to the floor. "Who said I wasn't getting up?" she +cried. + +In the meantime the boys were gazing very forlornly at Wendy, now +equipped with John and Michael for the journey. By this time they were +dejected, not merely because they were about to lose her, but also +because they felt that she was going off to something nice to which they +had not been invited. Novelty was beckoning to them as usual. + +Crediting them with a nobler feeling Wendy melted. + +"Dear ones," she said, "if you will all come with me I feel almost sure +I can get my father and mother to adopt you." + +The invitation was meant specially for Peter, but each of the boys was +thinking exclusively of himself, and at once they jumped with joy. + +"But won't they think us rather a handful?" Nibs asked in the middle of +his jump. + +"Oh no," said Wendy, rapidly thinking it out, "it will only mean having +a few beds in the drawing-room; they can be hidden behind the screens on +first Thursdays." + +"Peter, can we go?" they all cried imploringly. They took it for granted +that if they went he would go also, but really they scarcely cared. Thus +children are ever ready, when novelty knocks, to desert their dearest +ones. + +"All right," Peter replied with a bitter smile, and immediately they +rushed to get their things. + +"And now, Peter," Wendy said, thinking she had put everything right, +"I am going to give you your medicine before you go." She loved to give +them medicine, and undoubtedly gave them too much. Of course it was only +water, but it was out of a bottle, and she always shook the bottle and +counted the drops, which gave it a certain medicinal quality. On this +occasion, however, she did not give Peter his draught [portion], for +just as she had prepared it, she saw a look on his face that made her +heart sink. + +"Get your things, Peter," she cried, shaking. + +"No," he answered, pretending indifference, "I am not going with you, +Wendy." + +"Yes, Peter." + +"No." + +To show that her departure would leave him unmoved, he skipped up and +down the room, playing gaily on his heartless pipes. She had to run +about after him, though it was rather undignified. + +"To find your mother," she coaxed. + +Now, if Peter had ever quite had a mother, he no longer missed her. He +could do very well without one. He had thought them out, and remembered +only their bad points. + +"No, no," he told Wendy decisively; "perhaps she would say I was old, +and I just want always to be a little boy and to have fun." + +"But, Peter--" + +"No." + +And so the others had to be told. + +"Peter isn't coming." + +Peter not coming! They gazed blankly at him, their sticks over their +backs, and on each stick a bundle. Their first thought was that if Peter +was not going he had probably changed his mind about letting them go. + +But he was far too proud for that. "If you find your mothers," he said +darkly, "I hope you will like them." + +The awful cynicism of this made an uncomfortable impression, and most +of them began to look rather doubtful. After all, their faces said, were +they not noodles to want to go? + +"Now then," cried Peter, "no fuss, no blubbering; good-bye, Wendy;" and +he held out his hand cheerily, quite as if they must really go now, for +he had something important to do. + +She had to take his hand, and there was no indication that he would +prefer a thimble. + +"You will remember about changing your flannels, Peter?" she said, +lingering over him. She was always so particular about their flannels. + +"Yes." + +"And you will take your medicine?" + +"Yes." + +That seemed to be everything, and an awkward pause followed. Peter, +however, was not the kind that breaks down before other people. "Are you +ready, Tinker Bell?" he called out. + +"Ay, ay." + +"Then lead the way." + +Tink darted up the nearest tree; but no one followed her, for it was +at this moment that the pirates made their dreadful attack upon the +redskins. Above, where all had been so still, the air was rent with +shrieks and the clash of steel. Below, there was dead silence. Mouths +opened and remained open. Wendy fell on her knees, but her arms were +extended toward Peter. All arms were extended to him, as if suddenly +blown in his direction; they were beseeching him mutely not to desert +them. As for Peter, he seized his sword, the same he thought he had +slain Barbecue with, and the lust of battle was in his eye. + + + + +Chapter 12 THE CHILDREN ARE CARRIED OFF + +The pirate attack had been a complete surprise: a sure proof that the +unscrupulous Hook had conducted it improperly, for to surprise redskins +fairly is beyond the wit of the white man. + +By all the unwritten laws of savage warfare it is always the redskin who +attacks, and with the wiliness of his race he does it just before the +dawn, at which time he knows the courage of the whites to be at its +lowest ebb. The white men have in the meantime made a rude stockade on +the summit of yonder undulating ground, at the foot of which a stream +runs, for it is destruction to be too far from water. There they await +the onslaught, the inexperienced ones clutching their revolvers and +treading on twigs, but the old hands sleeping tranquilly until just +before the dawn. Through the long black night the savage scouts wriggle, +snake-like, among the grass without stirring a blade. The brushwood +closes behind them, as silently as sand into which a mole has dived. +Not a sound is to be heard, save when they give vent to a wonderful +imitation of the lonely call of the coyote. The cry is answered by other +braves; and some of them do it even better than the coyotes, who are not +very good at it. So the chill hours wear on, and the long suspense is +horribly trying to the paleface who has to live through it for the first +time; but to the trained hand those ghastly calls and still ghastlier +silences are but an intimation of how the night is marching. + +That this was the usual procedure was so well known to Hook that in +disregarding it he cannot be excused on the plea of ignorance. + +The Piccaninnies, on their part, trusted implicitly to his honour, and +their whole action of the night stands out in marked contrast to his. +They left nothing undone that was consistent with the reputation of +their tribe. With that alertness of the senses which is at once the +marvel and despair of civilised peoples, they knew that the pirates were +on the island from the moment one of them trod on a dry stick; and in +an incredibly short space of time the coyote cries began. Every foot of +ground between the spot where Hook had landed his forces and the +home under the trees was stealthily examined by braves wearing their +mocassins with the heels in front. They found only one hillock with a +stream at its base, so that Hook had no choice; here he must establish +himself and wait for just before the dawn. Everything being thus mapped +out with almost diabolical cunning, the main body of the redskins folded +their blankets around them, and in the phlegmatic manner that is to +them, the pearl of manhood squatted above the children's home, awaiting +the cold moment when they should deal pale death. + +Here dreaming, though wide-awake, of the exquisite tortures to which +they were to put him at break of day, those confiding savages were found +by the treacherous Hook. From the accounts afterwards supplied by such +of the scouts as escaped the carnage, he does not seem even to have +paused at the rising ground, though it is certain that in that grey +light he must have seen it: no thought of waiting to be attacked appears +from first to last to have visited his subtle mind; he would not even +hold off till the night was nearly spent; on he pounded with no policy +but to fall to [get into combat]. What could the bewildered scouts do, +masters as they were of every war-like artifice save this one, but trot +helplessly after him, exposing themselves fatally to view, while they +gave pathetic utterance to the coyote cry. + +Around the brave Tiger Lily were a dozen of her stoutest warriors, and +they suddenly saw the perfidious pirates bearing down upon them. Fell +from their eyes then the film through which they had looked at +victory. No more would they torture at the stake. For them the happy +hunting-grounds was now. They knew it; but as their father's sons they +acquitted themselves. Even then they had time to gather in a phalanx +[dense formation] that would have been hard to break had they risen +quickly, but this they were forbidden to do by the traditions of their +race. It is written that the noble savage must never express surprise in +the presence of the white. Thus terrible as the sudden appearance of the +pirates must have been to them, they remained stationary for a moment, +not a muscle moving; as if the foe had come by invitation. Then, indeed, +the tradition gallantly upheld, they seized their weapons, and the air +was torn with the war-cry; but it was now too late. + +It is no part of ours to describe what was a massacre rather than a +fight. Thus perished many of the flower of the Piccaninny tribe. Not all +unavenged did they die, for with Lean Wolf fell Alf Mason, to disturb +the Spanish Main no more, and among others who bit the dust were Geo. +Scourie, Chas. Turley, and the Alsatian Foggerty. Turley fell to the +tomahawk of the terrible Panther, who ultimately cut a way through the +pirates with Tiger Lily and a small remnant of the tribe. + +To what extent Hook is to blame for his tactics on this occasion is for +the historian to decide. Had he waited on the rising ground till the +proper hour he and his men would probably have been butchered; and in +judging him it is only fair to take this into account. What he should +perhaps have done was to acquaint his opponents that he proposed to +follow a new method. On the other hand, this, as destroying the element +of surprise, would have made his strategy of no avail, so that the whole +question is beset with difficulties. One cannot at least withhold a +reluctant admiration for the wit that had conceived so bold a scheme, +and the fell [deadly] genius with which it was carried out. + +What were his own feelings about himself at that triumphant moment? +Fain [gladly] would his dogs have known, as breathing heavily and wiping +their cutlasses, they gathered at a discreet distance from his hook, and +squinted through their ferret eyes at this extraordinary man. Elation +must have been in his heart, but his face did not reflect it: ever a +dark and solitary enigma, he stood aloof from his followers in spirit as +in substance. + +The night's work was not yet over, for it was not the redskins he had +come out to destroy; they were but the bees to be smoked, so that he +should get at the honey. It was Pan he wanted, Pan and Wendy and their +band, but chiefly Pan. + +Peter was such a small boy that one tends to wonder at the man's hatred +of him. True he had flung Hook's arm to the crocodile, but even this +and the increased insecurity of life to which it led, owing to +the crocodile's pertinacity [persistance], hardly account for a +vindictiveness so relentless and malignant. The truth is that there was +a something about Peter which goaded the pirate captain to frenzy. It +was not his courage, it was not his engaging appearance, it was not--. +There is no beating about the bush, for we know quite well what it was, +and have got to tell. It was Peter's cockiness. + +This had got on Hook's nerves; it made his iron claw twitch, and at +night it disturbed him like an insect. While Peter lived, the tortured +man felt that he was a lion in a cage into which a sparrow had come. + +The question now was how to get down the trees, or how to get his dogs +down? He ran his greedy eyes over them, searching for the thinnest +ones. They wriggled uncomfortably, for they knew he would not scruple +[hesitate] to ram them down with poles. + +In the meantime, what of the boys? We have seen them at the first clang +of the weapons, turned as it were into stone figures, open-mouthed, +all appealing with outstretched arms to Peter; and we return to them as +their mouths close, and their arms fall to their sides. The pandemonium +above has ceased almost as suddenly as it arose, passed like a fierce +gust of wind; but they know that in the passing it has determined their +fate. + +Which side had won? + +The pirates, listening avidly at the mouths of the trees, heard the +question put by every boy, and alas, they also heard Peter's answer. + +"If the redskins have won," he said, "they will beat the tom-tom; it is +always their sign of victory." + +Now Smee had found the tom-tom, and was at that moment sitting on it. +"You will never hear the tom-tom again," he muttered, but inaudibly of +course, for strict silence had been enjoined [urged]. To his amazement +Hook signed him to beat the tom-tom, and slowly there came to Smee an +understanding of the dreadful wickedness of the order. Never, probably, +had this simple man admired Hook so much. + +Twice Smee beat upon the instrument, and then stopped to listen +gleefully. + +"The tom-tom," the miscreants heard Peter cry; "an Indian victory!" + +The doomed children answered with a cheer that was music to the black +hearts above, and almost immediately they repeated their good-byes +to Peter. This puzzled the pirates, but all their other feelings were +swallowed by a base delight that the enemy were about to come up the +trees. They smirked at each other and rubbed their hands. Rapidly and +silently Hook gave his orders: one man to each tree, and the others to +arrange themselves in a line two yards apart. + + + + +Chapter 13 DO YOU BELIEVE IN FAIRIES? + +The more quickly this horror is disposed of the better. The first to +emerge from his tree was Curly. He rose out of it into the arms of +Cecco, who flung him to Smee, who flung him to Starkey, who flung him to +Bill Jukes, who flung him to Noodler, and so he was tossed from one to +another till he fell at the feet of the black pirate. All the boys were +plucked from their trees in this ruthless manner; and several of them +were in the air at a time, like bales of goods flung from hand to hand. + +A different treatment was accorded to Wendy, who came last. With +ironical politeness Hook raised his hat to her, and, offering her his +arm, escorted her to the spot where the others were being gagged. He +did it with such an air, he was so frightfully DISTINGUE [imposingly +distinguished], that she was too fascinated to cry out. She was only a +little girl. + +Perhaps it is tell-tale to divulge that for a moment Hook entranced her, +and we tell on her only because her slip led to strange results. Had she +haughtily unhanded him (and we should have loved to write it of her), +she would have been hurled through the air like the others, and then +Hook would probably not have been present at the tying of the children; +and had he not been at the tying he would not have discovered Slightly's +secret, and without the secret he could not presently have made his foul +attempt on Peter's life. + +They were tied to prevent their flying away, doubled up with their knees +close to their ears; and for the trussing of them the black pirate had +cut a rope into nine equal pieces. All went well until Slightly's turn +came, when he was found to be like those irritating parcels that use up +all the string in going round and leave no tags [ends] with which to +tie a knot. The pirates kicked him in their rage, just as you kick the +parcel (though in fairness you should kick the string); and strange +to say it was Hook who told them to belay their violence. His lip was +curled with malicious triumph. While his dogs were merely sweating +because every time they tried to pack the unhappy lad tight in one +part he bulged out in another, Hook's master mind had gone far beneath +Slightly's surface, probing not for effects but for causes; and his +exultation showed that he had found them. Slightly, white to the gills, +knew that Hook had surprised [discovered] his secret, which was this, +that no boy so blown out could use a tree wherein an average man need +stick. Poor Slightly, most wretched of all the children now, for he +was in a panic about Peter, bitterly regretted what he had done. Madly +addicted to the drinking of water when he was hot, he had swelled in +consequence to his present girth, and instead of reducing himself to fit +his tree he had, unknown to the others, whittled his tree to make it fit +him. + +Sufficient of this Hook guessed to persuade him that Peter at last lay +at his mercy, but no word of the dark design that now formed in the +subterranean caverns of his mind crossed his lips; he merely signed +that the captives were to be conveyed to the ship, and that he would be +alone. + +How to convey them? Hunched up in their ropes they might indeed be +rolled down hill like barrels, but most of the way lay through a morass. +Again Hook's genius surmounted difficulties. He indicated that the +little house must be used as a conveyance. The children were flung into +it, four stout pirates raised it on their shoulders, the others fell in +behind, and singing the hateful pirate chorus the strange procession +set off through the wood. I don't know whether any of the children were +crying; if so, the singing drowned the sound; but as the little house +disappeared in the forest, a brave though tiny jet of smoke issued from +its chimney as if defying Hook. + +Hook saw it, and it did Peter a bad service. It dried up any trickle of +pity for him that may have remained in the pirate's infuriated breast. + +The first thing he did on finding himself alone in the fast falling +night was to tiptoe to Slightly's tree, and make sure that it provided +him with a passage. Then for long he remained brooding; his hat of ill +omen on the sward, so that any gentle breeze which had arisen might play +refreshingly through his hair. Dark as were his thoughts his blue eyes +were as soft as the periwinkle. Intently he listened for any sound from +the nether world, but all was as silent below as above; the house under +the ground seemed to be but one more empty tenement in the void. Was +that boy asleep, or did he stand waiting at the foot of Slightly's tree, +with his dagger in his hand? + +There was no way of knowing, save by going down. Hook let his cloak slip +softly to the ground, and then biting his lips till a lewd blood stood +on them, he stepped into the tree. He was a brave man, but for a moment +he had to stop there and wipe his brow, which was dripping like a +candle. Then, silently, he let himself go into the unknown. + +He arrived unmolested at the foot of the shaft, and stood still again, +biting at his breath, which had almost left him. As his eyes became +accustomed to the dim light various objects in the home under the trees +took shape; but the only one on which his greedy gaze rested, long +sought for and found at last, was the great bed. On the bed lay Peter +fast asleep. + +Unaware of the tragedy being enacted above, Peter had continued, for +a little time after the children left, to play gaily on his pipes: no +doubt rather a forlorn attempt to prove to himself that he did not care. +Then he decided not to take his medicine, so as to grieve Wendy. Then he +lay down on the bed outside the coverlet, to vex her still more; for she +had always tucked them inside it, because you never know that you may +not grow chilly at the turn of the night. Then he nearly cried; but +it struck him how indignant she would be if he laughed instead; so he +laughed a haughty laugh and fell asleep in the middle of it. + +Sometimes, though not often, he had dreams, and they were more painful +than the dreams of other boys. For hours he could not be separated from +these dreams, though he wailed piteously in them. They had to do, I +think, with the riddle of his existence. At such times it had been +Wendy's custom to take him out of bed and sit with him on her lap, +soothing him in dear ways of her own invention, and when he grew calmer +to put him back to bed before he quite woke up, so that he should +not know of the indignity to which she had subjected him. But on this +occasion he had fallen at once into a dreamless sleep. One arm dropped +over the edge of the bed, one leg was arched, and the unfinished part of +his laugh was stranded on his mouth, which was open, showing the little +pearls. + +Thus defenceless Hook found him. He stood silent at the foot of the tree +looking across the chamber at his enemy. Did no feeling of compassion +disturb his sombre breast? The man was not wholly evil; he loved flowers +(I have been told) and sweet music (he was himself no mean performer on +the harpsichord); and, let it be frankly admitted, the idyllic nature of +the scene stirred him profoundly. Mastered by his better self he would +have returned reluctantly up the tree, but for one thing. + +What stayed him was Peter's impertinent appearance as he slept. The +open mouth, the drooping arm, the arched knee: they were such a +personification of cockiness as, taken together, will never again, one +may hope, be presented to eyes so sensitive to their offensiveness. They +steeled Hook's heart. If his rage had broken him into a hundred pieces +every one of them would have disregarded the incident, and leapt at the +sleeper. + +Though a light from the one lamp shone dimly on the bed, Hook stood in +darkness himself, and at the first stealthy step forward he discovered +an obstacle, the door of Slightly's tree. It did not entirely fill the +aperture, and he had been looking over it. Feeling for the catch, +he found to his fury that it was low down, beyond his reach. To his +disordered brain it seemed then that the irritating quality in Peter's +face and figure visibly increased, and he rattled the door and flung +himself against it. Was his enemy to escape him after all? + +But what was that? The red in his eye had caught sight of Peter's +medicine standing on a ledge within easy reach. He fathomed what it was +straightaway, and immediately knew that the sleeper was in his power. + +Lest he should be taken alive, Hook always carried about his person a +dreadful drug, blended by himself of all the death-dealing rings that +had come into his possession. These he had boiled down into a yellow +liquid quite unknown to science, which was probably the most virulent +poison in existence. + +Five drops of this he now added to Peter's cup. His hand shook, but it +was in exultation rather than in shame. As he did it he avoided glancing +at the sleeper, but not lest pity should unnerve him; merely to avoid +spilling. Then one long gloating look he cast upon his victim, and +turning, wormed his way with difficulty up the tree. As he emerged +at the top he looked the very spirit of evil breaking from its hole. +Donning his hat at its most rakish angle, he wound his cloak around him, +holding one end in front as if to conceal his person from the night, +of which it was the blackest part, and muttering strangely to himself, +stole away through the trees. + +Peter slept on. The light guttered [burned to edges] and went out, +leaving the tenement in darkness; but still he slept. It must have been +not less than ten o'clock by the crocodile, when he suddenly sat up in +his bed, wakened by he knew not what. It was a soft cautious tapping on +the door of his tree. + +Soft and cautious, but in that stillness it was sinister. Peter felt for +his dagger till his hand gripped it. Then he spoke. + +"Who is that?" + +For long there was no answer: then again the knock. + +"Who are you?" + +No answer. + +He was thrilled, and he loved being thrilled. In two strides he reached +the door. Unlike Slightly's door, it filled the aperture [opening], so +that he could not see beyond it, nor could the one knocking see him. + +"I won't open unless you speak," Peter cried. + +Then at last the visitor spoke, in a lovely bell-like voice. + +"Let me in, Peter." + +It was Tink, and quickly he unbarred to her. She flew in excitedly, her +face flushed and her dress stained with mud. + +"What is it?" + +"Oh, you could never guess!" she cried, and offered him three guesses. +"Out with it!" he shouted, and in one ungrammatical sentence, as long as +the ribbons that conjurers [magicians] pull from their mouths, she told +of the capture of Wendy and the boys. + +Peter's heart bobbed up and down as he listened. Wendy bound, and on the +pirate ship; she who loved everything to be just so! + +"I'll rescue her!" he cried, leaping at his weapons. As he leapt he +thought of something he could do to please her. He could take his +medicine. + +His hand closed on the fatal draught. + +"No!" shrieked Tinker Bell, who had heard Hook mutter about his deed as +he sped through the forest. + +"Why not?" + +"It is poisoned." + +"Poisoned? Who could have poisoned it?" + +"Hook." + +"Don't be silly. How could Hook have got down here?" + +Alas, Tinker Bell could not explain this, for even she did not know the +dark secret of Slightly's tree. Nevertheless Hook's words had left no +room for doubt. The cup was poisoned. + +"Besides," said Peter, quite believing himself "I never fell asleep." + +He raised the cup. No time for words now; time for deeds; and with one +of her lightning movements Tink got between his lips and the draught, +and drained it to the dregs. + +"Why, Tink, how dare you drink my medicine?" + +But she did not answer. Already she was reeling in the air. + +"What is the matter with you?" cried Peter, suddenly afraid. + +"It was poisoned, Peter," she told him softly; "and now I am going to be +dead." + +"O Tink, did you drink it to save me?" + +"Yes." + +"But why, Tink?" + +Her wings would scarcely carry her now, but in reply she alighted on his +shoulder and gave his nose a loving bite. She whispered in his ear "You +silly ass," and then, tottering to her chamber, lay down on the bed. + +His head almost filled the fourth wall of her little room as he knelt +near her in distress. Every moment her light was growing fainter; and +he knew that if it went out she would be no more. She liked his tears so +much that she put out her beautiful finger and let them run over it. + +Her voice was so low that at first he could not make out what she said. +Then he made it out. She was saying that she thought she could get well +again if children believed in fairies. + +Peter flung out his arms. There were no children there, and it was night +time; but he addressed all who might be dreaming of the Neverland, and +who were therefore nearer to him than you think: boys and girls in their +nighties, and naked papooses in their baskets hung from trees. + +"Do you believe?" he cried. + +Tink sat up in bed almost briskly to listen to her fate. + +She fancied she heard answers in the affirmative, and then again she +wasn't sure. + +"What do you think?" she asked Peter. + +"If you believe," he shouted to them, "clap your hands; don't let Tink +die." + +Many clapped. + +Some didn't. + +A few beasts hissed. + +The clapping stopped suddenly; as if countless mothers had rushed to +their nurseries to see what on earth was happening; but already Tink was +saved. First her voice grew strong, then she popped out of bed, then +she was flashing through the room more merry and impudent than ever. She +never thought of thanking those who believed, but she would have like to +get at the ones who had hissed. + +"And now to rescue Wendy!" + +The moon was riding in a cloudy heaven when Peter rose from his tree, +begirt [belted] with weapons and wearing little else, to set out upon +his perilous quest. It was not such a night as he would have chosen. +He had hoped to fly, keeping not far from the ground so that nothing +unwonted should escape his eyes; but in that fitful light to have +flown low would have meant trailing his shadow through the trees, thus +disturbing birds and acquainting a watchful foe that he was astir. + +He regretted now that he had given the birds of the island such strange +names that they are very wild and difficult of approach. + +There was no other course but to press forward in redskin fashion, at +which happily he was an adept [expert]. But in what direction, for he +could not be sure that the children had been taken to the ship? A +light fall of snow had obliterated all footmarks; and a deathly silence +pervaded the island, as if for a space Nature stood still in horror of +the recent carnage. He had taught the children something of the forest +lore that he had himself learned from Tiger Lily and Tinker Bell, +and knew that in their dire hour they were not likely to forget it. +Slightly, if he had an opportunity, would blaze [cut a mark in] the +trees, for instance, Curly would drop seeds, and Wendy would leave her +handkerchief at some important place. The morning was needed to search +for such guidance, and he could not wait. The upper world had called +him, but would give no help. + +The crocodile passed him, but not another living thing, not a sound, not +a movement; and yet he knew well that sudden death might be at the next +tree, or stalking him from behind. + +He swore this terrible oath: "Hook or me this time." + +Now he crawled forward like a snake, and again erect, he darted across +a space on which the moonlight played, one finger on his lip and his +dagger at the ready. He was frightfully happy. + + + + +Chapter 14 THE PIRATE SHIP + +One green light squinting over Kidd's Creek, which is near the mouth of +the pirate river, marked where the brig, the JOLLY ROGER, lay, low in +the water; a rakish-looking [speedy-looking] craft foul to the hull, +every beam in her detestable, like ground strewn with mangled feathers. +She was the cannibal of the seas, and scarce needed that watchful eye, +for she floated immune in the horror of her name. + +She was wrapped in the blanket of night, through which no sound from her +could have reached the shore. There was little sound, and none agreeable +save the whir of the ship's sewing machine at which Smee sat, ever +industrious and obliging, the essence of the commonplace, pathetic Smee. +I know not why he was so infinitely pathetic, unless it were because +he was so pathetically unaware of it; but even strong men had to turn +hastily from looking at him, and more than once on summer evenings he +had touched the fount of Hook's tears and made it flow. Of this, as of +almost everything else, Smee was quite unconscious. + +A few of the pirates leant over the bulwarks, drinking in the miasma +[putrid mist] of the night; others sprawled by barrels over games of +dice and cards; and the exhausted four who had carried the little house +lay prone on the deck, where even in their sleep they rolled skillfully +to this side or that out of Hook's reach, lest he should claw them +mechanically in passing. + +Hook trod the deck in thought. O man unfathomable. It was his hour of +triumph. Peter had been removed for ever from his path, and all the +other boys were in the brig, about to walk the plank. It was his +grimmest deed since the days when he had brought Barbecue to heel; and +knowing as we do how vain a tabernacle is man, could we be surprised +had he now paced the deck unsteadily, bellied out by the winds of his +success? + +But there was no elation in his gait, which kept pace with the action of +his sombre mind. Hook was profoundly dejected. + +He was often thus when communing with himself on board ship in the +quietude of the night. It was because he was so terribly alone. This +inscrutable man never felt more alone than when surrounded by his dogs. +They were socially inferior to him. + +Hook was not his true name. To reveal who he really was would even at +this date set the country in a blaze; but as those who read between the +lines must already have guessed, he had been at a famous public school; +and its traditions still clung to him like garments, with which indeed +they are largely concerned. Thus it was offensive to him even now to +board a ship in the same dress in which he grappled [attacked] her, and +he still adhered in his walk to the school's distinguished slouch. But +above all he retained the passion for good form. + +Good form! However much he may have degenerated, he still knew that this +is all that really matters. + +From far within him he heard a creaking as of rusty portals, and through +them came a stern tap-tap-tap, like hammering in the night when one +cannot sleep. "Have you been good form to-day?" was their eternal +question. + +"Fame, fame, that glittering bauble, it is mine," he cried. + +"Is it quite good form to be distinguished at anything?" the tap-tap +from his school replied. + +"I am the only man whom Barbecue feared," he urged, "and Flint feared +Barbecue." + +"Barbecue, Flint--what house?" came the cutting retort. + +Most disquieting reflection of all, was it not bad form to think about +good form? + +His vitals were tortured by this problem. It was a claw within him +sharper than the iron one; and as it tore him, the perspiration dripped +down his tallow [waxy] countenance and streaked his doublet. Ofttimes he +drew his sleeve across his face, but there was no damming that trickle. + +Ah, envy not Hook. + +There came to him a presentiment of his early dissolution [death]. It +was as if Peter's terrible oath had boarded the ship. Hook felt a gloomy +desire to make his dying speech, lest presently there should be no time +for it. + +"Better for Hook," he cried, "if he had had less ambition!" It was in +his darkest hours only that he referred to himself in the third person. + +"No little children to love me!" + +Strange that he should think of this, which had never troubled him +before; perhaps the sewing machine brought it to his mind. For long he +muttered to himself, staring at Smee, who was hemming placidly, under +the conviction that all children feared him. + +Feared him! Feared Smee! There was not a child on board the brig that +night who did not already love him. He had said horrid things to them +and hit them with the palm of his hand, because he could not hit with +his fist, but they had only clung to him the more. Michael had tried on +his spectacles. + +To tell poor Smee that they thought him lovable! Hook itched to do it, +but it seemed too brutal. Instead, he revolved this mystery in his +mind: why do they find Smee lovable? He pursued the problem like the +sleuth-hound that he was. If Smee was lovable, what was it that made him +so? A terrible answer suddenly presented itself--"Good form?" + +Had the bo'sun good form without knowing it, which is the best form of +all? + +He remembered that you have to prove you don't know you have it before +you are eligible for Pop [an elite social club at Eton]. + +With a cry of rage he raised his iron hand over Smee's head; but he did +not tear. What arrested him was this reflection: + +"To claw a man because he is good form, what would that be?" + +"Bad form!" + +The unhappy Hook was as impotent [powerless] as he was damp, and he fell +forward like a cut flower. + +His dogs thinking him out of the way for a time, discipline instantly +relaxed; and they broke into a bacchanalian [drunken] dance, which +brought him to his feet at once, all traces of human weakness gone, as +if a bucket of water had passed over him. + +"Quiet, you scugs," he cried, "or I'll cast anchor in you;" and at once +the din was hushed. "Are all the children chained, so that they cannot +fly away?" + +"Ay, ay." + +"Then hoist them up." + +The wretched prisoners were dragged from the hold, all except Wendy, +and ranged in line in front of him. For a time he seemed unconscious +of their presence. He lolled at his ease, humming, not unmelodiously, +snatches of a rude song, and fingering a pack of cards. Ever and anon +the light from his cigar gave a touch of colour to his face. + +"Now then, bullies," he said briskly, "six of you walk the plank +to-night, but I have room for two cabin boys. Which of you is it to be?" + +"Don't irritate him unnecessarily," had been Wendy's instructions in +the hold; so Tootles stepped forward politely. Tootles hated the idea +of signing under such a man, but an instinct told him that it would +be prudent to lay the responsibility on an absent person; and though a +somewhat silly boy, he knew that mothers alone are always willing to be +the buffer. All children know this about mothers, and despise them for +it, but make constant use of it. + +So Tootles explained prudently, "You see, sir, I don't think my mother +would like me to be a pirate. Would your mother like you to be a pirate, +Slightly?" + +He winked at Slightly, who said mournfully, "I don't think so," as if +he wished things had been otherwise. "Would your mother like you to be a +pirate, Twin?" + +"I don't think so," said the first twin, as clever as the others. "Nibs, +would--" + +"Stow this gab," roared Hook, and the spokesmen were dragged back. "You, +boy," he said, addressing John, "you look as if you had a little pluck +in you. Didst never want to be a pirate, my hearty?" + +Now John had sometimes experienced this hankering at maths. prep.; and +he was struck by Hook's picking him out. + +"I once thought of calling myself Red-handed Jack," he said diffidently. + +"And a good name too. We'll call you that here, bully, if you join." + +"What do you think, Michael?" asked John. + +"What would you call me if I join?" Michael demanded. + +"Blackbeard Joe." + +Michael was naturally impressed. "What do you think, John?" He wanted +John to decide, and John wanted him to decide. + +"Shall we still be respectful subjects of the King?" John inquired. + +Through Hook's teeth came the answer: "You would have to swear, 'Down +with the King.'" + +Perhaps John had not behaved very well so far, but he shone out now. + +"Then I refuse," he cried, banging the barrel in front of Hook. + +"And I refuse," cried Michael. + +"Rule Britannia!" squeaked Curly. + +The infuriated pirates buffeted them in the mouth; and Hook roared out, +"That seals your doom. Bring up their mother. Get the plank ready." + +They were only boys, and they went white as they saw Jukes and Cecco +preparing the fatal plank. But they tried to look brave when Wendy was +brought up. + +No words of mine can tell you how Wendy despised those pirates. To the +boys there was at least some glamour in the pirate calling; but all that +she saw was that the ship had not been tidied for years. There was not +a porthole on the grimy glass of which you might not have written with +your finger "Dirty pig"; and she had already written it on several. But +as the boys gathered round her she had no thought, of course, save for +them. + +"So, my beauty," said Hook, as if he spoke in syrup, "you are to see +your children walk the plank." + +Fine gentlemen though he was, the intensity of his communings had soiled +his ruff, and suddenly he knew that she was gazing at it. With a hasty +gesture he tried to hide it, but he was too late. + +"Are they to die?" asked Wendy, with a look of such frightful contempt +that he nearly fainted. + +"They are," he snarled. "Silence all," he called gloatingly, "for a +mother's last words to her children." + +At this moment Wendy was grand. "These are my last words, dear boys," +she said firmly. "I feel that I have a message to you from your real +mothers, and it is this: 'We hope our sons will die like English +gentlemen.'" + +Even the pirates were awed, and Tootles cried out hysterically, "I am +going to do what my mother hopes. What are you to do, Nibs?" + +"What my mother hopes. What are you to do, Twin?" + +"What my mother hopes. John, what are--" + +But Hook had found his voice again. + +"Tie her up!" he shouted. + +It was Smee who tied her to the mast. "See here, honey," he whispered, +"I'll save you if you promise to be my mother." + +But not even for Smee would she make such a promise. "I would almost +rather have no children at all," she said disdainfully [scornfully]. + +It is sad to know that not a boy was looking at her as Smee tied her to +the mast; the eyes of all were on the plank: that last little walk they +were about to take. They were no longer able to hope that they would +walk it manfully, for the capacity to think had gone from them; they +could stare and shiver only. + +Hook smiled on them with his teeth closed, and took a step toward Wendy. +His intention was to turn her face so that she should see the boys +walking the plank one by one. But he never reached her, he never heard +the cry of anguish he hoped to wring from her. He heard something else +instead. + +It was the terrible tick-tick of the crocodile. + +They all heard it--pirates, boys, Wendy; and immediately every head was +blown in one direction; not to the water whence the sound proceeded, but +toward Hook. All knew that what was about to happen concerned him alone, +and that from being actors they were suddenly become spectators. + +Very frightful was it to see the change that came over him. It was as if +he had been clipped at every joint. He fell in a little heap. + +The sound came steadily nearer; and in advance of it came this ghastly +thought, "The crocodile is about to board the ship!" + +Even the iron claw hung inactive; as if knowing that it was no intrinsic +part of what the attacking force wanted. Left so fearfully alone, any +other man would have lain with his eyes shut where he fell: but the +gigantic brain of Hook was still working, and under its guidance he +crawled on the knees along the deck as far from the sound as he could +go. The pirates respectfully cleared a passage for him, and it was only +when he brought up against the bulwarks that he spoke. + +"Hide me!" he cried hoarsely. + +They gathered round him, all eyes averted from the thing that was coming +aboard. They had no thought of fighting it. It was Fate. + +Only when Hook was hidden from them did curiosity loosen the limbs of +the boys so that they could rush to the ship's side to see the crocodile +climbing it. Then they got the strangest surprise of the Night of +Nights; for it was no crocodile that was coming to their aid. It was +Peter. + +He signed to them not to give vent to any cry of admiration that might +rouse suspicion. Then he went on ticking. + + + + +Chapter 15 "HOOK OR ME THIS TIME" + +Odd things happen to all of us on our way through life without our +noticing for a time that they have happened. Thus, to take an instance, +we suddenly discover that we have been deaf in one ear for we don't know +how long, but, say, half an hour. Now such an experience had come that +night to Peter. When last we saw him he was stealing across the island +with one finger to his lips and his dagger at the ready. He had seen the +crocodile pass by without noticing anything peculiar about it, but by +and by he remembered that it had not been ticking. At first he thought +this eerie, but soon concluded rightly that the clock had run down. + +Without giving a thought to what might be the feelings of a +fellow-creature thus abruptly deprived of its closest companion, Peter +began to consider how he could turn the catastrophe to his own use; +and he decided to tick, so that wild beasts should believe he was the +crocodile and let him pass unmolested. He ticked superbly, but with one +unforeseen result. The crocodile was among those who heard the sound, +and it followed him, though whether with the purpose of regaining what +it had lost, or merely as a friend under the belief that it was again +ticking itself, will never be certainly known, for, like slaves to a +fixed idea, it was a stupid beast. + +Peter reached the shore without mishap, and went straight on, his legs +encountering the water as if quite unaware that they had entered a new +element. Thus many animals pass from land to water, but no other human +of whom I know. As he swam he had but one thought: "Hook or me this +time." He had ticked so long that he now went on ticking without knowing +that he was doing it. Had he known he would have stopped, for to board +the brig by help of the tick, though an ingenious idea, had not occurred +to him. + +On the contrary, he thought he had scaled her side as noiseless as a +mouse; and he was amazed to see the pirates cowering from him, with Hook +in their midst as abject as if he had heard the crocodile. + +The crocodile! No sooner did Peter remember it than he heard the +ticking. At first he thought the sound did come from the crocodile, +and he looked behind him swiftly. Then he realised that he was doing it +himself, and in a flash he understood the situation. "How clever of me!" +he thought at once, and signed to the boys not to burst into applause. + +It was at this moment that Ed Teynte the quartermaster emerged from the +forecastle and came along the deck. Now, reader, time what happened by +your watch. Peter struck true and deep. John clapped his hands on the +ill-fated pirate's mouth to stifle the dying groan. He fell forward. +Four boys caught him to prevent the thud. Peter gave the signal, and the +carrion was cast overboard. There was a splash, and then silence. How +long has it taken? + +"One!" (Slightly had begun to count.) + +None too soon, Peter, every inch of him on tiptoe, vanished into the +cabin; for more than one pirate was screwing up his courage to look +round. They could hear each other's distressed breathing now, which +showed them that the more terrible sound had passed. + +"It's gone, captain," Smee said, wiping off his spectacles. "All's still +again." + +Slowly Hook let his head emerge from his ruff, and listened so intently +that he could have caught the echo of the tick. There was not a sound, +and he drew himself up firmly to his full height. + +"Then here's to Johnny Plank!" he cried brazenly, hating the boys more +than ever because they had seen him unbend. He broke into the villainous +ditty: + + "Yo ho, yo ho, the frisky plank, + You walks along it so, + Till it goes down and you goes down + To Davy Jones below!" + +To terrorize the prisoners the more, though with a certain loss of +dignity, he danced along an imaginary plank, grimacing at them as he +sang; and when he finished he cried, "Do you want a touch of the cat [o' +nine tails] before you walk the plank?" + +At that they fell on their knees. "No, no!" they cried so piteously that +every pirate smiled. + +"Fetch the cat, Jukes," said Hook; "it's in the cabin." + +The cabin! Peter was in the cabin! The children gazed at each other. + +"Ay, ay," said Jukes blithely, and he strode into the cabin. They +followed him with their eyes; they scarce knew that Hook had resumed his +song, his dogs joining in with him: + + "Yo ho, yo ho, the scratching cat, + Its tails are nine, you know, + And when they're writ upon your back--" + +What was the last line will never be known, for of a sudden the song was +stayed by a dreadful screech from the cabin. It wailed through the ship, +and died away. Then was heard a crowing sound which was well understood +by the boys, but to the pirates was almost more eerie than the screech. + +"What was that?" cried Hook. + +"Two," said Slightly solemnly. + +The Italian Cecco hesitated for a moment and then swung into the cabin. +He tottered out, haggard. + +"What's the matter with Bill Jukes, you dog?" hissed Hook, towering over +him. + +"The matter wi' him is he's dead, stabbed," replied Cecco in a hollow +voice. + +"Bill Jukes dead!" cried the startled pirates. + +"The cabin's as black as a pit," Cecco said, almost gibbering, "but +there is something terrible in there: the thing you heard crowing." + +The exultation of the boys, the lowering looks of the pirates, both were +seen by Hook. + +"Cecco," he said in his most steely voice, "go back and fetch me out +that doodle-doo." + +Cecco, bravest of the brave, cowered before his captain, crying "No, +no"; but Hook was purring to his claw. + +"Did you say you would go, Cecco?" he said musingly. + +Cecco went, first flinging his arms despairingly. There was no more +singing, all listened now; and again came a death-screech and again a +crow. + +No one spoke except Slightly. "Three," he said. + +Hook rallied his dogs with a gesture. "'S'death and odds fish," he +thundered, "who is to bring me that doodle-doo?" + +"Wait till Cecco comes out," growled Starkey, and the others took up the +cry. + +"I think I heard you volunteer, Starkey," said Hook, purring again. + +"No, by thunder!" Starkey cried. + +"My hook thinks you did," said Hook, crossing to him. "I wonder if it +would not be advisable, Starkey, to humour the hook?" + +"I'll swing before I go in there," replied Starkey doggedly, and again +he had the support of the crew. + +"Is this mutiny?" asked Hook more pleasantly than ever. "Starkey's +ringleader!" + +"Captain, mercy!" Starkey whimpered, all of a tremble now. + +"Shake hands, Starkey," said Hook, proffering his claw. + +Starkey looked round for help, but all deserted him. As he backed up +Hook advanced, and now the red spark was in his eye. With a despairing +scream the pirate leapt upon Long Tom and precipitated himself into the +sea. + +"Four," said Slightly. + +"And now," Hook said courteously, "did any other gentlemen say mutiny?" +Seizing a lantern and raising his claw with a menacing gesture, "I'll +bring out that doodle-doo myself," he said, and sped into the cabin. + +"Five." How Slightly longed to say it. He wetted his lips to be ready, +but Hook came staggering out, without his lantern. + +"Something blew out the light," he said a little unsteadily. + +"Something!" echoed Mullins. + +"What of Cecco?" demanded Noodler. + +"He's as dead as Jukes," said Hook shortly. + +His reluctance to return to the cabin impressed them all unfavourably, +and the mutinous sounds again broke forth. All pirates are +superstitious, and Cookson cried, "They do say the surest sign a ship's +accurst is when there's one on board more than can be accounted for." + +"I've heard," muttered Mullins, "he always boards the pirate craft last. +Had he a tail, captain?" + +"They say," said another, looking viciously at Hook, "that when he comes +it's in the likeness of the wickedest man aboard." + +"Had he a hook, captain?" asked Cookson insolently; and one after +another took up the cry, "The ship's doomed!" At this the children could +not resist raising a cheer. Hook had well-nigh forgotten his prisoners, +but as he swung round on them now his face lit up again. + +"Lads," he cried to his crew, "now here's a notion. Open the cabin door +and drive them in. Let them fight the doodle-doo for their lives. If +they kill him, we're so much the better; if he kills them, we're none +the worse." + +For the last time his dogs admired Hook, and devotedly they did his +bidding. The boys, pretending to struggle, were pushed into the cabin +and the door was closed on them. + +"Now, listen!" cried Hook, and all listened. But not one dared to face +the door. Yes, one, Wendy, who all this time had been bound to the mast. +It was for neither a scream nor a crow that she was watching, it was for +the reappearance of Peter. + +She had not long to wait. In the cabin he had found the thing for which +he had gone in search: the key that would free the children of their +manacles, and now they all stole forth, armed with such weapons as they +could find. First signing them to hide, Peter cut Wendy's bonds, +and then nothing could have been easier than for them all to fly off +together; but one thing barred the way, an oath, "Hook or me this time." +So when he had freed Wendy, he whispered for her to conceal herself with +the others, and himself took her place by the mast, her cloak around him +so that he should pass for her. Then he took a great breath and crowed. + +To the pirates it was a voice crying that all the boys lay slain in the +cabin; and they were panic-stricken. Hook tried to hearten them; but +like the dogs he had made them they showed him their fangs, and he knew +that if he took his eyes off them now they would leap at him. + +"Lads," he said, ready to cajole or strike as need be, but never +quailing for an instant, "I've thought it out. There's a Jonah aboard." + +"Ay," they snarled, "a man wi' a hook." + +"No, lads, no, it's the girl. Never was luck on a pirate ship wi' a +woman on board. We'll right the ship when she's gone." + +Some of them remembered that this had been a saying of Flint's. "It's +worth trying," they said doubtfully. + +"Fling the girl overboard," cried Hook; and they made a rush at the +figure in the cloak. + +"There's none can save you now, missy," Mullins hissed jeeringly. + +"There's one," replied the figure. + +"Who's that?" + +"Peter Pan the avenger!" came the terrible answer; and as he spoke Peter +flung off his cloak. Then they all knew who 'twas that had been undoing +them in the cabin, and twice Hook essayed to speak and twice he failed. +In that frightful moment I think his fierce heart broke. + +At last he cried, "Cleave him to the brisket!" but without conviction. + +"Down, boys, and at them!" Peter's voice rang out; and in another moment +the clash of arms was resounding through the ship. Had the pirates kept +together it is certain that they would have won; but the onset came +when they were still unstrung, and they ran hither and thither, striking +wildly, each thinking himself the last survivor of the crew. Man to man +they were the stronger; but they fought on the defensive only, which +enabled the boys to hunt in pairs and choose their quarry. Some of the +miscreants leapt into the sea; others hid in dark recesses, where they +were found by Slightly, who did not fight, but ran about with a lantern +which he flashed in their faces, so that they were half blinded and +fell as an easy prey to the reeking swords of the other boys. There was +little sound to be heard but the clang of weapons, an occasional +screech or splash, and Slightly monotonously counting--five--six--seven +eight--nine--ten--eleven. + +I think all were gone when a group of savage boys surrounded Hook, who +seemed to have a charmed life, as he kept them at bay in that circle +of fire. They had done for his dogs, but this man alone seemed to be a +match for them all. Again and again they closed upon him, and again and +again he hewed a clear space. He had lifted up one boy with his hook, +and was using him as a buckler [shield], when another, who had just +passed his sword through Mullins, sprang into the fray. + +"Put up your swords, boys," cried the newcomer, "this man is mine." + +Thus suddenly Hook found himself face to face with Peter. The others +drew back and formed a ring around them. + +For long the two enemies looked at one another, Hook shuddering +slightly, and Peter with the strange smile upon his face. + +"So, Pan," said Hook at last, "this is all your doing." + +"Ay, James Hook," came the stern answer, "it is all my doing." + +"Proud and insolent youth," said Hook, "prepare to meet thy doom." + +"Dark and sinister man," Peter answered, "have at thee." + +Without more words they fell to, and for a space there was no advantage +to either blade. Peter was a superb swordsman, and parried with dazzling +rapidity; ever and anon he followed up a feint with a lunge that got +past his foe's defence, but his shorter reach stood him in ill stead, +and he could not drive the steel home. Hook, scarcely his inferior in +brilliancy, but not quite so nimble in wrist play, forced him back by +the weight of his onset, hoping suddenly to end all with a favourite +thrust, taught him long ago by Barbecue at Rio; but to his astonishment +he found this thrust turned aside again and again. Then he sought to +close and give the quietus with his iron hook, which all this time had +been pawing the air; but Peter doubled under it and, lunging fiercely, +pierced him in the ribs. At the sight of his own blood, whose peculiar +colour, you remember, was offensive to him, the sword fell from Hook's +hand, and he was at Peter's mercy. + +"Now!" cried all the boys, but with a magnificent gesture Peter invited +his opponent to pick up his sword. Hook did so instantly, but with a +tragic feeling that Peter was showing good form. + +Hitherto he had thought it was some fiend fighting him, but darker +suspicions assailed him now. + +"Pan, who and what art thou?" he cried huskily. + +"I'm youth, I'm joy," Peter answered at a venture, "I'm a little bird +that has broken out of the egg." + +This, of course, was nonsense; but it was proof to the unhappy Hook that +Peter did not know in the least who or what he was, which is the very +pinnacle of good form. + +"To't again," he cried despairingly. + +He fought now like a human flail, and every sweep of that terrible sword +would have severed in twain any man or boy who obstructed it; but Peter +fluttered round him as if the very wind it made blew him out of the +danger zone. And again and again he darted in and pricked. + +Hook was fighting now without hope. That passionate breast no longer +asked for life; but for one boon it craved: to see Peter show bad form +before it was cold forever. + +Abandoning the fight he rushed into the powder magazine and fired it. + +"In two minutes," he cried, "the ship will be blown to pieces." + +Now, now, he thought, true form will show. + +But Peter issued from the powder magazine with the shell in his hands, +and calmly flung it overboard. + +What sort of form was Hook himself showing? Misguided man though he was, +we may be glad, without sympathising with him, that in the end he was +true to the traditions of his race. The other boys were flying around +him now, flouting, scornful; and he staggered about the deck striking up +at them impotently, his mind was no longer with them; it was slouching +in the playing fields of long ago, or being sent up [to the headmaster] +for good, or watching the wall-game from a famous wall. And his shoes +were right, and his waistcoat was right, and his tie was right, and his +socks were right. + +James Hook, thou not wholly unheroic figure, farewell. + +For we have come to his last moment. + +Seeing Peter slowly advancing upon him through the air with dagger +poised, he sprang upon the bulwarks to cast himself into the sea. He +did not know that the crocodile was waiting for him; for we purposely +stopped the clock that this knowledge might be spared him: a little mark +of respect from us at the end. + +He had one last triumph, which I think we need not grudge him. As he +stood on the bulwark looking over his shoulder at Peter gliding through +the air, he invited him with a gesture to use his foot. It made Peter +kick instead of stab. + +At last Hook had got the boon for which he craved. + +"Bad form," he cried jeeringly, and went content to the crocodile. + +Thus perished James Hook. + +"Seventeen," Slightly sang out; but he was not quite correct in his +figures. Fifteen paid the penalty for their crimes that night; but two +reached the shore: Starkey to be captured by the redskins, who made him +nurse for all their papooses, a melancholy come-down for a pirate; and +Smee, who henceforth wandered about the world in his spectacles, making +a precarious living by saying he was the only man that Jas. Hook had +feared. + +Wendy, of course, had stood by taking no part in the fight, though +watching Peter with glistening eyes; but now that all was over she +became prominent again. She praised them equally, and shuddered +delightfully when Michael showed her the place where he had killed one; +and then she took them into Hook's cabin and pointed to his watch which +was hanging on a nail. It said "half-past one!" + +The lateness of the hour was almost the biggest thing of all. She got +them to bed in the pirates' bunks pretty quickly, you may be sure; all +but Peter, who strutted up and down on the deck, until at last he fell +asleep by the side of Long Tom. He had one of his dreams that night, and +cried in his sleep for a long time, and Wendy held him tightly. + + + + +Chapter 16 THE RETURN HOME + +By three bells that morning they were all stirring their stumps [legs]; +for there was a big sea running; and Tootles, the bo'sun, was among +them, with a rope's end in his hand and chewing tobacco. They all donned +pirate clothes cut off at the knee, shaved smartly, and tumbled up, with +the true nautical roll and hitching their trousers. + +It need not be said who was the captain. Nibs and John were first and +second mate. There was a woman aboard. The rest were tars [sailors] +before the mast, and lived in the fo'c'sle. Peter had already lashed +himself to the wheel; but he piped all hands and delivered a short +address to them; said he hoped they would do their duty like gallant +hearties, but that he knew they were the scum of Rio and the Gold Coast, +and if they snapped at him he would tear them. The bluff strident words +struck the note sailors understood, and they cheered him lustily. Then +a few sharp orders were given, and they turned the ship round, and nosed +her for the mainland. + +Captain Pan calculated, after consulting the ship's chart, that if this +weather lasted they should strike the Azores about the 21st of June, +after which it would save time to fly. + +Some of them wanted it to be an honest ship and others were in favour +of keeping it a pirate; but the captain treated them as dogs, and they +dared not express their wishes to him even in a round robin [one person +after another, as they had to Cpt. Hook]. Instant obedience was the only +safe thing. Slightly got a dozen for looking perplexed when told to take +soundings. The general feeling was that Peter was honest just now to +lull Wendy's suspicions, but that there might be a change when the new +suit was ready, which, against her will, she was making for him out of +some of Hook's wickedest garments. It was afterwards whispered among +them that on the first night he wore this suit he sat long in the cabin +with Hook's cigar-holder in his mouth and one hand clenched, all but for +the forefinger, which he bent and held threateningly aloft like a hook. + +Instead of watching the ship, however, we must now return to that +desolate home from which three of our characters had taken heartless +flight so long ago. It seems a shame to have neglected No. 14 all this +time; and yet we may be sure that Mrs. Darling does not blame us. If we +had returned sooner to look with sorrowful sympathy at her, she would +probably have cried, "Don't be silly; what do I matter? Do go back and +keep an eye on the children." So long as mothers are like this their +children will take advantage of them; and they may lay to [bet on] that. + +Even now we venture into that familiar nursery only because its lawful +occupants are on their way home; we are merely hurrying on in advance +of them to see that their beds are properly aired and that Mr. and Mrs. +Darling do not go out for the evening. We are no more than servants. Why +on earth should their beds be properly aired, seeing that they left them +in such a thankless hurry? Would it not serve them jolly well right if +they came back and found that their parents were spending the week-end +in the country? It would be the moral lesson they have been in need +of ever since we met them; but if we contrived things in this way Mrs. +Darling would never forgive us. + +One thing I should like to do immensely, and that is to tell her, in the +way authors have, that the children are coming back, that indeed they +will be here on Thursday week. This would spoil so completely the +surprise to which Wendy and John and Michael are looking forward. They +have been planning it out on the ship: mother's rapture, father's shout +of joy, Nana's leap through the air to embrace them first, when what +they ought to be prepared for is a good hiding. How delicious to spoil +it all by breaking the news in advance; so that when they enter grandly +Mrs. Darling may not even offer Wendy her mouth, and Mr. Darling may +exclaim pettishly, "Dash it all, here are those boys again." However, +we should get no thanks even for this. We are beginning to know Mrs. +Darling by this time, and may be sure that she would upbraid us for +depriving the children of their little pleasure. + +"But, my dear madam, it is ten days till Thursday week; so that by +telling you what's what, we can save you ten days of unhappiness." + +"Yes, but at what a cost! By depriving the children of ten minutes of +delight." + +"Oh, if you look at it in that way!" + +"What other way is there in which to look at it?" + +You see, the woman had no proper spirit. I had meant to say +extraordinarily nice things about her; but I despise her, and not one of +them will I say now. She does not really need to be told to have things +ready, for they are ready. All the beds are aired, and she never leaves +the house, and observe, the window is open. For all the use we are to +her, we might well go back to the ship. However, as we are here we may +as well stay and look on. That is all we are, lookers-on. Nobody really +wants us. So let us watch and say jaggy things, in the hope that some of +them will hurt. + +The only change to be seen in the night-nursery is that between nine +and six the kennel is no longer there. When the children flew away, Mr. +Darling felt in his bones that all the blame was his for having chained +Nana up, and that from first to last she had been wiser than he. Of +course, as we have seen, he was quite a simple man; indeed he might have +passed for a boy again if he had been able to take his baldness off; +but he had also a noble sense of justice and a lion's courage to do what +seemed right to him; and having thought the matter out with anxious care +after the flight of the children, he went down on all fours and crawled +into the kennel. To all Mrs. Darling's dear invitations to him to come +out he replied sadly but firmly: + +"No, my own one, this is the place for me." + +In the bitterness of his remorse he swore that he would never leave +the kennel until his children came back. Of course this was a pity; but +whatever Mr. Darling did he had to do in excess, otherwise he soon gave +up doing it. And there never was a more humble man than the once proud +George Darling, as he sat in the kennel of an evening talking with his +wife of their children and all their pretty ways. + +Very touching was his deference to Nana. He would not let her come into +the kennel, but on all other matters he followed her wishes implicitly. + +Every morning the kennel was carried with Mr. Darling in it to a cab, +which conveyed him to his office, and he returned home in the same way +at six. Something of the strength of character of the man will be seen +if we remember how sensitive he was to the opinion of neighbours: this +man whose every movement now attracted surprised attention. Inwardly he +must have suffered torture; but he preserved a calm exterior even when +the young criticised his little home, and he always lifted his hat +courteously to any lady who looked inside. + +It may have been Quixotic, but it was magnificent. Soon the inward +meaning of it leaked out, and the great heart of the public was touched. +Crowds followed the cab, cheering it lustily; charming girls scaled it +to get his autograph; interviews appeared in the better class of papers, +and society invited him to dinner and added, "Do come in the kennel." + +On that eventful Thursday week, Mrs. Darling was in the night-nursery +awaiting George's return home; a very sad-eyed woman. Now that we look +at her closely and remember the gaiety of her in the old days, all gone +now just because she has lost her babes, I find I won't be able to say +nasty things about her after all. If she was too fond of her rubbishy +children, she couldn't help it. Look at her in her chair, where she has +fallen asleep. The corner of her mouth, where one looks first, is almost +withered up. Her hand moves restlessly on her breast as if she had a +pain there. Some like Peter best, and some like Wendy best, but I like +her best. Suppose, to make her happy, we whisper to her in her sleep +that the brats are coming back. They are really within two miles of the +window now, and flying strong, but all we need whisper is that they are +on the way. Let's. + +It is a pity we did it, for she has started up, calling their names; and +there is no one in the room but Nana. + +"O Nana, I dreamt my dear ones had come back." + +Nana had filmy eyes, but all she could do was put her paw gently on her +mistress's lap; and they were sitting together thus when the kennel was +brought back. As Mr. Darling puts his head out to kiss his wife, we see +that his face is more worn than of yore, but has a softer expression. + +He gave his hat to Liza, who took it scornfully; for she had no +imagination, and was quite incapable of understanding the motives of +such a man. Outside, the crowd who had accompanied the cab home were +still cheering, and he was naturally not unmoved. + +"Listen to them," he said; "it is very gratifying." + +"Lots of little boys," sneered Liza. + +"There were several adults to-day," he assured her with a faint flush; +but when she tossed her head he had not a word of reproof for her. +Social success had not spoilt him; it had made him sweeter. For some +time he sat with his head out of the kennel, talking with Mrs. Darling +of this success, and pressing her hand reassuringly when she said she +hoped his head would not be turned by it. + +"But if I had been a weak man," he said. "Good heavens, if I had been a +weak man!" + +"And, George," she said timidly, "you are as full of remorse as ever, +aren't you?" + +"Full of remorse as ever, dearest! See my punishment: living in a +kennel." + +"But it is punishment, isn't it, George? You are sure you are not +enjoying it?" + +"My love!" + +You may be sure she begged his pardon; and then, feeling drowsy, he +curled round in the kennel. + +"Won't you play me to sleep," he asked, "on the nursery piano?" and as +she was crossing to the day-nursery he added thoughtlessly, "And shut +that window. I feel a draught." + +"O George, never ask me to do that. The window must always be left open +for them, always, always." + +Now it was his turn to beg her pardon; and she went into the day-nursery +and played, and soon he was asleep; and while he slept, Wendy and John +and Michael flew into the room. + +Oh no. We have written it so, because that was the charming arrangement +planned by them before we left the ship; but something must have +happened since then, for it is not they who have flown in, it is Peter +and Tinker Bell. + +Peter's first words tell all. + +"Quick Tink," he whispered, "close the window; bar it! That's right. Now +you and I must get away by the door; and when Wendy comes she will think +her mother has barred her out; and she will have to go back with me." + +Now I understand what had hitherto puzzled me, why when Peter had +exterminated the pirates he did not return to the island and leave Tink +to escort the children to the mainland. This trick had been in his head +all the time. + +Instead of feeling that he was behaving badly he danced with glee; then +he peeped into the day-nursery to see who was playing. He whispered to +Tink, "It's Wendy's mother! She is a pretty lady, but not so pretty as +my mother. Her mouth is full of thimbles, but not so full as my mother's +was." + +Of course he knew nothing whatever about his mother; but he sometimes +bragged about her. + +He did not know the tune, which was "Home, Sweet Home," but he knew it +was saying, "Come back, Wendy, Wendy, Wendy"; and he cried exultantly, +"You will never see Wendy again, lady, for the window is barred!" + +He peeped in again to see why the music had stopped, and now he saw +that Mrs. Darling had laid her head on the box, and that two tears were +sitting on her eyes. + +"She wants me to unbar the window," thought Peter, "but I won't, not I!" + +He peeped again, and the tears were still there, or another two had +taken their place. + +"She's awfully fond of Wendy," he said to himself. He was angry with her +now for not seeing why she could not have Wendy. + +The reason was so simple: "I'm fond of her too. We can't both have her, +lady." + +But the lady would not make the best of it, and he was unhappy. He +ceased to look at her, but even then she would not let go of him. He +skipped about and made funny faces, but when he stopped it was just as +if she were inside him, knocking. + +"Oh, all right," he said at last, and gulped. Then he unbarred the +window. "Come on, Tink," he cried, with a frightful sneer at the laws of +nature; "we don't want any silly mothers;" and he flew away. + +Thus Wendy and John and Michael found the window open for them after +all, which of course was more than they deserved. They alighted on the +floor, quite unashamed of themselves, and the youngest one had already +forgotten his home. + +"John," he said, looking around him doubtfully, "I think I have been +here before." + +"Of course you have, you silly. There is your old bed." + +"So it is," Michael said, but not with much conviction. + +"I say," cried John, "the kennel!" and he dashed across to look into it. + +"Perhaps Nana is inside it," Wendy said. + +But John whistled. "Hullo," he said, "there's a man inside it." + +"It's father!" exclaimed Wendy. + +"Let me see father," Michael begged eagerly, and he took a good look. +"He is not so big as the pirate I killed," he said with such frank +disappointment that I am glad Mr. Darling was asleep; it would have been +sad if those had been the first words he heard his little Michael say. + +Wendy and John had been taken aback somewhat at finding their father in +the kennel. + +"Surely," said John, like one who had lost faith in his memory, "he used +not to sleep in the kennel?" + +"John," Wendy said falteringly, "perhaps we don't remember the old life +as well as we thought we did." + +A chill fell upon them; and serve them right. + +"It is very careless of mother," said that young scoundrel John, "not to +be here when we come back." + +It was then that Mrs. Darling began playing again. + +"It's mother!" cried Wendy, peeping. + +"So it is!" said John. + +"Then are you not really our mother, Wendy?" asked Michael, who was +surely sleepy. + +"Oh dear!" exclaimed Wendy, with her first real twinge of remorse [for +having gone], "it was quite time we came back." + +"Let us creep in," John suggested, "and put our hands over her eyes." + +But Wendy, who saw that they must break the joyous news more gently, had +a better plan. + +"Let us all slip into our beds, and be there when she comes in, just as +if we had never been away." + +And so when Mrs. Darling went back to the night-nursery to see if her +husband was asleep, all the beds were occupied. The children waited +for her cry of joy, but it did not come. She saw them, but she did not +believe they were there. You see, she saw them in their beds so often in +her dreams that she thought this was just the dream hanging around her +still. + +She sat down in the chair by the fire, where in the old days she had +nursed them. + +They could not understand this, and a cold fear fell upon all the three +of them. + +"Mother!" Wendy cried. + +"That's Wendy," she said, but still she was sure it was the dream. + +"Mother!" + +"That's John," she said. + +"Mother!" cried Michael. He knew her now. + +"That's Michael," she said, and she stretched out her arms for the three +little selfish children they would never envelop again. Yes, they did, +they went round Wendy and John and Michael, who had slipped out of bed +and run to her. + +"George, George!" she cried when she could speak; and Mr. Darling woke +to share her bliss, and Nana came rushing in. There could not have been +a lovelier sight; but there was none to see it except a little boy who +was staring in at the window. He had had ecstasies innumerable that +other children can never know; but he was looking through the window at +the one joy from which he must be for ever barred. + + + + +Chapter 17 WHEN WENDY GREW UP + +I hope you want to know what became of the other boys. They were waiting +below to give Wendy time to explain about them; and when they had +counted five hundred they went up. They went up by the stair, because +they thought this would make a better impression. They stood in a row +in front of Mrs. Darling, with their hats off, and wishing they were not +wearing their pirate clothes. They said nothing, but their eyes asked +her to have them. They ought to have looked at Mr. Darling also, but +they forgot about him. + +Of course Mrs. Darling said at once that she would have them; but Mr. +Darling was curiously depressed, and they saw that he considered six a +rather large number. + +"I must say," he said to Wendy, "that you don't do things by halves," a +grudging remark which the twins thought was pointed at them. + +The first twin was the proud one, and he asked, flushing, "Do you think +we should be too much of a handful, sir? Because, if so, we can go +away." + +"Father!" Wendy cried, shocked; but still the cloud was on him. He knew +he was behaving unworthily, but he could not help it. + +"We could lie doubled up," said Nibs. + +"I always cut their hair myself," said Wendy. + +"George!" Mrs. Darling exclaimed, pained to see her dear one showing +himself in such an unfavourable light. + +Then he burst into tears, and the truth came out. He was as glad to +have them as she was, he said, but he thought they should have asked his +consent as well as hers, instead of treating him as a cypher [zero] in +his own house. + +"I don't think he is a cypher," Tootles cried instantly. "Do you think +he is a cypher, Curly?" + +"No, I don't. Do you think he is a cypher, Slightly?" + +"Rather not. Twin, what do you think?" + +It turned out that not one of them thought him a cypher; and he was +absurdly gratified, and said he would find space for them all in the +drawing-room if they fitted in. + +"We'll fit in, sir," they assured him. + +"Then follow the leader," he cried gaily. "Mind you, I am not sure that +we have a drawing-room, but we pretend we have, and it's all the same. +Hoop la!" + +He went off dancing through the house, and they all cried "Hoop la!" and +danced after him, searching for the drawing-room; and I forget whether +they found it, but at any rate they found corners, and they all fitted +in. + +As for Peter, he saw Wendy once again before he flew away. He did not +exactly come to the window, but he brushed against it in passing so that +she could open it if she liked and call to him. That is what she did. + +"Hullo, Wendy, good-bye," he said. + +"Oh dear, are you going away?" + +"Yes." + +"You don't feel, Peter," she said falteringly, "that you would like to +say anything to my parents about a very sweet subject?" + +"No." + +"About me, Peter?" + +"No." + +Mrs. Darling came to the window, for at present she was keeping a sharp +eye on Wendy. She told Peter that she had adopted all the other boys, +and would like to adopt him also. + +"Would you send me to school?" he inquired craftily. + +"Yes." + +"And then to an office?" + +"I suppose so." + +"Soon I would be a man?" + +"Very soon." + +"I don't want to go to school and learn solemn things," he told her +passionately. "I don't want to be a man. O Wendy's mother, if I was to +wake up and feel there was a beard!" + +"Peter," said Wendy the comforter, "I should love you in a beard;" and +Mrs. Darling stretched out her arms to him, but he repulsed her. + +"Keep back, lady, no one is going to catch me and make me a man." + +"But where are you going to live?" + +"With Tink in the house we built for Wendy. The fairies are to put it +high up among the tree tops where they sleep at nights." + +"How lovely," cried Wendy so longingly that Mrs. Darling tightened her +grip. + +"I thought all the fairies were dead," Mrs. Darling said. + +"There are always a lot of young ones," explained Wendy, who was now +quite an authority, "because you see when a new baby laughs for the +first time a new fairy is born, and as there are always new babies there +are always new fairies. They live in nests on the tops of trees; and the +mauve ones are boys and the white ones are girls, and the blue ones are +just little sillies who are not sure what they are." + +"I shall have such fun," said Peter, with eye on Wendy. + +"It will be rather lonely in the evening," she said, "sitting by the +fire." + +"I shall have Tink." + +"Tink can't go a twentieth part of the way round," she reminded him a +little tartly. + +"Sneaky tell-tale!" Tink called out from somewhere round the corner. + +"It doesn't matter," Peter said. + +"O Peter, you know it matters." + +"Well, then, come with me to the little house." + +"May I, mummy?" + +"Certainly not. I have got you home again, and I mean to keep you." + +"But he does so need a mother." + +"So do you, my love." + +"Oh, all right," Peter said, as if he had asked her from politeness +merely; but Mrs. Darling saw his mouth twitch, and she made this +handsome offer: to let Wendy go to him for a week every year to do +his spring cleaning. Wendy would have preferred a more permanent +arrangement; and it seemed to her that spring would be long in coming; +but this promise sent Peter away quite gay again. He had no sense of +time, and was so full of adventures that all I have told you about him +is only a halfpenny-worth of them. I suppose it was because Wendy knew +this that her last words to him were these rather plaintive ones: + +"You won't forget me, Peter, will you, before spring cleaning time +comes?" + +Of course Peter promised; and then he flew away. He took Mrs. Darling's +kiss with him. The kiss that had been for no one else, Peter took quite +easily. Funny. But she seemed satisfied. + +Of course all the boys went to school; and most of them got into Class +III, but Slightly was put first into Class IV and then into Class V. +Class I is the top class. Before they had attended school a week they +saw what goats they had been not to remain on the island; but it was too +late now, and soon they settled down to being as ordinary as you or me +or Jenkins minor [the younger Jenkins]. It is sad to have to say that +the power to fly gradually left them. At first Nana tied their feet to +the bed-posts so that they should not fly away in the night; and one of +their diversions by day was to pretend to fall off buses [the English +double-deckers]; but by and by they ceased to tug at their bonds in bed, +and found that they hurt themselves when they let go of the bus. In time +they could not even fly after their hats. Want of practice, they called +it; but what it really meant was that they no longer believed. + +Michael believed longer than the other boys, though they jeered at him; +so he was with Wendy when Peter came for her at the end of the first +year. She flew away with Peter in the frock she had woven from leaves +and berries in the Neverland, and her one fear was that he might notice +how short it had become; but he never noticed, he had so much to say +about himself. + +She had looked forward to thrilling talks with him about old times, but +new adventures had crowded the old ones from his mind. + +"Who is Captain Hook?" he asked with interest when she spoke of the arch +enemy. + +"Don't you remember," she asked, amazed, "how you killed him and saved +all our lives?" + +"I forget them after I kill them," he replied carelessly. + +When she expressed a doubtful hope that Tinker Bell would be glad to see +her he said, "Who is Tinker Bell?" + +"O Peter," she said, shocked; but even when she explained he could not +remember. + +"There are such a lot of them," he said. "I expect she is no more." + +I expect he was right, for fairies don't live long, but they are so +little that a short time seems a good while to them. + +Wendy was pained too to find that the past year was but as yesterday +to Peter; it had seemed such a long year of waiting to her. But he was +exactly as fascinating as ever, and they had a lovely spring cleaning in +the little house on the tree tops. + +Next year he did not come for her. She waited in a new frock because the +old one simply would not meet; but he never came. + +"Perhaps he is ill," Michael said. + +"You know he is never ill." + +Michael came close to her and whispered, with a shiver, "Perhaps there +is no such person, Wendy!" and then Wendy would have cried if Michael +had not been crying. + +Peter came next spring cleaning; and the strange thing was that he never +knew he had missed a year. + +That was the last time the girl Wendy ever saw him. For a little longer +she tried for his sake not to have growing pains; and she felt she was +untrue to him when she got a prize for general knowledge. But the years +came and went without bringing the careless boy; and when they met again +Wendy was a married woman, and Peter was no more to her than a little +dust in the box in which she had kept her toys. Wendy was grown up. You +need not be sorry for her. She was one of the kind that likes to grow +up. In the end she grew up of her own free will a day quicker than other +girls. + +All the boys were grown up and done for by this time; so it is scarcely +worth while saying anything more about them. You may see the twins and +Nibs and Curly any day going to an office, each carrying a little bag +and an umbrella. Michael is an engine-driver [train engineer]. Slightly +married a lady of title, and so he became a lord. You see that judge in +a wig coming out at the iron door? That used to be Tootles. The bearded +man who doesn't know any story to tell his children was once John. + +Wendy was married in white with a pink sash. It is strange to think +that Peter did not alight in the church and forbid the banns [formal +announcement of a marriage]. + +Years rolled on again, and Wendy had a daughter. This ought not to be +written in ink but in a golden splash. + +She was called Jane, and always had an odd inquiring look, as if from +the moment she arrived on the mainland she wanted to ask questions. When +she was old enough to ask them they were mostly about Peter Pan. She +loved to hear of Peter, and Wendy told her all she could remember in the +very nursery from which the famous flight had taken place. It was +Jane's nursery now, for her father had bought it at the three per cents +[mortgage rate] from Wendy's father, who was no longer fond of stairs. +Mrs. Darling was now dead and forgotten. + +There were only two beds in the nursery now, Jane's and her nurse's; and +there was no kennel, for Nana also had passed away. She died of old age, +and at the end she had been rather difficult to get on with; being very +firmly convinced that no one knew how to look after children except +herself. + +Once a week Jane's nurse had her evening off; and then it was Wendy's +part to put Jane to bed. That was the time for stories. It was Jane's +invention to raise the sheet over her mother's head and her own, thus +making a tent, and in the awful darkness to whisper: + +"What do we see now?" + +"I don't think I see anything to-night," says Wendy, with a feeling that +if Nana were here she would object to further conversation. + +"Yes, you do," says Jane, "you see when you were a little girl." + +"That is a long time ago, sweetheart," says Wendy. "Ah me, how time +flies!" + +"Does it fly," asks the artful child, "the way you flew when you were a +little girl?" + +"The way I flew? Do you know, Jane, I sometimes wonder whether I ever +did really fly." + +"Yes, you did." + +"The dear old days when I could fly!" + +"Why can't you fly now, mother?" + +"Because I am grown up, dearest. When people grow up they forget the +way." + +"Why do they forget the way?" + +"Because they are no longer gay and innocent and heartless. It is only +the gay and innocent and heartless who can fly." + +"What is gay and innocent and heartless? I do wish I were gay and +innocent and heartless." + +Or perhaps Wendy admits she does see something. + +"I do believe," she says, "that it is this nursery." + +"I do believe it is," says Jane. "Go on." + +They are now embarked on the great adventure of the night when Peter +flew in looking for his shadow. + +"The foolish fellow," says Wendy, "tried to stick it on with soap, and +when he could not he cried, and that woke me, and I sewed it on for +him." + +"You have missed a bit," interrupts Jane, who now knows the story better +than her mother. "When you saw him sitting on the floor crying, what did +you say?" + +"I sat up in bed and I said, 'Boy, why are you crying?'" + +"Yes, that was it," says Jane, with a big breath. + +"And then he flew us all away to the Neverland and the fairies and the +pirates and the redskins and the mermaid's lagoon, and the home under +the ground, and the little house." + +"Yes! which did you like best of all?" + +"I think I liked the home under the ground best of all." + +"Yes, so do I. What was the last thing Peter ever said to you?" + +"The last thing he ever said to me was, 'Just always be waiting for me, +and then some night you will hear me crowing.'" + +"Yes." + +"But, alas, he forgot all about me," Wendy said it with a smile. She was +as grown up as that. + +"What did his crow sound like?" Jane asked one evening. + +"It was like this," Wendy said, trying to imitate Peter's crow. + +"No, it wasn't," Jane said gravely, "it was like this;" and she did it +ever so much better than her mother. + +Wendy was a little startled. "My darling, how can you know?" + +"I often hear it when I am sleeping," Jane said. + +"Ah yes, many girls hear it when they are sleeping, but I was the only +one who heard it awake." + +"Lucky you," said Jane. + +And then one night came the tragedy. It was the spring of the year, and +the story had been told for the night, and Jane was now asleep in her +bed. Wendy was sitting on the floor, very close to the fire, so as to +see to darn, for there was no other light in the nursery; and while she +sat darning she heard a crow. Then the window blew open as of old, and +Peter dropped in on the floor. + +He was exactly the same as ever, and Wendy saw at once that he still had +all his first teeth. + +He was a little boy, and she was grown up. She huddled by the fire not +daring to move, helpless and guilty, a big woman. + +"Hullo, Wendy," he said, not noticing any difference, for he was +thinking chiefly of himself; and in the dim light her white dress might +have been the nightgown in which he had seen her first. + +"Hullo, Peter," she replied faintly, squeezing herself as small as +possible. Something inside her was crying "Woman, Woman, let go of me." + +"Hullo, where is John?" he asked, suddenly missing the third bed. + +"John is not here now," she gasped. + +"Is Michael asleep?" he asked, with a careless glance at Jane. + +"Yes," she answered; and now she felt that she was untrue to Jane as +well as to Peter. + +"That is not Michael," she said quickly, lest a judgment should fall on +her. + +Peter looked. "Hullo, is it a new one?" + +"Yes." + +"Boy or girl?" + +"Girl." + +Now surely he would understand; but not a bit of it. + +"Peter," she said, faltering, "are you expecting me to fly away with +you?" + +"Of course; that is why I have come." He added a little sternly, "Have +you forgotten that this is spring cleaning time?" + +She knew it was useless to say that he had let many spring cleaning +times pass. + +"I can't come," she said apologetically, "I have forgotten how to fly." + +"I'll soon teach you again." + +"O Peter, don't waste the fairy dust on me." + +She had risen; and now at last a fear assailed him. "What is it?" he +cried, shrinking. + +"I will turn up the light," she said, "and then you can see for +yourself." + +For almost the only time in his life that I know of, Peter was afraid. +"Don't turn up the light," he cried. + +She let her hands play in the hair of the tragic boy. She was not a +little girl heart-broken about him; she was a grown woman smiling at it +all, but they were wet eyed smiles. + +Then she turned up the light, and Peter saw. He gave a cry of pain; and +when the tall beautiful creature stooped to lift him in her arms he drew +back sharply. + +"What is it?" he cried again. + +She had to tell him. + +"I am old, Peter. I am ever so much more than twenty. I grew up long +ago." + +"You promised not to!" + +"I couldn't help it. I am a married woman, Peter." + +"No, you're not." + +"Yes, and the little girl in the bed is my baby." + +"No, she's not." + +But he supposed she was; and he took a step towards the sleeping child +with his dagger upraised. Of course he did not strike. He sat down on +the floor instead and sobbed; and Wendy did not know how to comfort him, +though she could have done it so easily once. She was only a woman now, +and she ran out of the room to try to think. + +Peter continued to cry, and soon his sobs woke Jane. She sat up in bed, +and was interested at once. + +"Boy," she said, "why are you crying?" + +Peter rose and bowed to her, and she bowed to him from the bed. + +"Hullo," he said. + +"Hullo," said Jane. + +"My name is Peter Pan," he told her. + +"Yes, I know." + +"I came back for my mother," he explained, "to take her to the +Neverland." + +"Yes, I know," Jane said, "I have been waiting for you." + +When Wendy returned diffidently she found Peter sitting on the bed-post +crowing gloriously, while Jane in her nighty was flying round the room +in solemn ecstasy. + +"She is my mother," Peter explained; and Jane descended and stood by his +side, with the look in her face that he liked to see on ladies when they +gazed at him. + +"He does so need a mother," Jane said. + +"Yes, I know." Wendy admitted rather forlornly; "no one knows it so well +as I." + +"Good-bye," said Peter to Wendy; and he rose in the air, and the +shameless Jane rose with him; it was already her easiest way of moving +about. + +Wendy rushed to the window. + +"No, no," she cried. + +"It is just for spring cleaning time," Jane said, "he wants me always to +do his spring cleaning." + +"If only I could go with you," Wendy sighed. + +"You see you can't fly," said Jane. + +Of course in the end Wendy let them fly away together. Our last glimpse +of her shows her at the window, watching them receding into the sky +until they were as small as stars. + +As you look at Wendy, you may see her hair becoming white, and her +figure little again, for all this happened long ago. Jane is now a +common grown-up, with a daughter called Margaret; and every spring +cleaning time, except when he forgets, Peter comes for Margaret and +takes her to the Neverland, where she tells him stories about himself, +to which he listens eagerly. When Margaret grows up she will have a +daughter, who is to be Peter's mother in turn; and thus it will go on, +so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Peter Pan, by James M. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +http://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +http://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** diff --git a/DemoApp2/texts/QuickBrownFox.txt b/DemoApp2/texts/QuickBrownFox.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..84102df --- /dev/null +++ b/DemoApp2/texts/QuickBrownFox.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog diff --git a/TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj b/TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj index 74cb7ab..a636060 100644 --- a/TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj +++ b/TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ - + net6.0 diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs index 588c989..1108a72 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs @@ -1,6 +1,5 @@ using System; using System.Collections.Generic; -using System.Diagnostics; using System.Linq; namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/WordPosition.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/WordPosition.cs index 9e4724e..4555bd7 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/WordPosition.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/WordPosition.cs @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ // See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { - public class WordPosition + public struct WordPosition { private readonly long m_CharPosition; private readonly T m_Value; From 88b43f4b1b93cc2426d9dd2d130d23ed60ccefa1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 00:03:13 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 06/25] cleaned up demo app stuff --- DemoApp2/{DemoApp2.csproj => DemoApp.csproj} | 0 DemoApp2/MainForm.cs | 52 ++++---------------- TrieNet.sln | 12 +---- 3 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 53 deletions(-) rename DemoApp2/{DemoApp2.csproj => DemoApp.csproj} (100%) diff --git a/DemoApp2/DemoApp2.csproj b/DemoApp2/DemoApp.csproj similarity index 100% rename from DemoApp2/DemoApp2.csproj rename to DemoApp2/DemoApp.csproj diff --git a/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs b/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs index 6123aab..d26a72d 100644 --- a/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs +++ b/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs @@ -13,12 +13,12 @@ namespace DemoApp2 { public partial class MainForm : Form { private readonly UkkonenTrie m_Trie; + private static readonly char[] delimiters = new char[] { ' ', '\r', '\n' }; private long m_WordCount; public MainForm() { InitializeComponent(); m_Trie = new UkkonenTrie(3); - //m_PatriciaTrie = new FakeTrie(); folderName.Text = Path.Combine( Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(), @@ -28,45 +28,13 @@ public MainForm() { private void LoadFile(string fileName) { var word = File.ReadAllText(fileName); m_Trie.Add(word, Path.GetFileName(fileName)); - /*Tuple[] words = GetWords(fileName).ToArray(); - foreach (var word in words) { - string text = word.Item2; - WordPosition wordPosition = word.Item1; - m_Trie.Add(text, wordPosition); - }*/ - Debug.WriteLine($"trie size = {m_Trie.Size}"); - Debug.WriteLine($"num chars = {word.Length}"); + m_WordCount += word.Split(delimiters, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries).Length; + Debug.WriteLine($"Loaded {word.Length} characters."); + Debug.WriteLine($"Trie size = {m_Trie.Size}"); } - - private IEnumerable> GetWords(string file) { - using (Stream stream = File.Open(file, FileMode.Open)) { - var word = new StringBuilder(); - while (true) { - long position = stream.Position; - int data = (char)stream.ReadByte(); - { - if (data > byte.MaxValue) break; - var ch = (Char)data; - if (char.IsLetter(ch) || char.IsWhiteSpace(ch)) { - word.Append(ch); - } else { - if (word.Length != 0) { - var wordPosition = new WordPosition2(position, file); - yield return new Tuple(wordPosition, word.ToString().ToLower()); - word.Clear(); - m_WordCount++; - } - } - } - UpdateProgress(position); - } - } - } - - private void UpdateProgress(long position) { - if (position % 1024 != 0) return; - progressBar1.Value = Math.Min((int)position / 1024 * 2, progressBar1.Maximum); + private void UpdateProgress(int position) { + progressBar1.Value = Math.Min(position, progressBar1.Maximum); Application.DoEvents(); } @@ -120,20 +88,20 @@ private void LoadAll() { if (!Directory.Exists(path)) return; string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(path, "*.txt", SearchOption.AllDirectories); progressBar1.Minimum = 0; + progressBar1.Maximum = files.Length; progressBar1.Step = 1; for (int index = 0; index < files.Length; index++) { string file = files[index]; progressText.Text = string.Format( "Processing file {0} of {1}: [{2}]", - index, + index + 1, files.Length, Path.GetFileName(file)); + Application.DoEvents(); - var fileInfo = new FileInfo(file); - progressBar1.Maximum = (int)fileInfo.Length / 1024; LoadFile(file); - progressBar1.Value = 0; + UpdateProgress(index + 1); } progressText.Text = string.Format("{0:n0} words read. Ready.", m_WordCount); } diff --git a/TrieNet.sln b/TrieNet.sln index 84bef2e..5ef6267 100644 --- a/TrieNet.sln +++ b/TrieNet.sln @@ -14,13 +14,11 @@ Project("{2150E333-8FDC-42A3-9474-1A3956D46DE8}") = "Demo", "Demo", "{4186BBA3-F EndProject Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "SampleConsoleApp", "SampleConsoleApp\SampleConsoleApp.csproj", "{AA86F904-90E5-407F-87B6-688ED8A2FF85}" EndProject -Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "DemoApp", "DemoApp\DemoApp.csproj", "{7C2CFF68-CFCD-4069-8EB4-FF136084DE1B}" -EndProject Project("{9A19103F-16F7-4668-BE54-9A1E7A4F7556}") = "TrieNet", "TrieNet\TrieNet.csproj", "{1A60C4E2-8E02-48C4-BAFA-8EA0FE1BAE5E}" EndProject Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "TrieNet.Test", "TrieNet.Test\TrieNet.Test.csproj", "{84284C14-F2EE-47E1-AD63-E001A98D5954}" EndProject -Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "DemoApp2", "DemoApp2\DemoApp2.csproj", "{3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}" +Project("{9A19103F-16F7-4668-BE54-9A1E7A4F7556}") = "DemoApp", "DemoApp2\DemoApp.csproj", "{3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}" EndProject Global GlobalSection(SolutionConfigurationPlatforms) = preSolution @@ -38,13 +36,6 @@ Global {AA86F904-90E5-407F-87B6-688ED8A2FF85}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU {AA86F904-90E5-407F-87B6-688ED8A2FF85}.Release|x86.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU {AA86F904-90E5-407F-87B6-688ED8A2FF85}.Release|x86.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU - {7C2CFF68-CFCD-4069-8EB4-FF136084DE1B}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|x86 - {7C2CFF68-CFCD-4069-8EB4-FF136084DE1B}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|x86 - {7C2CFF68-CFCD-4069-8EB4-FF136084DE1B}.Debug|x86.ActiveCfg = Debug|x86 - {7C2CFF68-CFCD-4069-8EB4-FF136084DE1B}.Debug|x86.Build.0 = Debug|x86 - {7C2CFF68-CFCD-4069-8EB4-FF136084DE1B}.Release|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Release|x86 - {7C2CFF68-CFCD-4069-8EB4-FF136084DE1B}.Release|x86.ActiveCfg = Release|x86 - {7C2CFF68-CFCD-4069-8EB4-FF136084DE1B}.Release|x86.Build.0 = Release|x86 {1A60C4E2-8E02-48C4-BAFA-8EA0FE1BAE5E}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU {1A60C4E2-8E02-48C4-BAFA-8EA0FE1BAE5E}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU {1A60C4E2-8E02-48C4-BAFA-8EA0FE1BAE5E}.Debug|x86.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU @@ -75,7 +66,6 @@ Global EndGlobalSection GlobalSection(NestedProjects) = preSolution {AA86F904-90E5-407F-87B6-688ED8A2FF85} = {4186BBA3-FBD8-408B-AF5A-2848A4073DD1} - {7C2CFF68-CFCD-4069-8EB4-FF136084DE1B} = {4186BBA3-FBD8-408B-AF5A-2848A4073DD1} {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16} = {4186BBA3-FBD8-408B-AF5A-2848A4073DD1} EndGlobalSection GlobalSection(ExtensibilityGlobals) = postSolution From fb6703c3a87706143235b2dce7b60e38cf25300a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 00:07:52 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 07/25] remove usings --- DemoApp2/MainForm.cs | 8 +------- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 7 deletions(-) diff --git a/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs b/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs index d26a72d..d2e722e 100644 --- a/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs +++ b/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs @@ -1,14 +1,7 @@ // This code is distributed under MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 George Mamaladze // See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php using Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch; -using System; -using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Diagnostics; -using System.Drawing; -using System.IO; -using System.Linq; -using System.Text; -using System.Windows.Forms; namespace DemoApp2 { public partial class MainForm : Form { @@ -104,6 +97,7 @@ private void LoadAll() { UpdateProgress(index + 1); } progressText.Text = string.Format("{0:n0} words read. Ready.", m_WordCount); + UpdateProgress(0); } } } \ No newline at end of file From b367b404387d3cfd8def23191e8e5e71676779df Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 00:15:24 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 08/25] remove unused code --- DemoApp2/MainForm.cs | 6 ------ DemoApp2/WordPosition2.cs | 36 ------------------------------------ 2 files changed, 42 deletions(-) delete mode 100644 DemoApp2/WordPosition2.cs diff --git a/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs b/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs index d2e722e..b249c57 100644 --- a/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs +++ b/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs @@ -44,14 +44,8 @@ private void textBox1_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { private void listBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { var item = (WordPosition)listBox1.SelectedItem; var word = File.ReadAllText(Path.Combine("texts", item.Value)); - //if (item == null) return; - //using (FileStream file = File.Open(Path.Combine("texts", item.Value), FileMode.Open)) { const int bifferSize = 300; int position = Math.Max((int)item.CharPosition - bifferSize / 2, 0); - //file.Seek(position, SeekOrigin.Begin); - //var buffer = new byte[bifferSize]; - //file.Read(buffer, 0, bifferSize); - //string line = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(buffer); string line = word.Substring(position, bifferSize); richTextBox1.Text = line; diff --git a/DemoApp2/WordPosition2.cs b/DemoApp2/WordPosition2.cs deleted file mode 100644 index 8b09c09..0000000 --- a/DemoApp2/WordPosition2.cs +++ /dev/null @@ -1,36 +0,0 @@ -// This code is distributed under MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 George Mamaladze -// See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php -using System.IO; - -namespace DemoApp2 { - internal class WordPosition2 - { - private readonly long m_CharPosition; - private readonly string m_FileName; - - public WordPosition2(long charPosition, string fileName) - { - m_CharPosition = charPosition; - m_FileName = fileName; - } - - public string FileName - { - get { return m_FileName; } - } - - public long CharPosition - { - get { return m_CharPosition; } - } - - public override string ToString() - { - return - string.Format( - "( Pos {0} ) {1}", - CharPosition, - Path.GetFileName(FileName)); - } - } -} \ No newline at end of file From b47ad8bd38f70a696181f93846e912eb10478d7a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 00:22:20 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 09/25] Added new ISuffixTrie interface --- TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs | 18 ++++++++++++++++++ TrieNet/ITrie.cs | 2 +- TrieNet/{_Ukkonen => }/WordPosition.cs | 15 +++++---------- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs | 5 +---- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs | 2 +- 5 files changed, 26 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-) create mode 100644 TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs rename TrieNet/{_Ukkonen => }/WordPosition.cs (73%) diff --git a/TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs b/TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5b84bfc --- /dev/null +++ b/TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +// This code is distributed under MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 George Mamaladze +// See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php +using System.Collections.Generic; + +namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch +{ + /// + /// Interface to be implemented by a data structure + /// which allows adding values associated with string keys. + /// The interface allows retrieval of multiple values along with their positions. + /// + /// + public interface ISuffixTrie + { + IEnumerable> Retrieve(string query); + void Add(string key, TValue value); + } +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/TrieNet/ITrie.cs b/TrieNet/ITrie.cs index 6d8e78a..6de0ec3 100644 --- a/TrieNet/ITrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/ITrie.cs @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch /// /// Interface to be implemented by a data structure /// which allows adding values associated with string keys. - /// The interface allows retrieveal of multiple values + /// The interface allows retrieval of multiple values . /// /// public interface ITrie diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/WordPosition.cs b/TrieNet/WordPosition.cs similarity index 73% rename from TrieNet/_Ukkonen/WordPosition.cs rename to TrieNet/WordPosition.cs index 4555bd7..6f17848 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/WordPosition.cs +++ b/TrieNet/WordPosition.cs @@ -2,29 +2,24 @@ // See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { - public struct WordPosition - { + public struct WordPosition { private readonly long m_CharPosition; private readonly T m_Value; - public WordPosition(long charPosition, T value) - { + public WordPosition(long charPosition, T value) { m_CharPosition = charPosition; m_Value = value; } - public T Value - { + public T Value { get { return m_Value; } } - public long CharPosition - { + public long CharPosition { get { return m_CharPosition; } } - public override string ToString() - { + public override string ToString() { return string.Format( "( Pos {0} ) {1}", diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs index f44354a..236bca0 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs @@ -1,11 +1,8 @@ -using System; -using System.Collections.Generic; +using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { - - internal class Node { private readonly IDictionary> _edges; diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs index 1108a72..b37c3f8 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { - public class UkkonenTrie// : ITrie + public class UkkonenTrie : ISuffixTrie { private readonly int _minSuffixLength; From 74e4b2f1953e395ffefbb3fcb11ec4ba02131d3c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 00:38:41 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 10/25] Let ISuffixTrie inherit ITrie --- TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs | 5 ++--- TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs | 24 ++++++++++++--------- TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs | 23 ++++++++++++-------- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs | 7 +++++- 4 files changed, 36 insertions(+), 23 deletions(-) diff --git a/TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs b/TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs index 5b84bfc..8d210b6 100644 --- a/TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs @@ -10,9 +10,8 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch /// The interface allows retrieval of multiple values along with their positions. /// /// - public interface ISuffixTrie + public interface ISuffixTrie : ITrie { - IEnumerable> Retrieve(string query); - void Add(string key, TValue value); + IEnumerable> RetrieveSubstrings(string query); } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs index 28070fb..8246d4b 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs @@ -7,18 +7,18 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { [Serializable] - public class PatriciaSuffixTrie : ITrie + public class PatriciaSuffixTrie : ISuffixTrie { private readonly int m_MinQueryLength; - private readonly PatriciaTrie m_InnerTrie; + private readonly PatriciaTrie> m_InnerTrie; public PatriciaSuffixTrie(int minQueryLength) - : this(minQueryLength, new PatriciaTrie()) + : this(minQueryLength, new PatriciaTrie>()) { } - internal PatriciaSuffixTrie(int minQueryLength, PatriciaTrie innerTrie) + internal PatriciaSuffixTrie(int minQueryLength, PatriciaTrie> innerTrie) { m_MinQueryLength = minQueryLength; m_InnerTrie = innerTrie; @@ -35,7 +35,12 @@ public long Size { } } - public IEnumerable Retrieve(string query) + public IEnumerable Retrieve(string word) + { + return RetrieveSubstrings(word).Select(o => o.Value); + } + + public IEnumerable> RetrieveSubstrings(string query) { return m_InnerTrie @@ -45,18 +50,17 @@ public IEnumerable Retrieve(string query) public void Add(string key, TValue value) { - IEnumerable allSuffixes = GetAllSuffixes(MinQueryLength, key); - foreach (StringPartition currentSuffix in allSuffixes) + foreach ((StringPartition currentSuffix, int position) in GetAllSuffixes(MinQueryLength, key)) { - m_InnerTrie.Add(currentSuffix, value); + m_InnerTrie.Add(currentSuffix, new WordPosition(position, value)); } } - private static IEnumerable GetAllSuffixes(int minSuffixLength, string word) + private static IEnumerable> GetAllSuffixes(int minSuffixLength, string word) { for (int i = word.Length - minSuffixLength; i >= 0; i--) { - yield return new StringPartition(word, i); + yield return new Tuple(new StringPartition(word, i), i); } } } diff --git a/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs index 50fe8c5..0b10dc4 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs @@ -7,17 +7,17 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { [Serializable] - public class SuffixTrie : ITrie + public class SuffixTrie : ISuffixTrie { - private readonly Trie m_InnerTrie; + private readonly Trie> m_InnerTrie; private readonly int m_MinSuffixLength; public SuffixTrie(int minSuffixLength) - : this(new Trie(), minSuffixLength) + : this(new Trie>(), minSuffixLength) { } - private SuffixTrie(Trie innerTrie, int minSuffixLength) + private SuffixTrie(Trie> innerTrie, int minSuffixLength) { m_InnerTrie = innerTrie; m_MinSuffixLength = minSuffixLength; @@ -29,7 +29,12 @@ public long Size { } } - public IEnumerable Retrieve(string query) + public IEnumerable Retrieve(string word) + { + return RetrieveSubstrings(word).Select(o => o.Value); + } + + public IEnumerable> RetrieveSubstrings(string query) { return m_InnerTrie @@ -39,18 +44,18 @@ public IEnumerable Retrieve(string query) public void Add(string key, T value) { - foreach (string suffix in GetAllSuffixes(m_MinSuffixLength, key)) + foreach ((string suffix, int position) in GetAllSuffixes(m_MinSuffixLength, key)) { - m_InnerTrie.Add(suffix, value); + m_InnerTrie.Add(suffix, new WordPosition(position, value)); } } - private static IEnumerable GetAllSuffixes(int minSuffixLength, string word) + private static IEnumerable> GetAllSuffixes(int minSuffixLength, string word) { for (int i = word.Length - minSuffixLength; i >= 0; i--) { var partition = new StringPartition(word, i); - yield return partition.ToString(); + yield return new Tuple(partition.ToString(), i); } } } diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs index b37c3f8..3463079 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs @@ -31,7 +31,12 @@ public long Size { } } - public IEnumerable> Retrieve(string word) + public IEnumerable Retrieve(string word) + { + return RetrieveSubstrings(word).Select(o => o.Value); + } + + public IEnumerable> RetrieveSubstrings(string word) { if (word.Length < _minSuffixLength) return Enumerable.Empty>(); var tmpNode = SearchNode(word); From b8142c92ae5736be5a10ac4fb690e0c0993685fa Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 00:50:39 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 11/25] Update Test project --- TrieNet.Test/TrieNet.Test.csproj | 84 +++++++------------------------- TrieNet.Test/packages.config | 4 -- TrieNet.sln | 20 ++++---- 3 files changed, 28 insertions(+), 80 deletions(-) delete mode 100644 TrieNet.Test/packages.config diff --git a/TrieNet.Test/TrieNet.Test.csproj b/TrieNet.Test/TrieNet.Test.csproj index 4e04f74..9810d2b 100644 --- a/TrieNet.Test/TrieNet.Test.csproj +++ b/TrieNet.Test/TrieNet.Test.csproj @@ -1,79 +1,31 @@ - - + + - Debug - AnyCPU - 8.0.30703 - 2.0 - {84284C14-F2EE-47E1-AD63-E001A98D5954} - Library - Properties - Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.Test - Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.Test - v4.6.1 - 512 - + net6.0 + enable + + false - - true - full - false - bin\Debug\ - DEBUG;TRACE - prompt - 4 - false - - - pdbonly - true - bin\Release\ - TRACE - prompt - 4 - false - - - - ..\packages\NUnit.3.8.1\lib\net45\nunit.framework.dll - - - - + - - - - - - - - - - - - + + PreserveNewest + - + + + + + - - {17125877-2cf0-42b2-89d3-418e40bde5d0} - TrieNet - + - - - \ No newline at end of file + + diff --git a/TrieNet.Test/packages.config b/TrieNet.Test/packages.config deleted file mode 100644 index 0ee860b..0000000 --- a/TrieNet.Test/packages.config +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4 +0,0 @@ - - - - \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/TrieNet.sln b/TrieNet.sln index 5ef6267..d0a6329 100644 --- a/TrieNet.sln +++ b/TrieNet.sln @@ -16,10 +16,10 @@ Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "SampleConsoleApp", "SampleC EndProject Project("{9A19103F-16F7-4668-BE54-9A1E7A4F7556}") = "TrieNet", "TrieNet\TrieNet.csproj", "{1A60C4E2-8E02-48C4-BAFA-8EA0FE1BAE5E}" EndProject -Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "TrieNet.Test", "TrieNet.Test\TrieNet.Test.csproj", "{84284C14-F2EE-47E1-AD63-E001A98D5954}" -EndProject Project("{9A19103F-16F7-4668-BE54-9A1E7A4F7556}") = "DemoApp", "DemoApp2\DemoApp.csproj", "{3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}" EndProject +Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "TrieNet.Test", "TrieNet.Test2\TrieNet.Test.csproj", "{C818EAA2-F29A-4F67-A572-8BC24683F6A4}" +EndProject Global GlobalSection(SolutionConfigurationPlatforms) = preSolution Debug|Any CPU = Debug|Any CPU @@ -44,14 +44,6 @@ Global {1A60C4E2-8E02-48C4-BAFA-8EA0FE1BAE5E}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU {1A60C4E2-8E02-48C4-BAFA-8EA0FE1BAE5E}.Release|x86.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU {1A60C4E2-8E02-48C4-BAFA-8EA0FE1BAE5E}.Release|x86.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU - {84284C14-F2EE-47E1-AD63-E001A98D5954}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU - {84284C14-F2EE-47E1-AD63-E001A98D5954}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU - {84284C14-F2EE-47E1-AD63-E001A98D5954}.Debug|x86.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU - {84284C14-F2EE-47E1-AD63-E001A98D5954}.Debug|x86.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU - {84284C14-F2EE-47E1-AD63-E001A98D5954}.Release|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU - {84284C14-F2EE-47E1-AD63-E001A98D5954}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU - {84284C14-F2EE-47E1-AD63-E001A98D5954}.Release|x86.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU - {84284C14-F2EE-47E1-AD63-E001A98D5954}.Release|x86.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Debug|x86.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU @@ -60,6 +52,14 @@ Global {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Release|x86.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Release|x86.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU + {C818EAA2-F29A-4F67-A572-8BC24683F6A4}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU + {C818EAA2-F29A-4F67-A572-8BC24683F6A4}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU + {C818EAA2-F29A-4F67-A572-8BC24683F6A4}.Debug|x86.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU + {C818EAA2-F29A-4F67-A572-8BC24683F6A4}.Debug|x86.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU + {C818EAA2-F29A-4F67-A572-8BC24683F6A4}.Release|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU + {C818EAA2-F29A-4F67-A572-8BC24683F6A4}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU + {C818EAA2-F29A-4F67-A572-8BC24683F6A4}.Release|x86.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU + {C818EAA2-F29A-4F67-A572-8BC24683F6A4}.Release|x86.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU EndGlobalSection GlobalSection(SolutionProperties) = preSolution HideSolutionNode = FALSE From 3b6df9fdd39ffc3b86df7d6583c63b2e6814de74 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 14:25:36 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 12/25] moved stuff --- DemoApp/DemoApp.csproj | 127 +- DemoApp/DemoApp.csproj.user | 10 +- DemoApp/FakeTrie.cs | 32 - DemoApp/MainForm.Designer.cs | 6 +- DemoApp/MainForm.cs | 142 +- DemoApp/MainForm.resx | 3 - DemoApp/Program.cs | 25 +- DemoApp/Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs | 14 - DemoApp/Properties/Resources.Designer.cs | 63 - DemoApp/Properties/Resources.resx | 117 - DemoApp/Properties/Settings.Designer.cs | 26 - DemoApp/Properties/Settings.settings | 7 - DemoApp/WordPosition.cs | 37 - DemoApp/app.config | 3 - DemoApp2/DemoApp.csproj | 36 - DemoApp2/MainForm.Designer.cs | 231 - DemoApp2/MainForm.cs | 97 - DemoApp2/MainForm.resx | 120 - DemoApp2/Program.cs | 14 - ...ures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt | 12361 ---------------- ...entures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.txt | 3735 ----- ...Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm.txt | 9569 ------------ DemoApp2/texts/Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.txt | 6648 --------- DemoApp2/texts/QuickBrownFox.txt | 1 - SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs | 7 +- SampleConsoleApp/SampleConsoleApp.csproj | 64 +- SampleConsoleApp/app.config | 3 - TrieNet.sln | 60 +- 28 files changed, 123 insertions(+), 33435 deletions(-) delete mode 100644 DemoApp/FakeTrie.cs delete mode 100644 DemoApp/Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs delete mode 100644 DemoApp/Properties/Resources.Designer.cs delete mode 100644 DemoApp/Properties/Resources.resx delete mode 100644 DemoApp/Properties/Settings.Designer.cs delete mode 100644 DemoApp/Properties/Settings.settings delete mode 100644 DemoApp/WordPosition.cs delete mode 100644 DemoApp/app.config delete mode 100644 DemoApp2/DemoApp.csproj delete mode 100644 DemoApp2/MainForm.Designer.cs delete mode 100644 DemoApp2/MainForm.cs delete mode 100644 DemoApp2/MainForm.resx delete mode 100644 DemoApp2/Program.cs delete mode 100644 DemoApp2/texts/Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt delete mode 100644 DemoApp2/texts/Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.txt delete mode 100644 DemoApp2/texts/Grimms' Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm.txt delete mode 100644 DemoApp2/texts/Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.txt delete mode 100644 DemoApp2/texts/QuickBrownFox.txt delete mode 100644 SampleConsoleApp/app.config diff --git a/DemoApp/DemoApp.csproj b/DemoApp/DemoApp.csproj index b732bb5..0c951b2 100644 --- a/DemoApp/DemoApp.csproj +++ b/DemoApp/DemoApp.csproj @@ -1,119 +1,36 @@ - - + + - Debug - x86 - 8.0.30703 - 2.0 - {7C2CFF68-CFCD-4069-8EB4-FF136084DE1B} WinExe - Properties - Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.DemoApp - Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.DemoApp - v4.6.1 - - - 512 - - - AnyCPU - true - full - false - bin\Debug\ - DEBUG;TRACE - prompt - 4 - false - - - x86 - pdbonly - true - bin\Release\ - TRACE - prompt - 4 - false + net6.0-windows + enable + true + enable + - - - - - - - - - - - + + - - - Form - - - MainForm.cs - - - - - - MainForm.cs - - - ResXFileCodeGenerator - Resources.Designer.cs - Designer - - - True - Resources.resx - True - - - - SettingsSingleFileGenerator - Settings.Designer.cs + + PreserveNewest - - True - Settings.settings - True - - - - + PreserveNewest - - + + PreserveNewest - - + + PreserveNewest - - + + PreserveNewest - - + + PreserveNewest - - - - - {17125877-2cf0-42b2-89d3-418e40bde5d0} - TrieNet - + - - - + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp/DemoApp.csproj.user b/DemoApp/DemoApp.csproj.user index a4a6cdf..cf98a90 100644 --- a/DemoApp/DemoApp.csproj.user +++ b/DemoApp/DemoApp.csproj.user @@ -1,6 +1,8 @@  - - - ProjectFiles - + + + + Form + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp/FakeTrie.cs b/DemoApp/FakeTrie.cs deleted file mode 100644 index ce22784..0000000 --- a/DemoApp/FakeTrie.cs +++ /dev/null @@ -1,32 +0,0 @@ -// This code is distributed under MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 George Mamaladze -// See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php -using System.Collections.Generic; - -namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.DemoApp -{ - public class FakeTrie : ITrie - { - private readonly Stack> m_Stack; - - public FakeTrie() - { - m_Stack = new Stack>(); - } - - public IEnumerable Retrieve(string query) - { - foreach (var keyValuePair in m_Stack) - { - string key = keyValuePair.Key; - T value = keyValuePair.Value; - if (key.Contains(query)) yield return value; - } - } - - public void Add(string key, T value) - { - var keyValPair = new KeyValuePair(key, value); - m_Stack.Push(keyValPair); - } - } -} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp/MainForm.Designer.cs b/DemoApp/MainForm.Designer.cs index 5e75b3f..d8f9801 100644 --- a/DemoApp/MainForm.Designer.cs +++ b/DemoApp/MainForm.Designer.cs @@ -1,5 +1,4 @@ -namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.DemoApp -{ +namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.DemoApp { partial class MainForm { /// @@ -229,5 +228,4 @@ private void InitializeComponent() private System.Windows.Forms.GroupBox groupBox3; private System.Windows.Forms.Label progressText; } -} - +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp/MainForm.cs b/DemoApp/MainForm.cs index 9f2dc92..8ce3017 100644 --- a/DemoApp/MainForm.cs +++ b/DemoApp/MainForm.cs @@ -1,119 +1,63 @@ -// This code is distributed under MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 George Mamaladze +// This code is distributed under MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 George Mamaladze // See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php -using System; -using System.Collections.Generic; -using System.Drawing; -using System.IO; -using System.Linq; -using System.Text; -using System.Windows.Forms; +using Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch; +using System.Diagnostics; -namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.DemoApp -{ - public partial class MainForm : Form - { - private readonly ITrie m_PatriciaTrie; +namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.DemoApp { + public partial class MainForm : Form { + private readonly UkkonenTrie m_Trie; + private static readonly char[] delimiters = new char[] { ' ', '\r', '\n' }; private long m_WordCount; - public MainForm() - { + public MainForm() { InitializeComponent(); - m_PatriciaTrie = new SuffixTrie(3); - //m_PatriciaTrie = new FakeTrie(); + m_Trie = new UkkonenTrie(3); folderName.Text = Path.Combine( Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(), "texts"); } - private void LoadFile(string fileName) - { - Tuple[] words = GetWords(fileName).ToArray(); - foreach (var word in words) - { - string text = word.Item2; - WordPosition wordPosition = word.Item1; - m_PatriciaTrie.Add(text, wordPosition); - } - } - - - private IEnumerable> GetWords(string file) - { - using (Stream stream = File.Open(file, FileMode.Open)) - { - var word = new StringBuilder(); - while (true) - { - long position = stream.Position; - int data = (char) stream.ReadByte(); - { - if (data > byte.MaxValue) break; - var ch = (Char) data; - if (char.IsLetter(ch)) - { - word.Append(ch); - } - else - { - if (word.Length != 0) - { - var wordPosition = new WordPosition(position, file); - yield return new Tuple(wordPosition, word.ToString().ToLower()); - word.Clear(); - m_WordCount++; - } - } - } - UpdateProgress(position); - } - } + private void LoadFile(string fileName) { + var word = File.ReadAllText(fileName); + m_Trie.Add(word, Path.GetFileName(fileName)); + m_WordCount += word.Split(delimiters, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries).Length; + Debug.WriteLine($"Loaded {word.Length} characters."); + Debug.WriteLine($"Trie size = {m_Trie.Size}"); } - private void UpdateProgress(long position) - { - if (position%1024 != 0) return; - progressBar1.Value = Math.Min((int) position/1024*2, progressBar1.Maximum); + private void UpdateProgress(int position) { + progressBar1.Value = Math.Min(position, progressBar1.Maximum); Application.DoEvents(); } - private void textBox1_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) - { + private void textBox1_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { string text = textBox1.Text; if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(text) || text.Length < 3) return; - WordPosition[] result = m_PatriciaTrie.Retrieve(text).ToArray(); + var result = m_Trie.RetrieveSubstrings(text).ToArray(); listBox1.Items.Clear(); - foreach (WordPosition wordPosition in result) - { + foreach (var wordPosition in result) { listBox1.Items.Add(wordPosition); } } - private void listBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) - { - var item = listBox1.SelectedItem as WordPosition; - if (item == null) return; - using (FileStream file = File.Open(item.FileName, FileMode.Open)) - { - const int bifferSize = 200; - long position = Math.Max(item.CharPosition - bifferSize/2, 0); - file.Seek(position, SeekOrigin.Begin); - var buffer = new byte[bifferSize]; - file.Read(buffer, 0, bifferSize); - string line = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(buffer); - richTextBox1.Text = line; + private void listBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { + var item = (WordPosition)listBox1.SelectedItem; + var word = File.ReadAllText(Path.Combine("texts", item.Value)); + const int bifferSize = 300; + int position = Math.Max((int)item.CharPosition - bifferSize / 2, 0); + string line = word.Substring(position, bifferSize); + richTextBox1.Text = line; - string serachText = textBox1.Text; - int index = richTextBox1.Text.IndexOf(serachText, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase); - if (index < 0) return; - richTextBox1.Select(index, serachText.Length); - richTextBox1.SelectionBackColor = Color.Yellow; - richTextBox1.DeselectAll(); - } + string serachText = textBox1.Text; + int index = richTextBox1.Text.IndexOf(serachText, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase); + if (index < 0) return; + richTextBox1.Select(index, serachText.Length); + richTextBox1.SelectionBackColor = Color.Yellow; + richTextBox1.DeselectAll(); } - private void buttonBrowse_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) - { + private void buttonBrowse_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { var folderBrowserDialog = new FolderBrowserDialog(); folderBrowserDialog.SelectedPath = folderName.Text; DialogResult result = folderBrowserDialog.ShowDialog(); @@ -121,35 +65,33 @@ private void buttonBrowse_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) folderName.Text = folderBrowserDialog.SelectedPath; } - private void btnLoad_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) - { + private void btnLoad_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { LoadAll(); } - private void LoadAll() - { + private void LoadAll() { m_WordCount = 0; string path = folderName.Text; if (!Directory.Exists(path)) return; string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(path, "*.txt", SearchOption.AllDirectories); progressBar1.Minimum = 0; + progressBar1.Maximum = files.Length; progressBar1.Step = 1; - for (int index = 0; index < files.Length; index++) - { + for (int index = 0; index < files.Length; index++) { string file = files[index]; progressText.Text = string.Format( "Processing file {0} of {1}: [{2}]", - index, + index + 1, files.Length, Path.GetFileName(file)); + Application.DoEvents(); - var fileInfo = new FileInfo(file); - progressBar1.Maximum = (int) fileInfo.Length/1024; LoadFile(file); - progressBar1.Value = 0; + UpdateProgress(index + 1); } progressText.Text = string.Format("{0:n0} words read. Ready.", m_WordCount); + UpdateProgress(0); } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp/MainForm.resx b/DemoApp/MainForm.resx index 5c2c375..1af7de1 100644 --- a/DemoApp/MainForm.resx +++ b/DemoApp/MainForm.resx @@ -117,7 +117,4 @@ System.Resources.ResXResourceWriter, System.Windows.Forms, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089 - - 17, 17 - \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp/Program.cs b/DemoApp/Program.cs index 6178a20..54acc16 100644 --- a/DemoApp/Program.cs +++ b/DemoApp/Program.cs @@ -1,23 +1,14 @@ -// This code is distributed under MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 George Mamaladze -// See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php -using System; -using System.Collections.Generic; -using System.Linq; -using System.Windows.Forms; - -namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.DemoApp -{ - static class Program - { +namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.DemoApp { + internal static class Program { /// - /// The main entry point for the application. + /// The main entry point for the application. /// [STAThread] - static void Main() - { - Application.EnableVisualStyles(); - Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false); + static void Main() { + // To customize application configuration such as set high DPI settings or default font, + // see https://aka.ms/applicationconfiguration. + ApplicationConfiguration.Initialize(); Application.Run(new MainForm()); } } -} +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp/Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs b/DemoApp/Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs deleted file mode 100644 index b4d8ffe..0000000 --- a/DemoApp/Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs +++ /dev/null @@ -1,14 +0,0 @@ -// This code is distributed under MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 George Mamaladze -// See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php -using System.Reflection; -using System.Runtime.InteropServices; - -[assembly: AssemblyTitle("Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.DemoApp")] -[assembly: AssemblyDescription("An Application to demonstrate .NET Data Structures for Substring Search, Auto-completion and Intelli-sense.")] -[assembly: AssemblyCompany("George Mamaladze")] -[assembly: AssemblyProduct("Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.DemoApp")] -[assembly: AssemblyCopyright("Copyright © George Mamaladze 2013")] -[assembly: ComVisible(false)] -[assembly: Guid("dd3d4d0d-0bc4-4a0c-a8dd-76e70b5e9ee5")] -[assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.1.*")] - diff --git a/DemoApp/Properties/Resources.Designer.cs b/DemoApp/Properties/Resources.Designer.cs deleted file mode 100644 index c7876df..0000000 --- a/DemoApp/Properties/Resources.Designer.cs +++ /dev/null @@ -1,63 +0,0 @@ -//------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -// -// This code was generated by a tool. -// Runtime Version:4.0.30319.42000 -// -// Changes to this file may cause incorrect behavior and will be lost if -// the code is regenerated. -// -//------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - -namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.DemoApp.Properties { - using System; - - - /// - /// A strongly-typed resource class, for looking up localized strings, etc. - /// - // This class was auto-generated by the StronglyTypedResourceBuilder - // class via a tool like ResGen or Visual Studio. - // To add or remove a member, edit your .ResX file then rerun ResGen - // with the /str option, or rebuild your VS project. - [global::System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("System.Resources.Tools.StronglyTypedResourceBuilder", "15.0.0.0")] - [global::System.Diagnostics.DebuggerNonUserCodeAttribute()] - [global::System.Runtime.CompilerServices.CompilerGeneratedAttribute()] - internal class Resources { - - private static global::System.Resources.ResourceManager resourceMan; - - private static global::System.Globalization.CultureInfo resourceCulture; - - [global::System.Diagnostics.CodeAnalysis.SuppressMessageAttribute("Microsoft.Performance", "CA1811:AvoidUncalledPrivateCode")] - internal Resources() { - } - - /// - /// Returns the cached ResourceManager instance used by this class. - /// - [global::System.ComponentModel.EditorBrowsableAttribute(global::System.ComponentModel.EditorBrowsableState.Advanced)] - internal static global::System.Resources.ResourceManager ResourceManager { - get { - if (object.ReferenceEquals(resourceMan, null)) { - global::System.Resources.ResourceManager temp = new global::System.Resources.ResourceManager("Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.DemoApp.Properties.Resources", typeof(Resources).Assembly); - resourceMan = temp; - } - return resourceMan; - } - } - - /// - /// Overrides the current thread's CurrentUICulture property for all - /// resource lookups using this strongly typed resource class. - /// - [global::System.ComponentModel.EditorBrowsableAttribute(global::System.ComponentModel.EditorBrowsableState.Advanced)] - internal static global::System.Globalization.CultureInfo Culture { - get { - return resourceCulture; - } - set { - resourceCulture = value; - } - } - } -} diff --git a/DemoApp/Properties/Resources.resx b/DemoApp/Properties/Resources.resx deleted file mode 100644 index af7dbeb..0000000 --- a/DemoApp/Properties/Resources.resx +++ /dev/null @@ -1,117 +0,0 @@ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - text/microsoft-resx - - - 2.0 - - - System.Resources.ResXResourceReader, System.Windows.Forms, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089 - - - System.Resources.ResXResourceWriter, System.Windows.Forms, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089 - - \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp/Properties/Settings.Designer.cs b/DemoApp/Properties/Settings.Designer.cs deleted file mode 100644 index dff00b6..0000000 --- a/DemoApp/Properties/Settings.Designer.cs +++ /dev/null @@ -1,26 +0,0 @@ -//------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -// -// This code was generated by a tool. -// Runtime Version:4.0.30319.42000 -// -// Changes to this file may cause incorrect behavior and will be lost if -// the code is regenerated. -// -//------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - -namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.DemoApp.Properties { - - - [global::System.Runtime.CompilerServices.CompilerGeneratedAttribute()] - [global::System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("Microsoft.VisualStudio.Editors.SettingsDesigner.SettingsSingleFileGenerator", "15.3.0.0")] - internal sealed partial class Settings : global::System.Configuration.ApplicationSettingsBase { - - private static Settings defaultInstance = ((Settings)(global::System.Configuration.ApplicationSettingsBase.Synchronized(new Settings()))); - - public static Settings Default { - get { - return defaultInstance; - } - } - } -} diff --git a/DemoApp/Properties/Settings.settings b/DemoApp/Properties/Settings.settings deleted file mode 100644 index 3964565..0000000 --- a/DemoApp/Properties/Settings.settings +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7 +0,0 @@ - - - - - - - diff --git a/DemoApp/WordPosition.cs b/DemoApp/WordPosition.cs deleted file mode 100644 index 393f47f..0000000 --- a/DemoApp/WordPosition.cs +++ /dev/null @@ -1,37 +0,0 @@ -// This code is distributed under MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 George Mamaladze -// See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php -using System.IO; - -namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.DemoApp -{ - internal class WordPosition - { - private readonly long m_CharPosition; - private readonly string m_FileName; - - public WordPosition(long charPosition, string fileName) - { - m_CharPosition = charPosition; - m_FileName = fileName; - } - - public string FileName - { - get { return m_FileName; } - } - - public long CharPosition - { - get { return m_CharPosition; } - } - - public override string ToString() - { - return - string.Format( - "( Pos {0} ) {1}", - CharPosition, - Path.GetFileName(FileName)); - } - } -} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp/app.config b/DemoApp/app.config deleted file mode 100644 index 3dbff35..0000000 --- a/DemoApp/app.config +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3 +0,0 @@ - - - diff --git a/DemoApp2/DemoApp.csproj b/DemoApp2/DemoApp.csproj deleted file mode 100644 index 0c951b2..0000000 --- a/DemoApp2/DemoApp.csproj +++ /dev/null @@ -1,36 +0,0 @@ - - - - WinExe - net6.0-windows - enable - true - enable - - - - - - - - - PreserveNewest - - - PreserveNewest - - - PreserveNewest - - - PreserveNewest - - - PreserveNewest - - - PreserveNewest - - - - \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp2/MainForm.Designer.cs b/DemoApp2/MainForm.Designer.cs deleted file mode 100644 index 9441982..0000000 --- a/DemoApp2/MainForm.Designer.cs +++ /dev/null @@ -1,231 +0,0 @@ -namespace DemoApp2 { - partial class MainForm - { - /// - /// Required designer variable. - /// - private System.ComponentModel.IContainer components = null; - - /// - /// Clean up any resources being used. - /// - /// true if managed resources should be disposed; otherwise, false. - protected override void Dispose(bool disposing) - { - if (disposing && (components != null)) - { - components.Dispose(); - } - base.Dispose(disposing); - } - - #region Windows Form Designer generated code - - /// - /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify - /// the contents of this method with the code editor. - /// - private void InitializeComponent() - { - this.textBox1 = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox(); - this.directorySearcher = new System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher(); - this.buttonBrowse = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); - this.listBox1 = new System.Windows.Forms.ListBox(); - this.richTextBox1 = new System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox(); - this.groupBox1 = new System.Windows.Forms.GroupBox(); - this.progressText = new System.Windows.Forms.Label(); - this.progressBar1 = new System.Windows.Forms.ProgressBar(); - this.btnLoad = new System.Windows.Forms.Button(); - this.label1 = new System.Windows.Forms.Label(); - this.folderName = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox(); - this.groupBox2 = new System.Windows.Forms.GroupBox(); - this.groupBox3 = new System.Windows.Forms.GroupBox(); - this.groupBox1.SuspendLayout(); - this.groupBox2.SuspendLayout(); - this.groupBox3.SuspendLayout(); - this.SuspendLayout(); - // - // textBox1 - // - this.textBox1.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) - | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); - this.textBox1.BorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.BorderStyle.FixedSingle; - this.textBox1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(10, 31); - this.textBox1.Margin = new System.Windows.Forms.Padding(4); - this.textBox1.Name = "textBox1"; - this.textBox1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(867, 22); - this.textBox1.TabIndex = 0; - this.textBox1.TextChanged += new System.EventHandler(this.textBox1_TextChanged); - // - // directorySearcher - // - this.directorySearcher.ClientTimeout = System.TimeSpan.Parse("-00:00:01"); - this.directorySearcher.ServerPageTimeLimit = System.TimeSpan.Parse("-00:00:01"); - this.directorySearcher.ServerTimeLimit = System.TimeSpan.Parse("-00:00:01"); - // - // buttonBrowse - // - this.buttonBrowse.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); - this.buttonBrowse.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(754, 21); - this.buttonBrowse.Margin = new System.Windows.Forms.Padding(4); - this.buttonBrowse.Name = "buttonBrowse"; - this.buttonBrowse.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(41, 28); - this.buttonBrowse.TabIndex = 1; - this.buttonBrowse.Text = "..."; - this.buttonBrowse.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true; - this.buttonBrowse.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.buttonBrowse_Click); - // - // listBox1 - // - this.listBox1.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom) - | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left))); - this.listBox1.BorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.BorderStyle.FixedSingle; - this.listBox1.FormattingEnabled = true; - this.listBox1.ItemHeight = 16; - this.listBox1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(10, 21); - this.listBox1.Name = "listBox1"; - this.listBox1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(581, 226); - this.listBox1.TabIndex = 2; - this.listBox1.SelectedIndexChanged += new System.EventHandler(this.listBox1_SelectedIndexChanged); - // - // richTextBox1 - // - this.richTextBox1.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom) - | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) - | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); - this.richTextBox1.BorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.BorderStyle.None; - this.richTextBox1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(597, 21); - this.richTextBox1.Name = "richTextBox1"; - this.richTextBox1.ScrollBars = System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBoxScrollBars.Vertical; - this.richTextBox1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(270, 218); - this.richTextBox1.TabIndex = 3; - this.richTextBox1.Text = ""; - // - // groupBox1 - // - this.groupBox1.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) - | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); - this.groupBox1.Controls.Add(this.progressText); - this.groupBox1.Controls.Add(this.progressBar1); - this.groupBox1.Controls.Add(this.btnLoad); - this.groupBox1.Controls.Add(this.label1); - this.groupBox1.Controls.Add(this.folderName); - this.groupBox1.Controls.Add(this.buttonBrowse); - this.groupBox1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(13, 13); - this.groupBox1.Name = "groupBox1"; - this.groupBox1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(884, 110); - this.groupBox1.TabIndex = 4; - this.groupBox1.TabStop = false; - this.groupBox1.Text = "1: Load files "; - // - // progressText - // - this.progressText.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) - | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); - this.progressText.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(12, 66); - this.progressText.Name = "progressText"; - this.progressText.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(865, 22); - this.progressText.TabIndex = 6; - // - // progressBar1 - // - this.progressBar1.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) - | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); - this.progressBar1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(10, 91); - this.progressBar1.Name = "progressBar1"; - this.progressBar1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(868, 13); - this.progressBar1.TabIndex = 5; - // - // btnLoad - // - this.btnLoad.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); - this.btnLoad.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(802, 21); - this.btnLoad.Name = "btnLoad"; - this.btnLoad.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(75, 28); - this.btnLoad.TabIndex = 4; - this.btnLoad.Text = "Load"; - this.btnLoad.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true; - this.btnLoad.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.btnLoad_Click); - // - // label1 - // - this.label1.AutoSize = true; - this.label1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(7, 27); - this.label1.Name = "label1"; - this.label1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(52, 17); - this.label1.TabIndex = 3; - this.label1.Text = "Folder:"; - // - // folderName - // - this.folderName.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) - | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); - this.folderName.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(65, 24); - this.folderName.Name = "folderName"; - this.folderName.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(682, 22); - this.folderName.TabIndex = 2; - // - // groupBox2 - // - this.groupBox2.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)(((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) - | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); - this.groupBox2.Controls.Add(this.textBox1); - this.groupBox2.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(13, 129); - this.groupBox2.Name = "groupBox2"; - this.groupBox2.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(884, 63); - this.groupBox2.TabIndex = 5; - this.groupBox2.TabStop = false; - this.groupBox2.Text = "2: Type a search string (more then 3 chars)"; - // - // groupBox3 - // - this.groupBox3.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles)((((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Top | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom) - | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) - | System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right))); - this.groupBox3.Controls.Add(this.richTextBox1); - this.groupBox3.Controls.Add(this.listBox1); - this.groupBox3.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(13, 198); - this.groupBox3.Name = "groupBox3"; - this.groupBox3.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(884, 258); - this.groupBox3.TabIndex = 6; - this.groupBox3.TabStop = false; - this.groupBox3.Text = "3: Click on items to see occurance"; - // - // MainForm - // - this.AutoScaleDimensions = new System.Drawing.SizeF(8F, 16F); - this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font; - this.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.White; - this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(909, 469); - this.Controls.Add(this.groupBox3); - this.Controls.Add(this.groupBox2); - this.Controls.Add(this.groupBox1); - this.Margin = new System.Windows.Forms.Padding(4); - this.Name = "MainForm"; - this.Text = "Trie Data Structure Demo"; - this.groupBox1.ResumeLayout(false); - this.groupBox1.PerformLayout(); - this.groupBox2.ResumeLayout(false); - this.groupBox2.PerformLayout(); - this.groupBox3.ResumeLayout(false); - this.ResumeLayout(false); - - } - - #endregion - - private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox textBox1; - private System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher directorySearcher; - private System.Windows.Forms.Button buttonBrowse; - private System.Windows.Forms.ListBox listBox1; - private System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox richTextBox1; - private System.Windows.Forms.GroupBox groupBox1; - private System.Windows.Forms.Button btnLoad; - private System.Windows.Forms.Label label1; - private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox folderName; - private System.Windows.Forms.ProgressBar progressBar1; - private System.Windows.Forms.GroupBox groupBox2; - private System.Windows.Forms.GroupBox groupBox3; - private System.Windows.Forms.Label progressText; - } -} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs b/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs deleted file mode 100644 index b249c57..0000000 --- a/DemoApp2/MainForm.cs +++ /dev/null @@ -1,97 +0,0 @@ -// This code is distributed under MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 George Mamaladze -// See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php -using Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch; -using System.Diagnostics; - -namespace DemoApp2 { - public partial class MainForm : Form { - private readonly UkkonenTrie m_Trie; - private static readonly char[] delimiters = new char[] { ' ', '\r', '\n' }; - private long m_WordCount; - - public MainForm() { - InitializeComponent(); - m_Trie = new UkkonenTrie(3); - folderName.Text = - Path.Combine( - Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(), - "texts"); - } - - private void LoadFile(string fileName) { - var word = File.ReadAllText(fileName); - m_Trie.Add(word, Path.GetFileName(fileName)); - m_WordCount += word.Split(delimiters, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries).Length; - Debug.WriteLine($"Loaded {word.Length} characters."); - Debug.WriteLine($"Trie size = {m_Trie.Size}"); - } - - private void UpdateProgress(int position) { - progressBar1.Value = Math.Min(position, progressBar1.Maximum); - Application.DoEvents(); - } - - private void textBox1_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { - string text = textBox1.Text; - if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(text) || text.Length < 3) return; - var result = m_Trie.Retrieve(text).ToArray(); - listBox1.Items.Clear(); - foreach (var wordPosition in result) { - listBox1.Items.Add(wordPosition); - } - } - - private void listBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { - var item = (WordPosition)listBox1.SelectedItem; - var word = File.ReadAllText(Path.Combine("texts", item.Value)); - const int bifferSize = 300; - int position = Math.Max((int)item.CharPosition - bifferSize / 2, 0); - string line = word.Substring(position, bifferSize); - richTextBox1.Text = line; - - string serachText = textBox1.Text; - int index = richTextBox1.Text.IndexOf(serachText, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase); - if (index < 0) return; - richTextBox1.Select(index, serachText.Length); - richTextBox1.SelectionBackColor = Color.Yellow; - richTextBox1.DeselectAll(); - } - - private void buttonBrowse_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { - var folderBrowserDialog = new FolderBrowserDialog(); - folderBrowserDialog.SelectedPath = folderName.Text; - DialogResult result = folderBrowserDialog.ShowDialog(); - if (result != DialogResult.OK) return; - folderName.Text = folderBrowserDialog.SelectedPath; - } - - private void btnLoad_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { - LoadAll(); - } - - private void LoadAll() { - m_WordCount = 0; - string path = folderName.Text; - if (!Directory.Exists(path)) return; - string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(path, "*.txt", SearchOption.AllDirectories); - progressBar1.Minimum = 0; - progressBar1.Maximum = files.Length; - progressBar1.Step = 1; - for (int index = 0; index < files.Length; index++) { - string file = files[index]; - progressText.Text = - string.Format( - "Processing file {0} of {1}: [{2}]", - index + 1, - files.Length, - Path.GetFileName(file)); - Application.DoEvents(); - - LoadFile(file); - UpdateProgress(index + 1); - } - progressText.Text = string.Format("{0:n0} words read. Ready.", m_WordCount); - UpdateProgress(0); - } - } -} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp2/MainForm.resx b/DemoApp2/MainForm.resx deleted file mode 100644 index 1af7de1..0000000 --- a/DemoApp2/MainForm.resx +++ /dev/null @@ -1,120 +0,0 @@ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - text/microsoft-resx - - - 2.0 - - - System.Resources.ResXResourceReader, System.Windows.Forms, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089 - - - System.Resources.ResXResourceWriter, System.Windows.Forms, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089 - - \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp2/Program.cs b/DemoApp2/Program.cs deleted file mode 100644 index 6b0c568..0000000 --- a/DemoApp2/Program.cs +++ /dev/null @@ -1,14 +0,0 @@ -namespace DemoApp2 { - internal static class Program { - /// - /// The main entry point for the application. - /// - [STAThread] - static void Main() { - // To customize application configuration such as set high DPI settings or default font, - // see https://aka.ms/applicationconfiguration. - ApplicationConfiguration.Initialize(); - Application.Run(new MainForm()); - } - } -} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/DemoApp2/texts/Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt b/DemoApp2/texts/Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt deleted file mode 100644 index a366dc0..0000000 --- a/DemoApp2/texts/Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,12361 +0,0 @@ - - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Complete -by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost -no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use -it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net - -Title: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Complete - -Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) - -Release Date: August 20, 2006 [EBook #76] - -Last Updated: October 20, 2012] - -Language: English - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUCKLEBERRY FINN *** - -Produced by David Widger - - - - - -ADVENTURES - -OF - -HUCKLEBERRY FINN - -(Tom Sawyer's Comrade) - -By Mark Twain - -Complete - - - - -CONTENTS. - -CHAPTER I. Civilizing Huck.—Miss Watson.—Tom Sawyer Waits. - -CHAPTER II. The Boys Escape Jim.—Torn Sawyer's Gang.—Deep-laid Plans. - -CHAPTER III. A Good Going-over.—Grace Triumphant.—"One of Tom Sawyers's -Lies". - -CHAPTER IV. Huck and the Judge.—Superstition. - -CHAPTER V. Huck's Father.—The Fond Parent.—Reform. - -CHAPTER VI. He Went for Judge Thatcher.—Huck Decided to Leave.—Political -Economy.—Thrashing Around. - -CHAPTER VII. Laying for Him.—Locked in the Cabin.—Sinking the -Body.—Resting. - -CHAPTER VIII. Sleeping in the Woods.—Raising the Dead.—Exploring the -Island.—Finding Jim.—Jim's Escape.—Signs.—Balum. - -CHAPTER IX. The Cave.—The Floating House. - -CHAPTER X. The Find.—Old Hank Bunker.—In Disguise. - -CHAPTER XI. Huck and the Woman.—The Search.—Prevarication.—Going to -Goshen. - -CHAPTER XII. Slow Navigation.—Borrowing Things.—Boarding the Wreck.—The -Plotters.—Hunting for the Boat. - -CHAPTER XIII. Escaping from the Wreck.—The Watchman.—Sinking. - -CHAPTER XIV. A General Good Time.—The Harem.—French. - -CHAPTER XV. Huck Loses the Raft.—In the Fog.—Huck Finds the Raft.—Trash. - -CHAPTER XVI. Expectation.—A White Lie.—Floating Currency.—Running by -Cairo.—Swimming Ashore. - -CHAPTER XVII. An Evening Call.—The Farm in Arkansaw.—Interior -Decorations.—Stephen Dowling Bots.—Poetical Effusions. - -CHAPTER XVIII. Col. Grangerford.—Aristocracy.—Feuds.—The -Testament.—Recovering the Raft.—The Wood—pile.—Pork and Cabbage. - -CHAPTER XIX. Tying Up Day—times.—An Astronomical Theory.—Running a -Temperance Revival.—The Duke of Bridgewater.—The Troubles of Royalty. - -CHAPTER XX. Huck Explains.—Laying Out a Campaign.—Working the -Camp—meeting.—A Pirate at the Camp—meeting.—The Duke as a Printer. - -CHAPTER XXI. Sword Exercise.—Hamlet's Soliloquy.—They Loafed Around -Town.—A Lazy Town.—Old Boggs.—Dead. - -CHAPTER XXII. Sherburn.—Attending the Circus.—Intoxication in the -Ring.—The Thrilling Tragedy. - -CHAPTER XXIII. Sold.—Royal Comparisons.—Jim Gets Home-sick. - -CHAPTER XXIV. Jim in Royal Robes.—They Take a Passenger.—Getting -Information.—Family Grief. - -CHAPTER XXV. Is It Them?—Singing the "Doxologer."—Awful Square—Funeral -Orgies.—A Bad Investment . - -CHAPTER XXVI. A Pious King.—The King's Clergy.—She Asked His -Pardon.—Hiding in the Room.—Huck Takes the Money. - -CHAPTER XXVII. The Funeral.—Satisfying Curiosity.—Suspicious of -Huck,—Quick Sales and Small. - -CHAPTER XXVIII. The Trip to England.—"The Brute!"—Mary Jane Decides to -Leave.—Huck Parting with Mary Jane.—Mumps.—The Opposition Line. - -CHAPTER XXIX. Contested Relationship.—The King Explains the Loss.—A -Question of Handwriting.—Digging up the Corpse.—Huck Escapes. - -CHAPTER XXX. The King Went for Him.—A Royal Row.—Powerful Mellow. - -CHAPTER XXXI. Ominous Plans.—News from Jim.—Old Recollections.—A Sheep -Story.—Valuable Information. - -CHAPTER XXXII. Still and Sunday—like.—Mistaken Identity.—Up a Stump.—In -a Dilemma. - -CHAPTER XXXIII. A Nigger Stealer.—Southern Hospitality.—A Pretty Long -Blessing.—Tar and Feathers. - -CHAPTER XXXIV. The Hut by the Ash Hopper.—Outrageous.—Climbing the -Lightning Rod.—Troubled with Witches. - -CHAPTER XXXV. Escaping Properly.—Dark Schemes.—Discrimination in -Stealing.—A Deep Hole. - -CHAPTER XXXVI. The Lightning Rod.—His Level Best.—A Bequest to -Posterity.—A High Figure. - -CHAPTER XXXVII. The Last Shirt.—Mooning Around.—Sailing Orders.—The -Witch Pie. - -CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Coat of Arms.—A Skilled Superintendent.—Unpleasant -Glory.—A Tearful Subject. - -CHAPTER XXXIX. Rats.—Lively Bed—fellows.—The Straw Dummy. - -CHAPTER XL. Fishing.—The Vigilance Committee.—A Lively Run.—Jim Advises -a Doctor. - -CHAPTER XLI. The Doctor.—Uncle Silas.—Sister Hotchkiss.—Aunt Sally in -Trouble. - -CHAPTER XLII. Tom Sawyer Wounded.—The Doctor's Story.—Tom -Confesses.—Aunt Polly Arrives.—Hand Out Them Letters    . - -CHAPTER THE LAST. Out of Bondage.—Paying the Captive.—Yours Truly, Huck -Finn. - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS. - -The Widows - -Moses and the "Bulrushers" - -Miss Watson - -Huck Stealing Away - -They Tip-toed Along - -Jim - -Tom Sawyer's Band of Robbers   - -Huck Creeps into his Window - -Miss Watson's Lecture - -The Robbers Dispersed - -Rubbing the Lamp - -! ! ! ! - -Judge Thatcher surprised - -Jim Listening - -"Pap" - -Huck and his Father - -Reforming the Drunkard - -Falling from Grace - -The Widows - -Moses and the "Bulrushers" - -Miss Watson - -Huck Stealing Away - -They Tip-toed Along - -Jim - -Tom Sawyer's Band of Robbers   - -Huck Creeps into his Window - -Miss Watson's Lecture - -The Robbers Dispersed - -Rubbing the Lamp - -! ! ! ! - -Judge Thatcher surprised - -Jim Listening - -"Pap" - -Huck and his Father - -Reforming the Drunkard - -Falling from Grace - -Getting out of the Way - -Solid Comfort - -Thinking it Over - -Raising a Howl - -"Git Up" - -The Shanty - -Shooting the Pig - -Taking a Rest - -In the Woods - -Watching the Boat - -Discovering the Camp Fire - -Jim and the Ghost - -Misto Bradish's Nigger - -Exploring the Cave - -In the Cave - -Jim sees a Dead Man - -They Found Eight Dollars - -Jim and the Snake - -Old Hank Bunker - -"A Fair Fit" - -"Come In" - -"Him and another Man" - -She puts up a Snack - -"Hump Yourself" - -On the Raft - -He sometimes Lifted a Chicken - -"Please don't, Bill" - -"It ain't Good Morals" - -"Oh! Lordy, Lordy!" - -In a Fix - -"Hello, What's Up?" - -The Wreck - -We turned in and Slept - -Turning over the Truck - -Solomon and his Million Wives - -The story of "Sollermun" - -"We Would Sell the Raft" - -Among the Snags - -Asleep on the Raft - -"Something being Raftsman" - -"Boy, that's a Lie" - -"Here I is, Huck" - -Climbing up the Bank - -"Who's There?" - -"Buck" - -"It made Her look Spidery" - -"They got him out and emptied Him"   - -The House - -Col. Grangerford - -Young Harney Shepherdson - -Miss Charlotte - -"And asked me if I Liked Her" - -"Behind the Wood-pile" - -Hiding Day-times - -"And Dogs a-Coming" - -"By rights I am a Duke!" - -"I am the Late Dauphin" - -Tail Piece - -On the Raft - -The King as Juliet - -"Courting on the Sly" - -"A Pirate for Thirty Years" - -Another little Job - -Practizing - -Hamlet's Soliloquy - -"Gimme a Chaw" - -A Little Monthly Drunk - -The Death of Boggs - -Sherburn steps out - -A Dead Head - -He shed Seventeen Suits - -Tragedy - -Their Pockets Bulged - -Henry the Eighth in Boston Harbor - -Harmless - -Adolphus - -He fairly emptied that Young Fellow - -"Alas, our Poor Brother" - -"You Bet it is" - -Leaking - -Making up the "Deffisit" - -Going for him - -The Doctor - -The Bag of Money - -The Cubby - -Supper with the Hare-Lip - -Honest Injun - -The Duke looks under the Bed - -Huck takes the Money - -A Crack in the Dining-room Door - -The Undertaker - -"He had a Rat!" - -"Was you in my Room?" - -Jawing - -In Trouble - -Indignation - -How to Find Them - -He Wrote - -Hannah with the Mumps - -The Auction - -The True Brothers - -The Doctor leads Huck - -The Duke Wrote - -"Gentlemen, Gentlemen!" - -"Jim Lit Out" - -The King shakes Huck - -The Duke went for Him - -Spanish Moss - -"Who Nailed Him?" - -Thinking - -He gave him Ten Cents - -Striking for the Back Country - -Still and Sunday-like - -She hugged him tight - -"Who do you reckon it is?" - -"It was Tom Sawyer" - -"Mr. Archibald Nichols, I presume?" - -A pretty long Blessing - -Traveling By Rail - -Vittles - -A Simple Job - -Witches - -Getting Wood - -One of the Best Authorities - -The Breakfast-Horn - -Smouching the Knives - -Going down the Lightning-Rod - -Stealing spoons - -Tom advises a Witch Pie - -The Rubbage-Pile - -"Missus, dey's a Sheet Gone" - -In a Tearing Way - -One of his Ancestors - -Jim's Coat of Arms - -A Tough Job - -Buttons on their Tails - -Irrigation - -Keeping off Dull Times - -Sawdust Diet - -Trouble is Brewing - -Fishing - -Every one had a Gun - -Tom caught on a Splinter - -Jim advises a Doctor - -The Doctor - -Uncle Silas in Danger - -Old Mrs. Hotchkiss - -Aunt Sally talks to Huck - -Tom Sawyer wounded - -The Doctor speaks for Jim - -Tom rose square up in Bed - -"Hand out them Letters" - -Out of Bondage - -Tom's Liberality - -Yours Truly - - - - -EXPLANATORY - -IN this book a number of dialects are used, to wit:  the Missouri negro -dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect; the -ordinary "Pike County" dialect; and four modified varieties of this -last. The shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion, or by -guesswork; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and -support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech. - -I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers -would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and -not succeeding. - -THE AUTHOR. - - - - -HUCKLEBERRY FINN - -Scene:  The Mississippi Valley Time:  Forty to fifty years ago - - - - -CHAPTER I. - -YOU don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The -Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter.  That book was made -by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly.  There was things -which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.  That is nothing.  I -never seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt -Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary.  Aunt Polly—Tom's Aunt Polly, she -is—and Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told about in that book, which -is mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I said before. - -Now the way that the book winds up is this:  Tom and me found the money -that the robbers hid in the cave, and it made us rich.  We got six -thousand dollars apiece—all gold.  It was an awful sight of money when -it was piled up.  Well, Judge Thatcher he took it and put it out -at interest, and it fetched us a dollar a day apiece all the year -round—more than a body could tell what to do with.  The Widow Douglas -she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was -rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular -and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand -it no longer I lit out.  I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead -again, and was free and satisfied.  But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and -said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I -would go back to the widow and be respectable.  So I went back. - -The widow she cried over me, and called me a poor lost lamb, and she -called me a lot of other names, too, but she never meant no harm by -it. She put me in them new clothes again, and I couldn't do nothing but -sweat and sweat, and feel all cramped up.  Well, then, the old thing -commenced again.  The widow rung a bell for supper, and you had to come -to time. When you got to the table you couldn't go right to eating, but -you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little -over the victuals, though there warn't really anything the matter with -them,—that is, nothing only everything was cooked by itself.  In a -barrel of odds and ends it is different; things get mixed up, and the -juice kind of swaps around, and the things go better. - -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 didn't care no more about him, because I don't take no stock in -dead people. - -Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me.  But she -wouldn't.  She said it was a mean practice and wasn't 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 don't 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 couldn't stood it much longer.  Then for -an hour it was deadly dull, and I was fidgety.  Miss Watson would say, -"Don't put your feet up there, Huckleberry;" and "Don't scrunch up -like that, Huckleberry—set up straight;" and pretty soon she would -say, "Don't gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry—why don't you try to -behave?"  Then she told me all about the bad place, and I said I wished -I was there. She got mad then, but I didn't mean no harm.  All I wanted -was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change, I warn't particular. - She said it was wicked to say what I said; said she wouldn't say it for -the whole world; she was going to live so as to go to the good place. - Well, I couldn't see no advantage in going where she was going, so I -made up my mind I wouldn't try for it.  But I never said so, because it -would only make trouble, and wouldn't 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 didn't 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 warn't 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 couldn't 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 that's on its mind and can't make itself understood, and so -can't 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 didn't 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 hadn't no confidence.  You do that when you've lost a horseshoe that -you've found, instead of nailing it up over the door, but I hadn't ever -heard anybody say it was any way to keep off bad luck when you'd 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 wouldn't -know. Well, after a long time I heard the clock away off in the town -go boom—boom—boom—twelve licks; and all still again—stiller than -ever. Pretty soon I heard a twig snap down in the dark amongst the -trees—something was a stirring.  I set still and listened.  Directly I -could just barely hear a "me-yow! me-yow!" down there.  That was good! - Says I, "me-yow! me-yow!" 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 widow's garden, stooping down so as the branches wouldn't 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 Watson's 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: - -"Who dah?" - -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 warn't a sound, and we all there so close -together.  There was a place on my ankle that got to itching, but I -dasn't scratch it; and then my ear begun to itch; and next my back, -right between my shoulders.  Seemed like I'd die if I couldn't scratch. - Well, I've noticed that thing plenty times since.  If you are with -the quality, or at a funeral, or trying to go to sleep when you ain't -sleepy—if you are anywheres where it won't do for you to scratch, why -you will itch all over in upwards of a thousand places. Pretty soon Jim -says: - -"Say, who is you?  Whar is you?  Dog my cats ef I didn' hear sumf'n. -Well, I know what I's gwyne to do:  I's gwyne to set down here and -listen tell I hears it agin." - -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 dasn't scratch.  Then it begun to itch on the inside. -Next I got to itching underneath.  I didn't 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 couldn't stand it more'n 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 snore—and then I was pretty soon -comfortable again. - -Tom he made a sign to me—kind of a little noise with his mouth—and 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 they'd find out I -warn't in. Then Tom said he hadn't got candles enough, and he would slip -in the kitchen and get some more.  I didn't 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 Jim's hat off of his head and hung it -on a limb right over him, and Jim stirred a little, but he didn't 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 wouldn't 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, "Hm!  What you know 'bout witches?" 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 wouldn't touch -it, because the devil had had his hands on it.  Jim was most ruined for -a servant, because he got stuck up on account of having seen the devil -and been rode by witches. - -Well, when Tom and me got to the edge of the hilltop we looked away down -into the village and could see three or four lights twinkling, where -there was sick folks, maybe; and the stars over us was sparkling ever -so fine; and down by the village was the river, a whole mile broad, and -awful still and grand.  We went down the hill and found Jo Harper and -Ben Rogers, and two or three more of the boys, hid in the old tanyard. - So we unhitched a skiff and pulled down the river two mile and a half, -to the big scar on the hillside, and went ashore. - -We went to a clump of bushes, and Tom made everybody swear to keep the -secret, and then showed them a hole in the hill, right in the thickest -part of the bushes.  Then we lit the candles, and crawled in on our -hands and knees.  We went about two hundred yards, and then the cave -opened up. Tom poked about amongst the passages, and pretty soon ducked -under a wall where you wouldn't a noticed that there was a hole.  We -went along a narrow place and got into a kind of room, all damp and -sweaty and cold, and there we stopped.  Tom says: - -"Now, we'll start this band of robbers and call it Tom Sawyer's Gang. -Everybody that wants to join has got to take an oath, and write his name -in blood." - -Everybody was willing.  So Tom got out a sheet of paper that he had -wrote the oath on, and read it.  It swore every boy to stick to the -band, and never tell any of the secrets; and if anybody done anything to -any boy in the band, whichever boy was ordered to kill that person and -his family must do it, and he mustn't eat and he mustn't sleep till he -had killed them and hacked a cross in their breasts, which was the sign -of the band. And nobody that didn't belong to the band could use that -mark, and if he did he must be sued; and if he done it again he must be -killed.  And if anybody that belonged to the band told the secrets, he -must have his throat cut, and then have his carcass burnt up and the -ashes scattered all around, and his name blotted off of the list with -blood and never mentioned again by the gang, but have a curse put on it -and be forgot forever. - -Everybody said it was a real beautiful oath, and asked Tom if he got -it out of his own head.  He said, some of it, but the rest was out of -pirate-books and robber-books, and every gang that was high-toned had -it. - -Some thought it would be good to kill the _families_ of boys that told -the secrets.  Tom said it was a good idea, so he took a pencil and wrote -it in. Then Ben Rogers says: - -"Here's Huck Finn, he hain't got no family; what you going to do 'bout -him?" - -"Well, hain't he got a father?" says Tom Sawyer. - -"Yes, he's got a father, but you can't never find him these days.  He -used to lay drunk with the hogs in the tanyard, but he hain't been seen -in these parts for a year or more." - -They talked it over, and they was going to rule me out, because they -said every boy must have a family or somebody to kill, or else it -wouldn't be fair and square for the others.  Well, nobody could think of -anything to do—everybody was stumped, and set still.  I was most ready -to cry; but all at once I thought of a way, and so I offered them Miss -Watson—they could kill her.  Everybody said: - -"Oh, she'll do.  That's all right.  Huck can come in." - -Then they all stuck a pin in their fingers to get blood to sign with, -and I made my mark on the paper. - -"Now," says Ben Rogers, "what's the line of business of this Gang?" - -"Nothing only robbery and murder," Tom said. - -"But who are we going to rob?—houses, or cattle, or—" - -"Stuff! stealing cattle and such things ain't robbery; it's burglary," -says Tom Sawyer.  "We ain't burglars.  That ain't no sort of style.  We -are highwaymen.  We stop stages and carriages on the road, with masks -on, and kill the people and take their watches and money." - -"Must we always kill the people?" - -"Oh, certainly.  It's best.  Some authorities think different, but -mostly it's considered best to kill them—except some that you bring to -the cave here, and keep them till they're ransomed." - -"Ransomed?  What's that?" - -"I don't know.  But that's what they do.  I've seen it in books; and so -of course that's what we've got to do." - -"But how can we do it if we don't know what it is?" - -"Why, blame it all, we've _got_ to do it.  Don't I tell you it's in the -books?  Do you want to go to doing different from what's in the books, -and get things all muddled up?" - -"Oh, that's all very fine to _say_, Tom Sawyer, but how in the nation -are these fellows going to be ransomed if we don't know how to do it -to them?—that's the thing I want to get at.  Now, what do you reckon it -is?" - -"Well, I don't know.  But per'aps if we keep them till they're ransomed, -it means that we keep them till they're dead." - -"Now, that's something _like_.  That'll answer.  Why couldn't you said -that before?  We'll keep them till they're ransomed to death; and a -bothersome lot they'll be, too—eating up everything, and always trying -to get loose." - -"How you talk, Ben Rogers.  How can they get loose when there's a guard -over them, ready to shoot them down if they move a peg?" - -"A guard!  Well, that _is_ good.  So somebody's got to set up all night -and never get any sleep, just so as to watch them.  I think that's -foolishness. Why can't a body take a club and ransom them as soon as -they get here?" - -"Because it ain't in the books so—that's why.  Now, Ben Rogers, do you -want to do things regular, or don't you?—that's the idea.  Don't you -reckon that the people that made the books knows what's the correct -thing to do?  Do you reckon _you_ can learn 'em anything?  Not by a good -deal. No, sir, we'll just go on and ransom them in the regular way." - -"All right.  I don't mind; but I say it's a fool way, anyhow.  Say, do -we kill the women, too?" - -"Well, Ben Rogers, if I was as ignorant as you I wouldn't let on.  Kill -the women?  No; nobody ever saw anything in the books like that.  You -fetch them to the cave, and you're always as polite as pie to them; -and by and by they fall in love with you, and never want to go home any -more." - -"Well, if that's the way I'm agreed, but I don't take no stock in it. -Mighty soon we'll have the cave so cluttered up with women, and fellows -waiting to be ransomed, that there won't be no place for the robbers. -But go ahead, I ain't got nothing to say." - -Little Tommy Barnes was asleep now, and when they waked him up he was -scared, and cried, and said he wanted to go home to his ma, and didn't -want to be a robber any more. - -So they all made fun of him, and called him cry-baby, and that made him -mad, and he said he would go straight and tell all the secrets.  But -Tom give him five cents to keep quiet, and said we would all go home and -meet next week, and rob somebody and kill some people. - -Ben Rogers said he couldn't get out much, only Sundays, and so he wanted -to begin next Sunday; but all the boys said it would be wicked to do it -on Sunday, and that settled the thing.  They agreed to get together and -fix a day as soon as they could, and then we elected Tom Sawyer first -captain and Jo Harper second captain of the Gang, and so started home. - -I clumb up the shed and crept into my window just before day was -breaking. My new clothes was all greased up and clayey, and I was -dog-tired. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -WELL, I got a good going-over in the morning from old Miss Watson on -account of my clothes; but the widow she didn't scold, but only cleaned -off the grease and clay, and looked so sorry that I thought I would -behave awhile if I could.  Then Miss Watson she took me in the closet -and prayed, but nothing come of it.  She told me to pray every day, and -whatever I asked for I would get it.  But it warn't so.  I tried it. -Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks.  It warn't any good to me without -hooks.  I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I -couldn't make it work.  By and by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to -try for me, but she said I was a fool.  She never told me why, and I -couldn't make it out no way. - -I set down one time back in the woods, and had a long think about it. - I says to myself, if a body can get anything they pray for, why don't -Deacon Winn get back the money he lost on pork?  Why can't the widow get -back her silver snuffbox that was stole?  Why can't Miss Watson fat up? -No, says I to my self, there ain't nothing in it.  I went and told the -widow about it, and she said the thing a body could get by praying for -it was "spiritual gifts."  This was too many for me, but she told me -what she meant—I must help other people, and do everything I could for -other people, and look out for them all the time, and never think about -myself. This was including Miss Watson, as I took it.  I went out in the -woods and turned it over in my mind a long time, but I couldn't see no -advantage about it—except for the other people; so at last I reckoned -I wouldn't worry about it any more, but just let it go.  Sometimes the -widow would take me one side and talk about Providence in a way to make -a body's mouth water; but maybe next day Miss Watson would take hold -and knock it all down again.  I judged I could see that there was two -Providences, and a poor chap would stand considerable show with the -widow's Providence, but if Miss Watson's got him there warn't no help -for him any more.  I thought it all out, and reckoned I would belong -to the widow's if he wanted me, though I couldn't make out how he was -a-going to be any better off then than what he was before, seeing I was -so ignorant, and so kind of low-down and ornery. - -Pap he hadn't been seen for more than a year, and that was comfortable -for me; I didn't want to see him no more.  He used to always whale me -when he was sober and could get his hands on me; though I used to take -to the woods most of the time when he was around.  Well, about this time -he was found in the river drownded, about twelve mile above town, so -people said.  They judged it was him, anyway; said this drownded man was -just his size, and was ragged, and had uncommon long hair, which was all -like pap; but they couldn't make nothing out of the face, because it had -been in the water so long it warn't much like a face at all.  They said -he was floating on his back in the water.  They took him and buried him -on the bank.  But I warn't comfortable long, because I happened to think -of something.  I knowed mighty well that a drownded man don't float on -his back, but on his face.  So I knowed, then, that this warn't pap, but -a woman dressed up in a man's clothes.  So I was uncomfortable again. - I judged the old man would turn up again by and by, though I wished he -wouldn't. - -We played robber now and then about a month, and then I resigned.  All -the boys did.  We hadn't robbed nobody, hadn't killed any people, but -only just pretended.  We used to hop out of the woods and go charging -down on hog-drivers and women in carts taking garden stuff to market, -but we never hived any of them.  Tom Sawyer called the hogs "ingots," -and he called the turnips and stuff "julery," and we would go to the -cave and powwow over what we had done, and how many people we had killed -and marked.  But I couldn't see no profit in it.  One time Tom sent a -boy to run about town with a blazing stick, which he called a slogan -(which was the sign for the Gang to get together), and then he said he -had got secret news by his spies that next day a whole parcel of Spanish -merchants and rich A-rabs was going to camp in Cave Hollow with two -hundred elephants, and six hundred camels, and over a thousand "sumter" -mules, all loaded down with di'monds, and they didn't have only a guard -of four hundred soldiers, and so we would lay in ambuscade, as he called -it, and kill the lot and scoop the things.  He said we must slick up -our swords and guns, and get ready.  He never could go after even a -turnip-cart but he must have the swords and guns all scoured up for it, -though they was only lath and broomsticks, and you might scour at them -till you rotted, and then they warn't worth a mouthful of ashes more -than what they was before.  I didn't believe we could lick such a crowd -of Spaniards and A-rabs, but I wanted to see the camels and elephants, -so I was on hand next day, Saturday, in the ambuscade; and when we got -the word we rushed out of the woods and down the hill.  But there warn't -no Spaniards and A-rabs, and there warn't no camels nor no elephants. - It warn't anything but a Sunday-school picnic, and only a primer-class -at that.  We busted it up, and chased the children up the hollow; but we -never got anything but some doughnuts and jam, though Ben Rogers got -a rag doll, and Jo Harper got a hymn-book and a tract; and then the -teacher charged in, and made us drop everything and cut. - - I didn't see no di'monds, and I told Tom Sawyer so.  He said there was -loads of them there, anyway; and he said there was A-rabs there, too, -and elephants and things.  I said, why couldn't we see them, then?  He -said if I warn't so ignorant, but had read a book called Don Quixote, I -would know without asking.  He said it was all done by enchantment.  He -said there was hundreds of soldiers there, and elephants and treasure, -and so on, but we had enemies which he called magicians; and they had -turned the whole thing into an infant Sunday-school, just out of spite. - I said, all right; then the thing for us to do was to go for the -magicians.  Tom Sawyer said I was a numskull. - -"Why," said he, "a magician could call up a lot of genies, and they -would hash you up like nothing before you could say Jack Robinson.  They -are as tall as a tree and as big around as a church." - -"Well," I says, "s'pose we got some genies to help _us_—can't we lick -the other crowd then?" - -"How you going to get them?" - -"I don't know.  How do _they_ get them?" - -"Why, they rub an old tin lamp or an iron ring, and then the genies -come tearing in, with the thunder and lightning a-ripping around and the -smoke a-rolling, and everything they're told to do they up and do it. - They don't think nothing of pulling a shot-tower up by the roots, and -belting a Sunday-school superintendent over the head with it—or any -other man." - -"Who makes them tear around so?" - -"Why, whoever rubs the lamp or the ring.  They belong to whoever rubs -the lamp or the ring, and they've got to do whatever he says.  If he -tells them to build a palace forty miles long out of di'monds, and fill -it full of chewing-gum, or whatever you want, and fetch an emperor's -daughter from China for you to marry, they've got to do it—and they've -got to do it before sun-up next morning, too.  And more:  they've got -to waltz that palace around over the country wherever you want it, you -understand." - -"Well," says I, "I think they are a pack of flat-heads for not keeping -the palace themselves 'stead of fooling them away like that.  And what's -more—if I was one of them I would see a man in Jericho before I would -drop my business and come to him for the rubbing of an old tin lamp." - -"How you talk, Huck Finn.  Why, you'd _have_ to come when he rubbed it, -whether you wanted to or not." - -"What! and I as high as a tree and as big as a church?  All right, then; -I _would_ come; but I lay I'd make that man climb the highest tree there -was in the country." - -"Shucks, it ain't no use to talk to you, Huck Finn.  You don't seem to -know anything, somehow—perfect saphead." - -I thought all this over for two or three days, and then I reckoned I -would see if there was anything in it.  I got an old tin lamp and an -iron ring, and went out in the woods and rubbed and rubbed till I sweat -like an Injun, calculating to build a palace and sell it; but it warn't -no use, none of the genies come.  So then I judged that all that stuff -was only just one of Tom Sawyer's lies.  I reckoned he believed in the -A-rabs and the elephants, but as for me I think different.  It had all -the marks of a Sunday-school. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -WELL, three or four months run along, and it was well into the winter -now. I had been to school most all the time and could spell and read and -write just a little, and could say the multiplication table up to six -times seven is thirty-five, and I don't reckon I could ever get any -further than that if I was to live forever.  I don't take no stock in -mathematics, anyway. - -At first I hated the school, but by and by I got so I could stand it. -Whenever I got uncommon tired I played hookey, and the hiding I got next -day done me good and cheered me up.  So the longer I went to school the -easier it got to be.  I was getting sort of used to the widow's ways, -too, and they warn't so raspy on me.  Living in a house and sleeping in -a bed pulled on me pretty tight mostly, but before the cold weather I -used to slide out and sleep in the woods sometimes, and so that was a -rest to me.  I liked the old ways best, but I was getting so I liked the -new ones, too, a little bit. The widow said I was coming along slow but -sure, and doing very satisfactory.  She said she warn't ashamed of me. - -One morning I happened to turn over the salt-cellar at breakfast. - I reached for some of it as quick as I could to throw over my left -shoulder and keep off the bad luck, but Miss Watson was in ahead of me, -and crossed me off. She says, "Take your hands away, Huckleberry; what -a mess you are always making!"  The widow put in a good word for me, but -that warn't going to keep off the bad luck, I knowed that well enough. - I started out, after breakfast, feeling worried and shaky, and -wondering where it was going to fall on me, and what it was going to be. - There is ways to keep off some kinds of bad luck, but this wasn't one -of them kind; so I never tried to do anything, but just poked along -low-spirited and on the watch-out. - -I went down to the front garden and clumb over the stile where you go -through the high board fence.  There was an inch of new snow on the -ground, and I seen somebody's tracks.  They had come up from the quarry -and stood around the stile a while, and then went on around the garden -fence.  It was funny they hadn't come in, after standing around so.  I -couldn't make it out.  It was very curious, somehow.  I was going to -follow around, but I stooped down to look at the tracks first.  I didn't -notice anything at first, but next I did.  There was a cross in the left -boot-heel made with big nails, to keep off the devil. - -I was up in a second and shinning down the hill.  I looked over my -shoulder every now and then, but I didn't see nobody.  I was at Judge -Thatcher's as quick as I could get there.  He said: - -"Why, my boy, you are all out of breath.  Did you come for your -interest?" - -"No, sir," I says; "is there some for me?" - -"Oh, yes, a half-yearly is in last night—over a hundred and fifty -dollars.  Quite a fortune for you.  You had better let me invest it -along with your six thousand, because if you take it you'll spend it." - -"No, sir," I says, "I don't want to spend it.  I don't want it at -all—nor the six thousand, nuther.  I want you to take it; I want to give -it to you—the six thousand and all." - -He looked surprised.  He couldn't seem to make it out.  He says: - -"Why, what can you mean, my boy?" - -I says, "Don't you ask me no questions about it, please.  You'll take -it—won't you?" - -He says: - -"Well, I'm puzzled.  Is something the matter?" - -"Please take it," says I, "and don't ask me nothing—then I won't have to -tell no lies." - -He studied a while, and then he says: - -"Oho-o!  I think I see.  You want to _sell_ all your property to me—not -give it.  That's the correct idea." - -Then he wrote something on a paper and read it over, and says: - -"There; you see it says 'for a consideration.'  That means I have bought -it of you and paid you for it.  Here's a dollar for you.  Now you sign -it." - -So I signed it, and left. - -Miss Watson's nigger, Jim, had a hair-ball as big as your fist, which -had been took out of the fourth stomach of an ox, and he used to do -magic with it.  He said there was a spirit inside of it, and it knowed -everything.  So I went to him that night and told him pap was here -again, for I found his tracks in the snow.  What I wanted to know was, -what he was going to do, and was he going to stay?  Jim got out his -hair-ball and said something over it, and then he held it up and dropped -it on the floor.  It fell pretty solid, and only rolled about an inch. - Jim tried it again, and then another time, and it acted just the same. - Jim got down on his knees, and put his ear against it and listened. - But it warn't no use; he said it wouldn't talk. He said sometimes it -wouldn't talk without money.  I told him I had an old slick counterfeit -quarter that warn't no good because the brass showed through the silver -a little, and it wouldn't pass nohow, even if the brass didn't show, -because it was so slick it felt greasy, and so that would tell on it -every time.  (I reckoned I wouldn't say nothing about the dollar I got -from the judge.) I said it was pretty bad money, but maybe the hair-ball -would take it, because maybe it wouldn't know the difference.  Jim smelt -it and bit it and rubbed it, and said he would manage so the hair-ball -would think it was good.  He said he would split open a raw Irish potato -and stick the quarter in between and keep it there all night, and next -morning you couldn't see no brass, and it wouldn't feel greasy no more, -and so anybody in town would take it in a minute, let alone a hair-ball. - Well, I knowed a potato would do that before, but I had forgot it. - -Jim put the quarter under the hair-ball, and got down and listened -again. This time he said the hair-ball was all right.  He said it -would tell my whole fortune if I wanted it to.  I says, go on.  So the -hair-ball talked to Jim, and Jim told it to me.  He says: - -"Yo' ole father doan' know yit what he's a-gwyne to do.  Sometimes he -spec he'll go 'way, en den agin he spec he'll stay.  De bes' way is to -res' easy en let de ole man take his own way.  Dey's two angels hoverin' -roun' 'bout him.  One uv 'em is white en shiny, en t'other one is black. -De white one gits him to go right a little while, den de black one sail -in en bust it all up.  A body can't tell yit which one gwyne to fetch -him at de las'.  But you is all right.  You gwyne to have considable -trouble in yo' life, en considable joy.  Sometimes you gwyne to git -hurt, en sometimes you gwyne to git sick; but every time you's gwyne -to git well agin.  Dey's two gals flyin' 'bout you in yo' life.  One -uv 'em's light en t'other one is dark. One is rich en t'other is po'. - You's gwyne to marry de po' one fust en de rich one by en by.  You -wants to keep 'way fum de water as much as you kin, en don't run no -resk, 'kase it's down in de bills dat you's gwyne to git hung." - -When I lit my candle and went up to my room that night there sat pap his -own self! - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -I had shut the door to.  Then I turned around and there he was.  I used -to be scared of him all the time, he tanned me so much.  I reckoned I -was scared now, too; but in a minute I see I was mistaken—that is, after -the first jolt, as you may say, when my breath sort of hitched, he being -so unexpected; but right away after I see I warn't scared of him worth -bothring about. - -He was most fifty, and he looked it.  His hair was long and tangled and -greasy, and hung down, and you could see his eyes shining through -like he was behind vines.  It was all black, no gray; so was his long, -mixed-up whiskers.  There warn't no color in his face, where his face -showed; it was white; not like another man's white, but a white to make -a body sick, a white to make a body's flesh crawl—a tree-toad white, a -fish-belly white.  As for his clothes—just rags, that was all.  He had -one ankle resting on t'other knee; the boot on that foot was busted, and -two of his toes stuck through, and he worked them now and then.  His hat -was laying on the floor—an old black slouch with the top caved in, like -a lid. - -I stood a-looking at him; he set there a-looking at me, with his chair -tilted back a little.  I set the candle down.  I noticed the window was -up; so he had clumb in by the shed.  He kept a-looking me all over.  By -and by he says: - -"Starchy clothes—very.  You think you're a good deal of a big-bug, -_don't_ you?" - -"Maybe I am, maybe I ain't," I says. - -"Don't you give me none o' your lip," says he.  "You've put on -considerable many frills since I been away.  I'll take you down a peg -before I get done with you.  You're educated, too, they say—can read and -write.  You think you're better'n your father, now, don't you, because -he can't?  _I'll_ take it out of you.  Who told you you might meddle -with such hifalut'n foolishness, hey?—who told you you could?" - -"The widow.  She told me." - -"The widow, hey?—and who told the widow she could put in her shovel -about a thing that ain't none of her business?" - -"Nobody never told her." - -"Well, I'll learn her how to meddle.  And looky here—you drop that -school, you hear?  I'll learn people to bring up a boy to put on airs -over his own father and let on to be better'n what _he_ is.  You lemme -catch you fooling around that school again, you hear?  Your mother -couldn't read, and she couldn't write, nuther, before she died.  None -of the family couldn't before _they_ died.  I can't; and here you're -a-swelling yourself up like this.  I ain't the man to stand it—you hear? -Say, lemme hear you read." - -I took up a book and begun something about General Washington and the -wars. When I'd read about a half a minute, he fetched the book a whack -with his hand and knocked it across the house.  He says: - -"It's so.  You can do it.  I had my doubts when you told me.  Now looky -here; you stop that putting on frills.  I won't have it.  I'll lay for -you, my smarty; and if I catch you about that school I'll tan you good. -First you know you'll get religion, too.  I never see such a son." - -He took up a little blue and yaller picture of some cows and a boy, and -says: - -"What's this?" - -"It's something they give me for learning my lessons good." - -He tore it up, and says: - -"I'll give you something better—I'll give you a cowhide." - -He set there a-mumbling and a-growling a minute, and then he says: - -"_Ain't_ you a sweet-scented dandy, though?  A bed; and bedclothes; and -a look'n'-glass; and a piece of carpet on the floor—and your own father -got to sleep with the hogs in the tanyard.  I never see such a son.  I -bet I'll take some o' these frills out o' you before I'm done with you. -Why, there ain't no end to your airs—they say you're rich.  Hey?—how's -that?" - -"They lie—that's how." - -"Looky here—mind how you talk to me; I'm a-standing about all I can -stand now—so don't gimme no sass.  I've been in town two days, and I -hain't heard nothing but about you bein' rich.  I heard about it -away down the river, too.  That's why I come.  You git me that money -to-morrow—I want it." - -"I hain't got no money." - -"It's a lie.  Judge Thatcher's got it.  You git it.  I want it." - -"I hain't got no money, I tell you.  You ask Judge Thatcher; he'll tell -you the same." - -"All right.  I'll ask him; and I'll make him pungle, too, or I'll know -the reason why.  Say, how much you got in your pocket?  I want it." - -"I hain't got only a dollar, and I want that to—" - -"It don't make no difference what you want it for—you just shell it -out." - -He took it and bit it to see if it was good, and then he said he was -going down town to get some whisky; said he hadn't had a drink all day. -When he had got out on the shed he put his head in again, and cussed -me for putting on frills and trying to be better than him; and when I -reckoned he was gone he come back and put his head in again, and told me -to mind about that school, because he was going to lay for me and lick -me if I didn't drop that. - -Next day he was drunk, and he went to Judge Thatcher's and bullyragged -him, and tried to make him give up the money; but he couldn't, and then -he swore he'd make the law force him. - -The judge and the widow went to law to get the court to take me away -from him and let one of them be my guardian; but it was a new judge that -had just come, and he didn't know the old man; so he said courts mustn't -interfere and separate families if they could help it; said he'd druther -not take a child away from its father.  So Judge Thatcher and the widow -had to quit on the business. - -That pleased the old man till he couldn't rest.  He said he'd cowhide -me till I was black and blue if I didn't raise some money for him.  I -borrowed three dollars from Judge Thatcher, and pap took it and got -drunk, and went a-blowing around and cussing and whooping and carrying -on; and he kept it up all over town, with a tin pan, till most midnight; -then they jailed him, and next day they had him before court, and jailed -him again for a week.  But he said _he_ was satisfied; said he was boss -of his son, and he'd make it warm for _him_. - -When he got out the new judge said he was a-going to make a man of him. -So he took him to his own house, and dressed him up clean and nice, and -had him to breakfast and dinner and supper with the family, and was just -old pie to him, so to speak.  And after supper he talked to him about -temperance and such things till the old man cried, and said he'd been -a fool, and fooled away his life; but now he was a-going to turn over -a new leaf and be a man nobody wouldn't be ashamed of, and he hoped the -judge would help him and not look down on him.  The judge said he could -hug him for them words; so he cried, and his wife she cried again; pap -said he'd been a man that had always been misunderstood before, and the -judge said he believed it.  The old man said that what a man wanted -that was down was sympathy, and the judge said it was so; so they cried -again.  And when it was bedtime the old man rose up and held out his -hand, and says: - -"Look at it, gentlemen and ladies all; take a-hold of it; shake it. -There's a hand that was the hand of a hog; but it ain't so no more; it's -the hand of a man that's started in on a new life, and'll die before -he'll go back.  You mark them words—don't forget I said them.  It's a -clean hand now; shake it—don't be afeard." - -So they shook it, one after the other, all around, and cried.  The -judge's wife she kissed it.  Then the old man he signed a pledge—made -his mark. The judge said it was the holiest time on record, or something -like that. Then they tucked the old man into a beautiful room, which was -the spare room, and in the night some time he got powerful thirsty and -clumb out on to the porch-roof and slid down a stanchion and traded his -new coat for a jug of forty-rod, and clumb back again and had a good old -time; and towards daylight he crawled out again, drunk as a fiddler, and -rolled off the porch and broke his left arm in two places, and was most -froze to death when somebody found him after sun-up.  And when they come -to look at that spare room they had to take soundings before they could -navigate it. - -The judge he felt kind of sore.  He said he reckoned a body could reform -the old man with a shotgun, maybe, but he didn't know no other way. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -WELL, pretty soon the old man was up and around again, and then he went -for Judge Thatcher in the courts to make him give up that money, and he -went for me, too, for not stopping school.  He catched me a couple of -times and thrashed me, but I went to school just the same, and dodged -him or outrun him most of the time.  I didn't want to go to school much -before, but I reckoned I'd go now to spite pap.  That law trial was a -slow business—appeared like they warn't ever going to get started on it; -so every now and then I'd borrow two or three dollars off of the judge -for him, to keep from getting a cowhiding.  Every time he got money he -got drunk; and every time he got drunk he raised Cain around town; and -every time he raised Cain he got jailed.  He was just suited—this kind -of thing was right in his line. - -He got to hanging around the widow's too much and so she told him at -last that if he didn't quit using around there she would make trouble -for him. Well, _wasn't_ he mad?  He said he would show who was Huck -Finn's boss.  So he watched out for me one day in the spring, and -catched me, and took me up the river about three mile in a skiff, and -crossed over to the Illinois shore where it was woody and there warn't -no houses but an old log hut in a place where the timber was so thick -you couldn't find it if you didn't know where it was. - -He kept me with him all the time, and I never got a chance to run off. -We lived in that old cabin, and he always locked the door and put the -key under his head nights.  He had a gun which he had stole, I reckon, -and we fished and hunted, and that was what we lived on.  Every little -while he locked me in and went down to the store, three miles, to the -ferry, and traded fish and game for whisky, and fetched it home and got -drunk and had a good time, and licked me.  The widow she found out where -I was by and by, and she sent a man over to try to get hold of me; but -pap drove him off with the gun, and it warn't long after that till I was -used to being where I was, and liked it—all but the cowhide part. - -It was kind of lazy and jolly, laying off comfortable all day, smoking -and fishing, and no books nor study.  Two months or more run along, and -my clothes got to be all rags and dirt, and I didn't see how I'd ever -got to like it so well at the widow's, where you had to wash, and eat on -a plate, and comb up, and go to bed and get up regular, and be forever -bothering over a book, and have old Miss Watson pecking at you all the -time.  I didn't want to go back no more.  I had stopped cussing, because -the widow didn't like it; but now I took to it again because pap hadn't -no objections.  It was pretty good times up in the woods there, take it -all around. - -But by and by pap got too handy with his hick'ry, and I couldn't stand -it. I was all over welts.  He got to going away so much, too, and -locking me in.  Once he locked me in and was gone three days.  It was -dreadful lonesome.  I judged he had got drownded, and I wasn't ever -going to get out any more.  I was scared.  I made up my mind I would fix -up some way to leave there.  I had tried to get out of that cabin many -a time, but I couldn't find no way.  There warn't a window to it big -enough for a dog to get through.  I couldn't get up the chimbly; it -was too narrow.  The door was thick, solid oak slabs.  Pap was pretty -careful not to leave a knife or anything in the cabin when he was away; -I reckon I had hunted the place over as much as a hundred times; well, I -was most all the time at it, because it was about the only way to put in -the time.  But this time I found something at last; I found an old rusty -wood-saw without any handle; it was laid in between a rafter and the -clapboards of the roof. I greased it up and went to work.  There was an -old horse-blanket nailed against the logs at the far end of the cabin -behind the table, to keep the wind from blowing through the chinks and -putting the candle out.  I got under the table and raised the blanket, -and went to work to saw a section of the big bottom log out—big enough -to let me through.  Well, it was a good long job, but I was getting -towards the end of it when I heard pap's gun in the woods.  I got rid of -the signs of my work, and dropped the blanket and hid my saw, and pretty -soon pap come in. - -Pap warn't in a good humor—so he was his natural self.  He said he was -down town, and everything was going wrong.  His lawyer said he reckoned -he would win his lawsuit and get the money if they ever got started on -the trial; but then there was ways to put it off a long time, and Judge -Thatcher knowed how to do it. And he said people allowed there'd be -another trial to get me away from him and give me to the widow for my -guardian, and they guessed it would win this time.  This shook me up -considerable, because I didn't want to go back to the widow's any more -and be so cramped up and sivilized, as they called it.  Then the old man -got to cussing, and cussed everything and everybody he could think of, -and then cussed them all over again to make sure he hadn't skipped any, -and after that he polished off with a kind of a general cuss all round, -including a considerable parcel of people which he didn't know the names -of, and so called them what's-his-name when he got to them, and went -right along with his cussing. - -He said he would like to see the widow get me.  He said he would watch -out, and if they tried to come any such game on him he knowed of a place -six or seven mile off to stow me in, where they might hunt till they -dropped and they couldn't find me.  That made me pretty uneasy again, -but only for a minute; I reckoned I wouldn't stay on hand till he got -that chance. - -The old man made me go to the skiff and fetch the things he had -got. There was a fifty-pound sack of corn meal, and a side of bacon, -ammunition, and a four-gallon jug of whisky, and an old book and two -newspapers for wadding, besides some tow.  I toted up a load, and went -back and set down on the bow of the skiff to rest.  I thought it all -over, and I reckoned I would walk off with the gun and some lines, and -take to the woods when I run away.  I guessed I wouldn't stay in one -place, but just tramp right across the country, mostly night times, and -hunt and fish to keep alive, and so get so far away that the old man nor -the widow couldn't ever find me any more.  I judged I would saw out and -leave that night if pap got drunk enough, and I reckoned he would.  I -got so full of it I didn't notice how long I was staying till the old -man hollered and asked me whether I was asleep or drownded. - -I got the things all up to the cabin, and then it was about dark.  While -I was cooking supper the old man took a swig or two and got sort of -warmed up, and went to ripping again.  He had been drunk over in town, -and laid in the gutter all night, and he was a sight to look at.  A body -would a thought he was Adam—he was just all mud.  Whenever his liquor -begun to work he most always went for the govment, this time he says: - -"Call this a govment! why, just look at it and see what it's like. -Here's the law a-standing ready to take a man's son away from him—a -man's own son, which he has had all the trouble and all the anxiety -and all the expense of raising.  Yes, just as that man has got that -son raised at last, and ready to go to work and begin to do suthin' for -_him_ and give him a rest, the law up and goes for him.  And they call -_that_ govment!  That ain't all, nuther.  The law backs that old Judge -Thatcher up and helps him to keep me out o' my property.  Here's what -the law does:  The law takes a man worth six thousand dollars and -up'ards, and jams him into an old trap of a cabin like this, and lets -him go round in clothes that ain't fitten for a hog. They call that -govment!  A man can't get his rights in a govment like this. Sometimes -I've a mighty notion to just leave the country for good and all. Yes, -and I _told_ 'em so; I told old Thatcher so to his face.  Lots of 'em -heard me, and can tell what I said.  Says I, for two cents I'd leave the -blamed country and never come a-near it agin.  Them's the very words.  I -says look at my hat—if you call it a hat—but the lid raises up and the -rest of it goes down till it's below my chin, and then it ain't rightly -a hat at all, but more like my head was shoved up through a jint o' -stove-pipe.  Look at it, says I—such a hat for me to wear—one of the -wealthiest men in this town if I could git my rights. - -"Oh, yes, this is a wonderful govment, wonderful.  Why, looky here. -There was a free nigger there from Ohio—a mulatter, most as white as -a white man.  He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the -shiniest hat; and there ain't a man in that town that's got as fine -clothes as what he had; and he had a gold watch and chain, and a -silver-headed cane—the awfulest old gray-headed nabob in the State.  And -what do you think?  They said he was a p'fessor in a college, and could -talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything.  And that ain't the -wust. They said he could _vote_ when he was at home.  Well, that let me -out. Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to?  It was 'lection day, -and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn't too drunk to get -there; but when they told me there was a State in this country where -they'd let that nigger vote, I drawed out.  I says I'll never vote agin. - Them's the very words I said; they all heard me; and the country may -rot for all me—I'll never vote agin as long as I live.  And to see the -cool way of that nigger—why, he wouldn't a give me the road if I hadn't -shoved him out o' the way.  I says to the people, why ain't this nigger -put up at auction and sold?—that's what I want to know.  And what do you -reckon they said? Why, they said he couldn't be sold till he'd been in -the State six months, and he hadn't been there that long yet.  There, -now—that's a specimen.  They call that a govment that can't sell a free -nigger till he's been in the State six months.  Here's a govment that -calls itself a govment, and lets on to be a govment, and thinks it is a -govment, and yet's got to set stock-still for six whole months before -it can take a hold of a prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free -nigger, and—" - -Pap was agoing on so he never noticed where his old limber legs was -taking him to, so he went head over heels over the tub of salt pork and -barked both shins, and the rest of his speech was all the hottest kind -of language—mostly hove at the nigger and the govment, though he give -the tub some, too, all along, here and there.  He hopped around the -cabin considerable, first on one leg and then on the other, holding -first one shin and then the other one, and at last he let out with his -left foot all of a sudden and fetched the tub a rattling kick.  But it -warn't good judgment, because that was the boot that had a couple of his -toes leaking out of the front end of it; so now he raised a howl that -fairly made a body's hair raise, and down he went in the dirt, and -rolled there, and held his toes; and the cussing he done then laid over -anything he had ever done previous.  He said so his own self afterwards. - He had heard old Sowberry Hagan in his best days, and he said it laid -over him, too; but I reckon that was sort of piling it on, maybe. - -After supper pap took the jug, and said he had enough whisky there -for two drunks and one delirium tremens.  That was always his word.  I -judged he would be blind drunk in about an hour, and then I would steal -the key, or saw myself out, one or t'other.  He drank and drank, and -tumbled down on his blankets by and by; but luck didn't run my way. - He didn't go sound asleep, but was uneasy.  He groaned and moaned and -thrashed around this way and that for a long time.  At last I got so -sleepy I couldn't keep my eyes open all I could do, and so before I -knowed what I was about I was sound asleep, and the candle burning. - -I don't know how long I was asleep, but all of a sudden there was an -awful scream and I was up.  There was pap looking wild, and skipping -around every which way and yelling about snakes.  He said they was -crawling up his legs; and then he would give a jump and scream, and say -one had bit him on the cheek—but I couldn't see no snakes.  He started -and run round and round the cabin, hollering "Take him off! take him -off! he's biting me on the neck!"  I never see a man look so wild in the -eyes. Pretty soon he was all fagged out, and fell down panting; then he -rolled over and over wonderful fast, kicking things every which way, -and striking and grabbing at the air with his hands, and screaming and -saying there was devils a-hold of him.  He wore out by and by, and laid -still a while, moaning.  Then he laid stiller, and didn't make a sound. - I could hear the owls and the wolves away off in the woods, and it -seemed terrible still.  He was laying over by the corner. By and by he -raised up part way and listened, with his head to one side.  He says, -very low: - -"Tramp—tramp—tramp; that's the dead; tramp—tramp—tramp; they're coming -after me; but I won't go.  Oh, they're here! don't touch me—don't! hands -off—they're cold; let go.  Oh, let a poor devil alone!" - -Then he went down on all fours and crawled off, begging them to let him -alone, and he rolled himself up in his blanket and wallowed in under the -old pine table, still a-begging; and then he went to crying.  I could -hear him through the blanket. - -By and by he rolled out and jumped up on his feet looking wild, and he -see me and went for me.  He chased me round and round the place with a -clasp-knife, calling me the Angel of Death, and saying he would kill me, -and then I couldn't come for him no more.  I begged, and told him I -was only Huck; but he laughed _such_ a screechy laugh, and roared and -cussed, and kept on chasing me up.  Once when I turned short and -dodged under his arm he made a grab and got me by the jacket between my -shoulders, and I thought I was gone; but I slid out of the jacket quick -as lightning, and saved myself. Pretty soon he was all tired out, and -dropped down with his back against the door, and said he would rest a -minute and then kill me. He put his knife under him, and said he would -sleep and get strong, and then he would see who was who. - -So he dozed off pretty soon.  By and by I got the old split-bottom chair -and clumb up as easy as I could, not to make any noise, and got down the -gun.  I slipped the ramrod down it to make sure it was loaded, then I -laid it across the turnip barrel, pointing towards pap, and set down -behind it to wait for him to stir.  And how slow and still the time did -drag along. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -"GIT up!  What you 'bout?" - -I opened my eyes and looked around, trying to make out where I was.  It -was after sun-up, and I had been sound asleep.  Pap was standing over me -looking sour and sick, too.  He says: - -"What you doin' with this gun?" - -I judged he didn't know nothing about what he had been doing, so I says: - -"Somebody tried to get in, so I was laying for him." - -"Why didn't you roust me out?" - -"Well, I tried to, but I couldn't; I couldn't budge you." - -"Well, all right.  Don't stand there palavering all day, but out with -you and see if there's a fish on the lines for breakfast.  I'll be along -in a minute." - -He unlocked the door, and I cleared out up the river-bank.  I noticed -some pieces of limbs and such things floating down, and a sprinkling of -bark; so I knowed the river had begun to rise.  I reckoned I would have -great times now if I was over at the town.  The June rise used to be -always luck for me; because as soon as that rise begins here comes -cordwood floating down, and pieces of log rafts—sometimes a dozen logs -together; so all you have to do is to catch them and sell them to the -wood-yards and the sawmill. - -I went along up the bank with one eye out for pap and t'other one out -for what the rise might fetch along.  Well, all at once here comes a -canoe; just a beauty, too, about thirteen or fourteen foot long, riding -high like a duck.  I shot head-first off of the bank like a frog, -clothes and all on, and struck out for the canoe.  I just expected -there'd be somebody laying down in it, because people often done that -to fool folks, and when a chap had pulled a skiff out most to it they'd -raise up and laugh at him.  But it warn't so this time.  It was a -drift-canoe sure enough, and I clumb in and paddled her ashore.  Thinks -I, the old man will be glad when he sees this—she's worth ten dollars. - But when I got to shore pap wasn't in sight yet, and as I was running -her into a little creek like a gully, all hung over with vines and -willows, I struck another idea:  I judged I'd hide her good, and then, -'stead of taking to the woods when I run off, I'd go down the river -about fifty mile and camp in one place for good, and not have such a -rough time tramping on foot. - -It was pretty close to the shanty, and I thought I heard the old man -coming all the time; but I got her hid; and then I out and looked around -a bunch of willows, and there was the old man down the path a piece just -drawing a bead on a bird with his gun.  So he hadn't seen anything. - -When he got along I was hard at it taking up a "trot" line.  He abused -me a little for being so slow; but I told him I fell in the river, and -that was what made me so long.  I knowed he would see I was wet, and -then he would be asking questions.  We got five catfish off the lines -and went home. - -While we laid off after breakfast to sleep up, both of us being about -wore out, I got to thinking that if I could fix up some way to keep pap -and the widow from trying to follow me, it would be a certainer thing -than trusting to luck to get far enough off before they missed me; you -see, all kinds of things might happen.  Well, I didn't see no way for a -while, but by and by pap raised up a minute to drink another barrel of -water, and he says: - -"Another time a man comes a-prowling round here you roust me out, you -hear? That man warn't here for no good.  I'd a shot him.  Next time you -roust me out, you hear?" - -Then he dropped down and went to sleep again; but what he had been -saying give me the very idea I wanted.  I says to myself, I can fix it -now so nobody won't think of following me. - -About twelve o'clock we turned out and went along up the bank.  The -river was coming up pretty fast, and lots of driftwood going by on the -rise. By and by along comes part of a log raft—nine logs fast together. - We went out with the skiff and towed it ashore.  Then we had dinner. -Anybody but pap would a waited and seen the day through, so as to catch -more stuff; but that warn't pap's style.  Nine logs was enough for one -time; he must shove right over to town and sell.  So he locked me in and -took the skiff, and started off towing the raft about half-past three. - I judged he wouldn't come back that night.  I waited till I reckoned he -had got a good start; then I out with my saw, and went to work on that -log again.  Before he was t'other side of the river I was out of the -hole; him and his raft was just a speck on the water away off yonder. - -I took the sack of corn meal and took it to where the canoe was hid, and -shoved the vines and branches apart and put it in; then I done the same -with the side of bacon; then the whisky-jug.  I took all the coffee and -sugar there was, and all the ammunition; I took the wadding; I took the -bucket and gourd; I took a dipper and a tin cup, and my old saw and two -blankets, and the skillet and the coffee-pot.  I took fish-lines and -matches and other things—everything that was worth a cent.  I cleaned -out the place.  I wanted an axe, but there wasn't any, only the one out -at the woodpile, and I knowed why I was going to leave that.  I fetched -out the gun, and now I was done. - -I had wore the ground a good deal crawling out of the hole and dragging -out so many things.  So I fixed that as good as I could from the outside -by scattering dust on the place, which covered up the smoothness and the -sawdust.  Then I fixed the piece of log back into its place, and put two -rocks under it and one against it to hold it there, for it was bent up -at that place and didn't quite touch ground.  If you stood four or five -foot away and didn't know it was sawed, you wouldn't never notice -it; and besides, this was the back of the cabin, and it warn't likely -anybody would go fooling around there. - -It was all grass clear to the canoe, so I hadn't left a track.  I -followed around to see.  I stood on the bank and looked out over the -river.  All safe.  So I took the gun and went up a piece into the woods, -and was hunting around for some birds when I see a wild pig; hogs soon -went wild in them bottoms after they had got away from the prairie -farms. I shot this fellow and took him into camp. - -I took the axe and smashed in the door.  I beat it and hacked it -considerable a-doing it.  I fetched the pig in, and took him back nearly -to the table and hacked into his throat with the axe, and laid him down -on the ground to bleed; I say ground because it was ground—hard packed, -and no boards.  Well, next I took an old sack and put a lot of big rocks -in it—all I could drag—and I started it from the pig, and dragged it to -the door and through the woods down to the river and dumped it in, and -down it sunk, out of sight.  You could easy see that something had been -dragged over the ground.  I did wish Tom Sawyer was there; I knowed he -would take an interest in this kind of business, and throw in the fancy -touches.  Nobody could spread himself like Tom Sawyer in such a thing as -that. - -Well, last I pulled out some of my hair, and blooded the axe good, and -stuck it on the back side, and slung the axe in the corner.  Then I -took up the pig and held him to my breast with my jacket (so he couldn't -drip) till I got a good piece below the house and then dumped him into -the river.  Now I thought of something else.  So I went and got the bag -of meal and my old saw out of the canoe, and fetched them to the house. - I took the bag to where it used to stand, and ripped a hole in the -bottom of it with the saw, for there warn't no knives and forks on the -place—pap done everything with his clasp-knife about the cooking.  Then -I carried the sack about a hundred yards across the grass and through -the willows east of the house, to a shallow lake that was five mile wide -and full of rushes—and ducks too, you might say, in the season.  There -was a slough or a creek leading out of it on the other side that went -miles away, I don't know where, but it didn't go to the river.  The meal -sifted out and made a little track all the way to the lake.  I dropped -pap's whetstone there too, so as to look like it had been done by -accident. Then I tied up the rip in the meal sack with a string, so it -wouldn't leak no more, and took it and my saw to the canoe again. - -It was about dark now; so I dropped the canoe down the river under some -willows that hung over the bank, and waited for the moon to rise.  I -made fast to a willow; then I took a bite to eat, and by and by laid -down in the canoe to smoke a pipe and lay out a plan.  I says to myself, -they'll follow the track of that sackful of rocks to the shore and then -drag the river for me.  And they'll follow that meal track to the lake -and go browsing down the creek that leads out of it to find the robbers -that killed me and took the things.  They won't ever hunt the river for -anything but my dead carcass. They'll soon get tired of that, and won't -bother no more about me.  All right; I can stop anywhere I want to. -Jackson's Island is good enough for me; I know that island pretty well, -and nobody ever comes there.  And then I can paddle over to town nights, -and slink around and pick up things I want. Jackson's Island's the -place. - -I was pretty tired, and the first thing I knowed I was asleep.  When -I woke up I didn't know where I was for a minute.  I set up and looked -around, a little scared.  Then I remembered.  The river looked miles and -miles across.  The moon was so bright I could a counted the drift logs -that went a-slipping along, black and still, hundreds of yards out from -shore. Everything was dead quiet, and it looked late, and _smelt_ late. -You know what I mean—I don't know the words to put it in. - -I took a good gap and a stretch, and was just going to unhitch and start -when I heard a sound away over the water.  I listened.  Pretty soon I -made it out.  It was that dull kind of a regular sound that comes from -oars working in rowlocks when it's a still night.  I peeped out through -the willow branches, and there it was—a skiff, away across the water. - I couldn't tell how many was in it.  It kept a-coming, and when it was -abreast of me I see there warn't but one man in it.  Think's I, maybe -it's pap, though I warn't expecting him.  He dropped below me with the -current, and by and by he came a-swinging up shore in the easy water, -and he went by so close I could a reached out the gun and touched him. - Well, it _was_ pap, sure enough—and sober, too, by the way he laid his -oars. - -I didn't lose no time.  The next minute I was a-spinning down stream -soft but quick in the shade of the bank.  I made two mile and a half, -and then struck out a quarter of a mile or more towards the middle of -the river, because pretty soon I would be passing the ferry landing, and -people might see me and hail me.  I got out amongst the driftwood, and -then laid down in the bottom of the canoe and let her float. - - I laid there, and had a good rest and a smoke out of my pipe, looking -away into the sky; not a cloud in it.  The sky looks ever so deep when -you lay down on your back in the moonshine; I never knowed it before. - And how far a body can hear on the water such nights!  I heard people -talking at the ferry landing. I heard what they said, too—every word -of it.  One man said it was getting towards the long days and the short -nights now.  T'other one said _this_ warn't one of the short ones, he -reckoned—and then they laughed, and he said it over again, and they -laughed again; then they waked up another fellow and told him, and -laughed, but he didn't laugh; he ripped out something brisk, and said -let him alone.  The first fellow said he 'lowed to tell it to his -old woman—she would think it was pretty good; but he said that warn't -nothing to some things he had said in his time. I heard one man say it -was nearly three o'clock, and he hoped daylight wouldn't wait more than -about a week longer.  After that the talk got further and further away, -and I couldn't make out the words any more; but I could hear the mumble, -and now and then a laugh, too, but it seemed a long ways off. - -I was away below the ferry now.  I rose up, and there was Jackson's -Island, about two mile and a half down stream, heavy timbered and -standing up out of the middle of the river, big and dark and solid, like -a steamboat without any lights.  There warn't any signs of the bar at -the head—it was all under water now. - -It didn't take me long to get there.  I shot past the head at a ripping -rate, the current was so swift, and then I got into the dead water and -landed on the side towards the Illinois shore.  I run the canoe into -a deep dent in the bank that I knowed about; I had to part the willow -branches to get in; and when I made fast nobody could a seen the canoe -from the outside. - -I went up and set down on a log at the head of the island, and looked -out on the big river and the black driftwood and away over to the town, -three mile away, where there was three or four lights twinkling.  A -monstrous big lumber-raft was about a mile up stream, coming along down, -with a lantern in the middle of it.  I watched it come creeping down, -and when it was most abreast of where I stood I heard a man say, "Stern -oars, there! heave her head to stabboard!"  I heard that just as plain -as if the man was by my side. - -There was a little gray in the sky now; so I stepped into the woods, and -laid down for a nap before breakfast. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -THE sun was up so high when I waked that I judged it was after eight -o'clock.  I laid there in the grass and the cool shade thinking about -things, and feeling rested and ruther comfortable and satisfied.  I -could see the sun out at one or two holes, but mostly it was big trees -all about, and gloomy in there amongst them.  There was freckled places -on the ground where the light sifted down through the leaves, and the -freckled places swapped about a little, showing there was a little -breeze up there.  A couple of squirrels set on a limb and jabbered at me -very friendly. - -I was powerful lazy and comfortable—didn't want to get up and cook -breakfast.  Well, I was dozing off again when I thinks I hears a deep -sound of "boom!" away up the river.  I rouses up, and rests on my elbow -and listens; pretty soon I hears it again.  I 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.  And there was the -ferryboat full of people floating along down.  I knowed what was the -matter now.  "Boom!" I see the white smoke squirt out of the ferryboat's -side.  You see, they was firing cannon over the water, trying to make my -carcass come to the top. - -I was pretty hungry, but it warn't going to do for me to start a fire, -because they might see the smoke.  So I set there and watched the -cannon-smoke and listened to the boom.  The 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. Well, 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.  So, says I, I'll keep a lookout, and -if any of them's floating around after me I'll give them a show.  I -changed to the Illinois edge of the island to see what luck I could -have, and I warn't disappointed.  A big double loaf come along, and I -most got it with a long stick, but my foot slipped and she floated out -further.  Of course I was where the current set in the closest to the -shore—I knowed enough for that.  But by and by along comes another one, -and this time I won.  I took out the plug and shook out the little dab -of quicksilver, and set my teeth in.  It was "baker's bread"—what the -quality eat; none of your low-down corn-pone. - -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 ain't no doubt but there is something in that -thing—that 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. - -I lit a pipe and had a good long smoke, and went on watching.  The -ferryboat was floating with the current, and I allowed I'd have a chance -to see who was aboard when she come along, because she would come in -close, where the bread did.  When she'd 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: - -"Look sharp, now; the current sets in the closest here, and maybe he's -washed ashore and got tangled amongst the brush at the water's edge.  I -hope so, anyway." - -I didn't 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 couldn't see me.  Then the captain sung out: - -"Stand away!" 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 they'd a had some bullets in, I reckon they'd -a got the corpse they was after.  Well, I see I warn't 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 didn't 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 didn't 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 couldn't 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 ain't no better way to put in time when you are lonesome; you -can't stay so, you soon get over it. - -And so for three days and nights.  No difference—just 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 warn't -far from the foot of the island.  I had my gun along, but I hadn't 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 couldn't 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 warn't feeling very brash, there warn't much sand -in my craw; but I says, this ain't 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 year's camp, and then clumb a tree. - -I reckon I was up in the tree two hours; but I didn't see nothing, -I didn't hear nothing—I only _thought_ I heard and seen as much as a -thousand things.  Well, I couldn't 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 bank—about 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 people's 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 hadn't got far when I -hear a man say: - -"We better camp here if we can find a good place; the horses is about -beat out.  Let's look around." - -I didn't wait, but shoved out and paddled away easy.  I tied up in the -old place, and reckoned I would sleep in the canoe. - -I didn't sleep much.  I couldn't, somehow, for thinking.  And every time -I waked up I thought somebody had me by the neck.  So the sleep didn't -do me no good.  By and by I says to myself, I can't live this way; I'm -a-going to find out who it is that's here on the island with me; I'll -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 hadn't no luck somehow; I couldn't 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 Watson's Jim!  I bet I was glad to see -him.  I says: - -"Hello, Jim!" 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: - -"Doan' hurt me—don't!  I hain't ever done no harm to a ghos'.  I alwuz -liked dead people, en done all I could for 'em.  You go en git in de -river agin, whah you b'longs, en doan' do nuffn to Ole Jim, 'at 'uz -awluz yo' fren'." - -Well, I warn't long making him understand I warn't dead.  I was ever so -glad to see Jim.  I warn't lonesome now.  I told him I warn't 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: - -"It's good daylight.  Le's get breakfast.  Make up your camp fire good." - -"What's de use er makin' up de camp fire to cook strawbries en sich -truck? But you got a gun, hain't you?  Den we kin git sumfn better den -strawbries." - -"Strawberries and such truck," I says.  "Is that what you live on?" - -"I couldn' git nuffn else," he says. - -"Why, how long you been on the island, Jim?" - -"I come heah de night arter you's killed." - -"What, all that time?" - -"Yes—indeedy." - -"And ain't you had nothing but that kind of rubbage to eat?" - -"No, sah—nuffn else." - -"Well, you must be most starved, ain't you?" - -"I reck'n I could eat a hoss.  I think I could. How long you ben on de -islan'?" - -"Since the night I got killed." - -"No!  W'y, what has you lived on?  But you got a gun.  Oh, yes, you got -a gun.  Dat's good.  Now you kill sumfn en I'll make up de fire." - -So 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. I catched a good big catfish, too, and Jim cleaned him -with his knife, and fried him. - -When breakfast was ready we lolled on the grass and eat it smoking hot. -Jim laid it in with all his might, for he was most about starved.  Then -when we had got pretty well stuffed, we laid off and lazied.  By and by -Jim says: - -"But looky here, Huck, who wuz it dat 'uz killed in dat shanty ef it -warn't you?" - -Then I told him the whole thing, and he said it was smart.  He said Tom -Sawyer couldn't get up no better plan than what I had.  Then I says: - -"How do you come to be here, Jim, and how'd you get here?" - -He looked pretty uneasy, and didn't say nothing for a minute.  Then he -says: - -"Maybe I better not tell." - -"Why, Jim?" - -"Well, dey's reasons.  But you wouldn' tell on me ef I uz to tell you, -would you, Huck?" - -"Blamed if I would, Jim." - -"Well, I b'lieve you, Huck.  I—_I run off_." - -"Jim!" - -"But mind, you said you wouldn' tell—you know you said you wouldn' tell, -Huck." - -"Well, I did.  I said I wouldn't, and I'll stick to it.  Honest _injun_, -I will.  People would call me a low-down Abolitionist and despise me for -keeping mum—but that don't make no difference.  I ain't a-going to tell, -and I ain't a-going back there, anyways.  So, now, le's know all about -it." - -"Well, you see, it 'uz dis way.  Ole missus—dat's Miss Watson—she pecks -on me all de time, en treats me pooty rough, but she awluz said she -wouldn' sell me down to Orleans.  But I noticed dey wuz a nigger trader -roun' de place considable lately, en I begin to git oneasy.  Well, one -night I creeps to de do' pooty late, en de do' warn't quite shet, en I -hear old missus tell de widder she gwyne to sell me down to Orleans, but -she didn' want to, but she could git eight hund'd dollars for me, en it -'uz sich a big stack o' money she couldn' resis'.  De widder she try to -git her to say she wouldn' do it, but I never waited to hear de res'.  I -lit out mighty quick, I tell you. - -"I tuck out en shin down de hill, en 'spec to steal a skift 'long de -sho' som'ers 'bove de town, but dey wuz people a-stirring yit, so I hid -in de ole tumble-down cooper-shop on de bank to wait for everybody to -go 'way. Well, I wuz dah all night.  Dey wuz somebody roun' all de time. - 'Long 'bout six in de mawnin' skifts begin to go by, en 'bout eight er -nine every skift dat went 'long wuz talkin' 'bout how yo' pap come over -to de town en say you's killed.  Dese las' skifts wuz full o' ladies en -genlmen a-goin' over for to see de place.  Sometimes dey'd pull up at -de sho' en take a res' b'fo' dey started acrost, so by de talk I got to -know all 'bout de killin'.  I 'uz powerful sorry you's killed, Huck, but -I ain't no mo' now. - -"I laid dah under de shavin's all day.  I 'uz hungry, but I warn't -afeard; bekase I knowed ole missus en de widder wuz goin' to start to -de camp-meet'n' right arter breakfas' en be gone all day, en dey knows -I goes off wid de cattle 'bout daylight, so dey wouldn' 'spec to see me -roun' de place, en so dey wouldn' miss me tell arter dark in de evenin'. -De yuther servants wouldn' miss me, kase dey'd shin out en take holiday -soon as de ole folks 'uz out'n de way. - -"Well, when it come dark I tuck out up de river road, en went 'bout two -mile er more to whah dey warn't no houses.  I'd made up my mine 'bout -what I's agwyne to do.  You see, ef I kep' on tryin' to git away afoot, -de dogs 'ud track me; ef I stole a skift to cross over, dey'd miss dat -skift, you see, en dey'd know 'bout whah I'd lan' on de yuther side, en -whah to pick up my track.  So I says, a raff is what I's arter; it doan' -_make_ no track. - -"I see a light a-comin' roun' de p'int bymeby, so I wade' in en shove' -a log ahead o' me en swum more'n half way acrost de river, en got in -'mongst de drift-wood, en kep' my head down low, en kinder swum agin de -current tell de raff come along.  Den I swum to de stern uv it en tuck -a-holt.  It clouded up en 'uz pooty dark for a little while.  So I clumb -up en laid down on de planks.  De men 'uz all 'way yonder in de middle, -whah de lantern wuz.  De river wuz a-risin', en dey wuz a good current; -so I reck'n'd 'at by fo' in de mawnin' I'd be twenty-five mile down de -river, en den I'd slip in jis b'fo' daylight en swim asho', en take to -de woods on de Illinois side. - -"But I didn' have no luck.  When we 'uz mos' down to de head er de -islan' a man begin to come aft wid de lantern, I see it warn't no use -fer to wait, so I slid overboard en struck out fer de islan'.  Well, I -had a notion I could lan' mos' anywhers, but I couldn't—bank too bluff. - I 'uz mos' to de foot er de islan' b'fo' I found' a good place.  I went -into de woods en jedged I wouldn' fool wid raffs no mo', long as dey -move de lantern roun' so.  I had my pipe en a plug er dog-leg, en some -matches in my cap, en dey warn't wet, so I 'uz all right." - -"And so you ain't had no meat nor bread to eat all this time?  Why -didn't you get mud-turkles?" - -"How you gwyne to git 'm?  You can't slip up on um en grab um; en how's -a body gwyne to hit um wid a rock?  How could a body do it in de night? - En I warn't gwyne to show mysef on de bank in de daytime." - -"Well, that's so.  You've had to keep in the woods all the time, of -course. Did you hear 'em shooting the cannon?" - -"Oh, yes.  I knowed dey was arter you.  I see um go by heah—watched um -thoo de bushes." - -Some young birds come along, flying a yard or two at a time and -lighting. Jim said it was a sign it was going to rain.  He said it was -a sign when young chickens flew that way, and so he reckoned it was the -same way when young birds done it.  I was going to catch some of them, -but Jim wouldn't let me.  He said it was death.  He said his father laid -mighty sick once, and some of them catched a bird, and his old granny -said his father would die, and he did. - -And Jim said you mustn't count the things you are going to cook for -dinner, because that would bring bad luck.  The same if you shook the -table-cloth after sundown.  And he said if a man owned a beehive -and that man died, the bees must be told about it before sun-up next -morning, or else the bees would all weaken down and quit work and die. - Jim said bees wouldn't sting idiots; but I didn't believe that, because -I had tried them lots of times myself, and they wouldn't sting me. - -I had heard about some of these things before, but not all of them.  Jim -knowed all kinds of signs.  He said he knowed most everything.  I said -it looked to me like all the signs was about bad luck, and so I asked -him if there warn't any good-luck signs.  He says: - -"Mighty few—an' _dey_ ain't no use to a body.  What you want to know -when good luck's a-comin' for?  Want to keep it off?"  And he said:  "Ef -you's got hairy arms en a hairy breas', it's a sign dat you's agwyne -to be rich. Well, dey's some use in a sign like dat, 'kase it's so fur -ahead. You see, maybe you's got to be po' a long time fust, en so you -might git discourage' en kill yo'sef 'f you didn' know by de sign dat -you gwyne to be rich bymeby." - -"Have you got hairy arms and a hairy breast, Jim?" - -"What's de use to ax dat question?  Don't you see I has?" - -"Well, are you rich?" - -"No, but I ben rich wunst, and gwyne to be rich agin.  Wunst I had -foteen dollars, but I tuck to specalat'n', en got busted out." - -"What did you speculate in, Jim?" - -"Well, fust I tackled stock." - -"What kind of stock?" - -"Why, live stock—cattle, you know.  I put ten dollars in a cow.  But -I ain' gwyne to resk no mo' money in stock.  De cow up 'n' died on my -han's." - -"So you lost the ten dollars." - -"No, I didn't lose it all.  I on'y los' 'bout nine of it.  I sole de -hide en taller for a dollar en ten cents." - -"You had five dollars and ten cents left.  Did you speculate any more?" - -"Yes.  You know that one-laigged nigger dat b'longs to old Misto -Bradish? Well, he sot up a bank, en say anybody dat put in a dollar -would git fo' dollars mo' at de en' er de year.  Well, all de niggers -went in, but dey didn't have much.  I wuz de on'y one dat had much.  So -I stuck out for mo' dan fo' dollars, en I said 'f I didn' git it I'd -start a bank mysef. Well, o' course dat nigger want' to keep me out er -de business, bekase he says dey warn't business 'nough for two banks, so -he say I could put in my five dollars en he pay me thirty-five at de en' -er de year. - -"So I done it.  Den I reck'n'd I'd inves' de thirty-five dollars right -off en keep things a-movin'.  Dey wuz a nigger name' Bob, dat had -ketched a wood-flat, en his marster didn' know it; en I bought it off'n -him en told him to take de thirty-five dollars when de en' er de -year come; but somebody stole de wood-flat dat night, en nex day de -one-laigged nigger say de bank's busted.  So dey didn' none uv us git no -money." - -"What did you do with the ten cents, Jim?" - -"Well, I 'uz gwyne to spen' it, but I had a dream, en de dream tole me -to give it to a nigger name' Balum—Balum's Ass dey call him for short; -he's one er dem chuckleheads, you know.  But he's lucky, dey say, en I -see I warn't lucky.  De dream say let Balum inves' de ten cents en he'd -make a raise for me.  Well, Balum he tuck de money, en when he wuz in -church he hear de preacher say dat whoever give to de po' len' to de -Lord, en boun' to git his money back a hund'd times.  So Balum he tuck -en give de ten cents to de po', en laid low to see what wuz gwyne to -come of it." - -"Well, what did come of it, Jim?" - -"Nuffn never come of it.  I couldn' manage to k'leck dat money no way; -en Balum he couldn'.  I ain' gwyne to len' no mo' money 'dout I see de -security.  Boun' to git yo' money back a hund'd times, de preacher says! -Ef I could git de ten _cents_ back, I'd call it squah, en be glad er de -chanst." - -"Well, it's all right anyway, Jim, long as you're going to be rich again -some time or other." - -"Yes; en I's rich now, come to look at it.  I owns mysef, en I's wuth -eight hund'd dollars.  I wisht I had de money, I wouldn' want no mo'." - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -I wanted to go and look at a place right about the middle of the island -that I'd found when I was exploring; so we started and soon got to it, -because the island was only three miles long and a quarter of a mile -wide. - -This place was a tolerable long, steep hill or ridge about forty foot -high. We had a rough time getting to the top, the sides was so steep and -the bushes so thick.  We tramped and clumb around all over it, and by -and by found a good big cavern in the rock, most up to the top on the -side towards Illinois.  The cavern was as big as two or three rooms -bunched together, and Jim could stand up straight in it.  It was cool in -there. Jim was for putting our traps in there right away, but I said we -didn't want to be climbing up and down there all the time. - -Jim said if we had the canoe hid in a good place, and had all the traps -in the cavern, we could rush there if anybody was to come to the island, -and they would never find us without dogs.  And, besides, he said them -little birds had said it was going to rain, and did I want the things to -get wet? - -So we went back and got the canoe, and paddled up abreast the cavern, -and lugged all the traps up there.  Then we hunted up a place close by -to hide the canoe in, amongst the thick willows.  We took some fish off -of the lines and set them again, and begun to get ready for dinner. - -The door of the cavern was big enough to roll a hogshead in, and on one -side of the door the floor stuck out a little bit, and was flat and a -good place to build a fire on.  So we built it there and cooked dinner. - -We spread the blankets inside for a carpet, and eat our dinner in there. -We put all the other things handy at the back of the cavern.  Pretty -soon it darkened up, and begun to thunder and lighten; so the birds was -right about it.  Directly it begun to rain, and it rained like all fury, -too, and I never see the wind blow so.  It was one of these regular -summer storms.  It would get so dark that it looked all blue-black -outside, and lovely; and the rain would thrash along by so thick that -the trees off a little ways looked dim and spider-webby; and here would -come a blast of wind that would bend the trees down and turn up the -pale underside of the leaves; and then a perfect ripper of a gust would -follow along and set the branches to tossing their arms as if they -was just wild; and next, when it was just about the bluest and -blackest—_FST_! it was as bright as glory, and you'd have a little -glimpse of tree-tops a-plunging about away off yonder in the storm, -hundreds of yards further than you could see before; dark as sin again -in a second, and now you'd hear the thunder let go with an awful crash, -and then go rumbling, grumbling, tumbling, down the sky towards the -under side of the world, like rolling empty barrels down stairs—where -it's long stairs and they bounce a good deal, you know. - -"Jim, this is nice," I says.  "I wouldn't want to be nowhere else but -here. Pass me along another hunk of fish and some hot corn-bread." - -"Well, you wouldn't a ben here 'f it hadn't a ben for Jim.  You'd a ben -down dah in de woods widout any dinner, en gittn' mos' drownded, too; -dat you would, honey.  Chickens knows when it's gwyne to rain, en so do -de birds, chile." - -The river went on raising and raising for ten or twelve days, till at -last it was over the banks.  The water was three or four foot deep on -the island in the low places and on the Illinois bottom.  On that side -it was a good many miles wide, but on the Missouri side it was the same -old distance across—a half a mile—because the Missouri shore was just a -wall of high bluffs. - -Daytimes we paddled all over the island in the canoe, It was mighty cool -and shady in the deep woods, even if the sun was blazing outside.  We -went winding in and out amongst the trees, and sometimes the vines hung -so thick we had to back away and go some other way.  Well, on every old -broken-down tree you could see rabbits and snakes and such things; and -when the island had been overflowed a day or two they got so tame, on -account of being hungry, that you could paddle right up and put your -hand on them if you wanted to; but not the snakes and turtles—they would -slide off in the water.  The ridge our cavern was in was full of them. -We could a had pets enough if we'd wanted them. - -One night we catched a little section of a lumber raft—nice pine planks. -It was twelve foot wide and about fifteen or sixteen foot long, and -the top stood above water six or seven inches—a solid, level floor.  We -could see saw-logs go by in the daylight sometimes, but we let them go; -we didn't show ourselves in daylight. - -Another night when we was up at the head of the island, just before -daylight, here comes a frame-house down, on the west side.  She was -a two-story, and tilted over considerable.  We paddled out and got -aboard—clumb in at an upstairs window.  But it was too dark to see yet, -so we made the canoe fast and set in her to wait for daylight. - -The light begun to come before we got to the foot of the island.  Then -we looked in at the window.  We could make out a bed, and a table, and -two old chairs, and lots of things around about on the floor, and there -was clothes hanging against the wall.  There was something laying on the -floor in the far corner that looked like a man.  So Jim says: - -"Hello, you!" - -But it didn't budge.  So I hollered again, and then Jim says: - -"De man ain't asleep—he's dead.  You hold still—I'll go en see." - -He went, and bent down and looked, and says: - -"It's a dead man.  Yes, indeedy; naked, too.  He's ben shot in de back. -I reck'n he's ben dead two er three days.  Come in, Huck, but doan' look -at his face—it's too gashly." - -I didn't look at him at all.  Jim throwed some old rags over him, but -he needn't done it; I didn't want to see him.  There was heaps of old -greasy cards scattered around over the floor, and old whisky bottles, -and a couple of masks made out of black cloth; and all over the walls -was the ignorantest kind of words and pictures made with charcoal. - There was two old dirty calico dresses, and a sun-bonnet, and some -women's underclothes hanging against the wall, and some men's clothing, -too.  We put the lot into the canoe—it might come good.  There was a -boy's old speckled straw hat on the floor; I took that, too.  And there -was a bottle that had had milk in it, and it had a rag stopper for a -baby to suck.  We would a took the bottle, but it was broke.  There was -a seedy old chest, and an old hair trunk with the hinges broke.  They -stood open, but there warn't nothing left in them that was any account. - The way things was scattered about we reckoned the people left in a -hurry, and warn't fixed so as to carry off most of their stuff. - -We got an old tin lantern, and a butcher-knife without any handle, and -a bran-new Barlow knife worth two bits in any store, and a lot of tallow -candles, and a tin candlestick, and a gourd, and a tin cup, and a ratty -old bedquilt off the bed, and a reticule with needles and pins and -beeswax and buttons and thread and all such truck in it, and a hatchet -and some nails, and a fishline as thick as my little finger with some -monstrous hooks on it, and a roll of buckskin, and a leather dog-collar, -and a horseshoe, and some vials of medicine that didn't have no label -on them; and just as we was leaving I found a tolerable good curry-comb, -and Jim he found a ratty old fiddle-bow, and a wooden leg.  The straps -was broke off of it, but, barring that, it was a good enough leg, though -it was too long for me and not long enough for Jim, and we couldn't find -the other one, though we hunted all around. - -And so, take it all around, we made a good haul.  When we was ready to -shove off we was a quarter of a mile below the island, and it was pretty -broad day; so I made Jim lay down in the canoe and cover up with the -quilt, because if he set up people could tell he was a nigger a good -ways off.  I paddled over to the Illinois shore, and drifted down most -a half a mile doing it.  I crept up the dead water under the bank, and -hadn't no accidents and didn't see nobody.  We got home all safe. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -AFTER breakfast I wanted to talk about the dead man and guess out how he -come to be killed, but Jim didn't want to.  He said it would fetch bad -luck; and besides, he said, he might come and ha'nt us; he said a man -that warn't buried was more likely to go a-ha'nting around than one -that was planted and comfortable.  That sounded pretty reasonable, so -I didn't say no more; but I couldn't keep from studying over it and -wishing I knowed who shot the man, and what they done it for. - -We rummaged the clothes we'd got, and found eight dollars in silver -sewed up in the lining of an old blanket overcoat.  Jim said he reckoned -the people in that house stole the coat, because if they'd a knowed the -money was there they wouldn't a left it.  I said I reckoned they killed -him, too; but Jim didn't want to talk about that.  I says: - -"Now you think it's bad luck; but what did you say when I fetched in the -snake-skin that I found on the top of the ridge day before yesterday? -You said it was the worst bad luck in the world to touch a snake-skin -with my hands.  Well, here's your bad luck!  We've raked in all this -truck and eight dollars besides.  I wish we could have some bad luck -like this every day, Jim." - -"Never you mind, honey, never you mind.  Don't you git too peart.  It's -a-comin'.  Mind I tell you, it's a-comin'." - -It did come, too.  It was a Tuesday that we had that talk.  Well, after -dinner Friday we was laying around in the grass at the upper end of the -ridge, and got out of tobacco.  I went to the cavern to get some, and -found a rattlesnake in there.  I killed him, and curled him up on the -foot of Jim's blanket, ever so natural, thinking there'd be some fun -when Jim found him there.  Well, by night I forgot all about the snake, -and when Jim flung himself down on the blanket while I struck a light -the snake's mate was there, and bit him. - -He jumped up yelling, and the first thing the light showed was the -varmint curled up and ready for another spring.  I laid him out in a -second with a stick, and Jim grabbed pap's whisky-jug and begun to pour -it down. - -He was barefooted, and the snake bit him right on the heel.  That all -comes of my being such a fool as to not remember that wherever you leave -a dead snake its mate always comes there and curls around it.  Jim told -me to chop off the snake's head and throw it away, and then skin the -body and roast a piece of it.  I done it, and he eat it and said it -would help cure him. He made me take off the rattles and tie them around -his wrist, too.  He said that that would help.  Then I slid out quiet -and throwed the snakes clear away amongst the bushes; for I warn't going -to let Jim find out it was all my fault, not if I could help it. - -Jim sucked and sucked at the jug, and now and then he got out of his -head and pitched around and yelled; but every time he come to himself he -went to sucking at the jug again.  His foot swelled up pretty big, and -so did his leg; but by and by the drunk begun to come, and so I judged -he was all right; but I'd druther been bit with a snake than pap's -whisky. - -Jim was laid up for four days and nights.  Then the swelling was all -gone and he was around again.  I made up my mind I wouldn't ever take -a-holt of a snake-skin again with my hands, now that I see what had come -of it. Jim said he reckoned I would believe him next time.  And he said -that handling a snake-skin was such awful bad luck that maybe we hadn't -got to the end of it yet.  He said he druther see the new moon over his -left shoulder as much as a thousand times than take up a snake-skin -in his hand.  Well, I was getting to feel that way myself, though I've -always reckoned that looking at the new moon over your left shoulder is -one of the carelessest and foolishest things a body can do.  Old Hank -Bunker done it once, and bragged about it; and in less than two years he -got drunk and fell off of the shot-tower, and spread himself out so -that he was just a kind of a layer, as you may say; and they slid him -edgeways between two barn doors for a coffin, and buried him so, so -they say, but I didn't see it.  Pap told me.  But anyway it all come of -looking at the moon that way, like a fool. - -Well, the days went along, and the river went down between its banks -again; and about the first thing we done was to bait one of the big -hooks with a skinned rabbit and set it and catch a catfish that was -as big as a man, being six foot two inches long, and weighed over two -hundred pounds. We couldn't handle him, of course; he would a flung us -into Illinois.  We just set there and watched him rip and tear around -till he drownded.  We found a brass button in his stomach and a round -ball, and lots of rubbage.  We split the ball open with the hatchet, -and there was a spool in it.  Jim said he'd had it there a long time, to -coat it over so and make a ball of it.  It was as big a fish as was ever -catched in the Mississippi, I reckon.  Jim said he hadn't ever seen -a bigger one.  He would a been worth a good deal over at the village. - They peddle out such a fish as that by the pound in the market-house -there; everybody buys some of him; his meat's as white as snow and makes -a good fry. - -Next morning I said it was getting slow and dull, and I wanted to get a -stirring up some way.  I said I reckoned I would slip over the river and -find out what was going on.  Jim liked that notion; but he said I -must go in the dark and look sharp.  Then he studied it over and said, -couldn't I put on some of them old things and dress up like a girl? - That was a good notion, too.  So we shortened up one of the calico -gowns, and I turned up my trouser-legs to my knees and got into it.  Jim -hitched it behind with the hooks, and it was a fair fit.  I put on the -sun-bonnet and tied it under my chin, and then for a body to look in -and see my face was like looking down a joint of stove-pipe.  Jim said -nobody would know me, even in the daytime, hardly.  I practiced around -all day to get the hang of the things, and by and by I could do pretty -well in them, only Jim said I didn't walk like a girl; and he said -I must quit pulling up my gown to get at my britches-pocket.  I took -notice, and done better. - -I started up the Illinois shore in the canoe just after dark. - -I started across to the town from a little below the ferry-landing, and -the drift of the current fetched me in at the bottom of the town.  I -tied up and started along the bank.  There was a light burning in a -little shanty that hadn't been lived in for a long time, and I wondered -who had took up quarters there.  I slipped up and peeped in at the -window.  There was a woman about forty year old in there knitting by -a candle that was on a pine table.  I didn't know her face; she was a -stranger, for you couldn't start a face in that town that I didn't know. - Now this was lucky, because I was weakening; I was getting afraid I had -come; people might know my voice and find me out.  But if this woman had -been in such a little town two days she could tell me all I wanted to -know; so I knocked at the door, and made up my mind I wouldn't forget I -was a girl. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -"COME in," says the woman, and I did.  She says:  "Take a cheer." - -I done it.  She looked me all over with her little shiny eyes, and says: - -"What might your name be?" - -"Sarah Williams." - -"Where 'bouts do you live?  In this neighborhood?' - -"No'm.  In Hookerville, seven mile below.  I've walked all the way and -I'm all tired out." - -"Hungry, too, I reckon.  I'll find you something." - -"No'm, I ain't hungry.  I was so hungry I had to stop two miles below -here at a farm; so I ain't hungry no more.  It's what makes me so late. -My mother's down sick, and out of money and everything, and I come to -tell my uncle Abner Moore.  He lives at the upper end of the town, she -says.  I hain't ever been here before.  Do you know him?" - -"No; but I don't know everybody yet.  I haven't lived here quite two -weeks. It's a considerable ways to the upper end of the town.  You -better stay here all night.  Take off your bonnet." - -"No," I says; "I'll rest a while, I reckon, and go on.  I ain't afeared -of the dark." - -She said she wouldn't let me go by myself, but her husband would be in -by and by, maybe in a hour and a half, and she'd send him along with me. -Then she got to talking about her husband, and about her relations up -the river, and her relations down the river, and about how much better -off they used to was, and how they didn't know but they'd made a mistake -coming to our town, instead of letting well alone—and so on and so on, -till I was afeard I had made a mistake coming to her to find out what -was going on in the town; but by and by she dropped on to pap and the -murder, and then I was pretty willing to let her clatter right along. - 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 murdered.  I -says: - -"Who done it?  We've heard considerable about these goings on down in -Hookerville, but we don't know who 'twas that killed Huck Finn." - -"Well, I reckon there's a right smart chance of people _here_ that'd -like to know who killed him.  Some think old Finn done it himself." - -"No—is that so?" - -"Most everybody thought it at first.  He'll never know how nigh he come -to getting lynched.  But before night they changed around and judged it -was done by a runaway nigger named Jim." - -"Why _he_—" - -I stopped.  I reckoned I better keep still.  She run on, and never -noticed I had put in at all: - -"The nigger run off the very night Huck Finn was killed.  So there's a -reward out for him—three hundred dollars.  And there's a reward out for -old Finn, too—two hundred dollars.  You see, he come to town the -morning after the murder, and told about it, and was out with 'em on the -ferryboat hunt, and right away after he up and left.  Before night they -wanted to lynch him, but he was gone, you see.  Well, next day they -found out the nigger was gone; they found out he hadn't ben seen sence -ten o'clock the night the murder 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 boo-hooing to Judge Thatcher to get money to hunt for the -nigger all over Illinois with. The judge gave him some, and that evening -he got drunk, and was around till after midnight with a couple of mighty -hard-looking strangers, and then went off with them.  Well, he hain't -come back sence, and they ain't looking for him back till this thing -blows over a little, for people thinks now that he killed his boy and -fixed things so folks would think robbers done it, and then he'd get -Huck's money without having to bother a long time with a lawsuit. - People do say he warn't any too good to do it.  Oh, he's sly, I reckon. - If he don't come back for a year he'll be all right.  You can't prove -anything on him, you know; everything will be quieted down then, and -he'll walk in Huck's money as easy as nothing." - -"Yes, I reckon so, 'm.  I don't see nothing in the way of it.  Has -everybody quit thinking the nigger done it?" - -"Oh, no, not everybody.  A good many thinks he done it.  But they'll get -the nigger pretty soon now, and maybe they can scare it out of him." - -"Why, are they after him yet?" - -"Well, you're innocent, ain't you!  Does three hundred dollars lay -around every day for people to pick up?  Some folks think the nigger -ain't far from here.  I'm one of them—but I hain't talked it around.  A -few days ago I was talking with an old couple that lives next door in -the log shanty, and they happened to say hardly anybody ever goes to -that island over yonder that they call Jackson's Island.  Don't anybody -live there? says I. No, nobody, says they.  I didn't say any more, but -I done some thinking.  I was pretty near certain I'd 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 nigger's hiding over there; anyway, says -I, it's worth the trouble to give the place a hunt.  I hain't seen any -smoke sence, so I reckon maybe he's gone, if it was him; but husband's -going over to see—him and another man.  He was gone up the river; but he -got back to-day, and I told him as soon as he got here two hours ago." - -I had got so uneasy I couldn't 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 interested—and I was, too—and says: - -"Three hundred dollars is a power of money.  I wish my mother could get -it. Is your husband going over there to-night?" - -"Oh, 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.  They'll go over after -midnight." - -"Couldn't they see better if they was to wait till daytime?" - -"Yes.  And couldn't the nigger see better, too?  After midnight he'll -likely be asleep, and they can slip around through the woods and hunt up -his camp fire all the better for the dark, if he's got one." - -"I didn't think of that." - -The woman kept looking at me pretty curious, and I didn't feel a bit -comfortable.  Pretty soon she says, - -"What did you say your name was, honey?" - -"M—Mary Williams." - -Somehow it didn't seem to me that I said it was Mary before, so I didn't -look up—seemed 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: - -"Honey, I thought you said it was Sarah when you first come in?" - -"Oh, yes'm, I did.  Sarah Mary Williams.  Sarah's my first name.  Some -calls me Sarah, some calls me Mary." - -"Oh, that's the way of it?" - -"Yes'm." - -I was feeling better then, but I wished I was out of there, anyway.  I -couldn't 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. You'd 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 wouldn't 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 she'd wrenched her arm a day or two ago, and didn't -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 -"Ouch!" 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 didn't let on.  I got the thing, and the first rat that showed his -nose I let drive, and if he'd a stayed where he was he'd 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 husband's matters.  But she broke off -to say: - -"Keep your eye on the rats.  You better have the lead in your lap, -handy." - -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: - -"Come, now, what's your real name?" - -"Wh—what, mum?" - -"What's your real name?  Is it Bill, or Tom, or Bob?—or what is it?" - -I reckon I shook like a leaf, and I didn't know hardly what to do.  But -I says: - -"Please to don't poke fun at a poor girl like me, mum.  If I'm in the -way here, I'll—" - -"No, you won't.  Set down and stay where you are.  I ain't going to hurt -you, and I ain't going to tell on you, nuther.  You just tell me your -secret, and trust me.  I'll keep it; and, what's more, I'll help -you. So'll my old man if you want him to.  You see, you're a runaway -'prentice, that's all.  It ain't anything.  There ain't no harm in it. -You've been treated bad, and you made up your mind to cut.  Bless you, -child, I wouldn't tell on you.  Tell me all about it now, that's a good -boy." - -So I said it wouldn't be no use to try to play it any longer, and I -would just make a clean breast and tell her everything, but she musn't -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 couldn't 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 daughter's 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. - -"Goshen, child?  This ain't Goshen.  This is St. Petersburg.  Goshen's -ten mile further up the river.  Who told you this was Goshen?" - -"Why, 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." - -"He was drunk, I reckon.  He told you just exactly wrong." - -"Well, he did act like he was drunk, but it ain't no matter now.  I got -to be moving along.  I'll fetch Goshen before daylight." - -"Hold on a minute.  I'll put you up a snack to eat.  You might want it." - -So she put me up a snack, and says: - -"Say, when a cow's laying down, which end of her gets up first?  Answer -up prompt now—don't stop to study over it.  Which end gets up first?" - -"The hind end, mum." - -"Well, then, a horse?" - -"The for'rard end, mum." - -"Which side of a tree does the moss grow on?" - -"North side." - -"If fifteen cows is browsing on a hillside, how many of them eats with -their heads pointed the same direction?" - -"The whole fifteen, mum." - -"Well, I reckon you _have_ lived in the country.  I thought maybe you -was trying to hocus me again.  What's your real name, now?" - -"George Peters, mum." - -"Well, try to remember it, George.  Don't forget and tell me it's -Elexander before you go, and then get out by saying it's George -Elexander when I catch you.  And don't 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 don't hold the -thread still and fetch the needle up to it; hold the needle still and -poke the thread at it; that's the way a woman most always does, but a -man always does t'other 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 don't 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 I'll 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 road's a rocky one, -and your feet'll be in a condition when you get to Goshen, I reckon." - -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 didn't 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 clear—eleven.  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: - -"Git up and hump yourself, Jim!  There ain't a minute to lose.  They're -after us!" - -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 didn't 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 couldn't see it, for stars and shadows -ain't good to see by.  Then we got out the raft and slipped along down -in the shade, past the foot of the island dead still—never saying a -word. - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -IT must a been close on to one o'clock when we got below the island at -last, and the raft did seem to go mighty slow.  If a boat was to come -along we was going to take to the canoe and break for the Illinois -shore; and it was well a boat didn't come, for we hadn't ever thought to -put the gun in the canoe, or a fishing-line, or anything to eat.  We -was in ruther too much of a sweat to think of so many things.  It warn't -good judgment to put _everything_ on the raft. - -If the men went to the island I just expect they found the camp fire I -built, and watched it all night for Jim to come.  Anyways, they stayed -away from us, and if my building the fire never fooled them it warn't no -fault of mine.  I played it as low down on them as I could. - -When the first streak of day began to show we tied up to a towhead in a -big bend on the Illinois side, and hacked off cottonwood branches with -the hatchet, and covered up the raft with them so she looked like there -had been a cave-in in the bank there.  A tow-head is a sandbar that has -cottonwoods on it as thick as harrow-teeth. - -We had mountains on the Missouri shore and heavy timber on the Illinois -side, and the channel was down the Missouri shore at that place, so we -warn't afraid of anybody running across us.  We laid there all day, -and watched the rafts and steamboats spin down the Missouri shore, and -up-bound steamboats fight the big river in the middle.  I told Jim all -about the time I had jabbering with that woman; and Jim said she was -a smart one, and if she was to start after us herself she wouldn't set -down and watch a camp fire—no, sir, she'd fetch a dog.  Well, then, I -said, why couldn't she tell her husband to fetch a dog?  Jim said he -bet she did think of it by the time the men was ready to start, and he -believed they must a gone up-town to get a dog and so they lost all that -time, or else we wouldn't be here on a towhead sixteen or seventeen mile -below the village—no, indeedy, we would be in that same old town again. - So I said I didn't care what was the reason they didn't get us as long -as they didn't. - -When it was beginning to come on dark we poked our heads out of the -cottonwood thicket, and looked up and down and across; nothing in sight; -so Jim took up some of the top planks of the raft and built a snug -wigwam to get under in blazing weather and rainy, and to keep the things -dry. Jim made a floor for the wigwam, and raised it a foot or more above -the level of the raft, so now the blankets and all the traps was out of -reach of steamboat waves.  Right in the middle of the wigwam we made a -layer of dirt about five or six inches deep with a frame around it for -to hold it to its place; this was to build a fire on in sloppy weather -or chilly; the wigwam would keep it from being seen.  We made an extra -steering-oar, too, because one of the others might get broke on a snag -or something. We fixed up a short forked stick to hang the old lantern -on, because we must always light the lantern whenever we see a steamboat -coming down-stream, to keep from getting run over; but we wouldn't have -to light it for up-stream boats unless we see we was in what they call -a "crossing"; for the river was pretty high yet, very low banks being -still a little under water; so up-bound boats didn't always run the -channel, but hunted easy water. - -This second night we run between seven and eight hours, with a current -that was making over four mile an hour.  We catched fish and talked, -and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness.  It was kind of -solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying on our backs looking -up at the stars, and we didn't ever feel like talking loud, and it -warn't often that we laughed—only a little kind of a low chuckle.  We -had mighty good weather as a general thing, and nothing ever happened to -us at all—that night, nor the next, nor the next. - -Every night we passed towns, some of them away up on black hillsides, -nothing but just a shiny bed of lights; not a house could you see.  The -fifth night we passed St. Louis, and it was like the whole world lit up. -In St. Petersburg they used to say there was twenty or thirty thousand -people in St. Louis, but I never believed it till I see that wonderful -spread of lights at two o'clock that still night.  There warn't a sound -there; everybody was asleep. - -Every night now I used to slip ashore towards ten o'clock at some little -village, and buy ten or fifteen cents' worth of meal or bacon or other -stuff to eat; and sometimes I lifted a chicken that warn't roosting -comfortable, and took him along.  Pap always said, take a chicken when -you get a chance, because if you don't want him yourself you can easy -find somebody that does, and a good deed ain't ever forgot.  I never see -pap when he didn't want the chicken himself, but that is what he used to -say, anyway. - -Mornings before daylight I slipped into cornfields and borrowed a -watermelon, or a mushmelon, or a punkin, or some new corn, or things of -that kind.  Pap always said it warn't no harm to borrow things if you -was meaning to pay them back some time; but the widow said it warn't -anything but a soft name for stealing, and no decent body would do it. - Jim said he reckoned the widow was partly right and pap was partly -right; so the best way would be for us to pick out two or three things -from the list and say we wouldn't borrow them any more—then he reckoned -it wouldn't be no harm to borrow the others.  So we talked it over all -one night, drifting along down the river, trying to make up our minds -whether to drop the watermelons, or the cantelopes, or the mushmelons, -or what.  But towards daylight we got it all settled satisfactory, and -concluded to drop crabapples and p'simmons.  We warn't feeling just -right before that, but it was all comfortable now.  I was glad the way -it come out, too, because crabapples ain't ever good, and the p'simmons -wouldn't be ripe for two or three months yet. - -We shot a water-fowl now and then that got up too early in the morning -or didn't go to bed early enough in the evening.  Take it all round, we -lived pretty high. - -The fifth night below St. Louis we had a big storm after midnight, with -a power of thunder and lightning, and the rain poured down in a solid -sheet. We stayed in the wigwam and let the raft take care of itself. -When the lightning glared out we could see a big straight river ahead, -and high, rocky bluffs on both sides.  By and by says I, "Hel-_lo_, Jim, -looky yonder!" It was a steamboat that had killed herself on a rock. - We was drifting straight down for her.  The lightning showed her very -distinct.  She was leaning over, with part of her upper deck above -water, and you could see every little chimbly-guy clean and clear, and a -chair by the big bell, with an old slouch hat hanging on the back of it, -when the flashes come. - -Well, it being away in the night and stormy, and all so mysterious-like, -I felt just the way any other boy would a felt when I see that wreck -laying there so mournful and lonesome in the middle of the river.  I -wanted to get aboard of her and slink around a little, and see what -there was there.  So I says: - -"Le's land on her, Jim." - -But Jim was dead against it at first.  He says: - -"I doan' want to go fool'n 'long er no wrack.  We's doin' blame' well, -en we better let blame' well alone, as de good book says.  Like as not -dey's a watchman on dat wrack." - -"Watchman your grandmother," I says; "there ain't nothing to watch but -the texas and the pilot-house; and do you reckon anybody's going to resk -his life for a texas and a pilot-house such a night as this, when -it's likely to break up and wash off down the river any minute?"  Jim -couldn't say nothing to that, so he didn't try.  "And besides," I says, -"we might borrow something worth having out of the captain's stateroom. - Seegars, I bet you—and cost five cents apiece, solid cash.  Steamboat -captains is always rich, and get sixty dollars a month, and _they_ don't -care a cent what a thing costs, you know, long as they want it.  Stick a -candle in your pocket; I can't rest, Jim, till we give her a rummaging. - Do you reckon Tom Sawyer would ever go by this thing?  Not for pie, he -wouldn't. He'd call it an adventure—that's what he'd call it; and he'd -land on that wreck if it was his last act.  And wouldn't he throw style -into it?—wouldn't he spread himself, nor nothing?  Why, you'd think it -was Christopher C'lumbus discovering Kingdom-Come.  I wish Tom Sawyer -_was_ here." - -Jim he grumbled a little, but give in.  He said we mustn't talk any more -than we could help, and then talk mighty low.  The lightning showed us -the wreck again just in time, and we fetched the stabboard derrick, and -made fast there. - -The deck was high out here.  We went sneaking down the slope of it to -labboard, in the dark, towards the texas, feeling our way slow with our -feet, and spreading our hands out to fend off the guys, for it was so -dark we couldn't see no sign of them.  Pretty soon we struck the forward -end of the skylight, and clumb on to it; and the next step fetched us in -front of the captain's door, which was open, and by Jimminy, away down -through the texas-hall we see a light! and all in the same second we -seem to hear low voices in yonder! - -Jim whispered and said he was feeling powerful sick, and told me to come -along.  I says, all right, and was going to start for the raft; but just -then I heard a voice wail out and say: - -"Oh, please don't, boys; I swear I won't ever tell!" - -Another voice said, pretty loud: - -"It's a lie, Jim Turner.  You've acted this way before.  You always want -more'n your share of the truck, and you've always got it, too, because -you've swore 't if you didn't you'd tell.  But this time you've said -it jest one time too many.  You're the meanest, treacherousest hound in -this country." - -By this time Jim was gone for the raft.  I was just a-biling with -curiosity; and I says to myself, Tom Sawyer wouldn't back out now, -and so I won't either; I'm a-going to see what's going on here.  So I -dropped on my hands and knees in the little passage, and crept aft -in the dark till there warn't but one stateroom betwixt me and the -cross-hall of the texas.  Then in there I see a man stretched on the -floor and tied hand and foot, and two men standing over him, and one -of them had a dim lantern in his hand, and the other one had a pistol. - This one kept pointing the pistol at the man's head on the floor, and -saying: - -"I'd _like_ to!  And I orter, too—a mean skunk!" - -The man on the floor would shrivel up and say, "Oh, please don't, Bill; -I hain't ever goin' to tell." - -And every time he said that the man with the lantern would laugh and -say: - -"'Deed you _ain't!_  You never said no truer thing 'n that, you bet -you." And once he said:  "Hear him beg! and yit if we hadn't got the -best of him and tied him he'd a killed us both.  And what _for_?  Jist -for noth'n. Jist because we stood on our _rights_—that's what for.  But -I lay you ain't a-goin' to threaten nobody any more, Jim Turner.  Put -_up_ that pistol, Bill." - -Bill says: - -"I don't want to, Jake Packard.  I'm for killin' him—and didn't he kill -old Hatfield jist the same way—and don't he deserve it?" - -"But I don't _want_ him killed, and I've got my reasons for it." - -"Bless yo' heart for them words, Jake Packard!  I'll never forgit you -long's I live!" says the man on the floor, sort of blubbering. - -Packard didn't take no notice of that, but hung up his lantern on a nail -and started towards where I was there in the dark, and motioned Bill -to come.  I crawfished as fast as I could about two yards, but the boat -slanted so that I couldn't make very good time; so to keep from getting -run over and catched I crawled into a stateroom on the upper side. - The man came a-pawing along in the dark, and when Packard got to my -stateroom, he says: - -"Here—come in here." - -And in he come, and Bill after him.  But before they got in I was up -in the upper berth, cornered, and sorry I come.  Then they stood there, -with their hands on the ledge of the berth, and talked.  I couldn't see -them, but I could tell where they was by the whisky they'd been having. - I was glad I didn't drink whisky; but it wouldn't made much difference -anyway, because most of the time they couldn't a treed me because I -didn't breathe.  I was too scared.  And, besides, a body _couldn't_ -breathe and hear such talk.  They talked low and earnest.  Bill wanted -to kill Turner.  He says: - -"He's said he'll tell, and he will.  If we was to give both our shares -to him _now_ it wouldn't make no difference after the row and the way -we've served him.  Shore's you're born, he'll turn State's evidence; now -you hear _me_.  I'm for putting him out of his troubles." - -"So'm I," says Packard, very quiet. - -"Blame it, I'd sorter begun to think you wasn't.  Well, then, that's all -right.  Le's go and do it." - -"Hold on a minute; I hain't had my say yit.  You listen to me. -Shooting's good, but there's quieter ways if the thing's _got_ to be -done. But what I say is this:  it ain't good sense to go court'n around -after a halter if you can git at what you're up to in some way that's -jist as good and at the same time don't bring you into no resks.  Ain't -that so?" - -"You bet it is.  But how you goin' to manage it this time?" - -"Well, my idea is this:  we'll rustle around and gather up whatever -pickins we've overlooked in the staterooms, and shove for shore and hide -the truck. Then we'll wait.  Now I say it ain't a-goin' to be more'n two -hours befo' this wrack breaks up and washes off down the river.  See? -He'll be drownded, and won't have nobody to blame for it but his own -self.  I reckon that's a considerble sight better 'n killin' of him. - I'm unfavorable to killin' a man as long as you can git aroun' it; it -ain't good sense, it ain't good morals.  Ain't I right?" - -"Yes, I reck'n you are.  But s'pose she _don't_ break up and wash off?" - -"Well, we can wait the two hours anyway and see, can't we?" - -"All right, then; come along." - -So they started, and I lit out, all in a cold sweat, and scrambled -forward. It was dark as pitch there; but I said, in a kind of a coarse -whisper, "Jim!" and he answered up, right at my elbow, with a sort of a -moan, and I says: - -"Quick, Jim, it ain't no time for fooling around and moaning; there's a -gang of murderers in yonder, and if we don't hunt up their boat and set -her drifting down the river so these fellows can't get away from the -wreck there's one of 'em going to be in a bad fix.  But if we find their -boat we can put _all_ of 'em in a bad fix—for the sheriff 'll get 'em. -Quick—hurry!  I'll hunt the labboard side, you hunt the stabboard. You -start at the raft, and—" - -"Oh, my lordy, lordy!  _raf'_?  Dey ain' no raf' no mo'; she done broke -loose en gone I—en here we is!" - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -WELL, I catched my breath and most fainted.  Shut up on a wreck with -such a gang as that!  But it warn't no time to be sentimentering.  We'd -_got_ to find that boat now—had to have it for ourselves.  So we went -a-quaking and shaking down the stabboard side, and slow work it was, -too—seemed a week before we got to the stern.  No sign of a boat.  Jim -said he didn't believe he could go any further—so scared he hadn't -hardly any strength left, he said.  But I said, come on, if we get left -on this wreck we are in a fix, sure.  So on we prowled again.  We struck -for the stern of the texas, and found it, and then scrabbled along -forwards on the skylight, hanging on from shutter to shutter, for the -edge of the skylight was in the water.  When we got pretty close to the -cross-hall door there was the skiff, sure enough!  I could just barely -see her.  I felt ever so thankful.  In another second I would a been -aboard of her, but just then the door opened.  One of the men stuck his -head out only about a couple of foot from me, and I thought I was gone; -but he jerked it in again, and says: - -"Heave that blame lantern out o' sight, Bill!" - -He flung a bag of something into the boat, and then got in himself and -set down.  It was Packard.  Then Bill _he_ come out and got in.  Packard -says, in a low voice: - -"All ready—shove off!" - -I couldn't hardly hang on to the shutters, I was so weak.  But Bill -says: - -"Hold on—'d you go through him?" - -"No.  Didn't you?" - -"No.  So he's got his share o' the cash yet." - -"Well, then, come along; no use to take truck and leave money." - -"Say, won't he suspicion what we're up to?" - -"Maybe he won't.  But we got to have it anyway. Come along." - -So they got out and went in. - -The door slammed to because it was on the careened side; and in a half -second I was in the boat, and Jim come tumbling after me.  I out with my -knife and cut the rope, and away we went! - -We didn't touch an oar, and we didn't speak nor whisper, nor hardly even -breathe.  We went gliding swift along, dead silent, past the tip of the -paddle-box, and past the stern; then in a second or two more we was a -hundred yards below the wreck, and the darkness soaked her up, every -last sign of her, and we was safe, and knowed it. - -When we was three or four hundred yards down-stream we see the lantern -show like a little spark at the texas door for a second, and we knowed -by that that the rascals had missed their boat, and was beginning to -understand that they was in just as much trouble now as Jim Turner was. - -Then Jim manned the oars, and we took out after our raft.  Now was the -first time that I begun to worry about the men—I reckon I hadn't -had time to before.  I begun to think how dreadful it was, even for -murderers, to be in such a fix.  I says to myself, there ain't no -telling but I might come to be a murderer myself yet, and then how would -I like it?  So says I to Jim: - -"The first light we see we'll land a hundred yards below it or above -it, in a place where it's a good hiding-place for you and the skiff, and -then I'll go and fix up some kind of a yarn, and get somebody to go for -that gang and get them out of their scrape, so they can be hung when -their time comes." - -But that idea was a failure; for pretty soon it begun to storm again, -and this time worse than ever.  The rain poured down, and never a light -showed; everybody in bed, I reckon.  We boomed along down the river, -watching for lights and watching for our raft.  After a long time the -rain let up, but the clouds stayed, and the lightning kept whimpering, -and by and by a flash showed us a black thing ahead, floating, and we -made for it. - -It was the raft, and mighty glad was we to get aboard of it again.  We -seen a light now away down to the right, on shore.  So I said I would -go for it. The skiff was half full of plunder which that gang had stole -there on the wreck.  We hustled it on to the raft in a pile, and I told -Jim to float along down, and show a light when he judged he had gone -about two mile, and keep it burning till I come; then I manned my oars -and shoved for the light.  As I got down towards it three or four more -showed—up on a hillside.  It was a village.  I closed in above the shore -light, and laid on my oars and floated.  As I went by I see it was a -lantern hanging on the jackstaff of a double-hull ferryboat.  I skimmed -around for the watchman, a-wondering whereabouts he slept; and by and -by I found him roosting on the bitts forward, with his head down between -his knees.  I gave his shoulder two or three little shoves, and begun to -cry. - -He stirred up in a kind of a startlish way; but when he see it was only -me he took a good gap and stretch, and then he says: - -"Hello, what's up?  Don't cry, bub.  What's the trouble?" - -I says: - -"Pap, and mam, and sis, and—" - -Then I broke down.  He says: - -"Oh, dang it now, _don't_ take on so; we all has to have our troubles, -and this 'n 'll come out all right.  What's the matter with 'em?" - -"They're—they're—are you the watchman of the boat?" - -"Yes," he says, kind of pretty-well-satisfied like.  "I'm the captain -and the owner and the mate and the pilot and watchman and head -deck-hand; and sometimes I'm the freight and passengers.  I ain't as -rich as old Jim Hornback, and I can't be so blame' generous and good -to Tom, Dick, and Harry as what he is, and slam around money the way he -does; but I've told him a many a time 't I wouldn't trade places with -him; for, says I, a sailor's life's the life for me, and I'm derned if -_I'd_ live two mile out o' town, where there ain't nothing ever goin' -on, not for all his spondulicks and as much more on top of it.  Says I—" - -I broke in and says: - -"They're in an awful peck of trouble, and—" - -"_Who_ is?" - -"Why, pap and mam and sis and Miss Hooker; and if you'd take your -ferryboat and go up there—" - -"Up where?  Where are they?" - -"On the wreck." - -"What wreck?" - -"Why, there ain't but one." - -"What, you don't mean the Walter Scott?" - -"Yes." - -"Good land! what are they doin' _there_, for gracious sakes?" - -"Well, they didn't go there a-purpose." - -"I bet they didn't!  Why, great goodness, there ain't no chance for 'em -if they don't git off mighty quick!  Why, how in the nation did they -ever git into such a scrape?" - -"Easy enough.  Miss Hooker was a-visiting up there to the town—" - -"Yes, Booth's Landing—go on." - -"She was a-visiting there at Booth's Landing, and just in the edge of -the evening she started over with her nigger woman in the horse-ferry -to stay all night at her friend's house, Miss What-you-may-call-her I -disremember her name—and they lost their steering-oar, and swung -around and went a-floating down, stern first, about two mile, and -saddle-baggsed on the wreck, and the ferryman and the nigger woman and -the horses was all lost, but Miss Hooker she made a grab and got aboard -the wreck.  Well, about an hour after dark we come along down in our -trading-scow, and it was so dark we didn't notice the wreck till we was -right on it; and so _we_ saddle-baggsed; but all of us was saved but -Bill Whipple—and oh, he _was_ the best cretur!—I most wish 't it had -been me, I do." - -"My George!  It's the beatenest thing I ever struck.  And _then_ what -did you all do?" - -"Well, we hollered and took on, but it's so wide there we couldn't -make nobody hear.  So pap said somebody got to get ashore and get help -somehow. I was the only one that could swim, so I made a dash for it, -and Miss Hooker she said if I didn't strike help sooner, come here and -hunt up her uncle, and he'd fix the thing.  I made the land about a mile -below, and been fooling along ever since, trying to get people to do -something, but they said, 'What, in such a night and such a current? -There ain't no sense in it; go for the steam ferry.'  Now if you'll go -and—" - -"By Jackson, I'd _like_ to, and, blame it, I don't know but I will; but -who in the dingnation's a-going' to _pay_ for it?  Do you reckon your -pap—" - -"Why _that's_ all right.  Miss Hooker she tole me, _particular_, that -her uncle Hornback—" - -"Great guns! is _he_ her uncle?  Looky here, you break for that light -over yonder-way, and turn out west when you git there, and about a -quarter of a mile out you'll come to the tavern; tell 'em to dart you -out to Jim Hornback's, and he'll foot the bill.  And don't you fool -around any, because he'll want to know the news.  Tell him I'll have -his niece all safe before he can get to town.  Hump yourself, now; I'm -a-going up around the corner here to roust out my engineer." - -I struck for the light, but as soon as he turned the corner I went back -and got into my skiff and bailed her out, and then pulled up shore in -the easy water about six hundred yards, and tucked myself in among -some woodboats; for I couldn't rest easy till I could see the ferryboat -start. But take it all around, I was feeling ruther comfortable on -accounts of taking all this trouble for that gang, for not many would -a done it.  I wished the widow knowed about it.  I judged she would be -proud of me for helping these rapscallions, because rapscallions and -dead beats is the kind the widow and good people takes the most interest -in. - -Well, before long here comes the wreck, dim and dusky, sliding along -down! A kind of cold shiver went through me, and then I struck out for -her.  She was very deep, and I see in a minute there warn't much chance -for anybody being alive in her.  I pulled all around her and hollered -a little, but there wasn't any answer; all dead still.  I felt a little -bit heavy-hearted about the gang, but not much, for I reckoned if they -could stand it I could. - -Then here comes the ferryboat; so I shoved for the middle of the river -on a long down-stream slant; and when I judged I was out of eye-reach -I laid on my oars, and looked back and see her go and smell around the -wreck for Miss Hooker's remainders, because the captain would know her -uncle Hornback would want them; and then pretty soon the ferryboat give -it up and went for the shore, and I laid into my work and went a-booming -down the river. - -It did seem a powerful long time before Jim's light showed up; and when -it did show it looked like it was a thousand mile off.  By the time I -got there the sky was beginning to get a little gray in the east; so we -struck for an island, and hid the raft, and sunk the skiff, and turned -in and slept like dead people. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -BY and by, when we got up, we turned over the truck the gang had stole -off of the wreck, and found boots, and blankets, and clothes, and all -sorts of other things, and a lot of books, and a spyglass, and three -boxes of seegars.  We hadn't ever been this rich before in neither of -our lives.  The seegars was prime.  We laid off all the afternoon in the -woods talking, and me reading the books, and having a general good -time. I told Jim all about what happened inside the wreck and at the -ferryboat, and I said these kinds of things was adventures; but he said -he didn't want no more adventures.  He said that when I went in the -texas and he crawled back to get on the raft and found her gone he -nearly died, because he judged it was all up with _him_ anyway it could -be fixed; for if he didn't get saved he would get drownded; and if he -did get saved, whoever saved him would send him back home so as to get -the reward, and then Miss Watson would sell him South, sure.  Well, he -was right; he was most always right; he had an uncommon level head for a -nigger. - -I read considerable to Jim about kings and dukes and earls and such, and -how gaudy they dressed, and how much style they put on, and called each -other your majesty, and your grace, and your lordship, and so on, 'stead -of mister; and Jim's eyes bugged out, and he was interested.  He says: - -"I didn' know dey was so many un um.  I hain't hearn 'bout none un um, -skasely, but ole King Sollermun, onless you counts dem kings dat's in a -pack er k'yards.  How much do a king git?" - -"Get?"  I says; "why, they get a thousand dollars a month if they want -it; they can have just as much as they want; everything belongs to -them." - -"_Ain'_ dat gay?  En what dey got to do, Huck?" - -"_They_ don't do nothing!  Why, how you talk! They just set around." - -"No; is dat so?" - -"Of course it is.  They just set around—except, maybe, when there's a -war; then they go to the war.  But other times they just lazy around; or -go hawking—just hawking and sp—Sh!—d' you hear a noise?" - -We skipped out and looked; but it warn't nothing but the flutter of a -steamboat's wheel away down, coming around the point; so we come back. - -"Yes," says I, "and other times, when things is dull, they fuss with the -parlyment; and if everybody don't go just so he whacks their heads off. -But mostly they hang round the harem." - -"Roun' de which?" - -"Harem." - -"What's de harem?" - -"The place where he keeps his wives.  Don't you know about the harem? -Solomon had one; he had about a million wives." - -"Why, yes, dat's so; I—I'd done forgot it.  A harem's a bo'd'n-house, I -reck'n.  Mos' likely dey has rackety times in de nussery.  En I reck'n -de wives quarrels considable; en dat 'crease de racket.  Yit dey say -Sollermun de wises' man dat ever live'.  I doan' take no stock in -dat. Bekase why: would a wise man want to live in de mids' er sich a -blim-blammin' all de time?  No—'deed he wouldn't.  A wise man 'ud take -en buil' a biler-factry; en den he could shet _down_ de biler-factry -when he want to res'." - -"Well, but he _was_ the wisest man, anyway; because the widow she told -me so, her own self." - -"I doan k'yer what de widder say, he _warn't_ no wise man nuther.  He -had some er de dad-fetchedes' ways I ever see.  Does you know 'bout dat -chile dat he 'uz gwyne to chop in two?" - -"Yes, the widow told me all about it." - -"_Well_, den!  Warn' dat de beatenes' notion in de worl'?  You jes' -take en look at it a minute.  Dah's de stump, dah—dat's one er de women; -heah's you—dat's de yuther one; I's Sollermun; en dish yer dollar bill's -de chile.  Bofe un you claims it.  What does I do?  Does I shin aroun' -mongs' de neighbors en fine out which un you de bill _do_ b'long to, en -han' it over to de right one, all safe en soun', de way dat anybody dat -had any gumption would?  No; I take en whack de bill in _two_, en give -half un it to you, en de yuther half to de yuther woman.  Dat's de way -Sollermun was gwyne to do wid de chile.  Now I want to ast you:  what's -de use er dat half a bill?—can't buy noth'n wid it.  En what use is a -half a chile?  I wouldn' give a dern for a million un um." - -"But hang it, Jim, you've clean missed the point—blame it, you've missed -it a thousand mile." - -"Who?  Me?  Go 'long.  Doan' talk to me 'bout yo' pints.  I reck'n I -knows sense when I sees it; en dey ain' no sense in sich doin's as -dat. De 'spute warn't 'bout a half a chile, de 'spute was 'bout a whole -chile; en de man dat think he kin settle a 'spute 'bout a whole chile -wid a half a chile doan' know enough to come in out'n de rain.  Doan' -talk to me 'bout Sollermun, Huck, I knows him by de back." - -"But I tell you you don't get the point." - -"Blame de point!  I reck'n I knows what I knows.  En mine you, de _real_ -pint is down furder—it's down deeper.  It lays in de way Sollermun was -raised.  You take a man dat's got on'y one or two chillen; is dat man -gwyne to be waseful o' chillen?  No, he ain't; he can't 'ford it.  _He_ -know how to value 'em.  But you take a man dat's got 'bout five million -chillen runnin' roun' de house, en it's diffunt.  _He_ as soon chop a -chile in two as a cat. Dey's plenty mo'.  A chile er two, mo' er less, -warn't no consekens to Sollermun, dad fatch him!" - -I never see such a nigger.  If he got a notion in his head once, there -warn't no getting it out again.  He was the most down on Solomon of -any nigger I ever see.  So I went to talking about other kings, and let -Solomon slide.  I told about Louis Sixteenth that got his head cut off -in France long time ago; and about his little boy the dolphin, that -would a been a king, but they took and shut him up in jail, and some say -he died there. - -"Po' little chap." - -"But some says he got out and got away, and come to America." - -"Dat's good!  But he'll be pooty lonesome—dey ain' no kings here, is -dey, Huck?" - -"No." - -"Den he cain't git no situation.  What he gwyne to do?" - -"Well, I don't know.  Some of them gets on the police, and some of them -learns people how to talk French." - -"Why, Huck, doan' de French people talk de same way we does?" - -"_No_, Jim; you couldn't understand a word they said—not a single word." - -"Well, now, I be ding-busted!  How do dat come?" - -"I don't know; but it's so.  I got some of their jabber out of a book. -S'pose a man was to come to you and say Polly-voo-franzy—what would you -think?" - -"I wouldn' think nuff'n; I'd take en bust him over de head—dat is, if he -warn't white.  I wouldn't 'low no nigger to call me dat." - -"Shucks, it ain't calling you anything.  It's only saying, do you know -how to talk French?" - -"Well, den, why couldn't he _say_ it?" - -"Why, he _is_ a-saying it.  That's a Frenchman's _way_ of saying it." - -"Well, it's a blame ridicklous way, en I doan' want to hear no mo' 'bout -it.  Dey ain' no sense in it." - -"Looky here, Jim; does a cat talk like we do?" - -"No, a cat don't." - -"Well, does a cow?" - -"No, a cow don't, nuther." - -"Does a cat talk like a cow, or a cow talk like a cat?" - -"No, dey don't." - -"It's natural and right for 'em to talk different from each other, ain't -it?" - -"Course." - -"And ain't it natural and right for a cat and a cow to talk different -from _us_?" - -"Why, mos' sholy it is." - -"Well, then, why ain't it natural and right for a _Frenchman_ to talk -different from us?  You answer me that." - -"Is a cat a man, Huck?" - -"No." - -"Well, den, dey ain't no sense in a cat talkin' like a man.  Is a cow a -man?—er is a cow a cat?" - -"No, she ain't either of them." - -"Well, den, she ain't got no business to talk like either one er the -yuther of 'em.  Is a Frenchman a man?" - -"Yes." - -"_Well_, den!  Dad blame it, why doan' he _talk_ like a man?  You answer -me _dat_!" - -I see it warn't no use wasting words—you can't learn a nigger to argue. -So I quit. - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -WE judged that three nights more would fetch us to Cairo, at the bottom -of Illinois, where the Ohio River comes in, and that was what we was -after.  We would sell the raft and get on a steamboat and go way up the -Ohio amongst the free States, and then be out of trouble. - -Well, the second night a fog begun to come on, and we made for a towhead -to tie to, for it wouldn't do to try to run in a fog; but when I paddled -ahead in the canoe, with the line to make fast, there warn't anything -but little saplings to tie to.  I passed the line around one of them -right on the edge of the cut bank, but there was a stiff current, and -the raft come booming down so lively she tore it out by the roots and -away she went.  I see the fog closing down, and it made me so sick and -scared I couldn't budge for most a half a minute it seemed to me—and -then there warn't no raft in sight; you couldn't see twenty yards.  I -jumped into the canoe and run back to the stern, and grabbed the paddle -and set her back a stroke.  But she didn't come.  I was in such a hurry -I hadn't untied her.  I got up and tried to untie her, but I was so -excited my hands shook so I couldn't hardly do anything with them. - -As soon as I got started I took out after the raft, hot and heavy, right -down the towhead.  That was all right as far as it went, but the towhead -warn't sixty yards long, and the minute I flew by the foot of it I shot -out into the solid white fog, and hadn't no more idea which way I was -going than a dead man. - -Thinks I, it won't do to paddle; first I know I'll run into the bank -or a towhead or something; I got to set still and float, and yet it's -mighty fidgety business to have to hold your hands still at such a time. - I whooped and listened.  Away down there somewheres I hears a small -whoop, and up comes my spirits.  I went tearing after it, listening -sharp to hear it again.  The next time it come I see I warn't heading -for it, but heading away to the right of it.  And the next time I was -heading away to the left of it—and not gaining on it much either, for -I was flying around, this way and that and t'other, but it was going -straight ahead all the time. - -I did wish the fool would think to beat a tin pan, and beat it all the -time, but he never did, and it was the still places between the whoops -that was making the trouble for me.  Well, I fought along, and directly -I hears the whoop _behind_ me.  I was tangled good now.  That was -somebody else's whoop, or else I was turned around. - -I throwed the paddle down.  I heard the whoop again; it was behind me -yet, but in a different place; it kept coming, and kept changing its -place, and I kept answering, till by and by it was in front of me again, -and I knowed the current had swung the canoe's head down-stream, and I -was all right if that was Jim and not some other raftsman hollering. - I couldn't tell nothing about voices in a fog, for nothing don't look -natural nor sound natural in a fog. - -The whooping went on, and in about a minute I come a-booming down on a -cut bank with smoky ghosts of big trees on it, and the current throwed -me off to the left and shot by, amongst a lot of snags that fairly -roared, the currrent was tearing by them so swift. - -In another second or two it was solid white and still again.  I set -perfectly still then, listening to my heart thump, and I reckon I didn't -draw a breath while it thumped a hundred. - -I just give up then.  I knowed what the matter was.  That cut bank -was an island, and Jim had gone down t'other side of it.  It warn't no -towhead that you could float by in ten minutes.  It had the big timber -of a regular island; it might be five or six miles long and more than -half a mile wide. - -I kept quiet, with my ears cocked, about fifteen minutes, I reckon.  I -was floating along, of course, four or five miles an hour; but you don't -ever think of that.  No, you _feel_ like you are laying dead still on -the water; and if a little glimpse of a snag slips by you don't think to -yourself how fast _you're_ going, but you catch your breath and think, -my! how that snag's tearing along.  If you think it ain't dismal and -lonesome out in a fog that way by yourself in the night, you try it -once—you'll see. - -Next, for about a half an hour, I whoops now and then; at last I hears -the answer a long ways off, and tries to follow it, but I couldn't do -it, and directly I judged I'd got into a nest of towheads, for I had -little dim glimpses of them on both sides of me—sometimes just a narrow -channel between, and some that I couldn't see I knowed was there because -I'd hear the wash of the current against the old dead brush and trash -that hung over the banks.  Well, I warn't long loosing the whoops down -amongst the towheads; and I only tried to chase them a little while, -anyway, because it was worse than chasing a Jack-o'-lantern.  You never -knowed a sound dodge around so, and swap places so quick and so much. - -I had to claw away from the bank pretty lively four or five times, to -keep from knocking the islands out of the river; and so I judged the -raft must be butting into the bank every now and then, or else it would -get further ahead and clear out of hearing—it was floating a little -faster than what I was. - -Well, I seemed to be in the open river again by and by, but I couldn't -hear no sign of a whoop nowheres.  I reckoned Jim had fetched up on a -snag, maybe, and it was all up with him.  I was good and tired, so I -laid down in the canoe and said I wouldn't bother no more.  I didn't -want to go to sleep, of course; but I was so sleepy I couldn't help it; -so I thought I would take jest one little cat-nap. - -But I reckon it was more than a cat-nap, for when I waked up the stars -was shining bright, the fog was all gone, and I was spinning down a -big bend stern first.  First I didn't know where I was; I thought I was -dreaming; and when things began to come back to me they seemed to come -up dim out of last week. - -It was a monstrous big river here, with the tallest and the thickest -kind of timber on both banks; just a solid wall, as well as I could see -by the stars.  I looked away down-stream, and seen a black speck on the -water. I took after it; but when I got to it it warn't nothing but a -couple of sawlogs made fast together.  Then I see another speck, and -chased that; then another, and this time I was right.  It was the raft. - -When I got to it Jim was setting there with his head down between his -knees, asleep, with his right arm hanging over the steering-oar.  The -other oar was smashed off, and the raft was littered up with leaves and -branches and dirt.  So she'd had a rough time. - -I made fast and laid down under Jim's nose on the raft, and began to -gap, and stretch my fists out against Jim, and says: - -"Hello, Jim, have I been asleep?  Why didn't you stir me up?" - -"Goodness gracious, is dat you, Huck?  En you ain' dead—you ain' -drownded—you's back agin?  It's too good for true, honey, it's too good -for true. Lemme look at you chile, lemme feel o' you.  No, you ain' -dead! you's back agin, 'live en soun', jis de same ole Huck—de same ole -Huck, thanks to goodness!" - -"What's the matter with you, Jim?  You been a-drinking?" - -"Drinkin'?  Has I ben a-drinkin'?  Has I had a chance to be a-drinkin'?" - -"Well, then, what makes you talk so wild?" - -"How does I talk wild?" - -"_How_?  Why, hain't you been talking about my coming back, and all that -stuff, as if I'd been gone away?" - -"Huck—Huck Finn, you look me in de eye; look me in de eye.  _Hain't_ you -ben gone away?" - -"Gone away?  Why, what in the nation do you mean?  I hain't been gone -anywheres.  Where would I go to?" - -"Well, looky here, boss, dey's sumf'n wrong, dey is.  Is I _me_, or who -_is_ I? Is I heah, or whah _is_ I?  Now dat's what I wants to know." - -"Well, I think you're here, plain enough, but I think you're a -tangle-headed old fool, Jim." - -"I is, is I?  Well, you answer me dis:  Didn't you tote out de line in -de canoe fer to make fas' to de tow-head?" - -"No, I didn't.  What tow-head?  I hain't see no tow-head." - -"You hain't seen no towhead?  Looky here, didn't de line pull loose en -de raf' go a-hummin' down de river, en leave you en de canoe behine in -de fog?" - -"What fog?" - -"Why, de fog!—de fog dat's been aroun' all night.  En didn't you whoop, -en didn't I whoop, tell we got mix' up in de islands en one un us got -los' en t'other one was jis' as good as los', 'kase he didn' know whah -he wuz? En didn't I bust up agin a lot er dem islands en have a turrible -time en mos' git drownded?  Now ain' dat so, boss—ain't it so?  You -answer me dat." - -"Well, this is too many for me, Jim.  I hain't seen no fog, nor no -islands, nor no troubles, nor nothing.  I been setting here talking with -you all night till you went to sleep about ten minutes ago, and I reckon -I done the same.  You couldn't a got drunk in that time, so of course -you've been dreaming." - -"Dad fetch it, how is I gwyne to dream all dat in ten minutes?" - -"Well, hang it all, you did dream it, because there didn't any of it -happen." - -"But, Huck, it's all jis' as plain to me as—" - -"It don't make no difference how plain it is; there ain't nothing in it. -I know, because I've been here all the time." - -Jim didn't say nothing for about five minutes, but set there studying -over it.  Then he says: - -"Well, den, I reck'n I did dream it, Huck; but dog my cats ef it ain't -de powerfullest dream I ever see.  En I hain't ever had no dream b'fo' -dat's tired me like dis one." - -"Oh, well, that's all right, because a dream does tire a body like -everything sometimes.  But this one was a staving dream; tell me all -about it, Jim." - -So Jim went to work and told me the whole thing right through, just as -it happened, only he painted it up considerable.  Then he said he must -start in and "'terpret" it, because it was sent for a warning.  He said -the first towhead stood for a man that would try to do us some good, but -the current was another man that would get us away from him.  The whoops -was warnings that would come to us every now and then, and if we didn't -try hard to make out to understand them they'd just take us into bad -luck, 'stead of keeping us out of it.  The lot of towheads was troubles -we was going to get into with quarrelsome people and all kinds of mean -folks, but if we minded our business and didn't talk back and aggravate -them, we would pull through and get out of the fog and into the big -clear river, which was the free States, and wouldn't have no more -trouble. - -It had clouded up pretty dark just after I got on to the raft, but it -was clearing up again now. - -"Oh, well, that's all interpreted well enough as far as it goes, Jim," I -says; "but what does _these_ things stand for?" - -It was the leaves and rubbish on the raft and the smashed oar.  You -could see them first-rate now. - -Jim looked at the trash, and then looked at me, and back at the trash -again.  He had got the dream fixed so strong in his head that he -couldn't seem to shake it loose and get the facts back into its place -again right away.  But when he did get the thing straightened around he -looked at me steady without ever smiling, and says: - -"What do dey stan' for?  I'se gwyne to tell you.  When I got all wore -out wid work, en wid de callin' for you, en went to sleep, my heart wuz -mos' broke bekase you wuz los', en I didn' k'yer no' mo' what become -er me en de raf'.  En when I wake up en fine you back agin, all safe -en soun', de tears come, en I could a got down on my knees en kiss yo' -foot, I's so thankful. En all you wuz thinkin' 'bout wuz how you could -make a fool uv ole Jim wid a lie.  Dat truck dah is _trash_; en trash -is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren's en makes 'em -ashamed." - -Then he got up slow and walked to the wigwam, and went in there without -saying anything but that.  But that was enough.  It made me feel so mean -I could almost kissed _his_ foot to get him to take it back. - -It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble -myself to a nigger; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it -afterwards, neither.  I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I -wouldn't done that one if I'd a knowed it would make him feel that way. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -WE slept most all day, and started out at night, a little ways behind a -monstrous long raft that was as long going by as a procession.  She had -four long sweeps at each end, so we judged she carried as many as thirty -men, likely.  She had five big wigwams aboard, wide apart, and an open -camp fire in the middle, and a tall flag-pole at each end.  There was a -power of style about her.  It _amounted_ to something being a raftsman -on such a craft as that. - -We went drifting down into a big bend, and the night clouded up and got -hot.  The river was very wide, and was walled with solid timber on -both sides; you couldn't see a break in it hardly ever, or a light.  We -talked about Cairo, and wondered whether we would know it when we got to -it.  I said likely we wouldn't, because I had heard say there warn't but -about a dozen houses there, and if they didn't happen to have them lit -up, how was we going to know we was passing a town?  Jim said if the two -big rivers joined together there, that would show.  But I said maybe -we might think we was passing the foot of an island and coming into the -same old river again. That disturbed Jim—and me too.  So the question -was, what to do?  I said, paddle ashore the first time a light showed, -and tell them pap was behind, coming along with a trading-scow, and -was a green hand at the business, and wanted to know how far it was to -Cairo.  Jim thought it was a good idea, so we took a smoke on it and -waited. - -There warn't nothing to do now but to look out sharp for the town, and -not pass it without seeing it.  He said he'd be mighty sure to see it, -because he'd be a free man the minute he seen it, but if he missed it -he'd be in a slave country again and no more show for freedom.  Every -little while he jumps up and says: - -"Dah she is?" - -But it warn't.  It was Jack-o'-lanterns, or lightning bugs; so he set -down again, and went to watching, same as before.  Jim said it made him -all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom.  Well, I can -tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, -because I begun to get it through my head that he _was_ most free—and -who was to blame for it?  Why, _me_.  I couldn't get that out of my -conscience, no how nor no way. It got to troubling me so I couldn't -rest; I couldn't stay still in one place.  It hadn't ever come home to -me before, what this thing was that I was doing.  But now it did; and it -stayed with me, and scorched me more and more.  I tried to make out to -myself that I warn't to blame, because I didn't run Jim off from his -rightful owner; but it warn't no use, conscience up and says, every -time, "But you knowed he was running for his freedom, and you could a -paddled ashore and told somebody."  That was so—I couldn't get around -that noway.  That was where it pinched.  Conscience says to me, "What -had poor Miss Watson done to you that you could see her nigger go off -right under your eyes and never say one single word?  What did that poor -old woman do to you that you could treat her so mean?  Why, she tried to -learn you your book, she tried to learn you your manners, she tried to -be good to you every way she knowed how.  _That's_ what she done." - -I got to feeling so mean and so miserable I most wished I was dead.  I -fidgeted up and down the raft, abusing myself to myself, and Jim was -fidgeting up and down past me.  We neither of us could keep still. - Every time he danced around and says, "Dah's Cairo!" it went through me -like a shot, and I thought if it _was_ Cairo I reckoned I would die of -miserableness. - -Jim talked out loud all the time while I was talking to myself.  He was -saying how the first thing he would do when he got to a free State he -would go to saving up money and never spend a single cent, and when he -got enough he would buy his wife, which was owned on a farm close to -where Miss Watson lived; and then they would both work to buy the -two children, and if their master wouldn't sell them, they'd get an -Ab'litionist to go and steal them. - -It most froze me to hear such talk.  He wouldn't ever dared to talk such -talk in his life before.  Just see what a difference it made in him the -minute he judged he was about free.  It was according to the old saying, -"Give a nigger an inch and he'll take an ell."  Thinks I, this is what -comes of my not thinking.  Here was this nigger, which I had as good -as helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would -steal his children—children that belonged to a man I didn't even know; a -man that hadn't ever done me no harm. - -I was sorry to hear Jim say that, it was such a lowering of him.  My -conscience got to stirring me up hotter than ever, until at last I says -to it, "Let up on me—it ain't too late yet—I'll paddle ashore at the -first light and tell."  I felt easy and happy and light as a feather -right off.  All my troubles was gone.  I went to looking out sharp for a -light, and sort of singing to myself.  By and by one showed.  Jim sings -out: - -"We's safe, Huck, we's safe!  Jump up and crack yo' heels!  Dat's de -good ole Cairo at las', I jis knows it!" - -I says: - -"I'll take the canoe and go and see, Jim.  It mightn't be, you know." - -He jumped and got the canoe ready, and put his old coat in the bottom -for me to set on, and give me the paddle; and as I shoved off, he says: - -"Pooty soon I'll be a-shout'n' for joy, en I'll say, it's all on -accounts o' Huck; I's a free man, en I couldn't ever ben free ef it -hadn' ben for Huck; Huck done it.  Jim won't ever forgit you, Huck; -you's de bes' fren' Jim's ever had; en you's de _only_ fren' ole Jim's -got now." - -I was paddling off, all in a sweat to tell on him; but when he says -this, it seemed to kind of take the tuck all out of me.  I went along -slow then, and I warn't right down certain whether I was glad I started -or whether I warn't.  When I was fifty yards off, Jim says: - -"Dah you goes, de ole true Huck; de on'y white genlman dat ever kep' his -promise to ole Jim." - -Well, I just felt sick.  But I says, I _got_ to do it—I can't get _out_ -of it.  Right then along comes a skiff with two men in it with guns, and -they stopped and I stopped.  One of them says: - -"What's that yonder?" - -"A piece of a raft," I says. - -"Do you belong on it?" - -"Yes, sir." - -"Any men on it?" - -"Only one, sir." - -"Well, there's five niggers run off to-night up yonder, above the head -of the bend.  Is your man white or black?" - -I didn't answer up prompt.  I tried to, but the words wouldn't come. I -tried for a second or two to brace up and out with it, but I warn't man -enough—hadn't the spunk of a rabbit.  I see I was weakening; so I just -give up trying, and up and says: - -"He's white." - -"I reckon we'll go and see for ourselves." - -"I wish you would," says I, "because it's pap that's there, and maybe -you'd help me tow the raft ashore where the light is.  He's sick—and so -is mam and Mary Ann." - -"Oh, the devil! we're in a hurry, boy.  But I s'pose we've got to. - Come, buckle to your paddle, and let's get along." - -I buckled to my paddle and they laid to their oars.  When we had made a -stroke or two, I says: - -"Pap'll be mighty much obleeged to you, I can tell you.  Everybody goes -away when I want them to help me tow the raft ashore, and I can't do it -by myself." - -"Well, that's infernal mean.  Odd, too.  Say, boy, what's the matter -with your father?" - -"It's the—a—the—well, it ain't anything much." - -They stopped pulling.  It warn't but a mighty little ways to the raft -now. One says: - -"Boy, that's a lie.  What _is_ the matter with your pap?  Answer up -square now, and it'll be the better for you." - -"I will, sir, I will, honest—but don't leave us, please.  It's -the—the—Gentlemen, if you'll only pull ahead, and let me heave you the -headline, you won't have to come a-near the raft—please do." - -"Set her back, John, set her back!" says one.  They backed water.  "Keep -away, boy—keep to looard.  Confound it, I just expect the wind has -blowed it to us.  Your pap's got the small-pox, and you know it precious -well.  Why didn't you come out and say so?  Do you want to spread it all -over?" - -"Well," says I, a-blubbering, "I've told everybody before, and they just -went away and left us." - -"Poor devil, there's something in that.  We are right down sorry for -you, but we—well, hang it, we don't want the small-pox, you see.  Look -here, I'll tell you what to do.  Don't you try to land by yourself, or -you'll smash everything to pieces.  You float along down about twenty -miles, and you'll come to a town on the left-hand side of the river.  It -will be long after sun-up then, and when you ask for help you tell them -your folks are all down with chills and fever.  Don't be a fool again, -and let people guess what is the matter.  Now we're trying to do you a -kindness; so you just put twenty miles between us, that's a good boy. - It wouldn't do any good to land yonder where the light is—it's only a -wood-yard. Say, I reckon your father's poor, and I'm bound to say he's -in pretty hard luck.  Here, I'll put a twenty-dollar gold piece on this -board, and you get it when it floats by.  I feel mighty mean to leave -you; but my kingdom! it won't do to fool with small-pox, don't you see?" - -"Hold on, Parker," says the other man, "here's a twenty to put on the -board for me.  Good-bye, boy; you do as Mr. Parker told you, and you'll -be all right." - -"That's so, my boy—good-bye, good-bye.  If you see any runaway niggers -you get help and nab them, and you can make some money by it." - -"Good-bye, sir," says I; "I won't let no runaway niggers get by me if I -can help it." - -They went off and I got aboard the raft, feeling bad and low, because I -knowed very well I had done wrong, and I see it warn't no use for me -to try to learn to do right; a body that don't get _started_ right when -he's little ain't got no show—when the pinch comes there ain't nothing -to back him up and keep him to his work, and so he gets beat.  Then I -thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on; s'pose you'd a done right -and give Jim up, would you felt better than what you do now?  No, says -I, I'd feel bad—I'd feel just the same way I do now.  Well, then, says -I, what's the use you learning to do right when it's troublesome to do -right and ain't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same? - I was stuck.  I couldn't answer that.  So I reckoned I wouldn't bother -no more about it, but after this always do whichever come handiest at -the time. - -I went into the wigwam; Jim warn't there.  I looked all around; he -warn't anywhere.  I says: - -"Jim!" - -"Here I is, Huck.  Is dey out o' sight yit?  Don't talk loud." - -He was in the river under the stern oar, with just his nose out.  I told -him they were out of sight, so he come aboard.  He says: - -"I was a-listenin' to all de talk, en I slips into de river en was gwyne -to shove for sho' if dey come aboard.  Den I was gwyne to swim to de -raf' agin when dey was gone.  But lawsy, how you did fool 'em, Huck! - Dat _wuz_ de smartes' dodge!  I tell you, chile, I'spec it save' ole -Jim—ole Jim ain't going to forgit you for dat, honey." - -Then we talked about the money.  It was a pretty good raise—twenty -dollars apiece.  Jim said we could take deck passage on a steamboat -now, and the money would last us as far as we wanted to go in the free -States. He said twenty mile more warn't far for the raft to go, but he -wished we was already there. - -Towards daybreak we tied up, and Jim was mighty particular about hiding -the raft good.  Then he worked all day fixing things in bundles, and -getting all ready to quit rafting. - -That night about ten we hove in sight of the lights of a town away down -in a left-hand bend. - -I went off in the canoe to ask about it.  Pretty soon I found a man out -in the river with a skiff, setting a trot-line.  I ranged up and says: - -"Mister, is that town Cairo?" - -"Cairo? no.  You must be a blame' fool." - -"What town is it, mister?" - -"If you want to know, go and find out.  If you stay here botherin' -around me for about a half a minute longer you'll get something you -won't want." - -I paddled to the raft.  Jim was awful disappointed, but I said never -mind, Cairo would be the next place, I reckoned. - -We passed another town before daylight, and I was going out again; but -it was high ground, so I didn't go.  No high ground about Cairo, Jim -said. I had forgot it.  We laid up for the day on a towhead tolerable -close to the left-hand bank.  I begun to suspicion something.  So did -Jim.  I says: - -"Maybe we went by Cairo in the fog that night." - -He says: - -"Doan' le's talk about it, Huck.  Po' niggers can't have no luck.  I -awluz 'spected dat rattlesnake-skin warn't done wid its work." - -"I wish I'd never seen that snake-skin, Jim—I do wish I'd never laid -eyes on it." - -"It ain't yo' fault, Huck; you didn' know.  Don't you blame yo'self -'bout it." - -When it was daylight, here was the clear Ohio water inshore, sure -enough, and outside was the old regular Muddy!  So it was all up with -Cairo. - -We talked it all over.  It wouldn't do to take to the shore; we couldn't -take the raft up the stream, of course.  There warn't no way but to wait -for dark, and start back in the canoe and take the chances.  So we slept -all day amongst the cottonwood thicket, so as to be fresh for the work, -and when we went back to the raft about dark the canoe was gone! - -We didn't say a word for a good while.  There warn't anything to -say.  We both knowed well enough it was some more work of the -rattlesnake-skin; so what was the use to talk about it?  It would only -look like we was finding fault, and that would be bound to fetch more -bad luck—and keep on fetching it, too, till we knowed enough to keep -still. - -By and by we talked about what we better do, and found there warn't no -way but just to go along down with the raft till we got a chance to buy -a canoe to go back in.  We warn't going to borrow it when there warn't -anybody around, the way pap would do, for that might set people after -us. - -So we shoved out after dark on the raft. - -Anybody that don't believe yet that it's foolishness to handle a -snake-skin, after all that that snake-skin done for us, will believe it -now if they read on and see what more it done for us. - -The place to buy canoes is off of rafts laying up at shore.  But we -didn't see no rafts laying up; so we went along during three hours and -more.  Well, the night got gray and ruther thick, which is the next -meanest thing to fog.  You can't tell the shape of the river, and you -can't see no distance. It got to be very late and still, and then along -comes a steamboat up the river.  We lit the lantern, and judged she -would see it.  Up-stream boats didn't generly come close to us; they -go out and follow the bars and hunt for easy water under the reefs; but -nights like this they bull right up the channel against the whole river. - -We could hear her pounding along, but we didn't see her good till she -was close.  She aimed right for us.  Often they do that and try to see -how close they can come without touching; sometimes the wheel bites off -a sweep, and then the pilot sticks his head out and laughs, and thinks -he's mighty smart.  Well, here she comes, and we said she was going to -try and shave us; but she didn't seem to be sheering off a bit.  She -was a big one, and she was coming in a hurry, too, looking like a black -cloud with rows of glow-worms around it; but all of a sudden she bulged -out, big and scary, with a long row of wide-open furnace doors shining -like red-hot teeth, and her monstrous bows and guards hanging right -over us.  There was a yell at us, and a jingling of bells to stop the -engines, a powwow of cussing, and whistling of steam—and as Jim went -overboard on one side and I on the other, she come smashing straight -through the raft. - -I dived—and I aimed to find the bottom, too, for a thirty-foot wheel -had got to go over me, and I wanted it to have plenty of room.  I could -always stay under water a minute; this time I reckon I stayed under a -minute and a half.  Then I bounced for the top in a hurry, for I was -nearly busting.  I popped out to my armpits and blowed the water out of -my nose, and puffed a bit.  Of course there was a booming current; and -of course that boat started her engines again ten seconds after she -stopped them, for they never cared much for raftsmen; so now she was -churning along up the river, out of sight in the thick weather, though I -could hear her. - -I sung out for Jim about a dozen times, but I didn't get any answer; -so I grabbed a plank that touched me while I was "treading water," and -struck out for shore, shoving it ahead of me.  But I made out to see -that the drift of the current was towards the left-hand shore, which -meant that I was in a crossing; so I changed off and went that way. - -It was one of these long, slanting, two-mile crossings; so I was a good -long time in getting over.  I made a safe landing, and clumb up the -bank. I couldn't see but a little ways, but I went poking along over -rough ground for a quarter of a mile or more, and then I run across a -big old-fashioned double log-house before I noticed it.  I was going to -rush by and get away, but a lot of dogs jumped out and went to howling -and barking at me, and I knowed better than to move another peg. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -IN about a minute somebody spoke out of a window without putting his -head out, and says: - -"Be done, boys!  Who's there?" - -I says: - -"It's me." - -"Who's me?" - -"George Jackson, sir." - -"What do you want?" - -"I don't want nothing, sir.  I only want to go along by, but the dogs -won't let me." - -"What are you prowling around here this time of night for—hey?" - -"I warn't prowling around, sir, I fell overboard off of the steamboat." - -"Oh, you did, did you?  Strike a light there, somebody.  What did you -say your name was?" - -"George Jackson, sir.  I'm only a boy." - -"Look here, if you're telling the truth you needn't be afraid—nobody'll -hurt you.  But don't try to budge; stand right where you are.  Rouse out -Bob and Tom, some of you, and fetch the guns.  George Jackson, is there -anybody with you?" - -"No, sir, nobody." - -I heard the people stirring around in the house now, and see a light. -The man sung out: - -"Snatch that light away, Betsy, you old fool—ain't you got any sense? -Put it on the floor behind the front door.  Bob, if you and Tom are -ready, take your places." - -"All ready." - -"Now, George Jackson, do you know the Shepherdsons?" - -"No, sir; I never heard of them." - -"Well, that may be so, and it mayn't.  Now, all ready.  Step forward, -George Jackson.  And mind, don't you hurry—come mighty slow.  If there's -anybody with you, let him keep back—if he shows himself he'll be shot. -Come along now.  Come slow; push the door open yourself—just enough to -squeeze in, d' you hear?" - -I didn't hurry; I couldn't if I'd a wanted to.  I took one slow step at -a time and there warn't a sound, only I thought I could hear my heart. - The dogs were as still as the humans, but they followed a little behind -me. When I got to the three log doorsteps I heard them unlocking and -unbarring and unbolting.  I put my hand on the door and pushed it a -little and a little more till somebody said, "There, that's enough—put -your head in." I done it, but I judged they would take it off. - -The candle was on the floor, and there they all was, looking at me, and -me at them, for about a quarter of a minute:  Three big men with guns -pointed at me, which made me wince, I tell you; the oldest, gray -and about sixty, the other two thirty or more—all of them fine and -handsome—and the sweetest old gray-headed lady, and back of her two -young women which I couldn't see right well.  The old gentleman says: - -"There; I reckon it's all right.  Come in." - -As soon as I was in the old gentleman he locked the door and barred it -and bolted it, and told the young men to come in with their guns, and -they all went in a big parlor that had a new rag carpet on the floor, -and got together in a corner that was out of the range of the front -windows—there warn't none on the side.  They held the candle, and took a -good look at me, and all said, "Why, _he_ ain't a Shepherdson—no, there -ain't any Shepherdson about him."  Then the old man said he hoped I -wouldn't mind being searched for arms, because he didn't mean no harm by -it—it was only to make sure.  So he didn't pry into my pockets, but only -felt outside with his hands, and said it was all right.  He told me to -make myself easy and at home, and tell all about myself; but the old -lady says: - -"Why, bless you, Saul, the poor thing's as wet as he can be; and don't -you reckon it may be he's hungry?" - -"True for you, Rachel—I forgot." - -So the old lady says: - -"Betsy" (this was a nigger woman), "you fly around and get him something -to eat as quick as you can, poor thing; and one of you girls go and wake -up Buck and tell him—oh, here he is himself.  Buck, take this little -stranger and get the wet clothes off from him and dress him up in some -of yours that's dry." - -Buck looked about as old as me—thirteen or fourteen or along there, -though he was a little bigger than me.  He hadn't on anything but a -shirt, and he was very frowzy-headed.  He came in gaping and digging one -fist into his eyes, and he was dragging a gun along with the other one. -He says: - -"Ain't they no Shepherdsons around?" - -They said, no, 'twas a false alarm. - -"Well," he says, "if they'd a ben some, I reckon I'd a got one." - -They all laughed, and Bob says: - -"Why, Buck, they might have scalped us all, you've been so slow in -coming." - -"Well, nobody come after me, and it ain't right I'm always kept down; I -don't get no show." - -"Never mind, Buck, my boy," says the old man, "you'll have show enough, -all in good time, don't you fret about that.  Go 'long with you now, and -do as your mother told you." - -When we got up-stairs to his room he got me a coarse shirt and a -roundabout and pants of his, and I put them on.  While I was at it he -asked me what my name was, but before I could tell him he started to -tell me about a bluejay and a young rabbit he had catched in the woods -day before yesterday, and he asked me where Moses was when the candle -went out.  I said I didn't know; I hadn't heard about it before, no way. - -"Well, guess," he says. - -"How'm I going to guess," says I, "when I never heard tell of it -before?" - -"But you can guess, can't you?  It's just as easy." - -"_Which_ candle?"  I says. - -"Why, any candle," he says. - -"I don't know where he was," says I; "where was he?" - -"Why, he was in the _dark_!  That's where he was!" - -"Well, if you knowed where he was, what did you ask me for?" - -"Why, blame it, it's a riddle, don't you see?  Say, how long are you -going to stay here?  You got to stay always.  We can just have booming -times—they don't have no school now.  Do you own a dog?  I've got a -dog—and he'll go in the river and bring out chips that you throw in.  Do -you like to comb up Sundays, and all that kind of foolishness?  You bet -I don't, but ma she makes me.  Confound these ole britches!  I reckon -I'd better put 'em on, but I'd ruther not, it's so warm.  Are you all -ready? All right.  Come along, old hoss." - -Cold corn-pone, cold corn-beef, butter and buttermilk—that is what they -had for me down there, and there ain't nothing better that ever I've -come across yet.  Buck and his ma and all of them smoked cob pipes, -except the nigger woman, which was gone, and the two young women.  They -all smoked and talked, and I eat and talked.  The young women had -quilts around them, and their hair down their backs.  They all asked me -questions, and I told them how pap and me and all the family was living -on a little farm down at the bottom of Arkansaw, and my sister Mary Ann -run off and got married and never was heard of no more, and Bill went -to hunt them and he warn't heard of no more, and Tom and Mort died, -and then there warn't nobody but just me and pap left, and he was just -trimmed down to nothing, on account of his troubles; so when he died -I took what there was left, because the farm didn't belong to us, and -started up the river, deck passage, and fell overboard; and that was how -I come to be here.  So they said I could have a home there as long as I -wanted it.  Then it was most daylight and everybody went to bed, and I -went to bed with Buck, and when I waked up in the morning, drat it all, -I had forgot what my name was. So I laid there about an hour trying to -think, and when Buck waked up I says: - -"Can you spell, Buck?" - -"Yes," he says. - -"I bet you can't spell my name," says I. - -"I bet you what you dare I can," says he. - -"All right," says I, "go ahead." - -"G-e-o-r-g-e J-a-x-o-n—there now," he says. - -"Well," says I, "you done it, but I didn't think you could.  It ain't no -slouch of a name to spell—right off without studying." - -I set it down, private, because somebody might want _me_ to spell it -next, and so I wanted to be handy with it and rattle it off like I was -used to it. - -It was a mighty nice family, and a mighty nice house, too.  I hadn't -seen no house out in the country before that was so nice and had so much -style.  It didn't have an iron latch on the front door, nor a wooden one -with a buckskin string, but a brass knob to turn, the same as houses in -town. There warn't no bed in the parlor, nor a sign of a bed; but heaps -of parlors in towns has beds in them.  There was a big fireplace that -was bricked on the bottom, and the bricks was kept clean and red by -pouring water on them and scrubbing them with another brick; sometimes -they wash them over with red water-paint that they call Spanish-brown, -same as they do in town.  They had big brass dog-irons that could hold -up a saw-log. There was a clock on the middle of the mantelpiece, with -a picture of a town painted on the bottom half of the glass front, and -a round place in the middle of it for the sun, and you could see the -pendulum swinging behind it.  It was beautiful to hear that clock tick; -and sometimes when one of these peddlers had been along and scoured her -up and got her in good shape, she would start in and strike a hundred -and fifty before she got tuckered out.  They wouldn't took any money for -her. - -Well, there was a big outlandish parrot on each side of the clock, -made out of something like chalk, and painted up gaudy.  By one of the -parrots was a cat made of crockery, and a crockery dog by the other; -and when you pressed down on them they squeaked, but didn't open -their mouths nor look different nor interested.  They squeaked through -underneath.  There was a couple of big wild-turkey-wing fans spread out -behind those things.  On the table in the middle of the room was a kind -of a lovely crockery basket that had apples and oranges and peaches and -grapes piled up in it, which was much redder and yellower and prettier -than real ones is, but they warn't real because you could see where -pieces had got chipped off and showed the white chalk, or whatever it -was, underneath. - -This table had a cover made out of beautiful oilcloth, with a red and -blue spread-eagle painted on it, and a painted border all around.  It -come all the way from Philadelphia, they said.  There was some books, -too, piled up perfectly exact, on each corner of the table.  One was a -big family Bible full of pictures.  One was Pilgrim's Progress, about a -man that left his family, it didn't say why.  I read considerable in it -now and then.  The statements was interesting, but tough.  Another was -Friendship's Offering, full of beautiful stuff and poetry; but I didn't -read the poetry.  Another was Henry Clay's Speeches, and another was Dr. -Gunn's Family Medicine, which told you all about what to do if a body -was sick or dead.  There was a hymn book, and a lot of other books.  And -there was nice split-bottom chairs, and perfectly sound, too—not bagged -down in the middle and busted, like an old basket. - -They had pictures hung on the walls—mainly Washingtons and Lafayettes, -and battles, and Highland Marys, and one called "Signing the -Declaration." There was some that they called crayons, which one of the -daughters which was dead made her own self when she was only -fifteen years old.  They was different from any pictures I ever see -before—blacker, mostly, than is common.  One was a woman in a slim black -dress, belted small under the armpits, with bulges like a cabbage in -the middle of the sleeves, and a large black scoop-shovel bonnet with -a black veil, and white slim ankles crossed about with black tape, and -very wee black slippers, like a chisel, and she was leaning pensive on a -tombstone on her right elbow, under a weeping willow, and her other hand -hanging down her side holding a white handkerchief and a reticule, -and underneath the picture it said "Shall I Never See Thee More Alas." - Another one was a young lady with her hair all combed up straight -to the top of her head, and knotted there in front of a comb like a -chair-back, and she was crying into a handkerchief and had a dead bird -laying on its back in her other hand with its heels up, and underneath -the picture it said "I Shall Never Hear Thy Sweet Chirrup More Alas." - There was one where a young lady was at a window looking up at the -moon, and tears running down her cheeks; and she had an open letter in -one hand with black sealing wax showing on one edge of it, and she was -mashing a locket with a chain to it against her mouth, and underneath -the picture it said "And Art Thou Gone Yes Thou Art Gone Alas."  These -was all nice pictures, I reckon, but I didn't somehow seem to take -to them, because if ever I was down a little they always give me the -fan-tods.  Everybody was sorry she died, because she had laid out a lot -more of these pictures to do, and a body could see by what she had done -what they had lost.  But I reckoned that with her disposition she was -having a better time in the graveyard.  She was at work on what they -said was her greatest picture when she took sick, and every day and -every night it was her prayer to be allowed to live till she got it -done, but she never got the chance.  It was a picture of a young woman -in a long white gown, standing on the rail of a bridge all ready to jump -off, with her hair all down her back, and looking up to the moon, with -the tears running down her face, and she had two arms folded across her -breast, and two arms stretched out in front, and two more reaching up -towards the moon—and the idea was to see which pair would look best, -and then scratch out all the other arms; but, as I was saying, she died -before she got her mind made up, and now they kept this picture over the -head of the bed in her room, and every time her birthday come they hung -flowers on it.  Other times it was hid with a little curtain.  The young -woman in the picture had a kind of a nice sweet face, but there was so -many arms it made her look too spidery, seemed to me. - -This young girl kept a scrap-book when she was alive, and used to paste -obituaries and accidents and cases of patient suffering in it out of the -Presbyterian Observer, and write poetry after them out of her own head. -It was very good poetry. This is what she wrote about a boy by the name -of Stephen Dowling Bots that fell down a well and was drownded: - -ODE TO STEPHEN DOWLING BOTS, DEC'D - -And did young Stephen sicken,    And did young Stephen die? And did the -sad hearts thicken,    And did the mourners cry? - -No; such was not the fate of    Young Stephen Dowling Bots; Though sad -hearts round him thickened,    'Twas not from sickness' shots. - -No whooping-cough did rack his frame,    Nor measles drear with spots; -Not these impaired the sacred name    Of Stephen Dowling Bots. - -Despised love struck not with woe    That head of curly knots, Nor -stomach troubles laid him low,    Young Stephen Dowling Bots. - -O no. Then list with tearful eye,    Whilst I his fate do tell. His soul -did from this cold world fly    By falling down a well. - -They got him out and emptied him;    Alas it was too late; His spirit -was gone for to sport aloft    In the realms of the good and great. - -If Emmeline Grangerford could make poetry like that before she was -fourteen, there ain't no telling what she could a done by and by.  Buck -said she could rattle off poetry like nothing.  She didn't ever have to -stop to think.  He said she would slap down a line, and if she couldn't -find anything to rhyme with it would just scratch it out and slap down -another one, and go ahead. She warn't particular; she could write about -anything you choose to give her to write about just so it was sadful. -Every time a man died, or a woman died, or a child died, she would be on -hand with her "tribute" before he was cold.  She called them tributes. -The neighbors said it was the doctor first, then Emmeline, then the -undertaker—the undertaker never got in ahead of Emmeline but once, and -then she hung fire on a rhyme for the dead person's name, which was -Whistler.  She warn't ever the same after that; she never complained, -but she kinder pined away and did not live long.  Poor thing, many's the -time I made myself go up to the little room that used to be hers and get -out her poor old scrap-book and read in it when her pictures had been -aggravating me and I had soured on her a little.  I liked all that -family, dead ones and all, and warn't going to let anything come between -us.  Poor Emmeline made poetry about all the dead people when she was -alive, and it didn't seem right that there warn't nobody to make some -about her now she was gone; so I tried to sweat out a verse or two -myself, but I couldn't seem to make it go somehow.  They kept Emmeline's -room trim and nice, and all the things fixed in it just the way she -liked to have them when she was alive, and nobody ever slept there. - The old lady took care of the room herself, though there was plenty -of niggers, and she sewed there a good deal and read her Bible there -mostly. - -Well, as I was saying about the parlor, there was beautiful curtains on -the windows:  white, with pictures painted on them of castles with vines -all down the walls, and cattle coming down to drink.  There was a little -old piano, too, that had tin pans in it, I reckon, and nothing was ever -so lovely as to hear the young ladies sing "The Last Link is Broken" -and play "The Battle of Prague" on it.  The walls of all the rooms was -plastered, and most had carpets on the floors, and the whole house was -whitewashed on the outside. - -It was a double house, and the big open place betwixt them was roofed -and floored, and sometimes the table was set there in the middle of the -day, and it was a cool, comfortable place.  Nothing couldn't be better. - And warn't the cooking good, and just bushels of it too! - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -COL.  Grangerford was a gentleman, you see.  He was a gentleman all -over; and so was his family.  He was well born, as the saying is, and -that's worth as much in a man as it is in a horse, so the Widow Douglas -said, and nobody ever denied that she was of the first aristocracy -in our town; and pap he always said it, too, though he warn't no more -quality than a mudcat himself.  Col.  Grangerford was very tall and -very slim, and had a darkish-paly complexion, not a sign of red in it -anywheres; he was clean shaved every morning all over his thin face, and -he had the thinnest kind of lips, and the thinnest kind of nostrils, and -a high nose, and heavy eyebrows, and the blackest kind of eyes, sunk so -deep back that they seemed like they was looking out of caverns at -you, as you may say.  His forehead was high, and his hair was black and -straight and hung to his shoulders. His hands was long and thin, and -every day of his life he put on a clean shirt and a full suit from head -to foot made out of linen so white it hurt your eyes to look at it; -and on Sundays he wore a blue tail-coat with brass buttons on it.  He -carried a mahogany cane with a silver head to it.  There warn't no -frivolishness about him, not a bit, and he warn't ever loud.  He was -as kind as he could be—you could feel that, you know, and so you had -confidence.  Sometimes he smiled, and it was good to see; but when he -straightened himself up like a liberty-pole, and the lightning begun to -flicker out from under his eyebrows, you wanted to climb a tree first, -and find out what the matter was afterwards.  He didn't ever have to -tell anybody to mind their manners—everybody was always good-mannered -where he was.  Everybody loved to have him around, too; he was sunshine -most always—I mean he made it seem like good weather.  When he turned -into a cloudbank it was awful dark for half a minute, and that was -enough; there wouldn't nothing go wrong again for a week. - -When him and the old lady come down in the morning all the family got -up out of their chairs and give them good-day, and didn't set down again -till they had set down.  Then Tom and Bob went to the sideboard where -the decanter was, and mixed a glass of bitters and handed it to him, and -he held it in his hand and waited till Tom's and Bob's was mixed, and -then they bowed and said, "Our duty to you, sir, and madam;" and _they_ -bowed the least bit in the world and said thank you, and so they drank, -all three, and Bob and Tom poured a spoonful of water on the sugar and -the mite of whisky or apple brandy in the bottom of their tumblers, and -give it to me and Buck, and we drank to the old people too. - -Bob was the oldest and Tom next—tall, beautiful men with very broad -shoulders and brown faces, and long black hair and black eyes.  They -dressed in white linen from head to foot, like the old gentleman, and -wore broad Panama hats. - -Then there was Miss Charlotte; she was twenty-five, and tall and proud -and grand, but as good as she could be when she warn't stirred up; but -when she was she had a look that would make you wilt in your tracks, -like her father.  She was beautiful. - -So was her sister, Miss Sophia, but it was a different kind.  She was -gentle and sweet like a dove, and she was only twenty. - -Each person had their own nigger to wait on them—Buck too.  My nigger -had a monstrous easy time, because I warn't used to having anybody do -anything for me, but Buck's was on the jump most of the time. - -This was all there was of the family now, but there used to be -more—three sons; they got killed; and Emmeline that died. - -The old gentleman owned a lot of farms and over a hundred niggers. -Sometimes a stack of people would come there, horseback, from ten or -fifteen mile around, and stay five or six days, and have such junketings -round about and on the river, and dances and picnics in the woods -daytimes, and balls at the house nights.  These people was mostly -kinfolks of the family.  The men brought their guns with them.  It was a -handsome lot of quality, I tell you. - -There was another clan of aristocracy around there—five or six -families—mostly of the name of Shepherdson.  They was as high-toned -and well born and rich and grand as the tribe of Grangerfords.  The -Shepherdsons and Grangerfords used the same steamboat landing, which was -about two mile above our house; so sometimes when I went up there with a -lot of our folks I used to see a lot of the Shepherdsons there on their -fine horses. - -One day Buck and me was away out in the woods hunting, and heard a horse -coming.  We was crossing the road.  Buck says: - -"Quick!  Jump for the woods!" - -We done it, and then peeped down the woods through the leaves.  Pretty -soon a splendid young man come galloping down the road, setting his -horse easy and looking like a soldier.  He had his gun across his -pommel.  I had seen him before.  It was young Harney Shepherdson.  I -heard Buck's gun go off at my ear, and Harney's hat tumbled off from his -head.  He grabbed his gun and rode straight to the place where we was -hid.  But we didn't wait.  We started through the woods on a run.  The -woods warn't thick, so I looked over my shoulder to dodge the bullet, -and twice I seen Harney cover Buck with his gun; and then he rode away -the way he come—to get his hat, I reckon, but I couldn't see.  We never -stopped running till we got home.  The old gentleman's eyes blazed a -minute—'twas pleasure, mainly, I judged—then his face sort of smoothed -down, and he says, kind of gentle: - -"I don't like that shooting from behind a bush.  Why didn't you step -into the road, my boy?" - -"The Shepherdsons don't, father.  They always take advantage." - -Miss Charlotte she held her head up like a queen while Buck was telling -his tale, and her nostrils spread and her eyes snapped.  The two young -men looked dark, but never said nothing.  Miss Sophia she turned pale, -but the color come back when she found the man warn't hurt. - -Soon as I could get Buck down by the corn-cribs under the trees by -ourselves, I says: - -"Did you want to kill him, Buck?" - -"Well, I bet I did." - -"What did he do to you?" - -"Him?  He never done nothing to me." - -"Well, then, what did you want to kill him for?" - -"Why, nothing—only it's on account of the feud." - -"What's a feud?" - -"Why, where was you raised?  Don't you know what a feud is?" - -"Never heard of it before—tell me about it." - -"Well," says Buck, "a feud is this way:  A man has a quarrel with -another man, and kills him; then that other man's brother kills _him_; -then the other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the -_cousins_ chip in—and by and by everybody's killed off, and there ain't -no more feud.  But it's kind of slow, and takes a long time." - -"Has this one been going on long, Buck?" - -"Well, I should _reckon_!  It started thirty year ago, or som'ers along -there.  There was trouble 'bout something, and then a lawsuit to settle -it; and the suit went agin one of the men, and so he up and shot the -man that won the suit—which he would naturally do, of course.  Anybody -would." - -"What was the trouble about, Buck?—land?" - -"I reckon maybe—I don't know." - -"Well, who done the shooting?  Was it a Grangerford or a Shepherdson?" - -"Laws, how do I know?  It was so long ago." - -"Don't anybody know?" - -"Oh, yes, pa knows, I reckon, and some of the other old people; but they -don't know now what the row was about in the first place." - -"Has there been many killed, Buck?" - -"Yes; right smart chance of funerals.  But they don't always kill.  Pa's -got a few buckshot in him; but he don't mind it 'cuz he don't weigh -much, anyway.  Bob's been carved up some with a bowie, and Tom's been -hurt once or twice." - -"Has anybody been killed this year, Buck?" - -"Yes; we got one and they got one.  'Bout three months ago my cousin -Bud, fourteen year old, was riding through the woods on t'other side -of the river, and didn't have no weapon with him, which was blame' -foolishness, and in a lonesome place he hears a horse a-coming behind -him, and sees old Baldy Shepherdson a-linkin' after him with his gun in -his hand and his white hair a-flying in the wind; and 'stead of jumping -off and taking to the brush, Bud 'lowed he could out-run him; so they -had it, nip and tuck, for five mile or more, the old man a-gaining all -the time; so at last Bud seen it warn't any use, so he stopped and faced -around so as to have the bullet holes in front, you know, and the old -man he rode up and shot him down.  But he didn't git much chance to -enjoy his luck, for inside of a week our folks laid _him_ out." - -"I reckon that old man was a coward, Buck." - -"I reckon he _warn't_ a coward.  Not by a blame' sight.  There ain't a -coward amongst them Shepherdsons—not a one.  And there ain't no cowards -amongst the Grangerfords either.  Why, that old man kep' up his end in a -fight one day for half an hour against three Grangerfords, and come -out winner.  They was all a-horseback; he lit off of his horse and got -behind a little woodpile, and kep' his horse before him to stop the -bullets; but the Grangerfords stayed on their horses and capered around -the old man, and peppered away at him, and he peppered away at them. - Him and his horse both went home pretty leaky and crippled, but the -Grangerfords had to be _fetched_ home—and one of 'em was dead, and -another died the next day.  No, sir; if a body's out hunting for cowards -he don't want to fool away any time amongst them Shepherdsons, becuz -they don't breed any of that _kind_." - -Next Sunday we all went to church, about three mile, everybody -a-horseback. The men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept -them between their knees or stood them handy against the wall.  The -Shepherdsons done the same.  It was pretty ornery preaching—all about -brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness; but everybody said it was -a good sermon, and they all talked it over going home, and had such -a powerful lot to say about faith and good works and free grace and -preforeordestination, and I don't know what all, that it did seem to me -to be one of the roughest Sundays I had run across yet. - -About an hour after dinner everybody was dozing around, some in their -chairs and some in their rooms, and it got to be pretty dull.  Buck and -a dog was stretched out on the grass in the sun sound asleep.  I went up -to our room, and judged I would take a nap myself.  I found that sweet -Miss Sophia standing in her door, which was next to ours, and she took -me in her room and shut the door very soft, and asked me if I liked her, -and I said I did; and she asked me if I would do something for her and -not tell anybody, and I said I would.  Then she said she'd forgot her -Testament, and left it in the seat at church between two other books, -and would I slip out quiet and go there and fetch it to her, and not say -nothing to nobody.  I said I would. So I slid out and slipped off up the -road, and there warn't anybody at the church, except maybe a hog or two, -for there warn't any lock on the door, and hogs likes a puncheon floor -in summer-time because it's cool.  If you notice, most folks don't go to -church only when they've got to; but a hog is different. - -Says I to myself, something's up; it ain't natural for a girl to be in -such a sweat about a Testament.  So I give it a shake, and out drops a -little piece of paper with "HALF-PAST TWO" wrote on it with a pencil.  I -ransacked it, but couldn't find anything else.  I couldn't make anything -out of that, so I put the paper in the book again, and when I got home -and upstairs there was Miss Sophia in her door waiting for me.  She -pulled me in and shut the door; then she looked in the Testament till -she found the paper, and as soon as she read it she looked glad; and -before a body could think she grabbed me and give me a squeeze, and -said I was the best boy in the world, and not to tell anybody.  She was -mighty red in the face for a minute, and her eyes lighted up, and it -made her powerful pretty.  I was a good deal astonished, but when I got -my breath I asked her what the paper was about, and she asked me if I -had read it, and I said no, and she asked me if I could read writing, -and I told her "no, only coarse-hand," and then she said the paper -warn't anything but a book-mark to keep her place, and I might go and -play now. - -I went off down to the river, studying over this thing, and pretty soon -I noticed that my nigger was following along behind.  When we was out -of sight of the house he looked back and around a second, and then comes -a-running, and says: - -"Mars Jawge, if you'll come down into de swamp I'll show you a whole -stack o' water-moccasins." - -Thinks I, that's mighty curious; he said that yesterday.  He oughter -know a body don't love water-moccasins enough to go around hunting for -them. What is he up to, anyway?  So I says: - -"All right; trot ahead." - -I followed a half a mile; then he struck out over the swamp, and waded -ankle deep as much as another half-mile.  We come to a little flat piece -of land which was dry and very thick with trees and bushes and vines, -and he says: - -"You shove right in dah jist a few steps, Mars Jawge; dah's whah dey is. -I's seed 'm befo'; I don't k'yer to see 'em no mo'." - -Then he slopped right along and went away, and pretty soon the trees hid -him.  I poked into the place a-ways and come to a little open patch -as big as a bedroom all hung around with vines, and found a man laying -there asleep—and, by jings, it was my old Jim! - -I waked him up, and I reckoned it was going to be a grand surprise to -him to see me again, but it warn't.  He nearly cried he was so glad, but -he warn't surprised.  Said he swum along behind me that night, and heard -me yell every time, but dasn't answer, because he didn't want nobody to -pick _him_ up and take him into slavery again.  Says he: - -"I got hurt a little, en couldn't swim fas', so I wuz a considable ways -behine you towards de las'; when you landed I reck'ned I could ketch -up wid you on de lan' 'dout havin' to shout at you, but when I see dat -house I begin to go slow.  I 'uz off too fur to hear what dey say to -you—I wuz 'fraid o' de dogs; but when it 'uz all quiet agin I knowed -you's in de house, so I struck out for de woods to wait for day.  Early -in de mawnin' some er de niggers come along, gwyne to de fields, en dey -tuk me en showed me dis place, whah de dogs can't track me on accounts -o' de water, en dey brings me truck to eat every night, en tells me how -you's a-gitt'n along." - -"Why didn't you tell my Jack to fetch me here sooner, Jim?" - -"Well, 'twarn't no use to 'sturb you, Huck, tell we could do sumfn—but -we's all right now.  I ben a-buyin' pots en pans en vittles, as I got a -chanst, en a-patchin' up de raf' nights when—" - -"_What_ raft, Jim?" - -"Our ole raf'." - -"You mean to say our old raft warn't smashed all to flinders?" - -"No, she warn't.  She was tore up a good deal—one en' of her was; but -dey warn't no great harm done, on'y our traps was mos' all los'.  Ef we -hadn' dive' so deep en swum so fur under water, en de night hadn' ben -so dark, en we warn't so sk'yerd, en ben sich punkin-heads, as de sayin' -is, we'd a seed de raf'.  But it's jis' as well we didn't, 'kase now -she's all fixed up agin mos' as good as new, en we's got a new lot o' -stuff, in de place o' what 'uz los'." - -"Why, how did you get hold of the raft again, Jim—did you catch her?" - -"How I gwyne to ketch her en I out in de woods?  No; some er de niggers -foun' her ketched on a snag along heah in de ben', en dey hid her in a -crick 'mongst de willows, en dey wuz so much jawin' 'bout which un 'um -she b'long to de mos' dat I come to heah 'bout it pooty soon, so I ups -en settles de trouble by tellin' 'um she don't b'long to none uv um, but -to you en me; en I ast 'm if dey gwyne to grab a young white genlman's -propaty, en git a hid'n for it?  Den I gin 'm ten cents apiece, en dey -'uz mighty well satisfied, en wisht some mo' raf's 'ud come along en -make 'm rich agin. Dey's mighty good to me, dese niggers is, en whatever -I wants 'm to do fur me I doan' have to ast 'm twice, honey.  Dat Jack's -a good nigger, en pooty smart." - -"Yes, he is.  He ain't ever told me you was here; told me to come, and -he'd show me a lot of water-moccasins.  If anything happens _he_ ain't -mixed up in it.  He can say he never seen us together, and it 'll be the -truth." - -I don't want to talk much about the next day.  I reckon I'll cut it -pretty short.  I waked up about dawn, and was a-going to turn over and -go to sleep again when I noticed how still it was—didn't seem to be -anybody stirring.  That warn't usual.  Next I noticed that Buck was -up and gone. Well, I gets up, a-wondering, and goes down stairs—nobody -around; everything as still as a mouse.  Just the same outside.  Thinks -I, what does it mean?  Down by the wood-pile I comes across my Jack, and -says: - -"What's it all about?" - -Says he: - -"Don't you know, Mars Jawge?" - -"No," says I, "I don't." - -"Well, den, Miss Sophia's run off! 'deed she has.  She run off in de -night some time—nobody don't know jis' when; run off to get married -to dat young Harney Shepherdson, you know—leastways, so dey 'spec.  De -fambly foun' it out 'bout half an hour ago—maybe a little mo'—en' I -_tell_ you dey warn't no time los'.  Sich another hurryin' up guns -en hosses _you_ never see!  De women folks has gone for to stir up de -relations, en ole Mars Saul en de boys tuck dey guns en rode up de -river road for to try to ketch dat young man en kill him 'fo' he kin -git acrost de river wid Miss Sophia.  I reck'n dey's gwyne to be mighty -rough times." - -"Buck went off 'thout waking me up." - -"Well, I reck'n he _did_!  Dey warn't gwyne to mix you up in it. - Mars Buck he loaded up his gun en 'lowed he's gwyne to fetch home a -Shepherdson or bust. Well, dey'll be plenty un 'm dah, I reck'n, en you -bet you he'll fetch one ef he gits a chanst." - -I took up the river road as hard as I could put.  By and by I begin to -hear guns a good ways off.  When I come in sight of the log store and -the woodpile where the steamboats lands I worked along under the trees -and brush till I got to a good place, and then I clumb up into the -forks of a cottonwood that was out of reach, and watched.  There was a -wood-rank four foot high a little ways in front of the tree, and first I -was going to hide behind that; but maybe it was luckier I didn't. - -There was four or five men cavorting around on their horses in the open -place before the log store, cussing and yelling, and trying to get at -a couple of young chaps that was behind the wood-rank alongside of the -steamboat landing; but they couldn't come it.  Every time one of them -showed himself on the river side of the woodpile he got shot at.  The -two boys was squatting back to back behind the pile, so they could watch -both ways. - -By and by the men stopped cavorting around and yelling.  They started -riding towards the store; then up gets one of the boys, draws a steady -bead over the wood-rank, and drops one of them out of his saddle.  All -the men jumped off of their horses and grabbed the hurt one and started -to carry him to the store; and that minute the two boys started on the -run.  They got half way to the tree I was in before the men noticed. -Then the men see them, and jumped on their horses and took out after -them.  They gained on the boys, but it didn't do no good, the boys had -too good a start; they got to the woodpile that was in front of my tree, -and slipped in behind it, and so they had the bulge on the men again. -One of the boys was Buck, and the other was a slim young chap about -nineteen years old. - -The men ripped around awhile, and then rode away.  As soon as they was -out of sight I sung out to Buck and told him.  He didn't know what -to make of my voice coming out of the tree at first.  He was awful -surprised.  He told me to watch out sharp and let him know when the -men come in sight again; said they was up to some devilment or -other—wouldn't be gone long.  I wished I was out of that tree, but I -dasn't come down.  Buck begun to cry and rip, and 'lowed that him and -his cousin Joe (that was the other young chap) would make up for this -day yet.  He said his father and his two brothers was killed, and two -or three of the enemy.  Said the Shepherdsons laid for them in -ambush.  Buck said his father and brothers ought to waited for their -relations—the Shepherdsons was too strong for them.  I asked him what -was become of young Harney and Miss Sophia.  He said they'd got across -the river and was safe.  I was glad of that; but the way Buck did take -on because he didn't manage to kill Harney that day he shot at him—I -hain't ever heard anything like it. - -All of a sudden, bang! bang! bang! goes three or four guns—the men had -slipped around through the woods and come in from behind without their -horses!  The boys jumped for the river—both of them hurt—and as they -swum down the current the men run along the bank shooting at them and -singing out, "Kill them, kill them!"  It made me so sick I most fell out -of the tree.  I ain't a-going to tell _all_ that happened—it would make -me sick again if I was to do that.  I wished I hadn't ever come ashore -that night to see such things.  I ain't ever going to get shut of -them—lots of times I dream about them. - -I stayed in the tree till it begun to get dark, afraid to come down. -Sometimes I heard guns away off in the woods; and twice I seen little -gangs of men gallop past the log store with guns; so I reckoned the -trouble was still a-going on.  I was mighty downhearted; so I made up my -mind I wouldn't ever go anear that house again, because I reckoned I -was to blame, somehow. I judged that that piece of paper meant that Miss -Sophia was to meet Harney somewheres at half-past two and run off; and -I judged I ought to told her father about that paper and the curious way -she acted, and then maybe he would a locked her up, and this awful mess -wouldn't ever happened. - -When I got down out of the tree I crept along down the river bank a -piece, and found the two bodies laying in the edge of the water, and -tugged at them till I got them ashore; then I covered up their faces, -and got away as quick as I could.  I cried a little when I was covering -up Buck's face, for he was mighty good to me. - -It was just dark now.  I never went near the house, but struck through -the woods and made for the swamp.  Jim warn't on his island, so I -tramped off in a hurry for the crick, and crowded through the willows, -red-hot to jump aboard and get out of that awful country.  The raft was -gone!  My souls, but I was scared!  I couldn't get my breath for most -a minute. Then I raised a yell.  A voice not twenty-five foot from me -says: - -"Good lan'! is dat you, honey?  Doan' make no noise." - -It was Jim's voice—nothing ever sounded so good before.  I run along the -bank a piece and got aboard, and Jim he grabbed me and hugged me, he was -so glad to see me.  He says: - -"Laws bless you, chile, I 'uz right down sho' you's dead agin.  Jack's -been heah; he say he reck'n you's ben shot, kase you didn' come home no -mo'; so I's jes' dis minute a startin' de raf' down towards de mouf er -de crick, so's to be all ready for to shove out en leave soon as Jack -comes agin en tells me for certain you _is_ dead.  Lawsy, I's mighty -glad to git you back again, honey." - -I says: - -"All right—that's mighty good; they won't find me, and they'll think -I've been killed, and floated down the river—there's something up there -that 'll help them think so—so don't you lose no time, Jim, but just -shove off for the big water as fast as ever you can." - -I never felt easy till the raft was two mile below there and out in -the middle of the Mississippi.  Then we hung up our signal lantern, and -judged that we was free and safe once more.  I hadn't had a bite to eat -since yesterday, so Jim he got out some corn-dodgers and buttermilk, -and pork and cabbage and greens—there ain't nothing in the world so good -when it's cooked right—and whilst I eat my supper we talked and had a -good time.  I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was -Jim to get away from the swamp.  We said there warn't no home like a -raft, after all.  Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a -raft don't.  You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -TWO or three days and nights went by; I reckon I might say they swum by, -they slid along so quiet and smooth and lovely.  Here is the way we put -in the time.  It was a monstrous big river down there—sometimes a mile -and a half wide; we run nights, and laid up and hid daytimes; soon as -night was most gone we stopped navigating and tied up—nearly always -in the dead water under a towhead; and then cut young cottonwoods and -willows, and hid the raft with them.  Then we set out the lines.  Next -we slid into the river and had a swim, so as to freshen up and cool -off; then we set down on the sandy bottom where the water was about knee -deep, and watched the daylight come.  Not a sound anywheres—perfectly -still—just like the whole world was asleep, only sometimes the bullfrogs -a-cluttering, maybe.  The first thing to see, looking away over the -water, was a kind of dull line—that was the woods on t'other side; you -couldn't make nothing else out; then a pale place in the sky; then more -paleness spreading around; then the river softened up away off, and -warn't black any more, but gray; you could see little dark spots -drifting along ever so far away—trading scows, and such things; and -long black streaks—rafts; sometimes you could hear a sweep screaking; or -jumbled up voices, it was so still, and sounds come so far; and by and -by you could see a streak on the water which you know by the look of the -streak that there's a snag there in a swift current which breaks on it -and makes that streak look that way; and you see the mist curl up off -of the water, and the east reddens up, and the river, and you make out a -log-cabin in the edge of the woods, away on the bank on t'other side of -the river, being a woodyard, likely, and piled by them cheats so you can -throw a dog through it anywheres; then the nice breeze springs up, and -comes fanning you from over there, so cool and fresh and sweet to smell -on account of the woods and the flowers; but sometimes not that way, -because they've left dead fish laying around, gars and such, and they -do get pretty rank; and next you've got the full day, and everything -smiling in the sun, and the song-birds just going it! - -A little smoke couldn't be noticed now, so we would take some fish off -of the lines and cook up a hot breakfast.  And afterwards we would watch -the lonesomeness of the river, and kind of lazy along, and by and by -lazy off to sleep.  Wake up by and by, and look to see what done it, and -maybe see a steamboat coughing along up-stream, so far off towards the -other side you couldn't tell nothing about her only whether she was -a stern-wheel or side-wheel; then for about an hour there wouldn't be -nothing to hear nor nothing to see—just solid lonesomeness.  Next -you'd see a raft sliding by, away off yonder, and maybe a galoot on it -chopping, because they're most always doing it on a raft; you'd see the -axe flash and come down—you don't hear nothing; you see that axe go -up again, and by the time it's above the man's head then you hear the -_k'chunk_!—it had took all that time to come over the water.  So we -would put in the day, lazying around, listening to the stillness.  Once -there was a thick fog, and the rafts and things that went by was beating -tin pans so the steamboats wouldn't run over them.  A scow or a -raft went by so close we could hear them talking and cussing and -laughing—heard them plain; but we couldn't see no sign of them; it made -you feel crawly; it was like spirits carrying on that way in the air. - Jim said he believed it was spirits; but I says: - -"No; spirits wouldn't say, 'Dern the dern fog.'" - -Soon as it was night out we shoved; when we got her out to about the -middle we let her alone, and let her float wherever the current wanted -her to; then we lit the pipes, and dangled our legs in the water, and -talked about all kinds of things—we was always naked, day and night, -whenever the mosquitoes would let us—the new clothes Buck's folks made -for me was too good to be comfortable, and besides I didn't go much on -clothes, nohow. - -Sometimes we'd have that whole river all to ourselves for the longest -time. Yonder was the banks and the islands, across the water; and maybe -a spark—which was a candle in a cabin window; and sometimes on the water -you could see a spark or two—on a raft or a scow, you know; and maybe -you could hear a fiddle or a song coming over from one of them crafts. -It's lovely to live on a raft.  We had the sky up there, all speckled -with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and -discuss about whether they was made or only just happened.  Jim he -allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened; I judged it would -have took too long to _make_ so many.  Jim said the moon could a _laid_ -them; well, that looked kind of reasonable, so I didn't say nothing -against it, because I've seen a frog lay most as many, so of course it -could be done. We used to watch the stars that fell, too, and see them -streak down.  Jim allowed they'd got spoiled and was hove out of the -nest. - -Once or twice of a night we would see a steamboat slipping along in the -dark, and now and then she would belch a whole world of sparks up out -of her chimbleys, and they would rain down in the river and look awful -pretty; then she would turn a corner and her lights would wink out and -her powwow shut off and leave the river still again; and by and by her -waves would get to us, a long time after she was gone, and joggle the -raft a bit, and after that you wouldn't hear nothing for you couldn't -tell how long, except maybe frogs or something. - -After midnight the people on shore went to bed, and then for two or -three hours the shores was black—no more sparks in the cabin windows. - These sparks was our clock—the first one that showed again meant -morning was coming, so we hunted a place to hide and tie up right away. - -One morning about daybreak I found a canoe and crossed over a chute to -the main shore—it was only two hundred yards—and paddled about a mile -up a crick amongst the cypress woods, to see if I couldn't get some -berries. Just as I was passing a place where a kind of a cowpath crossed -the crick, here comes a couple of men tearing up the path as tight as -they could foot it.  I thought I was a goner, for whenever anybody was -after anybody I judged it was _me_—or maybe Jim.  I was about to dig out -from there in a hurry, but they was pretty close to me then, and sung -out and begged me to save their lives—said they hadn't been doing -nothing, and was being chased for it—said there was men and dogs -a-coming.  They wanted to jump right in, but I says: - -"Don't you do it.  I don't hear the dogs and horses yet; you've got time -to crowd through the brush and get up the crick a little ways; then you -take to the water and wade down to me and get in—that'll throw the dogs -off the scent." - -They done it, and soon as they was aboard I lit out for our towhead, -and in about five or ten minutes we heard the dogs and the men away off, -shouting. We heard them come along towards the crick, but couldn't -see them; they seemed to stop and fool around a while; then, as we got -further and further away all the time, we couldn't hardly hear them at -all; by the time we had left a mile of woods behind us and struck the -river, everything was quiet, and we paddled over to the towhead and hid -in the cottonwoods and was safe. - -One of these fellows was about seventy or upwards, and had a bald head -and very gray whiskers.  He had an old battered-up slouch hat on, and -a greasy blue woollen shirt, and ragged old blue jeans britches stuffed -into his boot-tops, and home-knit galluses—no, he only had one.  He had -an old long-tailed blue jeans coat with slick brass buttons flung over -his arm, and both of them had big, fat, ratty-looking carpet-bags. - -The other fellow was about thirty, and dressed about as ornery.  After -breakfast we all laid off and talked, and the first thing that come out -was that these chaps didn't know one another. - -"What got you into trouble?" says the baldhead to t'other chap. - -"Well, I'd been selling an article to take the tartar off the teeth—and -it does take it off, too, and generly the enamel along with it—but I -stayed about one night longer than I ought to, and was just in the act -of sliding out when I ran across you on the trail this side of town, and -you told me they were coming, and begged me to help you to get off.  So -I told you I was expecting trouble myself, and would scatter out _with_ -you. That's the whole yarn—what's yourn? - -"Well, I'd ben a-running' a little temperance revival thar 'bout a week, -and was the pet of the women folks, big and little, for I was makin' it -mighty warm for the rummies, I _tell_ you, and takin' as much as five -or six dollars a night—ten cents a head, children and niggers free—and -business a-growin' all the time, when somehow or another a little report -got around last night that I had a way of puttin' in my time with a -private jug on the sly.  A nigger rousted me out this mornin', and told -me the people was getherin' on the quiet with their dogs and horses, and -they'd be along pretty soon and give me 'bout half an hour's start, -and then run me down if they could; and if they got me they'd tar -and feather me and ride me on a rail, sure.  I didn't wait for no -breakfast—I warn't hungry." - -"Old man," said the young one, "I reckon we might double-team it -together; what do you think?" - -"I ain't undisposed.  What's your line—mainly?" - -"Jour printer by trade; do a little in patent medicines; -theater-actor—tragedy, you know; take a turn to mesmerism and phrenology -when there's a chance; teach singing-geography school for a change; -sling a lecture sometimes—oh, I do lots of things—most anything that -comes handy, so it ain't work.  What's your lay?" - -"I've done considerble in the doctoring way in my time.  Layin' on o' -hands is my best holt—for cancer and paralysis, and sich things; and I -k'n tell a fortune pretty good when I've got somebody along to find out -the facts for me.  Preachin's my line, too, and workin' camp-meetin's, -and missionaryin' around." - -Nobody never said anything for a while; then the young man hove a sigh -and says: - -"Alas!" - -"What 're you alassin' about?" says the bald-head. - -"To think I should have lived to be leading such a life, and be degraded -down into such company."  And he begun to wipe the corner of his eye -with a rag. - -"Dern your skin, ain't the company good enough for you?" says the -baldhead, pretty pert and uppish. - -"Yes, it _is_ good enough for me; it's as good as I deserve; for who -fetched me so low when I was so high?  I did myself.  I don't blame -_you_, gentlemen—far from it; I don't blame anybody.  I deserve it -all.  Let the cold world do its worst; one thing I know—there's a grave -somewhere for me. The world may go on just as it's always done, and take -everything from me—loved ones, property, everything; but it can't take -that. Some day I'll lie down in it and forget it all, and my poor broken -heart will be at rest."  He went on a-wiping. - -"Drot your pore broken heart," says the baldhead; "what are you heaving -your pore broken heart at _us_ f'r?  _we_ hain't done nothing." - -"No, I know you haven't.  I ain't blaming you, gentlemen.  I brought -myself down—yes, I did it myself.  It's right I should suffer—perfectly -right—I don't make any moan." - -"Brought you down from whar?  Whar was you brought down from?" - -"Ah, you would not believe me; the world never believes—let it pass—'tis -no matter.  The secret of my birth—" - -"The secret of your birth!  Do you mean to say—" - -"Gentlemen," says the young man, very solemn, "I will reveal it to you, -for I feel I may have confidence in you.  By rights I am a duke!" - -Jim's eyes bugged out when he heard that; and I reckon mine did, too. -Then the baldhead says:  "No! you can't mean it?" - -"Yes.  My great-grandfather, eldest son of the Duke of Bridgewater, fled -to this country about the end of the last century, to breathe the pure -air of freedom; married here, and died, leaving a son, his own father -dying about the same time.  The second son of the late duke seized the -titles and estates—the infant real duke was ignored.  I am the lineal -descendant of that infant—I am the rightful Duke of Bridgewater; and -here am I, forlorn, torn from my high estate, hunted of men, despised -by the cold world, ragged, worn, heart-broken, and degraded to the -companionship of felons on a raft!" - -Jim pitied him ever so much, and so did I. We tried to comfort him, but -he said it warn't much use, he couldn't be much comforted; said if we -was a mind to acknowledge him, that would do him more good than most -anything else; so we said we would, if he would tell us how.  He said we -ought to bow when we spoke to him, and say "Your Grace," or "My Lord," -or "Your Lordship"—and he wouldn't mind it if we called him plain -"Bridgewater," which, he said, was a title anyway, and not a name; and -one of us ought to wait on him at dinner, and do any little thing for -him he wanted done. - -Well, that was all easy, so we done it.  All through dinner Jim stood -around and waited on him, and says, "Will yo' Grace have some o' dis or -some o' dat?" and so on, and a body could see it was mighty pleasing to -him. - -But the old man got pretty silent by and by—didn't have much to say, and -didn't look pretty comfortable over all that petting that was going on -around that duke.  He seemed to have something on his mind.  So, along -in the afternoon, he says: - -"Looky here, Bilgewater," he says, "I'm nation sorry for you, but you -ain't the only person that's had troubles like that." - -"No?" - -"No you ain't.  You ain't the only person that's ben snaked down -wrongfully out'n a high place." - -"Alas!" - -"No, you ain't the only person that's had a secret of his birth."  And, -by jings, _he_ begins to cry. - -"Hold!  What do you mean?" - -"Bilgewater, kin I trust you?" says the old man, still sort of sobbing. - -"To the bitter death!"  He took the old man by the hand and squeezed it, -and says, "That secret of your being:  speak!" - -"Bilgewater, I am the late Dauphin!" - -You bet you, Jim and me stared this time.  Then the duke says: - -"You are what?" - -"Yes, my friend, it is too true—your eyes is lookin' at this very moment -on the pore disappeared Dauphin, Looy the Seventeen, son of Looy the -Sixteen and Marry Antonette." - -"You!  At your age!  No!  You mean you're the late Charlemagne; you must -be six or seven hundred years old, at the very least." - -"Trouble has done it, Bilgewater, trouble has done it; trouble has brung -these gray hairs and this premature balditude.  Yes, gentlemen, you -see before you, in blue jeans and misery, the wanderin', exiled, -trampled-on, and sufferin' rightful King of France." - -Well, he cried and took on so that me and Jim didn't know hardly what to -do, we was so sorry—and so glad and proud we'd got him with us, too. - So we set in, like we done before with the duke, and tried to comfort -_him_. But he said it warn't no use, nothing but to be dead and done -with it all could do him any good; though he said it often made him feel -easier and better for a while if people treated him according to his -rights, and got down on one knee to speak to him, and always called him -"Your Majesty," and waited on him first at meals, and didn't set down -in his presence till he asked them. So Jim and me set to majestying him, -and doing this and that and t'other for him, and standing up till he -told us we might set down.  This done him heaps of good, and so he -got cheerful and comfortable.  But the duke kind of soured on him, and -didn't look a bit satisfied with the way things was going; still, -the king acted real friendly towards him, and said the duke's -great-grandfather and all the other Dukes of Bilgewater was a good -deal thought of by _his_ father, and was allowed to come to the palace -considerable; but the duke stayed huffy a good while, till by and by the -king says: - -"Like as not we got to be together a blamed long time on this h-yer -raft, Bilgewater, and so what's the use o' your bein' sour?  It 'll only -make things oncomfortable.  It ain't my fault I warn't born a duke, -it ain't your fault you warn't born a king—so what's the use to worry? - Make the best o' things the way you find 'em, says I—that's my motto. - This ain't no bad thing that we've struck here—plenty grub and an easy -life—come, give us your hand, duke, and le's all be friends." - -The duke done it, and Jim and me was pretty glad to see it.  It took -away all the uncomfortableness and we felt mighty good over it, because -it would a been a miserable business to have any unfriendliness on the -raft; for what you want, above all things, on a raft, is for everybody -to be satisfied, and feel right and kind towards the others. - -It didn't take me long to make up my mind that these liars warn't no -kings nor dukes at all, but just low-down humbugs and frauds.  But I -never said nothing, never let on; kept it to myself; it's the best way; -then you don't have no quarrels, and don't get into no trouble.  If they -wanted us to call them kings and dukes, I hadn't no objections, 'long as -it would keep peace in the family; and it warn't no use to tell Jim, so -I didn't tell him.  If I never learnt nothing else out of pap, I learnt -that the best way to get along with his kind of people is to let them -have their own way. - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - -THEY asked us considerable many questions; wanted to know what we -covered up the raft that way for, and laid by in the daytime instead of -running—was Jim a runaway nigger?  Says I: - -"Goodness sakes! would a runaway nigger run _south_?" - -No, they allowed he wouldn't.  I had to account for things some way, so -I says: - -"My folks was living in Pike County, in Missouri, where I was born, and -they all died off but me and pa and my brother Ike.  Pa, he 'lowed -he'd break up and go down and live with Uncle Ben, who's got a little -one-horse place on the river, forty-four mile below Orleans.  Pa was -pretty poor, and had some debts; so when he'd squared up there warn't -nothing left but sixteen dollars and our nigger, Jim.  That warn't -enough to take us fourteen hundred mile, deck passage nor no other way. - Well, when the river rose pa had a streak of luck one day; he ketched -this piece of a raft; so we reckoned we'd go down to Orleans on it. - Pa's luck didn't hold out; a steamboat run over the forrard corner of -the raft one night, and we all went overboard and dove under the wheel; -Jim and me come up all right, but pa was drunk, and Ike was only four -years old, so they never come up no more.  Well, for the next day or -two we had considerable trouble, because people was always coming out in -skiffs and trying to take Jim away from me, saying they believed he was -a runaway nigger.  We don't run daytimes no more now; nights they don't -bother us." - -The duke says: - -"Leave me alone to cipher out a way so we can run in the daytime if we -want to.  I'll think the thing over—I'll invent a plan that'll fix it. -We'll let it alone for to-day, because of course we don't want to go by -that town yonder in daylight—it mightn't be healthy." - -Towards night it begun to darken up and look like rain; the heat -lightning was squirting around low down in the sky, and the leaves was -beginning to shiver—it was going to be pretty ugly, it was easy to see -that.  So the duke and the king went to overhauling our wigwam, to see -what the beds was like.  My bed was a straw tick better than Jim's, -which was a corn-shuck tick; there's always cobs around about in a shuck -tick, and they poke into you and hurt; and when you roll over the dry -shucks sound like you was rolling over in a pile of dead leaves; it -makes such a rustling that you wake up.  Well, the duke allowed he would -take my bed; but the king allowed he wouldn't.  He says: - -"I should a reckoned the difference in rank would a sejested to you that -a corn-shuck bed warn't just fitten for me to sleep on.  Your Grace 'll -take the shuck bed yourself." - -Jim and me was in a sweat again for a minute, being afraid there was -going to be some more trouble amongst them; so we was pretty glad when -the duke says: - -"'Tis my fate to be always ground into the mire under the iron heel of -oppression.  Misfortune has broken my once haughty spirit; I yield, I -submit; 'tis my fate.  I am alone in the world—let me suffer; can bear -it." - -We got away as soon as it was good and dark.  The king told us to stand -well out towards the middle of the river, and not show a light till we -got a long ways below the town.  We come in sight of the little bunch of -lights by and by—that was the town, you know—and slid by, about a half -a mile out, all right.  When we was three-quarters of a mile below we -hoisted up our signal lantern; and about ten o'clock it come on to rain -and blow and thunder and lighten like everything; so the king told us -to both stay on watch till the weather got better; then him and the duke -crawled into the wigwam and turned in for the night.  It was my watch -below till twelve, but I wouldn't a turned in anyway if I'd had a bed, -because a body don't see such a storm as that every day in the week, not -by a long sight.  My souls, how the wind did scream along!  And every -second or two there'd come a glare that lit up the white-caps for a half -a mile around, and you'd see the islands looking dusty through the rain, -and the trees thrashing around in the wind; then comes a H-WHACK!—bum! -bum! bumble-umble-um-bum-bum-bum-bum—and the thunder would go rumbling -and grumbling away, and quit—and then RIP comes another flash and -another sockdolager.  The waves most washed me off the raft sometimes, -but I hadn't any clothes on, and didn't mind.  We didn't have no trouble -about snags; the lightning was glaring and flittering around so constant -that we could see them plenty soon enough to throw her head this way or -that and miss them. - -I had the middle watch, you know, but I was pretty sleepy by that time, -so Jim he said he would stand the first half of it for me; he was always -mighty good that way, Jim was.  I crawled into the wigwam, but the king -and the duke had their legs sprawled around so there warn't no show for -me; so I laid outside—I didn't mind the rain, because it was warm, and -the waves warn't running so high now.  About two they come up again, -though, and Jim was going to call me; but he changed his mind, because -he reckoned they warn't high enough yet to do any harm; but he was -mistaken about that, for pretty soon all of a sudden along comes a -regular ripper and washed me overboard.  It most killed Jim a-laughing. - He was the easiest nigger to laugh that ever was, anyway. - -I took the watch, and Jim he laid down and snored away; and by and by -the storm let up for good and all; and the first cabin-light that showed -I rousted him out, and we slid the raft into hiding quarters for the -day. - -The king got out an old ratty deck of cards after breakfast, and him -and the duke played seven-up a while, five cents a game.  Then they got -tired of it, and allowed they would "lay out a campaign," as they called -it. The duke went down into his carpet-bag, and fetched up a lot of -little printed bills and read them out loud.  One bill said, "The -celebrated Dr. Armand de Montalban, of Paris," would "lecture on the -Science of Phrenology" at such and such a place, on the blank day of -blank, at ten cents admission, and "furnish charts of character at -twenty-five cents apiece."  The duke said that was _him_.  In another -bill he was the "world-renowned Shakespearian tragedian, Garrick the -Younger, of Drury Lane, London."  In other bills he had a lot of other -names and done other wonderful things, like finding water and gold with -a "divining-rod," "dissipating witch spells," and so on.  By and by he -says: - -"But the histrionic muse is the darling.  Have you ever trod the boards, -Royalty?" - -"No," says the king. - -"You shall, then, before you're three days older, Fallen Grandeur," says -the duke.  "The first good town we come to we'll hire a hall and do the -sword fight in Richard III. and the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. -How does that strike you?" - -"I'm in, up to the hub, for anything that will pay, Bilgewater; but, you -see, I don't know nothing about play-actin', and hain't ever seen much -of it.  I was too small when pap used to have 'em at the palace.  Do you -reckon you can learn me?" - -"Easy!" - -"All right.  I'm jist a-freezn' for something fresh, anyway.  Le's -commence right away." - -So the duke he told him all about who Romeo was and who Juliet was, and -said he was used to being Romeo, so the king could be Juliet. - -"But if Juliet's such a young gal, duke, my peeled head and my white -whiskers is goin' to look oncommon odd on her, maybe." - -"No, don't you worry; these country jakes won't ever think of that. -Besides, you know, you'll be in costume, and that makes all the -difference in the world; Juliet's in a balcony, enjoying the moonlight -before she goes to bed, and she's got on her night-gown and her ruffled -nightcap.  Here are the costumes for the parts." - -He got out two or three curtain-calico suits, which he said was -meedyevil armor for Richard III. and t'other chap, and a long white -cotton nightshirt and a ruffled nightcap to match.  The king was -satisfied; so the duke got out his book and read the parts over in the -most splendid spread-eagle way, prancing around and acting at the same -time, to show how it had got to be done; then he give the book to the -king and told him to get his part by heart. - -There was a little one-horse town about three mile down the bend, and -after dinner the duke said he had ciphered out his idea about how to run -in daylight without it being dangersome for Jim; so he allowed he would -go down to the town and fix that thing.  The king allowed he would go, -too, and see if he couldn't strike something.  We was out of coffee, so -Jim said I better go along with them in the canoe and get some. - -When we got there there warn't nobody stirring; streets empty, and -perfectly dead and still, like Sunday.  We found a sick nigger sunning -himself in a back yard, and he said everybody that warn't too young or -too sick or too old was gone to camp-meeting, about two mile back in the -woods.  The king got the directions, and allowed he'd go and work that -camp-meeting for all it was worth, and I might go, too. - -The duke said what he was after was a printing-office.  We found it; -a little bit of a concern, up over a carpenter shop—carpenters and -printers all gone to the meeting, and no doors locked.  It was a dirty, -littered-up place, and had ink marks, and handbills with pictures of -horses and runaway niggers on them, all over the walls.  The duke shed -his coat and said he was all right now.  So me and the king lit out for -the camp-meeting. - -We got there in about a half an hour fairly dripping, for it was a most -awful hot day.  There was as much as a thousand people there from -twenty mile around.  The woods was full of teams and wagons, hitched -everywheres, feeding out of the wagon-troughs and stomping to keep -off the flies.  There was sheds made out of poles and roofed over with -branches, where they had lemonade and gingerbread to sell, and piles of -watermelons and green corn and such-like truck. - -The preaching was going on under the same kinds of sheds, only they was -bigger and held crowds of people.  The benches was made out of outside -slabs of logs, with holes bored in the round side to drive sticks into -for legs. They didn't have no backs.  The preachers had high platforms -to stand on at one end of the sheds.  The women had on sun-bonnets; -and some had linsey-woolsey frocks, some gingham ones, and a few of the -young ones had on calico.  Some of the young men was barefooted, and -some of the children didn't have on any clothes but just a tow-linen -shirt.  Some of the old women was knitting, and some of the young folks -was courting on the sly. - -The first shed we come to the preacher was lining out a hymn.  He lined -out two lines, everybody sung it, and it was kind of grand to hear it, -there was so many of them and they done it in such a rousing way; then -he lined out two more for them to sing—and so on.  The people woke up -more and more, and sung louder and louder; and towards the end some -begun to groan, and some begun to shout.  Then the preacher begun to -preach, and begun in earnest, too; and went weaving first to one side of -the platform and then the other, and then a-leaning down over the front -of it, with his arms and his body going all the time, and shouting his -words out with all his might; and every now and then he would hold up -his Bible and spread it open, and kind of pass it around this way and -that, shouting, "It's the brazen serpent in the wilderness!  Look upon -it and live!"  And people would shout out, "Glory!—A-a-_men_!"  And so -he went on, and the people groaning and crying and saying amen: - -"Oh, come to the mourners' bench! come, black with sin! (_Amen_!) come, -sick and sore! (_Amen_!) come, lame and halt and blind! (_Amen_!) come, -pore and needy, sunk in shame! (_A-A-Men_!) come, all that's worn and -soiled and suffering!—come with a broken spirit! come with a contrite -heart! come in your rags and sin and dirt! the waters that cleanse -is free, the door of heaven stands open—oh, enter in and be at rest!" -(_A-A-Men_!  _Glory, Glory Hallelujah!_) - -And so on.  You couldn't make out what the preacher said any more, on -account of the shouting and crying.  Folks got up everywheres in the -crowd, and worked their way just by main strength to the mourners' -bench, with the tears running down their faces; and when all the -mourners had got up there to the front benches in a crowd, they sung and -shouted and flung themselves down on the straw, just crazy and wild. - -Well, the first I knowed the king got a-going, and you could hear him -over everybody; and next he went a-charging up on to the platform, and -the preacher he begged him to speak to the people, and he done it.  He -told them he was a pirate—been a pirate for thirty years out in the -Indian Ocean—and his crew was thinned out considerable last spring in -a fight, and he was home now to take out some fresh men, and thanks to -goodness he'd been robbed last night and put ashore off of a steamboat -without a cent, and he was glad of it; it was the blessedest thing that -ever happened to him, because he was a changed man now, and happy for -the first time in his life; and, poor as he was, he was going to start -right off and work his way back to the Indian Ocean, and put in the rest -of his life trying to turn the pirates into the true path; for he could -do it better than anybody else, being acquainted with all pirate crews -in that ocean; and though it would take him a long time to get there -without money, he would get there anyway, and every time he convinced -a pirate he would say to him, "Don't you thank me, don't you give me no -credit; it all belongs to them dear people in Pokeville camp-meeting, -natural brothers and benefactors of the race, and that dear preacher -there, the truest friend a pirate ever had!" - -And then he busted into tears, and so did everybody.  Then somebody -sings out, "Take up a collection for him, take up a collection!"  Well, -a half a dozen made a jump to do it, but somebody sings out, "Let _him_ -pass the hat around!"  Then everybody said it, the preacher too. - -So the king went all through the crowd with his hat swabbing his eyes, -and blessing the people and praising them and thanking them for being -so good to the poor pirates away off there; and every little while the -prettiest kind of girls, with the tears running down their cheeks, would -up and ask him would he let them kiss him for to remember him by; and he -always done it; and some of them he hugged and kissed as many as five or -six times—and he was invited to stay a week; and everybody wanted him to -live in their houses, and said they'd think it was an honor; but he said -as this was the last day of the camp-meeting he couldn't do no good, and -besides he was in a sweat to get to the Indian Ocean right off and go to -work on the pirates. - -When we got back to the raft and he come to count up he found he had -collected eighty-seven dollars and seventy-five cents.  And then he had -fetched away a three-gallon jug of whisky, too, that he found under a -wagon when he was starting home through the woods.  The king said, -take it all around, it laid over any day he'd ever put in in the -missionarying line.  He said it warn't no use talking, heathens don't -amount to shucks alongside of pirates to work a camp-meeting with. - -The duke was thinking _he'd_ been doing pretty well till the king come -to show up, but after that he didn't think so so much.  He had set -up and printed off two little jobs for farmers in that -printing-office—horse bills—and took the money, four dollars.  And he -had got in ten dollars' worth of advertisements for the paper, which he -said he would put in for four dollars if they would pay in advance—so -they done it. The price of the paper was two dollars a year, but he took -in three subscriptions for half a dollar apiece on condition of them -paying him in advance; they were going to pay in cordwood and onions as -usual, but he said he had just bought the concern and knocked down the -price as low as he could afford it, and was going to run it for cash. - He set up a little piece of poetry, which he made, himself, out of -his own head—three verses—kind of sweet and saddish—the name of it was, -"Yes, crush, cold world, this breaking heart"—and he left that all set -up and ready to print in the paper, and didn't charge nothing for it. - Well, he took in nine dollars and a half, and said he'd done a pretty -square day's work for it. - -Then he showed us another little job he'd printed and hadn't charged -for, because it was for us.  It had a picture of a runaway nigger with -a bundle on a stick over his shoulder, and "$200 reward" under it.  The -reading was all about Jim, and just described him to a dot.  It said -he run away from St. Jacques' plantation, forty mile below New Orleans, -last winter, and likely went north, and whoever would catch him and send -him back he could have the reward and expenses. - -"Now," says the duke, "after to-night we can run in the daytime if we -want to.  Whenever we see anybody coming we can tie Jim hand and foot -with a rope, and lay him in the wigwam and show this handbill and say we -captured him up the river, and were too poor to travel on a steamboat, -so we got this little raft on credit from our friends and are going down -to get the reward.  Handcuffs and chains would look still better on Jim, -but it wouldn't go well with the story of us being so poor.  Too much -like jewelry.  Ropes are the correct thing—we must preserve the unities, -as we say on the boards." - -We all said the duke was pretty smart, and there couldn't be no trouble -about running daytimes.  We judged we could make miles enough that night -to get out of the reach of the powwow we reckoned the duke's work in -the printing office was going to make in that little town; then we could -boom right along if we wanted to. - -We laid low and kept still, and never shoved out till nearly ten -o'clock; then we slid by, pretty wide away from the town, and didn't -hoist our lantern till we was clear out of sight of it. - -When Jim called me to take the watch at four in the morning, he says: - -"Huck, does you reck'n we gwyne to run acrost any mo' kings on dis -trip?" - -"No," I says, "I reckon not." - -"Well," says he, "dat's all right, den.  I doan' mine one er two kings, -but dat's enough.  Dis one's powerful drunk, en de duke ain' much -better." - -I found Jim had been trying to get him to talk French, so he could hear -what it was like; but he said he had been in this country so long, and -had so much trouble, he'd forgot it. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI. - -IT was after sun-up now, but we went right on and didn't tie up.  The -king and the duke turned out by and by looking pretty rusty; but after -they'd jumped overboard and took a swim it chippered them up a good -deal. After breakfast the king he took a seat on the corner of the raft, -and pulled off his boots and rolled up his britches, and let his legs -dangle in the water, so as to be comfortable, and lit his pipe, and went -to getting his Romeo and Juliet by heart.  When he had got it pretty -good him and the duke begun to practice it together.  The duke had to -learn him over and over again how to say every speech; and he made him -sigh, and put his hand on his heart, and after a while he said he done -it pretty well; "only," he says, "you mustn't bellow out _Romeo_! -that way, like a bull—you must say it soft and sick and languishy, -so—R-o-o-meo! that is the idea; for Juliet's a dear sweet mere child of -a girl, you know, and she doesn't bray like a jackass." - -Well, next they got out a couple of long swords that the duke made out -of oak laths, and begun to practice the sword fight—the duke called -himself Richard III.; and the way they laid on and pranced around -the raft was grand to see.  But by and by the king tripped and fell -overboard, and after that they took a rest, and had a talk about all -kinds of adventures they'd had in other times along the river. - -After dinner the duke says: - -"Well, Capet, we'll want to make this a first-class show, you know, so -I guess we'll add a little more to it.  We want a little something to -answer encores with, anyway." - -"What's onkores, Bilgewater?" - -The duke told him, and then says: - -"I'll answer by doing the Highland fling or the sailor's hornpipe; and -you—well, let me see—oh, I've got it—you can do Hamlet's soliloquy." - -"Hamlet's which?" - -"Hamlet's soliloquy, you know; the most celebrated thing in Shakespeare. -Ah, it's sublime, sublime!  Always fetches the house.  I haven't got -it in the book—I've only got one volume—but I reckon I can piece it out -from memory.  I'll just walk up and down a minute, and see if I can call -it back from recollection's vaults." - -So he went to marching up and down, thinking, and frowning horrible -every now and then; then he would hoist up his eyebrows; next he would -squeeze his hand on his forehead and stagger back and kind of moan; next -he would sigh, and next he'd let on to drop a tear.  It was beautiful -to see him. By and by he got it.  He told us to give attention.  Then -he strikes a most noble attitude, with one leg shoved forwards, and his -arms stretched away up, and his head tilted back, looking up at the sky; -and then he begins to rip and rave and grit his teeth; and after that, -all through his speech, he howled, and spread around, and swelled up his -chest, and just knocked the spots out of any acting ever I see before. - This is the speech—I learned it, easy enough, while he was learning it -to the king: - -To be, or not to be; that is the bare bodkin That makes calamity of -so long life; For who would fardels bear, till Birnam Wood do come -to Dunsinane, But that the fear of something after death Murders the -innocent sleep, Great nature's second course, And makes us rather sling -the arrows of outrageous fortune Than fly to others that we know not of. -There's the respect must give us pause: Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I -would thou couldst; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The -oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The law's delay, and the -quietus which his pangs might take. In the dead waste and middle of the -night, when churchyards yawn In customary suits of solemn black, But -that the undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns, -Breathes forth contagion on the world, And thus the native hue of -resolution, like the poor cat i' the adage, Is sicklied o'er with care. -And all the clouds that lowered o'er our housetops, With this -regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. 'Tis a -consummation devoutly to be wished. But soft you, the fair Ophelia: Ope -not thy ponderous and marble jaws. But get thee to a nunnery—go! - -Well, the old man he liked that speech, and he mighty soon got it so he -could do it first rate. It seemed like he was just born for it; and when -he had his hand in and was excited, it was perfectly lovely the way he -would rip and tear and rair up behind when he was getting it off. - -The first chance we got, the duke he had some show bills printed; and -after that, for two or three days as we floated along, the raft was a -most uncommon lively place, for there warn't nothing but sword-fighting -and rehearsing—as the duke called it—going on all the time. One morning, -when we was pretty well down the State of Arkansaw, we come in sight -of a little one-horse town in a big bend; so we tied up about -three-quarters of a mile above it, in the mouth of a crick which was -shut in like a tunnel by the cypress trees, and all of us but Jim took -the canoe and went down there to see if there was any chance in that -place for our show. - -We struck it mighty lucky; there was going to be a circus there that -afternoon, and the country people was already beginning to come in, in -all kinds of old shackly wagons, and on horses. The circus would leave -before night, so our show would have a pretty good chance. The duke he -hired the court house, and we went around and stuck up our bills. They -read like this: - -Shaksperean Revival!!! - -Wonderful Attraction! - -For One Night Only! The world renowned tragedians, - -David Garrick the younger, of Drury Lane Theatre, London, - -and - -Edmund Kean the elder, of the Royal Haymarket Theatre, Whitechapel, -Pudding Lane, Piccadilly, London, and the Royal Continental Theatres, in -their sublime Shaksperean Spectacle entitled The Balcony Scene in - -Romeo and Juliet!!! - -Romeo...................................... Mr. Garrick. - -Juliet..................................... Mr. Kean. - -Assisted by the whole strength of the company! - -New costumes, new scenery, new appointments! - -Also: - -The thrilling, masterly, and blood-curdling Broad-sword conflict In -Richard III.!!! - -Richard III................................ Mr. Garrick. - -Richmond................................... Mr. Kean. - -also: - -(by special request,) - -Hamlet's Immortal Soliloquy!! - -By the Illustrious Kean! - -Done by him 300 consecutive nights in Paris! - -For One Night Only, - -On account of imperative European engagements! - -Admission 25 cents; children and servants, 10 cents. - -Then we went loafing around the town. The stores and houses was most all -old shackly dried-up frame concerns that hadn't ever been painted; they -was set up three or four foot above ground on stilts, so as to be out of -reach of the water when the river was overflowed. The houses had little -gardens around them, but they didn't seem to raise hardly anything in -them but jimpson weeds, and sunflowers, and ash-piles, and old curled-up -boots and shoes, and pieces of bottles, and rags, and played-out -tin-ware. The fences was made of different kinds of boards, nailed on -at different times; and they leaned every which-way, and had gates that -didn't generly have but one hinge—a leather one. Some of the fences -had been whitewashed, some time or another, but the duke said it was in -Clumbus's time, like enough. There was generly hogs in the garden, and -people driving them out. - -All the stores was along one street.  They had white domestic awnings in -front, and the country people hitched their horses to the awning-posts. -There was empty drygoods boxes under the awnings, and loafers roosting -on them all day long, whittling them with their Barlow knives; and -chawing tobacco, and gaping and yawning and stretching—a mighty ornery -lot. They generly had on yellow straw hats most as wide as an umbrella, -but didn't wear no coats nor waistcoats, they called one another Bill, -and Buck, and Hank, and Joe, and Andy, and talked lazy and drawly, and -used considerable many cuss words.  There was as many as one loafer -leaning up against every awning-post, and he most always had his hands -in his britches-pockets, except when he fetched them out to lend a chaw -of tobacco or scratch.  What a body was hearing amongst them all the -time was: - -"Gimme a chaw 'v tobacker, Hank." - -"Cain't; I hain't got but one chaw left.  Ask Bill." - -Maybe Bill he gives him a chaw; maybe he lies and says he ain't got -none. Some of them kinds of loafers never has a cent in the world, nor a -chaw of tobacco of their own.  They get all their chawing by borrowing; -they say to a fellow, "I wisht you'd len' me a chaw, Jack, I jist this -minute give Ben Thompson the last chaw I had"—which is a lie pretty -much everytime; it don't fool nobody but a stranger; but Jack ain't no -stranger, so he says: - -"_You_ give him a chaw, did you?  So did your sister's cat's -grandmother. You pay me back the chaws you've awready borry'd off'n me, -Lafe Buckner, then I'll loan you one or two ton of it, and won't charge -you no back intrust, nuther." - -"Well, I _did_ pay you back some of it wunst." - -"Yes, you did—'bout six chaws.  You borry'd store tobacker and paid back -nigger-head." - -Store tobacco is flat black plug, but these fellows mostly chaws the -natural leaf twisted.  When they borrow a chaw they don't generly cut it -off with a knife, but set the plug in between their teeth, and gnaw with -their teeth and tug at the plug with their hands till they get it in -two; then sometimes the one that owns the tobacco looks mournful at it -when it's handed back, and says, sarcastic: - -"Here, gimme the _chaw_, and you take the _plug_." - -All the streets and lanes was just mud; they warn't nothing else _but_ -mud—mud as black as tar and nigh about a foot deep in some places, -and two or three inches deep in _all_ the places.  The hogs loafed and -grunted around everywheres.  You'd see a muddy sow and a litter of pigs -come lazying along the street and whollop herself right down in the way, -where folks had to walk around her, and she'd stretch out and shut her -eyes and wave her ears whilst the pigs was milking her, and look as -happy as if she was on salary. And pretty soon you'd hear a loafer -sing out, "Hi!  _so_ boy! sick him, Tige!" and away the sow would go, -squealing most horrible, with a dog or two swinging to each ear, and -three or four dozen more a-coming; and then you would see all the -loafers get up and watch the thing out of sight, and laugh at the fun -and look grateful for the noise.  Then they'd settle back again till -there was a dog fight.  There couldn't anything wake them up all over, -and make them happy all over, like a dog fight—unless it might be -putting turpentine on a stray dog and setting fire to him, or tying a -tin pan to his tail and see him run himself to death. - -On the river front some of the houses was sticking out over the bank, -and they was bowed and bent, and about ready to tumble in, The people -had moved out of them.  The bank was caved away under one corner of some -others, and that corner was hanging over.  People lived in them yet, but -it was dangersome, because sometimes a strip of land as wide as a house -caves in at a time.  Sometimes a belt of land a quarter of a mile deep -will start in and cave along and cave along till it all caves into the -river in one summer. Such a town as that has to be always moving back, -and back, and back, because the river's always gnawing at it. - -The nearer it got to noon that day the thicker and thicker was the -wagons and horses in the streets, and more coming all the time. - Families fetched their dinners with them from the country, and eat them -in the wagons.  There was considerable whisky drinking going on, and I -seen three fights.  By and by somebody sings out: - -"Here comes old Boggs!—in from the country for his little old monthly -drunk; here he comes, boys!" - -All the loafers looked glad; I reckoned they was used to having fun out -of Boggs.  One of them says: - -"Wonder who he's a-gwyne to chaw up this time.  If he'd a-chawed up all -the men he's ben a-gwyne to chaw up in the last twenty year he'd have -considerable ruputation now." - -Another one says, "I wisht old Boggs 'd threaten me, 'cuz then I'd know -I warn't gwyne to die for a thousan' year." - -Boggs comes a-tearing along on his horse, whooping and yelling like an -Injun, and singing out: - -"Cler the track, thar.  I'm on the waw-path, and the price uv coffins is -a-gwyne to raise." - -He was drunk, and weaving about in his saddle; he was over fifty year -old, and had a very red face.  Everybody yelled at him and laughed at -him and sassed him, and he sassed back, and said he'd attend to them and -lay them out in their regular turns, but he couldn't wait now because -he'd come to town to kill old Colonel Sherburn, and his motto was, "Meat -first, and spoon vittles to top off on." - -He see me, and rode up and says: - -"Whar'd you come f'm, boy?  You prepared to die?" - -Then he rode on.  I was scared, but a man says: - -"He don't mean nothing; he's always a-carryin' on like that when he's -drunk.  He's the best naturedest old fool in Arkansaw—never hurt nobody, -drunk nor sober." - -Boggs rode up before the biggest store in town, and bent his head down -so he could see under the curtain of the awning and yells: - -"Come out here, Sherburn! Come out and meet the man you've swindled. -You're the houn' I'm after, and I'm a-gwyne to have you, too!" - -And so he went on, calling Sherburn everything he could lay his tongue -to, and the whole street packed with people listening and laughing and -going on.  By and by a proud-looking man about fifty-five—and he was a -heap the best dressed man in that town, too—steps out of the store, and -the crowd drops back on each side to let him come.  He says to Boggs, -mighty ca'm and slow—he says: - -"I'm tired of this, but I'll endure it till one o'clock.  Till one -o'clock, mind—no longer.  If you open your mouth against me only once -after that time you can't travel so far but I will find you." - -Then he turns and goes in.  The crowd looked mighty sober; nobody -stirred, and there warn't no more laughing.  Boggs rode off -blackguarding Sherburn as loud as he could yell, all down the street; -and pretty soon back he comes and stops before the store, still keeping -it up.  Some men crowded around him and tried to get him to shut up, -but he wouldn't; they told him it would be one o'clock in about fifteen -minutes, and so he _must_ go home—he must go right away.  But it didn't -do no good.  He cussed away with all his might, and throwed his hat down -in the mud and rode over it, and pretty soon away he went a-raging down -the street again, with his gray hair a-flying. Everybody that could get -a chance at him tried their best to coax him off of his horse so they -could lock him up and get him sober; but it warn't no use—up the street -he would tear again, and give Sherburn another cussing.  By and by -somebody says: - -"Go for his daughter!—quick, go for his daughter; sometimes he'll listen -to her.  If anybody can persuade him, she can." - -So somebody started on a run.  I walked down street a ways and stopped. -In about five or ten minutes here comes Boggs again, but not on his -horse.  He was a-reeling across the street towards me, bare-headed, with -a friend on both sides of him a-holt of his arms and hurrying him along. -He was quiet, and looked uneasy; and he warn't hanging back any, but was -doing some of the hurrying himself.  Somebody sings out: - -"Boggs!" - -I looked over there to see who said it, and it was that Colonel -Sherburn. He was standing perfectly still in the street, and had a -pistol raised in his right hand—not aiming it, but holding it out with -the barrel tilted up towards the sky.  The same second I see a young -girl coming on the run, and two men with her.  Boggs and the men turned -round to see who called him, and when they see the pistol the men -jumped to one side, and the pistol-barrel come down slow and steady to -a level—both barrels cocked. Boggs throws up both of his hands and says, -"O Lord, don't shoot!"  Bang! goes the first shot, and he staggers back, -clawing at the air—bang! goes the second one, and he tumbles backwards -on to the ground, heavy and solid, with his arms spread out.  That young -girl screamed out and comes rushing, and down she throws herself on her -father, crying, and saying, "Oh, he's killed him, he's killed him!"  The -crowd closed up around them, and shouldered and jammed one another, with -their necks stretched, trying to see, and people on the inside trying to -shove them back and shouting, "Back, back! give him air, give him air!" - -Colonel Sherburn he tossed his pistol on to the ground, and turned -around on his heels and walked off. - -They took Boggs to a little drug store, the crowd pressing around just -the same, and the whole town following, and I rushed and got a good -place at the window, where I was close to him and could see in.  They -laid him on the floor and put one large Bible under his head, and opened -another one and spread it on his breast; but they tore open his shirt -first, and I seen where one of the bullets went in.  He made about a -dozen long gasps, his breast lifting the Bible up when he drawed in his -breath, and letting it down again when he breathed it out—and after that -he laid still; he was dead.  Then they pulled his daughter away from -him, screaming and crying, and took her off.  She was about sixteen, and -very sweet and gentle looking, but awful pale and scared. - -Well, pretty soon the whole town was there, squirming and scrouging and -pushing and shoving to get at the window and have a look, but people -that had the places wouldn't give them up, and folks behind them was -saying all the time, "Say, now, you've looked enough, you fellows; -'tain't right and 'tain't fair for you to stay thar all the time, and -never give nobody a chance; other folks has their rights as well as -you." - -There was considerable jawing back, so I slid out, thinking maybe -there was going to be trouble.  The streets was full, and everybody was -excited. Everybody that seen the shooting was telling how it happened, -and there was a big crowd packed around each one of these fellows, -stretching their necks and listening.  One long, lanky man, with long -hair and a big white fur stovepipe hat on the back of his head, and a -crooked-handled cane, marked out the places on the ground where Boggs -stood and where Sherburn stood, and the people following him around from -one place to t'other and watching everything he done, and bobbing their -heads to show they understood, and stooping a little and resting their -hands on their thighs to watch him mark the places on the ground with -his cane; and then he stood up straight and stiff where Sherburn had -stood, frowning and having his hat-brim down over his eyes, and sung -out, "Boggs!" and then fetched his cane down slow to a level, and says -"Bang!" staggered backwards, says "Bang!" again, and fell down flat on -his back. The people that had seen the thing said he done it perfect; -said it was just exactly the way it all happened.  Then as much as a -dozen people got out their bottles and treated him. - -Well, by and by somebody said Sherburn ought to be lynched.  In about a -minute everybody was saying it; so away they went, mad and yelling, and -snatching down every clothes-line they come to to do the hanging with. - - - - -CHAPTER XXII. - -THEY swarmed up towards Sherburn's house, a-whooping and raging like -Injuns, and everything had to clear the way or get run over and tromped -to mush, and it was awful to see.  Children was heeling it ahead of the -mob, screaming and trying to get out of the way; and every window along -the road was full of women's heads, and there was nigger boys in every -tree, and bucks and wenches looking over every fence; and as soon as the -mob would get nearly to them they would break and skaddle back out of -reach.  Lots of the women and girls was crying and taking on, scared -most to death. - -They swarmed up in front of Sherburn's palings as thick as they could -jam together, and you couldn't hear yourself think for the noise.  It -was a little twenty-foot yard.  Some sung out "Tear down the fence! tear -down the fence!"  Then there was a racket of ripping and tearing and -smashing, and down she goes, and the front wall of the crowd begins to -roll in like a wave. - -Just then Sherburn steps out on to the roof of his little front porch, -with a double-barrel gun in his hand, and takes his stand, perfectly -ca'm and deliberate, not saying a word.  The racket stopped, and the -wave sucked back. - -Sherburn never said a word—just stood there, looking down.  The -stillness was awful creepy and uncomfortable.  Sherburn run his eye slow -along the crowd; and wherever it struck the people tried a little to -out-gaze him, but they couldn't; they dropped their eyes and looked -sneaky. Then pretty soon Sherburn sort of laughed; not the pleasant -kind, but the kind that makes you feel like when you are eating bread -that's got sand in it. - -Then he says, slow and scornful: - -"The idea of _you_ lynching anybody!  It's amusing.  The idea of you -thinking you had pluck enough to lynch a _man_!  Because you're brave -enough to tar and feather poor friendless cast-out women that come along -here, did that make you think you had grit enough to lay your hands on a -_man_?  Why, a _man's_ safe in the hands of ten thousand of your kind—as -long as it's daytime and you're not behind him. - -"Do I know you?  I know you clear through was born and raised in the -South, and I've lived in the North; so I know the average all around. -The average man's a coward.  In the North he lets anybody walk over him -that wants to, and goes home and prays for a humble spirit to bear it. -In the South one man all by himself, has stopped a stage full of men -in the daytime, and robbed the lot.  Your newspapers call you a -brave people so much that you think you are braver than any other -people—whereas you're just _as_ brave, and no braver.  Why don't your -juries hang murderers?  Because they're afraid the man's friends will -shoot them in the back, in the dark—and it's just what they _would_ do. - -"So they always acquit; and then a _man_ goes in the night, with a -hundred masked cowards at his back and lynches the rascal.  Your mistake -is, that you didn't bring a man with you; that's one mistake, and the -other is that you didn't come in the dark and fetch your masks.  You -brought _part_ of a man—Buck Harkness, there—and if you hadn't had him -to start you, you'd a taken it out in blowing. - -"You didn't want to come.  The average man don't like trouble and -danger. _You_ don't like trouble and danger.  But if only _half_ a -man—like Buck Harkness, there—shouts 'Lynch him! lynch him!' you're -afraid to back down—afraid you'll be found out to be what you -are—_cowards_—and so you raise a yell, and hang yourselves on to that -half-a-man's coat-tail, and come raging up here, swearing what big -things you're going to do. The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that's -what an army is—a mob; they don't fight with courage that's born in -them, but with courage that's borrowed from their mass, and from their -officers.  But a mob without any _man_ at the head of it is _beneath_ -pitifulness.  Now the thing for _you_ to do is to droop your tails and -go home and crawl in a hole.  If any real lynching's going to be done it -will be done in the dark, Southern fashion; and when they come they'll -bring their masks, and fetch a _man_ along.  Now _leave_—and take your -half-a-man with you"—tossing his gun up across his left arm and cocking -it when he says this. - -The crowd washed back sudden, and then broke all apart, and went tearing -off every which way, and Buck Harkness he heeled it after them, looking -tolerable cheap.  I could a stayed if I wanted to, but I didn't want to. - -I went to the circus and loafed around the back side till the watchman -went by, and then dived in under the tent.  I had my twenty-dollar gold -piece and some other money, but I reckoned I better save it, because -there ain't no telling how soon you are going to need it, away from -home and amongst strangers that way.  You can't be too careful.  I ain't -opposed to spending money on circuses when there ain't no other way, but -there ain't no use in _wasting_ it on them. - -It was a real bully circus.  It was the splendidest sight that ever was -when they all come riding in, two and two, a gentleman and lady, side -by side, the men just in their drawers and undershirts, and no shoes -nor stirrups, and resting their hands on their thighs easy and -comfortable—there must a been twenty of them—and every lady with a -lovely complexion, and perfectly beautiful, and looking just like a gang -of real sure-enough queens, and dressed in clothes that cost millions of -dollars, and just littered with diamonds.  It was a powerful fine sight; -I never see anything so lovely.  And then one by one they got up -and stood, and went a-weaving around the ring so gentle and wavy and -graceful, the men looking ever so tall and airy and straight, with their -heads bobbing and skimming along, away up there under the tent-roof, and -every lady's rose-leafy dress flapping soft and silky around her hips, -and she looking like the most loveliest parasol. - -And then faster and faster they went, all of them dancing, first one -foot out in the air and then the other, the horses leaning more and -more, and the ringmaster going round and round the center-pole, cracking -his whip and shouting "Hi!—hi!" and the clown cracking jokes behind -him; and by and by all hands dropped the reins, and every lady put her -knuckles on her hips and every gentleman folded his arms, and then how -the horses did lean over and hump themselves!  And so one after the -other they all skipped off into the ring, and made the sweetest bow I -ever see, and then scampered out, and everybody clapped their hands and -went just about wild. - -Well, all through the circus they done the most astonishing things; and -all the time that clown carried on so it most killed the people.  The -ringmaster couldn't ever say a word to him but he was back at him quick -as a wink with the funniest things a body ever said; and how he ever -_could_ think of so many of them, and so sudden and so pat, was what I -couldn't noway understand. Why, I couldn't a thought of them in a year. -And by and by a drunk man tried to get into the ring—said he wanted to -ride; said he could ride as well as anybody that ever was.  They argued -and tried to keep him out, but he wouldn't listen, and the whole show -come to a standstill.  Then the people begun to holler at him and make -fun of him, and that made him mad, and he begun to rip and tear; so that -stirred up the people, and a lot of men begun to pile down off of the -benches and swarm towards the ring, saying, "Knock him down! throw him -out!" and one or two women begun to scream.  So, then, the ringmaster -he made a little speech, and said he hoped there wouldn't be no -disturbance, and if the man would promise he wouldn't make no more -trouble he would let him ride if he thought he could stay on the horse. - So everybody laughed and said all right, and the man got on. The minute -he was on, the horse begun to rip and tear and jump and cavort around, -with two circus men hanging on to his bridle trying to hold him, and the -drunk man hanging on to his neck, and his heels flying in the air every -jump, and the whole crowd of people standing up shouting and laughing -till tears rolled down.  And at last, sure enough, all the circus men -could do, the horse broke loose, and away he went like the very nation, -round and round the ring, with that sot laying down on him and hanging -to his neck, with first one leg hanging most to the ground on one side, -and then t'other one on t'other side, and the people just crazy.  It -warn't funny to me, though; I was all of a tremble to see his danger. - But pretty soon he struggled up astraddle and grabbed the bridle, -a-reeling this way and that; and the next minute he sprung up and -dropped the bridle and stood! and the horse a-going like a house afire -too.  He just stood up there, a-sailing around as easy and comfortable -as if he warn't ever drunk in his life—and then he begun to pull off his -clothes and sling them.  He shed them so thick they kind of clogged up -the air, and altogether he shed seventeen suits. And, then, there he -was, slim and handsome, and dressed the gaudiest and prettiest you -ever saw, and he lit into that horse with his whip and made him fairly -hum—and finally skipped off, and made his bow and danced off to -the dressing-room, and everybody just a-howling with pleasure and -astonishment. - -Then the ringmaster he see how he had been fooled, and he _was_ the -sickest ringmaster you ever see, I reckon.  Why, it was one of his own -men!  He had got up that joke all out of his own head, and never let on -to nobody. Well, I felt sheepish enough to be took in so, but I wouldn't -a been in that ringmaster's place, not for a thousand dollars.  I don't -know; there may be bullier circuses than what that one was, but I -never struck them yet. Anyways, it was plenty good enough for _me_; and -wherever I run across it, it can have all of _my_ custom every time. - -Well, that night we had _our_ show; but there warn't only about twelve -people there—just enough to pay expenses.  And they laughed all the -time, and that made the duke mad; and everybody left, anyway, before -the show was over, but one boy which was asleep.  So the duke said these -Arkansaw lunkheads couldn't come up to Shakespeare; what they wanted -was low comedy—and maybe something ruther worse than low comedy, he -reckoned.  He said he could size their style.  So next morning he got -some big sheets of wrapping paper and some black paint, and drawed off -some handbills, and stuck them up all over the village.  The bills said: - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII. - -WELL, all day him and the king was hard at it, rigging up a stage and -a curtain and a row of candles for footlights; and that night the house -was jam full of men in no time.  When the place couldn't hold no more, -the duke he quit tending door and went around the back way and come on -to the stage and stood up before the curtain and made a little speech, -and praised up this tragedy, and said it was the most thrillingest one -that ever was; and so he went on a-bragging about the tragedy, and about -Edmund Kean the Elder, which was to play the main principal part in it; -and at last when he'd got everybody's expectations up high enough, he -rolled up the curtain, and the next minute the king come a-prancing -out on all fours, naked; and he was painted all over, -ring-streaked-and-striped, all sorts of colors, as splendid as a -rainbow.  And—but never mind the rest of his outfit; it was just wild, -but it was awful funny. The people most killed themselves laughing; and -when the king got done capering and capered off behind the scenes, they -roared and clapped and stormed and haw-hawed till he come back and done -it over again, and after that they made him do it another time. Well, it -would make a cow laugh to see the shines that old idiot cut. - -Then the duke he lets the curtain down, and bows to the people, and says -the great tragedy will be performed only two nights more, on accounts of -pressing London engagements, where the seats is all sold already for it -in Drury Lane; and then he makes them another bow, and says if he has -succeeded in pleasing them and instructing them, he will be deeply -obleeged if they will mention it to their friends and get them to come -and see it. - -Twenty people sings out: - -"What, is it over?  Is that _all_?" - -The duke says yes.  Then there was a fine time.  Everybody sings -out, "Sold!" and rose up mad, and was a-going for that stage and them -tragedians.  But a big, fine looking man jumps up on a bench and shouts: - -"Hold on!  Just a word, gentlemen."  They stopped to listen.  "We are -sold—mighty badly sold.  But we don't want to be the laughing stock of -this whole town, I reckon, and never hear the last of this thing as long -as we live.  _No_.  What we want is to go out of here quiet, and talk -this show up, and sell the _rest_ of the town!  Then we'll all be in the -same boat.  Ain't that sensible?" ("You bet it is!—the jedge is right!" -everybody sings out.) "All right, then—not a word about any sell.  Go -along home, and advise everybody to come and see the tragedy." - -Next day you couldn't hear nothing around that town but how splendid -that show was.  House was jammed again that night, and we sold this -crowd the same way.  When me and the king and the duke got home to the -raft we all had a supper; and by and by, about midnight, they made Jim -and me back her out and float her down the middle of the river, and -fetch her in and hide her about two mile below town. - -The third night the house was crammed again—and they warn't new-comers -this time, but people that was at the show the other two nights.  I -stood by the duke at the door, and I see that every man that went in had -his pockets bulging, or something muffled up under his coat—and I see it -warn't no perfumery, neither, not by a long sight.  I smelt sickly eggs -by the barrel, and rotten cabbages, and such things; and if I know the -signs of a dead cat being around, and I bet I do, there was sixty-four -of them went in.  I shoved in there for a minute, but it was too various -for me; I couldn't stand it.  Well, when the place couldn't hold no more -people the duke he give a fellow a quarter and told him to tend door -for him a minute, and then he started around for the stage door, I after -him; but the minute we turned the corner and was in the dark he says: - -"Walk fast now till you get away from the houses, and then shin for the -raft like the dickens was after you!" - -I done it, and he done the same.  We struck the raft at the same time, -and in less than two seconds we was gliding down stream, all dark and -still, and edging towards the middle of the river, nobody saying a -word. I reckoned the poor king was in for a gaudy time of it with the -audience, but nothing of the sort; pretty soon he crawls out from under -the wigwam, and says: - -"Well, how'd the old thing pan out this time, duke?"  He hadn't been -up-town at all. - -We never showed a light till we was about ten mile below the village. -Then we lit up and had a supper, and the king and the duke fairly -laughed their bones loose over the way they'd served them people.  The -duke says: - -"Greenhorns, flatheads!  I knew the first house would keep mum and let -the rest of the town get roped in; and I knew they'd lay for us the -third night, and consider it was _their_ turn now.  Well, it _is_ their -turn, and I'd give something to know how much they'd take for it.  I -_would_ just like to know how they're putting in their opportunity. - They can turn it into a picnic if they want to—they brought plenty -provisions." - -Them rapscallions took in four hundred and sixty-five dollars in that -three nights.  I never see money hauled in by the wagon-load like that -before.  By and by, when they was asleep and snoring, Jim says: - -"Don't it s'prise you de way dem kings carries on, Huck?" - -"No," I says, "it don't." - -"Why don't it, Huck?" - -"Well, it don't, because it's in the breed.  I reckon they're all -alike." - -"But, Huck, dese kings o' ourn is reglar rapscallions; dat's jist what -dey is; dey's reglar rapscallions." - -"Well, that's what I'm a-saying; all kings is mostly rapscallions, as -fur as I can make out." - -"Is dat so?" - -"You read about them once—you'll see.  Look at Henry the Eight; this 'n -'s a Sunday-school Superintendent to _him_.  And look at Charles Second, -and Louis Fourteen, and Louis Fifteen, and James Second, and Edward -Second, and Richard Third, and forty more; besides all them Saxon -heptarchies that used to rip around so in old times and raise Cain.  My, -you ought to seen old Henry the Eight when he was in bloom.  He _was_ a -blossom.  He used to marry a new wife every day, and chop off her head -next morning.  And he would do it just as indifferent as if he was -ordering up eggs.  'Fetch up Nell Gwynn,' he says.  They fetch her up. -Next morning, 'Chop off her head!'  And they chop it off.  'Fetch up -Jane Shore,' he says; and up she comes, Next morning, 'Chop off her -head'—and they chop it off.  'Ring up Fair Rosamun.'  Fair Rosamun -answers the bell.  Next morning, 'Chop off her head.'  And he made every -one of them tell him a tale every night; and he kept that up till he had -hogged a thousand and one tales that way, and then he put them all in a -book, and called it Domesday Book—which was a good name and stated the -case.  You don't know kings, Jim, but I know them; and this old rip -of ourn is one of the cleanest I've struck in history.  Well, Henry he -takes a notion he wants to get up some trouble with this country. How -does he go at it—give notice?—give the country a show?  No.  All of a -sudden he heaves all the tea in Boston Harbor overboard, and whacks -out a declaration of independence, and dares them to come on.  That was -_his_ style—he never give anybody a chance.  He had suspicions of his -father, the Duke of Wellington.  Well, what did he do?  Ask him to show -up?  No—drownded him in a butt of mamsey, like a cat.  S'pose people -left money laying around where he was—what did he do?  He collared it. - S'pose he contracted to do a thing, and you paid him, and didn't set -down there and see that he done it—what did he do?  He always done the -other thing. S'pose he opened his mouth—what then?  If he didn't shut it -up powerful quick he'd lose a lie every time.  That's the kind of a bug -Henry was; and if we'd a had him along 'stead of our kings he'd a fooled -that town a heap worse than ourn done.  I don't say that ourn is lambs, -because they ain't, when you come right down to the cold facts; but they -ain't nothing to _that_ old ram, anyway.  All I say is, kings is kings, -and you got to make allowances.  Take them all around, they're a mighty -ornery lot. It's the way they're raised." - -"But dis one do _smell_ so like de nation, Huck." - -"Well, they all do, Jim.  We can't help the way a king smells; history -don't tell no way." - -"Now de duke, he's a tolerble likely man in some ways." - -"Yes, a duke's different.  But not very different.  This one's -a middling hard lot for a duke.  When he's drunk there ain't no -near-sighted man could tell him from a king." - -"Well, anyways, I doan' hanker for no mo' un um, Huck.  Dese is all I -kin stan'." - -"It's the way I feel, too, Jim.  But we've got them on our hands, and we -got to remember what they are, and make allowances.  Sometimes I wish we -could hear of a country that's out of kings." - -What was the use to tell Jim these warn't real kings and dukes?  It -wouldn't a done no good; and, besides, it was just as I said:  you -couldn't tell them from the real kind. - -I went to sleep, and Jim didn't call me when it was my turn.  He often -done that.  When I waked up just at daybreak he was sitting there with -his head down betwixt his knees, moaning and mourning to himself.  I -didn't take notice nor let on.  I knowed what it was about.  He was -thinking about his wife and his children, away up yonder, and he was low -and homesick; because he hadn't ever been away from home before in his -life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white -folks does for their'n.  It don't seem natural, but I reckon it's so. - He was often moaning and mourning that way nights, when he judged I -was asleep, and saying, "Po' little 'Lizabeth! po' little Johnny! it's -mighty hard; I spec' I ain't ever gwyne to see you no mo', no mo'!"  He -was a mighty good nigger, Jim was. - -But this time I somehow got to talking to him about his wife and young -ones; and by and by he says: - -"What makes me feel so bad dis time 'uz bekase I hear sumpn over yonder -on de bank like a whack, er a slam, while ago, en it mine me er de time -I treat my little 'Lizabeth so ornery.  She warn't on'y 'bout fo' year -ole, en she tuck de sk'yarlet fever, en had a powful rough spell; but -she got well, en one day she was a-stannin' aroun', en I says to her, I -says: - -"'Shet de do'.' - -"She never done it; jis' stood dah, kiner smilin' up at me.  It make me -mad; en I says agin, mighty loud, I says: - -"'Doan' you hear me?  Shet de do'!' - -"She jis stood de same way, kiner smilin' up.  I was a-bilin'!  I says: - -"'I lay I _make_ you mine!' - -"En wid dat I fetch' her a slap side de head dat sont her a-sprawlin'. -Den I went into de yuther room, en 'uz gone 'bout ten minutes; en when -I come back dah was dat do' a-stannin' open _yit_, en dat chile stannin' -mos' right in it, a-lookin' down and mournin', en de tears runnin' down. - My, but I _wuz_ mad!  I was a-gwyne for de chile, but jis' den—it was a -do' dat open innerds—jis' den, 'long come de wind en slam it to, behine -de chile, ker-BLAM!—en my lan', de chile never move'!  My breff mos' -hop outer me; en I feel so—so—I doan' know HOW I feel.  I crope out, -all a-tremblin', en crope aroun' en open de do' easy en slow, en poke my -head in behine de chile, sof' en still, en all uv a sudden I says POW! -jis' as loud as I could yell.  _She never budge!_  Oh, Huck, I bust out -a-cryin' en grab her up in my arms, en say, 'Oh, de po' little thing! - De Lord God Amighty fogive po' ole Jim, kaze he never gwyne to fogive -hisself as long's he live!'  Oh, she was plumb deef en dumb, Huck, plumb -deef en dumb—en I'd ben a-treat'n her so!" - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV. - -NEXT day, towards night, we laid up under a little willow towhead out in -the middle, where there was a village on each side of the river, and the -duke and the king begun to lay out a plan for working them towns.  Jim -he spoke to the duke, and said he hoped it wouldn't take but a few -hours, because it got mighty heavy and tiresome to him when he had to -lay all day in the wigwam tied with the rope.  You see, when we left him -all alone we had to tie him, because if anybody happened on to him all -by himself and not tied it wouldn't look much like he was a runaway -nigger, you know. So the duke said it _was_ kind of hard to have to lay -roped all day, and he'd cipher out some way to get around it. - -He was uncommon bright, the duke was, and he soon struck it.  He dressed -Jim up in King Lear's outfit—it was a long curtain-calico gown, and a -white horse-hair wig and whiskers; and then he took his theater paint -and painted Jim's face and hands and ears and neck all over a dead, -dull, solid blue, like a man that's been drownded nine days.  Blamed if -he warn't the horriblest looking outrage I ever see.  Then the duke took -and wrote out a sign on a shingle so: - -Sick Arab—but harmless when not out of his head. - -And he nailed that shingle to a lath, and stood the lath up four or five -foot in front of the wigwam.  Jim was satisfied.  He said it was a sight -better than lying tied a couple of years every day, and trembling all -over every time there was a sound.  The duke told him to make himself -free and easy, and if anybody ever come meddling around, he must hop -out of the wigwam, and carry on a little, and fetch a howl or two like -a wild beast, and he reckoned they would light out and leave him alone. - Which was sound enough judgment; but you take the average man, and he -wouldn't wait for him to howl.  Why, he didn't only look like he was -dead, he looked considerable more than that. - -These rapscallions wanted to try the Nonesuch again, because there was -so much money in it, but they judged it wouldn't be safe, because maybe -the news might a worked along down by this time.  They couldn't hit no -project that suited exactly; so at last the duke said he reckoned he'd -lay off and work his brains an hour or two and see if he couldn't put up -something on the Arkansaw village; and the king he allowed he would drop -over to t'other village without any plan, but just trust in Providence -to lead him the profitable way—meaning the devil, I reckon.  We had all -bought store clothes where we stopped last; and now the king put his'n -on, and he told me to put mine on.  I done it, of course.  The king's -duds was all black, and he did look real swell and starchy.  I never -knowed how clothes could change a body before.  Why, before, he looked -like the orneriest old rip that ever was; but now, when he'd take off -his new white beaver and make a bow and do a smile, he looked that grand -and good and pious that you'd say he had walked right out of the ark, -and maybe was old Leviticus himself.  Jim cleaned up the canoe, and I -got my paddle ready.  There was a big steamboat laying at the shore away -up under the point, about three mile above the town—been there a couple -of hours, taking on freight.  Says the king: - -"Seein' how I'm dressed, I reckon maybe I better arrive down from St. -Louis or Cincinnati, or some other big place.  Go for the steamboat, -Huckleberry; we'll come down to the village on her." - -I didn't have to be ordered twice to go and take a steamboat ride. - I fetched the shore a half a mile above the village, and then went -scooting along the bluff bank in the easy water.  Pretty soon we come to -a nice innocent-looking young country jake setting on a log swabbing the -sweat off of his face, for it was powerful warm weather; and he had a -couple of big carpet-bags by him. - -"Run her nose in shore," says the king.  I done it.  "Wher' you bound -for, young man?" - -"For the steamboat; going to Orleans." - -"Git aboard," says the king.  "Hold on a minute, my servant 'll he'p you -with them bags.  Jump out and he'p the gentleman, Adolphus"—meaning me, -I see. - -I done so, and then we all three started on again.  The young chap was -mighty thankful; said it was tough work toting his baggage such weather. -He asked the king where he was going, and the king told him he'd come -down the river and landed at the other village this morning, and now he -was going up a few mile to see an old friend on a farm up there.  The -young fellow says: - -"When I first see you I says to myself, 'It's Mr. Wilks, sure, and he -come mighty near getting here in time.'  But then I says again, 'No, I -reckon it ain't him, or else he wouldn't be paddling up the river.'  You -_ain't_ him, are you?" - -"No, my name's Blodgett—Elexander Blodgett—_Reverend_ Elexander -Blodgett, I s'pose I must say, as I'm one o' the Lord's poor servants. - But still I'm jist as able to be sorry for Mr. Wilks for not arriving -in time, all the same, if he's missed anything by it—which I hope he -hasn't." - -"Well, he don't miss any property by it, because he'll get that all -right; but he's missed seeing his brother Peter die—which he mayn't -mind, nobody can tell as to that—but his brother would a give anything -in this world to see _him_ before he died; never talked about nothing -else all these three weeks; hadn't seen him since they was boys -together—and hadn't ever seen his brother William at all—that's the deef -and dumb one—William ain't more than thirty or thirty-five.  Peter and -George were the only ones that come out here; George was the married -brother; him and his wife both died last year.  Harvey and William's the -only ones that's left now; and, as I was saying, they haven't got here -in time." - -"Did anybody send 'em word?" - -"Oh, yes; a month or two ago, when Peter was first took; because Peter -said then that he sorter felt like he warn't going to get well this -time. You see, he was pretty old, and George's g'yirls was too young to -be much company for him, except Mary Jane, the red-headed one; and so he -was kinder lonesome after George and his wife died, and didn't seem -to care much to live.  He most desperately wanted to see Harvey—and -William, too, for that matter—because he was one of them kind that can't -bear to make a will.  He left a letter behind for Harvey, and said he'd -told in it where his money was hid, and how he wanted the rest of the -property divided up so George's g'yirls would be all right—for George -didn't leave nothing.  And that letter was all they could get him to put -a pen to." - -"Why do you reckon Harvey don't come?  Wher' does he live?" - -"Oh, he lives in England—Sheffield—preaches there—hasn't ever been in -this country.  He hasn't had any too much time—and besides he mightn't a -got the letter at all, you know." - -"Too bad, too bad he couldn't a lived to see his brothers, poor soul. -You going to Orleans, you say?" - -"Yes, but that ain't only a part of it.  I'm going in a ship, next -Wednesday, for Ryo Janeero, where my uncle lives." - -"It's a pretty long journey.  But it'll be lovely; wisht I was a-going. -Is Mary Jane the oldest?  How old is the others?" - -"Mary Jane's nineteen, Susan's fifteen, and Joanna's about -fourteen—that's the one that gives herself to good works and has a -hare-lip." - -"Poor things! to be left alone in the cold world so." - -"Well, they could be worse off.  Old Peter had friends, and they -ain't going to let them come to no harm.  There's Hobson, the Babtis' -preacher; and Deacon Lot Hovey, and Ben Rucker, and Abner Shackleford, -and Levi Bell, the lawyer; and Dr. Robinson, and their wives, and the -widow Bartley, and—well, there's a lot of them; but these are the ones -that Peter was thickest with, and used to write about sometimes, when -he wrote home; so Harvey 'll know where to look for friends when he gets -here." - -Well, the old man went on asking questions till he just fairly emptied -that young fellow.  Blamed if he didn't inquire about everybody and -everything in that blessed town, and all about the Wilkses; and about -Peter's business—which was a tanner; and about George's—which was a -carpenter; and about Harvey's—which was a dissentering minister; and so -on, and so on.  Then he says: - -"What did you want to walk all the way up to the steamboat for?" - -"Because she's a big Orleans boat, and I was afeard she mightn't stop -there.  When they're deep they won't stop for a hail.  A Cincinnati boat -will, but this is a St. Louis one." - -"Was Peter Wilks well off?" - -"Oh, yes, pretty well off.  He had houses and land, and it's reckoned he -left three or four thousand in cash hid up som'ers." - -"When did you say he died?" - -"I didn't say, but it was last night." - -"Funeral to-morrow, likely?" - -"Yes, 'bout the middle of the day." - -"Well, it's all terrible sad; but we've all got to go, one time or -another. So what we want to do is to be prepared; then we're all right." - -"Yes, sir, it's the best way.  Ma used to always say that." - -When we struck the boat she was about done loading, and pretty soon she -got off.  The king never said nothing about going aboard, so I lost -my ride, after all.  When the boat was gone the king made me paddle up -another mile to a lonesome place, and then he got ashore and says: - -"Now hustle back, right off, and fetch the duke up here, and the new -carpet-bags.  And if he's gone over to t'other side, go over there and -git him.  And tell him to git himself up regardless.  Shove along, now." - -I see what _he_ was up to; but I never said nothing, of course.  When -I got back with the duke we hid the canoe, and then they set down on a -log, and the king told him everything, just like the young fellow had -said it—every last word of it.  And all the time he was a-doing it he -tried to talk like an Englishman; and he done it pretty well, too, for -a slouch. I can't imitate him, and so I ain't a-going to try to; but he -really done it pretty good.  Then he says: - -"How are you on the deef and dumb, Bilgewater?" - -The duke said, leave him alone for that; said he had played a deef -and dumb person on the histronic boards.  So then they waited for a -steamboat. - -About the middle of the afternoon a couple of little boats come along, -but they didn't come from high enough up the river; but at last there -was a big one, and they hailed her.  She sent out her yawl, and we went -aboard, and she was from Cincinnati; and when they found we only wanted -to go four or five mile they was booming mad, and gave us a cussing, and -said they wouldn't land us.  But the king was ca'm.  He says: - -"If gentlemen kin afford to pay a dollar a mile apiece to be took on and -put off in a yawl, a steamboat kin afford to carry 'em, can't it?" - -So they softened down and said it was all right; and when we got to the -village they yawled us ashore.  About two dozen men flocked down when -they see the yawl a-coming, and when the king says: - -"Kin any of you gentlemen tell me wher' Mr. Peter Wilks lives?" they -give a glance at one another, and nodded their heads, as much as to say, -"What d' I tell you?"  Then one of them says, kind of soft and gentle: - -"I'm sorry sir, but the best we can do is to tell you where he _did_ -live yesterday evening." - -Sudden as winking the ornery old cretur went an to smash, and fell up -against the man, and put his chin on his shoulder, and cried down his -back, and says: - -"Alas, alas, our poor brother—gone, and we never got to see him; oh, -it's too, too hard!" - -Then he turns around, blubbering, and makes a lot of idiotic signs to -the duke on his hands, and blamed if he didn't drop a carpet-bag and -bust out a-crying.  If they warn't the beatenest lot, them two frauds, -that ever I struck. - -Well, the men gathered around and sympathized with them, and said all -sorts of kind things to them, and carried their carpet-bags up the hill -for them, and let them lean on them and cry, and told the king all about -his brother's last moments, and the king he told it all over again on -his hands to the duke, and both of them took on about that dead tanner -like they'd lost the twelve disciples.  Well, if ever I struck anything -like it, I'm a nigger. It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human -race. - - - - -CHAPTER XXV. - -THE news was all over town in two minutes, and you could see the people -tearing down on the run from every which way, some of them putting on -their coats as they come.  Pretty soon we was in the middle of a crowd, -and the noise of the tramping was like a soldier march.  The windows and -dooryards was full; and every minute somebody would say, over a fence: - -"Is it _them_?" - -And somebody trotting along with the gang would answer back and say: - -"You bet it is." - -When we got to the house the street in front of it was packed, and the -three girls was standing in the door.  Mary Jane _was_ red-headed, but -that don't make no difference, she was most awful beautiful, and her -face and her eyes was all lit up like glory, she was so glad her uncles -was come. The king he spread his arms, and Mary Jane she jumped for -them, and the hare-lip jumped for the duke, and there they had it! - Everybody most, leastways women, cried for joy to see them meet again -at last and have such good times. - -Then the king he hunched the duke private—I see him do it—and then he -looked around and see the coffin, over in the corner on two chairs; so -then him and the duke, with a hand across each other's shoulder, and -t'other hand to their eyes, walked slow and solemn over there, everybody -dropping back to give them room, and all the talk and noise stopping, -people saying "Sh!" and all the men taking their hats off and drooping -their heads, so you could a heard a pin fall.  And when they got there -they bent over and looked in the coffin, and took one sight, and then -they bust out a-crying so you could a heard them to Orleans, most; and -then they put their arms around each other's necks, and hung their chins -over each other's shoulders; and then for three minutes, or maybe four, -I never see two men leak the way they done.  And, mind you, everybody -was doing the same; and the place was that damp I never see anything -like it. Then one of them got on one side of the coffin, and t'other on -t'other side, and they kneeled down and rested their foreheads on the -coffin, and let on to pray all to themselves.  Well, when it come -to that it worked the crowd like you never see anything like it, and -everybody broke down and went to sobbing right out loud—the poor girls, -too; and every woman, nearly, went up to the girls, without saying a -word, and kissed them, solemn, on the forehead, and then put their hand -on their head, and looked up towards the sky, with the tears running -down, and then busted out and went off sobbing and swabbing, and give -the next woman a show.  I never see anything so disgusting. - -Well, by and by the king he gets up and comes forward a little, and -works himself up and slobbers out a speech, all full of tears and -flapdoodle about its being a sore trial for him and his poor brother -to lose the diseased, and to miss seeing diseased alive after the long -journey of four thousand mile, but it's a trial that's sweetened and -sanctified to us by this dear sympathy and these holy tears, and so he -thanks them out of his heart and out of his brother's heart, because out -of their mouths they can't, words being too weak and cold, and all that -kind of rot and slush, till it was just sickening; and then he blubbers -out a pious goody-goody Amen, and turns himself loose and goes to crying -fit to bust. - -And the minute the words were out of his mouth somebody over in the -crowd struck up the doxolojer, and everybody joined in with all their -might, and it just warmed you up and made you feel as good as church -letting out. Music is a good thing; and after all that soul-butter and -hogwash I never see it freshen up things so, and sound so honest and -bully. - -Then the king begins to work his jaw again, and says how him and his -nieces would be glad if a few of the main principal friends of the -family would take supper here with them this evening, and help set up -with the ashes of the diseased; and says if his poor brother laying -yonder could speak he knows who he would name, for they was names that -was very dear to him, and mentioned often in his letters; and so he will -name the same, to wit, as follows, vizz.:—Rev. Mr. Hobson, and Deacon -Lot Hovey, and Mr. Ben Rucker, and Abner Shackleford, and Levi Bell, and -Dr. Robinson, and their wives, and the widow Bartley. - -Rev. Hobson and Dr. Robinson was down to the end of the town a-hunting -together—that is, I mean the doctor was shipping a sick man to t'other -world, and the preacher was pinting him right.  Lawyer Bell was away up -to Louisville on business.  But the rest was on hand, and so they all -come and shook hands with the king and thanked him and talked to him; -and then they shook hands with the duke and didn't say nothing, but just -kept a-smiling and bobbing their heads like a passel of sapheads whilst -he made all sorts of signs with his hands and said "Goo-goo—goo-goo-goo" -all the time, like a baby that can't talk. - -So the king he blattered along, and managed to inquire about pretty -much everybody and dog in town, by his name, and mentioned all sorts -of little things that happened one time or another in the town, or to -George's family, or to Peter.  And he always let on that Peter wrote him -the things; but that was a lie:  he got every blessed one of them out of -that young flathead that we canoed up to the steamboat. - -Then Mary Jane she fetched the letter her father left behind, and the -king he read it out loud and cried over it.  It give the dwelling-house -and three thousand dollars, gold, to the girls; and it give the tanyard -(which was doing a good business), along with some other houses and -land (worth about seven thousand), and three thousand dollars in gold -to Harvey and William, and told where the six thousand cash was hid down -cellar.  So these two frauds said they'd go and fetch it up, and have -everything square and above-board; and told me to come with a candle. - We shut the cellar door behind us, and when they found the bag -they spilt it out on the floor, and it was a lovely sight, all them -yaller-boys.  My, the way the king's eyes did shine!  He slaps the duke -on the shoulder and says: - -"Oh, _this_ ain't bully nor noth'n!  Oh, no, I reckon not!  Why, -_bully_, it beats the Nonesuch, _don't_ it?" - -The duke allowed it did.  They pawed the yaller-boys, and sifted them -through their fingers and let them jingle down on the floor; and the -king says: - -"It ain't no use talkin'; bein' brothers to a rich dead man and -representatives of furrin heirs that's got left is the line for you and -me, Bilge.  Thish yer comes of trust'n to Providence.  It's the best -way, in the long run.  I've tried 'em all, and ther' ain't no better -way." - -Most everybody would a been satisfied with the pile, and took it on -trust; but no, they must count it.  So they counts it, and it comes out -four hundred and fifteen dollars short.  Says the king: - -"Dern him, I wonder what he done with that four hundred and fifteen -dollars?" - -They worried over that awhile, and ransacked all around for it.  Then -the duke says: - -"Well, he was a pretty sick man, and likely he made a mistake—I reckon -that's the way of it.  The best way's to let it go, and keep still about -it.  We can spare it." - -"Oh, shucks, yes, we can _spare_ it.  I don't k'yer noth'n 'bout -that—it's the _count_ I'm thinkin' about.  We want to be awful square -and open and above-board here, you know.  We want to lug this h-yer -money up stairs and count it before everybody—then ther' ain't noth'n -suspicious.  But when the dead man says ther's six thous'n dollars, you -know, we don't want to—" - -"Hold on," says the duke.  "Le's make up the deffisit," and he begun to -haul out yaller-boys out of his pocket. - -"It's a most amaz'n' good idea, duke—you _have_ got a rattlin' clever -head on you," says the king.  "Blest if the old Nonesuch ain't a heppin' -us out agin," and _he_ begun to haul out yaller-jackets and stack them -up. - -It most busted them, but they made up the six thousand clean and clear. - -"Say," says the duke, "I got another idea.  Le's go up stairs and count -this money, and then take and _give it to the girls_." - -"Good land, duke, lemme hug you!  It's the most dazzling idea 'at ever a -man struck.  You have cert'nly got the most astonishin' head I ever see. -Oh, this is the boss dodge, ther' ain't no mistake 'bout it.  Let 'em -fetch along their suspicions now if they want to—this 'll lay 'em out." - -When we got up-stairs everybody gethered around the table, and the king -he counted it and stacked it up, three hundred dollars in a pile—twenty -elegant little piles.  Everybody looked hungry at it, and licked their -chops.  Then they raked it into the bag again, and I see the king begin -to swell himself up for another speech.  He says: - -"Friends all, my poor brother that lays yonder has done generous by -them that's left behind in the vale of sorrers.  He has done generous by -these yer poor little lambs that he loved and sheltered, and that's left -fatherless and motherless.  Yes, and we that knowed him knows that he -would a done _more_ generous by 'em if he hadn't ben afeard o' woundin' -his dear William and me.  Now, _wouldn't_ he?  Ther' ain't no question -'bout it in _my_ mind.  Well, then, what kind o' brothers would it be -that 'd stand in his way at sech a time?  And what kind o' uncles would -it be that 'd rob—yes, _rob_—sech poor sweet lambs as these 'at he loved -so at sech a time?  If I know William—and I _think_ I do—he—well, I'll -jest ask him." He turns around and begins to make a lot of signs to -the duke with his hands, and the duke he looks at him stupid and -leather-headed a while; then all of a sudden he seems to catch his -meaning, and jumps for the king, goo-gooing with all his might for joy, -and hugs him about fifteen times before he lets up.  Then the king says, -"I knowed it; I reckon _that 'll_ convince anybody the way _he_ feels -about it.  Here, Mary Jane, Susan, Joanner, take the money—take it -_all_.  It's the gift of him that lays yonder, cold but joyful." - -Mary Jane she went for him, Susan and the hare-lip went for the -duke, and then such another hugging and kissing I never see yet.  And -everybody crowded up with the tears in their eyes, and most shook the -hands off of them frauds, saying all the time: - -"You _dear_ good souls!—how _lovely_!—how _could_ you!" - -Well, then, pretty soon all hands got to talking about the diseased -again, and how good he was, and what a loss he was, and all that; and -before long a big iron-jawed man worked himself in there from outside, -and stood a-listening and looking, and not saying anything; and nobody -saying anything to him either, because the king was talking and they was -all busy listening.  The king was saying—in the middle of something he'd -started in on— - -"—they bein' partickler friends o' the diseased.  That's why they're -invited here this evenin'; but tomorrow we want _all_ to come—everybody; -for he respected everybody, he liked everybody, and so it's fitten that -his funeral orgies sh'd be public." - -And so he went a-mooning on and on, liking to hear himself talk, and -every little while he fetched in his funeral orgies again, till the duke -he couldn't stand it no more; so he writes on a little scrap of paper, -"_Obsequies_, you old fool," and folds it up, and goes to goo-gooing and -reaching it over people's heads to him.  The king he reads it and puts -it in his pocket, and says: - -"Poor William, afflicted as he is, his _heart's_ aluz right.  Asks me -to invite everybody to come to the funeral—wants me to make 'em all -welcome.  But he needn't a worried—it was jest what I was at." - -Then he weaves along again, perfectly ca'm, and goes to dropping in his -funeral orgies again every now and then, just like he done before.  And -when he done it the third time he says: - -"I say orgies, not because it's the common term, because it -ain't—obsequies bein' the common term—but because orgies is the right -term. Obsequies ain't used in England no more now—it's gone out.  We -say orgies now in England.  Orgies is better, because it means the thing -you're after more exact.  It's a word that's made up out'n the Greek -_orgo_, outside, open, abroad; and the Hebrew _jeesum_, to plant, cover -up; hence in_ter._  So, you see, funeral orgies is an open er public -funeral." - -He was the _worst_ I ever struck.  Well, the iron-jawed man he laughed -right in his face.  Everybody was shocked.  Everybody says, "Why, -_doctor_!" and Abner Shackleford says: - -"Why, Robinson, hain't you heard the news?  This is Harvey Wilks." - -The king he smiled eager, and shoved out his flapper, and says: - -"Is it my poor brother's dear good friend and physician?  I—" - -"Keep your hands off of me!" says the doctor.  "_You_ talk like an -Englishman, _don't_ you?  It's the worst imitation I ever heard.  _You_ -Peter Wilks's brother!  You're a fraud, that's what you are!" - -Well, how they all took on!  They crowded around the doctor and tried to -quiet him down, and tried to explain to him and tell him how Harvey 'd -showed in forty ways that he _was_ Harvey, and knowed everybody by name, -and the names of the very dogs, and begged and _begged_ him not to hurt -Harvey's feelings and the poor girl's feelings, and all that.  But it -warn't no use; he stormed right along, and said any man that pretended -to be an Englishman and couldn't imitate the lingo no better than what -he did was a fraud and a liar.  The poor girls was hanging to the king -and crying; and all of a sudden the doctor ups and turns on _them_.  He -says: - -"I was your father's friend, and I'm your friend; and I warn you as a -friend, and an honest one that wants to protect you and keep you out of -harm and trouble, to turn your backs on that scoundrel and have nothing -to do with him, the ignorant tramp, with his idiotic Greek and Hebrew, -as he calls it.  He is the thinnest kind of an impostor—has come here -with a lot of empty names and facts which he picked up somewheres, and -you take them for _proofs_, and are helped to fool yourselves by these -foolish friends here, who ought to know better.  Mary Jane Wilks, you -know me for your friend, and for your unselfish friend, too.  Now listen -to me; turn this pitiful rascal out—I _beg_ you to do it.  Will you?" - -Mary Jane straightened herself up, and my, but she was handsome!  She -says: - -"_Here_ is my answer."  She hove up the bag of money and put it in the -king's hands, and says, "Take this six thousand dollars, and invest for -me and my sisters any way you want to, and don't give us no receipt for -it." - -Then she put her arm around the king on one side, and Susan and the -hare-lip done the same on the other.  Everybody clapped their hands and -stomped on the floor like a perfect storm, whilst the king held up his -head and smiled proud.  The doctor says: - -"All right; I wash _my_ hands of the matter.  But I warn you all that a -time 's coming when you're going to feel sick whenever you think of this -day." And away he went. - -"All right, doctor," says the king, kinder mocking him; "we'll try and -get 'em to send for you;" which made them all laugh, and they said it -was a prime good hit. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVI. - -WELL, when they was all gone the king he asks Mary Jane how they was off -for spare rooms, and she said she had one spare room, which would do for -Uncle William, and she'd give her own room to Uncle Harvey, which was -a little bigger, and she would turn into the room with her sisters and -sleep on a cot; and up garret was a little cubby, with a pallet in it. -The king said the cubby would do for his valley—meaning me. - -So Mary Jane took us up, and she showed them their rooms, which was -plain but nice.  She said she'd have her frocks and a lot of other traps -took out of her room if they was in Uncle Harvey's way, but he said -they warn't.  The frocks was hung along the wall, and before them was -a curtain made out of calico that hung down to the floor.  There was an -old hair trunk in one corner, and a guitar-box in another, and all sorts -of little knickknacks and jimcracks around, like girls brisken up a room -with.  The king said it was all the more homely and more pleasanter for -these fixings, and so don't disturb them.  The duke's room was pretty -small, but plenty good enough, and so was my cubby. - -That night they had a big supper, and all them men and women was there, -and I stood behind the king and the duke's chairs and waited on them, -and the niggers waited on the rest.  Mary Jane she set at the head of -the table, with Susan alongside of her, and said how bad the biscuits -was, and how mean the preserves was, and how ornery and tough the fried -chickens was—and all that kind of rot, the way women always do for to -force out compliments; and the people all knowed everything was tiptop, -and said so—said "How _do_ you get biscuits to brown so nice?" and -"Where, for the land's sake, _did_ you get these amaz'n pickles?" and -all that kind of humbug talky-talk, just the way people always does at a -supper, you know. - -And when it was all done me and the hare-lip had supper in the kitchen -off of the leavings, whilst the others was helping the niggers clean up -the things.  The hare-lip she got to pumping me about England, and blest -if I didn't think the ice was getting mighty thin sometimes.  She says: - -"Did you ever see the king?" - -"Who?  William Fourth?  Well, I bet I have—he goes to our church."  I -knowed he was dead years ago, but I never let on.  So when I says he -goes to our church, she says: - -"What—regular?" - -"Yes—regular.  His pew's right over opposite ourn—on t'other side the -pulpit." - -"I thought he lived in London?" - -"Well, he does.  Where _would_ he live?" - -"But I thought _you_ lived in Sheffield?" - -I see I was up a stump.  I had to let on to get choked with a chicken -bone, so as to get time to think how to get down again.  Then I says: - -"I mean he goes to our church regular when he's in Sheffield.  That's -only in the summer time, when he comes there to take the sea baths." - -"Why, how you talk—Sheffield ain't on the sea." - -"Well, who said it was?" - -"Why, you did." - -"I _didn't_ nuther." - -"You did!" - -"I didn't." - -"You did." - -"I never said nothing of the kind." - -"Well, what _did_ you say, then?" - -"Said he come to take the sea _baths_—that's what I said." - -"Well, then, how's he going to take the sea baths if it ain't on the -sea?" - -"Looky here," I says; "did you ever see any Congress-water?" - -"Yes." - -"Well, did you have to go to Congress to get it?" - -"Why, no." - -"Well, neither does William Fourth have to go to the sea to get a sea -bath." - -"How does he get it, then?" - -"Gets it the way people down here gets Congress-water—in barrels.  There -in the palace at Sheffield they've got furnaces, and he wants his water -hot.  They can't bile that amount of water away off there at the sea. -They haven't got no conveniences for it." - -"Oh, I see, now.  You might a said that in the first place and saved -time." - -When she said that I see I was out of the woods again, and so I was -comfortable and glad.  Next, she says: - -"Do you go to church, too?" - -"Yes—regular." - -"Where do you set?" - -"Why, in our pew." - -"_Whose_ pew?" - -"Why, _ourn_—your Uncle Harvey's." - -"His'n?  What does _he_ want with a pew?" - -"Wants it to set in.  What did you _reckon_ he wanted with it?" - -"Why, I thought he'd be in the pulpit." - -Rot him, I forgot he was a preacher.  I see I was up a stump again, so I -played another chicken bone and got another think.  Then I says: - -"Blame it, do you suppose there ain't but one preacher to a church?" - -"Why, what do they want with more?" - -"What!—to preach before a king?  I never did see such a girl as you. -They don't have no less than seventeen." - -"Seventeen!  My land!  Why, I wouldn't set out such a string as that, -not if I _never_ got to glory.  It must take 'em a week." - -"Shucks, they don't _all_ of 'em preach the same day—only _one_ of 'em." - -"Well, then, what does the rest of 'em do?" - -"Oh, nothing much.  Loll around, pass the plate—and one thing or -another.  But mainly they don't do nothing." - -"Well, then, what are they _for_?" - -"Why, they're for _style_.  Don't you know nothing?" - -"Well, I don't _want_ to know no such foolishness as that.  How is -servants treated in England?  Do they treat 'em better 'n we treat our -niggers?" - -"_No_!  A servant ain't nobody there.  They treat them worse than dogs." - -"Don't they give 'em holidays, the way we do, Christmas and New Year's -week, and Fourth of July?" - -"Oh, just listen!  A body could tell _you_ hain't ever been to England -by that.  Why, Hare-l—why, Joanna, they never see a holiday from year's -end to year's end; never go to the circus, nor theater, nor nigger -shows, nor nowheres." - -"Nor church?" - -"Nor church." - -"But _you_ always went to church." - -Well, I was gone up again.  I forgot I was the old man's servant.  But -next minute I whirled in on a kind of an explanation how a valley was -different from a common servant and _had_ to go to church whether he -wanted to or not, and set with the family, on account of its being the -law.  But I didn't do it pretty good, and when I got done I see she -warn't satisfied.  She says: - -"Honest injun, now, hain't you been telling me a lot of lies?" - -"Honest injun," says I. - -"None of it at all?" - -"None of it at all.  Not a lie in it," says I. - -"Lay your hand on this book and say it." - -I see it warn't nothing but a dictionary, so I laid my hand on it and -said it.  So then she looked a little better satisfied, and says: - -"Well, then, I'll believe some of it; but I hope to gracious if I'll -believe the rest." - -"What is it you won't believe, Joe?" says Mary Jane, stepping in with -Susan behind her.  "It ain't right nor kind for you to talk so to him, -and him a stranger and so far from his people.  How would you like to be -treated so?" - -"That's always your way, Maim—always sailing in to help somebody before -they're hurt.  I hain't done nothing to him.  He's told some stretchers, -I reckon, and I said I wouldn't swallow it all; and that's every bit -and grain I _did_ say.  I reckon he can stand a little thing like that, -can't he?" - -"I don't care whether 'twas little or whether 'twas big; he's here in -our house and a stranger, and it wasn't good of you to say it.  If you -was in his place it would make you feel ashamed; and so you oughtn't to -say a thing to another person that will make _them_ feel ashamed." - -"Why, Mam, he said—" - -"It don't make no difference what he _said_—that ain't the thing.  The -thing is for you to treat him _kind_, and not be saying things to make -him remember he ain't in his own country and amongst his own folks." - -I says to myself, _this_ is a girl that I'm letting that old reptile rob -her of her money! - -Then Susan _she_ waltzed in; and if you'll believe me, she did give -Hare-lip hark from the tomb! - -Says I to myself, and this is _another_ one that I'm letting him rob her -of her money! - -Then Mary Jane she took another inning, and went in sweet and lovely -again—which was her way; but when she got done there warn't hardly -anything left o' poor Hare-lip.  So she hollered. - -"All right, then," says the other girls; "you just ask his pardon." - -She done it, too; and she done it beautiful.  She done it so beautiful -it was good to hear; and I wished I could tell her a thousand lies, so -she could do it again. - -I says to myself, this is _another_ one that I'm letting him rob her of -her money.  And when she got through they all jest laid theirselves -out to make me feel at home and know I was amongst friends.  I felt so -ornery and low down and mean that I says to myself, my mind's made up; -I'll hive that money for them or bust. - -So then I lit out—for bed, I said, meaning some time or another.  When -I got by myself I went to thinking the thing over.  I says to myself, -shall I go to that doctor, private, and blow on these frauds?  No—that -won't do. He might tell who told him; then the king and the duke would -make it warm for me.  Shall I go, private, and tell Mary Jane?  No—I -dasn't do it. Her face would give them a hint, sure; they've got the -money, and they'd slide right out and get away with it.  If she was to -fetch in help I'd get mixed up in the business before it was done with, -I judge.  No; there ain't no good way but one.  I got to steal that -money, somehow; and I got to steal it some way that they won't suspicion -that I done it. They've got a good thing here, and they ain't a-going -to leave till they've played this family and this town for all they're -worth, so I'll find a chance time enough. I'll steal it and hide it; and -by and by, when I'm away down the river, I'll write a letter and tell -Mary Jane where it's hid.  But I better hive it tonight if I can, -because the doctor maybe hasn't let up as much as he lets on he has; he -might scare them out of here yet. - -So, thinks I, I'll go and search them rooms.  Upstairs the hall was -dark, but I found the duke's room, and started to paw around it with -my hands; but I recollected it wouldn't be much like the king to let -anybody else take care of that money but his own self; so then I went to -his room and begun to paw around there.  But I see I couldn't do nothing -without a candle, and I dasn't light one, of course.  So I judged I'd -got to do the other thing—lay for them and eavesdrop.  About that time -I hears their footsteps coming, and was going to skip under the bed; I -reached for it, but it wasn't where I thought it would be; but I touched -the curtain that hid Mary Jane's frocks, so I jumped in behind that and -snuggled in amongst the gowns, and stood there perfectly still. - -They come in and shut the door; and the first thing the duke done was to -get down and look under the bed.  Then I was glad I hadn't found the bed -when I wanted it.  And yet, you know, it's kind of natural to hide under -the bed when you are up to anything private.  They sets down then, and -the king says: - -"Well, what is it?  And cut it middlin' short, because it's better for -us to be down there a-whoopin' up the mournin' than up here givin' 'em a -chance to talk us over." - -"Well, this is it, Capet.  I ain't easy; I ain't comfortable.  That -doctor lays on my mind.  I wanted to know your plans.  I've got a -notion, and I think it's a sound one." - -"What is it, duke?" - -"That we better glide out of this before three in the morning, and clip -it down the river with what we've got.  Specially, seeing we got it so -easy—_given_ back to us, flung at our heads, as you may say, when of -course we allowed to have to steal it back.  I'm for knocking off and -lighting out." - -That made me feel pretty bad.  About an hour or two ago it would a been -a little different, but now it made me feel bad and disappointed, The -king rips out and says: - -"What!  And not sell out the rest o' the property?  March off like -a passel of fools and leave eight or nine thous'n' dollars' worth o' -property layin' around jest sufferin' to be scooped in?—and all good, -salable stuff, too." - -The duke he grumbled; said the bag of gold was enough, and he didn't -want to go no deeper—didn't want to rob a lot of orphans of _everything_ -they had. - -"Why, how you talk!" says the king.  "We sha'n't rob 'em of nothing at -all but jest this money.  The people that _buys_ the property is the -suff'rers; because as soon 's it's found out 'at we didn't own it—which -won't be long after we've slid—the sale won't be valid, and it 'll all -go back to the estate.  These yer orphans 'll git their house back agin, -and that's enough for _them_; they're young and spry, and k'n easy -earn a livin'.  _they_ ain't a-goin to suffer.  Why, jest think—there's -thous'n's and thous'n's that ain't nigh so well off.  Bless you, _they_ -ain't got noth'n' to complain of." - -Well, the king he talked him blind; so at last he give in, and said all -right, but said he believed it was blamed foolishness to stay, and that -doctor hanging over them.  But the king says: - -"Cuss the doctor!  What do we k'yer for _him_?  Hain't we got all the -fools in town on our side?  And ain't that a big enough majority in any -town?" - -So they got ready to go down stairs again.  The duke says: - -"I don't think we put that money in a good place." - -That cheered me up.  I'd begun to think I warn't going to get a hint of -no kind to help me.  The king says: - -"Why?" - -"Because Mary Jane 'll be in mourning from this out; and first you know -the nigger that does up the rooms will get an order to box these duds -up and put 'em away; and do you reckon a nigger can run across money and -not borrow some of it?" - -"Your head's level agin, duke," says the king; and he comes a-fumbling -under the curtain two or three foot from where I was.  I stuck tight to -the wall and kept mighty still, though quivery; and I wondered what them -fellows would say to me if they catched me; and I tried to think what -I'd better do if they did catch me.  But the king he got the bag before -I could think more than about a half a thought, and he never suspicioned -I was around.  They took and shoved the bag through a rip in the straw -tick that was under the feather-bed, and crammed it in a foot or two -amongst the straw and said it was all right now, because a nigger only -makes up the feather-bed, and don't turn over the straw tick only about -twice a year, and so it warn't in no danger of getting stole now. - -But I knowed better.  I had it out of there before they was half-way -down stairs.  I groped along up to my cubby, and hid it there till I -could get a chance to do better.  I judged I better hide it outside -of the house somewheres, because if they missed it they would give the -house a good ransacking:  I knowed that very well.  Then I turned in, -with my clothes all on; but I couldn't a gone to sleep if I'd a wanted -to, I was in such a sweat to get through with the business.  By and by I -heard the king and the duke come up; so I rolled off my pallet and laid -with my chin at the top of my ladder, and waited to see if anything was -going to happen.  But nothing did. - -So I held on till all the late sounds had quit and the early ones hadn't -begun yet; and then I slipped down the ladder. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVII. - -I crept to their doors and listened; they was snoring.  So I tiptoed -along, and got down stairs all right.  There warn't a sound anywheres. - I peeped through a crack of the dining-room door, and see the men that -was watching the corpse all sound asleep on their chairs.  The door -was open into the parlor, where the corpse was laying, and there was a -candle in both rooms. I passed along, and the parlor door was open; but -I see there warn't nobody in there but the remainders of Peter; so I -shoved on by; but the front door was locked, and the key wasn't there. - Just then I heard somebody coming down the stairs, back behind me.  I -run in the parlor and took a swift look around, and the only place I -see to hide the bag was in the coffin.  The lid was shoved along about -a foot, showing the dead man's face down in there, with a wet cloth over -it, and his shroud on.  I tucked the money-bag in under the lid, just -down beyond where his hands was crossed, which made me creep, they was -so cold, and then I run back across the room and in behind the door. - -The person coming was Mary Jane.  She went to the coffin, very soft, and -kneeled down and looked in; then she put up her handkerchief, and I see -she begun to cry, though I couldn't hear her, and her back was to me.  I -slid out, and as I passed the dining-room I thought I'd make sure them -watchers hadn't seen me; so I looked through the crack, and everything -was all right.  They hadn't stirred. - -I slipped up to bed, feeling ruther blue, on accounts of the thing -playing out that way after I had took so much trouble and run so much -resk about it.  Says I, if it could stay where it is, all right; because -when we get down the river a hundred mile or two I could write back to -Mary Jane, and she could dig him up again and get it; but that ain't the -thing that's going to happen; the thing that's going to happen is, the -money 'll be found when they come to screw on the lid.  Then the king -'ll get it again, and it 'll be a long day before he gives anybody -another chance to smouch it from him. Of course I _wanted_ to slide -down and get it out of there, but I dasn't try it.  Every minute it was -getting earlier now, and pretty soon some of them watchers would begin -to stir, and I might get catched—catched with six thousand dollars in my -hands that nobody hadn't hired me to take care of.  I don't wish to be -mixed up in no such business as that, I says to myself. - -When I got down stairs in the morning the parlor was shut up, and the -watchers was gone.  There warn't nobody around but the family and the -widow Bartley and our tribe.  I watched their faces to see if anything -had been happening, but I couldn't tell. - -Towards the middle of the day the undertaker come with his man, and they -set the coffin in the middle of the room on a couple of chairs, and then -set all our chairs in rows, and borrowed more from the neighbors till -the hall and the parlor and the dining-room was full.  I see the coffin -lid was the way it was before, but I dasn't go to look in under it, with -folks around. - -Then the people begun to flock in, and the beats and the girls took -seats in the front row at the head of the coffin, and for a half an hour -the people filed around slow, in single rank, and looked down at the -dead man's face a minute, and some dropped in a tear, and it was -all very still and solemn, only the girls and the beats holding -handkerchiefs to their eyes and keeping their heads bent, and sobbing a -little.  There warn't no other sound but the scraping of the feet on -the floor and blowing noses—because people always blows them more at a -funeral than they do at other places except church. - -When the place was packed full the undertaker he slid around in his -black gloves with his softy soothering ways, putting on the last -touches, and getting people and things all ship-shape and comfortable, -and making no more sound than a cat.  He never spoke; he moved people -around, he squeezed in late ones, he opened up passageways, and done -it with nods, and signs with his hands.  Then he took his place over -against the wall. He was the softest, glidingest, stealthiest man I ever -see; and there warn't no more smile to him than there is to a ham. - -They had borrowed a melodeum—a sick one; and when everything was ready -a young woman set down and worked it, and it was pretty skreeky and -colicky, and everybody joined in and sung, and Peter was the only one -that had a good thing, according to my notion.  Then the Reverend Hobson -opened up, slow and solemn, and begun to talk; and straight off the most -outrageous row busted out in the cellar a body ever heard; it was only -one dog, but he made a most powerful racket, and he kept it up right -along; the parson he had to stand there, over the coffin, and wait—you -couldn't hear yourself think.  It was right down awkward, and nobody -didn't seem to know what to do.  But pretty soon they see that -long-legged undertaker make a sign to the preacher as much as to say, -"Don't you worry—just depend on me."  Then he stooped down and begun -to glide along the wall, just his shoulders showing over the people's -heads.  So he glided along, and the powwow and racket getting more and -more outrageous all the time; and at last, when he had gone around two -sides of the room, he disappears down cellar.  Then in about two seconds -we heard a whack, and the dog he finished up with a most amazing howl or -two, and then everything was dead still, and the parson begun his solemn -talk where he left off.  In a minute or two here comes this undertaker's -back and shoulders gliding along the wall again; and so he glided and -glided around three sides of the room, and then rose up, and shaded his -mouth with his hands, and stretched his neck out towards the preacher, -over the people's heads, and says, in a kind of a coarse whisper, "_He -had a rat_!"  Then he drooped down and glided along the wall again to -his place.  You could see it was a great satisfaction to the people, -because naturally they wanted to know.  A little thing like that don't -cost nothing, and it's just the little things that makes a man to be -looked up to and liked.  There warn't no more popular man in town than -what that undertaker was. - -Well, the funeral sermon was very good, but pison long and tiresome; and -then the king he shoved in and got off some of his usual rubbage, and -at last the job was through, and the undertaker begun to sneak up on the -coffin with his screw-driver.  I was in a sweat then, and watched him -pretty keen. But he never meddled at all; just slid the lid along as -soft as mush, and screwed it down tight and fast.  So there I was!  I -didn't know whether the money was in there or not.  So, says I, s'pose -somebody has hogged that bag on the sly?—now how do I know whether -to write to Mary Jane or not? S'pose she dug him up and didn't find -nothing, what would she think of me? Blame it, I says, I might get -hunted up and jailed; I'd better lay low and keep dark, and not write at -all; the thing's awful mixed now; trying to better it, I've worsened it -a hundred times, and I wish to goodness I'd just let it alone, dad fetch -the whole business! - -They buried him, and we come back home, and I went to watching faces -again—I couldn't help it, and I couldn't rest easy.  But nothing come of -it; the faces didn't tell me nothing. - -The king he visited around in the evening, and sweetened everybody up, -and made himself ever so friendly; and he give out the idea that his -congregation over in England would be in a sweat about him, so he must -hurry and settle up the estate right away and leave for home.  He was -very sorry he was so pushed, and so was everybody; they wished he could -stay longer, but they said they could see it couldn't be done.  And he -said of course him and William would take the girls home with them; and -that pleased everybody too, because then the girls would be well fixed -and amongst their own relations; and it pleased the girls, too—tickled -them so they clean forgot they ever had a trouble in the world; and told -him to sell out as quick as he wanted to, they would be ready.  Them -poor things was that glad and happy it made my heart ache to see them -getting fooled and lied to so, but I didn't see no safe way for me to -chip in and change the general tune. - -Well, blamed if the king didn't bill the house and the niggers and all -the property for auction straight off—sale two days after the funeral; -but anybody could buy private beforehand if they wanted to. - -So the next day after the funeral, along about noon-time, the girls' joy -got the first jolt.  A couple of nigger traders come along, and the king -sold them the niggers reasonable, for three-day drafts as they called -it, and away they went, the two sons up the river to Memphis, and their -mother down the river to Orleans.  I thought them poor girls and them -niggers would break their hearts for grief; they cried around each -other, and took on so it most made me down sick to see it.  The girls -said they hadn't ever dreamed of seeing the family separated or sold -away from the town.  I can't ever get it out of my memory, the sight of -them poor miserable girls and niggers hanging around each other's necks -and crying; and I reckon I couldn't a stood it all, but would a had -to bust out and tell on our gang if I hadn't knowed the sale warn't no -account and the niggers would be back home in a week or two. - -The thing made a big stir in the town, too, and a good many come out -flatfooted and said it was scandalous to separate the mother and the -children that way.  It injured the frauds some; but the old fool he -bulled right along, spite of all the duke could say or do, and I tell -you the duke was powerful uneasy. - -Next day was auction day.  About broad day in the morning the king and -the duke come up in the garret and woke me up, and I see by their look -that there was trouble.  The king says: - -"Was you in my room night before last?" - -"No, your majesty"—which was the way I always called him when nobody but -our gang warn't around. - -"Was you in there yisterday er last night?" - -"No, your majesty." - -"Honor bright, now—no lies." - -"Honor bright, your majesty, I'm telling you the truth.  I hain't been -a-near your room since Miss Mary Jane took you and the duke and showed -it to you." - -The duke says: - -"Have you seen anybody else go in there?" - -"No, your grace, not as I remember, I believe." - -"Stop and think." - -I studied awhile and see my chance; then I says: - -"Well, I see the niggers go in there several times." - -Both of them gave a little jump, and looked like they hadn't ever -expected it, and then like they _had_.  Then the duke says: - -"What, all of them?" - -"No—leastways, not all at once—that is, I don't think I ever see them -all come _out_ at once but just one time." - -"Hello!  When was that?" - -"It was the day we had the funeral.  In the morning.  It warn't early, -because I overslept.  I was just starting down the ladder, and I see -them." - -"Well, go on, _go_ on!  What did they do?  How'd they act?" - -"They didn't do nothing.  And they didn't act anyway much, as fur as I -see. They tiptoed away; so I seen, easy enough, that they'd shoved in -there to do up your majesty's room, or something, s'posing you was up; -and found you _warn't_ up, and so they was hoping to slide out of the -way of trouble without waking you up, if they hadn't already waked you -up." - -"Great guns, _this_ is a go!" says the king; and both of them looked -pretty sick and tolerable silly.  They stood there a-thinking and -scratching their heads a minute, and the duke he bust into a kind of a -little raspy chuckle, and says: - -"It does beat all how neat the niggers played their hand.  They let on -to be _sorry_ they was going out of this region!  And I believed they -_was_ sorry, and so did you, and so did everybody.  Don't ever tell _me_ -any more that a nigger ain't got any histrionic talent.  Why, the way -they played that thing it would fool _anybody_.  In my opinion, there's -a fortune in 'em.  If I had capital and a theater, I wouldn't want a -better lay-out than that—and here we've gone and sold 'em for a song. - Yes, and ain't privileged to sing the song yet.  Say, where _is_ that -song—that draft?" - -"In the bank for to be collected.  Where _would_ it be?" - -"Well, _that's_ all right then, thank goodness." - -Says I, kind of timid-like: - -"Is something gone wrong?" - -The king whirls on me and rips out: - -"None o' your business!  You keep your head shet, and mind y'r own -affairs—if you got any.  Long as you're in this town don't you forgit -_that_—you hear?"  Then he says to the duke, "We got to jest swaller it -and say noth'n':  mum's the word for _us_." - -As they was starting down the ladder the duke he chuckles again, and -says: - -"Quick sales _and_ small profits!  It's a good business—yes." - -The king snarls around on him and says: - -"I was trying to do for the best in sellin' 'em out so quick.  If the -profits has turned out to be none, lackin' considable, and none to -carry, is it my fault any more'n it's yourn?" - -"Well, _they'd_ be in this house yet and we _wouldn't_ if I could a got -my advice listened to." - -The king sassed back as much as was safe for him, and then swapped -around and lit into _me_ again.  He give me down the banks for not -coming and _telling_ him I see the niggers come out of his room acting -that way—said any fool would a _knowed_ something was up.  And then -waltzed in and cussed _himself_ awhile, and said it all come of him not -laying late and taking his natural rest that morning, and he'd be -blamed if he'd ever do it again.  So they went off a-jawing; and I felt -dreadful glad I'd worked it all off on to the niggers, and yet hadn't -done the niggers no harm by it. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVIII. - -BY and by it was getting-up time.  So I come down the ladder and started -for down-stairs; but as I come to the girls' room the door was open, and -I see Mary Jane setting by her old hair trunk, which was open and she'd -been packing things in it—getting ready to go to England.  But she -had stopped now with a folded gown in her lap, and had her face in her -hands, crying.  I felt awful bad to see it; of course anybody would.  I -went in there and says: - -"Miss Mary Jane, you can't a-bear to see people in trouble, and I -can't—most always.  Tell me about it." - -So she done it.  And it was the niggers—I just expected it.  She said -the beautiful trip to England was most about spoiled for her; she didn't -know _how_ she was ever going to be happy there, knowing the mother and -the children warn't ever going to see each other no more—and then busted -out bitterer than ever, and flung up her hands, and says: - -"Oh, dear, dear, to think they ain't _ever_ going to see each other any -more!" - -"But they _will_—and inside of two weeks—and I _know_ it!" says I. - -Laws, it was out before I could think!  And before I could budge she -throws her arms around my neck and told me to say it _again_, say it -_again_, say it _again_! - -I see I had spoke too sudden and said too much, and was in a close -place. I asked her to let me think a minute; and she set there, very -impatient and excited and handsome, but looking kind of happy and -eased-up, like a person that's had a tooth pulled out.  So I went to -studying it out.  I says to myself, I reckon a body that ups and tells -the truth when he is in a tight place is taking considerable many resks, -though I ain't had no experience, and can't say for certain; but it -looks so to me, anyway; and yet here's a case where I'm blest if it -don't look to me like the truth is better and actuly _safer_ than a lie. - I must lay it by in my mind, and think it over some time or other, it's -so kind of strange and unregular. I never see nothing like it.  Well, I -says to myself at last, I'm a-going to chance it; I'll up and tell the -truth this time, though it does seem most like setting down on a kag of -powder and touching it off just to see where you'll go to. Then I says: - -"Miss Mary Jane, is there any place out of town a little ways where you -could go and stay three or four days?" - -"Yes; Mr. Lothrop's.  Why?" - -"Never mind why yet.  If I'll tell you how I know the niggers will see -each other again inside of two weeks—here in this house—and _prove_ how -I know it—will you go to Mr. Lothrop's and stay four days?" - -"Four days!" she says; "I'll stay a year!" - -"All right," I says, "I don't want nothing more out of _you_ than just -your word—I druther have it than another man's kiss-the-Bible."  She -smiled and reddened up very sweet, and I says, "If you don't mind it, -I'll shut the door—and bolt it." - -Then I come back and set down again, and says: - -"Don't you holler.  Just set still and take it like a man.  I got to -tell the truth, and you want to brace up, Miss Mary, because it's a -bad kind, and going to be hard to take, but there ain't no help for -it.  These uncles of yourn ain't no uncles at all; they're a couple of -frauds—regular dead-beats.  There, now we're over the worst of it, you -can stand the rest middling easy." - -It jolted her up like everything, of course; but I was over the shoal -water now, so I went right along, her eyes a-blazing higher and higher -all the time, and told her every blame thing, from where we first struck -that young fool going up to the steamboat, clear through to where she -flung herself on to the king's breast at the front door and he kissed -her sixteen or seventeen times—and then up she jumps, with her face -afire like sunset, and says: - -"The brute!  Come, don't waste a minute—not a _second_—we'll have them -tarred and feathered, and flung in the river!" - -Says I: - -"Cert'nly.  But do you mean _before_ you go to Mr. Lothrop's, or—" - -"Oh," she says, "what am I _thinking_ about!" she says, and set right -down again.  "Don't mind what I said—please don't—you _won't,_ now, -_will_ you?" Laying her silky hand on mine in that kind of a way that -I said I would die first.  "I never thought, I was so stirred up," she -says; "now go on, and I won't do so any more.  You tell me what to do, -and whatever you say I'll do it." - -"Well," I says, "it's a rough gang, them two frauds, and I'm fixed so -I got to travel with them a while longer, whether I want to or not—I -druther not tell you why; and if you was to blow on them this town would -get me out of their claws, and I'd be all right; but there'd be another -person that you don't know about who'd be in big trouble.  Well, we -got to save _him_, hain't we?  Of course.  Well, then, we won't blow on -them." - -Saying them words put a good idea in my head.  I see how maybe I could -get me and Jim rid of the frauds; get them jailed here, and then leave. -But I didn't want to run the raft in the daytime without anybody aboard -to answer questions but me; so I didn't want the plan to begin working -till pretty late to-night.  I says: - -"Miss Mary Jane, I'll tell you what we'll do, and you won't have to stay -at Mr. Lothrop's so long, nuther.  How fur is it?" - -"A little short of four miles—right out in the country, back here." - -"Well, that 'll answer.  Now you go along out there, and lay low -till nine or half-past to-night, and then get them to fetch you home -again—tell them you've thought of something.  If you get here before -eleven put a candle in this window, and if I don't turn up wait _till_ -eleven, and _then_ if I don't turn up it means I'm gone, and out of the -way, and safe. Then you come out and spread the news around, and get -these beats jailed." - -"Good," she says, "I'll do it." - -"And if it just happens so that I don't get away, but get took up along -with them, you must up and say I told you the whole thing beforehand, -and you must stand by me all you can." - -"Stand by you! indeed I will.  They sha'n't touch a hair of your head!" -she says, and I see her nostrils spread and her eyes snap when she said -it, too. - -"If I get away I sha'n't be here," I says, "to prove these rapscallions -ain't your uncles, and I couldn't do it if I _was_ here.  I could swear -they was beats and bummers, that's all, though that's worth something. -Well, there's others can do that better than what I can, and they're -people that ain't going to be doubted as quick as I'd be.  I'll tell you -how to find them.  Gimme a pencil and a piece of paper.  There—'Royal -Nonesuch, Bricksville.'  Put it away, and don't lose it.  When the -court wants to find out something about these two, let them send up to -Bricksville and say they've got the men that played the Royal Nonesuch, -and ask for some witnesses—why, you'll have that entire town down here -before you can hardly wink, Miss Mary.  And they'll come a-biling, too." - -I judged we had got everything fixed about right now.  So I says: - -"Just let the auction go right along, and don't worry.  Nobody don't -have to pay for the things they buy till a whole day after the auction -on accounts of the short notice, and they ain't going out of this till -they get that money; and the way we've fixed it the sale ain't going to -count, and they ain't going to get no money.  It's just like the way -it was with the niggers—it warn't no sale, and the niggers will be -back before long.  Why, they can't collect the money for the _niggers_ -yet—they're in the worst kind of a fix, Miss Mary." - -"Well," she says, "I'll run down to breakfast now, and then I'll start -straight for Mr. Lothrop's." - -"'Deed, _that_ ain't the ticket, Miss Mary Jane," I says, "by no manner -of means; go _before_ breakfast." - -"Why?" - -"What did you reckon I wanted you to go at all for, Miss Mary?" - -"Well, I never thought—and come to think, I don't know.  What was it?" - -"Why, it's because you ain't one of these leather-face people.  I don't -want no better book than what your face is.  A body can set down and -read it off like coarse print.  Do you reckon you can go and face your -uncles when they come to kiss you good-morning, and never—" - -"There, there, don't!  Yes, I'll go before breakfast—I'll be glad to. -And leave my sisters with them?" - -"Yes; never mind about them.  They've got to stand it yet a while.  They -might suspicion something if all of you was to go.  I don't want you to -see them, nor your sisters, nor nobody in this town; if a neighbor was -to ask how is your uncles this morning your face would tell something. - No, you go right along, Miss Mary Jane, and I'll fix it with all of -them. I'll tell Miss Susan to give your love to your uncles and say -you've went away for a few hours for to get a little rest and change, or -to see a friend, and you'll be back to-night or early in the morning." - -"Gone to see a friend is all right, but I won't have my love given to -them." - -"Well, then, it sha'n't be."  It was well enough to tell _her_ so—no -harm in it.  It was only a little thing to do, and no trouble; and it's -the little things that smooths people's roads the most, down here below; -it would make Mary Jane comfortable, and it wouldn't cost nothing.  Then -I says:  "There's one more thing—that bag of money." - -"Well, they've got that; and it makes me feel pretty silly to think -_how_ they got it." - -"No, you're out, there.  They hain't got it." - -"Why, who's got it?" - -"I wish I knowed, but I don't.  I _had_ it, because I stole it from -them; and I stole it to give to you; and I know where I hid it, but I'm -afraid it ain't there no more.  I'm awful sorry, Miss Mary Jane, I'm -just as sorry as I can be; but I done the best I could; I did honest.  I -come nigh getting caught, and I had to shove it into the first place I -come to, and run—and it warn't a good place." - -"Oh, stop blaming yourself—it's too bad to do it, and I won't allow -it—you couldn't help it; it wasn't your fault.  Where did you hide it?" - -I didn't want to set her to thinking about her troubles again; and I -couldn't seem to get my mouth to tell her what would make her see that -corpse laying in the coffin with that bag of money on his stomach.  So -for a minute I didn't say nothing; then I says: - -"I'd ruther not _tell_ you where I put it, Miss Mary Jane, if you don't -mind letting me off; but I'll write it for you on a piece of paper, and -you can read it along the road to Mr. Lothrop's, if you want to.  Do you -reckon that 'll do?" - -"Oh, yes." - -So I wrote:  "I put it in the coffin.  It was in there when you was -crying there, away in the night.  I was behind the door, and I was -mighty sorry for you, Miss Mary Jane." - -It made my eyes water a little to remember her crying there all by -herself in the night, and them devils laying there right under her own -roof, shaming her and robbing her; and when I folded it up and give it -to her I see the water come into her eyes, too; and she shook me by the -hand, hard, and says: - -"_Good_-bye.  I'm going to do everything just as you've told me; and if -I don't ever see you again, I sha'n't ever forget you and I'll think of -you a many and a many a time, and I'll _pray_ for you, too!"—and she was -gone. - -Pray for me!  I reckoned if she knowed me she'd take a job that was more -nearer her size.  But I bet she done it, just the same—she was just that -kind.  She had the grit to pray for Judus if she took the notion—there -warn't no back-down to her, I judge.  You may say what you want to, but -in my opinion she had more sand in her than any girl I ever see; in -my opinion she was just full of sand.  It sounds like flattery, but it -ain't no flattery.  And when it comes to beauty—and goodness, too—she -lays over them all.  I hain't ever seen her since that time that I see -her go out of that door; no, I hain't ever seen her since, but I reckon -I've thought of her a many and a many a million times, and of her saying -she would pray for me; and if ever I'd a thought it would do any good -for me to pray for _her_, blamed if I wouldn't a done it or bust. - -Well, Mary Jane she lit out the back way, I reckon; because nobody see -her go.  When I struck Susan and the hare-lip, I says: - -"What's the name of them people over on t'other side of the river that -you all goes to see sometimes?" - -They says: - -"There's several; but it's the Proctors, mainly." - -"That's the name," I says; "I most forgot it.  Well, Miss Mary Jane she -told me to tell you she's gone over there in a dreadful hurry—one of -them's sick." - -"Which one?" - -"I don't know; leastways, I kinder forget; but I thinks it's—" - -"Sakes alive, I hope it ain't _Hanner_?" - -"I'm sorry to say it," I says, "but Hanner's the very one." - -"My goodness, and she so well only last week!  Is she took bad?" - -"It ain't no name for it.  They set up with her all night, Miss Mary -Jane said, and they don't think she'll last many hours." - -"Only think of that, now!  What's the matter with her?" - -I couldn't think of anything reasonable, right off that way, so I says: - -"Mumps." - -"Mumps your granny!  They don't set up with people that's got the -mumps." - -"They don't, don't they?  You better bet they do with _these_ mumps. - These mumps is different.  It's a new kind, Miss Mary Jane said." - -"How's it a new kind?" - -"Because it's mixed up with other things." - -"What other things?" - -"Well, measles, and whooping-cough, and erysiplas, and consumption, and -yaller janders, and brain-fever, and I don't know what all." - -"My land!  And they call it the _mumps_?" - -"That's what Miss Mary Jane said." - -"Well, what in the nation do they call it the _mumps_ for?" - -"Why, because it _is_ the mumps.  That's what it starts with." - -"Well, ther' ain't no sense in it.  A body might stump his toe, and take -pison, and fall down the well, and break his neck, and bust his brains -out, and somebody come along and ask what killed him, and some numskull -up and say, 'Why, he stumped his _toe_.'  Would ther' be any sense -in that? _No_.  And ther' ain't no sense in _this_, nuther.  Is it -ketching?" - -"Is it _ketching_?  Why, how you talk.  Is a _harrow_ catching—in the -dark? If you don't hitch on to one tooth, you're bound to on another, -ain't you? And you can't get away with that tooth without fetching the -whole harrow along, can you?  Well, these kind of mumps is a kind of a -harrow, as you may say—and it ain't no slouch of a harrow, nuther, you -come to get it hitched on good." - -"Well, it's awful, I think," says the hare-lip.  "I'll go to Uncle -Harvey and—" - -"Oh, yes," I says, "I _would_.  Of _course_ I would.  I wouldn't lose no -time." - -"Well, why wouldn't you?" - -"Just look at it a minute, and maybe you can see.  Hain't your uncles -obleegd to get along home to England as fast as they can?  And do you -reckon they'd be mean enough to go off and leave you to go all that -journey by yourselves?  _you_ know they'll wait for you.  So fur, so -good. Your uncle Harvey's a preacher, ain't he?  Very well, then; is a -_preacher_ going to deceive a steamboat clerk? is he going to deceive -a _ship clerk?_—so as to get them to let Miss Mary Jane go aboard?  Now -_you_ know he ain't.  What _will_ he do, then?  Why, he'll say, 'It's a -great pity, but my church matters has got to get along the best way they -can; for my niece has been exposed to the dreadful pluribus-unum mumps, -and so it's my bounden duty to set down here and wait the three months -it takes to show on her if she's got it.'  But never mind, if you think -it's best to tell your uncle Harvey—" - -"Shucks, and stay fooling around here when we could all be having good -times in England whilst we was waiting to find out whether Mary Jane's -got it or not?  Why, you talk like a muggins." - -"Well, anyway, maybe you'd better tell some of the neighbors." - -"Listen at that, now.  You do beat all for natural stupidness.  Can't -you _see_ that _they'd_ go and tell?  Ther' ain't no way but just to not -tell anybody at _all_." - -"Well, maybe you're right—yes, I judge you _are_ right." - -"But I reckon we ought to tell Uncle Harvey she's gone out a while, -anyway, so he won't be uneasy about her?" - -"Yes, Miss Mary Jane she wanted you to do that.  She says, 'Tell them to -give Uncle Harvey and William my love and a kiss, and say I've run over -the river to see Mr.'—Mr.—what _is_ the name of that rich family your -uncle Peter used to think so much of?—I mean the one that—" - -"Why, you must mean the Apthorps, ain't it?" - -"Of course; bother them kind of names, a body can't ever seem to -remember them, half the time, somehow.  Yes, she said, say she has run -over for to ask the Apthorps to be sure and come to the auction and buy -this house, because she allowed her uncle Peter would ruther they had -it than anybody else; and she's going to stick to them till they say -they'll come, and then, if she ain't too tired, she's coming home; and -if she is, she'll be home in the morning anyway.  She said, don't say -nothing about the Proctors, but only about the Apthorps—which 'll be -perfectly true, because she is going there to speak about their buying -the house; I know it, because she told me so herself." - -"All right," they said, and cleared out to lay for their uncles, and -give them the love and the kisses, and tell them the message. - -Everything was all right now.  The girls wouldn't say nothing because -they wanted to go to England; and the king and the duke would ruther -Mary Jane was off working for the auction than around in reach of -Doctor Robinson.  I felt very good; I judged I had done it pretty neat—I -reckoned Tom Sawyer couldn't a done it no neater himself.  Of course he -would a throwed more style into it, but I can't do that very handy, not -being brung up to it. - -Well, they held the auction in the public square, along towards the end -of the afternoon, and it strung along, and strung along, and the old man -he was on hand and looking his level pisonest, up there longside of the -auctioneer, and chipping in a little Scripture now and then, or a little -goody-goody saying of some kind, and the duke he was around goo-gooing -for sympathy all he knowed how, and just spreading himself generly. - -But by and by the thing dragged through, and everything was -sold—everything but a little old trifling lot in the graveyard.  So -they'd got to work that off—I never see such a girafft as the king was -for wanting to swallow _everything_.  Well, whilst they was at it a -steamboat landed, and in about two minutes up comes a crowd a-whooping -and yelling and laughing and carrying on, and singing out: - -"_Here's_ your opposition line! here's your two sets o' heirs to old -Peter Wilks—and you pays your money and you takes your choice!" - - - - -CHAPTER XXIX. - -THEY was fetching a very nice-looking old gentleman along, and a -nice-looking younger one, with his right arm in a sling.  And, my souls, -how the people yelled and laughed, and kept it up.  But I didn't see no -joke about it, and I judged it would strain the duke and the king some -to see any.  I reckoned they'd turn pale.  But no, nary a pale did -_they_ turn. The duke he never let on he suspicioned what was up, but -just went a goo-gooing around, happy and satisfied, like a jug that's -googling out buttermilk; and as for the king, he just gazed and gazed -down sorrowful on them new-comers like it give him the stomach-ache in -his very heart to think there could be such frauds and rascals in the -world.  Oh, he done it admirable.  Lots of the principal people -gethered around the king, to let him see they was on his side.  That old -gentleman that had just come looked all puzzled to death.  Pretty -soon he begun to speak, and I see straight off he pronounced _like_ an -Englishman—not the king's way, though the king's _was_ pretty good for -an imitation.  I can't give the old gent's words, nor I can't imitate -him; but he turned around to the crowd, and says, about like this: - -"This is a surprise to me which I wasn't looking for; and I'll -acknowledge, candid and frank, I ain't very well fixed to meet it and -answer it; for my brother and me has had misfortunes; he's broke his -arm, and our baggage got put off at a town above here last night in the -night by a mistake.  I am Peter Wilks' brother Harvey, and this is his -brother William, which can't hear nor speak—and can't even make signs to -amount to much, now't he's only got one hand to work them with.  We are -who we say we are; and in a day or two, when I get the baggage, I can -prove it. But up till then I won't say nothing more, but go to the hotel -and wait." - -So him and the new dummy started off; and the king he laughs, and -blethers out: - -"Broke his arm—_very_ likely, _ain't_ it?—and very convenient, too, -for a fraud that's got to make signs, and ain't learnt how.  Lost -their baggage! That's _mighty_ good!—and mighty ingenious—under the -_circumstances_!" - -So he laughed again; and so did everybody else, except three or four, -or maybe half a dozen.  One of these was that doctor; another one was -a sharp-looking gentleman, with a carpet-bag of the old-fashioned kind -made out of carpet-stuff, that had just come off of the steamboat and -was talking to him in a low voice, and glancing towards the king now and -then and nodding their heads—it was Levi Bell, the lawyer that was gone -up to Louisville; and another one was a big rough husky that come along -and listened to all the old gentleman said, and was listening to the -king now. And when the king got done this husky up and says: - -"Say, looky here; if you are Harvey Wilks, when'd you come to this -town?" - -"The day before the funeral, friend," says the king. - -"But what time o' day?" - -"In the evenin'—'bout an hour er two before sundown." - -"_How'd_ you come?" - -"I come down on the Susan Powell from Cincinnati." - -"Well, then, how'd you come to be up at the Pint in the _mornin_'—in a -canoe?" - -"I warn't up at the Pint in the mornin'." - -"It's a lie." - -Several of them jumped for him and begged him not to talk that way to an -old man and a preacher. - -"Preacher be hanged, he's a fraud and a liar.  He was up at the Pint -that mornin'.  I live up there, don't I?  Well, I was up there, and -he was up there.  I see him there.  He come in a canoe, along with Tim -Collins and a boy." - -The doctor he up and says: - -"Would you know the boy again if you was to see him, Hines?" - -"I reckon I would, but I don't know.  Why, yonder he is, now.  I know -him perfectly easy." - -It was me he pointed at.  The doctor says: - -"Neighbors, I don't know whether the new couple is frauds or not; but if -_these_ two ain't frauds, I am an idiot, that's all.  I think it's our -duty to see that they don't get away from here till we've looked into -this thing. Come along, Hines; come along, the rest of you.  We'll take -these fellows to the tavern and affront them with t'other couple, and I -reckon we'll find out _something_ before we get through." - -It was nuts for the crowd, though maybe not for the king's friends; so -we all started.  It was about sundown.  The doctor he led me along by -the hand, and was plenty kind enough, but he never let go my hand. - -We all got in a big room in the hotel, and lit up some candles, and -fetched in the new couple.  First, the doctor says: - -"I don't wish to be too hard on these two men, but I think they're -frauds, and they may have complices that we don't know nothing about. - If they have, won't the complices get away with that bag of gold Peter -Wilks left?  It ain't unlikely.  If these men ain't frauds, they won't -object to sending for that money and letting us keep it till they prove -they're all right—ain't that so?" - -Everybody agreed to that.  So I judged they had our gang in a pretty -tight place right at the outstart.  But the king he only looked -sorrowful, and says: - -"Gentlemen, I wish the money was there, for I ain't got no disposition -to throw anything in the way of a fair, open, out-and-out investigation -o' this misable business; but, alas, the money ain't there; you k'n send -and see, if you want to." - -"Where is it, then?" - -"Well, when my niece give it to me to keep for her I took and hid it -inside o' the straw tick o' my bed, not wishin' to bank it for the few -days we'd be here, and considerin' the bed a safe place, we not bein' -used to niggers, and suppos'n' 'em honest, like servants in England. - The niggers stole it the very next mornin' after I had went down -stairs; and when I sold 'em I hadn't missed the money yit, so they got -clean away with it.  My servant here k'n tell you 'bout it, gentlemen." - -The doctor and several said "Shucks!" and I see nobody didn't altogether -believe him.  One man asked me if I see the niggers steal it.  I said -no, but I see them sneaking out of the room and hustling away, and I -never thought nothing, only I reckoned they was afraid they had waked up -my master and was trying to get away before he made trouble with them. - That was all they asked me.  Then the doctor whirls on me and says: - -"Are _you_ English, too?" - -I says yes; and him and some others laughed, and said, "Stuff!" - -Well, then they sailed in on the general investigation, and there we had -it, up and down, hour in, hour out, and nobody never said a word about -supper, nor ever seemed to think about it—and so they kept it up, and -kept it up; and it _was_ the worst mixed-up thing you ever see.  They -made the king tell his yarn, and they made the old gentleman tell his'n; -and anybody but a lot of prejudiced chuckleheads would a _seen_ that the -old gentleman was spinning truth and t'other one lies.  And by and by -they had me up to tell what I knowed.  The king he give me a left-handed -look out of the corner of his eye, and so I knowed enough to talk on the -right side.  I begun to tell about Sheffield, and how we lived there, -and all about the English Wilkses, and so on; but I didn't get pretty -fur till the doctor begun to laugh; and Levi Bell, the lawyer, says: - -"Set down, my boy; I wouldn't strain myself if I was you.  I reckon -you ain't used to lying, it don't seem to come handy; what you want is -practice.  You do it pretty awkward." - -I didn't care nothing for the compliment, but I was glad to be let off, -anyway. - -The doctor he started to say something, and turns and says: - -"If you'd been in town at first, Levi Bell—" The king broke in and -reached out his hand, and says: - -"Why, is this my poor dead brother's old friend that he's wrote so often -about?" - -The lawyer and him shook hands, and the lawyer smiled and looked -pleased, and they talked right along awhile, and then got to one side -and talked low; and at last the lawyer speaks up and says: - -"That 'll fix it.  I'll take the order and send it, along with your -brother's, and then they'll know it's all right." - -So they got some paper and a pen, and the king he set down and twisted -his head to one side, and chawed his tongue, and scrawled off something; -and then they give the pen to the duke—and then for the first time the -duke looked sick.  But he took the pen and wrote.  So then the lawyer -turns to the new old gentleman and says: - -"You and your brother please write a line or two and sign your names." - -The old gentleman wrote, but nobody couldn't read it.  The lawyer looked -powerful astonished, and says: - -"Well, it beats _me_"—and snaked a lot of old letters out of his pocket, -and examined them, and then examined the old man's writing, and then -_them_ again; and then says:  "These old letters is from Harvey Wilks; -and here's _these_ two handwritings, and anybody can see they didn't -write them" (the king and the duke looked sold and foolish, I tell -you, to see how the lawyer had took them in), "and here's _this_ old -gentleman's hand writing, and anybody can tell, easy enough, _he_ didn't -write them—fact is, the scratches he makes ain't properly _writing_ at -all.  Now, here's some letters from—" - -The new old gentleman says: - -"If you please, let me explain.  Nobody can read my hand but my brother -there—so he copies for me.  It's _his_ hand you've got there, not mine." - -"_Well_!" says the lawyer, "this _is_ a state of things.  I've got some -of William's letters, too; so if you'll get him to write a line or so we -can com—" - -"He _can't_ write with his left hand," says the old gentleman.  "If he -could use his right hand, you would see that he wrote his own letters -and mine too.  Look at both, please—they're by the same hand." - -The lawyer done it, and says: - -"I believe it's so—and if it ain't so, there's a heap stronger -resemblance than I'd noticed before, anyway.  Well, well, well!  I -thought we was right on the track of a solution, but it's gone to grass, -partly.  But anyway, one thing is proved—_these_ two ain't either of 'em -Wilkses"—and he wagged his head towards the king and the duke. - -Well, what do you think?  That muleheaded old fool wouldn't give in -_then_! Indeed he wouldn't.  Said it warn't no fair test.  Said his -brother William was the cussedest joker in the world, and hadn't tried -to write—_he_ see William was going to play one of his jokes the minute -he put the pen to paper.  And so he warmed up and went warbling and -warbling right along till he was actuly beginning to believe what he was -saying _himself_; but pretty soon the new gentleman broke in, and says: - -"I've thought of something.  Is there anybody here that helped to lay -out my br—helped to lay out the late Peter Wilks for burying?" - -"Yes," says somebody, "me and Ab Turner done it.  We're both here." - -Then the old man turns towards the king, and says: - -"Perhaps this gentleman can tell me what was tattooed on his breast?" - -Blamed if the king didn't have to brace up mighty quick, or he'd a -squshed down like a bluff bank that the river has cut under, it took -him so sudden; and, mind you, it was a thing that was calculated to make -most _anybody_ sqush to get fetched such a solid one as that without any -notice, because how was _he_ going to know what was tattooed on the man? - He whitened a little; he couldn't help it; and it was mighty still in -there, and everybody bending a little forwards and gazing at him.  Says -I to myself, _now_ he'll throw up the sponge—there ain't no more use. - Well, did he?  A body can't hardly believe it, but he didn't.  I reckon -he thought he'd keep the thing up till he tired them people out, so -they'd thin out, and him and the duke could break loose and get away. - Anyway, he set there, and pretty soon he begun to smile, and says: - -"Mf!  It's a _very_ tough question, _ain't_ it!  _yes_, sir, I k'n -tell you what's tattooed on his breast.  It's jest a small, thin, blue -arrow—that's what it is; and if you don't look clost, you can't see it. - _now_ what do you say—hey?" - -Well, I never see anything like that old blister for clean out-and-out -cheek. - -The new old gentleman turns brisk towards Ab Turner and his pard, and -his eye lights up like he judged he'd got the king _this_ time, and -says: - -"There—you've heard what he said!  Was there any such mark on Peter -Wilks' breast?" - -Both of them spoke up and says: - -"We didn't see no such mark." - -"Good!" says the old gentleman.  "Now, what you _did_ see on his breast -was a small dim P, and a B (which is an initial he dropped when he was -young), and a W, with dashes between them, so:  P—B—W"—and he marked -them that way on a piece of paper.  "Come, ain't that what you saw?" - -Both of them spoke up again, and says: - -"No, we _didn't_.  We never seen any marks at all." - -Well, everybody _was_ in a state of mind now, and they sings out: - -"The whole _bilin_' of 'm 's frauds!  Le's duck 'em! le's drown 'em! -le's ride 'em on a rail!" and everybody was whooping at once, and there -was a rattling powwow.  But the lawyer he jumps on the table and yells, -and says: - -"Gentlemen—gentle_men!_  Hear me just a word—just a _single_ word—if you -_please_!  There's one way yet—let's go and dig up the corpse and look." - -That took them. - -"Hooray!" they all shouted, and was starting right off; but the lawyer -and the doctor sung out: - -"Hold on, hold on!  Collar all these four men and the boy, and fetch -_them_ along, too!" - -"We'll do it!" they all shouted; "and if we don't find them marks we'll -lynch the whole gang!" - -I _was_ scared, now, I tell you.  But there warn't no getting away, you -know. They gripped us all, and marched us right along, straight for the -graveyard, which was a mile and a half down the river, and the whole -town at our heels, for we made noise enough, and it was only nine in the -evening. - -As we went by our house I wished I hadn't sent Mary Jane out of town; -because now if I could tip her the wink she'd light out and save me, and -blow on our dead-beats. - -Well, we swarmed along down the river road, just carrying on like -wildcats; and to make it more scary the sky was darking up, and the -lightning beginning to wink and flitter, and the wind to shiver amongst -the leaves. This was the most awful trouble and most dangersome I ever -was in; and I was kinder stunned; everything was going so different from -what I had allowed for; stead of being fixed so I could take my own time -if I wanted to, and see all the fun, and have Mary Jane at my back to -save me and set me free when the close-fit come, here was nothing in the -world betwixt me and sudden death but just them tattoo-marks.  If they -didn't find them— - -I couldn't bear to think about it; and yet, somehow, I couldn't think -about nothing else.  It got darker and darker, and it was a beautiful -time to give the crowd the slip; but that big husky had me by the -wrist—Hines—and a body might as well try to give Goliar the slip.  He -dragged me right along, he was so excited, and I had to run to keep up. - -When they got there they swarmed into the graveyard and washed over it -like an overflow.  And when they got to the grave they found they had -about a hundred times as many shovels as they wanted, but nobody hadn't -thought to fetch a lantern.  But they sailed into digging anyway by the -flicker of the lightning, and sent a man to the nearest house, a half a -mile off, to borrow one. - -So they dug and dug like everything; and it got awful dark, and the rain -started, and the wind swished and swushed along, and the lightning come -brisker and brisker, and the thunder boomed; but them people never took -no notice of it, they was so full of this business; and one minute -you could see everything and every face in that big crowd, and the -shovelfuls of dirt sailing up out of the grave, and the next second the -dark wiped it all out, and you couldn't see nothing at all. - -At last they got out the coffin and begun to unscrew the lid, and then -such another crowding and shouldering and shoving as there was, to -scrouge in and get a sight, you never see; and in the dark, that way, it -was awful.  Hines he hurt my wrist dreadful pulling and tugging so, -and I reckon he clean forgot I was in the world, he was so excited and -panting. - -All of a sudden the lightning let go a perfect sluice of white glare, -and somebody sings out: - -"By the living jingo, here's the bag of gold on his breast!" - -Hines let out a whoop, like everybody else, and dropped my wrist and -give a big surge to bust his way in and get a look, and the way I lit -out and shinned for the road in the dark there ain't nobody can tell. - -I had the road all to myself, and I fairly flew—leastways, I had it all -to myself except the solid dark, and the now-and-then glares, and the -buzzing of the rain, and the thrashing of the wind, and the splitting of -the thunder; and sure as you are born I did clip it along! - -When I struck the town I see there warn't nobody out in the storm, so -I never hunted for no back streets, but humped it straight through the -main one; and when I begun to get towards our house I aimed my eye and -set it. No light there; the house all dark—which made me feel sorry and -disappointed, I didn't know why.  But at last, just as I was sailing by, -_flash_ comes the light in Mary Jane's window! and my heart swelled up -sudden, like to bust; and the same second the house and all was behind -me in the dark, and wasn't ever going to be before me no more in this -world. She _was_ the best girl I ever see, and had the most sand. - -The minute I was far enough above the town to see I could make the -towhead, I begun to look sharp for a boat to borrow, and the first -time the lightning showed me one that wasn't chained I snatched it and -shoved. It was a canoe, and warn't fastened with nothing but a rope. - The towhead was a rattling big distance off, away out there in the -middle of the river, but I didn't lose no time; and when I struck the -raft at last I was so fagged I would a just laid down to blow and gasp -if I could afforded it.  But I didn't.  As I sprung aboard I sung out: - -"Out with you, Jim, and set her loose!  Glory be to goodness, we're shut -of them!" - -Jim lit out, and was a-coming for me with both arms spread, he was so -full of joy; but when I glimpsed him in the lightning my heart shot up -in my mouth and I went overboard backwards; for I forgot he was old King -Lear and a drownded A-rab all in one, and it most scared the livers and -lights out of me.  But Jim fished me out, and was going to hug me and -bless me, and so on, he was so glad I was back and we was shut of the -king and the duke, but I says: - -"Not now; have it for breakfast, have it for breakfast!  Cut loose and -let her slide!" - -So in two seconds away we went a-sliding down the river, and it _did_ -seem so good to be free again and all by ourselves on the big river, and -nobody to bother us.  I had to skip around a bit, and jump up and crack -my heels a few times—I couldn't help it; but about the third crack -I noticed a sound that I knowed mighty well, and held my breath and -listened and waited; and sure enough, when the next flash busted out -over the water, here they come!—and just a-laying to their oars and -making their skiff hum!  It was the king and the duke. - -So I wilted right down on to the planks then, and give up; and it was -all I could do to keep from crying. - - - - -CHAPTER XXX. - -WHEN they got aboard the king went for me, and shook me by the collar, -and says: - -"Tryin' to give us the slip, was ye, you pup!  Tired of our company, -hey?" - -I says: - -"No, your majesty, we warn't—_please_ don't, your majesty!" - -"Quick, then, and tell us what _was_ your idea, or I'll shake the -insides out o' you!" - -"Honest, I'll tell you everything just as it happened, your majesty. - The man that had a-holt of me was very good to me, and kept saying he -had a boy about as big as me that died last year, and he was sorry -to see a boy in such a dangerous fix; and when they was all took by -surprise by finding the gold, and made a rush for the coffin, he lets go -of me and whispers, 'Heel it now, or they'll hang ye, sure!' and I lit -out.  It didn't seem no good for _me_ to stay—I couldn't do nothing, -and I didn't want to be hung if I could get away.  So I never stopped -running till I found the canoe; and when I got here I told Jim to hurry, -or they'd catch me and hang me yet, and said I was afeard you and the -duke wasn't alive now, and I was awful sorry, and so was Jim, and was -awful glad when we see you coming; you may ask Jim if I didn't." - -Jim said it was so; and the king told him to shut up, and said, "Oh, -yes, it's _mighty_ likely!" and shook me up again, and said he reckoned -he'd drownd me.  But the duke says: - -"Leggo the boy, you old idiot!  Would _you_ a done any different?  Did -you inquire around for _him_ when you got loose?  I don't remember it." - -So the king let go of me, and begun to cuss that town and everybody in -it. But the duke says: - -"You better a blame' sight give _yourself_ a good cussing, for you're -the one that's entitled to it most.  You hain't done a thing from the -start that had any sense in it, except coming out so cool and cheeky -with that imaginary blue-arrow mark.  That _was_ bright—it was right -down bully; and it was the thing that saved us.  For if it hadn't been -for that they'd a jailed us till them Englishmen's baggage come—and -then—the penitentiary, you bet! But that trick took 'em to the -graveyard, and the gold done us a still bigger kindness; for if the -excited fools hadn't let go all holts and made that rush to get a -look we'd a slept in our cravats to-night—cravats warranted to _wear_, -too—longer than _we'd_ need 'em." - -They was still a minute—thinking; then the king says, kind of -absent-minded like: - -"Mf!  And we reckoned the _niggers_ stole it!" - -That made me squirm! - -"Yes," says the duke, kinder slow and deliberate and sarcastic, "_we_ -did." - -After about a half a minute the king drawls out: - -"Leastways, I did." - -The duke says, the same way: - -"On the contrary, I did." - -The king kind of ruffles up, and says: - -"Looky here, Bilgewater, what'r you referrin' to?" - -The duke says, pretty brisk: - -"When it comes to that, maybe you'll let me ask, what was _you_ -referring to?" - -"Shucks!" says the king, very sarcastic; "but I don't know—maybe you was -asleep, and didn't know what you was about." - -The duke bristles up now, and says: - -"Oh, let _up_ on this cussed nonsense; do you take me for a blame' fool? -Don't you reckon I know who hid that money in that coffin?" - -"_Yes_, sir!  I know you _do_ know, because you done it yourself!" - -"It's a lie!"—and the duke went for him.  The king sings out: - -"Take y'r hands off!—leggo my throat!—I take it all back!" - -The duke says: - -"Well, you just own up, first, that you _did_ hide that money there, -intending to give me the slip one of these days, and come back and dig -it up, and have it all to yourself." - -"Wait jest a minute, duke—answer me this one question, honest and fair; -if you didn't put the money there, say it, and I'll b'lieve you, and -take back everything I said." - -"You old scoundrel, I didn't, and you know I didn't.  There, now!" - -"Well, then, I b'lieve you.  But answer me only jest this one more—now -_don't_ git mad; didn't you have it in your mind to hook the money and -hide it?" - -The duke never said nothing for a little bit; then he says: - -"Well, I don't care if I _did_, I didn't _do_ it, anyway.  But you not -only had it in mind to do it, but you _done_ it." - -"I wisht I never die if I done it, duke, and that's honest.  I won't say -I warn't goin' to do it, because I _was_; but you—I mean somebody—got in -ahead o' me." - -"It's a lie!  You done it, and you got to _say_ you done it, or—" - -The king began to gurgle, and then he gasps out: - -"'Nough!—I _own up!_" - -I was very glad to hear him say that; it made me feel much more easier -than what I was feeling before.  So the duke took his hands off and -says: - -"If you ever deny it again I'll drown you.  It's _well_ for you to set -there and blubber like a baby—it's fitten for you, after the way -you've acted. I never see such an old ostrich for wanting to gobble -everything—and I a-trusting you all the time, like you was my own -father.  You ought to been ashamed of yourself to stand by and hear it -saddled on to a lot of poor niggers, and you never say a word for 'em. - It makes me feel ridiculous to think I was soft enough to _believe_ -that rubbage.  Cuss you, I can see now why you was so anxious to make -up the deffisit—you wanted to get what money I'd got out of the Nonesuch -and one thing or another, and scoop it _all_!" - -The king says, timid, and still a-snuffling: - -"Why, duke, it was you that said make up the deffisit; it warn't me." - -"Dry up!  I don't want to hear no more out of you!" says the duke.  "And -_now_ you see what you GOT by it.  They've got all their own money back, -and all of _ourn_ but a shekel or two _besides_.  G'long to bed, and -don't you deffersit _me_ no more deffersits, long 's _you_ live!" - -So the king sneaked into the wigwam and took to his bottle for comfort, -and before long the duke tackled HIS bottle; and so in about a half an -hour they was as thick as thieves again, and the tighter they got the -lovinger they got, and went off a-snoring in each other's arms.  They -both got powerful mellow, but I noticed the king didn't get mellow -enough to forget to remember to not deny about hiding the money-bag -again.  That made me feel easy and satisfied.  Of course when they got -to snoring we had a long gabble, and I told Jim everything. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXI. - -WE dasn't stop again at any town for days and days; kept right along -down the river.  We was down south in the warm weather now, and a mighty -long ways from home.  We begun to come to trees with Spanish moss on -them, hanging down from the limbs like long, gray beards.  It was the -first I ever see it growing, and it made the woods look solemn and -dismal.  So now the frauds reckoned they was out of danger, and they -begun to work the villages again. - -First they done a lecture on temperance; but they didn't make enough -for them both to get drunk on.  Then in another village they started -a dancing-school; but they didn't know no more how to dance than a -kangaroo does; so the first prance they made the general public jumped -in and pranced them out of town.  Another time they tried to go at -yellocution; but they didn't yellocute long till the audience got up and -give them a solid good cussing, and made them skip out.  They tackled -missionarying, and mesmerizing, and doctoring, and telling fortunes, and -a little of everything; but they couldn't seem to have no luck.  So at -last they got just about dead broke, and laid around the raft as she -floated along, thinking and thinking, and never saying nothing, by the -half a day at a time, and dreadful blue and desperate. - -And at last they took a change and begun to lay their heads together in -the wigwam and talk low and confidential two or three hours at a time. -Jim and me got uneasy.  We didn't like the look of it.  We judged they -was studying up some kind of worse deviltry than ever.  We turned it -over and over, and at last we made up our minds they was going to break -into somebody's house or store, or was going into the counterfeit-money -business, or something. So then we was pretty scared, and made up an -agreement that we wouldn't have nothing in the world to do with such -actions, and if we ever got the least show we would give them the cold -shake and clear out and leave them behind. Well, early one morning we -hid the raft in a good, safe place about two mile below a little bit of -a shabby village named Pikesville, and the king he went ashore and told -us all to stay hid whilst he went up to town and smelt around to see -if anybody had got any wind of the Royal Nonesuch there yet. ("House to -rob, you _mean_," says I to myself; "and when you get through robbing it -you'll come back here and wonder what has become of me and Jim and the -raft—and you'll have to take it out in wondering.") And he said if he -warn't back by midday the duke and me would know it was all right, and -we was to come along. - -So we stayed where we was.  The duke he fretted and sweated around, and -was in a mighty sour way.  He scolded us for everything, and we couldn't -seem to do nothing right; he found fault with every little thing. -Something was a-brewing, sure.  I was good and glad when midday come -and no king; we could have a change, anyway—and maybe a chance for _the_ -change on top of it.  So me and the duke went up to the village, and -hunted around there for the king, and by and by we found him in the -back room of a little low doggery, very tight, and a lot of loafers -bullyragging him for sport, and he a-cussing and a-threatening with all -his might, and so tight he couldn't walk, and couldn't do nothing to -them.  The duke he begun to abuse him for an old fool, and the king -begun to sass back, and the minute they was fairly at it I lit out and -shook the reefs out of my hind legs, and spun down the river road like -a deer, for I see our chance; and I made up my mind that it would be a -long day before they ever see me and Jim again.  I got down there all -out of breath but loaded up with joy, and sung out: - -"Set her loose, Jim! we're all right now!" - -But there warn't no answer, and nobody come out of the wigwam.  Jim was -gone!  I set up a shout—and then another—and then another one; and run -this way and that in the woods, whooping and screeching; but it warn't -no use—old Jim was gone.  Then I set down and cried; I couldn't help -it. But I couldn't set still long.  Pretty soon I went out on the road, -trying to think what I better do, and I run across a boy walking, and -asked him if he'd seen a strange nigger dressed so and so, and he says: - -"Yes." - -"Whereabouts?" says I. - -"Down to Silas Phelps' place, two mile below here.  He's a runaway -nigger, and they've got him.  Was you looking for him?" - -"You bet I ain't!  I run across him in the woods about an hour or two -ago, and he said if I hollered he'd cut my livers out—and told me to lay -down and stay where I was; and I done it.  Been there ever since; afeard -to come out." - -"Well," he says, "you needn't be afeard no more, becuz they've got him. -He run off f'm down South, som'ers." - -"It's a good job they got him." - -"Well, I _reckon_!  There's two hunderd dollars reward on him.  It's -like picking up money out'n the road." - -"Yes, it is—and I could a had it if I'd been big enough; I see him -_first_. Who nailed him?" - -"It was an old fellow—a stranger—and he sold out his chance in him for -forty dollars, becuz he's got to go up the river and can't wait.  Think -o' that, now!  You bet _I'd_ wait, if it was seven year." - -"That's me, every time," says I.  "But maybe his chance ain't worth -no more than that, if he'll sell it so cheap.  Maybe there's something -ain't straight about it." - -"But it _is_, though—straight as a string.  I see the handbill myself. - It tells all about him, to a dot—paints him like a picture, and tells -the plantation he's frum, below Newr_leans_.  No-sirree-_bob_, they -ain't no trouble 'bout _that_ speculation, you bet you.  Say, gimme a -chaw tobacker, won't ye?" - -I didn't have none, so he left.  I went to the raft, and set down in the -wigwam to think.  But I couldn't come to nothing.  I thought till I wore -my head sore, but I couldn't see no way out of the trouble.  After all -this long journey, and after all we'd done for them scoundrels, here it -was all come to nothing, everything all busted up and ruined, because -they could have the heart to serve Jim such a trick as that, and make -him a slave again all his life, and amongst strangers, too, for forty -dirty dollars. - -Once I said to myself it would be a thousand times better for Jim to -be a slave at home where his family was, as long as he'd _got_ to be a -slave, and so I'd better write a letter to Tom Sawyer and tell him to -tell Miss Watson where he was.  But I soon give up that notion for two -things: she'd be mad and disgusted at his rascality and ungratefulness -for leaving her, and so she'd sell him straight down the river again; -and if she didn't, everybody naturally despises an ungrateful nigger, -and they'd make Jim feel it all the time, and so he'd feel ornery and -disgraced. And then think of _me_!  It would get all around that Huck -Finn helped a nigger to get his freedom; and if I was ever to see -anybody from that town again I'd be ready to get down and lick his boots -for shame.  That's just the way:  a person does a low-down thing, and -then he don't want to take no consequences of it. Thinks as long as he -can hide it, it ain't no disgrace.  That was my fix exactly. The more I -studied about this the more my conscience went to grinding me, and the -more wicked and low-down and ornery I got to feeling. And at last, when -it hit me all of a sudden that here was the plain hand of Providence -slapping me in the face and letting me know my wickedness was being -watched all the time from up there in heaven, whilst I was stealing a -poor old woman's nigger that hadn't ever done me no harm, and now was -showing me there's One that's always on the lookout, and ain't a-going -to allow no such miserable doings to go only just so fur and no further, -I most dropped in my tracks I was so scared.  Well, I tried the best I -could to kinder soften it up somehow for myself by saying I was brung -up wicked, and so I warn't so much to blame; but something inside of me -kept saying, "There was the Sunday-school, you could a gone to it; and -if you'd a done it they'd a learnt you there that people that acts as -I'd been acting about that nigger goes to everlasting fire." - -It made me shiver.  And I about made up my mind to pray, and see if I -couldn't try to quit being the kind of a boy I was and be better.  So -I kneeled down.  But the words wouldn't come.  Why wouldn't they?  It -warn't no use to try and hide it from Him.  Nor from _me_, neither.  I -knowed very well why they wouldn't come.  It was because my heart warn't -right; it was because I warn't square; it was because I was playing -double.  I was letting _on_ to give up sin, but away inside of me I was -holding on to the biggest one of all.  I was trying to make my mouth -_say_ I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write -to that nigger's owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I -knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it.  You can't pray a lie—I found -that out. - -So I was full of trouble, full as I could be; and didn't know what to -do. At last I had an idea; and I says, I'll go and write the letter—and -then see if I can pray.  Why, it was astonishing, the way I felt as -light as a feather right straight off, and my troubles all gone.  So I -got a piece of paper and a pencil, all glad and excited, and set down -and wrote: - -Miss Watson, your runaway nigger Jim is down here two mile below -Pikesville, and Mr. Phelps has got him and he will give him up for the -reward if you send. - -_Huck Finn._ - -I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever -felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now.  But I didn't do it -straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking—thinking -how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost -and going to hell.  And went on thinking.  And got to thinking over our -trip down the river; and I see Jim before me all the time:  in the day -and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we -a-floating along, talking and singing and laughing.  But somehow I -couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the -other kind.  I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, 'stead of -calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when -I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, -up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call -me honey, and pet me and do everything he could think of for me, and how -good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling -the men we had small-pox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was -the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the _only_ one he's -got now; and then I happened to look around and see that paper. - -It was a close place.  I took it up, and held it in my hand.  I was -a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and -I knowed it.  I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then -says to myself: - -"All right, then, I'll _go_ to hell"—and tore it up. - -It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said.  And I let -them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming.  I shoved the -whole thing out of my head, and said I would take up wickedness again, -which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other warn't.  And -for a starter I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; -and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as -long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog. - -Then I set to thinking over how to get at it, and turned over some -considerable many ways in my mind; and at last fixed up a plan that -suited me.  So then I took the bearings of a woody island that was down -the river a piece, and as soon as it was fairly dark I crept out with my -raft and went for it, and hid it there, and then turned in.  I slept the -night through, and got up before it was light, and had my breakfast, -and put on my store clothes, and tied up some others and one thing or -another in a bundle, and took the canoe and cleared for shore.  I landed -below where I judged was Phelps's place, and hid my bundle in the woods, -and then filled up the canoe with water, and loaded rocks into her and -sunk her where I could find her again when I wanted her, about a quarter -of a mile below a little steam sawmill that was on the bank. - -Then I struck up the road, and when I passed the mill I see a sign on -it, "Phelps's Sawmill," and when I come to the farm-houses, two or -three hundred yards further along, I kept my eyes peeled, but didn't -see nobody around, though it was good daylight now.  But I didn't mind, -because I didn't want to see nobody just yet—I only wanted to get the -lay of the land. According to my plan, I was going to turn up there from -the village, not from below.  So I just took a look, and shoved along, -straight for town. Well, the very first man I see when I got there was -the duke.  He was sticking up a bill for the Royal Nonesuch—three-night -performance—like that other time.  They had the cheek, them frauds!  I -was right on him before I could shirk.  He looked astonished, and says: - -"Hel-_lo_!  Where'd _you_ come from?"  Then he says, kind of glad and -eager, "Where's the raft?—got her in a good place?" - -I says: - -"Why, that's just what I was going to ask your grace." - -Then he didn't look so joyful, and says: - -"What was your idea for asking _me_?" he says. - -"Well," I says, "when I see the king in that doggery yesterday I says -to myself, we can't get him home for hours, till he's soberer; so I went -a-loafing around town to put in the time and wait.  A man up and offered -me ten cents to help him pull a skiff over the river and back to fetch -a sheep, and so I went along; but when we was dragging him to the boat, -and the man left me a-holt of the rope and went behind him to shove him -along, he was too strong for me and jerked loose and run, and we after -him.  We didn't have no dog, and so we had to chase him all over the -country till we tired him out.  We never got him till dark; then we -fetched him over, and I started down for the raft.  When I got there and -see it was gone, I says to myself, 'They've got into trouble and had to -leave; and they've took my nigger, which is the only nigger I've got in -the world, and now I'm in a strange country, and ain't got no property -no more, nor nothing, and no way to make my living;' so I set down and -cried.  I slept in the woods all night.  But what _did_ become of the -raft, then?—and Jim—poor Jim!" - -"Blamed if I know—that is, what's become of the raft.  That old fool had -made a trade and got forty dollars, and when we found him in the doggery -the loafers had matched half-dollars with him and got every cent but -what he'd spent for whisky; and when I got him home late last night and -found the raft gone, we said, 'That little rascal has stole our raft and -shook us, and run off down the river.'" - -"I wouldn't shake my _nigger_, would I?—the only nigger I had in the -world, and the only property." - -"We never thought of that.  Fact is, I reckon we'd come to consider him -_our_ nigger; yes, we did consider him so—goodness knows we had trouble -enough for him.  So when we see the raft was gone and we flat broke, -there warn't anything for it but to try the Royal Nonesuch another -shake. And I've pegged along ever since, dry as a powder-horn.  Where's -that ten cents? Give it here." - -I had considerable money, so I give him ten cents, but begged him to -spend it for something to eat, and give me some, because it was all the -money I had, and I hadn't had nothing to eat since yesterday.  He never -said nothing.  The next minute he whirls on me and says: - -"Do you reckon that nigger would blow on us?  We'd skin him if he done -that!" - -"How can he blow?  Hain't he run off?" - -"No!  That old fool sold him, and never divided with me, and the money's -gone." - -"_Sold_ him?"  I says, and begun to cry; "why, he was _my_ nigger, and -that was my money.  Where is he?—I want my nigger." - -"Well, you can't _get_ your nigger, that's all—so dry up your -blubbering. Looky here—do you think _you'd_ venture to blow on us? - Blamed if I think I'd trust you.  Why, if you _was_ to blow on us—" - -He stopped, but I never see the duke look so ugly out of his eyes -before. I went on a-whimpering, and says: - -"I don't want to blow on nobody; and I ain't got no time to blow, nohow. -I got to turn out and find my nigger." - -He looked kinder bothered, and stood there with his bills fluttering on -his arm, thinking, and wrinkling up his forehead.  At last he says: - -"I'll tell you something.  We got to be here three days.  If you'll -promise you won't blow, and won't let the nigger blow, I'll tell you -where to find him." - -So I promised, and he says: - -"A farmer by the name of Silas Ph—" and then he stopped.  You see, he -started to tell me the truth; but when he stopped that way, and begun to -study and think again, I reckoned he was changing his mind.  And so he -was. He wouldn't trust me; he wanted to make sure of having me out of -the way the whole three days.  So pretty soon he says: - -"The man that bought him is named Abram Foster—Abram G. Foster—and he -lives forty mile back here in the country, on the road to Lafayette." - -"All right," I says, "I can walk it in three days.  And I'll start this -very afternoon." - -"No you wont, you'll start _now_; and don't you lose any time about it, -neither, nor do any gabbling by the way.  Just keep a tight tongue in -your head and move right along, and then you won't get into trouble with -_us_, d'ye hear?" - -That was the order I wanted, and that was the one I played for.  I -wanted to be left free to work my plans. - -"So clear out," he says; "and you can tell Mr. Foster whatever you want -to. Maybe you can get him to believe that Jim _is_ your nigger—some -idiots don't require documents—leastways I've heard there's such down -South here.  And when you tell him the handbill and the reward's bogus, -maybe he'll believe you when you explain to him what the idea was for -getting 'em out.  Go 'long now, and tell him anything you want to; but -mind you don't work your jaw any _between_ here and there." - -So I left, and struck for the back country.  I didn't look around, but I -kinder felt like he was watching me.  But I knowed I could tire him out -at that.  I went straight out in the country as much as a mile before -I stopped; then I doubled back through the woods towards Phelps'.  I -reckoned I better start in on my plan straight off without fooling -around, because I wanted to stop Jim's mouth till these fellows could -get away.  I didn't want no trouble with their kind.  I'd seen all I -wanted to of them, and wanted to get entirely shut of them. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXII. - -WHEN I got there it was all still and Sunday-like, and hot and sunshiny; -the hands was gone to the fields; and there was them kind of faint -dronings of bugs and flies in the air that makes it seem so lonesome and -like everybody's dead and gone; and if a breeze fans along and quivers -the leaves it makes you feel mournful, because you feel like it's -spirits whispering—spirits that's been dead ever so many years—and you -always think they're talking about _you_.  As a general thing it makes a -body wish _he_ was dead, too, and done with it all. - -Phelps' was one of these little one-horse cotton plantations, and they -all look alike.  A rail fence round a two-acre yard; a stile made out -of logs sawed off and up-ended in steps, like barrels of a different -length, to climb over the fence with, and for the women to stand on when -they are going to jump on to a horse; some sickly grass-patches in the -big yard, but mostly it was bare and smooth, like an old hat with the -nap rubbed off; big double log-house for the white folks—hewed logs, -with the chinks stopped up with mud or mortar, and these mud-stripes -been whitewashed some time or another; round-log kitchen, with a big -broad, open but roofed passage joining it to the house; log smoke-house -back of the kitchen; three little log nigger-cabins in a row t'other -side the smoke-house; one little hut all by itself away down against -the back fence, and some outbuildings down a piece the other side; -ash-hopper and big kettle to bile soap in by the little hut; bench by -the kitchen door, with bucket of water and a gourd; hound asleep there -in the sun; more hounds asleep round about; about three shade trees away -off in a corner; some currant bushes and gooseberry bushes in one place -by the fence; outside of the fence a garden and a watermelon patch; then -the cotton fields begins, and after the fields the woods. - -I went around and clumb over the back stile by the ash-hopper, and -started for the kitchen.  When I got a little ways I heard the dim hum -of a spinning-wheel wailing along up and sinking along down again; -and then I knowed for certain I wished I was dead—for that _is_ the -lonesomest sound in the whole world. - -I went right along, not fixing up any particular plan, but just trusting -to Providence to put the right words in my mouth when the time come; for -I'd noticed that Providence always did put the right words in my mouth -if I left it alone. - -When I got half-way, first one hound and then another got up and went -for me, and of course I stopped and faced them, and kept still.  And -such another powwow as they made!  In a quarter of a minute I was a kind -of a hub of a wheel, as you may say—spokes made out of dogs—circle of -fifteen of them packed together around me, with their necks and noses -stretched up towards me, a-barking and howling; and more a-coming; you -could see them sailing over fences and around corners from everywheres. - -A nigger woman come tearing out of the kitchen with a rolling-pin in her -hand, singing out, "Begone _you_ Tige! you Spot! begone sah!" and she -fetched first one and then another of them a clip and sent them howling, -and then the rest followed; and the next second half of them come back, -wagging their tails around me, and making friends with me.  There ain't -no harm in a hound, nohow. - -And behind the woman comes a little nigger girl and two little nigger -boys without anything on but tow-linen shirts, and they hung on to their -mother's gown, and peeped out from behind her at me, bashful, the way -they always do.  And here comes the white woman running from the house, -about forty-five or fifty year old, bareheaded, and her spinning-stick -in her hand; and behind her comes her little white children, acting the -same way the little niggers was doing.  She was smiling all over so she -could hardly stand—and says: - -"It's _you_, at last!—_ain't_ it?" - -I out with a "Yes'm" before I thought. - -She grabbed me and hugged me tight; and then gripped me by both hands -and shook and shook; and the tears come in her eyes, and run down over; -and she couldn't seem to hug and shake enough, and kept saying, "You -don't look as much like your mother as I reckoned you would; but law -sakes, I don't care for that, I'm so glad to see you!  Dear, dear, it -does seem like I could eat you up!  Children, it's your cousin Tom!—tell -him howdy." - -But they ducked their heads, and put their fingers in their mouths, and -hid behind her.  So she run on: - -"Lize, hurry up and get him a hot breakfast right away—or did you get -your breakfast on the boat?" - -I said I had got it on the boat.  So then she started for the house, -leading me by the hand, and the children tagging after.  When we got -there she set me down in a split-bottomed chair, and set herself down on -a little low stool in front of me, holding both of my hands, and says: - -"Now I can have a _good_ look at you; and, laws-a-me, I've been hungry -for it a many and a many a time, all these long years, and it's come -at last! We been expecting you a couple of days and more.  What kep' -you?—boat get aground?" - -"Yes'm—she—" - -"Don't say yes'm—say Aunt Sally.  Where'd she get aground?" - -I didn't rightly know what to say, because I didn't know whether the -boat would be coming up the river or down.  But I go a good deal on -instinct; and my instinct said she would be coming up—from down towards -Orleans. That didn't help me much, though; for I didn't know the names -of bars down that way.  I see I'd got to invent a bar, or forget the -name of the one we got aground on—or—Now I struck an idea, and fetched -it out: - -"It warn't the grounding—that didn't keep us back but a little.  We -blowed out a cylinder-head." - -"Good gracious! anybody hurt?" - -"No'm.  Killed a nigger." - -"Well, it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.  Two years ago -last Christmas your uncle Silas was coming up from Newrleans on the old -Lally Rook, and she blowed out a cylinder-head and crippled a man.  And -I think he died afterwards.  He was a Baptist.  Your uncle Silas knowed -a family in Baton Rouge that knowed his people very well.  Yes, I -remember now, he _did_ die.  Mortification set in, and they had to -amputate him. But it didn't save him.  Yes, it was mortification—that -was it.  He turned blue all over, and died in the hope of a glorious -resurrection. They say he was a sight to look at.  Your uncle's been up -to the town every day to fetch you. And he's gone again, not more'n an -hour ago; he'll be back any minute now. You must a met him on the road, -didn't you?—oldish man, with a—" - -"No, I didn't see nobody, Aunt Sally.  The boat landed just at daylight, -and I left my baggage on the wharf-boat and went looking around the town -and out a piece in the country, to put in the time and not get here too -soon; and so I come down the back way." - -"Who'd you give the baggage to?" - -"Nobody." - -"Why, child, it 'll be stole!" - -"Not where I hid it I reckon it won't," I says. - -"How'd you get your breakfast so early on the boat?" - -It was kinder thin ice, but I says: - -"The captain see me standing around, and told me I better have something -to eat before I went ashore; so he took me in the texas to the officers' -lunch, and give me all I wanted." - -I was getting so uneasy I couldn't listen good.  I had my mind on the -children all the time; I wanted to get them out to one side and pump -them a little, and find out who I was.  But I couldn't get no show, Mrs. -Phelps kept it up and run on so.  Pretty soon she made the cold chills -streak all down my back, because she says: - -"But here we're a-running on this way, and you hain't told me a word -about Sis, nor any of them.  Now I'll rest my works a little, and you -start up yourn; just tell me _everything_—tell me all about 'm all every -one of 'm; and how they are, and what they're doing, and what they told -you to tell me; and every last thing you can think of." - -Well, I see I was up a stump—and up it good.  Providence had stood by -me this fur all right, but I was hard and tight aground now.  I see it -warn't a bit of use to try to go ahead—I'd got to throw up my hand.  So -I says to myself, here's another place where I got to resk the truth. - I opened my mouth to begin; but she grabbed me and hustled me in behind -the bed, and says: - -"Here he comes!  Stick your head down lower—there, that'll do; you can't -be seen now.  Don't you let on you're here.  I'll play a joke on him. -Children, don't you say a word." - -I see I was in a fix now.  But it warn't no use to worry; there warn't -nothing to do but just hold still, and try and be ready to stand from -under when the lightning struck. - -I had just one little glimpse of the old gentleman when he come in; then -the bed hid him.  Mrs. Phelps she jumps for him, and says: - -"Has he come?" - -"No," says her husband. - -"Good-_ness_ gracious!" she says, "what in the warld can have become of -him?" - -"I can't imagine," says the old gentleman; "and I must say it makes me -dreadful uneasy." - -"Uneasy!" she says; "I'm ready to go distracted!  He _must_ a come; and -you've missed him along the road.  I _know_ it's so—something tells me -so." - -"Why, Sally, I _couldn't_ miss him along the road—_you_ know that." - -"But oh, dear, dear, what _will_ Sis say!  He must a come!  You must a -missed him.  He—" - -"Oh, don't distress me any more'n I'm already distressed.  I don't know -what in the world to make of it.  I'm at my wit's end, and I don't mind -acknowledging 't I'm right down scared.  But there's no hope that he's -come; for he _couldn't_ come and me miss him.  Sally, it's terrible—just -terrible—something's happened to the boat, sure!" - -"Why, Silas!  Look yonder!—up the road!—ain't that somebody coming?" - -He sprung to the window at the head of the bed, and that give Mrs. -Phelps the chance she wanted.  She stooped down quick at the foot of the -bed and give me a pull, and out I come; and when he turned back from the -window there she stood, a-beaming and a-smiling like a house afire, and -I standing pretty meek and sweaty alongside.  The old gentleman stared, -and says: - -"Why, who's that?" - -"Who do you reckon 't is?" - -"I hain't no idea.  Who _is_ it?" - -"It's _Tom Sawyer!_" - -By jings, I most slumped through the floor!  But there warn't no time to -swap knives; the old man grabbed me by the hand and shook, and kept on -shaking; and all the time how the woman did dance around and laugh and -cry; and then how they both did fire off questions about Sid, and Mary, -and the rest of the tribe. - -But if they was joyful, it warn't nothing to what I was; for it was like -being born again, I was so glad to find out who I was.  Well, they froze -to me for two hours; and at last, when my chin was so tired it couldn't -hardly go any more, I had told them more about my family—I mean the -Sawyer family—than ever happened to any six Sawyer families.  And I -explained all about how we blowed out a cylinder-head at the mouth of -White River, and it took us three days to fix it.  Which was all right, -and worked first-rate; because _they_ didn't know but what it would take -three days to fix it.  If I'd a called it a bolthead it would a done -just as well. - -Now I was feeling pretty comfortable all down one side, and pretty -uncomfortable all up the other.  Being Tom Sawyer was easy and -comfortable, and it stayed easy and comfortable till by and by I hear a -steamboat coughing along down the river.  Then I says to myself, s'pose -Tom Sawyer comes down on that boat?  And s'pose he steps in here any -minute, and sings out my name before I can throw him a wink to keep -quiet? - -Well, I couldn't _have_ it that way; it wouldn't do at all.  I must go -up the road and waylay him.  So I told the folks I reckoned I would go -up to the town and fetch down my baggage.  The old gentleman was for -going along with me, but I said no, I could drive the horse myself, and -I druther he wouldn't take no trouble about me. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIII. - -SO I started for town in the wagon, and when I was half-way I see a -wagon coming, and sure enough it was Tom Sawyer, and I stopped and -waited till he come along.  I says "Hold on!" and it stopped alongside, -and his mouth opened up like a trunk, and stayed so; and he swallowed -two or three times like a person that's got a dry throat, and then says: - -"I hain't ever done you no harm.  You know that.  So, then, what you -want to come back and ha'nt _me_ for?" - -I says: - -"I hain't come back—I hain't been _gone_." - -When he heard my voice it righted him up some, but he warn't quite -satisfied yet.  He says: - -"Don't you play nothing on me, because I wouldn't on you.  Honest injun -now, you ain't a ghost?" - -"Honest injun, I ain't," I says. - -"Well—I—I—well, that ought to settle it, of course; but I can't somehow -seem to understand it no way.  Looky here, warn't you ever murdered _at -all?_" - -"No.  I warn't ever murdered at all—I played it on them.  You come in -here and feel of me if you don't believe me." - -So he done it; and it satisfied him; and he was that glad to see me -again he didn't know what to do.  And he wanted to know all about it -right off, because it was a grand adventure, and mysterious, and so it -hit him where he lived.  But I said, leave it alone till by and by; and -told his driver to wait, and we drove off a little piece, and I told -him the kind of a fix I was in, and what did he reckon we better do?  He -said, let him alone a minute, and don't disturb him.  So he thought and -thought, and pretty soon he says: - -"It's all right; I've got it.  Take my trunk in your wagon, and let on -it's your'n; and you turn back and fool along slow, so as to get to the -house about the time you ought to; and I'll go towards town a piece, and -take a fresh start, and get there a quarter or a half an hour after you; -and you needn't let on to know me at first." - -I says: - -"All right; but wait a minute.  There's one more thing—a thing that -_nobody_ don't know but me.  And that is, there's a nigger here that -I'm a-trying to steal out of slavery, and his name is _Jim_—old Miss -Watson's Jim." - -He says: - -"What!  Why, Jim is—" - -He stopped and went to studying.  I says: - -"I know what you'll say.  You'll say it's dirty, low-down business; but -what if it is?  I'm low down; and I'm a-going to steal him, and I want -you keep mum and not let on.  Will you?" - -His eye lit up, and he says: - -"I'll _help_ you steal him!" - -Well, I let go all holts then, like I was shot.  It was the most -astonishing speech I ever heard—and I'm bound to say Tom Sawyer fell -considerable in my estimation.  Only I couldn't believe it.  Tom Sawyer -a _nigger-stealer!_ - -"Oh, shucks!"  I says; "you're joking." - -"I ain't joking, either." - -"Well, then," I says, "joking or no joking, if you hear anything said -about a runaway nigger, don't forget to remember that _you_ don't know -nothing about him, and I don't know nothing about him." - -Then we took the trunk and put it in my wagon, and he drove off his -way and I drove mine.  But of course I forgot all about driving slow on -accounts of being glad and full of thinking; so I got home a heap too -quick for that length of a trip.  The old gentleman was at the door, and -he says: - -"Why, this is wonderful!  Whoever would a thought it was in that mare -to do it?  I wish we'd a timed her.  And she hain't sweated a hair—not -a hair. It's wonderful.  Why, I wouldn't take a hundred dollars for that -horse now—I wouldn't, honest; and yet I'd a sold her for fifteen before, -and thought 'twas all she was worth." - -That's all he said.  He was the innocentest, best old soul I ever see. -But it warn't surprising; because he warn't only just a farmer, he was -a preacher, too, and had a little one-horse log church down back of the -plantation, which he built it himself at his own expense, for a church -and schoolhouse, and never charged nothing for his preaching, and it was -worth it, too.  There was plenty other farmer-preachers like that, and -done the same way, down South. - -In about half an hour Tom's wagon drove up to the front stile, and Aunt -Sally she see it through the window, because it was only about fifty -yards, and says: - -"Why, there's somebody come!  I wonder who 'tis?  Why, I do believe it's -a stranger.  Jimmy" (that's one of the children) "run and tell Lize to -put on another plate for dinner." - -Everybody made a rush for the front door, because, of course, a stranger -don't come _every_ year, and so he lays over the yaller-fever, for -interest, when he does come.  Tom was over the stile and starting for -the house; the wagon was spinning up the road for the village, and we -was all bunched in the front door.  Tom had his store clothes on, and an -audience—and that was always nuts for Tom Sawyer.  In them circumstances -it warn't no trouble to him to throw in an amount of style that was -suitable.  He warn't a boy to meeky along up that yard like a sheep; no, -he come ca'm and important, like the ram.  When he got a-front of us he -lifts his hat ever so gracious and dainty, like it was the lid of a box -that had butterflies asleep in it and he didn't want to disturb them, -and says: - -"Mr. Archibald Nichols, I presume?" - -"No, my boy," says the old gentleman, "I'm sorry to say 't your driver -has deceived you; Nichols's place is down a matter of three mile more. -Come in, come in." - -Tom he took a look back over his shoulder, and says, "Too late—he's out -of sight." - -"Yes, he's gone, my son, and you must come in and eat your dinner with -us; and then we'll hitch up and take you down to Nichols's." - -"Oh, I _can't_ make you so much trouble; I couldn't think of it.  I'll -walk—I don't mind the distance." - -"But we won't _let_ you walk—it wouldn't be Southern hospitality to do -it. Come right in." - -"Oh, _do_," says Aunt Sally; "it ain't a bit of trouble to us, not a -bit in the world.  You must stay.  It's a long, dusty three mile, and -we can't let you walk.  And, besides, I've already told 'em to put on -another plate when I see you coming; so you mustn't disappoint us.  Come -right in and make yourself at home." - -So Tom he thanked them very hearty and handsome, and let himself be -persuaded, and come in; and when he was in he said he was a stranger -from Hicksville, Ohio, and his name was William Thompson—and he made -another bow. - -Well, he run on, and on, and on, making up stuff about Hicksville and -everybody in it he could invent, and I getting a little nervious, and -wondering how this was going to help me out of my scrape; and at last, -still talking along, he reached over and kissed Aunt Sally right on the -mouth, and then settled back again in his chair comfortable, and was -going on talking; but she jumped up and wiped it off with the back of -her hand, and says: - -"You owdacious puppy!" - -He looked kind of hurt, and says: - -"I'm surprised at you, m'am." - -"You're s'rp—Why, what do you reckon I am?  I've a good notion to take -and—Say, what do you mean by kissing me?" - -He looked kind of humble, and says: - -"I didn't mean nothing, m'am.  I didn't mean no harm.  I—I—thought you'd -like it." - -"Why, you born fool!"  She took up the spinning stick, and it looked -like it was all she could do to keep from giving him a crack with it. - "What made you think I'd like it?" - -"Well, I don't know.  Only, they—they—told me you would." - -"_They_ told you I would.  Whoever told you's _another_ lunatic.  I -never heard the beat of it.  Who's _they_?" - -"Why, everybody.  They all said so, m'am." - -It was all she could do to hold in; and her eyes snapped, and her -fingers worked like she wanted to scratch him; and she says: - -"Who's 'everybody'?  Out with their names, or ther'll be an idiot -short." - -He got up and looked distressed, and fumbled his hat, and says: - -"I'm sorry, and I warn't expecting it.  They told me to.  They all told -me to.  They all said, kiss her; and said she'd like it.  They all said -it—every one of them.  But I'm sorry, m'am, and I won't do it no more—I -won't, honest." - -"You won't, won't you?  Well, I sh'd _reckon_ you won't!" - -"No'm, I'm honest about it; I won't ever do it again—till you ask me." - -"Till I _ask_ you!  Well, I never see the beat of it in my born days! - I lay you'll be the Methusalem-numskull of creation before ever I ask -you—or the likes of you." - -"Well," he says, "it does surprise me so.  I can't make it out, somehow. -They said you would, and I thought you would.  But—" He stopped and -looked around slow, like he wished he could run across a friendly eye -somewheres, and fetched up on the old gentleman's, and says, "Didn't -_you_ think she'd like me to kiss her, sir?" - -"Why, no; I—I—well, no, I b'lieve I didn't." - -Then he looks on around the same way to me, and says: - -"Tom, didn't _you_ think Aunt Sally 'd open out her arms and say, 'Sid -Sawyer—'" - -"My land!" she says, breaking in and jumping for him, "you impudent -young rascal, to fool a body so—" and was going to hug him, but he -fended her off, and says: - -"No, not till you've asked me first." - -So she didn't lose no time, but asked him; and hugged him and kissed -him over and over again, and then turned him over to the old man, and he -took what was left.  And after they got a little quiet again she says: - -"Why, dear me, I never see such a surprise.  We warn't looking for _you_ -at all, but only Tom.  Sis never wrote to me about anybody coming but -him." - -"It's because it warn't _intended_ for any of us to come but Tom," he -says; "but I begged and begged, and at the last minute she let me -come, too; so, coming down the river, me and Tom thought it would be a -first-rate surprise for him to come here to the house first, and for me -to by and by tag along and drop in, and let on to be a stranger.  But it -was a mistake, Aunt Sally.  This ain't no healthy place for a stranger -to come." - -"No—not impudent whelps, Sid.  You ought to had your jaws boxed; I -hain't been so put out since I don't know when.  But I don't care, I -don't mind the terms—I'd be willing to stand a thousand such jokes to -have you here. Well, to think of that performance!  I don't deny it, I -was most putrified with astonishment when you give me that smack." - -We had dinner out in that broad open passage betwixt the house and -the kitchen; and there was things enough on that table for seven -families—and all hot, too; none of your flabby, tough meat that's laid -in a cupboard in a damp cellar all night and tastes like a hunk of -old cold cannibal in the morning.  Uncle Silas he asked a pretty long -blessing over it, but it was worth it; and it didn't cool it a bit, -neither, the way I've seen them kind of interruptions do lots of times. - There was a considerable good deal of talk all the afternoon, and me -and Tom was on the lookout all the time; but it warn't no use, they -didn't happen to say nothing about any runaway nigger, and we was afraid -to try to work up to it.  But at supper, at night, one of the little -boys says: - -"Pa, mayn't Tom and Sid and me go to the show?" - -"No," says the old man, "I reckon there ain't going to be any; and you -couldn't go if there was; because the runaway nigger told Burton and -me all about that scandalous show, and Burton said he would tell the -people; so I reckon they've drove the owdacious loafers out of town -before this time." - -So there it was!—but I couldn't help it.  Tom and me was to sleep in the -same room and bed; so, being tired, we bid good-night and went up to -bed right after supper, and clumb out of the window and down the -lightning-rod, and shoved for the town; for I didn't believe anybody was -going to give the king and the duke a hint, and so if I didn't hurry up -and give them one they'd get into trouble sure. - -On the road Tom he told me all about how it was reckoned I was murdered, -and how pap disappeared pretty soon, and didn't come back no more, and -what a stir there was when Jim run away; and I told Tom all about our -Royal Nonesuch rapscallions, and as much of the raft voyage as I had -time to; and as we struck into the town and up through the the middle of -it--it was as much as half-after eight, then—here comes a raging rush of -people with torches, and an awful whooping and yelling, and banging tin -pans and blowing horns; and we jumped to one side to let them go by; -and as they went by I see they had the king and the duke astraddle of a -rail—that is, I knowed it _was_ the king and the duke, though they was -all over tar and feathers, and didn't look like nothing in the -world that was human—just looked like a couple of monstrous big -soldier-plumes.  Well, it made me sick to see it; and I was sorry for -them poor pitiful rascals, it seemed like I couldn't ever feel any -hardness against them any more in the world.  It was a dreadful thing to -see.  Human beings _can_ be awful cruel to one another. - -We see we was too late—couldn't do no good.  We asked some stragglers -about it, and they said everybody went to the show looking very -innocent; and laid low and kept dark till the poor old king was in the -middle of his cavortings on the stage; then somebody give a signal, and -the house rose up and went for them. - -So we poked along back home, and I warn't feeling so brash as I was -before, but kind of ornery, and humble, and to blame, somehow—though -I hadn't done nothing.  But that's always the way; it don't make no -difference whether you do right or wrong, a person's conscience ain't -got no sense, and just goes for him anyway.  If I had a yaller dog that -didn't know no more than a person's conscience does I would pison him. -It takes up more room than all the rest of a person's insides, and yet -ain't no good, nohow.  Tom Sawyer he says the same. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIV. - -WE stopped talking, and got to thinking.  By and by Tom says: - -"Looky here, Huck, what fools we are to not think of it before!  I bet I -know where Jim is." - -"No!  Where?" - -"In that hut down by the ash-hopper.  Why, looky here.  When we was at -dinner, didn't you see a nigger man go in there with some vittles?" - -"Yes." - -"What did you think the vittles was for?" - -"For a dog." - -"So 'd I. Well, it wasn't for a dog." - -"Why?" - -"Because part of it was watermelon." - -"So it was—I noticed it.  Well, it does beat all that I never thought -about a dog not eating watermelon.  It shows how a body can see and -don't see at the same time." - -"Well, the nigger unlocked the padlock when he went in, and he locked it -again when he came out.  He fetched uncle a key about the time we got up -from table—same key, I bet.  Watermelon shows man, lock shows prisoner; -and it ain't likely there's two prisoners on such a little plantation, -and where the people's all so kind and good.  Jim's the prisoner.  All -right—I'm glad we found it out detective fashion; I wouldn't give shucks -for any other way.  Now you work your mind, and study out a plan to -steal Jim, and I will study out one, too; and we'll take the one we like -the best." - -What a head for just a boy to have!  If I had Tom Sawyer's head I -wouldn't trade it off to be a duke, nor mate of a steamboat, nor clown -in a circus, nor nothing I can think of.  I went to thinking out a plan, -but only just to be doing something; I knowed very well where the right -plan was going to come from.  Pretty soon Tom says: - -"Ready?" - -"Yes," I says. - -"All right—bring it out." - -"My plan is this," I says.  "We can easy find out if it's Jim in there. -Then get up my canoe to-morrow night, and fetch my raft over from the -island.  Then the first dark night that comes steal the key out of the -old man's britches after he goes to bed, and shove off down the river -on the raft with Jim, hiding daytimes and running nights, the way me and -Jim used to do before.  Wouldn't that plan work?" - -"_Work_?  Why, cert'nly it would work, like rats a-fighting.  But it's -too blame' simple; there ain't nothing _to_ it.  What's the good of a -plan that ain't no more trouble than that?  It's as mild as goose-milk. - Why, Huck, it wouldn't make no more talk than breaking into a soap -factory." - -I never said nothing, because I warn't expecting nothing different; but -I knowed mighty well that whenever he got _his_ plan ready it wouldn't -have none of them objections to it. - -And it didn't.  He told me what it was, and I see in a minute it was -worth fifteen of mine for style, and would make Jim just as free a man -as mine would, and maybe get us all killed besides.  So I was satisfied, -and said we would waltz in on it.  I needn't tell what it was here, -because I knowed it wouldn't stay the way, it was.  I knowed he would be -changing it around every which way as we went along, and heaving in new -bullinesses wherever he got a chance.  And that is what he done. - -Well, one thing was dead sure, and that was that Tom Sawyer was in -earnest, and was actuly going to help steal that nigger out of slavery. -That was the thing that was too many for me.  Here was a boy that was -respectable and well brung up; and had a character to lose; and folks at -home that had characters; and he was bright and not leather-headed; and -knowing and not ignorant; and not mean, but kind; and yet here he was, -without any more pride, or rightness, or feeling, than to stoop to -this business, and make himself a shame, and his family a shame, -before everybody.  I _couldn't_ understand it no way at all.  It was -outrageous, and I knowed I ought to just up and tell him so; and so be -his true friend, and let him quit the thing right where he was and save -himself. And I _did_ start to tell him; but he shut me up, and says: - -"Don't you reckon I know what I'm about?  Don't I generly know what I'm -about?" - -"Yes." - -"Didn't I _say_ I was going to help steal the nigger?" - -"Yes." - -"_Well_, then." - -That's all he said, and that's all I said.  It warn't no use to say any -more; because when he said he'd do a thing, he always done it.  But I -couldn't make out how he was willing to go into this thing; so I just -let it go, and never bothered no more about it.  If he was bound to have -it so, I couldn't help it. - -When we got home the house was all dark and still; so we went on down to -the hut by the ash-hopper for to examine it.  We went through the yard -so as to see what the hounds would do.  They knowed us, and didn't make -no more noise than country dogs is always doing when anything comes by -in the night.  When we got to the cabin we took a look at the front and -the two sides; and on the side I warn't acquainted with—which was the -north side—we found a square window-hole, up tolerable high, with just -one stout board nailed across it.  I says: - -"Here's the ticket.  This hole's big enough for Jim to get through if we -wrench off the board." - -Tom says: - -"It's as simple as tit-tat-toe, three-in-a-row, and as easy as -playing hooky.  I should _hope_ we can find a way that's a little more -complicated than _that_, Huck Finn." - -"Well, then," I says, "how 'll it do to saw him out, the way I done -before I was murdered that time?" - -"That's more _like_," he says.  "It's real mysterious, and troublesome, -and good," he says; "but I bet we can find a way that's twice as long. - There ain't no hurry; le's keep on looking around." - -Betwixt the hut and the fence, on the back side, was a lean-to that -joined the hut at the eaves, and was made out of plank.  It was as long -as the hut, but narrow—only about six foot wide.  The door to it was at -the south end, and was padlocked.  Tom he went to the soap-kettle and -searched around, and fetched back the iron thing they lift the lid with; -so he took it and prized out one of the staples.  The chain fell down, -and we opened the door and went in, and shut it, and struck a match, -and see the shed was only built against a cabin and hadn't no connection -with it; and there warn't no floor to the shed, nor nothing in it but -some old rusty played-out hoes and spades and picks and a crippled plow. - The match went out, and so did we, and shoved in the staple again, and -the door was locked as good as ever. Tom was joyful.  He says; - -"Now we're all right.  We'll _dig_ him out.  It 'll take about a week!" - -Then we started for the house, and I went in the back door—you only have -to pull a buckskin latch-string, they don't fasten the doors—but that -warn't romantical enough for Tom Sawyer; no way would do him but he must -climb up the lightning-rod.  But after he got up half way about three -times, and missed fire and fell every time, and the last time most -busted his brains out, he thought he'd got to give it up; but after he -was rested he allowed he would give her one more turn for luck, and this -time he made the trip. - -In the morning we was up at break of day, and down to the nigger cabins -to pet the dogs and make friends with the nigger that fed Jim—if it -_was_ Jim that was being fed.  The niggers was just getting through -breakfast and starting for the fields; and Jim's nigger was piling up -a tin pan with bread and meat and things; and whilst the others was -leaving, the key come from the house. - -This nigger had a good-natured, chuckle-headed face, and his wool was -all tied up in little bunches with thread.  That was to keep witches -off.  He said the witches was pestering him awful these nights, and -making him see all kinds of strange things, and hear all kinds of -strange words and noises, and he didn't believe he was ever witched so -long before in his life.  He got so worked up, and got to running on so -about his troubles, he forgot all about what he'd been a-going to do. - So Tom says: - -"What's the vittles for?  Going to feed the dogs?" - -The nigger kind of smiled around gradually over his face, like when you -heave a brickbat in a mud-puddle, and he says: - -"Yes, Mars Sid, A dog.  Cur'us dog, too.  Does you want to go en look at -'im?" - -"Yes." - -I hunched Tom, and whispers: - -"You going, right here in the daybreak?  _that_ warn't the plan." - -"No, it warn't; but it's the plan _now_." - -So, drat him, we went along, but I didn't like it much.  When we got in -we couldn't hardly see anything, it was so dark; but Jim was there, sure -enough, and could see us; and he sings out: - -"Why, _Huck_!  En good _lan_'! ain' dat Misto Tom?" - -I just knowed how it would be; I just expected it.  I didn't know -nothing to do; and if I had I couldn't a done it, because that nigger -busted in and says: - -"Why, de gracious sakes! do he know you genlmen?" - -We could see pretty well now.  Tom he looked at the nigger, steady and -kind of wondering, and says: - -"Does _who_ know us?" - -"Why, dis-yer runaway nigger." - -"I don't reckon he does; but what put that into your head?" - -"What _put_ it dar?  Didn' he jis' dis minute sing out like he knowed -you?" - -Tom says, in a puzzled-up kind of way: - -"Well, that's mighty curious.  _Who_ sung out? _when_ did he sing out? - _what_ did he sing out?" And turns to me, perfectly ca'm, and says, -"Did _you_ hear anybody sing out?" - -Of course there warn't nothing to be said but the one thing; so I says: - -"No; I ain't heard nobody say nothing." - -Then he turns to Jim, and looks him over like he never see him before, -and says: - -"Did you sing out?" - -"No, sah," says Jim; "I hain't said nothing, sah." - -"Not a word?" - -"No, sah, I hain't said a word." - -"Did you ever see us before?" - -"No, sah; not as I knows on." - -So Tom turns to the nigger, which was looking wild and distressed, and -says, kind of severe: - -"What do you reckon's the matter with you, anyway?  What made you think -somebody sung out?" - -"Oh, it's de dad-blame' witches, sah, en I wisht I was dead, I do. - Dey's awluz at it, sah, en dey do mos' kill me, dey sk'yers me so. - Please to don't tell nobody 'bout it sah, er ole Mars Silas he'll scole -me; 'kase he say dey _ain't_ no witches.  I jis' wish to goodness he was -heah now—_den_ what would he say!  I jis' bet he couldn' fine no way to -git aroun' it _dis_ time.  But it's awluz jis' so; people dat's _sot_, -stays sot; dey won't look into noth'n'en fine it out f'r deyselves, en -when _you_ fine it out en tell um 'bout it, dey doan' b'lieve you." - -Tom give him a dime, and said we wouldn't tell nobody; and told him to -buy some more thread to tie up his wool with; and then looks at Jim, and -says: - -"I wonder if Uncle Silas is going to hang this nigger.  If I was to -catch a nigger that was ungrateful enough to run away, I wouldn't give -him up, I'd hang him."  And whilst the nigger stepped to the door to -look at the dime and bite it to see if it was good, he whispers to Jim -and says: - -"Don't ever let on to know us.  And if you hear any digging going on -nights, it's us; we're going to set you free." - -Jim only had time to grab us by the hand and squeeze it; then the nigger -come back, and we said we'd come again some time if the nigger wanted -us to; and he said he would, more particular if it was dark, because the -witches went for him mostly in the dark, and it was good to have folks -around then. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXV. - -IT would be most an hour yet till breakfast, so we left and struck down -into the woods; because Tom said we got to have _some_ light to see how -to dig by, and a lantern makes too much, and might get us into trouble; -what we must have was a lot of them rotten chunks that's called -fox-fire, and just makes a soft kind of a glow when you lay them in a -dark place.  We fetched an armful and hid it in the weeds, and set down -to rest, and Tom says, kind of dissatisfied: - -"Blame it, this whole thing is just as easy and awkward as it can be. -And so it makes it so rotten difficult to get up a difficult plan. - There ain't no watchman to be drugged—now there _ought_ to be a -watchman.  There ain't even a dog to give a sleeping-mixture to.  And -there's Jim chained by one leg, with a ten-foot chain, to the leg of his -bed:  why, all you got to do is to lift up the bedstead and slip off -the chain.  And Uncle Silas he trusts everybody; sends the key to the -punkin-headed nigger, and don't send nobody to watch the nigger.  Jim -could a got out of that window-hole before this, only there wouldn't be -no use trying to travel with a ten-foot chain on his leg.  Why, drat it, -Huck, it's the stupidest arrangement I ever see. You got to invent _all_ -the difficulties.  Well, we can't help it; we got to do the best we can -with the materials we've got. Anyhow, there's one thing—there's more -honor in getting him out through a lot of difficulties and dangers, -where there warn't one of them furnished to you by the people who it was -their duty to furnish them, and you had to contrive them all out of your -own head.  Now look at just that one thing of the lantern.  When you -come down to the cold facts, we simply got to _let on_ that a lantern's -resky.  Why, we could work with a torchlight procession if we wanted to, -I believe.  Now, whilst I think of it, we got to hunt up something to -make a saw out of the first chance we get." - -"What do we want of a saw?" - -"What do we _want_ of it?  Hain't we got to saw the leg of Jim's bed -off, so as to get the chain loose?" - -"Why, you just said a body could lift up the bedstead and slip the chain -off." - -"Well, if that ain't just like you, Huck Finn.  You _can_ get up the -infant-schooliest ways of going at a thing.  Why, hain't you ever read -any books at all?—Baron Trenck, nor Casanova, nor Benvenuto Chelleeny, -nor Henri IV., nor none of them heroes?  Who ever heard of getting a -prisoner loose in such an old-maidy way as that?  No; the way all the -best authorities does is to saw the bed-leg in two, and leave it just -so, and swallow the sawdust, so it can't be found, and put some dirt and -grease around the sawed place so the very keenest seneskal can't see -no sign of it's being sawed, and thinks the bed-leg is perfectly sound. -Then, the night you're ready, fetch the leg a kick, down she goes; slip -off your chain, and there you are.  Nothing to do but hitch your -rope ladder to the battlements, shin down it, break your leg in the -moat—because a rope ladder is nineteen foot too short, you know—and -there's your horses and your trusty vassles, and they scoop you up and -fling you across a saddle, and away you go to your native Langudoc, or -Navarre, or wherever it is. It's gaudy, Huck.  I wish there was a moat -to this cabin. If we get time, the night of the escape, we'll dig one." - -I says: - -"What do we want of a moat when we're going to snake him out from under -the cabin?" - -But he never heard me.  He had forgot me and everything else.  He had -his chin in his hand, thinking.  Pretty soon he sighs and shakes his -head; then sighs again, and says: - -"No, it wouldn't do—there ain't necessity enough for it." - -"For what?"  I says. - -"Why, to saw Jim's leg off," he says. - -"Good land!"  I says; "why, there ain't _no_ necessity for it.  And what -would you want to saw his leg off for, anyway?" - -"Well, some of the best authorities has done it.  They couldn't get the -chain off, so they just cut their hand off and shoved.  And a leg would -be better still.  But we got to let that go.  There ain't necessity -enough in this case; and, besides, Jim's a nigger, and wouldn't -understand the reasons for it, and how it's the custom in Europe; so -we'll let it go.  But there's one thing—he can have a rope ladder; we -can tear up our sheets and make him a rope ladder easy enough.  And we -can send it to him in a pie; it's mostly done that way.  And I've et -worse pies." - -"Why, Tom Sawyer, how you talk," I says; "Jim ain't got no use for a -rope ladder." - -"He _has_ got use for it.  How _you_ talk, you better say; you don't -know nothing about it.  He's _got_ to have a rope ladder; they all do." - -"What in the nation can he _do_ with it?" - -"_Do_ with it?  He can hide it in his bed, can't he?"  That's what they -all do; and _he's_ got to, too.  Huck, you don't ever seem to want to do -anything that's regular; you want to be starting something fresh all the -time. S'pose he _don't_ do nothing with it? ain't it there in his bed, -for a clew, after he's gone? and don't you reckon they'll want clews? - Of course they will.  And you wouldn't leave them any?  That would be a -_pretty_ howdy-do, _wouldn't_ it!  I never heard of such a thing." - -"Well," I says, "if it's in the regulations, and he's got to have -it, all right, let him have it; because I don't wish to go back on no -regulations; but there's one thing, Tom Sawyer—if we go to tearing up -our sheets to make Jim a rope ladder, we're going to get into trouble -with Aunt Sally, just as sure as you're born.  Now, the way I look at -it, a hickry-bark ladder don't cost nothing, and don't waste nothing, -and is just as good to load up a pie with, and hide in a straw tick, -as any rag ladder you can start; and as for Jim, he ain't had no -experience, and so he don't care what kind of a—" - -"Oh, shucks, Huck Finn, if I was as ignorant as you I'd keep -still—that's what I'D do.  Who ever heard of a state prisoner escaping -by a hickry-bark ladder?  Why, it's perfectly ridiculous." - -"Well, all right, Tom, fix it your own way; but if you'll take my -advice, you'll let me borrow a sheet off of the clothesline." - -He said that would do.  And that gave him another idea, and he says: - -"Borrow a shirt, too." - -"What do we want of a shirt, Tom?" - -"Want it for Jim to keep a journal on." - -"Journal your granny—_Jim_ can't write." - -"S'pose he _can't_ write—he can make marks on the shirt, can't he, if -we make him a pen out of an old pewter spoon or a piece of an old iron -barrel-hoop?" - -"Why, Tom, we can pull a feather out of a goose and make him a better -one; and quicker, too." - -"_Prisoners_ don't have geese running around the donjon-keep to pull -pens out of, you muggins.  They _always_ make their pens out of the -hardest, toughest, troublesomest piece of old brass candlestick or -something like that they can get their hands on; and it takes them weeks -and weeks and months and months to file it out, too, because they've got -to do it by rubbing it on the wall.  _They_ wouldn't use a goose-quill -if they had it. It ain't regular." - -"Well, then, what'll we make him the ink out of?" - -"Many makes it out of iron-rust and tears; but that's the common sort -and women; the best authorities uses their own blood.  Jim can do that; -and when he wants to send any little common ordinary mysterious message -to let the world know where he's captivated, he can write it on the -bottom of a tin plate with a fork and throw it out of the window.  The -Iron Mask always done that, and it's a blame' good way, too." - -"Jim ain't got no tin plates.  They feed him in a pan." - -"That ain't nothing; we can get him some." - -"Can't nobody _read_ his plates." - -"That ain't got anything to _do_ with it, Huck Finn.  All _he's_ got to -do is to write on the plate and throw it out.  You don't _have_ to be -able to read it. Why, half the time you can't read anything a prisoner -writes on a tin plate, or anywhere else." - -"Well, then, what's the sense in wasting the plates?" - -"Why, blame it all, it ain't the _prisoner's_ plates." - -"But it's _somebody's_ plates, ain't it?" - -"Well, spos'n it is?  What does the _prisoner_ care whose—" - -He broke off there, because we heard the breakfast-horn blowing.  So we -cleared out for the house. - -Along during the morning I borrowed a sheet and a white shirt off of the -clothes-line; and I found an old sack and put them in it, and we went -down and got the fox-fire, and put that in too.  I called it borrowing, -because that was what pap always called it; but Tom said it warn't -borrowing, it was stealing.  He said we was representing prisoners; and -prisoners don't care how they get a thing so they get it, and nobody -don't blame them for it, either.  It ain't no crime in a prisoner to -steal the thing he needs to get away with, Tom said; it's his right; and -so, as long as we was representing a prisoner, we had a perfect right to -steal anything on this place we had the least use for to get ourselves -out of prison with.  He said if we warn't prisoners it would be a very -different thing, and nobody but a mean, ornery person would steal when -he warn't a prisoner.  So we allowed we would steal everything there was -that come handy.  And yet he made a mighty fuss, one day, after that, -when I stole a watermelon out of the nigger-patch and eat it; and he -made me go and give the niggers a dime without telling them what it -was for. Tom said that what he meant was, we could steal anything we -_needed_. Well, I says, I needed the watermelon.  But he said I didn't -need it to get out of prison with; there's where the difference was. - He said if I'd a wanted it to hide a knife in, and smuggle it to Jim -to kill the seneskal with, it would a been all right.  So I let it go at -that, though I couldn't see no advantage in my representing a prisoner -if I got to set down and chaw over a lot of gold-leaf distinctions like -that every time I see a chance to hog a watermelon. - -Well, as I was saying, we waited that morning till everybody was settled -down to business, and nobody in sight around the yard; then Tom he -carried the sack into the lean-to whilst I stood off a piece to keep -watch.  By and by he come out, and we went and set down on the woodpile -to talk.  He says: - -"Everything's all right now except tools; and that's easy fixed." - -"Tools?"  I says. - -"Yes." - -"Tools for what?" - -"Why, to dig with.  We ain't a-going to _gnaw_ him out, are we?" - -"Ain't them old crippled picks and things in there good enough to dig a -nigger out with?"  I says. - -He turns on me, looking pitying enough to make a body cry, and says: - -"Huck Finn, did you _ever_ hear of a prisoner having picks and shovels, -and all the modern conveniences in his wardrobe to dig himself out with? - Now I want to ask you—if you got any reasonableness in you at all—what -kind of a show would _that_ give him to be a hero?  Why, they might as -well lend him the key and done with it.  Picks and shovels—why, they -wouldn't furnish 'em to a king." - -"Well, then," I says, "if we don't want the picks and shovels, what do -we want?" - -"A couple of case-knives." - -"To dig the foundations out from under that cabin with?" - -"Yes." - -"Confound it, it's foolish, Tom." - -"It don't make no difference how foolish it is, it's the _right_ way—and -it's the regular way.  And there ain't no _other_ way, that ever I heard -of, and I've read all the books that gives any information about these -things. They always dig out with a case-knife—and not through dirt, mind -you; generly it's through solid rock.  And it takes them weeks and weeks -and weeks, and for ever and ever.  Why, look at one of them prisoners in -the bottom dungeon of the Castle Deef, in the harbor of Marseilles, that -dug himself out that way; how long was _he_ at it, you reckon?" - -"I don't know." - -"Well, guess." - -"I don't know.  A month and a half." - -"_Thirty-seven year_—and he come out in China.  _That's_ the kind.  I -wish the bottom of _this_ fortress was solid rock." - -"_Jim_ don't know nobody in China." - -"What's _that_ got to do with it?  Neither did that other fellow.  But -you're always a-wandering off on a side issue.  Why can't you stick to -the main point?" - -"All right—I don't care where he comes out, so he _comes_ out; and Jim -don't, either, I reckon.  But there's one thing, anyway—Jim's too old to -be dug out with a case-knife.  He won't last." - -"Yes he will _last_, too.  You don't reckon it's going to take -thirty-seven years to dig out through a _dirt_ foundation, do you?" - -"How long will it take, Tom?" - -"Well, we can't resk being as long as we ought to, because it mayn't -take very long for Uncle Silas to hear from down there by New Orleans. - He'll hear Jim ain't from there.  Then his next move will be to -advertise Jim, or something like that.  So we can't resk being as long -digging him out as we ought to.  By rights I reckon we ought to be -a couple of years; but we can't.  Things being so uncertain, what I -recommend is this:  that we really dig right in, as quick as we can; -and after that, we can _let on_, to ourselves, that we was at it -thirty-seven years.  Then we can snatch him out and rush him away the -first time there's an alarm.  Yes, I reckon that 'll be the best way." - -"Now, there's _sense_ in that," I says.  "Letting on don't cost nothing; -letting on ain't no trouble; and if it's any object, I don't mind -letting on we was at it a hundred and fifty year.  It wouldn't strain -me none, after I got my hand in.  So I'll mosey along now, and smouch a -couple of case-knives." - -"Smouch three," he says; "we want one to make a saw out of." - -"Tom, if it ain't unregular and irreligious to sejest it," I says, -"there's an old rusty saw-blade around yonder sticking under the -weather-boarding behind the smoke-house." - -He looked kind of weary and discouraged-like, and says: - -"It ain't no use to try to learn you nothing, Huck.  Run along and -smouch the knives—three of them."  So I done it. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVI. - -AS soon as we reckoned everybody was asleep that night we went down the -lightning-rod, and shut ourselves up in the lean-to, and got out our -pile of fox-fire, and went to work.  We cleared everything out of the -way, about four or five foot along the middle of the bottom log.  Tom -said he was right behind Jim's bed now, and we'd dig in under it, and -when we got through there couldn't nobody in the cabin ever know there -was any hole there, because Jim's counter-pin hung down most to the -ground, and you'd have to raise it up and look under to see the hole. - So we dug and dug with the case-knives till most midnight; and then -we was dog-tired, and our hands was blistered, and yet you couldn't see -we'd done anything hardly.  At last I says: - -"This ain't no thirty-seven year job; this is a thirty-eight year job, -Tom Sawyer." - -He never said nothing.  But he sighed, and pretty soon he stopped -digging, and then for a good little while I knowed that he was thinking. -Then he says: - -"It ain't no use, Huck, it ain't a-going to work.  If we was prisoners -it would, because then we'd have as many years as we wanted, and no -hurry; and we wouldn't get but a few minutes to dig, every day, while -they was changing watches, and so our hands wouldn't get blistered, and -we could keep it up right along, year in and year out, and do it right, -and the way it ought to be done.  But _we_ can't fool along; we got to -rush; we ain't got no time to spare.  If we was to put in another -night this way we'd have to knock off for a week to let our hands get -well—couldn't touch a case-knife with them sooner." - -"Well, then, what we going to do, Tom?" - -"I'll tell you.  It ain't right, and it ain't moral, and I wouldn't like -it to get out; but there ain't only just the one way:  we got to dig him -out with the picks, and _let on_ it's case-knives." - -"_Now_ you're _talking_!"  I says; "your head gets leveler and leveler -all the time, Tom Sawyer," I says.  "Picks is the thing, moral or no -moral; and as for me, I don't care shucks for the morality of it, nohow. - When I start in to steal a nigger, or a watermelon, or a Sunday-school -book, I ain't no ways particular how it's done so it's done.  What I -want is my nigger; or what I want is my watermelon; or what I want is my -Sunday-school book; and if a pick's the handiest thing, that's the thing -I'm a-going to dig that nigger or that watermelon or that Sunday-school -book out with; and I don't give a dead rat what the authorities thinks -about it nuther." - -"Well," he says, "there's excuse for picks and letting-on in a case like -this; if it warn't so, I wouldn't approve of it, nor I wouldn't stand by -and see the rules broke—because right is right, and wrong is wrong, -and a body ain't got no business doing wrong when he ain't ignorant and -knows better.  It might answer for _you_ to dig Jim out with a pick, -_without_ any letting on, because you don't know no better; but it -wouldn't for me, because I do know better.  Gimme a case-knife." - -He had his own by him, but I handed him mine.  He flung it down, and -says: - -"Gimme a _case-knife_." - -I didn't know just what to do—but then I thought.  I scratched around -amongst the old tools, and got a pickaxe and give it to him, and he took -it and went to work, and never said a word. - -He was always just that particular.  Full of principle. - -So then I got a shovel, and then we picked and shoveled, turn about, -and made the fur fly.  We stuck to it about a half an hour, which was as -long as we could stand up; but we had a good deal of a hole to show for -it. When I got up stairs I looked out at the window and see Tom doing -his level best with the lightning-rod, but he couldn't come it, his -hands was so sore.  At last he says: - -"It ain't no use, it can't be done.  What you reckon I better do?  Can't -you think of no way?" - -"Yes," I says, "but I reckon it ain't regular.  Come up the stairs, and -let on it's a lightning-rod." - -So he done it. - -Next day Tom stole a pewter spoon and a brass candlestick in the house, -for to make some pens for Jim out of, and six tallow candles; and I -hung around the nigger cabins and laid for a chance, and stole three tin -plates.  Tom says it wasn't enough; but I said nobody wouldn't ever see -the plates that Jim throwed out, because they'd fall in the dog-fennel -and jimpson weeds under the window-hole—then we could tote them back and -he could use them over again.  So Tom was satisfied.  Then he says: - -"Now, the thing to study out is, how to get the things to Jim." - -"Take them in through the hole," I says, "when we get it done." - -He only just looked scornful, and said something about nobody ever heard -of such an idiotic idea, and then he went to studying.  By and by he -said he had ciphered out two or three ways, but there warn't no need to -decide on any of them yet.  Said we'd got to post Jim first. - -That night we went down the lightning-rod a little after ten, and took -one of the candles along, and listened under the window-hole, and heard -Jim snoring; so we pitched it in, and it didn't wake him.  Then we -whirled in with the pick and shovel, and in about two hours and a half -the job was done.  We crept in under Jim's bed and into the cabin, and -pawed around and found the candle and lit it, and stood over Jim awhile, -and found him looking hearty and healthy, and then we woke him up gentle -and gradual.  He was so glad to see us he most cried; and called us -honey, and all the pet names he could think of; and was for having us -hunt up a cold-chisel to cut the chain off of his leg with right away, -and clearing out without losing any time.  But Tom he showed him how -unregular it would be, and set down and told him all about our plans, -and how we could alter them in a minute any time there was an alarm; and -not to be the least afraid, because we would see he got away, _sure_. - So Jim he said it was all right, and we set there and talked over old -times awhile, and then Tom asked a lot of questions, and when Jim told -him Uncle Silas come in every day or two to pray with him, and Aunt -Sally come in to see if he was comfortable and had plenty to eat, and -both of them was kind as they could be, Tom says: - -"_Now_ I know how to fix it.  We'll send you some things by them." - -I said, "Don't do nothing of the kind; it's one of the most jackass -ideas I ever struck;" but he never paid no attention to me; went right -on.  It was his way when he'd got his plans set. - -So he told Jim how we'd have to smuggle in the rope-ladder pie and other -large things by Nat, the nigger that fed him, and he must be on the -lookout, and not be surprised, and not let Nat see him open them; and -we would put small things in uncle's coat-pockets and he must steal them -out; and we would tie things to aunt's apron-strings or put them in her -apron-pocket, if we got a chance; and told him what they would be and -what they was for.  And told him how to keep a journal on the shirt with -his blood, and all that. He told him everything.  Jim he couldn't see -no sense in the most of it, but he allowed we was white folks and knowed -better than him; so he was satisfied, and said he would do it all just -as Tom said. - -Jim had plenty corn-cob pipes and tobacco; so we had a right down good -sociable time; then we crawled out through the hole, and so home to -bed, with hands that looked like they'd been chawed.  Tom was in high -spirits. He said it was the best fun he ever had in his life, and the -most intellectural; and said if he only could see his way to it we would -keep it up all the rest of our lives and leave Jim to our children to -get out; for he believed Jim would come to like it better and better the -more he got used to it.  He said that in that way it could be strung out -to as much as eighty year, and would be the best time on record.  And he -said it would make us all celebrated that had a hand in it. - -In the morning we went out to the woodpile and chopped up the brass -candlestick into handy sizes, and Tom put them and the pewter spoon in -his pocket.  Then we went to the nigger cabins, and while I got Nat's -notice off, Tom shoved a piece of candlestick into the middle of a -corn-pone that was in Jim's pan, and we went along with Nat to see how -it would work, and it just worked noble; when Jim bit into it it most -mashed all his teeth out; and there warn't ever anything could a worked -better. Tom said so himself. Jim he never let on but what it was only -just a piece of rock or something like that that's always getting into -bread, you know; but after that he never bit into nothing but what he -jabbed his fork into it in three or four places first. - -And whilst we was a-standing there in the dimmish light, here comes a -couple of the hounds bulging in from under Jim's bed; and they kept on -piling in till there was eleven of them, and there warn't hardly room -in there to get your breath.  By jings, we forgot to fasten that lean-to -door!  The nigger Nat he only just hollered "Witches" once, and keeled -over on to the floor amongst the dogs, and begun to groan like he was -dying.  Tom jerked the door open and flung out a slab of Jim's meat, -and the dogs went for it, and in two seconds he was out himself and back -again and shut the door, and I knowed he'd fixed the other door too. -Then he went to work on the nigger, coaxing him and petting him, and -asking him if he'd been imagining he saw something again.  He raised up, -and blinked his eyes around, and says: - -"Mars Sid, you'll say I's a fool, but if I didn't b'lieve I see most a -million dogs, er devils, er some'n, I wisht I may die right heah in dese -tracks.  I did, mos' sholy.  Mars Sid, I _felt_ um—I _felt_ um, sah; dey -was all over me.  Dad fetch it, I jis' wisht I could git my han's on one -er dem witches jis' wunst—on'y jis' wunst—it's all I'd ast.  But mos'ly -I wisht dey'd lemme 'lone, I does." - -Tom says: - -"Well, I tell you what I think.  What makes them come here just at this -runaway nigger's breakfast-time?  It's because they're hungry; that's -the reason.  You make them a witch pie; that's the thing for _you_ to -do." - -"But my lan', Mars Sid, how's I gwyne to make 'm a witch pie?  I doan' -know how to make it.  I hain't ever hearn er sich a thing b'fo'." - -"Well, then, I'll have to make it myself." - -"Will you do it, honey?—will you?  I'll wusshup de groun' und' yo' foot, -I will!" - -"All right, I'll do it, seeing it's you, and you've been good to us and -showed us the runaway nigger.  But you got to be mighty careful.  When -we come around, you turn your back; and then whatever we've put in the -pan, don't you let on you see it at all.  And don't you look when Jim -unloads the pan—something might happen, I don't know what.  And above -all, don't you _handle_ the witch-things." - -"_Hannel 'M_, Mars Sid?  What _is_ you a-talkin' 'bout?  I wouldn' -lay de weight er my finger on um, not f'r ten hund'd thous'n billion -dollars, I wouldn't." - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVII. - -THAT was all fixed.  So then we went away and went to the rubbage-pile -in the back yard, where they keep the old boots, and rags, and pieces -of bottles, and wore-out tin things, and all such truck, and scratched -around and found an old tin washpan, and stopped up the holes as well as -we could, to bake the pie in, and took it down cellar and stole it full -of flour and started for breakfast, and found a couple of shingle-nails -that Tom said would be handy for a prisoner to scrabble his name and -sorrows on the dungeon walls with, and dropped one of them in Aunt -Sally's apron-pocket which was hanging on a chair, and t'other we stuck -in the band of Uncle Silas's hat, which was on the bureau, because we -heard the children say their pa and ma was going to the runaway nigger's -house this morning, and then went to breakfast, and Tom dropped the -pewter spoon in Uncle Silas's coat-pocket, and Aunt Sally wasn't come -yet, so we had to wait a little while. - -And when she come she was hot and red and cross, and couldn't hardly -wait for the blessing; and then she went to sluicing out coffee with one -hand and cracking the handiest child's head with her thimble with the -other, and says: - -"I've hunted high and I've hunted low, and it does beat all what _has_ -become of your other shirt." - -My heart fell down amongst my lungs and livers and things, and a hard -piece of corn-crust started down my throat after it and got met on the -road with a cough, and was shot across the table, and took one of the -children in the eye and curled him up like a fishing-worm, and let a cry -out of him the size of a warwhoop, and Tom he turned kinder blue around -the gills, and it all amounted to a considerable state of things for -about a quarter of a minute or as much as that, and I would a sold out -for half price if there was a bidder.  But after that we was all right -again—it was the sudden surprise of it that knocked us so kind of cold. -Uncle Silas he says: - -"It's most uncommon curious, I can't understand it.  I know perfectly -well I took it _off_, because—" - -"Because you hain't got but one _on_.  Just _listen_ at the man!  I know -you took it off, and know it by a better way than your wool-gethering -memory, too, because it was on the clo's-line yesterday—I see it there -myself. But it's gone, that's the long and the short of it, and you'll -just have to change to a red flann'l one till I can get time to make a -new one. And it 'll be the third I've made in two years.  It just keeps -a body on the jump to keep you in shirts; and whatever you do manage to -_do_ with 'm all is more'n I can make out.  A body 'd think you _would_ -learn to take some sort of care of 'em at your time of life." - -"I know it, Sally, and I do try all I can.  But it oughtn't to be -altogether my fault, because, you know, I don't see them nor have -nothing to do with them except when they're on me; and I don't believe -I've ever lost one of them _off_ of me." - -"Well, it ain't _your_ fault if you haven't, Silas; you'd a done it -if you could, I reckon.  And the shirt ain't all that's gone, nuther. - Ther's a spoon gone; and _that_ ain't all.  There was ten, and now -ther's only nine. The calf got the shirt, I reckon, but the calf never -took the spoon, _that's_ certain." - -"Why, what else is gone, Sally?" - -"Ther's six _candles_ gone—that's what.  The rats could a got the -candles, and I reckon they did; I wonder they don't walk off with the -whole place, the way you're always going to stop their holes and don't -do it; and if they warn't fools they'd sleep in your hair, Silas—_you'd_ -never find it out; but you can't lay the _spoon_ on the rats, and that I -know." - -"Well, Sally, I'm in fault, and I acknowledge it; I've been remiss; but -I won't let to-morrow go by without stopping up them holes." - -"Oh, I wouldn't hurry; next year 'll do.  Matilda Angelina Araminta -_Phelps!_" - -Whack comes the thimble, and the child snatches her claws out of the -sugar-bowl without fooling around any.  Just then the nigger woman steps -on to the passage, and says: - -"Missus, dey's a sheet gone." - -"A _sheet_ gone!  Well, for the land's sake!" - -"I'll stop up them holes to-day," says Uncle Silas, looking sorrowful. - -"Oh, _do_ shet up!—s'pose the rats took the _sheet_?  _where's_ it gone, -Lize?" - -"Clah to goodness I hain't no notion, Miss' Sally.  She wuz on de -clo'sline yistiddy, but she done gone:  she ain' dah no mo' now." - -"I reckon the world _is_ coming to an end.  I _never_ see the beat of it -in all my born days.  A shirt, and a sheet, and a spoon, and six can—" - -"Missus," comes a young yaller wench, "dey's a brass cannelstick -miss'n." - -"Cler out from here, you hussy, er I'll take a skillet to ye!" - -Well, she was just a-biling.  I begun to lay for a chance; I reckoned -I would sneak out and go for the woods till the weather moderated.  She -kept a-raging right along, running her insurrection all by herself, and -everybody else mighty meek and quiet; and at last Uncle Silas, looking -kind of foolish, fishes up that spoon out of his pocket.  She stopped, -with her mouth open and her hands up; and as for me, I wished I was in -Jeruslem or somewheres. But not long, because she says: - -"It's _just_ as I expected.  So you had it in your pocket all the time; -and like as not you've got the other things there, too.  How'd it get -there?" - -"I reely don't know, Sally," he says, kind of apologizing, "or you know -I would tell.  I was a-studying over my text in Acts Seventeen before -breakfast, and I reckon I put it in there, not noticing, meaning to put -my Testament in, and it must be so, because my Testament ain't in; but -I'll go and see; and if the Testament is where I had it, I'll know I -didn't put it in, and that will show that I laid the Testament down and -took up the spoon, and—" - -"Oh, for the land's sake!  Give a body a rest!  Go 'long now, the whole -kit and biling of ye; and don't come nigh me again till I've got back my -peace of mind." - -I'D a heard her if she'd a said it to herself, let alone speaking it -out; and I'd a got up and obeyed her if I'd a been dead.  As we was -passing through the setting-room the old man he took up his hat, and the -shingle-nail fell out on the floor, and he just merely picked it up and -laid it on the mantel-shelf, and never said nothing, and went out.  Tom -see him do it, and remembered about the spoon, and says: - -"Well, it ain't no use to send things by _him_ no more, he ain't -reliable." Then he says:  "But he done us a good turn with the spoon, -anyway, without knowing it, and so we'll go and do him one without _him_ -knowing it—stop up his rat-holes." - -There was a noble good lot of them down cellar, and it took us a whole -hour, but we done the job tight and good and shipshape.  Then we heard -steps on the stairs, and blowed out our light and hid; and here comes -the old man, with a candle in one hand and a bundle of stuff in t'other, -looking as absent-minded as year before last.  He went a mooning around, -first to one rat-hole and then another, till he'd been to them all. - Then he stood about five minutes, picking tallow-drip off of his candle -and thinking.  Then he turns off slow and dreamy towards the stairs, -saying: - -"Well, for the life of me I can't remember when I done it.  I could -show her now that I warn't to blame on account of the rats.  But never -mind—let it go.  I reckon it wouldn't do no good." - -And so he went on a-mumbling up stairs, and then we left.  He was a -mighty nice old man.  And always is. - -Tom was a good deal bothered about what to do for a spoon, but he said -we'd got to have it; so he took a think.  When he had ciphered it out -he told me how we was to do; then we went and waited around the -spoon-basket till we see Aunt Sally coming, and then Tom went to -counting the spoons and laying them out to one side, and I slid one of -them up my sleeve, and Tom says: - -"Why, Aunt Sally, there ain't but nine spoons _yet_." - -She says: - -"Go 'long to your play, and don't bother me.  I know better, I counted -'m myself." - -"Well, I've counted them twice, Aunty, and I can't make but nine." - -She looked out of all patience, but of course she come to count—anybody -would. - -"I declare to gracious ther' _ain't_ but nine!" she says.  "Why, what in -the world—plague _take_ the things, I'll count 'm again." - -So I slipped back the one I had, and when she got done counting, she -says: - -"Hang the troublesome rubbage, ther's _ten_ now!" and she looked huffy -and bothered both.  But Tom says: - -"Why, Aunty, I don't think there's ten." - -"You numskull, didn't you see me _count 'm?_" - -"I know, but—" - -"Well, I'll count 'm _again_." - -So I smouched one, and they come out nine, same as the other time. - Well, she _was_ in a tearing way—just a-trembling all over, she was so -mad.  But she counted and counted till she got that addled she'd start -to count in the basket for a spoon sometimes; and so, three times they -come out right, and three times they come out wrong.  Then she grabbed -up the basket and slammed it across the house and knocked the cat -galley-west; and she said cle'r out and let her have some peace, and if -we come bothering around her again betwixt that and dinner she'd skin -us.  So we had the odd spoon, and dropped it in her apron-pocket whilst -she was a-giving us our sailing orders, and Jim got it all right, along -with her shingle nail, before noon.  We was very well satisfied with -this business, and Tom allowed it was worth twice the trouble it took, -because he said _now_ she couldn't ever count them spoons twice alike -again to save her life; and wouldn't believe she'd counted them right if -she _did_; and said that after she'd about counted her head off for the -next three days he judged she'd give it up and offer to kill anybody -that wanted her to ever count them any more. - -So we put the sheet back on the line that night, and stole one out of -her closet; and kept on putting it back and stealing it again for a -couple of days till she didn't know how many sheets she had any more, -and she didn't _care_, and warn't a-going to bullyrag the rest of her -soul out about it, and wouldn't count them again not to save her life; -she druther die first. - -So we was all right now, as to the shirt and the sheet and the spoon -and the candles, by the help of the calf and the rats and the mixed-up -counting; and as to the candlestick, it warn't no consequence, it would -blow over by and by. - -But that pie was a job; we had no end of trouble with that pie.  We -fixed it up away down in the woods, and cooked it there; and we got it -done at last, and very satisfactory, too; but not all in one day; and we -had to use up three wash-pans full of flour before we got through, and -we got burnt pretty much all over, in places, and eyes put out with -the smoke; because, you see, we didn't want nothing but a crust, and we -couldn't prop it up right, and she would always cave in.  But of course -we thought of the right way at last—which was to cook the ladder, too, -in the pie.  So then we laid in with Jim the second night, and tore -up the sheet all in little strings and twisted them together, and long -before daylight we had a lovely rope that you could a hung a person -with.  We let on it took nine months to make it. - -And in the forenoon we took it down to the woods, but it wouldn't go -into the pie.  Being made of a whole sheet, that way, there was rope -enough for forty pies if we'd a wanted them, and plenty left over -for soup, or sausage, or anything you choose.  We could a had a whole -dinner. - -But we didn't need it.  All we needed was just enough for the pie, and -so we throwed the rest away.  We didn't cook none of the pies in the -wash-pan—afraid the solder would melt; but Uncle Silas he had a noble -brass warming-pan which he thought considerable of, because it belonged -to one of his ancesters with a long wooden handle that come over from -England with William the Conqueror in the Mayflower or one of them early -ships and was hid away up garret with a lot of other old pots and things -that was valuable, not on account of being any account, because they -warn't, but on account of them being relicts, you know, and we snaked -her out, private, and took her down there, but she failed on the first -pies, because we didn't know how, but she come up smiling on the last -one.  We took and lined her with dough, and set her in the coals, and -loaded her up with rag rope, and put on a dough roof, and shut down the -lid, and put hot embers on top, and stood off five foot, with the long -handle, cool and comfortable, and in fifteen minutes she turned out a -pie that was a satisfaction to look at. But the person that et it would -want to fetch a couple of kags of toothpicks along, for if that rope -ladder wouldn't cramp him down to business I don't know nothing what I'm -talking about, and lay him in enough stomach-ache to last him till next -time, too. - -Nat didn't look when we put the witch pie in Jim's pan; and we put the -three tin plates in the bottom of the pan under the vittles; and so Jim -got everything all right, and as soon as he was by himself he busted -into the pie and hid the rope ladder inside of his straw tick, -and scratched some marks on a tin plate and throwed it out of the -window-hole. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVIII. - -MAKING them pens was a distressid tough job, and so was the saw; and Jim -allowed the inscription was going to be the toughest of all.  That's the -one which the prisoner has to scrabble on the wall.  But he had to have -it; Tom said he'd _got_ to; there warn't no case of a state prisoner not -scrabbling his inscription to leave behind, and his coat of arms. - -"Look at Lady Jane Grey," he says; "look at Gilford Dudley; look at old -Northumberland!  Why, Huck, s'pose it _is_ considerble trouble?—what -you going to do?—how you going to get around it?  Jim's _got_ to do his -inscription and coat of arms.  They all do." - -Jim says: - -"Why, Mars Tom, I hain't got no coat o' arm; I hain't got nuffn but dish -yer ole shirt, en you knows I got to keep de journal on dat." - -"Oh, you don't understand, Jim; a coat of arms is very different." - -"Well," I says, "Jim's right, anyway, when he says he ain't got no coat -of arms, because he hain't." - -"I reckon I knowed that," Tom says, "but you bet he'll have one before -he goes out of this—because he's going out _right_, and there ain't -going to be no flaws in his record." - -So whilst me and Jim filed away at the pens on a brickbat apiece, Jim -a-making his'n out of the brass and I making mine out of the spoon, -Tom set to work to think out the coat of arms.  By and by he said he'd -struck so many good ones he didn't hardly know which to take, but there -was one which he reckoned he'd decide on.  He says: - -"On the scutcheon we'll have a bend _or_ in the dexter base, a saltire -_murrey_ in the fess, with a dog, couchant, for common charge, and under -his foot a chain embattled, for slavery, with a chevron _vert_ in a -chief engrailed, and three invected lines on a field _azure_, with the -nombril points rampant on a dancette indented; crest, a runaway nigger, -_sable_, with his bundle over his shoulder on a bar sinister; and a -couple of gules for supporters, which is you and me; motto, _Maggiore -Fretta, Minore Otto._  Got it out of a book—means the more haste the -less speed." - -"Geewhillikins," I says, "but what does the rest of it mean?" - -"We ain't got no time to bother over that," he says; "we got to dig in -like all git-out." - -"Well, anyway," I says, "what's _some_ of it?  What's a fess?" - -"A fess—a fess is—_you_ don't need to know what a fess is.  I'll show -him how to make it when he gets to it." - -"Shucks, Tom," I says, "I think you might tell a person.  What's a bar -sinister?" - -"Oh, I don't know.  But he's got to have it.  All the nobility does." - -That was just his way.  If it didn't suit him to explain a thing to you, -he wouldn't do it.  You might pump at him a week, it wouldn't make no -difference. - -He'd got all that coat of arms business fixed, so now he started in to -finish up the rest of that part of the work, which was to plan out a -mournful inscription—said Jim got to have one, like they all done.  He -made up a lot, and wrote them out on a paper, and read them off, so: - -1.  Here a captive heart busted. 2.  Here a poor prisoner, forsook by -the world and friends, fretted his sorrowful life. 3.  Here a lonely -heart broke, and a worn spirit went to its rest, after thirty-seven -years of solitary captivity. 4.  Here, homeless and friendless, after -thirty-seven years of bitter captivity, perished a noble stranger, -natural son of Louis XIV. - -Tom's voice trembled whilst he was reading them, and he most broke down. -When he got done he couldn't no way make up his mind which one for Jim -to scrabble on to the wall, they was all so good; but at last he allowed -he would let him scrabble them all on.  Jim said it would take him a -year to scrabble such a lot of truck on to the logs with a nail, and he -didn't know how to make letters, besides; but Tom said he would block -them out for him, and then he wouldn't have nothing to do but just -follow the lines.  Then pretty soon he says: - -"Come to think, the logs ain't a-going to do; they don't have log walls -in a dungeon:  we got to dig the inscriptions into a rock.  We'll fetch -a rock." - -Jim said the rock was worse than the logs; he said it would take him -such a pison long time to dig them into a rock he wouldn't ever get out. - But Tom said he would let me help him do it.  Then he took a look to -see how me and Jim was getting along with the pens.  It was most pesky -tedious hard work and slow, and didn't give my hands no show to get -well of the sores, and we didn't seem to make no headway, hardly; so Tom -says: - -"I know how to fix it.  We got to have a rock for the coat of arms and -mournful inscriptions, and we can kill two birds with that same rock. -There's a gaudy big grindstone down at the mill, and we'll smouch it, -and carve the things on it, and file out the pens and the saw on it, -too." - -It warn't no slouch of an idea; and it warn't no slouch of a grindstone -nuther; but we allowed we'd tackle it.  It warn't quite midnight yet, -so we cleared out for the mill, leaving Jim at work.  We smouched the -grindstone, and set out to roll her home, but it was a most nation tough -job. Sometimes, do what we could, we couldn't keep her from falling -over, and she come mighty near mashing us every time.  Tom said she was -going to get one of us, sure, before we got through.  We got her half -way; and then we was plumb played out, and most drownded with sweat.  We -see it warn't no use; we got to go and fetch Jim. So he raised up his -bed and slid the chain off of the bed-leg, and wrapt it round and round -his neck, and we crawled out through our hole and down there, and Jim -and me laid into that grindstone and walked her along like nothing; and -Tom superintended.  He could out-superintend any boy I ever see.  He -knowed how to do everything. - -Our hole was pretty big, but it warn't big enough to get the grindstone -through; but Jim he took the pick and soon made it big enough.  Then Tom -marked out them things on it with the nail, and set Jim to work on them, -with the nail for a chisel and an iron bolt from the rubbage in the -lean-to for a hammer, and told him to work till the rest of his candle -quit on him, and then he could go to bed, and hide the grindstone under -his straw tick and sleep on it.  Then we helped him fix his chain back -on the bed-leg, and was ready for bed ourselves.  But Tom thought of -something, and says: - -"You got any spiders in here, Jim?" - -"No, sah, thanks to goodness I hain't, Mars Tom." - -"All right, we'll get you some." - -"But bless you, honey, I doan' _want_ none.  I's afeard un um.  I jis' -'s soon have rattlesnakes aroun'." - -Tom thought a minute or two, and says: - -"It's a good idea.  And I reckon it's been done.  It _must_ a been done; -it stands to reason.  Yes, it's a prime good idea.  Where could you keep -it?" - -"Keep what, Mars Tom?" - -"Why, a rattlesnake." - -"De goodness gracious alive, Mars Tom!  Why, if dey was a rattlesnake to -come in heah I'd take en bust right out thoo dat log wall, I would, wid -my head." - -"Why, Jim, you wouldn't be afraid of it after a little.  You could tame -it." - -"_Tame_ it!" - -"Yes—easy enough.  Every animal is grateful for kindness and petting, -and they wouldn't _think_ of hurting a person that pets them.  Any book -will tell you that.  You try—that's all I ask; just try for two or three -days. Why, you can get him so, in a little while, that he'll love you; -and sleep with you; and won't stay away from you a minute; and will let -you wrap him round your neck and put his head in your mouth." - -"_Please_, Mars Tom—_doan_' talk so!  I can't _stan_' it!  He'd _let_ -me shove his head in my mouf—fer a favor, hain't it?  I lay he'd wait a -pow'ful long time 'fo' I _ast_ him.  En mo' en dat, I doan' _want_ him -to sleep wid me." - -"Jim, don't act so foolish.  A prisoner's _got_ to have some kind of a -dumb pet, and if a rattlesnake hain't ever been tried, why, there's more -glory to be gained in your being the first to ever try it than any other -way you could ever think of to save your life." - -"Why, Mars Tom, I doan' _want_ no sich glory.  Snake take 'n bite -Jim's chin off, den _whah_ is de glory?  No, sah, I doan' want no sich -doin's." - -"Blame it, can't you _try_?  I only _want_ you to try—you needn't keep -it up if it don't work." - -"But de trouble all _done_ ef de snake bite me while I's a tryin' him. -Mars Tom, I's willin' to tackle mos' anything 'at ain't onreasonable, -but ef you en Huck fetches a rattlesnake in heah for me to tame, I's -gwyne to _leave_, dat's _shore_." - -"Well, then, let it go, let it go, if you're so bull-headed about it. - We can get you some garter-snakes, and you can tie some buttons on -their tails, and let on they're rattlesnakes, and I reckon that 'll have -to do." - -"I k'n stan' _dem_, Mars Tom, but blame' 'f I couldn' get along widout -um, I tell you dat.  I never knowed b'fo' 't was so much bother and -trouble to be a prisoner." - -"Well, it _always_ is when it's done right.  You got any rats around -here?" - -"No, sah, I hain't seed none." - -"Well, we'll get you some rats." - -"Why, Mars Tom, I doan' _want_ no rats.  Dey's de dadblamedest creturs -to 'sturb a body, en rustle roun' over 'im, en bite his feet, when he's -tryin' to sleep, I ever see.  No, sah, gimme g'yarter-snakes, 'f I's -got to have 'm, but doan' gimme no rats; I hain' got no use f'r um, -skasely." - -"But, Jim, you _got_ to have 'em—they all do.  So don't make no more -fuss about it.  Prisoners ain't ever without rats.  There ain't no -instance of it.  And they train them, and pet them, and learn them -tricks, and they get to be as sociable as flies.  But you got to play -music to them.  You got anything to play music on?" - -"I ain' got nuffn but a coase comb en a piece o' paper, en a juice-harp; -but I reck'n dey wouldn' take no stock in a juice-harp." - -"Yes they would _they_ don't care what kind of music 'tis.  A -jews-harp's plenty good enough for a rat.  All animals like music—in a -prison they dote on it.  Specially, painful music; and you can't get no -other kind out of a jews-harp.  It always interests them; they come out -to see what's the matter with you.  Yes, you're all right; you're fixed -very well.  You want to set on your bed nights before you go to sleep, -and early in the mornings, and play your jews-harp; play 'The Last Link -is Broken'—that's the thing that 'll scoop a rat quicker 'n anything -else; and when you've played about two minutes you'll see all the rats, -and the snakes, and spiders, and things begin to feel worried about you, -and come.  And they'll just fairly swarm over you, and have a noble good -time." - -"Yes, _dey_ will, I reck'n, Mars Tom, but what kine er time is _Jim_ -havin'? Blest if I kin see de pint.  But I'll do it ef I got to.  I -reck'n I better keep de animals satisfied, en not have no trouble in de -house." - -Tom waited to think it over, and see if there wasn't nothing else; and -pretty soon he says: - -"Oh, there's one thing I forgot.  Could you raise a flower here, do you -reckon?" - -"I doan know but maybe I could, Mars Tom; but it's tolable dark in heah, -en I ain' got no use f'r no flower, nohow, en she'd be a pow'ful sight -o' trouble." - -"Well, you try it, anyway.  Some other prisoners has done it." - -"One er dem big cat-tail-lookin' mullen-stalks would grow in heah, Mars -Tom, I reck'n, but she wouldn't be wuth half de trouble she'd coss." - -"Don't you believe it.  We'll fetch you a little one and you plant it in -the corner over there, and raise it.  And don't call it mullen, call it -Pitchiola—that's its right name when it's in a prison.  And you want to -water it with your tears." - -"Why, I got plenty spring water, Mars Tom." - -"You don't _want_ spring water; you want to water it with your tears. - It's the way they always do." - -"Why, Mars Tom, I lay I kin raise one er dem mullen-stalks twyste wid -spring water whiles another man's a _start'n_ one wid tears." - -"That ain't the idea.  You _got_ to do it with tears." - -"She'll die on my han's, Mars Tom, she sholy will; kase I doan' skasely -ever cry." - -So Tom was stumped.  But he studied it over, and then said Jim would -have to worry along the best he could with an onion.  He promised -he would go to the nigger cabins and drop one, private, in Jim's -coffee-pot, in the morning. Jim said he would "jis' 's soon have -tobacker in his coffee;" and found so much fault with it, and with the -work and bother of raising the mullen, and jews-harping the rats, and -petting and flattering up the snakes and spiders and things, on top of -all the other work he had to do on pens, and inscriptions, and journals, -and things, which made it more trouble and worry and responsibility to -be a prisoner than anything he ever undertook, that Tom most lost all -patience with him; and said he was just loadened down with more gaudier -chances than a prisoner ever had in the world to make a name for -himself, and yet he didn't know enough to appreciate them, and they was -just about wasted on him.  So Jim he was sorry, and said he wouldn't -behave so no more, and then me and Tom shoved for bed. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIX. - -IN the morning we went up to the village and bought a wire rat-trap and -fetched it down, and unstopped the best rat-hole, and in about an hour -we had fifteen of the bulliest kind of ones; and then we took it and put -it in a safe place under Aunt Sally's bed.  But while we was gone for -spiders little Thomas Franklin Benjamin Jefferson Elexander Phelps found -it there, and opened the door of it to see if the rats would come out, -and they did; and Aunt Sally she come in, and when we got back she was -a-standing on top of the bed raising Cain, and the rats was doing what -they could to keep off the dull times for her.  So she took and dusted -us both with the hickry, and we was as much as two hours catching -another fifteen or sixteen, drat that meddlesome cub, and they warn't -the likeliest, nuther, because the first haul was the pick of the flock. - I never see a likelier lot of rats than what that first haul was. - -We got a splendid stock of sorted spiders, and bugs, and frogs, and -caterpillars, and one thing or another; and we like to got a hornet's -nest, but we didn't.  The family was at home.  We didn't give it right -up, but stayed with them as long as we could; because we allowed we'd -tire them out or they'd got to tire us out, and they done it.  Then we -got allycumpain and rubbed on the places, and was pretty near all right -again, but couldn't set down convenient.  And so we went for the snakes, -and grabbed a couple of dozen garters and house-snakes, and put them in -a bag, and put it in our room, and by that time it was supper-time, and -a rattling good honest day's work:  and hungry?—oh, no, I reckon not! - And there warn't a blessed snake up there when we went back—we didn't -half tie the sack, and they worked out somehow, and left.  But it didn't -matter much, because they was still on the premises somewheres.  So -we judged we could get some of them again.  No, there warn't no real -scarcity of snakes about the house for a considerable spell.  You'd see -them dripping from the rafters and places every now and then; and they -generly landed in your plate, or down the back of your neck, and most -of the time where you didn't want them.  Well, they was handsome and -striped, and there warn't no harm in a million of them; but that never -made no difference to Aunt Sally; she despised snakes, be the breed what -they might, and she couldn't stand them no way you could fix it; and -every time one of them flopped down on her, it didn't make no difference -what she was doing, she would just lay that work down and light out.  I -never see such a woman.  And you could hear her whoop to Jericho.  You -couldn't get her to take a-holt of one of them with the tongs.  And if -she turned over and found one in bed she would scramble out and lift a -howl that you would think the house was afire.  She disturbed the old -man so that he said he could most wish there hadn't ever been no snakes -created.  Why, after every last snake had been gone clear out of the -house for as much as a week Aunt Sally warn't over it yet; she warn't -near over it; when she was setting thinking about something you could -touch her on the back of her neck with a feather and she would jump -right out of her stockings.  It was very curious.  But Tom said all -women was just so.  He said they was made that way for some reason or -other. - -We got a licking every time one of our snakes come in her way, and she -allowed these lickings warn't nothing to what she would do if we ever -loaded up the place again with them.  I didn't mind the lickings, -because they didn't amount to nothing; but I minded the trouble we -had to lay in another lot.  But we got them laid in, and all the other -things; and you never see a cabin as blithesome as Jim's was when they'd -all swarm out for music and go for him.  Jim didn't like the spiders, -and the spiders didn't like Jim; and so they'd lay for him, and make it -mighty warm for him.  And he said that between the rats and the snakes -and the grindstone there warn't no room in bed for him, skasely; and -when there was, a body couldn't sleep, it was so lively, and it was -always lively, he said, because _they_ never all slept at one time, but -took turn about, so when the snakes was asleep the rats was on deck, and -when the rats turned in the snakes come on watch, so he always had one -gang under him, in his way, and t'other gang having a circus over him, -and if he got up to hunt a new place the spiders would take a chance at -him as he crossed over. He said if he ever got out this time he wouldn't -ever be a prisoner again, not for a salary. - -Well, by the end of three weeks everything was in pretty good shape. - The shirt was sent in early, in a pie, and every time a rat bit Jim he -would get up and write a little in his journal whilst the ink was fresh; -the pens was made, the inscriptions and so on was all carved on the -grindstone; the bed-leg was sawed in two, and we had et up the sawdust, -and it give us a most amazing stomach-ache.  We reckoned we was all -going to die, but didn't.  It was the most undigestible sawdust I ever -see; and Tom said the same./ - -But as I was saying, we'd got all the work done now, at last; and we was -all pretty much fagged out, too, but mainly Jim.  The old man had wrote -a couple of times to the plantation below Orleans to come and get their -runaway nigger, but hadn't got no answer, because there warn't no such -plantation; so he allowed he would advertise Jim in the St. Louis and -New Orleans papers; and when he mentioned the St. Louis ones it give me -the cold shivers, and I see we hadn't no time to lose. So Tom said, now -for the nonnamous letters. - -"What's them?"  I says. - -"Warnings to the people that something is up.  Sometimes it's done one -way, sometimes another.  But there's always somebody spying around that -gives notice to the governor of the castle.  When Louis XVI. was going -to light out of the Tooleries, a servant-girl done it.  It's a very good -way, and so is the nonnamous letters.  We'll use them both.  And it's -usual for the prisoner's mother to change clothes with him, and she -stays in, and he slides out in her clothes.  We'll do that, too." - -"But looky here, Tom, what do we want to _warn_ anybody for that -something's up?  Let them find it out for themselves—it's their -lookout." - -"Yes, I know; but you can't depend on them.  It's the way they've acted -from the very start—left us to do _everything_.  They're so confiding -and mullet-headed they don't take notice of nothing at all.  So if we -don't _give_ them notice there won't be nobody nor nothing to interfere -with us, and so after all our hard work and trouble this escape 'll go -off perfectly flat; won't amount to nothing—won't be nothing _to_ it." - -"Well, as for me, Tom, that's the way I'd like." - -"Shucks!" he says, and looked disgusted.  So I says: - -"But I ain't going to make no complaint.  Any way that suits you suits -me. What you going to do about the servant-girl?" - -"You'll be her.  You slide in, in the middle of the night, and hook that -yaller girl's frock." - -"Why, Tom, that 'll make trouble next morning; because, of course, she -prob'bly hain't got any but that one." - -"I know; but you don't want it but fifteen minutes, to carry the -nonnamous letter and shove it under the front door." - -"All right, then, I'll do it; but I could carry it just as handy in my -own togs." - -"You wouldn't look like a servant-girl _then_, would you?" - -"No, but there won't be nobody to see what I look like, _anyway_." - -"That ain't got nothing to do with it.  The thing for us to do is just -to do our _duty_, and not worry about whether anybody _sees_ us do it or -not. Hain't you got no principle at all?" - -"All right, I ain't saying nothing; I'm the servant-girl.  Who's Jim's -mother?" - -"I'm his mother.  I'll hook a gown from Aunt Sally." - -"Well, then, you'll have to stay in the cabin when me and Jim leaves." - -"Not much.  I'll stuff Jim's clothes full of straw and lay it on his bed -to represent his mother in disguise, and Jim 'll take the nigger woman's -gown off of me and wear it, and we'll all evade together.  When a -prisoner of style escapes it's called an evasion.  It's always called -so when a king escapes, f'rinstance.  And the same with a king's son; -it don't make no difference whether he's a natural one or an unnatural -one." - -So Tom he wrote the nonnamous letter, and I smouched the yaller wench's -frock that night, and put it on, and shoved it under the front door, the -way Tom told me to.  It said: - -Beware.  Trouble is brewing.  Keep a sharp lookout. _Unknown_ _Friend_. - -Next night we stuck a picture, which Tom drawed in blood, of a skull and -crossbones on the front door; and next night another one of a coffin on -the back door.  I never see a family in such a sweat.  They couldn't a -been worse scared if the place had a been full of ghosts laying for them -behind everything and under the beds and shivering through the air.  If -a door banged, Aunt Sally she jumped and said "ouch!" if anything fell, -she jumped and said "ouch!" if you happened to touch her, when she -warn't noticing, she done the same; she couldn't face noway and be -satisfied, because she allowed there was something behind her every -time—so she was always a-whirling around sudden, and saying "ouch," and -before she'd got two-thirds around she'd whirl back again, and say it -again; and she was afraid to go to bed, but she dasn't set up.  So the -thing was working very well, Tom said; he said he never see a thing work -more satisfactory. He said it showed it was done right. - -So he said, now for the grand bulge!  So the very next morning at the -streak of dawn we got another letter ready, and was wondering what we -better do with it, because we heard them say at supper they was going -to have a nigger on watch at both doors all night.  Tom he went down the -lightning-rod to spy around; and the nigger at the back door was asleep, -and he stuck it in the back of his neck and come back.  This letter -said: - -Don't betray me, I wish to be your friend.  There is a desprate gang of -cutthroats from over in the Indian Territory going to steal your runaway -nigger to-night, and they have been trying to scare you so as you will -stay in the house and not bother them.  I am one of the gang, but have -got religgion and wish to quit it and lead an honest life again, and -will betray the helish design. They will sneak down from northards, -along the fence, at midnight exact, with a false key, and go in the -nigger's cabin to get him. I am to be off a piece and blow a tin horn -if I see any danger; but stead of that I will _baa_ like a sheep soon as -they get in and not blow at all; then whilst they are getting his -chains loose, you slip there and lock them in, and can kill them at your -leasure.  Don't do anything but just the way I am telling you, if you do -they will suspicion something and raise whoop-jamboreehoo. I do not wish -any reward but to know I have done the right thing. _Unknown Friend._ - - - - -CHAPTER XL. - -WE was feeling pretty good after breakfast, and took my canoe and went -over the river a-fishing, with a lunch, and had a good time, and took a -look at the raft and found her all right, and got home late to supper, -and found them in such a sweat and worry they didn't know which end they -was standing on, and made us go right off to bed the minute we was done -supper, and wouldn't tell us what the trouble was, and never let on a -word about the new letter, but didn't need to, because we knowed as much -about it as anybody did, and as soon as we was half up stairs and her -back was turned we slid for the cellar cupboard and loaded up a good -lunch and took it up to our room and went to bed, and got up about -half-past eleven, and Tom put on Aunt Sally's dress that he stole and -was going to start with the lunch, but says: - -"Where's the butter?" - -"I laid out a hunk of it," I says, "on a piece of a corn-pone." - -"Well, you _left_ it laid out, then—it ain't here." - -"We can get along without it," I says. - -"We can get along _with_ it, too," he says; "just you slide down cellar -and fetch it.  And then mosey right down the lightning-rod and come -along. I'll go and stuff the straw into Jim's clothes to represent his -mother in disguise, and be ready to _baa_ like a sheep and shove soon as -you get there." - -So out he went, and down cellar went I. The hunk of butter, big as -a person's fist, was where I had left it, so I took up the slab of -corn-pone with it on, and blowed out my light, and started up stairs -very stealthy, and got up to the main floor all right, but here comes -Aunt Sally with a candle, and I clapped the truck in my hat, and clapped -my hat on my head, and the next second she see me; and she says: - -"You been down cellar?" - -"Yes'm." - -"What you been doing down there?" - -"Noth'n." - -"_Noth'n!_" - -"No'm." - -"Well, then, what possessed you to go down there this time of night?" - -"I don't know 'm." - -"You don't _know_?  Don't answer me that way. Tom, I want to know what -you been _doing_ down there." - -"I hain't been doing a single thing, Aunt Sally, I hope to gracious if I -have." - -I reckoned she'd let me go now, and as a generl thing she would; but I -s'pose there was so many strange things going on she was just in a sweat -about every little thing that warn't yard-stick straight; so she says, -very decided: - -"You just march into that setting-room and stay there till I come.  You -been up to something you no business to, and I lay I'll find out what it -is before I'M done with you." - -So she went away as I opened the door and walked into the setting-room. -My, but there was a crowd there!  Fifteen farmers, and every one of them -had a gun.  I was most powerful sick, and slunk to a chair and set down. -They was setting around, some of them talking a little, in a low voice, -and all of them fidgety and uneasy, but trying to look like they warn't; -but I knowed they was, because they was always taking off their hats, -and putting them on, and scratching their heads, and changing their -seats, and fumbling with their buttons.  I warn't easy myself, but I -didn't take my hat off, all the same. - -I did wish Aunt Sally would come, and get done with me, and lick me, if -she wanted to, and let me get away and tell Tom how we'd overdone this -thing, and what a thundering hornet's-nest we'd got ourselves into, so -we could stop fooling around straight off, and clear out with Jim before -these rips got out of patience and come for us. - -At last she come and begun to ask me questions, but I _couldn't_ answer -them straight, I didn't know which end of me was up; because these men -was in such a fidget now that some was wanting to start right NOW and -lay for them desperadoes, and saying it warn't but a few minutes to -midnight; and others was trying to get them to hold on and wait for the -sheep-signal; and here was Aunty pegging away at the questions, and -me a-shaking all over and ready to sink down in my tracks I was -that scared; and the place getting hotter and hotter, and the butter -beginning to melt and run down my neck and behind my ears; and pretty -soon, when one of them says, "I'M for going and getting in the cabin -_first_ and right _now_, and catching them when they come," I most -dropped; and a streak of butter come a-trickling down my forehead, and -Aunt Sally she see it, and turns white as a sheet, and says: - -"For the land's sake, what _is_ the matter with the child?  He's got the -brain-fever as shore as you're born, and they're oozing out!" - -And everybody runs to see, and she snatches off my hat, and out comes -the bread and what was left of the butter, and she grabbed me, and -hugged me, and says: - -"Oh, what a turn you did give me! and how glad and grateful I am it -ain't no worse; for luck's against us, and it never rains but it pours, -and when I see that truck I thought we'd lost you, for I knowed by -the color and all it was just like your brains would be if—Dear, -dear, whyd'nt you _tell_ me that was what you'd been down there for, I -wouldn't a cared.  Now cler out to bed, and don't lemme see no more of -you till morning!" - -I was up stairs in a second, and down the lightning-rod in another one, -and shinning through the dark for the lean-to.  I couldn't hardly get my -words out, I was so anxious; but I told Tom as quick as I could we must -jump for it now, and not a minute to lose—the house full of men, yonder, -with guns! - -His eyes just blazed; and he says: - -"No!—is that so?  _ain't_ it bully!  Why, Huck, if it was to do over -again, I bet I could fetch two hundred!  If we could put it off till—" - -"Hurry!  _Hurry_!"  I says.  "Where's Jim?" - -"Right at your elbow; if you reach out your arm you can touch him. - He's dressed, and everything's ready.  Now we'll slide out and give the -sheep-signal." - -But then we heard the tramp of men coming to the door, and heard them -begin to fumble with the pad-lock, and heard a man say: - -"I _told_ you we'd be too soon; they haven't come—the door is locked. -Here, I'll lock some of you into the cabin, and you lay for 'em in the -dark and kill 'em when they come; and the rest scatter around a piece, -and listen if you can hear 'em coming." - -So in they come, but couldn't see us in the dark, and most trod on -us whilst we was hustling to get under the bed.  But we got under all -right, and out through the hole, swift but soft—Jim first, me next, -and Tom last, which was according to Tom's orders.  Now we was in the -lean-to, and heard trampings close by outside.  So we crept to the door, -and Tom stopped us there and put his eye to the crack, but couldn't make -out nothing, it was so dark; and whispered and said he would listen -for the steps to get further, and when he nudged us Jim must glide out -first, and him last.  So he set his ear to the crack and listened, and -listened, and listened, and the steps a-scraping around out there all -the time; and at last he nudged us, and we slid out, and stooped down, -not breathing, and not making the least noise, and slipped stealthy -towards the fence in Injun file, and got to it all right, and me and Jim -over it; but Tom's britches catched fast on a splinter on the top -rail, and then he hear the steps coming, so he had to pull loose, which -snapped the splinter and made a noise; and as he dropped in our tracks -and started somebody sings out: - -"Who's that?  Answer, or I'll shoot!" - -But we didn't answer; we just unfurled our heels and shoved.  Then there -was a rush, and a _Bang, Bang, Bang!_ and the bullets fairly whizzed -around us! We heard them sing out: - -"Here they are!  They've broke for the river!  After 'em, boys, and turn -loose the dogs!" - -So here they come, full tilt.  We could hear them because they wore -boots and yelled, but we didn't wear no boots and didn't yell.  We was -in the path to the mill; and when they got pretty close on to us we -dodged into the bush and let them go by, and then dropped in behind -them.  They'd had all the dogs shut up, so they wouldn't scare off the -robbers; but by this time somebody had let them loose, and here they -come, making powwow enough for a million; but they was our dogs; so we -stopped in our tracks till they catched up; and when they see it warn't -nobody but us, and no excitement to offer them, they only just said -howdy, and tore right ahead towards the shouting and clattering; and -then we up-steam again, and whizzed along after them till we was nearly -to the mill, and then struck up through the bush to where my canoe was -tied, and hopped in and pulled for dear life towards the middle of the -river, but didn't make no more noise than we was obleeged to. Then we -struck out, easy and comfortable, for the island where my raft was; and -we could hear them yelling and barking at each other all up and down the -bank, till we was so far away the sounds got dim and died out.  And when -we stepped on to the raft I says: - -"_Now_, old Jim, you're a free man again, and I bet you won't ever be a -slave no more." - -"En a mighty good job it wuz, too, Huck.  It 'uz planned beautiful, en -it 'uz done beautiful; en dey ain't _nobody_ kin git up a plan dat's mo' -mixed-up en splendid den what dat one wuz." - -We was all glad as we could be, but Tom was the gladdest of all because -he had a bullet in the calf of his leg. - -When me and Jim heard that we didn't feel so brash as what we did -before. It was hurting him considerable, and bleeding; so we laid him in -the wigwam and tore up one of the duke's shirts for to bandage him, but -he says: - -"Gimme the rags; I can do it myself.  Don't stop now; don't fool around -here, and the evasion booming along so handsome; man the sweeps, and set -her loose!  Boys, we done it elegant!—'deed we did.  I wish _we'd_ a -had the handling of Louis XVI., there wouldn't a been no 'Son of Saint -Louis, ascend to heaven!' wrote down in _his_ biography; no, sir, we'd -a whooped him over the _border_—that's what we'd a done with _him_—and -done it just as slick as nothing at all, too.  Man the sweeps—man the -sweeps!" - -But me and Jim was consulting—and thinking.  And after we'd thought a -minute, I says: - -"Say it, Jim." - -So he says: - -"Well, den, dis is de way it look to me, Huck.  Ef it wuz _him_ dat 'uz -bein' sot free, en one er de boys wuz to git shot, would he say, 'Go on -en save me, nemmine 'bout a doctor f'r to save dis one?'  Is dat like -Mars Tom Sawyer?  Would he say dat?  You _bet_ he wouldn't!  _well_, -den, is _Jim_ gywne to say it?  No, sah—I doan' budge a step out'n dis -place 'dout a _doctor_, not if it's forty year!" - -I knowed he was white inside, and I reckoned he'd say what he did say—so -it was all right now, and I told Tom I was a-going for a doctor. - He raised considerable row about it, but me and Jim stuck to it and -wouldn't budge; so he was for crawling out and setting the raft loose -himself; but we wouldn't let him.  Then he give us a piece of his mind, -but it didn't do no good. - -So when he sees me getting the canoe ready, he says: - -"Well, then, if you're bound to go, I'll tell you the way to do when you -get to the village.  Shut the door and blindfold the doctor tight and -fast, and make him swear to be silent as the grave, and put a purse -full of gold in his hand, and then take and lead him all around the -back alleys and everywheres in the dark, and then fetch him here in the -canoe, in a roundabout way amongst the islands, and search him and take -his chalk away from him, and don't give it back to him till you get him -back to the village, or else he will chalk this raft so he can find it -again. It's the way they all do." - -So I said I would, and left, and Jim was to hide in the woods when he -see the doctor coming till he was gone again. - - - - -CHAPTER XLI. - -THE doctor was an old man; a very nice, kind-looking old man when I got -him up.  I told him me and my brother was over on Spanish Island hunting -yesterday afternoon, and camped on a piece of a raft we found, and about -midnight he must a kicked his gun in his dreams, for it went off and -shot him in the leg, and we wanted him to go over there and fix it and -not say nothing about it, nor let anybody know, because we wanted to -come home this evening and surprise the folks. - -"Who is your folks?" he says. - -"The Phelpses, down yonder." - -"Oh," he says.  And after a minute, he says: - -"How'd you say he got shot?" - -"He had a dream," I says, "and it shot him." - -"Singular dream," he says. - -So he lit up his lantern, and got his saddle-bags, and we started.  But -when he sees the canoe he didn't like the look of her—said she was big -enough for one, but didn't look pretty safe for two.  I says: - -"Oh, you needn't be afeard, sir, she carried the three of us easy -enough." - -"What three?" - -"Why, me and Sid, and—and—and _the guns_; that's what I mean." - -"Oh," he says. - -But he put his foot on the gunnel and rocked her, and shook his head, -and said he reckoned he'd look around for a bigger one.  But they was -all locked and chained; so he took my canoe, and said for me to wait -till he come back, or I could hunt around further, or maybe I better -go down home and get them ready for the surprise if I wanted to.  But -I said I didn't; so I told him just how to find the raft, and then he -started. - -I struck an idea pretty soon.  I says to myself, spos'n he can't fix -that leg just in three shakes of a sheep's tail, as the saying is? -spos'n it takes him three or four days?  What are we going to do?—lay -around there till he lets the cat out of the bag?  No, sir; I know what -_I'll_ do.  I'll wait, and when he comes back if he says he's got to -go any more I'll get down there, too, if I swim; and we'll take and tie -him, and keep him, and shove out down the river; and when Tom's done -with him we'll give him what it's worth, or all we got, and then let him -get ashore. - -So then I crept into a lumber-pile to get some sleep; and next time I -waked up the sun was away up over my head!  I shot out and went for the -doctor's house, but they told me he'd gone away in the night some time -or other, and warn't back yet.  Well, thinks I, that looks powerful bad -for Tom, and I'll dig out for the island right off.  So away I shoved, -and turned the corner, and nearly rammed my head into Uncle Silas's -stomach! He says: - -"Why, _Tom!_  Where you been all this time, you rascal?" - -"I hain't been nowheres," I says, "only just hunting for the runaway -nigger—me and Sid." - -"Why, where ever did you go?" he says.  "Your aunt's been mighty -uneasy." - -"She needn't," I says, "because we was all right.  We followed the men -and the dogs, but they outrun us, and we lost them; but we thought we -heard them on the water, so we got a canoe and took out after them and -crossed over, but couldn't find nothing of them; so we cruised along -up-shore till we got kind of tired and beat out; and tied up the canoe -and went to sleep, and never waked up till about an hour ago; then we -paddled over here to hear the news, and Sid's at the post-office to see -what he can hear, and I'm a-branching out to get something to eat for -us, and then we're going home." - -So then we went to the post-office to get "Sid"; but just as I -suspicioned, he warn't there; so the old man he got a letter out of the -office, and we waited awhile longer, but Sid didn't come; so the old man -said, come along, let Sid foot it home, or canoe it, when he got done -fooling around—but we would ride.  I couldn't get him to let me stay -and wait for Sid; and he said there warn't no use in it, and I must come -along, and let Aunt Sally see we was all right. - -When we got home Aunt Sally was that glad to see me she laughed and -cried both, and hugged me, and give me one of them lickings of hern that -don't amount to shucks, and said she'd serve Sid the same when he come. - -And the place was plum full of farmers and farmers' wives, to dinner; -and such another clack a body never heard.  Old Mrs. Hotchkiss was the -worst; her tongue was a-going all the time.  She says: - -"Well, Sister Phelps, I've ransacked that-air cabin over, an' I b'lieve -the nigger was crazy.  I says to Sister Damrell—didn't I, Sister -Damrell?—s'I, he's crazy, s'I—them's the very words I said.  You all -hearn me: he's crazy, s'I; everything shows it, s'I.  Look at that-air -grindstone, s'I; want to tell _me_'t any cretur 't's in his right mind -'s a goin' to scrabble all them crazy things onto a grindstone, s'I? - Here sich 'n' sich a person busted his heart; 'n' here so 'n' so -pegged along for thirty-seven year, 'n' all that—natcherl son o' Louis -somebody, 'n' sich everlast'n rubbage.  He's plumb crazy, s'I; it's what -I says in the fust place, it's what I says in the middle, 'n' it's what -I says last 'n' all the time—the nigger's crazy—crazy 's Nebokoodneezer, -s'I." - -"An' look at that-air ladder made out'n rags, Sister Hotchkiss," says -old Mrs. Damrell; "what in the name o' goodness _could_ he ever want -of—" - -"The very words I was a-sayin' no longer ago th'n this minute to Sister -Utterback, 'n' she'll tell you so herself.  Sh-she, look at that-air rag -ladder, sh-she; 'n' s'I, yes, _look_ at it, s'I—what _could_ he a-wanted -of it, s'I.  Sh-she, Sister Hotchkiss, sh-she—" - -"But how in the nation'd they ever _git_ that grindstone _in_ there, -_anyway_? 'n' who dug that-air _hole_? 'n' who—" - -"My very _words_, Brer Penrod!  I was a-sayin'—pass that-air sasser o' -m'lasses, won't ye?—I was a-sayin' to Sister Dunlap, jist this minute, -how _did_ they git that grindstone in there, s'I.  Without _help_, mind -you—'thout _help_!  _that's_ wher 'tis.  Don't tell _me_, s'I; there -_wuz_ help, s'I; 'n' ther' wuz a _plenty_ help, too, s'I; ther's ben a -_dozen_ a-helpin' that nigger, 'n' I lay I'd skin every last nigger on -this place but _I'd_ find out who done it, s'I; 'n' moreover, s'I—" - -"A _dozen_ says you!—_forty_ couldn't a done every thing that's been -done. Look at them case-knife saws and things, how tedious they've been -made; look at that bed-leg sawed off with 'm, a week's work for six men; -look at that nigger made out'n straw on the bed; and look at—" - -"You may _well_ say it, Brer Hightower!  It's jist as I was a-sayin' -to Brer Phelps, his own self.  S'e, what do _you_ think of it, Sister -Hotchkiss, s'e? Think o' what, Brer Phelps, s'I?  Think o' that bed-leg -sawed off that a way, s'e?  _think_ of it, s'I?  I lay it never sawed -_itself_ off, s'I—somebody _sawed_ it, s'I; that's my opinion, take it -or leave it, it mayn't be no 'count, s'I, but sich as 't is, it's my -opinion, s'I, 'n' if any body k'n start a better one, s'I, let him _do_ -it, s'I, that's all.  I says to Sister Dunlap, s'I—" - -"Why, dog my cats, they must a ben a house-full o' niggers in there -every night for four weeks to a done all that work, Sister Phelps.  Look -at that shirt—every last inch of it kivered over with secret African -writ'n done with blood!  Must a ben a raft uv 'm at it right along, all -the time, amost.  Why, I'd give two dollars to have it read to me; 'n' -as for the niggers that wrote it, I 'low I'd take 'n' lash 'm t'll—" - -"People to _help_ him, Brother Marples!  Well, I reckon you'd _think_ -so if you'd a been in this house for a while back.  Why, they've stole -everything they could lay their hands on—and we a-watching all the time, -mind you. They stole that shirt right off o' the line! and as for that -sheet they made the rag ladder out of, ther' ain't no telling how -many times they _didn't_ steal that; and flour, and candles, and -candlesticks, and spoons, and the old warming-pan, and most a thousand -things that I disremember now, and my new calico dress; and me and -Silas and my Sid and Tom on the constant watch day _and_ night, as I was -a-telling you, and not a one of us could catch hide nor hair nor sight -nor sound of them; and here at the last minute, lo and behold you, they -slides right in under our noses and fools us, and not only fools _us_ -but the Injun Territory robbers too, and actuly gets _away_ with that -nigger safe and sound, and that with sixteen men and twenty-two dogs -right on their very heels at that very time!  I tell you, it just bangs -anything I ever _heard_ of. Why, _sperits_ couldn't a done better and -been no smarter. And I reckon they must a _been_ sperits—because, _you_ -know our dogs, and ther' ain't no better; well, them dogs never even got -on the _track_ of 'm once!  You explain _that_ to me if you can!—_any_ -of you!" - -"Well, it does beat—" - -"Laws alive, I never—" - -"So help me, I wouldn't a be—" - -"_House_-thieves as well as—" - -"Goodnessgracioussakes, I'd a ben afeard to live in sich a—" - -"'Fraid to _live_!—why, I was that scared I dasn't hardly go to bed, or -get up, or lay down, or _set_ down, Sister Ridgeway.  Why, they'd steal -the very—why, goodness sakes, you can guess what kind of a fluster I was -in by the time midnight come last night.  I hope to gracious if I warn't -afraid they'd steal some o' the family!  I was just to that pass I -didn't have no reasoning faculties no more.  It looks foolish enough -_now_, in the daytime; but I says to myself, there's my two poor boys -asleep, 'way up stairs in that lonesome room, and I declare to goodness -I was that uneasy 't I crep' up there and locked 'em in!  I _did_.  And -anybody would. Because, you know, when you get scared that way, and it -keeps running on, and getting worse and worse all the time, and your -wits gets to addling, and you get to doing all sorts o' wild things, -and by and by you think to yourself, spos'n I was a boy, and was away up -there, and the door ain't locked, and you—" She stopped, looking kind -of wondering, and then she turned her head around slow, and when her eye -lit on me—I got up and took a walk. - -Says I to myself, I can explain better how we come to not be in that -room this morning if I go out to one side and study over it a little. - So I done it.  But I dasn't go fur, or she'd a sent for me.  And when -it was late in the day the people all went, and then I come in and -told her the noise and shooting waked up me and "Sid," and the door was -locked, and we wanted to see the fun, so we went down the lightning-rod, -and both of us got hurt a little, and we didn't never want to try _that_ -no more.  And then I went on and told her all what I told Uncle Silas -before; and then she said she'd forgive us, and maybe it was all right -enough anyway, and about what a body might expect of boys, for all boys -was a pretty harum-scarum lot as fur as she could see; and so, as long -as no harm hadn't come of it, she judged she better put in her time -being grateful we was alive and well and she had us still, stead of -fretting over what was past and done.  So then she kissed me, and patted -me on the head, and dropped into a kind of a brown study; and pretty -soon jumps up, and says: - -"Why, lawsamercy, it's most night, and Sid not come yet!  What _has_ -become of that boy?" - -I see my chance; so I skips up and says: - -"I'll run right up to town and get him," I says. - -"No you won't," she says.  "You'll stay right wher' you are; _one's_ -enough to be lost at a time.  If he ain't here to supper, your uncle 'll -go." - -Well, he warn't there to supper; so right after supper uncle went. - -He come back about ten a little bit uneasy; hadn't run across Tom's -track. Aunt Sally was a good _deal_ uneasy; but Uncle Silas he said -there warn't no occasion to be—boys will be boys, he said, and you'll -see this one turn up in the morning all sound and right.  So she had -to be satisfied.  But she said she'd set up for him a while anyway, and -keep a light burning so he could see it. - -And then when I went up to bed she come up with me and fetched her -candle, and tucked me in, and mothered me so good I felt mean, and like -I couldn't look her in the face; and she set down on the bed and talked -with me a long time, and said what a splendid boy Sid was, and didn't -seem to want to ever stop talking about him; and kept asking me every -now and then if I reckoned he could a got lost, or hurt, or maybe -drownded, and might be laying at this minute somewheres suffering or -dead, and she not by him to help him, and so the tears would drip down -silent, and I would tell her that Sid was all right, and would be home -in the morning, sure; and she would squeeze my hand, or maybe kiss me, -and tell me to say it again, and keep on saying it, because it done her -good, and she was in so much trouble.  And when she was going away she -looked down in my eyes so steady and gentle, and says: - -"The door ain't going to be locked, Tom, and there's the window and -the rod; but you'll be good, _won't_ you?  And you won't go?  For _my_ -sake." - -Laws knows I _wanted_ to go bad enough to see about Tom, and was all -intending to go; but after that I wouldn't a went, not for kingdoms. - -But she was on my mind and Tom was on my mind, so I slept very restless. -And twice I went down the rod away in the night, and slipped around -front, and see her setting there by her candle in the window with her -eyes towards the road and the tears in them; and I wished I could do -something for her, but I couldn't, only to swear that I wouldn't never -do nothing to grieve her any more.  And the third time I waked up at -dawn, and slid down, and she was there yet, and her candle was most out, -and her old gray head was resting on her hand, and she was asleep. - - - - -CHAPTER XLII. - -THE old man was uptown again before breakfast, but couldn't get no -track of Tom; and both of them set at the table thinking, and not saying -nothing, and looking mournful, and their coffee getting cold, and not -eating anything. And by and by the old man says: - -"Did I give you the letter?" - -"What letter?" - -"The one I got yesterday out of the post-office." - -"No, you didn't give me no letter." - -"Well, I must a forgot it." - -So he rummaged his pockets, and then went off somewheres where he had -laid it down, and fetched it, and give it to her.  She says: - -"Why, it's from St. Petersburg—it's from Sis." - -I allowed another walk would do me good; but I couldn't stir.  But -before she could break it open she dropped it and run—for she see -something. And so did I. It was Tom Sawyer on a mattress; and that old -doctor; and Jim, in _her_ calico dress, with his hands tied behind him; -and a lot of people.  I hid the letter behind the first thing that come -handy, and rushed.  She flung herself at Tom, crying, and says: - -"Oh, he's dead, he's dead, I know he's dead!" - -And Tom he turned his head a little, and muttered something or other, -which showed he warn't in his right mind; then she flung up her hands, -and says: - -"He's alive, thank God!  And that's enough!" and she snatched a kiss of -him, and flew for the house to get the bed ready, and scattering orders -right and left at the niggers and everybody else, as fast as her tongue -could go, every jump of the way. - -I followed the men to see what they was going to do with Jim; and the -old doctor and Uncle Silas followed after Tom into the house.  The men -was very huffy, and some of them wanted to hang Jim for an example to -all the other niggers around there, so they wouldn't be trying to run -away like Jim done, and making such a raft of trouble, and keeping a -whole family scared most to death for days and nights.  But the others -said, don't do it, it wouldn't answer at all; he ain't our nigger, and -his owner would turn up and make us pay for him, sure.  So that cooled -them down a little, because the people that's always the most anxious -for to hang a nigger that hain't done just right is always the very -ones that ain't the most anxious to pay for him when they've got their -satisfaction out of him. - -They cussed Jim considerble, though, and give him a cuff or two side the -head once in a while, but Jim never said nothing, and he never let on to -know me, and they took him to the same cabin, and put his own clothes -on him, and chained him again, and not to no bed-leg this time, but to -a big staple drove into the bottom log, and chained his hands, too, and -both legs, and said he warn't to have nothing but bread and water to -eat after this till his owner come, or he was sold at auction because -he didn't come in a certain length of time, and filled up our hole, and -said a couple of farmers with guns must stand watch around about the -cabin every night, and a bulldog tied to the door in the daytime; and -about this time they was through with the job and was tapering off with -a kind of generl good-bye cussing, and then the old doctor comes and -takes a look, and says: - -"Don't be no rougher on him than you're obleeged to, because he ain't -a bad nigger.  When I got to where I found the boy I see I couldn't cut -the bullet out without some help, and he warn't in no condition for -me to leave to go and get help; and he got a little worse and a little -worse, and after a long time he went out of his head, and wouldn't let -me come a-nigh him any more, and said if I chalked his raft he'd kill -me, and no end of wild foolishness like that, and I see I couldn't do -anything at all with him; so I says, I got to have _help_ somehow; and -the minute I says it out crawls this nigger from somewheres and says -he'll help, and he done it, too, and done it very well.  Of course I -judged he must be a runaway nigger, and there I _was_! and there I had -to stick right straight along all the rest of the day and all night.  It -was a fix, I tell you! I had a couple of patients with the chills, and -of course I'd of liked to run up to town and see them, but I dasn't, -because the nigger might get away, and then I'd be to blame; and yet -never a skiff come close enough for me to hail.  So there I had to stick -plumb until daylight this morning; and I never see a nigger that was a -better nuss or faithfuller, and yet he was risking his freedom to do it, -and was all tired out, too, and I see plain enough he'd been worked -main hard lately.  I liked the nigger for that; I tell you, gentlemen, a -nigger like that is worth a thousand dollars—and kind treatment, too.  I -had everything I needed, and the boy was doing as well there as he -would a done at home—better, maybe, because it was so quiet; but there I -_was_, with both of 'm on my hands, and there I had to stick till about -dawn this morning; then some men in a skiff come by, and as good luck -would have it the nigger was setting by the pallet with his head propped -on his knees sound asleep; so I motioned them in quiet, and they slipped -up on him and grabbed him and tied him before he knowed what he was -about, and we never had no trouble. And the boy being in a kind of a -flighty sleep, too, we muffled the oars and hitched the raft on, and -towed her over very nice and quiet, and the nigger never made the least -row nor said a word from the start.  He ain't no bad nigger, gentlemen; -that's what I think about him." - -Somebody says: - -"Well, it sounds very good, doctor, I'm obleeged to say." - -Then the others softened up a little, too, and I was mighty thankful -to that old doctor for doing Jim that good turn; and I was glad it was -according to my judgment of him, too; because I thought he had a good -heart in him and was a good man the first time I see him.  Then they -all agreed that Jim had acted very well, and was deserving to have some -notice took of it, and reward.  So every one of them promised, right out -and hearty, that they wouldn't cuss him no more. - -Then they come out and locked him up.  I hoped they was going to say he -could have one or two of the chains took off, because they was rotten -heavy, or could have meat and greens with his bread and water; but they -didn't think of it, and I reckoned it warn't best for me to mix in, but -I judged I'd get the doctor's yarn to Aunt Sally somehow or other as -soon as I'd got through the breakers that was laying just ahead of -me—explanations, I mean, of how I forgot to mention about Sid being shot -when I was telling how him and me put in that dratted night paddling -around hunting the runaway nigger. - -But I had plenty time.  Aunt Sally she stuck to the sick-room all day -and all night, and every time I see Uncle Silas mooning around I dodged -him. - -Next morning I heard Tom was a good deal better, and they said Aunt -Sally was gone to get a nap.  So I slips to the sick-room, and if I -found him awake I reckoned we could put up a yarn for the family that -would wash. But he was sleeping, and sleeping very peaceful, too; and -pale, not fire-faced the way he was when he come.  So I set down and -laid for him to wake.  In about half an hour Aunt Sally comes gliding -in, and there I was, up a stump again!  She motioned me to be still, and -set down by me, and begun to whisper, and said we could all be joyful -now, because all the symptoms was first-rate, and he'd been sleeping -like that for ever so long, and looking better and peacefuller all the -time, and ten to one he'd wake up in his right mind. - -So we set there watching, and by and by he stirs a bit, and opened his -eyes very natural, and takes a look, and says: - -"Hello!—why, I'm at _home_!  How's that?  Where's the raft?" - -"It's all right," I says. - -"And _Jim_?" - -"The same," I says, but couldn't say it pretty brash.  But he never -noticed, but says: - -"Good!  Splendid!  _Now_ we're all right and safe! Did you tell Aunty?" - -I was going to say yes; but she chipped in and says:  "About what, Sid?" - -"Why, about the way the whole thing was done." - -"What whole thing?" - -"Why, _the_ whole thing.  There ain't but one; how we set the runaway -nigger free—me and Tom." - -"Good land!  Set the run—What _is_ the child talking about!  Dear, dear, -out of his head again!" - -"_No_, I ain't out of my _head_; I know all what I'm talking about.  We -_did_ set him free—me and Tom.  We laid out to do it, and we _done_ it. - And we done it elegant, too."  He'd got a start, and she never checked -him up, just set and stared and stared, and let him clip along, and -I see it warn't no use for _me_ to put in.  "Why, Aunty, it cost us a -power of work—weeks of it—hours and hours, every night, whilst you was -all asleep. And we had to steal candles, and the sheet, and the shirt, -and your dress, and spoons, and tin plates, and case-knives, and the -warming-pan, and the grindstone, and flour, and just no end of things, -and you can't think what work it was to make the saws, and pens, and -inscriptions, and one thing or another, and you can't think _half_ the -fun it was.  And we had to make up the pictures of coffins and things, -and nonnamous letters from the robbers, and get up and down the -lightning-rod, and dig the hole into the cabin, and made the rope ladder -and send it in cooked up in a pie, and send in spoons and things to work -with in your apron pocket—" - -"Mercy sakes!" - -"—and load up the cabin with rats and snakes and so on, for company for -Jim; and then you kept Tom here so long with the butter in his hat that -you come near spiling the whole business, because the men come before -we was out of the cabin, and we had to rush, and they heard us and let -drive at us, and I got my share, and we dodged out of the path and let -them go by, and when the dogs come they warn't interested in us, but -went for the most noise, and we got our canoe, and made for the -raft, and was all safe, and Jim was a free man, and we done it all by -ourselves, and _wasn't_ it bully, Aunty!" - -"Well, I never heard the likes of it in all my born days!  So it was -_you_, you little rapscallions, that's been making all this trouble, -and turned everybody's wits clean inside out and scared us all most to -death.  I've as good a notion as ever I had in my life to take it out -o' you this very minute.  To think, here I've been, night after night, -a—_you_ just get well once, you young scamp, and I lay I'll tan the Old -Harry out o' both o' ye!" - -But Tom, he _was_ so proud and joyful, he just _couldn't_ hold in, -and his tongue just _went_ it—she a-chipping in, and spitting fire all -along, and both of them going it at once, like a cat convention; and she -says: - -"_Well_, you get all the enjoyment you can out of it _now_, for mind I -tell you if I catch you meddling with him again—" - -"Meddling with _who_?"  Tom says, dropping his smile and looking -surprised. - -"With _who_?  Why, the runaway nigger, of course.  Who'd you reckon?" - -Tom looks at me very grave, and says: - -"Tom, didn't you just tell me he was all right?  Hasn't he got away?" - -"_Him_?" says Aunt Sally; "the runaway nigger?  'Deed he hasn't. - They've got him back, safe and sound, and he's in that cabin again, -on bread and water, and loaded down with chains, till he's claimed or -sold!" - -Tom rose square up in bed, with his eye hot, and his nostrils opening -and shutting like gills, and sings out to me: - -"They hain't no _right_ to shut him up!  SHOVE!—and don't you lose a -minute.  Turn him loose! he ain't no slave; he's as free as any cretur -that walks this earth!" - -"What _does_ the child mean?" - -"I mean every word I _say_, Aunt Sally, and if somebody don't go, _I'll_ -go. I've knowed him all his life, and so has Tom, there.  Old Miss -Watson died two months ago, and she was ashamed she ever was going to -sell him down the river, and _said_ so; and she set him free in her -will." - -"Then what on earth did _you_ want to set him free for, seeing he was -already free?" - -"Well, that _is_ a question, I must say; and just like women!  Why, -I wanted the _adventure_ of it; and I'd a waded neck-deep in blood -to—goodness alive, _Aunt Polly!_" - -If she warn't standing right there, just inside the door, looking as -sweet and contented as an angel half full of pie, I wish I may never! - -Aunt Sally jumped for her, and most hugged the head off of her, and -cried over her, and I found a good enough place for me under the bed, -for it was getting pretty sultry for us, seemed to me.  And I peeped -out, and in a little while Tom's Aunt Polly shook herself loose and -stood there looking across at Tom over her spectacles—kind of grinding -him into the earth, you know.  And then she says: - -"Yes, you _better_ turn y'r head away—I would if I was you, Tom." - -"Oh, deary me!" says Aunt Sally; "_Is_ he changed so?  Why, that ain't -_Tom_, it's Sid; Tom's—Tom's—why, where is Tom?  He was here a minute -ago." - -"You mean where's Huck _Finn_—that's what you mean!  I reckon I hain't -raised such a scamp as my Tom all these years not to know him when I -_see_ him.  That _would_ be a pretty howdy-do. Come out from under that -bed, Huck Finn." - -So I done it.  But not feeling brash. - -Aunt Sally she was one of the mixed-upest-looking persons I ever -see—except one, and that was Uncle Silas, when he come in and they told -it all to him.  It kind of made him drunk, as you may say, and he didn't -know nothing at all the rest of the day, and preached a prayer-meeting -sermon that night that gave him a rattling ruputation, because the -oldest man in the world couldn't a understood it.  So Tom's Aunt Polly, -she told all about who I was, and what; and I had to up and tell how -I was in such a tight place that when Mrs. Phelps took me for Tom -Sawyer—she chipped in and says, "Oh, go on and call me Aunt Sally, I'm -used to it now, and 'tain't no need to change"—that when Aunt Sally took -me for Tom Sawyer I had to stand it—there warn't no other way, and -I knowed he wouldn't mind, because it would be nuts for him, being -a mystery, and he'd make an adventure out of it, and be perfectly -satisfied.  And so it turned out, and he let on to be Sid, and made -things as soft as he could for me. - -And his Aunt Polly she said Tom was right about old Miss Watson setting -Jim free in her will; and so, sure enough, Tom Sawyer had gone and took -all that trouble and bother to set a free nigger free! and I couldn't -ever understand before, until that minute and that talk, how he _could_ -help a body set a nigger free with his bringing-up. - -Well, Aunt Polly she said that when Aunt Sally wrote to her that Tom and -_Sid_ had come all right and safe, she says to herself: - -"Look at that, now!  I might have expected it, letting him go off that -way without anybody to watch him.  So now I got to go and trapse all -the way down the river, eleven hundred mile, and find out what that -creetur's up to _this_ time, as long as I couldn't seem to get any -answer out of you about it." - -"Why, I never heard nothing from you," says Aunt Sally. - -"Well, I wonder!  Why, I wrote you twice to ask you what you could mean -by Sid being here." - -"Well, I never got 'em, Sis." - -Aunt Polly she turns around slow and severe, and says: - -"You, Tom!" - -"Well—_what_?" he says, kind of pettish. - -"Don't you what _me_, you impudent thing—hand out them letters." - -"What letters?" - -"_Them_ letters.  I be bound, if I have to take a-holt of you I'll—" - -"They're in the trunk.  There, now.  And they're just the same as they -was when I got them out of the office.  I hain't looked into them, I -hain't touched them.  But I knowed they'd make trouble, and I thought if -you warn't in no hurry, I'd—" - -"Well, you _do_ need skinning, there ain't no mistake about it.  And I -wrote another one to tell you I was coming; and I s'pose he—" - -"No, it come yesterday; I hain't read it yet, but _it's_ all right, I've -got that one." - -I wanted to offer to bet two dollars she hadn't, but I reckoned maybe it -was just as safe to not to.  So I never said nothing. - - - - -CHAPTER THE LAST - -THE first time I catched Tom private I asked him what was his idea, time -of the evasion?—what it was he'd planned to do if the evasion worked all -right and he managed to set a nigger free that was already free before? -And he said, what he had planned in his head from the start, if we got -Jim out all safe, was for us to run him down the river on the raft, and -have adventures plumb to the mouth of the river, and then tell him about -his being free, and take him back up home on a steamboat, in style, -and pay him for his lost time, and write word ahead and get out all -the niggers around, and have them waltz him into town with a torchlight -procession and a brass-band, and then he would be a hero, and so would -we.  But I reckoned it was about as well the way it was. - -We had Jim out of the chains in no time, and when Aunt Polly and Uncle -Silas and Aunt Sally found out how good he helped the doctor nurse Tom, -they made a heap of fuss over him, and fixed him up prime, and give him -all he wanted to eat, and a good time, and nothing to do.  And we had -him up to the sick-room, and had a high talk; and Tom give Jim forty -dollars for being prisoner for us so patient, and doing it up so good, -and Jim was pleased most to death, and busted out, and says: - -"Dah, now, Huck, what I tell you?—what I tell you up dah on Jackson -islan'?  I _tole_ you I got a hairy breas', en what's de sign un it; en -I _tole_ you I ben rich wunst, en gwineter to be rich _agin_; en it's -come true; en heah she is!  _dah_, now! doan' talk to _me_—signs is -_signs_, mine I tell you; en I knowed jis' 's well 'at I 'uz gwineter be -rich agin as I's a-stannin' heah dis minute!" - -And then Tom he talked along and talked along, and says, le's all three -slide out of here one of these nights and get an outfit, and go for -howling adventures amongst the Injuns, over in the Territory, for a -couple of weeks or two; and I says, all right, that suits me, but I -ain't got no money for to buy the outfit, and I reckon I couldn't get -none from home, because it's likely pap's been back before now, and got -it all away from Judge Thatcher and drunk it up. - -"No, he hain't," Tom says; "it's all there yet—six thousand dollars -and more; and your pap hain't ever been back since.  Hadn't when I come -away, anyhow." - -Jim says, kind of solemn: - -"He ain't a-comin' back no mo', Huck." - -I says: - -"Why, Jim?" - -"Nemmine why, Huck—but he ain't comin' back no mo." - -But I kept at him; so at last he says: - -"Doan' you 'member de house dat was float'n down de river, en dey wuz a -man in dah, kivered up, en I went in en unkivered him and didn' let you -come in?  Well, den, you kin git yo' money when you wants it, kase dat -wuz him." - -Tom's most well now, and got his bullet around his neck on a watch-guard -for a watch, and is always seeing what time it is, and so there ain't -nothing more to write about, and I am rotten glad of it, because if I'd -a knowed what a trouble it was to make a book I wouldn't a tackled it, -and ain't a-going to no more.  But I reckon I got to light out for the -Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me -and sivilize me, and I can't stand it.  I been there before. - -THE END. YOURS TRULY, _HUCK FINN_. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, -Complete, by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUCKLEBERRY FINN *** - -***** This file should be named 76-h.htm or 76-h.zip ***** This and -all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.net/7/76/ - -Produced by David Widger. Previous editions produced by Ron Burkey and -Internet Wiretap - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be -renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission -and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily keep eBooks -in compliance with any particular paper edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - -http://www.gutenberg.net - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, including -how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe to -our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - diff --git a/DemoApp2/texts/Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.txt b/DemoApp2/texts/Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 1c136dc..0000000 --- a/DemoApp2/texts/Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3735 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - -Author: Lewis Carroll - -Posting Date: June 25, 2008 [EBook #11] -Release Date: March, 1994 -[Last updated: December 20, 2011] - -Language: English - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND *** - - - - - - - - - - -ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND - -Lewis Carroll - -THE MILLENNIUM FULCRUM EDITION 3.0 - - - - -CHAPTER I. Down the Rabbit-Hole - -Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the -bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the -book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in -it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice 'without pictures or -conversation?' - -So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the -hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure -of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and -picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran -close by her. - -There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so -VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, 'Oh dear! -Oh dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it -occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time -it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH -OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT-POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on, -Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had -never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch -to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field -after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large -rabbit-hole under the hedge. - -In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how -in the world she was to get out again. - -The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then -dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think -about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep -well. - -Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had -plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was -going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what -she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she -looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with -cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures -hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as -she passed; it was labelled 'ORANGE MARMALADE', but to her great -disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear -of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as -she fell past it. - -'Well!' thought Alice to herself, 'after such a fall as this, I shall -think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at -home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top -of the house!' (Which was very likely true.) - -Down, down, down. Would the fall NEVER come to an end! 'I wonder how -many miles I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud. 'I must be getting -somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four -thousand miles down, I think--' (for, you see, Alice had learnt several -things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this -was not a VERY good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there -was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) -'--yes, that's about the right distance--but then I wonder what Latitude -or Longitude I've got to?' (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or -Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.) - -Presently she began again. 'I wonder if I shall fall right THROUGH the -earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with -their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think--' (she was rather glad -there WAS no one listening, this time, as it didn't sound at all the -right word) '--but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country -is, you know. Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia?' (and -she tried to curtsey as she spoke--fancy CURTSEYING as you're falling -through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) 'And what an -ignorant little girl she'll think me for asking! No, it'll never do to -ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.' - -Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began -talking again. 'Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I should think!' -(Dinah was the cat.) 'I hope they'll remember her saucer of milk at -tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are no -mice in the air, I'm afraid, but you might catch a bat, and that's very -like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?' And here Alice -began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy -sort of way, 'Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?' and sometimes, 'Do -bats eat cats?' for, you see, as she couldn't answer either question, -it didn't much matter which way she put it. She felt that she was dozing -off, and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with -Dinah, and saying to her very earnestly, 'Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: -did you ever eat a bat?' when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon -a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over. - -Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a moment: -she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another -long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. -There was not a moment to be lost: away went Alice like the wind, and -was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, 'Oh my ears -and whiskers, how late it's getting!' She was close behind it when she -turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she found -herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging -from the roof. - -There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked; and when -Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every -door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to -get out again. - -Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid -glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key, and Alice's -first thought was that it might belong to one of the doors of the hall; -but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, -but at any rate it would not open any of them. However, on the second -time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and -behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: she tried the -little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted! - -Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not -much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and looked along the passage -into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of -that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and -those cool fountains, but she could not even get her head through the -doorway; 'and even if my head would go through,' thought poor Alice, 'it -would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could -shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only know how to begin.' -For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, -that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really -impossible. - -There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she went -back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on it, or at -any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes: this -time she found a little bottle on it, ('which certainly was not here -before,' said Alice,) and round the neck of the bottle was a paper -label, with the words 'DRINK ME' beautifully printed on it in large -letters. - -It was all very well to say 'Drink me,' but the wise little Alice was -not going to do THAT in a hurry. 'No, I'll look first,' she said, 'and -see whether it's marked "poison" or not'; for she had read several nice -little histories about children who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild -beasts and other unpleasant things, all because they WOULD not remember -the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot -poker will burn you if you hold it too long; and that if you cut your -finger VERY deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never -forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked 'poison,' it is -almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later. - -However, this bottle was NOT marked 'poison,' so Alice ventured to taste -it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour -of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot -buttered toast,) she very soon finished it off. - - * * * * * * * - - * * * * * * - - * * * * * * * - -'What a curious feeling!' said Alice; 'I must be shutting up like a -telescope.' - -And so it was indeed: she was now only ten inches high, and her face -brightened up at the thought that she was now the right size for going -through the little door into that lovely garden. First, however, she -waited for a few minutes to see if she was going to shrink any further: -she felt a little nervous about this; 'for it might end, you know,' said -Alice to herself, 'in my going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder -what I should be like then?' And she tried to fancy what the flame of a -candle is like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember -ever having seen such a thing. - -After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided on going -into the garden at once; but, alas for poor Alice! when she got to the -door, she found she had forgotten the little golden key, and when she -went back to the table for it, she found she could not possibly reach -it: she could see it quite plainly through the glass, and she tried her -best to climb up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery; -and when she had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing -sat down and cried. - -'Come, there's no use in crying like that!' said Alice to herself, -rather sharply; 'I advise you to leave off this minute!' She generally -gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it), -and sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into -her eyes; and once she remembered trying to box her own ears for having -cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself, -for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people. -'But it's no use now,' thought poor Alice, 'to pretend to be two people! -Why, there's hardly enough of me left to make ONE respectable person!' - -Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table: -she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which the words -'EAT ME' were beautifully marked in currants. 'Well, I'll eat it,' said -Alice, 'and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it -makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door; so either way I'll -get into the garden, and I don't care which happens!' - -She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself, 'Which way? Which -way?', holding her hand on the top of her head to feel which way it was -growing, and she was quite surprised to find that she remained the same -size: to be sure, this generally happens when one eats cake, but Alice -had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way -things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on -in the common way. - -So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake. - - * * * * * * * - - * * * * * * - - * * * * * * * - - - - -CHAPTER II. The Pool of Tears - -'Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that -for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English); 'now I'm -opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!' -(for when she looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of -sight, they were getting so far off). 'Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder -who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I'm sure -_I_ shan't be able! I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble -myself about you: you must manage the best way you can;--but I must be -kind to them,' thought Alice, 'or perhaps they won't walk the way I want -to go! Let me see: I'll give them a new pair of boots every Christmas.' - -And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it. 'They must -go by the carrier,' she thought; 'and how funny it'll seem, sending -presents to one's own feet! And how odd the directions will look! - - ALICE'S RIGHT FOOT, ESQ. - HEARTHRUG, - NEAR THE FENDER, - (WITH ALICE'S LOVE). - -Oh dear, what nonsense I'm talking!' - -Just then her head struck against the roof of the hall: in fact she was -now more than nine feet high, and she at once took up the little golden -key and hurried off to the garden door. - -Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying down on one side, to -look through into the garden with one eye; but to get through was more -hopeless than ever: she sat down and began to cry again. - -'You ought to be ashamed of yourself,' said Alice, 'a great girl like -you,' (she might well say this), 'to go on crying in this way! Stop this -moment, I tell you!' But she went on all the same, shedding gallons of -tears, until there was a large pool all round her, about four inches -deep and reaching half down the hall. - -After a time she heard a little pattering of feet in the distance, and -she hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming. It was the White -Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kid gloves in -one hand and a large fan in the other: he came trotting along in a great -hurry, muttering to himself as he came, 'Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! -Oh! won't she be savage if I've kept her waiting!' Alice felt so -desperate that she was ready to ask help of any one; so, when the Rabbit -came near her, she began, in a low, timid voice, 'If you please, sir--' -The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid gloves and the fan, -and skurried away into the darkness as hard as he could go. - -Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she -kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking: 'Dear, dear! How -queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. -I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the -same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a -little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who -in the world am I? Ah, THAT'S the great puzzle!' And she began thinking -over all the children she knew that were of the same age as herself, to -see if she could have been changed for any of them. - -'I'm sure I'm not Ada,' she said, 'for her hair goes in such long -ringlets, and mine doesn't go in ringlets at all; and I'm sure I can't -be Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she, oh! she knows such a -very little! Besides, SHE'S she, and I'm I, and--oh dear, how puzzling -it all is! I'll try if I know all the things I used to know. Let me -see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and -four times seven is--oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate! -However, the Multiplication Table doesn't signify: let's try Geography. -London is the capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome, and -Rome--no, THAT'S all wrong, I'm certain! I must have been changed for -Mabel! I'll try and say "How doth the little--"' and she crossed her -hands on her lap as if she were saying lessons, and began to repeat it, -but her voice sounded hoarse and strange, and the words did not come the -same as they used to do:-- - - 'How doth the little crocodile - Improve his shining tail, - And pour the waters of the Nile - On every golden scale! - - 'How cheerfully he seems to grin, - How neatly spread his claws, - And welcome little fishes in - With gently smiling jaws!' - -'I'm sure those are not the right words,' said poor Alice, and her eyes -filled with tears again as she went on, 'I must be Mabel after all, and -I shall have to go and live in that poky little house, and have next to -no toys to play with, and oh! ever so many lessons to learn! No, I've -made up my mind about it; if I'm Mabel, I'll stay down here! It'll be no -use their putting their heads down and saying "Come up again, dear!" I -shall only look up and say "Who am I then? Tell me that first, and then, -if I like being that person, I'll come up: if not, I'll stay down here -till I'm somebody else"--but, oh dear!' cried Alice, with a sudden burst -of tears, 'I do wish they WOULD put their heads down! I am so VERY tired -of being all alone here!' - -As she said this she looked down at her hands, and was surprised to see -that she had put on one of the Rabbit's little white kid gloves while -she was talking. 'How CAN I have done that?' she thought. 'I must -be growing small again.' She got up and went to the table to measure -herself by it, and found that, as nearly as she could guess, she was now -about two feet high, and was going on shrinking rapidly: she soon found -out that the cause of this was the fan she was holding, and she dropped -it hastily, just in time to avoid shrinking away altogether. - -'That WAS a narrow escape!' said Alice, a good deal frightened at the -sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in existence; 'and -now for the garden!' and she ran with all speed back to the little door: -but, alas! the little door was shut again, and the little golden key was -lying on the glass table as before, 'and things are worse than ever,' -thought the poor child, 'for I never was so small as this before, never! -And I declare it's too bad, that it is!' - -As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another moment, splash! -she was up to her chin in salt water. Her first idea was that she -had somehow fallen into the sea, 'and in that case I can go back by -railway,' she said to herself. (Alice had been to the seaside once in -her life, and had come to the general conclusion, that wherever you go -to on the English coast you find a number of bathing machines in the -sea, some children digging in the sand with wooden spades, then a row -of lodging houses, and behind them a railway station.) However, she soon -made out that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she -was nine feet high. - -'I wish I hadn't cried so much!' said Alice, as she swam about, trying -to find her way out. 'I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by -being drowned in my own tears! That WILL be a queer thing, to be sure! -However, everything is queer to-day.' - -Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a little way -off, and she swam nearer to make out what it was: at first she thought -it must be a walrus or hippopotamus, but then she remembered how small -she was now, and she soon made out that it was only a mouse that had -slipped in like herself. - -'Would it be of any use, now,' thought Alice, 'to speak to this mouse? -Everything is so out-of-the-way down here, that I should think very -likely it can talk: at any rate, there's no harm in trying.' So she -began: 'O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired -of swimming about here, O Mouse!' (Alice thought this must be the right -way of speaking to a mouse: she had never done such a thing before, but -she remembered having seen in her brother's Latin Grammar, 'A mouse--of -a mouse--to a mouse--a mouse--O mouse!') The Mouse looked at her rather -inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little eyes, -but it said nothing. - -'Perhaps it doesn't understand English,' thought Alice; 'I daresay it's -a French mouse, come over with William the Conqueror.' (For, with all -her knowledge of history, Alice had no very clear notion how long ago -anything had happened.) So she began again: 'Ou est ma chatte?' which -was the first sentence in her French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a -sudden leap out of the water, and seemed to quiver all over with fright. -'Oh, I beg your pardon!' cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt -the poor animal's feelings. 'I quite forgot you didn't like cats.' - -'Not like cats!' cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate voice. 'Would -YOU like cats if you were me?' - -'Well, perhaps not,' said Alice in a soothing tone: 'don't be angry -about it. And yet I wish I could show you our cat Dinah: I think you'd -take a fancy to cats if you could only see her. She is such a dear quiet -thing,' Alice went on, half to herself, as she swam lazily about in the -pool, 'and she sits purring so nicely by the fire, licking her paws and -washing her face--and she is such a nice soft thing to nurse--and she's -such a capital one for catching mice--oh, I beg your pardon!' cried -Alice again, for this time the Mouse was bristling all over, and she -felt certain it must be really offended. 'We won't talk about her any -more if you'd rather not.' - -'We indeed!' cried the Mouse, who was trembling down to the end of his -tail. 'As if I would talk on such a subject! Our family always HATED -cats: nasty, low, vulgar things! Don't let me hear the name again!' - -'I won't indeed!' said Alice, in a great hurry to change the subject of -conversation. 'Are you--are you fond--of--of dogs?' The Mouse did not -answer, so Alice went on eagerly: 'There is such a nice little dog near -our house I should like to show you! A little bright-eyed terrier, you -know, with oh, such long curly brown hair! And it'll fetch things when -you throw them, and it'll sit up and beg for its dinner, and all sorts -of things--I can't remember half of them--and it belongs to a farmer, -you know, and he says it's so useful, it's worth a hundred pounds! He -says it kills all the rats and--oh dear!' cried Alice in a sorrowful -tone, 'I'm afraid I've offended it again!' For the Mouse was swimming -away from her as hard as it could go, and making quite a commotion in -the pool as it went. - -So she called softly after it, 'Mouse dear! Do come back again, and we -won't talk about cats or dogs either, if you don't like them!' When the -Mouse heard this, it turned round and swam slowly back to her: its -face was quite pale (with passion, Alice thought), and it said in a low -trembling voice, 'Let us get to the shore, and then I'll tell you my -history, and you'll understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.' - -It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded with the -birds and animals that had fallen into it: there were a Duck and a Dodo, -a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious creatures. Alice led the -way, and the whole party swam to the shore. - - - - -CHAPTER III. A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale - -They were indeed a queer-looking party that assembled on the bank--the -birds with draggled feathers, the animals with their fur clinging close -to them, and all dripping wet, cross, and uncomfortable. - -The first question of course was, how to get dry again: they had a -consultation about this, and after a few minutes it seemed quite natural -to Alice to find herself talking familiarly with them, as if she had -known them all her life. Indeed, she had quite a long argument with the -Lory, who at last turned sulky, and would only say, 'I am older than -you, and must know better'; and this Alice would not allow without -knowing how old it was, and, as the Lory positively refused to tell its -age, there was no more to be said. - -At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority among them, -called out, 'Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'LL soon make you -dry enough!' They all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse -in the middle. Alice kept her eyes anxiously fixed on it, for she felt -sure she would catch a bad cold if she did not get dry very soon. - -'Ahem!' said the Mouse with an important air, 'are you all ready? This -is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please! "William -the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was soon submitted -to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late much -accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of -Mercia and Northumbria--"' - -'Ugh!' said the Lory, with a shiver. - -'I beg your pardon!' said the Mouse, frowning, but very politely: 'Did -you speak?' - -'Not I!' said the Lory hastily. - -'I thought you did,' said the Mouse. '--I proceed. "Edwin and Morcar, -the earls of Mercia and Northumbria, declared for him: and even Stigand, -the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury, found it advisable--"' - -'Found WHAT?' said the Duck. - -'Found IT,' the Mouse replied rather crossly: 'of course you know what -"it" means.' - -'I know what "it" means well enough, when I find a thing,' said the -Duck: 'it's generally a frog or a worm. The question is, what did the -archbishop find?' - -The Mouse did not notice this question, but hurriedly went on, '"--found -it advisable to go with Edgar Atheling to meet William and offer him the -crown. William's conduct at first was moderate. But the insolence of his -Normans--" How are you getting on now, my dear?' it continued, turning -to Alice as it spoke. - -'As wet as ever,' said Alice in a melancholy tone: 'it doesn't seem to -dry me at all.' - -'In that case,' said the Dodo solemnly, rising to its feet, 'I move -that the meeting adjourn, for the immediate adoption of more energetic -remedies--' - -'Speak English!' said the Eaglet. 'I don't know the meaning of half -those long words, and, what's more, I don't believe you do either!' And -the Eaglet bent down its head to hide a smile: some of the other birds -tittered audibly. - -'What I was going to say,' said the Dodo in an offended tone, 'was, that -the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race.' - -'What IS a Caucus-race?' said Alice; not that she wanted much to know, -but the Dodo had paused as if it thought that SOMEBODY ought to speak, -and no one else seemed inclined to say anything. - -'Why,' said the Dodo, 'the best way to explain it is to do it.' (And, as -you might like to try the thing yourself, some winter day, I will tell -you how the Dodo managed it.) - -First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, ('the exact -shape doesn't matter,' it said,) and then all the party were placed -along the course, here and there. There was no 'One, two, three, and -away,' but they began running when they liked, and left off when they -liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, -when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, -the Dodo suddenly called out 'The race is over!' and they all crowded -round it, panting, and asking, 'But who has won?' - -This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, -and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead -(the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures -of him), while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said, -'EVERYBODY has won, and all must have prizes.' - -'But who is to give the prizes?' quite a chorus of voices asked. - -'Why, SHE, of course,' said the Dodo, pointing to Alice with one finger; -and the whole party at once crowded round her, calling out in a confused -way, 'Prizes! Prizes!' - -Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair she put her hand in her -pocket, and pulled out a box of comfits, (luckily the salt water had -not got into it), and handed them round as prizes. There was exactly one -a-piece all round. - -'But she must have a prize herself, you know,' said the Mouse. - -'Of course,' the Dodo replied very gravely. 'What else have you got in -your pocket?' he went on, turning to Alice. - -'Only a thimble,' said Alice sadly. - -'Hand it over here,' said the Dodo. - -Then they all crowded round her once more, while the Dodo solemnly -presented the thimble, saying 'We beg your acceptance of this elegant -thimble'; and, when it had finished this short speech, they all cheered. - -Alice thought the whole thing very absurd, but they all looked so grave -that she did not dare to laugh; and, as she could not think of anything -to say, she simply bowed, and took the thimble, looking as solemn as she -could. - -The next thing was to eat the comfits: this caused some noise and -confusion, as the large birds complained that they could not taste -theirs, and the small ones choked and had to be patted on the back. -However, it was over at last, and they sat down again in a ring, and -begged the Mouse to tell them something more. - -'You promised to tell me your history, you know,' said Alice, 'and why -it is you hate--C and D,' she added in a whisper, half afraid that it -would be offended again. - -'Mine is a long and a sad tale!' said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and -sighing. - -'It IS a long tail, certainly,' said Alice, looking down with wonder at -the Mouse's tail; 'but why do you call it sad?' And she kept on puzzling -about it while the Mouse was speaking, so that her idea of the tale was -something like this:-- - - 'Fury said to a - mouse, That he - met in the - house, - "Let us - both go to - law: I will - prosecute - YOU.--Come, - I'll take no - denial; We - must have a - trial: For - really this - morning I've - nothing - to do." - Said the - mouse to the - cur, "Such - a trial, - dear Sir, - With - no jury - or judge, - would be - wasting - our - breath." - "I'll be - judge, I'll - be jury," - Said - cunning - old Fury: - "I'll - try the - whole - cause, - and - condemn - you - to - death."' - - -'You are not attending!' said the Mouse to Alice severely. 'What are you -thinking of?' - -'I beg your pardon,' said Alice very humbly: 'you had got to the fifth -bend, I think?' - -'I had NOT!' cried the Mouse, sharply and very angrily. - -'A knot!' said Alice, always ready to make herself useful, and looking -anxiously about her. 'Oh, do let me help to undo it!' - -'I shall do nothing of the sort,' said the Mouse, getting up and walking -away. 'You insult me by talking such nonsense!' - -'I didn't mean it!' pleaded poor Alice. 'But you're so easily offended, -you know!' - -The Mouse only growled in reply. - -'Please come back and finish your story!' Alice called after it; and the -others all joined in chorus, 'Yes, please do!' but the Mouse only shook -its head impatiently, and walked a little quicker. - -'What a pity it wouldn't stay!' sighed the Lory, as soon as it was quite -out of sight; and an old Crab took the opportunity of saying to her -daughter 'Ah, my dear! Let this be a lesson to you never to lose -YOUR temper!' 'Hold your tongue, Ma!' said the young Crab, a little -snappishly. 'You're enough to try the patience of an oyster!' - -'I wish I had our Dinah here, I know I do!' said Alice aloud, addressing -nobody in particular. 'She'd soon fetch it back!' - -'And who is Dinah, if I might venture to ask the question?' said the -Lory. - -Alice replied eagerly, for she was always ready to talk about her pet: -'Dinah's our cat. And she's such a capital one for catching mice you -can't think! And oh, I wish you could see her after the birds! Why, -she'll eat a little bird as soon as look at it!' - -This speech caused a remarkable sensation among the party. Some of the -birds hurried off at once: one old Magpie began wrapping itself up very -carefully, remarking, 'I really must be getting home; the night-air -doesn't suit my throat!' and a Canary called out in a trembling voice to -its children, 'Come away, my dears! It's high time you were all in bed!' -On various pretexts they all moved off, and Alice was soon left alone. - -'I wish I hadn't mentioned Dinah!' she said to herself in a melancholy -tone. 'Nobody seems to like her, down here, and I'm sure she's the best -cat in the world! Oh, my dear Dinah! I wonder if I shall ever see you -any more!' And here poor Alice began to cry again, for she felt very -lonely and low-spirited. In a little while, however, she again heard -a little pattering of footsteps in the distance, and she looked up -eagerly, half hoping that the Mouse had changed his mind, and was coming -back to finish his story. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill - -It was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly back again, and looking -anxiously about as it went, as if it had lost something; and she heard -it muttering to itself 'The Duchess! The Duchess! Oh my dear paws! Oh -my fur and whiskers! She'll get me executed, as sure as ferrets are -ferrets! Where CAN I have dropped them, I wonder?' Alice guessed in a -moment that it was looking for the fan and the pair of white kid gloves, -and she very good-naturedly began hunting about for them, but they were -nowhere to be seen--everything seemed to have changed since her swim in -the pool, and the great hall, with the glass table and the little door, -had vanished completely. - -Very soon the Rabbit noticed Alice, as she went hunting about, and -called out to her in an angry tone, 'Why, Mary Ann, what ARE you doing -out here? Run home this moment, and fetch me a pair of gloves and a fan! -Quick, now!' And Alice was so much frightened that she ran off at once -in the direction it pointed to, without trying to explain the mistake it -had made. - -'He took me for his housemaid,' she said to herself as she ran. 'How -surprised he'll be when he finds out who I am! But I'd better take him -his fan and gloves--that is, if I can find them.' As she said this, she -came upon a neat little house, on the door of which was a bright brass -plate with the name 'W. RABBIT' engraved upon it. She went in without -knocking, and hurried upstairs, in great fear lest she should meet the -real Mary Ann, and be turned out of the house before she had found the -fan and gloves. - -'How queer it seems,' Alice said to herself, 'to be going messages for -a rabbit! I suppose Dinah'll be sending me on messages next!' And she -began fancying the sort of thing that would happen: '"Miss Alice! Come -here directly, and get ready for your walk!" "Coming in a minute, -nurse! But I've got to see that the mouse doesn't get out." Only I don't -think,' Alice went on, 'that they'd let Dinah stop in the house if it -began ordering people about like that!' - -By this time she had found her way into a tidy little room with a table -in the window, and on it (as she had hoped) a fan and two or three pairs -of tiny white kid gloves: she took up the fan and a pair of the gloves, -and was just going to leave the room, when her eye fell upon a little -bottle that stood near the looking-glass. There was no label this time -with the words 'DRINK ME,' but nevertheless she uncorked it and put it -to her lips. 'I know SOMETHING interesting is sure to happen,' she said -to herself, 'whenever I eat or drink anything; so I'll just see what -this bottle does. I do hope it'll make me grow large again, for really -I'm quite tired of being such a tiny little thing!' - -It did so indeed, and much sooner than she had expected: before she had -drunk half the bottle, she found her head pressing against the ceiling, -and had to stoop to save her neck from being broken. She hastily put -down the bottle, saying to herself 'That's quite enough--I hope I shan't -grow any more--As it is, I can't get out at the door--I do wish I hadn't -drunk quite so much!' - -Alas! it was too late to wish that! She went on growing, and growing, -and very soon had to kneel down on the floor: in another minute there -was not even room for this, and she tried the effect of lying down with -one elbow against the door, and the other arm curled round her head. -Still she went on growing, and, as a last resource, she put one arm out -of the window, and one foot up the chimney, and said to herself 'Now I -can do no more, whatever happens. What WILL become of me?' - -Luckily for Alice, the little magic bottle had now had its full effect, -and she grew no larger: still it was very uncomfortable, and, as there -seemed to be no sort of chance of her ever getting out of the room -again, no wonder she felt unhappy. - -'It was much pleasanter at home,' thought poor Alice, 'when one wasn't -always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and -rabbits. I almost wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole--and yet--and -yet--it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life! I do wonder what -CAN have happened to me! When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that -kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one! -There ought to be a book written about me, that there ought! And when I -grow up, I'll write one--but I'm grown up now,' she added in a sorrowful -tone; 'at least there's no room to grow up any more HERE.' - -'But then,' thought Alice, 'shall I NEVER get any older than I am -now? That'll be a comfort, one way--never to be an old woman--but -then--always to have lessons to learn! Oh, I shouldn't like THAT!' - -'Oh, you foolish Alice!' she answered herself. 'How can you learn -lessons in here? Why, there's hardly room for YOU, and no room at all -for any lesson-books!' - -And so she went on, taking first one side and then the other, and making -quite a conversation of it altogether; but after a few minutes she heard -a voice outside, and stopped to listen. - -'Mary Ann! Mary Ann!' said the voice. 'Fetch me my gloves this moment!' -Then came a little pattering of feet on the stairs. Alice knew it was -the Rabbit coming to look for her, and she trembled till she shook the -house, quite forgetting that she was now about a thousand times as large -as the Rabbit, and had no reason to be afraid of it. - -Presently the Rabbit came up to the door, and tried to open it; but, as -the door opened inwards, and Alice's elbow was pressed hard against it, -that attempt proved a failure. Alice heard it say to itself 'Then I'll -go round and get in at the window.' - -'THAT you won't' thought Alice, and, after waiting till she fancied -she heard the Rabbit just under the window, she suddenly spread out her -hand, and made a snatch in the air. She did not get hold of anything, -but she heard a little shriek and a fall, and a crash of broken glass, -from which she concluded that it was just possible it had fallen into a -cucumber-frame, or something of the sort. - -Next came an angry voice--the Rabbit's--'Pat! Pat! Where are you?' And -then a voice she had never heard before, 'Sure then I'm here! Digging -for apples, yer honour!' - -'Digging for apples, indeed!' said the Rabbit angrily. 'Here! Come and -help me out of THIS!' (Sounds of more broken glass.) - -'Now tell me, Pat, what's that in the window?' - -'Sure, it's an arm, yer honour!' (He pronounced it 'arrum.') - -'An arm, you goose! Who ever saw one that size? Why, it fills the whole -window!' - -'Sure, it does, yer honour: but it's an arm for all that.' - -'Well, it's got no business there, at any rate: go and take it away!' - -There was a long silence after this, and Alice could only hear whispers -now and then; such as, 'Sure, I don't like it, yer honour, at all, at -all!' 'Do as I tell you, you coward!' and at last she spread out her -hand again, and made another snatch in the air. This time there were -TWO little shrieks, and more sounds of broken glass. 'What a number of -cucumber-frames there must be!' thought Alice. 'I wonder what they'll do -next! As for pulling me out of the window, I only wish they COULD! I'm -sure I don't want to stay in here any longer!' - -She waited for some time without hearing anything more: at last came a -rumbling of little cartwheels, and the sound of a good many voices -all talking together: she made out the words: 'Where's the other -ladder?--Why, I hadn't to bring but one; Bill's got the other--Bill! -fetch it here, lad!--Here, put 'em up at this corner--No, tie 'em -together first--they don't reach half high enough yet--Oh! they'll -do well enough; don't be particular--Here, Bill! catch hold of this -rope--Will the roof bear?--Mind that loose slate--Oh, it's coming -down! Heads below!' (a loud crash)--'Now, who did that?--It was Bill, I -fancy--Who's to go down the chimney?--Nay, I shan't! YOU do it!--That I -won't, then!--Bill's to go down--Here, Bill! the master says you're to -go down the chimney!' - -'Oh! So Bill's got to come down the chimney, has he?' said Alice to -herself. 'Shy, they seem to put everything upon Bill! I wouldn't be in -Bill's place for a good deal: this fireplace is narrow, to be sure; but -I THINK I can kick a little!' - -She drew her foot as far down the chimney as she could, and waited -till she heard a little animal (she couldn't guess of what sort it was) -scratching and scrambling about in the chimney close above her: then, -saying to herself 'This is Bill,' she gave one sharp kick, and waited to -see what would happen next. - -The first thing she heard was a general chorus of 'There goes Bill!' -then the Rabbit's voice along--'Catch him, you by the hedge!' then -silence, and then another confusion of voices--'Hold up his head--Brandy -now--Don't choke him--How was it, old fellow? What happened to you? Tell -us all about it!' - -Last came a little feeble, squeaking voice, ('That's Bill,' thought -Alice,) 'Well, I hardly know--No more, thank ye; I'm better now--but I'm -a deal too flustered to tell you--all I know is, something comes at me -like a Jack-in-the-box, and up I goes like a sky-rocket!' - -'So you did, old fellow!' said the others. - -'We must burn the house down!' said the Rabbit's voice; and Alice called -out as loud as she could, 'If you do. I'll set Dinah at you!' - -There was a dead silence instantly, and Alice thought to herself, 'I -wonder what they WILL do next! If they had any sense, they'd take the -roof off.' After a minute or two, they began moving about again, and -Alice heard the Rabbit say, 'A barrowful will do, to begin with.' - -'A barrowful of WHAT?' thought Alice; but she had not long to doubt, -for the next moment a shower of little pebbles came rattling in at the -window, and some of them hit her in the face. 'I'll put a stop to this,' -she said to herself, and shouted out, 'You'd better not do that again!' -which produced another dead silence. - -Alice noticed with some surprise that the pebbles were all turning into -little cakes as they lay on the floor, and a bright idea came into her -head. 'If I eat one of these cakes,' she thought, 'it's sure to make -SOME change in my size; and as it can't possibly make me larger, it must -make me smaller, I suppose.' - -So she swallowed one of the cakes, and was delighted to find that she -began shrinking directly. As soon as she was small enough to get through -the door, she ran out of the house, and found quite a crowd of little -animals and birds waiting outside. The poor little Lizard, Bill, was -in the middle, being held up by two guinea-pigs, who were giving it -something out of a bottle. They all made a rush at Alice the moment she -appeared; but she ran off as hard as she could, and soon found herself -safe in a thick wood. - -'The first thing I've got to do,' said Alice to herself, as she wandered -about in the wood, 'is to grow to my right size again; and the second -thing is to find my way into that lovely garden. I think that will be -the best plan.' - -It sounded an excellent plan, no doubt, and very neatly and simply -arranged; the only difficulty was, that she had not the smallest idea -how to set about it; and while she was peering about anxiously among -the trees, a little sharp bark just over her head made her look up in a -great hurry. - -An enormous puppy was looking down at her with large round eyes, and -feebly stretching out one paw, trying to touch her. 'Poor little thing!' -said Alice, in a coaxing tone, and she tried hard to whistle to it; but -she was terribly frightened all the time at the thought that it might be -hungry, in which case it would be very likely to eat her up in spite of -all her coaxing. - -Hardly knowing what she did, she picked up a little bit of stick, and -held it out to the puppy; whereupon the puppy jumped into the air off -all its feet at once, with a yelp of delight, and rushed at the stick, -and made believe to worry it; then Alice dodged behind a great thistle, -to keep herself from being run over; and the moment she appeared on the -other side, the puppy made another rush at the stick, and tumbled head -over heels in its hurry to get hold of it; then Alice, thinking it was -very like having a game of play with a cart-horse, and expecting every -moment to be trampled under its feet, ran round the thistle again; then -the puppy began a series of short charges at the stick, running a very -little way forwards each time and a long way back, and barking hoarsely -all the while, till at last it sat down a good way off, panting, with -its tongue hanging out of its mouth, and its great eyes half shut. - -This seemed to Alice a good opportunity for making her escape; so she -set off at once, and ran till she was quite tired and out of breath, and -till the puppy's bark sounded quite faint in the distance. - -'And yet what a dear little puppy it was!' said Alice, as she leant -against a buttercup to rest herself, and fanned herself with one of the -leaves: 'I should have liked teaching it tricks very much, if--if I'd -only been the right size to do it! Oh dear! I'd nearly forgotten that -I've got to grow up again! Let me see--how IS it to be managed? I -suppose I ought to eat or drink something or other; but the great -question is, what?' - -The great question certainly was, what? Alice looked all round her at -the flowers and the blades of grass, but she did not see anything that -looked like the right thing to eat or drink under the circumstances. -There was a large mushroom growing near her, about the same height as -herself; and when she had looked under it, and on both sides of it, and -behind it, it occurred to her that she might as well look and see what -was on the top of it. - -She stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped over the edge of the -mushroom, and her eyes immediately met those of a large caterpillar, -that was sitting on the top with its arms folded, quietly smoking a long -hookah, and taking not the smallest notice of her or of anything else. - - - - -CHAPTER V. Advice from a Caterpillar - -The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: -at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed -her in a languid, sleepy voice. - -'Who are YOU?' said the Caterpillar. - -This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, -rather shyly, 'I--I hardly know, sir, just at present--at least I know -who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been -changed several times since then.' - -'What do you mean by that?' said the Caterpillar sternly. 'Explain -yourself!' - -'I can't explain MYSELF, I'm afraid, sir' said Alice, 'because I'm not -myself, you see.' - -'I don't see,' said the Caterpillar. - -'I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly,' Alice replied very politely, -'for I can't understand it myself to begin with; and being so many -different sizes in a day is very confusing.' - -'It isn't,' said the Caterpillar. - -'Well, perhaps you haven't found it so yet,' said Alice; 'but when you -have to turn into a chrysalis--you will some day, you know--and then -after that into a butterfly, I should think you'll feel it a little -queer, won't you?' - -'Not a bit,' said the Caterpillar. - -'Well, perhaps your feelings may be different,' said Alice; 'all I know -is, it would feel very queer to ME.' - -'You!' said the Caterpillar contemptuously. 'Who are YOU?' - -Which brought them back again to the beginning of the conversation. -Alice felt a little irritated at the Caterpillar's making such VERY -short remarks, and she drew herself up and said, very gravely, 'I think, -you ought to tell me who YOU are, first.' - -'Why?' said the Caterpillar. - -Here was another puzzling question; and as Alice could not think of any -good reason, and as the Caterpillar seemed to be in a VERY unpleasant -state of mind, she turned away. - -'Come back!' the Caterpillar called after her. 'I've something important -to say!' - -This sounded promising, certainly: Alice turned and came back again. - -'Keep your temper,' said the Caterpillar. - -'Is that all?' said Alice, swallowing down her anger as well as she -could. - -'No,' said the Caterpillar. - -Alice thought she might as well wait, as she had nothing else to do, and -perhaps after all it might tell her something worth hearing. For some -minutes it puffed away without speaking, but at last it unfolded its -arms, took the hookah out of its mouth again, and said, 'So you think -you're changed, do you?' - -'I'm afraid I am, sir,' said Alice; 'I can't remember things as I -used--and I don't keep the same size for ten minutes together!' - -'Can't remember WHAT things?' said the Caterpillar. - -'Well, I've tried to say "HOW DOTH THE LITTLE BUSY BEE," but it all came -different!' Alice replied in a very melancholy voice. - -'Repeat, "YOU ARE OLD, FATHER WILLIAM,"' said the Caterpillar. - -Alice folded her hands, and began:-- - - 'You are old, Father William,' the young man said, - 'And your hair has become very white; - And yet you incessantly stand on your head-- - Do you think, at your age, it is right?' - - 'In my youth,' Father William replied to his son, - 'I feared it might injure the brain; - But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none, - Why, I do it again and again.' - - 'You are old,' said the youth, 'as I mentioned before, - And have grown most uncommonly fat; - Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door-- - Pray, what is the reason of that?' - - 'In my youth,' said the sage, as he shook his grey locks, - 'I kept all my limbs very supple - By the use of this ointment--one shilling the box-- - Allow me to sell you a couple?' - - 'You are old,' said the youth, 'and your jaws are too weak - For anything tougher than suet; - Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak-- - Pray how did you manage to do it?' - - 'In my youth,' said his father, 'I took to the law, - And argued each case with my wife; - And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw, - Has lasted the rest of my life.' - - 'You are old,' said the youth, 'one would hardly suppose - That your eye was as steady as ever; - Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose-- - What made you so awfully clever?' - - 'I have answered three questions, and that is enough,' - Said his father; 'don't give yourself airs! - Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff? - Be off, or I'll kick you down stairs!' - - -'That is not said right,' said the Caterpillar. - -'Not QUITE right, I'm afraid,' said Alice, timidly; 'some of the words -have got altered.' - -'It is wrong from beginning to end,' said the Caterpillar decidedly, and -there was silence for some minutes. - -The Caterpillar was the first to speak. - -'What size do you want to be?' it asked. - -'Oh, I'm not particular as to size,' Alice hastily replied; 'only one -doesn't like changing so often, you know.' - -'I DON'T know,' said the Caterpillar. - -Alice said nothing: she had never been so much contradicted in her life -before, and she felt that she was losing her temper. - -'Are you content now?' said the Caterpillar. - -'Well, I should like to be a LITTLE larger, sir, if you wouldn't mind,' -said Alice: 'three inches is such a wretched height to be.' - -'It is a very good height indeed!' said the Caterpillar angrily, rearing -itself upright as it spoke (it was exactly three inches high). - -'But I'm not used to it!' pleaded poor Alice in a piteous tone. And -she thought of herself, 'I wish the creatures wouldn't be so easily -offended!' - -'You'll get used to it in time,' said the Caterpillar; and it put the -hookah into its mouth and began smoking again. - -This time Alice waited patiently until it chose to speak again. In -a minute or two the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth -and yawned once or twice, and shook itself. Then it got down off the -mushroom, and crawled away in the grass, merely remarking as it went, -'One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you -grow shorter.' - -'One side of WHAT? The other side of WHAT?' thought Alice to herself. - -'Of the mushroom,' said the Caterpillar, just as if she had asked it -aloud; and in another moment it was out of sight. - -Alice remained looking thoughtfully at the mushroom for a minute, trying -to make out which were the two sides of it; and as it was perfectly -round, she found this a very difficult question. However, at last she -stretched her arms round it as far as they would go, and broke off a bit -of the edge with each hand. - -'And now which is which?' she said to herself, and nibbled a little of -the right-hand bit to try the effect: the next moment she felt a violent -blow underneath her chin: it had struck her foot! - -She was a good deal frightened by this very sudden change, but she felt -that there was no time to be lost, as she was shrinking rapidly; so she -set to work at once to eat some of the other bit. Her chin was pressed -so closely against her foot, that there was hardly room to open her -mouth; but she did it at last, and managed to swallow a morsel of the -lefthand bit. - - - * * * * * * * - - * * * * * * - - * * * * * * * - -'Come, my head's free at last!' said Alice in a tone of delight, which -changed into alarm in another moment, when she found that her shoulders -were nowhere to be found: all she could see, when she looked down, was -an immense length of neck, which seemed to rise like a stalk out of a -sea of green leaves that lay far below her. - -'What CAN all that green stuff be?' said Alice. 'And where HAVE my -shoulders got to? And oh, my poor hands, how is it I can't see you?' -She was moving them about as she spoke, but no result seemed to follow, -except a little shaking among the distant green leaves. - -As there seemed to be no chance of getting her hands up to her head, she -tried to get her head down to them, and was delighted to find that her -neck would bend about easily in any direction, like a serpent. She had -just succeeded in curving it down into a graceful zigzag, and was going -to dive in among the leaves, which she found to be nothing but the tops -of the trees under which she had been wandering, when a sharp hiss made -her draw back in a hurry: a large pigeon had flown into her face, and -was beating her violently with its wings. - -'Serpent!' screamed the Pigeon. - -'I'm NOT a serpent!' said Alice indignantly. 'Let me alone!' - -'Serpent, I say again!' repeated the Pigeon, but in a more subdued tone, -and added with a kind of sob, 'I've tried every way, and nothing seems -to suit them!' - -'I haven't the least idea what you're talking about,' said Alice. - -'I've tried the roots of trees, and I've tried banks, and I've tried -hedges,' the Pigeon went on, without attending to her; 'but those -serpents! There's no pleasing them!' - -Alice was more and more puzzled, but she thought there was no use in -saying anything more till the Pigeon had finished. - -'As if it wasn't trouble enough hatching the eggs,' said the Pigeon; -'but I must be on the look-out for serpents night and day! Why, I -haven't had a wink of sleep these three weeks!' - -'I'm very sorry you've been annoyed,' said Alice, who was beginning to -see its meaning. - -'And just as I'd taken the highest tree in the wood,' continued the -Pigeon, raising its voice to a shriek, 'and just as I was thinking I -should be free of them at last, they must needs come wriggling down from -the sky! Ugh, Serpent!' - -'But I'm NOT a serpent, I tell you!' said Alice. 'I'm a--I'm a--' - -'Well! WHAT are you?' said the Pigeon. 'I can see you're trying to -invent something!' - -'I--I'm a little girl,' said Alice, rather doubtfully, as she remembered -the number of changes she had gone through that day. - -'A likely story indeed!' said the Pigeon in a tone of the deepest -contempt. 'I've seen a good many little girls in my time, but never ONE -with such a neck as that! No, no! You're a serpent; and there's no use -denying it. I suppose you'll be telling me next that you never tasted an -egg!' - -'I HAVE tasted eggs, certainly,' said Alice, who was a very truthful -child; 'but little girls eat eggs quite as much as serpents do, you -know.' - -'I don't believe it,' said the Pigeon; 'but if they do, why then they're -a kind of serpent, that's all I can say.' - -This was such a new idea to Alice, that she was quite silent for a -minute or two, which gave the Pigeon the opportunity of adding, 'You're -looking for eggs, I know THAT well enough; and what does it matter to me -whether you're a little girl or a serpent?' - -'It matters a good deal to ME,' said Alice hastily; 'but I'm not looking -for eggs, as it happens; and if I was, I shouldn't want YOURS: I don't -like them raw.' - -'Well, be off, then!' said the Pigeon in a sulky tone, as it settled -down again into its nest. Alice crouched down among the trees as well as -she could, for her neck kept getting entangled among the branches, and -every now and then she had to stop and untwist it. After a while she -remembered that she still held the pieces of mushroom in her hands, and -she set to work very carefully, nibbling first at one and then at the -other, and growing sometimes taller and sometimes shorter, until she had -succeeded in bringing herself down to her usual height. - -It was so long since she had been anything near the right size, that it -felt quite strange at first; but she got used to it in a few minutes, -and began talking to herself, as usual. 'Come, there's half my plan done -now! How puzzling all these changes are! I'm never sure what I'm going -to be, from one minute to another! However, I've got back to my right -size: the next thing is, to get into that beautiful garden--how IS that -to be done, I wonder?' As she said this, she came suddenly upon an open -place, with a little house in it about four feet high. 'Whoever lives -there,' thought Alice, 'it'll never do to come upon them THIS size: why, -I should frighten them out of their wits!' So she began nibbling at the -righthand bit again, and did not venture to go near the house till she -had brought herself down to nine inches high. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. Pig and Pepper - -For a minute or two she stood looking at the house, and wondering what -to do next, when suddenly a footman in livery came running out of the -wood--(she considered him to be a footman because he was in livery: -otherwise, judging by his face only, she would have called him a -fish)--and rapped loudly at the door with his knuckles. It was opened -by another footman in livery, with a round face, and large eyes like a -frog; and both footmen, Alice noticed, had powdered hair that curled all -over their heads. She felt very curious to know what it was all about, -and crept a little way out of the wood to listen. - -The Fish-Footman began by producing from under his arm a great letter, -nearly as large as himself, and this he handed over to the other, -saying, in a solemn tone, 'For the Duchess. An invitation from the Queen -to play croquet.' The Frog-Footman repeated, in the same solemn tone, -only changing the order of the words a little, 'From the Queen. An -invitation for the Duchess to play croquet.' - -Then they both bowed low, and their curls got entangled together. - -Alice laughed so much at this, that she had to run back into the -wood for fear of their hearing her; and when she next peeped out the -Fish-Footman was gone, and the other was sitting on the ground near the -door, staring stupidly up into the sky. - -Alice went timidly up to the door, and knocked. - -'There's no sort of use in knocking,' said the Footman, 'and that for -two reasons. First, because I'm on the same side of the door as you -are; secondly, because they're making such a noise inside, no one could -possibly hear you.' And certainly there was a most extraordinary noise -going on within--a constant howling and sneezing, and every now and then -a great crash, as if a dish or kettle had been broken to pieces. - -'Please, then,' said Alice, 'how am I to get in?' - -'There might be some sense in your knocking,' the Footman went on -without attending to her, 'if we had the door between us. For instance, -if you were INSIDE, you might knock, and I could let you out, you know.' -He was looking up into the sky all the time he was speaking, and this -Alice thought decidedly uncivil. 'But perhaps he can't help it,' she -said to herself; 'his eyes are so VERY nearly at the top of his head. -But at any rate he might answer questions.--How am I to get in?' she -repeated, aloud. - -'I shall sit here,' the Footman remarked, 'till tomorrow--' - -At this moment the door of the house opened, and a large plate came -skimming out, straight at the Footman's head: it just grazed his nose, -and broke to pieces against one of the trees behind him. - -'--or next day, maybe,' the Footman continued in the same tone, exactly -as if nothing had happened. - -'How am I to get in?' asked Alice again, in a louder tone. - -'ARE you to get in at all?' said the Footman. 'That's the first -question, you know.' - -It was, no doubt: only Alice did not like to be told so. 'It's really -dreadful,' she muttered to herself, 'the way all the creatures argue. -It's enough to drive one crazy!' - -The Footman seemed to think this a good opportunity for repeating his -remark, with variations. 'I shall sit here,' he said, 'on and off, for -days and days.' - -'But what am I to do?' said Alice. - -'Anything you like,' said the Footman, and began whistling. - -'Oh, there's no use in talking to him,' said Alice desperately: 'he's -perfectly idiotic!' And she opened the door and went in. - -The door led right into a large kitchen, which was full of smoke from -one end to the other: the Duchess was sitting on a three-legged stool in -the middle, nursing a baby; the cook was leaning over the fire, stirring -a large cauldron which seemed to be full of soup. - -'There's certainly too much pepper in that soup!' Alice said to herself, -as well as she could for sneezing. - -There was certainly too much of it in the air. Even the Duchess -sneezed occasionally; and as for the baby, it was sneezing and howling -alternately without a moment's pause. The only things in the kitchen -that did not sneeze, were the cook, and a large cat which was sitting on -the hearth and grinning from ear to ear. - -'Please would you tell me,' said Alice, a little timidly, for she was -not quite sure whether it was good manners for her to speak first, 'why -your cat grins like that?' - -'It's a Cheshire cat,' said the Duchess, 'and that's why. Pig!' - -She said the last word with such sudden violence that Alice quite -jumped; but she saw in another moment that it was addressed to the baby, -and not to her, so she took courage, and went on again:-- - -'I didn't know that Cheshire cats always grinned; in fact, I didn't know -that cats COULD grin.' - -'They all can,' said the Duchess; 'and most of 'em do.' - -'I don't know of any that do,' Alice said very politely, feeling quite -pleased to have got into a conversation. - -'You don't know much,' said the Duchess; 'and that's a fact.' - -Alice did not at all like the tone of this remark, and thought it would -be as well to introduce some other subject of conversation. While she -was trying to fix on one, the cook took the cauldron of soup off the -fire, and at once set to work throwing everything within her reach at -the Duchess and the baby--the fire-irons came first; then followed a -shower of saucepans, plates, and dishes. The Duchess took no notice of -them even when they hit her; and the baby was howling so much already, -that it was quite impossible to say whether the blows hurt it or not. - -'Oh, PLEASE mind what you're doing!' cried Alice, jumping up and down in -an agony of terror. 'Oh, there goes his PRECIOUS nose'; as an unusually -large saucepan flew close by it, and very nearly carried it off. - -'If everybody minded their own business,' the Duchess said in a hoarse -growl, 'the world would go round a deal faster than it does.' - -'Which would NOT be an advantage,' said Alice, who felt very glad to get -an opportunity of showing off a little of her knowledge. 'Just think of -what work it would make with the day and night! You see the earth takes -twenty-four hours to turn round on its axis--' - -'Talking of axes,' said the Duchess, 'chop off her head!' - -Alice glanced rather anxiously at the cook, to see if she meant to take -the hint; but the cook was busily stirring the soup, and seemed not to -be listening, so she went on again: 'Twenty-four hours, I THINK; or is -it twelve? I--' - -'Oh, don't bother ME,' said the Duchess; 'I never could abide figures!' -And with that she began nursing her child again, singing a sort of -lullaby to it as she did so, and giving it a violent shake at the end of -every line: - - 'Speak roughly to your little boy, - And beat him when he sneezes: - He only does it to annoy, - Because he knows it teases.' - - CHORUS. - - (In which the cook and the baby joined):-- - - 'Wow! wow! wow!' - -While the Duchess sang the second verse of the song, she kept tossing -the baby violently up and down, and the poor little thing howled so, -that Alice could hardly hear the words:-- - - 'I speak severely to my boy, - I beat him when he sneezes; - For he can thoroughly enjoy - The pepper when he pleases!' - - CHORUS. - - 'Wow! wow! wow!' - -'Here! you may nurse it a bit, if you like!' the Duchess said to Alice, -flinging the baby at her as she spoke. 'I must go and get ready to play -croquet with the Queen,' and she hurried out of the room. The cook threw -a frying-pan after her as she went out, but it just missed her. - -Alice caught the baby with some difficulty, as it was a queer-shaped -little creature, and held out its arms and legs in all directions, 'just -like a star-fish,' thought Alice. The poor little thing was snorting -like a steam-engine when she caught it, and kept doubling itself up and -straightening itself out again, so that altogether, for the first minute -or two, it was as much as she could do to hold it. - -As soon as she had made out the proper way of nursing it, (which was to -twist it up into a sort of knot, and then keep tight hold of its right -ear and left foot, so as to prevent its undoing itself,) she carried -it out into the open air. 'IF I don't take this child away with me,' -thought Alice, 'they're sure to kill it in a day or two: wouldn't it be -murder to leave it behind?' She said the last words out loud, and the -little thing grunted in reply (it had left off sneezing by this time). -'Don't grunt,' said Alice; 'that's not at all a proper way of expressing -yourself.' - -The baby grunted again, and Alice looked very anxiously into its face to -see what was the matter with it. There could be no doubt that it had -a VERY turn-up nose, much more like a snout than a real nose; also its -eyes were getting extremely small for a baby: altogether Alice did not -like the look of the thing at all. 'But perhaps it was only sobbing,' -she thought, and looked into its eyes again, to see if there were any -tears. - -No, there were no tears. 'If you're going to turn into a pig, my dear,' -said Alice, seriously, 'I'll have nothing more to do with you. Mind -now!' The poor little thing sobbed again (or grunted, it was impossible -to say which), and they went on for some while in silence. - -Alice was just beginning to think to herself, 'Now, what am I to do with -this creature when I get it home?' when it grunted again, so violently, -that she looked down into its face in some alarm. This time there could -be NO mistake about it: it was neither more nor less than a pig, and she -felt that it would be quite absurd for her to carry it further. - -So she set the little creature down, and felt quite relieved to see -it trot away quietly into the wood. 'If it had grown up,' she said -to herself, 'it would have made a dreadfully ugly child: but it makes -rather a handsome pig, I think.' And she began thinking over other -children she knew, who might do very well as pigs, and was just saying -to herself, 'if one only knew the right way to change them--' when she -was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of a -tree a few yards off. - -The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she -thought: still it had VERY long claws and a great many teeth, so she -felt that it ought to be treated with respect. - -'Cheshire Puss,' she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know -whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. -'Come, it's pleased so far,' thought Alice, and she went on. 'Would you -tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?' - -'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat. - -'I don't much care where--' said Alice. - -'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat. - -'--so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation. - -'Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, 'if you only walk long -enough.' - -Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another question. -'What sort of people live about here?' - -'In THAT direction,' the Cat said, waving its right paw round, 'lives -a Hatter: and in THAT direction,' waving the other paw, 'lives a March -Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad.' - -'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked. - -'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. -You're mad.' - -'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice. - -'You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you wouldn't have come here.' - -Alice didn't think that proved it at all; however, she went on 'And how -do you know that you're mad?' - -'To begin with,' said the Cat, 'a dog's not mad. You grant that?' - -'I suppose so,' said Alice. - -'Well, then,' the Cat went on, 'you see, a dog growls when it's angry, -and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and -wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad.' - -'I call it purring, not growling,' said Alice. - -'Call it what you like,' said the Cat. 'Do you play croquet with the -Queen to-day?' - -'I should like it very much,' said Alice, 'but I haven't been invited -yet.' - -'You'll see me there,' said the Cat, and vanished. - -Alice was not much surprised at this, she was getting so used to queer -things happening. While she was looking at the place where it had been, -it suddenly appeared again. - -'By-the-bye, what became of the baby?' said the Cat. 'I'd nearly -forgotten to ask.' - -'It turned into a pig,' Alice quietly said, just as if it had come back -in a natural way. - -'I thought it would,' said the Cat, and vanished again. - -Alice waited a little, half expecting to see it again, but it did not -appear, and after a minute or two she walked on in the direction in -which the March Hare was said to live. 'I've seen hatters before,' she -said to herself; 'the March Hare will be much the most interesting, and -perhaps as this is May it won't be raving mad--at least not so mad as -it was in March.' As she said this, she looked up, and there was the Cat -again, sitting on a branch of a tree. - -'Did you say pig, or fig?' said the Cat. - -'I said pig,' replied Alice; 'and I wish you wouldn't keep appearing and -vanishing so suddenly: you make one quite giddy.' - -'All right,' said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, -beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which -remained some time after the rest of it had gone. - -'Well! I've often seen a cat without a grin,' thought Alice; 'but a grin -without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!' - -She had not gone much farther before she came in sight of the house -of the March Hare: she thought it must be the right house, because the -chimneys were shaped like ears and the roof was thatched with fur. It -was so large a house, that she did not like to go nearer till she had -nibbled some more of the lefthand bit of mushroom, and raised herself to -about two feet high: even then she walked up towards it rather timidly, -saying to herself 'Suppose it should be raving mad after all! I almost -wish I'd gone to see the Hatter instead!' - - - - -CHAPTER VII. A Mad Tea-Party - -There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the -March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting -between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a -cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head. 'Very -uncomfortable for the Dormouse,' thought Alice; 'only, as it's asleep, I -suppose it doesn't mind.' - -The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at -one corner of it: 'No room! No room!' they cried out when they saw Alice -coming. 'There's PLENTY of room!' said Alice indignantly, and she sat -down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table. - -'Have some wine,' the March Hare said in an encouraging tone. - -Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea. -'I don't see any wine,' she remarked. - -'There isn't any,' said the March Hare. - -'Then it wasn't very civil of you to offer it,' said Alice angrily. - -'It wasn't very civil of you to sit down without being invited,' said -the March Hare. - -'I didn't know it was YOUR table,' said Alice; 'it's laid for a great -many more than three.' - -'Your hair wants cutting,' said the Hatter. He had been looking at Alice -for some time with great curiosity, and this was his first speech. - -'You should learn not to make personal remarks,' Alice said with some -severity; 'it's very rude.' - -The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he SAID -was, 'Why is a raven like a writing-desk?' - -'Come, we shall have some fun now!' thought Alice. 'I'm glad they've -begun asking riddles.--I believe I can guess that,' she added aloud. - -'Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?' said the -March Hare. - -'Exactly so,' said Alice. - -'Then you should say what you mean,' the March Hare went on. - -'I do,' Alice hastily replied; 'at least--at least I mean what I -say--that's the same thing, you know.' - -'Not the same thing a bit!' said the Hatter. 'You might just as well say -that "I see what I eat" is the same thing as "I eat what I see"!' - -'You might just as well say,' added the March Hare, 'that "I like what I -get" is the same thing as "I get what I like"!' - -'You might just as well say,' added the Dormouse, who seemed to be -talking in his sleep, 'that "I breathe when I sleep" is the same thing -as "I sleep when I breathe"!' - -'It IS the same thing with you,' said the Hatter, and here the -conversation dropped, and the party sat silent for a minute, while Alice -thought over all she could remember about ravens and writing-desks, -which wasn't much. - -The Hatter was the first to break the silence. 'What day of the month -is it?' he said, turning to Alice: he had taken his watch out of his -pocket, and was looking at it uneasily, shaking it every now and then, -and holding it to his ear. - -Alice considered a little, and then said 'The fourth.' - -'Two days wrong!' sighed the Hatter. 'I told you butter wouldn't suit -the works!' he added looking angrily at the March Hare. - -'It was the BEST butter,' the March Hare meekly replied. - -'Yes, but some crumbs must have got in as well,' the Hatter grumbled: -'you shouldn't have put it in with the bread-knife.' - -The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dipped -it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could think of -nothing better to say than his first remark, 'It was the BEST butter, -you know.' - -Alice had been looking over his shoulder with some curiosity. 'What a -funny watch!' she remarked. 'It tells the day of the month, and doesn't -tell what o'clock it is!' - -'Why should it?' muttered the Hatter. 'Does YOUR watch tell you what -year it is?' - -'Of course not,' Alice replied very readily: 'but that's because it -stays the same year for such a long time together.' - -'Which is just the case with MINE,' said the Hatter. - -Alice felt dreadfully puzzled. The Hatter's remark seemed to have no -sort of meaning in it, and yet it was certainly English. 'I don't quite -understand you,' she said, as politely as she could. - -'The Dormouse is asleep again,' said the Hatter, and he poured a little -hot tea upon its nose. - -The Dormouse shook its head impatiently, and said, without opening its -eyes, 'Of course, of course; just what I was going to remark myself.' - -'Have you guessed the riddle yet?' the Hatter said, turning to Alice -again. - -'No, I give it up,' Alice replied: 'what's the answer?' - -'I haven't the slightest idea,' said the Hatter. - -'Nor I,' said the March Hare. - -Alice sighed wearily. 'I think you might do something better with the -time,' she said, 'than waste it in asking riddles that have no answers.' - -'If you knew Time as well as I do,' said the Hatter, 'you wouldn't talk -about wasting IT. It's HIM.' - -'I don't know what you mean,' said Alice. - -'Of course you don't!' the Hatter said, tossing his head contemptuously. -'I dare say you never even spoke to Time!' - -'Perhaps not,' Alice cautiously replied: 'but I know I have to beat time -when I learn music.' - -'Ah! that accounts for it,' said the Hatter. 'He won't stand beating. -Now, if you only kept on good terms with him, he'd do almost anything -you liked with the clock. For instance, suppose it were nine o'clock in -the morning, just time to begin lessons: you'd only have to whisper a -hint to Time, and round goes the clock in a twinkling! Half-past one, -time for dinner!' - -('I only wish it was,' the March Hare said to itself in a whisper.) - -'That would be grand, certainly,' said Alice thoughtfully: 'but then--I -shouldn't be hungry for it, you know.' - -'Not at first, perhaps,' said the Hatter: 'but you could keep it to -half-past one as long as you liked.' - -'Is that the way YOU manage?' Alice asked. - -The Hatter shook his head mournfully. 'Not I!' he replied. 'We -quarrelled last March--just before HE went mad, you know--' (pointing -with his tea spoon at the March Hare,) '--it was at the great concert -given by the Queen of Hearts, and I had to sing - - "Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! - How I wonder what you're at!" - -You know the song, perhaps?' - -'I've heard something like it,' said Alice. - -'It goes on, you know,' the Hatter continued, 'in this way:-- - - "Up above the world you fly, - Like a tea-tray in the sky. - Twinkle, twinkle--"' - -Here the Dormouse shook itself, and began singing in its sleep 'Twinkle, -twinkle, twinkle, twinkle--' and went on so long that they had to pinch -it to make it stop. - -'Well, I'd hardly finished the first verse,' said the Hatter, 'when the -Queen jumped up and bawled out, "He's murdering the time! Off with his -head!"' - -'How dreadfully savage!' exclaimed Alice. - -'And ever since that,' the Hatter went on in a mournful tone, 'he won't -do a thing I ask! It's always six o'clock now.' - -A bright idea came into Alice's head. 'Is that the reason so many -tea-things are put out here?' she asked. - -'Yes, that's it,' said the Hatter with a sigh: 'it's always tea-time, -and we've no time to wash the things between whiles.' - -'Then you keep moving round, I suppose?' said Alice. - -'Exactly so,' said the Hatter: 'as the things get used up.' - -'But what happens when you come to the beginning again?' Alice ventured -to ask. - -'Suppose we change the subject,' the March Hare interrupted, yawning. -'I'm getting tired of this. I vote the young lady tells us a story.' - -'I'm afraid I don't know one,' said Alice, rather alarmed at the -proposal. - -'Then the Dormouse shall!' they both cried. 'Wake up, Dormouse!' And -they pinched it on both sides at once. - -The Dormouse slowly opened his eyes. 'I wasn't asleep,' he said in a -hoarse, feeble voice: 'I heard every word you fellows were saying.' - -'Tell us a story!' said the March Hare. - -'Yes, please do!' pleaded Alice. - -'And be quick about it,' added the Hatter, 'or you'll be asleep again -before it's done.' - -'Once upon a time there were three little sisters,' the Dormouse began -in a great hurry; 'and their names were Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie; and -they lived at the bottom of a well--' - -'What did they live on?' said Alice, who always took a great interest in -questions of eating and drinking. - -'They lived on treacle,' said the Dormouse, after thinking a minute or -two. - -'They couldn't have done that, you know,' Alice gently remarked; 'they'd -have been ill.' - -'So they were,' said the Dormouse; 'VERY ill.' - -Alice tried to fancy to herself what such an extraordinary ways of -living would be like, but it puzzled her too much, so she went on: 'But -why did they live at the bottom of a well?' - -'Take some more tea,' the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. - -'I've had nothing yet,' Alice replied in an offended tone, 'so I can't -take more.' - -'You mean you can't take LESS,' said the Hatter: 'it's very easy to take -MORE than nothing.' - -'Nobody asked YOUR opinion,' said Alice. - -'Who's making personal remarks now?' the Hatter asked triumphantly. - -Alice did not quite know what to say to this: so she helped herself -to some tea and bread-and-butter, and then turned to the Dormouse, and -repeated her question. 'Why did they live at the bottom of a well?' - -The Dormouse again took a minute or two to think about it, and then -said, 'It was a treacle-well.' - -'There's no such thing!' Alice was beginning very angrily, but the -Hatter and the March Hare went 'Sh! sh!' and the Dormouse sulkily -remarked, 'If you can't be civil, you'd better finish the story for -yourself.' - -'No, please go on!' Alice said very humbly; 'I won't interrupt again. I -dare say there may be ONE.' - -'One, indeed!' said the Dormouse indignantly. However, he consented to -go on. 'And so these three little sisters--they were learning to draw, -you know--' - -'What did they draw?' said Alice, quite forgetting her promise. - -'Treacle,' said the Dormouse, without considering at all this time. - -'I want a clean cup,' interrupted the Hatter: 'let's all move one place -on.' - -He moved on as he spoke, and the Dormouse followed him: the March Hare -moved into the Dormouse's place, and Alice rather unwillingly took -the place of the March Hare. The Hatter was the only one who got any -advantage from the change: and Alice was a good deal worse off than -before, as the March Hare had just upset the milk-jug into his plate. - -Alice did not wish to offend the Dormouse again, so she began very -cautiously: 'But I don't understand. Where did they draw the treacle -from?' - -'You can draw water out of a water-well,' said the Hatter; 'so I should -think you could draw treacle out of a treacle-well--eh, stupid?' - -'But they were IN the well,' Alice said to the Dormouse, not choosing to -notice this last remark. - -'Of course they were', said the Dormouse; '--well in.' - -This answer so confused poor Alice, that she let the Dormouse go on for -some time without interrupting it. - -'They were learning to draw,' the Dormouse went on, yawning and rubbing -its eyes, for it was getting very sleepy; 'and they drew all manner of -things--everything that begins with an M--' - -'Why with an M?' said Alice. - -'Why not?' said the March Hare. - -Alice was silent. - -The Dormouse had closed its eyes by this time, and was going off into -a doze; but, on being pinched by the Hatter, it woke up again with -a little shriek, and went on: '--that begins with an M, such as -mouse-traps, and the moon, and memory, and muchness--you know you say -things are "much of a muchness"--did you ever see such a thing as a -drawing of a muchness?' - -'Really, now you ask me,' said Alice, very much confused, 'I don't -think--' - -'Then you shouldn't talk,' said the Hatter. - -This piece of rudeness was more than Alice could bear: she got up in -great disgust, and walked off; the Dormouse fell asleep instantly, and -neither of the others took the least notice of her going, though she -looked back once or twice, half hoping that they would call after her: -the last time she saw them, they were trying to put the Dormouse into -the teapot. - -'At any rate I'll never go THERE again!' said Alice as she picked her -way through the wood. 'It's the stupidest tea-party I ever was at in all -my life!' - -Just as she said this, she noticed that one of the trees had a door -leading right into it. 'That's very curious!' she thought. 'But -everything's curious today. I think I may as well go in at once.' And in -she went. - -Once more she found herself in the long hall, and close to the little -glass table. 'Now, I'll manage better this time,' she said to herself, -and began by taking the little golden key, and unlocking the door that -led into the garden. Then she went to work nibbling at the mushroom (she -had kept a piece of it in her pocket) till she was about a foot high: -then she walked down the little passage: and THEN--she found herself at -last in the beautiful garden, among the bright flower-beds and the cool -fountains. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. The Queen's Croquet-Ground - -A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden: the roses -growing on it were white, but there were three gardeners at it, busily -painting them red. Alice thought this a very curious thing, and she went -nearer to watch them, and just as she came up to them she heard one of -them say, 'Look out now, Five! Don't go splashing paint over me like -that!' - -'I couldn't help it,' said Five, in a sulky tone; 'Seven jogged my -elbow.' - -On which Seven looked up and said, 'That's right, Five! Always lay the -blame on others!' - -'YOU'D better not talk!' said Five. 'I heard the Queen say only -yesterday you deserved to be beheaded!' - -'What for?' said the one who had spoken first. - -'That's none of YOUR business, Two!' said Seven. - -'Yes, it IS his business!' said Five, 'and I'll tell him--it was for -bringing the cook tulip-roots instead of onions.' - -Seven flung down his brush, and had just begun 'Well, of all the unjust -things--' when his eye chanced to fall upon Alice, as she stood watching -them, and he checked himself suddenly: the others looked round also, and -all of them bowed low. - -'Would you tell me,' said Alice, a little timidly, 'why you are painting -those roses?' - -Five and Seven said nothing, but looked at Two. Two began in a low -voice, 'Why the fact is, you see, Miss, this here ought to have been a -RED rose-tree, and we put a white one in by mistake; and if the Queen -was to find it out, we should all have our heads cut off, you know. -So you see, Miss, we're doing our best, afore she comes, to--' At this -moment Five, who had been anxiously looking across the garden, called -out 'The Queen! The Queen!' and the three gardeners instantly threw -themselves flat upon their faces. There was a sound of many footsteps, -and Alice looked round, eager to see the Queen. - -First came ten soldiers carrying clubs; these were all shaped like -the three gardeners, oblong and flat, with their hands and feet at the -corners: next the ten courtiers; these were ornamented all over with -diamonds, and walked two and two, as the soldiers did. After these came -the royal children; there were ten of them, and the little dears came -jumping merrily along hand in hand, in couples: they were all ornamented -with hearts. Next came the guests, mostly Kings and Queens, and among -them Alice recognised the White Rabbit: it was talking in a hurried -nervous manner, smiling at everything that was said, and went by without -noticing her. Then followed the Knave of Hearts, carrying the King's -crown on a crimson velvet cushion; and, last of all this grand -procession, came THE KING AND QUEEN OF HEARTS. - -Alice was rather doubtful whether she ought not to lie down on her face -like the three gardeners, but she could not remember ever having heard -of such a rule at processions; 'and besides, what would be the use of -a procession,' thought she, 'if people had all to lie down upon their -faces, so that they couldn't see it?' So she stood still where she was, -and waited. - -When the procession came opposite to Alice, they all stopped and looked -at her, and the Queen said severely 'Who is this?' She said it to the -Knave of Hearts, who only bowed and smiled in reply. - -'Idiot!' said the Queen, tossing her head impatiently; and, turning to -Alice, she went on, 'What's your name, child?' - -'My name is Alice, so please your Majesty,' said Alice very politely; -but she added, to herself, 'Why, they're only a pack of cards, after -all. I needn't be afraid of them!' - -'And who are THESE?' said the Queen, pointing to the three gardeners who -were lying round the rosetree; for, you see, as they were lying on their -faces, and the pattern on their backs was the same as the rest of the -pack, she could not tell whether they were gardeners, or soldiers, or -courtiers, or three of her own children. - -'How should I know?' said Alice, surprised at her own courage. 'It's no -business of MINE.' - -The Queen turned crimson with fury, and, after glaring at her for a -moment like a wild beast, screamed 'Off with her head! Off--' - -'Nonsense!' said Alice, very loudly and decidedly, and the Queen was -silent. - -The King laid his hand upon her arm, and timidly said 'Consider, my -dear: she is only a child!' - -The Queen turned angrily away from him, and said to the Knave 'Turn them -over!' - -The Knave did so, very carefully, with one foot. - -'Get up!' said the Queen, in a shrill, loud voice, and the three -gardeners instantly jumped up, and began bowing to the King, the Queen, -the royal children, and everybody else. - -'Leave off that!' screamed the Queen. 'You make me giddy.' And then, -turning to the rose-tree, she went on, 'What HAVE you been doing here?' - -'May it please your Majesty,' said Two, in a very humble tone, going -down on one knee as he spoke, 'we were trying--' - -'I see!' said the Queen, who had meanwhile been examining the roses. -'Off with their heads!' and the procession moved on, three of the -soldiers remaining behind to execute the unfortunate gardeners, who ran -to Alice for protection. - -'You shan't be beheaded!' said Alice, and she put them into a large -flower-pot that stood near. The three soldiers wandered about for a -minute or two, looking for them, and then quietly marched off after the -others. - -'Are their heads off?' shouted the Queen. - -'Their heads are gone, if it please your Majesty!' the soldiers shouted -in reply. - -'That's right!' shouted the Queen. 'Can you play croquet?' - -The soldiers were silent, and looked at Alice, as the question was -evidently meant for her. - -'Yes!' shouted Alice. - -'Come on, then!' roared the Queen, and Alice joined the procession, -wondering very much what would happen next. - -'It's--it's a very fine day!' said a timid voice at her side. She was -walking by the White Rabbit, who was peeping anxiously into her face. - -'Very,' said Alice: '--where's the Duchess?' - -'Hush! Hush!' said the Rabbit in a low, hurried tone. He looked -anxiously over his shoulder as he spoke, and then raised himself upon -tiptoe, put his mouth close to her ear, and whispered 'She's under -sentence of execution.' - -'What for?' said Alice. - -'Did you say "What a pity!"?' the Rabbit asked. - -'No, I didn't,' said Alice: 'I don't think it's at all a pity. I said -"What for?"' - -'She boxed the Queen's ears--' the Rabbit began. Alice gave a little -scream of laughter. 'Oh, hush!' the Rabbit whispered in a frightened -tone. 'The Queen will hear you! You see, she came rather late, and the -Queen said--' - -'Get to your places!' shouted the Queen in a voice of thunder, and -people began running about in all directions, tumbling up against each -other; however, they got settled down in a minute or two, and the game -began. Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in -her life; it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were live hedgehogs, -the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves -up and to stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches. - -The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo: -she succeeded in getting its body tucked away, comfortably enough, under -her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got -its neck nicely straightened out, and was going to give the hedgehog a -blow with its head, it WOULD twist itself round and look up in her face, -with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out -laughing: and when she had got its head down, and was going to begin -again, it was very provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled -itself, and was in the act of crawling away: besides all this, there was -generally a ridge or furrow in the way wherever she wanted to send the -hedgehog to, and, as the doubled-up soldiers were always getting up -and walking off to other parts of the ground, Alice soon came to the -conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed. - -The players all played at once without waiting for turns, quarrelling -all the while, and fighting for the hedgehogs; and in a very short -time the Queen was in a furious passion, and went stamping about, and -shouting 'Off with his head!' or 'Off with her head!' about once in a -minute. - -Alice began to feel very uneasy: to be sure, she had not as yet had any -dispute with the Queen, but she knew that it might happen any minute, -'and then,' thought she, 'what would become of me? They're dreadfully -fond of beheading people here; the great wonder is, that there's any one -left alive!' - -She was looking about for some way of escape, and wondering whether she -could get away without being seen, when she noticed a curious appearance -in the air: it puzzled her very much at first, but, after watching it -a minute or two, she made it out to be a grin, and she said to herself -'It's the Cheshire Cat: now I shall have somebody to talk to.' - -'How are you getting on?' said the Cat, as soon as there was mouth -enough for it to speak with. - -Alice waited till the eyes appeared, and then nodded. 'It's no use -speaking to it,' she thought, 'till its ears have come, or at least one -of them.' In another minute the whole head appeared, and then Alice put -down her flamingo, and began an account of the game, feeling very glad -she had someone to listen to her. The Cat seemed to think that there was -enough of it now in sight, and no more of it appeared. - -'I don't think they play at all fairly,' Alice began, in rather a -complaining tone, 'and they all quarrel so dreadfully one can't hear -oneself speak--and they don't seem to have any rules in particular; -at least, if there are, nobody attends to them--and you've no idea how -confusing it is all the things being alive; for instance, there's the -arch I've got to go through next walking about at the other end of the -ground--and I should have croqueted the Queen's hedgehog just now, only -it ran away when it saw mine coming!' - -'How do you like the Queen?' said the Cat in a low voice. - -'Not at all,' said Alice: 'she's so extremely--' Just then she noticed -that the Queen was close behind her, listening: so she went on, -'--likely to win, that it's hardly worth while finishing the game.' - -The Queen smiled and passed on. - -'Who ARE you talking to?' said the King, going up to Alice, and looking -at the Cat's head with great curiosity. - -'It's a friend of mine--a Cheshire Cat,' said Alice: 'allow me to -introduce it.' - -'I don't like the look of it at all,' said the King: 'however, it may -kiss my hand if it likes.' - -'I'd rather not,' the Cat remarked. - -'Don't be impertinent,' said the King, 'and don't look at me like that!' -He got behind Alice as he spoke. - -'A cat may look at a king,' said Alice. 'I've read that in some book, -but I don't remember where.' - -'Well, it must be removed,' said the King very decidedly, and he called -the Queen, who was passing at the moment, 'My dear! I wish you would -have this cat removed!' - -The Queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. -'Off with his head!' she said, without even looking round. - -'I'll fetch the executioner myself,' said the King eagerly, and he -hurried off. - -Alice thought she might as well go back, and see how the game was going -on, as she heard the Queen's voice in the distance, screaming with -passion. She had already heard her sentence three of the players to be -executed for having missed their turns, and she did not like the look -of things at all, as the game was in such confusion that she never knew -whether it was her turn or not. So she went in search of her hedgehog. - -The hedgehog was engaged in a fight with another hedgehog, which seemed -to Alice an excellent opportunity for croqueting one of them with the -other: the only difficulty was, that her flamingo was gone across to the -other side of the garden, where Alice could see it trying in a helpless -sort of way to fly up into a tree. - -By the time she had caught the flamingo and brought it back, the fight -was over, and both the hedgehogs were out of sight: 'but it doesn't -matter much,' thought Alice, 'as all the arches are gone from this side -of the ground.' So she tucked it away under her arm, that it might not -escape again, and went back for a little more conversation with her -friend. - -When she got back to the Cheshire Cat, she was surprised to find quite a -large crowd collected round it: there was a dispute going on between -the executioner, the King, and the Queen, who were all talking at once, -while all the rest were quite silent, and looked very uncomfortable. - -The moment Alice appeared, she was appealed to by all three to settle -the question, and they repeated their arguments to her, though, as they -all spoke at once, she found it very hard indeed to make out exactly -what they said. - -The executioner's argument was, that you couldn't cut off a head unless -there was a body to cut it off from: that he had never had to do such a -thing before, and he wasn't going to begin at HIS time of life. - -The King's argument was, that anything that had a head could be -beheaded, and that you weren't to talk nonsense. - -The Queen's argument was, that if something wasn't done about it in less -than no time she'd have everybody executed, all round. (It was this last -remark that had made the whole party look so grave and anxious.) - -Alice could think of nothing else to say but 'It belongs to the Duchess: -you'd better ask HER about it.' - -'She's in prison,' the Queen said to the executioner: 'fetch her here.' -And the executioner went off like an arrow. - - The Cat's head began fading away the moment he was gone, and, -by the time he had come back with the Duchess, it had entirely -disappeared; so the King and the executioner ran wildly up and down -looking for it, while the rest of the party went back to the game. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. The Mock Turtle's Story - -'You can't think how glad I am to see you again, you dear old thing!' -said the Duchess, as she tucked her arm affectionately into Alice's, and -they walked off together. - -Alice was very glad to find her in such a pleasant temper, and thought -to herself that perhaps it was only the pepper that had made her so -savage when they met in the kitchen. - -'When I'M a Duchess,' she said to herself, (not in a very hopeful tone -though), 'I won't have any pepper in my kitchen AT ALL. Soup does very -well without--Maybe it's always pepper that makes people hot-tempered,' -she went on, very much pleased at having found out a new kind of -rule, 'and vinegar that makes them sour--and camomile that makes -them bitter--and--and barley-sugar and such things that make children -sweet-tempered. I only wish people knew that: then they wouldn't be so -stingy about it, you know--' - -She had quite forgotten the Duchess by this time, and was a little -startled when she heard her voice close to her ear. 'You're thinking -about something, my dear, and that makes you forget to talk. I can't -tell you just now what the moral of that is, but I shall remember it in -a bit.' - -'Perhaps it hasn't one,' Alice ventured to remark. - -'Tut, tut, child!' said the Duchess. 'Everything's got a moral, if only -you can find it.' And she squeezed herself up closer to Alice's side as -she spoke. - -Alice did not much like keeping so close to her: first, because the -Duchess was VERY ugly; and secondly, because she was exactly the -right height to rest her chin upon Alice's shoulder, and it was an -uncomfortably sharp chin. However, she did not like to be rude, so she -bore it as well as she could. - -'The game's going on rather better now,' she said, by way of keeping up -the conversation a little. - -''Tis so,' said the Duchess: 'and the moral of that is--"Oh, 'tis love, -'tis love, that makes the world go round!"' - -'Somebody said,' Alice whispered, 'that it's done by everybody minding -their own business!' - -'Ah, well! It means much the same thing,' said the Duchess, digging her -sharp little chin into Alice's shoulder as she added, 'and the moral -of THAT is--"Take care of the sense, and the sounds will take care of -themselves."' - -'How fond she is of finding morals in things!' Alice thought to herself. - -'I dare say you're wondering why I don't put my arm round your waist,' -the Duchess said after a pause: 'the reason is, that I'm doubtful about -the temper of your flamingo. Shall I try the experiment?' - -'HE might bite,' Alice cautiously replied, not feeling at all anxious to -have the experiment tried. - -'Very true,' said the Duchess: 'flamingoes and mustard both bite. And -the moral of that is--"Birds of a feather flock together."' - -'Only mustard isn't a bird,' Alice remarked. - -'Right, as usual,' said the Duchess: 'what a clear way you have of -putting things!' - -'It's a mineral, I THINK,' said Alice. - -'Of course it is,' said the Duchess, who seemed ready to agree to -everything that Alice said; 'there's a large mustard-mine near here. And -the moral of that is--"The more there is of mine, the less there is of -yours."' - -'Oh, I know!' exclaimed Alice, who had not attended to this last remark, -'it's a vegetable. It doesn't look like one, but it is.' - -'I quite agree with you,' said the Duchess; 'and the moral of that -is--"Be what you would seem to be"--or if you'd like it put more -simply--"Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might -appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise -than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise."' - -'I think I should understand that better,' Alice said very politely, 'if -I had it written down: but I can't quite follow it as you say it.' - -'That's nothing to what I could say if I chose,' the Duchess replied, in -a pleased tone. - -'Pray don't trouble yourself to say it any longer than that,' said -Alice. - -'Oh, don't talk about trouble!' said the Duchess. 'I make you a present -of everything I've said as yet.' - -'A cheap sort of present!' thought Alice. 'I'm glad they don't give -birthday presents like that!' But she did not venture to say it out -loud. - -'Thinking again?' the Duchess asked, with another dig of her sharp -little chin. - -'I've a right to think,' said Alice sharply, for she was beginning to -feel a little worried. - -'Just about as much right,' said the Duchess, 'as pigs have to fly; and -the m--' - -But here, to Alice's great surprise, the Duchess's voice died away, even -in the middle of her favourite word 'moral,' and the arm that was linked -into hers began to tremble. Alice looked up, and there stood the Queen -in front of them, with her arms folded, frowning like a thunderstorm. - -'A fine day, your Majesty!' the Duchess began in a low, weak voice. - -'Now, I give you fair warning,' shouted the Queen, stamping on the -ground as she spoke; 'either you or your head must be off, and that in -about half no time! Take your choice!' - -The Duchess took her choice, and was gone in a moment. - -'Let's go on with the game,' the Queen said to Alice; and Alice was -too much frightened to say a word, but slowly followed her back to the -croquet-ground. - -The other guests had taken advantage of the Queen's absence, and were -resting in the shade: however, the moment they saw her, they hurried -back to the game, the Queen merely remarking that a moment's delay would -cost them their lives. - -All the time they were playing the Queen never left off quarrelling with -the other players, and shouting 'Off with his head!' or 'Off with her -head!' Those whom she sentenced were taken into custody by the soldiers, -who of course had to leave off being arches to do this, so that by -the end of half an hour or so there were no arches left, and all the -players, except the King, the Queen, and Alice, were in custody and -under sentence of execution. - -Then the Queen left off, quite out of breath, and said to Alice, 'Have -you seen the Mock Turtle yet?' - -'No,' said Alice. 'I don't even know what a Mock Turtle is.' - -'It's the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from,' said the Queen. - -'I never saw one, or heard of one,' said Alice. - -'Come on, then,' said the Queen, 'and he shall tell you his history,' - -As they walked off together, Alice heard the King say in a low voice, -to the company generally, 'You are all pardoned.' 'Come, THAT'S a good -thing!' she said to herself, for she had felt quite unhappy at the -number of executions the Queen had ordered. - -They very soon came upon a Gryphon, lying fast asleep in the sun. -(IF you don't know what a Gryphon is, look at the picture.) 'Up, lazy -thing!' said the Queen, 'and take this young lady to see the Mock -Turtle, and to hear his history. I must go back and see after some -executions I have ordered'; and she walked off, leaving Alice alone with -the Gryphon. Alice did not quite like the look of the creature, but on -the whole she thought it would be quite as safe to stay with it as to go -after that savage Queen: so she waited. - -The Gryphon sat up and rubbed its eyes: then it watched the Queen till -she was out of sight: then it chuckled. 'What fun!' said the Gryphon, -half to itself, half to Alice. - -'What IS the fun?' said Alice. - -'Why, SHE,' said the Gryphon. 'It's all her fancy, that: they never -executes nobody, you know. Come on!' - -'Everybody says "come on!" here,' thought Alice, as she went slowly -after it: 'I never was so ordered about in all my life, never!' - -They had not gone far before they saw the Mock Turtle in the distance, -sitting sad and lonely on a little ledge of rock, and, as they came -nearer, Alice could hear him sighing as if his heart would break. She -pitied him deeply. 'What is his sorrow?' she asked the Gryphon, and the -Gryphon answered, very nearly in the same words as before, 'It's all his -fancy, that: he hasn't got no sorrow, you know. Come on!' - -So they went up to the Mock Turtle, who looked at them with large eyes -full of tears, but said nothing. - -'This here young lady,' said the Gryphon, 'she wants for to know your -history, she do.' - -'I'll tell it her,' said the Mock Turtle in a deep, hollow tone: 'sit -down, both of you, and don't speak a word till I've finished.' - -So they sat down, and nobody spoke for some minutes. Alice thought to -herself, 'I don't see how he can EVEN finish, if he doesn't begin.' But -she waited patiently. - -'Once,' said the Mock Turtle at last, with a deep sigh, 'I was a real -Turtle.' - -These words were followed by a very long silence, broken only by an -occasional exclamation of 'Hjckrrh!' from the Gryphon, and the constant -heavy sobbing of the Mock Turtle. Alice was very nearly getting up and -saying, 'Thank you, sir, for your interesting story,' but she could -not help thinking there MUST be more to come, so she sat still and said -nothing. - -'When we were little,' the Mock Turtle went on at last, more calmly, -though still sobbing a little now and then, 'we went to school in the -sea. The master was an old Turtle--we used to call him Tortoise--' - -'Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn't one?' Alice asked. - -'We called him Tortoise because he taught us,' said the Mock Turtle -angrily: 'really you are very dull!' - -'You ought to be ashamed of yourself for asking such a simple question,' -added the Gryphon; and then they both sat silent and looked at poor -Alice, who felt ready to sink into the earth. At last the Gryphon said -to the Mock Turtle, 'Drive on, old fellow! Don't be all day about it!' -and he went on in these words: - -'Yes, we went to school in the sea, though you mayn't believe it--' - -'I never said I didn't!' interrupted Alice. - -'You did,' said the Mock Turtle. - -'Hold your tongue!' added the Gryphon, before Alice could speak again. -The Mock Turtle went on. - -'We had the best of educations--in fact, we went to school every day--' - -'I'VE been to a day-school, too,' said Alice; 'you needn't be so proud -as all that.' - -'With extras?' asked the Mock Turtle a little anxiously. - -'Yes,' said Alice, 'we learned French and music.' - -'And washing?' said the Mock Turtle. - -'Certainly not!' said Alice indignantly. - -'Ah! then yours wasn't a really good school,' said the Mock Turtle in -a tone of great relief. 'Now at OURS they had at the end of the bill, -"French, music, AND WASHING--extra."' - -'You couldn't have wanted it much,' said Alice; 'living at the bottom of -the sea.' - -'I couldn't afford to learn it.' said the Mock Turtle with a sigh. 'I -only took the regular course.' - -'What was that?' inquired Alice. - -'Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,' the Mock Turtle -replied; 'and then the different branches of Arithmetic--Ambition, -Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.' - -'I never heard of "Uglification,"' Alice ventured to say. 'What is it?' - -The Gryphon lifted up both its paws in surprise. 'What! Never heard of -uglifying!' it exclaimed. 'You know what to beautify is, I suppose?' - -'Yes,' said Alice doubtfully: 'it means--to--make--anything--prettier.' - -'Well, then,' the Gryphon went on, 'if you don't know what to uglify is, -you ARE a simpleton.' - -Alice did not feel encouraged to ask any more questions about it, so she -turned to the Mock Turtle, and said 'What else had you to learn?' - -'Well, there was Mystery,' the Mock Turtle replied, counting off -the subjects on his flappers, '--Mystery, ancient and modern, with -Seaography: then Drawling--the Drawling-master was an old conger-eel, -that used to come once a week: HE taught us Drawling, Stretching, and -Fainting in Coils.' - -'What was THAT like?' said Alice. - -'Well, I can't show it you myself,' the Mock Turtle said: 'I'm too -stiff. And the Gryphon never learnt it.' - -'Hadn't time,' said the Gryphon: 'I went to the Classics master, though. -He was an old crab, HE was.' - -'I never went to him,' the Mock Turtle said with a sigh: 'he taught -Laughing and Grief, they used to say.' - -'So he did, so he did,' said the Gryphon, sighing in his turn; and both -creatures hid their faces in their paws. - -'And how many hours a day did you do lessons?' said Alice, in a hurry to -change the subject. - -'Ten hours the first day,' said the Mock Turtle: 'nine the next, and so -on.' - -'What a curious plan!' exclaimed Alice. - -'That's the reason they're called lessons,' the Gryphon remarked: -'because they lessen from day to day.' - -This was quite a new idea to Alice, and she thought it over a little -before she made her next remark. 'Then the eleventh day must have been a -holiday?' - -'Of course it was,' said the Mock Turtle. - -'And how did you manage on the twelfth?' Alice went on eagerly. - -'That's enough about lessons,' the Gryphon interrupted in a very decided -tone: 'tell her something about the games now.' - - - - -CHAPTER X. The Lobster Quadrille - -The Mock Turtle sighed deeply, and drew the back of one flapper across -his eyes. He looked at Alice, and tried to speak, but for a minute or -two sobs choked his voice. 'Same as if he had a bone in his throat,' -said the Gryphon: and it set to work shaking him and punching him in -the back. At last the Mock Turtle recovered his voice, and, with tears -running down his cheeks, he went on again:-- - -'You may not have lived much under the sea--' ('I haven't,' said -Alice)--'and perhaps you were never even introduced to a lobster--' -(Alice began to say 'I once tasted--' but checked herself hastily, and -said 'No, never') '--so you can have no idea what a delightful thing a -Lobster Quadrille is!' - -'No, indeed,' said Alice. 'What sort of a dance is it?' - -'Why,' said the Gryphon, 'you first form into a line along the -sea-shore--' - -'Two lines!' cried the Mock Turtle. 'Seals, turtles, salmon, and so on; -then, when you've cleared all the jelly-fish out of the way--' - -'THAT generally takes some time,' interrupted the Gryphon. - -'--you advance twice--' - -'Each with a lobster as a partner!' cried the Gryphon. - -'Of course,' the Mock Turtle said: 'advance twice, set to partners--' - -'--change lobsters, and retire in same order,' continued the Gryphon. - -'Then, you know,' the Mock Turtle went on, 'you throw the--' - -'The lobsters!' shouted the Gryphon, with a bound into the air. - -'--as far out to sea as you can--' - -'Swim after them!' screamed the Gryphon. - -'Turn a somersault in the sea!' cried the Mock Turtle, capering wildly -about. - -'Change lobsters again!' yelled the Gryphon at the top of its voice. - -'Back to land again, and that's all the first figure,' said the Mock -Turtle, suddenly dropping his voice; and the two creatures, who had been -jumping about like mad things all this time, sat down again very sadly -and quietly, and looked at Alice. - -'It must be a very pretty dance,' said Alice timidly. - -'Would you like to see a little of it?' said the Mock Turtle. - -'Very much indeed,' said Alice. - -'Come, let's try the first figure!' said the Mock Turtle to the Gryphon. -'We can do without lobsters, you know. Which shall sing?' - -'Oh, YOU sing,' said the Gryphon. 'I've forgotten the words.' - -So they began solemnly dancing round and round Alice, every now and -then treading on her toes when they passed too close, and waving their -forepaws to mark the time, while the Mock Turtle sang this, very slowly -and sadly:-- - - '"Will you walk a little faster?" said a whiting to a snail. - "There's a porpoise close behind us, and he's treading on my tail. - - See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance! - They are waiting on the shingle--will you come and join the dance? - - Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance? - Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance? - - "You can really have no notion how delightful it will be - When they take us up and throw us, with the lobsters, out to sea!" - But the snail replied "Too far, too far!" and gave a look askance-- - Said he thanked the whiting kindly, but he would not join the dance. - - Would not, could not, would not, could not, would not join the dance. - Would not, could not, would not, could not, could not join the dance. - - '"What matters it how far we go?" his scaly friend replied. - "There is another shore, you know, upon the other side. - The further off from England the nearer is to France-- - Then turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and join the dance. - - Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance? - Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance?"' - -'Thank you, it's a very interesting dance to watch,' said Alice, feeling -very glad that it was over at last: 'and I do so like that curious song -about the whiting!' - -'Oh, as to the whiting,' said the Mock Turtle, 'they--you've seen them, -of course?' - -'Yes,' said Alice, 'I've often seen them at dinn--' she checked herself -hastily. - -'I don't know where Dinn may be,' said the Mock Turtle, 'but if you've -seen them so often, of course you know what they're like.' - -'I believe so,' Alice replied thoughtfully. 'They have their tails in -their mouths--and they're all over crumbs.' - -'You're wrong about the crumbs,' said the Mock Turtle: 'crumbs would all -wash off in the sea. But they HAVE their tails in their mouths; and the -reason is--' here the Mock Turtle yawned and shut his eyes.--'Tell her -about the reason and all that,' he said to the Gryphon. - -'The reason is,' said the Gryphon, 'that they WOULD go with the lobsters -to the dance. So they got thrown out to sea. So they had to fall a long -way. So they got their tails fast in their mouths. So they couldn't get -them out again. That's all.' - -'Thank you,' said Alice, 'it's very interesting. I never knew so much -about a whiting before.' - -'I can tell you more than that, if you like,' said the Gryphon. 'Do you -know why it's called a whiting?' - -'I never thought about it,' said Alice. 'Why?' - -'IT DOES THE BOOTS AND SHOES.' the Gryphon replied very solemnly. - -Alice was thoroughly puzzled. 'Does the boots and shoes!' she repeated -in a wondering tone. - -'Why, what are YOUR shoes done with?' said the Gryphon. 'I mean, what -makes them so shiny?' - -Alice looked down at them, and considered a little before she gave her -answer. 'They're done with blacking, I believe.' - -'Boots and shoes under the sea,' the Gryphon went on in a deep voice, -'are done with a whiting. Now you know.' - -'And what are they made of?' Alice asked in a tone of great curiosity. - -'Soles and eels, of course,' the Gryphon replied rather impatiently: -'any shrimp could have told you that.' - -'If I'd been the whiting,' said Alice, whose thoughts were still running -on the song, 'I'd have said to the porpoise, "Keep back, please: we -don't want YOU with us!"' - -'They were obliged to have him with them,' the Mock Turtle said: 'no -wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise.' - -'Wouldn't it really?' said Alice in a tone of great surprise. - -'Of course not,' said the Mock Turtle: 'why, if a fish came to ME, and -told me he was going a journey, I should say "With what porpoise?"' - -'Don't you mean "purpose"?' said Alice. - -'I mean what I say,' the Mock Turtle replied in an offended tone. And -the Gryphon added 'Come, let's hear some of YOUR adventures.' - -'I could tell you my adventures--beginning from this morning,' said -Alice a little timidly: 'but it's no use going back to yesterday, -because I was a different person then.' - -'Explain all that,' said the Mock Turtle. - -'No, no! The adventures first,' said the Gryphon in an impatient tone: -'explanations take such a dreadful time.' - -So Alice began telling them her adventures from the time when she first -saw the White Rabbit. She was a little nervous about it just at first, -the two creatures got so close to her, one on each side, and opened -their eyes and mouths so VERY wide, but she gained courage as she went -on. Her listeners were perfectly quiet till she got to the part about -her repeating 'YOU ARE OLD, FATHER WILLIAM,' to the Caterpillar, and the -words all coming different, and then the Mock Turtle drew a long breath, -and said 'That's very curious.' - -'It's all about as curious as it can be,' said the Gryphon. - -'It all came different!' the Mock Turtle repeated thoughtfully. 'I -should like to hear her try and repeat something now. Tell her to -begin.' He looked at the Gryphon as if he thought it had some kind of -authority over Alice. - -'Stand up and repeat "'TIS THE VOICE OF THE SLUGGARD,"' said the -Gryphon. - -'How the creatures order one about, and make one repeat lessons!' -thought Alice; 'I might as well be at school at once.' However, she -got up, and began to repeat it, but her head was so full of the Lobster -Quadrille, that she hardly knew what she was saying, and the words came -very queer indeed:-- - - ''Tis the voice of the Lobster; I heard him declare, - "You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair." - As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose - Trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his toes.' - - [later editions continued as follows - When the sands are all dry, he is gay as a lark, - And will talk in contemptuous tones of the Shark, - But, when the tide rises and sharks are around, - His voice has a timid and tremulous sound.] - -'That's different from what I used to say when I was a child,' said the -Gryphon. - -'Well, I never heard it before,' said the Mock Turtle; 'but it sounds -uncommon nonsense.' - -Alice said nothing; she had sat down with her face in her hands, -wondering if anything would EVER happen in a natural way again. - -'I should like to have it explained,' said the Mock Turtle. - -'She can't explain it,' said the Gryphon hastily. 'Go on with the next -verse.' - -'But about his toes?' the Mock Turtle persisted. 'How COULD he turn them -out with his nose, you know?' - -'It's the first position in dancing.' Alice said; but was dreadfully -puzzled by the whole thing, and longed to change the subject. - -'Go on with the next verse,' the Gryphon repeated impatiently: 'it -begins "I passed by his garden."' - -Alice did not dare to disobey, though she felt sure it would all come -wrong, and she went on in a trembling voice:-- - - 'I passed by his garden, and marked, with one eye, - How the Owl and the Panther were sharing a pie--' - - [later editions continued as follows - The Panther took pie-crust, and gravy, and meat, - While the Owl had the dish as its share of the treat. - When the pie was all finished, the Owl, as a boon, - Was kindly permitted to pocket the spoon: - While the Panther received knife and fork with a growl, - And concluded the banquet--] - -'What IS the use of repeating all that stuff,' the Mock Turtle -interrupted, 'if you don't explain it as you go on? It's by far the most -confusing thing I ever heard!' - -'Yes, I think you'd better leave off,' said the Gryphon: and Alice was -only too glad to do so. - -'Shall we try another figure of the Lobster Quadrille?' the Gryphon went -on. 'Or would you like the Mock Turtle to sing you a song?' - -'Oh, a song, please, if the Mock Turtle would be so kind,' Alice -replied, so eagerly that the Gryphon said, in a rather offended tone, -'Hm! No accounting for tastes! Sing her "Turtle Soup," will you, old -fellow?' - -The Mock Turtle sighed deeply, and began, in a voice sometimes choked -with sobs, to sing this:-- - - 'Beautiful Soup, so rich and green, - Waiting in a hot tureen! - Who for such dainties would not stoop? - Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup! - Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup! - Beau--ootiful Soo--oop! - Beau--ootiful Soo--oop! - Soo--oop of the e--e--evening, - Beautiful, beautiful Soup! - - 'Beautiful Soup! Who cares for fish, - Game, or any other dish? - Who would not give all else for two - Pennyworth only of beautiful Soup? - Pennyworth only of beautiful Soup? - Beau--ootiful Soo--oop! - Beau--ootiful Soo--oop! - Soo--oop of the e--e--evening, - Beautiful, beauti--FUL SOUP!' - -'Chorus again!' cried the Gryphon, and the Mock Turtle had just begun -to repeat it, when a cry of 'The trial's beginning!' was heard in the -distance. - -'Come on!' cried the Gryphon, and, taking Alice by the hand, it hurried -off, without waiting for the end of the song. - -'What trial is it?' Alice panted as she ran; but the Gryphon only -answered 'Come on!' and ran the faster, while more and more faintly -came, carried on the breeze that followed them, the melancholy words:-- - - 'Soo--oop of the e--e--evening, - Beautiful, beautiful Soup!' - - - - -CHAPTER XI. Who Stole the Tarts? - -The King and Queen of Hearts were seated on their throne when they -arrived, with a great crowd assembled about them--all sorts of little -birds and beasts, as well as the whole pack of cards: the Knave was -standing before them, in chains, with a soldier on each side to guard -him; and near the King was the White Rabbit, with a trumpet in one hand, -and a scroll of parchment in the other. In the very middle of the court -was a table, with a large dish of tarts upon it: they looked so good, -that it made Alice quite hungry to look at them--'I wish they'd get the -trial done,' she thought, 'and hand round the refreshments!' But there -seemed to be no chance of this, so she began looking at everything about -her, to pass away the time. - -Alice had never been in a court of justice before, but she had read -about them in books, and she was quite pleased to find that she knew -the name of nearly everything there. 'That's the judge,' she said to -herself, 'because of his great wig.' - -The judge, by the way, was the King; and as he wore his crown over the -wig, (look at the frontispiece if you want to see how he did it,) he did -not look at all comfortable, and it was certainly not becoming. - -'And that's the jury-box,' thought Alice, 'and those twelve creatures,' -(she was obliged to say 'creatures,' you see, because some of them were -animals, and some were birds,) 'I suppose they are the jurors.' She said -this last word two or three times over to herself, being rather proud of -it: for she thought, and rightly too, that very few little girls of her -age knew the meaning of it at all. However, 'jury-men' would have done -just as well. - -The twelve jurors were all writing very busily on slates. 'What are they -doing?' Alice whispered to the Gryphon. 'They can't have anything to put -down yet, before the trial's begun.' - -'They're putting down their names,' the Gryphon whispered in reply, 'for -fear they should forget them before the end of the trial.' - -'Stupid things!' Alice began in a loud, indignant voice, but she stopped -hastily, for the White Rabbit cried out, 'Silence in the court!' and the -King put on his spectacles and looked anxiously round, to make out who -was talking. - -Alice could see, as well as if she were looking over their shoulders, -that all the jurors were writing down 'stupid things!' on their slates, -and she could even make out that one of them didn't know how to spell -'stupid,' and that he had to ask his neighbour to tell him. 'A nice -muddle their slates'll be in before the trial's over!' thought Alice. - -One of the jurors had a pencil that squeaked. This of course, Alice -could not stand, and she went round the court and got behind him, and -very soon found an opportunity of taking it away. She did it so quickly -that the poor little juror (it was Bill, the Lizard) could not make out -at all what had become of it; so, after hunting all about for it, he was -obliged to write with one finger for the rest of the day; and this was -of very little use, as it left no mark on the slate. - -'Herald, read the accusation!' said the King. - -On this the White Rabbit blew three blasts on the trumpet, and then -unrolled the parchment scroll, and read as follows:-- - - 'The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts, - All on a summer day: - The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts, - And took them quite away!' - -'Consider your verdict,' the King said to the jury. - -'Not yet, not yet!' the Rabbit hastily interrupted. 'There's a great -deal to come before that!' - -'Call the first witness,' said the King; and the White Rabbit blew three -blasts on the trumpet, and called out, 'First witness!' - -The first witness was the Hatter. He came in with a teacup in one -hand and a piece of bread-and-butter in the other. 'I beg pardon, your -Majesty,' he began, 'for bringing these in: but I hadn't quite finished -my tea when I was sent for.' - -'You ought to have finished,' said the King. 'When did you begin?' - -The Hatter looked at the March Hare, who had followed him into the -court, arm-in-arm with the Dormouse. 'Fourteenth of March, I think it -was,' he said. - -'Fifteenth,' said the March Hare. - -'Sixteenth,' added the Dormouse. - -'Write that down,' the King said to the jury, and the jury eagerly -wrote down all three dates on their slates, and then added them up, and -reduced the answer to shillings and pence. - -'Take off your hat,' the King said to the Hatter. - -'It isn't mine,' said the Hatter. - -'Stolen!' the King exclaimed, turning to the jury, who instantly made a -memorandum of the fact. - -'I keep them to sell,' the Hatter added as an explanation; 'I've none of -my own. I'm a hatter.' - -Here the Queen put on her spectacles, and began staring at the Hatter, -who turned pale and fidgeted. - -'Give your evidence,' said the King; 'and don't be nervous, or I'll have -you executed on the spot.' - -This did not seem to encourage the witness at all: he kept shifting -from one foot to the other, looking uneasily at the Queen, and in -his confusion he bit a large piece out of his teacup instead of the -bread-and-butter. - -Just at this moment Alice felt a very curious sensation, which puzzled -her a good deal until she made out what it was: she was beginning to -grow larger again, and she thought at first she would get up and leave -the court; but on second thoughts she decided to remain where she was as -long as there was room for her. - -'I wish you wouldn't squeeze so.' said the Dormouse, who was sitting -next to her. 'I can hardly breathe.' - -'I can't help it,' said Alice very meekly: 'I'm growing.' - -'You've no right to grow here,' said the Dormouse. - -'Don't talk nonsense,' said Alice more boldly: 'you know you're growing -too.' - -'Yes, but I grow at a reasonable pace,' said the Dormouse: 'not in that -ridiculous fashion.' And he got up very sulkily and crossed over to the -other side of the court. - -All this time the Queen had never left off staring at the Hatter, and, -just as the Dormouse crossed the court, she said to one of the officers -of the court, 'Bring me the list of the singers in the last concert!' on -which the wretched Hatter trembled so, that he shook both his shoes off. - -'Give your evidence,' the King repeated angrily, 'or I'll have you -executed, whether you're nervous or not.' - -'I'm a poor man, your Majesty,' the Hatter began, in a trembling voice, -'--and I hadn't begun my tea--not above a week or so--and what with the -bread-and-butter getting so thin--and the twinkling of the tea--' - -'The twinkling of the what?' said the King. - -'It began with the tea,' the Hatter replied. - -'Of course twinkling begins with a T!' said the King sharply. 'Do you -take me for a dunce? Go on!' - -'I'm a poor man,' the Hatter went on, 'and most things twinkled after -that--only the March Hare said--' - -'I didn't!' the March Hare interrupted in a great hurry. - -'You did!' said the Hatter. - -'I deny it!' said the March Hare. - -'He denies it,' said the King: 'leave out that part.' - -'Well, at any rate, the Dormouse said--' the Hatter went on, looking -anxiously round to see if he would deny it too: but the Dormouse denied -nothing, being fast asleep. - -'After that,' continued the Hatter, 'I cut some more bread-and-butter--' - -'But what did the Dormouse say?' one of the jury asked. - -'That I can't remember,' said the Hatter. - -'You MUST remember,' remarked the King, 'or I'll have you executed.' - -The miserable Hatter dropped his teacup and bread-and-butter, and went -down on one knee. 'I'm a poor man, your Majesty,' he began. - -'You're a very poor speaker,' said the King. - -Here one of the guinea-pigs cheered, and was immediately suppressed by -the officers of the court. (As that is rather a hard word, I will just -explain to you how it was done. They had a large canvas bag, which tied -up at the mouth with strings: into this they slipped the guinea-pig, -head first, and then sat upon it.) - -'I'm glad I've seen that done,' thought Alice. 'I've so often read -in the newspapers, at the end of trials, "There was some attempts -at applause, which was immediately suppressed by the officers of the -court," and I never understood what it meant till now.' - -'If that's all you know about it, you may stand down,' continued the -King. - -'I can't go no lower,' said the Hatter: 'I'm on the floor, as it is.' - -'Then you may SIT down,' the King replied. - -Here the other guinea-pig cheered, and was suppressed. - -'Come, that finished the guinea-pigs!' thought Alice. 'Now we shall get -on better.' - -'I'd rather finish my tea,' said the Hatter, with an anxious look at the -Queen, who was reading the list of singers. - -'You may go,' said the King, and the Hatter hurriedly left the court, -without even waiting to put his shoes on. - -'--and just take his head off outside,' the Queen added to one of the -officers: but the Hatter was out of sight before the officer could get -to the door. - -'Call the next witness!' said the King. - -The next witness was the Duchess's cook. She carried the pepper-box in -her hand, and Alice guessed who it was, even before she got into the -court, by the way the people near the door began sneezing all at once. - -'Give your evidence,' said the King. - -'Shan't,' said the cook. - -The King looked anxiously at the White Rabbit, who said in a low voice, -'Your Majesty must cross-examine THIS witness.' - -'Well, if I must, I must,' the King said, with a melancholy air, and, -after folding his arms and frowning at the cook till his eyes were -nearly out of sight, he said in a deep voice, 'What are tarts made of?' - -'Pepper, mostly,' said the cook. - -'Treacle,' said a sleepy voice behind her. - -'Collar that Dormouse,' the Queen shrieked out. 'Behead that Dormouse! -Turn that Dormouse out of court! Suppress him! Pinch him! Off with his -whiskers!' - -For some minutes the whole court was in confusion, getting the Dormouse -turned out, and, by the time they had settled down again, the cook had -disappeared. - -'Never mind!' said the King, with an air of great relief. 'Call the next -witness.' And he added in an undertone to the Queen, 'Really, my dear, -YOU must cross-examine the next witness. It quite makes my forehead -ache!' - -Alice watched the White Rabbit as he fumbled over the list, feeling very -curious to see what the next witness would be like, '--for they haven't -got much evidence YET,' she said to herself. Imagine her surprise, when -the White Rabbit read out, at the top of his shrill little voice, the -name 'Alice!' - - - - -CHAPTER XII. Alice's Evidence - - -'Here!' cried Alice, quite forgetting in the flurry of the moment how -large she had grown in the last few minutes, and she jumped up in such -a hurry that she tipped over the jury-box with the edge of her skirt, -upsetting all the jurymen on to the heads of the crowd below, and there -they lay sprawling about, reminding her very much of a globe of goldfish -she had accidentally upset the week before. - -'Oh, I BEG your pardon!' she exclaimed in a tone of great dismay, and -began picking them up again as quickly as she could, for the accident of -the goldfish kept running in her head, and she had a vague sort of idea -that they must be collected at once and put back into the jury-box, or -they would die. - -'The trial cannot proceed,' said the King in a very grave voice, 'until -all the jurymen are back in their proper places--ALL,' he repeated with -great emphasis, looking hard at Alice as he said do. - -Alice looked at the jury-box, and saw that, in her haste, she had put -the Lizard in head downwards, and the poor little thing was waving its -tail about in a melancholy way, being quite unable to move. She soon got -it out again, and put it right; 'not that it signifies much,' she said -to herself; 'I should think it would be QUITE as much use in the trial -one way up as the other.' - -As soon as the jury had a little recovered from the shock of being -upset, and their slates and pencils had been found and handed back to -them, they set to work very diligently to write out a history of the -accident, all except the Lizard, who seemed too much overcome to do -anything but sit with its mouth open, gazing up into the roof of the -court. - -'What do you know about this business?' the King said to Alice. - -'Nothing,' said Alice. - -'Nothing WHATEVER?' persisted the King. - -'Nothing whatever,' said Alice. - -'That's very important,' the King said, turning to the jury. They were -just beginning to write this down on their slates, when the White Rabbit -interrupted: 'UNimportant, your Majesty means, of course,' he said in a -very respectful tone, but frowning and making faces at him as he spoke. - -'UNimportant, of course, I meant,' the King hastily said, and went on -to himself in an undertone, - -'important--unimportant--unimportant--important--' as if he were trying -which word sounded best. - -Some of the jury wrote it down 'important,' and some 'unimportant.' -Alice could see this, as she was near enough to look over their slates; -'but it doesn't matter a bit,' she thought to herself. - -At this moment the King, who had been for some time busily writing in -his note-book, cackled out 'Silence!' and read out from his book, 'Rule -Forty-two. ALL PERSONS MORE THAN A MILE HIGH TO LEAVE THE COURT.' - -Everybody looked at Alice. - -'I'M not a mile high,' said Alice. - -'You are,' said the King. - -'Nearly two miles high,' added the Queen. - -'Well, I shan't go, at any rate,' said Alice: 'besides, that's not a -regular rule: you invented it just now.' - -'It's the oldest rule in the book,' said the King. - -'Then it ought to be Number One,' said Alice. - -The King turned pale, and shut his note-book hastily. 'Consider your -verdict,' he said to the jury, in a low, trembling voice. - -'There's more evidence to come yet, please your Majesty,' said the White -Rabbit, jumping up in a great hurry; 'this paper has just been picked -up.' - -'What's in it?' said the Queen. - -'I haven't opened it yet,' said the White Rabbit, 'but it seems to be a -letter, written by the prisoner to--to somebody.' - -'It must have been that,' said the King, 'unless it was written to -nobody, which isn't usual, you know.' - -'Who is it directed to?' said one of the jurymen. - -'It isn't directed at all,' said the White Rabbit; 'in fact, there's -nothing written on the OUTSIDE.' He unfolded the paper as he spoke, and -added 'It isn't a letter, after all: it's a set of verses.' - -'Are they in the prisoner's handwriting?' asked another of the jurymen. - -'No, they're not,' said the White Rabbit, 'and that's the queerest thing -about it.' (The jury all looked puzzled.) - -'He must have imitated somebody else's hand,' said the King. (The jury -all brightened up again.) - -'Please your Majesty,' said the Knave, 'I didn't write it, and they -can't prove I did: there's no name signed at the end.' - -'If you didn't sign it,' said the King, 'that only makes the matter -worse. You MUST have meant some mischief, or else you'd have signed your -name like an honest man.' - -There was a general clapping of hands at this: it was the first really -clever thing the King had said that day. - -'That PROVES his guilt,' said the Queen. - -'It proves nothing of the sort!' said Alice. 'Why, you don't even know -what they're about!' - -'Read them,' said the King. - -The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. 'Where shall I begin, please -your Majesty?' he asked. - -'Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely, 'and go on till you -come to the end: then stop.' - -These were the verses the White Rabbit read:-- - - 'They told me you had been to her, - And mentioned me to him: - She gave me a good character, - But said I could not swim. - - He sent them word I had not gone - (We know it to be true): - If she should push the matter on, - What would become of you? - - I gave her one, they gave him two, - You gave us three or more; - They all returned from him to you, - Though they were mine before. - - If I or she should chance to be - Involved in this affair, - He trusts to you to set them free, - Exactly as we were. - - My notion was that you had been - (Before she had this fit) - An obstacle that came between - Him, and ourselves, and it. - - Don't let him know she liked them best, - For this must ever be - A secret, kept from all the rest, - Between yourself and me.' - -'That's the most important piece of evidence we've heard yet,' said the -King, rubbing his hands; 'so now let the jury--' - -'If any one of them can explain it,' said Alice, (she had grown so large -in the last few minutes that she wasn't a bit afraid of interrupting -him,) 'I'll give him sixpence. _I_ don't believe there's an atom of -meaning in it.' - -The jury all wrote down on their slates, 'SHE doesn't believe there's an -atom of meaning in it,' but none of them attempted to explain the paper. - -'If there's no meaning in it,' said the King, 'that saves a world of -trouble, you know, as we needn't try to find any. And yet I don't know,' -he went on, spreading out the verses on his knee, and looking at them -with one eye; 'I seem to see some meaning in them, after all. "--SAID -I COULD NOT SWIM--" you can't swim, can you?' he added, turning to the -Knave. - -The Knave shook his head sadly. 'Do I look like it?' he said. (Which he -certainly did NOT, being made entirely of cardboard.) - -'All right, so far,' said the King, and he went on muttering over -the verses to himself: '"WE KNOW IT TO BE TRUE--" that's the jury, of -course--"I GAVE HER ONE, THEY GAVE HIM TWO--" why, that must be what he -did with the tarts, you know--' - -'But, it goes on "THEY ALL RETURNED FROM HIM TO YOU,"' said Alice. - -'Why, there they are!' said the King triumphantly, pointing to the tarts -on the table. 'Nothing can be clearer than THAT. Then again--"BEFORE SHE -HAD THIS FIT--" you never had fits, my dear, I think?' he said to the -Queen. - -'Never!' said the Queen furiously, throwing an inkstand at the Lizard -as she spoke. (The unfortunate little Bill had left off writing on his -slate with one finger, as he found it made no mark; but he now hastily -began again, using the ink, that was trickling down his face, as long as -it lasted.) - -'Then the words don't FIT you,' said the King, looking round the court -with a smile. There was a dead silence. - -'It's a pun!' the King added in an offended tone, and everybody laughed, -'Let the jury consider their verdict,' the King said, for about the -twentieth time that day. - -'No, no!' said the Queen. 'Sentence first--verdict afterwards.' - -'Stuff and nonsense!' said Alice loudly. 'The idea of having the -sentence first!' - -'Hold your tongue!' said the Queen, turning purple. - -'I won't!' said Alice. - -'Off with her head!' the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. Nobody -moved. - -'Who cares for you?' said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this -time.) 'You're nothing but a pack of cards!' - -At this the whole pack rose up into the air, and came flying down upon -her: she gave a little scream, half of fright and half of anger, and -tried to beat them off, and found herself lying on the bank, with her -head in the lap of her sister, who was gently brushing away some dead -leaves that had fluttered down from the trees upon her face. - -'Wake up, Alice dear!' said her sister; 'Why, what a long sleep you've -had!' - -'Oh, I've had such a curious dream!' said Alice, and she told her -sister, as well as she could remember them, all these strange Adventures -of hers that you have just been reading about; and when she had -finished, her sister kissed her, and said, 'It WAS a curious dream, -dear, certainly: but now run in to your tea; it's getting late.' So -Alice got up and ran off, thinking while she ran, as well she might, -what a wonderful dream it had been. - -But her sister sat still just as she left her, leaning her head on her -hand, watching the setting sun, and thinking of little Alice and all her -wonderful Adventures, till she too began dreaming after a fashion, and -this was her dream:-- - -First, she dreamed of little Alice herself, and once again the tiny -hands were clasped upon her knee, and the bright eager eyes were looking -up into hers--she could hear the very tones of her voice, and see that -queer little toss of her head to keep back the wandering hair that -WOULD always get into her eyes--and still as she listened, or seemed to -listen, the whole place around her became alive with the strange creatures -of her little sister's dream. - -The long grass rustled at her feet as the White Rabbit hurried by--the -frightened Mouse splashed his way through the neighbouring pool--she -could hear the rattle of the teacups as the March Hare and his friends -shared their never-ending meal, and the shrill voice of the Queen -ordering off her unfortunate guests to execution--once more the pig-baby -was sneezing on the Duchess's knee, while plates and dishes crashed -around it--once more the shriek of the Gryphon, the squeaking of the -Lizard's slate-pencil, and the choking of the suppressed guinea-pigs, -filled the air, mixed up with the distant sobs of the miserable Mock -Turtle. - -So she sat on, with closed eyes, and half believed herself in -Wonderland, though she knew she had but to open them again, and all -would change to dull reality--the grass would be only rustling in the -wind, and the pool rippling to the waving of the reeds--the rattling -teacups would change to tinkling sheep-bells, and the Queen's shrill -cries to the voice of the shepherd boy--and the sneeze of the baby, the -shriek of the Gryphon, and all the other queer noises, would change (she -knew) to the confused clamour of the busy farm-yard--while the lowing -of the cattle in the distance would take the place of the Mock Turtle's -heavy sobs. - -Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers -would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would -keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her -childhood: and how she would gather about her other little children, and -make THEIR eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even -with the dream of Wonderland of long ago: and how she would feel with -all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, -remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days. - - THE END - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND *** - -***** This file should be named 11.txt or 11.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/1/11/ - - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Grimms' Fairy Tales - -Author: The Brothers Grimm - -Translator: Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes - -Posting Date: December 14, 2008 [EBook #2591] -Release Date: April, 2001 - -Language: English - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRIMMS' FAIRY TALES *** - - - - -Produced by Emma Dudding, John Bickers, and Dagny - - - - - -FAIRY TALES - -By The Brothers Grimm - - - -PREPARER'S NOTE - - The text is based on translations from - the Grimms' Kinder und Hausmarchen by - Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes. - - - - -CONTENTS: - - THE GOLDEN BIRD - HANS IN LUCK - JORINDA AND JORINDEL - THE TRAVELLING MUSICIANS - OLD SULTAN - THE STRAW, THE COAL, AND THE BEAN - BRIAR ROSE - THE DOG AND THE SPARROW - THE TWELVE DANCING PRINCESSES - THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE - THE WILLOW-WREN AND THE BEAR - THE FROG-PRINCE - CAT AND MOUSE IN PARTNERSHIP - THE GOOSE-GIRL - THE ADVENTURES OF CHANTICLEER AND PARTLET - 1. HOW THEY WENT TO THE MOUNTAINS TO EAT NUTS - 2. HOW CHANTICLEER AND PARTLET WENT TO VISIT MR KORBES - RAPUNZEL - FUNDEVOGEL - THE VALIANT LITTLE TAILOR - HANSEL AND GRETEL - THE MOUSE, THE BIRD, AND THE SAUSAGE - MOTHER HOLLE - LITTLE RED-CAP [LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD] - THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM - TOM THUMB - RUMPELSTILTSKIN - CLEVER GRETEL - THE OLD MAN AND HIS GRANDSON - THE LITTLE PEASANT - FREDERICK AND CATHERINE - SWEETHEART ROLAND - SNOWDROP - THE PINK - CLEVER ELSIE - THE MISER IN THE BUSH - ASHPUTTEL - THE WHITE SNAKE - THE WOLF AND THE SEVEN LITTLE KIDS - THE QUEEN BEE - THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKER - THE JUNIPER-TREE - the juniper-tree. - THE TURNIP - CLEVER HANS - THE THREE LANGUAGES - THE FOX AND THE CAT - THE FOUR CLEVER BROTHERS - LILY AND THE LION - THE FOX AND THE HORSE - THE BLUE LIGHT - THE RAVEN - THE GOLDEN GOOSE - THE WATER OF LIFE - THE TWELVE HUNTSMEN - THE KING OF THE GOLDEN MOUNTAIN - DOCTOR KNOWALL - THE SEVEN RAVENS - THE WEDDING OF MRS FOX - FIRST STORY - SECOND STORY - THE SALAD - THE STORY OF THE YOUTH WHO WENT FORTH TO LEARN WHAT FEAR WAS - KING GRISLY-BEARD - IRON HANS - CAT-SKIN - SNOW-WHITE AND ROSE-RED - - - - -THE BROTHERS GRIMM FAIRY TALES - - - - -THE GOLDEN BIRD - -A certain king had a beautiful garden, and in the garden stood a tree -which bore golden apples. These apples were always counted, and about -the time when they began to grow ripe it was found that every night one -of them was gone. The king became very angry at this, and ordered the -gardener to keep watch all night under the tree. The gardener set his -eldest son to watch; but about twelve o'clock he fell asleep, and in -the morning another of the apples was missing. Then the second son was -ordered to watch; and at midnight he too fell asleep, and in the morning -another apple was gone. Then the third son offered to keep watch; but -the gardener at first would not let him, for fear some harm should come -to him: however, at last he consented, and the young man laid himself -under the tree to watch. As the clock struck twelve he heard a rustling -noise in the air, and a bird came flying that was of pure gold; and as -it was snapping at one of the apples with its beak, the gardener's son -jumped up and shot an arrow at it. But the arrow did the bird no harm; -only it dropped a golden feather from its tail, and then flew away. -The golden feather was brought to the king in the morning, and all the -council was called together. Everyone agreed that it was worth more than -all the wealth of the kingdom: but the king said, 'One feather is of no -use to me, I must have the whole bird.' - -Then the gardener's eldest son set out and thought to find the golden -bird very easily; and when he had gone but a little way, he came to a -wood, and by the side of the wood he saw a fox sitting; so he took his -bow and made ready to shoot at it. Then the fox said, 'Do not shoot me, -for I will give you good counsel; I know what your business is, and -that you want to find the golden bird. You will reach a village in the -evening; and when you get there, you will see two inns opposite to each -other, one of which is very pleasant and beautiful to look at: go not in -there, but rest for the night in the other, though it may appear to you -to be very poor and mean.' But the son thought to himself, 'What can -such a beast as this know about the matter?' So he shot his arrow at -the fox; but he missed it, and it set up its tail above its back and -ran into the wood. Then he went his way, and in the evening came to -the village where the two inns were; and in one of these were people -singing, and dancing, and feasting; but the other looked very dirty, -and poor. 'I should be very silly,' said he, 'if I went to that shabby -house, and left this charming place'; so he went into the smart house, -and ate and drank at his ease, and forgot the bird, and his country too. - -Time passed on; and as the eldest son did not come back, and no tidings -were heard of him, the second son set out, and the same thing happened -to him. He met the fox, who gave him the good advice: but when he came -to the two inns, his eldest brother was standing at the window where -the merrymaking was, and called to him to come in; and he could not -withstand the temptation, but went in, and forgot the golden bird and -his country in the same manner. - -Time passed on again, and the youngest son too wished to set out into -the wide world to seek for the golden bird; but his father would not -listen to it for a long while, for he was very fond of his son, and -was afraid that some ill luck might happen to him also, and prevent his -coming back. However, at last it was agreed he should go, for he would -not rest at home; and as he came to the wood, he met the fox, and heard -the same good counsel. But he was thankful to the fox, and did not -attempt his life as his brothers had done; so the fox said, 'Sit upon my -tail, and you will travel faster.' So he sat down, and the fox began to -run, and away they went over stock and stone so quick that their hair -whistled in the wind. - -When they came to the village, the son followed the fox's counsel, and -without looking about him went to the shabby inn and rested there all -night at his ease. In the morning came the fox again and met him as he -was beginning his journey, and said, 'Go straight forward, till you come -to a castle, before which lie a whole troop of soldiers fast asleep and -snoring: take no notice of them, but go into the castle and pass on and -on till you come to a room, where the golden bird sits in a wooden cage; -close by it stands a beautiful golden cage; but do not try to take the -bird out of the shabby cage and put it into the handsome one, otherwise -you will repent it.' Then the fox stretched out his tail again, and the -young man sat himself down, and away they went over stock and stone till -their hair whistled in the wind. - -Before the castle gate all was as the fox had said: so the son went in -and found the chamber where the golden bird hung in a wooden cage, and -below stood the golden cage, and the three golden apples that had been -lost were lying close by it. Then thought he to himself, 'It will be a -very droll thing to bring away such a fine bird in this shabby cage'; so -he opened the door and took hold of it and put it into the golden cage. -But the bird set up such a loud scream that all the soldiers awoke, and -they took him prisoner and carried him before the king. The next morning -the court sat to judge him; and when all was heard, it sentenced him to -die, unless he should bring the king the golden horse which could run as -swiftly as the wind; and if he did this, he was to have the golden bird -given him for his own. - -So he set out once more on his journey, sighing, and in great despair, -when on a sudden his friend the fox met him, and said, 'You see now -what has happened on account of your not listening to my counsel. I will -still, however, tell you how to find the golden horse, if you will do as -I bid you. You must go straight on till you come to the castle where the -horse stands in his stall: by his side will lie the groom fast asleep -and snoring: take away the horse quietly, but be sure to put the old -leathern saddle upon him, and not the golden one that is close by it.' -Then the son sat down on the fox's tail, and away they went over stock -and stone till their hair whistled in the wind. - -All went right, and the groom lay snoring with his hand upon the golden -saddle. But when the son looked at the horse, he thought it a great pity -to put the leathern saddle upon it. 'I will give him the good one,' -said he; 'I am sure he deserves it.' As he took up the golden saddle the -groom awoke and cried out so loud, that all the guards ran in and took -him prisoner, and in the morning he was again brought before the court -to be judged, and was sentenced to die. But it was agreed, that, if he -could bring thither the beautiful princess, he should live, and have the -bird and the horse given him for his own. - -Then he went his way very sorrowful; but the old fox came and said, 'Why -did not you listen to me? If you had, you would have carried away -both the bird and the horse; yet will I once more give you counsel. Go -straight on, and in the evening you will arrive at a castle. At twelve -o'clock at night the princess goes to the bathing-house: go up to her -and give her a kiss, and she will let you lead her away; but take care -you do not suffer her to go and take leave of her father and mother.' -Then the fox stretched out his tail, and so away they went over stock -and stone till their hair whistled again. - -As they came to the castle, all was as the fox had said, and at twelve -o'clock the young man met the princess going to the bath and gave her the -kiss, and she agreed to run away with him, but begged with many tears -that he would let her take leave of her father. At first he refused, -but she wept still more and more, and fell at his feet, till at last -he consented; but the moment she came to her father's house the guards -awoke and he was taken prisoner again. - -Then he was brought before the king, and the king said, 'You shall never -have my daughter unless in eight days you dig away the hill that stops -the view from my window.' Now this hill was so big that the whole world -could not take it away: and when he had worked for seven days, and had -done very little, the fox came and said. 'Lie down and go to sleep; I -will work for you.' And in the morning he awoke and the hill was gone; -so he went merrily to the king, and told him that now that it was -removed he must give him the princess. - -Then the king was obliged to keep his word, and away went the young man -and the princess; and the fox came and said to him, 'We will have all -three, the princess, the horse, and the bird.' 'Ah!' said the young man, -'that would be a great thing, but how can you contrive it?' - -'If you will only listen,' said the fox, 'it can be done. When you come -to the king, and he asks for the beautiful princess, you must say, "Here -she is!" Then he will be very joyful; and you will mount the golden -horse that they are to give you, and put out your hand to take leave of -them; but shake hands with the princess last. Then lift her quickly on -to the horse behind you; clap your spurs to his side, and gallop away as -fast as you can.' - -All went right: then the fox said, 'When you come to the castle where -the bird is, I will stay with the princess at the door, and you will -ride in and speak to the king; and when he sees that it is the right -horse, he will bring out the bird; but you must sit still, and say that -you want to look at it, to see whether it is the true golden bird; and -when you get it into your hand, ride away.' - -This, too, happened as the fox said; they carried off the bird, the -princess mounted again, and they rode on to a great wood. Then the fox -came, and said, 'Pray kill me, and cut off my head and my feet.' But the -young man refused to do it: so the fox said, 'I will at any rate give -you good counsel: beware of two things; ransom no one from the gallows, -and sit down by the side of no river.' Then away he went. 'Well,' -thought the young man, 'it is no hard matter to keep that advice.' - -He rode on with the princess, till at last he came to the village where -he had left his two brothers. And there he heard a great noise and -uproar; and when he asked what was the matter, the people said, 'Two men -are going to be hanged.' As he came nearer, he saw that the two men were -his brothers, who had turned robbers; so he said, 'Cannot they in any -way be saved?' But the people said 'No,' unless he would bestow all his -money upon the rascals and buy their liberty. Then he did not stay to -think about the matter, but paid what was asked, and his brothers were -given up, and went on with him towards their home. - -And as they came to the wood where the fox first met them, it was so -cool and pleasant that the two brothers said, 'Let us sit down by the -side of the river, and rest a while, to eat and drink.' So he said, -'Yes,' and forgot the fox's counsel, and sat down on the side of the -river; and while he suspected nothing, they came behind, and threw him -down the bank, and took the princess, the horse, and the bird, and went -home to the king their master, and said. 'All this have we won by our -labour.' Then there was great rejoicing made; but the horse would not -eat, the bird would not sing, and the princess wept. - -The youngest son fell to the bottom of the river's bed: luckily it was -nearly dry, but his bones were almost broken, and the bank was so steep -that he could find no way to get out. Then the old fox came once more, -and scolded him for not following his advice; otherwise no evil would -have befallen him: 'Yet,' said he, 'I cannot leave you here, so lay hold -of my tail and hold fast.' Then he pulled him out of the river, and said -to him, as he got upon the bank, 'Your brothers have set watch to kill -you, if they find you in the kingdom.' So he dressed himself as a poor -man, and came secretly to the king's court, and was scarcely within the -doors when the horse began to eat, and the bird to sing, and the princess -left off weeping. Then he went to the king, and told him all his -brothers' roguery; and they were seized and punished, and he had the -princess given to him again; and after the king's death he was heir to -his kingdom. - -A long while after, he went to walk one day in the wood, and the old fox -met him, and besought him with tears in his eyes to kill him, and cut -off his head and feet. And at last he did so, and in a moment the -fox was changed into a man, and turned out to be the brother of the -princess, who had been lost a great many many years. - - - - -HANS IN LUCK - -Some men are born to good luck: all they do or try to do comes -right--all that falls to them is so much gain--all their geese are -swans--all their cards are trumps--toss them which way you will, they -will always, like poor puss, alight upon their legs, and only move on so -much the faster. The world may very likely not always think of them as -they think of themselves, but what care they for the world? what can it -know about the matter? - -One of these lucky beings was neighbour Hans. Seven long years he had -worked hard for his master. At last he said, 'Master, my time is up; I -must go home and see my poor mother once more: so pray pay me my wages -and let me go.' And the master said, 'You have been a faithful and good -servant, Hans, so your pay shall be handsome.' Then he gave him a lump -of silver as big as his head. - -Hans took out his pocket-handkerchief, put the piece of silver into it, -threw it over his shoulder, and jogged off on his road homewards. As he -went lazily on, dragging one foot after another, a man came in sight, -trotting gaily along on a capital horse. 'Ah!' said Hans aloud, 'what a -fine thing it is to ride on horseback! There he sits as easy and happy -as if he was at home, in the chair by his fireside; he trips against no -stones, saves shoe-leather, and gets on he hardly knows how.' Hans did -not speak so softly but the horseman heard it all, and said, 'Well, -friend, why do you go on foot then?' 'Ah!' said he, 'I have this load to -carry: to be sure it is silver, but it is so heavy that I can't hold up -my head, and you must know it hurts my shoulder sadly.' 'What do you say -of making an exchange?' said the horseman. 'I will give you my horse, -and you shall give me the silver; which will save you a great deal of -trouble in carrying such a heavy load about with you.' 'With all my -heart,' said Hans: 'but as you are so kind to me, I must tell you one -thing--you will have a weary task to draw that silver about with you.' -However, the horseman got off, took the silver, helped Hans up, gave him -the bridle into one hand and the whip into the other, and said, 'When -you want to go very fast, smack your lips loudly together, and cry -"Jip!"' - -Hans was delighted as he sat on the horse, drew himself up, squared his -elbows, turned out his toes, cracked his whip, and rode merrily off, one -minute whistling a merry tune, and another singing, - - 'No care and no sorrow, - A fig for the morrow! - We'll laugh and be merry, - Sing neigh down derry!' - -After a time he thought he should like to go a little faster, so he -smacked his lips and cried 'Jip!' Away went the horse full gallop; and -before Hans knew what he was about, he was thrown off, and lay on his -back by the road-side. His horse would have ran off, if a shepherd who -was coming by, driving a cow, had not stopped it. Hans soon came to -himself, and got upon his legs again, sadly vexed, and said to the -shepherd, 'This riding is no joke, when a man has the luck to get upon -a beast like this that stumbles and flings him off as if it would break -his neck. However, I'm off now once for all: I like your cow now a great -deal better than this smart beast that played me this trick, and has -spoiled my best coat, you see, in this puddle; which, by the by, smells -not very like a nosegay. One can walk along at one's leisure behind that -cow--keep good company, and have milk, butter, and cheese, every day, -into the bargain. What would I give to have such a prize!' 'Well,' said -the shepherd, 'if you are so fond of her, I will change my cow for your -horse; I like to do good to my neighbours, even though I lose by it -myself.' 'Done!' said Hans, merrily. 'What a noble heart that good man -has!' thought he. Then the shepherd jumped upon the horse, wished Hans -and the cow good morning, and away he rode. - -Hans brushed his coat, wiped his face and hands, rested a while, and -then drove off his cow quietly, and thought his bargain a very lucky -one. 'If I have only a piece of bread (and I certainly shall always be -able to get that), I can, whenever I like, eat my butter and cheese with -it; and when I am thirsty I can milk my cow and drink the milk: and what -can I wish for more?' When he came to an inn, he halted, ate up all his -bread, and gave away his last penny for a glass of beer. When he had -rested himself he set off again, driving his cow towards his mother's -village. But the heat grew greater as soon as noon came on, till at -last, as he found himself on a wide heath that would take him more than -an hour to cross, he began to be so hot and parched that his tongue -clave to the roof of his mouth. 'I can find a cure for this,' thought -he; 'now I will milk my cow and quench my thirst': so he tied her to the -stump of a tree, and held his leathern cap to milk into; but not a drop -was to be had. Who would have thought that this cow, which was to bring -him milk and butter and cheese, was all that time utterly dry? Hans had -not thought of looking to that. - -While he was trying his luck in milking, and managing the matter very -clumsily, the uneasy beast began to think him very troublesome; and at -last gave him such a kick on the head as knocked him down; and there he -lay a long while senseless. Luckily a butcher soon came by, driving a -pig in a wheelbarrow. 'What is the matter with you, my man?' said the -butcher, as he helped him up. Hans told him what had happened, how he -was dry, and wanted to milk his cow, but found the cow was dry too. Then -the butcher gave him a flask of ale, saying, 'There, drink and refresh -yourself; your cow will give you no milk: don't you see she is an old -beast, good for nothing but the slaughter-house?' 'Alas, alas!' said -Hans, 'who would have thought it? What a shame to take my horse, and -give me only a dry cow! If I kill her, what will she be good for? I hate -cow-beef; it is not tender enough for me. If it were a pig now--like -that fat gentleman you are driving along at his ease--one could do -something with it; it would at any rate make sausages.' 'Well,' said -the butcher, 'I don't like to say no, when one is asked to do a kind, -neighbourly thing. To please you I will change, and give you my fine fat -pig for the cow.' 'Heaven reward you for your kindness and self-denial!' -said Hans, as he gave the butcher the cow; and taking the pig off the -wheel-barrow, drove it away, holding it by the string that was tied to -its leg. - -So on he jogged, and all seemed now to go right with him: he had met -with some misfortunes, to be sure; but he was now well repaid for all. -How could it be otherwise with such a travelling companion as he had at -last got? - -The next man he met was a countryman carrying a fine white goose. The -countryman stopped to ask what was o'clock; this led to further chat; -and Hans told him all his luck, how he had so many good bargains, and -how all the world went gay and smiling with him. The countryman then -began to tell his tale, and said he was going to take the goose to a -christening. 'Feel,' said he, 'how heavy it is, and yet it is only eight -weeks old. Whoever roasts and eats it will find plenty of fat upon it, -it has lived so well!' 'You're right,' said Hans, as he weighed it in -his hand; 'but if you talk of fat, my pig is no trifle.' Meantime the -countryman began to look grave, and shook his head. 'Hark ye!' said he, -'my worthy friend, you seem a good sort of fellow, so I can't help doing -you a kind turn. Your pig may get you into a scrape. In the village I -just came from, the squire has had a pig stolen out of his sty. I was -dreadfully afraid when I saw you that you had got the squire's pig. If -you have, and they catch you, it will be a bad job for you. The least -they will do will be to throw you into the horse-pond. Can you swim?' - -Poor Hans was sadly frightened. 'Good man,' cried he, 'pray get me out -of this scrape. I know nothing of where the pig was either bred or born; -but he may have been the squire's for aught I can tell: you know this -country better than I do, take my pig and give me the goose.' 'I ought -to have something into the bargain,' said the countryman; 'give a fat -goose for a pig, indeed! 'Tis not everyone would do so much for you as -that. However, I will not be hard upon you, as you are in trouble.' Then -he took the string in his hand, and drove off the pig by a side path; -while Hans went on the way homewards free from care. 'After all,' -thought he, 'that chap is pretty well taken in. I don't care whose pig -it is, but wherever it came from it has been a very good friend to me. I -have much the best of the bargain. First there will be a capital roast; -then the fat will find me in goose-grease for six months; and then there -are all the beautiful white feathers. I will put them into my pillow, -and then I am sure I shall sleep soundly without rocking. How happy my -mother will be! Talk of a pig, indeed! Give me a fine fat goose.' - -As he came to the next village, he saw a scissor-grinder with his wheel, -working and singing, - - 'O'er hill and o'er dale - So happy I roam, - Work light and live well, - All the world is my home; - Then who so blythe, so merry as I?' - -Hans stood looking on for a while, and at last said, 'You must be well -off, master grinder! you seem so happy at your work.' 'Yes,' said the -other, 'mine is a golden trade; a good grinder never puts his hand -into his pocket without finding money in it--but where did you get that -beautiful goose?' 'I did not buy it, I gave a pig for it.' 'And where -did you get the pig?' 'I gave a cow for it.' 'And the cow?' 'I gave a -horse for it.' 'And the horse?' 'I gave a lump of silver as big as my -head for it.' 'And the silver?' 'Oh! I worked hard for that seven long -years.' 'You have thriven well in the world hitherto,' said the grinder, -'now if you could find money in your pocket whenever you put your hand -in it, your fortune would be made.' 'Very true: but how is that to be -managed?' 'How? Why, you must turn grinder like myself,' said the other; -'you only want a grindstone; the rest will come of itself. Here is one -that is but little the worse for wear: I would not ask more than the -value of your goose for it--will you buy?' 'How can you ask?' said -Hans; 'I should be the happiest man in the world, if I could have money -whenever I put my hand in my pocket: what could I want more? there's -the goose.' 'Now,' said the grinder, as he gave him a common rough stone -that lay by his side, 'this is a most capital stone; do but work it well -enough, and you can make an old nail cut with it.' - -Hans took the stone, and went his way with a light heart: his eyes -sparkled for joy, and he said to himself, 'Surely I must have been born -in a lucky hour; everything I could want or wish for comes of itself. -People are so kind; they seem really to think I do them a favour in -letting them make me rich, and giving me good bargains.' - -Meantime he began to be tired, and hungry too, for he had given away his -last penny in his joy at getting the cow. - -At last he could go no farther, for the stone tired him sadly: and he -dragged himself to the side of a river, that he might take a drink of -water, and rest a while. So he laid the stone carefully by his side on -the bank: but, as he stooped down to drink, he forgot it, pushed it a -little, and down it rolled, plump into the stream. - -For a while he watched it sinking in the deep clear water; then sprang -up and danced for joy, and again fell upon his knees and thanked Heaven, -with tears in his eyes, for its kindness in taking away his only plague, -the ugly heavy stone. - -'How happy am I!' cried he; 'nobody was ever so lucky as I.' Then up he -got with a light heart, free from all his troubles, and walked on till -he reached his mother's house, and told her how very easy the road to -good luck was. - - - - -JORINDA AND JORINDEL - -There was once an old castle, that stood in the middle of a deep gloomy -wood, and in the castle lived an old fairy. Now this fairy could take -any shape she pleased. All the day long she flew about in the form of -an owl, or crept about the country like a cat; but at night she always -became an old woman again. When any young man came within a hundred -paces of her castle, he became quite fixed, and could not move a step -till she came and set him free; which she would not do till he had given -her his word never to come there again: but when any pretty maiden came -within that space she was changed into a bird, and the fairy put her -into a cage, and hung her up in a chamber in the castle. There were -seven hundred of these cages hanging in the castle, and all with -beautiful birds in them. - -Now there was once a maiden whose name was Jorinda. She was prettier -than all the pretty girls that ever were seen before, and a shepherd -lad, whose name was Jorindel, was very fond of her, and they were soon -to be married. One day they went to walk in the wood, that they might be -alone; and Jorindel said, 'We must take care that we don't go too near -to the fairy's castle.' It was a beautiful evening; the last rays of the -setting sun shone bright through the long stems of the trees upon -the green underwood beneath, and the turtle-doves sang from the tall -birches. - -Jorinda sat down to gaze upon the sun; Jorindel sat by her side; and -both felt sad, they knew not why; but it seemed as if they were to be -parted from one another for ever. They had wandered a long way; and when -they looked to see which way they should go home, they found themselves -at a loss to know what path to take. - -The sun was setting fast, and already half of its circle had sunk behind -the hill: Jorindel on a sudden looked behind him, and saw through the -bushes that they had, without knowing it, sat down close under the old -walls of the castle. Then he shrank for fear, turned pale, and trembled. -Jorinda was just singing, - - 'The ring-dove sang from the willow spray, - Well-a-day! Well-a-day! - He mourn'd for the fate of his darling mate, - Well-a-day!' - -when her song stopped suddenly. Jorindel turned to see the reason, and -beheld his Jorinda changed into a nightingale, so that her song ended -with a mournful _jug, jug_. An owl with fiery eyes flew three times -round them, and three times screamed: - - 'Tu whu! Tu whu! Tu whu!' - -Jorindel could not move; he stood fixed as a stone, and could neither -weep, nor speak, nor stir hand or foot. And now the sun went quite down; -the gloomy night came; the owl flew into a bush; and a moment after the -old fairy came forth pale and meagre, with staring eyes, and a nose and -chin that almost met one another. - -She mumbled something to herself, seized the nightingale, and went away -with it in her hand. Poor Jorindel saw the nightingale was gone--but -what could he do? He could not speak, he could not move from the spot -where he stood. At last the fairy came back and sang with a hoarse -voice: - - 'Till the prisoner is fast, - And her doom is cast, - There stay! Oh, stay! - When the charm is around her, - And the spell has bound her, - Hie away! away!' - -On a sudden Jorindel found himself free. Then he fell on his knees -before the fairy, and prayed her to give him back his dear Jorinda: but -she laughed at him, and said he should never see her again; then she -went her way. - -He prayed, he wept, he sorrowed, but all in vain. 'Alas!' he said, 'what -will become of me?' He could not go back to his own home, so he went to -a strange village, and employed himself in keeping sheep. Many a time -did he walk round and round as near to the hated castle as he dared go, -but all in vain; he heard or saw nothing of Jorinda. - -At last he dreamt one night that he found a beautiful purple flower, -and that in the middle of it lay a costly pearl; and he dreamt that he -plucked the flower, and went with it in his hand into the castle, and -that everything he touched with it was disenchanted, and that there he -found his Jorinda again. - -In the morning when he awoke, he began to search over hill and dale for -this pretty flower; and eight long days he sought for it in vain: but -on the ninth day, early in the morning, he found the beautiful purple -flower; and in the middle of it was a large dewdrop, as big as a costly -pearl. Then he plucked the flower, and set out and travelled day and -night, till he came again to the castle. - -He walked nearer than a hundred paces to it, and yet he did not become -fixed as before, but found that he could go quite close up to the door. -Jorindel was very glad indeed to see this. Then he touched the door with -the flower, and it sprang open; so that he went in through the court, -and listened when he heard so many birds singing. At last he came to the -chamber where the fairy sat, with the seven hundred birds singing in -the seven hundred cages. When she saw Jorindel she was very angry, and -screamed with rage; but she could not come within two yards of him, for -the flower he held in his hand was his safeguard. He looked around at -the birds, but alas! there were many, many nightingales, and how then -should he find out which was his Jorinda? While he was thinking what to -do, he saw the fairy had taken down one of the cages, and was making the -best of her way off through the door. He ran or flew after her, touched -the cage with the flower, and Jorinda stood before him, and threw her -arms round his neck looking as beautiful as ever, as beautiful as when -they walked together in the wood. - -Then he touched all the other birds with the flower, so that they all -took their old forms again; and he took Jorinda home, where they were -married, and lived happily together many years: and so did a good many -other lads, whose maidens had been forced to sing in the old fairy's -cages by themselves, much longer than they liked. - - - - -THE TRAVELLING MUSICIANS - -An honest farmer had once an ass that had been a faithful servant to him -a great many years, but was now growing old and every day more and more -unfit for work. His master therefore was tired of keeping him and -began to think of putting an end to him; but the ass, who saw that some -mischief was in the wind, took himself slyly off, and began his journey -towards the great city, 'For there,' thought he, 'I may turn musician.' - -After he had travelled a little way, he spied a dog lying by the -roadside and panting as if he were tired. 'What makes you pant so, my -friend?' said the ass. 'Alas!' said the dog, 'my master was going to -knock me on the head, because I am old and weak, and can no longer make -myself useful to him in hunting; so I ran away; but what can I do to -earn my livelihood?' 'Hark ye!' said the ass, 'I am going to the great -city to turn musician: suppose you go with me, and try what you can -do in the same way?' The dog said he was willing, and they jogged on -together. - -They had not gone far before they saw a cat sitting in the middle of the -road and making a most rueful face. 'Pray, my good lady,' said the ass, -'what's the matter with you? You look quite out of spirits!' 'Ah, me!' -said the cat, 'how can one be in good spirits when one's life is in -danger? Because I am beginning to grow old, and had rather lie at my -ease by the fire than run about the house after the mice, my mistress -laid hold of me, and was going to drown me; and though I have been lucky -enough to get away from her, I do not know what I am to live upon.' -'Oh,' said the ass, 'by all means go with us to the great city; you are -a good night singer, and may make your fortune as a musician.' The cat -was pleased with the thought, and joined the party. - -Soon afterwards, as they were passing by a farmyard, they saw a cock -perched upon a gate, and screaming out with all his might and main. -'Bravo!' said the ass; 'upon my word, you make a famous noise; pray what -is all this about?' 'Why,' said the cock, 'I was just now saying that -we should have fine weather for our washing-day, and yet my mistress and -the cook don't thank me for my pains, but threaten to cut off my -head tomorrow, and make broth of me for the guests that are coming -on Sunday!' 'Heaven forbid!' said the ass, 'come with us Master -Chanticleer; it will be better, at any rate, than staying here to have -your head cut off! Besides, who knows? If we care to sing in tune, we -may get up some kind of a concert; so come along with us.' 'With all my -heart,' said the cock: so they all four went on jollily together. - -They could not, however, reach the great city the first day; so when -night came on, they went into a wood to sleep. The ass and the dog laid -themselves down under a great tree, and the cat climbed up into the -branches; while the cock, thinking that the higher he sat the safer he -should be, flew up to the very top of the tree, and then, according to -his custom, before he went to sleep, looked out on all sides of him to -see that everything was well. In doing this, he saw afar off something -bright and shining and calling to his companions said, 'There must be a -house no great way off, for I see a light.' 'If that be the case,' said -the ass, 'we had better change our quarters, for our lodging is not the -best in the world!' 'Besides,' added the dog, 'I should not be the -worse for a bone or two, or a bit of meat.' So they walked off together -towards the spot where Chanticleer had seen the light, and as they drew -near it became larger and brighter, till they at last came close to a -house in which a gang of robbers lived. - -The ass, being the tallest of the company, marched up to the window and -peeped in. 'Well, Donkey,' said Chanticleer, 'what do you see?' 'What -do I see?' replied the ass. 'Why, I see a table spread with all kinds of -good things, and robbers sitting round it making merry.' 'That would -be a noble lodging for us,' said the cock. 'Yes,' said the ass, 'if we -could only get in'; so they consulted together how they should contrive -to get the robbers out; and at last they hit upon a plan. The ass placed -himself upright on his hind legs, with his forefeet resting against the -window; the dog got upon his back; the cat scrambled up to the dog's -shoulders, and the cock flew up and sat upon the cat's head. When -all was ready a signal was given, and they began their music. The ass -brayed, the dog barked, the cat mewed, and the cock screamed; and then -they all broke through the window at once, and came tumbling into -the room, amongst the broken glass, with a most hideous clatter! The -robbers, who had been not a little frightened by the opening concert, -had now no doubt that some frightful hobgoblin had broken in upon them, -and scampered away as fast as they could. - -The coast once clear, our travellers soon sat down and dispatched what -the robbers had left, with as much eagerness as if they had not expected -to eat again for a month. As soon as they had satisfied themselves, they -put out the lights, and each once more sought out a resting-place to -his own liking. The donkey laid himself down upon a heap of straw in -the yard, the dog stretched himself upon a mat behind the door, the -cat rolled herself up on the hearth before the warm ashes, and the -cock perched upon a beam on the top of the house; and, as they were all -rather tired with their journey, they soon fell asleep. - -But about midnight, when the robbers saw from afar that the lights were -out and that all seemed quiet, they began to think that they had been in -too great a hurry to run away; and one of them, who was bolder than -the rest, went to see what was going on. Finding everything still, he -marched into the kitchen, and groped about till he found a match in -order to light a candle; and then, espying the glittering fiery eyes of -the cat, he mistook them for live coals, and held the match to them to -light it. But the cat, not understanding this joke, sprang at his face, -and spat, and scratched at him. This frightened him dreadfully, and away -he ran to the back door; but there the dog jumped up and bit him in the -leg; and as he was crossing over the yard the ass kicked him; and the -cock, who had been awakened by the noise, crowed with all his might. At -this the robber ran back as fast as he could to his comrades, and told -the captain how a horrid witch had got into the house, and had spat at -him and scratched his face with her long bony fingers; how a man with a -knife in his hand had hidden himself behind the door, and stabbed him -in the leg; how a black monster stood in the yard and struck him with a -club, and how the devil had sat upon the top of the house and cried out, -'Throw the rascal up here!' After this the robbers never dared to go -back to the house; but the musicians were so pleased with their quarters -that they took up their abode there; and there they are, I dare say, at -this very day. - - - - -OLD SULTAN - -A shepherd had a faithful dog, called Sultan, who was grown very old, -and had lost all his teeth. And one day when the shepherd and his wife -were standing together before the house the shepherd said, 'I will shoot -old Sultan tomorrow morning, for he is of no use now.' But his wife -said, 'Pray let the poor faithful creature live; he has served us well a -great many years, and we ought to give him a livelihood for the rest of -his days.' 'But what can we do with him?' said the shepherd, 'he has not -a tooth in his head, and the thieves don't care for him at all; to -be sure he has served us, but then he did it to earn his livelihood; -tomorrow shall be his last day, depend upon it.' - -Poor Sultan, who was lying close by them, heard all that the shepherd -and his wife said to one another, and was very much frightened to think -tomorrow would be his last day; so in the evening he went to his good -friend the wolf, who lived in the wood, and told him all his sorrows, -and how his master meant to kill him in the morning. 'Make yourself -easy,' said the wolf, 'I will give you some good advice. Your master, -you know, goes out every morning very early with his wife into the -field; and they take their little child with them, and lay it down -behind the hedge in the shade while they are at work. Now do you lie -down close by the child, and pretend to be watching it, and I will come -out of the wood and run away with it; you must run after me as fast as -you can, and I will let it drop; then you may carry it back, and they -will think you have saved their child, and will be so thankful to you -that they will take care of you as long as you live.' The dog liked this -plan very well; and accordingly so it was managed. The wolf ran with the -child a little way; the shepherd and his wife screamed out; but Sultan -soon overtook him, and carried the poor little thing back to his master -and mistress. Then the shepherd patted him on the head, and said, 'Old -Sultan has saved our child from the wolf, and therefore he shall live -and be well taken care of, and have plenty to eat. Wife, go home, and -give him a good dinner, and let him have my old cushion to sleep on -as long as he lives.' So from this time forward Sultan had all that he -could wish for. - -Soon afterwards the wolf came and wished him joy, and said, 'Now, my -good fellow, you must tell no tales, but turn your head the other way -when I want to taste one of the old shepherd's fine fat sheep.' 'No,' -said the Sultan; 'I will be true to my master.' However, the wolf -thought he was in joke, and came one night to get a dainty morsel. But -Sultan had told his master what the wolf meant to do; so he laid wait -for him behind the barn door, and when the wolf was busy looking out for -a good fat sheep, he had a stout cudgel laid about his back, that combed -his locks for him finely. - -Then the wolf was very angry, and called Sultan 'an old rogue,' and -swore he would have his revenge. So the next morning the wolf sent the -boar to challenge Sultan to come into the wood to fight the matter. Now -Sultan had nobody he could ask to be his second but the shepherd's old -three-legged cat; so he took her with him, and as the poor thing limped -along with some trouble, she stuck up her tail straight in the air. - -The wolf and the wild boar were first on the ground; and when they -espied their enemies coming, and saw the cat's long tail standing -straight in the air, they thought she was carrying a sword for Sultan to -fight with; and every time she limped, they thought she was picking up -a stone to throw at them; so they said they should not like this way of -fighting, and the boar lay down behind a bush, and the wolf jumped -up into a tree. Sultan and the cat soon came up, and looked about and -wondered that no one was there. The boar, however, had not quite hidden -himself, for his ears stuck out of the bush; and when he shook one of -them a little, the cat, seeing something move, and thinking it was a -mouse, sprang upon it, and bit and scratched it, so that the boar jumped -up and grunted, and ran away, roaring out, 'Look up in the tree, there -sits the one who is to blame.' So they looked up, and espied the wolf -sitting amongst the branches; and they called him a cowardly rascal, -and would not suffer him to come down till he was heartily ashamed of -himself, and had promised to be good friends again with old Sultan. - - - - -THE STRAW, THE COAL, AND THE BEAN - -In a village dwelt a poor old woman, who had gathered together a dish -of beans and wanted to cook them. So she made a fire on her hearth, and -that it might burn the quicker, she lighted it with a handful of straw. -When she was emptying the beans into the pan, one dropped without her -observing it, and lay on the ground beside a straw, and soon afterwards -a burning coal from the fire leapt down to the two. Then the straw -began and said: 'Dear friends, from whence do you come here?' The coal -replied: 'I fortunately sprang out of the fire, and if I had not escaped -by sheer force, my death would have been certain,--I should have been -burnt to ashes.' The bean said: 'I too have escaped with a whole skin, -but if the old woman had got me into the pan, I should have been made -into broth without any mercy, like my comrades.' 'And would a better -fate have fallen to my lot?' said the straw. 'The old woman has -destroyed all my brethren in fire and smoke; she seized sixty of them at -once, and took their lives. I luckily slipped through her fingers.' - -'But what are we to do now?' said the coal. - -'I think,' answered the bean, 'that as we have so fortunately escaped -death, we should keep together like good companions, and lest a new -mischance should overtake us here, we should go away together, and -repair to a foreign country.' - -The proposition pleased the two others, and they set out on their way -together. Soon, however, they came to a little brook, and as there was -no bridge or foot-plank, they did not know how they were to get over -it. The straw hit on a good idea, and said: 'I will lay myself straight -across, and then you can walk over on me as on a bridge.' The straw -therefore stretched itself from one bank to the other, and the coal, -who was of an impetuous disposition, tripped quite boldly on to the -newly-built bridge. But when she had reached the middle, and heard the -water rushing beneath her, she was after all, afraid, and stood still, -and ventured no farther. The straw, however, began to burn, broke in -two pieces, and fell into the stream. The coal slipped after her, hissed -when she got into the water, and breathed her last. The bean, who had -prudently stayed behind on the shore, could not but laugh at the event, -was unable to stop, and laughed so heartily that she burst. It would -have been all over with her, likewise, if, by good fortune, a tailor who -was travelling in search of work, had not sat down to rest by the brook. -As he had a compassionate heart he pulled out his needle and thread, -and sewed her together. The bean thanked him most prettily, but as the -tailor used black thread, all beans since then have a black seam. - - - - -BRIAR ROSE - -A king and queen once upon a time reigned in a country a great way off, -where there were in those days fairies. Now this king and queen had -plenty of money, and plenty of fine clothes to wear, and plenty of -good things to eat and drink, and a coach to ride out in every day: but -though they had been married many years they had no children, and this -grieved them very much indeed. But one day as the queen was walking -by the side of the river, at the bottom of the garden, she saw a poor -little fish, that had thrown itself out of the water, and lay gasping -and nearly dead on the bank. Then the queen took pity on the little -fish, and threw it back again into the river; and before it swam away -it lifted its head out of the water and said, 'I know what your wish is, -and it shall be fulfilled, in return for your kindness to me--you will -soon have a daughter.' What the little fish had foretold soon came to -pass; and the queen had a little girl, so very beautiful that the king -could not cease looking on it for joy, and said he would hold a great -feast and make merry, and show the child to all the land. So he asked -his kinsmen, and nobles, and friends, and neighbours. But the queen -said, 'I will have the fairies also, that they might be kind and good -to our little daughter.' Now there were thirteen fairies in the kingdom; -but as the king and queen had only twelve golden dishes for them to eat -out of, they were forced to leave one of the fairies without asking her. -So twelve fairies came, each with a high red cap on her head, and red -shoes with high heels on her feet, and a long white wand in her hand: -and after the feast was over they gathered round in a ring and gave all -their best gifts to the little princess. One gave her goodness, another -beauty, another riches, and so on till she had all that was good in the -world. - -Just as eleven of them had done blessing her, a great noise was heard in -the courtyard, and word was brought that the thirteenth fairy was -come, with a black cap on her head, and black shoes on her feet, and a -broomstick in her hand: and presently up she came into the dining-hall. -Now, as she had not been asked to the feast she was very angry, and -scolded the king and queen very much, and set to work to take her -revenge. So she cried out, 'The king's daughter shall, in her fifteenth -year, be wounded by a spindle, and fall down dead.' Then the twelfth of -the friendly fairies, who had not yet given her gift, came forward, and -said that the evil wish must be fulfilled, but that she could soften its -mischief; so her gift was, that the king's daughter, when the spindle -wounded her, should not really die, but should only fall asleep for a -hundred years. - -However, the king hoped still to save his dear child altogether from -the threatened evil; so he ordered that all the spindles in the kingdom -should be bought up and burnt. But all the gifts of the first eleven -fairies were in the meantime fulfilled; for the princess was so -beautiful, and well behaved, and good, and wise, that everyone who knew -her loved her. - -It happened that, on the very day she was fifteen years old, the king -and queen were not at home, and she was left alone in the palace. So she -roved about by herself, and looked at all the rooms and chambers, till -at last she came to an old tower, to which there was a narrow staircase -ending with a little door. In the door there was a golden key, and when -she turned it the door sprang open, and there sat an old lady spinning -away very busily. 'Why, how now, good mother,' said the princess; 'what -are you doing there?' 'Spinning,' said the old lady, and nodded her -head, humming a tune, while buzz! went the wheel. 'How prettily that -little thing turns round!' said the princess, and took the spindle -and began to try and spin. But scarcely had she touched it, before the -fairy's prophecy was fulfilled; the spindle wounded her, and she fell -down lifeless on the ground. - -However, she was not dead, but had only fallen into a deep sleep; and -the king and the queen, who had just come home, and all their court, -fell asleep too; and the horses slept in the stables, and the dogs in -the court, the pigeons on the house-top, and the very flies slept upon -the walls. Even the fire on the hearth left off blazing, and went to -sleep; the jack stopped, and the spit that was turning about with a -goose upon it for the king's dinner stood still; and the cook, who was -at that moment pulling the kitchen-boy by the hair to give him a box -on the ear for something he had done amiss, let him go, and both fell -asleep; the butler, who was slyly tasting the ale, fell asleep with the -jug at his lips: and thus everything stood still, and slept soundly. - -A large hedge of thorns soon grew round the palace, and every year it -became higher and thicker; till at last the old palace was surrounded -and hidden, so that not even the roof or the chimneys could be seen. But -there went a report through all the land of the beautiful sleeping Briar -Rose (for so the king's daughter was called): so that, from time to -time, several kings' sons came, and tried to break through the thicket -into the palace. This, however, none of them could ever do; for the -thorns and bushes laid hold of them, as it were with hands; and there -they stuck fast, and died wretchedly. - -After many, many years there came a king's son into that land: and an -old man told him the story of the thicket of thorns; and how a beautiful -palace stood behind it, and how a wonderful princess, called Briar Rose, -lay in it asleep, with all her court. He told, too, how he had heard -from his grandfather that many, many princes had come, and had tried to -break through the thicket, but that they had all stuck fast in it, and -died. Then the young prince said, 'All this shall not frighten me; I -will go and see this Briar Rose.' The old man tried to hinder him, but -he was bent upon going. - -Now that very day the hundred years were ended; and as the prince came -to the thicket he saw nothing but beautiful flowering shrubs, through -which he went with ease, and they shut in after him as thick as ever. -Then he came at last to the palace, and there in the court lay the dogs -asleep; and the horses were standing in the stables; and on the roof sat -the pigeons fast asleep, with their heads under their wings. And when he -came into the palace, the flies were sleeping on the walls; the spit -was standing still; the butler had the jug of ale at his lips, going -to drink a draught; the maid sat with a fowl in her lap ready to be -plucked; and the cook in the kitchen was still holding up her hand, as -if she was going to beat the boy. - -Then he went on still farther, and all was so still that he could hear -every breath he drew; till at last he came to the old tower, and opened -the door of the little room in which Briar Rose was; and there she lay, -fast asleep on a couch by the window. She looked so beautiful that he -could not take his eyes off her, so he stooped down and gave her a kiss. -But the moment he kissed her she opened her eyes and awoke, and smiled -upon him; and they went out together; and soon the king and queen also -awoke, and all the court, and gazed on each other with great wonder. -And the horses shook themselves, and the dogs jumped up and barked; the -pigeons took their heads from under their wings, and looked about and -flew into the fields; the flies on the walls buzzed again; the fire in -the kitchen blazed up; round went the jack, and round went the spit, -with the goose for the king's dinner upon it; the butler finished his -draught of ale; the maid went on plucking the fowl; and the cook gave -the boy the box on his ear. - -And then the prince and Briar Rose were married, and the wedding feast -was given; and they lived happily together all their lives long. - - - - -THE DOG AND THE SPARROW - -A shepherd's dog had a master who took no care of him, but often let him -suffer the greatest hunger. At last he could bear it no longer; so he -took to his heels, and off he ran in a very sad and sorrowful mood. -On the road he met a sparrow that said to him, 'Why are you so sad, -my friend?' 'Because,' said the dog, 'I am very very hungry, and have -nothing to eat.' 'If that be all,' answered the sparrow, 'come with me -into the next town, and I will soon find you plenty of food.' So on they -went together into the town: and as they passed by a butcher's shop, -the sparrow said to the dog, 'Stand there a little while till I peck you -down a piece of meat.' So the sparrow perched upon the shelf: and having -first looked carefully about her to see if anyone was watching her, she -pecked and scratched at a steak that lay upon the edge of the shelf, -till at last down it fell. Then the dog snapped it up, and scrambled -away with it into a corner, where he soon ate it all up. 'Well,' said -the sparrow, 'you shall have some more if you will; so come with me to -the next shop, and I will peck you down another steak.' When the dog had -eaten this too, the sparrow said to him, 'Well, my good friend, have you -had enough now?' 'I have had plenty of meat,' answered he, 'but I should -like to have a piece of bread to eat after it.' 'Come with me then,' -said the sparrow, 'and you shall soon have that too.' So she took him -to a baker's shop, and pecked at two rolls that lay in the window, till -they fell down: and as the dog still wished for more, she took him to -another shop and pecked down some more for him. When that was eaten, the -sparrow asked him whether he had had enough now. 'Yes,' said he; 'and -now let us take a walk a little way out of the town.' So they both went -out upon the high road; but as the weather was warm, they had not gone -far before the dog said, 'I am very much tired--I should like to take a -nap.' 'Very well,' answered the sparrow, 'do so, and in the meantime -I will perch upon that bush.' So the dog stretched himself out on the -road, and fell fast asleep. Whilst he slept, there came by a carter with -a cart drawn by three horses, and loaded with two casks of wine. The -sparrow, seeing that the carter did not turn out of the way, but would -go on in the track in which the dog lay, so as to drive over him, called -out, 'Stop! stop! Mr Carter, or it shall be the worse for you.' But the -carter, grumbling to himself, 'You make it the worse for me, indeed! -what can you do?' cracked his whip, and drove his cart over the poor -dog, so that the wheels crushed him to death. 'There,' cried the -sparrow, 'thou cruel villain, thou hast killed my friend the dog. Now -mind what I say. This deed of thine shall cost thee all thou art worth.' -'Do your worst, and welcome,' said the brute, 'what harm can you do me?' -and passed on. But the sparrow crept under the tilt of the cart, and -pecked at the bung of one of the casks till she loosened it; and then -all the wine ran out, without the carter seeing it. At last he looked -round, and saw that the cart was dripping, and the cask quite empty. -'What an unlucky wretch I am!' cried he. 'Not wretch enough yet!' said -the sparrow, as she alighted upon the head of one of the horses, and -pecked at him till he reared up and kicked. When the carter saw this, -he drew out his hatchet and aimed a blow at the sparrow, meaning to kill -her; but she flew away, and the blow fell upon the poor horse's head -with such force, that he fell down dead. 'Unlucky wretch that I am!' -cried he. 'Not wretch enough yet!' said the sparrow. And as the carter -went on with the other two horses, she again crept under the tilt of the -cart, and pecked out the bung of the second cask, so that all the wine -ran out. When the carter saw this, he again cried out, 'Miserable wretch -that I am!' But the sparrow answered, 'Not wretch enough yet!' and -perched on the head of the second horse, and pecked at him too. The -carter ran up and struck at her again with his hatchet; but away she -flew, and the blow fell upon the second horse and killed him on the -spot. 'Unlucky wretch that I am!' said he. 'Not wretch enough yet!' said -the sparrow; and perching upon the third horse, she began to peck him -too. The carter was mad with fury; and without looking about him, or -caring what he was about, struck again at the sparrow; but killed his -third horse as he done the other two. 'Alas! miserable wretch that I -am!' cried he. 'Not wretch enough yet!' answered the sparrow as she flew -away; 'now will I plague and punish thee at thy own house.' The -carter was forced at last to leave his cart behind him, and to go home -overflowing with rage and vexation. 'Alas!' said he to his wife, 'what -ill luck has befallen me!--my wine is all spilt, and my horses all three -dead.' 'Alas! husband,' replied she, 'and a wicked bird has come into -the house, and has brought with her all the birds in the world, I am -sure, and they have fallen upon our corn in the loft, and are eating it -up at such a rate!' Away ran the husband upstairs, and saw thousands of -birds sitting upon the floor eating up his corn, with the sparrow in the -midst of them. 'Unlucky wretch that I am!' cried the carter; for he saw -that the corn was almost all gone. 'Not wretch enough yet!' said the -sparrow; 'thy cruelty shall cost thee thy life yet!' and away she flew. - -The carter seeing that he had thus lost all that he had, went down -into his kitchen; and was still not sorry for what he had done, but sat -himself angrily and sulkily in the chimney corner. But the sparrow sat -on the outside of the window, and cried 'Carter! thy cruelty shall cost -thee thy life!' With that he jumped up in a rage, seized his hatchet, -and threw it at the sparrow; but it missed her, and only broke the -window. The sparrow now hopped in, perched upon the window-seat, and -cried, 'Carter! it shall cost thee thy life!' Then he became mad and -blind with rage, and struck the window-seat with such force that he -cleft it in two: and as the sparrow flew from place to place, the carter -and his wife were so furious, that they broke all their furniture, -glasses, chairs, benches, the table, and at last the walls, without -touching the bird at all. In the end, however, they caught her: and the -wife said, 'Shall I kill her at once?' 'No,' cried he, 'that is letting -her off too easily: she shall die a much more cruel death; I will eat -her.' But the sparrow began to flutter about, and stretch out her neck -and cried, 'Carter! it shall cost thee thy life yet!' With that he -could wait no longer: so he gave his wife the hatchet, and cried, 'Wife, -strike at the bird and kill her in my hand.' And the wife struck; but -she missed her aim, and hit her husband on the head so that he fell down -dead, and the sparrow flew quietly home to her nest. - - - - -THE TWELVE DANCING PRINCESSES - -There was a king who had twelve beautiful daughters. They slept in -twelve beds all in one room; and when they went to bed, the doors were -shut and locked up; but every morning their shoes were found to be quite -worn through as if they had been danced in all night; and yet nobody -could find out how it happened, or where they had been. - -Then the king made it known to all the land, that if any person could -discover the secret, and find out where it was that the princesses -danced in the night, he should have the one he liked best for his -wife, and should be king after his death; but whoever tried and did not -succeed, after three days and nights, should be put to death. - -A king's son soon came. He was well entertained, and in the evening was -taken to the chamber next to the one where the princesses lay in their -twelve beds. There he was to sit and watch where they went to dance; -and, in order that nothing might pass without his hearing it, the door -of his chamber was left open. But the king's son soon fell asleep; and -when he awoke in the morning he found that the princesses had all been -dancing, for the soles of their shoes were full of holes. The same thing -happened the second and third night: so the king ordered his head to be -cut off. After him came several others; but they had all the same luck, -and all lost their lives in the same manner. - -Now it chanced that an old soldier, who had been wounded in battle -and could fight no longer, passed through the country where this king -reigned: and as he was travelling through a wood, he met an old woman, -who asked him where he was going. 'I hardly know where I am going, or -what I had better do,' said the soldier; 'but I think I should like very -well to find out where it is that the princesses dance, and then in time -I might be a king.' 'Well,' said the old dame, 'that is no very hard -task: only take care not to drink any of the wine which one of the -princesses will bring to you in the evening; and as soon as she leaves -you pretend to be fast asleep.' - -Then she gave him a cloak, and said, 'As soon as you put that on -you will become invisible, and you will then be able to follow the -princesses wherever they go.' When the soldier heard all this good -counsel, he determined to try his luck: so he went to the king, and said -he was willing to undertake the task. - -He was as well received as the others had been, and the king ordered -fine royal robes to be given him; and when the evening came he was led -to the outer chamber. Just as he was going to lie down, the eldest of -the princesses brought him a cup of wine; but the soldier threw it all -away secretly, taking care not to drink a drop. Then he laid himself -down on his bed, and in a little while began to snore very loud as if -he was fast asleep. When the twelve princesses heard this they laughed -heartily; and the eldest said, 'This fellow too might have done a wiser -thing than lose his life in this way!' Then they rose up and opened -their drawers and boxes, and took out all their fine clothes, and -dressed themselves at the glass, and skipped about as if they were eager -to begin dancing. But the youngest said, 'I don't know how it is, while -you are so happy I feel very uneasy; I am sure some mischance will -befall us.' 'You simpleton,' said the eldest, 'you are always afraid; -have you forgotten how many kings' sons have already watched in vain? -And as for this soldier, even if I had not given him his sleeping -draught, he would have slept soundly enough.' - -When they were all ready, they went and looked at the soldier; but he -snored on, and did not stir hand or foot: so they thought they were -quite safe; and the eldest went up to her own bed and clapped her hands, -and the bed sank into the floor and a trap-door flew open. The soldier -saw them going down through the trap-door one after another, the eldest -leading the way; and thinking he had no time to lose, he jumped up, put -on the cloak which the old woman had given him, and followed them; -but in the middle of the stairs he trod on the gown of the youngest -princess, and she cried out to her sisters, 'All is not right; someone -took hold of my gown.' 'You silly creature!' said the eldest, 'it is -nothing but a nail in the wall.' Then down they all went, and at the -bottom they found themselves in a most delightful grove of trees; and -the leaves were all of silver, and glittered and sparkled beautifully. -The soldier wished to take away some token of the place; so he broke -off a little branch, and there came a loud noise from the tree. Then the -youngest daughter said again, 'I am sure all is not right--did not you -hear that noise? That never happened before.' But the eldest said, 'It -is only our princes, who are shouting for joy at our approach.' - -Then they came to another grove of trees, where all the leaves were of -gold; and afterwards to a third, where the leaves were all glittering -diamonds. And the soldier broke a branch from each; and every time there -was a loud noise, which made the youngest sister tremble with fear; but -the eldest still said, it was only the princes, who were crying for joy. -So they went on till they came to a great lake; and at the side of the -lake there lay twelve little boats with twelve handsome princes in them, -who seemed to be waiting there for the princesses. - -One of the princesses went into each boat, and the soldier stepped into -the same boat with the youngest. As they were rowing over the lake, the -prince who was in the boat with the youngest princess and the soldier -said, 'I do not know why it is, but though I am rowing with all my might -we do not get on so fast as usual, and I am quite tired: the boat -seems very heavy today.' 'It is only the heat of the weather,' said the -princess: 'I feel it very warm too.' - -On the other side of the lake stood a fine illuminated castle, from -which came the merry music of horns and trumpets. There they all landed, -and went into the castle, and each prince danced with his princess; and -the soldier, who was all the time invisible, danced with them too; and -when any of the princesses had a cup of wine set by her, he drank it -all up, so that when she put the cup to her mouth it was empty. At this, -too, the youngest sister was terribly frightened, but the eldest always -silenced her. They danced on till three o'clock in the morning, and then -all their shoes were worn out, so that they were obliged to leave off. -The princes rowed them back again over the lake (but this time the -soldier placed himself in the boat with the eldest princess); and on the -opposite shore they took leave of each other, the princesses promising -to come again the next night. - -When they came to the stairs, the soldier ran on before the princesses, -and laid himself down; and as the twelve sisters slowly came up very -much tired, they heard him snoring in his bed; so they said, 'Now all -is quite safe'; then they undressed themselves, put away their fine -clothes, pulled off their shoes, and went to bed. In the morning the -soldier said nothing about what had happened, but determined to see more -of this strange adventure, and went again the second and third night; -and every thing happened just as before; the princesses danced each time -till their shoes were worn to pieces, and then returned home. However, -on the third night the soldier carried away one of the golden cups as a -token of where he had been. - -As soon as the time came when he was to declare the secret, he was taken -before the king with the three branches and the golden cup; and the -twelve princesses stood listening behind the door to hear what he would -say. And when the king asked him. 'Where do my twelve daughters dance at -night?' he answered, 'With twelve princes in a castle under ground.' And -then he told the king all that had happened, and showed him the three -branches and the golden cup which he had brought with him. Then the king -called for the princesses, and asked them whether what the soldier said -was true: and when they saw that they were discovered, and that it was -of no use to deny what had happened, they confessed it all. And the king -asked the soldier which of them he would choose for his wife; and he -answered, 'I am not very young, so I will have the eldest.'--And they -were married that very day, and the soldier was chosen to be the king's -heir. - - - - -THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE - -There was once a fisherman who lived with his wife in a pigsty, close -by the seaside. The fisherman used to go out all day long a-fishing; and -one day, as he sat on the shore with his rod, looking at the sparkling -waves and watching his line, all on a sudden his float was dragged away -deep into the water: and in drawing it up he pulled out a great fish. -But the fish said, 'Pray let me live! I am not a real fish; I am an -enchanted prince: put me in the water again, and let me go!' 'Oh, ho!' -said the man, 'you need not make so many words about the matter; I will -have nothing to do with a fish that can talk: so swim away, sir, as soon -as you please!' Then he put him back into the water, and the fish darted -straight down to the bottom, and left a long streak of blood behind him -on the wave. - -When the fisherman went home to his wife in the pigsty, he told her how -he had caught a great fish, and how it had told him it was an enchanted -prince, and how, on hearing it speak, he had let it go again. 'Did not -you ask it for anything?' said the wife, 'we live very wretchedly here, -in this nasty dirty pigsty; do go back and tell the fish we want a snug -little cottage.' - -The fisherman did not much like the business: however, he went to the -seashore; and when he came back there the water looked all yellow and -green. And he stood at the water's edge, and said: - - 'O man of the sea! - Hearken to me! - My wife Ilsabill - Will have her own will, - And hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!' - -Then the fish came swimming to him, and said, 'Well, what is her will? -What does your wife want?' 'Ah!' said the fisherman, 'she says that when -I had caught you, I ought to have asked you for something before I let -you go; she does not like living any longer in the pigsty, and wants -a snug little cottage.' 'Go home, then,' said the fish; 'she is in the -cottage already!' So the man went home, and saw his wife standing at the -door of a nice trim little cottage. 'Come in, come in!' said she; 'is -not this much better than the filthy pigsty we had?' And there was a -parlour, and a bedchamber, and a kitchen; and behind the cottage there -was a little garden, planted with all sorts of flowers and fruits; and -there was a courtyard behind, full of ducks and chickens. 'Ah!' said the -fisherman, 'how happily we shall live now!' 'We will try to do so, at -least,' said his wife. - -Everything went right for a week or two, and then Dame Ilsabill said, -'Husband, there is not near room enough for us in this cottage; the -courtyard and the garden are a great deal too small; I should like to -have a large stone castle to live in: go to the fish again and tell him -to give us a castle.' 'Wife,' said the fisherman, 'I don't like to go to -him again, for perhaps he will be angry; we ought to be easy with this -pretty cottage to live in.' 'Nonsense!' said the wife; 'he will do it -very willingly, I know; go along and try!' - -The fisherman went, but his heart was very heavy: and when he came to -the sea, it looked blue and gloomy, though it was very calm; and he went -close to the edge of the waves, and said: - - 'O man of the sea! - Hearken to me! - My wife Ilsabill - Will have her own will, - And hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!' - -'Well, what does she want now?' said the fish. 'Ah!' said the man, -dolefully, 'my wife wants to live in a stone castle.' 'Go home, then,' -said the fish; 'she is standing at the gate of it already.' So away went -the fisherman, and found his wife standing before the gate of a great -castle. 'See,' said she, 'is not this grand?' With that they went into -the castle together, and found a great many servants there, and the -rooms all richly furnished, and full of golden chairs and tables; and -behind the castle was a garden, and around it was a park half a -mile long, full of sheep, and goats, and hares, and deer; and in the -courtyard were stables and cow-houses. 'Well,' said the man, 'now we -will live cheerful and happy in this beautiful castle for the rest of -our lives.' 'Perhaps we may,' said the wife; 'but let us sleep upon it, -before we make up our minds to that.' So they went to bed. - -The next morning when Dame Ilsabill awoke it was broad daylight, and -she jogged the fisherman with her elbow, and said, 'Get up, husband, -and bestir yourself, for we must be king of all the land.' 'Wife, wife,' -said the man, 'why should we wish to be the king? I will not be king.' -'Then I will,' said she. 'But, wife,' said the fisherman, 'how can you -be king--the fish cannot make you a king?' 'Husband,' said she, 'say -no more about it, but go and try! I will be king.' So the man went away -quite sorrowful to think that his wife should want to be king. This time -the sea looked a dark grey colour, and was overspread with curling waves -and the ridges of foam as he cried out: - - 'O man of the sea! - Hearken to me! - My wife Ilsabill - Will have her own will, - And hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!' - -'Well, what would she have now?' said the fish. 'Alas!' said the poor -man, 'my wife wants to be king.' 'Go home,' said the fish; 'she is king -already.' - -Then the fisherman went home; and as he came close to the palace he saw -a troop of soldiers, and heard the sound of drums and trumpets. And when -he went in he saw his wife sitting on a throne of gold and diamonds, -with a golden crown upon her head; and on each side of her stood six -fair maidens, each a head taller than the other. 'Well, wife,' said the -fisherman, 'are you king?' 'Yes,' said she, 'I am king.' And when he had -looked at her for a long time, he said, 'Ah, wife! what a fine thing it -is to be king! Now we shall never have anything more to wish for as long -as we live.' 'I don't know how that may be,' said she; 'never is a long -time. I am king, it is true; but I begin to be tired of that, and I -think I should like to be emperor.' 'Alas, wife! why should you wish to -be emperor?' said the fisherman. 'Husband,' said she, 'go to the fish! -I say I will be emperor.' 'Ah, wife!' replied the fisherman, 'the fish -cannot make an emperor, I am sure, and I should not like to ask him for -such a thing.' 'I am king,' said Ilsabill, 'and you are my slave; so go -at once!' - -So the fisherman was forced to go; and he muttered as he went along, -'This will come to no good, it is too much to ask; the fish will be -tired at last, and then we shall be sorry for what we have done.' He -soon came to the seashore; and the water was quite black and muddy, and -a mighty whirlwind blew over the waves and rolled them about, but he -went as near as he could to the water's brink, and said: - - 'O man of the sea! - Hearken to me! - My wife Ilsabill - Will have her own will, - And hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!' - -'What would she have now?' said the fish. 'Ah!' said the fisherman, -'she wants to be emperor.' 'Go home,' said the fish; 'she is emperor -already.' - -So he went home again; and as he came near he saw his wife Ilsabill -sitting on a very lofty throne made of solid gold, with a great crown on -her head full two yards high; and on each side of her stood her guards -and attendants in a row, each one smaller than the other, from the -tallest giant down to a little dwarf no bigger than my finger. And -before her stood princes, and dukes, and earls: and the fisherman went -up to her and said, 'Wife, are you emperor?' 'Yes,' said she, 'I am -emperor.' 'Ah!' said the man, as he gazed upon her, 'what a fine thing -it is to be emperor!' 'Husband,' said she, 'why should we stop at being -emperor? I will be pope next.' 'O wife, wife!' said he, 'how can you be -pope? there is but one pope at a time in Christendom.' 'Husband,' said -she, 'I will be pope this very day.' 'But,' replied the husband, 'the -fish cannot make you pope.' 'What nonsense!' said she; 'if he can make -an emperor, he can make a pope: go and try him.' - -So the fisherman went. But when he came to the shore the wind was raging -and the sea was tossed up and down in boiling waves, and the ships were -in trouble, and rolled fearfully upon the tops of the billows. In the -middle of the heavens there was a little piece of blue sky, but towards -the south all was red, as if a dreadful storm was rising. At this sight -the fisherman was dreadfully frightened, and he trembled so that his -knees knocked together: but still he went down near to the shore, and -said: - - 'O man of the sea! - Hearken to me! - My wife Ilsabill - Will have her own will, - And hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!' - -'What does she want now?' said the fish. 'Ah!' said the fisherman, 'my -wife wants to be pope.' 'Go home,' said the fish; 'she is pope already.' - -Then the fisherman went home, and found Ilsabill sitting on a throne -that was two miles high. And she had three great crowns on her head, and -around her stood all the pomp and power of the Church. And on each side -of her were two rows of burning lights, of all sizes, the greatest as -large as the highest and biggest tower in the world, and the least no -larger than a small rushlight. 'Wife,' said the fisherman, as he looked -at all this greatness, 'are you pope?' 'Yes,' said she, 'I am pope.' -'Well, wife,' replied he, 'it is a grand thing to be pope; and now -you must be easy, for you can be nothing greater.' 'I will think about -that,' said the wife. Then they went to bed: but Dame Ilsabill could not -sleep all night for thinking what she should be next. At last, as she -was dropping asleep, morning broke, and the sun rose. 'Ha!' thought she, -as she woke up and looked at it through the window, 'after all I cannot -prevent the sun rising.' At this thought she was very angry, and wakened -her husband, and said, 'Husband, go to the fish and tell him I must -be lord of the sun and moon.' The fisherman was half asleep, but the -thought frightened him so much that he started and fell out of bed. -'Alas, wife!' said he, 'cannot you be easy with being pope?' 'No,' -said she, 'I am very uneasy as long as the sun and moon rise without my -leave. Go to the fish at once!' - -Then the man went shivering with fear; and as he was going down to -the shore a dreadful storm arose, so that the trees and the very rocks -shook. And all the heavens became black with stormy clouds, and the -lightnings played, and the thunders rolled; and you might have seen in -the sea great black waves, swelling up like mountains with crowns of -white foam upon their heads. And the fisherman crept towards the sea, -and cried out, as well as he could: - - 'O man of the sea! - Hearken to me! - My wife Ilsabill - Will have her own will, - And hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!' - -'What does she want now?' said the fish. 'Ah!' said he, 'she wants to -be lord of the sun and moon.' 'Go home,' said the fish, 'to your pigsty -again.' - -And there they live to this very day. - - - - -THE WILLOW-WREN AND THE BEAR - -Once in summer-time the bear and the wolf were walking in the forest, -and the bear heard a bird singing so beautifully that he said: 'Brother -wolf, what bird is it that sings so well?' 'That is the King of birds,' -said the wolf, 'before whom we must bow down.' In reality the bird was -the willow-wren. 'IF that's the case,' said the bear, 'I should very -much like to see his royal palace; come, take me thither.' 'That is not -done quite as you seem to think,' said the wolf; 'you must wait until -the Queen comes,' Soon afterwards, the Queen arrived with some food in -her beak, and the lord King came too, and they began to feed their young -ones. The bear would have liked to go at once, but the wolf held him -back by the sleeve, and said: 'No, you must wait until the lord and lady -Queen have gone away again.' So they took stock of the hole where the -nest lay, and trotted away. The bear, however, could not rest until he -had seen the royal palace, and when a short time had passed, went to it -again. The King and Queen had just flown out, so he peeped in and saw -five or six young ones lying there. 'Is that the royal palace?' cried -the bear; 'it is a wretched palace, and you are not King's children, you -are disreputable children!' When the young wrens heard that, they were -frightfully angry, and screamed: 'No, that we are not! Our parents are -honest people! Bear, you will have to pay for that!' - -The bear and the wolf grew uneasy, and turned back and went into their -holes. The young willow-wrens, however, continued to cry and scream, and -when their parents again brought food they said: 'We will not so much as -touch one fly's leg, no, not if we were dying of hunger, until you have -settled whether we are respectable children or not; the bear has been -here and has insulted us!' Then the old King said: 'Be easy, he shall -be punished,' and he at once flew with the Queen to the bear's cave, and -called in: 'Old Growler, why have you insulted my children? You shall -suffer for it--we will punish you by a bloody war.' Thus war was -announced to the Bear, and all four-footed animals were summoned to take -part in it, oxen, asses, cows, deer, and every other animal the earth -contained. And the willow-wren summoned everything which flew in the -air, not only birds, large and small, but midges, and hornets, bees and -flies had to come. - -When the time came for the war to begin, the willow-wren sent out spies -to discover who was the enemy's commander-in-chief. The gnat, who was -the most crafty, flew into the forest where the enemy was assembled, -and hid herself beneath a leaf of the tree where the password was to be -announced. There stood the bear, and he called the fox before him -and said: 'Fox, you are the most cunning of all animals, you shall be -general and lead us.' 'Good,' said the fox, 'but what signal shall we -agree upon?' No one knew that, so the fox said: 'I have a fine long -bushy tail, which almost looks like a plume of red feathers. When I lift -my tail up quite high, all is going well, and you must charge; but if I -let it hang down, run away as fast as you can.' When the gnat had heard -that, she flew away again, and revealed everything, down to the minutest -detail, to the willow-wren. When day broke, and the battle was to begin, -all the four-footed animals came running up with such a noise that the -earth trembled. The willow-wren with his army also came flying through -the air with such a humming, and whirring, and swarming that every one -was uneasy and afraid, and on both sides they advanced against each -other. But the willow-wren sent down the hornet, with orders to settle -beneath the fox's tail, and sting with all his might. When the fox felt -the first string, he started so that he lifted one leg, from pain, but -he bore it, and still kept his tail high in the air; at the second -sting, he was forced to put it down for a moment; at the third, he could -hold out no longer, screamed, and put his tail between his legs. When -the animals saw that, they thought all was lost, and began to flee, each -into his hole, and the birds had won the battle. - -Then the King and Queen flew home to their children and cried: -'Children, rejoice, eat and drink to your heart's content, we have won -the battle!' But the young wrens said: 'We will not eat yet, the bear -must come to the nest, and beg for pardon and say that we are honourable -children, before we will do that.' Then the willow-wren flew to the -bear's hole and cried: 'Growler, you are to come to the nest to my -children, and beg their pardon, or else every rib of your body shall -be broken.' So the bear crept thither in the greatest fear, and begged -their pardon. And now at last the young wrens were satisfied, and sat -down together and ate and drank, and made merry till quite late into the -night. - - - - -THE FROG-PRINCE - -One fine evening a young princess put on her bonnet and clogs, and went -out to take a walk by herself in a wood; and when she came to a cool -spring of water, that rose in the midst of it, she sat herself down -to rest a while. Now she had a golden ball in her hand, which was her -favourite plaything; and she was always tossing it up into the air, and -catching it again as it fell. After a time she threw it up so high that -she missed catching it as it fell; and the ball bounded away, and rolled -along upon the ground, till at last it fell down into the spring. The -princess looked into the spring after her ball, but it was very deep, so -deep that she could not see the bottom of it. Then she began to bewail -her loss, and said, 'Alas! if I could only get my ball again, I would -give all my fine clothes and jewels, and everything that I have in the -world.' - -Whilst she was speaking, a frog put its head out of the water, and said, -'Princess, why do you weep so bitterly?' 'Alas!' said she, 'what can you -do for me, you nasty frog? My golden ball has fallen into the spring.' -The frog said, 'I want not your pearls, and jewels, and fine clothes; -but if you will love me, and let me live with you and eat from off -your golden plate, and sleep upon your bed, I will bring you your ball -again.' 'What nonsense,' thought the princess, 'this silly frog is -talking! He can never even get out of the spring to visit me, though -he may be able to get my ball for me, and therefore I will tell him he -shall have what he asks.' So she said to the frog, 'Well, if you will -bring me my ball, I will do all you ask.' Then the frog put his head -down, and dived deep under the water; and after a little while he came -up again, with the ball in his mouth, and threw it on the edge of the -spring. As soon as the young princess saw her ball, she ran to pick -it up; and she was so overjoyed to have it in her hand again, that she -never thought of the frog, but ran home with it as fast as she could. -The frog called after her, 'Stay, princess, and take me with you as you -said,' But she did not stop to hear a word. - -The next day, just as the princess had sat down to dinner, she heard a -strange noise--tap, tap--plash, plash--as if something was coming up the -marble staircase: and soon afterwards there was a gentle knock at the -door, and a little voice cried out and said: - - 'Open the door, my princess dear, - Open the door to thy true love here! - And mind the words that thou and I said - By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.' - -Then the princess ran to the door and opened it, and there she saw -the frog, whom she had quite forgotten. At this sight she was sadly -frightened, and shutting the door as fast as she could came back to her -seat. The king, her father, seeing that something had frightened her, -asked her what was the matter. 'There is a nasty frog,' said she, 'at -the door, that lifted my ball for me out of the spring this morning: I -told him that he should live with me here, thinking that he could never -get out of the spring; but there he is at the door, and he wants to come -in.' - -While she was speaking the frog knocked again at the door, and said: - - 'Open the door, my princess dear, - Open the door to thy true love here! - And mind the words that thou and I said - By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.' - -Then the king said to the young princess, 'As you have given your word -you must keep it; so go and let him in.' She did so, and the frog hopped -into the room, and then straight on--tap, tap--plash, plash--from the -bottom of the room to the top, till he came up close to the table where -the princess sat. 'Pray lift me upon chair,' said he to the princess, -'and let me sit next to you.' As soon as she had done this, the frog -said, 'Put your plate nearer to me, that I may eat out of it.' This -she did, and when he had eaten as much as he could, he said, 'Now I am -tired; carry me upstairs, and put me into your bed.' And the princess, -though very unwilling, took him up in her hand, and put him upon the -pillow of her own bed, where he slept all night long. As soon as it was -light he jumped up, hopped downstairs, and went out of the house. -'Now, then,' thought the princess, 'at last he is gone, and I shall be -troubled with him no more.' - -But she was mistaken; for when night came again she heard the same -tapping at the door; and the frog came once more, and said: - - 'Open the door, my princess dear, - Open the door to thy true love here! - And mind the words that thou and I said - By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.' - -And when the princess opened the door the frog came in, and slept upon -her pillow as before, till the morning broke. And the third night he did -the same. But when the princess awoke on the following morning she was -astonished to see, instead of the frog, a handsome prince, gazing on her -with the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen, and standing at the head -of her bed. - -He told her that he had been enchanted by a spiteful fairy, who had -changed him into a frog; and that he had been fated so to abide till -some princess should take him out of the spring, and let him eat from -her plate, and sleep upon her bed for three nights. 'You,' said the -prince, 'have broken his cruel charm, and now I have nothing to wish for -but that you should go with me into my father's kingdom, where I will -marry you, and love you as long as you live.' - -The young princess, you may be sure, was not long in saying 'Yes' to -all this; and as they spoke a gay coach drove up, with eight beautiful -horses, decked with plumes of feathers and a golden harness; and behind -the coach rode the prince's servant, faithful Heinrich, who had bewailed -the misfortunes of his dear master during his enchantment so long and so -bitterly, that his heart had well-nigh burst. - -They then took leave of the king, and got into the coach with eight -horses, and all set out, full of joy and merriment, for the prince's -kingdom, which they reached safely; and there they lived happily a great -many years. - - - - -CAT AND MOUSE IN PARTNERSHIP - -A certain cat had made the acquaintance of a mouse, and had said so much -to her about the great love and friendship she felt for her, that at -length the mouse agreed that they should live and keep house together. -'But we must make a provision for winter, or else we shall suffer -from hunger,' said the cat; 'and you, little mouse, cannot venture -everywhere, or you will be caught in a trap some day.' The good advice -was followed, and a pot of fat was bought, but they did not know where -to put it. At length, after much consideration, the cat said: 'I know no -place where it will be better stored up than in the church, for no one -dares take anything away from there. We will set it beneath the altar, -and not touch it until we are really in need of it.' So the pot was -placed in safety, but it was not long before the cat had a great -yearning for it, and said to the mouse: 'I want to tell you something, -little mouse; my cousin has brought a little son into the world, and has -asked me to be godmother; he is white with brown spots, and I am to hold -him over the font at the christening. Let me go out today, and you look -after the house by yourself.' 'Yes, yes,' answered the mouse, 'by all -means go, and if you get anything very good to eat, think of me. I -should like a drop of sweet red christening wine myself.' All this, -however, was untrue; the cat had no cousin, and had not been asked to -be godmother. She went straight to the church, stole to the pot of fat, -began to lick at it, and licked the top of the fat off. Then she took a -walk upon the roofs of the town, looked out for opportunities, and then -stretched herself in the sun, and licked her lips whenever she thought -of the pot of fat, and not until it was evening did she return home. -'Well, here you are again,' said the mouse, 'no doubt you have had a -merry day.' 'All went off well,' answered the cat. 'What name did they -give the child?' 'Top off!' said the cat quite coolly. 'Top off!' cried -the mouse, 'that is a very odd and uncommon name, is it a usual one in -your family?' 'What does that matter,' said the cat, 'it is no worse -than Crumb-stealer, as your godchildren are called.' - -Before long the cat was seized by another fit of yearning. She said to -the mouse: 'You must do me a favour, and once more manage the house for -a day alone. I am again asked to be godmother, and, as the child has a -white ring round its neck, I cannot refuse.' The good mouse consented, -but the cat crept behind the town walls to the church, and devoured -half the pot of fat. 'Nothing ever seems so good as what one keeps to -oneself,' said she, and was quite satisfied with her day's work. When -she went home the mouse inquired: 'And what was the child christened?' -'Half-done,' answered the cat. 'Half-done! What are you saying? I -never heard the name in my life, I'll wager anything it is not in the -calendar!' - -The cat's mouth soon began to water for some more licking. 'All good -things go in threes,' said she, 'I am asked to stand godmother again. -The child is quite black, only it has white paws, but with that -exception, it has not a single white hair on its whole body; this only -happens once every few years, you will let me go, won't you?' 'Top-off! -Half-done!' answered the mouse, 'they are such odd names, they make me -very thoughtful.' 'You sit at home,' said the cat, 'in your dark-grey -fur coat and long tail, and are filled with fancies, that's because -you do not go out in the daytime.' During the cat's absence the mouse -cleaned the house, and put it in order, but the greedy cat entirely -emptied the pot of fat. 'When everything is eaten up one has some -peace,' said she to herself, and well filled and fat she did not return -home till night. The mouse at once asked what name had been given to -the third child. 'It will not please you more than the others,' said the -cat. 'He is called All-gone.' 'All-gone,' cried the mouse 'that is the -most suspicious name of all! I have never seen it in print. All-gone; -what can that mean?' and she shook her head, curled herself up, and lay -down to sleep. - -From this time forth no one invited the cat to be godmother, but -when the winter had come and there was no longer anything to be found -outside, the mouse thought of their provision, and said: 'Come, cat, -we will go to our pot of fat which we have stored up for ourselves--we -shall enjoy that.' 'Yes,' answered the cat, 'you will enjoy it as much -as you would enjoy sticking that dainty tongue of yours out of the -window.' They set out on their way, but when they arrived, the pot of -fat certainly was still in its place, but it was empty. 'Alas!' said the -mouse, 'now I see what has happened, now it comes to light! You are a true -friend! You have devoured all when you were standing godmother. First -top off, then half-done, then--' 'Will you hold your tongue,' cried the -cat, 'one word more, and I will eat you too.' 'All-gone' was already on -the poor mouse's lips; scarcely had she spoken it before the cat sprang -on her, seized her, and swallowed her down. Verily, that is the way of -the world. - - - - -THE GOOSE-GIRL - -The king of a great land died, and left his queen to take care of their -only child. This child was a daughter, who was very beautiful; and her -mother loved her dearly, and was very kind to her. And there was a good -fairy too, who was fond of the princess, and helped her mother to watch -over her. When she grew up, she was betrothed to a prince who lived a -great way off; and as the time drew near for her to be married, she -got ready to set off on her journey to his country. Then the queen her -mother, packed up a great many costly things; jewels, and gold, and -silver; trinkets, fine dresses, and in short everything that became a -royal bride. And she gave her a waiting-maid to ride with her, and give -her into the bridegroom's hands; and each had a horse for the journey. -Now the princess's horse was the fairy's gift, and it was called Falada, -and could speak. - -When the time came for them to set out, the fairy went into her -bed-chamber, and took a little knife, and cut off a lock of her hair, -and gave it to the princess, and said, 'Take care of it, dear child; for -it is a charm that may be of use to you on the road.' Then they all took -a sorrowful leave of the princess; and she put the lock of hair into -her bosom, got upon her horse, and set off on her journey to her -bridegroom's kingdom. - -One day, as they were riding along by a brook, the princess began to -feel very thirsty: and she said to her maid, 'Pray get down, and fetch -me some water in my golden cup out of yonder brook, for I want to -drink.' 'Nay,' said the maid, 'if you are thirsty, get off yourself, and -stoop down by the water and drink; I shall not be your waiting-maid any -longer.' Then she was so thirsty that she got down, and knelt over the -little brook, and drank; for she was frightened, and dared not bring out -her golden cup; and she wept and said, 'Alas! what will become of me?' -And the lock answered her, and said: - - 'Alas! alas! if thy mother knew it, - Sadly, sadly, would she rue it.' - -But the princess was very gentle and meek, so she said nothing to her -maid's ill behaviour, but got upon her horse again. - -Then all rode farther on their journey, till the day grew so warm, and -the sun so scorching, that the bride began to feel very thirsty again; -and at last, when they came to a river, she forgot her maid's rude -speech, and said, 'Pray get down, and fetch me some water to drink in -my golden cup.' But the maid answered her, and even spoke more haughtily -than before: 'Drink if you will, but I shall not be your waiting-maid.' -Then the princess was so thirsty that she got off her horse, and lay -down, and held her head over the running stream, and cried and said, -'What will become of me?' And the lock of hair answered her again: - - 'Alas! alas! if thy mother knew it, - Sadly, sadly, would she rue it.' - -And as she leaned down to drink, the lock of hair fell from her bosom, -and floated away with the water. Now she was so frightened that she did -not see it; but her maid saw it, and was very glad, for she knew the -charm; and she saw that the poor bride would be in her power, now that -she had lost the hair. So when the bride had done drinking, and would -have got upon Falada again, the maid said, 'I shall ride upon Falada, -and you may have my horse instead'; so she was forced to give up her -horse, and soon afterwards to take off her royal clothes and put on her -maid's shabby ones. - -At last, as they drew near the end of their journey, this treacherous -servant threatened to kill her mistress if she ever told anyone what had -happened. But Falada saw it all, and marked it well. - -Then the waiting-maid got upon Falada, and the real bride rode upon the -other horse, and they went on in this way till at last they came to the -royal court. There was great joy at their coming, and the prince flew to -meet them, and lifted the maid from her horse, thinking she was the one -who was to be his wife; and she was led upstairs to the royal chamber; -but the true princess was told to stay in the court below. - -Now the old king happened just then to have nothing else to do; so he -amused himself by sitting at his kitchen window, looking at what was -going on; and he saw her in the courtyard. As she looked very pretty, -and too delicate for a waiting-maid, he went up into the royal chamber -to ask the bride who it was she had brought with her, that was thus left -standing in the court below. 'I brought her with me for the sake of her -company on the road,' said she; 'pray give the girl some work to do, -that she may not be idle.' The old king could not for some time think -of any work for her to do; but at last he said, 'I have a lad who takes -care of my geese; she may go and help him.' Now the name of this lad, -that the real bride was to help in watching the king's geese, was -Curdken. - -But the false bride said to the prince, 'Dear husband, pray do me one -piece of kindness.' 'That I will,' said the prince. 'Then tell one of -your slaughterers to cut off the head of the horse I rode upon, for it -was very unruly, and plagued me sadly on the road'; but the truth was, -she was very much afraid lest Falada should some day or other speak, and -tell all she had done to the princess. She carried her point, and the -faithful Falada was killed; but when the true princess heard of it, she -wept, and begged the man to nail up Falada's head against a large -dark gate of the city, through which she had to pass every morning -and evening, that there she might still see him sometimes. Then the -slaughterer said he would do as she wished; and cut off the head, and -nailed it up under the dark gate. - -Early the next morning, as she and Curdken went out through the gate, -she said sorrowfully: - - 'Falada, Falada, there thou hangest!' - -and the head answered: - - 'Bride, bride, there thou gangest! - Alas! alas! if thy mother knew it, - Sadly, sadly, would she rue it.' - -Then they went out of the city, and drove the geese on. And when she -came to the meadow, she sat down upon a bank there, and let down her -waving locks of hair, which were all of pure silver; and when Curdken -saw it glitter in the sun, he ran up, and would have pulled some of the -locks out, but she cried: - - 'Blow, breezes, blow! - Let Curdken's hat go! - Blow, breezes, blow! - Let him after it go! - O'er hills, dales, and rocks, - Away be it whirl'd - Till the silvery locks - Are all comb'd and curl'd! - -Then there came a wind, so strong that it blew off Curdken's hat; and -away it flew over the hills: and he was forced to turn and run after -it; till, by the time he came back, she had done combing and curling her -hair, and had put it up again safe. Then he was very angry and sulky, -and would not speak to her at all; but they watched the geese until it -grew dark in the evening, and then drove them homewards. - -The next morning, as they were going through the dark gate, the poor -girl looked up at Falada's head, and cried: - - 'Falada, Falada, there thou hangest!' - -and the head answered: - - 'Bride, bride, there thou gangest! - Alas! alas! if thy mother knew it, - Sadly, sadly, would she rue it.' - -Then she drove on the geese, and sat down again in the meadow, and began -to comb out her hair as before; and Curdken ran up to her, and wanted to -take hold of it; but she cried out quickly: - - 'Blow, breezes, blow! - Let Curdken's hat go! - Blow, breezes, blow! - Let him after it go! - O'er hills, dales, and rocks, - Away be it whirl'd - Till the silvery locks - Are all comb'd and curl'd! - -Then the wind came and blew away his hat; and off it flew a great way, -over the hills and far away, so that he had to run after it; and when -he came back she had bound up her hair again, and all was safe. So they -watched the geese till it grew dark. - -In the evening, after they came home, Curdken went to the old king, and -said, 'I cannot have that strange girl to help me to keep the geese any -longer.' 'Why?' said the king. 'Because, instead of doing any good, she -does nothing but tease me all day long.' Then the king made him tell him -what had happened. And Curdken said, 'When we go in the morning through -the dark gate with our flock of geese, she cries and talks with the head -of a horse that hangs upon the wall, and says: - - 'Falada, Falada, there thou hangest!' - -and the head answers: - - 'Bride, bride, there thou gangest! - Alas! alas! if thy mother knew it, - Sadly, sadly, would she rue it.' - -And Curdken went on telling the king what had happened upon the meadow -where the geese fed; how his hat was blown away; and how he was forced -to run after it, and to leave his flock of geese to themselves. But the -old king told the boy to go out again the next day: and when morning -came, he placed himself behind the dark gate, and heard how she spoke -to Falada, and how Falada answered. Then he went into the field, and -hid himself in a bush by the meadow's side; and he soon saw with his own -eyes how they drove the flock of geese; and how, after a little time, -she let down her hair that glittered in the sun. And then he heard her -say: - - 'Blow, breezes, blow! - Let Curdken's hat go! - Blow, breezes, blow! - Let him after it go! - O'er hills, dales, and rocks, - Away be it whirl'd - Till the silvery locks - Are all comb'd and curl'd! - -And soon came a gale of wind, and carried away Curdken's hat, and away -went Curdken after it, while the girl went on combing and curling her -hair. All this the old king saw: so he went home without being seen; and -when the little goose-girl came back in the evening he called her aside, -and asked her why she did so: but she burst into tears, and said, 'That -I must not tell you or any man, or I shall lose my life.' - -But the old king begged so hard, that she had no peace till she had told -him all the tale, from beginning to end, word for word. And it was very -lucky for her that she did so, for when she had done the king ordered -royal clothes to be put upon her, and gazed on her with wonder, she was -so beautiful. Then he called his son and told him that he had only a -false bride; for that she was merely a waiting-maid, while the true -bride stood by. And the young king rejoiced when he saw her beauty, and -heard how meek and patient she had been; and without saying anything to -the false bride, the king ordered a great feast to be got ready for all -his court. The bridegroom sat at the top, with the false princess on one -side, and the true one on the other; but nobody knew her again, for her -beauty was quite dazzling to their eyes; and she did not seem at all -like the little goose-girl, now that she had her brilliant dress on. - -When they had eaten and drank, and were very merry, the old king said -he would tell them a tale. So he began, and told all the story of the -princess, as if it was one that he had once heard; and he asked the -true waiting-maid what she thought ought to be done to anyone who would -behave thus. 'Nothing better,' said this false bride, 'than that she -should be thrown into a cask stuck round with sharp nails, and that -two white horses should be put to it, and should drag it from street to -street till she was dead.' 'Thou art she!' said the old king; 'and as -thou has judged thyself, so shall it be done to thee.' And the young -king was then married to his true wife, and they reigned over the -kingdom in peace and happiness all their lives; and the good fairy came -to see them, and restored the faithful Falada to life again. - - - - -THE ADVENTURES OF CHANTICLEER AND PARTLET - - -1. HOW THEY WENT TO THE MOUNTAINS TO EAT NUTS - -'The nuts are quite ripe now,' said Chanticleer to his wife Partlet, -'suppose we go together to the mountains, and eat as many as we can, -before the squirrel takes them all away.' 'With all my heart,' said -Partlet, 'let us go and make a holiday of it together.' - -So they went to the mountains; and as it was a lovely day, they stayed -there till the evening. Now, whether it was that they had eaten so many -nuts that they could not walk, or whether they were lazy and would not, -I do not know: however, they took it into their heads that it did not -become them to go home on foot. So Chanticleer began to build a little -carriage of nutshells: and when it was finished, Partlet jumped into -it and sat down, and bid Chanticleer harness himself to it and draw her -home. 'That's a good joke!' said Chanticleer; 'no, that will never do; -I had rather by half walk home; I'll sit on the box and be coachman, -if you like, but I'll not draw.' While this was passing, a duck came -quacking up and cried out, 'You thieving vagabonds, what business have -you in my grounds? I'll give it you well for your insolence!' and upon -that she fell upon Chanticleer most lustily. But Chanticleer was no -coward, and returned the duck's blows with his sharp spurs so fiercely -that she soon began to cry out for mercy; which was only granted her -upon condition that she would draw the carriage home for them. This she -agreed to do; and Chanticleer got upon the box, and drove, crying, 'Now, -duck, get on as fast as you can.' And away they went at a pretty good -pace. - -After they had travelled along a little way, they met a needle and a pin -walking together along the road: and the needle cried out, 'Stop, stop!' -and said it was so dark that they could hardly find their way, and such -dirty walking they could not get on at all: he told them that he and his -friend, the pin, had been at a public-house a few miles off, and had sat -drinking till they had forgotten how late it was; he begged therefore -that the travellers would be so kind as to give them a lift in their -carriage. Chanticleer observing that they were but thin fellows, and not -likely to take up much room, told them they might ride, but made them -promise not to dirty the wheels of the carriage in getting in, nor to -tread on Partlet's toes. - -Late at night they arrived at an inn; and as it was bad travelling in -the dark, and the duck seemed much tired, and waddled about a good -deal from one side to the other, they made up their minds to fix their -quarters there: but the landlord at first was unwilling, and said his -house was full, thinking they might not be very respectable company: -however, they spoke civilly to him, and gave him the egg which Partlet -had laid by the way, and said they would give him the duck, who was in -the habit of laying one every day: so at last he let them come in, and -they bespoke a handsome supper, and spent the evening very jollily. - -Early in the morning, before it was quite light, and when nobody was -stirring in the inn, Chanticleer awakened his wife, and, fetching the -egg, they pecked a hole in it, ate it up, and threw the shells into the -fireplace: they then went to the pin and needle, who were fast asleep, -and seizing them by the heads, stuck one into the landlord's easy chair -and the other into his handkerchief; and, having done this, they crept -away as softly as possible. However, the duck, who slept in the open -air in the yard, heard them coming, and jumping into the brook which ran -close by the inn, soon swam out of their reach. - -An hour or two afterwards the landlord got up, and took his handkerchief -to wipe his face, but the pin ran into him and pricked him: then he -walked into the kitchen to light his pipe at the fire, but when he -stirred it up the eggshells flew into his eyes, and almost blinded him. -'Bless me!' said he, 'all the world seems to have a design against my -head this morning': and so saying, he threw himself sulkily into his -easy chair; but, oh dear! the needle ran into him; and this time the -pain was not in his head. He now flew into a very great passion, and, -suspecting the company who had come in the night before, he went to look -after them, but they were all off; so he swore that he never again -would take in such a troop of vagabonds, who ate a great deal, paid no -reckoning, and gave him nothing for his trouble but their apish tricks. - - -2. HOW CHANTICLEER AND PARTLET WENT TO VISIT MR KORBES - -Another day, Chanticleer and Partlet wished to ride out together; -so Chanticleer built a handsome carriage with four red wheels, and -harnessed six mice to it; and then he and Partlet got into the carriage, -and away they drove. Soon afterwards a cat met them, and said, 'Where -are you going?' And Chanticleer replied, - - 'All on our way - A visit to pay - To Mr Korbes, the fox, today.' - -Then the cat said, 'Take me with you,' Chanticleer said, 'With all my -heart: get up behind, and be sure you do not fall off.' - - 'Take care of this handsome coach of mine, - Nor dirty my pretty red wheels so fine! - Now, mice, be ready, - And, wheels, run steady! - For we are going a visit to pay - To Mr Korbes, the fox, today.' - -Soon after came up a millstone, an egg, a duck, and a pin; and -Chanticleer gave them all leave to get into the carriage and go with -them. - -When they arrived at Mr Korbes's house, he was not at home; so the mice -drew the carriage into the coach-house, Chanticleer and Partlet flew -upon a beam, the cat sat down in the fireplace, the duck got into -the washing cistern, the pin stuck himself into the bed pillow, the -millstone laid himself over the house door, and the egg rolled himself -up in the towel. - -When Mr Korbes came home, he went to the fireplace to make a fire; but -the cat threw all the ashes in his eyes: so he ran to the kitchen to -wash himself; but there the duck splashed all the water in his face; and -when he tried to wipe himself, the egg broke to pieces in the towel all -over his face and eyes. Then he was very angry, and went without his -supper to bed; but when he laid his head on the pillow, the pin ran into -his cheek: at this he became quite furious, and, jumping up, would have -run out of the house; but when he came to the door, the millstone fell -down on his head, and killed him on the spot. - - -3. HOW PARTLET DIED AND WAS BURIED, AND HOW CHANTICLEER DIED OF GRIEF - -Another day Chanticleer and Partlet agreed to go again to the mountains -to eat nuts; and it was settled that all the nuts which they found -should be shared equally between them. Now Partlet found a very large -nut; but she said nothing about it to Chanticleer, and kept it all to -herself: however, it was so big that she could not swallow it, and it -stuck in her throat. Then she was in a great fright, and cried out to -Chanticleer, 'Pray run as fast as you can, and fetch me some water, or I -shall be choked.' Chanticleer ran as fast as he could to the river, and -said, 'River, give me some water, for Partlet lies in the mountain, and -will be choked by a great nut.' The river said, 'Run first to the bride, -and ask her for a silken cord to draw up the water.' Chanticleer ran to -the bride, and said, 'Bride, you must give me a silken cord, for then -the river will give me water, and the water I will carry to Partlet, who -lies on the mountain, and will be choked by a great nut.' But the bride -said, 'Run first, and bring me my garland that is hanging on a willow -in the garden.' Then Chanticleer ran to the garden, and took the garland -from the bough where it hung, and brought it to the bride; and then -the bride gave him the silken cord, and he took the silken cord to -the river, and the river gave him water, and he carried the water to -Partlet; but in the meantime she was choked by the great nut, and lay -quite dead, and never moved any more. - -Then Chanticleer was very sorry, and cried bitterly; and all the beasts -came and wept with him over poor Partlet. And six mice built a little -hearse to carry her to her grave; and when it was ready they harnessed -themselves before it, and Chanticleer drove them. On the way they -met the fox. 'Where are you going, Chanticleer?' said he. 'To bury my -Partlet,' said the other. 'May I go with you?' said the fox. 'Yes; but -you must get up behind, or my horses will not be able to draw you.' Then -the fox got up behind; and presently the wolf, the bear, the goat, and -all the beasts of the wood, came and climbed upon the hearse. - -So on they went till they came to a rapid stream. 'How shall we get -over?' said Chanticleer. Then said a straw, 'I will lay myself across, -and you may pass over upon me.' But as the mice were going over, the -straw slipped away and fell into the water, and the six mice all fell in -and were drowned. What was to be done? Then a large log of wood came -and said, 'I am big enough; I will lay myself across the stream, and you -shall pass over upon me.' So he laid himself down; but they managed -so clumsily, that the log of wood fell in and was carried away by the -stream. Then a stone, who saw what had happened, came up and kindly -offered to help poor Chanticleer by laying himself across the stream; -and this time he got safely to the other side with the hearse, and -managed to get Partlet out of it; but the fox and the other mourners, -who were sitting behind, were too heavy, and fell back into the water -and were all carried away by the stream and drowned. - -Thus Chanticleer was left alone with his dead Partlet; and having dug -a grave for her, he laid her in it, and made a little hillock over her. -Then he sat down by the grave, and wept and mourned, till at last he -died too; and so all were dead. - - - - -RAPUNZEL - -There were once a man and a woman who had long in vain wished for a -child. At length the woman hoped that God was about to grant her desire. -These people had a little window at the back of their house from which -a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the most beautiful -flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no -one dared to go into it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had -great power and was dreaded by all the world. One day the woman was -standing by this window and looking down into the garden, when she saw a -bed which was planted with the most beautiful rampion (rapunzel), and it -looked so fresh and green that she longed for it, she quite pined away, -and began to look pale and miserable. Then her husband was alarmed, and -asked: 'What ails you, dear wife?' 'Ah,' she replied, 'if I can't eat -some of the rampion, which is in the garden behind our house, I shall -die.' The man, who loved her, thought: 'Sooner than let your wife die, -bring her some of the rampion yourself, let it cost what it will.' -At twilight, he clambered down over the wall into the garden of the -enchantress, hastily clutched a handful of rampion, and took it to his -wife. She at once made herself a salad of it, and ate it greedily. It -tasted so good to her--so very good, that the next day she longed for it -three times as much as before. If he was to have any rest, her husband -must once more descend into the garden. In the gloom of evening -therefore, he let himself down again; but when he had clambered down the -wall he was terribly afraid, for he saw the enchantress standing before -him. 'How can you dare,' said she with angry look, 'descend into my -garden and steal my rampion like a thief? You shall suffer for it!' -'Ah,' answered he, 'let mercy take the place of justice, I only made -up my mind to do it out of necessity. My wife saw your rampion from the -window, and felt such a longing for it that she would have died if she -had not got some to eat.' Then the enchantress allowed her anger to be -softened, and said to him: 'If the case be as you say, I will allow -you to take away with you as much rampion as you will, only I make one -condition, you must give me the child which your wife will bring into -the world; it shall be well treated, and I will care for it like a -mother.' The man in his terror consented to everything, and when the -woman was brought to bed, the enchantress appeared at once, gave the -child the name of Rapunzel, and took it away with her. - -Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was -twelve years old, the enchantress shut her into a tower, which lay in -a forest, and had neither stairs nor door, but quite at the top was a -little window. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed herself -beneath it and cried: - - 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, - Let down your hair to me.' - -Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when she -heard the voice of the enchantress she unfastened her braided tresses, -wound them round one of the hooks of the window above, and then the hair -fell twenty ells down, and the enchantress climbed up by it. - -After a year or two, it came to pass that the king's son rode through -the forest and passed by the tower. Then he heard a song, which was so -charming that he stood still and listened. This was Rapunzel, who in her -solitude passed her time in letting her sweet voice resound. The king's -son wanted to climb up to her, and looked for the door of the tower, -but none was to be found. He rode home, but the singing had so deeply -touched his heart, that every day he went out into the forest and -listened to it. Once when he was thus standing behind a tree, he saw -that an enchantress came there, and he heard how she cried: - - 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, - Let down your hair to me.' - -Then Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the enchantress -climbed up to her. 'If that is the ladder by which one mounts, I too -will try my fortune,' said he, and the next day when it began to grow -dark, he went to the tower and cried: - - 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, - Let down your hair to me.' - -Immediately the hair fell down and the king's son climbed up. - -At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man, such as her eyes -had never yet beheld, came to her; but the king's son began to talk to -her quite like a friend, and told her that his heart had been so stirred -that it had let him have no rest, and he had been forced to see her. -Then Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if she would take -him for her husband, and she saw that he was young and handsome, she -thought: 'He will love me more than old Dame Gothel does'; and she said -yes, and laid her hand in his. She said: 'I will willingly go away with -you, but I do not know how to get down. Bring with you a skein of silk -every time that you come, and I will weave a ladder with it, and when -that is ready I will descend, and you will take me on your horse.' They -agreed that until that time he should come to her every evening, for the -old woman came by day. The enchantress remarked nothing of this, until -once Rapunzel said to her: 'Tell me, Dame Gothel, how it happens that -you are so much heavier for me to draw up than the young king's son--he -is with me in a moment.' 'Ah! you wicked child,' cried the enchantress. -'What do I hear you say! I thought I had separated you from all -the world, and yet you have deceived me!' In her anger she clutched -Rapunzel's beautiful tresses, wrapped them twice round her left hand, -seized a pair of scissors with the right, and snip, snap, they were cut -off, and the lovely braids lay on the ground. And she was so pitiless -that she took poor Rapunzel into a desert where she had to live in great -grief and misery. - -On the same day that she cast out Rapunzel, however, the enchantress -fastened the braids of hair, which she had cut off, to the hook of the -window, and when the king's son came and cried: - - 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, - Let down your hair to me.' - -she let the hair down. The king's son ascended, but instead of finding -his dearest Rapunzel, he found the enchantress, who gazed at him with -wicked and venomous looks. 'Aha!' she cried mockingly, 'you would fetch -your dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the nest; -the cat has got it, and will scratch out your eyes as well. Rapunzel is -lost to you; you will never see her again.' The king's son was beside -himself with pain, and in his despair he leapt down from the tower. He -escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell pierced his -eyes. Then he wandered quite blind about the forest, ate nothing but -roots and berries, and did naught but lament and weep over the loss of -his dearest wife. Thus he roamed about in misery for some years, and at -length came to the desert where Rapunzel, with the twins to which she -had given birth, a boy and a girl, lived in wretchedness. He heard a -voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that he went towards it, and -when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck and wept. Two -of her tears wetted his eyes and they grew clear again, and he could -see with them as before. He led her to his kingdom where he was -joyfully received, and they lived for a long time afterwards, happy and -contented. - - - - -FUNDEVOGEL - -There was once a forester who went into the forest to hunt, and as -he entered it he heard a sound of screaming as if a little child were -there. He followed the sound, and at last came to a high tree, and at -the top of this a little child was sitting, for the mother had fallen -asleep under the tree with the child, and a bird of prey had seen it in -her arms, had flown down, snatched it away, and set it on the high tree. - -The forester climbed up, brought the child down, and thought to himself: -'You will take him home with you, and bring him up with your Lina.' He -took it home, therefore, and the two children grew up together. And the -one, which he had found on a tree was called Fundevogel, because a bird -had carried it away. Fundevogel and Lina loved each other so dearly that -when they did not see each other they were sad. - -Now the forester had an old cook, who one evening took two pails and -began to fetch water, and did not go once only, but many times, out -to the spring. Lina saw this and said, 'Listen, old Sanna, why are you -fetching so much water?' 'If you will never repeat it to anyone, I will -tell you why.' So Lina said, no, she would never repeat it to anyone, -and then the cook said: 'Early tomorrow morning, when the forester -is out hunting, I will heat the water, and when it is boiling in the -kettle, I will throw in Fundevogel, and will boil him in it.' - -Early next morning the forester got up and went out hunting, and when he -was gone the children were still in bed. Then Lina said to Fundevogel: -'If you will never leave me, I too will never leave you.' Fundevogel -said: 'Neither now, nor ever will I leave you.' Then said Lina: 'Then -will I tell you. Last night, old Sanna carried so many buckets of water -into the house that I asked her why she was doing that, and she said -that if I would promise not to tell anyone, and she said that early -tomorrow morning when father was out hunting, she would set the kettle -full of water, throw you into it and boil you; but we will get up -quickly, dress ourselves, and go away together.' - -The two children therefore got up, dressed themselves quickly, and went -away. When the water in the kettle was boiling, the cook went into the -bedroom to fetch Fundevogel and throw him into it. But when she came in, -and went to the beds, both the children were gone. Then she was terribly -alarmed, and she said to herself: 'What shall I say now when the -forester comes home and sees that the children are gone? They must be -followed instantly to get them back again.' - -Then the cook sent three servants after them, who were to run and -overtake the children. The children, however, were sitting outside the -forest, and when they saw from afar the three servants running, Lina -said to Fundevogel: 'Never leave me, and I will never leave you.' -Fundevogel said: 'Neither now, nor ever.' Then said Lina: 'Do you become -a rose-tree, and I the rose upon it.' When the three servants came to -the forest, nothing was there but a rose-tree and one rose on it, but -the children were nowhere. Then said they: 'There is nothing to be done -here,' and they went home and told the cook that they had seen nothing -in the forest but a little rose-bush with one rose on it. Then the -old cook scolded and said: 'You simpletons, you should have cut the -rose-bush in two, and have broken off the rose and brought it home with -you; go, and do it at once.' They had therefore to go out and look for -the second time. The children, however, saw them coming from a distance. -Then Lina said: 'Fundevogel, never leave me, and I will never leave -you.' Fundevogel said: 'Neither now; nor ever.' Said Lina: 'Then do you -become a church, and I'll be the chandelier in it.' So when the three -servants came, nothing was there but a church, with a chandelier in -it. They said therefore to each other: 'What can we do here, let us go -home.' When they got home, the cook asked if they had not found them; -so they said no, they had found nothing but a church, and there was a -chandelier in it. And the cook scolded them and said: 'You fools! why -did you not pull the church to pieces, and bring the chandelier home -with you?' And now the old cook herself got on her legs, and went with -the three servants in pursuit of the children. The children, however, -saw from afar that the three servants were coming, and the cook waddling -after them. Then said Lina: 'Fundevogel, never leave me, and I will -never leave you.' Then said Fundevogel: 'Neither now, nor ever.' -Said Lina: 'Be a fishpond, and I will be the duck upon it.' The cook, -however, came up to them, and when she saw the pond she lay down by it, -and was about to drink it up. But the duck swam quickly to her, seized -her head in its beak and drew her into the water, and there the old -witch had to drown. Then the children went home together, and were -heartily delighted, and if they have not died, they are living still. - - - - -THE VALIANT LITTLE TAILOR - -One summer's morning a little tailor was sitting on his table by the -window; he was in good spirits, and sewed with all his might. Then came -a peasant woman down the street crying: 'Good jams, cheap! Good jams, -cheap!' This rang pleasantly in the tailor's ears; he stretched his -delicate head out of the window, and called: 'Come up here, dear woman; -here you will get rid of your goods.' The woman came up the three steps -to the tailor with her heavy basket, and he made her unpack all the pots -for him. He inspected each one, lifted it up, put his nose to it, and -at length said: 'The jam seems to me to be good, so weigh me out four -ounces, dear woman, and if it is a quarter of a pound that is of no -consequence.' The woman who had hoped to find a good sale, gave him -what he desired, but went away quite angry and grumbling. 'Now, this jam -shall be blessed by God,' cried the little tailor, 'and give me health -and strength'; so he brought the bread out of the cupboard, cut himself -a piece right across the loaf and spread the jam over it. 'This won't -taste bitter,' said he, 'but I will just finish the jacket before I -take a bite.' He laid the bread near him, sewed on, and in his joy, made -bigger and bigger stitches. In the meantime the smell of the sweet jam -rose to where the flies were sitting in great numbers, and they were -attracted and descended on it in hosts. 'Hi! who invited you?' said the -little tailor, and drove the unbidden guests away. The flies, however, -who understood no German, would not be turned away, but came back -again in ever-increasing companies. The little tailor at last lost all -patience, and drew a piece of cloth from the hole under his work-table, -and saying: 'Wait, and I will give it to you,' struck it mercilessly on -them. When he drew it away and counted, there lay before him no fewer -than seven, dead and with legs stretched out. 'Are you a fellow of that -sort?' said he, and could not help admiring his own bravery. 'The whole -town shall know of this!' And the little tailor hastened to cut himself -a girdle, stitched it, and embroidered on it in large letters: 'Seven at -one stroke!' 'What, the town!' he continued, 'the whole world shall hear -of it!' and his heart wagged with joy like a lamb's tail. The tailor -put on the girdle, and resolved to go forth into the world, because he -thought his workshop was too small for his valour. Before he went away, -he sought about in the house to see if there was anything which he could -take with him; however, he found nothing but an old cheese, and that -he put in his pocket. In front of the door he observed a bird which -had caught itself in the thicket. It had to go into his pocket with the -cheese. Now he took to the road boldly, and as he was light and nimble, -he felt no fatigue. The road led him up a mountain, and when he had -reached the highest point of it, there sat a powerful giant looking -peacefully about him. The little tailor went bravely up, spoke to him, -and said: 'Good day, comrade, so you are sitting there overlooking the -wide-spread world! I am just on my way thither, and want to try my luck. -Have you any inclination to go with me?' The giant looked contemptuously -at the tailor, and said: 'You ragamuffin! You miserable creature!' - -'Oh, indeed?' answered the little tailor, and unbuttoned his coat, and -showed the giant the girdle, 'there may you read what kind of a man I -am!' The giant read: 'Seven at one stroke,' and thought that they had -been men whom the tailor had killed, and began to feel a little respect -for the tiny fellow. Nevertheless, he wished to try him first, and took -a stone in his hand and squeezed it together so that water dropped out -of it. 'Do that likewise,' said the giant, 'if you have strength.' 'Is -that all?' said the tailor, 'that is child's play with us!' and put his -hand into his pocket, brought out the soft cheese, and pressed it until -the liquid ran out of it. 'Faith,' said he, 'that was a little better, -wasn't it?' The giant did not know what to say, and could not believe it -of the little man. Then the giant picked up a stone and threw it so high -that the eye could scarcely follow it. 'Now, little mite of a man, do -that likewise,' 'Well thrown,' said the tailor, 'but after all the stone -came down to earth again; I will throw you one which shall never come -back at all,' and he put his hand into his pocket, took out the bird, -and threw it into the air. The bird, delighted with its liberty, -rose, flew away and did not come back. 'How does that shot please you, -comrade?' asked the tailor. 'You can certainly throw,' said the giant, -'but now we will see if you are able to carry anything properly.' He -took the little tailor to a mighty oak tree which lay there felled on -the ground, and said: 'If you are strong enough, help me to carry the -tree out of the forest.' 'Readily,' answered the little man; 'take you -the trunk on your shoulders, and I will raise up the branches and twigs; -after all, they are the heaviest.' The giant took the trunk on his -shoulder, but the tailor seated himself on a branch, and the giant, who -could not look round, had to carry away the whole tree, and the little -tailor into the bargain: he behind, was quite merry and happy, and -whistled the song: 'Three tailors rode forth from the gate,' as if -carrying the tree were child's play. The giant, after he had dragged the -heavy burden part of the way, could go no further, and cried: 'Hark -you, I shall have to let the tree fall!' The tailor sprang nimbly down, -seized the tree with both arms as if he had been carrying it, and said -to the giant: 'You are such a great fellow, and yet cannot even carry -the tree!' - -They went on together, and as they passed a cherry-tree, the giant laid -hold of the top of the tree where the ripest fruit was hanging, bent it -down, gave it into the tailor's hand, and bade him eat. But the little -tailor was much too weak to hold the tree, and when the giant let it go, -it sprang back again, and the tailor was tossed into the air with it. -When he had fallen down again without injury, the giant said: 'What is -this? Have you not strength enough to hold the weak twig?' 'There is no -lack of strength,' answered the little tailor. 'Do you think that could -be anything to a man who has struck down seven at one blow? I leapt over -the tree because the huntsmen are shooting down there in the thicket. -Jump as I did, if you can do it.' The giant made the attempt but he -could not get over the tree, and remained hanging in the branches, so -that in this also the tailor kept the upper hand. - -The giant said: 'If you are such a valiant fellow, come with me into our -cavern and spend the night with us.' The little tailor was willing, and -followed him. When they went into the cave, other giants were sitting -there by the fire, and each of them had a roasted sheep in his hand and -was eating it. The little tailor looked round and thought: 'It is much -more spacious here than in my workshop.' The giant showed him a bed, and -said he was to lie down in it and sleep. The bed, however, was too -big for the little tailor; he did not lie down in it, but crept into -a corner. When it was midnight, and the giant thought that the little -tailor was lying in a sound sleep, he got up, took a great iron bar, -cut through the bed with one blow, and thought he had finished off the -grasshopper for good. With the earliest dawn the giants went into the -forest, and had quite forgotten the little tailor, when all at once he -walked up to them quite merrily and boldly. The giants were terrified, -they were afraid that he would strike them all dead, and ran away in a -great hurry. - -The little tailor went onwards, always following his own pointed nose. -After he had walked for a long time, he came to the courtyard of a royal -palace, and as he felt weary, he lay down on the grass and fell asleep. -Whilst he lay there, the people came and inspected him on all sides, and -read on his girdle: 'Seven at one stroke.' 'Ah!' said they, 'what does -the great warrior want here in the midst of peace? He must be a mighty -lord.' They went and announced him to the king, and gave it as their -opinion that if war should break out, this would be a weighty and useful -man who ought on no account to be allowed to depart. The counsel pleased -the king, and he sent one of his courtiers to the little tailor to offer -him military service when he awoke. The ambassador remained standing by -the sleeper, waited until he stretched his limbs and opened his eyes, -and then conveyed to him this proposal. 'For this very reason have -I come here,' the tailor replied, 'I am ready to enter the king's -service.' He was therefore honourably received, and a special dwelling -was assigned him. - -The soldiers, however, were set against the little tailor, and wished -him a thousand miles away. 'What is to be the end of this?' they said -among themselves. 'If we quarrel with him, and he strikes about him, -seven of us will fall at every blow; not one of us can stand against -him.' They came therefore to a decision, betook themselves in a body to -the king, and begged for their dismissal. 'We are not prepared,' said -they, 'to stay with a man who kills seven at one stroke.' The king was -sorry that for the sake of one he should lose all his faithful servants, -wished that he had never set eyes on the tailor, and would willingly -have been rid of him again. But he did not venture to give him his -dismissal, for he dreaded lest he should strike him and all his people -dead, and place himself on the royal throne. He thought about it for a -long time, and at last found good counsel. He sent to the little tailor -and caused him to be informed that as he was a great warrior, he had one -request to make to him. In a forest of his country lived two giants, -who caused great mischief with their robbing, murdering, ravaging, -and burning, and no one could approach them without putting himself in -danger of death. If the tailor conquered and killed these two giants, he -would give him his only daughter to wife, and half of his kingdom as a -dowry, likewise one hundred horsemen should go with him to assist him. -'That would indeed be a fine thing for a man like me!' thought the -little tailor. 'One is not offered a beautiful princess and half a -kingdom every day of one's life!' 'Oh, yes,' he replied, 'I will soon -subdue the giants, and do not require the help of the hundred horsemen -to do it; he who can hit seven with one blow has no need to be afraid of -two.' - -The little tailor went forth, and the hundred horsemen followed him. -When he came to the outskirts of the forest, he said to his followers: -'Just stay waiting here, I alone will soon finish off the giants.' Then -he bounded into the forest and looked about right and left. After a -while he perceived both giants. They lay sleeping under a tree, and -snored so that the branches waved up and down. The little tailor, not -idle, gathered two pocketsful of stones, and with these climbed up the -tree. When he was halfway up, he slipped down by a branch, until he sat -just above the sleepers, and then let one stone after another fall on -the breast of one of the giants. For a long time the giant felt nothing, -but at last he awoke, pushed his comrade, and said: 'Why are you -knocking me?' 'You must be dreaming,' said the other, 'I am not knocking -you.' They laid themselves down to sleep again, and then the tailor -threw a stone down on the second. 'What is the meaning of this?' cried -the other 'Why are you pelting me?' 'I am not pelting you,' answered -the first, growling. They disputed about it for a time, but as they were -weary they let the matter rest, and their eyes closed once more. The -little tailor began his game again, picked out the biggest stone, and -threw it with all his might on the breast of the first giant. 'That -is too bad!' cried he, and sprang up like a madman, and pushed his -companion against the tree until it shook. The other paid him back in -the same coin, and they got into such a rage that they tore up trees and -belaboured each other so long, that at last they both fell down dead on -the ground at the same time. Then the little tailor leapt down. 'It is -a lucky thing,' said he, 'that they did not tear up the tree on which -I was sitting, or I should have had to sprint on to another like a -squirrel; but we tailors are nimble.' He drew out his sword and gave -each of them a couple of thrusts in the breast, and then went out to the -horsemen and said: 'The work is done; I have finished both of them -off, but it was hard work! They tore up trees in their sore need, and -defended themselves with them, but all that is to no purpose when a man -like myself comes, who can kill seven at one blow.' 'But are you not -wounded?' asked the horsemen. 'You need not concern yourself about -that,' answered the tailor, 'they have not bent one hair of mine.' The -horsemen would not believe him, and rode into the forest; there they -found the giants swimming in their blood, and all round about lay the -torn-up trees. - -The little tailor demanded of the king the promised reward; he, however, -repented of his promise, and again bethought himself how he could get -rid of the hero. 'Before you receive my daughter, and the half of my -kingdom,' said he to him, 'you must perform one more heroic deed. In -the forest roams a unicorn which does great harm, and you must catch -it first.' 'I fear one unicorn still less than two giants. Seven at one -blow, is my kind of affair.' He took a rope and an axe with him, went -forth into the forest, and again bade those who were sent with him to -wait outside. He had not long to seek. The unicorn soon came towards -him, and rushed directly on the tailor, as if it would gore him with its -horn without more ado. 'Softly, softly; it can't be done as quickly as -that,' said he, and stood still and waited until the animal was quite -close, and then sprang nimbly behind the tree. The unicorn ran against -the tree with all its strength, and stuck its horn so fast in the trunk -that it had not the strength enough to draw it out again, and thus it -was caught. 'Now, I have got the bird,' said the tailor, and came out -from behind the tree and put the rope round its neck, and then with his -axe he hewed the horn out of the tree, and when all was ready he led the -beast away and took it to the king. - -The king still would not give him the promised reward, and made a third -demand. Before the wedding the tailor was to catch him a wild boar that -made great havoc in the forest, and the huntsmen should give him their -help. 'Willingly,' said the tailor, 'that is child's play!' He did not -take the huntsmen with him into the forest, and they were well pleased -that he did not, for the wild boar had several times received them in -such a manner that they had no inclination to lie in wait for him. When -the boar perceived the tailor, it ran on him with foaming mouth and -whetted tusks, and was about to throw him to the ground, but the hero -fled and sprang into a chapel which was near and up to the window at -once, and in one bound out again. The boar ran after him, but the tailor -ran round outside and shut the door behind it, and then the raging -beast, which was much too heavy and awkward to leap out of the window, -was caught. The little tailor called the huntsmen thither that they -might see the prisoner with their own eyes. The hero, however, went to -the king, who was now, whether he liked it or not, obliged to keep his -promise, and gave his daughter and the half of his kingdom. Had he known -that it was no warlike hero, but a little tailor who was standing before -him, it would have gone to his heart still more than it did. The wedding -was held with great magnificence and small joy, and out of a tailor a -king was made. - -After some time the young queen heard her husband say in his dreams at -night: 'Boy, make me the doublet, and patch the pantaloons, or else I -will rap the yard-measure over your ears.' Then she discovered in what -state of life the young lord had been born, and next morning complained -of her wrongs to her father, and begged him to help her to get rid of -her husband, who was nothing else but a tailor. The king comforted her -and said: 'Leave your bedroom door open this night, and my servants -shall stand outside, and when he has fallen asleep shall go in, bind -him, and take him on board a ship which shall carry him into the wide -world.' The woman was satisfied with this; but the king's armour-bearer, -who had heard all, was friendly with the young lord, and informed him of -the whole plot. 'I'll put a screw into that business,' said the little -tailor. At night he went to bed with his wife at the usual time, and -when she thought that he had fallen asleep, she got up, opened the door, -and then lay down again. The little tailor, who was only pretending to -be asleep, began to cry out in a clear voice: 'Boy, make me the doublet -and patch me the pantaloons, or I will rap the yard-measure over your -ears. I smote seven at one blow. I killed two giants, I brought away one -unicorn, and caught a wild boar, and am I to fear those who are standing -outside the room.' When these men heard the tailor speaking thus, they -were overcome by a great dread, and ran as if the wild huntsman were -behind them, and none of them would venture anything further against -him. So the little tailor was and remained a king to the end of his -life. - - - - -HANSEL AND GRETEL - -Hard by a great forest dwelt a poor wood-cutter with his wife and his -two children. The boy was called Hansel and the girl Gretel. He had -little to bite and to break, and once when great dearth fell on the -land, he could no longer procure even daily bread. Now when he thought -over this by night in his bed, and tossed about in his anxiety, he -groaned and said to his wife: 'What is to become of us? How are we -to feed our poor children, when we no longer have anything even for -ourselves?' 'I'll tell you what, husband,' answered the woman, 'early -tomorrow morning we will take the children out into the forest to where -it is the thickest; there we will light a fire for them, and give each -of them one more piece of bread, and then we will go to our work and -leave them alone. They will not find the way home again, and we shall be -rid of them.' 'No, wife,' said the man, 'I will not do that; how can I -bear to leave my children alone in the forest?--the wild animals would -soon come and tear them to pieces.' 'O, you fool!' said she, 'then we -must all four die of hunger, you may as well plane the planks for our -coffins,' and she left him no peace until he consented. 'But I feel very -sorry for the poor children, all the same,' said the man. - -The two children had also not been able to sleep for hunger, and had -heard what their stepmother had said to their father. Gretel wept -bitter tears, and said to Hansel: 'Now all is over with us.' 'Be quiet, -Gretel,' said Hansel, 'do not distress yourself, I will soon find a way -to help us.' And when the old folks had fallen asleep, he got up, put -on his little coat, opened the door below, and crept outside. The moon -shone brightly, and the white pebbles which lay in front of the house -glittered like real silver pennies. Hansel stooped and stuffed the -little pocket of his coat with as many as he could get in. Then he went -back and said to Gretel: 'Be comforted, dear little sister, and sleep in -peace, God will not forsake us,' and he lay down again in his bed. When -day dawned, but before the sun had risen, the woman came and awoke the -two children, saying: 'Get up, you sluggards! we are going into the -forest to fetch wood.' She gave each a little piece of bread, and said: -'There is something for your dinner, but do not eat it up before then, -for you will get nothing else.' Gretel took the bread under her apron, -as Hansel had the pebbles in his pocket. Then they all set out together -on the way to the forest. When they had walked a short time, Hansel -stood still and peeped back at the house, and did so again and again. -His father said: 'Hansel, what are you looking at there and staying -behind for? Pay attention, and do not forget how to use your legs.' 'Ah, -father,' said Hansel, 'I am looking at my little white cat, which is -sitting up on the roof, and wants to say goodbye to me.' The wife said: -'Fool, that is not your little cat, that is the morning sun which is -shining on the chimneys.' Hansel, however, had not been looking back at -the cat, but had been constantly throwing one of the white pebble-stones -out of his pocket on the road. - -When they had reached the middle of the forest, the father said: 'Now, -children, pile up some wood, and I will light a fire that you may not -be cold.' Hansel and Gretel gathered brushwood together, as high as a -little hill. The brushwood was lighted, and when the flames were burning -very high, the woman said: 'Now, children, lay yourselves down by the -fire and rest, we will go into the forest and cut some wood. When we -have done, we will come back and fetch you away.' - -Hansel and Gretel sat by the fire, and when noon came, each ate a little -piece of bread, and as they heard the strokes of the wood-axe they -believed that their father was near. It was not the axe, however, but -a branch which he had fastened to a withered tree which the wind was -blowing backwards and forwards. And as they had been sitting such a long -time, their eyes closed with fatigue, and they fell fast asleep. When -at last they awoke, it was already dark night. Gretel began to cry and -said: 'How are we to get out of the forest now?' But Hansel comforted -her and said: 'Just wait a little, until the moon has risen, and then we -will soon find the way.' And when the full moon had risen, Hansel took -his little sister by the hand, and followed the pebbles which shone like -newly-coined silver pieces, and showed them the way. - -They walked the whole night long, and by break of day came once more -to their father's house. They knocked at the door, and when the woman -opened it and saw that it was Hansel and Gretel, she said: 'You naughty -children, why have you slept so long in the forest?--we thought you were -never coming back at all!' The father, however, rejoiced, for it had cut -him to the heart to leave them behind alone. - -Not long afterwards, there was once more great dearth throughout the -land, and the children heard their mother saying at night to their -father: 'Everything is eaten again, we have one half loaf left, and that -is the end. The children must go, we will take them farther into the -wood, so that they will not find their way out again; there is no other -means of saving ourselves!' The man's heart was heavy, and he thought: -'It would be better for you to share the last mouthful with your -children.' The woman, however, would listen to nothing that he had to -say, but scolded and reproached him. He who says A must say B, likewise, -and as he had yielded the first time, he had to do so a second time -also. - -The children, however, were still awake and had heard the conversation. -When the old folks were asleep, Hansel again got up, and wanted to go -out and pick up pebbles as he had done before, but the woman had locked -the door, and Hansel could not get out. Nevertheless he comforted his -little sister, and said: 'Do not cry, Gretel, go to sleep quietly, the -good God will help us.' - -Early in the morning came the woman, and took the children out of their -beds. Their piece of bread was given to them, but it was still smaller -than the time before. On the way into the forest Hansel crumbled his -in his pocket, and often stood still and threw a morsel on the ground. -'Hansel, why do you stop and look round?' said the father, 'go on.' 'I -am looking back at my little pigeon which is sitting on the roof, and -wants to say goodbye to me,' answered Hansel. 'Fool!' said the woman, -'that is not your little pigeon, that is the morning sun that is shining -on the chimney.' Hansel, however little by little, threw all the crumbs -on the path. - -The woman led the children still deeper into the forest, where they had -never in their lives been before. Then a great fire was again made, and -the mother said: 'Just sit there, you children, and when you are tired -you may sleep a little; we are going into the forest to cut wood, and in -the evening when we are done, we will come and fetch you away.' When -it was noon, Gretel shared her piece of bread with Hansel, who had -scattered his by the way. Then they fell asleep and evening passed, but -no one came to the poor children. They did not awake until it was dark -night, and Hansel comforted his little sister and said: 'Just wait, -Gretel, until the moon rises, and then we shall see the crumbs of bread -which I have strewn about, they will show us our way home again.' When -the moon came they set out, but they found no crumbs, for the many -thousands of birds which fly about in the woods and fields had picked -them all up. Hansel said to Gretel: 'We shall soon find the way,' but -they did not find it. They walked the whole night and all the next day -too from morning till evening, but they did not get out of the forest, -and were very hungry, for they had nothing to eat but two or three -berries, which grew on the ground. And as they were so weary that their -legs would carry them no longer, they lay down beneath a tree and fell -asleep. - -It was now three mornings since they had left their father's house. They -began to walk again, but they always came deeper into the forest, and if -help did not come soon, they must die of hunger and weariness. When it -was mid-day, they saw a beautiful snow-white bird sitting on a bough, -which sang so delightfully that they stood still and listened to it. And -when its song was over, it spread its wings and flew away before them, -and they followed it until they reached a little house, on the roof of -which it alighted; and when they approached the little house they saw -that it was built of bread and covered with cakes, but that the windows -were of clear sugar. 'We will set to work on that,' said Hansel, 'and -have a good meal. I will eat a bit of the roof, and you Gretel, can eat -some of the window, it will taste sweet.' Hansel reached up above, and -broke off a little of the roof to try how it tasted, and Gretel leant -against the window and nibbled at the panes. Then a soft voice cried -from the parlour: - - 'Nibble, nibble, gnaw, - Who is nibbling at my little house?' - -The children answered: - - 'The wind, the wind, - The heaven-born wind,' - -and went on eating without disturbing themselves. Hansel, who liked the -taste of the roof, tore down a great piece of it, and Gretel pushed out -the whole of one round window-pane, sat down, and enjoyed herself with -it. Suddenly the door opened, and a woman as old as the hills, who -supported herself on crutches, came creeping out. Hansel and Gretel were -so terribly frightened that they let fall what they had in their -hands. The old woman, however, nodded her head, and said: 'Oh, you dear -children, who has brought you here? do come in, and stay with me. No -harm shall happen to you.' She took them both by the hand, and led them -into her little house. Then good food was set before them, milk and -pancakes, with sugar, apples, and nuts. Afterwards two pretty little -beds were covered with clean white linen, and Hansel and Gretel lay down -in them, and thought they were in heaven. - -The old woman had only pretended to be so kind; she was in reality -a wicked witch, who lay in wait for children, and had only built the -little house of bread in order to entice them there. When a child fell -into her power, she killed it, cooked and ate it, and that was a feast -day with her. Witches have red eyes, and cannot see far, but they have -a keen scent like the beasts, and are aware when human beings draw near. -When Hansel and Gretel came into her neighbourhood, she laughed with -malice, and said mockingly: 'I have them, they shall not escape me -again!' Early in the morning before the children were awake, she was -already up, and when she saw both of them sleeping and looking so -pretty, with their plump and rosy cheeks she muttered to herself: 'That -will be a dainty mouthful!' Then she seized Hansel with her shrivelled -hand, carried him into a little stable, and locked him in behind a -grated door. Scream as he might, it would not help him. Then she went to -Gretel, shook her till she awoke, and cried: 'Get up, lazy thing, fetch -some water, and cook something good for your brother, he is in the -stable outside, and is to be made fat. When he is fat, I will eat him.' -Gretel began to weep bitterly, but it was all in vain, for she was -forced to do what the wicked witch commanded. - -And now the best food was cooked for poor Hansel, but Gretel got nothing -but crab-shells. Every morning the woman crept to the little stable, and -cried: 'Hansel, stretch out your finger that I may feel if you will soon -be fat.' Hansel, however, stretched out a little bone to her, and -the old woman, who had dim eyes, could not see it, and thought it was -Hansel's finger, and was astonished that there was no way of fattening -him. When four weeks had gone by, and Hansel still remained thin, she -was seized with impatience and would not wait any longer. 'Now, then, -Gretel,' she cried to the girl, 'stir yourself, and bring some water. -Let Hansel be fat or lean, tomorrow I will kill him, and cook him.' Ah, -how the poor little sister did lament when she had to fetch the water, -and how her tears did flow down her cheeks! 'Dear God, do help us,' she -cried. 'If the wild beasts in the forest had but devoured us, we should -at any rate have died together.' 'Just keep your noise to yourself,' -said the old woman, 'it won't help you at all.' - -Early in the morning, Gretel had to go out and hang up the cauldron with -the water, and light the fire. 'We will bake first,' said the old woman, -'I have already heated the oven, and kneaded the dough.' She pushed poor -Gretel out to the oven, from which flames of fire were already darting. -'Creep in,' said the witch, 'and see if it is properly heated, so that -we can put the bread in.' And once Gretel was inside, she intended to -shut the oven and let her bake in it, and then she would eat her, too. -But Gretel saw what she had in mind, and said: 'I do not know how I am -to do it; how do I get in?' 'Silly goose,' said the old woman. 'The door -is big enough; just look, I can get in myself!' and she crept up and -thrust her head into the oven. Then Gretel gave her a push that drove -her far into it, and shut the iron door, and fastened the bolt. Oh! then -she began to howl quite horribly, but Gretel ran away and the godless -witch was miserably burnt to death. - -Gretel, however, ran like lightning to Hansel, opened his little stable, -and cried: 'Hansel, we are saved! The old witch is dead!' Then Hansel -sprang like a bird from its cage when the door is opened. How they did -rejoice and embrace each other, and dance about and kiss each other! And -as they had no longer any need to fear her, they went into the witch's -house, and in every corner there stood chests full of pearls and jewels. -'These are far better than pebbles!' said Hansel, and thrust into his -pockets whatever could be got in, and Gretel said: 'I, too, will take -something home with me,' and filled her pinafore full. 'But now we must -be off,' said Hansel, 'that we may get out of the witch's forest.' - -When they had walked for two hours, they came to a great stretch of -water. 'We cannot cross,' said Hansel, 'I see no foot-plank, and no -bridge.' 'And there is also no ferry,' answered Gretel, 'but a white -duck is swimming there: if I ask her, she will help us over.' Then she -cried: - - 'Little duck, little duck, dost thou see, - Hansel and Gretel are waiting for thee? - There's never a plank, or bridge in sight, - Take us across on thy back so white.' - -The duck came to them, and Hansel seated himself on its back, and told -his sister to sit by him. 'No,' replied Gretel, 'that will be too heavy -for the little duck; she shall take us across, one after the other.' The -good little duck did so, and when they were once safely across and had -walked for a short time, the forest seemed to be more and more familiar -to them, and at length they saw from afar their father's house. Then -they began to run, rushed into the parlour, and threw themselves round -their father's neck. The man had not known one happy hour since he had -left the children in the forest; the woman, however, was dead. Gretel -emptied her pinafore until pearls and precious stones ran about the -room, and Hansel threw one handful after another out of his pocket to -add to them. Then all anxiety was at an end, and they lived together -in perfect happiness. My tale is done, there runs a mouse; whosoever -catches it, may make himself a big fur cap out of it. - - - - -THE MOUSE, THE BIRD, AND THE SAUSAGE - -Once upon a time, a mouse, a bird, and a sausage, entered into -partnership and set up house together. For a long time all went well; -they lived in great comfort, and prospered so far as to be able to add -considerably to their stores. The bird's duty was to fly daily into the -wood and bring in fuel; the mouse fetched the water, and the sausage saw -to the cooking. - -When people are too well off they always begin to long for something -new. And so it came to pass, that the bird, while out one day, met a -fellow bird, to whom he boastfully expatiated on the excellence of his -household arrangements. But the other bird sneered at him for being a -poor simpleton, who did all the hard work, while the other two stayed -at home and had a good time of it. For, when the mouse had made the fire -and fetched in the water, she could retire into her little room and rest -until it was time to set the table. The sausage had only to watch the -pot to see that the food was properly cooked, and when it was near -dinner-time, he just threw himself into the broth, or rolled in and out -among the vegetables three or four times, and there they were, buttered, -and salted, and ready to be served. Then, when the bird came home and -had laid aside his burden, they sat down to table, and when they had -finished their meal, they could sleep their fill till the following -morning: and that was really a very delightful life. - -Influenced by those remarks, the bird next morning refused to bring in -the wood, telling the others that he had been their servant long enough, -and had been a fool into the bargain, and that it was now time to make a -change, and to try some other way of arranging the work. Beg and pray -as the mouse and the sausage might, it was of no use; the bird remained -master of the situation, and the venture had to be made. They therefore -drew lots, and it fell to the sausage to bring in the wood, to the mouse -to cook, and to the bird to fetch the water. - -And now what happened? The sausage started in search of wood, the bird -made the fire, and the mouse put on the pot, and then these two waited -till the sausage returned with the fuel for the following day. But the -sausage remained so long away, that they became uneasy, and the bird -flew out to meet him. He had not flown far, however, when he came across -a dog who, having met the sausage, had regarded him as his legitimate -booty, and so seized and swallowed him. The bird complained to the dog -of this bare-faced robbery, but nothing he said was of any avail, for -the dog answered that he found false credentials on the sausage, and -that was the reason his life had been forfeited. - -He picked up the wood, and flew sadly home, and told the mouse all he -had seen and heard. They were both very unhappy, but agreed to make the -best of things and to remain with one another. - -So now the bird set the table, and the mouse looked after the food and, -wishing to prepare it in the same way as the sausage, by rolling in and -out among the vegetables to salt and butter them, she jumped into the -pot; but she stopped short long before she reached the bottom, having -already parted not only with her skin and hair, but also with life. - -Presently the bird came in and wanted to serve up the dinner, but he -could nowhere see the cook. In his alarm and flurry, he threw the wood -here and there about the floor, called and searched, but no cook was to -be found. Then some of the wood that had been carelessly thrown down, -caught fire and began to blaze. The bird hastened to fetch some water, -but his pail fell into the well, and he after it, and as he was unable -to recover himself, he was drowned. - - - - -MOTHER HOLLE - -Once upon a time there was a widow who had two daughters; one of them -was beautiful and industrious, the other ugly and lazy. The mother, -however, loved the ugly and lazy one best, because she was her own -daughter, and so the other, who was only her stepdaughter, was made -to do all the work of the house, and was quite the Cinderella of the -family. Her stepmother sent her out every day to sit by the well in -the high road, there to spin until she made her fingers bleed. Now it -chanced one day that some blood fell on to the spindle, and as the girl -stopped over the well to wash it off, the spindle suddenly sprang out -of her hand and fell into the well. She ran home crying to tell of her -misfortune, but her stepmother spoke harshly to her, and after giving -her a violent scolding, said unkindly, 'As you have let the spindle fall -into the well you may go yourself and fetch it out.' - -The girl went back to the well not knowing what to do, and at last in -her distress she jumped into the water after the spindle. - -She remembered nothing more until she awoke and found herself in a -beautiful meadow, full of sunshine, and with countless flowers blooming -in every direction. - -She walked over the meadow, and presently she came upon a baker's oven -full of bread, and the loaves cried out to her, 'Take us out, take us -out, or alas! we shall be burnt to a cinder; we were baked through long -ago.' So she took the bread-shovel and drew them all out. - -She went on a little farther, till she came to a tree full of apples. -'Shake me, shake me, I pray,' cried the tree; 'my apples, one and all, -are ripe.' So she shook the tree, and the apples came falling down upon -her like rain; but she continued shaking until there was not a single -apple left upon it. Then she carefully gathered the apples together in a -heap and walked on again. - -The next thing she came to was a little house, and there she saw an old -woman looking out, with such large teeth, that she was terrified, and -turned to run away. But the old woman called after her, 'What are you -afraid of, dear child? Stay with me; if you will do the work of my house -properly for me, I will make you very happy. You must be very careful, -however, to make my bed in the right way, for I wish you always to shake -it thoroughly, so that the feathers fly about; then they say, down there -in the world, that it is snowing; for I am Mother Holle.' The old woman -spoke so kindly, that the girl summoned up courage and agreed to enter -into her service. - -She took care to do everything according to the old woman's bidding and -every time she made the bed she shook it with all her might, so that the -feathers flew about like so many snowflakes. The old woman was as good -as her word: she never spoke angrily to her, and gave her roast and -boiled meats every day. - -So she stayed on with Mother Holle for some time, and then she began -to grow unhappy. She could not at first tell why she felt sad, but she -became conscious at last of great longing to go home; then she knew she -was homesick, although she was a thousand times better off with Mother -Holle than with her mother and sister. After waiting awhile, she went -to Mother Holle and said, 'I am so homesick, that I cannot stay with -you any longer, for although I am so happy here, I must return to my own -people.' - -Then Mother Holle said, 'I am pleased that you should want to go back -to your own people, and as you have served me so well and faithfully, I -will take you home myself.' - -Thereupon she led the girl by the hand up to a broad gateway. The gate -was opened, and as the girl passed through, a shower of gold fell upon -her, and the gold clung to her, so that she was covered with it from -head to foot. - -'That is a reward for your industry,' said Mother Holle, and as she -spoke she handed her the spindle which she had dropped into the well. - -The gate was then closed, and the girl found herself back in the old -world close to her mother's house. As she entered the courtyard, the -cock who was perched on the well, called out: - - 'Cock-a-doodle-doo! - Your golden daughter's come back to you.' - -Then she went in to her mother and sister, and as she was so richly -covered with gold, they gave her a warm welcome. She related to them -all that had happened, and when the mother heard how she had come by her -great riches, she thought she should like her ugly, lazy daughter to go -and try her fortune. So she made the sister go and sit by the well -and spin, and the girl pricked her finger and thrust her hand into a -thorn-bush, so that she might drop some blood on to the spindle; then -she threw it into the well, and jumped in herself. - -Like her sister she awoke in the beautiful meadow, and walked over it -till she came to the oven. 'Take us out, take us out, or alas! we shall -be burnt to a cinder; we were baked through long ago,' cried the loaves -as before. But the lazy girl answered, 'Do you think I am going to dirty -my hands for you?' and walked on. - -Presently she came to the apple-tree. 'Shake me, shake me, I pray; my -apples, one and all, are ripe,' it cried. But she only answered, 'A nice -thing to ask me to do, one of the apples might fall on my head,' and -passed on. - -At last she came to Mother Holle's house, and as she had heard all about -the large teeth from her sister, she was not afraid of them, and engaged -herself without delay to the old woman. - -The first day she was very obedient and industrious, and exerted herself -to please Mother Holle, for she thought of the gold she should get in -return. The next day, however, she began to dawdle over her work, and -the third day she was more idle still; then she began to lie in bed in -the mornings and refused to get up. Worse still, she neglected to -make the old woman's bed properly, and forgot to shake it so that the -feathers might fly about. So Mother Holle very soon got tired of her, -and told her she might go. The lazy girl was delighted at this, and -thought to herself, 'The gold will soon be mine.' Mother Holle led her, -as she had led her sister, to the broad gateway; but as she was passing -through, instead of the shower of gold, a great bucketful of pitch came -pouring over her. - -'That is in return for your services,' said the old woman, and she shut -the gate. - -So the lazy girl had to go home covered with pitch, and the cock on the -well called out as she saw her: - - 'Cock-a-doodle-doo! - Your dirty daughter's come back to you.' - -But, try what she would, she could not get the pitch off and it stuck to -her as long as she lived. - - - - -LITTLE RED-CAP [LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD] - -Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was loved by everyone -who looked at her, but most of all by her grandmother, and there was -nothing that she would not have given to the child. Once she gave her a -little cap of red velvet, which suited her so well that she would never -wear anything else; so she was always called 'Little Red-Cap.' - -One day her mother said to her: 'Come, Little Red-Cap, here is a piece -of cake and a bottle of wine; take them to your grandmother, she is ill -and weak, and they will do her good. Set out before it gets hot, and -when you are going, walk nicely and quietly and do not run off the path, -or you may fall and break the bottle, and then your grandmother will -get nothing; and when you go into her room, don't forget to say, "Good -morning", and don't peep into every corner before you do it.' - -'I will take great care,' said Little Red-Cap to her mother, and gave -her hand on it. - -The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the village, -and just as Little Red-Cap entered the wood, a wolf met her. Red-Cap -did not know what a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of -him. - -'Good day, Little Red-Cap,' said he. - -'Thank you kindly, wolf.' - -'Whither away so early, Little Red-Cap?' - -'To my grandmother's.' - -'What have you got in your apron?' - -'Cake and wine; yesterday was baking-day, so poor sick grandmother is to -have something good, to make her stronger.' - -'Where does your grandmother live, Little Red-Cap?' - -'A good quarter of a league farther on in the wood; her house stands -under the three large oak-trees, the nut-trees are just below; you -surely must know it,' replied Little Red-Cap. - -The wolf thought to himself: 'What a tender young creature! what a nice -plump mouthful--she will be better to eat than the old woman. I must -act craftily, so as to catch both.' So he walked for a short time by -the side of Little Red-Cap, and then he said: 'See, Little Red-Cap, how -pretty the flowers are about here--why do you not look round? I believe, -too, that you do not hear how sweetly the little birds are singing; you -walk gravely along as if you were going to school, while everything else -out here in the wood is merry.' - -Little Red-Cap raised her eyes, and when she saw the sunbeams dancing -here and there through the trees, and pretty flowers growing everywhere, -she thought: 'Suppose I take grandmother a fresh nosegay; that would -please her too. It is so early in the day that I shall still get there -in good time'; and so she ran from the path into the wood to look for -flowers. And whenever she had picked one, she fancied that she saw a -still prettier one farther on, and ran after it, and so got deeper and -deeper into the wood. - -Meanwhile the wolf ran straight to the grandmother's house and knocked -at the door. - -'Who is there?' - -'Little Red-Cap,' replied the wolf. 'She is bringing cake and wine; open -the door.' - -'Lift the latch,' called out the grandmother, 'I am too weak, and cannot -get up.' - -The wolf lifted the latch, the door sprang open, and without saying a -word he went straight to the grandmother's bed, and devoured her. Then -he put on her clothes, dressed himself in her cap laid himself in bed -and drew the curtains. - -Little Red-Cap, however, had been running about picking flowers, -and when she had gathered so many that she could carry no more, she -remembered her grandmother, and set out on the way to her. - -She was surprised to find the cottage-door standing open, and when she -went into the room, she had such a strange feeling that she said to -herself: 'Oh dear! how uneasy I feel today, and at other times I like -being with grandmother so much.' She called out: 'Good morning,' but -received no answer; so she went to the bed and drew back the curtains. -There lay her grandmother with her cap pulled far over her face, and -looking very strange. - -'Oh! grandmother,' she said, 'what big ears you have!' - -'The better to hear you with, my child,' was the reply. - -'But, grandmother, what big eyes you have!' she said. - -'The better to see you with, my dear.' - -'But, grandmother, what large hands you have!' - -'The better to hug you with.' - -'Oh! but, grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have!' - -'The better to eat you with!' - -And scarcely had the wolf said this, than with one bound he was out of -bed and swallowed up Red-Cap. - -When the wolf had appeased his appetite, he lay down again in the bed, -fell asleep and began to snore very loud. The huntsman was just passing -the house, and thought to himself: 'How the old woman is snoring! I must -just see if she wants anything.' So he went into the room, and when he -came to the bed, he saw that the wolf was lying in it. 'Do I find you -here, you old sinner!' said he. 'I have long sought you!' Then just as -he was going to fire at him, it occurred to him that the wolf might have -devoured the grandmother, and that she might still be saved, so he did -not fire, but took a pair of scissors, and began to cut open the stomach -of the sleeping wolf. When he had made two snips, he saw the little -Red-Cap shining, and then he made two snips more, and the little girl -sprang out, crying: 'Ah, how frightened I have been! How dark it was -inside the wolf'; and after that the aged grandmother came out alive -also, but scarcely able to breathe. Red-Cap, however, quickly fetched -great stones with which they filled the wolf's belly, and when he awoke, -he wanted to run away, but the stones were so heavy that he collapsed at -once, and fell dead. - -Then all three were delighted. The huntsman drew off the wolf's skin and -went home with it; the grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine which -Red-Cap had brought, and revived, but Red-Cap thought to herself: 'As -long as I live, I will never by myself leave the path, to run into the -wood, when my mother has forbidden me to do so.' - - - - -It also related that once when Red-Cap was again taking cakes to the old -grandmother, another wolf spoke to her, and tried to entice her from the -path. Red-Cap, however, was on her guard, and went straight forward on -her way, and told her grandmother that she had met the wolf, and that he -had said 'good morning' to her, but with such a wicked look in his eyes, -that if they had not been on the public road she was certain he would -have eaten her up. 'Well,' said the grandmother, 'we will shut the door, -that he may not come in.' Soon afterwards the wolf knocked, and cried: -'Open the door, grandmother, I am Little Red-Cap, and am bringing you -some cakes.' But they did not speak, or open the door, so the grey-beard -stole twice or thrice round the house, and at last jumped on the roof, -intending to wait until Red-Cap went home in the evening, and then to -steal after her and devour her in the darkness. But the grandmother -saw what was in his thoughts. In front of the house was a great stone -trough, so she said to the child: 'Take the pail, Red-Cap; I made some -sausages yesterday, so carry the water in which I boiled them to the -trough.' Red-Cap carried until the great trough was quite full. Then the -smell of the sausages reached the wolf, and he sniffed and peeped down, -and at last stretched out his neck so far that he could no longer keep -his footing and began to slip, and slipped down from the roof straight -into the great trough, and was drowned. But Red-Cap went joyously home, -and no one ever did anything to harm her again. - - - - -THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM - -There was once a miller who had one beautiful daughter, and as she was -grown up, he was anxious that she should be well married and provided -for. He said to himself, 'I will give her to the first suitable man who -comes and asks for her hand.' Not long after a suitor appeared, and as -he appeared to be very rich and the miller could see nothing in him with -which to find fault, he betrothed his daughter to him. But the girl did -not care for the man as a girl ought to care for her betrothed husband. -She did not feel that she could trust him, and she could not look at him -nor think of him without an inward shudder. One day he said to her, 'You -have not yet paid me a visit, although we have been betrothed for some -time.' 'I do not know where your house is,' she answered. 'My house is -out there in the dark forest,' he said. She tried to excuse herself by -saying that she would not be able to find the way thither. Her betrothed -only replied, 'You must come and see me next Sunday; I have already -invited guests for that day, and that you may not mistake the way, I -will strew ashes along the path.' - -When Sunday came, and it was time for the girl to start, a feeling of -dread came over her which she could not explain, and that she might -be able to find her path again, she filled her pockets with peas and -lentils to sprinkle on the ground as she went along. On reaching the -entrance to the forest she found the path strewed with ashes, and these -she followed, throwing down some peas on either side of her at every -step she took. She walked the whole day until she came to the deepest, -darkest part of the forest. There she saw a lonely house, looking so -grim and mysterious, that it did not please her at all. She stepped -inside, but not a soul was to be seen, and a great silence reigned -throughout. Suddenly a voice cried: - - 'Turn back, turn back, young maiden fair, - Linger not in this murderers' lair.' - -The girl looked up and saw that the voice came from a bird hanging in a -cage on the wall. Again it cried: - - 'Turn back, turn back, young maiden fair, - Linger not in this murderers' lair.' - -The girl passed on, going from room to room of the house, but they were -all empty, and still she saw no one. At last she came to the cellar, -and there sat a very, very old woman, who could not keep her head from -shaking. 'Can you tell me,' asked the girl, 'if my betrothed husband -lives here?' - -'Ah, you poor child,' answered the old woman, 'what a place for you to -come to! This is a murderers' den. You think yourself a promised bride, -and that your marriage will soon take place, but it is with death that -you will keep your marriage feast. Look, do you see that large cauldron -of water which I am obliged to keep on the fire! As soon as they have -you in their power they will kill you without mercy, and cook and eat -you, for they are eaters of men. If I did not take pity on you and save -you, you would be lost.' - -Thereupon the old woman led her behind a large cask, which quite hid her -from view. 'Keep as still as a mouse,' she said; 'do not move or speak, -or it will be all over with you. Tonight, when the robbers are -all asleep, we will flee together. I have long been waiting for an -opportunity to escape.' - -The words were hardly out of her mouth when the godless crew returned, -dragging another young girl along with them. They were all drunk, and -paid no heed to her cries and lamentations. They gave her wine to drink, -three glasses full, one of white wine, one of red, and one of yellow, -and with that her heart gave way and she died. Then they tore off her -dainty clothing, laid her on a table, and cut her beautiful body into -pieces, and sprinkled salt upon it. - -The poor betrothed girl crouched trembling and shuddering behind the -cask, for she saw what a terrible fate had been intended for her by -the robbers. One of them now noticed a gold ring still remaining on -the little finger of the murdered girl, and as he could not draw it off -easily, he took a hatchet and cut off the finger; but the finger sprang -into the air, and fell behind the cask into the lap of the girl who was -hiding there. The robber took a light and began looking for it, but he -could not find it. 'Have you looked behind the large cask?' said one of -the others. But the old woman called out, 'Come and eat your suppers, -and let the thing be till tomorrow; the finger won't run away.' - -'The old woman is right,' said the robbers, and they ceased looking for -the finger and sat down. - -The old woman then mixed a sleeping draught with their wine, and before -long they were all lying on the floor of the cellar, fast asleep and -snoring. As soon as the girl was assured of this, she came from behind -the cask. She was obliged to step over the bodies of the sleepers, who -were lying close together, and every moment she was filled with renewed -dread lest she should awaken them. But God helped her, so that she -passed safely over them, and then she and the old woman went upstairs, -opened the door, and hastened as fast as they could from the murderers' -den. They found the ashes scattered by the wind, but the peas and -lentils had sprouted, and grown sufficiently above the ground, to guide -them in the moonlight along the path. All night long they walked, and it -was morning before they reached the mill. Then the girl told her father -all that had happened. - -The day came that had been fixed for the marriage. The bridegroom -arrived and also a large company of guests, for the miller had taken -care to invite all his friends and relations. As they sat at the feast, -each guest in turn was asked to tell a tale; the bride sat still and did -not say a word. - -'And you, my love,' said the bridegroom, turning to her, 'is there no -tale you know? Tell us something.' - -'I will tell you a dream, then,' said the bride. 'I went alone through a -forest and came at last to a house; not a soul could I find within, but -a bird that was hanging in a cage on the wall cried: - - 'Turn back, turn back, young maiden fair, - Linger not in this murderers' lair.' - -and again a second time it said these words.' - -'My darling, this is only a dream.' - -'I went on through the house from room to room, but they were all empty, -and everything was so grim and mysterious. At last I went down to the -cellar, and there sat a very, very old woman, who could not keep her -head still. I asked her if my betrothed lived here, and she answered, -"Ah, you poor child, you are come to a murderers' den; your betrothed -does indeed live here, but he will kill you without mercy and afterwards -cook and eat you."' - -'My darling, this is only a dream.' - -'The old woman hid me behind a large cask, and scarcely had she done -this when the robbers returned home, dragging a young girl along with -them. They gave her three kinds of wine to drink, white, red, and -yellow, and with that she died.' - -'My darling, this is only a dream.' - -'Then they tore off her dainty clothing, and cut her beautiful body into -pieces and sprinkled salt upon it.' - -'My darling, this is only a dream.' - -'And one of the robbers saw that there was a gold ring still left on her -finger, and as it was difficult to draw off, he took a hatchet and cut -off her finger; but the finger sprang into the air and fell behind the -great cask into my lap. And here is the finger with the ring.' And -with these words the bride drew forth the finger and shewed it to the -assembled guests. - -The bridegroom, who during this recital had grown deadly pale, up and -tried to escape, but the guests seized him and held him fast. They -delivered him up to justice, and he and all his murderous band were -condemned to death for their wicked deeds. - - - - -TOM THUMB - -A poor woodman sat in his cottage one night, smoking his pipe by the -fireside, while his wife sat by his side spinning. 'How lonely it is, -wife,' said he, as he puffed out a long curl of smoke, 'for you and me -to sit here by ourselves, without any children to play about and amuse -us while other people seem so happy and merry with their children!' -'What you say is very true,' said the wife, sighing, and turning round -her wheel; 'how happy should I be if I had but one child! If it were -ever so small--nay, if it were no bigger than my thumb--I should be very -happy, and love it dearly.' Now--odd as you may think it--it came to -pass that this good woman's wish was fulfilled, just in the very way she -had wished it; for, not long afterwards, she had a little boy, who was -quite healthy and strong, but was not much bigger than my thumb. So -they said, 'Well, we cannot say we have not got what we wished for, and, -little as he is, we will love him dearly.' And they called him Thomas -Thumb. - -They gave him plenty of food, yet for all they could do he never grew -bigger, but kept just the same size as he had been when he was born. -Still, his eyes were sharp and sparkling, and he soon showed himself to -be a clever little fellow, who always knew well what he was about. - -One day, as the woodman was getting ready to go into the wood to cut -fuel, he said, 'I wish I had someone to bring the cart after me, for I -want to make haste.' 'Oh, father,' cried Tom, 'I will take care of that; -the cart shall be in the wood by the time you want it.' Then the woodman -laughed, and said, 'How can that be? you cannot reach up to the horse's -bridle.' 'Never mind that, father,' said Tom; 'if my mother will only -harness the horse, I will get into his ear and tell him which way to -go.' 'Well,' said the father, 'we will try for once.' - -When the time came the mother harnessed the horse to the cart, and put -Tom into his ear; and as he sat there the little man told the beast how -to go, crying out, 'Go on!' and 'Stop!' as he wanted: and thus the horse -went on just as well as if the woodman had driven it himself into the -wood. It happened that as the horse was going a little too fast, and Tom -was calling out, 'Gently! gently!' two strangers came up. 'What an odd -thing that is!' said one: 'there is a cart going along, and I hear a -carter talking to the horse, but yet I can see no one.' 'That is queer, -indeed,' said the other; 'let us follow the cart, and see where it -goes.' So they went on into the wood, till at last they came to the -place where the woodman was. Then Tom Thumb, seeing his father, cried -out, 'See, father, here I am with the cart, all right and safe! now take -me down!' So his father took hold of the horse with one hand, and with -the other took his son out of the horse's ear, and put him down upon a -straw, where he sat as merry as you please. - -The two strangers were all this time looking on, and did not know what -to say for wonder. At last one took the other aside, and said, 'That -little urchin will make our fortune, if we can get him, and carry him -about from town to town as a show; we must buy him.' So they went up to -the woodman, and asked him what he would take for the little man. 'He -will be better off,' said they, 'with us than with you.' 'I won't sell -him at all,' said the father; 'my own flesh and blood is dearer to me -than all the silver and gold in the world.' But Tom, hearing of the -bargain they wanted to make, crept up his father's coat to his shoulder -and whispered in his ear, 'Take the money, father, and let them have me; -I'll soon come back to you.' - -So the woodman at last said he would sell Tom to the strangers for a -large piece of gold, and they paid the price. 'Where would you like to -sit?' said one of them. 'Oh, put me on the rim of your hat; that will be -a nice gallery for me; I can walk about there and see the country as we -go along.' So they did as he wished; and when Tom had taken leave of his -father they took him away with them. - -They journeyed on till it began to be dusky, and then the little man -said, 'Let me get down, I'm tired.' So the man took off his hat, and -put him down on a clod of earth, in a ploughed field by the side of the -road. But Tom ran about amongst the furrows, and at last slipped into -an old mouse-hole. 'Good night, my masters!' said he, 'I'm off! mind and -look sharp after me the next time.' Then they ran at once to the place, -and poked the ends of their sticks into the mouse-hole, but all in vain; -Tom only crawled farther and farther in; and at last it became quite -dark, so that they were forced to go their way without their prize, as -sulky as could be. - -When Tom found they were gone, he came out of his hiding-place. 'What -dangerous walking it is,' said he, 'in this ploughed field! If I were to -fall from one of these great clods, I should undoubtedly break my neck.' -At last, by good luck, he found a large empty snail-shell. 'This is -lucky,' said he, 'I can sleep here very well'; and in he crept. - -Just as he was falling asleep, he heard two men passing by, chatting -together; and one said to the other, 'How can we rob that rich parson's -house of his silver and gold?' 'I'll tell you!' cried Tom. 'What noise -was that?' said the thief, frightened; 'I'm sure I heard someone speak.' -They stood still listening, and Tom said, 'Take me with you, and I'll -soon show you how to get the parson's money.' 'But where are you?' said -they. 'Look about on the ground,' answered he, 'and listen where the -sound comes from.' At last the thieves found him out, and lifted him -up in their hands. 'You little urchin!' they said, 'what can you do for -us?' 'Why, I can get between the iron window-bars of the parson's house, -and throw you out whatever you want.' 'That's a good thought,' said the -thieves; 'come along, we shall see what you can do.' - -When they came to the parson's house, Tom slipped through the -window-bars into the room, and then called out as loud as he could bawl, -'Will you have all that is here?' At this the thieves were frightened, -and said, 'Softly, softly! Speak low, that you may not awaken anybody.' -But Tom seemed as if he did not understand them, and bawled out again, -'How much will you have? Shall I throw it all out?' Now the cook lay in -the next room; and hearing a noise she raised herself up in her bed and -listened. Meantime the thieves were frightened, and ran off a little -way; but at last they plucked up their hearts, and said, 'The little -urchin is only trying to make fools of us.' So they came back and -whispered softly to him, saying, 'Now let us have no more of your -roguish jokes; but throw us out some of the money.' Then Tom called out -as loud as he could, 'Very well! hold your hands! here it comes.' - -The cook heard this quite plain, so she sprang out of bed, and ran to -open the door. The thieves ran off as if a wolf was at their tails: and -the maid, having groped about and found nothing, went away for a light. -By the time she came back, Tom had slipped off into the barn; and when -she had looked about and searched every hole and corner, and found -nobody, she went to bed, thinking she must have been dreaming with her -eyes open. - -The little man crawled about in the hay-loft, and at last found a snug -place to finish his night's rest in; so he laid himself down, meaning -to sleep till daylight, and then find his way home to his father and -mother. But alas! how woefully he was undone! what crosses and sorrows -happen to us all in this world! The cook got up early, before daybreak, -to feed the cows; and going straight to the hay-loft, carried away -a large bundle of hay, with the little man in the middle of it, fast -asleep. He still, however, slept on, and did not awake till he found -himself in the mouth of the cow; for the cook had put the hay into the -cow's rick, and the cow had taken Tom up in a mouthful of it. 'Good -lack-a-day!' said he, 'how came I to tumble into the mill?' But he soon -found out where he really was; and was forced to have all his wits about -him, that he might not get between the cow's teeth, and so be crushed to -death. At last down he went into her stomach. 'It is rather dark,' said -he; 'they forgot to build windows in this room to let the sun in; a -candle would be no bad thing.' - -Though he made the best of his bad luck, he did not like his quarters at -all; and the worst of it was, that more and more hay was always coming -down, and the space left for him became smaller and smaller. At last he -cried out as loud as he could, 'Don't bring me any more hay! Don't bring -me any more hay!' - -The maid happened to be just then milking the cow; and hearing someone -speak, but seeing nobody, and yet being quite sure it was the same voice -that she had heard in the night, she was so frightened that she fell off -her stool, and overset the milk-pail. As soon as she could pick herself -up out of the dirt, she ran off as fast as she could to her master the -parson, and said, 'Sir, sir, the cow is talking!' But the parson -said, 'Woman, thou art surely mad!' However, he went with her into the -cow-house, to try and see what was the matter. - -Scarcely had they set foot on the threshold, when Tom called out, 'Don't -bring me any more hay!' Then the parson himself was frightened; and -thinking the cow was surely bewitched, told his man to kill her on the -spot. So the cow was killed, and cut up; and the stomach, in which Tom -lay, was thrown out upon a dunghill. - -Tom soon set himself to work to get out, which was not a very easy -task; but at last, just as he had made room to get his head out, fresh -ill-luck befell him. A hungry wolf sprang out, and swallowed up the -whole stomach, with Tom in it, at one gulp, and ran away. - -Tom, however, was still not disheartened; and thinking the wolf would -not dislike having some chat with him as he was going along, he called -out, 'My good friend, I can show you a famous treat.' 'Where's that?' -said the wolf. 'In such and such a house,' said Tom, describing his own -father's house. 'You can crawl through the drain into the kitchen and -then into the pantry, and there you will find cakes, ham, beef, cold -chicken, roast pig, apple-dumplings, and everything that your heart can -wish.' - -The wolf did not want to be asked twice; so that very night he went to -the house and crawled through the drain into the kitchen, and then into -the pantry, and ate and drank there to his heart's content. As soon as -he had had enough he wanted to get away; but he had eaten so much that -he could not go out by the same way he came in. - -This was just what Tom had reckoned upon; and now he began to set up a -great shout, making all the noise he could. 'Will you be easy?' said the -wolf; 'you'll awaken everybody in the house if you make such a clatter.' -'What's that to me?' said the little man; 'you have had your frolic, now -I've a mind to be merry myself'; and he began, singing and shouting as -loud as he could. - -The woodman and his wife, being awakened by the noise, peeped through -a crack in the door; but when they saw a wolf was there, you may well -suppose that they were sadly frightened; and the woodman ran for his -axe, and gave his wife a scythe. 'Do you stay behind,' said the woodman, -'and when I have knocked him on the head you must rip him up with the -scythe.' Tom heard all this, and cried out, 'Father, father! I am here, -the wolf has swallowed me.' And his father said, 'Heaven be praised! we -have found our dear child again'; and he told his wife not to use the -scythe for fear she should hurt him. Then he aimed a great blow, and -struck the wolf on the head, and killed him on the spot! and when he was -dead they cut open his body, and set Tommy free. 'Ah!' said the father, -'what fears we have had for you!' 'Yes, father,' answered he; 'I have -travelled all over the world, I think, in one way or other, since we -parted; and now I am very glad to come home and get fresh air again.' -'Why, where have you been?' said his father. 'I have been in a -mouse-hole--and in a snail-shell--and down a cow's throat--and in the -wolf's belly; and yet here I am again, safe and sound.' - -'Well,' said they, 'you are come back, and we will not sell you again -for all the riches in the world.' - -Then they hugged and kissed their dear little son, and gave him plenty -to eat and drink, for he was very hungry; and then they fetched new -clothes for him, for his old ones had been quite spoiled on his journey. -So Master Thumb stayed at home with his father and mother, in peace; for -though he had been so great a traveller, and had done and seen so many -fine things, and was fond enough of telling the whole story, he always -agreed that, after all, there's no place like HOME! - - - - -RUMPELSTILTSKIN - -By the side of a wood, in a country a long way off, ran a fine stream -of water; and upon the stream there stood a mill. The miller's house was -close by, and the miller, you must know, had a very beautiful daughter. -She was, moreover, very shrewd and clever; and the miller was so proud -of her, that he one day told the king of the land, who used to come and -hunt in the wood, that his daughter could spin gold out of straw. Now -this king was very fond of money; and when he heard the miller's boast -his greediness was raised, and he sent for the girl to be brought before -him. Then he led her to a chamber in his palace where there was a great -heap of straw, and gave her a spinning-wheel, and said, 'All this must -be spun into gold before morning, as you love your life.' It was in vain -that the poor maiden said that it was only a silly boast of her father, -for that she could do no such thing as spin straw into gold: the chamber -door was locked, and she was left alone. - -She sat down in one corner of the room, and began to bewail her hard -fate; when on a sudden the door opened, and a droll-looking little man -hobbled in, and said, 'Good morrow to you, my good lass; what are you -weeping for?' 'Alas!' said she, 'I must spin this straw into gold, and -I know not how.' 'What will you give me,' said the hobgoblin, 'to do it -for you?' 'My necklace,' replied the maiden. He took her at her word, -and sat himself down to the wheel, and whistled and sang: - - 'Round about, round about, - Lo and behold! - Reel away, reel away, - Straw into gold!' - -And round about the wheel went merrily; the work was quickly done, and -the straw was all spun into gold. - -When the king came and saw this, he was greatly astonished and pleased; -but his heart grew still more greedy of gain, and he shut up the poor -miller's daughter again with a fresh task. Then she knew not what to do, -and sat down once more to weep; but the dwarf soon opened the door, and -said, 'What will you give me to do your task?' 'The ring on my finger,' -said she. So her little friend took the ring, and began to work at the -wheel again, and whistled and sang: - - 'Round about, round about, - Lo and behold! - Reel away, reel away, - Straw into gold!' - -till, long before morning, all was done again. - -The king was greatly delighted to see all this glittering treasure; -but still he had not enough: so he took the miller's daughter to a yet -larger heap, and said, 'All this must be spun tonight; and if it is, -you shall be my queen.' As soon as she was alone that dwarf came in, and -said, 'What will you give me to spin gold for you this third time?' -'I have nothing left,' said she. 'Then say you will give me,' said -the little man, 'the first little child that you may have when you are -queen.' 'That may never be,' thought the miller's daughter: and as she -knew no other way to get her task done, she said she would do what he -asked. Round went the wheel again to the old song, and the manikin once -more spun the heap into gold. The king came in the morning, and, finding -all he wanted, was forced to keep his word; so he married the miller's -daughter, and she really became queen. - -At the birth of her first little child she was very glad, and forgot the -dwarf, and what she had said. But one day he came into her room, where -she was sitting playing with her baby, and put her in mind of it. Then -she grieved sorely at her misfortune, and said she would give him all -the wealth of the kingdom if he would let her off, but in vain; till at -last her tears softened him, and he said, 'I will give you three days' -grace, and if during that time you tell me my name, you shall keep your -child.' - -Now the queen lay awake all night, thinking of all the odd names that -she had ever heard; and she sent messengers all over the land to find -out new ones. The next day the little man came, and she began with -TIMOTHY, ICHABOD, BENJAMIN, JEREMIAH, and all the names she could -remember; but to all and each of them he said, 'Madam, that is not my -name.' - -The second day she began with all the comical names she could hear of, -BANDY-LEGS, HUNCHBACK, CROOK-SHANKS, and so on; but the little gentleman -still said to every one of them, 'Madam, that is not my name.' - -The third day one of the messengers came back, and said, 'I have -travelled two days without hearing of any other names; but yesterday, as -I was climbing a high hill, among the trees of the forest where the fox -and the hare bid each other good night, I saw a little hut; and before -the hut burnt a fire; and round about the fire a funny little dwarf was -dancing upon one leg, and singing: - - "Merrily the feast I'll make. - Today I'll brew, tomorrow bake; - Merrily I'll dance and sing, - For next day will a stranger bring. - Little does my lady dream - Rumpelstiltskin is my name!" - -When the queen heard this she jumped for joy, and as soon as her little -friend came she sat down upon her throne, and called all her court round -to enjoy the fun; and the nurse stood by her side with the baby in her -arms, as if it was quite ready to be given up. Then the little man began -to chuckle at the thought of having the poor child, to take home with -him to his hut in the woods; and he cried out, 'Now, lady, what is my -name?' 'Is it JOHN?' asked she. 'No, madam!' 'Is it TOM?' 'No, madam!' -'Is it JEMMY?' 'It is not.' 'Can your name be RUMPELSTILTSKIN?' said the -lady slyly. 'Some witch told you that!--some witch told you that!' cried -the little man, and dashed his right foot in a rage so deep into the -floor, that he was forced to lay hold of it with both hands to pull it -out. - -Then he made the best of his way off, while the nurse laughed and the -baby crowed; and all the court jeered at him for having had so much -trouble for nothing, and said, 'We wish you a very good morning, and a -merry feast, Mr RUMPLESTILTSKIN!' - - - - -CLEVER GRETEL - -There was once a cook named Gretel, who wore shoes with red heels, and -when she walked out with them on, she turned herself this way and that, -was quite happy and thought: 'You certainly are a pretty girl!' And when -she came home she drank, in her gladness of heart, a draught of wine, -and as wine excites a desire to eat, she tasted the best of whatever she -was cooking until she was satisfied, and said: 'The cook must know what -the food is like.' - -It came to pass that the master one day said to her: 'Gretel, there is a -guest coming this evening; prepare me two fowls very daintily.' 'I will -see to it, master,' answered Gretel. She killed two fowls, scalded them, -plucked them, put them on the spit, and towards evening set them before -the fire, that they might roast. The fowls began to turn brown, and were -nearly ready, but the guest had not yet arrived. Then Gretel called out -to her master: 'If the guest does not come, I must take the fowls away -from the fire, but it will be a sin and a shame if they are not eaten -the moment they are at their juiciest.' The master said: 'I will run -myself, and fetch the guest.' When the master had turned his back, -Gretel laid the spit with the fowls on one side, and thought: 'Standing -so long by the fire there, makes one sweat and thirsty; who knows -when they will come? Meanwhile, I will run into the cellar, and take a -drink.' She ran down, set a jug, said: 'God bless it for you, Gretel,' -and took a good drink, and thought that wine should flow on, and should -not be interrupted, and took yet another hearty draught. - -Then she went and put the fowls down again to the fire, basted them, -and drove the spit merrily round. But as the roast meat smelt so good, -Gretel thought: 'Something might be wrong, it ought to be tasted!' -She touched it with her finger, and said: 'Ah! how good fowls are! It -certainly is a sin and a shame that they are not eaten at the right -time!' She ran to the window, to see if the master was not coming with -his guest, but she saw no one, and went back to the fowls and thought: -'One of the wings is burning! I had better take it off and eat it.' -So she cut it off, ate it, and enjoyed it, and when she had done, she -thought: 'The other must go down too, or else master will observe that -something is missing.' When the two wings were eaten, she went and -looked for her master, and did not see him. It suddenly occurred to -her: 'Who knows? They are perhaps not coming at all, and have turned in -somewhere.' Then she said: 'Well, Gretel, enjoy yourself, one fowl has -been cut into, take another drink, and eat it up entirely; when it is -eaten you will have some peace, why should God's good gifts be spoilt?' -So she ran into the cellar again, took an enormous drink and ate up the -one chicken in great glee. When one of the chickens was swallowed down, -and still her master did not come, Gretel looked at the other and said: -'What one is, the other should be likewise, the two go together; what's -right for the one is right for the other; I think if I were to take -another draught it would do me no harm.' So she took another hearty -drink, and let the second chicken follow the first. - -While she was making the most of it, her master came and cried: 'Hurry -up, Gretel, the guest is coming directly after me!' 'Yes, sir, I will -soon serve up,' answered Gretel. Meantime the master looked to see that -the table was properly laid, and took the great knife, wherewith he was -going to carve the chickens, and sharpened it on the steps. Presently -the guest came, and knocked politely and courteously at the house-door. -Gretel ran, and looked to see who was there, and when she saw the guest, -she put her finger to her lips and said: 'Hush! hush! go away as quickly -as you can, if my master catches you it will be the worse for you; he -certainly did ask you to supper, but his intention is to cut off your -two ears. Just listen how he is sharpening the knife for it!' The guest -heard the sharpening, and hurried down the steps again as fast as he -could. Gretel was not idle; she ran screaming to her master, and cried: -'You have invited a fine guest!' 'Why, Gretel? What do you mean by -that?' 'Yes,' said she, 'he has taken the chickens which I was just -going to serve up, off the dish, and has run away with them!' 'That's a -nice trick!' said her master, and lamented the fine chickens. 'If he had -but left me one, so that something remained for me to eat.' He called to -him to stop, but the guest pretended not to hear. Then he ran after him -with the knife still in his hand, crying: 'Just one, just one,' meaning -that the guest should leave him just one chicken, and not take both. The -guest, however, thought no otherwise than that he was to give up one of -his ears, and ran as if fire were burning under him, in order to take -them both with him. - - - - -THE OLD MAN AND HIS GRANDSON - -There was once a very old man, whose eyes had become dim, his ears dull -of hearing, his knees trembled, and when he sat at table he could hardly -hold the spoon, and spilt the broth upon the table-cloth or let it run -out of his mouth. His son and his son's wife were disgusted at this, so -the old grandfather at last had to sit in the corner behind the stove, -and they gave him his food in an earthenware bowl, and not even enough -of it. And he used to look towards the table with his eyes full of -tears. Once, too, his trembling hands could not hold the bowl, and it -fell to the ground and broke. The young wife scolded him, but he said -nothing and only sighed. Then they brought him a wooden bowl for a few -half-pence, out of which he had to eat. - -They were once sitting thus when the little grandson of four years old -began to gather together some bits of wood upon the ground. 'What are -you doing there?' asked the father. 'I am making a little trough,' -answered the child, 'for father and mother to eat out of when I am big.' - -The man and his wife looked at each other for a while, and presently -began to cry. Then they took the old grandfather to the table, and -henceforth always let him eat with them, and likewise said nothing if he -did spill a little of anything. - - - - -THE LITTLE PEASANT - -There was a certain village wherein no one lived but really rich -peasants, and just one poor one, whom they called the little peasant. He -had not even so much as a cow, and still less money to buy one, and -yet he and his wife did so wish to have one. One day he said to her: -'Listen, I have a good idea, there is our gossip the carpenter, he shall -make us a wooden calf, and paint it brown, so that it looks like any -other, and in time it will certainly get big and be a cow.' the woman -also liked the idea, and their gossip the carpenter cut and planed -the calf, and painted it as it ought to be, and made it with its head -hanging down as if it were eating. - -Next morning when the cows were being driven out, the little peasant -called the cow-herd in and said: 'Look, I have a little calf there, -but it is still small and has to be carried.' The cow-herd said: 'All -right,' and took it in his arms and carried it to the pasture, and set -it among the grass. The little calf always remained standing like one -which was eating, and the cow-herd said: 'It will soon run by itself, -just look how it eats already!' At night when he was going to drive the -herd home again, he said to the calf: 'If you can stand there and eat -your fill, you can also go on your four legs; I don't care to drag you -home again in my arms.' But the little peasant stood at his door, and -waited for his little calf, and when the cow-herd drove the cows through -the village, and the calf was missing, he inquired where it was. The -cow-herd answered: 'It is still standing out there eating. It would not -stop and come with us.' But the little peasant said: 'Oh, but I must -have my beast back again.' Then they went back to the meadow together, -but someone had stolen the calf, and it was gone. The cow-herd said: 'It -must have run away.' The peasant, however, said: 'Don't tell me -that,' and led the cow-herd before the mayor, who for his carelessness -condemned him to give the peasant a cow for the calf which had run away. - -And now the little peasant and his wife had the cow for which they had -so long wished, and they were heartily glad, but they had no food for -it, and could give it nothing to eat, so it soon had to be killed. They -salted the flesh, and the peasant went into the town and wanted to sell -the skin there, so that he might buy a new calf with the proceeds. On -the way he passed by a mill, and there sat a raven with broken wings, -and out of pity he took him and wrapped him in the skin. But as the -weather grew so bad and there was a storm of rain and wind, he could -go no farther, and turned back to the mill and begged for shelter. The -miller's wife was alone in the house, and said to the peasant: 'Lay -yourself on the straw there,' and gave him a slice of bread and cheese. -The peasant ate it, and lay down with his skin beside him, and the woman -thought: 'He is tired and has gone to sleep.' In the meantime came the -parson; the miller's wife received him well, and said: 'My husband is -out, so we will have a feast.' The peasant listened, and when he heard -them talk about feasting he was vexed that he had been forced to make -shift with a slice of bread and cheese. Then the woman served up four -different things, roast meat, salad, cakes, and wine. - -Just as they were about to sit down and eat, there was a knocking -outside. The woman said: 'Oh, heavens! It is my husband!' she quickly -hid the roast meat inside the tiled stove, the wine under the pillow, -the salad on the bed, the cakes under it, and the parson in the closet -on the porch. Then she opened the door for her husband, and said: 'Thank -heaven, you are back again! There is such a storm, it looks as if the -world were coming to an end.' The miller saw the peasant lying on the -straw, and asked, 'What is that fellow doing there?' 'Ah,' said the -wife, 'the poor knave came in the storm and rain, and begged for -shelter, so I gave him a bit of bread and cheese, and showed him where -the straw was.' The man said: 'I have no objection, but be quick and get -me something to eat.' The woman said: 'But I have nothing but bread and -cheese.' 'I am contented with anything,' replied the husband, 'so far as -I am concerned, bread and cheese will do,' and looked at the peasant and -said: 'Come and eat some more with me.' The peasant did not require to -be invited twice, but got up and ate. After this the miller saw the skin -in which the raven was, lying on the ground, and asked: 'What have you -there?' The peasant answered: 'I have a soothsayer inside it.' 'Can -he foretell anything to me?' said the miller. 'Why not?' answered -the peasant: 'but he only says four things, and the fifth he keeps to -himself.' The miller was curious, and said: 'Let him foretell something -for once.' Then the peasant pinched the raven's head, so that he croaked -and made a noise like krr, krr. The miller said: 'What did he say?' The -peasant answered: 'In the first place, he says that there is some wine -hidden under the pillow.' 'Bless me!' cried the miller, and went there -and found the wine. 'Now go on,' said he. The peasant made the raven -croak again, and said: 'In the second place, he says that there is some -roast meat in the tiled stove.' 'Upon my word!' cried the miller, and -went thither, and found the roast meat. The peasant made the raven -prophesy still more, and said: 'Thirdly, he says that there is some -salad on the bed.' 'That would be a fine thing!' cried the miller, and -went there and found the salad. At last the peasant pinched the raven -once more till he croaked, and said: 'Fourthly, he says that there -are some cakes under the bed.' 'That would be a fine thing!' cried the -miller, and looked there, and found the cakes. - -And now the two sat down to the table together, but the miller's wife -was frightened to death, and went to bed and took all the keys with -her. The miller would have liked much to know the fifth, but the little -peasant said: 'First, we will quickly eat the four things, for the fifth -is something bad.' So they ate, and after that they bargained how much -the miller was to give for the fifth prophecy, until they agreed on -three hundred talers. Then the peasant once more pinched the raven's -head till he croaked loudly. The miller asked: 'What did he say?' The -peasant replied: 'He says that the Devil is hiding outside there in -the closet on the porch.' The miller said: 'The Devil must go out,' and -opened the house-door; then the woman was forced to give up the keys, -and the peasant unlocked the closet. The parson ran out as fast as he -could, and the miller said: 'It was true; I saw the black rascal with my -own eyes.' The peasant, however, made off next morning by daybreak with -the three hundred talers. - -At home the small peasant gradually launched out; he built a beautiful -house, and the peasants said: 'The small peasant has certainly been to -the place where golden snow falls, and people carry the gold home in -shovels.' Then the small peasant was brought before the mayor, and -bidden to say from whence his wealth came. He answered: 'I sold my cow's -skin in the town, for three hundred talers.' When the peasants heard -that, they too wished to enjoy this great profit, and ran home, killed -all their cows, and stripped off their skins in order to sell them in -the town to the greatest advantage. The mayor, however, said: 'But my -servant must go first.' When she came to the merchant in the town, he -did not give her more than two talers for a skin, and when the others -came, he did not give them so much, and said: 'What can I do with all -these skins?' - -Then the peasants were vexed that the small peasant should have thus -outwitted them, wanted to take vengeance on him, and accused him of this -treachery before the mayor. The innocent little peasant was unanimously -sentenced to death, and was to be rolled into the water, in a barrel -pierced full of holes. He was led forth, and a priest was brought who -was to say a mass for his soul. The others were all obliged to retire to -a distance, and when the peasant looked at the priest, he recognized the -man who had been with the miller's wife. He said to him: 'I set you free -from the closet, set me free from the barrel.' At this same moment up -came, with a flock of sheep, the very shepherd whom the peasant knew had -long been wishing to be mayor, so he cried with all his might: 'No, I -will not do it; if the whole world insists on it, I will not do it!' The -shepherd hearing that, came up to him, and asked: 'What are you about? -What is it that you will not do?' The peasant said: 'They want to make -me mayor, if I will but put myself in the barrel, but I will not do it.' -The shepherd said: 'If nothing more than that is needful in order to be -mayor, I would get into the barrel at once.' The peasant said: 'If you -will get in, you will be mayor.' The shepherd was willing, and got in, -and the peasant shut the top down on him; then he took the shepherd's -flock for himself, and drove it away. The parson went to the crowd, -and declared that the mass had been said. Then they came and rolled the -barrel towards the water. When the barrel began to roll, the shepherd -cried: 'I am quite willing to be mayor.' They believed no otherwise than -that it was the peasant who was saying this, and answered: 'That is -what we intend, but first you shall look about you a little down below -there,' and they rolled the barrel down into the water. - -After that the peasants went home, and as they were entering the -village, the small peasant also came quietly in, driving a flock of -sheep and looking quite contented. Then the peasants were astonished, -and said: 'Peasant, from whence do you come? Have you come out of the -water?' 'Yes, truly,' replied the peasant, 'I sank deep, deep down, -until at last I got to the bottom; I pushed the bottom out of the -barrel, and crept out, and there were pretty meadows on which a number -of lambs were feeding, and from thence I brought this flock away with -me.' Said the peasants: 'Are there any more there?' 'Oh, yes,' said he, -'more than I could want.' Then the peasants made up their minds that -they too would fetch some sheep for themselves, a flock apiece, but the -mayor said: 'I come first.' So they went to the water together, and just -then there were some of the small fleecy clouds in the blue sky, which -are called little lambs, and they were reflected in the water, whereupon -the peasants cried: 'We already see the sheep down below!' The mayor -pressed forward and said: 'I will go down first, and look about me, and -if things promise well I'll call you.' So he jumped in; splash! went -the water; it sounded as if he were calling them, and the whole crowd -plunged in after him as one man. Then the entire village was dead, and -the small peasant, as sole heir, became a rich man. - - - - -FREDERICK AND CATHERINE - -There was once a man called Frederick: he had a wife whose name was -Catherine, and they had not long been married. One day Frederick said. -'Kate! I am going to work in the fields; when I come back I shall be -hungry so let me have something nice cooked, and a good draught of ale.' -'Very well,' said she, 'it shall all be ready.' When dinner-time drew -nigh, Catherine took a nice steak, which was all the meat she had, and -put it on the fire to fry. The steak soon began to look brown, and to -crackle in the pan; and Catherine stood by with a fork and turned it: -then she said to herself, 'The steak is almost ready, I may as well go -to the cellar for the ale.' So she left the pan on the fire and took a -large jug and went into the cellar and tapped the ale cask. The beer ran -into the jug and Catherine stood looking on. At last it popped into her -head, 'The dog is not shut up--he may be running away with the steak; -that's well thought of.' So up she ran from the cellar; and sure enough -the rascally cur had got the steak in his mouth, and was making off with -it. - -Away ran Catherine, and away ran the dog across the field: but he ran -faster than she, and stuck close to the steak. 'It's all gone, and "what -can't be cured must be endured",' said Catherine. So she turned round; -and as she had run a good way and was tired, she walked home leisurely -to cool herself. - -Now all this time the ale was running too, for Catherine had not turned -the cock; and when the jug was full the liquor ran upon the floor till -the cask was empty. When she got to the cellar stairs she saw what had -happened. 'My stars!' said she, 'what shall I do to keep Frederick from -seeing all this slopping about?' So she thought a while; and at last -remembered that there was a sack of fine meal bought at the last fair, -and that if she sprinkled this over the floor it would suck up the ale -nicely. 'What a lucky thing,' said she, 'that we kept that meal! we have -now a good use for it.' So away she went for it: but she managed to set -it down just upon the great jug full of beer, and upset it; and thus -all the ale that had been saved was set swimming on the floor also. 'Ah! -well,' said she, 'when one goes another may as well follow.' Then she -strewed the meal all about the cellar, and was quite pleased with her -cleverness, and said, 'How very neat and clean it looks!' - -At noon Frederick came home. 'Now, wife,' cried he, 'what have you for -dinner?' 'O Frederick!' answered she, 'I was cooking you a steak; but -while I went down to draw the ale, the dog ran away with it; and while -I ran after him, the ale ran out; and when I went to dry up the ale -with the sack of meal that we got at the fair, I upset the jug: but the -cellar is now quite dry, and looks so clean!' 'Kate, Kate,' said he, -'how could you do all this?' Why did you leave the steak to fry, and the -ale to run, and then spoil all the meal?' 'Why, Frederick,' said she, 'I -did not know I was doing wrong; you should have told me before.' - -The husband thought to himself, 'If my wife manages matters thus, I must -look sharp myself.' Now he had a good deal of gold in the house: so he -said to Catherine, 'What pretty yellow buttons these are! I shall put -them into a box and bury them in the garden; but take care that you -never go near or meddle with them.' 'No, Frederick,' said she, 'that -I never will.' As soon as he was gone, there came by some pedlars with -earthenware plates and dishes, and they asked her whether she would buy. -'Oh dear me, I should like to buy very much, but I have no money: if -you had any use for yellow buttons, I might deal with you.' 'Yellow -buttons!' said they: 'let us have a look at them.' 'Go into the garden -and dig where I tell you, and you will find the yellow buttons: I dare -not go myself.' So the rogues went: and when they found what these -yellow buttons were, they took them all away, and left her plenty of -plates and dishes. Then she set them all about the house for a show: -and when Frederick came back, he cried out, 'Kate, what have you been -doing?' 'See,' said she, 'I have bought all these with your yellow -buttons: but I did not touch them myself; the pedlars went themselves -and dug them up.' 'Wife, wife,' said Frederick, 'what a pretty piece of -work you have made! those yellow buttons were all my money: how came you -to do such a thing?' 'Why,' answered she, 'I did not know there was any -harm in it; you should have told me.' - -Catherine stood musing for a while, and at last said to her husband, -'Hark ye, Frederick, we will soon get the gold back: let us run after -the thieves.' 'Well, we will try,' answered he; 'but take some butter -and cheese with you, that we may have something to eat by the way.' -'Very well,' said she; and they set out: and as Frederick walked the -fastest, he left his wife some way behind. 'It does not matter,' thought -she: 'when we turn back, I shall be so much nearer home than he.' - -Presently she came to the top of a hill, down the side of which there -was a road so narrow that the cart wheels always chafed the trees -on each side as they passed. 'Ah, see now,' said she, 'how they have -bruised and wounded those poor trees; they will never get well.' So she -took pity on them, and made use of the butter to grease them all, so -that the wheels might not hurt them so much. While she was doing this -kind office one of her cheeses fell out of the basket, and rolled down -the hill. Catherine looked, but could not see where it had gone; so she -said, 'Well, I suppose the other will go the same way and find you; he -has younger legs than I have.' Then she rolled the other cheese after -it; and away it went, nobody knows where, down the hill. But she said -she supposed that they knew the road, and would follow her, and she -could not stay there all day waiting for them. - -At last she overtook Frederick, who desired her to give him something to -eat. Then she gave him the dry bread. 'Where are the butter and cheese?' -said he. 'Oh!' answered she, 'I used the butter to grease those poor -trees that the wheels chafed so: and one of the cheeses ran away so I -sent the other after it to find it, and I suppose they are both on -the road together somewhere.' 'What a goose you are to do such silly -things!' said the husband. 'How can you say so?' said she; 'I am sure -you never told me not.' - -They ate the dry bread together; and Frederick said, 'Kate, I hope you -locked the door safe when you came away.' 'No,' answered she, 'you did -not tell me.' 'Then go home, and do it now before we go any farther,' -said Frederick, 'and bring with you something to eat.' - -Catherine did as he told her, and thought to herself by the way, -'Frederick wants something to eat; but I don't think he is very fond of -butter and cheese: I'll bring him a bag of fine nuts, and the vinegar, -for I have often seen him take some.' - -When she reached home, she bolted the back door, but the front door she -took off the hinges, and said, 'Frederick told me to lock the door, but -surely it can nowhere be so safe if I take it with me.' So she took -her time by the way; and when she overtook her husband she cried -out, 'There, Frederick, there is the door itself, you may watch it as -carefully as you please.' 'Alas! alas!' said he, 'what a clever wife I -have! I sent you to make the house fast, and you take the door away, so -that everybody may go in and out as they please--however, as you have -brought the door, you shall carry it about with you for your pains.' -'Very well,' answered she, 'I'll carry the door; but I'll not carry the -nuts and vinegar bottle also--that would be too much of a load; so if -you please, I'll fasten them to the door.' - -Frederick of course made no objection to that plan, and they set off -into the wood to look for the thieves; but they could not find them: and -when it grew dark, they climbed up into a tree to spend the night there. -Scarcely were they up, than who should come by but the very rogues they -were looking for. They were in truth great rascals, and belonged to that -class of people who find things before they are lost; they were tired; -so they sat down and made a fire under the very tree where Frederick and -Catherine were. Frederick slipped down on the other side, and picked up -some stones. Then he climbed up again, and tried to hit the thieves on -the head with them: but they only said, 'It must be near morning, for -the wind shakes the fir-apples down.' - -Catherine, who had the door on her shoulder, began to be very tired; -but she thought it was the nuts upon it that were so heavy: so she said -softly, 'Frederick, I must let the nuts go.' 'No,' answered he, 'not -now, they will discover us.' 'I can't help that: they must go.' 'Well, -then, make haste and throw them down, if you will.' Then away rattled -the nuts down among the boughs and one of the thieves cried, 'Bless me, -it is hailing.' - -A little while after, Catherine thought the door was still very heavy: -so she whispered to Frederick, 'I must throw the vinegar down.' 'Pray -don't,' answered he, 'it will discover us.' 'I can't help that,' said -she, 'go it must.' So she poured all the vinegar down; and the thieves -said, 'What a heavy dew there is!' - -At last it popped into Catherine's head that it was the door itself that -was so heavy all the time: so she whispered, 'Frederick, I must throw -the door down soon.' But he begged and prayed her not to do so, for he -was sure it would betray them. 'Here goes, however,' said she: and down -went the door with such a clatter upon the thieves, that they cried -out 'Murder!' and not knowing what was coming, ran away as fast as they -could, and left all the gold. So when Frederick and Catherine came down, -there they found all their money safe and sound. - - - - -SWEETHEART ROLAND - -There was once upon a time a woman who was a real witch and had two -daughters, one ugly and wicked, and this one she loved because she was -her own daughter, and one beautiful and good, and this one she hated, -because she was her stepdaughter. The stepdaughter once had a pretty -apron, which the other fancied so much that she became envious, and -told her mother that she must and would have that apron. 'Be quiet, my -child,' said the old woman, 'and you shall have it. Your stepsister has -long deserved death; tonight when she is asleep I will come and cut her -head off. Only be careful that you are at the far side of the bed, and -push her well to the front.' It would have been all over with the poor -girl if she had not just then been standing in a corner, and heard -everything. All day long she dared not go out of doors, and when bedtime -had come, the witch's daughter got into bed first, so as to lie at the -far side, but when she was asleep, the other pushed her gently to the -front, and took for herself the place at the back, close by the wall. In -the night, the old woman came creeping in, she held an axe in her right -hand, and felt with her left to see if anyone were lying at the outside, -and then she grasped the axe with both hands, and cut her own child's -head off. - -When she had gone away, the girl got up and went to her sweetheart, who -was called Roland, and knocked at his door. When he came out, she said -to him: 'Listen, dearest Roland, we must fly in all haste; my stepmother -wanted to kill me, but has struck her own child. When daylight comes, -and she sees what she has done, we shall be lost.' 'But,' said Roland, -'I counsel you first to take away her magic wand, or we cannot escape -if she pursues us.' The maiden fetched the magic wand, and she took the -dead girl's head and dropped three drops of blood on the ground, one in -front of the bed, one in the kitchen, and one on the stairs. Then she -hurried away with her lover. - -When the old witch got up next morning, she called her daughter, and -wanted to give her the apron, but she did not come. Then the witch -cried: 'Where are you?' 'Here, on the stairs, I am sweeping,' answered -the first drop of blood. The old woman went out, but saw no one on the -stairs, and cried again: 'Where are you?' 'Here in the kitchen, I am -warming myself,' cried the second drop of blood. She went into the -kitchen, but found no one. Then she cried again: 'Where are you?' 'Ah, -here in the bed, I am sleeping,' cried the third drop of blood. She went -into the room to the bed. What did she see there? Her own child, -whose head she had cut off, bathed in her blood. The witch fell into -a passion, sprang to the window, and as she could look forth quite far -into the world, she perceived her stepdaughter hurrying away with her -sweetheart Roland. 'That shall not help you,' cried she, 'even if you -have got a long way off, you shall still not escape me.' She put on her -many-league boots, in which she covered an hour's walk at every step, -and it was not long before she overtook them. The girl, however, when -she saw the old woman striding towards her, changed, with her magic -wand, her sweetheart Roland into a lake, and herself into a duck -swimming in the middle of it. The witch placed herself on the shore, -threw breadcrumbs in, and went to endless trouble to entice the duck; -but the duck did not let herself be enticed, and the old woman had to -go home at night as she had come. At this the girl and her sweetheart -Roland resumed their natural shapes again, and they walked on the whole -night until daybreak. Then the maiden changed herself into a beautiful -flower which stood in the midst of a briar hedge, and her sweetheart -Roland into a fiddler. It was not long before the witch came striding up -towards them, and said to the musician: 'Dear musician, may I pluck that -beautiful flower for myself?' 'Oh, yes,' he replied, 'I will play to -you while you do it.' As she was hastily creeping into the hedge and was -just going to pluck the flower, knowing perfectly well who the flower -was, he began to play, and whether she would or not, she was forced -to dance, for it was a magical dance. The faster he played, the more -violent springs was she forced to make, and the thorns tore her clothes -from her body, and pricked her and wounded her till she bled, and as he -did not stop, she had to dance till she lay dead on the ground. - -As they were now set free, Roland said: 'Now I will go to my father and -arrange for the wedding.' 'Then in the meantime I will stay here and -wait for you,' said the girl, 'and that no one may recognize me, I will -change myself into a red stone landmark.' Then Roland went away, and the -girl stood like a red landmark in the field and waited for her beloved. -But when Roland got home, he fell into the snares of another, who so -fascinated him that he forgot the maiden. The poor girl remained there a -long time, but at length, as he did not return at all, she was sad, and -changed herself into a flower, and thought: 'Someone will surely come -this way, and trample me down.' - -It befell, however, that a shepherd kept his sheep in the field and saw -the flower, and as it was so pretty, plucked it, took it with him, and -laid it away in his chest. From that time forth, strange things happened -in the shepherd's house. When he arose in the morning, all the work was -already done, the room was swept, the table and benches cleaned, the -fire in the hearth was lighted, and the water was fetched, and at noon, -when he came home, the table was laid, and a good dinner served. He -could not conceive how this came to pass, for he never saw a human being -in his house, and no one could have concealed himself in it. He was -certainly pleased with this good attendance, but still at last he was so -afraid that he went to a wise woman and asked for her advice. The wise -woman said: 'There is some enchantment behind it, listen very early some -morning if anything is moving in the room, and if you see anything, no -matter what it is, throw a white cloth over it, and then the magic will -be stopped.' - -The shepherd did as she bade him, and next morning just as day dawned, -he saw the chest open, and the flower come out. Swiftly he -sprang towards it, and threw a white cloth over it. Instantly the -transformation came to an end, and a beautiful girl stood before him, -who admitted to him that she had been the flower, and that up to this -time she had attended to his house-keeping. She told him her story, -and as she pleased him he asked her if she would marry him, but she -answered: 'No,' for she wanted to remain faithful to her sweetheart -Roland, although he had deserted her. Nevertheless, she promised not to -go away, but to continue keeping house for the shepherd. - -And now the time drew near when Roland's wedding was to be celebrated, -and then, according to an old custom in the country, it was announced -that all the girls were to be present at it, and sing in honour of the -bridal pair. When the faithful maiden heard of this, she grew so sad -that she thought her heart would break, and she would not go thither, -but the other girls came and took her. When it came to her turn to sing, -she stepped back, until at last she was the only one left, and then she -could not refuse. But when she began her song, and it reached Roland's -ears, he sprang up and cried: 'I know the voice, that is the true -bride, I will have no other!' Everything he had forgotten, and which had -vanished from his mind, had suddenly come home again to his heart. Then -the faithful maiden held her wedding with her sweetheart Roland, and -grief came to an end and joy began. - - - - -SNOWDROP - -It was the middle of winter, when the broad flakes of snow were falling -around, that the queen of a country many thousand miles off sat working -at her window. The frame of the window was made of fine black ebony, and -as she sat looking out upon the snow, she pricked her finger, and three -drops of blood fell upon it. Then she gazed thoughtfully upon the red -drops that sprinkled the white snow, and said, 'Would that my little -daughter may be as white as that snow, as red as that blood, and as -black as this ebony windowframe!' And so the little girl really did grow -up; her skin was as white as snow, her cheeks as rosy as the blood, and -her hair as black as ebony; and she was called Snowdrop. - -But this queen died; and the king soon married another wife, who became -queen, and was very beautiful, but so vain that she could not bear -to think that anyone could be handsomer than she was. She had a fairy -looking-glass, to which she used to go, and then she would gaze upon -herself in it, and say: - - 'Tell me, glass, tell me true! - Of all the ladies in the land, - Who is fairest, tell me, who?' - -And the glass had always answered: - - 'Thou, queen, art the fairest in all the land.' - -But Snowdrop grew more and more beautiful; and when she was seven years -old she was as bright as the day, and fairer than the queen herself. -Then the glass one day answered the queen, when she went to look in it -as usual: - - 'Thou, queen, art fair, and beauteous to see, - But Snowdrop is lovelier far than thee!' - -When she heard this she turned pale with rage and envy, and called to -one of her servants, and said, 'Take Snowdrop away into the wide wood, -that I may never see her any more.' Then the servant led her away; but -his heart melted when Snowdrop begged him to spare her life, and he -said, 'I will not hurt you, thou pretty child.' So he left her by -herself; and though he thought it most likely that the wild beasts would -tear her in pieces, he felt as if a great weight were taken off his -heart when he had made up his mind not to kill her but to leave her to -her fate, with the chance of someone finding and saving her. - -Then poor Snowdrop wandered along through the wood in great fear; and -the wild beasts roared about her, but none did her any harm. In the -evening she came to a cottage among the hills, and went in to rest, for -her little feet would carry her no further. Everything was spruce and -neat in the cottage: on the table was spread a white cloth, and there -were seven little plates, seven little loaves, and seven little glasses -with wine in them; and seven knives and forks laid in order; and by -the wall stood seven little beds. As she was very hungry, she picked -a little piece of each loaf and drank a very little wine out of each -glass; and after that she thought she would lie down and rest. So she -tried all the little beds; but one was too long, and another was too -short, till at last the seventh suited her: and there she laid herself -down and went to sleep. - -By and by in came the masters of the cottage. Now they were seven little -dwarfs, that lived among the mountains, and dug and searched for gold. -They lighted up their seven lamps, and saw at once that all was not -right. The first said, 'Who has been sitting on my stool?' The second, -'Who has been eating off my plate?' The third, 'Who has been picking my -bread?' The fourth, 'Who has been meddling with my spoon?' The fifth, -'Who has been handling my fork?' The sixth, 'Who has been cutting with -my knife?' The seventh, 'Who has been drinking my wine?' Then the first -looked round and said, 'Who has been lying on my bed?' And the rest came -running to him, and everyone cried out that somebody had been upon his -bed. But the seventh saw Snowdrop, and called all his brethren to come -and see her; and they cried out with wonder and astonishment and brought -their lamps to look at her, and said, 'Good heavens! what a lovely child -she is!' And they were very glad to see her, and took care not to wake -her; and the seventh dwarf slept an hour with each of the other dwarfs -in turn, till the night was gone. - -In the morning Snowdrop told them all her story; and they pitied her, -and said if she would keep all things in order, and cook and wash and -knit and spin for them, she might stay where she was, and they would -take good care of her. Then they went out all day long to their work, -seeking for gold and silver in the mountains: but Snowdrop was left at -home; and they warned her, and said, 'The queen will soon find out where -you are, so take care and let no one in.' - -But the queen, now that she thought Snowdrop was dead, believed that she -must be the handsomest lady in the land; and she went to her glass and -said: - - 'Tell me, glass, tell me true! - Of all the ladies in the land, - Who is fairest, tell me, who?' - -And the glass answered: - - 'Thou, queen, art the fairest in all this land: - But over the hills, in the greenwood shade, - Where the seven dwarfs their dwelling have made, - There Snowdrop is hiding her head; and she - Is lovelier far, O queen! than thee.' - -Then the queen was very much frightened; for she knew that the glass -always spoke the truth, and was sure that the servant had betrayed her. -And she could not bear to think that anyone lived who was more beautiful -than she was; so she dressed herself up as an old pedlar, and went -her way over the hills, to the place where the dwarfs dwelt. Then she -knocked at the door, and cried, 'Fine wares to sell!' Snowdrop looked -out at the window, and said, 'Good day, good woman! what have you to -sell?' 'Good wares, fine wares,' said she; 'laces and bobbins of all -colours.' 'I will let the old lady in; she seems to be a very good -sort of body,' thought Snowdrop, as she ran down and unbolted the door. -'Bless me!' said the old woman, 'how badly your stays are laced! Let me -lace them up with one of my nice new laces.' Snowdrop did not dream of -any mischief; so she stood before the old woman; but she set to work -so nimbly, and pulled the lace so tight, that Snowdrop's breath was -stopped, and she fell down as if she were dead. 'There's an end to all -thy beauty,' said the spiteful queen, and went away home. - -In the evening the seven dwarfs came home; and I need not say how -grieved they were to see their faithful Snowdrop stretched out upon the -ground, as if she was quite dead. However, they lifted her up, and when -they found what ailed her, they cut the lace; and in a little time she -began to breathe, and very soon came to life again. Then they said, 'The -old woman was the queen herself; take care another time, and let no one -in when we are away.' - -When the queen got home, she went straight to her glass, and spoke to it -as before; but to her great grief it still said: - - 'Thou, queen, art the fairest in all this land: - But over the hills, in the greenwood shade, - Where the seven dwarfs their dwelling have made, - There Snowdrop is hiding her head; and she - Is lovelier far, O queen! than thee.' - -Then the blood ran cold in her heart with spite and malice, to see that -Snowdrop still lived; and she dressed herself up again, but in quite -another dress from the one she wore before, and took with her a poisoned -comb. When she reached the dwarfs' cottage, she knocked at the door, and -cried, 'Fine wares to sell!' But Snowdrop said, 'I dare not let anyone -in.' Then the queen said, 'Only look at my beautiful combs!' and gave -her the poisoned one. And it looked so pretty, that she took it up and -put it into her hair to try it; but the moment it touched her head, -the poison was so powerful that she fell down senseless. 'There you may -lie,' said the queen, and went her way. But by good luck the dwarfs -came in very early that evening; and when they saw Snowdrop lying on -the ground, they thought what had happened, and soon found the poisoned -comb. And when they took it away she got well, and told them all that -had passed; and they warned her once more not to open the door to -anyone. - -Meantime the queen went home to her glass, and shook with rage when she -read the very same answer as before; and she said, 'Snowdrop shall die, -if it cost me my life.' So she went by herself into her chamber, and got -ready a poisoned apple: the outside looked very rosy and tempting, but -whoever tasted it was sure to die. Then she dressed herself up as a -peasant's wife, and travelled over the hills to the dwarfs' cottage, -and knocked at the door; but Snowdrop put her head out of the window and -said, 'I dare not let anyone in, for the dwarfs have told me not.' 'Do -as you please,' said the old woman, 'but at any rate take this pretty -apple; I will give it you.' 'No,' said Snowdrop, 'I dare not take it.' -'You silly girl!' answered the other, 'what are you afraid of? Do you -think it is poisoned? Come! do you eat one part, and I will eat the -other.' Now the apple was so made up that one side was good, though the -other side was poisoned. Then Snowdrop was much tempted to taste, for -the apple looked so very nice; and when she saw the old woman eat, she -could wait no longer. But she had scarcely put the piece into her mouth, -when she fell down dead upon the ground. 'This time nothing will save -thee,' said the queen; and she went home to her glass, and at last it -said: - - 'Thou, queen, art the fairest of all the fair.' - -And then her wicked heart was glad, and as happy as such a heart could -be. - -When evening came, and the dwarfs had gone home, they found Snowdrop -lying on the ground: no breath came from her lips, and they were afraid -that she was quite dead. They lifted her up, and combed her hair, and -washed her face with wine and water; but all was in vain, for the little -girl seemed quite dead. So they laid her down upon a bier, and all seven -watched and bewailed her three whole days; and then they thought they -would bury her: but her cheeks were still rosy; and her face looked just -as it did while she was alive; so they said, 'We will never bury her in -the cold ground.' And they made a coffin of glass, so that they might -still look at her, and wrote upon it in golden letters what her name -was, and that she was a king's daughter. And the coffin was set among -the hills, and one of the dwarfs always sat by it and watched. And the -birds of the air came too, and bemoaned Snowdrop; and first of all came -an owl, and then a raven, and at last a dove, and sat by her side. - -And thus Snowdrop lay for a long, long time, and still only looked as -though she was asleep; for she was even now as white as snow, and as red -as blood, and as black as ebony. At last a prince came and called at the -dwarfs' house; and he saw Snowdrop, and read what was written in golden -letters. Then he offered the dwarfs money, and prayed and besought them -to let him take her away; but they said, 'We will not part with her for -all the gold in the world.' At last, however, they had pity on him, and -gave him the coffin; but the moment he lifted it up to carry it home -with him, the piece of apple fell from between her lips, and Snowdrop -awoke, and said, 'Where am I?' And the prince said, 'Thou art quite safe -with me.' - -Then he told her all that had happened, and said, 'I love you far better -than all the world; so come with me to my father's palace, and you shall -be my wife.' And Snowdrop consented, and went home with the prince; -and everything was got ready with great pomp and splendour for their -wedding. - -To the feast was asked, among the rest, Snowdrop's old enemy the queen; -and as she was dressing herself in fine rich clothes, she looked in the -glass and said: - - 'Tell me, glass, tell me true! - Of all the ladies in the land, - Who is fairest, tell me, who?' - -And the glass answered: - - 'Thou, lady, art loveliest here, I ween; - But lovelier far is the new-made queen.' - -When she heard this she started with rage; but her envy and curiosity -were so great, that she could not help setting out to see the bride. And -when she got there, and saw that it was no other than Snowdrop, who, as -she thought, had been dead a long while, she choked with rage, and fell -down and died: but Snowdrop and the prince lived and reigned happily -over that land many, many years; and sometimes they went up into the -mountains, and paid a visit to the little dwarfs, who had been so kind -to Snowdrop in her time of need. - - - - -THE PINK - -There was once upon a time a queen to whom God had given no children. -Every morning she went into the garden and prayed to God in heaven to -bestow on her a son or a daughter. Then an angel from heaven came to her -and said: 'Be at rest, you shall have a son with the power of wishing, -so that whatsoever in the world he wishes for, that shall he have.' Then -she went to the king, and told him the joyful tidings, and when the time -was come she gave birth to a son, and the king was filled with gladness. - -Every morning she went with the child to the garden where the wild -beasts were kept, and washed herself there in a clear stream. It -happened once when the child was a little older, that it was lying in -her arms and she fell asleep. Then came the old cook, who knew that the -child had the power of wishing, and stole it away, and he took a hen, -and cut it in pieces, and dropped some of its blood on the queen's apron -and on her dress. Then he carried the child away to a secret place, -where a nurse was obliged to suckle it, and he ran to the king and -accused the queen of having allowed her child to be taken from her by -the wild beasts. When the king saw the blood on her apron, he believed -this, fell into such a passion that he ordered a high tower to be built, -in which neither sun nor moon could be seen and had his wife put into -it, and walled up. Here she was to stay for seven years without meat -or drink, and die of hunger. But God sent two angels from heaven in the -shape of white doves, which flew to her twice a day, and carried her -food until the seven years were over. - -The cook, however, thought to himself: 'If the child has the power of -wishing, and I am here, he might very easily get me into trouble.' So -he left the palace and went to the boy, who was already big enough to -speak, and said to him: 'Wish for a beautiful palace for yourself with -a garden, and all else that pertains to it.' Scarcely were the words out -of the boy's mouth, when everything was there that he had wished for. -After a while the cook said to him: 'It is not well for you to be so -alone, wish for a pretty girl as a companion.' Then the king's son -wished for one, and she immediately stood before him, and was more -beautiful than any painter could have painted her. The two played -together, and loved each other with all their hearts, and the old cook -went out hunting like a nobleman. The thought occurred to him, however, -that the king's son might some day wish to be with his father, and thus -bring him into great peril. So he went out and took the maiden aside, -and said: 'Tonight when the boy is asleep, go to his bed and plunge this -knife into his heart, and bring me his heart and tongue, and if you do -not do it, you shall lose your life.' Thereupon he went away, and when -he returned next day she had not done it, and said: 'Why should I shed -the blood of an innocent boy who has never harmed anyone?' The cook once -more said: 'If you do not do it, it shall cost you your own life.' When -he had gone away, she had a little hind brought to her, and ordered her -to be killed, and took her heart and tongue, and laid them on a plate, -and when she saw the old man coming, she said to the boy: 'Lie down in -your bed, and draw the clothes over you.' Then the wicked wretch came in -and said: 'Where are the boy's heart and tongue?' The girl reached the -plate to him, but the king's son threw off the quilt, and said: 'You old -sinner, why did you want to kill me? Now will I pronounce thy sentence. -You shall become a black poodle and have a gold collar round your neck, -and shall eat burning coals, till the flames burst forth from your -throat.' And when he had spoken these words, the old man was changed -into a poodle dog, and had a gold collar round his neck, and the cooks -were ordered to bring up some live coals, and these he ate, until the -flames broke forth from his throat. The king's son remained there a -short while longer, and he thought of his mother, and wondered if she -were still alive. At length he said to the maiden: 'I will go home to my -own country; if you will go with me, I will provide for you.' 'Ah,' -she replied, 'the way is so long, and what shall I do in a strange land -where I am unknown?' As she did not seem quite willing, and as they -could not be parted from each other, he wished that she might be changed -into a beautiful pink, and took her with him. Then he went away to his -own country, and the poodle had to run after him. He went to the tower -in which his mother was confined, and as it was so high, he wished for -a ladder which would reach up to the very top. Then he mounted up and -looked inside, and cried: 'Beloved mother, Lady Queen, are you still -alive, or are you dead?' She answered: 'I have just eaten, and am still -satisfied,' for she thought the angels were there. Said he: 'I am your -dear son, whom the wild beasts were said to have torn from your arms; -but I am alive still, and will soon set you free.' Then he descended -again, and went to his father, and caused himself to be announced as a -strange huntsman, and asked if he could offer him service. The king said -yes, if he was skilful and could get game for him, he should come to -him, but that deer had never taken up their quarters in any part of the -district or country. Then the huntsman promised to procure as much game -for him as he could possibly use at the royal table. So he summoned all -the huntsmen together, and bade them go out into the forest with him. -And he went with them and made them form a great circle, open at one end -where he stationed himself, and began to wish. Two hundred deer and more -came running inside the circle at once, and the huntsmen shot them. -Then they were all placed on sixty country carts, and driven home to the -king, and for once he was able to deck his table with game, after having -had none at all for years. - -Now the king felt great joy at this, and commanded that his entire -household should eat with him next day, and made a great feast. When -they were all assembled together, he said to the huntsman: 'As you are -so clever, you shall sit by me.' He replied: 'Lord King, your majesty -must excuse me, I am a poor huntsman.' But the king insisted on it, -and said: 'You shall sit by me,' until he did it. Whilst he was sitting -there, he thought of his dearest mother, and wished that one of the -king's principal servants would begin to speak of her, and would ask how -it was faring with the queen in the tower, and if she were alive still, -or had perished. Hardly had he formed the wish than the marshal began, -and said: 'Your majesty, we live joyously here, but how is the queen -living in the tower? Is she still alive, or has she died?' But the king -replied: 'She let my dear son be torn to pieces by wild beasts; I will -not have her named.' Then the huntsman arose and said: 'Gracious lord -father she is alive still, and I am her son, and I was not carried away -by wild beasts, but by that wretch the old cook, who tore me from her -arms when she was asleep, and sprinkled her apron with the blood of a -chicken.' Thereupon he took the dog with the golden collar, and said: -'That is the wretch!' and caused live coals to be brought, and these the -dog was compelled to devour before the sight of all, until flames burst -forth from its throat. On this the huntsman asked the king if he would -like to see the dog in his true shape, and wished him back into the form -of the cook, in the which he stood immediately, with his white apron, -and his knife by his side. When the king saw him he fell into a passion, -and ordered him to be cast into the deepest dungeon. Then the huntsman -spoke further and said: 'Father, will you see the maiden who brought me -up so tenderly and who was afterwards to murder me, but did not do it, -though her own life depended on it?' The king replied: 'Yes, I would -like to see her.' The son said: 'Most gracious father, I will show her -to you in the form of a beautiful flower,' and he thrust his hand into -his pocket and brought forth the pink, and placed it on the royal table, -and it was so beautiful that the king had never seen one to equal it. -Then the son said: 'Now will I show her to you in her own form,' and -wished that she might become a maiden, and she stood there looking so -beautiful that no painter could have made her look more so. - -And the king sent two waiting-maids and two attendants into the tower, -to fetch the queen and bring her to the royal table. But when she was -led in she ate nothing, and said: 'The gracious and merciful God who has -supported me in the tower, will soon set me free.' She lived three days -more, and then died happily, and when she was buried, the two white -doves which had brought her food to the tower, and were angels of -heaven, followed her body and seated themselves on her grave. The aged -king ordered the cook to be torn in four pieces, but grief consumed the -king's own heart, and he soon died. His son married the beautiful maiden -whom he had brought with him as a flower in his pocket, and whether they -are still alive or not, is known to God. - - - - -CLEVER ELSIE - -There was once a man who had a daughter who was called Clever Elsie. And -when she had grown up her father said: 'We will get her married.' 'Yes,' -said the mother, 'if only someone would come who would have her.' At -length a man came from a distance and wooed her, who was called Hans; -but he stipulated that Clever Elsie should be really smart. 'Oh,' said -the father, 'she has plenty of good sense'; and the mother said: 'Oh, -she can see the wind coming up the street, and hear the flies coughing.' -'Well,' said Hans, 'if she is not really smart, I won't have her.' When -they were sitting at dinner and had eaten, the mother said: 'Elsie, go -into the cellar and fetch some beer.' Then Clever Elsie took the pitcher -from the wall, went into the cellar, and tapped the lid briskly as she -went, so that the time might not appear long. When she was below she -fetched herself a chair, and set it before the barrel so that she had -no need to stoop, and did not hurt her back or do herself any unexpected -injury. Then she placed the can before her, and turned the tap, and -while the beer was running she would not let her eyes be idle, but -looked up at the wall, and after much peering here and there, saw a -pick-axe exactly above her, which the masons had accidentally left -there. - -Then Clever Elsie began to weep and said: 'If I get Hans, and we have -a child, and he grows big, and we send him into the cellar here to draw -beer, then the pick-axe will fall on his head and kill him.' Then she -sat and wept and screamed with all the strength of her body, over the -misfortune which lay before her. Those upstairs waited for the drink, -but Clever Elsie still did not come. Then the woman said to the servant: -'Just go down into the cellar and see where Elsie is.' The maid went and -found her sitting in front of the barrel, screaming loudly. 'Elsie why -do you weep?' asked the maid. 'Ah,' she answered, 'have I not reason to -weep? If I get Hans, and we have a child, and he grows big, and has to -draw beer here, the pick-axe will perhaps fall on his head, and kill -him.' Then said the maid: 'What a clever Elsie we have!' and sat down -beside her and began loudly to weep over the misfortune. After a while, -as the maid did not come back, and those upstairs were thirsty for the -beer, the man said to the boy: 'Just go down into the cellar and see -where Elsie and the girl are.' The boy went down, and there sat Clever -Elsie and the girl both weeping together. Then he asked: 'Why are you -weeping?' 'Ah,' said Elsie, 'have I not reason to weep? If I get Hans, -and we have a child, and he grows big, and has to draw beer here, the -pick-axe will fall on his head and kill him.' Then said the boy: 'What -a clever Elsie we have!' and sat down by her, and likewise began to -howl loudly. Upstairs they waited for the boy, but as he still did not -return, the man said to the woman: 'Just go down into the cellar and see -where Elsie is!' The woman went down, and found all three in the midst -of their lamentations, and inquired what was the cause; then Elsie told -her also that her future child was to be killed by the pick-axe, when it -grew big and had to draw beer, and the pick-axe fell down. Then said the -mother likewise: 'What a clever Elsie we have!' and sat down and wept -with them. The man upstairs waited a short time, but as his wife did not -come back and his thirst grew ever greater, he said: 'I must go into the -cellar myself and see where Elsie is.' But when he got into the cellar, -and they were all sitting together crying, and he heard the reason, and -that Elsie's child was the cause, and the Elsie might perhaps bring one -into the world some day, and that he might be killed by the pick-axe, if -he should happen to be sitting beneath it, drawing beer just at the very -time when it fell down, he cried: 'Oh, what a clever Elsie!' and sat -down, and likewise wept with them. The bridegroom stayed upstairs alone -for a long time; then as no one would come back he thought: 'They must be -waiting for me below: I too must go there and see what they are about.' -When he got down, the five of them were sitting screaming and lamenting -quite piteously, each out-doing the other. 'What misfortune has happened -then?' asked he. 'Ah, dear Hans,' said Elsie, 'if we marry each other -and have a child, and he is big, and we perhaps send him here to draw -something to drink, then the pick-axe which has been left up there might -dash his brains out if it were to fall down, so have we not reason to -weep?' 'Come,' said Hans, 'more understanding than that is not needed -for my household, as you are such a clever Elsie, I will have you,' and -seized her hand, took her upstairs with him, and married her. - -After Hans had had her some time, he said: 'Wife, I am going out to work -and earn some money for us; go into the field and cut the corn that we -may have some bread.' 'Yes, dear Hans, I will do that.' After Hans had -gone away, she cooked herself some good broth and took it into the field -with her. When she came to the field she said to herself: 'What shall I -do; shall I cut first, or shall I eat first? Oh, I will eat first.' Then -she drank her cup of broth and when she was fully satisfied, she once -more said: 'What shall I do? Shall I cut first, or shall I sleep first? -I will sleep first.' Then she lay down among the corn and fell asleep. -Hans had been at home for a long time, but Elsie did not come; then said -he: 'What a clever Elsie I have; she is so industrious that she does not -even come home to eat.' But when evening came and she still stayed away, -Hans went out to see what she had cut, but nothing was cut, and she -was lying among the corn asleep. Then Hans hastened home and brought -a fowler's net with little bells and hung it round about her, and she -still went on sleeping. Then he ran home, shut the house-door, and sat -down in his chair and worked. At length, when it was quite dark, Clever -Elsie awoke and when she got up there was a jingling all round about -her, and the bells rang at each step which she took. Then she was -alarmed, and became uncertain whether she really was Clever Elsie or -not, and said: 'Is it I, or is it not I?' But she knew not what answer -to make to this, and stood for a time in doubt; at length she thought: -'I will go home and ask if it be I, or if it be not I, they will be sure -to know.' She ran to the door of her own house, but it was shut; then -she knocked at the window and cried: 'Hans, is Elsie within?' 'Yes,' -answered Hans, 'she is within.' Hereupon she was terrified, and said: -'Ah, heavens! Then it is not I,' and went to another door; but when the -people heard the jingling of the bells they would not open it, and she -could get in nowhere. Then she ran out of the village, and no one has -seen her since. - - - - -THE MISER IN THE BUSH - -A farmer had a faithful and diligent servant, who had worked hard for -him three years, without having been paid any wages. At last it came -into the man's head that he would not go on thus without pay any longer; -so he went to his master, and said, 'I have worked hard for you a long -time, I will trust to you to give me what I deserve to have for my -trouble.' The farmer was a sad miser, and knew that his man was very -simple-hearted; so he took out threepence, and gave him for every year's -service a penny. The poor fellow thought it was a great deal of money to -have, and said to himself, 'Why should I work hard, and live here on bad -fare any longer? I can now travel into the wide world, and make myself -merry.' With that he put his money into his purse, and set out, roaming -over hill and valley. - -As he jogged along over the fields, singing and dancing, a little dwarf -met him, and asked him what made him so merry. 'Why, what should make -me down-hearted?' said he; 'I am sound in health and rich in purse, what -should I care for? I have saved up my three years' earnings and have it -all safe in my pocket.' 'How much may it come to?' said the little man. -'Full threepence,' replied the countryman. 'I wish you would give them -to me,' said the other; 'I am very poor.' Then the man pitied him, and -gave him all he had; and the little dwarf said in return, 'As you have -such a kind honest heart, I will grant you three wishes--one for every -penny; so choose whatever you like.' Then the countryman rejoiced at -his good luck, and said, 'I like many things better than money: first, I -will have a bow that will bring down everything I shoot at; secondly, -a fiddle that will set everyone dancing that hears me play upon it; and -thirdly, I should like that everyone should grant what I ask.' The dwarf -said he should have his three wishes; so he gave him the bow and fiddle, -and went his way. - -Our honest friend journeyed on his way too; and if he was merry before, -he was now ten times more so. He had not gone far before he met an old -miser: close by them stood a tree, and on the topmost twig sat a thrush -singing away most joyfully. 'Oh, what a pretty bird!' said the miser; 'I -would give a great deal of money to have such a one.' 'If that's all,' -said the countryman, 'I will soon bring it down.' Then he took up his -bow, and down fell the thrush into the bushes at the foot of the tree. -The miser crept into the bush to find it; but directly he had got into -the middle, his companion took up his fiddle and played away, and the -miser began to dance and spring about, capering higher and higher in -the air. The thorns soon began to tear his clothes till they all hung -in rags about him, and he himself was all scratched and wounded, so that -the blood ran down. 'Oh, for heaven's sake!' cried the miser, 'Master! -master! pray let the fiddle alone. What have I done to deserve this?' -'Thou hast shaved many a poor soul close enough,' said the other; 'thou -art only meeting thy reward': so he played up another tune. Then the -miser began to beg and promise, and offered money for his liberty; but -he did not come up to the musician's price for some time, and he danced -him along brisker and brisker, and the miser bid higher and higher, till -at last he offered a round hundred of florins that he had in his purse, -and had just gained by cheating some poor fellow. When the countryman -saw so much money, he said, 'I will agree to your proposal.' So he took -the purse, put up his fiddle, and travelled on very pleased with his -bargain. - -Meanwhile the miser crept out of the bush half-naked and in a piteous -plight, and began to ponder how he should take his revenge, and serve -his late companion some trick. At last he went to the judge, and -complained that a rascal had robbed him of his money, and beaten him -into the bargain; and that the fellow who did it carried a bow at his -back and a fiddle hung round his neck. Then the judge sent out his -officers to bring up the accused wherever they should find him; and he -was soon caught and brought up to be tried. - -The miser began to tell his tale, and said he had been robbed of -his money. 'No, you gave it me for playing a tune to you.' said the -countryman; but the judge told him that was not likely, and cut the -matter short by ordering him off to the gallows. - -So away he was taken; but as he stood on the steps he said, 'My Lord -Judge, grant me one last request.' 'Anything but thy life,' replied the -other. 'No,' said he, 'I do not ask my life; only to let me play upon -my fiddle for the last time.' The miser cried out, 'Oh, no! no! for -heaven's sake don't listen to him! don't listen to him!' But the judge -said, 'It is only this once, he will soon have done.' The fact was, he -could not refuse the request, on account of the dwarf's third gift. - -Then the miser said, 'Bind me fast, bind me fast, for pity's sake.' But -the countryman seized his fiddle, and struck up a tune, and at the first -note judge, clerks, and jailer were in motion; all began capering, and -no one could hold the miser. At the second note the hangman let his -prisoner go, and danced also, and by the time he had played the first -bar of the tune, all were dancing together--judge, court, and miser, and -all the people who had followed to look on. At first the thing was merry -and pleasant enough; but when it had gone on a while, and there seemed -to be no end of playing or dancing, they began to cry out, and beg him -to leave off; but he stopped not a whit the more for their entreaties, -till the judge not only gave him his life, but promised to return him -the hundred florins. - -Then he called to the miser, and said, 'Tell us now, you vagabond, where -you got that gold, or I shall play on for your amusement only,' 'I stole -it,' said the miser in the presence of all the people; 'I acknowledge -that I stole it, and that you earned it fairly.' Then the countryman -stopped his fiddle, and left the miser to take his place at the gallows. - - - - -ASHPUTTEL - -The wife of a rich man fell sick; and when she felt that her end drew -nigh, she called her only daughter to her bed-side, and said, 'Always be -a good girl, and I will look down from heaven and watch over you.' Soon -afterwards she shut her eyes and died, and was buried in the garden; -and the little girl went every day to her grave and wept, and was always -good and kind to all about her. And the snow fell and spread a beautiful -white covering over the grave; but by the time the spring came, and the -sun had melted it away again, her father had married another wife. This -new wife had two daughters of her own, that she brought home with her; -they were fair in face but foul at heart, and it was now a sorry time -for the poor little girl. 'What does the good-for-nothing want in the -parlour?' said they; 'they who would eat bread should first earn it; -away with the kitchen-maid!' Then they took away her fine clothes, and -gave her an old grey frock to put on, and laughed at her, and turned her -into the kitchen. - -There she was forced to do hard work; to rise early before daylight, to -bring the water, to make the fire, to cook and to wash. Besides that, -the sisters plagued her in all sorts of ways, and laughed at her. In the -evening when she was tired, she had no bed to lie down on, but was made -to lie by the hearth among the ashes; and as this, of course, made her -always dusty and dirty, they called her Ashputtel. - -It happened once that the father was going to the fair, and asked his -wife's daughters what he should bring them. 'Fine clothes,' said the -first; 'Pearls and diamonds,' cried the second. 'Now, child,' said he -to his own daughter, 'what will you have?' 'The first twig, dear -father, that brushes against your hat when you turn your face to come -homewards,' said she. Then he bought for the first two the fine clothes -and pearls and diamonds they had asked for: and on his way home, as he -rode through a green copse, a hazel twig brushed against him, and almost -pushed off his hat: so he broke it off and brought it away; and when he -got home he gave it to his daughter. Then she took it, and went to -her mother's grave and planted it there; and cried so much that it was -watered with her tears; and there it grew and became a fine tree. Three -times every day she went to it and cried; and soon a little bird came -and built its nest upon the tree, and talked with her, and watched over -her, and brought her whatever she wished for. - -Now it happened that the king of that land held a feast, which was to -last three days; and out of those who came to it his son was to choose -a bride for himself. Ashputtel's two sisters were asked to come; so they -called her up, and said, 'Now, comb our hair, brush our shoes, and tie -our sashes for us, for we are going to dance at the king's feast.' -Then she did as she was told; but when all was done she could not help -crying, for she thought to herself, she should so have liked to have -gone with them to the ball; and at last she begged her mother very hard -to let her go. 'You, Ashputtel!' said she; 'you who have nothing to -wear, no clothes at all, and who cannot even dance--you want to go to -the ball? And when she kept on begging, she said at last, to get rid of -her, 'I will throw this dishful of peas into the ash-heap, and if in -two hours' time you have picked them all out, you shall go to the feast -too.' - -Then she threw the peas down among the ashes, but the little maiden ran -out at the back door into the garden, and cried out: - - 'Hither, hither, through the sky, - Turtle-doves and linnets, fly! - Blackbird, thrush, and chaffinch gay, - Hither, hither, haste away! - One and all come help me, quick! - Haste ye, haste ye!--pick, pick, pick!' - -Then first came two white doves, flying in at the kitchen window; next -came two turtle-doves; and after them came all the little birds under -heaven, chirping and fluttering in: and they flew down into the ashes. -And the little doves stooped their heads down and set to work, pick, -pick, pick; and then the others began to pick, pick, pick: and among -them all they soon picked out all the good grain, and put it into a dish -but left the ashes. Long before the end of the hour the work was quite -done, and all flew out again at the windows. - -Then Ashputtel brought the dish to her mother, overjoyed at the thought -that now she should go to the ball. But the mother said, 'No, no! you -slut, you have no clothes, and cannot dance; you shall not go.' And when -Ashputtel begged very hard to go, she said, 'If you can in one hour's -time pick two of those dishes of peas out of the ashes, you shall go -too.' And thus she thought she should at least get rid of her. So she -shook two dishes of peas into the ashes. - -But the little maiden went out into the garden at the back of the house, -and cried out as before: - - 'Hither, hither, through the sky, - Turtle-doves and linnets, fly! - Blackbird, thrush, and chaffinch gay, - Hither, hither, haste away! - One and all come help me, quick! - Haste ye, haste ye!--pick, pick, pick!' - -Then first came two white doves in at the kitchen window; next came two -turtle-doves; and after them came all the little birds under heaven, -chirping and hopping about. And they flew down into the ashes; and the -little doves put their heads down and set to work, pick, pick, pick; and -then the others began pick, pick, pick; and they put all the good grain -into the dishes, and left all the ashes. Before half an hour's time all -was done, and out they flew again. And then Ashputtel took the dishes to -her mother, rejoicing to think that she should now go to the ball. -But her mother said, 'It is all of no use, you cannot go; you have no -clothes, and cannot dance, and you would only put us to shame': and off -she went with her two daughters to the ball. - -Now when all were gone, and nobody left at home, Ashputtel went -sorrowfully and sat down under the hazel-tree, and cried out: - - 'Shake, shake, hazel-tree, - Gold and silver over me!' - -Then her friend the bird flew out of the tree, and brought a gold and -silver dress for her, and slippers of spangled silk; and she put them -on, and followed her sisters to the feast. But they did not know her, -and thought it must be some strange princess, she looked so fine and -beautiful in her rich clothes; and they never once thought of Ashputtel, -taking it for granted that she was safe at home in the dirt. - -The king's son soon came up to her, and took her by the hand and danced -with her, and no one else: and he never left her hand; but when anyone -else came to ask her to dance, he said, 'This lady is dancing with me.' - -Thus they danced till a late hour of the night; and then she wanted to -go home: and the king's son said, 'I shall go and take care of you to -your home'; for he wanted to see where the beautiful maiden lived. But -she slipped away from him, unawares, and ran off towards home; and as -the prince followed her, she jumped up into the pigeon-house and shut -the door. Then he waited till her father came home, and told him that -the unknown maiden, who had been at the feast, had hid herself in the -pigeon-house. But when they had broken open the door they found no one -within; and as they came back into the house, Ashputtel was lying, as -she always did, in her dirty frock by the ashes, and her dim little -lamp was burning in the chimney. For she had run as quickly as she could -through the pigeon-house and on to the hazel-tree, and had there taken -off her beautiful clothes, and put them beneath the tree, that the bird -might carry them away, and had lain down again amid the ashes in her -little grey frock. - -The next day when the feast was again held, and her father, mother, and -sisters were gone, Ashputtel went to the hazel-tree, and said: - - 'Shake, shake, hazel-tree, - Gold and silver over me!' - -And the bird came and brought a still finer dress than the one she -had worn the day before. And when she came in it to the ball, everyone -wondered at her beauty: but the king's son, who was waiting for her, -took her by the hand, and danced with her; and when anyone asked her to -dance, he said as before, 'This lady is dancing with me.' - -When night came she wanted to go home; and the king's son followed here -as before, that he might see into what house she went: but she sprang -away from him all at once into the garden behind her father's house. -In this garden stood a fine large pear-tree full of ripe fruit; and -Ashputtel, not knowing where to hide herself, jumped up into it without -being seen. Then the king's son lost sight of her, and could not find -out where she was gone, but waited till her father came home, and said -to him, 'The unknown lady who danced with me has slipped away, and I -think she must have sprung into the pear-tree.' The father thought to -himself, 'Can it be Ashputtel?' So he had an axe brought; and they cut -down the tree, but found no one upon it. And when they came back into -the kitchen, there lay Ashputtel among the ashes; for she had slipped -down on the other side of the tree, and carried her beautiful clothes -back to the bird at the hazel-tree, and then put on her little grey -frock. - -The third day, when her father and mother and sisters were gone, she -went again into the garden, and said: - - 'Shake, shake, hazel-tree, - Gold and silver over me!' - -Then her kind friend the bird brought a dress still finer than the -former one, and slippers which were all of gold: so that when she came -to the feast no one knew what to say, for wonder at her beauty: and the -king's son danced with nobody but her; and when anyone else asked her to -dance, he said, 'This lady is _my_ partner, sir.' - -When night came she wanted to go home; and the king's son would go with -her, and said to himself, 'I will not lose her this time'; but, however, -she again slipped away from him, though in such a hurry that she dropped -her left golden slipper upon the stairs. - -The prince took the shoe, and went the next day to the king his father, -and said, 'I will take for my wife the lady that this golden slipper -fits.' Then both the sisters were overjoyed to hear it; for they -had beautiful feet, and had no doubt that they could wear the golden -slipper. The eldest went first into the room where the slipper was, and -wanted to try it on, and the mother stood by. But her great toe could -not go into it, and the shoe was altogether much too small for her. Then -the mother gave her a knife, and said, 'Never mind, cut it off; when you -are queen you will not care about toes; you will not want to walk.' So -the silly girl cut off her great toe, and thus squeezed on the shoe, -and went to the king's son. Then he took her for his bride, and set her -beside him on his horse, and rode away with her homewards. - -But on their way home they had to pass by the hazel-tree that Ashputtel -had planted; and on the branch sat a little dove singing: - - 'Back again! back again! look to the shoe! - The shoe is too small, and not made for you! - Prince! prince! look again for thy bride, - For she's not the true one that sits by thy side.' - -Then the prince got down and looked at her foot; and he saw, by the -blood that streamed from it, what a trick she had played him. So he -turned his horse round, and brought the false bride back to her home, -and said, 'This is not the right bride; let the other sister try and put -on the slipper.' Then she went into the room and got her foot into the -shoe, all but the heel, which was too large. But her mother squeezed it -in till the blood came, and took her to the king's son: and he set her -as his bride by his side on his horse, and rode away with her. - -But when they came to the hazel-tree the little dove sat there still, -and sang: - - 'Back again! back again! look to the shoe! - The shoe is too small, and not made for you! - Prince! prince! look again for thy bride, - For she's not the true one that sits by thy side.' - -Then he looked down, and saw that the blood streamed so much from the -shoe, that her white stockings were quite red. So he turned his horse -and brought her also back again. 'This is not the true bride,' said he -to the father; 'have you no other daughters?' 'No,' said he; 'there is -only a little dirty Ashputtel here, the child of my first wife; I am -sure she cannot be the bride.' The prince told him to send her. But the -mother said, 'No, no, she is much too dirty; she will not dare to show -herself.' However, the prince would have her come; and she first washed -her face and hands, and then went in and curtsied to him, and he reached -her the golden slipper. Then she took her clumsy shoe off her left foot, -and put on the golden slipper; and it fitted her as if it had been made -for her. And when he drew near and looked at her face he knew her, and -said, 'This is the right bride.' But the mother and both the sisters -were frightened, and turned pale with anger as he took Ashputtel on his -horse, and rode away with her. And when they came to the hazel-tree, the -white dove sang: - - 'Home! home! look at the shoe! - Princess! the shoe was made for you! - Prince! prince! take home thy bride, - For she is the true one that sits by thy side!' - -And when the dove had done its song, it came flying, and perched upon -her right shoulder, and so went home with her. - - - - -THE WHITE SNAKE - -A long time ago there lived a king who was famed for his wisdom through -all the land. Nothing was hidden from him, and it seemed as if news of -the most secret things was brought to him through the air. But he had a -strange custom; every day after dinner, when the table was cleared, -and no one else was present, a trusty servant had to bring him one more -dish. It was covered, however, and even the servant did not know what -was in it, neither did anyone know, for the king never took off the -cover to eat of it until he was quite alone. - -This had gone on for a long time, when one day the servant, who took -away the dish, was overcome with such curiosity that he could not help -carrying the dish into his room. When he had carefully locked the door, -he lifted up the cover, and saw a white snake lying on the dish. But -when he saw it he could not deny himself the pleasure of tasting it, -so he cut of a little bit and put it into his mouth. No sooner had it -touched his tongue than he heard a strange whispering of little voices -outside his window. He went and listened, and then noticed that it was -the sparrows who were chattering together, and telling one another of -all kinds of things which they had seen in the fields and woods. Eating -the snake had given him power of understanding the language of animals. - -Now it so happened that on this very day the queen lost her most -beautiful ring, and suspicion of having stolen it fell upon this trusty -servant, who was allowed to go everywhere. The king ordered the man to -be brought before him, and threatened with angry words that unless he -could before the morrow point out the thief, he himself should be looked -upon as guilty and executed. In vain he declared his innocence; he was -dismissed with no better answer. - -In his trouble and fear he went down into the courtyard and took thought -how to help himself out of his trouble. Now some ducks were sitting -together quietly by a brook and taking their rest; and, whilst they -were making their feathers smooth with their bills, they were having a -confidential conversation together. The servant stood by and listened. -They were telling one another of all the places where they had been -waddling about all the morning, and what good food they had found; and -one said in a pitiful tone: 'Something lies heavy on my stomach; as -I was eating in haste I swallowed a ring which lay under the queen's -window.' The servant at once seized her by the neck, carried her to the -kitchen, and said to the cook: 'Here is a fine duck; pray, kill her.' -'Yes,' said the cook, and weighed her in his hand; 'she has spared -no trouble to fatten herself, and has been waiting to be roasted long -enough.' So he cut off her head, and as she was being dressed for the -spit, the queen's ring was found inside her. - -The servant could now easily prove his innocence; and the king, to make -amends for the wrong, allowed him to ask a favour, and promised him -the best place in the court that he could wish for. The servant refused -everything, and only asked for a horse and some money for travelling, as -he had a mind to see the world and go about a little. When his request -was granted he set out on his way, and one day came to a pond, where he -saw three fishes caught in the reeds and gasping for water. Now, though -it is said that fishes are dumb, he heard them lamenting that they must -perish so miserably, and, as he had a kind heart, he got off his -horse and put the three prisoners back into the water. They leapt with -delight, put out their heads, and cried to him: 'We will remember you -and repay you for saving us!' - -He rode on, and after a while it seemed to him that he heard a voice in -the sand at his feet. He listened, and heard an ant-king complain: 'Why -cannot folks, with their clumsy beasts, keep off our bodies? That stupid -horse, with his heavy hoofs, has been treading down my people without -mercy!' So he turned on to a side path and the ant-king cried out to -him: 'We will remember you--one good turn deserves another!' - -The path led him into a wood, and there he saw two old ravens standing -by their nest, and throwing out their young ones. 'Out with you, you -idle, good-for-nothing creatures!' cried they; 'we cannot find food for -you any longer; you are big enough, and can provide for yourselves.' -But the poor young ravens lay upon the ground, flapping their wings, and -crying: 'Oh, what helpless chicks we are! We must shift for ourselves, -and yet we cannot fly! What can we do, but lie here and starve?' So the -good young fellow alighted and killed his horse with his sword, and gave -it to them for food. Then they came hopping up to it, satisfied their -hunger, and cried: 'We will remember you--one good turn deserves -another!' - -And now he had to use his own legs, and when he had walked a long -way, he came to a large city. There was a great noise and crowd in -the streets, and a man rode up on horseback, crying aloud: 'The king's -daughter wants a husband; but whoever seeks her hand must perform a hard -task, and if he does not succeed he will forfeit his life.' Many had -already made the attempt, but in vain; nevertheless when the youth -saw the king's daughter he was so overcome by her great beauty that he -forgot all danger, went before the king, and declared himself a suitor. - -So he was led out to the sea, and a gold ring was thrown into it, before -his eyes; then the king ordered him to fetch this ring up from the -bottom of the sea, and added: 'If you come up again without it you will -be thrown in again and again until you perish amid the waves.' All the -people grieved for the handsome youth; then they went away, leaving him -alone by the sea. - -He stood on the shore and considered what he should do, when suddenly -he saw three fishes come swimming towards him, and they were the very -fishes whose lives he had saved. The one in the middle held a mussel in -its mouth, which it laid on the shore at the youth's feet, and when he -had taken it up and opened it, there lay the gold ring in the shell. -Full of joy he took it to the king and expected that he would grant him -the promised reward. - -But when the proud princess perceived that he was not her equal in -birth, she scorned him, and required him first to perform another -task. She went down into the garden and strewed with her own hands ten -sacksful of millet-seed on the grass; then she said: 'Tomorrow morning -before sunrise these must be picked up, and not a single grain be -wanting.' - -The youth sat down in the garden and considered how it might be possible -to perform this task, but he could think of nothing, and there he sat -sorrowfully awaiting the break of day, when he should be led to death. -But as soon as the first rays of the sun shone into the garden he saw -all the ten sacks standing side by side, quite full, and not a single -grain was missing. The ant-king had come in the night with thousands -and thousands of ants, and the grateful creatures had by great industry -picked up all the millet-seed and gathered them into the sacks. - -Presently the king's daughter herself came down into the garden, and was -amazed to see that the young man had done the task she had given him. -But she could not yet conquer her proud heart, and said: 'Although he -has performed both the tasks, he shall not be my husband until he had -brought me an apple from the Tree of Life.' The youth did not know where -the Tree of Life stood, but he set out, and would have gone on for ever, -as long as his legs would carry him, though he had no hope of finding -it. After he had wandered through three kingdoms, he came one evening to -a wood, and lay down under a tree to sleep. But he heard a rustling in -the branches, and a golden apple fell into his hand. At the same time -three ravens flew down to him, perched themselves upon his knee, and -said: 'We are the three young ravens whom you saved from starving; when -we had grown big, and heard that you were seeking the Golden Apple, -we flew over the sea to the end of the world, where the Tree of Life -stands, and have brought you the apple.' The youth, full of joy, set out -homewards, and took the Golden Apple to the king's beautiful daughter, -who had now no more excuses left to make. They cut the Apple of Life in -two and ate it together; and then her heart became full of love for him, -and they lived in undisturbed happiness to a great age. - - - - -THE WOLF AND THE SEVEN LITTLE KIDS - -There was once upon a time an old goat who had seven little kids, and -loved them with all the love of a mother for her children. One day she -wanted to go into the forest and fetch some food. So she called all -seven to her and said: 'Dear children, I have to go into the forest, -be on your guard against the wolf; if he comes in, he will devour you -all--skin, hair, and everything. The wretch often disguises himself, but -you will know him at once by his rough voice and his black feet.' The -kids said: 'Dear mother, we will take good care of ourselves; you may go -away without any anxiety.' Then the old one bleated, and went on her way -with an easy mind. - -It was not long before someone knocked at the house-door and called: -'Open the door, dear children; your mother is here, and has brought -something back with her for each of you.' But the little kids knew that -it was the wolf, by the rough voice. 'We will not open the door,' cried -they, 'you are not our mother. She has a soft, pleasant voice, but -your voice is rough; you are the wolf!' Then the wolf went away to a -shopkeeper and bought himself a great lump of chalk, ate this and made -his voice soft with it. Then he came back, knocked at the door of the -house, and called: 'Open the door, dear children, your mother is here -and has brought something back with her for each of you.' But the wolf -had laid his black paws against the window, and the children saw them -and cried: 'We will not open the door, our mother has not black feet -like you: you are the wolf!' Then the wolf ran to a baker and said: 'I -have hurt my feet, rub some dough over them for me.' And when the baker -had rubbed his feet over, he ran to the miller and said: 'Strew some -white meal over my feet for me.' The miller thought to himself: 'The -wolf wants to deceive someone,' and refused; but the wolf said: 'If you -will not do it, I will devour you.' Then the miller was afraid, and made -his paws white for him. Truly, this is the way of mankind. - -So now the wretch went for the third time to the house-door, knocked at -it and said: 'Open the door for me, children, your dear little mother -has come home, and has brought every one of you something back from the -forest with her.' The little kids cried: 'First show us your paws that -we may know if you are our dear little mother.' Then he put his paws -in through the window and when the kids saw that they were white, they -believed that all he said was true, and opened the door. But who should -come in but the wolf! They were terrified and wanted to hide themselves. -One sprang under the table, the second into the bed, the third into the -stove, the fourth into the kitchen, the fifth into the cupboard, the -sixth under the washing-bowl, and the seventh into the clock-case. But -the wolf found them all, and used no great ceremony; one after the -other he swallowed them down his throat. The youngest, who was in -the clock-case, was the only one he did not find. When the wolf had -satisfied his appetite he took himself off, laid himself down under a -tree in the green meadow outside, and began to sleep. Soon afterwards -the old goat came home again from the forest. Ah! what a sight she saw -there! The house-door stood wide open. The table, chairs, and benches -were thrown down, the washing-bowl lay broken to pieces, and the quilts -and pillows were pulled off the bed. She sought her children, but they -were nowhere to be found. She called them one after another by name, but -no one answered. At last, when she came to the youngest, a soft voice -cried: 'Dear mother, I am in the clock-case.' She took the kid out, and -it told her that the wolf had come and had eaten all the others. Then -you may imagine how she wept over her poor children. - -At length in her grief she went out, and the youngest kid ran with her. -When they came to the meadow, there lay the wolf by the tree and snored -so loud that the branches shook. She looked at him on every side and -saw that something was moving and struggling in his gorged belly. 'Ah, -heavens,' she said, 'is it possible that my poor children whom he has -swallowed down for his supper, can be still alive?' Then the kid had to -run home and fetch scissors, and a needle and thread, and the goat cut -open the monster's stomach, and hardly had she made one cut, than one -little kid thrust its head out, and when she had cut farther, all six -sprang out one after another, and were all still alive, and had suffered -no injury whatever, for in his greediness the monster had swallowed them -down whole. What rejoicing there was! They embraced their dear mother, -and jumped like a tailor at his wedding. The mother, however, said: 'Now -go and look for some big stones, and we will fill the wicked beast's -stomach with them while he is still asleep.' Then the seven kids dragged -the stones thither with all speed, and put as many of them into this -stomach as they could get in; and the mother sewed him up again in the -greatest haste, so that he was not aware of anything and never once -stirred. - -When the wolf at length had had his fill of sleep, he got on his legs, -and as the stones in his stomach made him very thirsty, he wanted to -go to a well to drink. But when he began to walk and to move about, the -stones in his stomach knocked against each other and rattled. Then cried -he: - - 'What rumbles and tumbles - Against my poor bones? - I thought 'twas six kids, - But it feels like big stones.' - -And when he got to the well and stooped over the water to drink, the -heavy stones made him fall in, and he drowned miserably. When the seven -kids saw that, they came running to the spot and cried aloud: 'The wolf -is dead! The wolf is dead!' and danced for joy round about the well with -their mother. - - - - -THE QUEEN BEE - -Two kings' sons once upon a time went into the world to seek their -fortunes; but they soon fell into a wasteful foolish way of living, so -that they could not return home again. Then their brother, who was a -little insignificant dwarf, went out to seek for his brothers: but when -he had found them they only laughed at him, to think that he, who was so -young and simple, should try to travel through the world, when they, who -were so much wiser, had been unable to get on. However, they all set -out on their journey together, and came at last to an ant-hill. The two -elder brothers would have pulled it down, in order to see how the poor -ants in their fright would run about and carry off their eggs. But the -little dwarf said, 'Let the poor things enjoy themselves, I will not -suffer you to trouble them.' - -So on they went, and came to a lake where many many ducks were swimming -about. The two brothers wanted to catch two, and roast them. But the -dwarf said, 'Let the poor things enjoy themselves, you shall not kill -them.' Next they came to a bees'-nest in a hollow tree, and there was -so much honey that it ran down the trunk; and the two brothers wanted to -light a fire under the tree and kill the bees, so as to get their honey. -But the dwarf held them back, and said, 'Let the pretty insects enjoy -themselves, I cannot let you burn them.' - -At length the three brothers came to a castle: and as they passed by the -stables they saw fine horses standing there, but all were of marble, and -no man was to be seen. Then they went through all the rooms, till they -came to a door on which were three locks: but in the middle of the door -was a wicket, so that they could look into the next room. There they saw -a little grey old man sitting at a table; and they called to him once or -twice, but he did not hear: however, they called a third time, and then -he rose and came out to them. - -He said nothing, but took hold of them and led them to a beautiful -table covered with all sorts of good things: and when they had eaten and -drunk, he showed each of them to a bed-chamber. - -The next morning he came to the eldest and took him to a marble table, -where there were three tablets, containing an account of the means by -which the castle might be disenchanted. The first tablet said: 'In the -wood, under the moss, lie the thousand pearls belonging to the king's -daughter; they must all be found: and if one be missing by set of sun, -he who seeks them will be turned into marble.' - -The eldest brother set out, and sought for the pearls the whole day: -but the evening came, and he had not found the first hundred: so he was -turned into stone as the tablet had foretold. - -The next day the second brother undertook the task; but he succeeded no -better than the first; for he could only find the second hundred of the -pearls; and therefore he too was turned into stone. - -At last came the little dwarf's turn; and he looked in the moss; but it -was so hard to find the pearls, and the job was so tiresome!--so he sat -down upon a stone and cried. And as he sat there, the king of the ants -(whose life he had saved) came to help him, with five thousand ants; and -it was not long before they had found all the pearls and laid them in a -heap. - -The second tablet said: 'The key of the princess's bed-chamber must be -fished up out of the lake.' And as the dwarf came to the brink of it, -he saw the two ducks whose lives he had saved swimming about; and they -dived down and soon brought in the key from the bottom. - -The third task was the hardest. It was to choose out the youngest and -the best of the king's three daughters. Now they were all beautiful, and -all exactly alike: but he was told that the eldest had eaten a piece of -sugar, the next some sweet syrup, and the youngest a spoonful of honey; -so he was to guess which it was that had eaten the honey. - -Then came the queen of the bees, who had been saved by the little dwarf -from the fire, and she tried the lips of all three; but at last she sat -upon the lips of the one that had eaten the honey: and so the dwarf knew -which was the youngest. Thus the spell was broken, and all who had been -turned into stones awoke, and took their proper forms. And the dwarf -married the youngest and the best of the princesses, and was king after -her father's death; but his two brothers married the other two sisters. - - - - -THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKER - -There was once a shoemaker, who worked very hard and was very honest: -but still he could not earn enough to live upon; and at last all he -had in the world was gone, save just leather enough to make one pair of -shoes. - -Then he cut his leather out, all ready to make up the next day, meaning -to rise early in the morning to his work. His conscience was clear and -his heart light amidst all his troubles; so he went peaceably to bed, -left all his cares to Heaven, and soon fell asleep. In the morning after -he had said his prayers, he sat himself down to his work; when, to his -great wonder, there stood the shoes all ready made, upon the table. The -good man knew not what to say or think at such an odd thing happening. -He looked at the workmanship; there was not one false stitch in the -whole job; all was so neat and true, that it was quite a masterpiece. - -The same day a customer came in, and the shoes suited him so well that -he willingly paid a price higher than usual for them; and the poor -shoemaker, with the money, bought leather enough to make two pairs more. -In the evening he cut out the work, and went to bed early, that he might -get up and begin betimes next day; but he was saved all the trouble, for -when he got up in the morning the work was done ready to his hand. Soon -in came buyers, who paid him handsomely for his goods, so that he bought -leather enough for four pair more. He cut out the work again overnight -and found it done in the morning, as before; and so it went on for some -time: what was got ready in the evening was always done by daybreak, and -the good man soon became thriving and well off again. - -One evening, about Christmas-time, as he and his wife were sitting over -the fire chatting together, he said to her, 'I should like to sit up and -watch tonight, that we may see who it is that comes and does my work for -me.' The wife liked the thought; so they left a light burning, and hid -themselves in a corner of the room, behind a curtain that was hung up -there, and watched what would happen. - -As soon as it was midnight, there came in two little naked dwarfs; and -they sat themselves upon the shoemaker's bench, took up all the work -that was cut out, and began to ply with their little fingers, stitching -and rapping and tapping away at such a rate, that the shoemaker was all -wonder, and could not take his eyes off them. And on they went, till the -job was quite done, and the shoes stood ready for use upon the table. -This was long before daybreak; and then they bustled away as quick as -lightning. - -The next day the wife said to the shoemaker. 'These little wights have -made us rich, and we ought to be thankful to them, and do them a good -turn if we can. I am quite sorry to see them run about as they do; and -indeed it is not very decent, for they have nothing upon their backs to -keep off the cold. I'll tell you what, I will make each of them a shirt, -and a coat and waistcoat, and a pair of pantaloons into the bargain; and -do you make each of them a little pair of shoes.' - -The thought pleased the good cobbler very much; and one evening, when -all the things were ready, they laid them on the table, instead of the -work that they used to cut out, and then went and hid themselves, to -watch what the little elves would do. - -About midnight in they came, dancing and skipping, hopped round the -room, and then went to sit down to their work as usual; but when they -saw the clothes lying for them, they laughed and chuckled, and seemed -mightily delighted. - -Then they dressed themselves in the twinkling of an eye, and danced and -capered and sprang about, as merry as could be; till at last they danced -out at the door, and away over the green. - -The good couple saw them no more; but everything went well with them -from that time forward, as long as they lived. - - - - -THE JUNIPER-TREE - -Long, long ago, some two thousand years or so, there lived a rich -man with a good and beautiful wife. They loved each other dearly, but -sorrowed much that they had no children. So greatly did they desire -to have one, that the wife prayed for it day and night, but still they -remained childless. - -In front of the house there was a court, in which grew a juniper-tree. -One winter's day the wife stood under the tree to peel some apples, and -as she was peeling them, she cut her finger, and the blood fell on the -snow. 'Ah,' sighed the woman heavily, 'if I had but a child, as red as -blood and as white as snow,' and as she spoke the words, her heart grew -light within her, and it seemed to her that her wish was granted, and -she returned to the house feeling glad and comforted. A month passed, -and the snow had all disappeared; then another month went by, and all -the earth was green. So the months followed one another, and first the -trees budded in the woods, and soon the green branches grew thickly -intertwined, and then the blossoms began to fall. Once again the wife -stood under the juniper-tree, and it was so full of sweet scent that her -heart leaped for joy, and she was so overcome with her happiness, that -she fell on her knees. Presently the fruit became round and firm, and -she was glad and at peace; but when they were fully ripe she picked the -berries and ate eagerly of them, and then she grew sad and ill. A little -while later she called her husband, and said to him, weeping. 'If I -die, bury me under the juniper-tree.' Then she felt comforted and happy -again, and before another month had passed she had a little child, and -when she saw that it was as white as snow and as red as blood, her joy -was so great that she died. - -Her husband buried her under the juniper-tree, and wept bitterly for -her. By degrees, however, his sorrow grew less, and although at times he -still grieved over his loss, he was able to go about as usual, and later -on he married again. - -He now had a little daughter born to him; the child of his first wife -was a boy, who was as red as blood and as white as snow. The mother -loved her daughter very much, and when she looked at her and then looked -at the boy, it pierced her heart to think that he would always stand in -the way of her own child, and she was continually thinking how she could -get the whole of the property for her. This evil thought took possession -of her more and more, and made her behave very unkindly to the boy. She -drove him from place to place with cuffings and buffetings, so that the -poor child went about in fear, and had no peace from the time he left -school to the time he went back. - -One day the little daughter came running to her mother in the -store-room, and said, 'Mother, give me an apple.' 'Yes, my child,' said -the wife, and she gave her a beautiful apple out of the chest; the chest -had a very heavy lid and a large iron lock. - -'Mother,' said the little daughter again, 'may not brother have one -too?' The mother was angry at this, but she answered, 'Yes, when he -comes out of school.' - -Just then she looked out of the window and saw him coming, and it seemed -as if an evil spirit entered into her, for she snatched the apple out -of her little daughter's hand, and said, 'You shall not have one before -your brother.' She threw the apple into the chest and shut it to. The -little boy now came in, and the evil spirit in the wife made her say -kindly to him, 'My son, will you have an apple?' but she gave him a -wicked look. 'Mother,' said the boy, 'how dreadful you look! Yes, give -me an apple.' The thought came to her that she would kill him. 'Come -with me,' she said, and she lifted up the lid of the chest; 'take one -out for yourself.' And as he bent over to do so, the evil spirit urged -her, and crash! down went the lid, and off went the little boy's head. -Then she was overwhelmed with fear at the thought of what she had done. -'If only I can prevent anyone knowing that I did it,' she thought. So -she went upstairs to her room, and took a white handkerchief out of -her top drawer; then she set the boy's head again on his shoulders, and -bound it with the handkerchief so that nothing could be seen, and placed -him on a chair by the door with an apple in his hand. - -Soon after this, little Marleen came up to her mother who was stirring -a pot of boiling water over the fire, and said, 'Mother, brother is -sitting by the door with an apple in his hand, and he looks so pale; -and when I asked him to give me the apple, he did not answer, and that -frightened me.' - -'Go to him again,' said her mother, 'and if he does not answer, give him -a box on the ear.' So little Marleen went, and said, 'Brother, give me -that apple,' but he did not say a word; then she gave him a box on the -ear, and his head rolled off. She was so terrified at this, that she ran -crying and screaming to her mother. 'Oh!' she said, 'I have knocked off -brother's head,' and then she wept and wept, and nothing would stop her. - -'What have you done!' said her mother, 'but no one must know about it, -so you must keep silence; what is done can't be undone; we will make -him into puddings.' And she took the little boy and cut him up, made him -into puddings, and put him in the pot. But Marleen stood looking on, -and wept and wept, and her tears fell into the pot, so that there was no -need of salt. - -Presently the father came home and sat down to his dinner; he asked, -'Where is my son?' The mother said nothing, but gave him a large dish of -black pudding, and Marleen still wept without ceasing. - -The father again asked, 'Where is my son?' - -'Oh,' answered the wife, 'he is gone into the country to his mother's -great uncle; he is going to stay there some time.' - -'What has he gone there for, and he never even said goodbye to me!' - -'Well, he likes being there, and he told me he should be away quite six -weeks; he is well looked after there.' - -'I feel very unhappy about it,' said the husband, 'in case it should not -be all right, and he ought to have said goodbye to me.' - -With this he went on with his dinner, and said, 'Little Marleen, why do -you weep? Brother will soon be back.' Then he asked his wife for more -pudding, and as he ate, he threw the bones under the table. - -Little Marleen went upstairs and took her best silk handkerchief out of -her bottom drawer, and in it she wrapped all the bones from under the -table and carried them outside, and all the time she did nothing but -weep. Then she laid them in the green grass under the juniper-tree, and -she had no sooner done so, then all her sadness seemed to leave her, -and she wept no more. And now the juniper-tree began to move, and the -branches waved backwards and forwards, first away from one another, and -then together again, as it might be someone clapping their hands for -joy. After this a mist came round the tree, and in the midst of it there -was a burning as of fire, and out of the fire there flew a beautiful -bird, that rose high into the air, singing magnificently, and when it -could no more be seen, the juniper-tree stood there as before, and the -silk handkerchief and the bones were gone. - -Little Marleen now felt as lighthearted and happy as if her brother were -still alive, and she went back to the house and sat down cheerfully to -the table and ate. - -The bird flew away and alighted on the house of a goldsmith and began to -sing: - - 'My mother killed her little son; - My father grieved when I was gone; - My sister loved me best of all; - She laid her kerchief over me, - And took my bones that they might lie - Underneath the juniper-tree - Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!' - -The goldsmith was in his workshop making a gold chain, when he heard the -song of the bird on his roof. He thought it so beautiful that he got -up and ran out, and as he crossed the threshold he lost one of his -slippers. But he ran on into the middle of the street, with a slipper on -one foot and a sock on the other; he still had on his apron, and still -held the gold chain and the pincers in his hands, and so he stood gazing -up at the bird, while the sun came shining brightly down on the street. - -'Bird,' he said, 'how beautifully you sing! Sing me that song again.' - -'Nay,' said the bird, 'I do not sing twice for nothing. Give that gold -chain, and I will sing it you again.' - -'Here is the chain, take it,' said the goldsmith. 'Only sing me that -again.' - -The bird flew down and took the gold chain in his right claw, and then -he alighted again in front of the goldsmith and sang: - - 'My mother killed her little son; - My father grieved when I was gone; - My sister loved me best of all; - She laid her kerchief over me, - And took my bones that they might lie - Underneath the juniper-tree - Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!' - -Then he flew away, and settled on the roof of a shoemaker's house and -sang: - - 'My mother killed her little son; - My father grieved when I was gone; - My sister loved me best of all; - She laid her kerchief over me, - And took my bones that they might lie - Underneath the juniper-tree - Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!' - -The shoemaker heard him, and he jumped up and ran out in his -shirt-sleeves, and stood looking up at the bird on the roof with his -hand over his eyes to keep himself from being blinded by the sun. - -'Bird,' he said, 'how beautifully you sing!' Then he called through the -door to his wife: 'Wife, come out; here is a bird, come and look at it -and hear how beautifully it sings.' Then he called his daughter and the -children, then the apprentices, girls and boys, and they all ran up the -street to look at the bird, and saw how splendid it was with its red -and green feathers, and its neck like burnished gold, and eyes like two -bright stars in its head. - -'Bird,' said the shoemaker, 'sing me that song again.' - -'Nay,' answered the bird, 'I do not sing twice for nothing; you must -give me something.' - -'Wife,' said the man, 'go into the garret; on the upper shelf you will -see a pair of red shoes; bring them to me.' The wife went in and fetched -the shoes. - -'There, bird,' said the shoemaker, 'now sing me that song again.' - -The bird flew down and took the red shoes in his left claw, and then he -went back to the roof and sang: - - 'My mother killed her little son; - My father grieved when I was gone; - My sister loved me best of all; - She laid her kerchief over me, - And took my bones that they might lie - Underneath the juniper-tree - Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!' - -When he had finished, he flew away. He had the chain in his right claw -and the shoes in his left, and he flew right away to a mill, and the -mill went 'Click clack, click clack, click clack.' Inside the mill were -twenty of the miller's men hewing a stone, and as they went 'Hick hack, -hick hack, hick hack,' the mill went 'Click clack, click clack, click -clack.' - -The bird settled on a lime-tree in front of the mill and sang: - - 'My mother killed her little son; - -then one of the men left off, - - My father grieved when I was gone; - -two more men left off and listened, - - My sister loved me best of all; - -then four more left off, - - She laid her kerchief over me, - And took my bones that they might lie - -now there were only eight at work, - - Underneath - -And now only five, - - the juniper-tree. - -And now only one, - - Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!' - -then he looked up and the last one had left off work. - -'Bird,' he said, 'what a beautiful song that is you sing! Let me hear it -too; sing it again.' - -'Nay,' answered the bird, 'I do not sing twice for nothing; give me that -millstone, and I will sing it again.' - -'If it belonged to me alone,' said the man, 'you should have it.' - -'Yes, yes,' said the others: 'if he will sing again, he can have it.' - -The bird came down, and all the twenty millers set to and lifted up the -stone with a beam; then the bird put his head through the hole and took -the stone round his neck like a collar, and flew back with it to the -tree and sang-- - - 'My mother killed her little son; - My father grieved when I was gone; - My sister loved me best of all; - She laid her kerchief over me, - And took my bones that they might lie - Underneath the juniper-tree - Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!' - -And when he had finished his song, he spread his wings, and with the -chain in his right claw, the shoes in his left, and the millstone round -his neck, he flew right away to his father's house. - -The father, the mother, and little Marleen were having their dinner. - -'How lighthearted I feel,' said the father, 'so pleased and cheerful.' - -'And I,' said the mother, 'I feel so uneasy, as if a heavy thunderstorm -were coming.' - -But little Marleen sat and wept and wept. - -Then the bird came flying towards the house and settled on the roof. - -'I do feel so happy,' said the father, 'and how beautifully the sun -shines; I feel just as if I were going to see an old friend again.' - -'Ah!' said the wife, 'and I am so full of distress and uneasiness that -my teeth chatter, and I feel as if there were a fire in my veins,' and -she tore open her dress; and all the while little Marleen sat in the -corner and wept, and the plate on her knees was wet with her tears. - -The bird now flew to the juniper-tree and began singing: - - 'My mother killed her little son; - -the mother shut her eyes and her ears, that she might see and hear -nothing, but there was a roaring sound in her ears like that of a -violent storm, and in her eyes a burning and flashing like lightning: - - My father grieved when I was gone; - -'Look, mother,' said the man, 'at the beautiful bird that is singing so -magnificently; and how warm and bright the sun is, and what a delicious -scent of spice in the air!' - - My sister loved me best of all; - -then little Marleen laid her head down on her knees and sobbed. - -'I must go outside and see the bird nearer,' said the man. - -'Ah, do not go!' cried the wife. 'I feel as if the whole house were in -flames!' - -But the man went out and looked at the bird. - - She laid her kerchief over me, - And took my bones that they might lie - Underneath the juniper-tree - Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!' - -With that the bird let fall the gold chain, and it fell just round the -man's neck, so that it fitted him exactly. - -He went inside, and said, 'See, what a splendid bird that is; he has -given me this beautiful gold chain, and looks so beautiful himself.' - -But the wife was in such fear and trouble, that she fell on the floor, -and her cap fell from her head. - -Then the bird began again: - - 'My mother killed her little son; - -'Ah me!' cried the wife, 'if I were but a thousand feet beneath the -earth, that I might not hear that song.' - - My father grieved when I was gone; - -then the woman fell down again as if dead. - - My sister loved me best of all; - -'Well,' said little Marleen, 'I will go out too and see if the bird will -give me anything.' - -So she went out. - - She laid her kerchief over me, - And took my bones that they might lie - -and he threw down the shoes to her, - - Underneath the juniper-tree - Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!' - -And she now felt quite happy and lighthearted; she put on the shoes and -danced and jumped about in them. 'I was so miserable,' she said, 'when I -came out, but that has all passed away; that is indeed a splendid bird, -and he has given me a pair of red shoes.' - -The wife sprang up, with her hair standing out from her head like flames -of fire. 'Then I will go out too,' she said, 'and see if it will lighten -my misery, for I feel as if the world were coming to an end.' - -But as she crossed the threshold, crash! the bird threw the millstone -down on her head, and she was crushed to death. - -The father and little Marleen heard the sound and ran out, but they only -saw mist and flame and fire rising from the spot, and when these had -passed, there stood the little brother, and he took the father and -little Marleen by the hand; then they all three rejoiced, and went -inside together and sat down to their dinners and ate. - - - - -THE TURNIP - -There were two brothers who were both soldiers; the one was rich and -the other poor. The poor man thought he would try to better himself; so, -pulling off his red coat, he became a gardener, and dug his ground well, -and sowed turnips. - -When the seed came up, there was one plant bigger than all the rest; and -it kept getting larger and larger, and seemed as if it would never cease -growing; so that it might have been called the prince of turnips for -there never was such a one seen before, and never will again. At last it -was so big that it filled a cart, and two oxen could hardly draw it; and -the gardener knew not what in the world to do with it, nor whether it -would be a blessing or a curse to him. One day he said to himself, 'What -shall I do with it? if I sell it, it will bring no more than another; -and for eating, the little turnips are better than this; the best thing -perhaps is to carry it and give it to the king as a mark of respect.' - -Then he yoked his oxen, and drew the turnip to the court, and gave it -to the king. 'What a wonderful thing!' said the king; 'I have seen many -strange things, but such a monster as this I never saw. Where did you -get the seed? or is it only your good luck? If so, you are a true child -of fortune.' 'Ah, no!' answered the gardener, 'I am no child of fortune; -I am a poor soldier, who never could get enough to live upon; so I -laid aside my red coat, and set to work, tilling the ground. I have a -brother, who is rich, and your majesty knows him well, and all the world -knows him; but because I am poor, everybody forgets me.' - -The king then took pity on him, and said, 'You shall be poor no -longer. I will give you so much that you shall be even richer than your -brother.' Then he gave him gold and lands and flocks, and made him so -rich that his brother's fortune could not at all be compared with his. - -When the brother heard of all this, and how a turnip had made the -gardener so rich, he envied him sorely, and bethought himself how he -could contrive to get the same good fortune for himself. However, he -determined to manage more cleverly than his brother, and got together a -rich present of gold and fine horses for the king; and thought he must -have a much larger gift in return; for if his brother had received so -much for only a turnip, what must his present be worth? - -The king took the gift very graciously, and said he knew not what to -give in return more valuable and wonderful than the great turnip; so -the soldier was forced to put it into a cart, and drag it home with him. -When he reached home, he knew not upon whom to vent his rage and spite; -and at length wicked thoughts came into his head, and he resolved to -kill his brother. - -So he hired some villains to murder him; and having shown them where to -lie in ambush, he went to his brother, and said, 'Dear brother, I have -found a hidden treasure; let us go and dig it up, and share it between -us.' The other had no suspicions of his roguery: so they went out -together, and as they were travelling along, the murderers rushed out -upon him, bound him, and were going to hang him on a tree. - -But whilst they were getting all ready, they heard the trampling of a -horse at a distance, which so frightened them that they pushed their -prisoner neck and shoulders together into a sack, and swung him up by a -cord to the tree, where they left him dangling, and ran away. Meantime -he worked and worked away, till he made a hole large enough to put out -his head. - -When the horseman came up, he proved to be a student, a merry fellow, -who was journeying along on his nag, and singing as he went. As soon as -the man in the sack saw him passing under the tree, he cried out, 'Good -morning! good morning to thee, my friend!' The student looked about -everywhere; and seeing no one, and not knowing where the voice came -from, cried out, 'Who calls me?' - -Then the man in the tree answered, 'Lift up thine eyes, for behold here -I sit in the sack of wisdom; here have I, in a short time, learned great -and wondrous things. Compared to this seat, all the learning of the -schools is as empty air. A little longer, and I shall know all that man -can know, and shall come forth wiser than the wisest of mankind. Here -I discern the signs and motions of the heavens and the stars; the laws -that control the winds; the number of the sands on the seashore; the -healing of the sick; the virtues of all simples, of birds, and of -precious stones. Wert thou but once here, my friend, though wouldst feel -and own the power of knowledge. - -The student listened to all this and wondered much; at last he said, -'Blessed be the day and hour when I found you; cannot you contrive to -let me into the sack for a little while?' Then the other answered, as if -very unwillingly, 'A little space I may allow thee to sit here, if thou -wilt reward me well and entreat me kindly; but thou must tarry yet an -hour below, till I have learnt some little matters that are yet unknown -to me.' - -So the student sat himself down and waited a while; but the time hung -heavy upon him, and he begged earnestly that he might ascend forthwith, -for his thirst for knowledge was great. Then the other pretended to give -way, and said, 'Thou must let the sack of wisdom descend, by untying -yonder cord, and then thou shalt enter.' So the student let him down, -opened the sack, and set him free. 'Now then,' cried he, 'let me ascend -quickly.' As he began to put himself into the sack heels first, 'Wait a -while,' said the gardener, 'that is not the way.' Then he pushed him -in head first, tied up the sack, and soon swung up the searcher after -wisdom dangling in the air. 'How is it with thee, friend?' said he, -'dost thou not feel that wisdom comes unto thee? Rest there in peace, -till thou art a wiser man than thou wert.' - -So saying, he trotted off on the student's nag, and left the poor fellow -to gather wisdom till somebody should come and let him down. - - - - -CLEVER HANS - -The mother of Hans said: 'Whither away, Hans?' Hans answered: 'To -Gretel.' 'Behave well, Hans.' 'Oh, I'll behave well. Goodbye, mother.' -'Goodbye, Hans.' Hans comes to Gretel. 'Good day, Gretel.' 'Good day, -Hans. What do you bring that is good?' 'I bring nothing, I want to have -something given me.' Gretel presents Hans with a needle, Hans says: -'Goodbye, Gretel.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' - -Hans takes the needle, sticks it into a hay-cart, and follows the cart -home. 'Good evening, mother.' 'Good evening, Hans. Where have you been?' -'With Gretel.' 'What did you take her?' 'Took nothing; had something -given me.' 'What did Gretel give you?' 'Gave me a needle.' 'Where is the -needle, Hans?' 'Stuck in the hay-cart.' 'That was ill done, Hans. You -should have stuck the needle in your sleeve.' 'Never mind, I'll do -better next time.' - -'Whither away, Hans?' 'To Gretel, mother.' 'Behave well, Hans.' 'Oh, -I'll behave well. Goodbye, mother.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' Hans comes to -Gretel. 'Good day, Gretel.' 'Good day, Hans. What do you bring that is -good?' 'I bring nothing. I want to have something given to me.' Gretel -presents Hans with a knife. 'Goodbye, Gretel.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' Hans -takes the knife, sticks it in his sleeve, and goes home. 'Good evening, -mother.' 'Good evening, Hans. Where have you been?' 'With Gretel.' What -did you take her?' 'Took her nothing, she gave me something.' 'What did -Gretel give you?' 'Gave me a knife.' 'Where is the knife, Hans?' 'Stuck -in my sleeve.' 'That's ill done, Hans, you should have put the knife in -your pocket.' 'Never mind, will do better next time.' - -'Whither away, Hans?' 'To Gretel, mother.' 'Behave well, Hans.' 'Oh, -I'll behave well. Goodbye, mother.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' Hans comes to -Gretel. 'Good day, Gretel.' 'Good day, Hans. What good thing do you -bring?' 'I bring nothing, I want something given me.' Gretel presents -Hans with a young goat. 'Goodbye, Gretel.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' Hans takes -the goat, ties its legs, and puts it in his pocket. When he gets home it -is suffocated. 'Good evening, mother.' 'Good evening, Hans. Where have -you been?' 'With Gretel.' 'What did you take her?' 'Took nothing, she -gave me something.' 'What did Gretel give you?' 'She gave me a goat.' -'Where is the goat, Hans?' 'Put it in my pocket.' 'That was ill done, -Hans, you should have put a rope round the goat's neck.' 'Never mind, -will do better next time.' - -'Whither away, Hans?' 'To Gretel, mother.' 'Behave well, Hans.' 'Oh, -I'll behave well. Goodbye, mother.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' Hans comes to -Gretel. 'Good day, Gretel.' 'Good day, Hans. What good thing do you -bring?' 'I bring nothing, I want something given me.' Gretel presents -Hans with a piece of bacon. 'Goodbye, Gretel.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' - -Hans takes the bacon, ties it to a rope, and drags it away behind him. -The dogs come and devour the bacon. When he gets home, he has the rope -in his hand, and there is no longer anything hanging on to it. 'Good -evening, mother.' 'Good evening, Hans. Where have you been?' 'With -Gretel.' 'What did you take her?' 'I took her nothing, she gave me -something.' 'What did Gretel give you?' 'Gave me a bit of bacon.' 'Where -is the bacon, Hans?' 'I tied it to a rope, brought it home, dogs took -it.' 'That was ill done, Hans, you should have carried the bacon on your -head.' 'Never mind, will do better next time.' - -'Whither away, Hans?' 'To Gretel, mother.' 'Behave well, Hans.' 'I'll -behave well. Goodbye, mother.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' Hans comes to Gretel. -'Good day, Gretel.' 'Good day, Hans, What good thing do you bring?' 'I -bring nothing, but would have something given.' Gretel presents Hans -with a calf. 'Goodbye, Gretel.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' - -Hans takes the calf, puts it on his head, and the calf kicks his face. -'Good evening, mother.' 'Good evening, Hans. Where have you been?' 'With -Gretel.' 'What did you take her?' 'I took nothing, but had something -given me.' 'What did Gretel give you?' 'A calf.' 'Where have you the -calf, Hans?' 'I set it on my head and it kicked my face.' 'That was -ill done, Hans, you should have led the calf, and put it in the stall.' -'Never mind, will do better next time.' - -'Whither away, Hans?' 'To Gretel, mother.' 'Behave well, Hans.' 'I'll -behave well. Goodbye, mother.' 'Goodbye, Hans.' - -Hans comes to Gretel. 'Good day, Gretel.' 'Good day, Hans. What good -thing do you bring?' 'I bring nothing, but would have something given.' -Gretel says to Hans: 'I will go with you.' - -Hans takes Gretel, ties her to a rope, leads her to the rack, and binds -her fast. Then Hans goes to his mother. 'Good evening, mother.' 'Good -evening, Hans. Where have you been?' 'With Gretel.' 'What did you take -her?' 'I took her nothing.' 'What did Gretel give you?' 'She gave me -nothing, she came with me.' 'Where have you left Gretel?' 'I led her by -the rope, tied her to the rack, and scattered some grass for her.' 'That -was ill done, Hans, you should have cast friendly eyes on her.' 'Never -mind, will do better.' - -Hans went into the stable, cut out all the calves' and sheep's eyes, -and threw them in Gretel's face. Then Gretel became angry, tore herself -loose and ran away, and was no longer the bride of Hans. - - - - -THE THREE LANGUAGES - -An aged count once lived in Switzerland, who had an only son, but he -was stupid, and could learn nothing. Then said the father: 'Hark you, -my son, try as I will I can get nothing into your head. You must go from -hence, I will give you into the care of a celebrated master, who shall -see what he can do with you.' The youth was sent into a strange town, -and remained a whole year with the master. At the end of this time, -he came home again, and his father asked: 'Now, my son, what have you -learnt?' 'Father, I have learnt what the dogs say when they bark.' 'Lord -have mercy on us!' cried the father; 'is that all you have learnt? I -will send you into another town, to another master.' The youth was taken -thither, and stayed a year with this master likewise. When he came back -the father again asked: 'My son, what have you learnt?' He answered: -'Father, I have learnt what the birds say.' Then the father fell into a -rage and said: 'Oh, you lost man, you have spent the precious time and -learnt nothing; are you not ashamed to appear before my eyes? I will -send you to a third master, but if you learn nothing this time also, I -will no longer be your father.' The youth remained a whole year with the -third master also, and when he came home again, and his father inquired: -'My son, what have you learnt?' he answered: 'Dear father, I have this -year learnt what the frogs croak.' Then the father fell into the most -furious anger, sprang up, called his people thither, and said: 'This man -is no longer my son, I drive him forth, and command you to take him -out into the forest, and kill him.' They took him forth, but when they -should have killed him, they could not do it for pity, and let him go, -and they cut the eyes and tongue out of a deer that they might carry -them to the old man as a token. - -The youth wandered on, and after some time came to a fortress where he -begged for a night's lodging. 'Yes,' said the lord of the castle, 'if -you will pass the night down there in the old tower, go thither; but I -warn you, it is at the peril of your life, for it is full of wild dogs, -which bark and howl without stopping, and at certain hours a man has to -be given to them, whom they at once devour.' The whole district was in -sorrow and dismay because of them, and yet no one could do anything to -stop this. The youth, however, was without fear, and said: 'Just let me -go down to the barking dogs, and give me something that I can throw to -them; they will do nothing to harm me.' As he himself would have it so, -they gave him some food for the wild animals, and led him down to the -tower. When he went inside, the dogs did not bark at him, but wagged -their tails quite amicably around him, ate what he set before them, and -did not hurt one hair of his head. Next morning, to the astonishment of -everyone, he came out again safe and unharmed, and said to the lord of -the castle: 'The dogs have revealed to me, in their own language, why -they dwell there, and bring evil on the land. They are bewitched, and -are obliged to watch over a great treasure which is below in the tower, -and they can have no rest until it is taken away, and I have likewise -learnt, from their discourse, how that is to be done.' Then all who -heard this rejoiced, and the lord of the castle said he would adopt him -as a son if he accomplished it successfully. He went down again, and -as he knew what he had to do, he did it thoroughly, and brought a chest -full of gold out with him. The howling of the wild dogs was henceforth -heard no more; they had disappeared, and the country was freed from the -trouble. - -After some time he took it in his head that he would travel to Rome. On -the way he passed by a marsh, in which a number of frogs were sitting -croaking. He listened to them, and when he became aware of what they -were saying, he grew very thoughtful and sad. At last he arrived in -Rome, where the Pope had just died, and there was great doubt among -the cardinals as to whom they should appoint as his successor. They at -length agreed that the person should be chosen as pope who should be -distinguished by some divine and miraculous token. And just as that was -decided on, the young count entered into the church, and suddenly two -snow-white doves flew on his shoulders and remained sitting there. The -ecclesiastics recognized therein the token from above, and asked him on -the spot if he would be pope. He was undecided, and knew not if he were -worthy of this, but the doves counselled him to do it, and at length he -said yes. Then was he anointed and consecrated, and thus was fulfilled -what he had heard from the frogs on his way, which had so affected him, -that he was to be his Holiness the Pope. Then he had to sing a mass, and -did not know one word of it, but the two doves sat continually on his -shoulders, and said it all in his ear. - - - - -THE FOX AND THE CAT - -It happened that the cat met the fox in a forest, and as she thought to -herself: 'He is clever and full of experience, and much esteemed in the -world,' she spoke to him in a friendly way. 'Good day, dear Mr Fox, -how are you? How is all with you? How are you getting on in these hard -times?' The fox, full of all kinds of arrogance, looked at the cat from -head to foot, and for a long time did not know whether he would give -any answer or not. At last he said: 'Oh, you wretched beard-cleaner, you -piebald fool, you hungry mouse-hunter, what can you be thinking of? Have -you the cheek to ask how I am getting on? What have you learnt? How -many arts do you understand?' 'I understand but one,' replied the -cat, modestly. 'What art is that?' asked the fox. 'When the hounds are -following me, I can spring into a tree and save myself.' 'Is that all?' -said the fox. 'I am master of a hundred arts, and have into the bargain -a sackful of cunning. You make me sorry for you; come with me, I will -teach you how people get away from the hounds.' Just then came a hunter -with four dogs. The cat sprang nimbly up a tree, and sat down at the top -of it, where the branches and foliage quite concealed her. 'Open your -sack, Mr Fox, open your sack,' cried the cat to him, but the dogs had -already seized him, and were holding him fast. 'Ah, Mr Fox,' cried the -cat. 'You with your hundred arts are left in the lurch! Had you been -able to climb like me, you would not have lost your life.' - - - - -THE FOUR CLEVER BROTHERS - -'Dear children,' said a poor man to his four sons, 'I have nothing to -give you; you must go out into the wide world and try your luck. Begin -by learning some craft or another, and see how you can get on.' So the -four brothers took their walking-sticks in their hands, and their little -bundles on their shoulders, and after bidding their father goodbye, went -all out at the gate together. When they had got on some way they came -to four crossways, each leading to a different country. Then the eldest -said, 'Here we must part; but this day four years we will come back -to this spot, and in the meantime each must try what he can do for -himself.' - -So each brother went his way; and as the eldest was hastening on a man -met him, and asked him where he was going, and what he wanted. 'I am -going to try my luck in the world, and should like to begin by learning -some art or trade,' answered he. 'Then,' said the man, 'go with me, and -I will teach you to become the cunningest thief that ever was.' 'No,' -said the other, 'that is not an honest calling, and what can one look -to earn by it in the end but the gallows?' 'Oh!' said the man, 'you need -not fear the gallows; for I will only teach you to steal what will be -fair game: I meddle with nothing but what no one else can get or care -anything about, and where no one can find you out.' So the young man -agreed to follow his trade, and he soon showed himself so clever, that -nothing could escape him that he had once set his mind upon. - -The second brother also met a man, who, when he found out what he was -setting out upon, asked him what craft he meant to follow. 'I do not -know yet,' said he. 'Then come with me, and be a star-gazer. It is a -noble art, for nothing can be hidden from you, when once you understand -the stars.' The plan pleased him much, and he soon became such a skilful -star-gazer, that when he had served out his time, and wanted to leave -his master, he gave him a glass, and said, 'With this you can see all -that is passing in the sky and on earth, and nothing can be hidden from -you.' - -The third brother met a huntsman, who took him with him, and taught him -so well all that belonged to hunting, that he became very clever in the -craft of the woods; and when he left his master he gave him a bow, and -said, 'Whatever you shoot at with this bow you will be sure to hit.' - -The youngest brother likewise met a man who asked him what he wished to -do. 'Would not you like,' said he, 'to be a tailor?' 'Oh, no!' said -the young man; 'sitting cross-legged from morning to night, working -backwards and forwards with a needle and goose, will never suit me.' -'Oh!' answered the man, 'that is not my sort of tailoring; come with me, -and you will learn quite another kind of craft from that.' Not knowing -what better to do, he came into the plan, and learnt tailoring from the -beginning; and when he left his master, he gave him a needle, and said, -'You can sew anything with this, be it as soft as an egg or as hard as -steel; and the joint will be so fine that no seam will be seen.' - -After the space of four years, at the time agreed upon, the four -brothers met at the four cross-roads; and having welcomed each other, -set off towards their father's home, where they told him all that had -happened to them, and how each had learned some craft. - -Then, one day, as they were sitting before the house under a very high -tree, the father said, 'I should like to try what each of you can do in -this way.' So he looked up, and said to the second son, 'At the top of -this tree there is a chaffinch's nest; tell me how many eggs there are -in it.' The star-gazer took his glass, looked up, and said, 'Five.' -'Now,' said the father to the eldest son, 'take away the eggs without -letting the bird that is sitting upon them and hatching them know -anything of what you are doing.' So the cunning thief climbed up the -tree, and brought away to his father the five eggs from under the bird; -and it never saw or felt what he was doing, but kept sitting on at its -ease. Then the father took the eggs, and put one on each corner of the -table, and the fifth in the middle, and said to the huntsman, 'Cut all -the eggs in two pieces at one shot.' The huntsman took up his bow, and -at one shot struck all the five eggs as his father wished. - -'Now comes your turn,' said he to the young tailor; 'sew the eggs and -the young birds in them together again, so neatly that the shot shall -have done them no harm.' Then the tailor took his needle, and sewed the -eggs as he was told; and when he had done, the thief was sent to take -them back to the nest, and put them under the bird without its knowing -it. Then she went on sitting, and hatched them: and in a few days they -crawled out, and had only a little red streak across their necks, where -the tailor had sewn them together. - -'Well done, sons!' said the old man; 'you have made good use of your -time, and learnt something worth the knowing; but I am sure I do not -know which ought to have the prize. Oh, that a time might soon come for -you to turn your skill to some account!' - -Not long after this there was a great bustle in the country; for the -king's daughter had been carried off by a mighty dragon, and the king -mourned over his loss day and night, and made it known that whoever -brought her back to him should have her for a wife. Then the four -brothers said to each other, 'Here is a chance for us; let us try -what we can do.' And they agreed to see whether they could not set the -princess free. 'I will soon find out where she is, however,' said the -star-gazer, as he looked through his glass; and he soon cried out, 'I -see her afar off, sitting upon a rock in the sea, and I can spy the -dragon close by, guarding her.' Then he went to the king, and asked for -a ship for himself and his brothers; and they sailed together over the -sea, till they came to the right place. There they found the princess -sitting, as the star-gazer had said, on the rock; and the dragon was -lying asleep, with his head upon her lap. 'I dare not shoot at him,' -said the huntsman, 'for I should kill the beautiful young lady also.' -'Then I will try my skill,' said the thief, and went and stole her away -from under the dragon, so quietly and gently that the beast did not know -it, but went on snoring. - -Then away they hastened with her full of joy in their boat towards the -ship; but soon came the dragon roaring behind them through the air; for -he awoke and missed the princess. But when he got over the boat, and -wanted to pounce upon them and carry off the princess, the huntsman took -up his bow and shot him straight through the heart so that he fell down -dead. They were still not safe; for he was such a great beast that in -his fall he overset the boat, and they had to swim in the open sea -upon a few planks. So the tailor took his needle, and with a few large -stitches put some of the planks together; and he sat down upon these, -and sailed about and gathered up all pieces of the boat; and then tacked -them together so quickly that the boat was soon ready, and they then -reached the ship and got home safe. - -When they had brought home the princess to her father, there was great -rejoicing; and he said to the four brothers, 'One of you shall marry -her, but you must settle amongst yourselves which it is to be.' Then -there arose a quarrel between them; and the star-gazer said, 'If I had -not found the princess out, all your skill would have been of no use; -therefore she ought to be mine.' 'Your seeing her would have been of -no use,' said the thief, 'if I had not taken her away from the dragon; -therefore she ought to be mine.' 'No, she is mine,' said the huntsman; -'for if I had not killed the dragon, he would, after all, have torn you -and the princess into pieces.' 'And if I had not sewn the boat together -again,' said the tailor, 'you would all have been drowned, therefore she -is mine.' Then the king put in a word, and said, 'Each of you is right; -and as all cannot have the young lady, the best way is for neither of -you to have her: for the truth is, there is somebody she likes a great -deal better. But to make up for your loss, I will give each of you, as a -reward for his skill, half a kingdom.' So the brothers agreed that this -plan would be much better than either quarrelling or marrying a lady who -had no mind to have them. And the king then gave to each half a kingdom, -as he had said; and they lived very happily the rest of their days, and -took good care of their father; and somebody took better care of the -young lady, than to let either the dragon or one of the craftsmen have -her again. - - - - -LILY AND THE LION - -A merchant, who had three daughters, was once setting out upon a -journey; but before he went he asked each daughter what gift he should -bring back for her. The eldest wished for pearls; the second for jewels; -but the third, who was called Lily, said, 'Dear father, bring me a -rose.' Now it was no easy task to find a rose, for it was the middle -of winter; yet as she was his prettiest daughter, and was very fond of -flowers, her father said he would try what he could do. So he kissed all -three, and bid them goodbye. - -And when the time came for him to go home, he had bought pearls and -jewels for the two eldest, but he had sought everywhere in vain for the -rose; and when he went into any garden and asked for such a thing, the -people laughed at him, and asked him whether he thought roses grew in -snow. This grieved him very much, for Lily was his dearest child; and as -he was journeying home, thinking what he should bring her, he came to a -fine castle; and around the castle was a garden, in one half of which it -seemed to be summer-time and in the other half winter. On one side the -finest flowers were in full bloom, and on the other everything looked -dreary and buried in the snow. 'A lucky hit!' said he, as he called to -his servant, and told him to go to a beautiful bed of roses that was -there, and bring him away one of the finest flowers. - -This done, they were riding away well pleased, when up sprang a fierce -lion, and roared out, 'Whoever has stolen my roses shall be eaten up -alive!' Then the man said, 'I knew not that the garden belonged to you; -can nothing save my life?' 'No!' said the lion, 'nothing, unless you -undertake to give me whatever meets you on your return home; if you -agree to this, I will give you your life, and the rose too for your -daughter.' But the man was unwilling to do so and said, 'It may be my -youngest daughter, who loves me most, and always runs to meet me when -I go home.' Then the servant was greatly frightened, and said, 'It may -perhaps be only a cat or a dog.' And at last the man yielded with a -heavy heart, and took the rose; and said he would give the lion whatever -should meet him first on his return. - -And as he came near home, it was Lily, his youngest and dearest -daughter, that met him; she came running, and kissed him, and welcomed -him home; and when she saw that he had brought her the rose, she was -still more glad. But her father began to be very sorrowful, and to weep, -saying, 'Alas, my dearest child! I have bought this flower at a high -price, for I have said I would give you to a wild lion; and when he has -you, he will tear you in pieces, and eat you.' Then he told her all that -had happened, and said she should not go, let what would happen. - -But she comforted him, and said, 'Dear father, the word you have given -must be kept; I will go to the lion, and soothe him: perhaps he will let -me come safe home again.' - -The next morning she asked the way she was to go, and took leave of her -father, and went forth with a bold heart into the wood. But the lion was -an enchanted prince. By day he and all his court were lions, but in the -evening they took their right forms again. And when Lily came to the -castle, he welcomed her so courteously that she agreed to marry him. The -wedding-feast was held, and they lived happily together a long time. The -prince was only to be seen as soon as evening came, and then he held his -court; but every morning he left his bride, and went away by himself, -she knew not whither, till the night came again. - -After some time he said to her, 'Tomorrow there will be a great feast in -your father's house, for your eldest sister is to be married; and if -you wish to go and visit her my lions shall lead you thither.' Then she -rejoiced much at the thoughts of seeing her father once more, and set -out with the lions; and everyone was overjoyed to see her, for they had -thought her dead long since. But she told them how happy she was, and -stayed till the feast was over, and then went back to the wood. - -Her second sister was soon after married, and when Lily was asked to -go to the wedding, she said to the prince, 'I will not go alone this -time--you must go with me.' But he would not, and said that it would be -a very hazardous thing; for if the least ray of the torch-light should -fall upon him his enchantment would become still worse, for he should be -changed into a dove, and be forced to wander about the world for seven -long years. However, she gave him no rest, and said she would take care -no light should fall upon him. So at last they set out together, and -took with them their little child; and she chose a large hall with thick -walls for him to sit in while the wedding-torches were lighted; but, -unluckily, no one saw that there was a crack in the door. Then the -wedding was held with great pomp, but as the train came from the church, -and passed with the torches before the hall, a very small ray of light -fell upon the prince. In a moment he disappeared, and when his wife came -in and looked for him, she found only a white dove; and it said to her, -'Seven years must I fly up and down over the face of the earth, but -every now and then I will let fall a white feather, that will show you -the way I am going; follow it, and at last you may overtake and set me -free.' - -This said, he flew out at the door, and poor Lily followed; and every -now and then a white feather fell, and showed her the way she was to -journey. Thus she went roving on through the wide world, and looked -neither to the right hand nor to the left, nor took any rest, for seven -years. Then she began to be glad, and thought to herself that the time -was fast coming when all her troubles should end; yet repose was still -far off, for one day as she was travelling on she missed the white -feather, and when she lifted up her eyes she could nowhere see the dove. -'Now,' thought she to herself, 'no aid of man can be of use to me.' So -she went to the sun and said, 'Thou shinest everywhere, on the hill's -top and the valley's depth--hast thou anywhere seen my white dove?' -'No,' said the sun, 'I have not seen it; but I will give thee a -casket--open it when thy hour of need comes.' - -So she thanked the sun, and went on her way till eventide; and when -the moon arose, she cried unto it, and said, 'Thou shinest through the -night, over field and grove--hast thou nowhere seen my white dove?' -'No,' said the moon, 'I cannot help thee but I will give thee an -egg--break it when need comes.' - -Then she thanked the moon, and went on till the night-wind blew; and she -raised up her voice to it, and said, 'Thou blowest through every tree -and under every leaf--hast thou not seen my white dove?' 'No,' said the -night-wind, 'but I will ask three other winds; perhaps they have seen -it.' Then the east wind and the west wind came, and said they too had -not seen it, but the south wind said, 'I have seen the white dove--he -has fled to the Red Sea, and is changed once more into a lion, for the -seven years are passed away, and there he is fighting with a dragon; -and the dragon is an enchanted princess, who seeks to separate him from -you.' Then the night-wind said, 'I will give thee counsel. Go to the -Red Sea; on the right shore stand many rods--count them, and when thou -comest to the eleventh, break it off, and smite the dragon with it; and -so the lion will have the victory, and both of them will appear to you -in their own forms. Then look round and thou wilt see a griffin, winged -like bird, sitting by the Red Sea; jump on to his back with thy beloved -one as quickly as possible, and he will carry you over the waters to -your home. I will also give thee this nut,' continued the night-wind. -'When you are half-way over, throw it down, and out of the waters will -immediately spring up a high nut-tree on which the griffin will be able -to rest, otherwise he would not have the strength to bear you the whole -way; if, therefore, thou dost forget to throw down the nut, he will let -you both fall into the sea.' - -So our poor wanderer went forth, and found all as the night-wind had -said; and she plucked the eleventh rod, and smote the dragon, and the -lion forthwith became a prince, and the dragon a princess again. But -no sooner was the princess released from the spell, than she seized -the prince by the arm and sprang on to the griffin's back, and went off -carrying the prince away with her. - -Thus the unhappy traveller was again forsaken and forlorn; but she -took heart and said, 'As far as the wind blows, and so long as the cock -crows, I will journey on, till I find him once again.' She went on for -a long, long way, till at length she came to the castle whither the -princess had carried the prince; and there was a feast got ready, and -she heard that the wedding was about to be held. 'Heaven aid me now!' -said she; and she took the casket that the sun had given her, and found -that within it lay a dress as dazzling as the sun itself. So she put it -on, and went into the palace, and all the people gazed upon her; and -the dress pleased the bride so much that she asked whether it was to be -sold. 'Not for gold and silver.' said she, 'but for flesh and blood.' -The princess asked what she meant, and she said, 'Let me speak with the -bridegroom this night in his chamber, and I will give thee the dress.' -At last the princess agreed, but she told her chamberlain to give the -prince a sleeping draught, that he might not hear or see her. When -evening came, and the prince had fallen asleep, she was led into -his chamber, and she sat herself down at his feet, and said: 'I have -followed thee seven years. I have been to the sun, the moon, and the -night-wind, to seek thee, and at last I have helped thee to overcome -the dragon. Wilt thou then forget me quite?' But the prince all the time -slept so soundly, that her voice only passed over him, and seemed like -the whistling of the wind among the fir-trees. - -Then poor Lily was led away, and forced to give up the golden dress; and -when she saw that there was no help for her, she went out into a meadow, -and sat herself down and wept. But as she sat she bethought herself of -the egg that the moon had given her; and when she broke it, there ran -out a hen and twelve chickens of pure gold, that played about, and then -nestled under the old one's wings, so as to form the most beautiful -sight in the world. And she rose up and drove them before her, till the -bride saw them from her window, and was so pleased that she came forth -and asked her if she would sell the brood. 'Not for gold or silver, but -for flesh and blood: let me again this evening speak with the bridegroom -in his chamber, and I will give thee the whole brood.' - -Then the princess thought to betray her as before, and agreed to -what she asked: but when the prince went to his chamber he asked -the chamberlain why the wind had whistled so in the night. And the -chamberlain told him all--how he had given him a sleeping draught, and -how a poor maiden had come and spoken to him in his chamber, and was -to come again that night. Then the prince took care to throw away the -sleeping draught; and when Lily came and began again to tell him what -woes had befallen her, and how faithful and true to him she had been, -he knew his beloved wife's voice, and sprang up, and said, 'You have -awakened me as from a dream, for the strange princess had thrown a spell -around me, so that I had altogether forgotten you; but Heaven hath sent -you to me in a lucky hour.' - -And they stole away out of the palace by night unawares, and seated -themselves on the griffin, who flew back with them over the Red Sea. -When they were half-way across Lily let the nut fall into the water, -and immediately a large nut-tree arose from the sea, whereon the griffin -rested for a while, and then carried them safely home. There they found -their child, now grown up to be comely and fair; and after all their -troubles they lived happily together to the end of their days. - - - - -THE FOX AND THE HORSE - -A farmer had a horse that had been an excellent faithful servant to -him: but he was now grown too old to work; so the farmer would give him -nothing more to eat, and said, 'I want you no longer, so take yourself -off out of my stable; I shall not take you back again until you are -stronger than a lion.' Then he opened the door and turned him adrift. - -The poor horse was very melancholy, and wandered up and down in the -wood, seeking some little shelter from the cold wind and rain. Presently -a fox met him: 'What's the matter, my friend?' said he, 'why do you hang -down your head and look so lonely and woe-begone?' 'Ah!' replied the -horse, 'justice and avarice never dwell in one house; my master has -forgotten all that I have done for him so many years, and because I -can no longer work he has turned me adrift, and says unless I become -stronger than a lion he will not take me back again; what chance can I -have of that? he knows I have none, or he would not talk so.' - -However, the fox bid him be of good cheer, and said, 'I will help you; -lie down there, stretch yourself out quite stiff, and pretend to be -dead.' The horse did as he was told, and the fox went straight to the -lion who lived in a cave close by, and said to him, 'A little way off -lies a dead horse; come with me and you may make an excellent meal of -his carcase.' The lion was greatly pleased, and set off immediately; and -when they came to the horse, the fox said, 'You will not be able to eat -him comfortably here; I'll tell you what--I will tie you fast to -his tail, and then you can draw him to your den, and eat him at your -leisure.' - -This advice pleased the lion, so he laid himself down quietly for the -fox to make him fast to the horse. But the fox managed to tie his legs -together and bound all so hard and fast that with all his strength he -could not set himself free. When the work was done, the fox clapped the -horse on the shoulder, and said, 'Jip! Dobbin! Jip!' Then up he sprang, -and moved off, dragging the lion behind him. The beast began to roar -and bellow, till all the birds of the wood flew away for fright; but the -horse let him sing on, and made his way quietly over the fields to his -master's house. - -'Here he is, master,' said he, 'I have got the better of him': and when -the farmer saw his old servant, his heart relented, and he said. 'Thou -shalt stay in thy stable and be well taken care of.' And so the poor old -horse had plenty to eat, and lived--till he died. - - - - -THE BLUE LIGHT - -There was once upon a time a soldier who for many years had served the -king faithfully, but when the war came to an end could serve no longer -because of the many wounds which he had received. The king said to him: -'You may return to your home, I need you no longer, and you will not -receive any more money, for he only receives wages who renders me -service for them.' Then the soldier did not know how to earn a living, -went away greatly troubled, and walked the whole day, until in the -evening he entered a forest. When darkness came on, he saw a light, -which he went up to, and came to a house wherein lived a witch. 'Do give -me one night's lodging, and a little to eat and drink,' said he to -her, 'or I shall starve.' 'Oho!' she answered, 'who gives anything to a -run-away soldier? Yet will I be compassionate, and take you in, if you -will do what I wish.' 'What do you wish?' said the soldier. 'That you -should dig all round my garden for me, tomorrow.' The soldier consented, -and next day laboured with all his strength, but could not finish it by -the evening. 'I see well enough,' said the witch, 'that you can do no -more today, but I will keep you yet another night, in payment for -which you must tomorrow chop me a load of wood, and chop it small.' The -soldier spent the whole day in doing it, and in the evening the witch -proposed that he should stay one night more. 'Tomorrow, you shall only -do me a very trifling piece of work. Behind my house, there is an old -dry well, into which my light has fallen, it burns blue, and never goes -out, and you shall bring it up again.' Next day the old woman took him -to the well, and let him down in a basket. He found the blue light, and -made her a signal to draw him up again. She did draw him up, but when he -came near the edge, she stretched down her hand and wanted to take the -blue light away from him. 'No,' said he, perceiving her evil intention, -'I will not give you the light until I am standing with both feet upon -the ground.' The witch fell into a passion, let him fall again into the -well, and went away. - -The poor soldier fell without injury on the moist ground, and the blue -light went on burning, but of what use was that to him? He saw very well -that he could not escape death. He sat for a while very sorrowfully, -then suddenly he felt in his pocket and found his tobacco pipe, which -was still half full. 'This shall be my last pleasure,' thought he, -pulled it out, lit it at the blue light and began to smoke. When the -smoke had circled about the cavern, suddenly a little black dwarf stood -before him, and said: 'Lord, what are your commands?' 'What my commands -are?' replied the soldier, quite astonished. 'I must do everything you -bid me,' said the little man. 'Good,' said the soldier; 'then in the -first place help me out of this well.' The little man took him by the -hand, and led him through an underground passage, but he did not forget -to take the blue light with him. On the way the dwarf showed him the -treasures which the witch had collected and hidden there, and the -soldier took as much gold as he could carry. When he was above, he said -to the little man: 'Now go and bind the old witch, and carry her before -the judge.' In a short time she came by like the wind, riding on a wild -tom-cat and screaming frightfully. Nor was it long before the little man -reappeared. 'It is all done,' said he, 'and the witch is already hanging -on the gallows. What further commands has my lord?' inquired the dwarf. -'At this moment, none,' answered the soldier; 'you can return home, only -be at hand immediately, if I summon you.' 'Nothing more is needed than -that you should light your pipe at the blue light, and I will appear -before you at once.' Thereupon he vanished from his sight. - -The soldier returned to the town from which he came. He went to the -best inn, ordered himself handsome clothes, and then bade the landlord -furnish him a room as handsome as possible. When it was ready and the -soldier had taken possession of it, he summoned the little black manikin -and said: 'I have served the king faithfully, but he has dismissed me, -and left me to hunger, and now I want to take my revenge.' 'What am I to -do?' asked the little man. 'Late at night, when the king's daughter is -in bed, bring her here in her sleep, she shall do servant's work for -me.' The manikin said: 'That is an easy thing for me to do, but a very -dangerous thing for you, for if it is discovered, you will fare ill.' -When twelve o'clock had struck, the door sprang open, and the manikin -carried in the princess. 'Aha! are you there?' cried the soldier, 'get -to your work at once! Fetch the broom and sweep the chamber.' When -she had done this, he ordered her to come to his chair, and then he -stretched out his feet and said: 'Pull off my boots,' and then he -threw them in her face, and made her pick them up again, and clean -and brighten them. She, however, did everything he bade her, without -opposition, silently and with half-shut eyes. When the first cock -crowed, the manikin carried her back to the royal palace, and laid her -in her bed. - -Next morning when the princess arose she went to her father, and told -him that she had had a very strange dream. 'I was carried through the -streets with the rapidity of lightning,' said she, 'and taken into a -soldier's room, and I had to wait upon him like a servant, sweep his -room, clean his boots, and do all kinds of menial work. It was only a -dream, and yet I am just as tired as if I really had done everything.' -'The dream may have been true,' said the king. 'I will give you a piece -of advice. Fill your pocket full of peas, and make a small hole in the -pocket, and then if you are carried away again, they will fall out and -leave a track in the streets.' But unseen by the king, the manikin was -standing beside him when he said that, and heard all. At night when -the sleeping princess was again carried through the streets, some peas -certainly did fall out of her pocket, but they made no track, for the -crafty manikin had just before scattered peas in every street there -was. And again the princess was compelled to do servant's work until -cock-crow. - -Next morning the king sent his people out to seek the track, but it was -all in vain, for in every street poor children were sitting, picking up -peas, and saying: 'It must have rained peas, last night.' 'We must think -of something else,' said the king; 'keep your shoes on when you go to -bed, and before you come back from the place where you are taken, hide -one of them there, I will soon contrive to find it.' The black manikin -heard this plot, and at night when the soldier again ordered him to -bring the princess, revealed it to him, and told him that he knew of no -expedient to counteract this stratagem, and that if the shoe were found -in the soldier's house it would go badly with him. 'Do what I bid you,' -replied the soldier, and again this third night the princess was obliged -to work like a servant, but before she went away, she hid her shoe under -the bed. - -Next morning the king had the entire town searched for his daughter's -shoe. It was found at the soldier's, and the soldier himself, who at the -entreaty of the dwarf had gone outside the gate, was soon brought back, -and thrown into prison. In his flight he had forgotten the most valuable -things he had, the blue light and the gold, and had only one ducat in -his pocket. And now loaded with chains, he was standing at the window of -his dungeon, when he chanced to see one of his comrades passing by. The -soldier tapped at the pane of glass, and when this man came up, said to -him: 'Be so kind as to fetch me the small bundle I have left lying in -the inn, and I will give you a ducat for doing it.' His comrade ran -thither and brought him what he wanted. As soon as the soldier was alone -again, he lighted his pipe and summoned the black manikin. 'Have no -fear,' said the latter to his master. 'Go wheresoever they take you, and -let them do what they will, only take the blue light with you.' Next day -the soldier was tried, and though he had done nothing wicked, the judge -condemned him to death. When he was led forth to die, he begged a last -favour of the king. 'What is it?' asked the king. 'That I may smoke one -more pipe on my way.' 'You may smoke three,' answered the king, 'but do -not imagine that I will spare your life.' Then the soldier pulled out -his pipe and lighted it at the blue light, and as soon as a few wreaths -of smoke had ascended, the manikin was there with a small cudgel in his -hand, and said: 'What does my lord command?' 'Strike down to earth that -false judge there, and his constable, and spare not the king who has -treated me so ill.' Then the manikin fell on them like lightning, -darting this way and that way, and whosoever was so much as touched by -his cudgel fell to earth, and did not venture to stir again. The king -was terrified; he threw himself on the soldier's mercy, and merely to -be allowed to live at all, gave him his kingdom for his own, and his -daughter to wife. - - - - -THE RAVEN - -There was once a queen who had a little daughter, still too young to run -alone. One day the child was very troublesome, and the mother could not -quiet it, do what she would. She grew impatient, and seeing the ravens -flying round the castle, she opened the window, and said: 'I wish you -were a raven and would fly away, then I should have a little peace.' -Scarcely were the words out of her mouth, when the child in her arms was -turned into a raven, and flew away from her through the open window. The -bird took its flight to a dark wood and remained there for a long time, -and meanwhile the parents could hear nothing of their child. - -Long after this, a man was making his way through the wood when he heard -a raven calling, and he followed the sound of the voice. As he drew -near, the raven said, 'I am by birth a king's daughter, but am now under -the spell of some enchantment; you can, however, set me free.' 'What -am I to do?' he asked. She replied, 'Go farther into the wood until you -come to a house, wherein lives an old woman; she will offer you food and -drink, but you must not take of either; if you do, you will fall into -a deep sleep, and will not be able to help me. In the garden behind the -house is a large tan-heap, and on that you must stand and watch for me. -I shall drive there in my carriage at two o'clock in the afternoon for -three successive days; the first day it will be drawn by four white, the -second by four chestnut, and the last by four black horses; but if you -fail to keep awake and I find you sleeping, I shall not be set free.' - -The man promised to do all that she wished, but the raven said, 'Alas! I -know even now that you will take something from the woman and be unable -to save me.' The man assured her again that he would on no account touch -a thing to eat or drink. - -When he came to the house and went inside, the old woman met him, and -said, 'Poor man! how tired you are! Come in and rest and let me give you -something to eat and drink.' - -'No,' answered the man, 'I will neither eat not drink.' - -But she would not leave him alone, and urged him saying, 'If you will -not eat anything, at least you might take a draught of wine; one drink -counts for nothing,' and at last he allowed himself to be persuaded, and -drank. - -As it drew towards the appointed hour, he went outside into the garden -and mounted the tan-heap to await the raven. Suddenly a feeling of -fatigue came over him, and unable to resist it, he lay down for a little -while, fully determined, however, to keep awake; but in another minute -his eyes closed of their own accord, and he fell into such a deep sleep, -that all the noises in the world would not have awakened him. At two -o'clock the raven came driving along, drawn by her four white horses; -but even before she reached the spot, she said to herself, sighing, 'I -know he has fallen asleep.' When she entered the garden, there she found -him as she had feared, lying on the tan-heap, fast asleep. She got out -of her carriage and went to him; she called him and shook him, but it -was all in vain, he still continued sleeping. - -The next day at noon, the old woman came to him again with food and -drink which he at first refused. At last, overcome by her persistent -entreaties that he would take something, he lifted the glass and drank -again. - -Towards two o'clock he went into the garden and on to the tan-heap to -watch for the raven. He had not been there long before he began to feel -so tired that his limbs seemed hardly able to support him, and he could -not stand upright any longer; so again he lay down and fell fast asleep. -As the raven drove along her four chestnut horses, she said sorrowfully -to herself, 'I know he has fallen asleep.' She went as before to look -for him, but he slept, and it was impossible to awaken him. - -The following day the old woman said to him, 'What is this? You are not -eating or drinking anything, do you want to kill yourself?' - -He answered, 'I may not and will not either eat or drink.' - -But she put down the dish of food and the glass of wine in front of him, -and when he smelt the wine, he was unable to resist the temptation, and -took a deep draught. - -When the hour came round again he went as usual on to the tan-heap in -the garden to await the king's daughter, but he felt even more overcome -with weariness than on the two previous days, and throwing himself down, -he slept like a log. At two o'clock the raven could be seen approaching, -and this time her coachman and everything about her, as well as her -horses, were black. - -She was sadder than ever as she drove along, and said mournfully, 'I -know he has fallen asleep, and will not be able to set me free.' She -found him sleeping heavily, and all her efforts to awaken him were of no -avail. Then she placed beside him a loaf, and some meat, and a flask -of wine, of such a kind, that however much he took of them, they would -never grow less. After that she drew a gold ring, on which her name was -engraved, off her finger, and put it upon one of his. Finally, she laid -a letter near him, in which, after giving him particulars of the food -and drink she had left for him, she finished with the following words: -'I see that as long as you remain here you will never be able to set me -free; if, however, you still wish to do so, come to the golden castle -of Stromberg; this is well within your power to accomplish.' She then -returned to her carriage and drove to the golden castle of Stromberg. - -When the man awoke and found that he had been sleeping, he was grieved -at heart, and said, 'She has no doubt been here and driven away again, -and it is now too late for me to save her.' Then his eyes fell on the -things which were lying beside him; he read the letter, and knew from it -all that had happened. He rose up without delay, eager to start on his -way and to reach the castle of Stromberg, but he had no idea in which -direction he ought to go. He travelled about a long time in search of it -and came at last to a dark forest, through which he went on walking for -fourteen days and still could not find a way out. Once more the night -came on, and worn out he lay down under a bush and fell asleep. Again -the next day he pursued his way through the forest, and that evening, -thinking to rest again, he lay down as before, but he heard such a -howling and wailing that he found it impossible to sleep. He waited till -it was darker and people had begun to light up their houses, and then -seeing a little glimmer ahead of him, he went towards it. - -He found that the light came from a house which looked smaller than -it really was, from the contrast of its height with that of an immense -giant who stood in front of it. He thought to himself, 'If the giant -sees me going in, my life will not be worth much.' However, after a -while he summoned up courage and went forward. When the giant saw him, -he called out, 'It is lucky for that you have come, for I have not had -anything to eat for a long time. I can have you now for my supper.' 'I -would rather you let that alone,' said the man, 'for I do not willingly -give myself up to be eaten; if you are wanting food I have enough to -satisfy your hunger.' 'If that is so,' replied the giant, 'I will leave -you in peace; I only thought of eating you because I had nothing else.' - -So they went indoors together and sat down, and the man brought out the -bread, meat, and wine, which although he had eaten and drunk of them, -were still unconsumed. The giant was pleased with the good cheer, and -ate and drank to his heart's content. When he had finished his supper -the man asked him if he could direct him to the castle of Stromberg. -The giant said, 'I will look on my map; on it are marked all the towns, -villages, and houses.' So he fetched his map, and looked for the castle, -but could not find it. 'Never mind,' he said, 'I have larger maps -upstairs in the cupboard, we will look on those,' but they searched in -vain, for the castle was not marked even on these. The man now thought -he should like to continue his journey, but the giant begged him to -remain for a day or two longer until the return of his brother, who was -away in search of provisions. When the brother came home, they asked him -about the castle of Stromberg, and he told them he would look on his own -maps as soon as he had eaten and appeased his hunger. Accordingly, when -he had finished his supper, they all went up together to his room and -looked through his maps, but the castle was not to be found. Then he -fetched other older maps, and they went on looking for the castle until -at last they found it, but it was many thousand miles away. 'How shall I -be able to get there?' asked the man. 'I have two hours to spare,' said -the giant, 'and I will carry you into the neighbourhood of the castle; I -must then return to look after the child who is in our care.' - -The giant, thereupon, carried the man to within about a hundred leagues -of the castle, where he left him, saying, 'You will be able to walk the -remainder of the way yourself.' The man journeyed on day and night -till he reached the golden castle of Stromberg. He found it situated, -however, on a glass mountain, and looking up from the foot he saw the -enchanted maiden drive round her castle and then go inside. He was -overjoyed to see her, and longed to get to the top of the mountain, but -the sides were so slippery that every time he attempted to climb he -fell back again. When he saw that it was impossible to reach her, he was -greatly grieved, and said to himself, 'I will remain here and wait for -her,' so he built himself a little hut, and there he sat and watched for -a whole year, and every day he saw the king's daughter driving round her -castle, but still was unable to get nearer to her. - -Looking out from his hut one day he saw three robbers fighting and he -called out to them, 'God be with you.' They stopped when they heard the -call, but looking round and seeing nobody, they went on again with their -fighting, which now became more furious. 'God be with you,' he cried -again, and again they paused and looked about, but seeing no one went -back to their fighting. A third time he called out, 'God be with you,' -and then thinking he should like to know the cause of dispute between -the three men, he went out and asked them why they were fighting so -angrily with one another. One of them said that he had found a stick, -and that he had but to strike it against any door through which he -wished to pass, and it immediately flew open. Another told him that he -had found a cloak which rendered its wearer invisible; and the third had -caught a horse which would carry its rider over any obstacle, and even -up the glass mountain. They had been unable to decide whether they -would keep together and have the things in common, or whether they would -separate. On hearing this, the man said, 'I will give you something in -exchange for those three things; not money, for that I have not got, -but something that is of far more value. I must first, however, prove -whether all you have told me about your three things is true.' The -robbers, therefore, made him get on the horse, and handed him the stick -and the cloak, and when he had put this round him he was no longer -visible. Then he fell upon them with the stick and beat them one after -another, crying, 'There, you idle vagabonds, you have got what you -deserve; are you satisfied now!' - -After this he rode up the glass mountain. When he reached the gate of -the castle, he found it closed, but he gave it a blow with his stick, -and it flew wide open at once and he passed through. He mounted the -steps and entered the room where the maiden was sitting, with a golden -goblet full of wine in front of her. She could not see him for he still -wore his cloak. He took the ring which she had given him off his finger, -and threw it into the goblet, so that it rang as it touched the bottom. -'That is my own ring,' she exclaimed, 'and if that is so the man must -also be here who is coming to set me free.' - -She sought for him about the castle, but could find him nowhere. -Meanwhile he had gone outside again and mounted his horse and thrown off -the cloak. When therefore she came to the castle gate she saw him, and -cried aloud for joy. Then he dismounted and took her in his arms; and -she kissed him, and said, 'Now you have indeed set me free, and tomorrow -we will celebrate our marriage.' - - - - -THE GOLDEN GOOSE - -There was a man who had three sons, the youngest of whom was called -Dummling,[*] and was despised, mocked, and sneered at on every occasion. - -It happened that the eldest wanted to go into the forest to hew wood, -and before he went his mother gave him a beautiful sweet cake and a -bottle of wine in order that he might not suffer from hunger or thirst. - -When he entered the forest he met a little grey-haired old man who bade -him good day, and said: 'Do give me a piece of cake out of your pocket, -and let me have a draught of your wine; I am so hungry and thirsty.' But -the clever son answered: 'If I give you my cake and wine, I shall have -none for myself; be off with you,' and he left the little man standing -and went on. - -But when he began to hew down a tree, it was not long before he made a -false stroke, and the axe cut him in the arm, so that he had to go home -and have it bound up. And this was the little grey man's doing. - -After this the second son went into the forest, and his mother gave him, -like the eldest, a cake and a bottle of wine. The little old grey man -met him likewise, and asked him for a piece of cake and a drink of wine. -But the second son, too, said sensibly enough: 'What I give you will be -taken away from myself; be off!' and he left the little man standing and -went on. His punishment, however, was not delayed; when he had made a -few blows at the tree he struck himself in the leg, so that he had to be -carried home. - -Then Dummling said: 'Father, do let me go and cut wood.' The father -answered: 'Your brothers have hurt themselves with it, leave it alone, -you do not understand anything about it.' But Dummling begged so long -that at last he said: 'Just go then, you will get wiser by hurting -yourself.' His mother gave him a cake made with water and baked in the -cinders, and with it a bottle of sour beer. - -When he came to the forest the little old grey man met him likewise, -and greeting him, said: 'Give me a piece of your cake and a drink out -of your bottle; I am so hungry and thirsty.' Dummling answered: 'I have -only cinder-cake and sour beer; if that pleases you, we will sit -down and eat.' So they sat down, and when Dummling pulled out his -cinder-cake, it was a fine sweet cake, and the sour beer had become good -wine. So they ate and drank, and after that the little man said: 'Since -you have a good heart, and are willing to divide what you have, I will -give you good luck. There stands an old tree, cut it down, and you will -find something at the roots.' Then the little man took leave of him. - -Dummling went and cut down the tree, and when it fell there was a goose -sitting in the roots with feathers of pure gold. He lifted her up, and -taking her with him, went to an inn where he thought he would stay the -night. Now the host had three daughters, who saw the goose and were -curious to know what such a wonderful bird might be, and would have -liked to have one of its golden feathers. - -The eldest thought: 'I shall soon find an opportunity of pulling out a -feather,' and as soon as Dummling had gone out she seized the goose by -the wing, but her finger and hand remained sticking fast to it. - -The second came soon afterwards, thinking only of how she might get a -feather for herself, but she had scarcely touched her sister than she -was held fast. - -At last the third also came with the like intent, and the others -screamed out: 'Keep away; for goodness' sake keep away!' But she did -not understand why she was to keep away. 'The others are there,' she -thought, 'I may as well be there too,' and ran to them; but as soon as -she had touched her sister, she remained sticking fast to her. So they -had to spend the night with the goose. - -The next morning Dummling took the goose under his arm and set out, -without troubling himself about the three girls who were hanging on to -it. They were obliged to run after him continually, now left, now right, -wherever his legs took him. - -In the middle of the fields the parson met them, and when he saw the -procession he said: 'For shame, you good-for-nothing girls, why are you -running across the fields after this young man? Is that seemly?' At the -same time he seized the youngest by the hand in order to pull her away, -but as soon as he touched her he likewise stuck fast, and was himself -obliged to run behind. - -Before long the sexton came by and saw his master, the parson, running -behind three girls. He was astonished at this and called out: 'Hi! -your reverence, whither away so quickly? Do not forget that we have a -christening today!' and running after him he took him by the sleeve, but -was also held fast to it. - -Whilst the five were trotting thus one behind the other, two labourers -came with their hoes from the fields; the parson called out to them -and begged that they would set him and the sexton free. But they had -scarcely touched the sexton when they were held fast, and now there were -seven of them running behind Dummling and the goose. - -Soon afterwards he came to a city, where a king ruled who had a daughter -who was so serious that no one could make her laugh. So he had put forth -a decree that whosoever should be able to make her laugh should marry -her. When Dummling heard this, he went with his goose and all her train -before the king's daughter, and as soon as she saw the seven people -running on and on, one behind the other, she began to laugh quite -loudly, and as if she would never stop. Thereupon Dummling asked to have -her for his wife; but the king did not like the son-in-law, and made all -manner of excuses and said he must first produce a man who could drink -a cellarful of wine. Dummling thought of the little grey man, who could -certainly help him; so he went into the forest, and in the same place -where he had felled the tree, he saw a man sitting, who had a very -sorrowful face. Dummling asked him what he was taking to heart so -sorely, and he answered: 'I have such a great thirst and cannot quench -it; cold water I cannot stand, a barrel of wine I have just emptied, but -that to me is like a drop on a hot stone!' - -'There, I can help you,' said Dummling, 'just come with me and you shall -be satisfied.' - -He led him into the king's cellar, and the man bent over the huge -barrels, and drank and drank till his loins hurt, and before the day was -out he had emptied all the barrels. Then Dummling asked once more -for his bride, but the king was vexed that such an ugly fellow, whom -everyone called Dummling, should take away his daughter, and he made a -new condition; he must first find a man who could eat a whole mountain -of bread. Dummling did not think long, but went straight into the -forest, where in the same place there sat a man who was tying up his -body with a strap, and making an awful face, and saying: 'I have eaten a -whole ovenful of rolls, but what good is that when one has such a hunger -as I? My stomach remains empty, and I must tie myself up if I am not to -die of hunger.' - -At this Dummling was glad, and said: 'Get up and come with me; you shall -eat yourself full.' He led him to the king's palace where all the -flour in the whole Kingdom was collected, and from it he caused a huge -mountain of bread to be baked. The man from the forest stood before it, -began to eat, and by the end of one day the whole mountain had vanished. -Then Dummling for the third time asked for his bride; but the king again -sought a way out, and ordered a ship which could sail on land and on -water. 'As soon as you come sailing back in it,' said he, 'you shall -have my daughter for wife.' - -Dummling went straight into the forest, and there sat the little grey -man to whom he had given his cake. When he heard what Dummling wanted, -he said: 'Since you have given me to eat and to drink, I will give you -the ship; and I do all this because you once were kind to me.' Then he -gave him the ship which could sail on land and water, and when the king -saw that, he could no longer prevent him from having his daughter. The -wedding was celebrated, and after the king's death, Dummling inherited -his kingdom and lived for a long time contentedly with his wife. - - [*] Simpleton - - - - -THE WATER OF LIFE - -Long before you or I were born, there reigned, in a country a great way -off, a king who had three sons. This king once fell very ill--so ill -that nobody thought he could live. His sons were very much grieved -at their father's sickness; and as they were walking together very -mournfully in the garden of the palace, a little old man met them and -asked what was the matter. They told him that their father was very ill, -and that they were afraid nothing could save him. 'I know what would,' -said the little old man; 'it is the Water of Life. If he could have a -draught of it he would be well again; but it is very hard to get.' Then -the eldest son said, 'I will soon find it': and he went to the sick -king, and begged that he might go in search of the Water of Life, as -it was the only thing that could save him. 'No,' said the king. 'I had -rather die than place you in such great danger as you must meet with in -your journey.' But he begged so hard that the king let him go; and the -prince thought to himself, 'If I bring my father this water, he will -make me sole heir to his kingdom.' - -Then he set out: and when he had gone on his way some time he came to a -deep valley, overhung with rocks and woods; and as he looked around, he -saw standing above him on one of the rocks a little ugly dwarf, with a -sugarloaf cap and a scarlet cloak; and the dwarf called to him and said, -'Prince, whither so fast?' 'What is that to thee, you ugly imp?' said -the prince haughtily, and rode on. - -But the dwarf was enraged at his behaviour, and laid a fairy spell -of ill-luck upon him; so that as he rode on the mountain pass became -narrower and narrower, and at last the way was so straitened that he -could not go to step forward: and when he thought to have turned his -horse round and go back the way he came, he heard a loud laugh ringing -round him, and found that the path was closed behind him, so that he was -shut in all round. He next tried to get off his horse and make his way -on foot, but again the laugh rang in his ears, and he found himself -unable to move a step, and thus he was forced to abide spellbound. - -Meantime the old king was lingering on in daily hope of his son's -return, till at last the second son said, 'Father, I will go in search -of the Water of Life.' For he thought to himself, 'My brother is surely -dead, and the kingdom will fall to me if I find the water.' The king was -at first very unwilling to let him go, but at last yielded to his wish. -So he set out and followed the same road which his brother had done, -and met with the same elf, who stopped him at the same spot in the -mountains, saying, as before, 'Prince, prince, whither so fast?' 'Mind -your own affairs, busybody!' said the prince scornfully, and rode on. - -But the dwarf put the same spell upon him as he put on his elder -brother, and he, too, was at last obliged to take up his abode in the -heart of the mountains. Thus it is with proud silly people, who think -themselves above everyone else, and are too proud to ask or take advice. - -When the second prince had thus been gone a long time, the youngest son -said he would go and search for the Water of Life, and trusted he should -soon be able to make his father well again. So he set out, and the dwarf -met him too at the same spot in the valley, among the mountains, and -said, 'Prince, whither so fast?' And the prince said, 'I am going in -search of the Water of Life, because my father is ill, and like to die: -can you help me? Pray be kind, and aid me if you can!' 'Do you know -where it is to be found?' asked the dwarf. 'No,' said the prince, 'I do -not. Pray tell me if you know.' 'Then as you have spoken to me kindly, -and are wise enough to seek for advice, I will tell you how and where to -go. The water you seek springs from a well in an enchanted castle; and, -that you may be able to reach it in safety, I will give you an iron wand -and two little loaves of bread; strike the iron door of the castle three -times with the wand, and it will open: two hungry lions will be lying -down inside gaping for their prey, but if you throw them the bread they -will let you pass; then hasten on to the well, and take some of the -Water of Life before the clock strikes twelve; for if you tarry longer -the door will shut upon you for ever.' - -Then the prince thanked his little friend with the scarlet cloak for his -friendly aid, and took the wand and the bread, and went travelling on -and on, over sea and over land, till he came to his journey's end, and -found everything to be as the dwarf had told him. The door flew open at -the third stroke of the wand, and when the lions were quieted he went on -through the castle and came at length to a beautiful hall. Around it he -saw several knights sitting in a trance; then he pulled off their rings -and put them on his own fingers. In another room he saw on a table a -sword and a loaf of bread, which he also took. Further on he came to a -room where a beautiful young lady sat upon a couch; and she welcomed him -joyfully, and said, if he would set her free from the spell that bound -her, the kingdom should be his, if he would come back in a year and -marry her. Then she told him that the well that held the Water of Life -was in the palace gardens; and bade him make haste, and draw what he -wanted before the clock struck twelve. - -He walked on; and as he walked through beautiful gardens he came to a -delightful shady spot in which stood a couch; and he thought to himself, -as he felt tired, that he would rest himself for a while, and gaze on -the lovely scenes around him. So he laid himself down, and sleep -fell upon him unawares, so that he did not wake up till the clock was -striking a quarter to twelve. Then he sprang from the couch dreadfully -frightened, ran to the well, filled a cup that was standing by him full -of water, and hastened to get away in time. Just as he was going out of -the iron door it struck twelve, and the door fell so quickly upon him -that it snapped off a piece of his heel. - -When he found himself safe, he was overjoyed to think that he had got -the Water of Life; and as he was going on his way homewards, he passed -by the little dwarf, who, when he saw the sword and the loaf, said, 'You -have made a noble prize; with the sword you can at a blow slay whole -armies, and the bread will never fail you.' Then the prince thought -to himself, 'I cannot go home to my father without my brothers'; so he -said, 'My dear friend, cannot you tell me where my two brothers are, who -set out in search of the Water of Life before me, and never came back?' -'I have shut them up by a charm between two mountains,' said the dwarf, -'because they were proud and ill-behaved, and scorned to ask advice.' -The prince begged so hard for his brothers, that the dwarf at last set -them free, though unwillingly, saying, 'Beware of them, for they have -bad hearts.' Their brother, however, was greatly rejoiced to see them, -and told them all that had happened to him; how he had found the Water -of Life, and had taken a cup full of it; and how he had set a beautiful -princess free from a spell that bound her; and how she had engaged to -wait a whole year, and then to marry him, and to give him the kingdom. - -Then they all three rode on together, and on their way home came to a -country that was laid waste by war and a dreadful famine, so that it was -feared all must die for want. But the prince gave the king of the land -the bread, and all his kingdom ate of it. And he lent the king the -wonderful sword, and he slew the enemy's army with it; and thus the -kingdom was once more in peace and plenty. In the same manner he -befriended two other countries through which they passed on their way. - -When they came to the sea, they got into a ship and during their voyage -the two eldest said to themselves, 'Our brother has got the water which -we could not find, therefore our father will forsake us and give him the -kingdom, which is our right'; so they were full of envy and revenge, and -agreed together how they could ruin him. Then they waited till he was -fast asleep, and poured the Water of Life out of the cup, and took it -for themselves, giving him bitter sea-water instead. - -When they came to their journey's end, the youngest son brought his cup -to the sick king, that he might drink and be healed. Scarcely, however, -had he tasted the bitter sea-water when he became worse even than he was -before; and then both the elder sons came in, and blamed the youngest -for what they had done; and said that he wanted to poison their father, -but that they had found the Water of Life, and had brought it with them. -He no sooner began to drink of what they brought him, than he felt his -sickness leave him, and was as strong and well as in his younger days. -Then they went to their brother, and laughed at him, and said, 'Well, -brother, you found the Water of Life, did you? You have had the trouble -and we shall have the reward. Pray, with all your cleverness, why did -not you manage to keep your eyes open? Next year one of us will take -away your beautiful princess, if you do not take care. You had better -say nothing about this to our father, for he does not believe a word you -say; and if you tell tales, you shall lose your life into the bargain: -but be quiet, and we will let you off.' - -The old king was still very angry with his youngest son, and thought -that he really meant to have taken away his life; so he called his court -together, and asked what should be done, and all agreed that he ought to -be put to death. The prince knew nothing of what was going on, till one -day, when the king's chief huntsmen went a-hunting with him, and they -were alone in the wood together, the huntsman looked so sorrowful that -the prince said, 'My friend, what is the matter with you?' 'I cannot and -dare not tell you,' said he. But the prince begged very hard, and said, -'Only tell me what it is, and do not think I shall be angry, for I will -forgive you.' 'Alas!' said the huntsman; 'the king has ordered me to -shoot you.' The prince started at this, and said, 'Let me live, and I -will change dresses with you; you shall take my royal coat to show to my -father, and do you give me your shabby one.' 'With all my heart,' said -the huntsman; 'I am sure I shall be glad to save you, for I could not -have shot you.' Then he took the prince's coat, and gave him the shabby -one, and went away through the wood. - -Some time after, three grand embassies came to the old king's court, -with rich gifts of gold and precious stones for his youngest son; now -all these were sent from the three kings to whom he had lent his sword -and loaf of bread, in order to rid them of their enemy and feed their -people. This touched the old king's heart, and he thought his son might -still be guiltless, and said to his court, 'O that my son were still -alive! how it grieves me that I had him killed!' 'He is still alive,' -said the huntsman; 'and I am glad that I had pity on him, but let him -go in peace, and brought home his royal coat.' At this the king was -overwhelmed with joy, and made it known throughout all his kingdom, that -if his son would come back to his court he would forgive him. - -Meanwhile the princess was eagerly waiting till her deliverer should -come back; and had a road made leading up to her palace all of shining -gold; and told her courtiers that whoever came on horseback, and rode -straight up to the gate upon it, was her true lover; and that they must -let him in: but whoever rode on one side of it, they must be sure was -not the right one; and that they must send him away at once. - -The time soon came, when the eldest brother thought that he would make -haste to go to the princess, and say that he was the one who had set -her free, and that he should have her for his wife, and the kingdom with -her. As he came before the palace and saw the golden road, he stopped to -look at it, and he thought to himself, 'It is a pity to ride upon this -beautiful road'; so he turned aside and rode on the right-hand side of -it. But when he came to the gate, the guards, who had seen the road -he took, said to him, he could not be what he said he was, and must go -about his business. - -The second prince set out soon afterwards on the same errand; and when -he came to the golden road, and his horse had set one foot upon it, -he stopped to look at it, and thought it very beautiful, and said to -himself, 'What a pity it is that anything should tread here!' Then he -too turned aside and rode on the left side of it. But when he came to -the gate the guards said he was not the true prince, and that he too -must go away about his business; and away he went. - -Now when the full year was come round, the third brother left the forest -in which he had lain hid for fear of his father's anger, and set out in -search of his betrothed bride. So he journeyed on, thinking of her all -the way, and rode so quickly that he did not even see what the road was -made of, but went with his horse straight over it; and as he came to the -gate it flew open, and the princess welcomed him with joy, and said -he was her deliverer, and should now be her husband and lord of the -kingdom. When the first joy at their meeting was over, the princess told -him she had heard of his father having forgiven him, and of his wish to -have him home again: so, before his wedding with the princess, he went -to visit his father, taking her with him. Then he told him everything; -how his brothers had cheated and robbed him, and yet that he had borne -all those wrongs for the love of his father. And the old king was very -angry, and wanted to punish his wicked sons; but they made their escape, -and got into a ship and sailed away over the wide sea, and where they -went to nobody knew and nobody cared. - -And now the old king gathered together his court, and asked all his -kingdom to come and celebrate the wedding of his son and the princess. -And young and old, noble and squire, gentle and simple, came at once -on the summons; and among the rest came the friendly dwarf, with the -sugarloaf hat, and a new scarlet cloak. - - And the wedding was held, and the merry bells run. - And all the good people they danced and they sung, - And feasted and frolick'd I can't tell how long. - - - - -THE TWELVE HUNTSMEN - -There was once a king's son who had a bride whom he loved very much. And -when he was sitting beside her and very happy, news came that his father -lay sick unto death, and desired to see him once again before his end. -Then he said to his beloved: 'I must now go and leave you, I give you -a ring as a remembrance of me. When I am king, I will return and fetch -you.' So he rode away, and when he reached his father, the latter was -dangerously ill, and near his death. He said to him: 'Dear son, I wished -to see you once again before my end, promise me to marry as I wish,' and -he named a certain king's daughter who was to be his wife. The son was -in such trouble that he did not think what he was doing, and said: 'Yes, -dear father, your will shall be done,' and thereupon the king shut his -eyes, and died. - -When therefore the son had been proclaimed king, and the time of -mourning was over, he was forced to keep the promise which he had given -his father, and caused the king's daughter to be asked in marriage, and -she was promised to him. His first betrothed heard of this, and fretted -so much about his faithfulness that she nearly died. Then her father -said to her: 'Dearest child, why are you so sad? You shall have -whatsoever you will.' She thought for a moment and said: 'Dear father, -I wish for eleven girls exactly like myself in face, figure, and size.' -The father said: 'If it be possible, your desire shall be fulfilled,' -and he caused a search to be made in his whole kingdom, until eleven -young maidens were found who exactly resembled his daughter in face, -figure, and size. - -When they came to the king's daughter, she had twelve suits of -huntsmen's clothes made, all alike, and the eleven maidens had to put -on the huntsmen's clothes, and she herself put on the twelfth suit. -Thereupon she took her leave of her father, and rode away with them, -and rode to the court of her former betrothed, whom she loved so dearly. -Then she asked if he required any huntsmen, and if he would take all of -them into his service. The king looked at her and did not know her, but -as they were such handsome fellows, he said: 'Yes,' and that he would -willingly take them, and now they were the king's twelve huntsmen. - -The king, however, had a lion which was a wondrous animal, for he knew -all concealed and secret things. It came to pass that one evening he -said to the king: 'You think you have twelve huntsmen?' 'Yes,' said the -king, 'they are twelve huntsmen.' The lion continued: 'You are mistaken, -they are twelve girls.' The king said: 'That cannot be true! How -will you prove that to me?' 'Oh, just let some peas be strewn in the -ante-chamber,' answered the lion, 'and then you will soon see. Men have -a firm step, and when they walk over peas none of them stir, but girls -trip and skip, and drag their feet, and the peas roll about.' The king -was well pleased with the counsel, and caused the peas to be strewn. - -There was, however, a servant of the king's who favoured the huntsmen, -and when he heard that they were going to be put to this test he went to -them and repeated everything, and said: 'The lion wants to make the king -believe that you are girls.' Then the king's daughter thanked him, and -said to her maidens: 'Show some strength, and step firmly on the peas.' -So next morning when the king had the twelve huntsmen called before -him, and they came into the ante-chamber where the peas were lying, they -stepped so firmly on them, and had such a strong, sure walk, that not -one of the peas either rolled or stirred. Then they went away again, -and the king said to the lion: 'You have lied to me, they walk just like -men.' The lion said: 'They have been informed that they were going to -be put to the test, and have assumed some strength. Just let twelve -spinning-wheels be brought into the ante-chamber, and they will go to -them and be pleased with them, and that is what no man would do.' -The king liked the advice, and had the spinning-wheels placed in the -ante-chamber. - -But the servant, who was well disposed to the huntsmen, went to them, -and disclosed the project. So when they were alone the king's daughter -said to her eleven girls: 'Show some constraint, and do not look round -at the spinning-wheels.' And next morning when the king had his twelve -huntsmen summoned, they went through the ante-chamber, and never once -looked at the spinning-wheels. Then the king again said to the lion: -'You have deceived me, they are men, for they have not looked at the -spinning-wheels.' The lion replied: 'They have restrained themselves.' -The king, however, would no longer believe the lion. - -The twelve huntsmen always followed the king to the chase, and his -liking for them continually increased. Now it came to pass that -once when they were out hunting, news came that the king's bride was -approaching. When the true bride heard that, it hurt her so much that -her heart was almost broken, and she fell fainting to the ground. The -king thought something had happened to his dear huntsman, ran up to him, -wanted to help him, and drew his glove off. Then he saw the ring which -he had given to his first bride, and when he looked in her face he -recognized her. Then his heart was so touched that he kissed her, and -when she opened her eyes he said: 'You are mine, and I am yours, and -no one in the world can alter that.' He sent a messenger to the other -bride, and entreated her to return to her own kingdom, for he had a wife -already, and someone who had just found an old key did not require a new -one. Thereupon the wedding was celebrated, and the lion was again taken -into favour, because, after all, he had told the truth. - - - - -THE KING OF THE GOLDEN MOUNTAIN - -There was once a merchant who had only one child, a son, that was very -young, and barely able to run alone. He had two richly laden ships then -making a voyage upon the seas, in which he had embarked all his wealth, -in the hope of making great gains, when the news came that both were -lost. Thus from being a rich man he became all at once so very poor that -nothing was left to him but one small plot of land; and there he often -went in an evening to take his walk, and ease his mind of a little of -his trouble. - -One day, as he was roaming along in a brown study, thinking with no -great comfort on what he had been and what he now was, and was like -to be, all on a sudden there stood before him a little, rough-looking, -black dwarf. 'Prithee, friend, why so sorrowful?' said he to the -merchant; 'what is it you take so deeply to heart?' 'If you would do me -any good I would willingly tell you,' said the merchant. 'Who knows but -I may?' said the little man: 'tell me what ails you, and perhaps you -will find I may be of some use.' Then the merchant told him how all his -wealth was gone to the bottom of the sea, and how he had nothing left -but that little plot of land. 'Oh, trouble not yourself about that,' -said the dwarf; 'only undertake to bring me here, twelve years hence, -whatever meets you first on your going home, and I will give you as much -as you please.' The merchant thought this was no great thing to ask; -that it would most likely be his dog or his cat, or something of that -sort, but forgot his little boy Heinel; so he agreed to the bargain, and -signed and sealed the bond to do what was asked of him. - -But as he drew near home, his little boy was so glad to see him that he -crept behind him, and laid fast hold of his legs, and looked up in -his face and laughed. Then the father started, trembling with fear and -horror, and saw what it was that he had bound himself to do; but as no -gold was come, he made himself easy by thinking that it was only a joke -that the dwarf was playing him, and that, at any rate, when the money -came, he should see the bearer, and would not take it in. - -About a month afterwards he went upstairs into a lumber-room to look -for some old iron, that he might sell it and raise a little money; and -there, instead of his iron, he saw a large pile of gold lying on the -floor. At the sight of this he was overjoyed, and forgetting all about -his son, went into trade again, and became a richer merchant than -before. - -Meantime little Heinel grew up, and as the end of the twelve years drew -near the merchant began to call to mind his bond, and became very sad -and thoughtful; so that care and sorrow were written upon his face. The -boy one day asked what was the matter, but his father would not tell for -some time; at last, however, he said that he had, without knowing it, -sold him for gold to a little, ugly-looking, black dwarf, and that the -twelve years were coming round when he must keep his word. Then Heinel -said, 'Father, give yourself very little trouble about that; I shall be -too much for the little man.' - -When the time came, the father and son went out together to the place -agreed upon: and the son drew a circle on the ground, and set himself -and his father in the middle of it. The little black dwarf soon came, -and walked round and round about the circle, but could not find any way -to get into it, and he either could not, or dared not, jump over it. At -last the boy said to him. 'Have you anything to say to us, my friend, or -what do you want?' Now Heinel had found a friend in a good fairy, that -was fond of him, and had told him what to do; for this fairy knew what -good luck was in store for him. 'Have you brought me what you said you -would?' said the dwarf to the merchant. The old man held his tongue, but -Heinel said again, 'What do you want here?' The dwarf said, 'I come to -talk with your father, not with you.' 'You have cheated and taken in my -father,' said the son; 'pray give him up his bond at once.' 'Fair and -softly,' said the little old man; 'right is right; I have paid my money, -and your father has had it, and spent it; so be so good as to let me -have what I paid it for.' 'You must have my consent to that first,' said -Heinel, 'so please to step in here, and let us talk it over.' The old -man grinned, and showed his teeth, as if he should have been very glad -to get into the circle if he could. Then at last, after a long talk, -they came to terms. Heinel agreed that his father must give him up, and -that so far the dwarf should have his way: but, on the other hand, the -fairy had told Heinel what fortune was in store for him, if he followed -his own course; and he did not choose to be given up to his hump-backed -friend, who seemed so anxious for his company. - -So, to make a sort of drawn battle of the matter, it was settled that -Heinel should be put into an open boat, that lay on the sea-shore hard -by; that the father should push him off with his own hand, and that he -should thus be set adrift, and left to the bad or good luck of wind and -weather. Then he took leave of his father, and set himself in the boat, -but before it got far off a wave struck it, and it fell with one side -low in the water, so the merchant thought that poor Heinel was lost, and -went home very sorrowful, while the dwarf went his way, thinking that at -any rate he had had his revenge. - -The boat, however, did not sink, for the good fairy took care of her -friend, and soon raised the boat up again, and it went safely on. The -young man sat safe within, till at length it ran ashore upon an unknown -land. As he jumped upon the shore he saw before him a beautiful castle -but empty and dreary within, for it was enchanted. 'Here,' said he to -himself, 'must I find the prize the good fairy told me of.' So he once -more searched the whole palace through, till at last he found a white -snake, lying coiled up on a cushion in one of the chambers. - -Now the white snake was an enchanted princess; and she was very glad -to see him, and said, 'Are you at last come to set me free? Twelve -long years have I waited here for the fairy to bring you hither as she -promised, for you alone can save me. This night twelve men will come: -their faces will be black, and they will be dressed in chain armour. -They will ask what you do here, but give no answer; and let them do -what they will--beat, whip, pinch, prick, or torment you--bear all; only -speak not a word, and at twelve o'clock they must go away. The second -night twelve others will come: and the third night twenty-four, who -will even cut off your head; but at the twelfth hour of that night their -power is gone, and I shall be free, and will come and bring you the -Water of Life, and will wash you with it, and bring you back to life -and health.' And all came to pass as she had said; Heinel bore all, and -spoke not a word; and the third night the princess came, and fell on his -neck and kissed him. Joy and gladness burst forth throughout the castle, -the wedding was celebrated, and he was crowned king of the Golden -Mountain. - -They lived together very happily, and the queen had a son. And thus -eight years had passed over their heads, when the king thought of his -father; and he began to long to see him once again. But the queen was -against his going, and said, 'I know well that misfortunes will come -upon us if you go.' However, he gave her no rest till she agreed. At his -going away she gave him a wishing-ring, and said, 'Take this ring, and -put it on your finger; whatever you wish it will bring you; only promise -never to make use of it to bring me hence to your father's house.' Then -he said he would do what she asked, and put the ring on his finger, and -wished himself near the town where his father lived. - -Heinel found himself at the gates in a moment; but the guards would -not let him go in, because he was so strangely clad. So he went up to a -neighbouring hill, where a shepherd dwelt, and borrowed his old frock, -and thus passed unknown into the town. When he came to his father's -house, he said he was his son; but the merchant would not believe him, -and said he had had but one son, his poor Heinel, who he knew was long -since dead: and as he was only dressed like a poor shepherd, he would -not even give him anything to eat. The king, however, still vowed that -he was his son, and said, 'Is there no mark by which you would know me -if I am really your son?' 'Yes,' said his mother, 'our Heinel had a mark -like a raspberry on his right arm.' Then he showed them the mark, and -they knew that what he had said was true. - -He next told them how he was king of the Golden Mountain, and was -married to a princess, and had a son seven years old. But the merchant -said, 'that can never be true; he must be a fine king truly who travels -about in a shepherd's frock!' At this the son was vexed; and forgetting -his word, turned his ring, and wished for his queen and son. In an -instant they stood before him; but the queen wept, and said he had -broken his word, and bad luck would follow. He did all he could to -soothe her, and she at last seemed to be appeased; but she was not so in -truth, and was only thinking how she should punish him. - -One day he took her to walk with him out of the town, and showed her -the spot where the boat was set adrift upon the wide waters. Then he sat -himself down, and said, 'I am very much tired; sit by me, I will rest my -head in your lap, and sleep a while.' As soon as he had fallen asleep, -however, she drew the ring from his finger, and crept softly away, and -wished herself and her son at home in their kingdom. And when he awoke -he found himself alone, and saw that the ring was gone from his finger. -'I can never go back to my father's house,' said he; 'they would say I -am a sorcerer: I will journey forth into the world, till I come again to -my kingdom.' - -So saying he set out and travelled till he came to a hill, where three -giants were sharing their father's goods; and as they saw him pass they -cried out and said, 'Little men have sharp wits; he shall part the goods -between us.' Now there was a sword that cut off an enemy's head whenever -the wearer gave the words, 'Heads off!'; a cloak that made the owner -invisible, or gave him any form he pleased; and a pair of boots that -carried the wearer wherever he wished. Heinel said they must first let -him try these wonderful things, then he might know how to set a value -upon them. Then they gave him the cloak, and he wished himself a fly, -and in a moment he was a fly. 'The cloak is very well,' said he: 'now -give me the sword.' 'No,' said they; 'not unless you undertake not to -say, "Heads off!" for if you do we are all dead men.' So they gave it -him, charging him to try it on a tree. He next asked for the boots also; -and the moment he had all three in his power, he wished himself at -the Golden Mountain; and there he was at once. So the giants were left -behind with no goods to share or quarrel about. - -As Heinel came near his castle he heard the sound of merry music; and -the people around told him that his queen was about to marry another -husband. Then he threw his cloak around him, and passed through the -castle hall, and placed himself by the side of the queen, where no one -saw him. But when anything to eat was put upon her plate, he took it -away and ate it himself; and when a glass of wine was handed to her, he -took it and drank it; and thus, though they kept on giving her meat and -drink, her plate and cup were always empty. - -Upon this, fear and remorse came over her, and she went into her chamber -alone, and sat there weeping; and he followed her there. 'Alas!' said -she to herself, 'was I not once set free? Why then does this enchantment -still seem to bind me?' - -'False and fickle one!' said he. 'One indeed came who set thee free, and -he is now near thee again; but how have you used him? Ought he to -have had such treatment from thee?' Then he went out and sent away the -company, and said the wedding was at an end, for that he was come back -to the kingdom. But the princes, peers, and great men mocked at him. -However, he would enter into no parley with them, but only asked them -if they would go in peace or not. Then they turned upon him and tried -to seize him; but he drew his sword. 'Heads Off!' cried he; and with the -word the traitors' heads fell before him, and Heinel was once more king -of the Golden Mountain. - - - - -DOCTOR KNOWALL - -There was once upon a time a poor peasant called Crabb, who drove with -two oxen a load of wood to the town, and sold it to a doctor for two -talers. When the money was being counted out to him, it so happened that -the doctor was sitting at table, and when the peasant saw how well he -ate and drank, his heart desired what he saw, and would willingly -have been a doctor too. So he remained standing a while, and at length -inquired if he too could not be a doctor. 'Oh, yes,' said the doctor, -'that is soon managed.' 'What must I do?' asked the peasant. 'In the -first place buy yourself an A B C book of the kind which has a cock on -the frontispiece; in the second, turn your cart and your two oxen into -money, and get yourself some clothes, and whatsoever else pertains to -medicine; thirdly, have a sign painted for yourself with the words: "I -am Doctor Knowall," and have that nailed up above your house-door.' The -peasant did everything that he had been told to do. When he had doctored -people awhile, but not long, a rich and great lord had some money -stolen. Then he was told about Doctor Knowall who lived in such and such -a village, and must know what had become of the money. So the lord had -the horses harnessed to his carriage, drove out to the village, and -asked Crabb if he were Doctor Knowall. Yes, he was, he said. Then he was -to go with him and bring back the stolen money. 'Oh, yes, but Grete, my -wife, must go too.' The lord was willing, and let both of them have a -seat in the carriage, and they all drove away together. When they came -to the nobleman's castle, the table was spread, and Crabb was told to -sit down and eat. 'Yes, but my wife, Grete, too,' said he, and he seated -himself with her at the table. And when the first servant came with a -dish of delicate fare, the peasant nudged his wife, and said: 'Grete, -that was the first,' meaning that was the servant who brought the first -dish. The servant, however, thought he intended by that to say: 'That is -the first thief,' and as he actually was so, he was terrified, and said -to his comrade outside: 'The doctor knows all: we shall fare ill, he -said I was the first.' The second did not want to go in at all, but was -forced. So when he went in with his dish, the peasant nudged his wife, -and said: 'Grete, that is the second.' This servant was equally alarmed, -and he got out as fast as he could. The third fared no better, for the -peasant again said: 'Grete, that is the third.' The fourth had to carry -in a dish that was covered, and the lord told the doctor that he was to -show his skill, and guess what was beneath the cover. Actually, there -were crabs. The doctor looked at the dish, had no idea what to say, and -cried: 'Ah, poor Crabb.' When the lord heard that, he cried: 'There! he -knows it; he must also know who has the money!' - -On this the servants looked terribly uneasy, and made a sign to the -doctor that they wished him to step outside for a moment. When therefore -he went out, all four of them confessed to him that they had stolen -the money, and said that they would willingly restore it and give him a -heavy sum into the bargain, if he would not denounce them, for if he -did they would be hanged. They led him to the spot where the money was -concealed. With this the doctor was satisfied, and returned to the hall, -sat down to the table, and said: 'My lord, now will I search in my book -where the gold is hidden.' The fifth servant, however, crept into the -stove to hear if the doctor knew still more. But the doctor sat still -and opened his A B C book, turned the pages backwards and forwards, and -looked for the cock. As he could not find it immediately he said: 'I -know you are there, so you had better come out!' Then the fellow in the -stove thought that the doctor meant him, and full of terror, sprang out, -crying: 'That man knows everything!' Then Doctor Knowall showed the lord -where the money was, but did not say who had stolen it, and received -from both sides much money in reward, and became a renowned man. - - - - -THE SEVEN RAVENS - -There was once a man who had seven sons, and last of all one daughter. -Although the little girl was very pretty, she was so weak and small that -they thought she could not live; but they said she should at once be -christened. - -So the father sent one of his sons in haste to the spring to get some -water, but the other six ran with him. Each wanted to be first at -drawing the water, and so they were in such a hurry that all let their -pitchers fall into the well, and they stood very foolishly looking at -one another, and did not know what to do, for none dared go home. In the -meantime the father was uneasy, and could not tell what made the -young men stay so long. 'Surely,' said he, 'the whole seven must have -forgotten themselves over some game of play'; and when he had waited -still longer and they yet did not come, he flew into a rage and wished -them all turned into ravens. Scarcely had he spoken these words when he -heard a croaking over his head, and looked up and saw seven ravens as -black as coal flying round and round. Sorry as he was to see his wish -so fulfilled, he did not know how what was done could be undone, and -comforted himself as well as he could for the loss of his seven sons -with his dear little daughter, who soon became stronger and every day -more beautiful. - -For a long time she did not know that she had ever had any brothers; for -her father and mother took care not to speak of them before her: but one -day by chance she heard the people about her speak of them. 'Yes,' said -they, 'she is beautiful indeed, but still 'tis a pity that her brothers -should have been lost for her sake.' Then she was much grieved, and went -to her father and mother, and asked if she had any brothers, and what -had become of them. So they dared no longer hide the truth from her, but -said it was the will of Heaven, and that her birth was only the innocent -cause of it; but the little girl mourned sadly about it every day, and -thought herself bound to do all she could to bring her brothers back; -and she had neither rest nor ease, till at length one day she stole -away, and set out into the wide world to find her brothers, wherever -they might be, and free them, whatever it might cost her. - -She took nothing with her but a little ring which her father and mother -had given her, a loaf of bread in case she should be hungry, a little -pitcher of water in case she should be thirsty, and a little stool -to rest upon when she should be weary. Thus she went on and on, and -journeyed till she came to the world's end; then she came to the sun, -but the sun looked much too hot and fiery; so she ran away quickly to -the moon, but the moon was cold and chilly, and said, 'I smell flesh -and blood this way!' so she took herself away in a hurry and came to the -stars, and the stars were friendly and kind to her, and each star sat -upon his own little stool; but the morning star rose up and gave her a -little piece of wood, and said, 'If you have not this little piece of -wood, you cannot unlock the castle that stands on the glass-mountain, -and there your brothers live.' The little girl took the piece of wood, -rolled it up in a little cloth, and went on again until she came to the -glass-mountain, and found the door shut. Then she felt for the little -piece of wood; but when she unwrapped the cloth it was not there, and -she saw she had lost the gift of the good stars. What was to be done? -She wanted to save her brothers, and had no key of the castle of the -glass-mountain; so this faithful little sister took a knife out of her -pocket and cut off her little finger, that was just the size of the -piece of wood she had lost, and put it in the door and opened it. - -As she went in, a little dwarf came up to her, and said, 'What are you -seeking for?' 'I seek for my brothers, the seven ravens,' answered she. -Then the dwarf said, 'My masters are not at home; but if you will wait -till they come, pray step in.' Now the little dwarf was getting their -dinner ready, and he brought their food upon seven little plates, and -their drink in seven little glasses, and set them upon the table, and -out of each little plate their sister ate a small piece, and out of each -little glass she drank a small drop; but she let the ring that she had -brought with her fall into the last glass. - -On a sudden she heard a fluttering and croaking in the air, and the -dwarf said, 'Here come my masters.' When they came in, they wanted to -eat and drink, and looked for their little plates and glasses. Then said -one after the other, - -'Who has eaten from my little plate? And who has been drinking out of my -little glass?' - - 'Caw! Caw! well I ween - Mortal lips have this way been.' - -When the seventh came to the bottom of his glass, and found there the -ring, he looked at it, and knew that it was his father's and mother's, -and said, 'O that our little sister would but come! then we should be -free.' When the little girl heard this (for she stood behind the door -all the time and listened), she ran forward, and in an instant all -the ravens took their right form again; and all hugged and kissed each -other, and went merrily home. - - - - -THE WEDDING OF MRS FOX - - -FIRST STORY - -There was once upon a time an old fox with nine tails, who believed that -his wife was not faithful to him, and wished to put her to the test. He -stretched himself out under the bench, did not move a limb, and behaved -as if he were stone dead. Mrs Fox went up to her room, shut herself in, -and her maid, Miss Cat, sat by the fire, and did the cooking. When it -became known that the old fox was dead, suitors presented themselves. -The maid heard someone standing at the house-door, knocking. She went -and opened it, and it was a young fox, who said: - - 'What may you be about, Miss Cat? - Do you sleep or do you wake?' - -She answered: - - 'I am not sleeping, I am waking, - Would you know what I am making? - I am boiling warm beer with butter, - Will you be my guest for supper?' - -'No, thank you, miss,' said the fox, 'what is Mrs Fox doing?' The maid -replied: - - 'She is sitting in her room, - Moaning in her gloom, - Weeping her little eyes quite red, - Because old Mr Fox is dead.' - -'Do just tell her, miss, that a young fox is here, who would like to woo -her.' 'Certainly, young sir.' - - The cat goes up the stairs trip, trap, - The door she knocks at tap, tap, tap, - 'Mistress Fox, are you inside?' - 'Oh, yes, my little cat,' she cried. - 'A wooer he stands at the door out there.' - 'What does he look like, my dear?' - -'Has he nine as beautiful tails as the late Mr Fox?' 'Oh, no,' answered -the cat, 'he has only one.' 'Then I will not have him.' - -Miss Cat went downstairs and sent the wooer away. Soon afterwards there -was another knock, and another fox was at the door who wished to woo Mrs -Fox. He had two tails, but he did not fare better than the first. After -this still more came, each with one tail more than the other, but they -were all turned away, until at last one came who had nine tails, like -old Mr Fox. When the widow heard that, she said joyfully to the cat: - - 'Now open the gates and doors all wide, - And carry old Mr Fox outside.' - -But just as the wedding was going to be solemnized, old Mr Fox stirred -under the bench, and cudgelled all the rabble, and drove them and Mrs -Fox out of the house. - - -SECOND STORY - -When old Mr Fox was dead, the wolf came as a suitor, and knocked at the -door, and the cat who was servant to Mrs Fox, opened it for him. The -wolf greeted her, and said: - - 'Good day, Mrs Cat of Kehrewit, - How comes it that alone you sit? - What are you making good?' - -The cat replied: - - 'In milk I'm breaking bread so sweet, - Will you be my guest, and eat?' - -'No, thank you, Mrs Cat,' answered the wolf. 'Is Mrs Fox not at home?' - -The cat said: - - 'She sits upstairs in her room, - Bewailing her sorrowful doom, - Bewailing her trouble so sore, - For old Mr Fox is no more.' - -The wolf answered: - - 'If she's in want of a husband now, - Then will it please her to step below?' - The cat runs quickly up the stair, - And lets her tail fly here and there, - Until she comes to the parlour door. - With her five gold rings at the door she knocks: - 'Are you within, good Mistress Fox? - If you're in want of a husband now, - Then will it please you to step below? - -Mrs Fox asked: 'Has the gentleman red stockings on, and has he a pointed -mouth?' 'No,' answered the cat. 'Then he won't do for me.' - -When the wolf was gone, came a dog, a stag, a hare, a bear, a lion, and -all the beasts of the forest, one after the other. But one of the good -qualities which old Mr Fox had possessed, was always lacking, and the -cat had continually to send the suitors away. At length came a young -fox. Then Mrs Fox said: 'Has the gentleman red stockings on, and has a -little pointed mouth?' 'Yes,' said the cat, 'he has.' 'Then let him come -upstairs,' said Mrs Fox, and ordered the servant to prepare the wedding -feast. - - 'Sweep me the room as clean as you can, - Up with the window, fling out my old man! - For many a fine fat mouse he brought, - Yet of his wife he never thought, - But ate up every one he caught.' - -Then the wedding was solemnized with young Mr Fox, and there was much -rejoicing and dancing; and if they have not left off, they are dancing -still. - - - - -THE SALAD - -As a merry young huntsman was once going briskly along through a wood, -there came up a little old woman, and said to him, 'Good day, good day; -you seem merry enough, but I am hungry and thirsty; do pray give me -something to eat.' The huntsman took pity on her, and put his hand in -his pocket and gave her what he had. Then he wanted to go his way; but -she took hold of him, and said, 'Listen, my friend, to what I am going -to tell you; I will reward you for your kindness; go your way, and after -a little time you will come to a tree where you will see nine birds -sitting on a cloak. Shoot into the midst of them, and one will fall down -dead: the cloak will fall too; take it, it is a wishing-cloak, and when -you wear it you will find yourself at any place where you may wish to -be. Cut open the dead bird, take out its heart and keep it, and you will -find a piece of gold under your pillow every morning when you rise. It -is the bird's heart that will bring you this good luck.' - -The huntsman thanked her, and thought to himself, 'If all this does -happen, it will be a fine thing for me.' When he had gone a hundred -steps or so, he heard a screaming and chirping in the branches over him, -and looked up and saw a flock of birds pulling a cloak with their bills -and feet; screaming, fighting, and tugging at each other as if -each wished to have it himself. 'Well,' said the huntsman, 'this is -wonderful; this happens just as the old woman said'; then he shot into -the midst of them so that their feathers flew all about. Off went the -flock chattering away; but one fell down dead, and the cloak with it. -Then the huntsman did as the old woman told him, cut open the bird, took -out the heart, and carried the cloak home with him. - -The next morning when he awoke he lifted up his pillow, and there lay -the piece of gold glittering underneath; the same happened next day, and -indeed every day when he arose. He heaped up a great deal of gold, and -at last thought to himself, 'Of what use is this gold to me whilst I am -at home? I will go out into the world and look about me.' - -Then he took leave of his friends, and hung his bag and bow about his -neck, and went his way. It so happened that his road one day led through -a thick wood, at the end of which was a large castle in a green meadow, -and at one of the windows stood an old woman with a very beautiful young -lady by her side looking about them. Now the old woman was a witch, and -said to the young lady, 'There is a young man coming out of the wood who -carries a wonderful prize; we must get it away from him, my dear child, -for it is more fit for us than for him. He has a bird's heart that -brings a piece of gold under his pillow every morning.' Meantime the -huntsman came nearer and looked at the lady, and said to himself, 'I -have been travelling so long that I should like to go into this castle -and rest myself, for I have money enough to pay for anything I want'; -but the real reason was, that he wanted to see more of the beautiful -lady. Then he went into the house, and was welcomed kindly; and it was -not long before he was so much in love that he thought of nothing else -but looking at the lady's eyes, and doing everything that she wished. -Then the old woman said, 'Now is the time for getting the bird's heart.' -So the lady stole it away, and he never found any more gold under his -pillow, for it lay now under the young lady's, and the old woman took it -away every morning; but he was so much in love that he never missed his -prize. - -'Well,' said the old witch, 'we have got the bird's heart, but not the -wishing-cloak yet, and that we must also get.' 'Let us leave him that,' -said the young lady; 'he has already lost his wealth.' Then the witch -was very angry, and said, 'Such a cloak is a very rare and wonderful -thing, and I must and will have it.' So she did as the old woman told -her, and set herself at the window, and looked about the country and -seemed very sorrowful; then the huntsman said, 'What makes you so sad?' -'Alas! dear sir,' said she, 'yonder lies the granite rock where all the -costly diamonds grow, and I want so much to go there, that whenever I -think of it I cannot help being sorrowful, for who can reach it? only -the birds and the flies--man cannot.' 'If that's all your grief,' said -the huntsman, 'I'll take you there with all my heart'; so he drew her under -his cloak, and the moment he wished to be on the granite mountain they -were both there. The diamonds glittered so on all sides that they were -delighted with the sight and picked up the finest. But the old witch -made a deep sleep come upon him, and he said to the young lady, 'Let us -sit down and rest ourselves a little, I am so tired that I cannot stand -any longer.' So they sat down, and he laid his head in her lap and -fell asleep; and whilst he was sleeping on she took the cloak from -his shoulders, hung it on her own, picked up the diamonds, and wished -herself home again. - -When he awoke and found that his lady had tricked him, and left him -alone on the wild rock, he said, 'Alas! what roguery there is in the -world!' and there he sat in great grief and fear, not knowing what to -do. Now this rock belonged to fierce giants who lived upon it; and as -he saw three of them striding about, he thought to himself, 'I can only -save myself by feigning to be asleep'; so he laid himself down as if he -were in a sound sleep. When the giants came up to him, the first pushed -him with his foot, and said, 'What worm is this that lies here curled -up?' 'Tread upon him and kill him,' said the second. 'It's not worth the -trouble,' said the third; 'let him live, he'll go climbing higher up the -mountain, and some cloud will come rolling and carry him away.' And they -passed on. But the huntsman had heard all they said; and as soon as they -were gone, he climbed to the top of the mountain, and when he had sat -there a short time a cloud came rolling around him, and caught him in a -whirlwind and bore him along for some time, till it settled in a garden, -and he fell quite gently to the ground amongst the greens and cabbages. - -Then he looked around him, and said, 'I wish I had something to eat, if -not I shall be worse off than before; for here I see neither apples -nor pears, nor any kind of fruits, nothing but vegetables.' At last he -thought to himself, 'I can eat salad, it will refresh and strengthen -me.' So he picked out a fine head and ate of it; but scarcely had he -swallowed two bites when he felt himself quite changed, and saw with -horror that he was turned into an ass. However, he still felt very -hungry, and the salad tasted very nice; so he ate on till he came -to another kind of salad, and scarcely had he tasted it when he felt -another change come over him, and soon saw that he was lucky enough to -have found his old shape again. - -Then he laid himself down and slept off a little of his weariness; and -when he awoke the next morning he broke off a head both of the good and -the bad salad, and thought to himself, 'This will help me to my fortune -again, and enable me to pay off some folks for their treachery.' So he -went away to try and find the castle of his friends; and after wandering -about a few days he luckily found it. Then he stained his face all over -brown, so that even his mother would not have known him, and went into -the castle and asked for a lodging; 'I am so tired,' said he, 'that I -can go no farther.' 'Countryman,' said the witch, 'who are you? and what -is your business?' 'I am,' said he, 'a messenger sent by the king to -find the finest salad that grows under the sun. I have been lucky -enough to find it, and have brought it with me; but the heat of the sun -scorches so that it begins to wither, and I don't know that I can carry -it farther.' - -When the witch and the young lady heard of his beautiful salad, they -longed to taste it, and said, 'Dear countryman, let us just taste it.' -'To be sure,' answered he; 'I have two heads of it with me, and will -give you one'; so he opened his bag and gave them the bad. Then the -witch herself took it into the kitchen to be dressed; and when it was -ready she could not wait till it was carried up, but took a few leaves -immediately and put them in her mouth, and scarcely were they swallowed -when she lost her own form and ran braying down into the court in the -form of an ass. Now the servant-maid came into the kitchen, and seeing -the salad ready, was going to carry it up; but on the way she too felt a -wish to taste it as the old woman had done, and ate some leaves; so she -also was turned into an ass and ran after the other, letting the dish -with the salad fall on the ground. The messenger sat all this time with -the beautiful young lady, and as nobody came with the salad and she -longed to taste it, she said, 'I don't know where the salad can be.' -Then he thought something must have happened, and said, 'I will go -into the kitchen and see.' And as he went he saw two asses in the court -running about, and the salad lying on the ground. 'All right!' said -he; 'those two have had their share.' Then he took up the rest of -the leaves, laid them on the dish and brought them to the young lady, -saying, 'I bring you the dish myself that you may not wait any longer.' -So she ate of it, and like the others ran off into the court braying -away. - -Then the huntsman washed his face and went into the court that they -might know him. 'Now you shall be paid for your roguery,' said he; and -tied them all three to a rope and took them along with him till he -came to a mill and knocked at the window. 'What's the matter?' said the -miller. 'I have three tiresome beasts here,' said the other; 'if you -will take them, give them food and room, and treat them as I tell you, -I will pay you whatever you ask.' 'With all my heart,' said the miller; -'but how shall I treat them?' Then the huntsman said, 'Give the old -one stripes three times a day and hay once; give the next (who was -the servant-maid) stripes once a day and hay three times; and give -the youngest (who was the beautiful lady) hay three times a day and -no stripes': for he could not find it in his heart to have her beaten. -After this he went back to the castle, where he found everything he -wanted. - -Some days after, the miller came to him and told him that the old ass -was dead; 'The other two,' said he, 'are alive and eat, but are so -sorrowful that they cannot last long.' Then the huntsman pitied them, -and told the miller to drive them back to him, and when they came, he -gave them some of the good salad to eat. And the beautiful young lady -fell upon her knees before him, and said, 'O dearest huntsman! forgive -me all the ill I have done you; my mother forced me to it, it was -against my will, for I always loved you very much. Your wishing-cloak -hangs up in the closet, and as for the bird's heart, I will give it you -too.' But he said, 'Keep it, it will be just the same thing, for I mean -to make you my wife.' So they were married, and lived together very -happily till they died. - - - - -THE STORY OF THE YOUTH WHO WENT FORTH TO LEARN WHAT FEAR WAS - -A certain father had two sons, the elder of who was smart and sensible, -and could do everything, but the younger was stupid and could neither -learn nor understand anything, and when people saw him they said: -'There's a fellow who will give his father some trouble!' When anything -had to be done, it was always the elder who was forced to do it; but -if his father bade him fetch anything when it was late, or in the -night-time, and the way led through the churchyard, or any other dismal -place, he answered: 'Oh, no father, I'll not go there, it makes me -shudder!' for he was afraid. Or when stories were told by the fire at -night which made the flesh creep, the listeners sometimes said: 'Oh, -it makes us shudder!' The younger sat in a corner and listened with -the rest of them, and could not imagine what they could mean. 'They are -always saying: "It makes me shudder, it makes me shudder!" It does not -make me shudder,' thought he. 'That, too, must be an art of which I -understand nothing!' - -Now it came to pass that his father said to him one day: 'Hearken to me, -you fellow in the corner there, you are growing tall and strong, and you -too must learn something by which you can earn your bread. Look how your -brother works, but you do not even earn your salt.' 'Well, father,' he -replied, 'I am quite willing to learn something--indeed, if it could but -be managed, I should like to learn how to shudder. I don't understand -that at all yet.' The elder brother smiled when he heard that, and -thought to himself: 'Goodness, what a blockhead that brother of mine is! -He will never be good for anything as long as he lives! He who wants to -be a sickle must bend himself betimes.' - -The father sighed, and answered him: 'You shall soon learn what it is to -shudder, but you will not earn your bread by that.' - -Soon after this the sexton came to the house on a visit, and the father -bewailed his trouble, and told him how his younger son was so backward -in every respect that he knew nothing and learnt nothing. 'Just think,' -said he, 'when I asked him how he was going to earn his bread, he -actually wanted to learn to shudder.' 'If that be all,' replied the -sexton, 'he can learn that with me. Send him to me, and I will soon -polish him.' The father was glad to do it, for he thought: 'It will -train the boy a little.' The sexton therefore took him into his house, -and he had to ring the church bell. After a day or two, the sexton awoke -him at midnight, and bade him arise and go up into the church tower and -ring the bell. 'You shall soon learn what shuddering is,' thought he, -and secretly went there before him; and when the boy was at the top of -the tower and turned round, and was just going to take hold of the bell -rope, he saw a white figure standing on the stairs opposite the sounding -hole. 'Who is there?' cried he, but the figure made no reply, and did -not move or stir. 'Give an answer,' cried the boy, 'or take yourself -off, you have no business here at night.' - -The sexton, however, remained standing motionless that the boy might -think he was a ghost. The boy cried a second time: 'What do you want -here?--speak if you are an honest fellow, or I will throw you down the -steps!' The sexton thought: 'He can't mean to be as bad as his words,' -uttered no sound and stood as if he were made of stone. Then the boy -called to him for the third time, and as that was also to no purpose, -he ran against him and pushed the ghost down the stairs, so that it fell -down the ten steps and remained lying there in a corner. Thereupon he -rang the bell, went home, and without saying a word went to bed, and -fell asleep. The sexton's wife waited a long time for her husband, but -he did not come back. At length she became uneasy, and wakened the boy, -and asked: 'Do you know where my husband is? He climbed up the tower -before you did.' 'No, I don't know,' replied the boy, 'but someone was -standing by the sounding hole on the other side of the steps, and as he -would neither gave an answer nor go away, I took him for a scoundrel, -and threw him downstairs. Just go there and you will see if it was he. -I should be sorry if it were.' The woman ran away and found her husband, -who was lying moaning in the corner, and had broken his leg. - -She carried him down, and then with loud screams she hastened to the -boy's father, 'Your boy,' cried she, 'has been the cause of a great -misfortune! He has thrown my husband down the steps so that he broke his -leg. Take the good-for-nothing fellow out of our house.' The father was -terrified, and ran thither and scolded the boy. 'What wicked tricks -are these?' said he. 'The devil must have put them into your head.' -'Father,' he replied, 'do listen to me. I am quite innocent. He was -standing there by night like one intent on doing evil. I did not know -who it was, and I entreated him three times either to speak or to go -away.' 'Ah,' said the father, 'I have nothing but unhappiness with you. -Go out of my sight. I will see you no more.' - -'Yes, father, right willingly, wait only until it is day. Then will I -go forth and learn how to shudder, and then I shall, at any rate, -understand one art which will support me.' 'Learn what you will,' spoke -the father, 'it is all the same to me. Here are fifty talers for you. -Take these and go into the wide world, and tell no one from whence you -come, and who is your father, for I have reason to be ashamed of you.' -'Yes, father, it shall be as you will. If you desire nothing more than -that, I can easily keep it in mind.' - -When the day dawned, therefore, the boy put his fifty talers into his -pocket, and went forth on the great highway, and continually said to -himself: 'If I could but shudder! If I could but shudder!' Then a man -approached who heard this conversation which the youth was holding with -himself, and when they had walked a little farther to where they could -see the gallows, the man said to him: 'Look, there is the tree where -seven men have married the ropemaker's daughter, and are now learning -how to fly. Sit down beneath it, and wait till night comes, and you will -soon learn how to shudder.' 'If that is all that is wanted,' answered -the youth, 'it is easily done; but if I learn how to shudder as fast as -that, you shall have my fifty talers. Just come back to me early in the -morning.' Then the youth went to the gallows, sat down beneath it, and -waited till evening came. And as he was cold, he lighted himself a fire, -but at midnight the wind blew so sharply that in spite of his fire, he -could not get warm. And as the wind knocked the hanged men against each -other, and they moved backwards and forwards, he thought to himself: -'If you shiver below by the fire, how those up above must freeze and -suffer!' And as he felt pity for them, he raised the ladder, and climbed -up, unbound one of them after the other, and brought down all seven. -Then he stoked the fire, blew it, and set them all round it to warm -themselves. But they sat there and did not stir, and the fire caught -their clothes. So he said: 'Take care, or I will hang you up again.' The -dead men, however, did not hear, but were quite silent, and let their -rags go on burning. At this he grew angry, and said: 'If you will not -take care, I cannot help you, I will not be burnt with you,' and he hung -them up again each in his turn. Then he sat down by his fire and fell -asleep, and the next morning the man came to him and wanted to have -the fifty talers, and said: 'Well do you know how to shudder?' 'No,' -answered he, 'how should I know? Those fellows up there did not open -their mouths, and were so stupid that they let the few old rags which -they had on their bodies get burnt.' Then the man saw that he would not -get the fifty talers that day, and went away saying: 'Such a youth has -never come my way before.' - -The youth likewise went his way, and once more began to mutter to -himself: 'Ah, if I could but shudder! Ah, if I could but shudder!' A -waggoner who was striding behind him heard this and asked: 'Who are -you?' 'I don't know,' answered the youth. Then the waggoner asked: 'From -whence do you come?' 'I know not.' 'Who is your father?' 'That I may -not tell you.' 'What is it that you are always muttering between your -teeth?' 'Ah,' replied the youth, 'I do so wish I could shudder, but -no one can teach me how.' 'Enough of your foolish chatter,' said the -waggoner. 'Come, go with me, I will see about a place for you.' The -youth went with the waggoner, and in the evening they arrived at an inn -where they wished to pass the night. Then at the entrance of the parlour -the youth again said quite loudly: 'If I could but shudder! If I could -but shudder!' The host who heard this, laughed and said: 'If that is -your desire, there ought to be a good opportunity for you here.' 'Ah, -be silent,' said the hostess, 'so many prying persons have already lost -their lives, it would be a pity and a shame if such beautiful eyes as -these should never see the daylight again.' - -But the youth said: 'However difficult it may be, I will learn it. For -this purpose indeed have I journeyed forth.' He let the host have -no rest, until the latter told him, that not far from thence stood a -haunted castle where anyone could very easily learn what shuddering was, -if he would but watch in it for three nights. The king had promised that -he who would venture should have his daughter to wife, and she was the -most beautiful maiden the sun shone on. Likewise in the castle lay great -treasures, which were guarded by evil spirits, and these treasures would -then be freed, and would make a poor man rich enough. Already many men -had gone into the castle, but as yet none had come out again. Then the -youth went next morning to the king, and said: 'If it be allowed, I will -willingly watch three nights in the haunted castle.' - -The king looked at him, and as the youth pleased him, he said: 'You may -ask for three things to take into the castle with you, but they must -be things without life.' Then he answered: 'Then I ask for a fire, a -turning lathe, and a cutting-board with the knife.' - -The king had these things carried into the castle for him during the -day. When night was drawing near, the youth went up and made himself -a bright fire in one of the rooms, placed the cutting-board and knife -beside it, and seated himself by the turning-lathe. 'Ah, if I could -but shudder!' said he, 'but I shall not learn it here either.' Towards -midnight he was about to poke his fire, and as he was blowing it, -something cried suddenly from one corner: 'Au, miau! how cold we are!' -'You fools!' cried he, 'what are you crying about? If you are cold, come -and take a seat by the fire and warm yourselves.' And when he had said -that, two great black cats came with one tremendous leap and sat down -on each side of him, and looked savagely at him with their fiery -eyes. After a short time, when they had warmed themselves, they said: -'Comrade, shall we have a game of cards?' 'Why not?' he replied, 'but -just show me your paws.' Then they stretched out their claws. 'Oh,' said -he, 'what long nails you have! Wait, I must first cut them for you.' -Thereupon he seized them by the throats, put them on the cutting-board -and screwed their feet fast. 'I have looked at your fingers,' said he, -'and my fancy for card-playing has gone,' and he struck them dead and -threw them out into the water. But when he had made away with these two, -and was about to sit down again by his fire, out from every hole and -corner came black cats and black dogs with red-hot chains, and more -and more of them came until he could no longer move, and they yelled -horribly, and got on his fire, pulled it to pieces, and tried to put -it out. He watched them for a while quietly, but at last when they were -going too far, he seized his cutting-knife, and cried: 'Away with you, -vermin,' and began to cut them down. Some of them ran away, the others -he killed, and threw out into the fish-pond. When he came back he fanned -the embers of his fire again and warmed himself. And as he thus sat, his -eyes would keep open no longer, and he felt a desire to sleep. Then he -looked round and saw a great bed in the corner. 'That is the very thing -for me,' said he, and got into it. When he was just going to shut his -eyes, however, the bed began to move of its own accord, and went over -the whole of the castle. 'That's right,' said he, 'but go faster.' Then -the bed rolled on as if six horses were harnessed to it, up and down, -over thresholds and stairs, but suddenly hop, hop, it turned over upside -down, and lay on him like a mountain. But he threw quilts and pillows up -in the air, got out and said: 'Now anyone who likes, may drive,' and -lay down by his fire, and slept till it was day. In the morning the king -came, and when he saw him lying there on the ground, he thought the evil -spirits had killed him and he was dead. Then said he: 'After all it is a -pity,--for so handsome a man.' The youth heard it, got up, and said: 'It -has not come to that yet.' Then the king was astonished, but very glad, -and asked how he had fared. 'Very well indeed,' answered he; 'one -night is past, the two others will pass likewise.' Then he went to the -innkeeper, who opened his eyes very wide, and said: 'I never expected to -see you alive again! Have you learnt how to shudder yet?' 'No,' said he, -'it is all in vain. If someone would but tell me!' - -The second night he again went up into the old castle, sat down by the -fire, and once more began his old song: 'If I could but shudder!' When -midnight came, an uproar and noise of tumbling about was heard; at -first it was low, but it grew louder and louder. Then it was quiet for -a while, and at length with a loud scream, half a man came down the -chimney and fell before him. 'Hullo!' cried he, 'another half belongs -to this. This is not enough!' Then the uproar began again, there was a -roaring and howling, and the other half fell down likewise. 'Wait,' said -he, 'I will just stoke up the fire a little for you.' When he had done -that and looked round again, the two pieces were joined together, and a -hideous man was sitting in his place. 'That is no part of our bargain,' -said the youth, 'the bench is mine.' The man wanted to push him away; -the youth, however, would not allow that, but thrust him off with all -his strength, and seated himself again in his own place. Then still more -men fell down, one after the other; they brought nine dead men's legs -and two skulls, and set them up and played at nine-pins with them. The -youth also wanted to play and said: 'Listen you, can I join you?' 'Yes, -if you have any money.' 'Money enough,' replied he, 'but your balls are -not quite round.' Then he took the skulls and put them in the lathe and -turned them till they were round. 'There, now they will roll better!' -said he. 'Hurrah! now we'll have fun!' He played with them and lost some -of his money, but when it struck twelve, everything vanished from his -sight. He lay down and quietly fell asleep. Next morning the king came -to inquire after him. 'How has it fared with you this time?' asked he. -'I have been playing at nine-pins,' he answered, 'and have lost a couple -of farthings.' 'Have you not shuddered then?' 'What?' said he, 'I have -had a wonderful time! If I did but know what it was to shudder!' - -The third night he sat down again on his bench and said quite sadly: -'If I could but shudder.' When it grew late, six tall men came in and -brought a coffin. Then he said: 'Ha, ha, that is certainly my little -cousin, who died only a few days ago,' and he beckoned with his finger, -and cried: 'Come, little cousin, come.' They placed the coffin on the -ground, but he went to it and took the lid off, and a dead man lay -therein. He felt his face, but it was cold as ice. 'Wait,' said he, 'I -will warm you a little,' and went to the fire and warmed his hand and -laid it on the dead man's face, but he remained cold. Then he took him -out, and sat down by the fire and laid him on his breast and rubbed his -arms that the blood might circulate again. As this also did no good, he -thought to himself: 'When two people lie in bed together, they warm each -other,' and carried him to the bed, covered him over and lay down by -him. After a short time the dead man became warm too, and began to move. -Then said the youth, 'See, little cousin, have I not warmed you?' The -dead man, however, got up and cried: 'Now will I strangle you.' - -'What!' said he, 'is that the way you thank me? You shall at once go -into your coffin again,' and he took him up, threw him into it, and shut -the lid. Then came the six men and carried him away again. 'I cannot -manage to shudder,' said he. 'I shall never learn it here as long as I -live.' - -Then a man entered who was taller than all others, and looked terrible. -He was old, however, and had a long white beard. 'You wretch,' cried he, -'you shall soon learn what it is to shudder, for you shall die.' 'Not so -fast,' replied the youth. 'If I am to die, I shall have to have a say -in it.' 'I will soon seize you,' said the fiend. 'Softly, softly, do not -talk so big. I am as strong as you are, and perhaps even stronger.' -'We shall see,' said the old man. 'If you are stronger, I will let you -go--come, we will try.' Then he led him by dark passages to a smith's -forge, took an axe, and with one blow struck an anvil into the ground. -'I can do better than that,' said the youth, and went to the other -anvil. The old man placed himself near and wanted to look on, and his -white beard hung down. Then the youth seized the axe, split the anvil -with one blow, and in it caught the old man's beard. 'Now I have you,' -said the youth. 'Now it is your turn to die.' Then he seized an iron bar -and beat the old man till he moaned and entreated him to stop, when he -would give him great riches. The youth drew out the axe and let him go. -The old man led him back into the castle, and in a cellar showed him -three chests full of gold. 'Of these,' said he, 'one part is for the -poor, the other for the king, the third yours.' In the meantime it -struck twelve, and the spirit disappeared, so that the youth stood in -darkness. 'I shall still be able to find my way out,' said he, and felt -about, found the way into the room, and slept there by his fire. -Next morning the king came and said: 'Now you must have learnt what -shuddering is?' 'No,' he answered; 'what can it be? My dead cousin was -here, and a bearded man came and showed me a great deal of money down -below, but no one told me what it was to shudder.' 'Then,' said the -king, 'you have saved the castle, and shall marry my daughter.' 'That -is all very well,' said he, 'but still I do not know what it is to -shudder!' - -Then the gold was brought up and the wedding celebrated; but howsoever -much the young king loved his wife, and however happy he was, he still -said always: 'If I could but shudder--if I could but shudder.' And this -at last angered her. Her waiting-maid said: 'I will find a cure for him; -he shall soon learn what it is to shudder.' She went out to the stream -which flowed through the garden, and had a whole bucketful of gudgeons -brought to her. At night when the young king was sleeping, his wife was -to draw the clothes off him and empty the bucket full of cold water -with the gudgeons in it over him, so that the little fishes would -sprawl about him. Then he woke up and cried: 'Oh, what makes me shudder -so?--what makes me shudder so, dear wife? Ah! now I know what it is to -shudder!' - - - - -KING GRISLY-BEARD - -A great king of a land far away in the East had a daughter who was very -beautiful, but so proud, and haughty, and conceited, that none of the -princes who came to ask her in marriage was good enough for her, and she -only made sport of them. - -Once upon a time the king held a great feast, and asked thither all -her suitors; and they all sat in a row, ranged according to their -rank--kings, and princes, and dukes, and earls, and counts, and barons, -and knights. Then the princess came in, and as she passed by them she -had something spiteful to say to every one. The first was too fat: 'He's -as round as a tub,' said she. The next was too tall: 'What a maypole!' -said she. The next was too short: 'What a dumpling!' said she. The -fourth was too pale, and she called him 'Wallface.' The fifth was too -red, so she called him 'Coxcomb.' The sixth was not straight enough; -so she said he was like a green stick, that had been laid to dry over -a baker's oven. And thus she had some joke to crack upon every one: but -she laughed more than all at a good king who was there. 'Look at -him,' said she; 'his beard is like an old mop; he shall be called -Grisly-beard.' So the king got the nickname of Grisly-beard. - -But the old king was very angry when he saw how his daughter behaved, -and how she ill-treated all his guests; and he vowed that, willing or -unwilling, she should marry the first man, be he prince or beggar, that -came to the door. - -Two days after there came by a travelling fiddler, who began to play -under the window and beg alms; and when the king heard him, he said, -'Let him come in.' So they brought in a dirty-looking fellow; and when -he had sung before the king and the princess, he begged a boon. Then the -king said, 'You have sung so well, that I will give you my daughter for -your wife.' The princess begged and prayed; but the king said, 'I have -sworn to give you to the first comer, and I will keep my word.' So words -and tears were of no avail; the parson was sent for, and she was married -to the fiddler. When this was over the king said, 'Now get ready to -go--you must not stay here--you must travel on with your husband.' - -Then the fiddler went his way, and took her with him, and they soon came -to a great wood. 'Pray,' said she, 'whose is this wood?' 'It belongs -to King Grisly-beard,' answered he; 'hadst thou taken him, all had been -thine.' 'Ah! unlucky wretch that I am!' sighed she; 'would that I had -married King Grisly-beard!' Next they came to some fine meadows. 'Whose -are these beautiful green meadows?' said she. 'They belong to King -Grisly-beard, hadst thou taken him, they had all been thine.' 'Ah! -unlucky wretch that I am!' said she; 'would that I had married King -Grisly-beard!' - -Then they came to a great city. 'Whose is this noble city?' said she. -'It belongs to King Grisly-beard; hadst thou taken him, it had all been -thine.' 'Ah! wretch that I am!' sighed she; 'why did I not marry King -Grisly-beard?' 'That is no business of mine,' said the fiddler: 'why -should you wish for another husband? Am not I good enough for you?' - -At last they came to a small cottage. 'What a paltry place!' said she; -'to whom does that little dirty hole belong?' Then the fiddler said, -'That is your and my house, where we are to live.' 'Where are your -servants?' cried she. 'What do we want with servants?' said he; 'you -must do for yourself whatever is to be done. Now make the fire, and put -on water and cook my supper, for I am very tired.' But the princess knew -nothing of making fires and cooking, and the fiddler was forced to help -her. When they had eaten a very scanty meal they went to bed; but the -fiddler called her up very early in the morning to clean the house. Thus -they lived for two days: and when they had eaten up all there was in the -cottage, the man said, 'Wife, we can't go on thus, spending money and -earning nothing. You must learn to weave baskets.' Then he went out and -cut willows, and brought them home, and she began to weave; but it made -her fingers very sore. 'I see this work won't do,' said he: 'try and -spin; perhaps you will do that better.' So she sat down and tried to -spin; but the threads cut her tender fingers till the blood ran. 'See -now,' said the fiddler, 'you are good for nothing; you can do no work: -what a bargain I have got! However, I'll try and set up a trade in pots -and pans, and you shall stand in the market and sell them.' 'Alas!' -sighed she, 'if any of my father's court should pass by and see me -standing in the market, how they will laugh at me!' - -But her husband did not care for that, and said she must work, if she -did not wish to die of hunger. At first the trade went well; for many -people, seeing such a beautiful woman, went to buy her wares, and paid -their money without thinking of taking away the goods. They lived on -this as long as it lasted; and then her husband bought a fresh lot of -ware, and she sat herself down with it in the corner of the market; but -a drunken soldier soon came by, and rode his horse against her stall, -and broke all her goods into a thousand pieces. Then she began to cry, -and knew not what to do. 'Ah! what will become of me?' said she; 'what -will my husband say?' So she ran home and told him all. 'Who would -have thought you would have been so silly,' said he, 'as to put an -earthenware stall in the corner of the market, where everybody passes? -but let us have no more crying; I see you are not fit for this sort of -work, so I have been to the king's palace, and asked if they did not -want a kitchen-maid; and they say they will take you, and there you will -have plenty to eat.' - -Thus the princess became a kitchen-maid, and helped the cook to do all -the dirtiest work; but she was allowed to carry home some of the meat -that was left, and on this they lived. - -She had not been there long before she heard that the king's eldest son -was passing by, going to be married; and she went to one of the windows -and looked out. Everything was ready, and all the pomp and brightness of -the court was there. Then she bitterly grieved for the pride and folly -which had brought her so low. And the servants gave her some of the rich -meats, which she put into her basket to take home. - -All on a sudden, as she was going out, in came the king's son in golden -clothes; and when he saw a beautiful woman at the door, he took her -by the hand, and said she should be his partner in the dance; but she -trembled for fear, for she saw that it was King Grisly-beard, who was -making sport of her. However, he kept fast hold, and led her in; and the -cover of the basket came off, so that the meats in it fell about. Then -everybody laughed and jeered at her; and she was so abashed, that she -wished herself a thousand feet deep in the earth. She sprang to the -door to run away; but on the steps King Grisly-beard overtook her, and -brought her back and said, 'Fear me not! I am the fiddler who has lived -with you in the hut. I brought you there because I really loved you. I -am also the soldier that overset your stall. I have done all this only -to cure you of your silly pride, and to show you the folly of your -ill-treatment of me. Now all is over: you have learnt wisdom, and it is -time to hold our marriage feast.' - -Then the chamberlains came and brought her the most beautiful robes; and -her father and his whole court were there already, and welcomed her home -on her marriage. Joy was in every face and every heart. The feast was -grand; they danced and sang; all were merry; and I only wish that you -and I had been of the party. - - - - -IRON HANS - -There was once upon a time a king who had a great forest near his -palace, full of all kinds of wild animals. One day he sent out a -huntsman to shoot him a roe, but he did not come back. 'Perhaps some -accident has befallen him,' said the king, and the next day he sent out -two more huntsmen who were to search for him, but they too stayed away. -Then on the third day, he sent for all his huntsmen, and said: 'Scour -the whole forest through, and do not give up until you have found all -three.' But of these also, none came home again, none were seen again. -From that time forth, no one would any longer venture into the forest, -and it lay there in deep stillness and solitude, and nothing was seen -of it, but sometimes an eagle or a hawk flying over it. This lasted for -many years, when an unknown huntsman announced himself to the king as -seeking a situation, and offered to go into the dangerous forest. The -king, however, would not give his consent, and said: 'It is not safe in -there; I fear it would fare with you no better than with the others, -and you would never come out again.' The huntsman replied: 'Lord, I will -venture it at my own risk, of fear I know nothing.' - -The huntsman therefore betook himself with his dog to the forest. It was -not long before the dog fell in with some game on the way, and wanted to -pursue it; but hardly had the dog run two steps when it stood before a -deep pool, could go no farther, and a naked arm stretched itself out of -the water, seized it, and drew it under. When the huntsman saw that, he -went back and fetched three men to come with buckets and bale out the -water. When they could see to the bottom there lay a wild man whose body -was brown like rusty iron, and whose hair hung over his face down to his -knees. They bound him with cords, and led him away to the castle. There -was great astonishment over the wild man; the king, however, had him put -in an iron cage in his courtyard, and forbade the door to be opened -on pain of death, and the queen herself was to take the key into her -keeping. And from this time forth everyone could again go into the -forest with safety. - -The king had a son of eight years, who was once playing in the -courtyard, and while he was playing, his golden ball fell into the cage. -The boy ran thither and said: 'Give me my ball out.' 'Not till you have -opened the door for me,' answered the man. 'No,' said the boy, 'I will -not do that; the king has forbidden it,' and ran away. The next day he -again went and asked for his ball; the wild man said: 'Open my door,' -but the boy would not. On the third day the king had ridden out hunting, -and the boy went once more and said: 'I cannot open the door even if I -wished, for I have not the key.' Then the wild man said: 'It lies under -your mother's pillow, you can get it there.' The boy, who wanted to have -his ball back, cast all thought to the winds, and brought the key. The -door opened with difficulty, and the boy pinched his fingers. When it -was open the wild man stepped out, gave him the golden ball, and hurried -away. The boy had become afraid; he called and cried after him: 'Oh, -wild man, do not go away, or I shall be beaten!' The wild man turned -back, took him up, set him on his shoulder, and went with hasty steps -into the forest. When the king came home, he observed the empty cage, -and asked the queen how that had happened. She knew nothing about it, -and sought the key, but it was gone. She called the boy, but no one -answered. The king sent out people to seek for him in the fields, but -they did not find him. Then he could easily guess what had happened, and -much grief reigned in the royal court. - -When the wild man had once more reached the dark forest, he took the boy -down from his shoulder, and said to him: 'You will never see your father -and mother again, but I will keep you with me, for you have set me free, -and I have compassion on you. If you do all I bid you, you shall fare -well. Of treasure and gold have I enough, and more than anyone in the -world.' He made a bed of moss for the boy on which he slept, and the -next morning the man took him to a well, and said: 'Behold, the gold -well is as bright and clear as crystal, you shall sit beside it, and -take care that nothing falls into it, or it will be polluted. I will -come every evening to see if you have obeyed my order.' The boy placed -himself by the brink of the well, and often saw a golden fish or a -golden snake show itself therein, and took care that nothing fell in. -As he was thus sitting, his finger hurt him so violently that he -involuntarily put it in the water. He drew it quickly out again, but saw -that it was quite gilded, and whatsoever pains he took to wash the gold -off again, all was to no purpose. In the evening Iron Hans came back, -looked at the boy, and said: 'What has happened to the well?' 'Nothing -nothing,' he answered, and held his finger behind his back, that the -man might not see it. But he said: 'You have dipped your finger into -the water, this time it may pass, but take care you do not again let -anything go in.' By daybreak the boy was already sitting by the well and -watching it. His finger hurt him again and he passed it over his head, -and then unhappily a hair fell down into the well. He took it quickly -out, but it was already quite gilded. Iron Hans came, and already knew -what had happened. 'You have let a hair fall into the well,' said he. -'I will allow you to watch by it once more, but if this happens for the -third time then the well is polluted and you can no longer remain with -me.' - -On the third day, the boy sat by the well, and did not stir his finger, -however much it hurt him. But the time was long to him, and he looked at -the reflection of his face on the surface of the water. And as he -still bent down more and more while he was doing so, and trying to look -straight into the eyes, his long hair fell down from his shoulders into -the water. He raised himself up quickly, but the whole of the hair of -his head was already golden and shone like the sun. You can imagine how -terrified the poor boy was! He took his pocket-handkerchief and tied it -round his head, in order that the man might not see it. When he came he -already knew everything, and said: 'Take the handkerchief off.' Then the -golden hair streamed forth, and let the boy excuse himself as he might, -it was of no use. 'You have not stood the trial and can stay here no -longer. Go forth into the world, there you will learn what poverty is. -But as you have not a bad heart, and as I mean well by you, there is -one thing I will grant you; if you fall into any difficulty, come to the -forest and cry: "Iron Hans," and then I will come and help you. My -power is great, greater than you think, and I have gold and silver in -abundance.' - -Then the king's son left the forest, and walked by beaten and unbeaten -paths ever onwards until at length he reached a great city. There he -looked for work, but could find none, and he learnt nothing by which he -could help himself. At length he went to the palace, and asked if they -would take him in. The people about court did not at all know what use -they could make of him, but they liked him, and told him to stay. At -length the cook took him into his service, and said he might carry wood -and water, and rake the cinders together. Once when it so happened that -no one else was at hand, the cook ordered him to carry the food to the -royal table, but as he did not like to let his golden hair be seen, he -kept his little cap on. Such a thing as that had never yet come under -the king's notice, and he said: 'When you come to the royal table you -must take your hat off.' He answered: 'Ah, Lord, I cannot; I have a bad -sore place on my head.' Then the king had the cook called before him -and scolded him, and asked how he could take such a boy as that into his -service; and that he was to send him away at once. The cook, however, -had pity on him, and exchanged him for the gardener's boy. - -And now the boy had to plant and water the garden, hoe and dig, and bear -the wind and bad weather. Once in summer when he was working alone in -the garden, the day was so warm he took his little cap off that the air -might cool him. As the sun shone on his hair it glittered and flashed so -that the rays fell into the bedroom of the king's daughter, and up she -sprang to see what that could be. Then she saw the boy, and cried to -him: 'Boy, bring me a wreath of flowers.' He put his cap on with all -haste, and gathered wild field-flowers and bound them together. When he -was ascending the stairs with them, the gardener met him, and said: 'How -can you take the king's daughter a garland of such common flowers? Go -quickly, and get another, and seek out the prettiest and rarest.' 'Oh, -no,' replied the boy, 'the wild ones have more scent, and will please -her better.' When he got into the room, the king's daughter said: 'Take -your cap off, it is not seemly to keep it on in my presence.' He again -said: 'I may not, I have a sore head.' She, however, caught at his -cap and pulled it off, and then his golden hair rolled down on his -shoulders, and it was splendid to behold. He wanted to run out, but she -held him by the arm, and gave him a handful of ducats. With these he -departed, but he cared nothing for the gold pieces. He took them to the -gardener, and said: 'I present them to your children, they can play with -them.' The following day the king's daughter again called to him that he -was to bring her a wreath of field-flowers, and then he went in with it, -she instantly snatched at his cap, and wanted to take it away from him, -but he held it fast with both hands. She again gave him a handful of -ducats, but he would not keep them, and gave them to the gardener for -playthings for his children. On the third day things went just the -same; she could not get his cap away from him, and he would not have her -money. - -Not long afterwards, the country was overrun by war. The king gathered -together his people, and did not know whether or not he could offer any -opposition to the enemy, who was superior in strength and had a mighty -army. Then said the gardener's boy: 'I am grown up, and will go to the -wars also, only give me a horse.' The others laughed, and said: 'Seek -one for yourself when we are gone, we will leave one behind us in the -stable for you.' When they had gone forth, he went into the stable, and -led the horse out; it was lame of one foot, and limped hobblety jib, -hobblety jib; nevertheless he mounted it, and rode away to the dark -forest. When he came to the outskirts, he called 'Iron Hans' three -times so loudly that it echoed through the trees. Thereupon the wild man -appeared immediately, and said: 'What do you desire?' 'I want a strong -steed, for I am going to the wars.' 'That you shall have, and still more -than you ask for.' Then the wild man went back into the forest, and it -was not long before a stable-boy came out of it, who led a horse that -snorted with its nostrils, and could hardly be restrained, and behind -them followed a great troop of warriors entirely equipped in iron, and -their swords flashed in the sun. The youth made over his three-legged -horse to the stable-boy, mounted the other, and rode at the head of the -soldiers. When he got near the battlefield a great part of the king's -men had already fallen, and little was wanting to make the rest give -way. Then the youth galloped thither with his iron soldiers, broke like -a hurricane over the enemy, and beat down all who opposed him. They -began to flee, but the youth pursued, and never stopped, until there -was not a single man left. Instead of returning to the king, however, he -conducted his troop by byways back to the forest, and called forth Iron -Hans. 'What do you desire?' asked the wild man. 'Take back your horse -and your troops, and give me my three-legged horse again.' All that he -asked was done, and soon he was riding on his three-legged horse. When -the king returned to his palace, his daughter went to meet him, and -wished him joy of his victory. 'I am not the one who carried away the -victory,' said he, 'but a strange knight who came to my assistance with -his soldiers.' The daughter wanted to hear who the strange knight was, -but the king did not know, and said: 'He followed the enemy, and I did -not see him again.' She inquired of the gardener where his boy was, but -he smiled, and said: 'He has just come home on his three-legged horse, -and the others have been mocking him, and crying: "Here comes our -hobblety jib back again!" They asked, too: "Under what hedge have you -been lying sleeping all the time?" So he said: "I did the best of all, -and it would have gone badly without me." And then he was still more -ridiculed.' - -The king said to his daughter: 'I will proclaim a great feast that shall -last for three days, and you shall throw a golden apple. Perhaps the -unknown man will show himself.' When the feast was announced, the youth -went out to the forest, and called Iron Hans. 'What do you desire?' -asked he. 'That I may catch the king's daughter's golden apple.' 'It is -as safe as if you had it already,' said Iron Hans. 'You shall likewise -have a suit of red armour for the occasion, and ride on a spirited -chestnut-horse.' When the day came, the youth galloped to the spot, took -his place amongst the knights, and was recognized by no one. The king's -daughter came forward, and threw a golden apple to the knights, but none -of them caught it but he, only as soon as he had it he galloped away. - -On the second day Iron Hans equipped him as a white knight, and gave him -a white horse. Again he was the only one who caught the apple, and -he did not linger an instant, but galloped off with it. The king grew -angry, and said: 'That is not allowed; he must appear before me and tell -his name.' He gave the order that if the knight who caught the apple, -should go away again they should pursue him, and if he would not come -back willingly, they were to cut him down and stab him. - -On the third day, he received from Iron Hans a suit of black armour and -a black horse, and again he caught the apple. But when he was riding off -with it, the king's attendants pursued him, and one of them got so near -him that he wounded the youth's leg with the point of his sword. The -youth nevertheless escaped from them, but his horse leapt so violently -that the helmet fell from the youth's head, and they could see that he -had golden hair. They rode back and announced this to the king. - -The following day the king's daughter asked the gardener about his -boy. 'He is at work in the garden; the queer creature has been at the -festival too, and only came home yesterday evening; he has likewise -shown my children three golden apples which he has won.' - -The king had him summoned into his presence, and he came and again had -his little cap on his head. But the king's daughter went up to him and -took it off, and then his golden hair fell down over his shoulders, and -he was so handsome that all were amazed. 'Are you the knight who came -every day to the festival, always in different colours, and who caught -the three golden apples?' asked the king. 'Yes,' answered he, 'and here -the apples are,' and he took them out of his pocket, and returned them -to the king. 'If you desire further proof, you may see the wound which -your people gave me when they followed me. But I am likewise the knight -who helped you to your victory over your enemies.' 'If you can perform -such deeds as that, you are no gardener's boy; tell me, who is your -father?' 'My father is a mighty king, and gold have I in plenty as great -as I require.' 'I well see,' said the king, 'that I owe my thanks to -you; can I do anything to please you?' 'Yes,' answered he, 'that indeed -you can. Give me your daughter to wife.' The maiden laughed, and said: -'He does not stand much on ceremony, but I have already seen by his -golden hair that he was no gardener's boy,' and then she went and -kissed him. His father and mother came to the wedding, and were in great -delight, for they had given up all hope of ever seeing their dear -son again. And as they were sitting at the marriage-feast, the music -suddenly stopped, the doors opened, and a stately king came in with a -great retinue. He went up to the youth, embraced him and said: 'I am -Iron Hans, and was by enchantment a wild man, but you have set me free; -all the treasures which I possess, shall be your property.' - - - - -CAT-SKIN - -There was once a king, whose queen had hair of the purest gold, and was -so beautiful that her match was not to be met with on the whole face of -the earth. But this beautiful queen fell ill, and when she felt that her -end drew near she called the king to her and said, 'Promise me that you -will never marry again, unless you meet with a wife who is as beautiful -as I am, and who has golden hair like mine.' Then when the king in his -grief promised all she asked, she shut her eyes and died. But the king -was not to be comforted, and for a long time never thought of taking -another wife. At last, however, his wise men said, 'this will not do; -the king must marry again, that we may have a queen.' So messengers were -sent far and wide, to seek for a bride as beautiful as the late queen. -But there was no princess in the world so beautiful; and if there had -been, still there was not one to be found who had golden hair. So the -messengers came home, and had had all their trouble for nothing. - -Now the king had a daughter, who was just as beautiful as her mother, -and had the same golden hair. And when she was grown up, the king looked -at her and saw that she was just like this late queen: then he said to -his courtiers, 'May I not marry my daughter? She is the very image of my -dead wife: unless I have her, I shall not find any bride upon the whole -earth, and you say there must be a queen.' When the courtiers heard this -they were shocked, and said, 'Heaven forbid that a father should marry -his daughter! Out of so great a sin no good can come.' And his daughter -was also shocked, but hoped the king would soon give up such thoughts; -so she said to him, 'Before I marry anyone I must have three dresses: -one must be of gold, like the sun; another must be of shining silver, -like the moon; and a third must be dazzling as the stars: besides this, -I want a mantle of a thousand different kinds of fur put together, to -which every beast in the kingdom must give a part of his skin.' And thus -she thought he would think of the matter no more. But the king made the -most skilful workmen in his kingdom weave the three dresses: one golden, -like the sun; another silvery, like the moon; and a third sparkling, -like the stars: and his hunters were told to hunt out all the beasts in -his kingdom, and to take the finest fur out of their skins: and thus a -mantle of a thousand furs was made. - -When all were ready, the king sent them to her; but she got up in the -night when all were asleep, and took three of her trinkets, a golden -ring, a golden necklace, and a golden brooch, and packed the three -dresses--of the sun, the moon, and the stars--up in a nutshell, and -wrapped herself up in the mantle made of all sorts of fur, and besmeared -her face and hands with soot. Then she threw herself upon Heaven for -help in her need, and went away, and journeyed on the whole night, till -at last she came to a large wood. As she was very tired, she sat herself -down in the hollow of a tree and soon fell asleep: and there she slept -on till it was midday. - -Now as the king to whom the wood belonged was hunting in it, his dogs -came to the tree, and began to snuff about, and run round and round, and -bark. 'Look sharp!' said the king to the huntsmen, 'and see what sort -of game lies there.' And the huntsmen went up to the tree, and when they -came back again said, 'In the hollow tree there lies a most wonderful -beast, such as we never saw before; its skin seems to be of a thousand -kinds of fur, but there it lies fast asleep.' 'See,' said the king, 'if -you can catch it alive, and we will take it with us.' So the huntsmen -took it up, and the maiden awoke and was greatly frightened, and said, -'I am a poor child that has neither father nor mother left; have pity on -me and take me with you.' Then they said, 'Yes, Miss Cat-skin, you will -do for the kitchen; you can sweep up the ashes, and do things of that -sort.' So they put her into the coach, and took her home to the king's -palace. Then they showed her a little corner under the staircase, where -no light of day ever peeped in, and said, 'Cat-skin, you may lie and -sleep there.' And she was sent into the kitchen, and made to fetch wood -and water, to blow the fire, pluck the poultry, pick the herbs, sift the -ashes, and do all the dirty work. - -Thus Cat-skin lived for a long time very sorrowfully. 'Ah! pretty -princess!' thought she, 'what will now become of thee?' But it happened -one day that a feast was to be held in the king's castle, so she said to -the cook, 'May I go up a little while and see what is going on? I will -take care and stand behind the door.' And the cook said, 'Yes, you may -go, but be back again in half an hour's time, to rake out the ashes.' -Then she took her little lamp, and went into her cabin, and took off the -fur skin, and washed the soot from off her face and hands, so that her -beauty shone forth like the sun from behind the clouds. She next opened -her nutshell, and brought out of it the dress that shone like the sun, -and so went to the feast. Everyone made way for her, for nobody knew -her, and they thought she could be no less than a king's daughter. But -the king came up to her, and held out his hand and danced with her; and -he thought in his heart, 'I never saw any one half so beautiful.' - -When the dance was at an end she curtsied; and when the king looked -round for her, she was gone, no one knew wither. The guards that stood -at the castle gate were called in: but they had seen no one. The truth -was, that she had run into her little cabin, pulled off her dress, -blackened her face and hands, put on the fur-skin cloak, and was -Cat-skin again. When she went into the kitchen to her work, and began -to rake the ashes, the cook said, 'Let that alone till the morning, and -heat the king's soup; I should like to run up now and give a peep: but -take care you don't let a hair fall into it, or you will run a chance of -never eating again.' - -As soon as the cook went away, Cat-skin heated the king's soup, and -toasted a slice of bread first, as nicely as ever she could; and when it -was ready, she went and looked in the cabin for her little golden ring, -and put it into the dish in which the soup was. When the dance was over, -the king ordered his soup to be brought in; and it pleased him so well, -that he thought he had never tasted any so good before. At the bottom -he saw a gold ring lying; and as he could not make out how it had got -there, he ordered the cook to be sent for. The cook was frightened when -he heard the order, and said to Cat-skin, 'You must have let a hair fall -into the soup; if it be so, you will have a good beating.' Then he went -before the king, and he asked him who had cooked the soup. 'I did,' -answered the cook. But the king said, 'That is not true; it was better -done than you could do it.' Then he answered, 'To tell the truth I did -not cook it, but Cat-skin did.' 'Then let Cat-skin come up,' said the -king: and when she came he said to her, 'Who are you?' 'I am a poor -child,' said she, 'that has lost both father and mother.' 'How came you -in my palace?' asked he. 'I am good for nothing,' said she, 'but to be -scullion-girl, and to have boots and shoes thrown at my head.' 'But how -did you get the ring that was in the soup?' asked the king. Then she -would not own that she knew anything about the ring; so the king sent -her away again about her business. - -After a time there was another feast, and Cat-skin asked the cook to let -her go up and see it as before. 'Yes,' said he, 'but come again in half -an hour, and cook the king the soup that he likes so much.' Then she -ran to her little cabin, washed herself quickly, and took her dress -out which was silvery as the moon, and put it on; and when she went in, -looking like a king's daughter, the king went up to her, and rejoiced at -seeing her again, and when the dance began he danced with her. After the -dance was at an end she managed to slip out, so slyly that the king did -not see where she was gone; but she sprang into her little cabin, and -made herself into Cat-skin again, and went into the kitchen to cook the -soup. Whilst the cook was above stairs, she got the golden necklace and -dropped it into the soup; then it was brought to the king, who ate it, -and it pleased him as well as before; so he sent for the cook, who -was again forced to tell him that Cat-skin had cooked it. Cat-skin was -brought again before the king, but she still told him that she was only -fit to have boots and shoes thrown at her head. - -But when the king had ordered a feast to be got ready for the third -time, it happened just the same as before. 'You must be a witch, -Cat-skin,' said the cook; 'for you always put something into your soup, -so that it pleases the king better than mine.' However, he let her go up -as before. Then she put on her dress which sparkled like the stars, and -went into the ball-room in it; and the king danced with her again, and -thought she had never looked so beautiful as she did then. So whilst -he was dancing with her, he put a gold ring on her finger without her -seeing it, and ordered that the dance should be kept up a long time. -When it was at an end, he would have held her fast by the hand, but she -slipped away, and sprang so quickly through the crowd that he lost sight -of her: and she ran as fast as she could into her little cabin under -the stairs. But this time she kept away too long, and stayed beyond the -half-hour; so she had not time to take off her fine dress, and threw her -fur mantle over it, and in her haste did not blacken herself all over -with soot, but left one of her fingers white. - -Then she ran into the kitchen, and cooked the king's soup; and as soon -as the cook was gone, she put the golden brooch into the dish. When the -king got to the bottom, he ordered Cat-skin to be called once more, and -soon saw the white finger, and the ring that he had put on it whilst -they were dancing: so he seized her hand, and kept fast hold of it, and -when she wanted to loose herself and spring away, the fur cloak fell off -a little on one side, and the starry dress sparkled underneath it. - -Then he got hold of the fur and tore it off, and her golden hair and -beautiful form were seen, and she could no longer hide herself: so she -washed the soot and ashes from her face, and showed herself to be the -most beautiful princess upon the face of the earth. But the king said, -'You are my beloved bride, and we will never more be parted from each -other.' And the wedding feast was held, and a merry day it was, as ever -was heard of or seen in that country, or indeed in any other. - - - - -SNOW-WHITE AND ROSE-RED - -There was once a poor widow who lived in a lonely cottage. In front of -the cottage was a garden wherein stood two rose-trees, one of which bore -white and the other red roses. She had two children who were like the -two rose-trees, and one was called Snow-white, and the other Rose-red. -They were as good and happy, as busy and cheerful as ever two children -in the world were, only Snow-white was more quiet and gentle than -Rose-red. Rose-red liked better to run about in the meadows and fields -seeking flowers and catching butterflies; but Snow-white sat at home -with her mother, and helped her with her housework, or read to her when -there was nothing to do. - -The two children were so fond of one another that they always held each -other by the hand when they went out together, and when Snow-white said: -'We will not leave each other,' Rose-red answered: 'Never so long as we -live,' and their mother would add: 'What one has she must share with the -other.' - -They often ran about the forest alone and gathered red berries, and no -beasts did them any harm, but came close to them trustfully. The little -hare would eat a cabbage-leaf out of their hands, the roe grazed by -their side, the stag leapt merrily by them, and the birds sat still upon -the boughs, and sang whatever they knew. - -No mishap overtook them; if they had stayed too late in the forest, and -night came on, they laid themselves down near one another upon the moss, -and slept until morning came, and their mother knew this and did not -worry on their account. - -Once when they had spent the night in the wood and the dawn had roused -them, they saw a beautiful child in a shining white dress sitting near -their bed. He got up and looked quite kindly at them, but said nothing -and went into the forest. And when they looked round they found that -they had been sleeping quite close to a precipice, and would certainly -have fallen into it in the darkness if they had gone only a few paces -further. And their mother told them that it must have been the angel who -watches over good children. - -Snow-white and Rose-red kept their mother's little cottage so neat that -it was a pleasure to look inside it. In the summer Rose-red took care -of the house, and every morning laid a wreath of flowers by her mother's -bed before she awoke, in which was a rose from each tree. In the winter -Snow-white lit the fire and hung the kettle on the hob. The kettle -was of brass and shone like gold, so brightly was it polished. In the -evening, when the snowflakes fell, the mother said: 'Go, Snow-white, and -bolt the door,' and then they sat round the hearth, and the mother took -her spectacles and read aloud out of a large book, and the two girls -listened as they sat and spun. And close by them lay a lamb upon the -floor, and behind them upon a perch sat a white dove with its head -hidden beneath its wings. - -One evening, as they were thus sitting comfortably together, someone -knocked at the door as if he wished to be let in. The mother said: -'Quick, Rose-red, open the door, it must be a traveller who is seeking -shelter.' Rose-red went and pushed back the bolt, thinking that it was a -poor man, but it was not; it was a bear that stretched his broad, black -head within the door. - -Rose-red screamed and sprang back, the lamb bleated, the dove fluttered, -and Snow-white hid herself behind her mother's bed. But the bear began -to speak and said: 'Do not be afraid, I will do you no harm! I am -half-frozen, and only want to warm myself a little beside you.' - -'Poor bear,' said the mother, 'lie down by the fire, only take care that -you do not burn your coat.' Then she cried: 'Snow-white, Rose-red, come -out, the bear will do you no harm, he means well.' So they both came -out, and by-and-by the lamb and dove came nearer, and were not afraid -of him. The bear said: 'Here, children, knock the snow out of my coat a -little'; so they brought the broom and swept the bear's hide clean; -and he stretched himself by the fire and growled contentedly and -comfortably. It was not long before they grew quite at home, and played -tricks with their clumsy guest. They tugged his hair with their hands, -put their feet upon his back and rolled him about, or they took a -hazel-switch and beat him, and when he growled they laughed. But the -bear took it all in good part, only when they were too rough he called -out: 'Leave me alive, children, - - Snow-white, Rose-red, - Will you beat your wooer dead?' - -When it was bed-time, and the others went to bed, the mother said to the -bear: 'You can lie there by the hearth, and then you will be safe from -the cold and the bad weather.' As soon as day dawned the two children -let him out, and he trotted across the snow into the forest. - -Henceforth the bear came every evening at the same time, laid himself -down by the hearth, and let the children amuse themselves with him as -much as they liked; and they got so used to him that the doors were -never fastened until their black friend had arrived. - -When spring had come and all outside was green, the bear said one -morning to Snow-white: 'Now I must go away, and cannot come back for the -whole summer.' 'Where are you going, then, dear bear?' asked Snow-white. -'I must go into the forest and guard my treasures from the wicked -dwarfs. In the winter, when the earth is frozen hard, they are obliged -to stay below and cannot work their way through; but now, when the sun -has thawed and warmed the earth, they break through it, and come out to -pry and steal; and what once gets into their hands, and in their caves, -does not easily see daylight again.' - -Snow-white was quite sorry at his departure, and as she unbolted the -door for him, and the bear was hurrying out, he caught against the bolt -and a piece of his hairy coat was torn off, and it seemed to Snow-white -as if she had seen gold shining through it, but she was not sure about -it. The bear ran away quickly, and was soon out of sight behind the -trees. - -A short time afterwards the mother sent her children into the forest -to get firewood. There they found a big tree which lay felled on the -ground, and close by the trunk something was jumping backwards and -forwards in the grass, but they could not make out what it was. When -they came nearer they saw a dwarf with an old withered face and a -snow-white beard a yard long. The end of the beard was caught in a -crevice of the tree, and the little fellow was jumping about like a dog -tied to a rope, and did not know what to do. - -He glared at the girls with his fiery red eyes and cried: 'Why do you -stand there? Can you not come here and help me?' 'What are you up to, -little man?' asked Rose-red. 'You stupid, prying goose!' answered the -dwarf: 'I was going to split the tree to get a little wood for cooking. -The little bit of food that we people get is immediately burnt up with -heavy logs; we do not swallow so much as you coarse, greedy folk. I had -just driven the wedge safely in, and everything was going as I wished; -but the cursed wedge was too smooth and suddenly sprang out, and the -tree closed so quickly that I could not pull out my beautiful white -beard; so now it is tight and I cannot get away, and the silly, sleek, -milk-faced things laugh! Ugh! how odious you are!' - -The children tried very hard, but they could not pull the beard out, it -was caught too fast. 'I will run and fetch someone,' said Rose-red. 'You -senseless goose!' snarled the dwarf; 'why should you fetch someone? You -are already two too many for me; can you not think of something better?' -'Don't be impatient,' said Snow-white, 'I will help you,' and she pulled -her scissors out of her pocket, and cut off the end of the beard. - -As soon as the dwarf felt himself free he laid hold of a bag which lay -amongst the roots of the tree, and which was full of gold, and lifted it -up, grumbling to himself: 'Uncouth people, to cut off a piece of my fine -beard. Bad luck to you!' and then he swung the bag upon his back, and -went off without even once looking at the children. - -Some time afterwards Snow-white and Rose-red went to catch a dish -of fish. As they came near the brook they saw something like a large -grasshopper jumping towards the water, as if it were going to leap in. -They ran to it and found it was the dwarf. 'Where are you going?' said -Rose-red; 'you surely don't want to go into the water?' 'I am not such -a fool!' cried the dwarf; 'don't you see that the accursed fish wants -to pull me in?' The little man had been sitting there fishing, and -unluckily the wind had tangled up his beard with the fishing-line; a -moment later a big fish made a bite and the feeble creature had not -strength to pull it out; the fish kept the upper hand and pulled the -dwarf towards him. He held on to all the reeds and rushes, but it was of -little good, for he was forced to follow the movements of the fish, and -was in urgent danger of being dragged into the water. - -The girls came just in time; they held him fast and tried to free his -beard from the line, but all in vain, beard and line were entangled fast -together. There was nothing to do but to bring out the scissors and cut -the beard, whereby a small part of it was lost. When the dwarf saw that -he screamed out: 'Is that civil, you toadstool, to disfigure a man's -face? Was it not enough to clip off the end of my beard? Now you have -cut off the best part of it. I cannot let myself be seen by my people. -I wish you had been made to run the soles off your shoes!' Then he took -out a sack of pearls which lay in the rushes, and without another word -he dragged it away and disappeared behind a stone. - -It happened that soon afterwards the mother sent the two children to the -town to buy needles and thread, and laces and ribbons. The road led them -across a heath upon which huge pieces of rock lay strewn about. There -they noticed a large bird hovering in the air, flying slowly round and -round above them; it sank lower and lower, and at last settled near a -rock not far away. Immediately they heard a loud, piteous cry. They ran -up and saw with horror that the eagle had seized their old acquaintance -the dwarf, and was going to carry him off. - -The children, full of pity, at once took tight hold of the little man, -and pulled against the eagle so long that at last he let his booty go. -As soon as the dwarf had recovered from his first fright he cried -with his shrill voice: 'Could you not have done it more carefully! You -dragged at my brown coat so that it is all torn and full of holes, you -clumsy creatures!' Then he took up a sack full of precious stones, and -slipped away again under the rock into his hole. The girls, who by -this time were used to his ingratitude, went on their way and did their -business in town. - -As they crossed the heath again on their way home they surprised the -dwarf, who had emptied out his bag of precious stones in a clean spot, -and had not thought that anyone would come there so late. The evening -sun shone upon the brilliant stones; they glittered and sparkled with -all colours so beautifully that the children stood still and stared -at them. 'Why do you stand gaping there?' cried the dwarf, and his -ashen-grey face became copper-red with rage. He was still cursing when a -loud growling was heard, and a black bear came trotting towards them out -of the forest. The dwarf sprang up in a fright, but he could not reach -his cave, for the bear was already close. Then in the dread of his heart -he cried: 'Dear Mr Bear, spare me, I will give you all my treasures; -look, the beautiful jewels lying there! Grant me my life; what do you -want with such a slender little fellow as I? you would not feel me -between your teeth. Come, take these two wicked girls, they are tender -morsels for you, fat as young quails; for mercy's sake eat them!' The -bear took no heed of his words, but gave the wicked creature a single -blow with his paw, and he did not move again. - -The girls had run away, but the bear called to them: 'Snow-white and -Rose-red, do not be afraid; wait, I will come with you.' Then they -recognized his voice and waited, and when he came up to them suddenly -his bearskin fell off, and he stood there a handsome man, clothed all in -gold. 'I am a king's son,' he said, 'and I was bewitched by that wicked -dwarf, who had stolen my treasures; I have had to run about the forest -as a savage bear until I was freed by his death. Now he has got his -well-deserved punishment. - -Snow-white was married to him, and Rose-red to his brother, and they -divided between them the great treasure which the dwarf had gathered -together in his cave. The old mother lived peacefully and happily with -her children for many years. She took the two rose-trees with her, and -they stood before her window, and every year bore the most beautiful -roses, white and red. - - -***** - - -The Brothers Grimm, Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859), were born -in Hanau, near Frankfurt, in the German state of Hesse. Throughout -their lives they remained close friends, and both studied law at Marburg -University. Jacob was a pioneer in the study of German philology, -and although Wilhelm's work was hampered by poor health the brothers -collaborated in the creation of a German dictionary, not completed until -a century after their deaths. But they were best (and universally) known -for the collection of over two hundred folk tales they made from oral -sources and published in two volumes of 'Nursery and Household Tales' in -1812 and 1814. Although their intention was to preserve such material as -part of German cultural and literary history, and their collection was -first published with scholarly notes and no illustration, the tales soon -came into the possession of young readers. This was in part due to Edgar -Taylor, who made the first English translation in 1823, selecting about -fifty stories 'with the amusement of some young friends principally in -view.' They have been an essential ingredient of children's reading ever -since. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Grimms' Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRIMMS' FAIRY TALES *** - -***** This file should be named 2591.txt or 2591.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/9/2591/ - -Produced by Emma Dudding, John Bickers, and Dagny - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - -** This is a COPYRIGHTED Project Gutenberg eBook, Details Below ** -** Please follow the copyright guidelines in this file. ** - -Title: Peter Pan - Peter Pan and Wendy - -Author: James M. Barrie - -Posting Date: June 25, 2008 [EBook #16] -Release Date: July, 1991 -[Last updated: May 25, 2011] - -Language: English - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETER PAN *** - - - - - - - - - - -PETER PAN - -[PETER AND WENDY] - -By J. M. Barrie [James Matthew Barrie] - -A Millennium Fulcrum Edition (c)1991 by Duncan Research - - - - -Contents: - -Chapter 1 PETER BREAKS THROUGH - -Chapter 2 THE SHADOW - -Chapter 3 COME AWAY, COME AWAY! - -Chapter 4 THE FLIGHT - -Chapter 5 THE ISLAND COME TRUE - -Chapter 6 THE LITTLE HOUSE - -Chapter 7 THE HOME UNDER THE GROUND - -Chapter 8 THE MERMAID'S LAGOON - -Chapter 9 THE NEVER BIRD - -Chapter 10 THE HAPPY HOME - -Chapter 11 WENDY'S STORY - -Chapter 12 THE CHILDREN ARE CARRIED OFF - -Chapter 13 DO YOU BELIEVE IN FAIRIES? - -Chapter 14 THE PIRATE SHIP - -Chapter 15 "HOOK OR ME THIS TIME" - -Chapter 16 THE RETURN HOME - -Chapter 17 WHEN WENDY GREW UP - - - - -Chapter 1 PETER BREAKS THROUGH - -All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow -up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old -she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with -it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for -Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, "Oh, why can't you -remain like this for ever!" This was all that passed between them on -the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always -know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end. - -Of course they lived at 14 [their house number on their street], and -until Wendy came her mother was the chief one. She was a lovely lady, -with a romantic mind and such a sweet mocking mouth. Her romantic -mind was like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from the -puzzling East, however many you discover there is always one more; and -her sweet mocking mouth had one kiss on it that Wendy could never get, -though there it was, perfectly conspicuous in the right-hand corner. - -The way Mr. Darling won her was this: the many gentlemen who had been -boys when she was a girl discovered simultaneously that they loved her, -and they all ran to her house to propose to her except Mr. Darling, who -took a cab and nipped in first, and so he got her. He got all of her, -except the innermost box and the kiss. He never knew about the box, and -in time he gave up trying for the kiss. Wendy thought Napoleon could -have got it, but I can picture him trying, and then going off in a -passion, slamming the door. - -Mr. Darling used to boast to Wendy that her mother not only loved him -but respected him. He was one of those deep ones who know about stocks -and shares. Of course no one really knows, but he quite seemed to know, -and he often said stocks were up and shares were down in a way that -would have made any woman respect him. - -Mrs. Darling was married in white, and at first she kept the books -perfectly, almost gleefully, as if it were a game, not so much as a -Brussels sprout was missing; but by and by whole cauliflowers dropped -out, and instead of them there were pictures of babies without faces. -She drew them when she should have been totting up. They were Mrs. -Darling's guesses. - -Wendy came first, then John, then Michael. - -For a week or two after Wendy came it was doubtful whether they would -be able to keep her, as she was another mouth to feed. Mr. Darling was -frightfully proud of her, but he was very honourable, and he sat on the -edge of Mrs. Darling's bed, holding her hand and calculating expenses, -while she looked at him imploringly. She wanted to risk it, come what -might, but that was not his way; his way was with a pencil and a piece -of paper, and if she confused him with suggestions he had to begin at -the beginning again. - -"Now don't interrupt," he would beg of her. - -"I have one pound seventeen here, and two and six at the office; I can -cut off my coffee at the office, say ten shillings, making two nine -and six, with your eighteen and three makes three nine seven, with five -naught naught in my cheque-book makes eight nine seven--who is that -moving?--eight nine seven, dot and carry seven--don't speak, my own--and -the pound you lent to that man who came to the door--quiet, child--dot -and carry child--there, you've done it!--did I say nine nine seven? yes, -I said nine nine seven; the question is, can we try it for a year on -nine nine seven?" - -"Of course we can, George," she cried. But she was prejudiced in Wendy's -favour, and he was really the grander character of the two. - -"Remember mumps," he warned her almost threateningly, and off he went -again. "Mumps one pound, that is what I have put down, but I daresay -it will be more like thirty shillings--don't speak--measles one five, -German measles half a guinea, makes two fifteen six--don't waggle your -finger--whooping-cough, say fifteen shillings"--and so on it went, and -it added up differently each time; but at last Wendy just got through, -with mumps reduced to twelve six, and the two kinds of measles treated -as one. - -There was the same excitement over John, and Michael had even a narrower -squeak; but both were kept, and soon, you might have seen the three of -them going in a row to Miss Fulsom's Kindergarten school, accompanied by -their nurse. - -Mrs. Darling loved to have everything just so, and Mr. Darling had a -passion for being exactly like his neighbours; so, of course, they had -a nurse. As they were poor, owing to the amount of milk the children -drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog, called Nana, who had -belonged to no one in particular until the Darlings engaged her. She had -always thought children important, however, and the Darlings had become -acquainted with her in Kensington Gardens, where she spent most of her -spare time peeping into perambulators, and was much hated by careless -nursemaids, whom she followed to their homes and complained of to their -mistresses. She proved to be quite a treasure of a nurse. How thorough -she was at bath-time, and up at any moment of the night if one of her -charges made the slightest cry. Of course her kennel was in the nursery. -She had a genius for knowing when a cough is a thing to have no patience -with and when it needs stocking around your throat. She believed to her -last day in old-fashioned remedies like rhubarb leaf, and made sounds of -contempt over all this new-fangled talk about germs, and so on. It was a -lesson in propriety to see her escorting the children to school, walking -sedately by their side when they were well behaved, and butting them -back into line if they strayed. On John's footer [in England soccer -was called football, "footer" for short] days she never once forgot his -sweater, and she usually carried an umbrella in her mouth in case of -rain. There is a room in the basement of Miss Fulsom's school where the -nurses wait. They sat on forms, while Nana lay on the floor, but that -was the only difference. They affected to ignore her as of an inferior -social status to themselves, and she despised their light talk. She -resented visits to the nursery from Mrs. Darling's friends, but if they -did come she first whipped off Michael's pinafore and put him into the -one with blue braiding, and smoothed out Wendy and made a dash at John's -hair. - -No nursery could possibly have been conducted more correctly, and -Mr. Darling knew it, yet he sometimes wondered uneasily whether the -neighbours talked. - -He had his position in the city to consider. - -Nana also troubled him in another way. He had sometimes a feeling that -she did not admire him. "I know she admires you tremendously, George," -Mrs. Darling would assure him, and then she would sign to the children -to be specially nice to father. Lovely dances followed, in which the -only other servant, Liza, was sometimes allowed to join. Such a midget -she looked in her long skirt and maid's cap, though she had sworn, when -engaged, that she would never see ten again. The gaiety of those romps! -And gayest of all was Mrs. Darling, who would pirouette so wildly that -all you could see of her was the kiss, and then if you had dashed at her -you might have got it. There never was a simpler happier family until -the coming of Peter Pan. - -Mrs. Darling first heard of Peter when she was tidying up her children's -minds. It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children -are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next -morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have -wandered during the day. If you could keep awake (but of course you -can't) you would see your own mother doing this, and you would find it -very interesting to watch her. It is quite like tidying up drawers. You -would see her on her knees, I expect, lingering humorously over some of -your contents, wondering where on earth you had picked this thing up, -making discoveries sweet and not so sweet, pressing this to her cheek as -if it were as nice as a kitten, and hurriedly stowing that out of sight. -When you wake in the morning, the naughtiness and evil passions with -which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom -of your mind and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out your -prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on. - -I don't know whether you have ever seen a map of a person's mind. -Doctors sometimes draw maps of other parts of you, and your own map can -become intensely interesting, but catch them trying to draw a map of a -child's mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round all -the time. There are zigzag lines on it, just like your temperature on a -card, and these are probably roads in the island, for the Neverland is -always more or less an island, with astonishing splashes of colour here -and there, and coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing, and -savages and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors, and caves -through which a river runs, and princes with six elder brothers, and a -hut fast going to decay, and one very small old lady with a hooked nose. -It would be an easy map if that were all, but there is also first day -at school, religion, fathers, the round pond, needle-work, murders, -hangings, verbs that take the dative, chocolate pudding day, getting -into braces, say ninety-nine, three-pence for pulling out your tooth -yourself, and so on, and either these are part of the island or they are -another map showing through, and it is all rather confusing, especially -as nothing will stand still. - -Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal. John's, for instance, had a -lagoon with flamingoes flying over it at which John was shooting, while -Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over -it. John lived in a boat turned upside down on the sands, Michael in -a wigwam, Wendy in a house of leaves deftly sewn together. John had no -friends, Michael had friends at night, Wendy had a pet wolf forsaken by -its parents, but on the whole the Neverlands have a family resemblance, -and if they stood still in a row you could say of them that they have -each other's nose, and so forth. On these magic shores children at play -are for ever beaching their coracles [simple boat]. We too have been -there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no -more. - -Of all delectable islands the Neverland is the snuggest and most -compact, not large and sprawly, you know, with tedious distances between -one adventure and another, but nicely crammed. When you play at it by -day with the chairs and table-cloth, it is not in the least alarming, -but in the two minutes before you go to sleep it becomes very real. That -is why there are night-lights. - -Occasionally in her travels through her children's minds Mrs. Darling -found things she could not understand, and of these quite the most -perplexing was the word Peter. She knew of no Peter, and yet he was -here and there in John and Michael's minds, while Wendy's began to be -scrawled all over with him. The name stood out in bolder letters than -any of the other words, and as Mrs. Darling gazed she felt that it had -an oddly cocky appearance. - -"Yes, he is rather cocky," Wendy admitted with regret. Her mother had -been questioning her. - -"But who is he, my pet?" - -"He is Peter Pan, you know, mother." - -At first Mrs. Darling did not know, but after thinking back into her -childhood she just remembered a Peter Pan who was said to live with the -fairies. There were odd stories about him, as that when children died he -went part of the way with them, so that they should not be frightened. -She had believed in him at the time, but now that she was married and -full of sense she quite doubted whether there was any such person. - -"Besides," she said to Wendy, "he would be grown up by this time." - -"Oh no, he isn't grown up," Wendy assured her confidently, "and he is -just my size." She meant that he was her size in both mind and body; she -didn't know how she knew, she just knew it. - -Mrs. Darling consulted Mr. Darling, but he smiled pooh-pooh. "Mark my -words," he said, "it is some nonsense Nana has been putting into their -heads; just the sort of idea a dog would have. Leave it alone, and it -will blow over." - -But it would not blow over and soon the troublesome boy gave Mrs. -Darling quite a shock. - -Children have the strangest adventures without being troubled by them. -For instance, they may remember to mention, a week after the event -happened, that when they were in the wood they had met their dead -father and had a game with him. It was in this casual way that Wendy one -morning made a disquieting revelation. Some leaves of a tree had been -found on the nursery floor, which certainly were not there when the -children went to bed, and Mrs. Darling was puzzling over them when Wendy -said with a tolerant smile: - -"I do believe it is that Peter again!" - -"Whatever do you mean, Wendy?" - -"It is so naughty of him not to wipe his feet," Wendy said, sighing. She -was a tidy child. - -She explained in quite a matter-of-fact way that she thought Peter -sometimes came to the nursery in the night and sat on the foot of her -bed and played on his pipes to her. Unfortunately she never woke, so she -didn't know how she knew, she just knew. - -"What nonsense you talk, precious. No one can get into the house without -knocking." - -"I think he comes in by the window," she said. - -"My love, it is three floors up." - -"Were not the leaves at the foot of the window, mother?" - -It was quite true; the leaves had been found very near the window. - -Mrs. Darling did not know what to think, for it all seemed so natural to -Wendy that you could not dismiss it by saying she had been dreaming. - -"My child," the mother cried, "why did you not tell me of this before?" - -"I forgot," said Wendy lightly. She was in a hurry to get her breakfast. - -Oh, surely she must have been dreaming. - -But, on the other hand, there were the leaves. Mrs. Darling examined -them very carefully; they were skeleton leaves, but she was sure they -did not come from any tree that grew in England. She crawled about the -floor, peering at it with a candle for marks of a strange foot. She -rattled the poker up the chimney and tapped the walls. She let down a -tape from the window to the pavement, and it was a sheer drop of thirty -feet, without so much as a spout to climb up by. - -Certainly Wendy had been dreaming. - -But Wendy had not been dreaming, as the very next night showed, the -night on which the extraordinary adventures of these children may be -said to have begun. - -On the night we speak of all the children were once more in bed. It -happened to be Nana's evening off, and Mrs. Darling had bathed them and -sung to them till one by one they had let go her hand and slid away into -the land of sleep. - -All were looking so safe and cosy that she smiled at her fears now and -sat down tranquilly by the fire to sew. - -It was something for Michael, who on his birthday was getting into -shirts. The fire was warm, however, and the nursery dimly lit by three -night-lights, and presently the sewing lay on Mrs. Darling's lap. Then -her head nodded, oh, so gracefully. She was asleep. Look at the four of -them, Wendy and Michael over there, John here, and Mrs. Darling by the -fire. There should have been a fourth night-light. - -While she slept she had a dream. She dreamt that the Neverland had come -too near and that a strange boy had broken through from it. He did not -alarm her, for she thought she had seen him before in the faces of many -women who have no children. Perhaps he is to be found in the faces of -some mothers also. But in her dream he had rent the film that obscures -the Neverland, and she saw Wendy and John and Michael peeping through -the gap. - -The dream by itself would have been a trifle, but while she was dreaming -the window of the nursery blew open, and a boy did drop on the floor. -He was accompanied by a strange light, no bigger than your fist, which -darted about the room like a living thing and I think it must have been -this light that wakened Mrs. Darling. - -She started up with a cry, and saw the boy, and somehow she knew at once -that he was Peter Pan. If you or I or Wendy had been there we should -have seen that he was very like Mrs. Darling's kiss. He was a lovely -boy, clad in skeleton leaves and the juices that ooze out of trees but -the most entrancing thing about him was that he had all his first teeth. -When he saw she was a grown-up, he gnashed the little pearls at her. - - - - -Chapter 2 THE SHADOW - -Mrs. Darling screamed, and, as if in answer to a bell, the door opened, -and Nana entered, returned from her evening out. She growled and sprang -at the boy, who leapt lightly through the window. Again Mrs. Darling -screamed, this time in distress for him, for she thought he was killed, -and she ran down into the street to look for his little body, but it -was not there; and she looked up, and in the black night she could see -nothing but what she thought was a shooting star. - -She returned to the nursery, and found Nana with something in her mouth, -which proved to be the boy's shadow. As he leapt at the window Nana had -closed it quickly, too late to catch him, but his shadow had not had -time to get out; slam went the window and snapped it off. - -You may be sure Mrs. Darling examined the shadow carefully, but it was -quite the ordinary kind. - -Nana had no doubt of what was the best thing to do with this shadow. She -hung it out at the window, meaning "He is sure to come back for it; let -us put it where he can get it easily without disturbing the children." - -But unfortunately Mrs. Darling could not leave it hanging out at the -window, it looked so like the washing and lowered the whole tone of the -house. She thought of showing it to Mr. Darling, but he was totting up -winter great-coats for John and Michael, with a wet towel around his -head to keep his brain clear, and it seemed a shame to trouble him; -besides, she knew exactly what he would say: "It all comes of having a -dog for a nurse." - -She decided to roll the shadow up and put it away carefully in a drawer, -until a fitting opportunity came for telling her husband. Ah me! - -The opportunity came a week later, on that never-to-be-forgotten Friday. -Of course it was a Friday. - -"I ought to have been specially careful on a Friday," she used to say -afterwards to her husband, while perhaps Nana was on the other side of -her, holding her hand. - -"No, no," Mr. Darling always said, "I am responsible for it all. I, -George Darling, did it. MEA CULPA, MEA CULPA." He had had a classical -education. - -They sat thus night after night recalling that fatal Friday, till every -detail of it was stamped on their brains and came through on the other -side like the faces on a bad coinage. - -"If only I had not accepted that invitation to dine at 27," Mrs. Darling -said. - -"If only I had not poured my medicine into Nana's bowl," said Mr. -Darling. - -"If only I had pretended to like the medicine," was what Nana's wet eyes -said. - -"My liking for parties, George." - -"My fatal gift of humour, dearest." - -"My touchiness about trifles, dear master and mistress." - -Then one or more of them would break down altogether; Nana at the -thought, "It's true, it's true, they ought not to have had a dog for -a nurse." Many a time it was Mr. Darling who put the handkerchief to -Nana's eyes. - -"That fiend!" Mr. Darling would cry, and Nana's bark was the echo of -it, but Mrs. Darling never upbraided Peter; there was something in the -right-hand corner of her mouth that wanted her not to call Peter names. - -They would sit there in the empty nursery, recalling fondly every -smallest detail of that dreadful evening. It had begun so uneventfully, -so precisely like a hundred other evenings, with Nana putting on the -water for Michael's bath and carrying him to it on her back. - -"I won't go to bed," he had shouted, like one who still believed that he -had the last word on the subject, "I won't, I won't. Nana, it isn't six -o'clock yet. Oh dear, oh dear, I shan't love you any more, Nana. I tell -you I won't be bathed, I won't, I won't!" - -Then Mrs. Darling had come in, wearing her white evening-gown. She had -dressed early because Wendy so loved to see her in her evening-gown, -with the necklace George had given her. She was wearing Wendy's bracelet -on her arm; she had asked for the loan of it. Wendy loved to lend her -bracelet to her mother. - -She had found her two older children playing at being herself and father -on the occasion of Wendy's birth, and John was saying: - -"I am happy to inform you, Mrs. Darling, that you are now a mother," -in just such a tone as Mr. Darling himself may have used on the real -occasion. - -Wendy had danced with joy, just as the real Mrs. Darling must have done. - -Then John was born, with the extra pomp that he conceived due to the -birth of a male, and Michael came from his bath to ask to be born also, -but John said brutally that they did not want any more. - -Michael had nearly cried. "Nobody wants me," he said, and of course the -lady in the evening-dress could not stand that. - -"I do," she said, "I so want a third child." - -"Boy or girl?" asked Michael, not too hopefully. - -"Boy." - -Then he had leapt into her arms. Such a little thing for Mr. and Mrs. -Darling and Nana to recall now, but not so little if that was to be -Michael's last night in the nursery. - -They go on with their recollections. - -"It was then that I rushed in like a tornado, wasn't it?" Mr. Darling -would say, scorning himself; and indeed he had been like a tornado. - -Perhaps there was some excuse for him. He, too, had been dressing for -the party, and all had gone well with him until he came to his tie. It -is an astounding thing to have to tell, but this man, though he knew -about stocks and shares, had no real mastery of his tie. Sometimes the -thing yielded to him without a contest, but there were occasions when it -would have been better for the house if he had swallowed his pride and -used a made-up tie. - -This was such an occasion. He came rushing into the nursery with the -crumpled little brute of a tie in his hand. - -"Why, what is the matter, father dear?" - -"Matter!" he yelled; he really yelled. "This tie, it will not tie." He -became dangerously sarcastic. "Not round my neck! Round the bed-post! -Oh yes, twenty times have I made it up round the bed-post, but round my -neck, no! Oh dear no! begs to be excused!" - -He thought Mrs. Darling was not sufficiently impressed, and he went on -sternly, "I warn you of this, mother, that unless this tie is round my -neck we don't go out to dinner to-night, and if I don't go out to dinner -to-night, I never go to the office again, and if I don't go to the -office again, you and I starve, and our children will be flung into the -streets." - -Even then Mrs. Darling was placid. "Let me try, dear," she said, and -indeed that was what he had come to ask her to do, and with her nice -cool hands she tied his tie for him, while the children stood around to -see their fate decided. Some men would have resented her being able to -do it so easily, but Mr. Darling had far too fine a nature for that; he -thanked her carelessly, at once forgot his rage, and in another moment -was dancing round the room with Michael on his back. - -"How wildly we romped!" says Mrs. Darling now, recalling it. - -"Our last romp!" Mr. Darling groaned. - -"O George, do you remember Michael suddenly said to me, 'How did you get -to know me, mother?'" - -"I remember!" - -"They were rather sweet, don't you think, George?" - -"And they were ours, ours! and now they are gone." - -The romp had ended with the appearance of Nana, and most unluckily Mr. -Darling collided against her, covering his trousers with hairs. They -were not only new trousers, but they were the first he had ever had -with braid on them, and he had had to bite his lip to prevent the tears -coming. Of course Mrs. Darling brushed him, but he began to talk again -about its being a mistake to have a dog for a nurse. - -"George, Nana is a treasure." - -"No doubt, but I have an uneasy feeling at times that she looks upon the -children as puppies." - -"Oh no, dear one, I feel sure she knows they have souls." - -"I wonder," Mr. Darling said thoughtfully, "I wonder." It was an -opportunity, his wife felt, for telling him about the boy. At first he -pooh-poohed the story, but he became thoughtful when she showed him the -shadow. - -"It is nobody I know," he said, examining it carefully, "but it does -look a scoundrel." - -"We were still discussing it, you remember," says Mr. Darling, "when -Nana came in with Michael's medicine. You will never carry the bottle in -your mouth again, Nana, and it is all my fault." - -Strong man though he was, there is no doubt that he had behaved rather -foolishly over the medicine. If he had a weakness, it was for thinking -that all his life he had taken medicine boldly, and so now, when Michael -dodged the spoon in Nana's mouth, he had said reprovingly, "Be a man, -Michael." - -"Won't; won't!" Michael cried naughtily. Mrs. Darling left the room to -get a chocolate for him, and Mr. Darling thought this showed want of -firmness. - -"Mother, don't pamper him," he called after her. "Michael, when I was -your age I took medicine without a murmur. I said, 'Thank you, kind -parents, for giving me bottles to make me well.'" - -He really thought this was true, and Wendy, who was now in her -night-gown, believed it also, and she said, to encourage Michael, "That -medicine you sometimes take, father, is much nastier, isn't it?" - -"Ever so much nastier," Mr. Darling said bravely, "and I would take it -now as an example to you, Michael, if I hadn't lost the bottle." - -He had not exactly lost it; he had climbed in the dead of night to the -top of the wardrobe and hidden it there. What he did not know was that -the faithful Liza had found it, and put it back on his wash-stand. - -"I know where it is, father," Wendy cried, always glad to be of service. -"I'll bring it," and she was off before he could stop her. Immediately -his spirits sank in the strangest way. - -"John," he said, shuddering, "it's most beastly stuff. It's that nasty, -sticky, sweet kind." - -"It will soon be over, father," John said cheerily, and then in rushed -Wendy with the medicine in a glass. - -"I have been as quick as I could," she panted. - -"You have been wonderfully quick," her father retorted, with a -vindictive politeness that was quite thrown away upon her. "Michael -first," he said doggedly. - -"Father first," said Michael, who was of a suspicious nature. - -"I shall be sick, you know," Mr. Darling said threateningly. - -"Come on, father," said John. - -"Hold your tongue, John," his father rapped out. - -Wendy was quite puzzled. "I thought you took it quite easily, father." - -"That is not the point," he retorted. "The point is, that there is -more in my glass than in Michael's spoon." His proud heart was nearly -bursting. "And it isn't fair: I would say it though it were with my last -breath; it isn't fair." - -"Father, I am waiting," said Michael coldly. - -"It's all very well to say you are waiting; so am I waiting." - -"Father's a cowardly custard." - -"So are you a cowardly custard." - -"I'm not frightened." - -"Neither am I frightened." - -"Well, then, take it." - -"Well, then, you take it." - -Wendy had a splendid idea. "Why not both take it at the same time?" - -"Certainly," said Mr. Darling. "Are you ready, Michael?" - -Wendy gave the words, one, two, three, and Michael took his medicine, -but Mr. Darling slipped his behind his back. - -There was a yell of rage from Michael, and "O father!" Wendy exclaimed. - -"What do you mean by 'O father'?" Mr. Darling demanded. "Stop that row, -Michael. I meant to take mine, but I--I missed it." - -It was dreadful the way all the three were looking at him, just as if -they did not admire him. "Look here, all of you," he said entreatingly, -as soon as Nana had gone into the bathroom. "I have just thought of a -splendid joke. I shall pour my medicine into Nana's bowl, and she will -drink it, thinking it is milk!" - -It was the colour of milk; but the children did not have their father's -sense of humour, and they looked at him reproachfully as he poured the -medicine into Nana's bowl. "What fun!" he said doubtfully, and they did -not dare expose him when Mrs. Darling and Nana returned. - -"Nana, good dog," he said, patting her, "I have put a little milk into -your bowl, Nana." - -Nana wagged her tail, ran to the medicine, and began lapping it. Then -she gave Mr. Darling such a look, not an angry look: she showed him the -great red tear that makes us so sorry for noble dogs, and crept into her -kennel. - -Mr. Darling was frightfully ashamed of himself, but he would not give -in. In a horrid silence Mrs. Darling smelt the bowl. "O George," she -said, "it's your medicine!" - -"It was only a joke," he roared, while she comforted her boys, and Wendy -hugged Nana. "Much good," he said bitterly, "my wearing myself to the -bone trying to be funny in this house." - -And still Wendy hugged Nana. "That's right," he shouted. "Coddle her! -Nobody coddles me. Oh dear no! I am only the breadwinner, why should I -be coddled--why, why, why!" - -"George," Mrs. Darling entreated him, "not so loud; the servants -will hear you." Somehow they had got into the way of calling Liza the -servants. - -"Let them!" he answered recklessly. "Bring in the whole world. But I -refuse to allow that dog to lord it in my nursery for an hour longer." - -The children wept, and Nana ran to him beseechingly, but he waved her -back. He felt he was a strong man again. "In vain, in vain," he cried; -"the proper place for you is the yard, and there you go to be tied up -this instant." - -"George, George," Mrs. Darling whispered, "remember what I told you -about that boy." - -Alas, he would not listen. He was determined to show who was master in -that house, and when commands would not draw Nana from the kennel, he -lured her out of it with honeyed words, and seizing her roughly, dragged -her from the nursery. He was ashamed of himself, and yet he did it. -It was all owing to his too affectionate nature, which craved for -admiration. When he had tied her up in the back-yard, the wretched -father went and sat in the passage, with his knuckles to his eyes. - -In the meantime Mrs. Darling had put the children to bed in unwonted -silence and lit their night-lights. They could hear Nana barking, and -John whimpered, "It is because he is chaining her up in the yard," but -Wendy was wiser. - -"That is not Nana's unhappy bark," she said, little guessing what was -about to happen; "that is her bark when she smells danger." - -Danger! - -"Are you sure, Wendy?" - -"Oh, yes." - -Mrs. Darling quivered and went to the window. It was securely fastened. -She looked out, and the night was peppered with stars. They were -crowding round the house, as if curious to see what was to take place -there, but she did not notice this, nor that one or two of the smaller -ones winked at her. Yet a nameless fear clutched at her heart and made -her cry, "Oh, how I wish that I wasn't going to a party to-night!" - -Even Michael, already half asleep, knew that she was perturbed, and he -asked, "Can anything harm us, mother, after the night-lights are lit?" - -"Nothing, precious," she said; "they are the eyes a mother leaves behind -her to guard her children." - -She went from bed to bed singing enchantments over them, and little -Michael flung his arms round her. "Mother," he cried, "I'm glad of you." -They were the last words she was to hear from him for a long time. - -No. 27 was only a few yards distant, but there had been a slight fall of -snow, and Father and Mother Darling picked their way over it deftly not -to soil their shoes. They were already the only persons in the street, -and all the stars were watching them. Stars are beautiful, but they may -not take an active part in anything, they must just look on for ever. It -is a punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that no -star now knows what it was. So the older ones have become glassy-eyed -and seldom speak (winking is the star language), but the little -ones still wonder. They are not really friendly to Peter, who had a -mischievous way of stealing up behind them and trying to blow them out; -but they are so fond of fun that they were on his side to-night, and -anxious to get the grown-ups out of the way. So as soon as the door -of 27 closed on Mr. and Mrs. Darling there was a commotion in the -firmament, and the smallest of all the stars in the Milky Way screamed -out: - -"Now, Peter!" - - - - -Chapter 3 COME AWAY, COME AWAY! - -For a moment after Mr. and Mrs. Darling left the house the night-lights -by the beds of the three children continued to burn clearly. They were -awfully nice little night-lights, and one cannot help wishing that they -could have kept awake to see Peter; but Wendy's light blinked and gave -such a yawn that the other two yawned also, and before they could close -their mouths all the three went out. - -There was another light in the room now, a thousand times brighter than -the night-lights, and in the time we have taken to say this, it had been -in all the drawers in the nursery, looking for Peter's shadow, rummaged -the wardrobe and turned every pocket inside out. It was not really a -light; it made this light by flashing about so quickly, but when it came -to rest for a second you saw it was a fairy, no longer than your hand, -but still growing. It was a girl called Tinker Bell exquisitely gowned -in a skeleton leaf, cut low and square, through which her figure could -be seen to the best advantage. She was slightly inclined to EMBONPOINT. -[plump hourglass figure] - -A moment after the fairy's entrance the window was blown open by the -breathing of the little stars, and Peter dropped in. He had carried -Tinker Bell part of the way, and his hand was still messy with the fairy -dust. - -"Tinker Bell," he called softly, after making sure that the children -were asleep, "Tink, where are you?" She was in a jug for the moment, and -liking it extremely; she had never been in a jug before. - -"Oh, do come out of that jug, and tell me, do you know where they put my -shadow?" - -The loveliest tinkle as of golden bells answered him. It is the fairy -language. You ordinary children can never hear it, but if you were to -hear it you would know that you had heard it once before. - -Tink said that the shadow was in the big box. She meant the chest of -drawers, and Peter jumped at the drawers, scattering their contents to -the floor with both hands, as kings toss ha'pence to the crowd. In a -moment he had recovered his shadow, and in his delight he forgot that he -had shut Tinker Bell up in the drawer. - -If he thought at all, but I don't believe he ever thought, it was that -he and his shadow, when brought near each other, would join like drops -of water, and when they did not he was appalled. He tried to stick it -on with soap from the bathroom, but that also failed. A shudder passed -through Peter, and he sat on the floor and cried. - -His sobs woke Wendy, and she sat up in bed. She was not alarmed to see -a stranger crying on the nursery floor; she was only pleasantly -interested. - -"Boy," she said courteously, "why are you crying?" - -Peter could be exceeding polite also, having learned the grand manner at -fairy ceremonies, and he rose and bowed to her beautifully. She was much -pleased, and bowed beautifully to him from the bed. - -"What's your name?" he asked. - -"Wendy Moira Angela Darling," she replied with some satisfaction. "What -is your name?" - -"Peter Pan." - -She was already sure that he must be Peter, but it did seem a -comparatively short name. - -"Is that all?" - -"Yes," he said rather sharply. He felt for the first time that it was a -shortish name. - -"I'm so sorry," said Wendy Moira Angela. - -"It doesn't matter," Peter gulped. - -She asked where he lived. - -"Second to the right," said Peter, "and then straight on till morning." - -"What a funny address!" - -Peter had a sinking. For the first time he felt that perhaps it was a -funny address. - -"No, it isn't," he said. - -"I mean," Wendy said nicely, remembering that she was hostess, "is that -what they put on the letters?" - -He wished she had not mentioned letters. - -"Don't get any letters," he said contemptuously. - -"But your mother gets letters?" - -"Don't have a mother," he said. Not only had he no mother, but he had -not the slightest desire to have one. He thought them very over-rated -persons. Wendy, however, felt at once that she was in the presence of a -tragedy. - -"O Peter, no wonder you were crying," she said, and got out of bed and -ran to him. - -"I wasn't crying about mothers," he said rather indignantly. "I was -crying because I can't get my shadow to stick on. Besides, I wasn't -crying." - -"It has come off?" - -"Yes." - -Then Wendy saw the shadow on the floor, looking so draggled, and she was -frightfully sorry for Peter. "How awful!" she said, but she could not -help smiling when she saw that he had been trying to stick it on with -soap. How exactly like a boy! - -Fortunately she knew at once what to do. "It must be sewn on," she said, -just a little patronisingly. - -"What's sewn?" he asked. - -"You're dreadfully ignorant." - -"No, I'm not." - -But she was exulting in his ignorance. "I shall sew it on for you, my -little man," she said, though he was tall as herself, and she got out -her housewife [sewing bag], and sewed the shadow on to Peter's foot. - -"I daresay it will hurt a little," she warned him. - -"Oh, I shan't cry," said Peter, who was already of the opinion that he -had never cried in his life. And he clenched his teeth and did not -cry, and soon his shadow was behaving properly, though still a little -creased. - -"Perhaps I should have ironed it," Wendy said thoughtfully, but Peter, -boylike, was indifferent to appearances, and he was now jumping about in -the wildest glee. Alas, he had already forgotten that he owed his bliss -to Wendy. He thought he had attached the shadow himself. "How clever I -am!" he crowed rapturously, "oh, the cleverness of me!" - -It is humiliating to have to confess that this conceit of Peter was -one of his most fascinating qualities. To put it with brutal frankness, -there never was a cockier boy. - -But for the moment Wendy was shocked. "You conceit [braggart]," she -exclaimed, with frightful sarcasm; "of course I did nothing!" - -"You did a little," Peter said carelessly, and continued to dance. - -"A little!" she replied with hauteur [pride]; "if I am no use I can at -least withdraw," and she sprang in the most dignified way into bed and -covered her face with the blankets. - -To induce her to look up he pretended to be going away, and when this -failed he sat on the end of the bed and tapped her gently with his foot. -"Wendy," he said, "don't withdraw. I can't help crowing, Wendy, when -I'm pleased with myself." Still she would not look up, though she was -listening eagerly. "Wendy," he continued, in a voice that no woman has -ever yet been able to resist, "Wendy, one girl is more use than twenty -boys." - -Now Wendy was every inch a woman, though there were not very many -inches, and she peeped out of the bed-clothes. - -"Do you really think so, Peter?" - -"Yes, I do." - -"I think it's perfectly sweet of you," she declared, "and I'll get up -again," and she sat with him on the side of the bed. She also said -she would give him a kiss if he liked, but Peter did not know what she -meant, and he held out his hand expectantly. - -"Surely you know what a kiss is?" she asked, aghast. - -"I shall know when you give it to me," he replied stiffly, and not to -hurt his feeling she gave him a thimble. - -"Now," said he, "shall I give you a kiss?" and she replied with a slight -primness, "If you please." She made herself rather cheap by inclining -her face toward him, but he merely dropped an acorn button into her -hand, so she slowly returned her face to where it had been before, and -said nicely that she would wear his kiss on the chain around her neck. -It was lucky that she did put it on that chain, for it was afterwards to -save her life. - -When people in our set are introduced, it is customary for them to -ask each other's age, and so Wendy, who always liked to do the correct -thing, asked Peter how old he was. It was not really a happy question to -ask him; it was like an examination paper that asks grammar, when what -you want to be asked is Kings of England. - -"I don't know," he replied uneasily, "but I am quite young." He really -knew nothing about it, he had merely suspicions, but he said at a -venture, "Wendy, I ran away the day I was born." - -Wendy was quite surprised, but interested; and she indicated in the -charming drawing-room manner, by a touch on her night-gown, that he -could sit nearer her. - -"It was because I heard father and mother," he explained in a low -voice, "talking about what I was to be when I became a man." He was -extraordinarily agitated now. "I don't want ever to be a man," he said -with passion. "I want always to be a little boy and to have fun. So -I ran away to Kensington Gardens and lived a long long time among the -fairies." - -She gave him a look of the most intense admiration, and he thought it -was because he had run away, but it was really because he knew fairies. -Wendy had lived such a home life that to know fairies struck her as -quite delightful. She poured out questions about them, to his surprise, -for they were rather a nuisance to him, getting in his way and so on, -and indeed he sometimes had to give them a hiding [spanking]. Still, he -liked them on the whole, and he told her about the beginning of fairies. - -"You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its -laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, -and that was the beginning of fairies." - -Tedious talk this, but being a stay-at-home she liked it. - -"And so," he went on good-naturedly, "there ought to be one fairy for -every boy and girl." - -"Ought to be? Isn't there?" - -"No. You see children know such a lot now, they soon don't believe in -fairies, and every time a child says, 'I don't believe in fairies,' -there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead." - -Really, he thought they had now talked enough about fairies, and it -struck him that Tinker Bell was keeping very quiet. "I can't think where -she has gone to," he said, rising, and he called Tink by name. Wendy's -heart went flutter with a sudden thrill. - -"Peter," she cried, clutching him, "you don't mean to tell me that there -is a fairy in this room!" - -"She was here just now," he said a little impatiently. "You don't hear -her, do you?" and they both listened. - -"The only sound I hear," said Wendy, "is like a tinkle of bells." - -"Well, that's Tink, that's the fairy language. I think I hear her too." - -The sound came from the chest of drawers, and Peter made a merry face. -No one could ever look quite so merry as Peter, and the loveliest of -gurgles was his laugh. He had his first laugh still. - -"Wendy," he whispered gleefully, "I do believe I shut her up in the -drawer!" - -He let poor Tink out of the drawer, and she flew about the nursery -screaming with fury. "You shouldn't say such things," Peter retorted. -"Of course I'm very sorry, but how could I know you were in the drawer?" - -Wendy was not listening to him. "O Peter," she cried, "if she would only -stand still and let me see her!" - -"They hardly ever stand still," he said, but for one moment Wendy saw -the romantic figure come to rest on the cuckoo clock. "O the lovely!" -she cried, though Tink's face was still distorted with passion. - -"Tink," said Peter amiably, "this lady says she wishes you were her -fairy." - -Tinker Bell answered insolently. - -"What does she say, Peter?" - -He had to translate. "She is not very polite. She says you are a great -[huge] ugly girl, and that she is my fairy." - -He tried to argue with Tink. "You know you can't be my fairy, Tink, -because I am an gentleman and you are a lady." - -To this Tink replied in these words, "You silly ass," and disappeared -into the bathroom. "She is quite a common fairy," Peter explained -apologetically, "she is called Tinker Bell because she mends the pots -and kettles [tinker = tin worker]." [Similar to "cinder" plus "elle" to -get Cinderella] - -They were together in the armchair by this time, and Wendy plied him -with more questions. - -"If you don't live in Kensington Gardens now--" - -"Sometimes I do still." - -"But where do you live mostly now?" - -"With the lost boys." - -"Who are they?" - -"They are the children who fall out of their perambulators when the -nurse is looking the other way. If they are not claimed in seven -days they are sent far away to the Neverland to defray expenses. I'm -captain." - -"What fun it must be!" - -"Yes," said cunning Peter, "but we are rather lonely. You see we have no -female companionship." - -"Are none of the others girls?" - -"Oh, no; girls, you know, are much too clever to fall out of their -prams." - -This flattered Wendy immensely. "I think," she said, "it is perfectly -lovely the way you talk about girls; John there just despises us." - -For reply Peter rose and kicked John out of bed, blankets and all; one -kick. This seemed to Wendy rather forward for a first meeting, and she -told him with spirit that he was not captain in her house. However, -John continued to sleep so placidly on the floor that she allowed him -to remain there. "And I know you meant to be kind," she said, relenting, -"so you may give me a kiss." - -For the moment she had forgotten his ignorance about kisses. "I thought -you would want it back," he said a little bitterly, and offered to -return her the thimble. - -"Oh dear," said the nice Wendy, "I don't mean a kiss, I mean a thimble." - -"What's that?" - -"It's like this." She kissed him. - -"Funny!" said Peter gravely. "Now shall I give you a thimble?" - -"If you wish to," said Wendy, keeping her head erect this time. - -Peter thimbled her, and almost immediately she screeched. "What is it, -Wendy?" - -"It was exactly as if someone were pulling my hair." - -"That must have been Tink. I never knew her so naughty before." - -And indeed Tink was darting about again, using offensive language. - -"She says she will do that to you, Wendy, every time I give you a -thimble." - -"But why?" - -"Why, Tink?" - -Again Tink replied, "You silly ass." Peter could not understand why, -but Wendy understood, and she was just slightly disappointed when he -admitted that he came to the nursery window not to see her but to listen -to stories. - -"You see, I don't know any stories. None of the lost boys knows any -stories." - -"How perfectly awful," Wendy said. - -"Do you know," Peter asked "why swallows build in the eaves of houses? -It is to listen to the stories. O Wendy, your mother was telling you -such a lovely story." - -"Which story was it?" - -"About the prince who couldn't find the lady who wore the glass -slipper." - -"Peter," said Wendy excitedly, "that was Cinderella, and he found her, -and they lived happily ever after." - -Peter was so glad that he rose from the floor, where they had been -sitting, and hurried to the window. - -"Where are you going?" she cried with misgiving. - -"To tell the other boys." - -"Don't go Peter," she entreated, "I know such lots of stories." - -Those were her precise words, so there can be no denying that it was she -who first tempted him. - -He came back, and there was a greedy look in his eyes now which ought to -have alarmed her, but did not. - -"Oh, the stories I could tell to the boys!" she cried, and then Peter -gripped her and began to draw her toward the window. - -"Let me go!" she ordered him. - -"Wendy, do come with me and tell the other boys." - -Of course she was very pleased to be asked, but she said, "Oh dear, I -can't. Think of mummy! Besides, I can't fly." - -"I'll teach you." - -"Oh, how lovely to fly." - -"I'll teach you how to jump on the wind's back, and then away we go." - -"Oo!" she exclaimed rapturously. - -"Wendy, Wendy, when you are sleeping in your silly bed you might be -flying about with me saying funny things to the stars." - -"Oo!" - -"And, Wendy, there are mermaids." - -"Mermaids! With tails?" - -"Such long tails." - -"Oh," cried Wendy, "to see a mermaid!" - -He had become frightfully cunning. "Wendy," he said, "how we should all -respect you." - -She was wriggling her body in distress. It was quite as if she were -trying to remain on the nursery floor. - -But he had no pity for her. - -"Wendy," he said, the sly one, "you could tuck us in at night." - -"Oo!" - -"None of us has ever been tucked in at night." - -"Oo," and her arms went out to him. - -"And you could darn our clothes, and make pockets for us. None of us has -any pockets." - -How could she resist. "Of course it's awfully fascinating!" she cried. -"Peter, would you teach John and Michael to fly too?" - -"If you like," he said indifferently, and she ran to John and Michael -and shook them. "Wake up," she cried, "Peter Pan has come and he is to -teach us to fly." - -John rubbed his eyes. "Then I shall get up," he said. Of course he was -on the floor already. "Hallo," he said, "I am up!" - -Michael was up by this time also, looking as sharp as a knife with six -blades and a saw, but Peter suddenly signed silence. Their faces assumed -the awful craftiness of children listening for sounds from the grown-up -world. All was as still as salt. Then everything was right. No, stop! -Everything was wrong. Nana, who had been barking distressfully all the -evening, was quiet now. It was her silence they had heard. - -"Out with the light! Hide! Quick!" cried John, taking command for the -only time throughout the whole adventure. And thus when Liza entered, -holding Nana, the nursery seemed quite its old self, very dark, and -you would have sworn you heard its three wicked inmates breathing -angelically as they slept. They were really doing it artfully from -behind the window curtains. - -Liza was in a bad temper, for she was mixing the Christmas puddings in -the kitchen, and had been drawn from them, with a raisin still on her -cheek, by Nana's absurd suspicions. She thought the best way of getting -a little quiet was to take Nana to the nursery for a moment, but in -custody of course. - -"There, you suspicious brute," she said, not sorry that Nana was in -disgrace. "They are perfectly safe, aren't they? Every one of the little -angels sound asleep in bed. Listen to their gentle breathing." - -Here Michael, encouraged by his success, breathed so loudly that they -were nearly detected. Nana knew that kind of breathing, and she tried to -drag herself out of Liza's clutches. - -But Liza was dense. "No more of it, Nana," she said sternly, pulling -her out of the room. "I warn you if you bark again I shall go straight -for master and missus and bring them home from the party, and then, oh, -won't master whip you, just." - -She tied the unhappy dog up again, but do you think Nana ceased to bark? -Bring master and missus home from the party! Why, that was just what she -wanted. Do you think she cared whether she was whipped so long as her -charges were safe? Unfortunately Liza returned to her puddings, and -Nana, seeing that no help would come from her, strained and strained at -the chain until at last she broke it. In another moment she had burst -into the dining-room of 27 and flung up her paws to heaven, her most -expressive way of making a communication. Mr. and Mrs. Darling knew at -once that something terrible was happening in their nursery, and without -a good-bye to their hostess they rushed into the street. - -But it was now ten minutes since three scoundrels had been breathing -behind the curtains, and Peter Pan can do a great deal in ten minutes. - -We now return to the nursery. - -"It's all right," John announced, emerging from his hiding-place. "I -say, Peter, can you really fly?" - -Instead of troubling to answer him Peter flew around the room, taking -the mantelpiece on the way. - -"How topping!" said John and Michael. - -"How sweet!" cried Wendy. - -"Yes, I'm sweet, oh, I am sweet!" said Peter, forgetting his manners -again. - -It looked delightfully easy, and they tried it first from the floor and -then from the beds, but they always went down instead of up. - -"I say, how do you do it?" asked John, rubbing his knee. He was quite a -practical boy. - -"You just think lovely wonderful thoughts," Peter explained, "and they -lift you up in the air." - -He showed them again. - -"You're so nippy at it," John said, "couldn't you do it very slowly -once?" - -Peter did it both slowly and quickly. "I've got it now, Wendy!" cried -John, but soon he found he had not. Not one of them could fly an inch, -though even Michael was in words of two syllables, and Peter did not -know A from Z. - -Of course Peter had been trifling with them, for no one can fly unless -the fairy dust has been blown on him. Fortunately, as we have mentioned, -one of his hands was messy with it, and he blew some on each of them, -with the most superb results. - -"Now just wiggle your shoulders this way," he said, "and let go." - -They were all on their beds, and gallant Michael let go first. He did -not quite mean to let go, but he did it, and immediately he was borne -across the room. - -"I flewed!" he screamed while still in mid-air. - -John let go and met Wendy near the bathroom. - -"Oh, lovely!" - -"Oh, ripping!" - -"Look at me!" - -"Look at me!" - -"Look at me!" - -They were not nearly so elegant as Peter, they could not help kicking a -little, but their heads were bobbing against the ceiling, and there is -almost nothing so delicious as that. Peter gave Wendy a hand at first, -but had to desist, Tink was so indignant. - -Up and down they went, and round and round. Heavenly was Wendy's word. - -"I say," cried John, "why shouldn't we all go out?" - -Of course it was to this that Peter had been luring them. - -Michael was ready: he wanted to see how long it took him to do a billion -miles. But Wendy hesitated. - -"Mermaids!" said Peter again. - -"Oo!" - -"And there are pirates." - -"Pirates," cried John, seizing his Sunday hat, "let us go at once." - -It was just at this moment that Mr. and Mrs. Darling hurried with Nana -out of 27. They ran into the middle of the street to look up at the -nursery window; and, yes, it was still shut, but the room was ablaze -with light, and most heart-gripping sight of all, they could see in -shadow on the curtain three little figures in night attire circling -round and round, not on the floor but in the air. - -Not three figures, four! - -In a tremble they opened the street door. Mr. Darling would have rushed -upstairs, but Mrs. Darling signed him to go softly. She even tried to -make her heart go softly. - -Will they reach the nursery in time? If so, how delightful for them, and -we shall all breathe a sigh of relief, but there will be no story. On -the other hand, if they are not in time, I solemnly promise that it will -all come right in the end. - -They would have reached the nursery in time had it not been that the -little stars were watching them. Once again the stars blew the window -open, and that smallest star of all called out: - -"Cave, Peter!" - -Then Peter knew that there was not a moment to lose. "Come," he cried -imperiously, and soared out at once into the night, followed by John and -Michael and Wendy. - -Mr. and Mrs. Darling and Nana rushed into the nursery too late. The -birds were flown. - - - - -Chapter 4 THE FLIGHT - -"Second to the right, and straight on till morning." - -That, Peter had told Wendy, was the way to the Neverland; but even -birds, carrying maps and consulting them at windy corners, could not -have sighted it with these instructions. Peter, you see, just said -anything that came into his head. - -At first his companions trusted him implicitly, and so great were the -delights of flying that they wasted time circling round church spires or -any other tall objects on the way that took their fancy. - -John and Michael raced, Michael getting a start. - -They recalled with contempt that not so long ago they had thought -themselves fine fellows for being able to fly round a room. - -Not long ago. But how long ago? They were flying over the sea before -this thought began to disturb Wendy seriously. John thought it was their -second sea and their third night. - -Sometimes it was dark and sometimes light, and now they were very cold -and again too warm. Did they really feel hungry at times, or were they -merely pretending, because Peter had such a jolly new way of feeding -them? His way was to pursue birds who had food in their mouths suitable -for humans and snatch it from them; then the birds would follow and -snatch it back; and they would all go chasing each other gaily for -miles, parting at last with mutual expressions of good-will. But Wendy -noticed with gentle concern that Peter did not seem to know that this -was rather an odd way of getting your bread and butter, nor even that -there are other ways. - -Certainly they did not pretend to be sleepy, they were sleepy; and that -was a danger, for the moment they popped off, down they fell. The awful -thing was that Peter thought this funny. - -"There he goes again!" he would cry gleefully, as Michael suddenly -dropped like a stone. - -"Save him, save him!" cried Wendy, looking with horror at the cruel -sea far below. Eventually Peter would dive through the air, and catch -Michael just before he could strike the sea, and it was lovely the way -he did it; but he always waited till the last moment, and you felt it -was his cleverness that interested him and not the saving of human life. -Also he was fond of variety, and the sport that engrossed him one moment -would suddenly cease to engage him, so there was always the possibility -that the next time you fell he would let you go. - -He could sleep in the air without falling, by merely lying on his back -and floating, but this was, partly at least, because he was so light -that if you got behind him and blew he went faster. - -"Do be more polite to him," Wendy whispered to John, when they were -playing "Follow my Leader." - -"Then tell him to stop showing off," said John. - -When playing Follow my Leader, Peter would fly close to the water and -touch each shark's tail in passing, just as in the street you may run -your finger along an iron railing. They could not follow him in this -with much success, so perhaps it was rather like showing off, especially -as he kept looking behind to see how many tails they missed. - -"You must be nice to him," Wendy impressed on her brothers. "What could -we do if he were to leave us!" - -"We could go back," Michael said. - -"How could we ever find our way back without him?" - -"Well, then, we could go on," said John. - -"That is the awful thing, John. We should have to go on, for we don't -know how to stop." - -This was true, Peter had forgotten to show them how to stop. - -John said that if the worst came to the worst, all they had to do was to -go straight on, for the world was round, and so in time they must come -back to their own window. - -"And who is to get food for us, John?" - -"I nipped a bit out of that eagle's mouth pretty neatly, Wendy." - -"After the twentieth try," Wendy reminded him. "And even though we -became good at picking up food, see how we bump against clouds and things -if he is not near to give us a hand." - -Indeed they were constantly bumping. They could now fly strongly, though -they still kicked far too much; but if they saw a cloud in front of -them, the more they tried to avoid it, the more certainly did they bump -into it. If Nana had been with them, she would have had a bandage round -Michael's forehead by this time. - -Peter was not with them for the moment, and they felt rather lonely up -there by themselves. He could go so much faster than they that he would -suddenly shoot out of sight, to have some adventure in which they had no -share. He would come down laughing over something fearfully funny he had -been saying to a star, but he had already forgotten what it was, or he -would come up with mermaid scales still sticking to him, and yet not be -able to say for certain what had been happening. It was really rather -irritating to children who had never seen a mermaid. - -"And if he forgets them so quickly," Wendy argued, "how can we expect -that he will go on remembering us?" - -Indeed, sometimes when he returned he did not remember them, at least -not well. Wendy was sure of it. She saw recognition come into his eyes -as he was about to pass them the time of day and go on; once even she -had to call him by name. - -"I'm Wendy," she said agitatedly. - -He was very sorry. "I say, Wendy," he whispered to her, "always if you -see me forgetting you, just keep on saying 'I'm Wendy,' and then I'll -remember." - -Of course this was rather unsatisfactory. However, to make amends he -showed them how to lie out flat on a strong wind that was going their -way, and this was such a pleasant change that they tried it several -times and found that they could sleep thus with security. Indeed they -would have slept longer, but Peter tired quickly of sleeping, and soon -he would cry in his captain voice, "We get off here." So with occasional -tiffs, but on the whole rollicking, they drew near the Neverland; for -after many moons they did reach it, and, what is more, they had been -going pretty straight all the time, not perhaps so much owing to the -guidance of Peter or Tink as because the island was looking for them. It -is only thus that any one may sight those magic shores. - -"There it is," said Peter calmly. - -"Where, where?" - -"Where all the arrows are pointing." - -Indeed a million golden arrows were pointing it out to the children, all -directed by their friend the sun, who wanted them to be sure of their -way before leaving them for the night. - -Wendy and John and Michael stood on tip-toe in the air to get their -first sight of the island. Strange to say, they all recognized it at -once, and until fear fell upon them they hailed it, not as something -long dreamt of and seen at last, but as a familiar friend to whom they -were returning home for the holidays. - -"John, there's the lagoon." - -"Wendy, look at the turtles burying their eggs in the sand." - -"I say, John, I see your flamingo with the broken leg!" - -"Look, Michael, there's your cave!" - -"John, what's that in the brushwood?" - -"It's a wolf with her whelps. Wendy, I do believe that's your little -whelp!" - -"There's my boat, John, with her sides stove in!" - -"No, it isn't. Why, we burned your boat." - -"That's her, at any rate. I say, John, I see the smoke of the redskin -camp!" - -"Where? Show me, and I'll tell you by the way smoke curls whether they -are on the war-path." - -"There, just across the Mysterious River." - -"I see now. Yes, they are on the war-path right enough." - -Peter was a little annoyed with them for knowing so much, but if he -wanted to lord it over them his triumph was at hand, for have I not told -you that anon fear fell upon them? - -It came as the arrows went, leaving the island in gloom. - -In the old days at home the Neverland had always begun to look a little -dark and threatening by bedtime. Then unexplored patches arose in it -and spread, black shadows moved about in them, the roar of the beasts of -prey was quite different now, and above all, you lost the certainty that -you would win. You were quite glad that the night-lights were on. You -even liked Nana to say that this was just the mantelpiece over here, and -that the Neverland was all make-believe. - -Of course the Neverland had been make-believe in those days, but it -was real now, and there were no night-lights, and it was getting darker -every moment, and where was Nana? - -They had been flying apart, but they huddled close to Peter now. His -careless manner had gone at last, his eyes were sparkling, and a tingle -went through them every time they touched his body. They were now over -the fearsome island, flying so low that sometimes a tree grazed their -feet. Nothing horrid was visible in the air, yet their progress had -become slow and laboured, exactly as if they were pushing their way -through hostile forces. Sometimes they hung in the air until Peter had -beaten on it with his fists. - -"They don't want us to land," he explained. - -"Who are they?" Wendy whispered, shuddering. - -But he could not or would not say. Tinker Bell had been asleep on his -shoulder, but now he wakened her and sent her on in front. - -Sometimes he poised himself in the air, listening intently, with his -hand to his ear, and again he would stare down with eyes so bright that -they seemed to bore two holes to earth. Having done these things, he -went on again. - -His courage was almost appalling. "Would you like an adventure now," he -said casually to John, "or would you like to have your tea first?" - -Wendy said "tea first" quickly, and Michael pressed her hand in -gratitude, but the braver John hesitated. - -"What kind of adventure?" he asked cautiously. - -"There's a pirate asleep in the pampas just beneath us," Peter told him. -"If you like, we'll go down and kill him." - -"I don't see him," John said after a long pause. - -"I do." - -"Suppose," John said, a little huskily, "he were to wake up." - -Peter spoke indignantly. "You don't think I would kill him while he was -sleeping! I would wake him first, and then kill him. That's the way I -always do." - -"I say! Do you kill many?" - -"Tons." - -John said "How ripping," but decided to have tea first. He asked if -there were many pirates on the island just now, and Peter said he had -never known so many. - -"Who is captain now?" - -"Hook," answered Peter, and his face became very stern as he said that -hated word. - -"Jas. Hook?" - -"Ay." - -Then indeed Michael began to cry, and even John could speak in gulps -only, for they knew Hook's reputation. - -"He was Blackbeard's bo'sun," John whispered huskily. "He is the worst -of them all. He is the only man of whom Barbecue was afraid." - -"That's him," said Peter. - -"What is he like? Is he big?" - -"He is not so big as he was." - -"How do you mean?" - -"I cut off a bit of him." - -"You!" - -"Yes, me," said Peter sharply. - -"I wasn't meaning to be disrespectful." - -"Oh, all right." - -"But, I say, what bit?" - -"His right hand." - -"Then he can't fight now?" - -"Oh, can't he just!" - -"Left-hander?" - -"He has an iron hook instead of a right hand, and he claws with it." - -"Claws!" - -"I say, John," said Peter. - -"Yes." - -"Say, 'Ay, ay, sir.'" - -"Ay, ay, sir." - -"There is one thing," Peter continued, "that every boy who serves under -me has to promise, and so must you." - -John paled. - -"It is this, if we meet Hook in open fight, you must leave him to me." - -"I promise," John said loyally. - -For the moment they were feeling less eerie, because Tink was flying -with them, and in her light they could distinguish each other. -Unfortunately she could not fly so slowly as they, and so she had to go -round and round them in a circle in which they moved as in a halo. Wendy -quite liked it, until Peter pointed out the drawbacks. - -"She tells me," he said, "that the pirates sighted us before the -darkness came, and got Long Tom out." - -"The big gun?" - -"Yes. And of course they must see her light, and if they guess we are -near it they are sure to let fly." - -"Wendy!" - -"John!" - -"Michael!" - -"Tell her to go away at once, Peter," the three cried simultaneously, -but he refused. - -"She thinks we have lost the way," he replied stiffly, "and she is -rather frightened. You don't think I would send her away all by herself -when she is frightened!" - -For a moment the circle of light was broken, and something gave Peter a -loving little pinch. - -"Then tell her," Wendy begged, "to put out her light." - -"She can't put it out. That is about the only thing fairies can't do. It -just goes out of itself when she falls asleep, same as the stars." - -"Then tell her to sleep at once," John almost ordered. - -"She can't sleep except when she's sleepy. It is the only other thing -fairies can't do." - -"Seems to me," growled John, "these are the only two things worth -doing." - -Here he got a pinch, but not a loving one. - -"If only one of us had a pocket," Peter said, "we could carry her in -it." However, they had set off in such a hurry that there was not a -pocket between the four of them. - -He had a happy idea. John's hat! - -Tink agreed to travel by hat if it was carried in the hand. John carried -it, though she had hoped to be carried by Peter. Presently Wendy took -the hat, because John said it struck against his knee as he flew; and -this, as we shall see, led to mischief, for Tinker Bell hated to be -under an obligation to Wendy. - -In the black topper the light was completely hidden, and they flew on in -silence. It was the stillest silence they had ever known, broken once by -a distant lapping, which Peter explained was the wild beasts drinking at -the ford, and again by a rasping sound that might have been the branches -of trees rubbing together, but he said it was the redskins sharpening -their knives. - -Even these noises ceased. To Michael the loneliness was dreadful. "If -only something would make a sound!" he cried. - -As if in answer to his request, the air was rent by the most tremendous -crash he had ever heard. The pirates had fired Long Tom at them. - -The roar of it echoed through the mountains, and the echoes seemed to -cry savagely, "Where are they, where are they, where are they?" - -Thus sharply did the terrified three learn the difference between an -island of make-believe and the same island come true. - -When at last the heavens were steady again, John and Michael -found themselves alone in the darkness. John was treading the air -mechanically, and Michael without knowing how to float was floating. - -"Are you shot?" John whispered tremulously. - -"I haven't tried [myself out] yet," Michael whispered back. - -We know now that no one had been hit. Peter, however, had been carried -by the wind of the shot far out to sea, while Wendy was blown upwards -with no companion but Tinker Bell. - -It would have been well for Wendy if at that moment she had dropped the -hat. - -I don't know whether the idea came suddenly to Tink, or whether she had -planned it on the way, but she at once popped out of the hat and began -to lure Wendy to her destruction. - -Tink was not all bad; or, rather, she was all bad just now, but, on the -other hand, sometimes she was all good. Fairies have to be one thing or -the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one -feeling only at a time. They are, however, allowed to change, only it -must be a complete change. At present she was full of jealousy of Wendy. -What she said in her lovely tinkle Wendy could not of course understand, -and I believe some of it was bad words, but it sounded kind, and she -flew back and forward, plainly meaning "Follow me, and all will be -well." - -What else could poor Wendy do? She called to Peter and John and Michael, -and got only mocking echoes in reply. She did not yet know that Tink -hated her with the fierce hatred of a very woman. And so, bewildered, -and now staggering in her flight, she followed Tink to her doom. - - - - -Chapter 5 THE ISLAND COME TRUE - -Feeling that Peter was on his way back, the Neverland had again woke -into life. We ought to use the pluperfect and say wakened, but woke is -better and was always used by Peter. - -In his absence things are usually quiet on the island. The fairies take -an hour longer in the morning, the beasts attend to their young, the -redskins feed heavily for six days and nights, and when pirates and -lost boys meet they merely bite their thumbs at each other. But with the -coming of Peter, who hates lethargy, they are under way again: if you -put your ear to the ground now, you would hear the whole island seething -with life. - -On this evening the chief forces of the island were disposed as follows. -The lost boys were out looking for Peter, the pirates were out looking -for the lost boys, the redskins were out looking for the pirates, and -the beasts were out looking for the redskins. They were going round and -round the island, but they did not meet because all were going at the -same rate. - -All wanted blood except the boys, who liked it as a rule, but to-night -were out to greet their captain. The boys on the island vary, of course, -in numbers, according as they get killed and so on; and when they seem -to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out; but -at this time there were six of them, counting the twins as two. Let us -pretend to lie here among the sugar-cane and watch them as they steal by -in single file, each with his hand on his dagger. - -They are forbidden by Peter to look in the least like him, and they wear -the skins of the bears slain by themselves, in which they are so round -and furry that when they fall they roll. They have therefore become very -sure-footed. - -The first to pass is Tootles, not the least brave but the most -unfortunate of all that gallant band. He had been in fewer adventures -than any of them, because the big things constantly happened just when -he had stepped round the corner; all would be quiet, he would take the -opportunity of going off to gather a few sticks for firewood, and -then when he returned the others would be sweeping up the blood. This -ill-luck had given a gentle melancholy to his countenance, but instead -of souring his nature had sweetened it, so that he was quite the -humblest of the boys. Poor kind Tootles, there is danger in the air for -you to-night. Take care lest an adventure is now offered you, which, if -accepted, will plunge you in deepest woe. Tootles, the fairy Tink, who -is bent on mischief this night is looking for a tool [for doing her -mischief], and she thinks you are the most easily tricked of the boys. -'Ware Tinker Bell. - -Would that he could hear us, but we are not really on the island, and he -passes by, biting his knuckles. - -Next comes Nibs, the gay and debonair, followed by Slightly, who cuts -whistles out of the trees and dances ecstatically to his own tunes. -Slightly is the most conceited of the boys. He thinks he remembers the -days before he was lost, with their manners and customs, and this has -given his nose an offensive tilt. Curly is fourth; he is a pickle, [a -person who gets in pickles-predicaments] and so often has he had to -deliver up his person when Peter said sternly, "Stand forth the one who -did this thing," that now at the command he stands forth automatically -whether he has done it or not. Last come the Twins, who cannot be -described because we should be sure to be describing the wrong one. -Peter never quite knew what twins were, and his band were not allowed -to know anything he did not know, so these two were always vague about -themselves, and did their best to give satisfaction by keeping close -together in an apologetic sort of way. - -The boys vanish in the gloom, and after a pause, but not a long pause, -for things go briskly on the island, come the pirates on their track. We -hear them before they are seen, and it is always the same dreadful song: - - "Avast belay, yo ho, heave to, - A-pirating we go, - And if we're parted by a shot - We're sure to meet below!" - -A more villainous-looking lot never hung in a row on Execution dock. -Here, a little in advance, ever and again with his head to the -ground listening, his great arms bare, pieces of eight in his ears as -ornaments, is the handsome Italian Cecco, who cut his name in letters -of blood on the back of the governor of the prison at Gao. That gigantic -black behind him has had many names since he dropped the one with -which dusky mothers still terrify their children on the banks of the -Guadjo-mo. Here is Bill Jukes, every inch of him tattooed, the same Bill -Jukes who got six dozen on the WALRUS from Flint before he would drop -the bag of moidores [Portuguese gold pieces]; and Cookson, said to -be Black Murphy's brother (but this was never proved), and Gentleman -Starkey, once an usher in a public school and still dainty in his ways -of killing; and Skylights (Morgan's Skylights); and the Irish bo'sun -Smee, an oddly genial man who stabbed, so to speak, without offence, -and was the only Non-conformist in Hook's crew; and Noodler, whose -hands were fixed on backwards; and Robt. Mullins and Alf Mason and many -another ruffian long known and feared on the Spanish Main. - -In the midst of them, the blackest and largest in that dark setting, -reclined James Hook, or as he wrote himself, Jas. Hook, of whom it is -said he was the only man that the Sea-Cook feared. He lay at his ease in -a rough chariot drawn and propelled by his men, and instead of a right -hand he had the iron hook with which ever and anon he encouraged them -to increase their pace. As dogs this terrible man treated and addressed -them, and as dogs they obeyed him. In person he was cadaverous [dead -looking] and blackavized [dark faced], and his hair was dressed in long -curls, which at a little distance looked like black candles, and gave a -singularly threatening expression to his handsome countenance. His eyes -were of the blue of the forget-me-not, and of a profound melancholy, -save when he was plunging his hook into you, at which time two red spots -appeared in them and lit them up horribly. In manner, something of the -grand seigneur still clung to him, so that he even ripped you up with -an air, and I have been told that he was a RACONTEUR [storyteller] of -repute. He was never more sinister than when he was most polite, -which is probably the truest test of breeding; and the elegance of his -diction, even when he was swearing, no less than the distinction of his -demeanour, showed him one of a different cast from his crew. A man of -indomitable courage, it was said that the only thing he shied at was -the sight of his own blood, which was thick and of an unusual colour. -In dress he somewhat aped the attire associated with the name of Charles -II, having heard it said in some earlier period of his career that he -bore a strange resemblance to the ill-fated Stuarts; and in his mouth -he had a holder of his own contrivance which enabled him to smoke two -cigars at once. But undoubtedly the grimmest part of him was his iron -claw. - -Let us now kill a pirate, to show Hook's method. Skylights will do. As -they pass, Skylights lurches clumsily against him, ruffling his lace -collar; the hook shoots forth, there is a tearing sound and one screech, -then the body is kicked aside, and the pirates pass on. He has not even -taken the cigars from his mouth. - -Such is the terrible man against whom Peter Pan is pitted. Which will -win? - -On the trail of the pirates, stealing noiselessly down the war-path, -which is not visible to inexperienced eyes, come the redskins, every one -of them with his eyes peeled. They carry tomahawks and knives, and their -naked bodies gleam with paint and oil. Strung around them are scalps, of -boys as well as of pirates, for these are the Piccaninny tribe, and not -to be confused with the softer-hearted Delawares or the Hurons. In -the van, on all fours, is Great Big Little Panther, a brave of so many -scalps that in his present position they somewhat impede his progress. -Bringing up the rear, the place of greatest danger, comes Tiger Lily, -proudly erect, a princess in her own right. She is the most beautiful -of dusky Dianas [Diana = goddess of the woods] and the belle of the -Piccaninnies, coquettish [flirting], cold and amorous [loving] by turns; -there is not a brave who would not have the wayward thing to wife, but -she staves off the altar with a hatchet. Observe how they pass over -fallen twigs without making the slightest noise. The only sound to be -heard is their somewhat heavy breathing. The fact is that they are all a -little fat just now after the heavy gorging, but in time they will work -this off. For the moment, however, it constitutes their chief danger. - -The redskins disappear as they have come like shadows, and soon their -place is taken by the beasts, a great and motley procession: lions, -tigers, bears, and the innumerable smaller savage things that flee -from them, for every kind of beast, and, more particularly, all the -man-eaters, live cheek by jowl on the favoured island. Their tongues are -hanging out, they are hungry to-night. - -When they have passed, comes the last figure of all, a gigantic -crocodile. We shall see for whom she is looking presently. - -The crocodile passes, but soon the boys appear again, for the procession -must continue indefinitely until one of the parties stops or changes its -pace. Then quickly they will be on top of each other. - -All are keeping a sharp look-out in front, but none suspects that the -danger may be creeping up from behind. This shows how real the island -was. - -The first to fall out of the moving circle was the boys. They flung -themselves down on the sward [turf], close to their underground home. - -"I do wish Peter would come back," every one of them said nervously, -though in height and still more in breadth they were all larger than -their captain. - -"I am the only one who is not afraid of the pirates," Slightly said, in -the tone that prevented his being a general favourite; but perhaps some -distant sound disturbed him, for he added hastily, "but I wish he -would come back, and tell us whether he has heard anything more about -Cinderella." - -They talked of Cinderella, and Tootles was confident that his mother -must have been very like her. - -It was only in Peter's absence that they could speak of mothers, the -subject being forbidden by him as silly. - -"All I remember about my mother," Nibs told them, "is that she often -said to my father, 'Oh, how I wish I had a cheque-book of my own!' I -don't know what a cheque-book is, but I should just love to give my -mother one." - -While they talked they heard a distant sound. You or I, not being wild -things of the woods, would have heard nothing, but they heard it, and it -was the grim song: - - "Yo ho, yo ho, the pirate life, - The flag o' skull and bones, - A merry hour, a hempen rope, - And hey for Davy Jones." - -At once the lost boys--but where are they? They are no longer there. -Rabbits could not have disappeared more quickly. - -I will tell you where they are. With the exception of Nibs, who has -darted away to reconnoitre [look around], they are already in their home -under the ground, a very delightful residence of which we shall see -a good deal presently. But how have they reached it? for there is no -entrance to be seen, not so much as a large stone, which if rolled away, -would disclose the mouth of a cave. Look closely, however, and you may -note that there are here seven large trees, each with a hole in its -hollow trunk as large as a boy. These are the seven entrances to the -home under the ground, for which Hook has been searching in vain these -many moons. Will he find it tonight? - -As the pirates advanced, the quick eye of Starkey sighted Nibs -disappearing through the wood, and at once his pistol flashed out. But -an iron claw gripped his shoulder. - -"Captain, let go!" he cried, writhing. - -Now for the first time we hear the voice of Hook. It was a black voice. -"Put back that pistol first," it said threateningly. - -"It was one of those boys you hate. I could have shot him dead." - -"Ay, and the sound would have brought Tiger Lily's redskins upon us. Do -you want to lose your scalp?" - -"Shall I after him, Captain," asked pathetic Smee, "and tickle him -with Johnny Corkscrew?" Smee had pleasant names for everything, and his -cutlass was Johnny Corkscrew, because he wiggled it in the wound. One -could mention many lovable traits in Smee. For instance, after killing, -it was his spectacles he wiped instead of his weapon. - -"Johnny's a silent fellow," he reminded Hook. - -"Not now, Smee," Hook said darkly. "He is only one, and I want to -mischief all the seven. Scatter and look for them." - -The pirates disappeared among the trees, and in a moment their Captain -and Smee were alone. Hook heaved a heavy sigh, and I know not why it -was, perhaps it was because of the soft beauty of the evening, but there -came over him a desire to confide to his faithful bo'sun the story of -his life. He spoke long and earnestly, but what it was all about Smee, -who was rather stupid, did not know in the least. - -Anon [later] he caught the word Peter. - -"Most of all," Hook was saying passionately, "I want their captain, -Peter Pan. 'Twas he cut off my arm." He brandished the hook -threateningly. "I've waited long to shake his hand with this. Oh, I'll -tear him!" - -"And yet," said Smee, "I have often heard you say that hook was worth a -score of hands, for combing the hair and other homely uses." - -"Ay," the captain answered, "if I was a mother I would pray to have my -children born with this instead of that," and he cast a look of pride -upon his iron hand and one of scorn upon the other. Then again he -frowned. - -"Peter flung my arm," he said, wincing, "to a crocodile that happened to -be passing by." - -"I have often," said Smee, "noticed your strange dread of crocodiles." - -"Not of crocodiles," Hook corrected him, "but of that one crocodile." He -lowered his voice. "It liked my arm so much, Smee, that it has followed -me ever since, from sea to sea and from land to land, licking its lips -for the rest of me." - -"In a way," said Smee, "it's sort of a compliment." - -"I want no such compliments," Hook barked petulantly. "I want Peter Pan, -who first gave the brute its taste for me." - -He sat down on a large mushroom, and now there was a quiver in his -voice. "Smee," he said huskily, "that crocodile would have had me before -this, but by a lucky chance it swallowed a clock which goes tick tick -inside it, and so before it can reach me I hear the tick and bolt." He -laughed, but in a hollow way. - -"Some day," said Smee, "the clock will run down, and then he'll get -you." - -Hook wetted his dry lips. "Ay," he said, "that's the fear that haunts -me." - -Since sitting down he had felt curiously warm. "Smee," he said, "this -seat is hot." He jumped up. "Odds bobs, hammer and tongs I'm burning." - -They examined the mushroom, which was of a size and solidity unknown -on the mainland; they tried to pull it up, and it came away at once in -their hands, for it had no root. Stranger still, smoke began at once -to ascend. The pirates looked at each other. "A chimney!" they both -exclaimed. - -They had indeed discovered the chimney of the home under the ground. It -was the custom of the boys to stop it with a mushroom when enemies were -in the neighbourhood. - -Not only smoke came out of it. There came also children's voices, for -so safe did the boys feel in their hiding-place that they were gaily -chattering. The pirates listened grimly, and then replaced the mushroom. -They looked around them and noted the holes in the seven trees. - -"Did you hear them say Peter Pan's from home?" Smee whispered, fidgeting -with Johnny Corkscrew. - -Hook nodded. He stood for a long time lost in thought, and at last a -curdling smile lit up his swarthy face. Smee had been waiting for it. -"Unrip your plan, captain," he cried eagerly. - -"To return to the ship," Hook replied slowly through his teeth, "and -cook a large rich cake of a jolly thickness with green sugar on it. -There can be but one room below, for there is but one chimney. The silly -moles had not the sense to see that they did not need a door apiece. -That shows they have no mother. We will leave the cake on the shore -of the Mermaids' Lagoon. These boys are always swimming about there, -playing with the mermaids. They will find the cake and they will gobble -it up, because, having no mother, they don't know how dangerous 'tis to -eat rich damp cake." He burst into laughter, not hollow laughter now, -but honest laughter. "Aha, they will die." - -Smee had listened with growing admiration. - -"It's the wickedest, prettiest policy ever I heard of!" he cried, and in -their exultation they danced and sang: - - "Avast, belay, when I appear, - By fear they're overtook; - Nought's left upon your bones when you - Have shaken claws with Hook." - -They began the verse, but they never finished it, for another sound -broke in and stilled them. There was at first such a tiny sound that a -leaf might have fallen on it and smothered it, but as it came nearer it -was more distinct. - -Tick tick tick tick! - -Hook stood shuddering, one foot in the air. - -"The crocodile!" he gasped, and bounded away, followed by his bo'sun. - -It was indeed the crocodile. It had passed the redskins, who were now on -the trail of the other pirates. It oozed on after Hook. - -Once more the boys emerged into the open; but the dangers of the night -were not yet over, for presently Nibs rushed breathless into their -midst, pursued by a pack of wolves. The tongues of the pursuers were -hanging out; the baying of them was horrible. - -"Save me, save me!" cried Nibs, falling on the ground. - -"But what can we do, what can we do?" - -It was a high compliment to Peter that at that dire moment their -thoughts turned to him. - -"What would Peter do?" they cried simultaneously. - -Almost in the same breath they cried, "Peter would look at them through -his legs." - -And then, "Let us do what Peter would do." - -It is quite the most successful way of defying wolves, and as one boy -they bent and looked through their legs. The next moment is the long -one, but victory came quickly, for as the boys advanced upon them in the -terrible attitude, the wolves dropped their tails and fled. - -Now Nibs rose from the ground, and the others thought that his staring -eyes still saw the wolves. But it was not wolves he saw. - -"I have seen a wonderfuller thing," he cried, as they gathered round him -eagerly. "A great white bird. It is flying this way." - -"What kind of a bird, do you think?" - -"I don't know," Nibs said, awestruck, "but it looks so weary, and as it -flies it moans, 'Poor Wendy,'" - -"Poor Wendy?" - -"I remember," said Slightly instantly, "there are birds called Wendies." - -"See, it comes!" cried Curly, pointing to Wendy in the heavens. - -Wendy was now almost overhead, and they could hear her plaintive cry. -But more distinct came the shrill voice of Tinker Bell. The jealous -fairy had now cast off all disguise of friendship, and was darting -at her victim from every direction, pinching savagely each time she -touched. - -"Hullo, Tink," cried the wondering boys. - -Tink's reply rang out: "Peter wants you to shoot the Wendy." - -It was not in their nature to question when Peter ordered. "Let us do -what Peter wishes!" cried the simple boys. "Quick, bows and arrows!" - -All but Tootles popped down their trees. He had a bow and arrow with -him, and Tink noted it, and rubbed her little hands. - -"Quick, Tootles, quick," she screamed. "Peter will be so pleased." - -Tootles excitedly fitted the arrow to his bow. "Out of the way, Tink," -he shouted, and then he fired, and Wendy fluttered to the ground with an -arrow in her breast. - - - - -Chapter 6 THE LITTLE HOUSE - -Foolish Tootles was standing like a conqueror over Wendy's body when the -other boys sprang, armed, from their trees. - -"You are too late," he cried proudly, "I have shot the Wendy. Peter will -be so pleased with me." - -Overhead Tinker Bell shouted "Silly ass!" and darted into hiding. The -others did not hear her. They had crowded round Wendy, and as they -looked a terrible silence fell upon the wood. If Wendy's heart had been -beating they would all have heard it. - -Slightly was the first to speak. "This is no bird," he said in a scared -voice. "I think this must be a lady." - -"A lady?" said Tootles, and fell a-trembling. - -"And we have killed her," Nibs said hoarsely. - -They all whipped off their caps. - -"Now I see," Curly said: "Peter was bringing her to us." He threw -himself sorrowfully on the ground. - -"A lady to take care of us at last," said one of the twins, "and you -have killed her!" - -They were sorry for him, but sorrier for themselves, and when he took a -step nearer them they turned from him. - -Tootles' face was very white, but there was a dignity about him now that -had never been there before. - -"I did it," he said, reflecting. "When ladies used to come to me in -dreams, I said, 'Pretty mother, pretty mother.' But when at last she -really came, I shot her." - -He moved slowly away. - -"Don't go," they called in pity. - -"I must," he answered, shaking; "I am so afraid of Peter." - -It was at this tragic moment that they heard a sound which made the -heart of every one of them rise to his mouth. They heard Peter crow. - -"Peter!" they cried, for it was always thus that he signalled his -return. - -"Hide her," they whispered, and gathered hastily around Wendy. But -Tootles stood aloof. - -Again came that ringing crow, and Peter dropped in front of them. -"Greetings, boys," he cried, and mechanically they saluted, and then -again was silence. - -He frowned. - -"I am back," he said hotly, "why do you not cheer?" - -They opened their mouths, but the cheers would not come. He overlooked -it in his haste to tell the glorious tidings. - -"Great news, boys," he cried, "I have brought at last a mother for you -all." - -Still no sound, except a little thud from Tootles as he dropped on his -knees. - -"Have you not seen her?" asked Peter, becoming troubled. "She flew this -way." - -"Ah me!" once voice said, and another said, "Oh, mournful day." - -Tootles rose. "Peter," he said quietly, "I will show her to you," and -when the others would still have hidden her he said, "Back, twins, let -Peter see." - -So they all stood back, and let him see, and after he had looked for a -little time he did not know what to do next. - -"She is dead," he said uncomfortably. "Perhaps she is frightened at -being dead." - -He thought of hopping off in a comic sort of way till he was out of -sight of her, and then never going near the spot any more. They would -all have been glad to follow if he had done this. - -But there was the arrow. He took it from her heart and faced his band. - -"Whose arrow?" he demanded sternly. - -"Mine, Peter," said Tootles on his knees. - -"Oh, dastard hand," Peter said, and he raised the arrow to use it as a -dagger. - -Tootles did not flinch. He bared his breast. "Strike, Peter," he said -firmly, "strike true." - -Twice did Peter raise the arrow, and twice did his hand fall. "I cannot -strike," he said with awe, "there is something stays my hand." - -All looked at him in wonder, save Nibs, who fortunately looked at Wendy. - -"It is she," he cried, "the Wendy lady, see, her arm!" - -Wonderful to relate [tell], Wendy had raised her arm. Nibs bent over -her and listened reverently. "I think she said, 'Poor Tootles,'" he -whispered. - -"She lives," Peter said briefly. - -Slightly cried instantly, "The Wendy lady lives." - -Then Peter knelt beside her and found his button. You remember she had -put it on a chain that she wore round her neck. - -"See," he said, "the arrow struck against this. It is the kiss I gave -her. It has saved her life." - -"I remember kisses," Slightly interposed quickly, "let me see it. Ay, -that's a kiss." - -Peter did not hear him. He was begging Wendy to get better quickly, so -that he could show her the mermaids. Of course she could not answer yet, -being still in a frightful faint; but from overhead came a wailing note. - -"Listen to Tink," said Curly, "she is crying because the Wendy lives." - -Then they had to tell Peter of Tink's crime, and almost never had they -seen him look so stern. - -"Listen, Tinker Bell," he cried, "I am your friend no more. Begone from -me for ever." - -She flew on to his shoulder and pleaded, but he brushed her off. Not -until Wendy again raised her arm did he relent sufficiently to say, -"Well, not for ever, but for a whole week." - -Do you think Tinker Bell was grateful to Wendy for raising her arm? Oh -dear no, never wanted to pinch her so much. Fairies indeed are strange, -and Peter, who understood them best, often cuffed [slapped] them. - -But what to do with Wendy in her present delicate state of health? - -"Let us carry her down into the house," Curly suggested. - -"Ay," said Slightly, "that is what one does with ladies." - -"No, no," Peter said, "you must not touch her. It would not be -sufficiently respectful." - -"That," said Slightly, "is what I was thinking." - -"But if she lies there," Tootles said, "she will die." - -"Ay, she will die," Slightly admitted, "but there is no way out." - -"Yes, there is," cried Peter. "Let us build a little house round her." - -They were all delighted. "Quick," he ordered them, "bring me each of you -the best of what we have. Gut our house. Be sharp." - -In a moment they were as busy as tailors the night before a wedding. -They skurried this way and that, down for bedding, up for firewood, and -while they were at it, who should appear but John and Michael. As they -dragged along the ground they fell asleep standing, stopped, woke up, -moved another step and slept again. - -"John, John," Michael would cry, "wake up! Where is Nana, John, and -mother?" - -And then John would rub his eyes and mutter, "It is true, we did fly." - -You may be sure they were very relieved to find Peter. - -"Hullo, Peter," they said. - -"Hullo," replied Peter amicably, though he had quite forgotten them. -He was very busy at the moment measuring Wendy with his feet to see -how large a house she would need. Of course he meant to leave room for -chairs and a table. John and Michael watched him. - -"Is Wendy asleep?" they asked. - -"Yes." - -"John," Michael proposed, "let us wake her and get her to make supper -for us," but as he said it some of the other boys rushed on carrying -branches for the building of the house. "Look at them!" he cried. - -"Curly," said Peter in his most captainy voice, "see that these boys -help in the building of the house." - -"Ay, ay, sir." - -"Build a house?" exclaimed John. - -"For the Wendy," said Curly. - -"For Wendy?" John said, aghast. "Why, she is only a girl!" - -"That," explained Curly, "is why we are her servants." - -"You? Wendy's servants!" - -"Yes," said Peter, "and you also. Away with them." - -The astounded brothers were dragged away to hack and hew and carry. -"Chairs and a fender [fireplace] first," Peter ordered. "Then we shall -build a house round them." - -"Ay," said Slightly, "that is how a house is built; it all comes back to -me." - -Peter thought of everything. "Slightly," he cried, "fetch a doctor." - -"Ay, ay," said Slightly at once, and disappeared, scratching his head. -But he knew Peter must be obeyed, and he returned in a moment, wearing -John's hat and looking solemn. - -"Please, sir," said Peter, going to him, "are you a doctor?" - -The difference between him and the other boys at such a time was that -they knew it was make-believe, while to him make-believe and true were -exactly the same thing. This sometimes troubled them, as when they had -to make-believe that they had had their dinners. - -If they broke down in their make-believe he rapped them on the knuckles. - -"Yes, my little man," Slightly anxiously replied, who had chapped -knuckles. - -"Please, sir," Peter explained, "a lady lies very ill." - -She was lying at their feet, but Slightly had the sense not to see her. - -"Tut, tut, tut," he said, "where does she lie?" - -"In yonder glade." - -"I will put a glass thing in her mouth," said Slightly, and he -made-believe to do it, while Peter waited. It was an anxious moment when -the glass thing was withdrawn. - -"How is she?" inquired Peter. - -"Tut, tut, tut," said Slightly, "this has cured her." - -"I am glad!" Peter cried. - -"I will call again in the evening," Slightly said; "give her beef tea -out of a cup with a spout to it;" but after he had returned the hat -to John he blew big breaths, which was his habit on escaping from a -difficulty. - -In the meantime the wood had been alive with the sound of axes; almost -everything needed for a cosy dwelling already lay at Wendy's feet. - -"If only we knew," said one, "the kind of house she likes best." - -"Peter," shouted another, "she is moving in her sleep." - -"Her mouth opens," cried a third, looking respectfully into it. "Oh, -lovely!" - -"Perhaps she is going to sing in her sleep," said Peter. "Wendy, sing -the kind of house you would like to have." - -Immediately, without opening her eyes, Wendy began to sing: - - "I wish I had a pretty house, - The littlest ever seen, - With funny little red walls - And roof of mossy green." - -They gurgled with joy at this, for by the greatest good luck the -branches they had brought were sticky with red sap, and all the ground -was carpeted with moss. As they rattled up the little house they broke -into song themselves: - - "We've built the little walls and roof - And made a lovely door, - So tell us, mother Wendy, - What are you wanting more?" - -To this she answered greedily: - - "Oh, really next I think I'll have - Gay windows all about, - With roses peeping in, you know, - And babies peeping out." - -With a blow of their fists they made windows, and large yellow leaves -were the blinds. But roses--? - -"Roses," cried Peter sternly. - -Quickly they made-believe to grow the loveliest roses up the walls. - -Babies? - -To prevent Peter ordering babies they hurried into song again: - - "We've made the roses peeping out, - The babes are at the door, - We cannot make ourselves, you know, - 'cos we've been made before." - -Peter, seeing this to be a good idea, at once pretended that it was his -own. The house was quite beautiful, and no doubt Wendy was very cosy -within, though, of course, they could no longer see her. Peter strode -up and down, ordering finishing touches. Nothing escaped his eagle eyes. -Just when it seemed absolutely finished: - -"There's no knocker on the door," he said. - -They were very ashamed, but Tootles gave the sole of his shoe, and it -made an excellent knocker. - -Absolutely finished now, they thought. - -Not of bit of it. "There's no chimney," Peter said; "we must have a -chimney." - -"It certainly does need a chimney," said John importantly. This gave -Peter an idea. He snatched the hat off John's head, knocked out the -bottom [top], and put the hat on the roof. The little house was so -pleased to have such a capital chimney that, as if to say thank you, -smoke immediately began to come out of the hat. - -Now really and truly it was finished. Nothing remained to do but to -knock. - -"All look your best," Peter warned them; "first impressions are awfully -important." - -He was glad no one asked him what first impressions are; they were all -too busy looking their best. - -He knocked politely, and now the wood was as still as the children, not -a sound to be heard except from Tinker Bell, who was watching from a -branch and openly sneering. - -What the boys were wondering was, would any one answer the knock? If a -lady, what would she be like? - -The door opened and a lady came out. It was Wendy. They all whipped off -their hats. - -She looked properly surprised, and this was just how they had hoped she -would look. - -"Where am I?" she said. - -Of course Slightly was the first to get his word in. "Wendy lady," he -said rapidly, "for you we built this house." - -"Oh, say you're pleased," cried Nibs. - -"Lovely, darling house," Wendy said, and they were the very words they -had hoped she would say. - -"And we are your children," cried the twins. - -Then all went on their knees, and holding out their arms cried, "O Wendy -lady, be our mother." - -"Ought I?" Wendy said, all shining. "Of course it's frightfully -fascinating, but you see I am only a little girl. I have no real -experience." - -"That doesn't matter," said Peter, as if he were the only person present -who knew all about it, though he was really the one who knew least. -"What we need is just a nice motherly person." - -"Oh dear!" Wendy said, "you see, I feel that is exactly what I am." - -"It is, it is," they all cried; "we saw it at once." - -"Very well," she said, "I will do my best. Come inside at once, you -naughty children; I am sure your feet are damp. And before I put you to -bed I have just time to finish the story of Cinderella." - -In they went; I don't know how there was room for them, but you can -squeeze very tight in the Neverland. And that was the first of the many -joyous evenings they had with Wendy. By and by she tucked them up in the -great bed in the home under the trees, but she herself slept that night -in the little house, and Peter kept watch outside with drawn sword, for -the pirates could be heard carousing far away and the wolves were on the -prowl. The little house looked so cosy and safe in the darkness, with -a bright light showing through its blinds, and the chimney smoking -beautifully, and Peter standing on guard. After a time he fell asleep, -and some unsteady fairies had to climb over him on their way home from -an orgy. Any of the other boys obstructing the fairy path at night they -would have mischiefed, but they just tweaked Peter's nose and passed on. - - - - -Chapter 7 THE HOME UNDER THE GROUND - -One of the first things Peter did next day was to measure Wendy and John -and Michael for hollow trees. Hook, you remember, had sneered at the -boys for thinking they needed a tree apiece, but this was ignorance, for -unless your tree fitted you it was difficult to go up and down, and no -two of the boys were quite the same size. Once you fitted, you drew in -[let out] your breath at the top, and down you went at exactly the -right speed, while to ascend you drew in and let out alternately, and so -wriggled up. Of course, when you have mastered the action you are able -to do these things without thinking of them, and nothing can be more -graceful. - -But you simply must fit, and Peter measures you for your tree as -carefully as for a suit of clothes: the only difference being that the -clothes are made to fit you, while you have to be made to fit the tree. -Usually it is done quite easily, as by your wearing too many garments -or too few, but if you are bumpy in awkward places or the only available -tree is an odd shape, Peter does some things to you, and after that you -fit. Once you fit, great care must be taken to go on fitting, and this, -as Wendy was to discover to her delight, keeps a whole family in perfect -condition. - -Wendy and Michael fitted their trees at the first try, but John had to -be altered a little. - -After a few days' practice they could go up and down as gaily as buckets -in a well. And how ardently they grew to love their home under the -ground; especially Wendy. It consisted of one large room, as all houses -should do, with a floor in which you could dig [for worms] if you wanted -to go fishing, and in this floor grew stout mushrooms of a charming -colour, which were used as stools. A Never tree tried hard to grow in -the centre of the room, but every morning they sawed the trunk through, -level with the floor. By tea-time it was always about two feet high, and -then they put a door on top of it, the whole thus becoming a table; -as soon as they cleared away, they sawed off the trunk again, and thus -there was more room to play. There was an enormous fireplace which was -in almost any part of the room where you cared to light it, and across -this Wendy stretched strings, made of fibre, from which she suspended -her washing. The bed was tilted against the wall by day, and let down at -6:30, when it filled nearly half the room; and all the boys slept in it, -except Michael, lying like sardines in a tin. There was a strict rule -against turning round until one gave the signal, when all turned at -once. Michael should have used it also, but Wendy would have [desired] -a baby, and he was the littlest, and you know what women are, and the -short and long of it is that he was hung up in a basket. - -It was rough and simple, and not unlike what baby bears would have made -of an underground house in the same circumstances. But there was one -recess in the wall, no larger than a bird-cage, which was the private -apartment of Tinker Bell. It could be shut off from the rest of -the house by a tiny curtain, which Tink, who was most fastidious -[particular], always kept drawn when dressing or undressing. No woman, -however large, could have had a more exquisite boudoir [dressing room] -and bed-chamber combined. The couch, as she always called it, was -a genuine Queen Mab, with club legs; and she varied the bedspreads -according to what fruit-blossom was in season. Her mirror was a -Puss-in-Boots, of which there are now only three, unchipped, known to -fairy dealers; the washstand was Pie-crust and reversible, the chest -of drawers an authentic Charming the Sixth, and the carpet and rugs the -best (the early) period of Margery and Robin. There was a chandelier -from Tiddlywinks for the look of the thing, but of course she lit the -residence herself. Tink was very contemptuous of the rest of the house, -as indeed was perhaps inevitable, and her chamber, though beautiful, -looked rather conceited, having the appearance of a nose permanently -turned up. - -I suppose it was all especially entrancing to Wendy, because those -rampagious boys of hers gave her so much to do. Really there were whole -weeks when, except perhaps with a stocking in the evening, she was never -above ground. The cooking, I can tell you, kept her nose to the pot, and -even if there was nothing in it, even if there was no pot, she had to -keep watching that it came aboil just the same. You never exactly -knew whether there would be a real meal or just a make-believe, it all -depended upon Peter's whim: he could eat, really eat, if it was part of -a game, but he could not stodge [cram down the food] just to feel -stodgy [stuffed with food], which is what most children like better than -anything else; the next best thing being to talk about it. Make-believe -was so real to him that during a meal of it you could see him getting -rounder. Of course it was trying, but you simply had to follow his lead, -and if you could prove to him that you were getting loose for your tree -he let you stodge. - -Wendy's favourite time for sewing and darning was after they had all -gone to bed. Then, as she expressed it, she had a breathing time for -herself; and she occupied it in making new things for them, and putting -double pieces on the knees, for they were all most frightfully hard on -their knees. - -When she sat down to a basketful of their stockings, every heel with a -hole in it, she would fling up her arms and exclaim, "Oh dear, I am sure -I sometimes think spinsters are to be envied!" - -Her face beamed when she exclaimed this. - -You remember about her pet wolf. Well, it very soon discovered that she -had come to the island and it found her out, and they just ran into each -other's arms. After that it followed her about everywhere. - -As time wore on did she think much about the beloved parents she had -left behind her? This is a difficult question, because it is quite -impossible to say how time does wear on in the Neverland, where it is -calculated by moons and suns, and there are ever so many more of them -than on the mainland. But I am afraid that Wendy did not really worry -about her father and mother; she was absolutely confident that they -would always keep the window open for her to fly back by, and this gave -her complete ease of mind. What did disturb her at times was that John -remembered his parents vaguely only, as people he had once known, while -Michael was quite willing to believe that she was really his mother. -These things scared her a little, and nobly anxious to do her duty, she -tried to fix the old life in their minds by setting them examination -papers on it, as like as possible to the ones she used to do at school. -The other boys thought this awfully interesting, and insisted on -joining, and they made slates for themselves, and sat round the table, -writing and thinking hard about the questions she had written on another -slate and passed round. They were the most ordinary questions--"What -was the colour of Mother's eyes? Which was taller, Father or Mother? Was -Mother blonde or brunette? Answer all three questions if possible." -"(A) Write an essay of not less than 40 words on How I spent my last -Holidays, or The Characters of Father and Mother compared. Only one of -these to be attempted." Or "(1) Describe Mother's laugh; (2) Describe -Father's laugh; (3) Describe Mother's Party Dress; (4) Describe the -Kennel and its Inmate." - -They were just everyday questions like these, and when you could not -answer them you were told to make a cross; and it was really dreadful -what a number of crosses even John made. Of course the only boy who -replied to every question was Slightly, and no one could have been more -hopeful of coming out first, but his answers were perfectly ridiculous, -and he really came out last: a melancholy thing. - -Peter did not compete. For one thing he despised all mothers except -Wendy, and for another he was the only boy on the island who could -neither write nor spell; not the smallest word. He was above all that -sort of thing. - -By the way, the questions were all written in the past tense. What -was the colour of Mother's eyes, and so on. Wendy, you see, had been -forgetting, too. - -Adventures, of course, as we shall see, were of daily occurrence; but -about this time Peter invented, with Wendy's help, a new game that -fascinated him enormously, until he suddenly had no more interest in it, -which, as you have been told, was what always happened with his games. -It consisted in pretending not to have adventures, in doing the sort of -thing John and Michael had been doing all their lives, sitting on stools -flinging balls in the air, pushing each other, going out for walks and -coming back without having killed so much as a grizzly. To see Peter -doing nothing on a stool was a great sight; he could not help looking -solemn at such times, to sit still seemed to him such a comic thing to -do. He boasted that he had gone walking for the good of his health. For -several suns these were the most novel of all adventures to him; and -John and Michael had to pretend to be delighted also; otherwise he would -have treated them severely. - -He often went out alone, and when he came back you were never absolutely -certain whether he had had an adventure or not. He might have forgotten -it so completely that he said nothing about it; and then when you went -out you found the body; and, on the other hand, he might say a great -deal about it, and yet you could not find the body. Sometimes he came -home with his head bandaged, and then Wendy cooed over him and bathed -it in lukewarm water, while he told a dazzling tale. But she was never -quite sure, you know. There were, however, many adventures which she -knew to be true because she was in them herself, and there were still -more that were at least partly true, for the other boys were in them and -said they were wholly true. To describe them all would require a book as -large as an English-Latin, Latin-English Dictionary, and the most we can -do is to give one as a specimen of an average hour on the island. The -difficulty is which one to choose. Should we take the brush with the -redskins at Slightly Gulch? It was a sanguinary [cheerful] affair, and -especially interesting as showing one of Peter's peculiarities, which -was that in the middle of a fight he would suddenly change sides. At the -Gulch, when victory was still in the balance, sometimes leaning this way -and sometimes that, he called out, "I'm redskin to-day; what are you, -Tootles?" And Tootles answered, "Redskin; what are you, Nibs?" and -Nibs said, "Redskin; what are you Twin?" and so on; and they were all -redskins; and of course this would have ended the fight had not the real -redskins fascinated by Peter's methods, agreed to be lost boys for that -once, and so at it they all went again, more fiercely than ever. - -The extraordinary upshot of this adventure was--but we have not decided -yet that this is the adventure we are to narrate. Perhaps a better one -would be the night attack by the redskins on the house under the ground, -when several of them stuck in the hollow trees and had to be pulled out -like corks. Or we might tell how Peter saved Tiger Lily's life in the -Mermaids' Lagoon, and so made her his ally. - -Or we could tell of that cake the pirates cooked so that the boys might -eat it and perish; and how they placed it in one cunning spot after -another; but always Wendy snatched it from the hands of her children, so -that in time it lost its succulence, and became as hard as a stone, and -was used as a missile, and Hook fell over it in the dark. - -Or suppose we tell of the birds that were Peter's friends, particularly -of the Never bird that built in a tree overhanging the lagoon, and how -the nest fell into the water, and still the bird sat on her eggs, and -Peter gave orders that she was not to be disturbed. That is a pretty -story, and the end shows how grateful a bird can be; but if we tell -it we must also tell the whole adventure of the lagoon, which would -of course be telling two adventures rather than just one. A shorter -adventure, and quite as exciting, was Tinker Bell's attempt, with the -help of some street fairies, to have the sleeping Wendy conveyed on a -great floating leaf to the mainland. Fortunately the leaf gave way and -Wendy woke, thinking it was bath-time, and swam back. Or again, we might -choose Peter's defiance of the lions, when he drew a circle round him -on the ground with an arrow and dared them to cross it; and though he -waited for hours, with the other boys and Wendy looking on breathlessly -from trees, not one of them dared to accept his challenge. - -Which of these adventures shall we choose? The best way will be to toss -for it. - -I have tossed, and the lagoon has won. This almost makes one wish that -the gulch or the cake or Tink's leaf had won. Of course I could do it -again, and make it best out of three; however, perhaps fairest to stick -to the lagoon. - - - - -Chapter 8 THE MERMAIDS' LAGOON - -If you shut your eyes and are a lucky one, you may see at times a -shapeless pool of lovely pale colours suspended in the darkness; then -if you squeeze your eyes tighter, the pool begins to take shape, and the -colours become so vivid that with another squeeze they must go on fire. -But just before they go on fire you see the lagoon. This is the nearest -you ever get to it on the mainland, just one heavenly moment; if there -could be two moments you might see the surf and hear the mermaids -singing. - -The children often spent long summer days on this lagoon, swimming or -floating most of the time, playing the mermaid games in the water, -and so forth. You must not think from this that the mermaids were on -friendly terms with them: on the contrary, it was among Wendy's lasting -regrets that all the time she was on the island she never had a civil -word from one of them. When she stole softly to the edge of the lagoon -she might see them by the score, especially on Marooners' Rock, where -they loved to bask, combing out their hair in a lazy way that quite -irritated her; or she might even swim, on tiptoe as it were, to within -a yard of them, but then they saw her and dived, probably splashing her -with their tails, not by accident, but intentionally. - -They treated all the boys in the same way, except of course Peter, who -chatted with them on Marooners' Rock by the hour, and sat on their tails -when they got cheeky. He gave Wendy one of their combs. - -The most haunting time at which to see them is at the turn of the moon, -when they utter strange wailing cries; but the lagoon is dangerous for -mortals then, and until the evening of which we have now to tell, Wendy -had never seen the lagoon by moonlight, less from fear, for of course -Peter would have accompanied her, than because she had strict rules -about every one being in bed by seven. She was often at the lagoon, -however, on sunny days after rain, when the mermaids come up in -extraordinary numbers to play with their bubbles. The bubbles of many -colours made in rainbow water they treat as balls, hitting them gaily -from one to another with their tails, and trying to keep them in the -rainbow till they burst. The goals are at each end of the rainbow, and -the keepers only are allowed to use their hands. Sometimes a dozen of -these games will be going on in the lagoon at a time, and it is quite a -pretty sight. - -But the moment the children tried to join in they had to play by -themselves, for the mermaids immediately disappeared. Nevertheless we -have proof that they secretly watched the interlopers, and were not -above taking an idea from them; for John introduced a new way of hitting -the bubble, with the head instead of the hand, and the mermaids adopted -it. This is the one mark that John has left on the Neverland. - -It must also have been rather pretty to see the children resting on a -rock for half an hour after their mid-day meal. Wendy insisted on -their doing this, and it had to be a real rest even though the meal was -make-believe. So they lay there in the sun, and their bodies glistened -in it, while she sat beside them and looked important. - -It was one such day, and they were all on Marooners' Rock. The rock was -not much larger than their great bed, but of course they all knew how -not to take up much room, and they were dozing, or at least lying with -their eyes shut, and pinching occasionally when they thought Wendy was -not looking. She was very busy, stitching. - -While she stitched a change came to the lagoon. Little shivers ran over -it, and the sun went away and shadows stole across the water, turning -it cold. Wendy could no longer see to thread her needle, and when she -looked up, the lagoon that had always hitherto been such a laughing -place seemed formidable and unfriendly. - -It was not, she knew, that night had come, but something as dark as -night had come. No, worse than that. It had not come, but it had sent -that shiver through the sea to say that it was coming. What was it? - -There crowded upon her all the stories she had been told of Marooners' -Rock, so called because evil captains put sailors on it and leave -them there to drown. They drown when the tide rises, for then it is -submerged. - -Of course she should have roused the children at once; not merely -because of the unknown that was stalking toward them, but because it was -no longer good for them to sleep on a rock grown chilly. But she was -a young mother and she did not know this; she thought you simply must -stick to your rule about half an hour after the mid-day meal. So, though -fear was upon her, and she longed to hear male voices, she would not -waken them. Even when she heard the sound of muffled oars, though her -heart was in her mouth, she did not waken them. She stood over them to -let them have their sleep out. Was it not brave of Wendy? - -It was well for those boys then that there was one among them who could -sniff danger even in his sleep. Peter sprang erect, as wide awake at -once as a dog, and with one warning cry he roused the others. - -He stood motionless, one hand to his ear. - -"Pirates!" he cried. The others came closer to him. A strange smile was -playing about his face, and Wendy saw it and shuddered. While that smile -was on his face no one dared address him; all they could do was to stand -ready to obey. The order came sharp and incisive. - -"Dive!" - -There was a gleam of legs, and instantly the lagoon seemed deserted. -Marooners' Rock stood alone in the forbidding waters as if it were -itself marooned. - -The boat drew nearer. It was the pirate dinghy, with three figures in -her, Smee and Starkey, and the third a captive, no other than Tiger -Lily. Her hands and ankles were tied, and she knew what was to be her -fate. She was to be left on the rock to perish, an end to one of her -race more terrible than death by fire or torture, for is it not written -in the book of the tribe that there is no path through water to the -happy hunting-ground? Yet her face was impassive; she was the daughter -of a chief, she must die as a chief's daughter, it is enough. - -They had caught her boarding the pirate ship with a knife in her mouth. -No watch was kept on the ship, it being Hook's boast that the wind of -his name guarded the ship for a mile around. Now her fate would help to -guard it also. One more wail would go the round in that wind by night. - -In the gloom that they brought with them the two pirates did not see the -rock till they crashed into it. - -"Luff, you lubber," cried an Irish voice that was Smee's; "here's the -rock. Now, then, what we have to do is to hoist the redskin on to it and -leave her here to drown." - -It was the work of one brutal moment to land the beautiful girl on the -rock; she was too proud to offer a vain resistance. - -Quite near the rock, but out of sight, two heads were bobbing up and -down, Peter's and Wendy's. Wendy was crying, for it was the first -tragedy she had seen. Peter had seen many tragedies, but he had -forgotten them all. He was less sorry than Wendy for Tiger Lily: it was -two against one that angered him, and he meant to save her. An easy way -would have been to wait until the pirates had gone, but he was never one -to choose the easy way. - -There was almost nothing he could not do, and he now imitated the voice -of Hook. - -"Ahoy there, you lubbers!" he called. It was a marvellous imitation. - -"The captain!" said the pirates, staring at each other in surprise. - -"He must be swimming out to us," Starkey said, when they had looked for -him in vain. - -"We are putting the redskin on the rock," Smee called out. - -"Set her free," came the astonishing answer. - -"Free!" - -"Yes, cut her bonds and let her go." - -"But, captain--" - -"At once, d'ye hear," cried Peter, "or I'll plunge my hook in you." - -"This is queer!" Smee gasped. - -"Better do what the captain orders," said Starkey nervously. - -"Ay, ay." Smee said, and he cut Tiger Lily's cords. At once like an eel -she slid between Starkey's legs into the water. - -Of course Wendy was very elated over Peter's cleverness; but she knew -that he would be elated also and very likely crow and thus betray -himself, so at once her hand went out to cover his mouth. But it was -stayed even in the act, for "Boat ahoy!" rang over the lagoon in Hook's -voice, and this time it was not Peter who had spoken. - -Peter may have been about to crow, but his face puckered in a whistle of -surprise instead. - -"Boat ahoy!" again came the voice. - -Now Wendy understood. The real Hook was also in the water. - -He was swimming to the boat, and as his men showed a light to guide him -he had soon reached them. In the light of the lantern Wendy saw his hook -grip the boat's side; she saw his evil swarthy face as he rose dripping -from the water, and, quaking, she would have liked to swim away, but -Peter would not budge. He was tingling with life and also top-heavy with -conceit. "Am I not a wonder, oh, I am a wonder!" he whispered to her, -and though she thought so also, she was really glad for the sake of his -reputation that no one heard him except herself. - -He signed to her to listen. - -The two pirates were very curious to know what had brought their captain -to them, but he sat with his head on his hook in a position of profound -melancholy. - -"Captain, is all well?" they asked timidly, but he answered with a -hollow moan. - -"He sighs," said Smee. - -"He sighs again," said Starkey. - -"And yet a third time he sighs," said Smee. - -Then at last he spoke passionately. - -"The game's up," he cried, "those boys have found a mother." - -Affrighted though she was, Wendy swelled with pride. - -"O evil day!" cried Starkey. - -"What's a mother?" asked the ignorant Smee. - -Wendy was so shocked that she exclaimed. "He doesn't know!" and always -after this she felt that if you could have a pet pirate Smee would be -her one. - -Peter pulled her beneath the water, for Hook had started up, crying, -"What was that?" - -"I heard nothing," said Starkey, raising the lantern over the waters, -and as the pirates looked they saw a strange sight. It was the nest I -have told you of, floating on the lagoon, and the Never bird was sitting -on it. - -"See," said Hook in answer to Smee's question, "that is a mother. What -a lesson! The nest must have fallen into the water, but would the mother -desert her eggs? No." - -There was a break in his voice, as if for a moment he recalled innocent -days when--but he brushed away this weakness with his hook. - -Smee, much impressed, gazed at the bird as the nest was borne past, but -the more suspicious Starkey said, "If she is a mother, perhaps she is -hanging about here to help Peter." - -Hook winced. "Ay," he said, "that is the fear that haunts me." - -He was roused from this dejection by Smee's eager voice. - -"Captain," said Smee, "could we not kidnap these boys' mother and make -her our mother?" - -"It is a princely scheme," cried Hook, and at once it took practical -shape in his great brain. "We will seize the children and carry them to -the boat: the boys we will make walk the plank, and Wendy shall be our -mother." - -Again Wendy forgot herself. - -"Never!" she cried, and bobbed. - -"What was that?" - -But they could see nothing. They thought it must have been a leaf in the -wind. "Do you agree, my bullies?" asked Hook. - -"There is my hand on it," they both said. - -"And there is my hook. Swear." - -They all swore. By this time they were on the rock, and suddenly Hook -remembered Tiger Lily. - -"Where is the redskin?" he demanded abruptly. - -He had a playful humour at moments, and they thought this was one of the -moments. - -"That is all right, captain," Smee answered complacently; "we let her -go." - -"Let her go!" cried Hook. - -"'Twas your own orders," the bo'sun faltered. - -"You called over the water to us to let her go," said Starkey. - -"Brimstone and gall," thundered Hook, "what cozening [cheating] is -going on here!" His face had gone black with rage, but he saw that they -believed their words, and he was startled. "Lads," he said, shaking a -little, "I gave no such order." - -"It is passing queer," Smee said, and they all fidgeted uncomfortably. -Hook raised his voice, but there was a quiver in it. - -"Spirit that haunts this dark lagoon to-night," he cried, "dost hear -me?" - -Of course Peter should have kept quiet, but of course he did not. He -immediately answered in Hook's voice: - -"Odds, bobs, hammer and tongs, I hear you." - -In that supreme moment Hook did not blanch, even at the gills, but Smee -and Starkey clung to each other in terror. - -"Who are you, stranger? Speak!" Hook demanded. - -"I am James Hook," replied the voice, "captain of the JOLLY ROGER." - -"You are not; you are not," Hook cried hoarsely. - -"Brimstone and gall," the voice retorted, "say that again, and I'll cast -anchor in you." - -Hook tried a more ingratiating manner. "If you are Hook," he said almost -humbly, "come tell me, who am I?" - -"A codfish," replied the voice, "only a codfish." - -"A codfish!" Hook echoed blankly, and it was then, but not till then, -that his proud spirit broke. He saw his men draw back from him. - -"Have we been captained all this time by a codfish!" they muttered. "It -is lowering to our pride." - -They were his dogs snapping at him, but, tragic figure though he had -become, he scarcely heeded them. Against such fearful evidence it was -not their belief in him that he needed, it was his own. He felt his ego -slipping from him. "Don't desert me, bully," he whispered hoarsely to -it. - -In his dark nature there was a touch of the feminine, as in all the -great pirates, and it sometimes gave him intuitions. Suddenly he tried -the guessing game. - -"Hook," he called, "have you another voice?" - -Now Peter could never resist a game, and he answered blithely in his own -voice, "I have." - -"And another name?" - -"Ay, ay." - -"Vegetable?" asked Hook. - -"No." - -"Mineral?" - -"No." - -"Animal?" - -"Yes." - -"Man?" - -"No!" This answer rang out scornfully. - -"Boy?" - -"Yes." - -"Ordinary boy?" - -"No!" - -"Wonderful boy?" - -To Wendy's pain the answer that rang out this time was "Yes." - -"Are you in England?" - -"No." - -"Are you here?" - -"Yes." - -Hook was completely puzzled. "You ask him some questions," he said to -the others, wiping his damp brow. - -Smee reflected. "I can't think of a thing," he said regretfully. - -"Can't guess, can't guess!" crowed Peter. "Do you give it up?" - -Of course in his pride he was carrying the game too far, and the -miscreants [villains] saw their chance. - -"Yes, yes," they answered eagerly. - -"Well, then," he cried, "I am Peter Pan." - -Pan! - -In a moment Hook was himself again, and Smee and Starkey were his -faithful henchmen. - -"Now we have him," Hook shouted. "Into the water, Smee. Starkey, mind -the boat. Take him dead or alive!" - -He leaped as he spoke, and simultaneously came the gay voice of Peter. - -"Are you ready, boys?" - -"Ay, ay," from various parts of the lagoon. - -"Then lam into the pirates." - -The fight was short and sharp. First to draw blood was John, who -gallantly climbed into the boat and held Starkey. There was fierce -struggle, in which the cutlass was torn from the pirate's grasp. He -wriggled overboard and John leapt after him. The dinghy drifted away. - -Here and there a head bobbed up in the water, and there was a flash -of steel followed by a cry or a whoop. In the confusion some struck at -their own side. The corkscrew of Smee got Tootles in the fourth rib, but -he was himself pinked [nicked] in turn by Curly. Farther from the rock -Starkey was pressing Slightly and the twins hard. - -Where all this time was Peter? He was seeking bigger game. - -The others were all brave boys, and they must not be blamed for backing -from the pirate captain. His iron claw made a circle of dead water round -him, from which they fled like affrighted fishes. - -But there was one who did not fear him: there was one prepared to enter -that circle. - -Strangely, it was not in the water that they met. Hook rose to the rock -to breathe, and at the same moment Peter scaled it on the opposite -side. The rock was slippery as a ball, and they had to crawl rather than -climb. Neither knew that the other was coming. Each feeling for a grip -met the other's arm: in surprise they raised their heads; their faces -were almost touching; so they met. - -Some of the greatest heroes have confessed that just before they fell to -[began combat] they had a sinking [feeling in the stomach]. Had it been -so with Peter at that moment I would admit it. After all, he was the -only man that the Sea-Cook had feared. But Peter had no sinking, he had -one feeling only, gladness; and he gnashed his pretty teeth with joy. -Quick as thought he snatched a knife from Hook's belt and was about to -drive it home, when he saw that he was higher up the rock that his foe. -It would not have been fighting fair. He gave the pirate a hand to help -him up. - -It was then that Hook bit him. - -Not the pain of this but its unfairness was what dazed Peter. It made -him quite helpless. He could only stare, horrified. Every child is -affected thus the first time he is treated unfairly. All he thinks he -has a right to when he comes to you to be yours is fairness. After -you have been unfair to him he will love you again, but will never -afterwards be quite the same boy. No one ever gets over the first -unfairness; no one except Peter. He often met it, but he always forgot -it. I suppose that was the real difference between him and all the rest. - -So when he met it now it was like the first time; and he could just -stare, helpless. Twice the iron hand clawed him. - -A few moments afterwards the other boys saw Hook in the water striking -wildly for the ship; no elation on the pestilent face now, only white -fear, for the crocodile was in dogged pursuit of him. On ordinary -occasions the boys would have swum alongside cheering; but now they were -uneasy, for they had lost both Peter and Wendy, and were scouring the -lagoon for them, calling them by name. They found the dinghy and went -home in it, shouting "Peter, Wendy" as they went, but no answer came -save mocking laughter from the mermaids. "They must be swimming back or -flying," the boys concluded. They were not very anxious, because they -had such faith in Peter. They chuckled, boylike, because they would be -late for bed; and it was all mother Wendy's fault! - -When their voices died away there came cold silence over the lagoon, and -then a feeble cry. - -"Help, help!" - -Two small figures were beating against the rock; the girl had fainted -and lay on the boy's arm. With a last effort Peter pulled her up the -rock and then lay down beside her. Even as he also fainted he saw that -the water was rising. He knew that they would soon be drowned, but he -could do no more. - -As they lay side by side a mermaid caught Wendy by the feet, and began -pulling her softly into the water. Peter, feeling her slip from him, -woke with a start, and was just in time to draw her back. But he had to -tell her the truth. - -"We are on the rock, Wendy," he said, "but it is growing smaller. Soon -the water will be over it." - -She did not understand even now. - -"We must go," she said, almost brightly. - -"Yes," he answered faintly. - -"Shall we swim or fly, Peter?" - -He had to tell her. - -"Do you think you could swim or fly as far as the island, Wendy, without -my help?" - -She had to admit that she was too tired. - -He moaned. - -"What is it?" she asked, anxious about him at once. - -"I can't help you, Wendy. Hook wounded me. I can neither fly nor swim." - -"Do you mean we shall both be drowned?" - -"Look how the water is rising." - -They put their hands over their eyes to shut out the sight. They thought -they would soon be no more. As they sat thus something brushed against -Peter as light as a kiss, and stayed there, as if saying timidly, "Can I -be of any use?" - -It was the tail of a kite, which Michael had made some days before. It -had torn itself out of his hand and floated away. - -"Michael's kite," Peter said without interest, but next moment he had -seized the tail, and was pulling the kite toward him. - -"It lifted Michael off the ground," he cried; "why should it not carry -you?" - -"Both of us!" - -"It can't lift two; Michael and Curly tried." - -"Let us draw lots," Wendy said bravely. - -"And you a lady; never." Already he had tied the tail round her. She -clung to him; she refused to go without him; but with a "Good-bye, -Wendy," he pushed her from the rock; and in a few minutes she was borne -out of his sight. Peter was alone on the lagoon. - -The rock was very small now; soon it would be submerged. Pale rays of -light tiptoed across the waters; and by and by there was to be heard a -sound at once the most musical and the most melancholy in the world: the -mermaids calling to the moon. - -Peter was not quite like other boys; but he was afraid at last. A -tremour ran through him, like a shudder passing over the sea; but on -the sea one shudder follows another till there are hundreds of them, and -Peter felt just the one. Next moment he was standing erect on the rock -again, with that smile on his face and a drum beating within him. It was -saying, "To die will be an awfully big adventure." - - - - -Chapter 9 THE NEVER BIRD - -The last sound Peter heard before he was quite alone were the mermaids -retiring one by one to their bedchambers under the sea. He was too far -away to hear their doors shut; but every door in the coral caves where -they live rings a tiny bell when it opens or closes (as in all the -nicest houses on the mainland), and he heard the bells. - -Steadily the waters rose till they were nibbling at his feet; and to -pass the time until they made their final gulp, he watched the only -thing on the lagoon. He thought it was a piece of floating paper, -perhaps part of the kite, and wondered idly how long it would take to -drift ashore. - -Presently he noticed as an odd thing that it was undoubtedly out upon -the lagoon with some definite purpose, for it was fighting the tide, -and sometimes winning; and when it won, Peter, always sympathetic to -the weaker side, could not help clapping; it was such a gallant piece of -paper. - -It was not really a piece of paper; it was the Never bird, making -desperate efforts to reach Peter on the nest. By working her wings, in a -way she had learned since the nest fell into the water, she was able to -some extent to guide her strange craft, but by the time Peter recognised -her she was very exhausted. She had come to save him, to give him her -nest, though there were eggs in it. I rather wonder at the bird, for -though he had been nice to her, he had also sometimes tormented her. I -can suppose only that, like Mrs. Darling and the rest of them, she was -melted because he had all his first teeth. - -She called out to him what she had come for, and he called out to her -what she was doing there; but of course neither of them understood -the other's language. In fanciful stories people can talk to the birds -freely, and I wish for the moment I could pretend that this were such a -story, and say that Peter replied intelligently to the Never bird; but -truth is best, and I want to tell you only what really happened. Well, -not only could they not understand each other, but they forgot their -manners. - -"I--want--you--to--get--into--the--nest," the bird called, speaking as -slowly and distinctly as possible, "and--then--you--can--drift--ashore, -but--I--am--too--tired--to--bring--it--any--nearer--so--you--must--try -to--swim--to--it." - -"What are you quacking about?" Peter answered. "Why don't you let the -nest drift as usual?" - -"I--want--you--" the bird said, and repeated it all over. - -Then Peter tried slow and distinct. - -"What--are--you--quacking--about?" and so on. - -The Never bird became irritated; they have very short tempers. - -"You dunderheaded little jay," she screamed, "Why don't you do as I tell -you?" - -Peter felt that she was calling him names, and at a venture he retorted -hotly: - -"So are you!" - -Then rather curiously they both snapped out the same remark: - -"Shut up!" - -"Shut up!" - -Nevertheless the bird was determined to save him if she could, and by -one last mighty effort she propelled the nest against the rock. Then up -she flew; deserting her eggs, so as to make her meaning clear. - -Then at last he understood, and clutched the nest and waved his thanks -to the bird as she fluttered overhead. It was not to receive his thanks, -however, that she hung there in the sky; it was not even to watch him -get into the nest; it was to see what he did with her eggs. - -There were two large white eggs, and Peter lifted them up and reflected. -The bird covered her face with her wings, so as not to see the last of -them; but she could not help peeping between the feathers. - -I forget whether I have told you that there was a stave on the rock, -driven into it by some buccaneers of long ago to mark the site of buried -treasure. The children had discovered the glittering hoard, and when in -a mischievous mood used to fling showers of moidores, diamonds, pearls -and pieces of eight to the gulls, who pounced upon them for food, and -then flew away, raging at the scurvy trick that had been played upon -them. The stave was still there, and on it Starkey had hung his hat, a -deep tarpaulin, watertight, with a broad brim. Peter put the eggs into -this hat and set it on the lagoon. It floated beautifully. - -The Never bird saw at once what he was up to, and screamed her -admiration of him; and, alas, Peter crowed his agreement with her. Then -he got into the nest, reared the stave in it as a mast, and hung up his -shirt for a sail. At the same moment the bird fluttered down upon the -hat and once more sat snugly on her eggs. She drifted in one direction, -and he was borne off in another, both cheering. - -Of course when Peter landed he beached his barque [small ship, actually -the Never Bird's nest in this particular case in point] in a place where -the bird would easily find it; but the hat was such a great success that -she abandoned the nest. It drifted about till it went to pieces, and -often Starkey came to the shore of the lagoon, and with many bitter -feelings watched the bird sitting on his hat. As we shall not see her -again, it may be worth mentioning here that all Never birds now build -in that shape of nest, with a broad brim on which the youngsters take an -airing. - -Great were the rejoicings when Peter reached the home under the ground -almost as soon as Wendy, who had been carried hither and thither by -the kite. Every boy had adventures to tell; but perhaps the biggest -adventure of all was that they were several hours late for bed. This so -inflated them that they did various dodgy things to get staying up still -longer, such as demanding bandages; but Wendy, though glorying in having -them all home again safe and sound, was scandalised by the lateness of -the hour, and cried, "To bed, to bed," in a voice that had to be obeyed. -Next day, however, she was awfully tender, and gave out bandages to -every one, and they played till bed-time at limping about and carrying -their arms in slings. - - - - -Chapter 10 THE HAPPY HOME - -One important result of the brush [with the pirates] on the lagoon was -that it made the redskins their friends. Peter had saved Tiger Lily from -a dreadful fate, and now there was nothing she and her braves would not -do for him. All night they sat above, keeping watch over the home under -the ground and awaiting the big attack by the pirates which obviously -could not be much longer delayed. Even by day they hung about, smoking -the pipe of peace, and looking almost as if they wanted tit-bits to eat. - -They called Peter the Great White Father, prostrating themselves [lying -down] before him; and he liked this tremendously, so that it was not -really good for him. - -"The great white father," he would say to them in a very lordly manner, -as they grovelled at his feet, "is glad to see the Piccaninny warriors -protecting his wigwam from the pirates." - -"Me Tiger Lily," that lovely creature would reply. "Peter Pan save me, -me his velly nice friend. Me no let pirates hurt him." - -She was far too pretty to cringe in this way, but Peter thought it his -due, and he would answer condescendingly, "It is good. Peter Pan has -spoken." - -Always when he said, "Peter Pan has spoken," it meant that they must now -shut up, and they accepted it humbly in that spirit; but they were by -no means so respectful to the other boys, whom they looked upon as just -ordinary braves. They said "How-do?" to them, and things like that; and -what annoyed the boys was that Peter seemed to think this all right. - -Secretly Wendy sympathised with them a little, but she was far too loyal -a housewife to listen to any complaints against father. "Father knows -best," she always said, whatever her private opinion must be. Her -private opinion was that the redskins should not call her a squaw. - -We have now reached the evening that was to be known among them as the -Night of Nights, because of its adventures and their upshot. The day, as -if quietly gathering its forces, had been almost uneventful, and now the -redskins in their blankets were at their posts above, while, below, the -children were having their evening meal; all except Peter, who had gone -out to get the time. The way you got the time on the island was to find -the crocodile, and then stay near him till the clock struck. - -The meal happened to be a make-believe tea, and they sat around the -board, guzzling in their greed; and really, what with their chatter and -recriminations, the noise, as Wendy said, was positively deafening. -To be sure, she did not mind noise, but she simply would not have them -grabbing things, and then excusing themselves by saying that Tootles had -pushed their elbow. There was a fixed rule that they must never hit back -at meals, but should refer the matter of dispute to Wendy by raising -the right arm politely and saying, "I complain of so-and-so;" but what -usually happened was that they forgot to do this or did it too much. - -"Silence," cried Wendy when for the twentieth time she had told them -that they were not all to speak at once. "Is your mug empty, Slightly -darling?" - -"Not quite empty, mummy," Slightly said, after looking into an imaginary -mug. - -"He hasn't even begun to drink his milk," Nibs interposed. - -This was telling, and Slightly seized his chance. - -"I complain of Nibs," he cried promptly. - -John, however, had held up his hand first. - -"Well, John?" - -"May I sit in Peter's chair, as he is not here?" - -"Sit in father's chair, John!" Wendy was scandalised. "Certainly not." - -"He is not really our father," John answered. "He didn't even know how a -father does till I showed him." - -This was grumbling. "We complain of John," cried the twins. - -Tootles held up his hand. He was so much the humblest of them, indeed he -was the only humble one, that Wendy was specially gentle with him. - -"I don't suppose," Tootles said diffidently [bashfully or timidly], -"that I could be father." - -"No, Tootles." - -Once Tootles began, which was not very often, he had a silly way of -going on. - -"As I can't be father," he said heavily, "I don't suppose, Michael, you -would let me be baby?" - -"No, I won't," Michael rapped out. He was already in his basket. - -"As I can't be baby," Tootles said, getting heavier and heavier and -heavier, "do you think I could be a twin?" - -"No, indeed," replied the twins; "it's awfully difficult to be a twin." - -"As I can't be anything important," said Tootles, "would any of you like -to see me do a trick?" - -"No," they all replied. - -Then at last he stopped. "I hadn't really any hope," he said. - -The hateful telling broke out again. - -"Slightly is coughing on the table." - -"The twins began with cheese-cakes." - -"Curly is taking both butter and honey." - -"Nibs is speaking with his mouth full." - -"I complain of the twins." - -"I complain of Curly." - -"I complain of Nibs." - -"Oh dear, oh dear," cried Wendy, "I'm sure I sometimes think that -spinsters are to be envied." - -She told them to clear away, and sat down to her work-basket, a heavy -load of stockings and every knee with a hole in it as usual. - -"Wendy," remonstrated [scolded] Michael, "I'm too big for a cradle." - -"I must have somebody in a cradle," she said almost tartly, "and you -are the littlest. A cradle is such a nice homely thing to have about a -house." - -While she sewed they played around her; such a group of happy faces -and dancing limbs lit up by that romantic fire. It had become a very -familiar scene, this, in the home under the ground, but we are looking -on it for the last time. - -There was a step above, and Wendy, you may be sure, was the first to -recognize it. - -"Children, I hear your father's step. He likes you to meet him at the -door." - -Above, the redskins crouched before Peter. - -"Watch well, braves. I have spoken." - -And then, as so often before, the gay children dragged him from his -tree. As so often before, but never again. - -He had brought nuts for the boys as well as the correct time for Wendy. - -"Peter, you just spoil them, you know," Wendy simpered [exaggerated a -smile]. - -"Ah, old lady," said Peter, hanging up his gun. - -"It was me told him mothers are called old lady," Michael whispered to -Curly. - -"I complain of Michael," said Curly instantly. - -The first twin came to Peter. "Father, we want to dance." - -"Dance away, my little man," said Peter, who was in high good humour. - -"But we want you to dance." - -Peter was really the best dancer among them, but he pretended to be -scandalised. - -"Me! My old bones would rattle!" - -"And mummy too." - -"What," cried Wendy, "the mother of such an armful, dance!" - -"But on a Saturday night," Slightly insinuated. - -It was not really Saturday night, at least it may have been, for -they had long lost count of the days; but always if they wanted to do -anything special they said this was Saturday night, and then they did -it. - -"Of course it is Saturday night, Peter," Wendy said, relenting. - -"People of our figure, Wendy!" - -"But it is only among our own progeny [children]." - -"True, true." - -So they were told they could dance, but they must put on their nighties -first. - -"Ah, old lady," Peter said aside to Wendy, warming himself by the fire -and looking down at her as she sat turning a heel, "there is nothing -more pleasant of an evening for you and me when the day's toil is over -than to rest by the fire with the little ones near by." - -"It is sweet, Peter, isn't it?" Wendy said, frightfully gratified. -"Peter, I think Curly has your nose." - -"Michael takes after you." - -She went to him and put her hand on his shoulder. - -"Dear Peter," she said, "with such a large family, of course, I have now -passed my best, but you don't want to [ex]change me, do you?" - -"No, Wendy." - -Certainly he did not want a change, but he looked at her uncomfortably, -blinking, you know, like one not sure whether he was awake or asleep. - -"Peter, what is it?" - -"I was just thinking," he said, a little scared. "It is only -make-believe, isn't it, that I am their father?" - -"Oh yes," Wendy said primly [formally and properly]. - -"You see," he continued apologetically, "it would make me seem so old to -be their real father." - -"But they are ours, Peter, yours and mine." - -"But not really, Wendy?" he asked anxiously. - -"Not if you don't wish it," she replied; and she distinctly heard his -sigh of relief. "Peter," she asked, trying to speak firmly, "what are -your exact feelings to [about] me?" - -"Those of a devoted son, Wendy." - -"I thought so," she said, and went and sat by herself at the extreme end -of the room. - -"You are so queer," he said, frankly puzzled, "and Tiger Lily is just -the same. There is something she wants to be to me, but she says it is -not my mother." - -"No, indeed, it is not," Wendy replied with frightful emphasis. Now we -know why she was prejudiced against the redskins. - -"Then what is it?" - -"It isn't for a lady to tell." - -"Oh, very well," Peter said, a little nettled. "Perhaps Tinker Bell will -tell me." - -"Oh yes, Tinker Bell will tell you," Wendy retorted scornfully. "She is -an abandoned little creature." - -Here Tink, who was in her bedroom, eavesdropping, squeaked out something -impudent. - -"She says she glories in being abandoned," Peter interpreted. - -He had a sudden idea. "Perhaps Tink wants to be my mother?" - -"You silly ass!" cried Tinker Bell in a passion. - -She had said it so often that Wendy needed no translation. - -"I almost agree with her," Wendy snapped. Fancy Wendy snapping! But she -had been much tried, and she little knew what was to happen before the -night was out. If she had known she would not have snapped. - -None of them knew. Perhaps it was best not to know. Their ignorance -gave them one more glad hour; and as it was to be their last hour on the -island, let us rejoice that there were sixty glad minutes in it. They -sang and danced in their night-gowns. Such a deliciously creepy song -it was, in which they pretended to be frightened at their own shadows, -little witting that so soon shadows would close in upon them, from whom -they would shrink in real fear. So uproariously gay was the dance, and -how they buffeted each other on the bed and out of it! It was a pillow -fight rather than a dance, and when it was finished, the pillows -insisted on one bout more, like partners who know that they may never -meet again. The stories they told, before it was time for Wendy's -good-night story! Even Slightly tried to tell a story that night, but -the beginning was so fearfully dull that it appalled not only the others -but himself, and he said happily: - -"Yes, it is a dull beginning. I say, let us pretend that it is the end." - -And then at last they all got into bed for Wendy's story, the story they -loved best, the story Peter hated. Usually when she began to tell this -story he left the room or put his hands over his ears; and possibly if -he had done either of those things this time they might all still be on -the island. But to-night he remained on his stool; and we shall see what -happened. - - - - -Chapter 11 WENDY'S STORY - -"Listen, then," said Wendy, settling down to her story, with Michael at -her feet and seven boys in the bed. "There was once a gentleman--" - -"I had rather he had been a lady," Curly said. - -"I wish he had been a white rat," said Nibs. - -"Quiet," their mother admonished [cautioned] them. "There was a lady -also, and--" - -"Oh, mummy," cried the first twin, "you mean that there is a lady also, -don't you? She is not dead, is she?" - -"Oh, no." - -"I am awfully glad she isn't dead," said Tootles. "Are you glad, John?" - -"Of course I am." - -"Are you glad, Nibs?" - -"Rather." - -"Are you glad, Twins?" - -"We are glad." - -"Oh dear," sighed Wendy. - -"Little less noise there," Peter called out, determined that she should -have fair play, however beastly a story it might be in his opinion. - -"The gentleman's name," Wendy continued, "was Mr. Darling, and her name -was Mrs. Darling." - -"I knew them," John said, to annoy the others. - -"I think I knew them," said Michael rather doubtfully. - -"They were married, you know," explained Wendy, "and what do you think -they had?" - -"White rats," cried Nibs, inspired. - -"No." - -"It's awfully puzzling," said Tootles, who knew the story by heart. - -"Quiet, Tootles. They had three descendants." - -"What is descendants?" - -"Well, you are one, Twin." - -"Did you hear that, John? I am a descendant." - -"Descendants are only children," said John. - -"Oh dear, oh dear," sighed Wendy. "Now these three children had a -faithful nurse called Nana; but Mr. Darling was angry with her and -chained her up in the yard, and so all the children flew away." - -"It's an awfully good story," said Nibs. - -"They flew away," Wendy continued, "to the Neverland, where the lost -children are." - -"I just thought they did," Curly broke in excitedly. "I don't know how -it is, but I just thought they did!" - -"O Wendy," cried Tootles, "was one of the lost children called Tootles?" - -"Yes, he was." - -"I am in a story. Hurrah, I am in a story, Nibs." - -"Hush. Now I want you to consider the feelings of the unhappy parents -with all their children flown away." - -"Oo!" they all moaned, though they were not really considering the -feelings of the unhappy parents one jot. - -"Think of the empty beds!" - -"Oo!" - -"It's awfully sad," the first twin said cheerfully. - -"I don't see how it can have a happy ending," said the second twin. "Do -you, Nibs?" - -"I'm frightfully anxious." - -"If you knew how great is a mother's love," Wendy told them -triumphantly, "you would have no fear." She had now come to the part -that Peter hated. - -"I do like a mother's love," said Tootles, hitting Nibs with a pillow. -"Do you like a mother's love, Nibs?" - -"I do just," said Nibs, hitting back. - -"You see," Wendy said complacently, "our heroine knew that the mother -would always leave the window open for her children to fly back by; so -they stayed away for years and had a lovely time." - -"Did they ever go back?" - -"Let us now," said Wendy, bracing herself up for her finest effort, -"take a peep into the future;" and they all gave themselves the twist -that makes peeps into the future easier. "Years have rolled by, and who -is this elegant lady of uncertain age alighting at London Station?" - -"O Wendy, who is she?" cried Nibs, every bit as excited as if he didn't -know. - -"Can it be--yes--no--it is--the fair Wendy!" - -"Oh!" - -"And who are the two noble portly figures accompanying her, now grown to -man's estate? Can they be John and Michael? They are!" - -"Oh!" - -"'See, dear brothers,' says Wendy pointing upwards, 'there is the window -still standing open. Ah, now we are rewarded for our sublime faith in a -mother's love.' So up they flew to their mummy and daddy, and pen cannot -describe the happy scene, over which we draw a veil." - -That was the story, and they were as pleased with it as the fair -narrator herself. Everything just as it should be, you see. Off we skip -like the most heartless things in the world, which is what children are, -but so attractive; and we have an entirely selfish time, and then when -we have need of special attention we nobly return for it, confident that -we shall be rewarded instead of smacked. - -So great indeed was their faith in a mother's love that they felt they -could afford to be callous for a bit longer. - -But there was one there who knew better, and when Wendy finished he -uttered a hollow groan. - -"What is it, Peter?" she cried, running to him, thinking he was ill. She -felt him solicitously, lower down than his chest. "Where is it, Peter?" - -"It isn't that kind of pain," Peter replied darkly. - -"Then what kind is it?" - -"Wendy, you are wrong about mothers." - -They all gathered round him in affright, so alarming was his agitation; -and with a fine candour he told them what he had hitherto concealed. - -"Long ago," he said, "I thought like you that my mother would always -keep the window open for me, so I stayed away for moons and moons and -moons, and then flew back; but the window was barred, for mother had -forgotten all about me, and there was another little boy sleeping in my -bed." - -I am not sure that this was true, but Peter thought it was true; and it -scared them. - -"Are you sure mothers are like that?" - -"Yes." - -So this was the truth about mothers. The toads! - -Still it is best to be careful; and no one knows so quickly as a child -when he should give in. "Wendy, let us [let's] go home," cried John and -Michael together. - -"Yes," she said, clutching them. - -"Not to-night?" asked the lost boys bewildered. They knew in what they -called their hearts that one can get on quite well without a mother, and -that it is only the mothers who think you can't. - -"At once," Wendy replied resolutely, for the horrible thought had come -to her: "Perhaps mother is in half mourning by this time." - -This dread made her forgetful of what must be Peter's feelings, and -she said to him rather sharply, "Peter, will you make the necessary -arrangements?" - -"If you wish it," he replied, as coolly as if she had asked him to pass -the nuts. - -Not so much as a sorry-to-lose-you between them! If she did not mind the -parting, he was going to show her, was Peter, that neither did he. - -But of course he cared very much; and he was so full of wrath against -grown-ups, who, as usual, were spoiling everything, that as soon as he -got inside his tree he breathed intentionally quick short breaths at the -rate of about five to a second. He did this because there is a saying in -the Neverland that, every time you breathe, a grown-up dies; and Peter -was killing them off vindictively as fast as possible. - -Then having given the necessary instructions to the redskins he returned -to the home, where an unworthy scene had been enacted in his absence. -Panic-stricken at the thought of losing Wendy the lost boys had advanced -upon her threateningly. - -"It will be worse than before she came," they cried. - -"We shan't let her go." - -"Let's keep her prisoner." - -"Ay, chain her up." - -In her extremity an instinct told her to which of them to turn. - -"Tootles," she cried, "I appeal to you." - -Was it not strange? She appealed to Tootles, quite the silliest one. - -Grandly, however, did Tootles respond. For that one moment he dropped -his silliness and spoke with dignity. - -"I am just Tootles," he said, "and nobody minds me. But the first who -does not behave to Wendy like an English gentleman I will blood him -severely." - -He drew back his hanger; and for that instant his sun was at noon. The -others held back uneasily. Then Peter returned, and they saw at once -that they would get no support from him. He would keep no girl in the -Neverland against her will. - -"Wendy," he said, striding up and down, "I have asked the redskins to -guide you through the wood, as flying tires you so." - -"Thank you, Peter." - -"Then," he continued, in the short sharp voice of one accustomed to be -obeyed, "Tinker Bell will take you across the sea. Wake her, Nibs." - -Nibs had to knock twice before he got an answer, though Tink had really -been sitting up in bed listening for some time. - -"Who are you? How dare you? Go away," she cried. - -"You are to get up, Tink," Nibs called, "and take Wendy on a journey." - -Of course Tink had been delighted to hear that Wendy was going; but -she was jolly well determined not to be her courier, and she said so in -still more offensive language. Then she pretended to be asleep again. - -"She says she won't!" Nibs exclaimed, aghast at such insubordination, -whereupon Peter went sternly toward the young lady's chamber. - -"Tink," he rapped out, "if you don't get up and dress at once I will -open the curtains, and then we shall all see you in your negligee -[nightgown]." - -This made her leap to the floor. "Who said I wasn't getting up?" she -cried. - -In the meantime the boys were gazing very forlornly at Wendy, now -equipped with John and Michael for the journey. By this time they were -dejected, not merely because they were about to lose her, but also -because they felt that she was going off to something nice to which they -had not been invited. Novelty was beckoning to them as usual. - -Crediting them with a nobler feeling Wendy melted. - -"Dear ones," she said, "if you will all come with me I feel almost sure -I can get my father and mother to adopt you." - -The invitation was meant specially for Peter, but each of the boys was -thinking exclusively of himself, and at once they jumped with joy. - -"But won't they think us rather a handful?" Nibs asked in the middle of -his jump. - -"Oh no," said Wendy, rapidly thinking it out, "it will only mean having -a few beds in the drawing-room; they can be hidden behind the screens on -first Thursdays." - -"Peter, can we go?" they all cried imploringly. They took it for granted -that if they went he would go also, but really they scarcely cared. Thus -children are ever ready, when novelty knocks, to desert their dearest -ones. - -"All right," Peter replied with a bitter smile, and immediately they -rushed to get their things. - -"And now, Peter," Wendy said, thinking she had put everything right, -"I am going to give you your medicine before you go." She loved to give -them medicine, and undoubtedly gave them too much. Of course it was only -water, but it was out of a bottle, and she always shook the bottle and -counted the drops, which gave it a certain medicinal quality. On this -occasion, however, she did not give Peter his draught [portion], for -just as she had prepared it, she saw a look on his face that made her -heart sink. - -"Get your things, Peter," she cried, shaking. - -"No," he answered, pretending indifference, "I am not going with you, -Wendy." - -"Yes, Peter." - -"No." - -To show that her departure would leave him unmoved, he skipped up and -down the room, playing gaily on his heartless pipes. She had to run -about after him, though it was rather undignified. - -"To find your mother," she coaxed. - -Now, if Peter had ever quite had a mother, he no longer missed her. He -could do very well without one. He had thought them out, and remembered -only their bad points. - -"No, no," he told Wendy decisively; "perhaps she would say I was old, -and I just want always to be a little boy and to have fun." - -"But, Peter--" - -"No." - -And so the others had to be told. - -"Peter isn't coming." - -Peter not coming! They gazed blankly at him, their sticks over their -backs, and on each stick a bundle. Their first thought was that if Peter -was not going he had probably changed his mind about letting them go. - -But he was far too proud for that. "If you find your mothers," he said -darkly, "I hope you will like them." - -The awful cynicism of this made an uncomfortable impression, and most -of them began to look rather doubtful. After all, their faces said, were -they not noodles to want to go? - -"Now then," cried Peter, "no fuss, no blubbering; good-bye, Wendy;" and -he held out his hand cheerily, quite as if they must really go now, for -he had something important to do. - -She had to take his hand, and there was no indication that he would -prefer a thimble. - -"You will remember about changing your flannels, Peter?" she said, -lingering over him. She was always so particular about their flannels. - -"Yes." - -"And you will take your medicine?" - -"Yes." - -That seemed to be everything, and an awkward pause followed. Peter, -however, was not the kind that breaks down before other people. "Are you -ready, Tinker Bell?" he called out. - -"Ay, ay." - -"Then lead the way." - -Tink darted up the nearest tree; but no one followed her, for it was -at this moment that the pirates made their dreadful attack upon the -redskins. Above, where all had been so still, the air was rent with -shrieks and the clash of steel. Below, there was dead silence. Mouths -opened and remained open. Wendy fell on her knees, but her arms were -extended toward Peter. All arms were extended to him, as if suddenly -blown in his direction; they were beseeching him mutely not to desert -them. As for Peter, he seized his sword, the same he thought he had -slain Barbecue with, and the lust of battle was in his eye. - - - - -Chapter 12 THE CHILDREN ARE CARRIED OFF - -The pirate attack had been a complete surprise: a sure proof that the -unscrupulous Hook had conducted it improperly, for to surprise redskins -fairly is beyond the wit of the white man. - -By all the unwritten laws of savage warfare it is always the redskin who -attacks, and with the wiliness of his race he does it just before the -dawn, at which time he knows the courage of the whites to be at its -lowest ebb. The white men have in the meantime made a rude stockade on -the summit of yonder undulating ground, at the foot of which a stream -runs, for it is destruction to be too far from water. There they await -the onslaught, the inexperienced ones clutching their revolvers and -treading on twigs, but the old hands sleeping tranquilly until just -before the dawn. Through the long black night the savage scouts wriggle, -snake-like, among the grass without stirring a blade. The brushwood -closes behind them, as silently as sand into which a mole has dived. -Not a sound is to be heard, save when they give vent to a wonderful -imitation of the lonely call of the coyote. The cry is answered by other -braves; and some of them do it even better than the coyotes, who are not -very good at it. So the chill hours wear on, and the long suspense is -horribly trying to the paleface who has to live through it for the first -time; but to the trained hand those ghastly calls and still ghastlier -silences are but an intimation of how the night is marching. - -That this was the usual procedure was so well known to Hook that in -disregarding it he cannot be excused on the plea of ignorance. - -The Piccaninnies, on their part, trusted implicitly to his honour, and -their whole action of the night stands out in marked contrast to his. -They left nothing undone that was consistent with the reputation of -their tribe. With that alertness of the senses which is at once the -marvel and despair of civilised peoples, they knew that the pirates were -on the island from the moment one of them trod on a dry stick; and in -an incredibly short space of time the coyote cries began. Every foot of -ground between the spot where Hook had landed his forces and the -home under the trees was stealthily examined by braves wearing their -mocassins with the heels in front. They found only one hillock with a -stream at its base, so that Hook had no choice; here he must establish -himself and wait for just before the dawn. Everything being thus mapped -out with almost diabolical cunning, the main body of the redskins folded -their blankets around them, and in the phlegmatic manner that is to -them, the pearl of manhood squatted above the children's home, awaiting -the cold moment when they should deal pale death. - -Here dreaming, though wide-awake, of the exquisite tortures to which -they were to put him at break of day, those confiding savages were found -by the treacherous Hook. From the accounts afterwards supplied by such -of the scouts as escaped the carnage, he does not seem even to have -paused at the rising ground, though it is certain that in that grey -light he must have seen it: no thought of waiting to be attacked appears -from first to last to have visited his subtle mind; he would not even -hold off till the night was nearly spent; on he pounded with no policy -but to fall to [get into combat]. What could the bewildered scouts do, -masters as they were of every war-like artifice save this one, but trot -helplessly after him, exposing themselves fatally to view, while they -gave pathetic utterance to the coyote cry. - -Around the brave Tiger Lily were a dozen of her stoutest warriors, and -they suddenly saw the perfidious pirates bearing down upon them. Fell -from their eyes then the film through which they had looked at -victory. No more would they torture at the stake. For them the happy -hunting-grounds was now. They knew it; but as their father's sons they -acquitted themselves. Even then they had time to gather in a phalanx -[dense formation] that would have been hard to break had they risen -quickly, but this they were forbidden to do by the traditions of their -race. It is written that the noble savage must never express surprise in -the presence of the white. Thus terrible as the sudden appearance of the -pirates must have been to them, they remained stationary for a moment, -not a muscle moving; as if the foe had come by invitation. Then, indeed, -the tradition gallantly upheld, they seized their weapons, and the air -was torn with the war-cry; but it was now too late. - -It is no part of ours to describe what was a massacre rather than a -fight. Thus perished many of the flower of the Piccaninny tribe. Not all -unavenged did they die, for with Lean Wolf fell Alf Mason, to disturb -the Spanish Main no more, and among others who bit the dust were Geo. -Scourie, Chas. Turley, and the Alsatian Foggerty. Turley fell to the -tomahawk of the terrible Panther, who ultimately cut a way through the -pirates with Tiger Lily and a small remnant of the tribe. - -To what extent Hook is to blame for his tactics on this occasion is for -the historian to decide. Had he waited on the rising ground till the -proper hour he and his men would probably have been butchered; and in -judging him it is only fair to take this into account. What he should -perhaps have done was to acquaint his opponents that he proposed to -follow a new method. On the other hand, this, as destroying the element -of surprise, would have made his strategy of no avail, so that the whole -question is beset with difficulties. One cannot at least withhold a -reluctant admiration for the wit that had conceived so bold a scheme, -and the fell [deadly] genius with which it was carried out. - -What were his own feelings about himself at that triumphant moment? -Fain [gladly] would his dogs have known, as breathing heavily and wiping -their cutlasses, they gathered at a discreet distance from his hook, and -squinted through their ferret eyes at this extraordinary man. Elation -must have been in his heart, but his face did not reflect it: ever a -dark and solitary enigma, he stood aloof from his followers in spirit as -in substance. - -The night's work was not yet over, for it was not the redskins he had -come out to destroy; they were but the bees to be smoked, so that he -should get at the honey. It was Pan he wanted, Pan and Wendy and their -band, but chiefly Pan. - -Peter was such a small boy that one tends to wonder at the man's hatred -of him. True he had flung Hook's arm to the crocodile, but even this -and the increased insecurity of life to which it led, owing to -the crocodile's pertinacity [persistance], hardly account for a -vindictiveness so relentless and malignant. The truth is that there was -a something about Peter which goaded the pirate captain to frenzy. It -was not his courage, it was not his engaging appearance, it was not--. -There is no beating about the bush, for we know quite well what it was, -and have got to tell. It was Peter's cockiness. - -This had got on Hook's nerves; it made his iron claw twitch, and at -night it disturbed him like an insect. While Peter lived, the tortured -man felt that he was a lion in a cage into which a sparrow had come. - -The question now was how to get down the trees, or how to get his dogs -down? He ran his greedy eyes over them, searching for the thinnest -ones. They wriggled uncomfortably, for they knew he would not scruple -[hesitate] to ram them down with poles. - -In the meantime, what of the boys? We have seen them at the first clang -of the weapons, turned as it were into stone figures, open-mouthed, -all appealing with outstretched arms to Peter; and we return to them as -their mouths close, and their arms fall to their sides. The pandemonium -above has ceased almost as suddenly as it arose, passed like a fierce -gust of wind; but they know that in the passing it has determined their -fate. - -Which side had won? - -The pirates, listening avidly at the mouths of the trees, heard the -question put by every boy, and alas, they also heard Peter's answer. - -"If the redskins have won," he said, "they will beat the tom-tom; it is -always their sign of victory." - -Now Smee had found the tom-tom, and was at that moment sitting on it. -"You will never hear the tom-tom again," he muttered, but inaudibly of -course, for strict silence had been enjoined [urged]. To his amazement -Hook signed him to beat the tom-tom, and slowly there came to Smee an -understanding of the dreadful wickedness of the order. Never, probably, -had this simple man admired Hook so much. - -Twice Smee beat upon the instrument, and then stopped to listen -gleefully. - -"The tom-tom," the miscreants heard Peter cry; "an Indian victory!" - -The doomed children answered with a cheer that was music to the black -hearts above, and almost immediately they repeated their good-byes -to Peter. This puzzled the pirates, but all their other feelings were -swallowed by a base delight that the enemy were about to come up the -trees. They smirked at each other and rubbed their hands. Rapidly and -silently Hook gave his orders: one man to each tree, and the others to -arrange themselves in a line two yards apart. - - - - -Chapter 13 DO YOU BELIEVE IN FAIRIES? - -The more quickly this horror is disposed of the better. The first to -emerge from his tree was Curly. He rose out of it into the arms of -Cecco, who flung him to Smee, who flung him to Starkey, who flung him to -Bill Jukes, who flung him to Noodler, and so he was tossed from one to -another till he fell at the feet of the black pirate. All the boys were -plucked from their trees in this ruthless manner; and several of them -were in the air at a time, like bales of goods flung from hand to hand. - -A different treatment was accorded to Wendy, who came last. With -ironical politeness Hook raised his hat to her, and, offering her his -arm, escorted her to the spot where the others were being gagged. He -did it with such an air, he was so frightfully DISTINGUE [imposingly -distinguished], that she was too fascinated to cry out. She was only a -little girl. - -Perhaps it is tell-tale to divulge that for a moment Hook entranced her, -and we tell on her only because her slip led to strange results. Had she -haughtily unhanded him (and we should have loved to write it of her), -she would have been hurled through the air like the others, and then -Hook would probably not have been present at the tying of the children; -and had he not been at the tying he would not have discovered Slightly's -secret, and without the secret he could not presently have made his foul -attempt on Peter's life. - -They were tied to prevent their flying away, doubled up with their knees -close to their ears; and for the trussing of them the black pirate had -cut a rope into nine equal pieces. All went well until Slightly's turn -came, when he was found to be like those irritating parcels that use up -all the string in going round and leave no tags [ends] with which to -tie a knot. The pirates kicked him in their rage, just as you kick the -parcel (though in fairness you should kick the string); and strange -to say it was Hook who told them to belay their violence. His lip was -curled with malicious triumph. While his dogs were merely sweating -because every time they tried to pack the unhappy lad tight in one -part he bulged out in another, Hook's master mind had gone far beneath -Slightly's surface, probing not for effects but for causes; and his -exultation showed that he had found them. Slightly, white to the gills, -knew that Hook had surprised [discovered] his secret, which was this, -that no boy so blown out could use a tree wherein an average man need -stick. Poor Slightly, most wretched of all the children now, for he -was in a panic about Peter, bitterly regretted what he had done. Madly -addicted to the drinking of water when he was hot, he had swelled in -consequence to his present girth, and instead of reducing himself to fit -his tree he had, unknown to the others, whittled his tree to make it fit -him. - -Sufficient of this Hook guessed to persuade him that Peter at last lay -at his mercy, but no word of the dark design that now formed in the -subterranean caverns of his mind crossed his lips; he merely signed -that the captives were to be conveyed to the ship, and that he would be -alone. - -How to convey them? Hunched up in their ropes they might indeed be -rolled down hill like barrels, but most of the way lay through a morass. -Again Hook's genius surmounted difficulties. He indicated that the -little house must be used as a conveyance. The children were flung into -it, four stout pirates raised it on their shoulders, the others fell in -behind, and singing the hateful pirate chorus the strange procession -set off through the wood. I don't know whether any of the children were -crying; if so, the singing drowned the sound; but as the little house -disappeared in the forest, a brave though tiny jet of smoke issued from -its chimney as if defying Hook. - -Hook saw it, and it did Peter a bad service. It dried up any trickle of -pity for him that may have remained in the pirate's infuriated breast. - -The first thing he did on finding himself alone in the fast falling -night was to tiptoe to Slightly's tree, and make sure that it provided -him with a passage. Then for long he remained brooding; his hat of ill -omen on the sward, so that any gentle breeze which had arisen might play -refreshingly through his hair. Dark as were his thoughts his blue eyes -were as soft as the periwinkle. Intently he listened for any sound from -the nether world, but all was as silent below as above; the house under -the ground seemed to be but one more empty tenement in the void. Was -that boy asleep, or did he stand waiting at the foot of Slightly's tree, -with his dagger in his hand? - -There was no way of knowing, save by going down. Hook let his cloak slip -softly to the ground, and then biting his lips till a lewd blood stood -on them, he stepped into the tree. He was a brave man, but for a moment -he had to stop there and wipe his brow, which was dripping like a -candle. Then, silently, he let himself go into the unknown. - -He arrived unmolested at the foot of the shaft, and stood still again, -biting at his breath, which had almost left him. As his eyes became -accustomed to the dim light various objects in the home under the trees -took shape; but the only one on which his greedy gaze rested, long -sought for and found at last, was the great bed. On the bed lay Peter -fast asleep. - -Unaware of the tragedy being enacted above, Peter had continued, for -a little time after the children left, to play gaily on his pipes: no -doubt rather a forlorn attempt to prove to himself that he did not care. -Then he decided not to take his medicine, so as to grieve Wendy. Then he -lay down on the bed outside the coverlet, to vex her still more; for she -had always tucked them inside it, because you never know that you may -not grow chilly at the turn of the night. Then he nearly cried; but -it struck him how indignant she would be if he laughed instead; so he -laughed a haughty laugh and fell asleep in the middle of it. - -Sometimes, though not often, he had dreams, and they were more painful -than the dreams of other boys. For hours he could not be separated from -these dreams, though he wailed piteously in them. They had to do, I -think, with the riddle of his existence. At such times it had been -Wendy's custom to take him out of bed and sit with him on her lap, -soothing him in dear ways of her own invention, and when he grew calmer -to put him back to bed before he quite woke up, so that he should -not know of the indignity to which she had subjected him. But on this -occasion he had fallen at once into a dreamless sleep. One arm dropped -over the edge of the bed, one leg was arched, and the unfinished part of -his laugh was stranded on his mouth, which was open, showing the little -pearls. - -Thus defenceless Hook found him. He stood silent at the foot of the tree -looking across the chamber at his enemy. Did no feeling of compassion -disturb his sombre breast? The man was not wholly evil; he loved flowers -(I have been told) and sweet music (he was himself no mean performer on -the harpsichord); and, let it be frankly admitted, the idyllic nature of -the scene stirred him profoundly. Mastered by his better self he would -have returned reluctantly up the tree, but for one thing. - -What stayed him was Peter's impertinent appearance as he slept. The -open mouth, the drooping arm, the arched knee: they were such a -personification of cockiness as, taken together, will never again, one -may hope, be presented to eyes so sensitive to their offensiveness. They -steeled Hook's heart. If his rage had broken him into a hundred pieces -every one of them would have disregarded the incident, and leapt at the -sleeper. - -Though a light from the one lamp shone dimly on the bed, Hook stood in -darkness himself, and at the first stealthy step forward he discovered -an obstacle, the door of Slightly's tree. It did not entirely fill the -aperture, and he had been looking over it. Feeling for the catch, -he found to his fury that it was low down, beyond his reach. To his -disordered brain it seemed then that the irritating quality in Peter's -face and figure visibly increased, and he rattled the door and flung -himself against it. Was his enemy to escape him after all? - -But what was that? The red in his eye had caught sight of Peter's -medicine standing on a ledge within easy reach. He fathomed what it was -straightaway, and immediately knew that the sleeper was in his power. - -Lest he should be taken alive, Hook always carried about his person a -dreadful drug, blended by himself of all the death-dealing rings that -had come into his possession. These he had boiled down into a yellow -liquid quite unknown to science, which was probably the most virulent -poison in existence. - -Five drops of this he now added to Peter's cup. His hand shook, but it -was in exultation rather than in shame. As he did it he avoided glancing -at the sleeper, but not lest pity should unnerve him; merely to avoid -spilling. Then one long gloating look he cast upon his victim, and -turning, wormed his way with difficulty up the tree. As he emerged -at the top he looked the very spirit of evil breaking from its hole. -Donning his hat at its most rakish angle, he wound his cloak around him, -holding one end in front as if to conceal his person from the night, -of which it was the blackest part, and muttering strangely to himself, -stole away through the trees. - -Peter slept on. The light guttered [burned to edges] and went out, -leaving the tenement in darkness; but still he slept. It must have been -not less than ten o'clock by the crocodile, when he suddenly sat up in -his bed, wakened by he knew not what. It was a soft cautious tapping on -the door of his tree. - -Soft and cautious, but in that stillness it was sinister. Peter felt for -his dagger till his hand gripped it. Then he spoke. - -"Who is that?" - -For long there was no answer: then again the knock. - -"Who are you?" - -No answer. - -He was thrilled, and he loved being thrilled. In two strides he reached -the door. Unlike Slightly's door, it filled the aperture [opening], so -that he could not see beyond it, nor could the one knocking see him. - -"I won't open unless you speak," Peter cried. - -Then at last the visitor spoke, in a lovely bell-like voice. - -"Let me in, Peter." - -It was Tink, and quickly he unbarred to her. She flew in excitedly, her -face flushed and her dress stained with mud. - -"What is it?" - -"Oh, you could never guess!" she cried, and offered him three guesses. -"Out with it!" he shouted, and in one ungrammatical sentence, as long as -the ribbons that conjurers [magicians] pull from their mouths, she told -of the capture of Wendy and the boys. - -Peter's heart bobbed up and down as he listened. Wendy bound, and on the -pirate ship; she who loved everything to be just so! - -"I'll rescue her!" he cried, leaping at his weapons. As he leapt he -thought of something he could do to please her. He could take his -medicine. - -His hand closed on the fatal draught. - -"No!" shrieked Tinker Bell, who had heard Hook mutter about his deed as -he sped through the forest. - -"Why not?" - -"It is poisoned." - -"Poisoned? Who could have poisoned it?" - -"Hook." - -"Don't be silly. How could Hook have got down here?" - -Alas, Tinker Bell could not explain this, for even she did not know the -dark secret of Slightly's tree. Nevertheless Hook's words had left no -room for doubt. The cup was poisoned. - -"Besides," said Peter, quite believing himself "I never fell asleep." - -He raised the cup. No time for words now; time for deeds; and with one -of her lightning movements Tink got between his lips and the draught, -and drained it to the dregs. - -"Why, Tink, how dare you drink my medicine?" - -But she did not answer. Already she was reeling in the air. - -"What is the matter with you?" cried Peter, suddenly afraid. - -"It was poisoned, Peter," she told him softly; "and now I am going to be -dead." - -"O Tink, did you drink it to save me?" - -"Yes." - -"But why, Tink?" - -Her wings would scarcely carry her now, but in reply she alighted on his -shoulder and gave his nose a loving bite. She whispered in his ear "You -silly ass," and then, tottering to her chamber, lay down on the bed. - -His head almost filled the fourth wall of her little room as he knelt -near her in distress. Every moment her light was growing fainter; and -he knew that if it went out she would be no more. She liked his tears so -much that she put out her beautiful finger and let them run over it. - -Her voice was so low that at first he could not make out what she said. -Then he made it out. She was saying that she thought she could get well -again if children believed in fairies. - -Peter flung out his arms. There were no children there, and it was night -time; but he addressed all who might be dreaming of the Neverland, and -who were therefore nearer to him than you think: boys and girls in their -nighties, and naked papooses in their baskets hung from trees. - -"Do you believe?" he cried. - -Tink sat up in bed almost briskly to listen to her fate. - -She fancied she heard answers in the affirmative, and then again she -wasn't sure. - -"What do you think?" she asked Peter. - -"If you believe," he shouted to them, "clap your hands; don't let Tink -die." - -Many clapped. - -Some didn't. - -A few beasts hissed. - -The clapping stopped suddenly; as if countless mothers had rushed to -their nurseries to see what on earth was happening; but already Tink was -saved. First her voice grew strong, then she popped out of bed, then -she was flashing through the room more merry and impudent than ever. She -never thought of thanking those who believed, but she would have like to -get at the ones who had hissed. - -"And now to rescue Wendy!" - -The moon was riding in a cloudy heaven when Peter rose from his tree, -begirt [belted] with weapons and wearing little else, to set out upon -his perilous quest. It was not such a night as he would have chosen. -He had hoped to fly, keeping not far from the ground so that nothing -unwonted should escape his eyes; but in that fitful light to have -flown low would have meant trailing his shadow through the trees, thus -disturbing birds and acquainting a watchful foe that he was astir. - -He regretted now that he had given the birds of the island such strange -names that they are very wild and difficult of approach. - -There was no other course but to press forward in redskin fashion, at -which happily he was an adept [expert]. But in what direction, for he -could not be sure that the children had been taken to the ship? A -light fall of snow had obliterated all footmarks; and a deathly silence -pervaded the island, as if for a space Nature stood still in horror of -the recent carnage. He had taught the children something of the forest -lore that he had himself learned from Tiger Lily and Tinker Bell, -and knew that in their dire hour they were not likely to forget it. -Slightly, if he had an opportunity, would blaze [cut a mark in] the -trees, for instance, Curly would drop seeds, and Wendy would leave her -handkerchief at some important place. The morning was needed to search -for such guidance, and he could not wait. The upper world had called -him, but would give no help. - -The crocodile passed him, but not another living thing, not a sound, not -a movement; and yet he knew well that sudden death might be at the next -tree, or stalking him from behind. - -He swore this terrible oath: "Hook or me this time." - -Now he crawled forward like a snake, and again erect, he darted across -a space on which the moonlight played, one finger on his lip and his -dagger at the ready. He was frightfully happy. - - - - -Chapter 14 THE PIRATE SHIP - -One green light squinting over Kidd's Creek, which is near the mouth of -the pirate river, marked where the brig, the JOLLY ROGER, lay, low in -the water; a rakish-looking [speedy-looking] craft foul to the hull, -every beam in her detestable, like ground strewn with mangled feathers. -She was the cannibal of the seas, and scarce needed that watchful eye, -for she floated immune in the horror of her name. - -She was wrapped in the blanket of night, through which no sound from her -could have reached the shore. There was little sound, and none agreeable -save the whir of the ship's sewing machine at which Smee sat, ever -industrious and obliging, the essence of the commonplace, pathetic Smee. -I know not why he was so infinitely pathetic, unless it were because -he was so pathetically unaware of it; but even strong men had to turn -hastily from looking at him, and more than once on summer evenings he -had touched the fount of Hook's tears and made it flow. Of this, as of -almost everything else, Smee was quite unconscious. - -A few of the pirates leant over the bulwarks, drinking in the miasma -[putrid mist] of the night; others sprawled by barrels over games of -dice and cards; and the exhausted four who had carried the little house -lay prone on the deck, where even in their sleep they rolled skillfully -to this side or that out of Hook's reach, lest he should claw them -mechanically in passing. - -Hook trod the deck in thought. O man unfathomable. It was his hour of -triumph. Peter had been removed for ever from his path, and all the -other boys were in the brig, about to walk the plank. It was his -grimmest deed since the days when he had brought Barbecue to heel; and -knowing as we do how vain a tabernacle is man, could we be surprised -had he now paced the deck unsteadily, bellied out by the winds of his -success? - -But there was no elation in his gait, which kept pace with the action of -his sombre mind. Hook was profoundly dejected. - -He was often thus when communing with himself on board ship in the -quietude of the night. It was because he was so terribly alone. This -inscrutable man never felt more alone than when surrounded by his dogs. -They were socially inferior to him. - -Hook was not his true name. To reveal who he really was would even at -this date set the country in a blaze; but as those who read between the -lines must already have guessed, he had been at a famous public school; -and its traditions still clung to him like garments, with which indeed -they are largely concerned. Thus it was offensive to him even now to -board a ship in the same dress in which he grappled [attacked] her, and -he still adhered in his walk to the school's distinguished slouch. But -above all he retained the passion for good form. - -Good form! However much he may have degenerated, he still knew that this -is all that really matters. - -From far within him he heard a creaking as of rusty portals, and through -them came a stern tap-tap-tap, like hammering in the night when one -cannot sleep. "Have you been good form to-day?" was their eternal -question. - -"Fame, fame, that glittering bauble, it is mine," he cried. - -"Is it quite good form to be distinguished at anything?" the tap-tap -from his school replied. - -"I am the only man whom Barbecue feared," he urged, "and Flint feared -Barbecue." - -"Barbecue, Flint--what house?" came the cutting retort. - -Most disquieting reflection of all, was it not bad form to think about -good form? - -His vitals were tortured by this problem. It was a claw within him -sharper than the iron one; and as it tore him, the perspiration dripped -down his tallow [waxy] countenance and streaked his doublet. Ofttimes he -drew his sleeve across his face, but there was no damming that trickle. - -Ah, envy not Hook. - -There came to him a presentiment of his early dissolution [death]. It -was as if Peter's terrible oath had boarded the ship. Hook felt a gloomy -desire to make his dying speech, lest presently there should be no time -for it. - -"Better for Hook," he cried, "if he had had less ambition!" It was in -his darkest hours only that he referred to himself in the third person. - -"No little children to love me!" - -Strange that he should think of this, which had never troubled him -before; perhaps the sewing machine brought it to his mind. For long he -muttered to himself, staring at Smee, who was hemming placidly, under -the conviction that all children feared him. - -Feared him! Feared Smee! There was not a child on board the brig that -night who did not already love him. He had said horrid things to them -and hit them with the palm of his hand, because he could not hit with -his fist, but they had only clung to him the more. Michael had tried on -his spectacles. - -To tell poor Smee that they thought him lovable! Hook itched to do it, -but it seemed too brutal. Instead, he revolved this mystery in his -mind: why do they find Smee lovable? He pursued the problem like the -sleuth-hound that he was. If Smee was lovable, what was it that made him -so? A terrible answer suddenly presented itself--"Good form?" - -Had the bo'sun good form without knowing it, which is the best form of -all? - -He remembered that you have to prove you don't know you have it before -you are eligible for Pop [an elite social club at Eton]. - -With a cry of rage he raised his iron hand over Smee's head; but he did -not tear. What arrested him was this reflection: - -"To claw a man because he is good form, what would that be?" - -"Bad form!" - -The unhappy Hook was as impotent [powerless] as he was damp, and he fell -forward like a cut flower. - -His dogs thinking him out of the way for a time, discipline instantly -relaxed; and they broke into a bacchanalian [drunken] dance, which -brought him to his feet at once, all traces of human weakness gone, as -if a bucket of water had passed over him. - -"Quiet, you scugs," he cried, "or I'll cast anchor in you;" and at once -the din was hushed. "Are all the children chained, so that they cannot -fly away?" - -"Ay, ay." - -"Then hoist them up." - -The wretched prisoners were dragged from the hold, all except Wendy, -and ranged in line in front of him. For a time he seemed unconscious -of their presence. He lolled at his ease, humming, not unmelodiously, -snatches of a rude song, and fingering a pack of cards. Ever and anon -the light from his cigar gave a touch of colour to his face. - -"Now then, bullies," he said briskly, "six of you walk the plank -to-night, but I have room for two cabin boys. Which of you is it to be?" - -"Don't irritate him unnecessarily," had been Wendy's instructions in -the hold; so Tootles stepped forward politely. Tootles hated the idea -of signing under such a man, but an instinct told him that it would -be prudent to lay the responsibility on an absent person; and though a -somewhat silly boy, he knew that mothers alone are always willing to be -the buffer. All children know this about mothers, and despise them for -it, but make constant use of it. - -So Tootles explained prudently, "You see, sir, I don't think my mother -would like me to be a pirate. Would your mother like you to be a pirate, -Slightly?" - -He winked at Slightly, who said mournfully, "I don't think so," as if -he wished things had been otherwise. "Would your mother like you to be a -pirate, Twin?" - -"I don't think so," said the first twin, as clever as the others. "Nibs, -would--" - -"Stow this gab," roared Hook, and the spokesmen were dragged back. "You, -boy," he said, addressing John, "you look as if you had a little pluck -in you. Didst never want to be a pirate, my hearty?" - -Now John had sometimes experienced this hankering at maths. prep.; and -he was struck by Hook's picking him out. - -"I once thought of calling myself Red-handed Jack," he said diffidently. - -"And a good name too. We'll call you that here, bully, if you join." - -"What do you think, Michael?" asked John. - -"What would you call me if I join?" Michael demanded. - -"Blackbeard Joe." - -Michael was naturally impressed. "What do you think, John?" He wanted -John to decide, and John wanted him to decide. - -"Shall we still be respectful subjects of the King?" John inquired. - -Through Hook's teeth came the answer: "You would have to swear, 'Down -with the King.'" - -Perhaps John had not behaved very well so far, but he shone out now. - -"Then I refuse," he cried, banging the barrel in front of Hook. - -"And I refuse," cried Michael. - -"Rule Britannia!" squeaked Curly. - -The infuriated pirates buffeted them in the mouth; and Hook roared out, -"That seals your doom. Bring up their mother. Get the plank ready." - -They were only boys, and they went white as they saw Jukes and Cecco -preparing the fatal plank. But they tried to look brave when Wendy was -brought up. - -No words of mine can tell you how Wendy despised those pirates. To the -boys there was at least some glamour in the pirate calling; but all that -she saw was that the ship had not been tidied for years. There was not -a porthole on the grimy glass of which you might not have written with -your finger "Dirty pig"; and she had already written it on several. But -as the boys gathered round her she had no thought, of course, save for -them. - -"So, my beauty," said Hook, as if he spoke in syrup, "you are to see -your children walk the plank." - -Fine gentlemen though he was, the intensity of his communings had soiled -his ruff, and suddenly he knew that she was gazing at it. With a hasty -gesture he tried to hide it, but he was too late. - -"Are they to die?" asked Wendy, with a look of such frightful contempt -that he nearly fainted. - -"They are," he snarled. "Silence all," he called gloatingly, "for a -mother's last words to her children." - -At this moment Wendy was grand. "These are my last words, dear boys," -she said firmly. "I feel that I have a message to you from your real -mothers, and it is this: 'We hope our sons will die like English -gentlemen.'" - -Even the pirates were awed, and Tootles cried out hysterically, "I am -going to do what my mother hopes. What are you to do, Nibs?" - -"What my mother hopes. What are you to do, Twin?" - -"What my mother hopes. John, what are--" - -But Hook had found his voice again. - -"Tie her up!" he shouted. - -It was Smee who tied her to the mast. "See here, honey," he whispered, -"I'll save you if you promise to be my mother." - -But not even for Smee would she make such a promise. "I would almost -rather have no children at all," she said disdainfully [scornfully]. - -It is sad to know that not a boy was looking at her as Smee tied her to -the mast; the eyes of all were on the plank: that last little walk they -were about to take. They were no longer able to hope that they would -walk it manfully, for the capacity to think had gone from them; they -could stare and shiver only. - -Hook smiled on them with his teeth closed, and took a step toward Wendy. -His intention was to turn her face so that she should see the boys -walking the plank one by one. But he never reached her, he never heard -the cry of anguish he hoped to wring from her. He heard something else -instead. - -It was the terrible tick-tick of the crocodile. - -They all heard it--pirates, boys, Wendy; and immediately every head was -blown in one direction; not to the water whence the sound proceeded, but -toward Hook. All knew that what was about to happen concerned him alone, -and that from being actors they were suddenly become spectators. - -Very frightful was it to see the change that came over him. It was as if -he had been clipped at every joint. He fell in a little heap. - -The sound came steadily nearer; and in advance of it came this ghastly -thought, "The crocodile is about to board the ship!" - -Even the iron claw hung inactive; as if knowing that it was no intrinsic -part of what the attacking force wanted. Left so fearfully alone, any -other man would have lain with his eyes shut where he fell: but the -gigantic brain of Hook was still working, and under its guidance he -crawled on the knees along the deck as far from the sound as he could -go. The pirates respectfully cleared a passage for him, and it was only -when he brought up against the bulwarks that he spoke. - -"Hide me!" he cried hoarsely. - -They gathered round him, all eyes averted from the thing that was coming -aboard. They had no thought of fighting it. It was Fate. - -Only when Hook was hidden from them did curiosity loosen the limbs of -the boys so that they could rush to the ship's side to see the crocodile -climbing it. Then they got the strangest surprise of the Night of -Nights; for it was no crocodile that was coming to their aid. It was -Peter. - -He signed to them not to give vent to any cry of admiration that might -rouse suspicion. Then he went on ticking. - - - - -Chapter 15 "HOOK OR ME THIS TIME" - -Odd things happen to all of us on our way through life without our -noticing for a time that they have happened. Thus, to take an instance, -we suddenly discover that we have been deaf in one ear for we don't know -how long, but, say, half an hour. Now such an experience had come that -night to Peter. When last we saw him he was stealing across the island -with one finger to his lips and his dagger at the ready. He had seen the -crocodile pass by without noticing anything peculiar about it, but by -and by he remembered that it had not been ticking. At first he thought -this eerie, but soon concluded rightly that the clock had run down. - -Without giving a thought to what might be the feelings of a -fellow-creature thus abruptly deprived of its closest companion, Peter -began to consider how he could turn the catastrophe to his own use; -and he decided to tick, so that wild beasts should believe he was the -crocodile and let him pass unmolested. He ticked superbly, but with one -unforeseen result. The crocodile was among those who heard the sound, -and it followed him, though whether with the purpose of regaining what -it had lost, or merely as a friend under the belief that it was again -ticking itself, will never be certainly known, for, like slaves to a -fixed idea, it was a stupid beast. - -Peter reached the shore without mishap, and went straight on, his legs -encountering the water as if quite unaware that they had entered a new -element. Thus many animals pass from land to water, but no other human -of whom I know. As he swam he had but one thought: "Hook or me this -time." He had ticked so long that he now went on ticking without knowing -that he was doing it. Had he known he would have stopped, for to board -the brig by help of the tick, though an ingenious idea, had not occurred -to him. - -On the contrary, he thought he had scaled her side as noiseless as a -mouse; and he was amazed to see the pirates cowering from him, with Hook -in their midst as abject as if he had heard the crocodile. - -The crocodile! No sooner did Peter remember it than he heard the -ticking. At first he thought the sound did come from the crocodile, -and he looked behind him swiftly. Then he realised that he was doing it -himself, and in a flash he understood the situation. "How clever of me!" -he thought at once, and signed to the boys not to burst into applause. - -It was at this moment that Ed Teynte the quartermaster emerged from the -forecastle and came along the deck. Now, reader, time what happened by -your watch. Peter struck true and deep. John clapped his hands on the -ill-fated pirate's mouth to stifle the dying groan. He fell forward. -Four boys caught him to prevent the thud. Peter gave the signal, and the -carrion was cast overboard. There was a splash, and then silence. How -long has it taken? - -"One!" (Slightly had begun to count.) - -None too soon, Peter, every inch of him on tiptoe, vanished into the -cabin; for more than one pirate was screwing up his courage to look -round. They could hear each other's distressed breathing now, which -showed them that the more terrible sound had passed. - -"It's gone, captain," Smee said, wiping off his spectacles. "All's still -again." - -Slowly Hook let his head emerge from his ruff, and listened so intently -that he could have caught the echo of the tick. There was not a sound, -and he drew himself up firmly to his full height. - -"Then here's to Johnny Plank!" he cried brazenly, hating the boys more -than ever because they had seen him unbend. He broke into the villainous -ditty: - - "Yo ho, yo ho, the frisky plank, - You walks along it so, - Till it goes down and you goes down - To Davy Jones below!" - -To terrorize the prisoners the more, though with a certain loss of -dignity, he danced along an imaginary plank, grimacing at them as he -sang; and when he finished he cried, "Do you want a touch of the cat [o' -nine tails] before you walk the plank?" - -At that they fell on their knees. "No, no!" they cried so piteously that -every pirate smiled. - -"Fetch the cat, Jukes," said Hook; "it's in the cabin." - -The cabin! Peter was in the cabin! The children gazed at each other. - -"Ay, ay," said Jukes blithely, and he strode into the cabin. They -followed him with their eyes; they scarce knew that Hook had resumed his -song, his dogs joining in with him: - - "Yo ho, yo ho, the scratching cat, - Its tails are nine, you know, - And when they're writ upon your back--" - -What was the last line will never be known, for of a sudden the song was -stayed by a dreadful screech from the cabin. It wailed through the ship, -and died away. Then was heard a crowing sound which was well understood -by the boys, but to the pirates was almost more eerie than the screech. - -"What was that?" cried Hook. - -"Two," said Slightly solemnly. - -The Italian Cecco hesitated for a moment and then swung into the cabin. -He tottered out, haggard. - -"What's the matter with Bill Jukes, you dog?" hissed Hook, towering over -him. - -"The matter wi' him is he's dead, stabbed," replied Cecco in a hollow -voice. - -"Bill Jukes dead!" cried the startled pirates. - -"The cabin's as black as a pit," Cecco said, almost gibbering, "but -there is something terrible in there: the thing you heard crowing." - -The exultation of the boys, the lowering looks of the pirates, both were -seen by Hook. - -"Cecco," he said in his most steely voice, "go back and fetch me out -that doodle-doo." - -Cecco, bravest of the brave, cowered before his captain, crying "No, -no"; but Hook was purring to his claw. - -"Did you say you would go, Cecco?" he said musingly. - -Cecco went, first flinging his arms despairingly. There was no more -singing, all listened now; and again came a death-screech and again a -crow. - -No one spoke except Slightly. "Three," he said. - -Hook rallied his dogs with a gesture. "'S'death and odds fish," he -thundered, "who is to bring me that doodle-doo?" - -"Wait till Cecco comes out," growled Starkey, and the others took up the -cry. - -"I think I heard you volunteer, Starkey," said Hook, purring again. - -"No, by thunder!" Starkey cried. - -"My hook thinks you did," said Hook, crossing to him. "I wonder if it -would not be advisable, Starkey, to humour the hook?" - -"I'll swing before I go in there," replied Starkey doggedly, and again -he had the support of the crew. - -"Is this mutiny?" asked Hook more pleasantly than ever. "Starkey's -ringleader!" - -"Captain, mercy!" Starkey whimpered, all of a tremble now. - -"Shake hands, Starkey," said Hook, proffering his claw. - -Starkey looked round for help, but all deserted him. As he backed up -Hook advanced, and now the red spark was in his eye. With a despairing -scream the pirate leapt upon Long Tom and precipitated himself into the -sea. - -"Four," said Slightly. - -"And now," Hook said courteously, "did any other gentlemen say mutiny?" -Seizing a lantern and raising his claw with a menacing gesture, "I'll -bring out that doodle-doo myself," he said, and sped into the cabin. - -"Five." How Slightly longed to say it. He wetted his lips to be ready, -but Hook came staggering out, without his lantern. - -"Something blew out the light," he said a little unsteadily. - -"Something!" echoed Mullins. - -"What of Cecco?" demanded Noodler. - -"He's as dead as Jukes," said Hook shortly. - -His reluctance to return to the cabin impressed them all unfavourably, -and the mutinous sounds again broke forth. All pirates are -superstitious, and Cookson cried, "They do say the surest sign a ship's -accurst is when there's one on board more than can be accounted for." - -"I've heard," muttered Mullins, "he always boards the pirate craft last. -Had he a tail, captain?" - -"They say," said another, looking viciously at Hook, "that when he comes -it's in the likeness of the wickedest man aboard." - -"Had he a hook, captain?" asked Cookson insolently; and one after -another took up the cry, "The ship's doomed!" At this the children could -not resist raising a cheer. Hook had well-nigh forgotten his prisoners, -but as he swung round on them now his face lit up again. - -"Lads," he cried to his crew, "now here's a notion. Open the cabin door -and drive them in. Let them fight the doodle-doo for their lives. If -they kill him, we're so much the better; if he kills them, we're none -the worse." - -For the last time his dogs admired Hook, and devotedly they did his -bidding. The boys, pretending to struggle, were pushed into the cabin -and the door was closed on them. - -"Now, listen!" cried Hook, and all listened. But not one dared to face -the door. Yes, one, Wendy, who all this time had been bound to the mast. -It was for neither a scream nor a crow that she was watching, it was for -the reappearance of Peter. - -She had not long to wait. In the cabin he had found the thing for which -he had gone in search: the key that would free the children of their -manacles, and now they all stole forth, armed with such weapons as they -could find. First signing them to hide, Peter cut Wendy's bonds, -and then nothing could have been easier than for them all to fly off -together; but one thing barred the way, an oath, "Hook or me this time." -So when he had freed Wendy, he whispered for her to conceal herself with -the others, and himself took her place by the mast, her cloak around him -so that he should pass for her. Then he took a great breath and crowed. - -To the pirates it was a voice crying that all the boys lay slain in the -cabin; and they were panic-stricken. Hook tried to hearten them; but -like the dogs he had made them they showed him their fangs, and he knew -that if he took his eyes off them now they would leap at him. - -"Lads," he said, ready to cajole or strike as need be, but never -quailing for an instant, "I've thought it out. There's a Jonah aboard." - -"Ay," they snarled, "a man wi' a hook." - -"No, lads, no, it's the girl. Never was luck on a pirate ship wi' a -woman on board. We'll right the ship when she's gone." - -Some of them remembered that this had been a saying of Flint's. "It's -worth trying," they said doubtfully. - -"Fling the girl overboard," cried Hook; and they made a rush at the -figure in the cloak. - -"There's none can save you now, missy," Mullins hissed jeeringly. - -"There's one," replied the figure. - -"Who's that?" - -"Peter Pan the avenger!" came the terrible answer; and as he spoke Peter -flung off his cloak. Then they all knew who 'twas that had been undoing -them in the cabin, and twice Hook essayed to speak and twice he failed. -In that frightful moment I think his fierce heart broke. - -At last he cried, "Cleave him to the brisket!" but without conviction. - -"Down, boys, and at them!" Peter's voice rang out; and in another moment -the clash of arms was resounding through the ship. Had the pirates kept -together it is certain that they would have won; but the onset came -when they were still unstrung, and they ran hither and thither, striking -wildly, each thinking himself the last survivor of the crew. Man to man -they were the stronger; but they fought on the defensive only, which -enabled the boys to hunt in pairs and choose their quarry. Some of the -miscreants leapt into the sea; others hid in dark recesses, where they -were found by Slightly, who did not fight, but ran about with a lantern -which he flashed in their faces, so that they were half blinded and -fell as an easy prey to the reeking swords of the other boys. There was -little sound to be heard but the clang of weapons, an occasional -screech or splash, and Slightly monotonously counting--five--six--seven -eight--nine--ten--eleven. - -I think all were gone when a group of savage boys surrounded Hook, who -seemed to have a charmed life, as he kept them at bay in that circle -of fire. They had done for his dogs, but this man alone seemed to be a -match for them all. Again and again they closed upon him, and again and -again he hewed a clear space. He had lifted up one boy with his hook, -and was using him as a buckler [shield], when another, who had just -passed his sword through Mullins, sprang into the fray. - -"Put up your swords, boys," cried the newcomer, "this man is mine." - -Thus suddenly Hook found himself face to face with Peter. The others -drew back and formed a ring around them. - -For long the two enemies looked at one another, Hook shuddering -slightly, and Peter with the strange smile upon his face. - -"So, Pan," said Hook at last, "this is all your doing." - -"Ay, James Hook," came the stern answer, "it is all my doing." - -"Proud and insolent youth," said Hook, "prepare to meet thy doom." - -"Dark and sinister man," Peter answered, "have at thee." - -Without more words they fell to, and for a space there was no advantage -to either blade. Peter was a superb swordsman, and parried with dazzling -rapidity; ever and anon he followed up a feint with a lunge that got -past his foe's defence, but his shorter reach stood him in ill stead, -and he could not drive the steel home. Hook, scarcely his inferior in -brilliancy, but not quite so nimble in wrist play, forced him back by -the weight of his onset, hoping suddenly to end all with a favourite -thrust, taught him long ago by Barbecue at Rio; but to his astonishment -he found this thrust turned aside again and again. Then he sought to -close and give the quietus with his iron hook, which all this time had -been pawing the air; but Peter doubled under it and, lunging fiercely, -pierced him in the ribs. At the sight of his own blood, whose peculiar -colour, you remember, was offensive to him, the sword fell from Hook's -hand, and he was at Peter's mercy. - -"Now!" cried all the boys, but with a magnificent gesture Peter invited -his opponent to pick up his sword. Hook did so instantly, but with a -tragic feeling that Peter was showing good form. - -Hitherto he had thought it was some fiend fighting him, but darker -suspicions assailed him now. - -"Pan, who and what art thou?" he cried huskily. - -"I'm youth, I'm joy," Peter answered at a venture, "I'm a little bird -that has broken out of the egg." - -This, of course, was nonsense; but it was proof to the unhappy Hook that -Peter did not know in the least who or what he was, which is the very -pinnacle of good form. - -"To't again," he cried despairingly. - -He fought now like a human flail, and every sweep of that terrible sword -would have severed in twain any man or boy who obstructed it; but Peter -fluttered round him as if the very wind it made blew him out of the -danger zone. And again and again he darted in and pricked. - -Hook was fighting now without hope. That passionate breast no longer -asked for life; but for one boon it craved: to see Peter show bad form -before it was cold forever. - -Abandoning the fight he rushed into the powder magazine and fired it. - -"In two minutes," he cried, "the ship will be blown to pieces." - -Now, now, he thought, true form will show. - -But Peter issued from the powder magazine with the shell in his hands, -and calmly flung it overboard. - -What sort of form was Hook himself showing? Misguided man though he was, -we may be glad, without sympathising with him, that in the end he was -true to the traditions of his race. The other boys were flying around -him now, flouting, scornful; and he staggered about the deck striking up -at them impotently, his mind was no longer with them; it was slouching -in the playing fields of long ago, or being sent up [to the headmaster] -for good, or watching the wall-game from a famous wall. And his shoes -were right, and his waistcoat was right, and his tie was right, and his -socks were right. - -James Hook, thou not wholly unheroic figure, farewell. - -For we have come to his last moment. - -Seeing Peter slowly advancing upon him through the air with dagger -poised, he sprang upon the bulwarks to cast himself into the sea. He -did not know that the crocodile was waiting for him; for we purposely -stopped the clock that this knowledge might be spared him: a little mark -of respect from us at the end. - -He had one last triumph, which I think we need not grudge him. As he -stood on the bulwark looking over his shoulder at Peter gliding through -the air, he invited him with a gesture to use his foot. It made Peter -kick instead of stab. - -At last Hook had got the boon for which he craved. - -"Bad form," he cried jeeringly, and went content to the crocodile. - -Thus perished James Hook. - -"Seventeen," Slightly sang out; but he was not quite correct in his -figures. Fifteen paid the penalty for their crimes that night; but two -reached the shore: Starkey to be captured by the redskins, who made him -nurse for all their papooses, a melancholy come-down for a pirate; and -Smee, who henceforth wandered about the world in his spectacles, making -a precarious living by saying he was the only man that Jas. Hook had -feared. - -Wendy, of course, had stood by taking no part in the fight, though -watching Peter with glistening eyes; but now that all was over she -became prominent again. She praised them equally, and shuddered -delightfully when Michael showed her the place where he had killed one; -and then she took them into Hook's cabin and pointed to his watch which -was hanging on a nail. It said "half-past one!" - -The lateness of the hour was almost the biggest thing of all. She got -them to bed in the pirates' bunks pretty quickly, you may be sure; all -but Peter, who strutted up and down on the deck, until at last he fell -asleep by the side of Long Tom. He had one of his dreams that night, and -cried in his sleep for a long time, and Wendy held him tightly. - - - - -Chapter 16 THE RETURN HOME - -By three bells that morning they were all stirring their stumps [legs]; -for there was a big sea running; and Tootles, the bo'sun, was among -them, with a rope's end in his hand and chewing tobacco. They all donned -pirate clothes cut off at the knee, shaved smartly, and tumbled up, with -the true nautical roll and hitching their trousers. - -It need not be said who was the captain. Nibs and John were first and -second mate. There was a woman aboard. The rest were tars [sailors] -before the mast, and lived in the fo'c'sle. Peter had already lashed -himself to the wheel; but he piped all hands and delivered a short -address to them; said he hoped they would do their duty like gallant -hearties, but that he knew they were the scum of Rio and the Gold Coast, -and if they snapped at him he would tear them. The bluff strident words -struck the note sailors understood, and they cheered him lustily. Then -a few sharp orders were given, and they turned the ship round, and nosed -her for the mainland. - -Captain Pan calculated, after consulting the ship's chart, that if this -weather lasted they should strike the Azores about the 21st of June, -after which it would save time to fly. - -Some of them wanted it to be an honest ship and others were in favour -of keeping it a pirate; but the captain treated them as dogs, and they -dared not express their wishes to him even in a round robin [one person -after another, as they had to Cpt. Hook]. Instant obedience was the only -safe thing. Slightly got a dozen for looking perplexed when told to take -soundings. The general feeling was that Peter was honest just now to -lull Wendy's suspicions, but that there might be a change when the new -suit was ready, which, against her will, she was making for him out of -some of Hook's wickedest garments. It was afterwards whispered among -them that on the first night he wore this suit he sat long in the cabin -with Hook's cigar-holder in his mouth and one hand clenched, all but for -the forefinger, which he bent and held threateningly aloft like a hook. - -Instead of watching the ship, however, we must now return to that -desolate home from which three of our characters had taken heartless -flight so long ago. It seems a shame to have neglected No. 14 all this -time; and yet we may be sure that Mrs. Darling does not blame us. If we -had returned sooner to look with sorrowful sympathy at her, she would -probably have cried, "Don't be silly; what do I matter? Do go back and -keep an eye on the children." So long as mothers are like this their -children will take advantage of them; and they may lay to [bet on] that. - -Even now we venture into that familiar nursery only because its lawful -occupants are on their way home; we are merely hurrying on in advance -of them to see that their beds are properly aired and that Mr. and Mrs. -Darling do not go out for the evening. We are no more than servants. Why -on earth should their beds be properly aired, seeing that they left them -in such a thankless hurry? Would it not serve them jolly well right if -they came back and found that their parents were spending the week-end -in the country? It would be the moral lesson they have been in need -of ever since we met them; but if we contrived things in this way Mrs. -Darling would never forgive us. - -One thing I should like to do immensely, and that is to tell her, in the -way authors have, that the children are coming back, that indeed they -will be here on Thursday week. This would spoil so completely the -surprise to which Wendy and John and Michael are looking forward. They -have been planning it out on the ship: mother's rapture, father's shout -of joy, Nana's leap through the air to embrace them first, when what -they ought to be prepared for is a good hiding. How delicious to spoil -it all by breaking the news in advance; so that when they enter grandly -Mrs. Darling may not even offer Wendy her mouth, and Mr. Darling may -exclaim pettishly, "Dash it all, here are those boys again." However, -we should get no thanks even for this. We are beginning to know Mrs. -Darling by this time, and may be sure that she would upbraid us for -depriving the children of their little pleasure. - -"But, my dear madam, it is ten days till Thursday week; so that by -telling you what's what, we can save you ten days of unhappiness." - -"Yes, but at what a cost! By depriving the children of ten minutes of -delight." - -"Oh, if you look at it in that way!" - -"What other way is there in which to look at it?" - -You see, the woman had no proper spirit. I had meant to say -extraordinarily nice things about her; but I despise her, and not one of -them will I say now. She does not really need to be told to have things -ready, for they are ready. All the beds are aired, and she never leaves -the house, and observe, the window is open. For all the use we are to -her, we might well go back to the ship. However, as we are here we may -as well stay and look on. That is all we are, lookers-on. Nobody really -wants us. So let us watch and say jaggy things, in the hope that some of -them will hurt. - -The only change to be seen in the night-nursery is that between nine -and six the kennel is no longer there. When the children flew away, Mr. -Darling felt in his bones that all the blame was his for having chained -Nana up, and that from first to last she had been wiser than he. Of -course, as we have seen, he was quite a simple man; indeed he might have -passed for a boy again if he had been able to take his baldness off; -but he had also a noble sense of justice and a lion's courage to do what -seemed right to him; and having thought the matter out with anxious care -after the flight of the children, he went down on all fours and crawled -into the kennel. To all Mrs. Darling's dear invitations to him to come -out he replied sadly but firmly: - -"No, my own one, this is the place for me." - -In the bitterness of his remorse he swore that he would never leave -the kennel until his children came back. Of course this was a pity; but -whatever Mr. Darling did he had to do in excess, otherwise he soon gave -up doing it. And there never was a more humble man than the once proud -George Darling, as he sat in the kennel of an evening talking with his -wife of their children and all their pretty ways. - -Very touching was his deference to Nana. He would not let her come into -the kennel, but on all other matters he followed her wishes implicitly. - -Every morning the kennel was carried with Mr. Darling in it to a cab, -which conveyed him to his office, and he returned home in the same way -at six. Something of the strength of character of the man will be seen -if we remember how sensitive he was to the opinion of neighbours: this -man whose every movement now attracted surprised attention. Inwardly he -must have suffered torture; but he preserved a calm exterior even when -the young criticised his little home, and he always lifted his hat -courteously to any lady who looked inside. - -It may have been Quixotic, but it was magnificent. Soon the inward -meaning of it leaked out, and the great heart of the public was touched. -Crowds followed the cab, cheering it lustily; charming girls scaled it -to get his autograph; interviews appeared in the better class of papers, -and society invited him to dinner and added, "Do come in the kennel." - -On that eventful Thursday week, Mrs. Darling was in the night-nursery -awaiting George's return home; a very sad-eyed woman. Now that we look -at her closely and remember the gaiety of her in the old days, all gone -now just because she has lost her babes, I find I won't be able to say -nasty things about her after all. If she was too fond of her rubbishy -children, she couldn't help it. Look at her in her chair, where she has -fallen asleep. The corner of her mouth, where one looks first, is almost -withered up. Her hand moves restlessly on her breast as if she had a -pain there. Some like Peter best, and some like Wendy best, but I like -her best. Suppose, to make her happy, we whisper to her in her sleep -that the brats are coming back. They are really within two miles of the -window now, and flying strong, but all we need whisper is that they are -on the way. Let's. - -It is a pity we did it, for she has started up, calling their names; and -there is no one in the room but Nana. - -"O Nana, I dreamt my dear ones had come back." - -Nana had filmy eyes, but all she could do was put her paw gently on her -mistress's lap; and they were sitting together thus when the kennel was -brought back. As Mr. Darling puts his head out to kiss his wife, we see -that his face is more worn than of yore, but has a softer expression. - -He gave his hat to Liza, who took it scornfully; for she had no -imagination, and was quite incapable of understanding the motives of -such a man. Outside, the crowd who had accompanied the cab home were -still cheering, and he was naturally not unmoved. - -"Listen to them," he said; "it is very gratifying." - -"Lots of little boys," sneered Liza. - -"There were several adults to-day," he assured her with a faint flush; -but when she tossed her head he had not a word of reproof for her. -Social success had not spoilt him; it had made him sweeter. For some -time he sat with his head out of the kennel, talking with Mrs. Darling -of this success, and pressing her hand reassuringly when she said she -hoped his head would not be turned by it. - -"But if I had been a weak man," he said. "Good heavens, if I had been a -weak man!" - -"And, George," she said timidly, "you are as full of remorse as ever, -aren't you?" - -"Full of remorse as ever, dearest! See my punishment: living in a -kennel." - -"But it is punishment, isn't it, George? You are sure you are not -enjoying it?" - -"My love!" - -You may be sure she begged his pardon; and then, feeling drowsy, he -curled round in the kennel. - -"Won't you play me to sleep," he asked, "on the nursery piano?" and as -she was crossing to the day-nursery he added thoughtlessly, "And shut -that window. I feel a draught." - -"O George, never ask me to do that. The window must always be left open -for them, always, always." - -Now it was his turn to beg her pardon; and she went into the day-nursery -and played, and soon he was asleep; and while he slept, Wendy and John -and Michael flew into the room. - -Oh no. We have written it so, because that was the charming arrangement -planned by them before we left the ship; but something must have -happened since then, for it is not they who have flown in, it is Peter -and Tinker Bell. - -Peter's first words tell all. - -"Quick Tink," he whispered, "close the window; bar it! That's right. Now -you and I must get away by the door; and when Wendy comes she will think -her mother has barred her out; and she will have to go back with me." - -Now I understand what had hitherto puzzled me, why when Peter had -exterminated the pirates he did not return to the island and leave Tink -to escort the children to the mainland. This trick had been in his head -all the time. - -Instead of feeling that he was behaving badly he danced with glee; then -he peeped into the day-nursery to see who was playing. He whispered to -Tink, "It's Wendy's mother! She is a pretty lady, but not so pretty as -my mother. Her mouth is full of thimbles, but not so full as my mother's -was." - -Of course he knew nothing whatever about his mother; but he sometimes -bragged about her. - -He did not know the tune, which was "Home, Sweet Home," but he knew it -was saying, "Come back, Wendy, Wendy, Wendy"; and he cried exultantly, -"You will never see Wendy again, lady, for the window is barred!" - -He peeped in again to see why the music had stopped, and now he saw -that Mrs. Darling had laid her head on the box, and that two tears were -sitting on her eyes. - -"She wants me to unbar the window," thought Peter, "but I won't, not I!" - -He peeped again, and the tears were still there, or another two had -taken their place. - -"She's awfully fond of Wendy," he said to himself. He was angry with her -now for not seeing why she could not have Wendy. - -The reason was so simple: "I'm fond of her too. We can't both have her, -lady." - -But the lady would not make the best of it, and he was unhappy. He -ceased to look at her, but even then she would not let go of him. He -skipped about and made funny faces, but when he stopped it was just as -if she were inside him, knocking. - -"Oh, all right," he said at last, and gulped. Then he unbarred the -window. "Come on, Tink," he cried, with a frightful sneer at the laws of -nature; "we don't want any silly mothers;" and he flew away. - -Thus Wendy and John and Michael found the window open for them after -all, which of course was more than they deserved. They alighted on the -floor, quite unashamed of themselves, and the youngest one had already -forgotten his home. - -"John," he said, looking around him doubtfully, "I think I have been -here before." - -"Of course you have, you silly. There is your old bed." - -"So it is," Michael said, but not with much conviction. - -"I say," cried John, "the kennel!" and he dashed across to look into it. - -"Perhaps Nana is inside it," Wendy said. - -But John whistled. "Hullo," he said, "there's a man inside it." - -"It's father!" exclaimed Wendy. - -"Let me see father," Michael begged eagerly, and he took a good look. -"He is not so big as the pirate I killed," he said with such frank -disappointment that I am glad Mr. Darling was asleep; it would have been -sad if those had been the first words he heard his little Michael say. - -Wendy and John had been taken aback somewhat at finding their father in -the kennel. - -"Surely," said John, like one who had lost faith in his memory, "he used -not to sleep in the kennel?" - -"John," Wendy said falteringly, "perhaps we don't remember the old life -as well as we thought we did." - -A chill fell upon them; and serve them right. - -"It is very careless of mother," said that young scoundrel John, "not to -be here when we come back." - -It was then that Mrs. Darling began playing again. - -"It's mother!" cried Wendy, peeping. - -"So it is!" said John. - -"Then are you not really our mother, Wendy?" asked Michael, who was -surely sleepy. - -"Oh dear!" exclaimed Wendy, with her first real twinge of remorse [for -having gone], "it was quite time we came back." - -"Let us creep in," John suggested, "and put our hands over her eyes." - -But Wendy, who saw that they must break the joyous news more gently, had -a better plan. - -"Let us all slip into our beds, and be there when she comes in, just as -if we had never been away." - -And so when Mrs. Darling went back to the night-nursery to see if her -husband was asleep, all the beds were occupied. The children waited -for her cry of joy, but it did not come. She saw them, but she did not -believe they were there. You see, she saw them in their beds so often in -her dreams that she thought this was just the dream hanging around her -still. - -She sat down in the chair by the fire, where in the old days she had -nursed them. - -They could not understand this, and a cold fear fell upon all the three -of them. - -"Mother!" Wendy cried. - -"That's Wendy," she said, but still she was sure it was the dream. - -"Mother!" - -"That's John," she said. - -"Mother!" cried Michael. He knew her now. - -"That's Michael," she said, and she stretched out her arms for the three -little selfish children they would never envelop again. Yes, they did, -they went round Wendy and John and Michael, who had slipped out of bed -and run to her. - -"George, George!" she cried when she could speak; and Mr. Darling woke -to share her bliss, and Nana came rushing in. There could not have been -a lovelier sight; but there was none to see it except a little boy who -was staring in at the window. He had had ecstasies innumerable that -other children can never know; but he was looking through the window at -the one joy from which he must be for ever barred. - - - - -Chapter 17 WHEN WENDY GREW UP - -I hope you want to know what became of the other boys. They were waiting -below to give Wendy time to explain about them; and when they had -counted five hundred they went up. They went up by the stair, because -they thought this would make a better impression. They stood in a row -in front of Mrs. Darling, with their hats off, and wishing they were not -wearing their pirate clothes. They said nothing, but their eyes asked -her to have them. They ought to have looked at Mr. Darling also, but -they forgot about him. - -Of course Mrs. Darling said at once that she would have them; but Mr. -Darling was curiously depressed, and they saw that he considered six a -rather large number. - -"I must say," he said to Wendy, "that you don't do things by halves," a -grudging remark which the twins thought was pointed at them. - -The first twin was the proud one, and he asked, flushing, "Do you think -we should be too much of a handful, sir? Because, if so, we can go -away." - -"Father!" Wendy cried, shocked; but still the cloud was on him. He knew -he was behaving unworthily, but he could not help it. - -"We could lie doubled up," said Nibs. - -"I always cut their hair myself," said Wendy. - -"George!" Mrs. Darling exclaimed, pained to see her dear one showing -himself in such an unfavourable light. - -Then he burst into tears, and the truth came out. He was as glad to -have them as she was, he said, but he thought they should have asked his -consent as well as hers, instead of treating him as a cypher [zero] in -his own house. - -"I don't think he is a cypher," Tootles cried instantly. "Do you think -he is a cypher, Curly?" - -"No, I don't. Do you think he is a cypher, Slightly?" - -"Rather not. Twin, what do you think?" - -It turned out that not one of them thought him a cypher; and he was -absurdly gratified, and said he would find space for them all in the -drawing-room if they fitted in. - -"We'll fit in, sir," they assured him. - -"Then follow the leader," he cried gaily. "Mind you, I am not sure that -we have a drawing-room, but we pretend we have, and it's all the same. -Hoop la!" - -He went off dancing through the house, and they all cried "Hoop la!" and -danced after him, searching for the drawing-room; and I forget whether -they found it, but at any rate they found corners, and they all fitted -in. - -As for Peter, he saw Wendy once again before he flew away. He did not -exactly come to the window, but he brushed against it in passing so that -she could open it if she liked and call to him. That is what she did. - -"Hullo, Wendy, good-bye," he said. - -"Oh dear, are you going away?" - -"Yes." - -"You don't feel, Peter," she said falteringly, "that you would like to -say anything to my parents about a very sweet subject?" - -"No." - -"About me, Peter?" - -"No." - -Mrs. Darling came to the window, for at present she was keeping a sharp -eye on Wendy. She told Peter that she had adopted all the other boys, -and would like to adopt him also. - -"Would you send me to school?" he inquired craftily. - -"Yes." - -"And then to an office?" - -"I suppose so." - -"Soon I would be a man?" - -"Very soon." - -"I don't want to go to school and learn solemn things," he told her -passionately. "I don't want to be a man. O Wendy's mother, if I was to -wake up and feel there was a beard!" - -"Peter," said Wendy the comforter, "I should love you in a beard;" and -Mrs. Darling stretched out her arms to him, but he repulsed her. - -"Keep back, lady, no one is going to catch me and make me a man." - -"But where are you going to live?" - -"With Tink in the house we built for Wendy. The fairies are to put it -high up among the tree tops where they sleep at nights." - -"How lovely," cried Wendy so longingly that Mrs. Darling tightened her -grip. - -"I thought all the fairies were dead," Mrs. Darling said. - -"There are always a lot of young ones," explained Wendy, who was now -quite an authority, "because you see when a new baby laughs for the -first time a new fairy is born, and as there are always new babies there -are always new fairies. They live in nests on the tops of trees; and the -mauve ones are boys and the white ones are girls, and the blue ones are -just little sillies who are not sure what they are." - -"I shall have such fun," said Peter, with eye on Wendy. - -"It will be rather lonely in the evening," she said, "sitting by the -fire." - -"I shall have Tink." - -"Tink can't go a twentieth part of the way round," she reminded him a -little tartly. - -"Sneaky tell-tale!" Tink called out from somewhere round the corner. - -"It doesn't matter," Peter said. - -"O Peter, you know it matters." - -"Well, then, come with me to the little house." - -"May I, mummy?" - -"Certainly not. I have got you home again, and I mean to keep you." - -"But he does so need a mother." - -"So do you, my love." - -"Oh, all right," Peter said, as if he had asked her from politeness -merely; but Mrs. Darling saw his mouth twitch, and she made this -handsome offer: to let Wendy go to him for a week every year to do -his spring cleaning. Wendy would have preferred a more permanent -arrangement; and it seemed to her that spring would be long in coming; -but this promise sent Peter away quite gay again. He had no sense of -time, and was so full of adventures that all I have told you about him -is only a halfpenny-worth of them. I suppose it was because Wendy knew -this that her last words to him were these rather plaintive ones: - -"You won't forget me, Peter, will you, before spring cleaning time -comes?" - -Of course Peter promised; and then he flew away. He took Mrs. Darling's -kiss with him. The kiss that had been for no one else, Peter took quite -easily. Funny. But she seemed satisfied. - -Of course all the boys went to school; and most of them got into Class -III, but Slightly was put first into Class IV and then into Class V. -Class I is the top class. Before they had attended school a week they -saw what goats they had been not to remain on the island; but it was too -late now, and soon they settled down to being as ordinary as you or me -or Jenkins minor [the younger Jenkins]. It is sad to have to say that -the power to fly gradually left them. At first Nana tied their feet to -the bed-posts so that they should not fly away in the night; and one of -their diversions by day was to pretend to fall off buses [the English -double-deckers]; but by and by they ceased to tug at their bonds in bed, -and found that they hurt themselves when they let go of the bus. In time -they could not even fly after their hats. Want of practice, they called -it; but what it really meant was that they no longer believed. - -Michael believed longer than the other boys, though they jeered at him; -so he was with Wendy when Peter came for her at the end of the first -year. She flew away with Peter in the frock she had woven from leaves -and berries in the Neverland, and her one fear was that he might notice -how short it had become; but he never noticed, he had so much to say -about himself. - -She had looked forward to thrilling talks with him about old times, but -new adventures had crowded the old ones from his mind. - -"Who is Captain Hook?" he asked with interest when she spoke of the arch -enemy. - -"Don't you remember," she asked, amazed, "how you killed him and saved -all our lives?" - -"I forget them after I kill them," he replied carelessly. - -When she expressed a doubtful hope that Tinker Bell would be glad to see -her he said, "Who is Tinker Bell?" - -"O Peter," she said, shocked; but even when she explained he could not -remember. - -"There are such a lot of them," he said. "I expect she is no more." - -I expect he was right, for fairies don't live long, but they are so -little that a short time seems a good while to them. - -Wendy was pained too to find that the past year was but as yesterday -to Peter; it had seemed such a long year of waiting to her. But he was -exactly as fascinating as ever, and they had a lovely spring cleaning in -the little house on the tree tops. - -Next year he did not come for her. She waited in a new frock because the -old one simply would not meet; but he never came. - -"Perhaps he is ill," Michael said. - -"You know he is never ill." - -Michael came close to her and whispered, with a shiver, "Perhaps there -is no such person, Wendy!" and then Wendy would have cried if Michael -had not been crying. - -Peter came next spring cleaning; and the strange thing was that he never -knew he had missed a year. - -That was the last time the girl Wendy ever saw him. For a little longer -she tried for his sake not to have growing pains; and she felt she was -untrue to him when she got a prize for general knowledge. But the years -came and went without bringing the careless boy; and when they met again -Wendy was a married woman, and Peter was no more to her than a little -dust in the box in which she had kept her toys. Wendy was grown up. You -need not be sorry for her. She was one of the kind that likes to grow -up. In the end she grew up of her own free will a day quicker than other -girls. - -All the boys were grown up and done for by this time; so it is scarcely -worth while saying anything more about them. You may see the twins and -Nibs and Curly any day going to an office, each carrying a little bag -and an umbrella. Michael is an engine-driver [train engineer]. Slightly -married a lady of title, and so he became a lord. You see that judge in -a wig coming out at the iron door? That used to be Tootles. The bearded -man who doesn't know any story to tell his children was once John. - -Wendy was married in white with a pink sash. It is strange to think -that Peter did not alight in the church and forbid the banns [formal -announcement of a marriage]. - -Years rolled on again, and Wendy had a daughter. This ought not to be -written in ink but in a golden splash. - -She was called Jane, and always had an odd inquiring look, as if from -the moment she arrived on the mainland she wanted to ask questions. When -she was old enough to ask them they were mostly about Peter Pan. She -loved to hear of Peter, and Wendy told her all she could remember in the -very nursery from which the famous flight had taken place. It was -Jane's nursery now, for her father had bought it at the three per cents -[mortgage rate] from Wendy's father, who was no longer fond of stairs. -Mrs. Darling was now dead and forgotten. - -There were only two beds in the nursery now, Jane's and her nurse's; and -there was no kennel, for Nana also had passed away. She died of old age, -and at the end she had been rather difficult to get on with; being very -firmly convinced that no one knew how to look after children except -herself. - -Once a week Jane's nurse had her evening off; and then it was Wendy's -part to put Jane to bed. That was the time for stories. It was Jane's -invention to raise the sheet over her mother's head and her own, thus -making a tent, and in the awful darkness to whisper: - -"What do we see now?" - -"I don't think I see anything to-night," says Wendy, with a feeling that -if Nana were here she would object to further conversation. - -"Yes, you do," says Jane, "you see when you were a little girl." - -"That is a long time ago, sweetheart," says Wendy. "Ah me, how time -flies!" - -"Does it fly," asks the artful child, "the way you flew when you were a -little girl?" - -"The way I flew? Do you know, Jane, I sometimes wonder whether I ever -did really fly." - -"Yes, you did." - -"The dear old days when I could fly!" - -"Why can't you fly now, mother?" - -"Because I am grown up, dearest. When people grow up they forget the -way." - -"Why do they forget the way?" - -"Because they are no longer gay and innocent and heartless. It is only -the gay and innocent and heartless who can fly." - -"What is gay and innocent and heartless? I do wish I were gay and -innocent and heartless." - -Or perhaps Wendy admits she does see something. - -"I do believe," she says, "that it is this nursery." - -"I do believe it is," says Jane. "Go on." - -They are now embarked on the great adventure of the night when Peter -flew in looking for his shadow. - -"The foolish fellow," says Wendy, "tried to stick it on with soap, and -when he could not he cried, and that woke me, and I sewed it on for -him." - -"You have missed a bit," interrupts Jane, who now knows the story better -than her mother. "When you saw him sitting on the floor crying, what did -you say?" - -"I sat up in bed and I said, 'Boy, why are you crying?'" - -"Yes, that was it," says Jane, with a big breath. - -"And then he flew us all away to the Neverland and the fairies and the -pirates and the redskins and the mermaid's lagoon, and the home under -the ground, and the little house." - -"Yes! which did you like best of all?" - -"I think I liked the home under the ground best of all." - -"Yes, so do I. What was the last thing Peter ever said to you?" - -"The last thing he ever said to me was, 'Just always be waiting for me, -and then some night you will hear me crowing.'" - -"Yes." - -"But, alas, he forgot all about me," Wendy said it with a smile. She was -as grown up as that. - -"What did his crow sound like?" Jane asked one evening. - -"It was like this," Wendy said, trying to imitate Peter's crow. - -"No, it wasn't," Jane said gravely, "it was like this;" and she did it -ever so much better than her mother. - -Wendy was a little startled. "My darling, how can you know?" - -"I often hear it when I am sleeping," Jane said. - -"Ah yes, many girls hear it when they are sleeping, but I was the only -one who heard it awake." - -"Lucky you," said Jane. - -And then one night came the tragedy. It was the spring of the year, and -the story had been told for the night, and Jane was now asleep in her -bed. Wendy was sitting on the floor, very close to the fire, so as to -see to darn, for there was no other light in the nursery; and while she -sat darning she heard a crow. Then the window blew open as of old, and -Peter dropped in on the floor. - -He was exactly the same as ever, and Wendy saw at once that he still had -all his first teeth. - -He was a little boy, and she was grown up. She huddled by the fire not -daring to move, helpless and guilty, a big woman. - -"Hullo, Wendy," he said, not noticing any difference, for he was -thinking chiefly of himself; and in the dim light her white dress might -have been the nightgown in which he had seen her first. - -"Hullo, Peter," she replied faintly, squeezing herself as small as -possible. Something inside her was crying "Woman, Woman, let go of me." - -"Hullo, where is John?" he asked, suddenly missing the third bed. - -"John is not here now," she gasped. - -"Is Michael asleep?" he asked, with a careless glance at Jane. - -"Yes," she answered; and now she felt that she was untrue to Jane as -well as to Peter. - -"That is not Michael," she said quickly, lest a judgment should fall on -her. - -Peter looked. "Hullo, is it a new one?" - -"Yes." - -"Boy or girl?" - -"Girl." - -Now surely he would understand; but not a bit of it. - -"Peter," she said, faltering, "are you expecting me to fly away with -you?" - -"Of course; that is why I have come." He added a little sternly, "Have -you forgotten that this is spring cleaning time?" - -She knew it was useless to say that he had let many spring cleaning -times pass. - -"I can't come," she said apologetically, "I have forgotten how to fly." - -"I'll soon teach you again." - -"O Peter, don't waste the fairy dust on me." - -She had risen; and now at last a fear assailed him. "What is it?" he -cried, shrinking. - -"I will turn up the light," she said, "and then you can see for -yourself." - -For almost the only time in his life that I know of, Peter was afraid. -"Don't turn up the light," he cried. - -She let her hands play in the hair of the tragic boy. She was not a -little girl heart-broken about him; she was a grown woman smiling at it -all, but they were wet eyed smiles. - -Then she turned up the light, and Peter saw. He gave a cry of pain; and -when the tall beautiful creature stooped to lift him in her arms he drew -back sharply. - -"What is it?" he cried again. - -She had to tell him. - -"I am old, Peter. I am ever so much more than twenty. I grew up long -ago." - -"You promised not to!" - -"I couldn't help it. I am a married woman, Peter." - -"No, you're not." - -"Yes, and the little girl in the bed is my baby." - -"No, she's not." - -But he supposed she was; and he took a step towards the sleeping child -with his dagger upraised. Of course he did not strike. He sat down on -the floor instead and sobbed; and Wendy did not know how to comfort him, -though she could have done it so easily once. She was only a woman now, -and she ran out of the room to try to think. - -Peter continued to cry, and soon his sobs woke Jane. She sat up in bed, -and was interested at once. - -"Boy," she said, "why are you crying?" - -Peter rose and bowed to her, and she bowed to him from the bed. - -"Hullo," he said. - -"Hullo," said Jane. - -"My name is Peter Pan," he told her. - -"Yes, I know." - -"I came back for my mother," he explained, "to take her to the -Neverland." - -"Yes, I know," Jane said, "I have been waiting for you." - -When Wendy returned diffidently she found Peter sitting on the bed-post -crowing gloriously, while Jane in her nighty was flying round the room -in solemn ecstasy. - -"She is my mother," Peter explained; and Jane descended and stood by his -side, with the look in her face that he liked to see on ladies when they -gazed at him. - -"He does so need a mother," Jane said. - -"Yes, I know." Wendy admitted rather forlornly; "no one knows it so well -as I." - -"Good-bye," said Peter to Wendy; and he rose in the air, and the -shameless Jane rose with him; it was already her easiest way of moving -about. - -Wendy rushed to the window. - -"No, no," she cried. - -"It is just for spring cleaning time," Jane said, "he wants me always to -do his spring cleaning." - -"If only I could go with you," Wendy sighed. - -"You see you can't fly," said Jane. - -Of course in the end Wendy let them fly away together. Our last glimpse -of her shows her at the window, watching them receding into the sky -until they were as small as stars. - -As you look at Wendy, you may see her hair becoming white, and her -figure little again, for all this happened long ago. Jane is now a -common grown-up, with a daughter called Margaret; and every spring -cleaning time, except when he forgets, Peter comes for Margaret and -takes her to the Neverland, where she tells him stories about himself, -to which he listens eagerly. When Margaret grows up she will have a -daughter, who is to be Peter's mother in turn; and thus it will go on, -so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless. - - -THE END - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Peter Pan, by James M. 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For -example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: - -http://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 - -or filename 24689 would be found at: -http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 - -An alternative method of locating eBooks: -http://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL - -*** END: FULL LICENSE *** diff --git a/DemoApp2/texts/QuickBrownFox.txt b/DemoApp2/texts/QuickBrownFox.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 84102df..0000000 --- a/DemoApp2/texts/QuickBrownFox.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1 +0,0 @@ -The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog diff --git a/SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs b/SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs index 0dd9108..f257185 100644 --- a/SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs +++ b/SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs @@ -1,10 +1,5 @@ -using System; -using System.Collections.Generic; -using System.Diagnostics; -using System.IO; -using System.Linq; +using System.Diagnostics; using System.Text; -using Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch; namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.SampleConsoleApp { diff --git a/SampleConsoleApp/SampleConsoleApp.csproj b/SampleConsoleApp/SampleConsoleApp.csproj index ffe6380..f65e8cb 100644 --- a/SampleConsoleApp/SampleConsoleApp.csproj +++ b/SampleConsoleApp/SampleConsoleApp.csproj @@ -1,64 +1,24 @@ - - - + + - Debug - AnyCPU - {AA86F904-90E5-407F-87B6-688ED8A2FF85} Exe - Properties - Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.SampleConsoleApp - Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.SampleConsoleApp - v4.6.1 - 512 - + net6.0 + enable + enable - - AnyCPU - true - full - false - bin\Debug\ - DEBUG;TRACE - prompt - 4 - - - AnyCPU - pdbonly - true - bin\Release\ - TRACE - prompt - 4 - - - - - + - + + PreserveNewest + - - - - - {17125877-2cf0-42b2-89d3-418e40bde5d0} - TrieNet - + - - - \ No newline at end of file + + diff --git a/SampleConsoleApp/app.config b/SampleConsoleApp/app.config deleted file mode 100644 index 3dbff35..0000000 --- a/SampleConsoleApp/app.config +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3 +0,0 @@ - - - diff --git a/TrieNet.sln b/TrieNet.sln index d0a6329..25d447a 100644 --- a/TrieNet.sln +++ b/TrieNet.sln @@ -12,13 +12,13 @@ Project("{2150E333-8FDC-42A3-9474-1A3956D46DE8}") = "Solution Items", "Solution EndProject Project("{2150E333-8FDC-42A3-9474-1A3956D46DE8}") = "Demo", "Demo", "{4186BBA3-FBD8-408B-AF5A-2848A4073DD1}" EndProject -Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "SampleConsoleApp", "SampleConsoleApp\SampleConsoleApp.csproj", "{AA86F904-90E5-407F-87B6-688ED8A2FF85}" -EndProject Project("{9A19103F-16F7-4668-BE54-9A1E7A4F7556}") = "TrieNet", "TrieNet\TrieNet.csproj", "{1A60C4E2-8E02-48C4-BAFA-8EA0FE1BAE5E}" EndProject -Project("{9A19103F-16F7-4668-BE54-9A1E7A4F7556}") = "DemoApp", "DemoApp2\DemoApp.csproj", "{3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}" +Project("{9A19103F-16F7-4668-BE54-9A1E7A4F7556}") = "TrieNet.Test", "TrieNet.Test\TrieNet.Test.csproj", "{4EDA3CFF-EA4A-4754-9A95-750CCAF3CAB1}" +EndProject +Project("{9A19103F-16F7-4668-BE54-9A1E7A4F7556}") = "DemoApp", "DemoApp\DemoApp.csproj", "{8B6BEE0F-F9A5-4E8F-B2DF-56CF504AA272}" EndProject -Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "TrieNet.Test", "TrieNet.Test2\TrieNet.Test.csproj", "{C818EAA2-F29A-4F67-A572-8BC24683F6A4}" +Project("{9A19103F-16F7-4668-BE54-9A1E7A4F7556}") = "SampleConsoleApp", "SampleConsoleApp\SampleConsoleApp.csproj", "{F77D3A11-DABB-4C35-B388-73E6F50628AC}" EndProject Global GlobalSection(SolutionConfigurationPlatforms) = preSolution @@ -28,14 +28,6 @@ Global Release|x86 = Release|x86 EndGlobalSection GlobalSection(ProjectConfigurationPlatforms) = postSolution - {AA86F904-90E5-407F-87B6-688ED8A2FF85}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU - {AA86F904-90E5-407F-87B6-688ED8A2FF85}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU - {AA86F904-90E5-407F-87B6-688ED8A2FF85}.Debug|x86.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU - {AA86F904-90E5-407F-87B6-688ED8A2FF85}.Debug|x86.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU - {AA86F904-90E5-407F-87B6-688ED8A2FF85}.Release|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU - {AA86F904-90E5-407F-87B6-688ED8A2FF85}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU - {AA86F904-90E5-407F-87B6-688ED8A2FF85}.Release|x86.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU - {AA86F904-90E5-407F-87B6-688ED8A2FF85}.Release|x86.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU {1A60C4E2-8E02-48C4-BAFA-8EA0FE1BAE5E}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU {1A60C4E2-8E02-48C4-BAFA-8EA0FE1BAE5E}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU {1A60C4E2-8E02-48C4-BAFA-8EA0FE1BAE5E}.Debug|x86.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU @@ -44,29 +36,37 @@ Global {1A60C4E2-8E02-48C4-BAFA-8EA0FE1BAE5E}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU {1A60C4E2-8E02-48C4-BAFA-8EA0FE1BAE5E}.Release|x86.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU {1A60C4E2-8E02-48C4-BAFA-8EA0FE1BAE5E}.Release|x86.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU - {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU - {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU - {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Debug|x86.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU - {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Debug|x86.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU - {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Release|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU - {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU - {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Release|x86.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU - {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16}.Release|x86.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU - {C818EAA2-F29A-4F67-A572-8BC24683F6A4}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU - {C818EAA2-F29A-4F67-A572-8BC24683F6A4}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU - {C818EAA2-F29A-4F67-A572-8BC24683F6A4}.Debug|x86.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU - {C818EAA2-F29A-4F67-A572-8BC24683F6A4}.Debug|x86.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU - {C818EAA2-F29A-4F67-A572-8BC24683F6A4}.Release|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU - {C818EAA2-F29A-4F67-A572-8BC24683F6A4}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU - {C818EAA2-F29A-4F67-A572-8BC24683F6A4}.Release|x86.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU - {C818EAA2-F29A-4F67-A572-8BC24683F6A4}.Release|x86.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU + {4EDA3CFF-EA4A-4754-9A95-750CCAF3CAB1}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU + {4EDA3CFF-EA4A-4754-9A95-750CCAF3CAB1}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU + {4EDA3CFF-EA4A-4754-9A95-750CCAF3CAB1}.Debug|x86.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU + {4EDA3CFF-EA4A-4754-9A95-750CCAF3CAB1}.Debug|x86.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU + {4EDA3CFF-EA4A-4754-9A95-750CCAF3CAB1}.Release|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU + {4EDA3CFF-EA4A-4754-9A95-750CCAF3CAB1}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU + {4EDA3CFF-EA4A-4754-9A95-750CCAF3CAB1}.Release|x86.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU + {4EDA3CFF-EA4A-4754-9A95-750CCAF3CAB1}.Release|x86.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU + {8B6BEE0F-F9A5-4E8F-B2DF-56CF504AA272}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU + {8B6BEE0F-F9A5-4E8F-B2DF-56CF504AA272}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU + {8B6BEE0F-F9A5-4E8F-B2DF-56CF504AA272}.Debug|x86.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU + {8B6BEE0F-F9A5-4E8F-B2DF-56CF504AA272}.Debug|x86.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU + {8B6BEE0F-F9A5-4E8F-B2DF-56CF504AA272}.Release|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU + {8B6BEE0F-F9A5-4E8F-B2DF-56CF504AA272}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU + {8B6BEE0F-F9A5-4E8F-B2DF-56CF504AA272}.Release|x86.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU + {8B6BEE0F-F9A5-4E8F-B2DF-56CF504AA272}.Release|x86.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU + {F77D3A11-DABB-4C35-B388-73E6F50628AC}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU + {F77D3A11-DABB-4C35-B388-73E6F50628AC}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU + {F77D3A11-DABB-4C35-B388-73E6F50628AC}.Debug|x86.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU + {F77D3A11-DABB-4C35-B388-73E6F50628AC}.Debug|x86.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU + {F77D3A11-DABB-4C35-B388-73E6F50628AC}.Release|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU + {F77D3A11-DABB-4C35-B388-73E6F50628AC}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU + {F77D3A11-DABB-4C35-B388-73E6F50628AC}.Release|x86.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU + {F77D3A11-DABB-4C35-B388-73E6F50628AC}.Release|x86.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU EndGlobalSection GlobalSection(SolutionProperties) = preSolution HideSolutionNode = FALSE EndGlobalSection GlobalSection(NestedProjects) = preSolution - {AA86F904-90E5-407F-87B6-688ED8A2FF85} = {4186BBA3-FBD8-408B-AF5A-2848A4073DD1} - {3B82BB93-FD1B-48E9-936A-FECE89810B16} = {4186BBA3-FBD8-408B-AF5A-2848A4073DD1} + {8B6BEE0F-F9A5-4E8F-B2DF-56CF504AA272} = {4186BBA3-FBD8-408B-AF5A-2848A4073DD1} + {F77D3A11-DABB-4C35-B388-73E6F50628AC} = {4186BBA3-FBD8-408B-AF5A-2848A4073DD1} EndGlobalSection GlobalSection(ExtensibilityGlobals) = postSolution SolutionGuid = {C570FD29-9F0C-417A-BB07-2135E30E76F3} From cd02a28e493f50b45224b7ddd0aefb1c73ab9592 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 15:18:55 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 13/25] fixed resource name --- TrieNet.Test/TestCaseGeneration/NonsenseGeneration.cs | 2 +- TrieNet.Test/TrieNet.Test.csproj | 4 ++++ 2 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/TrieNet.Test/TestCaseGeneration/NonsenseGeneration.cs b/TrieNet.Test/TestCaseGeneration/NonsenseGeneration.cs index f6db740..c955e2f 100644 --- a/TrieNet.Test/TestCaseGeneration/NonsenseGeneration.cs +++ b/TrieNet.Test/TestCaseGeneration/NonsenseGeneration.cs @@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ public static IEnumerable GetWords(string fileName) var resourceName = typeof(NonsenseGeneration).Namespace + "." + fileName; using (var stream = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream(resourceName)) { - Debug.Assert(stream != null, "Could not find resource {0}", resourceName); + Debug.Assert(stream != null, $"Could not find resource {resourceName}"); using (var file = new StreamReader(stream)) { var word = new StringBuilder(); diff --git a/TrieNet.Test/TrieNet.Test.csproj b/TrieNet.Test/TrieNet.Test.csproj index 9810d2b..8ab7b14 100644 --- a/TrieNet.Test/TrieNet.Test.csproj +++ b/TrieNet.Test/TrieNet.Test.csproj @@ -5,6 +5,10 @@ enable false + + Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.Test + + Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.Test From c6c797e59997342ffc5fcacb3427ebfd54ba7705 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 16:15:09 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 14/25] Fixed last word being ignored --- SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs | 16 ++++++++++++---- 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) diff --git a/SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs b/SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs index f257185..396202c 100644 --- a/SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs +++ b/SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ internal class Program { private static void Main(string[] args) { - var trie = new SuffixTrie(3); + var trie = new UkkonenTrie(0); //You can replace it with other trie data structures too //ITrie trie = new Trie(); //ITrie trie = new PatriciaSuffixTrie(3); @@ -18,6 +18,12 @@ private static void Main(string[] args) //Build-up BuildUp("sample.txt", trie); //Look-up + LookUp("a", trie); + LookUp("e", trie); + LookUp("u", trie); + LookUp("i", trie); + LookUp("o", trie); + LookUp("fox", trie); LookUp("overs", trie); LookUp("porta", trie); LookUp("supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", trie); @@ -29,7 +35,7 @@ private static void Main(string[] args) Console.ReadKey(); } - private static void BuildUp(string fileName, ITrie trie) + private static void BuildUp(string fileName, ISuffixTrie trie) { IEnumerable allWordsInFile = GetWordsFromFile(fileName); foreach (WordAndLine wordAndLine in allWordsInFile) @@ -38,14 +44,14 @@ private static void BuildUp(string fileName, ITrie trie) } } - private static void LookUp(string searchString, ITrie trie) + private static void LookUp(string searchString, ISuffixTrie trie) { Console.WriteLine("----------------------------------------"); Console.WriteLine("Look-up for string '{0}'", searchString); var stopWatch = new Stopwatch(); stopWatch.Start(); - int[] result = trie.Retrieve(searchString).ToArray(); + var result = trie.RetrieveSubstrings(searchString).ToArray(); stopWatch.Stop(); string matchesText = String.Join(",", result); @@ -102,6 +108,8 @@ private static IEnumerable GetWordsFromLine(string line) word.Clear(); } } + if (word.Length == 0) yield break; + yield return word.ToString(); } private struct WordAndLine From 021d015d92940a7a260daa84826a3f054f5ae9aa Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 16:19:09 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 15/25] Fixed duplicate entries in Retrieve from suffix trie --- TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs | 2 +- TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs | 2 +- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs | 2 +- 3 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs index 8246d4b..3fa6727 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs @@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ public long Size { public IEnumerable Retrieve(string word) { - return RetrieveSubstrings(word).Select(o => o.Value); + return RetrieveSubstrings(word).Select(o => o.Value).Distinct(); } public IEnumerable> RetrieveSubstrings(string query) diff --git a/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs index 0b10dc4..37dc73c 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs @@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ public long Size { public IEnumerable Retrieve(string word) { - return RetrieveSubstrings(word).Select(o => o.Value); + return RetrieveSubstrings(word).Select(o => o.Value).Distinct(); } public IEnumerable> RetrieveSubstrings(string query) diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs index 3463079..f8e468b 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs @@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ public long Size { public IEnumerable Retrieve(string word) { - return RetrieveSubstrings(word).Select(o => o.Value); + return RetrieveSubstrings(word).Select(o => o.Value).Distinct(); } public IEnumerable> RetrieveSubstrings(string word) From 4e4a1e9568839ff2a290ba938651784371e68d98 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 16:30:47 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 16/25] Added net6.0-windows target --- TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj b/TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj index a636060..e5cf5dc 100644 --- a/TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj +++ b/TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@  - net6.0 + net6.0;net6.0-windows TrieNet TrieNet George Mamaladze From 9a0ad4db7dff8097e49b9788911c2b09c085b21a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 16:33:13 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 17/25] Revert "Added net6.0-windows target" This reverts commit 4e4a1e9568839ff2a290ba938651784371e68d98. --- TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj b/TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj index e5cf5dc..a636060 100644 --- a/TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj +++ b/TrieNet/TrieNet.csproj @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@  - net6.0;net6.0-windows + net6.0 TrieNet TrieNet George Mamaladze From 1470cf8d65cd2583bb37867e36797dfc5a2904d7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 19:44:30 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 18/25] Generic UkkonenTrie --- DemoApp/MainForm.cs | 8 +- SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs | 11 +- TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs | 5 +- TrieNet/ITrie.cs | 7 +- TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs | 2 +- TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaTrie.cs | 4 +- TrieNet/_Trie/ConcurrentTrie.cs | 2 +- TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs | 2 +- TrieNet/_Trie/Trie.cs | 2 +- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/CharDictionary.cs | 2 +- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Edge.cs | 8 +- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs | 16 +- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/StringSlice.cs | 157 ++++++++++++++++++++ TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs | 103 ++++++------- 14 files changed, 246 insertions(+), 83 deletions(-) create mode 100644 TrieNet/_Ukkonen/StringSlice.cs diff --git a/DemoApp/MainForm.cs b/DemoApp/MainForm.cs index 8ce3017..cfa90d3 100644 --- a/DemoApp/MainForm.cs +++ b/DemoApp/MainForm.cs @@ -5,13 +5,13 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.DemoApp { public partial class MainForm : Form { - private readonly UkkonenTrie m_Trie; + private readonly UkkonenTrie m_Trie; private static readonly char[] delimiters = new char[] { ' ', '\r', '\n' }; private long m_WordCount; public MainForm() { InitializeComponent(); - m_Trie = new UkkonenTrie(3); + m_Trie = new UkkonenTrie(3); folderName.Text = Path.Combine( Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(), @@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ public MainForm() { private void LoadFile(string fileName) { var word = File.ReadAllText(fileName); - m_Trie.Add(word, Path.GetFileName(fileName)); + m_Trie.Add(word.AsMemory(), Path.GetFileName(fileName)); m_WordCount += word.Split(delimiters, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries).Length; Debug.WriteLine($"Loaded {word.Length} characters."); Debug.WriteLine($"Trie size = {m_Trie.Size}"); @@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ private void UpdateProgress(int position) { private void textBox1_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { string text = textBox1.Text; if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(text) || text.Length < 3) return; - var result = m_Trie.RetrieveSubstrings(text).ToArray(); + var result = m_Trie.RetrieveSubstrings(text.AsMemory()).ToArray(); listBox1.Items.Clear(); foreach (var wordPosition in result) { listBox1.Items.Add(wordPosition); diff --git a/SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs b/SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs index 396202c..dd9eae9 100644 --- a/SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs +++ b/SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ internal class Program { private static void Main(string[] args) { - var trie = new UkkonenTrie(0); + var trie = new UkkonenTrie(0); //You can replace it with other trie data structures too //ITrie trie = new Trie(); //ITrie trie = new PatriciaSuffixTrie(3); @@ -35,23 +35,24 @@ private static void Main(string[] args) Console.ReadKey(); } - private static void BuildUp(string fileName, ISuffixTrie trie) + private static void BuildUp(string fileName, ISuffixTrie trie) { IEnumerable allWordsInFile = GetWordsFromFile(fileName); + int i = 0; foreach (WordAndLine wordAndLine in allWordsInFile) { - trie.Add(wordAndLine.Word, wordAndLine.Line); + trie.Add(wordAndLine.Word.AsMemory(), ++i); } } - private static void LookUp(string searchString, ISuffixTrie trie) + private static void LookUp(string searchString, ISuffixTrie trie) { Console.WriteLine("----------------------------------------"); Console.WriteLine("Look-up for string '{0}'", searchString); var stopWatch = new Stopwatch(); stopWatch.Start(); - var result = trie.RetrieveSubstrings(searchString).ToArray(); + var result = trie.RetrieveSubstrings(searchString.AsMemory()).ToArray(); stopWatch.Stop(); string matchesText = String.Join(",", result); diff --git a/TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs b/TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs index 8d210b6..ec31932 100644 --- a/TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs @@ -1,5 +1,6 @@ // This code is distributed under MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 George Mamaladze // See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php +using System; using System.Collections.Generic; namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch @@ -10,8 +11,8 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch /// The interface allows retrieval of multiple values along with their positions. /// /// - public interface ISuffixTrie : ITrie + public interface ISuffixTrie : ITrie where K : IEquatable { - IEnumerable> RetrieveSubstrings(string query); + IEnumerable> RetrieveSubstrings(ReadOnlyMemory query); } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/TrieNet/ITrie.cs b/TrieNet/ITrie.cs index 6de0ec3..b30f7b9 100644 --- a/TrieNet/ITrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/ITrie.cs @@ -1,5 +1,6 @@ // This code is distributed under MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 George Mamaladze // See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php +using System; using System.Collections.Generic; namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch @@ -10,9 +11,9 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch /// The interface allows retrieval of multiple values . /// /// - public interface ITrie + public interface ITrie where K : IEquatable { - IEnumerable Retrieve(string query); - void Add(string key, TValue value); + IEnumerable Retrieve(ReadOnlyMemory query); + void Add(ReadOnlyMemory key, TValue value); } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs index 3fa6727..515e7a5 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { [Serializable] - public class PatriciaSuffixTrie : ISuffixTrie + public class PatriciaSuffixTrie// : ISuffixTrie { private readonly int m_MinQueryLength; private readonly PatriciaTrie> m_InnerTrie; diff --git a/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaTrie.cs index 0d8dca1..b3ac62d 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaTrie.cs @@ -7,8 +7,8 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { [Serializable] public class PatriciaTrie : - PatriciaTrieNode, - ITrie + PatriciaTrieNode//, + //ITrie { public PatriciaTrie() : base( diff --git a/TrieNet/_Trie/ConcurrentTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Trie/ConcurrentTrie.cs index fe8fe05..8bfd77b 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Trie/ConcurrentTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Trie/ConcurrentTrie.cs @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { [Serializable] - public class ConcurrentTrie : ConcurrentTrieNode, ITrie + public class ConcurrentTrie : ConcurrentTrieNode//, ITrie { public IEnumerable Retrieve(string query) { diff --git a/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs index 37dc73c..718045f 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { [Serializable] - public class SuffixTrie : ISuffixTrie + public class SuffixTrie// : ISuffixTrie { private readonly Trie> m_InnerTrie; private readonly int m_MinSuffixLength; diff --git a/TrieNet/_Trie/Trie.cs b/TrieNet/_Trie/Trie.cs index 5ecd09f..56effba 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Trie/Trie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Trie/Trie.cs @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { [Serializable] - public class Trie : TrieNode, ITrie + public class Trie : TrieNode//, ITrie { public IEnumerable Retrieve(string query) { diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/CharDictionary.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/CharDictionary.cs index c3a1b02..04606b5 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/CharDictionary.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/CharDictionary.cs @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { - internal class CharDictionary : Dictionary> + internal class CharDictionary : Dictionary> { //TODO Consider using sorted list based implementation to save memory } diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Edge.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Edge.cs index d39b369..d4c63ce 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Edge.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Edge.cs @@ -2,16 +2,16 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { - internal class Edge + internal class Edge { - public Edge(ReadOnlyMemory label, Node target) + public Edge(ReadOnlyMemory label, Node target) { this.Label = label; this.Target = target; } - public ReadOnlyMemory Label { get; set; } + public ReadOnlyMemory Label { get; set; } - public Node Target { get; private set; } + public Node Target { get; private set; } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs index 236bca0..427ce7f 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs @@ -3,19 +3,19 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { - internal class Node + internal class Node { - private readonly IDictionary> _edges; + private readonly IDictionary> _edges; private readonly HashSet _data; public Node() { - _edges = new CharDictionary(); + _edges = new CharDictionary(); Suffix = null; _data = new HashSet(); } - public IEnumerable> Children() { + public IEnumerable> Children() { return _edges.Values.Select(e => e.Target); } @@ -47,18 +47,18 @@ public void AddRef(T value) } } - public void AddEdge(char ch, Edge e) + public void AddEdge(K ch, Edge e) { _edges[ch] = e; } - public Edge GetEdge(char ch) + public Edge GetEdge(K ch) { - Edge result; + Edge result; _edges.TryGetValue(ch, out result); return result; } - public Node Suffix { get; set; } + public Node Suffix { get; set; } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/StringSlice.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/StringSlice.cs new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6a23d07 --- /dev/null +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/StringSlice.cs @@ -0,0 +1,157 @@ +// This code is distributed under MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 George Mamaladze +// See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php + +using System; +using System.Collections; +using System.Collections.Generic; +using System.Diagnostics; +using System.Linq; + +namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch +{ + [Serializable] + [DebuggerDisplay( + "{m_Origin[m_StartIndex..m_EndIndex]}" + )] + public struct StringSlice : IEnumerable where K : IEquatable + { + private readonly ReadOnlyMemory m_Origin; + private int m_StartIndex; + private int m_EndIndex; + + public StringSlice(ReadOnlyMemory origin) + : this(origin, 0, origin.Length) + { + } + + public StringSlice(ReadOnlyMemory origin, int startIndex) + : this(origin, startIndex, origin.Length - startIndex) + { + } + + public StringSlice(ReadOnlyMemory origin, int startIndex, int partitionLength) + { + if (startIndex < 0) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(nameof(startIndex), "The value must be non negative."); + if (partitionLength < 0) + throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(nameof(partitionLength), "The value must be non negative."); + m_Origin = origin; + m_StartIndex = startIndex; + m_EndIndex = Math.Min(origin.Length, startIndex + partitionLength); + } + + public K this[int index] + { + get { return m_Origin.Span[m_StartIndex + index]; } + } + + public int StartIndex { + set { + m_StartIndex = Math.Max(0, Math.Min(value, m_EndIndex)); + } + get { return m_StartIndex; } + } + + public int EndIndex { + set { + m_EndIndex = Math.Max(StartIndex, Math.Min(value, m_Origin.Length)); + } + get { return m_EndIndex; } + } + + public int Length + { + get { return m_EndIndex - m_StartIndex; } + } + + #region IEnumerable Members + + public IEnumerator GetEnumerator() + { + for (int i = 0; i < Length; i++) + { + yield return this[i]; + } + } + + IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator() + { + return GetEnumerator(); + } + + #endregion + + public bool Equals(StringSlice other) + { + return m_Origin.Equals(other.m_Origin) && + m_EndIndex == other.m_EndIndex && + m_StartIndex == other.m_StartIndex; + } + + public override bool Equals(object obj) + { + if (ReferenceEquals(null, obj)) return false; + return obj is StringSlice sli && Equals(sli); + } + + public override int GetHashCode() + { + unchecked + { + int hashCode = m_Origin.GetHashCode(); + hashCode = (hashCode*397) ^ m_EndIndex; + hashCode = (hashCode*397) ^ m_StartIndex; + return hashCode; + } + } + + public StringSlice Slice(int startIndex) { + return Slice(startIndex, Length - startIndex); + } + + public StringSlice Slice(int startIndex, int count) { + return new StringSlice(m_Origin, m_StartIndex + startIndex, Math.Min(count, Length - startIndex)); + } + + public bool StartsWith(StringSlice other) { + return StartsWith(other.AsSpan()); + } + + public bool StartsWith(ReadOnlySpan other) { + if (Length < other.Length) { + return false; + } + + for (int i = 0; i < other.Length; i++) { + if (!this[i].Equals(other[i])) { + return false; + } + } + return true; + } + + public ReadOnlyMemory AsMemory() { + return m_Origin.Slice(m_StartIndex, Length); + } + + public ReadOnlySpan AsSpan() { + return m_Origin.Span.Slice(m_StartIndex, Length); + } + + public (StringSlice, StringSlice) Split(int splitAt) + { + var head = new StringSlice(m_Origin, m_StartIndex, splitAt); + var rest = new StringSlice(m_Origin, m_StartIndex + splitAt, Length - splitAt); + return (head, rest); + } + + public static bool operator ==(StringSlice left, StringSlice right) + { + return left.Equals(right); + } + + public static bool operator !=(StringSlice left, StringSlice right) + { + return !(left == right); + } + } +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs index f8e468b..9d92802 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs @@ -4,15 +4,15 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { - public class UkkonenTrie : ISuffixTrie + public class UkkonenTrie : ISuffixTrie where K : IEquatable { private readonly int _minSuffixLength; //The root of the suffix tree - private readonly Node> _root; + private readonly Node> _root; //The last leaf that was added during the update operation - private Node> _activeLeaf; + private Node> _activeLeaf; public UkkonenTrie() : this(0) { @@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ public UkkonenTrie() : this(0) public UkkonenTrie(int minSuffixLength) { _minSuffixLength = minSuffixLength; - _root = new Node>(); + _root = new Node>(); _activeLeaf = _root; } @@ -31,28 +31,28 @@ public long Size { } } - public IEnumerable Retrieve(string word) + public IEnumerable Retrieve(ReadOnlyMemory word) { return RetrieveSubstrings(word).Select(o => o.Value).Distinct(); } - public IEnumerable> RetrieveSubstrings(string word) + public IEnumerable> RetrieveSubstrings(ReadOnlyMemory word) { if (word.Length < _minSuffixLength) return Enumerable.Empty>(); - var tmpNode = SearchNode(word); + var tmpNode = SearchNode(word.Span); return tmpNode == null ? Enumerable.Empty>() : tmpNode.GetData(); } - private static bool RegionMatches(string first, int toffset, ReadOnlySpan second, int ooffset, int len) + private static bool RegionMatches(ReadOnlySpan first, int toffset, ReadOnlySpan second, int ooffset, int len) { for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) { var one = first[toffset + i]; var two = second[ooffset + i]; - if (one != two) return false; + if (!one.Equals(two)) return false; } return true; } @@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ private static bool RegionMatches(string first, int toffset, ReadOnlySpan /** * Returns the tree NodeA (if present) that corresponds to the given string. */ - private Node> SearchNode(string word) + private Node> SearchNode(ReadOnlySpan word) { /* * Verifies if exists a path from the root to a NodeA such that the concatenation @@ -100,22 +100,22 @@ private Node> SearchNode(string word) return null; } - public void Add(string key, T value) + public void Add(ReadOnlyMemory key, T value) { // reset activeLeaf _activeLeaf = _root; - var remainder = key.AsMemory(); + var remainder = key; var s = _root; // proceed with tree construction (closely related to procedure in // Ukkonen's paper) - var text = string.Empty; + var text = new StringSlice(key, 0, 0); // iterate over the string, one char at a time for (var i = 0; i < remainder.Length; i++) { // line 6 - text += remainder.Span[i]; + text.EndIndex += 1; // use intern to make sure the resulting string is in the pool. //TODO Check if needed //text = text.Intern(); @@ -157,31 +157,31 @@ public void Add(string key, T value) * the last NodeA that can be reached by following the path denoted by stringPart starting from inputs * */ - private static Tuple>> TestAndSplit(Node> inputs, string stringPart, char t, ReadOnlyMemory remainder, WordPosition value) + private static Tuple>> TestAndSplit(Node> inputs, StringSlice stringPart, K t, ReadOnlyMemory remainder, WordPosition value) { // descend the tree as far as possible var ret = Canonize(inputs, stringPart); var s = ret.Item1; var str = ret.Item2; - if (!string.Empty.Equals(str)) + if (str.Length > 0) { var g = s.GetEdge(str[0]); var label = g.Label; // must see whether "str" is substring of the label of an EdgeA - if (label.Length > str.Length && label.Span[str.Length] == t) + if (label.Length > str.Length && label.Span[str.Length].Equals(t)) { - return new Tuple>>(true, s); + return new Tuple>>(true, s); } // need to split the EdgeA var newlabel = label.Slice(str.Length); //assert (label.startsWith(str)); // build a new NodeA - var r = new Node>(); + var r = new Node>(); // build a new EdgeA - var newedge = new Edge>(str.AsMemory(), r); + var newedge = new Edge>(str.AsMemory(), r); g.Label = newlabel; @@ -189,13 +189,13 @@ private static Tuple>> TestAndSplit(Node>>(false, r); + return new Tuple>>(false, r); } var e = s.GetEdge(t); if (null == e) { // if there is no t-transtion from s - return new Tuple>>(false, s); + return new Tuple>>(false, s); } var eLabelSpan = e.Label.Span; var remainderSpan = remainder.Span; @@ -203,25 +203,25 @@ private static Tuple>> TestAndSplit(Node e.Target.AddRef(value); - return new Tuple>>(true, s); + return new Tuple>>(true, s); } if (remainderSpan.StartsWith(eLabelSpan)) { - return new Tuple>>(true, s); + return new Tuple>>(true, s); } if (!eLabelSpan.StartsWith(remainderSpan)) { - return new Tuple>>(true, s); + return new Tuple>>(true, s); } // need to split as above - var newNode = new Node>(); + var newNode = new Node>(); newNode.AddRef(value); - var newEdge = new Edge>(remainder, newNode); + var newEdge = new Edge>(remainder, newNode); e.Label = e.Label.Slice(remainder.Length); newNode.AddEdge(e.Label.Span[0], e); s.AddEdge(t, newEdge); - return new Tuple>>(false, s); + return new Tuple>>(false, s); // they are different words. No prefix. but they may still share some common substr } @@ -231,28 +231,29 @@ private static Tuple>> TestAndSplit(Node>, string> Canonize(Node> s, string inputstr) + private static Tuple>, StringSlice> Canonize(Node> s, StringSlice inputstr) { - if (string.Empty.Equals(inputstr)) + if (inputstr.Length == 0) { - return new Tuple>, string>(s, inputstr); + return new Tuple>, StringSlice>(s, inputstr); } var currentNode = s; - var str = inputstr.AsSpan(); - var g = s.GetEdge(str[0]); + var offset = 0; + var g = s.GetEdge(inputstr[0]); // descend the tree as long as a proper label is found - while (g != null && str.Length >= g.Label.Length && str.StartsWith(g.Label.Span)) + while (g != null && inputstr.Length >= g.Label.Length && inputstr.StartsWith(g.Label.Span)) { - str = str.Slice(g.Label.Length); + inputstr.StartIndex += g.Label.Length; + offset += g.Label.Length; currentNode = g.Target; - if (str.Length > 0) + if (inputstr.Length > 0) { - g = currentNode.GetEdge(str[0]); + g = currentNode.GetEdge(inputstr[0]); } } - return new Tuple>, string>(currentNode, str.ToString()); + return new Tuple>, StringSlice>(currentNode, inputstr); } /** @@ -271,17 +272,17 @@ private static Tuple>, string> Canonize(Node>, string> Update(Node> inputNode, string stringPart, ReadOnlyMemory rest, WordPosition value) + private Tuple>, StringSlice> Update(Node> inputNode, StringSlice stringPart, ReadOnlyMemory rest, WordPosition value) { var s = inputNode; var tempstr = stringPart; - var newChar = stringPart[stringPart.Length - 1]; + var newChar = stringPart[^1]; // line 1 var oldroot = _root; // line 1b - var ret = TestAndSplit(s, tempstr.Substring(0, tempstr.Length - 1), newChar, rest, value); + var ret = TestAndSplit(s, tempstr.Slice(0, tempstr.Length - 1), newChar, rest, value); var r = ret.Item2; var endpoint = ret.Item1; @@ -291,7 +292,7 @@ private Tuple>, string> Update(Node> inputN { // line 3 var tempEdge = r.GetEdge(newChar); - Node> leaf; + Node> leaf; if (null != tempEdge) { // such a NodeA is already present. This is one of the main differences from Ukkonen's case: @@ -301,9 +302,9 @@ private Tuple>, string> Update(Node> inputN else { // must build a new leaf - leaf = new Node>(); + leaf = new Node>(); leaf.AddRef(value); - var newedge = new Edge>(rest, leaf); + var newedge = new Edge>(rest, leaf); r.AddEdge(newChar, newedge); } @@ -330,14 +331,16 @@ private Tuple>, string> Update(Node> inputN //TODO Check why assert //assert (root == s); // this is a special case to handle what is referred to as NodeA _|_ on the paper - tempstr = tempstr.Substring(1); + tempstr = tempstr.Slice(1, tempstr.Length - 1); } else { - var canret = Canonize(s.Suffix, SafeCutLastChar(tempstr)); + tempstr.EndIndex -= 1; + var canret = Canonize(s.Suffix, tempstr); s = canret.Item1; // use intern to ensure that tempstr is a reference from the string pool - tempstr = (canret.Item2 + tempstr[tempstr.Length - 1]); //TODO .intern(); + tempstr = canret.Item2; + tempstr.EndIndex += 1; } // line 7 @@ -352,12 +355,12 @@ private Tuple>, string> Update(Node> inputN oldroot.Suffix = r; } - return new Tuple>, string>(s, tempstr); + return new Tuple>, StringSlice>(s, tempstr); } - private static string SafeCutLastChar(string seq) + private static StringSlice SafeCutLastChar(StringSlice seq) { - return seq.Length == 0 ? string.Empty : seq.Substring(0, seq.Length - 1); + return seq.Length == 0 ? new StringSlice() : seq.Slice(0, seq.Length - 1); } } } \ No newline at end of file From a660cf4f16b026b817d1dc0f0cc3bb31c1d746df Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 19:54:11 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 19/25] Added generic trie interfaces --- TrieNet/IGenericSuffixTrie.cs | 18 ++++++++++++++++++ TrieNet/IGenericTrie.cs | 19 +++++++++++++++++++ TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs | 4 ++-- TrieNet/ITrie.cs | 8 ++++---- TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs | 2 +- TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaTrie.cs | 4 ++-- TrieNet/_Trie/ConcurrentTrie.cs | 2 +- TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs | 2 +- TrieNet/_Trie/Trie.cs | 2 +- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs | 8 ++++---- 10 files changed, 53 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-) create mode 100644 TrieNet/IGenericSuffixTrie.cs create mode 100644 TrieNet/IGenericTrie.cs diff --git a/TrieNet/IGenericSuffixTrie.cs b/TrieNet/IGenericSuffixTrie.cs new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e6d5ba9 --- /dev/null +++ b/TrieNet/IGenericSuffixTrie.cs @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +// This code is distributed under MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 George Mamaladze +// See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php +using System; +using System.Collections.Generic; + +namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch +{ + /// + /// Interface to be implemented by a data structure + /// which allows adding values associated with generic keys. + /// The interface allows retrieval of multiple values along with their positions. + /// + /// + public interface IGenericSuffixTrie : IGenericTrie where K : IEquatable + { + IEnumerable> RetrieveSubstrings(ReadOnlySpan query); + } +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/TrieNet/IGenericTrie.cs b/TrieNet/IGenericTrie.cs new file mode 100644 index 0000000..96b5353 --- /dev/null +++ b/TrieNet/IGenericTrie.cs @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +// This code is distributed under MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 George Mamaladze +// See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php +using System; +using System.Collections.Generic; + +namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch +{ + /// + /// Interface to be implemented by a data structure + /// which allows adding values associated with generic keys. + /// The interface allows retrieval of multiple values. + /// + /// + public interface IGenericTrie where K : IEquatable + { + IEnumerable Retrieve(ReadOnlySpan query); + void Add(ReadOnlyMemory key, TValue value); + } +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs b/TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs index ec31932..3f69b80 100644 --- a/TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/ISuffixTrie.cs @@ -11,8 +11,8 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch /// The interface allows retrieval of multiple values along with their positions. /// /// - public interface ISuffixTrie : ITrie where K : IEquatable + public interface ISuffixTrie : ITrie { - IEnumerable> RetrieveSubstrings(ReadOnlyMemory query); + IEnumerable> RetrieveSubstrings(string query); } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/TrieNet/ITrie.cs b/TrieNet/ITrie.cs index b30f7b9..32df568 100644 --- a/TrieNet/ITrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/ITrie.cs @@ -8,12 +8,12 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch /// /// Interface to be implemented by a data structure /// which allows adding values associated with string keys. - /// The interface allows retrieval of multiple values . + /// The interface allows retrieval of multiple values. /// /// - public interface ITrie where K : IEquatable + public interface ITrie { - IEnumerable Retrieve(ReadOnlyMemory query); - void Add(ReadOnlyMemory key, TValue value); + IEnumerable Retrieve(string query); + void Add(string key, TValue value); } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs index 515e7a5..3fa6727 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaSuffixTrie.cs @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { [Serializable] - public class PatriciaSuffixTrie// : ISuffixTrie + public class PatriciaSuffixTrie : ISuffixTrie { private readonly int m_MinQueryLength; private readonly PatriciaTrie> m_InnerTrie; diff --git a/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaTrie.cs index b3ac62d..0d8dca1 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_PatriciaTrie/PatriciaTrie.cs @@ -7,8 +7,8 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { [Serializable] public class PatriciaTrie : - PatriciaTrieNode//, - //ITrie + PatriciaTrieNode, + ITrie { public PatriciaTrie() : base( diff --git a/TrieNet/_Trie/ConcurrentTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Trie/ConcurrentTrie.cs index 8bfd77b..fe8fe05 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Trie/ConcurrentTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Trie/ConcurrentTrie.cs @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { [Serializable] - public class ConcurrentTrie : ConcurrentTrieNode//, ITrie + public class ConcurrentTrie : ConcurrentTrieNode, ITrie { public IEnumerable Retrieve(string query) { diff --git a/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs index 718045f..37dc73c 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Trie/SuffixTrie.cs @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { [Serializable] - public class SuffixTrie// : ISuffixTrie + public class SuffixTrie : ISuffixTrie { private readonly Trie> m_InnerTrie; private readonly int m_MinSuffixLength; diff --git a/TrieNet/_Trie/Trie.cs b/TrieNet/_Trie/Trie.cs index 56effba..5ecd09f 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Trie/Trie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Trie/Trie.cs @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { [Serializable] - public class Trie : TrieNode//, ITrie + public class Trie : TrieNode, ITrie { public IEnumerable Retrieve(string query) { diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs index 9d92802..34c2f65 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { - public class UkkonenTrie : ISuffixTrie where K : IEquatable + public class UkkonenTrie : IGenericSuffixTrie where K : IEquatable { private readonly int _minSuffixLength; @@ -31,15 +31,15 @@ public long Size { } } - public IEnumerable Retrieve(ReadOnlyMemory word) + public IEnumerable Retrieve(ReadOnlySpan word) { return RetrieveSubstrings(word).Select(o => o.Value).Distinct(); } - public IEnumerable> RetrieveSubstrings(ReadOnlyMemory word) + public IEnumerable> RetrieveSubstrings(ReadOnlySpan word) { if (word.Length < _minSuffixLength) return Enumerable.Empty>(); - var tmpNode = SearchNode(word.Span); + var tmpNode = SearchNode(word); return tmpNode == null ? Enumerable.Empty>() : tmpNode.GetData(); From a41d1ff2b7af9e98675af46f1cbeae6ecdbe0bb6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 20:02:46 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 20/25] added CharUkkonenTrie and fixed stuff --- DemoApp/MainForm.cs | 2 +- SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs | 6 ++--- .../Performance/PerformanceComparisonTests.cs | 2 +- TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest.cs | 2 +- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/CharUkkonenTrie.cs | 23 +++++++++++++++++++ TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs | 2 +- 6 files changed, 30 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-) create mode 100644 TrieNet/_Ukkonen/CharUkkonenTrie.cs diff --git a/DemoApp/MainForm.cs b/DemoApp/MainForm.cs index cfa90d3..684d0f4 100644 --- a/DemoApp/MainForm.cs +++ b/DemoApp/MainForm.cs @@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ private void UpdateProgress(int position) { private void textBox1_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { string text = textBox1.Text; if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(text) || text.Length < 3) return; - var result = m_Trie.RetrieveSubstrings(text.AsMemory()).ToArray(); + var result = m_Trie.RetrieveSubstrings(text.AsSpan()).ToArray(); listBox1.Items.Clear(); foreach (var wordPosition in result) { listBox1.Items.Add(wordPosition); diff --git a/SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs b/SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs index dd9eae9..9fb5721 100644 --- a/SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs +++ b/SampleConsoleApp/Program.cs @@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ private static void Main(string[] args) Console.ReadKey(); } - private static void BuildUp(string fileName, ISuffixTrie trie) + private static void BuildUp(string fileName, IGenericSuffixTrie trie) { IEnumerable allWordsInFile = GetWordsFromFile(fileName); int i = 0; @@ -45,14 +45,14 @@ private static void BuildUp(string fileName, ISuffixTrie trie) } } - private static void LookUp(string searchString, ISuffixTrie trie) + private static void LookUp(string searchString, IGenericSuffixTrie trie) { Console.WriteLine("----------------------------------------"); Console.WriteLine("Look-up for string '{0}'", searchString); var stopWatch = new Stopwatch(); stopWatch.Start(); - var result = trie.RetrieveSubstrings(searchString.AsMemory()).ToArray(); + var result = trie.RetrieveSubstrings(searchString.AsSpan()).ToArray(); stopWatch.Stop(); string matchesText = String.Join(",", result); diff --git a/TrieNet.Test/Performance/PerformanceComparisonTests.cs b/TrieNet.Test/Performance/PerformanceComparisonTests.cs index 3207197..42a0d6d 100644 --- a/TrieNet.Test/Performance/PerformanceComparisonTests.cs +++ b/TrieNet.Test/Performance/PerformanceComparisonTests.cs @@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ private ITrie CreateTrie(string trieTypeName) return new SuffixTrie(3); case TrieType.Ukkonen: - return new UkkonenTrie(3); + return new CharUkkonenTrie(3); default: throw new NotSupportedException(); diff --git a/TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest.cs b/TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest.cs index 8e5bc27..5a46e16 100644 --- a/TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest.cs +++ b/TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest.cs @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ public class UkkonenTreeTest : SuffixTrieTest { protected override ITrie CreateTrie() { - return new UkkonenTrie(0); + return new CharUkkonenTrie(0); } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/CharUkkonenTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/CharUkkonenTrie.cs new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a653b6d --- /dev/null +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/CharUkkonenTrie.cs @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +using System; +using System.Collections.Generic; + +namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { + public class CharUkkonenTrie : UkkonenTrie, ISuffixTrie + { + public CharUkkonenTrie() : base(0) { } + + public CharUkkonenTrie(int minSuffixLength) : base(minSuffixLength) { } + + public void Add(string key, T value) { + Add(key.AsMemory(), value); + } + + public IEnumerable Retrieve(string query) { + return Retrieve(query.AsSpan()); + } + + public IEnumerable> RetrieveSubstrings(string query) { + return RetrieveSubstrings(query.AsSpan()); + } + } +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs index 34c2f65..9bd73b7 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { public class UkkonenTrie : IGenericSuffixTrie where K : IEquatable { - private readonly int _minSuffixLength; + protected readonly int _minSuffixLength; //The root of the suffix tree private readonly Node> _root; From 2667cf7e15e0ffc6f18529a0e1d7cbbe0f9cbb7e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Mon, 2 May 2022 21:40:36 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 21/25] half fix --- TrieNet.Test/SuffixTrieTest.cs | 26 +++++++++++++++++++++++--- TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest.cs | 2 +- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs | 4 +++- 3 files changed, 27 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff --git a/TrieNet.Test/SuffixTrieTest.cs b/TrieNet.Test/SuffixTrieTest.cs index 50a68bb..c504f91 100644 --- a/TrieNet.Test/SuffixTrieTest.cs +++ b/TrieNet.Test/SuffixTrieTest.cs @@ -1,6 +1,7 @@ // This code is distributed under MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 George Mamaladze // See license.txt or http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php using System.Collections.Generic; +using System.Linq; using NUnit.Framework; namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.Test @@ -9,18 +10,37 @@ public class SuffixTrieTest { protected ITrie Trie { get; private set; } + protected ISuffixTrie Trie2 { get; private set; } [OneTimeSetUp] public virtual void Setup() { - Trie = CreateTrie(); + /*Trie = CreateTrie(); for (int i = 0; i < Words20.Length; i++) { Trie.Add(Words20[i], i); - } + }*/ + + Trie2 = CreateTrie(); + Trie2.Add("aabccabcda", 0); + } + + [TestCase("a", new[] { 0, 1, 5, 9 })] + [TestCase("b", new[] { 2, 6 })] + [TestCase("c", new[] { 3, 4, 7 })] + [TestCase("d", new[] { 8 })] + [TestCase("ab", new[] { 1, 5 })] + [TestCase("aa", new[] { 0 })] + [TestCase("abc", new[] { 1, 5 })] + [TestCase("abcd", new[] { 5 })] + [TestCase("abcc", new[] { 1 })] + [TestCase("bc", new[] { 2, 6 })] + public void Test2(string query, IEnumerable expected) { + IEnumerable> actual = Trie2.RetrieveSubstrings(query); + CollectionAssert.AreEquivalent(expected, actual.Select(o => o.CharPosition)); } - protected virtual ITrie CreateTrie() + protected virtual ISuffixTrie CreateTrie() { return new PatriciaSuffixTrie(1); } diff --git a/TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest.cs b/TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest.cs index 5a46e16..70f4901 100644 --- a/TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest.cs +++ b/TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest.cs @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.Test [TestFixture] public class UkkonenTreeTest : SuffixTrieTest { - protected override ITrie CreateTrie() + protected override ISuffixTrie CreateTrie() { return new CharUkkonenTrie(0); } diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs index 9bd73b7..2ace96c 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs @@ -277,6 +277,8 @@ private Tuple>, StringSlice> Update(Node(charPos - SafeCutLastChar(tempstr).Length, value.Value); // line 1 var oldroot = _root; @@ -338,10 +340,10 @@ private Tuple>, StringSlice> Update(Node(charPos - SafeCutLastChar(tempstr).Length, value.Value); // line 7 ret = TestAndSplit(s, SafeCutLastChar(tempstr), newChar, rest, value); From 1131bf86130e7ba8840ac69ce2ad282b94cb7695 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Tue, 3 May 2022 23:36:55 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 22/25] fix word positions probably for real --- TrieNet.Test/SuffixTrieTest.cs | 22 ++++++------ TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs | 60 +++++++++++++-------------------- 2 files changed, 34 insertions(+), 48 deletions(-) diff --git a/TrieNet.Test/SuffixTrieTest.cs b/TrieNet.Test/SuffixTrieTest.cs index c504f91..e3f5a25 100644 --- a/TrieNet.Test/SuffixTrieTest.cs +++ b/TrieNet.Test/SuffixTrieTest.cs @@ -22,19 +22,19 @@ public virtual void Setup() }*/ Trie2 = CreateTrie(); - Trie2.Add("aabccabcda", 0); + Trie2.Add("aabacdefac", 0); } - [TestCase("a", new[] { 0, 1, 5, 9 })] - [TestCase("b", new[] { 2, 6 })] - [TestCase("c", new[] { 3, 4, 7 })] - [TestCase("d", new[] { 8 })] - [TestCase("ab", new[] { 1, 5 })] - [TestCase("aa", new[] { 0 })] - [TestCase("abc", new[] { 1, 5 })] - [TestCase("abcd", new[] { 5 })] - [TestCase("abcc", new[] { 1 })] - [TestCase("bc", new[] { 2, 6 })] + [TestCase("a", new[] { 0, 1, 3, 8 })] + [TestCase("b", new[] { 2 })] + [TestCase("c", new[] { 4, 9 })] + [TestCase("d", new[] { 5 })] + [TestCase("e", new[] { 6 })] + [TestCase("f", new[] { 7 })] + [TestCase("ac", new[] { 3, 8 })] + [TestCase("bac", new[] { 2 })] + [TestCase("abac", new[] { 1 })] + [TestCase("aabac", new[] { 0 })] public void Test2(string query, IEnumerable expected) { IEnumerable> actual = Trie2.RetrieveSubstrings(query); CollectionAssert.AreEquivalent(expected, actual.Select(o => o.CharPosition)); diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs index 2ace96c..d82fa94 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs @@ -107,6 +107,7 @@ public void Add(ReadOnlyMemory key, T value) var remainder = key; var s = _root; + var offset = 0; // proceed with tree construction (closely related to procedure in // Ukkonen's paper) @@ -121,12 +122,9 @@ public void Add(ReadOnlyMemory key, T value) //text = text.Intern(); // line 7: update the tree with the new transitions due to this new char - var active = Update(s, text, remainder.Slice(i), new WordPosition(i, value)); + (s, text, offset) = Update(s, text, remainder.Slice(i), value, i, offset); // line 8: make sure the active Tuple is canonical - active = Canonize(active.Item1, active.Item2); - - s = active.Item1; - text = active.Item2; + (s, text, offset) = Canonize(s, text); } // add leaf suffix link, is necessary @@ -157,12 +155,10 @@ public void Add(ReadOnlyMemory key, T value) * the last NodeA that can be reached by following the path denoted by stringPart starting from inputs * */ - private static Tuple>> TestAndSplit(Node> inputs, StringSlice stringPart, K t, ReadOnlyMemory remainder, WordPosition value) + private static (bool, Node>) TestAndSplit(Node> inputs, StringSlice stringPart, K t, ReadOnlyMemory remainder, T value, int charPosition, int offset) { // descend the tree as far as possible - var ret = Canonize(inputs, stringPart); - var s = ret.Item1; - var str = ret.Item2; + var (s, str, _) = Canonize(inputs, stringPart); if (str.Length > 0) { @@ -172,7 +168,7 @@ private static Tuple>> TestAndSplit(Node if (label.Length > str.Length && label.Span[str.Length].Equals(t)) { - return new Tuple>>(true, s); + return (true, s); } // need to split the EdgeA var newlabel = label.Slice(str.Length); @@ -189,39 +185,39 @@ private static Tuple>> TestAndSplit(Node>>(false, r); + return (false, r); } var e = s.GetEdge(t); if (null == e) { // if there is no t-transtion from s - return new Tuple>>(false, s); + return (false, s); } var eLabelSpan = e.Label.Span; var remainderSpan = remainder.Span; if (remainderSpan.SequenceEqual(eLabelSpan)) { // update payload of destination NodeA - e.Target.AddRef(value); - return new Tuple>>(true, s); + e.Target.AddRef(new WordPosition(charPosition - offset - str.Length, value)); + return (true, s); } if (remainderSpan.StartsWith(eLabelSpan)) { - return new Tuple>>(true, s); + return (true, s); } if (!eLabelSpan.StartsWith(remainderSpan)) { - return new Tuple>>(true, s); + return (true, s); } // need to split as above var newNode = new Node>(); - newNode.AddRef(value); + newNode.AddRef(new WordPosition(charPosition - offset - str.Length, value)); var newEdge = new Edge>(remainder, newNode); e.Label = e.Label.Slice(remainder.Length); newNode.AddEdge(e.Label.Span[0], e); s.AddEdge(t, newEdge); - return new Tuple>>(false, s); + return (false, s); // they are different words. No prefix. but they may still share some common substr } @@ -231,12 +227,12 @@ private static Tuple>> TestAndSplit(Node>, StringSlice> Canonize(Node> s, StringSlice inputstr) + private static (Node>, StringSlice, int) Canonize(Node> s, StringSlice inputstr) { if (inputstr.Length == 0) { - return new Tuple>, StringSlice>(s, inputstr); + return (s, inputstr, 0); } var currentNode = s; var offset = 0; @@ -253,7 +249,7 @@ private static Tuple>, StringSlice> Canonize(Node>, StringSlice>(currentNode, inputstr); + return (currentNode, inputstr, offset); } /** @@ -272,22 +268,17 @@ private static Tuple>, StringSlice> Canonize(Node>, StringSlice> Update(Node> inputNode, StringSlice stringPart, ReadOnlyMemory rest, WordPosition value) + private (Node>, StringSlice, int) Update(Node> inputNode, StringSlice stringPart, ReadOnlyMemory rest, T value, int charPosition, int offset) { var s = inputNode; var tempstr = stringPart; var newChar = stringPart[^1]; - var charPos = value.CharPosition; - value = new WordPosition(charPos - SafeCutLastChar(tempstr).Length, value.Value); // line 1 var oldroot = _root; // line 1b - var ret = TestAndSplit(s, tempstr.Slice(0, tempstr.Length - 1), newChar, rest, value); - - var r = ret.Item2; - var endpoint = ret.Item1; + var (endpoint, r) = TestAndSplit(s, tempstr.Slice(0, tempstr.Length - 1), newChar, rest, value, charPosition, offset); // line 2 while (!endpoint) @@ -305,7 +296,7 @@ private Tuple>, StringSlice> Update(Node>(); - leaf.AddRef(value); + leaf.AddRef(new WordPosition(charPosition - offset - tempstr.Length + 1, value)); var newedge = new Edge>(rest, leaf); r.AddEdge(newChar, newedge); } @@ -338,17 +329,12 @@ private Tuple>, StringSlice> Update(Node(charPos - SafeCutLastChar(tempstr).Length, value.Value); // line 7 - ret = TestAndSplit(s, SafeCutLastChar(tempstr), newChar, rest, value); - r = ret.Item2; - endpoint = ret.Item1; + (endpoint, r) = TestAndSplit(s, SafeCutLastChar(tempstr), newChar, rest, value, charPosition, offset); } // line 8 @@ -357,7 +343,7 @@ private Tuple>, StringSlice> Update(Node>, StringSlice>(s, tempstr); + return (s, tempstr, offset); } private static StringSlice SafeCutLastChar(StringSlice seq) From 257ced421bab698ad4d10db2f23d0cc229331a49 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Wed, 4 May 2022 11:00:34 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 23/25] fixed word positions for real now --- TrieNet.Test/SuffixTrieTest.cs | 4 +-- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs | 47 +++++++++++++++------------------ 2 files changed, 23 insertions(+), 28 deletions(-) diff --git a/TrieNet.Test/SuffixTrieTest.cs b/TrieNet.Test/SuffixTrieTest.cs index e3f5a25..a54b926 100644 --- a/TrieNet.Test/SuffixTrieTest.cs +++ b/TrieNet.Test/SuffixTrieTest.cs @@ -15,11 +15,11 @@ public class SuffixTrieTest [OneTimeSetUp] public virtual void Setup() { - /*Trie = CreateTrie(); + Trie = CreateTrie(); for (int i = 0; i < Words20.Length; i++) { Trie.Add(Words20[i], i); - }*/ + } Trie2 = CreateTrie(); Trie2.Add("aabacdefac", 0); diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs index d82fa94..5759906 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs @@ -107,6 +107,7 @@ public void Add(ReadOnlyMemory key, T value) var remainder = key; var s = _root; + var size = key.Length; var offset = 0; // proceed with tree construction (closely related to procedure in @@ -117,14 +118,11 @@ public void Add(ReadOnlyMemory key, T value) { // line 6 text.EndIndex += 1; - // use intern to make sure the resulting string is in the pool. - //TODO Check if needed - //text = text.Intern(); // line 7: update the tree with the new transitions due to this new char - (s, text, offset) = Update(s, text, remainder.Slice(i), value, i, offset); + (s, text, offset) = Update(s, text, remainder.Slice(i), value, size, offset); // line 8: make sure the active Tuple is canonical - (s, text, offset) = Canonize(s, text); + (s, text, offset) = Canonize(s, text, offset); } // add leaf suffix link, is necessary @@ -155,10 +153,10 @@ public void Add(ReadOnlyMemory key, T value) * the last NodeA that can be reached by following the path denoted by stringPart starting from inputs * */ - private static (bool, Node>) TestAndSplit(Node> inputs, StringSlice stringPart, K t, ReadOnlyMemory remainder, T value, int charPosition, int offset) + private static (bool, Node>, int) TestAndSplit(Node> inputs, StringSlice stringPart, K t, ReadOnlyMemory remainder, T value, int size, int offset) { // descend the tree as far as possible - var (s, str, _) = Canonize(inputs, stringPart); + (var s, var str, offset) = Canonize(inputs, stringPart, offset); if (str.Length > 0) { @@ -168,7 +166,7 @@ private static (bool, Node>) TestAndSplit(Node if (label.Length > str.Length && label.Span[str.Length].Equals(t)) { - return (true, s); + return (true, s, offset); } // need to split the EdgeA var newlabel = label.Slice(str.Length); @@ -185,39 +183,39 @@ private static (bool, Node>) TestAndSplit(Node - e.Target.AddRef(new WordPosition(charPosition - offset - str.Length, value)); - return (true, s); + e.Target.AddRef(new WordPosition(size - offset - remainder.Length, value)); + return (true, s, offset); } if (remainderSpan.StartsWith(eLabelSpan)) { - return (true, s); + return (true, s, offset); } if (!eLabelSpan.StartsWith(remainderSpan)) { - return (true, s); + return (true, s, offset); } // need to split as above var newNode = new Node>(); - newNode.AddRef(new WordPosition(charPosition - offset - str.Length, value)); + newNode.AddRef(new WordPosition(size - offset - remainder.Length, value)); var newEdge = new Edge>(remainder, newNode); e.Label = e.Label.Slice(remainder.Length); newNode.AddEdge(e.Label.Span[0], e); s.AddEdge(t, newEdge); - return (false, s); + return (false, s, offset); // they are different words. No prefix. but they may still share some common substr } @@ -227,15 +225,14 @@ private static (bool, Node>) TestAndSplit(Node>, StringSlice, int) Canonize(Node> s, StringSlice inputstr) + private static (Node>, StringSlice, int) Canonize(Node> s, StringSlice inputstr, int offset) { if (inputstr.Length == 0) { - return (s, inputstr, 0); + return (s, inputstr, offset); } var currentNode = s; - var offset = 0; var g = s.GetEdge(inputstr[0]); // descend the tree as long as a proper label is found while (g != null && inputstr.Length >= g.Label.Length && inputstr.StartsWith(g.Label.Span)) @@ -268,7 +265,7 @@ private static (Node>, StringSlice, int) Canonize(Node>, StringSlice, int) Update(Node> inputNode, StringSlice stringPart, ReadOnlyMemory rest, T value, int charPosition, int offset) + private (Node>, StringSlice, int) Update(Node> inputNode, StringSlice stringPart, ReadOnlyMemory rest, T value, int size, int offset) { var s = inputNode; var tempstr = stringPart; @@ -278,7 +275,7 @@ private static (Node>, StringSlice, int) Canonize(Node>, StringSlice, int) Canonize(Node>(); - leaf.AddRef(new WordPosition(charPosition - offset - tempstr.Length + 1, value)); + leaf.AddRef(new WordPosition(size - offset2 - rest.Length, value)); var newedge = new Edge>(rest, leaf); r.AddEdge(newChar, newedge); } @@ -321,20 +318,18 @@ private static (Node>, StringSlice, int) Canonize(Node - //TODO Check why assert - //assert (root == s); // this is a special case to handle what is referred to as NodeA _|_ on the paper tempstr = tempstr.Slice(1, tempstr.Length - 1); } else { tempstr.EndIndex -= 1; - (s, tempstr, offset) = Canonize(s.Suffix, tempstr); + (s, tempstr, offset) = Canonize(s.Suffix, tempstr, offset - 1); tempstr.EndIndex += 1; } // line 7 - (endpoint, r) = TestAndSplit(s, SafeCutLastChar(tempstr), newChar, rest, value, charPosition, offset); + (endpoint, r, offset2) = TestAndSplit(s, SafeCutLastChar(tempstr), newChar, rest, value, size, offset); } // line 8 From fa894dfd65ba37a799f561817bc14705cd466fc7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Wed, 4 May 2022 22:35:05 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 24/25] changed charposition to int --- TrieNet/WordPosition.cs | 6 +++--- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/TrieNet/WordPosition.cs b/TrieNet/WordPosition.cs index 6f17848..a405f8f 100644 --- a/TrieNet/WordPosition.cs +++ b/TrieNet/WordPosition.cs @@ -3,10 +3,10 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { public struct WordPosition { - private readonly long m_CharPosition; + private readonly int m_CharPosition; private readonly T m_Value; - public WordPosition(long charPosition, T value) { + public WordPosition(int charPosition, T value) { m_CharPosition = charPosition; m_Value = value; } @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ public T Value { get { return m_Value; } } - public long CharPosition { + public int CharPosition { get { return m_CharPosition; } } From 1db5d0e2afdab5f750b35cecfb7b8a964f6f2944 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OliBomby Date: Mon, 9 May 2022 14:38:23 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 25/25] Added SearchNodeRange --- TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest.cs | 5 ++- TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest2.cs | 44 +++++++++++++++++++++ TrieNet/_Ukkonen/CharDictionary.cs | 9 ----- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Edge.cs | 2 +- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/EdgeDictionary.cs | 10 +++++ TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs | 16 ++++++-- TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs | 63 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++- 7 files changed, 134 insertions(+), 15 deletions(-) create mode 100644 TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest2.cs delete mode 100644 TrieNet/_Ukkonen/CharDictionary.cs create mode 100644 TrieNet/_Ukkonen/EdgeDictionary.cs diff --git a/TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest.cs b/TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest.cs index 70f4901..9d8fa6d 100644 --- a/TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest.cs +++ b/TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest.cs @@ -1,4 +1,7 @@ -using NUnit.Framework; +using System; +using System.Collections.Generic; +using System.Linq; +using NUnit.Framework; namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.Test { diff --git a/TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest2.cs b/TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest2.cs new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c71cdcf --- /dev/null +++ b/TrieNet.Test/UkkonenTreeTest2.cs @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +using System; +using System.Collections.Generic; +using System.Linq; +using NUnit.Framework; + +namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch.Test +{ + public class UkkonenTreeTest2 { + private CharUkkonenTrie trie = null!; + + [OneTimeSetUp] + public void Setup() { + trie = new CharUkkonenTrie(0); + trie.Add("aabacdefac", 0); + } + + [TestCase("a", new[] { 0, 1, 3, 8 })] + [TestCase("b", new[] { 2 })] + [TestCase("c", new[] { 4, 9 })] + [TestCase("d", new[] { 5 })] + [TestCase("e", new[] { 6 })] + [TestCase("f", new[] { 7 })] + [TestCase("ac", new[] { 3, 8 })] + [TestCase("bac", new[] { 2 })] + [TestCase("abac", new[] { 1 })] + [TestCase("aabac", new[] { 0 })] + public void TestFuzzyExact(string query, IEnumerable expected) { + IEnumerable> actual = trie.RetrieveSubstringsRange(query.AsMemory(), query.AsMemory()); + CollectionAssert.AreEquivalent(expected, actual.Select(o => o.CharPosition)); + } + + [TestCase("a", "b", new[] { 0, 1, 2, 3, 8 })] + [TestCase("a", "c", new[] { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9 })] + [TestCase("a", "d", new[] { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 })] + [TestCase("a", "e", new[] { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 })] + [TestCase("a", "f", new[] { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 })] + [TestCase("aaaaaaaaaa", "ffffffffff", new[] { 0 })] + [TestCase("ab", "af", new[] { 1, 3, 8 })] + public void TestFuzzy(string min, string max, IEnumerable expected) { + IEnumerable> actual = trie.RetrieveSubstringsRange(min.AsMemory(), max.AsMemory()); + CollectionAssert.AreEquivalent(expected, actual.Select(o => o.CharPosition)); + } + } +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/CharDictionary.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/CharDictionary.cs deleted file mode 100644 index 04606b5..0000000 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/CharDictionary.cs +++ /dev/null @@ -1,9 +0,0 @@ -using System.Collections.Generic; - -namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch -{ - internal class CharDictionary : Dictionary> - { - //TODO Consider using sorted list based implementation to save memory - } -} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Edge.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Edge.cs index d4c63ce..6cb40cd 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Edge.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Edge.cs @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { - internal class Edge + internal class Edge where K : IComparable { public Edge(ReadOnlyMemory label, Node target) { diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/EdgeDictionary.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/EdgeDictionary.cs new file mode 100644 index 0000000..84cafb0 --- /dev/null +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/EdgeDictionary.cs @@ -0,0 +1,10 @@ +using System; +using System.Collections.Generic; + +namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch +{ + internal class EdgeDictionary : Dictionary> where K : IComparable + { + //TODO Consider using sorted list based implementation to save memory + } +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs index 427ce7f..5f0b3c9 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/Node.cs @@ -1,16 +1,17 @@ -using System.Collections.Generic; +using System; +using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { - internal class Node + internal class Node where K : IComparable { private readonly IDictionary> _edges; private readonly HashSet _data; public Node() { - _edges = new CharDictionary(); + _edges = new EdgeDictionary(); Suffix = null; _data = new HashSet(); } @@ -59,6 +60,15 @@ public Edge GetEdge(K ch) return result; } + public IEnumerable> GetEdgesBetween(K min, K max) + { + foreach (var ch in _edges.Keys) { + if (ch.CompareTo(min) >= 0 && ch.CompareTo(max) <= 0) { + yield return _edges[ch]; + } + } + } + public Node Suffix { get; set; } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs index 5759906..3d52961 100644 --- a/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs +++ b/TrieNet/_Ukkonen/UkkonenTrie.cs @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ namespace Gma.DataStructures.StringSearch { - public class UkkonenTrie : IGenericSuffixTrie where K : IEquatable + public class UkkonenTrie : IGenericSuffixTrie where K : IEquatable, IComparable { protected readonly int _minSuffixLength; @@ -45,6 +45,26 @@ public IEnumerable> RetrieveSubstrings(ReadOnlySpan word) : tmpNode.GetData(); } + public IEnumerable> RetrieveSubstringsRange(ReadOnlyMemory min, ReadOnlyMemory max) { + if (min.Length != max.Length) throw new ArgumentException("Lengths of min and max must be the same."); + if (min.Length < _minSuffixLength) return Enumerable.Empty>(); + var nodes = SearchNodeRange(_root, 0, min, max); + return nodes.SelectMany(o => o.GetData()).Distinct(); + } + + + private static bool RegionMatchesRange(ReadOnlySpan min, ReadOnlySpan max, int toffset, ReadOnlySpan second, int ooffset, int len) + { + for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) + { + var chMin = min[toffset + i]; + var chMax = max[toffset + i]; + var two = second[ooffset + i]; + if (two.CompareTo(chMin) < 0 || two.CompareTo(chMax) > 0) return false; + } + return true; + } + private static bool RegionMatches(ReadOnlySpan first, int toffset, ReadOnlySpan second, int ooffset, int len) { @@ -57,6 +77,47 @@ private static bool RegionMatches(ReadOnlySpan first, int toffset, ReadOnlySp return true; } + /** + * Returns all tree NodeA (if present) that corresponds to the given range of strings. + */ + private IEnumerable>> SearchNodeRange(Node> currentNode, int i, ReadOnlyMemory min, ReadOnlyMemory max) + { + /* + * Verifies if exists a path from the root to a NodeA such that the concatenation + * of all the labels on the path is a superstring of the given word. + * If such a path is found, the last NodeA on it is returned. + */ + + var chMin = min.Span[i]; + var chMax = max.Span[i]; + // follow all the EdgeA which are between min and max + foreach (var currentEdge in currentNode.GetEdgesBetween(chMin, chMax)) { + if (null == currentEdge) + { + // there is no EdgeA starting with this char + continue; + } + var label = currentEdge.Label.Span; + var lenToMatch = Math.Min(min.Length - i, label.Length); + + if (!RegionMatchesRange(min.Span, max.Span, i, label, 0, lenToMatch)) + { + // the label on the EdgeA does not correspond to the one in the string to search + continue; + } + + if (label.Length >= min.Length - i) + { + yield return currentEdge.Target; + } else { + // advance to next NodeA + foreach (var result in SearchNodeRange(currentEdge.Target, i + lenToMatch, min, max)) { + yield return result; + } + } + } + } + /** * Returns the tree NodeA (if present) that corresponds to the given string. */