THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER by Mark Twain DEDICATION Dedication To my wife this book is affectionately dedicated PREFACE Preface MOST OF THE ADVENTURES recorded in this book really occurred one or two were experiences of my own the rest those of boys who were schoolmates of mine Huck Finn is drawn from life Tom Sawyer also but not from an individual he is a combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew and therefore belongs to the composite order of architecture The odd superstitions touched upon were all prevalent among children and slaves in the West at the period of this story that is to say thirty or forty years ago Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves and of how they felt and thought and talked and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in THE AUTHOR HARTFORD Chapter Tom Plays Fights and Hides TOM No answer Tom No answer Whats gone with that boy I wonder You TOM No answer The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the room then she put them up and looked out under them She seldom or never looked through them for so small a thing as a boy they were her state pair the pride of her heart and were built for style not service she could have seen through a pair of stove lids just as well She looked perplexed for a moment and then said not fiercely but still loud enough for the furniture to hear Well I lay if I get hold of you Ill She did not finish for by this time she was bending down and punching under the bed with the broom and so she needed breath to punctuate the punches with She resurrected nothing but the cat I never did see the beat of that boy She went to the open door and stood in it and looked out among the tomato vines and jimpson weeds that constituted the garden No Tom So she lifted up her voice at an angle calculated for distance and shouted Y o u u Tom There was a slight noise behind her and she turned just in time to seize a small boy by the slack of his roundabout and arrest his flight There I might a thought of that closet What you been doing in there Nothing Nothing Look at your hands And look at your mouth What is that truck I dont know aunt Well I know Its jam thats what it is Forty times Ive said if you didnt let that jam alone Id skin you Hand me that switch The switch hovered in the air the peril was desperate My Look behind you aunt The old lady whirled round and snatched her skirts out of danger The lad fled on the instant scrambled up the high board fence and disappeared over it His aunt Polly stood surprised a moment and then broke into a gentle laugh Hang the boy cant I never learn anything Aint he played me tricks enough like that for me to be looking out for him by this time But old fools is the biggest fools there is Cant learn an old dog new tricks as the saying is But my goodness he never plays them alike two days and how is a body to know whats coming He pears to know just how long he can torment me before I get my dander up and he knows if he can make out to put me off for a minute or make me laugh its all down again and I cant hit him a lick I aint doing my duty by that boy and thats the Lords truth goodness knows Spare the rod and spile the child as the Good Book says Im a laying up sin and suffering for us both I know Hes full of the Old Scratch but laws a me hes my own dead sisters boy poor thing and I aint got the heart to lash him somehow Every time I let him off my conscience does hurt me so and every time I hit him my old heart most breaks Well a well man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble as the Scripture says and I reckon its so Hell play hookey this evening and Ill just be obleeged to make him work to morrow to punish him Its mighty hard to make him work Saturdays when all the boys is having holiday but he hates work more than he hates anything else and Ive got to do some of my duty by him or Ill be the ruination of the child Tom did play hookey and he had a very good time He got back home barely in season to help Jim the small colored boy saw next days wood and split the kindlings before supper at least he was there in time to tell his adventures to Jim while Jim did three fourths of the work Toms younger brother or rather half brother Sid was already through with his part of the work picking up chips for he was a quiet boy and had no adventurous troublesome ways While Tom was eating his supper and stealing sugar as opportunity offered Aunt Polly asked him questions that were full of guile and very deep for she wanted to trap him into damaging revealments Like many other simple hearted souls it was her pet vanity to believe she was endowed with a talent for dark and mysterious diplomacy and she loved to contemplate her most transparent devices as marvels of low cunning Said she Tom it was middling warm in school warnt it Yesm Powerful warm warnt it Yesm Didnt you want to go in a swimming Tom A bit of a scare shot through Tom a touch of uncomfortable suspicion He searched Aunt Pollys face but it told him nothing So he said Nom well not very much The old lady reached out her hand and felt Toms shirt and said But you aint too warm now though And it flattered her to reflect that she had discovered that the shirt was dry without anybody knowing that that was what she had in her mind But in spite of her Tom knew where the wind lay now So he forestalled what might be the next move Some of us pumped on our heads mines damp yet See Aunt Polly was vexed to think she had overlooked that bit of circumstantial evidence and missed a trick Then she had a new inspiration Tom you didnt have to undo your shirt collar where I sewed it to pump on your head did you Unbutton your jacket The trouble vanished out of Toms face He opened his jacket His shirt collar was securely sewed Bother Well go long with you Id made sure youd played hookey and been a swimming But I forgive ye Tom I reckon youre a kind of a singed cat as the saying is bettern you look This time She was half sorry her sagacity had miscarried and half glad that Tom had stumbled into obedient conduct for once But Sidney said Well now if I didnt think you sewed his collar with white thread but its black Why I did sew it with white Tom But Tom did not wait for the rest As he went out at the door he said Siddy Ill lick you for that In a safe place Tom examined two large needles which were thrust into the lappels of his jacket and had thread bound about them one needle carried white thread and the other black He said Shed never noticed if it hadnt been for Sid Consound it sometimes she sews it with white and sometimes she sews it with black I wish to geeminy shed stick to one or tother I cant keep the run of em But I bet you Ill lam Sid for that Ill learn him He was not the Model Boy of the village He knew the model boy very well though and loathed him Within two minutes or even less he had forgotten all his troubles Not because his troubles were one whit less heavy and bitter to him than a mans are to a man but because a new and powerful interest bore them down and drove them out of his mind for the time just as mens misfortunes are forgotten in the excitement of new enterprises This new interest was a valued novelty in whistling which he had just acquired from a negro and he was suffering to practice it undisturbed It consisted in a peculiar bird like turn a sort of liquid warble produced by touching the tongue to the roof of the mouth at short intervals in the midst of the music the reader probably remembers how to do it if he has ever been a boy Diligence and attention soon gave him the knack of it and he strode down the street with his mouth full of harmony and his soul full of gratitude He felt much as an astronomer feels who has discovered a new planet No doubt as far as strong deep unalloyed pleasure is concerned the advantage was with the boy not the astronomer The summer evenings were long It was not dark yet Presently Tom checked his whistle A stranger was before him a boy a shade larger than himself A new comer of any age or either sex was an impressive curiosity in the poor little shabby village of St Peterburg This boy was well dressed too well dressed on a week day This was simply astounding His cap was a dainty thing his close buttoned blue cloth roundabout was new and natty and so were his pantaloons He had shoes on and yet it was only Friday He even wore a necktie a bright bit of ribbon He had a citified air about him that ate into Toms vitals The more Tom stared at the splendid marvel the higher he turned up his nose at his finery and the shabbier and shabbier his own outfit seemed to him to grow Neither boy spoke If one moved the other moved but only sidewise in a circle they kept face to face and eye to eye all the time Finally Tom said I can lick you Id like to see you try it Well I can do it No you cant either Yes I can No you cant I can You cant Can Cant An uncomfortable pause Then Tom said Whats your name Tisnt any of your business maybe Well I low Ill make it my business Well why dont you If you say much I will Much much much There now O you think youre mighty smart dont you I could lick you with one hand tied behind me if I wanted to Well why dont you do it You say you can do it Well I will if you fool with me O yes Ive seen whole families in the same fix Smarty You think youre some now dont you O what a hat You can lump that hat if you dont like it I dare you to knock it off and anybody thatll take a dare will suck eggs Youre a liar Youre another Youre a fighting liar and dasnt take it up Aw take a walk Say if you gimme much more of your sass Ill take and bounce a rock offn your head O of course you will Well I will Well why dont you do it then What do you keep saying you will for Why dont you do it Its because youre afraid I aint afraid You are I aint You are Another pause and more eyeing and sidling around each other Presently they were shoulder to shoulder Tom said Get away from here Go away yourself I wont I wont either So they stood each with a foot placed at an angle as a brace and both shoving with might and main and glowering at each other with hate But neither could get an advantage After struggling till both were hot and flushed each relaxed his strain with watchful caution and Tom said Youre a coward and a pup Ill tell my big brother on you and he can thrash you with his little finger and Ill make him do it too What do I care for your big brother Ive got a brother thats bigger than he is and whats more he can throw him over that fence too Both brothers were imaginary Thats a lie Your saying so dont make it so Tom drew a line in the dust with his big toe and said I dare you to step over that and Ill lick you till you cant stand up Anybody thatll take a dare will steal a sheep The new boy stepped over promptly and said Now you said youd do it now lets see you do it Dont you crowd me now you better look out Well you said youd do it why dont you do it By jingo for two cents I will do it The new boy took two broad coppers out of his pocket and held them out with derision Tom struck them to the ground In an instant both boys were rolling and tumbling in the dirt gripped together like cats and for the space of a minute they tugged and tore at each others hair and clothes punched and scratched each others noses and covered themselves with dust and glory Presently the confusion took form and through the fog of battle Tom appeared seated astride the new boy and pounding him with his fists Holler nuff said he The boy only struggled to free himself He was crying mainly from rage Holler nuff and the pounding went on At last the stranger got out a smothered Nuff and Tom let him up and said Now thatll learn you Better look out who youre fooling with next time The new boy went off brushing the dust from his clothes sobbing snuffling and occasionally looking back and shaking his head and threatening what he would do to Tom the next time he caught him out To which Tom responded with jeers and started off in high feather and as soon as his back was turned the new boy snatched up a stone threw it and hit him between the shoulders and then turned tail and ran like an antelope Tom chased the traitor home and thus found out where he lived He then held a position at the gate for some time daring the enemy to come outside but the enemy only made faces at him through the window and declined At last the enemys mother appeared and called Tom a bad vicious vulgar child and ordered him away So he went away but he said he lowed to lay for that boy He got home pretty late that night and when he climbed cautiously in at the window he uncovered an ambuscade in the person of his aunt and when she saw the state his clothes were in her resolution to turn his Saturday holiday into captivity at hard labor became adamantine in its firmness Chapter A The Glorious Whitewasher SATURDAY MORNING was come and all the summer world was bright and fresh and brimming with life There was a song in every heart and if the heart was young the music issued at the lips There was cheer in every face and a spring in every step The locust trees were in bloom and the fragrance of the blossoms filled the air Cardiff Hill beyond the village and above it was green with vegetation and it lay just far enough away to seem a Delectable Land dreamy reposeful and inviting Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long handled brush He surveyed the fence and all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit Thirty yards of board fence nine feet high Life to him seemed hollow and existence but a burden Sighing he dipped his brush and passed it along the topmost plank repeated the operation did it again compared the insignificant whitewashed streak with the far reaching continent of unwhitewashed fence and sat down on a tree box discouraged Jim came skipping out at the gate with a tin pail and singing Buffalo Gals Bringing water from the town pump had always been hateful work in Toms eyes before but now it did not strike him so He remembered that there was company at the pump White mulatto and negro boys and girls were always there waiting their turns resting trading playthings quarreling fighting skylarking And he remembered that although the pump was only a hundred and fifty yards off Jim never got back with a bucket of water under an hour and even then somebody generally had to go after him Tom said Say Jim Ill fetch the water if youll whitewash some Jim shook his head and said Cant Mars Tom Ole missis she tole me I got to go an git dis water an not stop foolin roun wid anybody She say she spec Mars Tom gwine to ax me to whitewash an she tole me go long an tend to my own business she lowed shed tend to de whitewashin O never you mind what she said Jim Thats the way she always talks Gimme the bucket I wont be gone only a minute She wont ever know O I dasnt Mars Tom Ole missis shed take an tar de head offn me Deed she would She She never licks anybody whacks em over the head with her thimble and who cares for that Id like to know She talks awful but talk dont hurt anyways it dont if she dont cry Jim Ill give you a marvel Ill give you a white alley Jim began to waver White alley Jim And its a bully taw My Dats a mighty gay marvel I tell you But Mars Tom Is powerful fraid ole missis And besides if you will Ill show you my sore toe Jim was only human this attraction was too much for him He put down his pail took the white alley and bent over the toe with absorbing interest while the bandage was being unwound In another moment he was flying down the street with his pail and a tingling rear Tom was whitewashing with vigor and Aunt Polly was retiring from the field with a slipper in her hand and triumph in her eye But Toms energy did not last He began to think of the fun he had planned for this day and his sorrows multiplied Soon the free boys would come tripping along on all sorts of delicious expeditions and they would make a world of fun of him for having to work the very thought of it burnt him like fire He got out his worldly wealth and examined it bits of toys marbles and trash enough to buy an exchange of work maybe but not half enough to buy so much as half an hour of pure freedom So he returned his straitened means to his pocket and gave up the idea of trying to buy the boys At this dark and hopeless moment an inspiration burst upon him Nothing less than a great magnificent inspiration He took up his brush and went tranquilly to work Ben Rogers hove in sight presently the very boy of all boys whose ridicule he had been dreading Bens gait was the hop skip and jump proof enough that his heart was light and his anticipations high He was eating an apple and giving a long melodious whoop at intervals followed by a deep toned ding dong dong ding dong dong for he was personating a steamboat As he drew near he slackened speed took the middle of the street leaned far over to starboard and rounded to ponderously and with laborious pomp and circumstance for he was personating the Big Missouri and considered himself to be drawing nine feet of water He was boat and captain and engine bells combined so he had to imagine himself standing on his own hurricane deck giving the orders and executing them Stop her sir Ting a ling ling The headway ran almost out and he drew up slowly toward the sidewalk Ship up to back Ting a ling ling His arms straightened and stiffened down his sides Set her back on the stabboard Ting a ling ling Chow ch chow wow Chow His right hand meantime describing stately circles for it was representing a forty foot wheel Let her go back on the labbord Ting a ling ling Chow ch chow chow The left hand began to describe circles Stop the stabboard Ting a ling ling Stop the labbord Come ahead on the stabboard Stop her Let your outside turn over slow Ting a ling ling Chow ow ow Get out that head line Lively now Come out with your spring line whatre you about there Take a turn round that stump with the bight of it Stand by that stage now let her go Done with the engines sir Ting a ling ling Sht sht sht trying the gauge cocks Tom went on whitewashing paid no attention to the steamboat Ben stared a moment and then said Hi yi Youre up a stump aint you No answer Tom surveyed his last touch with the eye of an artist then he gave his brush another gentle sweep and surveyed the result as before Ben ranged up alongside of him Toms mouth watered for the apple but he stuck to his work Ben said Hello old chap you got to work hey Tom wheeled suddenly and said Why its you Ben I warnt noticing Say Im going in a swimming I am Dont you wish you could But of course youd druther work wouldnt you Course you would Tom contemplated the boy a bit and said What do you call work Why aint that work Tom resumed his whitewashing and answered carelessly Well maybe it is and maybe it aint All I know is it suits Tom Sawyer O come now you dont mean to let on that you like it The brush continued to move Like it Well I dont see why I oughtnt to like it Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day That put the thing in a new light Ben stopped nibbling his apple Tom swept his brush daintily back and forth stepped back to note the effect added a touch here and there criticised the effect again Ben watching every move and getting more and more interested more and more absorbed Presently he said Say Tom let me whitewash a little Tom considered was about to consent but he altered his mind No no I reckon it wouldnt hardly do Ben You see Aunt Pollys awful particular about this fence right here on the street you know but if it was the back fence I wouldnt mind and she wouldnt Yes shes awful particular about this fence its got to be done very careful I reckon there aint one boy in a thousand maybe two thousand that can do it the way its got to be done No is that so Oh come now lemme just try Only just a little Id let you if you was me Tom Ben Id like to honest injun but Aunt Polly well Jim wanted to do it but she wouldnt let him Sid wanted to do it and she wouldnt let Sid Now dont you see how Im fixed If you was to tackle this fence and anything was to happen to it O shucks Ill be just as careful Now lemme try Say Ill give you the core of my apple Well here No Ben now dont Im afeard Ill give you all of it Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face but alacrity in his heart And while the late steamer Big Missouri worked and sweated in the sun the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by dangled his legs munched his apple and planned the slaughter of more innocents There was no lack of material boys happened along every little while they came to jeer but remained to whitewash By the time Ben was fagged out Tom had traded the next chance to Billy Fisher for a kite in good repair and when he played out Johnny Miller bought in for a dead rat and a string to swing it with and so on and so on hour after hour And when the middle of the afternoon came from being a poor poverty stricken boy in the morning Tom was literally rolling in wealth He had beside the things before mentioned twelve marbles part of a jews harp a piece of blue bottle glass to look through a spool cannon a key that wouldnt unlock anything a fragment of chalk a glass stopper of a decanter a tin soldier a couple of tadpoles six firecrackers a kitten with only one eye a brass doorknob a dog collar but no dog the handle of a knife four pieces of orange peel and a dilapidated old window sash He had had a nice good idle time all the while plenty of company and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it If he hadnt run out of whitewash he would have bankrupted every boy in the village Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world after all He had discovered a great law of human action without knowing it namely that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain If he had been a great and wise philosopher like the writer of this book he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do And this would help him to understand why constructing artificial flowers or performing on a treadmill is work while rolling ten pins or climbing Mont Blanc is only amusement There are wealthy gentlemen in England who drive four horse passenger coaches twenty or thirty miles on a daily line in the summer because the privilege costs them considerable money but if they were offered wages for the service that would turn it into work and then they would resign The boy mused a while over the substantial change which had taken place in his worldly circumstances and then wended toward headquarters to report Chapter Busy at War and Love TOM PRESENTED HIMSELF before Aunt Polly who was sitting by an open window in a pleasant rearward apartment which was bed room breakfast room dining room and library combined The balmy summer air the restful quiet the odor of the flowers and the drowsing murmur of the bees had had their effect and she was nodding over her knitting for she had no company but the cat and it was asleep in her lap Her spectacles were propped up on her gray head for safety She had thought that of course Tom had deserted long ago and she wondered at seeing him place himself in her power again in this intrepid way He said Maynt I go and play now aunt What aready How much have you done Its all done aunt Tom dont lie to me I cant bear it I aint aunt it is all done Aunt Polly placed small trust in such evidence She went out to see for herself and she would have been content to find twenty per cent of Toms statement true When she found the entire fence whitewashed and not only whitewashed but elaborately coated and recoated and even a streak added to the ground her astonishment was almost unspeakable She said Well I never Theres no getting round it you can work when youre a mind to Tom And then she diluted the compliment by adding But its powerful seldom youre a mind to Im bound to say Well go long and play but mind you get back sometime in a week or Ill tan you She was so overcome by the splendor of his achievement that she took him into the closet and selected a choice apple and delivered it to him along with an improving lecture upon the added value and flavor a treat took to itself when it came without sin through virtuous effort And while she closed with a happy Scriptural flourish he hooked a doughnut Then he skipped out and saw Sid just starting up the outside stairway that led to the back rooms on the second floor Clods were handy and the air was full of them in a twinkling They raged around Sid like a hail storm and before Aunt Polly could collect her surprised faculties and sally to the rescue six or seven clods had taken personal effect and Tom was over the fence and gone There was a gate but as a general thing he was too crowded for time to make use of it His soul was at peace now that he had settled with Sid for calling attention to his black thread and getting him into trouble Tom skirted the block and came round into a muddy alley that led by the back of his aunts cow stable he presently got safely beyond the reach of capture and punishment and hasted toward the public square of the village where two military companies of boys had met for conflict according to previous appointment Tom was General of one of these armies Joe Harper a bosom friend General of the other These two great commanders did not condescend to fight in person that being better suited to the still smaller fry but sat together on an eminence and conducted the field operations by orders delivered through aides de camp Toms army won a great victory after a long and hard fought battle Then the dead were counted prisoners exchanged the terms of the next disagreement agreed upon and the day for the necessary battle appointed after which the armies fell into line and marched away and Tom turned homeward alone As he was passing by the house where Jeff Thatcher lived he saw a new girl in the garden a lovely little blue eyed creature with yellow hair plaited into two long tails white summer frock and embroidered pantalettes The fresh crowned hero fell without firing a shot A certain Amy Lawrence vanished out of his heart and left not even a memory of herself behind He had thought he loved her to distraction he had regarded his passion as adoration and behold it was only a poor little evanescent partiality He had been months winning her she had confessed hardly a week ago he had been the happiest and the proudest boy in the world only seven short days and here in one instant of time she had gone out of his heart like a casual stranger whose visit is done He worshipped this new angel with furtive eye till he saw that she had discovered him then he pretended he did not know she was present and began to show off in all sorts of absurd boyish ways in order to win her admiration He kept up this grotesque foolishness for some time but by and by while he was in the midst of some dangerous gymnastic performances he glanced aside and saw that the little girl was wending her way toward the house Tom came up to the fence and leaned on it grieving and hoping she would tarry yet a while longer She halted a moment on the steps and then moved toward the door Tom heaved a great sigh as she put her foot on the threshold But his face lit up right away for she tossed a pansy over the fence a moment before she disappeared The boy ran around and stopped within a foot or two of the flower and then shaded his eyes with his hand and began to look down street as if he had discovered something of interest going on in that direction Presently he picked up a straw and began trying to balance it on his nose with his head tilted far back and as he moved from side to side in his efforts he edged nearer and nearer toward the pansy finally his bare foot rested upon it his pliant toes closed upon it and he hopped away with the treasure and disappeared round the corner But only for a minute only while he could button the flower inside his jacket next his heart or next his stomach possibly for he was not much posted in anatomy and not hypercritical anyway He returned now and hung about the fence till nightfall showing off as before but the girl never exhibited herself again though Tom comforted himself a little with the hope that she had been near some window meantime and been aware of his attentions Finally he rode home reluctantly with his poor head full of visions All through supper his spirits were so high that his aunt wondered what had got into the child He took a good scolding about clodding Sid and did not seem to mind it in the least He tried to steal sugar under his aunts very nose and got his knuckles rapped for it He said Aunt you dont whack Sid when he takes it Well Sid dont torment a body the way you do Youd be always into that sugar if I warnt watching you Presently she stepped into the kitchen and Sid happy in his immunity reached for the sugar bowl a sort of glorying over Tom which was well nigh unbearable But Sids fingers slipped and the bowl dropped and broke Tom was in ecstasies In such ecstasies that he even controlled his tongue and was silent He said to himself that he would not speak a word even when his aunt came in but would sit perfectly still till she asked who did the mischief and then he would tell and there would be nothing so good in the world as to see that pet model catch it He was so brim full of exultation that he could hardly hold himself when the old lady came back and stood above the wreck discharging lightnings of wrath from over her spectacles He said to himself Now its coming And the next instant he was sprawling on the floor The potent palm was uplifted to strike again when Tom cried out Hold on now what er you belting me for Sid broke it Aunt Polly paused perplexed and Tom looked for healing pity But when she got her tongue again she only said Umf Well you didnt get a lick amiss I reckon You been into some other owdacious mischief when I wasnt around like enough Then her conscience reproached her and she yearned to say something kind and loving but she judged that this would be construed into a confession that she had been in the wrong and discipline forbade that So she kept silence and went about her affairs with a troubled heart Tom sulked in a corner and exalted his woes He knew that in her heart his aunt was on her knees to him and he was morosely gratified by the consciousness of it He would hang out no signals he would take notice of none He knew that a yearning glance fell upon him now and then through a film of tears but he refused recognition of it He pictured himself lying sick unto death and his aunt bending over him beseeching one little forgiving word but he would turn his face to the wall and die with that word unsaid Ah how would she feel then And he pictured himself brought home from the river dead with his curls all wet and his poor hands still forever and his sore heart at rest How she would throw herself upon him and how her tears would fall like rain and her lips pray God to give her back her boy and she would never never abuse him any more But he would lie there cold and white and make no sign a poor little sufferer whose griefs were at an end He so worked upon his feelings with the pathos of these dreams that he had to keep swallowing he was so like to choke and his eyes swam in a blur of water which overflowed when he winked and ran down and trickled from the end of his nose And such a luxury to him was this petting of his sorrows that he could not bear to have any worldly cheeriness or any grating delight intrude upon it it was too sacred for such contact and so presently when his cousin Mary danced in all alive with the joy of seeing home again after an age long visit of one week to the country he got up and moved in clouds and darkness out at one door as she brought song and sunshine in at the other He wandered far from the accustomed haunts of boys and sought desolate places that were in harmony with his spirit A log raft in the river invited him and he seated himself on its outer edge and contemplated the dreary vastness of the stream wishing the while that he could only be drowned all at once and unconsciously without undergoing the uncomfortable routine devised by nature Then he thought of his flower He got it out rumpled and wilted and it mightily increased his dismal felicity He wondered if she would pity him if she knew Would she cry and wish that she had a right to put her arms around his neck and comfort him Or would she turn coldly away like all the hollow world This picture brought such an agony of pleasurable suffering that he worked it over and over again in his mind and set it up in new and varied lights till he wore it threadbare At last he rose up sighing and departed in the darkness About half past nine or ten oclock he came along the deserted street to where the Adored Unknown lived he paused a moment no sound fell upon his listening ear a candle was casting a dull glow upon the curtain of a second story window Was the sacred presence there He climbed the fence threaded his stealthy way through the plants till he stood under that window he looked up at it long and with emotion then he laid him down on the ground under it disposing himself upon his back with his hands clasped upon his breast and holding his poor wilted flower And thus he would die out in the cold world with no shelter over his homeless head no friendly hand to wipe the death damps from his brow no loving face to bend pityingly over him when the great agony came And thus she would see him when she looked out upon the glad morning and O would she drop one little tear upon his poor lifeless form would she heave one little sigh to see a bright young life so rudely blighted so untimely cut down The window went up a maid servants discordant voice profaned the holy calm and a deluge of water drenched the prone martyrs remains The strangling hero sprang up with a relieving snort there was a whiz as of a missile in the air mingled with the murmur of a curse a sound as of shivering glass followed and a small vague form went over the fence and shot away in the gloom Not long after as Tom all undressed for bed was surveying his drenched garments by the light of a tallow dip Sid woke up but if he had any dim idea of making any references to allusions he thought better of it and held his peace for there was danger in Toms eye Tom turned in without the added vexation of prayers and Sid made mental note of the omission Chapter Showing off in Sunday School THE SUN ROSE upon a tranquil world and beamed down upon the peaceful village like a benediction Breakfast over Aunt Polly had family worship it began with a prayer built from the ground up of solid courses of Scriptural quotations welded together with a thin mortar of originality and from the summit of this she delivered a grim chapter of the Mosaic Law as from Sinai Then Tom girded up his loins so to speak and went to work to get his verses Sid had learned his lesson days before Tom bent all his energies to the memorizing of five verses and he chose part of the Sermon on the Mount because he could find no verses that were shorter At the end of half an hour Tom had a vague general idea of his lesson but no more for his mind was traversing the whole field of human thought and his hands were busy with distracting recreations Mary took his book to hear him recite and he tried to find his way through the fog Blessed are the a a Poor Yes poor blessed are the poor a a In spirit In spirit blessed are the poor in spirit for they they Theirs For theirs Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Blessed are they that mourn for they they Sh For they a S H A For they S H O I dont know what it is Shall O shall for they shall for they shall a a shall mourn a a blessed are they that shall they that a they that shall mourn for they shall a shall what Why dont you tell me Mary what do you want to be so mean for O Tom you poor thick headed thing Im not teasing you I wouldnt do that You must go and learn it again Dont you be discouraged Tom youll manage it and if you do Ill give you something ever so nice There now thats a good boy All right What is it Mary tell me what it is Never you mind Tom You know if I say its nice it is nice You bet you thats so Mary All right Ill tackle it again And he did tackle it again and under the double pressure of curiosity and prospective gain he did it with such spirit that he accomplished a shining success Mary gave him a brand new Barlow knife worth twelve and a half cents and the convulsion of delight that swept his system shook him to his foundations True the knife would not cut anything but it was a sure enough Barlow and there was inconceivable grandeur in that though where the western boys ever got the idea that such a weapon could possibly be counterfeited to its injury is an imposing mystery and will always remain so perhaps Tom contrived to scarify the cupboard with it and was arranging to begin on the bureau when he was called off to dress for Sunday School Mary gave him a tin basin of water and a piece of soap and he went outside the door and set the basin on a little bench there then he dipped the soap in the water and laid it down turned up his sleeves poured out the water on the ground gently and then entered the kitchen and began to wipe his face diligently on the towel behind the door But Mary removed the towel and said Now aint you ashamed Tom You mustnt be so bad Water wont hurt you Tom was a trifle disconcerted The basin was refilled and this time he stood over it a little while gathering resolution took in a big breath and began When he entered the kitchen presently with both eyes shut and groping for the towel with his hands an honorable testimony of suds and water was dripping from his face But when he emerged from the towel he was not yet satisfactory for the clean territory stopped short at his chin and his jaws like a mask below and beyond this line there was a dark expanse of unirrigated soil that spread downward in front and backward around his neck Mary took him in hand and when she was done with him he was a man and a brother without distinction of color and his saturated hair was neatly brushed and its short curls wrought into a dainty and symmetrical general effect He privately smoothed out the curls with labor and difficulty and plastered his hair close down to his head for he held curls to be effeminate and his own filled his life with bitterness Then Mary got out a suit of his clothing that had been used only on Sundays during two years they were simply called his other clothes and so by that we know the size of his wardrobe The girl put him to rights after he had dressed himself she buttoned his neat roundabout up to his chin turned his vast shirt collar down over his shoulders brushed him off and crowned him with his speckled straw hat He now looked exceedingly improved and uncomfortable He was fully as uncomfortable as he looked for there was a restraint about whole clothes and cleanliness that galled him He hoped that Mary would forget his shoes but the hope was blighted she coated them thoroughly with tallow as was the custom and brought them out He lost his temper and said he was always being made to do everything he didnt want to do But Mary said persuasively Please Tom thats a good boy So he got into the shoes snarling Mary was soon ready and the three children set out for Sunday school a place that Tom hated with his whole heart but Sid and Mary were fond of it Sabbath school hours were from nine to half past ten and then church service Two of the children always remained for the sermon voluntarily and the other always remained too for stronger reasons The churchs high backed uncushioned pews would seat about three hundred persons the edifice was but a small plain affair with a sort of pine board tree box on top of it for a steeple At the door Tom dropped back a step and accosted a Sunday dressed comrade Say Billy got a yaller ticket Yes Whatll you take for her Whatll you give Piece of lickrish and a fish hook Less see em Tom exhibited They were satisfactory and the property changed hands Then Tom traded a couple of white alleys for three red tickets and some small trifle or other for a couple of blue ones He waylaid other boys as they came and went on buying tickets of various colors ten or fifteen minutes longer He entered the church now with a swarm of clean and noisy boys and girls proceeded to his seat and started a quarrel with the first boy that came handy The teacher a grave elderly man interfered then turned his back a moment and Tom pulled a boys hair in the next bench and was absorbed in his book when the boy turned around stuck a pin in another boy present in order to hear him say Ouch and got a new reprimand from his teacher Toms whole class were of a pattern restless noisy and troublesome When they came to recite their lessons not one of them knew his verses perfectly but had to be prompted all along However they worried through and each got his reward in small blue tickets each with a passage of Scripture on it each blue ticket was pay for two verses of the recitation Ten blue tickets equalled a red one and could be exchanged for it ten red tickets equalled a yellow one for ten yellow tickets the Superintendent gave a very plainly bound Bible worth forty cents in those easy times to the pupil How many of my readers would have the industry and application to memorize two thousand verses even for a Dore Bible And yet Mary had acquired two Bibles in this way it was the patient work of two years and a boy of German parentage had won four or five He once recited three thousand verses without stopping but the strain upon his mental faculties was too great and he was little better than an idiot from that day forth a grievous misfortune for the school for on great occasions before company the Superintendent as Tom expressed it had always made this boy come out and spread himself Only the older pupils managed to keep their tickets and stick to their tedious work long enough to get a Bible and so the delivery of one of these prizes was a rare and noteworthy circumstance the successful pupil was so great and conspicuous for that day that on the spot every scholars breast was fired with a fresh ambition that often lasted a couple of weeks It is possible that Toms mental stomach had never really hungered for one of those prizes but unquestionably his entire being had for many a day longed for the glory and the eclat that came with it In due course the Superintendent stood up in front of the pulpit with a closed hymn book in his hand and his forefinger inserted between its leaves and commanded attention When a Sunday school Superintendent makes his customary little speech a hymn book in the hand is as necessary as is the inevitable sheet of music in the hand of a singer who stands forward on the platform and sings a solo at a concert though why is a mystery for neither the hymn book nor the sheet of music is ever referred to by the sufferer This superintendent was a slim creature of thirty five with a sandy goatee and short sandy hair he wore a stiff standing collar whose upper edge almost reached his ears and whose sharp points curved forward abreast the corners of his mouth a fence that compelled a straight lookout ahead and a turning of the whole body when a side view was required his chin was propped on a spreading cravat which was as broad and as long as a bank note and had fringed ends his boot toes were turned sharply up in the fashion of the day like sleigh runners an effect patiently and laboriously produced by the young men by sitting with their toes pressed against a wall for hours together Mr Walters was very earnest of mien and very sincere and honest at heart and he held sacred things and places in such reverence and so separated them from worldly matters that unconsciously to himself his Sunday school voice had acquired a peculiar intonation which was wholly absent on week days He began after this fashion Now children I want you all to sit up just as straight and pretty as you can and give me all your attention for a minute or two There that is it That is the way good little boys and girls should do I see one little girl who is looking out of the window I am afraid she thinks I am out there somewhere perhaps up in one of the trees making a speech to the little birds Applausive titter I want to tell you how good it makes me feel to see so many bright clean little faces assembled in a place like this learning to do right and be good And so forth and so on It is not necessary to set down the rest of the oration It was of a pattern which does not vary and so it is familiar to us all The latter third of the speech was marred by the resumption of fights and other recreations among certain of the bad boys and by fidgetings and whisperings that extended far and wide washing even to the bases of isolated and incorruptible rocks like Sid and Mary But now every sound ceased suddenly with the subsidence of Mr Walterss voice and the conclusion of the speech was received with a burst of silent gratitude A good part of the whispering had been occasioned by an event which was more or less rare the entrance of visitors lawyer Thatcher accompanied by a very feeble and aged man a fine portly middle aged gentleman with iron gray hair and a dignified lady who was doubtless the latters wife The lady was leading a child Tom had been restless and full of chafings and repinings conscience smitten too he could not meet Amy Lawrences eye he could not brook her loving gaze But when he saw this small new comer his soul was all ablaze with bliss in a moment The next moment he was showing off with all his might cuffing boys pulling hair making faces in a word using every art that seemed likely to fascinate a girl and win her applause His exaltation had but one alloy the memory of his humiliation in this angels garden and that record in sand was fast washing out under the waves of happiness that were sweeping over it now The visitors were given the highest seat of honor and as soon as Mr Walters speech was finished he introduced them to the school The middle aged man turned out to be a prodigious personage no less a one than the county judge altogether the most august creation these children had ever looked upon and they wondered what kind of material he was made of and they half wanted to hear him roar and were half afraid he might too He was from Constantinople twelve miles away so he had traveled and seen the world these very eyes had looked upon the county court house which was said to have a tin roof The awe which these reflections inspired was attested by the impressive silence and the ranks of staring eyes This was the great Judge Thatcher brother of their own lawyer Jeff Thatcher immediately went forward to be familiar with the great man and be envied by the school It would have been music to his soul to hear the whisperings Look at him Jim Hes a going up there Say look hes a going to shake hands with him he is shaking hands with him By jings dont you wish you was Jeff Mr Walters fell to showing off with all sorts of official bustlings and activities giving orders delivering judgments discharging directions here there everywhere that he could find a target The librarian showed off running hither and thither with his arms full of books and making a deal of the splutter and fuss that insect authority delights in The young lady teachers showed off bending sweetly over pupils that were lately being boxed lifting pretty warning fingers at bad little boys and patting good ones lovingly The young gentlemen teachers showed off with small scoldings and other little displays of authority and fine attention to discipline and most of the teachers of both sexes found business up at the library by the pulpit and it was business that frequently had to be done over again two or three times with much seeming vexation The little girls showed off in various ways and the little boys showed off with such diligence that the air was thick with paper wads and the murmur of scufflings And above it all the great man sat and beamed a majestic judicial smile upon all the house and warmed himself in the sun of his own grandeur for he was showing off too There was only one thing wanting to make Mr Walters ecstasy complete and that was a chance to deliver a Bible prize and exhibit a prodigy Several pupils had a few yellow tickets but none had enough he had been around among the star pupils inquiring He would have given worlds now to have that German lad back again with a sound mind And now at this moment when hope was dead Tom Sawyer came forward with nine yellow tickets nine red tickets and ten blue ones and demanded a Bible This was a thunderbolt out of a clear sky Walters was not expecting an application from this source for the next ten years But there was no getting around it here were the certified checks and they were good for their face Tom was therefore elevated to a place with the judge and the other elect and the great news was announced from head quarters It was the most stunning surprise of the decade and so profound was the sensation that it lifted the new hero up to the judicial ones altitude and the school had two marvels to gaze upon in place of one The boys were all eaten up with envy but those that suffered the bitterest pangs were those who perceived too late that they themselves had contributed to this hated splendor by trading tickets to Tom for the wealth he had amassed in selling whitewashing privileges These despised themselves as being the dupes of a wily fraud a guileful snake in the grass The prize was delivered to Tom with as much effusion as the Superintendent could pump up under the circumstances but it lacked somewhat of the true gush for the poor fellows instinct taught him that there was a mystery here that could not well bear the light perhaps it was simply preposterous that this boy had warehoused two thousand sheaves of Scriptural wisdom on his premises a dozen would strain his capacity without a doubt Amy Lawrence was proud and glad and she tried to make Tom see it in her face but he wouldnt look She wondered then she was just a grain troubled next a dim suspicion came and went came again she watched a furtive glance told her worlds and then her heart broke and she was jealous and angry and the tears came and she hated everybody Tom most of all she thought Tom was introduced to the judge but his tongue was tied his breath would hardly come his heart quaked partly because of the awful greatness of the man but mainly because he was her parent He would have liked to fall down and worship him if it were in the dark The judge put his hand on Toms head and called him a fine little man and asked him what his name was The boy stammered gasped and got it out Tom O no not Tom it is Thomas Ah thats it I thought there was more to it maybe Thats very well But youve another one I daresay and youll tell it to me wont you Tell the gentleman your other name Thomas said Walters and say sir You mustnt forget your manners Thomas Sawyer sir Thats it Thats a good boy Fine boy Fine manly little fellow Two thousand verses is a great many very very great many And you never can be sorry for the trouble you took to learn them for knowledge is worth more than anything there is in the world its what makes great men and good men youll be a great man and a good man yourself someday Thomas and then youll look back and say Its all owing to the precious Sunday school privileges of my boyhood its all owing to my dear teachers that taught me to learn its all owing to the good Superintendent who encouraged me and watched over me and gave me a beautiful Bible a splendid elegant Bible to keep and have it all for my own always its all owing to right bringing up That is what you will say Thomas and you wouldnt take any money for those two thousand verses then no indeed you wouldnt And now you wouldnt mind telling me and this lady some of the things youve learned no I know you wouldnt for we are proud of little boys that learn Now no doubt you know the names of all the twelve disciples Wont you tell us the names of the first two that were appointed Tom was tugging at a button and looking sheepish He blushed now and his eyes fell Mr Walterss heart sank within him He said to himself It is not possible that the boy can answer the simplest question why did the judge ask him Yet he felt obliged to speak up and say Answer the gentleman Thomas dont be afraid Tom still hung fire Now I know youll tell me said the lady The names of the first two disciples were DAVID AND GOLIATH Let us draw the curtain of charity over the rest of the scene Chapter The Pinch Bug and His Prey ABOUT HALF PAST TEN the cracked bell of the small church began to ring and presently the people began to gather for the morning sermon The Sunday school children distributed themselves about the house and occupied pews with their parents so as to be under supervision Aunt Polly came and Tom and Sid and Mary sat with her Tom being placed next the aisle in order that he might be as far away from the open window and the seductive outside summer scenes as possible The crowd filed up the aisles the aged and needy postmaster who had seen better days the mayor and his wife for they had a mayor there among other unnecessaries the justice of the peace the widow Douglas fair smart and forty a generous goodhearted soul and well to do her hill mansion the only palace in the town and the most hospitable and much the most lavish in the matter of festivities that St Petersburg could boast the bent and venerable Major and Mrs Ward lawyer Riverson the new notable from a distance next the belle of the village followed by a troop of lawn clad and ribbon decked young heart breakers then all the young clerks in town in a body for they had stood in the vestibule sucking their cane heads a circling wall of oiled and simpering admirers till the last girl had run their gauntlet and last of all came the Model Boy Willie Mufferson taking as heedful care of his mother as if she were cut glass He always brought his mother to church and was the pride of all the matrons The boys all hated him he was so good And besides he had been thrown up to them so much His white handkerchief was hanging out of his pocket behind as usual on Sundays accidentally Tom had no handkerchief and he looked upon boys who had as snobs The congregation being fully assembled now the bell rang once more to warn laggards and stragglers and then a solemn hush fell upon the church which was only broken by the tittering and whispering of the choir in the gallery The choir always tittered and whispered all through service There was once a church choir that was not ill bred but I have forgotten where it was now It was a great many years ago and I can scarcely remember anything about it but I think it was in some foreign country The minister gave out the hymn and read it through with a relish in a peculiar style which was much admired in that part of the country His voice began on a medium key and climbed steadily up till it reached a certain point where it bore with strong emphasis upon the topmost word and then plunged down as if from a spring board Shall I be car ri ed to the skies on flowry beds of ease Whilst others fight to win the prize and sail thro blood y seas He was regarded as a wonderful reader At church sociables he was always called upon to read poetry and when he was through the ladies would lift up their hands and let them fall helplessly in their laps and wall their eyes and shake their heads as much as to say Words cannot express it it is too beautiful too beautiful for this mortal earth After the hymn had been sung the Rev Mr Sprague turned himself into a bulletin board and read off notices of meetings and societies and things till it seemed that the list would stretch out to the crack of doom a queer custom which is still kept up in America even in cities away here in this age of abundant newspapers Often the less there is to justify a traditional custom the harder it is to get rid of it And now the minister prayed A good generous prayer it was and went into details it pleaded for the church and the little children of the church for the other churches of the village for the village itself for the county for the State for the State officers for the United States for the churches of the United States for Congress for the President for the officers of the Government for poor sailors tossed by stormy seas for the oppressed millions groaning under the heel of European monarchies and Oriental despotisms for such as have the light and the good tidings and yet have not eyes to see nor ears to hear withal for the heathen in the far islands of the sea and closed with a supplication that the words he was about to speak might find grace and favor and be as seed sown in fertile ground yielding in time a grateful harvest of good Amen There was a rustling of dresses and the standing congregation sat down The boy whose history this book relates did not enjoy the prayer he only endured it if he even did that much He was restive all through it he kept tally of the details of the prayer unconsciously for he was not listening but he knew the ground of old and the clergymans regular route over it and when a little trifle of new matter was interlarded his ear detected it and his whole nature resented it he considered additions unfair and scoundrelly In the midst of the prayer a fly had lit on the back of the pew in front of him and tortured his spirit by calmly rubbing its hands together embracing its head with its arms and polishing it so vigorously that it seemed to almost part company with the body and the slender thread of a neck was exposed to view scraping its wings with its hind legs and smoothing them to its body as if they had been coat tails going through its whole toilet as tranquilly as if it knew it was perfectly safe As indeed it was for as sorely as Toms hands itched to grab for it they did not dare he believed his soul would be instantly destroyed if he did such a thing while the prayer was going on But with the closing sentence his hand began to curve and steal forward and the instant the Amen was out the fly was a prisoner of war His aunt detected the act and made him let it go The minister gave out his text and droned along monotonously through an argument that was so prosy that many a head by and by began to nod and yet it was an argument that dealt in limitless fire and brimstone and thinned the predestined elect down to a company so small as to be hardly worth the saving Tom counted the pages of the sermon after church he always knew how many pages there had been but he seldom knew anything else about the discourse However this time he was really interested for a little while The minister made a grand and moving picture of the assembling together of the worlds hosts at the millennium when the lion and the lamb should lie down together and a little child should lead them But the pathos the lesson the moral of the great spectacle were lost upon the boy he only thought of the conspicuousness of the principal character before the on looking nations his face lit with the thought and he said to himself that he wished he could be that child if it was a tame lion Now he lapsed into suffering again as the dry argument was resumed Presently he bethought him of a treasure he had and got it out It was a large black beetle with formidable jaws a pinch bug he called it It was in a percussion cap box The first thing the beetle did was to take him by the finger A natural fillip followed the beetle went floundering into the aisle and lit on its back and the hurt finger went into the boys mouth The beetle lay there working its helpless legs unable to turn over Tom eyed it and longed for it but it was safe out of his reach Other people uninterested in the sermon found relief in the beetle and they eyed it too Presently a vagrant poodle dog came idling along sad at heart lazy with the summer softness and the quiet weary of captivity sighing for change He spied the beetle the drooping tail lifted and wagged He surveyed the prize walked around it smelt at it from a safe distance walked around it again grew bolder and took a closer smell then lifted his lip and made a gingerly snatch at it just missing it made another and another began to enjoy the diversion subsided to his stomach with the beetle between his paws and continued his experiments grew weary at last and then indifferent and absent minded His head nodded and little by little his chin descended and touched the enemy who seized it There was a sharp yelp a flirt of the poodles head and the beetle fell a couple of yards away and lit on its back once more The neighboring spectators shook with a gentle inward joy several faces went behind fans and handkerchiefs and Tom was entirely happy The dog looked foolish and probably felt so but there was resentment in his heart too and a craving for revenge So he went to the beetle and began a wary attack on it again jumping at it from every point of a circle lighting with his forepaws within an inch of the creature making even closer snatches at it with his teeth and jerking his head till his ears flapped again But he grew tired once more after a while tried to amuse himself with a fly but found no relief followed an ant around with his nose close to the floor and quickly wearied of that yawned sighed forgot the beetle entirely and sat down on it Then there was a wild yelp of agony and the poodle went sailing up the aisle the yelps continued and so did the dog he crossed the house in front of the altar he flew down the other aisle he crossed before the doors he clamored up the home stretch his anguish grew with his progress till presently he was but a woolly comet moving in its orbit with the gleam and the speed of light At last the frantic sufferer sheered from its course and sprang into its masters lap he flung it out of the window and the voice of distress quickly thinned away and died in the distance By this time the whole church was red faced and suffocating with suppressed laughter and the sermon had come to a dead stand still The discourse was resumed presently but it went lame and halting all possibility of impressiveness being at an end for even the gravest sentiments were constantly being received with a smothered burst of unholy mirth under cover of some remote pew back as if the poor parson had said a rarely facetious thing It was a genuine relief to the whole congregation when the ordeal was over and the benediction pronounced Tom Sawyer went home quite cheerful thinking to himself that there was some satisfaction about divine service when there was a bit of variety in it He had but one marring thought he was willing that the dog should play with his pinch bug but he did not think it was upright in him to carry it off Chapter Tom Meets Becky MONDAY MORNING found Tom Sawyer miserable Monday morning always found him so because it began another weeks slow suffering in school He generally began that day with wishing he had had no intervening holiday it made the going into captivity and fetters again so much more odious Tom lay thinking Presently it occurred to him that he wished he was sick then he could stay home from school Here was a vague possibility He canvassed his system No ailment was found and he investigated again This time he thought he could detect colicky symptoms and he began to encourage them with considerable hope But they soon grew feeble and presently died wholly away He reflected further Suddenly he discovered something One of his upper front teeth was loose This was lucky he was about to begin to groan as a starter as he called it when it occured to him that if he came into court with that argument his aunt would pull it out and that would hurt So he thought he would hold the tooth in reserve for the present and seek further Nothing offered for some little time and then he remembered hearing the doctor tell about a certain thing that laid up a patient for two or three weeks and threatened to make him lose a finger So the boy eagerly drew his sore toe from under the sheet and held it up for inspection But now he did not know the necessary symptoms However it seemed well worth while to chance it so he fell to groaning with considerable spirit But Sid slept on unconscious Tom groaned louder and fancied that he began to feel pain in the toe No result from Sid Tom was panting with his exertions by this time He took a rest and then swelled himself up and fetched a succession of admirable groans Sid snored on Tom was aggravated He said Sid Sid and shook him This course worked well and Tom began to groan again Sid yawned stretched then brought himself up on his elbow with a snort and began to stare at Tom Tom went on groaning Sid said Tom Say Tom No response Here Tom Tom What is the matter Tom And he shook him and looked in his face anxiously Tom moaned out O dont Sid Dont joggle me Why whats the matter Tom I must call auntie No never mind Itll be over by and by maybe Dont call anybody But I must Dont groan so Tom its awful How long you been this way Hours Ouch O dont stir so Sid youll kill me Tom why didnt you wake me sooner O Tom dont It makes my flesh crawl to hear you Tom what is the matter I forgive you everything Sid Groan Everything youve ever done to me When Im gone O Tom you aint dying are you Dont Tom O dont Maybe I forgive everybody Sid Groan Tell em so Sid And Sid you give my window sash and my cat with one eye to that new girl thats come to town and tell her But Sid had snatched his clothes and gone Tom was suffering in reality now so handsomely was his imagination working and so his groans had gathered quite a genuine tone Sid flew down stairs and said O Aunt Polly come Toms dying Dying Yesm Dont wait come quick Rubbage I dont believe it But she fled up stairs nevertheless with Sid and Mary at her heels And her face grew white too and her lip trembled When she reached the bedside she gasped out You Tom Tom whats the matter with you O auntie Im Whats the matter with you what is the matter with you child O auntie my sore toes mortified The old lady sank down into a chair and laughed a little then cried a little then did both together This restored her and she said Tom what a turn you did give me Now you shut up that nonsense and climb out of this The groans ceased and the pain vanished from the toe The boy felt a little foolish and he said Aunt Polly it seemed mortified and it hurt so I never minded my tooth at all Your tooth indeed Whats the matter with your tooth One of thems loose and it aches perfectly awful There there now dont begin that groaning again Open your mouth Well your tooth is loose but youre not going to die about that Mary get me a silk thread and a chunk of fire out of the kitchen Tom said O please auntie dont pull it out It dont hurt any more I wish I may never stir if it does Please dont auntie I dont want to stay home from school Oh you dont dont you So all this row was because you thought youd get to stay home from school and go a fishing Tom Tom I love you so and you seem to try every way you can to break my old heart with your outrageousness By this time the dental instruments were ready The old lady made one end of the silk thread fast to Toms tooth with a loop and tied the other to the bedpost Then she seized the chunk of fire and suddenly thrust it almost into the boys face The tooth hung dangling by the bedpost now But all trials bring their compensations As Tom wended to school after breakfast he was the envy of every boy he met because the gap in his upper row of teeth enabled him to expectorate in a new and admirable way He gathered quite a following of lads interested in the exhibition and one that had cut his finger and had been a centre of fascination and homage up to this time now found himself suddenly without an adherent and shorn of his glory His heart was heavy and he said with a disdain which he did not feel that it wasnt anything to spit like Tom Sawyer but another boy said Sour grapes and he wandered away a dismantled hero Shortly Tom came upon the juvenile pariah of the village Huckleberry Finn son of the town drunkard Huckleberry was cordially hated and dreaded by all the mothers of the town because he was idle and lawless and vulgar and bad and because all their children admired him so and delighted in his forbidden society and wished they dared to be like him Tom was like the rest of the respectable boys in that he envied Huckleberry his gaudy outcast condition and was under strict orders not to play with him So he played with him every time he got a chance Huckleberry was always dressed in the cast off clothes of full grown men and they were in perennial bloom and fluttering with rags His hat was a vast ruin with a wide crescent lopped out of its brim his coat when he wore one hung nearly to his heels and had the rearward buttons far down the back but one suspender supported his trousers the seat of the trousers bagged low and contained nothing the fringed legs dragged in the dirt when not rolled up Huckleberry came and went at his own free will He slept on doorsteps in fine weather and in empty hogsheads in wet he did not have to go to school or to church or call any being master or obey anybody he could go fishing or swimming when and where he chose and stay as long as it suited him nobody forbade him to fight he could sit up as late as he pleased he was always the first boy that went barefoot in the spring and the last to resume leather in the fall he never had to wash nor put on clean clothes he could swear wonderfully In a word everything that goes to make life precious that boy had So thought every harassed hampered respectable boy in St Petersburg Tom hailed the romantic outcast Hello Huckleberry Hello yourself and see how you like it Whats that you got Dead cat Lemme see him Huck My hes pretty stiff Whered you get him Bought him offn a boy What did you give I give a blue ticket and a bladder that I got at the slaughter house Whered you get the blue ticket Bought it offn Ben Rogers two weeks ago for a hoop stick Say what is dead cats good for Huck Good for Cure warts with No Is that so I know something thats better I bet you dont What is it Why spunk water Spunk water I wouldnt give a dem for spunk water You wouldnt wouldnt you Dyou ever try it No I haint But Bob Tanner did Who told you so Why he told Jeff Thatcher and Jeff told Johnny Baker and Johnny told Jim Hollis and Jim told Ben Rogers and Ben told a nigger and the nigger told me There now Well what of it Theyll all lie Leastways all but the nigger I dont know him But I never see a nigger that wouldnt lie Shucks Now you tell me how Bob Tanner done it Huck Why he took and dipped his hand in a rotten stump where the rain water was In the daytime Certnly With his face to the stump Yes Least I reckon so Did he say anything I dont reckon he did I dont know Aha Talk about trying to cure warts with spunk water such a blame fool way as that Why that aint a going to do any good You got to go all by yourself to the middle of the woods where you know theres a spunk water stump and just as its midnight you back up against the stump and jam your hand in and say Barley corn Barley corn injun meal shorts Spunk water spunk water swaller these warts and then walk away quick eleven steps with your eyes shut and then turn around three times and walk home without speaking to anybody Because if you speak the charms busted Well that sounds like a good way but that aint the way Bob Tanner done No sir you can bet he didnt becuz hes the wartiest boy in this town and he wouldnt have a wart on him if hed knowed how to work spunk water Ive took off thousands of warts off of my hands that way Huck I play with frogs so much that Ive always got considerable many warts Sometimes I take em off with a bean Yes beans good Ive done that Have you Whats your way You take and split the bean and cut the wart so as to get some blood and then you put the blood on one piece of the bean and take and dig a hole and bury it bout midnight at the cross roads in the dark of the moon and then you burn up the rest of the bean You see that piece thats got the blood on it will keep drawing and drawing trying to fetch the other piece to it and so that helps the blood to draw the wart and pretty soon off she comes Yes thats it Huck thats it though when youre burying it if you say Down bean off wart come no more to bother me its better Thats the way Joe Harper does and hes been nearly to Constantinople and most everywheres But say how do you cure em with dead cats Why you take your cat and go and get in the graveyard long about midnight when somebody that was wicked has been buried and when its midnight a devil will come or maybe two or three but you cant see em you can only hear something like the wind or maybe hear em talk and when theyre taking that feller away you heave your cat after em and say Devil follow corpse cat follow devil warts follow cat Im done with ye Thatll fetch any wart Sounds right Dyou ever try it Huck No but old Mother Hopkins told me Well I reckon its so then Becuz they say shes a witch Say Why Tom I know she is She witched pap Pap says so his own self He come along one day and he see she was a witching him so he took up a rock and if she hadnt dodged hed a got her Well that very night he rolled offn a shed wher he was a layin drunk and broke his arm Why thats awful How did he know she was a witching him Lord pap can tell easy Pap says when they keep looking at you right stiddy theyre a witching you Specially if they mumble Becuz when they mumble theyre a saying the Lords Prayer backards Say Huck when you going to try the cat To night I reckon theyll come after old Hoss Williams to night But they buried him Saturday Huck Didnt they get him Saturday night Why how you talk How could their charms work till midnight and then its Sunday Devils dont slosh around much of a Sunday I dont reckon I never thought of that Thats so Lemme go with you Of course if you aint afeard Afeard Taint likely Will you meow Yes and you meow back if you get a chance Last time you kep me a meowing around till old Hays went to throwing rocks at me and says Dem that cat and so I hove a brick through his window but dont you tell I wont I couldnt meow that night becuz auntie was watching me but Ill meow this time Say Huck whats that Nothing but a tick Whered you get him Out in the woods Whatll you take for him I dont know I dont want to sell him All right Its a mighty small tick anyway O anybody can run a tick down that dont belong to them Im satisfied with it Its a good enough tick for me Sho theres ticks a plenty I could have a thousand of em if I wanted to Well why dont you Becuz you know mighty well you cant This is a pretty early tick I reckon Its the first one Ive seen this year Say Huck Ill give you my tooth for him Less see it Tom got out a bit of paper and carefully unrolled it Huckleberry viewed it wistfully The temptation was very strong At last he said Is it genuwyne Tom lifted his lip and showed the vacancy Well all right said Huckleberry its a trade Tom enclosed the tick in the percussion cap box that had lately been the pinch bugs prison and the boys separated each feeling wealthier than before When Tom reached the little isolated frame school house he strode in briskly with the manner of one who had come with all honest speed He hung his hat on a peg and flung himself into his seat with business like alacrity The master throned on high in his great splint bottom arm chair was dozing lulled by the drowsy hum of study The interruption roused him Thomas Sawyer Tom knew that when his name was pronounced in full it meant trouble Sir Come up here Now sir why are you late again as usual Tom was about to take refuge in a lie when he saw two long tails of yellow hair hanging down a back that he recognized by the electric sympathy of love and by that form was the only vacant place on the girls side of the school house He instantly said I STOPPED TO TALK WITH HUCKLEBERRY FINN The masters pulse stood still and he stared helplessly The buzz of study ceased The pupils wondered if this fool hardy boy had lost his mind The master said You you did what Stopped to talk with Huckleberry Finn There was no mistaking the words Thomas Sawyer this is the most astounding confession I have ever listened to No mere ferule will answer for this offense Take off your jacket The masters arm performed until it was tired and the stock of switches notably diminished Then the order followed Now sir go and sit with the girls And let this be a warning to you The titter that rippled around the room appeared to abash the boy but in reality that result was caused rather more by his worshipful awe of his unknown idol and the dread pleasure that lay in his high good fortune He sat down upon the end of the pine bench and the girl hitched herself away from him with a toss of her head Nudges and winks and whispers traversed the room but Tom sat still with his arms upon the long low desk before him and seemed to study his book By and by attention ceased from him and the accustomed school murmur rose upon the dull air once more Presently the boy began to steal furtive glances at the girl She observed it made a mouth at him and gave him the back of her head for the space of a minute When she cautiously faced around again a peach lay before her She thrust it away Tom gently put it back She thrust it away again but with less animosity Tom patiently returned it to its place Then she let it remain Tom scrawled on his slate Please take it I got more The girl glanced at the words but made no sign Now the boy began to draw something on the slate hiding his work with his left hand For a time the girl refused to notice but her human curiosity presently began to manifest itself by hardly perceptible signs The boy worked on apparently unconscious The girl made a sort of non committal attempt to see but the boy did not betray that he was aware of it At last she gave in and hesitatingly whispered Let me see it Tom partly uncovered a dismal caricature of a house with two gable ends to it and a cork screw of smoke issuing from the chimneys Then the girls interest began to fasten itself upon the work and she forgot everything else When it was finished she gazed a moment then whispered Its nice make a man The artist erected a man in the front yard that resembled a derrick He could have stepped over the house but the girl was not hypercritical she was satisfied with the monster and whispered Its a beautiful man now make me coming along Tom drew an hour glass with a full moon and straw limbs to it and armed the spreading fingers with a portentous fan The girl said Its ever so nice I wish I could draw Its easy whispered Tom Ill learn you O will you When At noon Do you go home to dinner Ill stay if you will Good thats a whack Whats your name Becky Thatcher Whats yours Oh know Its Thomas Sawyer Thats the name they lick me by Im Tom when Im good You call me Tom will you Yes Now Tom began to scrawl something on the slate hiding the words from the girl But she was not backward this time She begged to see Tom said Oh it aint anything Yes it is No it aint You dont want to see Yes I do indeed I do Please let me Youll tell No I wont deed and deed and double deed I wont You wont tell anybody at all Ever as long as you live No I wont ever tell anybody Now let me Oh you dont want to see Now that you treat me so I will see And she put her small hand upon his and a little scuffle ensued Tom pretending to resist in earnest but letting his hand slip by degrees till these words were revealed I love you O you bad thing And she hit his hand a smart rap but reddened and looked pleased nevertheless Just at this juncture the boy felt a slow fateful grip closing on his ear and a steady lifting impulse In that vise he was borne across the house and deposited in his own seat under a peppering fire of giggles from the whole school Then the master stood over him during a few awful moments and finally moved away to his throne without saying a word But although Toms ear tingled his heart was jubilant As the school quieted down Tom made an honest effort to study but the turmoil within him was too great In turn he took his place in the reading class and made a botch of it then in the geography class and turned lakes into mountains mountains into rivers and rivers into continents till chaos was come again then in the spelling class and got turned down by a succession of mere baby words till he brought up at the foot and yielded up the pewter medal which he had worn with ostentation for months Chapter Tick Running and Heartbreak THE HARDER Tom tried to fasten his mind on his book the more his ideas wandered So at last with a sigh and a yawn he gave it up It seemed to him that the noon recess would never come The air was utterly dead There was not a breath stirring It was the sleepiest of sleepy days The drowsing murmur of the five and twenty studying scholars soothed the soul like the spell that is in the murmur of bees Away off in the flaming sunshine Cardiff Hill lifted its soft green sides through a shimmering veil of heat tinted with the purple of distance a few birds floated on lazy wing high in the air no other living thing was visible but some cows and they were asleep Toms heart ached to be free or else to have something of interest to do to pass the dreary time His hand wandered into his pocket and his face lit up with a glow of gratitude that was prayer though he did not know it Then furtively the percussion cap box came out He released the tick and put him on the long flat desk The creature probably glowed with a gratitude that amounted to prayer too at this moment but it was premature for when he started thankfully to travel off Tom turned him aside with a pin and made him take a new direction Toms bosom friend sat next him suffering just as Tom had been and now he was deeply and gratefully interested in this entertainment in an instant This bosom friend was Joe Harper The two boys were sworn friends all the week and embattled enemies on Saturdays Joe took a pin out of his lappel and began to assist in exercising the prisoner The sport grew in interest momently Soon Tom said that they were interfering with each other and neither getting the fullest benefit of the tick So he put Joes slate on the desk and drew a line down the middle of it from top to bottom Now said he as long as he is on your side you can stir him up and Ill let him alone but if you let him get away and get on my side youre to leave him alone as long as I can keep him from crossing over All right go ahead start him up The tick escaped from Tom presently and crossed the equator Joe harassed him a while and then he got away and crossed back again This change of base occurred often While one boy was worrying the tick with absorbing interest the other would look on with interest as strong the two heads bowed together over the slate and the two souls dead to all things else At last luck seemed to settle and abide with Joe The tick tried this that and the other course and got as excited and as anxious as the boys themselves but time and again just as he would have victory in his very grasp so to speak and Toms fingers would be twitching to begin Joes pin would deftly head him off and keep possession At last Tom could stand it no longer The temptation was too strong So he reached out and lent a hand with his pin Joe was angry in a moment Said he Tom you let him alone I only just want to stir him up a little Joe No sir it aint fair you just let him alone Blame it I aint going to stir him much Let him alone I tell you I wont You shall hes on my side of the line Look here Joe Harper whose is that tick I dont care whose tick he is hes on my side of the line and you shant touch him Well Ill just bet I will though Hes my tick and Ill do what I blame please with him or die A tremendous whack came down on Toms shoulders and its duplicate on Joes and for the space of two minutes the dust continued to fly from the two jackets and the whole school to enjoy it The boys had been too absorbed to notice the hush that had stolen upon the school a while before when the master came tip toeing down the room and stood over them He had contemplated a good part of the performance before he contributed his bit of variety to it When school broke up at noon Tom flew to Becky Thatcher and whispered in her ear Put on your bonnet and let on youre going home and when you get to the corner give the rest of em the slip and turn down through the lane and come back Ill go the other way and come it over em the same way So the one went off with one group of scholars and the other with another In a little while the two met at the bottom of the lane and when they reached the school they had it all to themselves Then they sat together with a slate before them and Tom gave Becky the pencil and held her hand in his guiding it and so created another surprising house When the interest in art began to wane the two fell to talking Tom was swimming in bliss He said Do you love rats No I hate them Well I do too live ones But I mean dead ones to swing round your head with a string No I dont care for rats much anyway What I like is chewing gum O I should say so I wish I had some now Do you Ive got some Ill let you chew it a while but you must give it back to me That was agreeable so they chewed it turn about and dangled their legs against the bench in excess of contentment Was you ever at a circus said Tom Yes and my pas going to take me again some time if Im good I been to the circus three or four times lots of times Church aint shucks to a circus Theres things going on at a circus all the time Im going to be a clown in a circus when I grow up O are you That will be nice Theyre so lovely all spotted up Yes thats so And they get slathers of money most a dollar a day Ben Rogers says Say Becky was you ever engaged Whats that Why engaged to be married No Would you like to I reckon so I dont know What is it like Like Why it aint like anything You only just tell a boy you wont ever have anybody but him ever ever ever and then you kiss and thats all Anybody can do it Kiss What do you kiss for Why that you know is to well they always do that Everybody Why yes everybody thats in love with each other Do you remember what I wrote on the slate Ye yes What was it I shant tell you Shall I tell you Ye yes but some other time No now No not now to morrow O no now Please Becky Ill whisper it Ill whisper it ever so easy Becky hesitating Tom took silence for consent and passed his arm about her waist and whispered the tale ever so softly with his mouth close to her ear And then he added Now you whisper it to me just the same She resisted for a while and then said You turn your face away so you cant see and then I will But you mustnt ever tell anybody will you Tom Now you wont will you No indeed indeed I wont Now Becky He turned his face away She bent timidly around till her breath stirred his curls and whispered I love you Then she sprang away and ran around and around the desks and benches with Tom after her and took refuge in a corner at last with her little white apron to her face Tom clasped her about her neck and pleaded Now Becky its all done all over but the kiss Dont you be afraid of that it aint anything at all Please Becky And he tugged at her apron and the hands By and by she gave up and let her hands drop her face all glowing with the struggle came up and submitted Tom kissed the red lips and said Now its all done Becky And always after this you know you aint ever to love anybody but me and you aint ever to marry anybody but me never never and forever Will you No Ill never love anybody but you Tom and Ill never marry anybody but you and you aint to ever marry anybody but me either Certainly Of course Thats part of it And always coming to school or when were going home youre to walk with me when there aint anybody looking and you choose me and I choose you at parties because thats the way you do when youre engaged Its so nice I never heard of it before O its ever so gay Why me and Amy Lawrence The big eyes told Tom his blunder and he stopped confused O Tom Then I aint the first youve ever been engaged to The child began to cry Tom said O dont cry Becky I dont care for her any more Yes you do Tom you know you do Tom tried to put his arm about her neck but she pushed him away and turned her face to the wall and went on crying Tom tried again with soothing words in his mouth and was repulsed again Then his pride was up and he strode away and went outside He stood about restless and uneasy for a while glancing at the door every now and then hoping she would repent and come to find him But she did not Then he began to feel badly and fear that he was in the wrong It was a hard struggle with him to make new advances now but he nerved himself to it and entered She was still standing back there in the corner sobbing with her face to the wall Toms heart smote him He went to her and stood a moment not knowing exactly how to proceed Then he said hesitatingly Becky I I dont care for anybody but you No reply but sobs Becky pleadingly Becky wont you say something More sobs Tom got out his chiefest jewel a brass knob from the top of an andiron and passed it around her so that she could see it and said Please Becky wont you take it She struck it to the floor Then Tom marched out of the house and over the hills and far away to return to school no more that day Presently Becky began to suspect She ran to the door he was not in sight she flew around to the play yard he was not there Then she called Tom Come back Tom She listened intently but there was no answer She had no companions but silence and loneliness So she sat down to cry again and upbraid herself and by this time the scholars began to gather again and she had to hide her griefs and still her broken heart and take up the cross of a long dreary aching afternoon with none among the strangers about her to exchange sorrows with Chapter A Pirate Bold To Be TOM DODGED HITHER and thither through lanes until he was well out of the track of returning scholars and then fell into a moody jog He crossed a small branch two or three times because of a prevailing juvenile superstition that to cross water baffled pursuit Half an hour later he was disappearing behind the Douglas mansion on the summit of Cardiff Hill and the school house was hardly distinguishable away off in the valley behind him He entered a dense wood picked his pathless way to the centre of it and sat down on a mossy spot under a spreading oak There was not even a zephyr stirring the dead noonday heat had even stilled the songs of the birds nature lay in a trance that was broken by no sound but the occasional far off hammering of a woodpecker and this seemed to render the pervading silence and sense of loneliness the more profound The boys soul was steeped in melancholy his feelings were in happy accord with his surroundings He sat long with his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands meditating It seemed to him that life was but a trouble at best and he more than half envied Jimmy Hodges so lately released it must be very peaceful he thought to lie and slumber and dream forever and ever with the wind whispering through the trees and caressing the grass and the flowers over the grave and nothing to bother and grieve about ever any more If he only had a clean Sunday school record he could be willing to go and be done with it all Now as to this girl What had he done Nothing He had meant the best in the world and been treated like a dog like a very dog She would be sorry some day maybe when it was too late Ah if he could only die temporarily But the elastic heart of youth cannot be compressed into one constrained shape long at a time Tom presently began to drift insensibly back into the concerns of this life again What if he turned his back now and disappeared mysteriously What if he went away ever so far away into unknown countries beyond the seas and never came back any more How would she feel then The idea of being a clown recurred to him now only to fill him with disgust For frivolity and jokes and spotted tights were an offense when they intruded themselves upon a spirit that was exalted into the vague august realm of the romantic No he would be a soldier and return after long years all war worn and illustrious No better still he would join the Indians and hunt buffaloes and go on the war path in the mountain ranges and the trackless great plains of the Far West and away in the future come back a great chief bristling with feathers hideous with paint and prance into Sunday school some drowsy summer morning with a blood curdling war whoop and sear the eye balls of all his companions with unappeasable envy But no there was something gaudier even than this He would be a pirate That was it Now his future lay plain before him and glowing with unimaginable splendor How his name would fill the world and make people shudder How gloriously he would go plowing the dancing seas in his long low black hulled racer the Spirit of the Storm with his grisly flag flying at the fore And at the zenith of his fame how he would suddenly appear at the old village and stalk into church all brown and weather beaten in his black velvet doublet and trunks his great jack boots his crimson sash his belt bristling with horse pistols his crime rusted cutlass at his side his slouch hat with waving plumes his black flag unfurled with the skull and cross bones on it and hear with swelling ecstasy the whisperings Its Tom Sawyer the Pirate the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main Yes it was settled his career was determined He would run away from home and enter upon it He would start the very next morning Therefore he must now begin to get ready He would collect his resources together He went to a rotten log near at hand and began to dig under one end of it with his Barlow knife He soon struck wood that sounded hollow He put his hand there and uttered this incantation impressively What hasnt come here come Whats here stay here Then he scraped away the dirt and exposed a pine shingle He took it up and disclosed a shapely little treasure house whose bottom and sides were of shingles In it lay a marble Toms astonishment was boundless He scratched his head with a perplexed air and said Well that beats anything Then he tossed the marble away pettishly and stood cogitating The truth was that a superstition of his had failed here which he and all his comrades had always looked upon as infallible If you buried a marble with certain necessary incantations and left it alone a fortnight and then opened the place with the incantation he had just used you would find that all the marbles you had ever lost had gathered themselves together there meantime no matter how widely they had been separated But now this thing had actually and unquestionably failed Toms whole structure of faith was shaken to its foundations He had many a time heard of this thing succeeding but never of its failing before It did not occur to him that he had tried it several times before himself but could never find the hiding places afterwards He puzzled over the matter some time and finally decided that some witch had interfered and broken the charm He thought he would satisfy himself on that point so he searched around till he found a small sandy spot with a little funnel shaped depression in it He laid himself down and put his mouth close to this depression and called Doodle bug doodle bug tell me what I want to know Doodle bug doodle bug tell me what I want to know The sand began to work and presently a small black bug appeared for a second and then darted under again in a fright He dasnt tell So it was a witch that done it I just knowed it He well knew the futility of trying to contend against witches so he gave up discouraged But it occurred to him that he might as well have the marble he had just thrown away and therefore he went and made a patient search for it But he could not find it Now he went back to his treasure house and carefully placed himself just as he had been standing when he tossed the marble away then he took another marble from his pocket and tossed it in the same way saying Brother go find your brother He watched where it stopped and went there and looked But it must have fallen short or gone too far so he tried twice more The last repetition was successful The two marbles lay within a foot of each other Just here the blast of a toy tin trumpet came faintly down the green aisles of the forest Tom flung off his jacket and trousers turned a suspender into a belt raked away some brush behind the rotten log disclosing a rude bow and arrow a lath sword and a tin trumpet and in a moment had seized these things and bounded away bare legged with fluttering shirt He presently halted under a great elm blew an answering blast and then began to tip toe and look warily out this way and that He said cautiously to an imaginary company Hold my merry men Keep hid till I blow Now appeared Joe Harper as airily clad and elaborately armed as Tom Tom called Hold Who comes here into Sherwood Forest without my pass Guy of Guisborne wants no mans pass Who art thou that that Dares to hold such language said Tom prompting for they talked by the book from memory Who art thou that dares to hold such language I indeed I am Robin Hood as thy caitiff carcass soon shall know Then art thou indeed that famous outlaw Right gladly will I dispute with thee the passes of the merry wood Have at thee They took their lath swords dumped their other traps on the ground struck a fencing attitude foot to foot and began a grave careful combat two up and two down Presently Tom said Now if youve got the hang go it lively So they went it lively panting and perspiring with the work By and by Tom shouted Fall fall Why dont you fall I shant Why dont you fall yourself Youre getting the worst of it Why that aint anything I cant fall that aint the way it is in the book The book says Then with one back handed stroke he slew poor Guy of Guisborne Youre to turn around and let me hit you in the back There was no getting around the authorities so Joe turned received the whack and fell Now said Joe getting up You got to let me kill you Thats fair Why I cant do that it aint in the book Well its blamed mean thats all Well say Joe you can be Friar Tuck or Much the millers son and lam me with a quarter staff or Ill be the Sheriff of Nottingham and you be Robin Hood a little while and kill me This was satisfactory and so these adventures were carried out Then Tom became Robin Hood again and was allowed by the treacherous nun to bleed his strength away through his neglected wound And at last Joe representing a whole tribe of weeping outlaws dragged him sadly forth gave his bow into his feeble hands and Tom said Where this arrow falls there bury poor Robin Hood under the greenwood tree Then he shot the arrow and fell back and would have died but he lit on a nettle and sprang up too gaily for a corpse The boys dressed themselves hid their accoutrements and went off grieving that there were no outlaws any more and wondering what modern civilization could claim to have done to compensate for their loss They said they would rather be outlaws a year in Sherwood Forest than President of the United States forever Chapter Tragedy in the Grave Yard AT HALF PAST NINE that night Tom and Sid were sent to bed as usual They said their prayers and Sid was soon asleep Tom lay awake and waited in restless impatience When it seemed to him that it must be nearly daylight he heard the clock strike ten This was despair He would have tossed and fidgeted as his nerves demanded but he was afraid he might wake Sid So he lay still and stared up into the dark Everything was dismally still By and by out of the stillness little scarcely perceptible noises began to emphasize themselves The ticking of the clock began to bring itself into notice Old beams began to crack mysteriously The stairs creaked faintly Evidently spirits were abroad A measured muffled snore issued from Aunt Pollys chamber And now the tiresome chirping of a cricket that no human ingenuity could locate began Next the ghastly ticking of a death watch in the wall at the beds head made Tom shudder it meant that somebodys days were numbered Then the howl of a far off dog rose on the night air and was answered by a fainter howl from a remoter distance Tom was in an agony At last he was satisfied that time had ceased and eternity begun he began to doze in spite of himself the clock chimed eleven but he did not hear it And then there came mingling with his half formed dreams a most melancholy caterwauling The raising of a neighboring window disturbed him A cry of Scat you devil and the crash of an empty bottle against the back of his aunts woodshed brought him wide awake and a single minute later he was dressed and out of the window and creeping along the roof of the ell on all fours He meowd with caution once or twice as he went then jumped to the roof of the woodshed and thence to the ground Huckleberry Finn was there with his dead cat The boys moved off and disappeared in the gloom At the end of half an hour they were wading through the tall grass of the graveyard It was a graveyard of the old fashioned western kind It was on a hill about a mile and a half from the village It had a crazy board fence around it which leaned inward in places and outward the rest of the time but stood upright nowhere Grass and weeds grew rank over the whole cemetery All the old graves were sunken in There was not a tombstone on the place round topped worm eaten boards staggered over the graves leaning for support and finding none Sacred to the Memory of So and So had been painted on them once but it could no longer have been read on the most of them now even if there had been light A faint wind moaned through the trees and Tom feared it might be the spirits of the dead complaining at being disturbed The boys talked little and only under their breath for the time and the place and the pervading solemnity and silence oppressed their spirits They found the sharp new heap they were seeking and ensconced themselves within the protection of three great elms that grew in a bunch within a few feet of the grave Then they waited in silence for what seemed a long time The hooting of a distant owl was all the sound that troubled the dead stillness Toms reflections grew oppressive He must force some talk So he said in a whisper Hucky do you believe the dead people like it for us to be here Huckleberry whispered I wisht I knowed Its awful solemn like aint it I bet it is There was a considerable pause while the boys canvassed this matter inwardly Then Tom whispered Say Hucky do you reckon Hoss Williams hears us talking O course he does Least his sperrit does Tom after a pause I wish Id said Mister Williams But I never meant any harm Everybody calls him Hoss A body cant be too particlar how they talk bout these yer dead people Tom This was a damper and conversation died again Presently Tom seized his comrades arm and said Sh What is it Tom And the two clung together with beating hearts Sh There tis again Didnt you hear it I There Now you hear it Lord Tom theyre coming Theyre coming sure Whatll we do I dono Think theyll see us O Tom they can see in the dark same as cats I wisht I hadnt come O dont be afeard I dont believe theyll bother us We aint doing any harm If we keep perfectly still maybe they wont notice us at all Ill try to Tom but Lord Im all of a shiver Listen The boys bent their heads together and scarcely breathed A muffled sound of voices floated up from the far end of the graveyard Look See there whispered Tom What is it Its devil fire O Tom this is awful Some vague figures approached through the gloom swinging an old fashioned tin lantern that freckled the ground with innumerable little spangles of light Presently Huckleberry whispered with a shudder Its the devils sure enough Three of em Lordy Tom were goners Can you pray Ill try but dont you be afeard They aint going to hurt us Now I lay me down to sleep I Sh What is it Huck Theyre humans One of em is anyway One of ems old Muff Potters voice No taint so is it I bet I know it Dont you stir nor budge He aint sharp enough to notice us Drunk same as usual likely blamed old rip All right Ill keep still Now theyre stuck Cant find it Here they come again Now theyre hot Cold again Hot again Red hot Theyre pinted right this time Say Huck I know another o them voices its Injun Joe Thats so that murderin half breed Id druther they was devils a dem sight What kin they be up to The whispers died wholly out now for the three men had reached the grave and stood within a few feet of the boys hiding place Here it is said the third voice and the owner of it held the lantern up and revealed the face of young Dr Robinson Potter and Injun Joe were carrying a handbarrow with a rope and a couple of shovels on it They cast down their load and began to open the grave The doctor put the lantern at the head of the grave and came and sat down with his back against one of the elm trees He was so close the boys could have touched him Hurry men he said in a low voice the moon might come out at any moment They growled a response and went on digging For some time there was no noise but the grating sound of the spades discharging their freight of mould and gravel It was very monotonous Finally a spade struck upon the coffin with a dull woody accent and within another minute or two the men had hoisted it out on the ground They pried off the lid with their shovels got out the body and dumped it rudely on the ground The moon drifted from behind the clouds and exposed the pallid face The barrow was got ready and the corpse placed on it covered with a blanket and bound to its place with the rope Potter took out a large spring knife and cut off the dangling end of the rope and then said Now the cussed things ready Sawbones and youll just out with another five or here she stays Thats the talk said Injun Joe Look here what does this mean said the doctor You required your pay in advance and Ive paid you Yes and you done more than that said Injun joe approaching the doctor who was now standing Five year ago you drove me away from your fathers kitchen one night when I come to ask for something to eat and you said I warnt there for any good and when I swore Id get even with you if it took a hundred years your father had me jailed for a vagrant Did you think Id forget The Injun blood aint in me for nothing And now Ive got you and you got to settle you know He was threatening the doctor with his fist in his face by this time The doctor struck out suddenly and stretched the ruffian on the ground Potter dropped his knife and exclaimed Here now dont you hit my pard and the next moment he had grappled with the doctor and the two were struggling with might and main trampling the grass and tearing the ground with their heels Injun Joe sprang to his feet his eyes flaming with passion snatched up Potters knife and went creeping catlike and stooping round and round about the combatants seeking an opportunity All at once the doctor flung himself free seized the heavy head board of Williams grave and felled Potter to the earth with it and in the same instant the half breed saw his chance and drove the knife to the hilt in the young mans breast He reeled and fell partly upon Potter flooding him with his blood and in the same moment the clouds blotted out the dreadful spectacle and the two frightened boys went speeding away in the dark Presently when the moon emerged again Injun Joe was standing over the two forms contemplating them The doctor murmured inarticulately gave a long gasp or two and was still The half breed muttered That score is settled damn you Then he robbed the body After which he put the fatal knife in Potters open right hand and sat down on the dismantled coffin Three four five minutes passed and then Potter began to stir and moan His hand closed upon the knife he raised it glanced at it and let it fall with a shudder Then he sat up pushing the body from him and gazed at it and then around him confusedly His eyes met Joes Lord how is this Joe he said Its a dirty business said Joe without moving What did you do it for I I never done it Look here That kind of talk wont wash Potter trembled and grew white I thought Id got sober Id no business to drink to night But its in my head yet worsen when we started here Im all in a muddle cant recollect anything of it hardly Tell me Joe honest now old feller did I do it Joe I never meant to pon my soul and honor I never meant to Joe Tell me how it was Joe O its awful and him so young and promising Why you two was scuffling and he fetched you one with the headboard and you fell flat and then up you come all reeling and staggering like and snatched the knife and jammed it into him just as he fetched you another awful clip and here youve laid as dead as a wedge till now O I didnt know what I was a doing I wish I may die this minute if I did It was all on account of the whisky and the excitement I reckon I never used a weepon in my life before Joe Ive fought but never with weepons Theyll all say that Joe dont tell Say you wont tell Joe thats a good feller I always liked you Joe and stood up for you too Dont you remember You wont tell will you Joe And the poor creature dropped on his knees before the stolid murderer and clasped his appealing hands No youve always been fair and square with me Muff Potter and I wont go back on you There now thats as fair as a man can say O Joe youre an angel Ill bless you for this the longest day I live And Potter began to cry Come now thats enough of that This aint any time for blubbering You be off yonder way and Ill go this Move now and dont leave any tracks behind you Potter started on a trot that quickly increased to a run The halfbreed stood looking after him He muttered If hes as much stunned with the lick and fuddled with the rum as he had the look of being he wont think of the knife till hes gone so far hell be afraid to come back after it to such a place by himself chicken heart Two or three minutes later the murdered man the blanketed corpse the lidless coffin and the open grave were under no inspection but the moons The stillness was complete again too Chapter Dire Prophecy of the Howling Dog THE TWO BOYS flew on and on toward the village speechless with horror They glanced backward over their shoulders from time to time apprehensively as if they feared they might be followed Every stump that started up in their path seemed a man and an enemy and made them catch their breath and as they sped by some outlying cottages that lay near the village the barking of the aroused watch dogs seemed to give wings to their feet If we can only get to the old tannery before we break down whispered Tom in short catches between breaths I cant stand it much longer Huckleberrys hard pantings were his only reply and the boys fixed their eyes on the goal of their hopes and bent to their work to win it They gained steadily on it and at last breast to breast they burst through the open door and fell grateful and exhausted in the sheltering shadows beyond By and by their pulses slowed down and Tom whispered Huckleberry what do you reckon ll come of this If Dr Robinson dies I reckon hanging ll come of it Do you though Why I know it Tom Tom thought a while then he said Wholl tell We What are you talking about Spose something happened and Injun Joe didnt hang Why hed kill us some time or other just as dead sure as were a laying here Thats just what I was thinking to myself Huck If anybody tells let Muff Potter do it if hes fool enough Hes generally drunk enough Tom said nothing went on thinking Presently he whispered Huck Muff Potter dont know it How can he tell Whats the reason he dont know it Because hed just got that whack when Injun Joe done it D you reckon he could see anything D you reckon he knowed anything By hokey thats so Tom And besides look a here maybe that whack done for him No taint likely Tom He had liquor in him I could see that and besides he always has Well when paps full you might take and belt him over the head with a church and you couldnt phase him He says so his own self So its the same with Muff Potter of course But if a man was dead sober I reckon maybe that whack might fetch him I dono After another reflective silence Tom said Hucky you sure you can keep mum Tom we got to keep mum You know that That Injun devil wouldnt make any more of drownding us than a couple of cats if we was to squeak bout this and they didnt hang him Now look a here Tom less take and swear to one another thats what we got to do swear to keep mum Im agreed Huck Its the best thing Would you just hold hands and swear that we O no that wouldnt do for this Thats good enough for little rubbishy common things specially with gals cuz they go back on you anyway and blab if they get in a huff but there orter be writing bout a big thing like this And blood Toms whole being applauded this idea It was deep and dark and awful the hour the circumstances the surroundings were in keeping with it He picked up a clean pine shingle that lay in the moonlight took a little fragment of red keel out of his pocket got the moon on his work and painfully scrawled these lines emphasizing each slow down stroke by clamping his tongue between his teeth and letting up the pressure on the up strokes See illustration Huckleberry was filled with admiration of Toms facility in writing and the sublimity of his language He at once took a pin from his lappel and was going to prick his flesh but Tom said Hold on Dont do that A pins brass It might have verdigrease on it Whats verdigrease Its pison Thats what it is You just swaller some of it once youll see So Tom unwound the thread from one of his needles and each boy pricked the ball of his thumb and squeezed out a drop of blood In time after many squeezes Tom managed to sign his initials using the ball of his little finger for a pen Then he showed Huckleberry how to make an H and an F and the oath was complete They buried the shingle close to the wall with some dismal ceremonies and incantations and the fetters that bound their tongues were considered to be locked and the key thrown away A figure crept stealthily through a break in the other end of the ruined building now but they did not notice it Tom whispered Huckleberry does this keep us from ever telling always Of course it does It dont make any difference what happens we got to keep mum Wed drop down dead dont you know that Yes I reckon thats so They continued to whisper for some little time Presently a dog set up a long lugubrious howl just outside within ten feet of them The boys clasped each other suddenly in an agony of fright Which of us does he mean gasped Huckleberry I dono peep through the crack Quick No you Tom I cant I cant do it Huck Please Tom There tis again O lordy Im thankful whispered Tom I know his voice Its Bull Harbison O thats good I tell you Tom I was most scared to death Id a bet anything it was a stray dog The dog howled again The boys hearts sank once more O my that aint no Bull Harbison whispered Huckleberry Do Tom Tom quaking with fear yielded and put his eye to the crack His whisper was hardly audible when he said O Huck ITS A STRAY DOG Quick Tom quick Who does he mean Huck he must mean us both were right together O Tom I reckon were goners I reckon there aint no mistake bout where Ill go to I been so wicked Dad fetch it This comes of playing hookey and doing everything a fellers told not to do I might a been good like Sid if Id a tried but no I wouldnt of course But if ever I get off this time I lay Ill just waller in Sunday schools And Tom began to snuffle a little You bad and Huckleberry began to snuffle too Consound it Tom Sawyer youre just old pie longside owhat I am O lordy lordy lordy I wisht I only had half your chance Tom choked off and whispered Look Hucky look Hes got his back to us Hucky looked with joy in his heart Well he has by jingoes Did he before Yes he did But I like a fool never thought O this is bully you know Now who can he mean The howling stopped Tom pricked up his ears Sh Whats that he whispered Sounds like like hogs grunting No its somebody snoring Tom That is it Where bouts is it Huck I bleeve its down at tother end Sounds so anyway Pap used to sleep there sometimes long with the hogs but laws bless you he just lifts things when he snores Besides I reckon he aint ever coming back to this town any more The spirit of adventure rose in the boys souls once more Hucky do you dast to go if I lead I dont like to much Tom spose its Injun Joe Tom quailed But presently the temptation rose up strong again and the boys agreed to try with the understanding that they would take to their heels if the snoring stopped So they went tip toeing stealthily down the one behind the other When they had got to within five steps of the snorer Tom stepped on a stick and it broke with a sharp snap The man moaned writhed a little and his face came into the moonlight It was Muff Potter The boys hearts had stood still and their hopes too when the man moved but their fears passed away now They tip toed out through the broken weather boarding and stopped at a little distance to exchange a parting word That long lugubrious howl rose on the night air again They turned and saw the strange dog standing within a few feet of where Potter was lying and facing Potter with his nose pointing heavenward O geeminy its him exclaimed both boys in a breath Say Tom they say a stray dog come howling around Johnny Millers house bout midnight as much as two weeks ago and a whippoorwill come in and lit on the bannisters and sung the very same evening and there aint anybody dead there yet Well I know that And suppose there aint Didnt Gracie Miller fall in the kitchen fire and burn herself terrible the very next Saturday Yes but she aint dead And whats more shes getting better too All right you wait and see Shes a goner just as dead sure as Muff Potters a goner Thats what the niggers say and they know all about these kind of things Huck Then they separated cogitating When Tom crept in at his bedroom window the night was almost spent He undressed with excessive caution and fell asleep congratulating himself that nobody knew of his escapade He was not aware that the gently snoring Sid was awake and had been so for an hour When Tom awoke Sid was dressed and gone There was a late look in the light a late sense in the atmosphere He was startled Why had he not been called persecuted till he was up as usual The thought filled him with bodings Within five minutes he was dressed and down stairs feeling sore and drowsy The family were still at table but they had finished breakfast There was no voice of rebuke but there were averted eyes there was a silence and an air of solemnity that struck a chill to the culprits heart He sat down and tried to seem gay but it was up hill work it roused no smile no response and he lapsed into silence and let his heart sink down to the depths After breakfast his aunt took him aside and Tom almost brightened in the hope that he was going to be flogged but it was not so His aunt wept over him and asked him how he could go and break her old heart so and finally told him to go on and ruin himself and bring her gray hairs with sorrow to the grave for it was no use for her to try any more This was worse than a thousand whippings and Toms heart was sorer now than his body He cried he pleaded for forgiveness promised reform over and over again and then received his dismissal feeling that he had won but an imperfect forgiveness and established but a feeble confidence He left the presence too miserable to even feel revengeful toward Sid and so the latters prompt retreat through the back gate was unnecessary He moped to school gloomy and sad and took his flogging along with Joe Harper for playing hooky the day before with the air of one whose heart was busy with heavier woes and wholly dead to trifles Then he betook himself to his seat rested his elbows on his desk and his jaws in his hands and stared at the wall with the stony stare of suffering that has reached the limit and can no further go His elbow was pressing against some hard substance After a long time he slowly and sadly changed his position and took up this object with a sigh It was in a paper He unrolled it A long lingering colossal sigh followed and his heart broke It was his brass andiron knob This final feather broke the camels back Chapter Conscience Racks Torn CLOSE UPON THE HOUR OF NOON the whole village was suddenly electrified with the ghastly news No need of the as yet undreamed of telegraph the tale flew from man to man from group to group from house to house with little less than telegraphic speed Of course the schoolmaster gave holiday for that afternoon the town would have thought strangely of him if he had not A gory knife had been found close to the murdered man and it had been recognized by somebody as belonging to Muff Potter so the story ran And it was said that a belated citizen had come upon Potter washing himself in the branch about one or two oclock in the morning and that Potter had at once sneaked off suspicious circumstances especially the washing which was not a habit with Potter It was also said that the town had been ransacked for this murderer the public are not slow in the matter of sifting evidence and arriving at a verdict but that he could not be found Horsemen had departed down all the roads in every direction and the Sheriff was confident that he would be captured before night All the town was drifting toward the graveyard Toms heart break vanished and he joined the procession not because he would not a thousand times rather go anywhere else but because an awful unaccountable fascination drew him on Arrived at the dreadful place he wormed his small body through the crowd and saw the dismal spectacle It seemed to him an age since he was there before Somebody pinched his arm He turned and his eyes met Huckleberrys Then both looked elsewhere at once and wondered if anybody had noticed anything in their mutual glance But everybody was talking and intent upon the grisly spectacle before them Poor fellow Poor young fellow This ought to be a lesson to grave robbers Muff Potterll hang for this if they catch him This was the drift of remark and the minister said It was a judgment His hand is here Now Tom shivered from head to heel for his eye fell upon the stolid face of Injun Joe At this moment the crowd began to sway and struggle and voices shouted Its him its him hes coming himself Who Who from twenty voices Muff Potter Hallo hes stopped Look out hes turning Dont let him get away People in the branches of the trees over Toms head said he wasnt trying to get away he only looked doubtful and perplexed Infernal impudence said a bystander wanted to come and take a quiet look at his work I reckon didnt expect any company The crowd fell apart now and the Sheriff came through ostentatiously leading Potter by the arm The poor fellows face was haggard and his eyes showed the fear that was upon him When he stood before the murdered man he shook as with a palsy and he put his face in his hands and burst into tears I didnt do it friends he sobbed pon my word and honor I never done it Whos accused you shouted a voice This shot seemed to carry home Potter lifted his face and looked around him with a pathetic hopelessness in his eyes He saw Injun Joe and exclaimed O Injun Joe you promised me youd never Is that your knife and it was thrust before him by the Sheriff Potter would have fallen if they had not caught him and eased him to the ground Then he said Something told me t if I didnt come back and get He shuddered then waved his nerveless hand with a vanquished gesture and said Tell em Joe tell em it aint any use any more Then Huckleberry and Tom stood dumb and staring and heard the stony hearted liar reel off his serene statement they expecting every moment that the clear sky would deliver Gods lightnings upon his head and wondering to see how long the stroke was delayed And when he had finished and still stood alive and whole their wavering impulse to break their oath and save the poor betrayed prisoners life faded and vanished away for plainly this miscreant had sold himself to Satan and it would be fatal to meddle with the property of such a power as that Why didnt you leave What did you want to come here for somebody said I couldnt help it I couldnt help it Potter moaned I wanted to run away but I couldnt seem to come anywhere but here And he fell to sobbing again Injun Joe repeated his statement just as calmly a few minutes afterward on the inquest under oath and the boys seeing that the lightnings were still withheld were confirmed in their belief that Joe had sold himself to the devil He was now become to them the most balefully interesting object they had ever looked upon and they could not take their fascinated eyes from his face They inwardly resolved to watch him nights when opportunity should offer in the hope of getting a glimpse of his dread master Injun Joe helped to raise the body of the murdered man and put it in a wagon for removal and it was whispered through the shuddering crowd that the wound bled a little The boys thought that this happy circumstance would turn suspicion in the right direction but they were disappointed for more than one villager remarked It was within three feet of Muff Potter when it done it Toms fearful secret and gnawing conscience disturbed his sleep for as much as a week after this and at breakfast one morning Sid said Tom you pitch around and talk in your sleep so much that you keep me awake about half the time Tom blanched and dropped his eyes Its a bad sign said Aunt Polly gravely What you got on your mind Tom Nothing Nothing t I know of But the boys hand shook so that he spilled his coffee And you do talk such stuff Sid said Last night you said its blood its blood thats what it is You said that over and over And you said Dont torment me so Ill tell Tell what What is it youll tell Everything was swimming before Tom There is no telling what might have happened now but luckily the concern passed out of Aunt Pollys face and she came to Toms relief without knowing it She said Sho Its that dreadful murder I dream about it most every night myself Sometimes I dream its me that done it Mary said she had been affected much the same way Sid seemed satisfied Tom got out of the presence as quick as he plausibly could and after that he complained of toothache for a week and tied up his jaws every night He never knew that Sid lay nightly watching and frequently slipped the bandage free and then leaned on his elbow listening a good while at a time and afterward slipped the bandage back to its place again Toms distress of mind wore off gradually and the toothache grew irksome and was discarded If Sid really managed to make anything out of Toms disjointed mutterings he kept it to himself It seemed to Tom that his schoolmates never would get done holding inquests on dead cats and thus keeping his trouble present to his mind Sid noticed that Tom never was coroner at one of these inquiries though it had been his habit to take the lead in all new enterprises he noticed too that Tom never acted as a witness and that was strange and Sid did not overlook the fact that Tom even showed a marked aversion to these inquests and always avoided them when he could Sid marveled but said nothing However even inquests went out of vogue at last and ceased to torture Toms conscience Every day or two during this time of sorrow Tom watched his opportunity and went to the little grated jail window and smuggled such small comforts through to the murderer as he could get hold of The jail was a trifling little brick den that stood in a marsh at the edge of the village and no guards were afforded for it indeed it was seldom occupied These offerings greatly helped to ease Toms conscience The villagers had a strong desire to tar and feather Injun Joe and ride him on a rail for body snatching but so formidable was his character that nobody could be found who was willing to take the lead in the matter so it was dropped He had been careful to begin both of his inquest statements with the fight without confessing the grave robbery that preceded it therefore it was deemed wisest not to try the case in the courts at present Chapter The Cat and the Painkiller ONE OF THE REASONS why Toms mind had drifted away from its secret troubles was that it had found a new and weighty matter to interest itself about Becky Thatcher had stopped coming to school Tom had struggled with his pride a few days and tried to whistle her down the wind but failed He began to find himself hanging around her fathers house nights and feeling very miserable She was ill What if she should die There was distraction in the thought He no longer took an interest in war nor even in piracy The charm of life was gone there was nothing but dreariness left He put his hoop away and his bat there was no joy in them any more His aunt was concerned She began to try all manner of remedies on him She was one of those people who are infatuated with patent medicines and all new fangled methods of producing health or mending it She was an inveterate experimenter in these things When something fresh in this line came out she was in a fever right away to try it not on herself for she was never ailing but on anybody else that came handy She was a subscriber for all the Health periodicals and phrenological frauds and the solemn ignorance they were inflated with was breath to her nostrils All the rot they contained about ventilation and how to go to bed and how to get up and what to eat and what to drink and how much exercise to take and what frame of mind to keep ones self in and what sort of clothing to wear was all gospel to her and she never observed that her health journals of the current month customarily upset everything they had recommended the month before She was as simple hearted and honest as the day was long and so she was an easy victim She gathered together her quack periodicals and her quack medicines and thus armed with death went about on her pale horse metaphorically speaking with hell following after But she never suspected that she was not an angel of healing and the balm of Gilead in disguise to the suffering neighbors The water treatment was new now and Toms low condition was a windfall to her She had him out at daylight every morning stood him up in the woodshed and drowned him with a deluge of cold water then she scrubbed him down with a towel like a file and so brought him to then she rolled him up in a wet sheet and put him away under blankets till she sweated his soul clean and the yellow stains of it came through his pores as Tom said Yet notwithstanding all this the boy grew more and more melancholy and pale and dejected She added hot baths sitz baths shower baths and plunges The boy remained as dismal as a hearse She began to assist the water with a slim oatmeal diet and blister plasters She calculated his capacity as she would a jugs and filled him up every day with quack cure alls Tom had become indifferent to persecution by this time This phase filled the old ladys heart with consternation This indifference must be broken up at any cost Now she heard of Pain Killer for the first time She ordered a lot at once She tasted it and was filled with gratitude It was simply fire in a liquid form She dropped the water treatment and everything else and pinned her faith to Pain Killer She gave Tom a tea spoonful and watched with the deepest anxiety for the result Her troubles were instantly at rest her soul at peace again for the indifference was broken up The boy could not have shown a wilder heartier interest if she had build a fire under him Tom felt that it was time to wake up this sort of life might be romantic enough in his blighted condition but it was getting to have too little sentiment and too much distracting variety about it So he thought over various plans for relief and finally hit upon that of professing to be fond of Pain Killer He asked for it so often that he became a nuisance and his aunt ended by telling him to help himself and quit bothering her If it had been Sid she would have had no misgivings to alloy her delight but since it was Tom she watched the bottle clandestinely She found that the medicine did really diminish but it did not occur to her that the boy was mending the health of a crack in the sitting room floor with it One day Tom was in the act of dosing the crack when his aunts yellow cat came along puffing eyeing the tea spoon avariciously and begging for a taste Tom said Dont ask for it unless you want it Peter But Peter signified that he did want it You better make sure Peter was sure Now youve asked for it and Ill give it to you because there aint anything mean about me but if you find you dont like it you musnt blame anybody but your own self Peter was agreeable So Tom pried his mouth open and poured down the Pain Killer Peter sprang a couple of yards into the air and then delivered a war whoop and set off round and round the room banging against furniture upsetting flower pots and making general havoc Next he rose on his hind feet and pranced around in a frenzy of enjoyment with his head over his shoulder and his voice proclaiming his unappeasable happiness Then he went tearing around the house again spreading chaos and destruction in his path Aunt Polly entered in time to see him throw a few double summersets deliver a final mighty hurrah and sail through the open window carrying the rest of the flower pots with him The old lady stood petrified with astonishment peering over her glasses Tom lay on the floor expiring with laughter Tom what on earth ails that cat I dont know aunt gasped the boy Why I never see anything like it What did make him act so Deed I dont know Aunt Polly cats always act so when theyre having a good time They do do they There was something in the tone that made Tom apprehensive Yesm That is I believe they do You do Yesm The old lady was bending down Tom watching with interest emphasized by anxiety Too late he divined her drift The handle of the tell tale tea spoon was visible under the bed valance Aunt Polly took it held it up Tom winced and dropped his eyes Aunt Polly raised him by the usual handle his ear and cracked his head soundly with her thimble Now sir what did you want to treat that poor dumb beast so for I done it out of pity for him because he hadnt any aunt Hadnt any aunt you numscull What has that got to do with it Heaps Because if hed a had one shed a burnt him out herself Shed a roasted his bowels out of him thout any more feeling than if he was a human Aunt Polly felt a sudden pang of remorse This was putting the thing in a new light what was cruelty to a cat might be cruelty to a boy too She began to soften she felt sorry Her eyes watered a little and she put her hand on Toms head and said gently I was meaning for the best Tom And Tom it did do you good Tom looked up in her face with just a perceptible twinkle peeping through his gravity I know you was meaning for the best aunty and so was I with Peter It done him good too I never see him get around so since O go long with you Tom before you aggravate me again And you try and see if you cant be a good boy for once and you neednt take any more medicine Tom reached school ahead of time It was noticed that this strange thing had been occurring every day latterly And now as usual of late he hung about the gate of the school yard instead of playing with his comrades He was sick he said and he looked it He tried to seem to be looking everywhere but whither he really was looking down the road Presently Jeff Thatcher hove in sight and Toms face lighted he gazed a moment and then turned sorrowfully away When Jeff arrived Tom accosted him and led up warily to opportunities for remark about Becky but the giddy lad never could see the bait Tom watched and watched hoping whenever a frisking frock came in sight and hating the owner of it as soon as he saw she was not the right one At last frocks ceased to appear and he dropped hopelessly into the dumps he entered the empty school house and sat down to suffer Then one more frock passed in at the gate and Toms heart gave a great bound The next instant he was out and going on like an Indian yelling laughing chasing boys jumping over the fence at risk of life and limb throwing hand springs standing on his head doing all the heroic things he could conceive of and keeping a furtive eye out all the while to see if Becky Thatcher was noticing But she seemed to be unconscious of it all she never looked Could it be possible that she was not aware that he was there He carried his exploits to her immediate vicinity came war whooping around snatched a boys cap hurled it to the roof of the school house broke through a group of boys tumbling them in every direction and fell sprawling himself under Beckys nose almost upsetting her and she turned with her nose in the air and he heard her say Mf some people think theyre mighty smart always showing off Toms cheeks burned He gathered himself up and sneaked off crushed and crestfallen Chapter The Pirate Crew Set Sail TOMS MIND was made up now He was gloomy and desperate He was a forsaken friendless boy he said nobody loved him when they found out what they had driven him to perhaps they would be sorry he had tried to do right and get along but they would not let him since nothing would do them but to be rid of him let it be so and let them blame him for the consequences why shouldnt they What right had the friendless to complain Yes they had forced him to it at last he would lead a life of crime There was no choice By this time he was far down Meadow Lane and the bell for school to take up tinkled faintly upon his ear He sobbed now to think he should never never hear that old familiar sound any more it was very hard but it was forced on him since he was driven out into the cold world he must submit but he forgave them Then the sobs came thick and fast Just at this point he met his souls sworn comrade Hoe Harper hard eyed and with evidently a great and dismal purpose in his heart Plainly here were two souls with but a single thought Tom wiping his eyes with his sleeve began to blubber out something about a resolution to escape from hard usage and lack of sympathy at home by roaming abroad into the great world never to return and ended by hoping that Joe would not forget him But it transpired that this was a request which Joe had just been going to make of Tom and had come to hunt him up for that purpose His mother had whipped him for drinking some cream which he had never tasted and knew nothing about it was plain that she was tired of him and wished him to go if she felt that way there was nothing for him to do but succumb he hoped she would be happy and never regret having driven her poor boy out into the unfeeling world to suffer and die As the two boys walked sorrowing along they made a new compact to stand by each other and be brothers and never separate till death relieved them of their troubles Then they began to lay their plans Joe was for being a hermit and living on crusts in a remote cave and dying some time of cold and want and grief but after listening to Tom he conceded that there were some conspicuous advantages about a life of crime and so he consented to be a pirate Three miles below St Petersburg at a point where the Mississippi river was a trifle over a mile wide there was a long narrow wooded island with a shallow bar at the head of it and this offered well as a rendezvous It was not inhabited it lay far over toward the further shore abreast a dense and almost wholly unpeopled forest So Jacksons Island was chosen Who were to be the subjects of their piracies was a matter that did not occur to them Then they hunted up Huckleberry Finn and he joined them promptly for all careers were one to him he was indifferent They presently separated to meet at a lonely spot on the river bank two miles above the village at the favorite hour which was midnight There was a small log raft there which they meant to capture Each would bring hooks and lines and such provision as he could steal in the most dark and mysterious way as became outlaws And before the afternoon was done they had all managed to enjoy the sweet glory of spreading the fact that pretty soon the town would hear something All who got this vague hint were cautioned to be mum and wait About midnight Tom arrived with a boiled ham and a few trifles and stopped in a dense undergrowth on a small bluff overlooking the meeting place It was starlight and very still The mighty river lay like an ocean at rest Tom listened a moment but no sound disturbed the quiet Then he gave a low distinct whistle It was answered from under the bluff Tom whistled twice more these signals were answered in the same way Then a guarded voice said Who goes there Tom Sawyer the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main Name your names Huck Finn the Red Handed and Joe Harper the Terror of the Seas Tom had furnished these titles from his favorite literature Tis well Give the countersign Two hoarse whispers delivered the same awful word simultaneously to the brooding night BLOOD Then Tom tumbled his ham over the bluff and let himself down after it tearing both skin and clothes to some extent in the effort There was an easy comfortable path along the shore under the bluff but it lacked the advantages of difficulty and danger so valued by a pirate The Terror of the Seas had brought a side of bacon and had about worn himself out with getting it there Finn the Red Handed had stolen a skillet and a quantity of half cured leaf tobacco and had also brought a few corn cobs to make pipes with But none of the pirates smoked or chewed but himself The Black Avenger of the Spanish Main said it would never do to start without some fire That was a wise thought matches were hardly known there in that day They saw a fire smouldering upon a great raft a hundred yards above and they went stealthily thither and helped themselves to a chunk They made an imposing adventure of it saying Hist every now and then and suddenly halting with finger on lip moving with hands on imaginary dagger hilts and giving orders in dismal whispers that if the foe stirred to let him have it to the hilt because dead men tell no tales They knew well enough that the raftsmen were all down at the village laying in stores or having a spree but still that was no excuse for their conducting this thing in an unpiratical way They shoved off presently Tom in command Huck at the after oar and Joe at the forward Tom stood amidships gloomy browed and with folded arms and gave his orders in a low stern whisper Luff and bring her to the wind Aye aye sir Steady stead y y y Steady it is sir Let her go off a point Point it is sir As the boys steadily and monotonously drove the raft toward midstream it was no doubt understood that these orders were given only for style and were not intended to mean anything in particular What sails she carrying Courses topsls and flying jib sir Send the ryals up Lay out aloft there half a dozen of ye foretopmast stunsl Lively now Aye aye sir Shake out that maintogalansl Sheets and braces Now my hearties Aye aye sir Hellum a lee hard a port Stand by to meet her when she comes Port port Now men With a will Stead y y y Steady it is sir The raft drew beyond the middle of the river the boys pointed her head right and then lay on their oars The river was not high so there was not more than a two or three mile current Hardly a word was said during the next three quarters of an hour Now the raft was passing before the distant town Two or three glimmering lights showed where it lay peacefully sleeping beyond the vague vast sweep of star gemmed water unconscious of the tremendous event that was happening The Black Avenger stood still with folded arms looking his last upon the scene of his former joys and his later sufferings and wishing she could see him now abroad on the wild sea facing peril and death with dauntless heart going to his doom with a grim smile on his lips It was but a small strain on his imagination to remove Jacksons Island beyond eye shot of the village and so he looked his last with a broken and satisfied heart The other pirates were looking their last too and they all looked so long that they came near letting the current drift them out of the range of the island But they discovered the danger in time and made shift to avert it About two oclock in the morning the raft grounded on the bar two hundred yards above the head of the island and they waded back and forth until they had landed their freight Part of the little rafts belongings consisted of an old sail and this they spread over a nook in the bushes for a tent to shelter their provisions but they themselves would sleep in the open air in good weather as became outlaws They built a fire against the side of a great log twenty or thirty steps within the sombre depths of the forest and then cooked some bacon in the frying pan for supper and used up half of the corn pone stock they had brought It seemed glorious sport to be feasting in that wild free way in the virgin forest of an unexplored and uninhabited island far from the haunts of men and they said they never would return to civilization The climbing fire lit up their faces and threw its ruddy glare upon the pillared tree trunks of their forest temple and upon the varnished foliage and festooning vines When the last crisp slice of bacon was gone and the last allowance of corn pone devoured the boys stretched themselves out on the grass filled with contentment They could have found a cooler place but they would not deny themselves such a romantic feature as the roasting camp fire Aint it gay said Joe Its nuts said Tom What would the boys say if they could see us Say Well theyd just die to be here hey Hucky I reckon so said Huckleberry anyways Im suited I dont want nothing bettern this I dont ever get enough to eat genally and here they cant come and pick at a feller and bullyrag him so Its just the life for me said Tom You dont have to get up mornings and you dont have to go to school and wash and all that blame foolishness You see a pirate dont have to do anything Joe when hes ashore but a hermit he has to be praying considerable and then he dont have any fun anyway all by himself that way O yes thats so said Joe but I hadnt thought much about it you know Id a good deal ruther be a pirate now that Ive tried it You see said Tom people dont go much on hermits now a days like they used to in old times but a pirates always respected And a hermits got to sleep on the hardest place he can find and put sack cloth and ashes on his head and stand out in the rain and What does he put sack cloth and ashes on his head for inquired Huck I dono But theyve got to do it Hermits always do Youd have to do that if you was a hermit Dernd if I would said Huck Well what would you do I dono But I wouldnt do that Why Huck youd have to Howd you get around it Why I just wouldnt stand it Id run away Run away Well you would be a nice old slouch of a hermit Youd be a disgrace The Red Handed made no response being better employed He had finished gouging out a cob and now he fitted a weed stem to it loaded it with tobacco and was pressing a coal to the charge and blowing a cloud of fragrant smoke he was in the full bloom of luxurious contentment The other pirates envied him this majestic vice and secretly resolved to acquire it shortly Presently Huck said What does pirates have to do Tom said O they have just a bully time take ships and burn them and get the money and bury it in awful places in their island where theres ghosts and things to watch it and kill everybody in the ships make em walk a plank And they carry the women to the island said Joe they dont kill the women No assented Tom they dont kill the women theyre too noble And the womens always beautiful too And dont they wear the bulliest clothes Oh no All gold and silver and dimonds said Joe with enthusiasm Who said Huck Why the pirates Huck scanned his own clothing forlornly I reckon I aint dressed fitten for a pirate said he with a regretful pathos in his voice but I aint got none but these But the other boys told him the fine clothes would come fast enough after they should have begun their adventures They made him understand that his poor rags would do to begin with though it was customary for wealthy pirates to start with a proper wardrobe Gradually their talk died out and drowsiness began to steal upon the eyelids of the little waifs The pipe dropped from the fingers of the Red Handed and he slept the sleep of the conscience free and the weary The Terror of the Seas and the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main had more difficulty in getting to sleep They said their prayers inwardly and lying down since there was nobody there with authority to make them kneel and recite aloud in truth they had a mind not to say them at all but they were afraid to proceed to such lengths as that lest they might call down a sudden and special thunderbolt from Heaven Then at once they reached and hovered upon the imminent verge of sleep but an intruder came now that would not down It was conscience They began to feel a vague fear that they had been doing wrong to run away and next they thought of the stolen meat and then the real torture came They tried to argue it away by reminding conscience that they had purloined sweetmeats and apples scores of times but conscience was not to be appeased by such thin plausibilities It seemed to them in the end that there was no getting around the stubborn fact that taking sweetmeats was only hooking while taking bacon and hams and such valuables was plain simple stealing and there was a command against that in the Bible So they inwardly resolved that so long as they remained in the business their piracies should not again be sullied with the crime of stealing Then conscience granted a truce and these curiously inconsistent pirates fell peacefully to sleep Chapter Happy Camp of the Freebooters WHEN TOM AWOKE in the morning he wondered where he was He sat up and rubbed his eyes and looked around Then he comprehended It was the cool gray dawn and there was a delicious sense of repose and peace in the deep pervading calm and silence of the woods Not a leaf stirred not a sound obtruded upon great Natures meditation Beaded dew drops stood upon the leaves and grasses A white layer of ashes covered the fire and a thin blue breath of smoke rose straight into the air Joe and Huck still slept Now far away in the woods a bird called another answered presently the hammering of a woodpecker was heard Gradually the cool dim gray of the morning whitened and as gradually sounds multiplied and life manifested itself The marvel of Nature shaking off sleep and going to work unfolded itself to the musing boy A little green worm came crawling over a dewy leaf lifting two thirds of his body into the air from time to time and sniffing around then proceeding again for he was measuring Tom said and when the worm approached him of its own accord he sat as still as a stone with his hopes rising and falling by turns as the creature still came toward him or seemed inclined to go elsewhere and when at last it considered a painful moment with its curved body in the air and then came decisively down upon Toms leg and began a journey over him his whole heart was glad for that meant that he was going to have a new suit of clothes without the shadow of a doubt a gaudy piratical uniform Now a procession of ants appeared from nowhere in particular and went about their labors one struggled manfully by with a dead spider five times as big as itself in its arms and lugged it straight up a tree trunk A brown spotted lady bug climbed the dizzy height of a grass blade and Tom bent down close to it and said Lady bug lady bug fly away home your house is on fire your childrens alone and she took wing and went off to see about it which did not surprise the boy for he knew of old that this insect was credulous about conflagrations and he had practiced upon its simplicity more than once A tumble bug came next heaving sturdily at its ball and Tom touched the creature to see it shut its legs against its body and pretend to be dead The birds were fairly rioting by this time A cat bird the northern mocker lit in a tree over Toms head and trilled out her imitations of her neighbors in a rapture of enjoyment then a shrill jay swept down a flash of blue flame and stopped on a twig almost within the boys reach cocked his head to one side and eyed the strangers with a consuming curiosity a gray squirrel and a big fellow of the fox kind came kurrying along sitting up at intervals to inspect and chatter at the boys for the wild things had probably never seen a human being before and scarcely knew whether to be afraid or not All Nature was wide awake and stirring now long lances of sunlight pierced down through the dense foliage far and near and a few butterflies came fluttering upon the scene Tom stirred up the other pirates and they all clattered away with a shout and in a minute or two were stripped and chasing after and tumbling over each other in the shallow limpid water of the white sand bar They felt no longing for the little village sleeping in the distance beyond the majestic waste of water A vagrant current or a slight rise in the river had carried off their raft but this only gratified them since its going was something like burning the bridge between them and civilization They came back to camp wonderfully refreshed glad hearted and ravenous and they soon had the camp fire blazing up again Huck found a spring of clear cold water close by and the boys made cups of broad oak or hickory leaves and felt that water sweetened with such a wild wood charm as that would be a good enough substitute for coffee While Joe was slicing bacon for breakfast Tom and Huck asked him to hold on a minute they stepped to a promising nook in the river bank and threw in their lines almost immediately they had reward Joe had not had time to get impatient before they were back again with some handsome bass a couple of sun perch and a small catfish provision enough for quite a family They fried the fish with the bacon and were astonished for no fish had ever seemed so delicious before They did not know that the quicker a fresh water fish is on the fire after he is caught the better he is and they reflected little upon what a sauce open air sleeping open air exercise bathing and a large ingredient of hunger makes too They lay around in the shade after breakfast while Huck had a smoke and then went off through the woods on an exploring expedition They tramped gaily along over decaying logs through tangled underbrush among solemn monarchs of the forest hung from their crowns to the ground with a drooping regalia of grape vines Now and then they came upon snug nooks carpeted with grass and jeweled with flowers They found plenty of things to be delighted with but nothing to be astonished at They discovered that the island was about three miles long and a quarter of a mile wide and that the shore it lay closest to was only separated from it by a narrow channel hardly two hundred yards wide They took a swim about every hour so it was close upon the middle of the afternoon when they got back to camp They were too hungry to stop to fish but they fared sumptuously upon cold ham and then threw themselves down in the shade to talk But the talk soon began to drag and then died The stillness the solemnity that brooded in the woods and the sense of loneliness began to tell upon the spirits of the boys They fell to thinking A sort of undefined longing crept upon them This took dim shape presently it was budding homesickness Even Finn the Red Handed was dreaming of his door steps and empty hogsheads But they were all ashamed of their weakness and none was brave enough to speak his thought For some time now the boys had been dully conscious of a peculiar sound in the distance just as one sometimes is of the ticking of a clock which he takes no distinct note of But now this mysterious sound became more pronounced and forced a recognition The boys started glanced at each other and then each assumed a listening attitude There was a long silence profound and unbroken then a deep sullen boom came floating down out of the distance What is it exclaimed Joe under his breath I wonder said Tom in a whisper Taint thunder said Huckleberry in an awed tone becuz thunder Hark said Tom Listen dont talk They waited a time that seemed an age and then the same muffled boom troubled the solemn hush Lets go and see They sprang to their feet and hurried to the shore toward the town They parted the bushes on the bank and peered out over the water The little steam ferry boat was about a mile below the village drifting with the current Her broad deck seemed crowded with people There were a great many skiffs rowing about or floating with the stream in the neighborhood of the ferry boat but the boys could not determine what the men in them were doing Presently a great jet of white smoke burst from the ferry boats side and as it expanded and rose in a lazy cloud that same dull throb of sound was borne to the listeners again I know now exclaimed Tom somebodys drownded Thats it said Huck they done that last summer when Bill Turner got drownded they shoot a cannon over the water and that makes him come up to the top Yes and they take loaves of bread and put quicksilver in em and set em afloat and wherever theres anybody thats drownded theyll float right there and stop Yes Ive heard about that said Joe I wonder what makes the bread do that O it aint the bread so much said Tom I reckon its mostly what they say over it before they start it out But they dont say anything over it said Huck Ive seen em and they dont Well thats funny said Tom But maybe they say it to themselves Of course they do Anybody might know that The other boys agreed that there was reason in what Tom said because an ignorant lump of bread uninstructed by an incantation could not be expected to act very intelligently when sent upon an errand of such gravity By jings I wish I was over there now said Joe I do too said Huck Id give heaps to know who it is The boys still listened and watched Presently a revealing thought flashed through Toms mind and he exclaimed Boys I know whos drownded its us They felt like heroes in an instant Here was a gorgeous triumph they were missed they were mourned hearts were breaking on their account tears were being shed accusing memories of unkindnesses to these poor lost lads were rising up and unavailing regrets and remorse were being indulged and best of all the departed were the talk of the whole town and the envy of all the boys as far as this dazzling notoriety was concerned This was fine It was worth while to be a pirate after all As twilight drew on the ferry boat went back to her accustomed business and the skiffs disappeared The pirates returned to camp They were jubilant with vanity over their new grandeur and the illustrious trouble they were making They caught fish cooked supper and ate it and then fell to guessing at what the village was thinking and saying about them and the pictures they drew of the public distress on their account were gratifying to look upon from their point of view But when the shadows of night closed them in they gradually ceased to talk and sat gazing into the fire with their minds evidently wandering elsewhere The excitement was gone now and Tom and Joe could not keep back thoughts of certain persons at home who were not enjoying this fine frolic as much as they were Misgivings came they grew troubled and unhappy a sigh or two escaped unawares By and by Joe timidly ventured upon a roundabout feeler as to how the others might look upon a return to civilization not right now but Tom withered him with derision Huck being uncommitted as yet joined in with Tom and the waverer quickly explained and was glad to get out of the scrape with as little taint of chicken hearted homesickness clinging to his garments as he could Mutiny was effectually laid to rest for the moment As the night deepened Huck began to nod and presently to snore Joe followed next Tom lay upon his elbow motionless for some time watching the two intently At last he got up cautiously on his knees and went searching among the grass and the flickering reflections flung by the camp fire He picked up and inspected several large semi cylinders of the thin white bark of a sycamore and finally chose two which seemed to suit him Then he knelt by the fire and painfully wrote something upon each of these with his red keel one he rolled up and put in his jacket pocket and the other he put in Joes hat and removed it to a little distance from the owner And he also put into the hat certain schoolboy treasures of almost inestimable value among them a lump of chalk an India rubber ball three fish hooks and one of that kind of marbles known as a sure nough crystal Then he tip toed his way cautiously among the trees till he felt that he was out of hearing and straightway broke into a keen run in the direction of the sand bar Chapter Toms Stealthy Visit Home A FEW MINUTES LATER Tom was in the shoal water of the bar wading toward the Illinois shore Before the depth reached his middle he was half way over the current would permit no more wading now so he struck out confidently to swim the remaining hundred yards He swam quartering up stream but still was swept downward rather faster than he had expected However he reached the shore finally and drifted along till he found a low place and drew himself out He put his hand on his jacket pocket found his piece of bark safe and then struck through the woods following the shore with streaming garments Shortly before ten oclock he came out into an open place opposite the village and saw the ferry boat lying in the shadow of the trees and the high bank Everything was quiet under the blinking stars He crept down the bank watching with all his eyes slipped into the water swam three or four strokes and climbed into the skiff that did yawl duty at the boats stern He laid himself down under the thwarts and waited panting Presently the cracked bell tapped and a voice gave the order to cast off A minute or two later the skiffs head was standing high up against the boats swell and the voyage was begun Tom felt happy in his success for he knew it was the boats last trip for the night At the end of a long twelve or fifteen minutes the wheels stopped and Tom slipped overboard and swam ashore in the dusk landing fifty yards down stream out of danger of possible stragglers He flew along unfrequented alleys and shortly found himself at his aunts back fence He climbed over approached the ell and looked in at the sitting room window for a light was burning there There sat Aunt Polly Sid Mary and Joe Harpers mother grouped together talking They were by the bed and the bed was between them and the door Tom went to the door and began to softly lift the latch then he pressed gently and the door yielded a crack he continued pushing cautiously and quaking every time it creaked till he judged he might squeeze through on his knees and so he put his head through and began warily What makes the candle blow so said Aunt Polly Tom hurried up Why that doors open I believe Why of course it is No end of strange things now Go long and shut it Sid Tom disappeared under the bed just in time He lay and breathed himself for a time and then crept to where he could almost touch his aunts foot But as I was saying said Aunt Polly he warnt bad so to say only mischeevous Only just giddy and harum scarum you know He warnt any more responsible than a colt He never meant any harm and he was the best hearted boy that ever was and she began to cry It was just so with my Joe always full of his devilment and up to every kind of mischief but he was just as unselfish and kind as he could be and laws bless me to think I went and whipped him for taking that cream never once recollecting that I throwed it out myself because it was sour and I never to see him again in this world never never poor abused boy And Mrs Harper sobbed as if her heart would break I hope Toms better off where he is said Sid but if hed been better in some ways Sid Tom felt the glare of the old ladys eye though he could not see it Not a word against my Tom now that hes gone Godll take care of him never you trouble yourself sir Oh Mrs Harper I dont know how to give him up I dont know how to give him up He was such a comfort to me although he tormented my old heart out of me most The Lord giveth and the Lord hath taken away Blessed be the name of the Lord But its so hard O its so hard Only last Saturday my Joe busted a fire cracker right under my nose and I knocked him sprawling Little did I know then how soon O if it was to do over again Id hug him and bless him for it Yes yes yes I know just how you feel Mrs Harper I know just exactly how you feel No longer ago than yesterday noon my Tom took and filled the cat full of Pain Killer and I did think the cretur would tear the house down And God forgive me I cracked Toms head with my thimble poor boy poor dead boy But hes out of all his troubles now And the last words I ever heard him say was to reproach But this memory was too much for the old lady and she broke entirely down Tom was snuffling now himself and more in pity of himself than anybody else He could hear Mary crying and putting in a kindly word for him from time to time He began to have a nobler opinion of himself than ever before Still he was sufficiently touched by his aunts grief to long to rush out from under the bed and overwhelm her with joy and the theatrical gorgeousness of the thing appealed strongly to his nature too but he resisted and lay still He went on listening and gathered by odds and ends that it was conjectured at first that the boys had got drowned while taking a swim then the small raft had been missed next certain boys said the missing lads had promised that the village should hear something soon the wise heads had put this and that together and decided that the lads had gone off on that raft and would turn up at the next town below presently but toward noon the raft had been found lodged against the Missouri shore some five or six miles below the village and then hope perished they must be drowned else hunger would have driven them home by nightfall if not sooner It was believed that the search for the bodies had been a fruitless effort merely because the drowning must have occurred in mid channel since the boys being good swimmers would otherwise have escaped to shore This was Wednesday night If the bodies continued missing until Sunday all hope would be given over and the funerals would be preached on that morning Tom shuddered Mrs Harper gave a sobbing good night and turned to go Then with a mutual impulse the two bereaved women flung themselves into each others arms and had a good consoling cry and then parted Aunt Polly was tender far beyond her wont in her good night to Sid and Mary Sid snuffled a bit and Mary went off crying with all her heart Aunt Polly knelt down and prayed for Tom so touchingly so appealingly and with such measureless love in her words and her old trembling voice that he was weltering in tears again long before she was through He had to keep still long after she went to bed for she kept making broken hearted ejaculations from time to time tossing unrestfully and turning over But at last she was still only moaning a little in her sleep Now the boy stole out rose gradually by the bedside shaded the candle light with his hand and stood regarding her His heart was full of pity for her He took out his sycamore scroll and placed it by the candle But something occurred to him and he lingered considering His face lighted with a happy solution of his thought he put the bark hastily in his pocket Then he bent over and kissed the faded lips and straightway made his stealthy exit latching the door behind him He threaded his way back to the ferry landing found nobody at large there and walked boldly on board the boat for he knew she was tenantless except that there was a watchman who always turned in and slept like a graven image He untied the skiff at the stern slipped into it and was soon rowing cautiously up stream When he had pulled a mile above the village he started quartering across and bent himself stoutly to his work He hit the landing on the other side neatly for this was a familiar bit of work to him He was moved to capture the skiff arguing that it might be considered a ship and therefore legitimate prey for a pirate but he knew a thorough search would be made for it and that might end in revelations So he stepped ashore and entered the wood He sat down and took a long rest torturing himself meantime to keep awake and then started wearily down the home stretch The night was far spent It was broad daylight before he found himself fairly abreast the island bar He rested again until the sun was well up and gilding the great river with its splendor and then he plunged into the stream A little later he paused dripping upon the threshold of the camp and heard Joe say No Toms true blue Huck and hell come back He wont desert He knows that would be a disgrace to a pirate and Toms too proud for that sort of thing Hes up to something or other Now I wonder what Well the things is ours anyway aint they Pretty near but not yet Huck The writing says they are if he aint back here to breakfast Which he is exclaimed Tom with fine dramatic effect stepping grandly into camp A sumptuous breakfast of bacon and fish was shortly provided and as the boys set to work upon it Tom recounted and adorned his adventures They were a vain and boastful company of heroes when the tale was done Then Tom hid himself away in a shady nook to sleep till noon and the other pirates got ready to fish and explore Chapter First Pipes Ive Lost My Knife AFTER DINNER all the gang turned out to hunt for turtle eggs on the bar They went about poking sticks into the sand and when they found a soft place they went down on their knees and dug with their hands Sometimes they would take fifty or sixty eggs out of one hole They were perfectly round white things a trifle smaller than an English walnut They had a famous fried egg feast that night and another on Friday morning After breakfast they went whooping and prancing out on the bar and chased each other round and round shedding clothes as they went until they were naked and then continued the frolic far away up the shoal water of the bar against the stiff current which latter tripped their legs from under them from time to time and greatly increased the fun And now and then they stooped in a group and splashed water in each others faces with their palms gradually approaching each other with averted faces to avoid the strangling sprays and finally gripping and struggling till the best man ducked his neighbor and then they all went under in a tangle of white legs and arms and came up blowing sputtering laughing and gasping for breath at one and the same time When they were well exhausted they would run out and sprawl on the dry hot sand and lie there and cover themselves up with it and by and by break for the water again and go through the original performance once more Finally it occurred to them that their naked skin represented flesh colored tights very fairly so they drew a ring in the sand and had a circus with three clowns in it for none would yield this proudest post to his neighbor Next they got their marbles and played knucks and ring taw and keeps till that amusement grew stale Then Joe and Huck had another swim but Tom would not venture because he found that in kicking off his trousers he had kicked his string of rattlesnake rattles off his ankle and he wondered how he had escaped cramp so long without the protection of this mysterious charm He did not venture again until he had found it and by that time the other boys were tired and ready to rest They gradually wandered apart dropped into the dumps and fell to gazing longingly across the wide river to where the village lay drowsing in the sun Tom found himself writing BECKY in the sand with his big toe he scratched it out and was angry with himself for his weakness But he wrote it again nevertheless he could not help it He erased it once more and then took himself out of temptation by driving the other boys together and joining them But Joes spirits had gone down almost beyond resurrection He was so homesick that he could hardly endure the misery of it The tears lay very near the surface Huck was melancholy too Tom was downhearted but tried hard not to show it He had a secret which he was not ready to tell yet but if this mutinous depression was not broken up soon he would have to bring it out He said with a great show of cheerfulness I bet theres been pirates on this island before boys Well explore it again Theyve hid treasures here somewhere Howd you feel to light on a rotten chest full of gold and silver hey But it roused only a faint enthusiasm which faded out with no reply Tom tried one or two other seductions but they failed too It was discouraging work Joe sat poking up the sand with a stick and looking very gloomy Finally he said O boys lets give it up I want to go home Its so lonesome O no Joe youll feel better by and by said Tom Just think of the fishing thats here I dont care for fishing I want to go home But Joe there aint such another swimming place anywhere Swimmings no good I dont seem to care for it somehow when there aint anybody to say I shant go in I mean to go home O shucks Baby You want to see your mother I reckon Yes I do want to see my mother and you would too if you had one I aint any more baby than you are And Joe snuffled a little Well well let the cry baby go home to his mother wont we Huck Poor thing does it want to see its mother And so it shall You like it here dont you Huck Well stay wont we Huck said Y e s without any heart in it Ill never speak to you again as long as I live said Joe rising There now And he moved moodily away and began to dress himself Who cares said Tom Nobody wants you to Go long home and get laughed at O youre a nice pirate Huck and me aint cry babies Well stay wont we Huck Let him go if he wants to I reckon we can get along without him peraps But Tom was uneasy nevertheless and was alarmed to see Joe go sullenly on with his dressing And then it was discomforting to see Huck eyeing Joes preparations so wistfully and keeping up such an ominous silence Presently without a parting word Joe began to wade off toward the Illinois shore Toms heart began to sink He glanced at Huck Huck could not bear the look and dropped his eyes Then he said I want to go too Tom It was getting so lonesome anyway and now itll be worse Lets us go too Tom I wont You can all go if you want to I mean to stay Tom I better go Well go long whos hendering you Huck began to pick up his scattered clothes He said Tom I wisht youd come too Now you think it over Well wait for you when we get to shore Well youll wait a blame long time thats all Huck started sorrowfully away and Tom stood looking after him with a strong desire tugging at his heart to yield his pride and go along too He hoped the boys would stop but they still waded slowly on It suddenly dawned on Tom that it was become very lonely and still He made one final struggle with his pride and then darted after his comrades yelling Wait Wait I want to tell you something They presently stopped and turned around When he got to where they were he began unfolding his secret and they listened moodily till at last they saw the point he was driving at and then they set up a war whoop of applause and said it was splendid and said if he had told them at first they wouldnt have started away He made a plausible excuse but his real reason had been the fear that not even the secret would keep them with him any very great length of time and so he had meant to hold it in reserve as a last seduction The lads came gaily back and went at their sports again with a will chattering all the time about Toms stupendous plan and admiring the genius of it After a dainty egg and fish dinner Tom said he wanted to learn to smoke now Joe caught at the idea and said he would like to try too So Huck made pipes and filled them These novices had never smoked anything before but cigars made of grape vine and they bit the tongue and were not considered manly anyway Now they stretched themselves out on their elbows and began to puff charily and with slender confidence The smoke had an unpleasant taste and they gagged a little but Tom said Why its just as easy If Id a knowed this was all Id a learnt long ago So would I said Joe Its just nothing Why many a time Ive looked at people smoking and thought well I wish I could do that but I never thought I could said Tom Thats just the way with me haint it Huck Youve heard me talk just that way havent you Huck Ill leave it to Huck if I havent Yes heaps of times said Huck Well I have too said Tom O hundreds of times Once down there by the slaughter house Dont you remember Huck Bob Tanner was there and Johnny Miller and Jeff Thatcher when I said it Dont you remember Huck bout me saying that Yes thats so said Huck That was the day after I lost a white alley No twas the day before There I told you so said Tom Huck recollects it I bleeve I could smoke this pipe all day said Joe I dont feel sick Neither do I said Tom I could smoke it all day But I bet you Jeff Thatcher couldnt Jeff Thatcher Why hed keel over just with two draws Just let him try it once Hed see I bet he would And Johnny Miller I wish I could see Johnny Miller tackle it once O dont I said Joe Why I bet you Johnny Miller couldnt any more do this than nothing Just one little snifter would fetch him Deed it would Joe Say I wish the boys could see us now So do I Say boys dont say anything about it and some time when theyre around Ill come up to you and say Joe got a pipe I want a smoke And youll say kind of careless like as if it warnt anything youll say Yes I got my old pipe and another one but my tobacker aint very good Ill say O thats all right if its strong enough And then youll out with the pipes and well light up just as cam and then just see em look By jings thatll be gay Tom I wish it was now So do I And when we tell em we learned when we was off pirating wont they wish theyd been along O I reckon not Ill just bet they will So the talk ran on But presently it began to flag a trifle and grow disjointed The silences widened the expectoration marvelously increased Every pore inside the boys cheeks became a spouting fountain they could scarcely bail out the cellars under their tongues fast enough to prevent an inundation little overflowings down their throats occurred in spite of all they could do and sudden retchings followed every time Both boys were looking very pale and miserable now Joes pipe dropped from his nerveless fingers Toms followed Both fountains were going furiously and both pumps bailing with might and main Joe said feebly Ive lost my knife I reckon I better go and find it Tom said with quivering lip and halting utterance Ill help you You go over that way and Ill hunt around by the spring No you neednt come Huck we can find it So Huck sat down again and waited an hour Then he found it lonesome and went to find his comrades They were wide apart in the woods both very pale both fast asleep But something informed him that if they had had any trouble they had got rid of it They were not talkative at supper that night They had a humble look and when Huck prepared his pipe after the meal and was going to prepare theirs they said no they were not feeling very well something they ate at dinner had disagreed with them About midnight Joe awoke and called the boys There was a brooding oppressiveness in the air that seemed to bode something The boys huddled themselves together and sought the friendly companionship of the fire though the dull dead heat of the breathless atmosphere was stifling They sat still intent and waiting The solemn hush continued Beyond the light of the fire everything was swallowed up in the blackness of darkness Presently there came a quivering glow that vaguely revealed the foliage for a moment and then vanished By and by another came a little stronger Then another Then a faint moan came sighing through the branches of the forest and the boys felt a fleeting breath upon their cheeks and shuddered with the fancy that the Spirit of the Night had gone by There was a pause Now a weird flash turned night into day and showed every little grass blade separate and distinct that grew about their feet And it showed three white startled faces too A deep peal of thunder went rolling and tumbling down the heavens and lost itself in sullen rumblings in the distance A sweep of chilly air passed by rustling all the leaves and snowing the flaky ashes broadcast about the fire Another fierce glare lit up the forest and an instant crash followed that seemed to rend the tree tops right over the boys heads They clung together in terror in the thick gloom that followed A few big rain drops fell pattering upon the leaves Quick boys go for the tent exclaimed Tom They sprang away stumbling over roots and among vines in the dark no two plunging in the same direction A furious blast roared through the trees making everything sing as it went One blinding flash after another came and peal on peal of deafening thunder And now a drenching rain poured down and the rising hurricane drove it in sheets along the ground The boys cried out to each other but the roaring wind and the booming thunder blasts drowned their voices utterly However one by one they straggled in at last and took shelter under the tent cold scared and streaming with water but to have company in misery seemed something to be grateful for They could not talk the old sail flapped so furiously even if the other noises would have allowed them The tempest rose higher and higher and presently the sail tore loose from its fastenings and went winging away on the blast The boys seized each others hands and fled with many tumblings and bruises to the shelter of a great oak that stood upon the river bank Now the battle was at its highest Under the ceaseless conflagration of lightning that flamed in the skies everything below stood out in clean cut and shadowless distinctness the bending trees the billowy river white with foam the driving spray of spume flakes the dim outlines of the high bluffs on the other side glimpsed through the drifting cloud rack and the slanting veil of rain Every little while some giant tree yielded the fight and fell crashing through the younger growth and the unflagging thunder peals came now in ear splitting explosive bursts keen and sharp and unspeakably appalling The storm culminated in one matchless effort that seemed likely to tear the island to pieces burn it up drown it to the tree tops blow it away and deafen every creature in it all at one and the same moment It was a wild night for homeless young heads to be out in But at last the battle was done and the forces retired with weaker and weaker threatenings and grumblings and peace resumed her sway The boys went back to camp a good deal awed but they found there was still something to be thankful for because the great sycamore the shelter of their beds was a ruin now blasted by the lightnings and they were not under it when the catastrophe happened Everything in camp was drenched the camp fire as well for they were but heedless lads like their generation and had made no provision against rain Here was matter for dismay for they were soaked through and chilled They were eloquent in their distress but they presently discovered that the fire had eaten so far up under the great log it had been built against where it curved upward and separated itself from the ground that a hand breadth or so of it had escaped wetting so they patiently wrought until with shreds and bark gathered from the under sides of sheltered logs they coaxed the fire to burn again Then they piled on great dead boughs till they had a roaring furnace and were glad hearted once more They dried their boiled ham and had a feast and after that they sat by the fire and expanded and glorified their midnight adventure until morning for there was not a dry spot to sleep on anywhere around As the sun began to steal in upon the boys drowsiness came over them and they went out on the sand bar and lay down to sleep They got scorched out by and by and drearily set about getting breakfast After the meal they felt rusty and stiff jointed and a little homesick once more Tom saw the signs and fell to cheering up the pirates as well as he could But they cared nothing for marbles or circus or swimming or anything He reminded them of the imposing secret and raised a ray of cheer While it lasted he got them interested in a new device This was to knock off being pirates for a while and be Indians for a change They were attracted by this idea so it was not long before they were stripped and striped from head to heel with black mud like so many zebras all of them chiefs of course and then they went tearing through the woods to attack an English settlement By and by they separated into three hostile tribes and darted upon each other from ambush with dreadful war whoops and killed and scalped each other by thousands It was a gory day Consequently it was an extremely satisfactory one They assembled in camp toward supper time hungry and happy but now a difficulty arose hostile Indians could not break the bread of hospitality together without first making peace and this was a simple impossibility without smoking a pipe of peace There was no other process that ever they had heard of Two of the savages almost wished they had remained pirates However there was no other way so with such show of cheerfulness as they could muster they called for the pipe and took their whiff as it passed in due form And behold they were glad they had gone into savagery for they had gained something they found that they could now smoke a little without having to go and hunt for a lost knife they did not get sick enough to be seriously uncomfortable They were not likely to fool away this high promise for lack of effort No they practiced cautiously after supper with right fair success and so they spent a jubilant evening They were prouder and happier in their new acquirement than they would have been in the scalping and skinning of the Six Nations We will leave them to smoke and chatter and brag since we have no further use for them at present Chapter Pirates at Their Own Funeral BUT THERE WAS NO hilarity in the little town that same tranquil Saturday afternoon The Harpers and Aunt Pollys family were being put into mourning with great grief and many tears An unusual quiet possessed the village although it was ordinarily quiet enough in all conscience The villagers conducted their concerns with an absent air and talked little but they sighed often The Saturday holiday seemed a burden to the children They had no heart in their sports and gradually gave them up In the afternoon Becky Thatcher found herself moping about the deserted school house yard and feeling very melancholy But she found nothing there to comfort her She soliloquised O if I only had his brass andiron knob again But I havent got anything now to remember him by And she choked back a little sob Presently she stopped and said to herself It was right here O if it was to do over again I wouldnt say that I wouldnt say it for the whole world But hes gone now Ill never never never see him any more This thought broke her down and she wandered away with the tears rolling down her cheeks Then quite a group of boys and girls playmates of Toms and Joes came by and stood looking over the paling fence and talking in reverent tones of how Tom did so and so the last time they saw him and how Joe said this and that small trifle pregnant with awful prophecy as they could easily see now and each speaker pointed out the exact spot where the lost lads stood at the time and then added something like and I was a standing just so just as I am now and as if you was him I was as close as that and he smiled just this way and then something seemed to go all over me like awful you know and I never thought what it meant of course but I can see now Then there was a dispute about who saw the dead boys last in life and many claimed that dismal distinction and offered evidences more or less tampered with by the witness and when it was ultimately decided who did see the departed last and exchanged the last words with them the lucky parties took upon themselves a sort of sacred importance and were gaped at and envied by all the rest One poor chap who had no other grandeur to offer said with tolerably manifest pride in the remembrance Well Tom Sawyer he licked me once But that bid for glory was a failure Most of the boys could say that and so that cheapened the distinction too much The group loitered away still recalling memories of the lost heroes in awed voices When the Sunday school hour was finished the next morning the bell began to toll instead of ringing in the usual way It was a very still Sabbath and the mournful sound seemed in keeping with the musing hush that lay upon nature The villagers began to gather loitering a moment in the vestibule to converse in whispers about the sad event But there was no whispering in the house only the funereal rustling of dresses as the women gathered to their seats disturbed the silence there None could remember when the little church had been so full before There was finally a waiting pause an expectant dumbness and then Aunt Polly entered followed by Sid and Mary and they by the Harper family all in deep black and the whole congregation the old minister as well rose reverently and stood until the mourners were seated in the front pew There was another communing silence broken at intervals by muffled sobs and then the minister spread his hands abroad and prayed A moving hymn was sung and the text followed I am the Resurrection and the Life As the service proceeded the clergyman drew such pictures of the graces the winning ways and the rare promise of the lost lads that every soul there thinking he recognized these pictures felt a pang in remembering that he had persistently blinded himself to them always before and had as persistently seen only faults and flaws in the poor boys The minister related many a touching incident in the lives of the departed too which illustrated their sweet generous natures and the people could easily see now how noble and beautiful those episodes were and remembered with grief that at the time they occurred they had seemed rank rascalities well deserving of the cowhide The congregation became more and more moved as the pathetic tale went on till at last the whole company broke down and joined the weeping mourners in a chorus of anguished sobs the preacher himself giving way to his feelings and crying in the pulpit There was a rustle in the gallery which nobody noticed a moment later the church door creaked the minister raised his streaming eyes above his handkerchief and stood transfixed First one and then another pair of eyes followed the ministers and then almost with one impulse the congregation rose and stared while the three dead boys came marching up the aisle Tom in the lead Joe next and Huck a ruin of drooping rags sneaking sheepishly in the rear They had been hid in the unused gallery listening to their own funeral sermon Aunt Polly Mary and the Harpers threw themselves upon their restored ones smothered them with kisses and poured out thanksgivings while poor Huck stood abashed and uncomfortable not knowing exactly what to do or where to hide from so many unwelcoming eyes He wavered and started to slink away but Tom seized him and said Aunt Polly it aint fair Somebodys got to be glad to see Huck And so they shall Im glad to see him poor motherless thing And the loving attentions Aunt Polly lavished upon him were the one thing capable of making him more uncomfortable than he was before Suddenly the minister shouted at the top of his voice Praise God from whom all blessings flow SING and put your hearts in it And they did Old Hundred swelled up with a triumphant burst and while it shook the rafters Tom Sawyer the Pirate looked around upon the envying juveniles about him and confessed in his heart that this was the proudest moment of his life As the sold congregation trooped out they said they would almost be willing to be made ridiculous again to hear Old Hundred sung like that once more Tom got more cuffs and kisses that day according to Aunt Pollys varying moods than he had earned before in a year and he hardly knew which expressed the most gratefulness to God and affection for himself Chapter Tom Reveals His Dream Secret THAT WAS TOMS GREAT secret the scheme to return home with his brother pirates and attend their own funerals They had paddled over to the Missouri shore on a log at dusk on Saturday landing five or six miles below the village they had slept in the woods at the edge of the town till nearly daylight and had then crept through back lanes and alleys and finished their sleep in the gallery of the church among a chaos of invalided benches At breakfast Monday morning Aunt Polly and Mary were very loving to Tom and very attentive to his wants There was an unusual amount of talk In the course of it Aunt Polly said Well I dont say it wasnt a fine joke Tom to keep everybody suffering most a week so you boys had a good time but it is a pity you could be so hard hearted as to let me suffer so If you could come over on a log to go to your funeral you could have come over and give me a hint some way that you warnt dead but only run off Yes you could have done that Tom said Mary and I believe you would if you had thought of it Would you Tom said Aunt Polly her face lighting wistfully Say now would you if youd thought of it I well I dont know Twould a spoiled everything Tom I hoped you loved me that much said Aunt Polly with a grieved tone that discomforted the boy It would been something if youd cared enough to think of it even if you didnt do it Now auntie that aint any harm pleaded Mary its only Toms giddy way he is always in such a rush that he never thinks of anything Mores the pity Sid would have thought And Sid would have come and done it too Tom youll look back some day when its too late and wish youd cared a little more for me when it would have cost you so little Now auntie you know I do care for you said Tom Id know it better if you acted more like it I wish now Id thought said Tom with a repentant tone but I dreamed about you anyway Thats something aint it It aint much a cat does that much but its better than nothing What did you dream Why Wednesday night I dreamt that you was sitting over there by the bed and Sid was sitting by the wood box and Mary next to him Well so we did So we always do Im glad your dreams could take even that much trouble about us And I dreamt that Joe Harpers mother was here Why she was here Did you dream any more O lots But its so dim now Well try to recollect cant you Somehow it seems to me that the wind the wind blowed the the Try harder Tom The wind did blow something Come Tom pressed his fingers on his forehead an anxious minute and then said Ive got it now Ive got it now It blowed the candle Mercy on us Go on Tom go on And it seems to me that you said Why I believe that that door Go on Tom Just let me study a moment just a moment O yes you said you believed the door was open As Im a sitting here I did Didnt I Mary Go on And then and then well I wont be certain but it seems like as if you made Sid go and and Well Well What did I make him do Tom What did I make him do You made him you O you made him shut it Well for the lands sake I never heard the beat of that in all my days Dont tell me there aint anything in dreams any more Sereny Harper shall know of this before Im an hour older Id like to see her get around this with her rubbage bout superstition Go on Tom O its all getting just as bright as day now Next you said I warnt bad only mischeevous and harum scarum and not any more responsible than than I think it was a colt or something And so it was Well goodness gracious Go on Tom And then you began to cry So I did So I did Not the first time neither And then Then Mrs Harper she began to cry and said Joe was just the same and she wished she hadnt whipped him for taking cream when shed throwed it out her own self Tom The sperrit was upon you You was a prophecying thats what you was doing Land alive go on Tom Then Sid he said he said I dont think I said anything said Sid Yes you did Sid said Mary Shut your heads and let Tom go on What did he say Tom He said I think he said he hoped I was better off where I was gone to but if Id been better sometimes There dyou hear that It was his very words And you shut him up sharp I lay I did There must a been an angel there There was an angel there somewheres And Mrs Harper told about Joe scaring her with a fire cracker and you told about Peter and the Pain killer Just as true as I live And then there was a whole lot of talk bout dragging the river for us and bout having the funeral Sunday and then you and old Miss Harper hugged and cried and she went It happened just so It happened just so as sure as Im a sitting in these very tracks Tom you couldnt told it more like if youd a seen it And then what Go on Tom Then I thought you prayed for me and I could see you and hear every word you said And you went to bed and I was so sorry that I took and wrote on a piece of sycamore bark We aint dead we are only off being pirates and put it on the table by the candle and then you looked so good laying there asleep that I thought I went and leaned over and kissed you on the lips Did you Tom did you I just forgive you everything for that And she seized the boy in a crushing embrace that made him feel like the guiltiest of villains It was very kind even though it was only a dream Sid soliloquised just audibly Shut up Sid A body does just the same in a dream as hed do if he was awake Heres a big Milum apple Ive been saving for you Tom if you was ever found again now go long to school Im thankful to the good God and Father of us all Ive got you back thats long suffering and merciful to them that believe on Him and keep His word though goodness knows Im unworthy of it but if only the worthy ones got His blessings and had His hand to help them over the rough places theres few enough would smile here or ever enter into His rest when the long night comes Go long Sid Mary Tom take yourselves off youve hendered me long enough The children left for school and the old lady to call on Mrs Harper and vanquish her realism with Toms marvelous dream Sid had better judgment than to utter the thought that was in his mind as he left the house It was this Pretty thin as long a dream as that without any mistakes in it What a hero Tom was become now He did not go skipping and prancing but moved with a dignified swagger as became a pirate who felt that the public eye was on him And indeed it was he tried not to seem to see the looks or hear the remarks as he passed along but they were food and drink to him Smaller boys than himself flocked at his heels as proud to be seen with him and tolerated by him as if he had been the drummer at the head of a procession or the elephant leading a menagerie into town Boys of his own size pretended not to know he had been away at all but they were consuming with envy nevertheless They would have given anything to have that swarthy sun tanned skin of his and his glittering notoriety and Tom would not have parted with either for a circus At school the children made so much of him and of Joe and delivered such eloquent admiration from their eyes that the two heroes were not long in becoming insufferably stuck up They began to tell their adventures to hungry listeners but they only began it was not a thing likely to have an end with imaginations like theirs to furnish material And finally when they got out their pipes and went serenely puffing around the very summit of glory was reached Tom decided that he could be independent of Becky Thatcher now Glory was sufficient He would live for glory Now that he was distinguished maybe she would be wanting to make up Well let her she should see that he could be as indifferent as some other people Presently she arrived Tom pretended not to see her He moved away and joined a group of boys and girls and began to talk Soon he observed that she was tripping gayly back and forth with flushed face and dancing eyes pretending to be busy chasing school mates and screaming with laughter when she made a capture but he noticed that she always made her captures in his vicinity and that she seemed to cast a conscious eye in his direction at such times too It gratified all the vicious vanity that was in him and so instead of winning him it only set him up the more and made him the more diligent to avoid betraying that he knew she was about Presently she gave over skylarking and moved irresolutely about sighing once or twice and glancing furtively and wistfully toward Tom Then she observed that now Tom was talking more particularly to Amy Lawrence than to any one else She felt a sharp pang and grew disturbed and uneasy at once She tried to go away but her feet were treacherous and carried her to the group instead She said to a girl almost at Toms elbow with sham vivacity Why Mary Austin you bad girl why didnt you come to Sunday school I did come didnt you see me Why no Did you Where did you sit I was in Miss Peters class where I always go I saw you Did you Why its funny I didnt see you I wanted to tell you about the picnic O thats jolly Whos going to give it My mas going to let me have one O goody I hope shell let me come Well she will The picnics for me Shell let anybody come that I want and I want you Thats ever so nice When is it going to be By and by Maybe about vacation O wont it be fun You going to have all the girls and boys Yes every one thats friends to me or wants to be and she glanced ever so furtively at Tom but he talked right along to Amy Lawrence about the terrible storm on the island and how the lightning tore the great sycamore tree all to flinders while he was standing within three feet of it O may I come said Gracie Miller Yes And me said Sally Rogers Yes And me too said Susy Harper And Joe Yes And so on with clapping of joyful hands till all the group had begged for invitations but Tom and Amy Then Tom turned coolly away still talking and took Amy with him Beckys lips trembled and the tears came to her eyes she hid these signs with a forced gayety and went on chattering but the life had gone out of the picnic now and out of everything else she got away as soon as she could and hid herself and had what her sex call a good cry Then she sat moody with wounded pride till the bell rang She roused up now with a vindictive cast in her eye and gave her plaited tails a shake and said she knew what shed do At recess Tom continued his flirtation with Amy with jubilant self satisfaction And he kept drifting about to find Becky and lacerate her with the performance At last he spied her but there was a sudden falling of his mercury She was sitting cosily on a little bench behind the school house looking at a picture book with Alfred Temple and so absorbed were they and their heads so close together over the book that they did not seem to be conscious of anything in the world beside Jealousy ran red hot through Toms veins He began to hate himself for throwing away the chance Becky had offered for a reconciliation He called himself a fool and all the hard names he could think of He wanted to cry with vexation Amy chatted happily along as they walked for her heart was singing but Toms tongue had lost its function He did not hear what Amy was saying and whenever she paused expectantly he could only stammer an awkward assent which was as often misplaced as otherwise He kept drifting to the rear of the schoolhouse again and again to sear his eye balls with the hateful spectacle there He could not help it And it maddened him to see as he thought he saw that Becky Thatcher never once suspected that he was even in the land of the living But she did see nevertheless and she knew she was winning her fight too and was glad to see him suffer as she had suffered Amys happy prattle became intolerable Tom hinted at things he had to attend to things that must be done and time was fleeting But in vain the girl chirped on Tom thought O hang her aint I ever going to get rid of her At last he must be attending to those things and she said artlessly that she would be around when school let out And he hastened away hating her for it Any other boy Tom thought grating his teeth Any boy in the whole town but that Saint Louis smarty that thinks he dresses so fine and is aristocracy O all right I licked you the first day you ever saw this town mister and Ill lick you again You just wait till I catch you out Ill just take and And he went through the motions of thrashing an imaginary boy pummeling the air and kicking and gouging O you do do you You holler nough do you Now then let that learn you And so the imaginary flogging was finished to his satisfaction Tom fled home at noon His conscience could not endure any more of Amys grateful happiness and his jealousy could bear no more of the other distress Becky resumed her picture inspections with Alfred but as the minutes dragged along and no Tom came to suffer her triumph began to cloud and she lost interest gravity and absent mindedness followed and then melancholy two or three times she pricked up her ear at a footstep but it was a false hope no Tom came At last she grew entirely miserable and wished she hadnt carried it so far When poor Alfred seeing that he was losing her he did not know how and kept exclaiming O heres a jolly one look at this she lost patience at last and said O dont bother me I dont care for them and burst into tears and got up and walked away Alfred dropped alongside and was going to try to comfort her but she said Go away and leave me alone cant you I hate you So the boy halted wondering what he could have done for she had said she would look at pictures all through the nooning and she walked on crying Then Alfred went musing into the deserted schoolhouse He was humiliated and angry He easily guessed his way to the truth the girl had simply made a convenience of him to vent her spite upon Tom Sawyer He was far from hating Tom the less when this thought occurred to him He wished there was some way to get that boy into trouble without much risk to himself Toms spelling book fell under his eye Here was his opportunity He gratefully opened to the lesson for the afternoon and poured ink upon the page Becky glancing in at a window behind him at the moment saw the act and moved on without discovering herself She started homeward now intending to find Tom and tell him Tom would be thankful and their troubles would be healed Before she was half way home however she had changed her mind The thought of Toms treatment of her when she was talking about her picnic came scorching back and filled her with shame She resolved to let him get whipped on the damaged spelling books account and to hate him forever into the bargain Chapter The Cruelty of I Didnt Think TOM ARRIVED AT HOME in a dreary mood and the first thing his aunt said to him showed him that he had brought his sorrows to an unpromising market Tom Ive a notion to skin you alive Auntie what have I done Well youve done enough Here I go over to Sereny Harper like an old softy expecting Im going to make her believe all that rubbage about that dream when lo and behold you shed found out from Joe that you was over here and heard all the talk we had that night Tom I dont know what is to become of a boy that will act like that It makes me feel so bad to think you could let me go to Sereny Harper and make such a fool of myself and never say a word This was a new aspect of the thing His smartness of the morning had seemed to Tom a good joke before and very ingenious It merely looked mean and shabby now He hung his head and could not think of anything to say for a moment Then he said Auntie I wish I hadnt done it but I didnt think O child you never think You never think of anything but your own selfishness You could think to come all the way over here from Jacksons Island in the night to laugh at our troubles and you could think to fool me with a lie about a dream but you couldnt ever think to pity us and save us from sorrow Auntie I know now it was mean but I didnt mean to be mean I didnt honest And besides I didnt come over here to laugh at you that night What did you come for then It was to tell you not to be uneasy about us because we hadnt got drownded Tom Tom I would be the thankfullest soul in this world if I could believe you ever had as good a thought as that but you know you never did and I know it Tom Indeed and deed I did auntie I wish I may never stir if I didnt O Tom dont lie dont do it It only makes things a hundred times worse It aint a lie auntie its the truth I wanted to keep you from grieving that was all that made me come Id give the whole world to believe that it would cover up a power of sins Tom Id most be glad youd run off and acted so bad But it aint reasonable because why didnt you tell me child Why you see auntie when you got to talking about the funeral I just got all full of the idea of our coming and hiding in the church and I couldnt somehow bear to spoil it So I just put the bark back in my pocket and kept mum What bark The bark I had wrote on to tell you wed gone pirating I wish now youd waked up when I kissed you I do honest The hard lines in his aunts face relaxed and a sudden tenderness dawned in her eyes Did you kiss me Tom Why yes I did Are you sure you did Tom Why yes I did auntie certain sure What did you kiss me for Tom Because I loved you so and you laid there moaning and I was so sorry The words sounded like truth The old lady could not hide a tremor in her voice when she said Kiss me again Tom and be off with you to school now and dont bother me any more The moment he was gone she ran to a closet and got out the ruin of a jacket which Tom had gone pirating in Then she stopped with it in her hand and said to herself No I dont dare Poor boy I reckon hes lied about it but its a blessed blessed lie theres such comfort come from it I hope the Lord I know the Lord will forgive him because it was such good heartedness in him to tell it But I dont want to find out its a lie I wont look She put the jacket away and stood by musing a minute Twice she put out her hand to take the garment again and twice she refrained Once more she ventured and this time she fortified herself with the thought Its a good lie its a good lie I wont let it grieve me So she sought the jacket pocket A moment later she was reading Toms piece of bark through flowing tears and saying I could forgive the boy now if hed committed a million sins Chapter Tom Takes Beckys Punishment THERE WAS SOMETHING about Aunt Pollys manner when she kissed Tom that swept away his low spirits and made him lighthearted and happy again He started to school and had the luck of coming upon Becky Thatcher at the head of Meadow Lane His mood always determined his manner Without a moments hesitation he ran to her and said I acted mighty mean to day Becky and Im so sorry I wont ever ever do that way again as long as ever I live please make up wont you The girl stopped and looked him scornfully in the face Ill thank you to keep yourself to yourself Mr Thomas Sawyer Ill never speak to you again She tossed her head and passed on Tom was so stunned that he had not even presence of mind enough to say Who cares Miss Smarty until the right time to say it had gone by So he said nothing But he was in a fine rage nevertheless He moped into the school yard wishing she were a boy and imagining how he would trounce her if she were He presently encountered her and delivered a stinging remark as he passed She hurled one in return and the angry breach was complete It seemed to Becky in her hot resentment that she could hardly wait for school to take in she was so impatient to see Tom flogged for the injured spelling book If she had had lingering notion of exposing Alfred Temple Toms offensive fling had driven it entirely away Poor girl she did not know how fast she was nearing trouble herself The master Mr Dobbins had reached middle age with an unsatisfied ambition The darling of his desires was to be a doctor but poverty had decreed that he should be nothing higher than a village schoolmaster Every day he took a mysterious book out of his desk and absorbed himself in it at times when no classes were reciting He kept that book under lock and key There was not an urchin in school but was perishing to have a glimpse of it but the chance never came Every boy and girl had a theory about the nature of that book but no two theories were alike and there was no way of getting at the facts in the case Now as Becky was passing by the desk which stood near the door she noticed that the key was in the lock It was a precious moment She glanced around found herself alone and the next instant she had the book in her hands The title page Professor somebodys Anatomy carried no information to her mind so she began to turn the leaves She came at once upon a handsomely engraved and colored frontispiece a human figure stark naked At that moment a shadow fell on the page and Tom Sawyer stepped in at the door and caught a glimpse of the picture Becky snatched at the book to close it and had the hard luck to tear the pictured page half down the middle She thrust the volume into the desk turned the key and burst out crying with shame and vexation Tom Sawyer you are just as mean as you can be to sneak up on a person and look at what theyre looking at How could I know you was looking at anything You ought to be ashamed of yourself Tom Sawyer you know youre going to tell on me and O what shall I do what shall I do Ill be whipped and I never was whipped in school Then she stamped her little foot and said Be so mean if you want to I know something thats going to happen You just wait and youll see Hateful hateful hateful and she flung out of the house with a new explosion of crying Tom stood still rather flustered by this onslaught Presently he said to himself What a curious kind of a fool a girl is Never been licked in school Shucks whats a licking Thats just like a girl theyre so thin skinned and chicken hearted Well of course I aint going to tell old Dobbins on this little fool because theres other ways of getting even on her that aint so mean but what of it Old Dobbins will ask who it was tore his book Nobodyll answer Then hell do just the way he always does ask first one and then tother and when he comes to the right girl hell know it without any telling Girls faces always tell on them They aint got any backbone Shell get licked Well its a kind of a tight place for Becky Thatcher because there aint any way out of it Tom conned the thing a moment longer and then added All right though shed like to see me in just such a fix let her sweat it out Tom joined the mob of skylarking scholars outside In a few moments the master arrived and school took in Tom did not feel a strong interest in his studies Every time he stole a glance at the girls side of the room Beckys face troubled him Considering all things he did not want to pity her and yet it was all he could do to help it He could get up no exultation that was really worthy the name Presently the spelling book discovery was made and Toms mind was entirely full of his own matters for a while after that Becky roused up from her lethargy of distress and showed good interest in the proceedings She did not expect that Tom could get out of his trouble by denying that he spilt the ink on the book himself and she was right The denial only seemed to make the thing worse for Tom Becky supposed she would be glad of that and she tried to believe she was glad of it but she found she was not certain When the worst came to the worst she had an impulse to get up and tell on Alfred Temple but she made an effort and forced herself to keep still because said she to herself hell tell about me tearing the picture sure I wouldnt say a word not to save his life Tom took his whipping and went back to his seat not at all brokenhearted for he thought it was possible that he had unknowingly upset the ink on the spelling book himself in some skylarking bout he had denied it for forms sake and because it was custom and had stuck to the denial from principle A whole hour drifted by the master sat nodding in his throne the air was drowsy with the hum of study By and by Mr Dobbins straightened himself up yawned then unlocked his desk and reached for his book but seemed undecided whether to take it out or leave it Most of the pupils glanced up languidly but there were two among them that watched his movements with intent eyes Mr Dobbins fingered his book absently for a while then took it out and settled himself in his chair to read Tom shot a glance at Becky He had seen a hunted and helpless rabbit look as she did with a gun leveled at its head Instantly he forgot his quarrel with her Quick something must be done done in a flash too But the very imminence of the emergency paralyzed his invention Good he had an inspiration He would run and snatch the book spring through the door and fly But his resolution shook for one little instant and the chance was lost the master opened the volume If Tom only had the wasted opportunity back again Too late there was no help for Becky now he said The next moment the master faced the school Every eye sunk under his gaze There was that in it which smote even the innocent with fear There was silence while one might count ten the master was gathering his wrath Then he spoke Who tore this book There was not a sound One could have heard a pin drop The stillness continued the master searched face after face for signs of guilt Benjamin Rogers did you tear this book A denial Another pause Joseph Harper did you Another denial Toms uneasiness grew more and more intense under the slow torture of these proceedings The master scanned the ranks of boys considered a while then turned to the girls Amy Lawrence A shake of the head Gracie Miller The same sign Susan Harper did you do this Another negative The next girl was Becky Thatcher Tom was trembling from head to foot with excitement and a sense of the hopelessness of the situation Rebecca Thatcher Tom glanced at her face it was white with terror did you tear no look me in the face her hands rose in appeal did you tear this book A thought shot like lightning through Toms brain He sprang to his feet and shouted I done it The school stared in perplexity at this incredible folly Tom stood a moment to gather his dismembered faculties and when he stepped forward to go to his punishment the surprise the gratitude the adoration that shone upon him out of poor Beckys eyes seemed pay enough for a hundred floggings Inspired by the splendor of his own act he took without an outcry the most merciless flaying that even Mr Dobbins had ever administered and also received with indifference the added cruelty of a command to remain two hours after school should be dismissed for he knew who would wait for him outside till his captivity was done and not count the tedious time as loss either Tom went to bed that night planning vengeance against Alfred Temple for with shame and repentance Becky had told him all not forgetting her own treachery but even the longing for vengeance had to give way soon to pleasanter musings and he fell asleep at last with Beckys latest words lingering dreamily in his ear Tom how could you be so noble Chapter Eloquence and the Masters Gilded Dome VACATION WAS APPROACHING The schoolmaster always sever grew severer and more exacting than ever for he wanted the school to make a good showing on Examination day His rod and his ferule were seldom idle now at least among the smaller pupils Only the biggest boys and young ladies of eighteen and twenty escaped lashing Mr Dobbinss lashings were very vigorous ones too for although he carried under his wig a perfectly bald and shiny head he had only reached middle age and there was no sign of feebleness in his muscle As the great day approached all the tyranny that was in him came to the surface he seemed to take a vindictive pleasure in punishing the least shortcomings The consequence was that the smaller boys spent their days in terror and suffering and their nights in plotting revenge They threw away no opportunity to do the master a mischief But he kept ahead all the time The retribution that followed every vengeful success was so sweeping and majestic that the boys always retired from the field badly worsted At last they conspired together and hit upon a plan that promised a dazzling victory They swore in the sign painters boy told him the scheme and asked his help He had his own reasons for being delighted for the master boarded in his fathers family and had given the boy ample cause to hate him The masters wife would go on a visit to the country in a few days and there would be nothing to interfere with the plan the master always prepared himself for great occasions by getting pretty well fuddled and the sign painters boy said that when the dominie had reached the proper condition on Examination Evening he would manage the thing while he napped in his chair then he would have him awakened at the right time and hurried away to school In the fullness of time the interesting occasion arrived At eight in the evening the school house was brilliantly lighted and adorned with wreaths and festoons of foliage and flowers The master sat throned in his great chair upon a raised platform with his blackboard behind him He was looking tolerably mellow Three rows of benches on each side and six rows in front of him were occupied by the dignitaries of the town and by the parents of the pupils To his left back of the rows of citizens was a spacious temporary platform upon which were seated the scholars who were to take part in the exercises of the evening rows of small boys washed and dressed to an intolerable state of discomfort rows of gawky big boys snow banks of girls and young ladies clad in lawn and muslin and conspicuously conscious of their bare arms their grandmothers ancient trinkets their bits of pink and blue ribbon and the flowers in their hair All the rest of the house was filled with nonparticipating scholars The exercises began A very little boy stood up and sheepishly recited Youd scarce expect one of my age to speak in public on the stage etc accompanying himself with the painfully exact and spasmodic gestures which a machine might have used supposing the machine to be a trifle out of order But he got through safely though cruelly scared and got a fine round of applause when he made his manufactured bow and retired A little shame faced girl lisped Mary had a little lamb etc performed a compassion inspiring curtsy got her meed of applause and sat down flushed and happy Tom Sawyer stepped forward with conceited confidence and soared into the unquenchable and indestructible Give me liberty or give me death speech with fine fury and frantic gesticulation and broke down in the middle of it A ghastly stage fright seized him his legs quaked under him and he was like to choke True he had the manifest sympathy of the house but he had the houses silence too which was even worse than its sympathy The master frowned and this completed the disaster Tom struggled a while and then retired utterly defeated There was a weak attempt at applause but it died early The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck followed also The Assyrian Came Down and other declaratory gems Then there were reading exercises and a spelling fight The meager Latin class recited with honor The prime feature of the evening was in order now original compositions by the young ladies Each in her turn stepped forward to the edge of the platform cleared her throat held up her manuscript tied with dainty ribbon and proceeded to read with labored attention to expression and punctuation The themes were the same that had been illuminated upon similar occasions by their mothers before them their grandmothers and doubtless all their ancestors in the female line clear back to the Crusades Friendship was one Memories of Other Days Religion in History Dream Land The Advantages of Culture Forms of Political Government Compared and Contrasted Melancholy Filial Love Heart Longings etc etc A prevalent feature in these compositions was a nursed and petted melancholy another was a wasteful and opulent gush of fine language another was a tendency to lug in by the ears particularly prized words and phrases until they were worn entirely out and a peculiarity that conspicuously marked and marred them was the inveterate and intolerable sermon that wagged its crippled tail at the end of each and every one of them No matter what the subject might be a brainracking effort was made to squirm it into some aspect or other that the moral and religious mind could contemplate with edification The glaring insincerity of these sermons was not sufficient to compass the banishment of the fashion from the schools and it is not sufficient to day it never will be sufficient while the world stands perhaps There is no school in all our land where the young ladies do not feel obliged to close their compositions with a sermon and you will find that the sermon of the most frivolous and least religious girl in the school is always the longest and the most relentlessly pious But enough of this Homely truth is unpalatable Let us return to the Examination The first composition that was read was one entitled Is this then Life Perhaps the reader can endure an extract from it In the common walks of life with what delightful emotions does the youthful mind look forward to some anticipated scene of festivity Imagination is busy sketching rose tinted pictures of joy In fancy the voluptuous votary of fashion sees herself amid the festive throng the observed of all observers Her graceful form arrayed in snowy robes is whirling through the mazes of the joyous dance her eye is brightest her step is lightest in the gay assembly In such delicious fancies time quickly glides by and the welcome hour arrives for her entrance into the elysian world of which she has had such bright dreams How fairy like does every thing appear to her enchanted vision Each new scene is more charming than the last But after a while she finds that beneath this goodly exterior all is vanity the flattery which once charmed her soul now grates harshly upon her ear the ball room has lost its charms and with wasted health and embittered heart she turns away with the conviction that earthly pleasures cannot satisfy the longings of the soul And so forth and so on There was a buzz of gratification from time to time during the reading accompanied by whispered ejaculations of How sweet How eloquent So true etc and after the thing had closed with a peculiarly afflicting sermon the applause was enthusiastic Then arose a slim melancholy girl whose face had the interesting paleness that comes of pills and indigestion and read a poem Two stanzas of it will do A MISSOURI MAIDENS FAREWELL TO ALABAMA ALABAMA good bye I love thee well But yet for awhile do I leave thee now Sad yes sad thoughts of thee my heart doth swell And burning recollections throng my brow For I have wandered through thy flowery woods Have roamed and read near Tallapoosas stream Have listened to Tallassees warring floods And wooed on Coosas side Auroras beam Yet shame I not to bear an oer full heart Nor blush to turn behind my tearful eyes Tis from no stranger land I now must part Tis to no strangers left I yield these sighs Welcome and home were mine within this State Whose vales I leave whose spires fade fast from me And cold must be mine eyes and heart and tete When dear Alabama they turn cold on thee There were very few there who knew what tete meant but the poem was very satisfactory nevertheless Next appeared a dark complexioned black eyed black haired young lady who paused an impressive moment assumed a tragic expression and began to read in a measured solemn tone A VISION Dark and tempestuous was night Around the throne on high not a single star quivered but the deep intonations of the heavy thunder constantly vibrated upon the ear whilst the terrific lightning revelled in angry mood through the cloudy chambers of heaven seeming to scorn the power exerted over its terror by the illustrious Franklin Even the boisterous winds unanimously came forth from their mystic homes and blustered about as if to enhance by their aid the wildness of the scene At such a time so dark so dreary for human sympathy my very spirit sighed but instead thereof My dearest friend my counsellor my comforter and guide My joy in grief my second bliss in joy came to my side She moved like one of those bright beings pictured in the sunny walks of fancys Eden by the romantic and young a queen of beauty unadorned save by her own transcendent loveliness So soft was her step it failed to make even a sound and but for the magical thrill imparted by her genial touch as other unobtrusive beauties she would have glided away unperceived unsought A strange sadness rested upon her features like icy tears upon the robe of December as she pointed to the contending elements without and bade me contemplate the two beings presented This nightmare occupied some ten pages of manuscript and wound up with a sermon so destructive of all hope to non Presbyterians that it took the first prize This composition was considered to be the very finest effort of the evening The mayor of the village in delivering the prize to the author of it made a warm speech in which he said that it was by far the most eloquent thing he had ever listened to and that Daniel Webster himself might well be proud of it It may be remarked in passing that the number of compositions in which the word beauteous was over fondled and human experience referred to as lifes page was up to the usual average Now the master mellow almost to the verge of geniality put his chair aside turned his back to the audience and began to draw a map of America on the blackboard to exercise the geography class upon But he made a sad business of it with his unsteady hand and a smothered titter rippled over the house He knew what the matter was and set himself to right it He sponged out lines and re made them but he only distorted them more than ever and the tittering was more pronounced He threw his entire attention upon his work now as if determined not to be put down by the mirth He felt that all eyes were fastened upon him he imagined he was succeeding and yet the tittering continued it even manifestly increased And well it might There was a garret above pierced with a scuttle over his head and down through this scuttle came a cat suspended around the haunches by a string she had a rag tied about her head and jaws to keep her from mewing as she slowly descended she curved upward and clawed at the string she swung downward and clawed at the intangible air The tittering rose higher and higher the cat was within six inches of the absorbed teachers head down down a little lower and she grabbed his wig with her desperate claws clung to it and was snatched up into the garret in an instant with her trophy still in her possession And how the light did blaze abroad from the masters bald pate for the sign painters boy had gilded it That broke up the meeting The boys were avenged Vacation had come Chapter Huck Finn Quotes Scripture TOM JOINED THE NEW ORDER of Cadets of Temperance being attracted by the showy character of their regalia He promised to abstain from smoking chewing and profanity as long as he remained a member Now he found out a new thing namely that to promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing Tom soon found himself tormented with a desire to drink and swear the desire grew to be so intense that nothing but the hope of a chance to display himself in his red sash kept him from withdrawing from the order Fourth of July was coming but he soon gave that up gave it up before he had worn his shackles over forty eight hours and fixed his hopes upon old Judge Frazer justice of the peace who was apparently on his death bed and would have a big public funeral since he was so high an official During three days Tom was deeply concerned about the judges condition and hungry for news of it Sometimes his hopes ran high so high that he would venture to get out his regalia and practice before the looking glass But the judge had a most discouraging way of fluctuating At last he was pronounced upon the mend and then convalescent Tom was disgusted and felt a sense of injury too He handed in his resignation at once and that night the judge suffered a relapse and died Tom resolved that he would never trust a man like that again The funeral was a fine thing The Cadets paraded in a style calculated to kill the late member with envy Tom was a free boy again however there was something in that He could drink and swear now but found to his surprise that he did not want to The simple fact that he could took the desire away and the charm of it Tom presently wondered to find that his coveted vacation was beginning to hang a little heavily on his hands He attempted a diary but nothing happened during three days and so he abandoned it The first of all the negro minstrel shows came to town and made a sensation Tom and Joe Harper got up a band of performers and were happy for two days Even the Glorious Fourth was in some sense a failure for it rained hard there was no procession in consequence and the greatest man in the world as Tom supposed Mr Benton an actual United States Senator proved an overwhelming disappointment for he was not twenty five feet high nor even anywhere in the neighborhood of it A circus came The boys played circus for three days afterward in tents made of rag carpeting admission three pins for boys two for girls and then circusing was abandoned A phrenologist and a mesmerizer came and went again and left the village duller and drearier than ever There were some boys and girls parties but they were so few and so delightful that they only made the aching voids between ache the harder Becky Thatcher was gone to her Constantinople home to stay with her parents during vacation so there was no bright side to life anywhere The dreadful secret of the murder was a chronic misery It was a very cancer for permanency and pain Then came the measles During two long weeks Tom lay a prisoner dead to the world and its happenings He was very ill he was interested in nothing When he got upon his feet at last and moved feebly down town a melancholy change had come over everything and every creature There had been a revival and everybody had got religion not only the adults but even the boys and girls Tom went about hoping against hope for the sight of one blessed sinful face but disappointment crossed him everywhere He found Joe Harper studying a Testament and turned sadly away from the depressing spectacle He sought Ben Rogers and found him visiting the poor with a basket of tracts He hunted up Jim Hollis who called his attention to the precious blessing of his late measles as a warning Every boy he encountered added another ton to his depression and when in desperation he flew for refuge at last to the bosom of Huckleberry Finn and was received with a scriptural quotation his heart broke and he crept home and to bed realizing that he alone of all the town was lost forever and forever And that night there came on a terrific storm with driving rain awful claps of thunder and blinding sheets of lightning He covered his head with the bedclothes and waited in a horror of suspense for his doom for he had not the shadow of a doubt that all this hubbub was about him He believed he had taxed the forbearance of the powers above to the extremity of endurance and that this was the result It might have seemed to him a waste of pomp and ammunition to kill a bug with a battery of artillery but there seemed nothing incongruous about the getting up such an expensive thunderstorm as this to knock the turf from under an insect like himself By and by the tempest spent itself and died without accomplishing its object The boys first impulse was to be grateful and reform His second was to wait for there might not be any more storms The next day the doctors were back Tom had relapsed The three weeks he spent on his back this time seemed an entire age When he got abroad at last he was hardly grateful that he had been spared remembering how lonely was his estate how companionless and forlorn he was He drifted listlessly down the street and found Jim Hollis acting as judge in a juvenile court that was trying a cat for murder in the presence of her victim a bird He found Joe Harper and Huck Finn up an alley eating a stolen melon Poor lads they like Tom had suffered a relapse Chapter The Salvation of Muff Potter AT LAST the sleepy atmosphere was stirred and vigorously the murder trial came on in the court It became the absorbing topic of village talk immediately Tom could not get away from it Every reference to the murder sent a shudder to his heart for his troubled conscience and fears almost persuaded him that these remarks were put forth in his hearing as feelers he did not see how he could be suspected of knowing anything about the murder but still he could not be comfortable in the midst of this gossip It kept him in a cold shiver all the time He took Huck to a lonely place to have a talk with him It would be some relief to unseal his tongue for a little while to divide his burden of distress with another sufferer Moreover he wanted to assure himself that Huck had remained discreet Huck have you ever told anybody about that Bout what You know what O course I havent Never a word Never a solitary word so help me What makes you ask Well I was afeard Why Tom Sawyer we wouldnt be alive two days if that got found out You know that Tom felt more comfortable After a pause Huck they couldnt anybody get you to tell could they Get me to tell Why if I wanted that half breed devil to drownd me they could get me to tell They aint no different way Well thats all right then I reckon were safe as long as we keep mum But lets swear again anyway Its more surer Im agreed So they swore again with dread solemnities What is the talk around Huck Ive heard a power of it Talk Well its just Muff Potter Muff Potter Muff Potter all the time It keeps me in a sweat constant sos I want to hide somers Thats just the same way they go on round me I reckon hes a goner Dont you feel sorry for him sometimes Most always most always He aint no account but then he haint ever done anything to hurt anybody Just fishes a little to get money to get drunk on and loafs around considerable but lord we all do that leastways most of us preachers and such like But hes kind of good he give me half a fish once when there warnt enough for two and lots of times hes kind of stood by me when I was out of luck Well hes mended kites for me Huck and knitted hooks on to my line I wish we could get him out of there My we couldnt get him out Tom And besides It wouldnt do any good theyd ketch him again Yes so they would But I hate to hear em abuse him so like the dickens when he never done that I do too Tom Lord I hear em say hes the bloodiest looking villain in this country and they wonder he wasnt ever hung before Yes they talk like that all the time Ive heard em say that if he was to get free theyd lynch him And theyd do it too The boys had a long talk but it brought them little comfort As the twilight drew on they found themselves hanging about the neighborhood of the little isolated jail perhaps with an undefined hope that something would happen that might clear away their difficulties But nothing happened there seemed to be no angels or fairies interested in this luckless captive The boys did as they had often done before went to the cell grating and gave Potter some tobacco and matches He was on the ground floor and there were no guards His gratitude for their gifts had always smote their consciences before it cut deeper than ever this time They felt cowardly and treacherous to the last degree when Potter said Youve ben mighty good to me boys bettern anybody else in this town And I dont forget it I dont Often I says to myself says I I used to mend all the boys kites and things and show em where the good fishin places was and befriend em what I could and now theyve all forgot old Muff when hes in trouble but Tom dont and Huck dont they dont forget him says I and I dont forget them Well boys I done an awful thing drunk and crazy at the time thats the only way I account for it and now I got to swing for it and its right Right and best too I reckon hope so anyway Well we wont talk about that I dont want to make you feel bad youve befriended me But what I want to say is dont you ever get drunk then you wont ever get here Stand a little furder west so thats it its a prime comfort to see faces thats friendly when a bodys in such a muck of trouble and there dont none come here but yourn Good friendly faces good friendly faces Git up on one anothers backs and let me touch em Thats it Shake hands yournll come through the bars but mines too big Little hands and weak but theyve helped Muff Potter a power and theyd help him more if they could Tom went home miserable and his dreams that night were full of horrors The next day and the day after he hung about the court room drawn by an almost irresistible impulse to go in but forcing himself to stay out Huck was having the same experience They studiously avoided each other Each wandered away from time to time but the same dismal fascination always brought them back presently Tom kept his ears open when idlers sauntered out of the courtroom but invariably heard distressing news the toils were closing more and more relentlessly around poor Potter At the end of the second day the village talk was to the effect that Injun Joes evidence stood firm and unshaken and that there was not the slightest question as to what the jurys verdict would be Tom was out late that night and came to bed through the window He was in a tremendous state of excitement It was hours before he got to sleep All the village flocked to the courthouse the next morning for this was to be the great day Both sexes were about equally represented in the packed audience After a long wait the jury filed in and took their places shortly afterward Potter pale and haggard timid and hopeless was brought in with chains upon him and seated where all the curious eyes could stare at him no less conspicuous was Injun Joe stolid as ever There was another pause and then the judge arrived and the sheriff proclaimed the opening of the court The usual whisperings among the lawyers and gathering together of papers followed These details and accompanying delays worked up an atmosphere of preparation that was as impressive as it was fascinating Now a witness was called who testified that he found Muff Potter washing in the brook at an early hour of the morning that the murder was discovered and that he immediately sneaked away After some further questioning counsel for the prosecution said Take the witness The prisoner raised his eyes for a moment but dropped them again when his own counsel said I have no questions to ask him The next witness proved the finding of the knife near the corpse Counsel for the prosecution said Take the witness I have no questions to ask him Potters lawyer replied A third witness swore he had often seen the knife in Potters possession Take the witness Counsel for Potter declined to question him The faces of the audience began to betray annoyance Did this attorney mean to throw away his clients life without an effort Several witnesses deposed concerning Potters guilty behavior when brought to the scene of the murder They were allowed to leave the stand without being cross questioned Every detail of the damaging circumstances that occurred in the graveyard upon that morning which all present remembered so well was brought out by credible witnesses but none of them were cross examined by Potters lawyer The perplexity and dissatisfaction of the house expressed itself in murmurs and provoked a reproof from the bench Counsel for the prosecution now said By the oaths of citizens whose simple word is above suspicion we have fastened this awful crime beyond all possibility of question upon the unhappy prisoner at the bar We rest our case here A groan escaped from poor Potter and he put his face in his hands and rocked his body softly to and fro while a painful silence reigned in the courtroom Many men were moved and many womens compassion testified itself in tears Counsel for the defense rose and said Your honor in our remarks at the opening of this trial we foreshadowed our purpose to prove that our client did this fearful deed while under the influence of a blind and irresponsible delirium produced by drink We have changed our mind We shall not offer that plea Then to the clerk Call Thomas Sawyer A puzzled amazement awoke in every face in the house not even excepting Potters Every eye fastened itself with wondering interest upon Tom as he rose and took his place upon the stand The boy looked wild enough for he was badly scared The oath was administered Thomas Sawyer where were you on the seventeenth of June about the hour of midnight Tom glanced at Injun Joes iron face and his tongue failed him The audience listened breathless but the words refused to come After a few moments however the boy got a little of his strength back and managed to put enough of it into his voice to make part of the house hear In the graveyard A little bit louder please Dont be afraid You were In the graveyard A contemptuous smile flitted across Injun Joes face Were you anywhere near Horse Williamss grave Yes sir Speak up just a trifle louder How near were you Near as I am to you Were you hidden or not I was hid Where Behind the elms thats on the edge of the grave Injun Joe gave a barely perceptible start Any one with you Yes sir I went there with Wait wait a moment Never mind mentioning your companions name We will produce him at the proper time Did you carry anything there with you Tom hesitated and looked confused Speak out my boy dont be diffident The truth is always respectable What did you take there Only a a dead cat There was a ripple of mirth which the court checked We will produce the skeleton of that cat Now my boy tell us everything that occurred tell it in your own way dont skip anything and dont be afraid Tom began hesitatingly at first but as he warmed to his subject his words flowed more and more easily in a little while every sound ceased but his own voice every eye fixed itself upon him with parted lips and bated breath the audience hung upon his words taking no note of time rapt in the ghastly fascinations of the tale The strain upon pent emotion reached its climax when the boy said and as the doctor fetched the board around and Muff Potter fell Injun Joe jumped with the knife and Crash Quick as lightning the half breed sprang for a window tore his way through all opposers and was gone Chapter Splendid Days and Fearsome Nights TOM WAS A GLITTERING HERO once more the pet of the old the envy of the young His name even went into immortal print for the village paper magnified him There were some that believed he would be President yet if he escaped hanging As usual the fickle unreasoning world took Muff Potter to its bosom and fondled him as lavishly as it had abused him before But that sort of conduct is to the worlds credit therefore it is not well to find fault with it Toms days were days of splendor and exultation to him but his nights were seasons of horror Injun Joe infested all his dreams and always with doom in his eye Hardly any temptation could persuade the boy to stir abroad after nightfall Poor Huck was in the same state of wretchedness and terror for Tom had told the whole story to the lawyer the night before the great day of the trial and Huck was sore afraid that his share in the business might leak out yet notwithstanding Injun Joes flight had saved him the suffering of testifying in court The poor fellow had got the attorney to promise secrecy but what of that Since Toms harassed conscience had managed to drive him to the lawyers house by night and wring a dread tale from lips that had been sealed with the dismalest and most formidable of oaths Hucks confidence in the human race was well nigh obliterated Daily Muff Potters gratitude made Tom glad he had spoken but nightly he wished he had sealed up his tongue Half the time Tom was afraid Injun Joe would never be captured the other half he was afraid he would be He felt sure he never could draw a safe breath again until that man was dead and he had seen the corpse Rewards had been offered the country had been scoured but no Injun Joe was found One of those omniscient and awe inspiring marvels a detective came up from St Louis moused around shook his head looked wise and made that sort of astounding success which members of that craft usually achieve That is to say he found a clue But you cant hang a clue for murder and so after that detective had got through and gone home Tom felt just as insecure as he was before The slow days drifted on and each left behind it a slightly lightened weight of apprehension Chapter Seeking the Buried Treasure THERE COMES A TIME in every rightly constructed boys life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure This desire suddenly came upon Tom one day He sallied out to find Joe Harper but failed of success Next he sought Ben Rogers he had gone fishing Presently he stumbled upon Huck Finn the Red Handed Huck would answer Tom took him to a private place and opened the matter to him confidentially Huck was willing Huck was always willing to take a hand in any enterprise that offered entertainment and required no capital for he had a troublesome superabundance of that sort of time which is not money Wherell we dig said Huck O most anywhere Why is it hid all around No indeed it aint Its hid in mighty particular places Huck sometimes on islands sometimes in rotten chests under the end of a limb of an old dead tree just where the shadow falls at midnight but mostly under the floor in hanted houses Who hides it Why robbers of course whod you reckon Sunday school suprintendents I dont know If twas mine I wouldnt hide it Id spend it and have a good time So would I But robbers dont do that way They always hide it and leave it there Dont they come after it any more No they think they will but they generally forget the marks or else they die Anyway it lays there a long time and gets rusty and by and by somebody finds an old yellow paper that tells how to find the marks a paper thats got to be ciphered over about a week because its mostly signs and hyrogliphics Hyro which Hyrogliphics pictures and things you know that dont seem to mean anything Have you got one of them papers Tom No Well then how you going to find the marks I dont want any marks They always bury it under a hanted house or on an island or under a dead tree thats got one limb sticking out Well weve tried Jacksons Island a little and we can try it again some time and theres the old hanted house up the Still House branch and theres lots of dead limb trees dead loads of em Is it under all of them How you talk No Then how you going to know which one to go for Go for all of em Why Tom itll take all summer Well what of that Suppose you find a brass pot with a hundred dollars in it all rusty and gray or a rotten chest full of dimonds Hows that Hucks eyes glowed Thats bully Plenty bully enough for me Just you gimme the hundred dollars and I dont want no dimonds All right But I bet you I aint going to throw off on dimonds Some of ems worth twenty dollars apiece there aint any hardly buts worth six bits or a dollar No Is that so Certnly anybodyll tell you so Haint you ever seen one Huck Not as I remember O kings have slathers of them Well I dont know no kings Tom I reckon you dont But if you was to go to Europe youd see a raft of em hopping around Do they hop Hop you granny No Well what did you say they did for Shucks I only meant youd see em not hopping of course what do they want to hop for but I mean youd just see em scattered around you know in a kind of a general way Like that old hump backed Richard Richard Whats his other name He didnt have any other name Kings dont have any but a given name No But they dont Well if they like it Tom all right but I dont want to be a king and have only just a given name like a nigger But say where you going to dig first Well I dont know Spose we tackle that old dead limb tree on the hill tother side of Still House branch So they got a crippled pick and a shovel and set out on their three mile tramp They arrived hot and panting and threw themselves down in the shade of a neighboring elm to rest and have a smoke I like this said Tom So do I Say Huck if we find a treasure here what you going to do with your share Well Ill have pie and a glass of soda every day and Ill go to every circus that comes along I bet Ill have a gay time Well aint you going to save any of it Save it What for Why so as to have something to live on by and by O that aint any use Pap would come back to thish yer town some day and get his claws on it if I didnt hurry up and I tell you hed clean it out pretty quick What you going to do with yourn Tom Im going to buy a new drum and a sure nough sword and a red neck tie and a bull pup and get married Married Thats it Tom you why you aint in your right mind Wait youll see Well thats the foolishest thing you could do Tom Look at pap and my mother Fight Why they used to fight all the time I remember mighty well That aint anything The girl Im going to marry wont fight Tom I reckon theyre all alike Theyll all comb a body Now you better think bout this a while I tell you you better Whats the name of the gal It aint a gal at all its a girl Its all the same I reckon some says gal some says girl boths right like enough Anyway whats her name Tom Ill tell you some time not now All right thatll do Only if you get married Ill be more lonesomer than ever No you wont Youll come and live with me Now stir out of this and well go to digging They worked and sweated for half an hour No result They toiled another half hour Still no result Huck said Do they always bury it as deep as this Sometimes not always Not generally I reckon we havent got the right place So they chose a new spot and began again The labor dragged a little but still they made progress They pegged away in silence for some time Finally Huck leaned on his shovel swabbed the beaded drops from his brow with his sleeve and said Where you going to dig next after we get this one I reckon maybe well tackle the old tree thats over yonder on Cardiff Hill back of the widows I reckon thatll be a good one But wont the widow take it away from us Tom Its on her land She take it away Maybe shed like to try it once Whoever finds one of these hid treasures it belongs to him It dont make any difference whose land its on That was satisfactory The work went on By and by Huck said Blame it we must be in the wrong place again What do you think It is mighty curious Huck I dont understand it Sometimes witches interfere I reckon maybe thats whats the trouble now Shucks witches aint got no power in the daytime Well thats so I didnt think of that Oh I know what the matter is What a blamed lot of fools we are You got to find out where the shadow of the limb falls at midnight and thats where you dig Then consound it weve fooled away all this work for nothing Now hang it all we got to come back in the night Its an awful long way Can you get out I bet I will Weve got to do it to night too because if somebody sees these holes theyll know in a minute whats here and theyll go for it Well Ill come around and meow to night All right Lets hide the tools in the bushes The boys were there that night about the appointed time They sat in the shadow waiting It was a lonely place and an hour made solemn by old traditions Spirits whispered in the rustling leaves ghosts lurked in the murky nooks the deep baying of a hound floated up out of the distance an owl answered with his sepulchral note The boys were subdued by these solemnities and talked little By and by they judged that twelve had come they marked where the shadow fell and began to dig Their hopes commenced to rise Their interest grew stronger and their industry kept pace with it The hole deepened and still deepened but every time their hearts jumped to hear the pick strike upon something they only suffered a new disappointment It was only a stone or a chunk At last Tom said It aint any use Huck were wrong again Well but we cant be wrong We spotted the shadder to a dot I know it but then theres another thing Whats that Why we only guessed at the time Like enough it was too late or too early Huck dropped his shovel Thats it said he Thats the very trouble We got to give this one up We cant ever tell the right time and besides this kind of things too awful here this time of night with witches and ghosts a fluttering around so I feel as if somethings behind me all the time and Im afeard to turn around becuz maybe theres others in front a waiting for a chance I been creeping all over ever since I got here Well Ive been pretty much so too Huck They most always put in a dead man when they bury a treasure under a tree to look out for it Lordy Yes they do Ive always heard that Tom I dont like to fool around much where theres dead people A bodys bound to get into trouble with em sure I dont like to stir em up either Huck Spose this one here was to stick his skull out and say something Dont Tom Its awful Well it just is Huck I dont feel comfortable a bit Say Tom lets give this place up and try somewheres else All right I reckon we better Whatll it be Tom considered a while and then said The hanted house Thats it Blame it I dont like hanted houses Tom Why theyre a dem sight worsen dead people Dead people might talk maybe but they dont come sliding around in a shroud when you aint noticing and peep over your shoulder all of a sudden and grit their teeth the way a ghost does I couldnt stand such a thing as that Tom nobody could Yes but Huck ghosts dont travel around only at night They wont hender us from digging there in the daytime Well thats so But you know mighty well people dont go about that hanted house in the day nor the night Well thats mostly because they dont like to go where a mans been murdered anyway but nothings ever been seen around that house except in the night just some blue lights slipping by the windows no regular ghosts Well where you see one of them blue lights flickering around Tom you can bet theres a ghost mighty close behind it It stands to reason Becuz you know that they dont anybody but ghosts use em Yes thats so But anyway they dont come around in the daytime so whats the use of our being afeared Well all right Well tackle the hanted house if you say so but I reckon its taking chances They had started down the hill by this time There in the middle of the moonlit valley below them stood the hanted house utterly isolated its fences gone long ago rank weeds smothering the very doorsteps the chimney crumbled to ruin the window sashes vacant a corner of the roof caved in The boys gazed a while half expecting to see a blue light flit past a window then talking in a low tone as befitted the time and the circumstances they struck far off to the right to give the haunted house a wide berth and took their way homeward through the woods that adorned the rearward side of Cardiff Hill Chapter Real Robbers Seize the Box of Gold ABOUT NOON THE NEXT DAY the boys arrived at the dead tree they had come for their tools Tom was impatient to go to the haunted house Huck was measurably so also but suddenly said Looky here Tom do you know what day it is Tom mentally ran over the days of the week and then quickly lifted his eyes with a startled look in them My I never once thought of it Huck Well I didnt neither but all at once it popped onto me that it was Friday Blame it a body cant be too careful Huck We might a got into an awful scrape tackling such a thing on a Friday Might Better say we would Theres some lucky days maybe but Friday aint Any fool knows that I dont reckon you was the first that found it out Huck Well I never said I was did I And Friday aint all neither I had a rotten bad dream last night dreampt about rats No Sure sign of trouble Did they fight No Well thats good Huck When they dont fight its only a sign that theres trouble around you know All we got to do is to look mighty sharp and keep out of it Well drop this thing for to day and play Do you know Robin Hood Huck No Whos Robin Hood Why he was one of the greatest men that was ever in England and the best He was a robber Cracky I wisht I was Who did he rob Only sheriffs and bishops and rich people and kings and such like But he never bothered the poor He loved em He always divided up with em perfectly square Well he must a ben a brick I bet you he was Huck Oh he was the noblest man that ever was They aint any such men now I can tell you He could lick any man in England with one hand tied behind him and he could take his yew bow and plug a ten cent piece every time a mile and a half Whats a yew bow I dont know Its some kind of a bow of course And if he hit that dime only on the edge he would set down and cry and curse But well play Robin Hood its noble fun Ill learn you Im agreed So they played Robin Hood all the afternoon now and then casting a yearning eye down upon the haunted house and passing a remark about the morrows prospects and possibilities there As the sun began to sink into the west they took their way homeward athwart the long shadows of the trees and soon were buried from sight in the forests of Cardiff Hill On Saturday shortly after noon the boys were at the dead tree again They had a smoke and a chat in the shade and then dug a little in their last hole not with great hope but merely because Tom said there were so many cases where people had given up a treasure after getting down within six inches of it and then somebody else had come along and turned it up with a single thrust of a shovel The thing failed this time however so the boys shouldered their tools and went away feeling that they had not trifled with fortune but had fulfilled all the requirements that belong to the business of treasure hunting When they reached the haunted house there was something so weird and grisly about the dead silence that reigned there under the baking sun and something so depressing about the loneliness and desolation of the place that they were afraid for a moment to venture in Then they crept to the door and took a trembling peep They saw a weed grown floorless room unplastered an ancient fireplace vacant windows a ruinous staircase and here there and everywhere hung ragged and abandoned cobwebs They presently entered softly with quickened pulses talking in whispers ears alert to catch the slightest sound and muscles tense and ready for instant retreat In a little while familiarity modified their fears and they gave the place a critical and interested examination rather admiring their own boldness and wondering at it too Next they wanted to look upstairs This was something like cutting off retreat but they got to daring each other and of course there could be but one result they threw their tools into a corner and made the ascent Up there were the same signs of decay In one corner they found a closet that promised mystery but the promise was a fraud there was nothing in it Their courage was up now and well in hand They were about to go down and begin work when Sh said Tom What is it whispered Huck blanching with fright Sh There Hear it Yes O my Lets run Keep still Dont you budge Theyre coming right toward the door The boys stretched themselves upon the floor with their eyes to knot holes in the planking and lay waiting in a misery of fear Theyve stopped No coming Here they are Dont whisper another word Huck My goodness I wish I was out of this Two men entered Each boy said to himself Theres the old deaf and dumb Spaniard thats been about town once or twice lately never saw tother man before Tother was a ragged unkempt creature with nothing very pleasant in his face The Spaniard was wrapped in a serape he had bushy white whiskers long white hair flowed from under his sombrero and he wore green goggles When they came in tother was talking in a low voice they sat down on the ground facing the door with their backs to the wall and the speaker continued his remarks His manner became less guarded and his words more distinct as he proceeded No said he Ive thought it all over and I dont like it Its dangerous Dangerous grunted the deaf and dumb Spaniard to the vast surprise of the boys Milksop This voice made the boys gasp and quake It was Injun Joes There was silence for some time Then Joe said Whats any more dangerous than that job up yonder but nothings come of it Thats different Away up the river so and not another house about Twont ever be known that we tried anyway long as we didnt succeed Well whats more dangerous than coming here in the day time anybody would suspicion us that saw us I know that But there warnt any other place as handy after that fool of a job I want to quit this shanty I wanted to yesterday only it warnt any use trying to stir out of here with those infernal boys playing over there on the hill right in full view Those infernal boys quaked again under the inspiration of this remark and thought how lucky it was that they had remembered it was Friday and concluded to wait a day They wished in their hearts they had waited a year The two men got out some food and made a luncheon After a long and thoughtful silence Injun Joe said Look here lad you go back up the river where you belong Wait there till you hear from me Ill take the chances on dropping into this town just once more for a look Well do that dangerous job after Ive spied around a little and think things look well for it Then for Texas Well leg it together This was satisfactory Both men presently fell to yawning and Injun Joe said Im dead for sleep Its your turn to watch He curled down in the weeds and soon began to snore His comrade stirred him once or twice and he became quiet Presently the watcher began to nod his head drooped lower and lower both men began to snore now The boys drew a long grateful breath Tom whispered Nows our chance come Huck said I cant Id die if they was to wake Tom urged Huck held back At last Tom rose slowly and softly and started alone But the first step he made wrung such a hideous creak from the crazy floor that he sank down almost dead with fright He never made a second attempt The boys lay there counting the dragging moments till it seemed to them that time must be done and eternity growing gray and then they were grateful to note that at last the sun was setting Now one snore ceased Injun Joe sat up stared around smiled grimly upon his comrade whose head was drooping upon his knees stirred him up with his foot and said Here Youre a watchman aint you All right though nothings happened My have I been asleep O partly partly Nearly time for us to be moving pard Whatll we do with what little swag weve got left I dont know leave it here as weve always done I reckon No use to take it away till we start south Six hundred and fifty in silvers something to carry Well all right it wont matter to come here once more No but Id say come in the night as we used to do its better Yes but look here it may be a good while before I get the right chance at that job accidents might happen taint in such a very good place well just regularly bury it and bury it deep Good idea said the comrade who walked across the room knelt down raised one of the rearward hearthstones and took out a bag that jingled pleasantly He subtracted from it twenty or thirty dollars for himself and as much for Injun Joe and passed the bag to the latter who was on his knees in the corner now digging with his bowie knife The boys forgot all their fears all their miseries in an instant With gloating eyes they watched every movement Luck the splendor of it was beyond all imagination Six hundred dollars was money enough to make half a dozen boys rich Here was treasure hunting under the happiest auspices there would not be any bothersome uncertainty as to where to dig They nudged each other every moment eloquent nudges and easily understood for they simply meant O but aint you glad now were here Joes knife struck upon something Hello said he What is it said his comrade Half rotten plank no its a box I believe Here bear a hand and well see what its here for Never mind Ive broke a hole He reached his hand in and drew it out Man its money The two men examined the handful of coins They were gold The boys above were as excited as themselves and as delighted Joes comrade said Well make quick work of this Theres an old rusty pick over amongst the weeds in the corner the other side of the fire place I saw it a minute ago He ran and brought the boys pick and shovel Injun Joe took the pick looked it over critically shook his head muttered something to himself and then began to use it The box was soon unearthed It was not very large it was iron bound and had been very strong before the slow years had injured it The men contemplated the treasure a while in blissful silence Pard theres thousands of dollars here said Injun Joe Twas always said that Murrels gang used around here one summer the stranger observed I know it said Injun Joe and this looks like it I should say Now you wont need to do that job The half breed frowned Said he You dont know me Least you dont know all about that thing Taint robbery altogether its revenge and a wicked light flamed in his eyes Ill need your help in it When its finished then Texas Go home to your Nance and your kids and stand by till you hear from me Well if you say so whatll we do with this bury it again Yes Ravishing delight overhead No by the great Sachem no Profound distress overhead Id nearly forgot That pick had fresh earth on it The boys were sick with terror in a moment What business has a pick and a shovel here What business with fresh earth on them Who brought them here and where are they gone Have you heard anybody seen anybody What bury it again and leave them to come and see the ground disturbed Not exactly not exactly Well take it to my den Why of course Might have thought of that before You mean Number One No Number Two under the cross The other place is bad too common All right Its nearly dark enough to start Injun Joe got up and went about from window to window cautiously peeping out Presently he said Who could have brought those tools here Do you reckon they can be upstairs The boys breath forsook them Injun Joe put his hand on his knife halted a moment undecided and then turned toward the stairway The boys thought of the closet but their strength was gone The steps came creaking up the stairs the intolerable distress of the situation woke the stricken resolution of the lads they were about to spring for the closet when there was a crash of rotten timbers and Injun Joe landed on the ground amid the debris of the ruined stairway He gathered himself up cursing and his comrade said Now whats the use of all that If its anybody and theyre up there let them stay there who cares If they want to jump down now and get into trouble who objects It will be dark in fifteen minutes and then let them follow us if they want to Im willing In my opinion whoever hove those things in here caught a sight of us and took us for ghosts or devils or something Ill bet theyre running yet Joe grumbled a while then he agreed with his friend that what daylight was left ought to be economized in getting things ready for leaving Shortly afterward they slipped out of the house in the deepening twilight and moved toward the river with their precious box Tom and Huck rose up weak but vastly relieved and stared after them through the chinks between the logs of the house Follow Not they They were content to reach ground again without broken necks and take the townward track over the hill They did not talk much They were too much absorbed in hating themselves hating the ill luck that made them take the spade and the pick there But for that Injun Joe never would have suspected He would have hidden the silver with the gold to wait there till his revenge was satisfied and then he would have had the misfortune to find that money turn up missing Bitter bitter luck that the tools were ever brought there They resolved to keep a lookout for that Spaniard when he should come to town spying out for chances to do his revengeful job and follow him to Number Two wherever that might be Then a ghastly thought occurred to Tom Revenge What if he means us Huck O dont said Huck nearly fainting They talked it all over and as they entered town they agreed to believe that he might possibly mean somebody else at least that he might at least mean nobody but Tom since only Tom had testified Very very small comfort it was to Tom to be alone in danger Company would be a palpable improvement he thought Chapter Trembling on the Trail THE ADVENTURE OF THE DAY mightily tormented Toms dreams that night Four times he had his hands on that rich treasure and four times it wasted to nothingness in his fingers as sleep forsook him and wakefulness brought back the hard reality of his misfortune As he lay in the early morning recalling the incidents of his great adventure he noticed that they seemed curiously subdued and far away somewhat as if they had happened in another world or in a time long gone by Then it occurred to him that the great adventure itself must be a dream There was one very strong argument in favor of this idea namely that the quantity of coin he had seen was too vast to be real He had never seen as much as fifty dollars in one mass before and he was like all boys of his age and station in life in that he imagined that all references to hundreds and thousands were mere fanciful forms of speech and that no such sums really existed in the world He never had supposed for a moment that so large a sum as a hundred dollars was to be found in actual money in anyones possession If his notions of hidden treasure had been analyzed they would have been found to consist of a handful of real dimes and a bushel of vague splendid ungraspable dollars But the incidents of his adventure grew sensibly sharper and clearer under the attrition of thinking them over and so he presently found himself leaning to the impression that the thing might not have been a dream after all This uncertainty must be swept away He would snatch a hurried breakfast and go and find Huck Huck was sitting on the gunwale of a flatboat listlessly dangling his feet in the water and looking very melancholy Tom concluded to let Huck lead up to the subject If he did not do it then the adventure would be proved to have been only a dream Hello Huck Hello yourself Silence for a minute Tom if wed a left the blame tools at the dead tree wed a got the money O aint it awful Taint a dream then taint a dream Somehow I most wish it was Dogd if I dont Huck What aint a dream O that thing yesterday I been half thinking it was Dream If them stairs hadnt broke down youd a seen how much dream it was Ive had dreams enough all night with that patch eyed Spanish devil going for me all through em rot him No not rot him Find him Track the money Tom well never find him A feller dont have only one chance for such a pile and that ones lost Id feel mighty shaky if I was to see him anyway Well sod I but Id like to see him anyway and track him out to his Number Two Number Two yes thats it I ben thinking bout that But I cant make nothing out of it What do you reckon it is I dono Its too deep Say Huck maybe its the number of a house Goody No Tom that aint it If it is it aint in this onehorse town They aint no numbers here Well thats so Lemme think a minute Here its the number of a room in a tavern you know O thats the trick They aint only two taverns We can find out quick You stay here Huck till I come Tom was off at once He did not care to have Hucks company in public places He was gone half an hour He found that in the best tavern No had long been occupied by a young lawyer and was still so occupied In the less ostentatious house No was a mystery The tavern keepers young son said it was kept locked all the time and he never saw anybody go into it or come out of it except at night he did not know any particular reason for this state of things had had some little curiosity but it was rather feeble had made the most of the mystery by entertaining himself with the idea that that room was hanted had noticed that there was a light in there the night before Thats what Ive found out Huck I reckon thats the very No were after I reckon it is Tom Now what you going to do Lemme think Tom thought a long time Then he said Ill tell you The back door of that No is the door that comes out into that little close alley between the tavern and the old rattle trap of a brick store Now you get hold of all the door keys you can find and Ill nip all of Aunties and the first dark night well go there and try em And mind you keep a lookout for Injun Joe because he said he was going to drop into town and spy around once more for a chance to get his revenge If you see him you just follow him and if he dont go to that No that aint the place Lordy I dont want to foller him by myself Why itll be night sure He mightnt ever see you and if he did maybe hed never think anything Well if its pretty dark I reckon Ill track him I dono I dono Ill try You bet Ill follow him if its dark Huck Why he might a found out he couldnt get his revenge and be going right after that money Its so Tom its so Ill foller him I will by jingoes Now youre talking Dont you ever weaken Huck and I wont Chapter In the Lair of Injun Joe THAT NIGHT Tom and Huck were ready for their adventure They hung about the neighborhood of the tavern until after nine one watching the alley at a distance and the other the tavern door Nobody entered the alley or left it nobody resembling the Spaniard entered or left the tavern door The night promised to be a fair one so Tom went home with the understanding that if a considerable degree of darkness came on Huck was to come and meow whereupon he would slip out and try the keys But the night remained clear and Huck closed his watch and retired to bed in an empty sugar hogshead about twelve Tuesday the boys had the same ill luck Also Wednesday But Thursday night promised better Tom slipped out in good season with his aunts old tin lantern and a large towel to blindfold it with He hid the lantern in Hucks sugar hogshead and the watch began An hour before midnight the tavern closed up and its lights the only ones thereabouts were put out No Spaniard had been seen Nobody had entered or left the alley Everything was auspicious The blackness of darkness reigned the perfect stillness was interrupted only by occasional mutterings of distant thunder Tom got his lantern lit it in the hogshead wrapped it closely in the towel and the two adventurers crept in the gloom toward the tavern Huck stood sentry and Tom felt his way into the alley Then there was a season of waiting anxiety that weighed upon Hucks spirits like a mountain He began to wish he could see a flash from the lantern it would frighten him but it would at least tell him that Tom was alive yet It seemed hours since Tom had disappeared Surely he must have fainted maybe he was dead maybe his heart had burst under terror and excitement In his uneasiness Huck found himself drawing closer and closer to the alley fearing all sorts of dreadful things and momentarily expecting some catastrophe to happen that would take away his breath There was not much to take away for he seemed only able to inhale it by thimblefuls and his heart would soon wear itself out the way it was beating Suddenly there was a flash of light and Tom came tearing by him Run said he run for your life He neednt have repeated it once was enough Huck was making thirty or forty miles an hour before the repetition was uttered The boys never stopped till they reached the shed of a deserted slaughter house at the lower end of the village Just as they got within its shelter the storm burst and the rain poured down As soon as Tom got his breath he said Huck it was awful I tried two of the keys just as soft as I could but they seemed to make such a power of racket that I couldnt hardly get my breath I was so scared They wouldnt turn in the lock either Well without noticing what I was doing I took hold of the knob and open comes the door It warnt locked I hopped in and shook off the towel and great Caesars ghost What whatd you see Tom Huck I most stepped onto Injun Joes hand No Yes He was laying there sound asleep on the floor with his old patch on his eye and his arms spread out Lordy what did you do Did he wake up No never budged Drunk I reckon I just grabbed that towel and started Id never a thought of the towel I bet Well I would My aunt would make me mighty sick if I lost it Say Tom did you see that box Huck I didnt wait to look around I didnt see the box I didnt see the cross I didnt see anything but a bottle and a tin cup on the floor by Injun joe yes and I saw two barrels and lots more bottles in the room Dont you see now whats the matter with that hanted room How Why its with whisky Maybe all the Temperance Taverns have got a hanted room hey Huck Well I reckon maybe thats so Whod a thought such a thing But say Tom nows a mighty good time to get that box if Injun joes drunk It is that You try it Huck shuddered Well no I reckon not And I reckon not Huck Only one bottle alongside of Injun Joe aint enough If thered been three hed be drunk enough and Id do it There was a long pause for reflection and then Tom said Looky here Huck less not try that thing any more till we know Injun Joes not in there Its too scary Now if we watch every night well be dead sure to see him go out some time or other and then well snatch that box quickern lightning Well Im agreed Ill watch the whole night long and Ill do it every night too if youll do the other part of the job All right I will All you got to do is to trot up Hooper street a block and meow and if Im asleep you throw some gravel at the window and thatll fetch me Agreed and good as wheat Now Huck the storms over and Ill go home Itll begin to be daylight in a couple of hours You go back and watch that long will you I said I would Tom and I will Ill hant that tavern every night for a year Ill sleep all day and Ill stand watch all night Thats all right Now where you going to sleep In Ben Rogerss hayloft He lets me and so does his paps nigger man Uncle Jake I tote water for Uncle Jake whenever he wants me to and anytime I ask him he gives me a little something to eat if he can spare it Thats a mighty good nigger Tom He likes me becuz I dont ever act as if I was above him Sometimes Ive set right down and eat with him But you neednt tell that A bodys got to do things when hes awful hungry he wouldnt want to do as a steady thing Well if I dont want you in the daytime Huck Ill let you sleep I wont come bothering around Any time you see somethings up in the night just skip right around and meow Chapter Huck Saves the Widow THE FIRST THING Tom heard on Friday morning was a glad piece of news Judge Thatchers family had come back to town the night before Both Injun Joe and the treasure sunk into secondary importance for a moment and Becky took the chief place in the boys interest He saw her and they had an exhausting good time playing hi spy and gully keeper with a crowd of their schoolmates The day was completed and crowned in a peculiarly satisfactory way Becky teased her mother to appoint the next day for the long promised and long delayed picnic and she consented The childs delight was boundless and Toms not more moderate The invitations were sent out before sunset and straightway the young folks of the village were thrown into a fever of preparation and pleasurable anticipation Toms excitement enabled him to keep awake until a pretty late hour and he had good hopes of hearing Hucks meow and of having his treasure to astonish Becky and the picnickers with next day but he was disappointed No signal came that night Morning came eventually and by ten or eleven oclock a giddy and rollicking company were gathered at Judge Thatchers and everything was ready for a start It was not the custom for elderly people to mar picnics with their presence The children were considered safe enough under the wings of a few young ladies of eighteen and a few young gentlemen of twenty three or thereabouts The old steam ferry boat was chartered for the occasion presently the gay throng filed up the main street laden with provision baskets Sid was sick and had to miss the fun Mary remained at home to entertain him The last thing Mrs Thatcher said to Becky was Youll not get back till late Perhaps youd better stay all night with some of the girls that live near the ferry landing child Then Ill stay with Susy Harper mamma Very well And mind and behave yourself and dont be any trouble Presently as they tripped along Tom said to Becky Say Ill tell you what well do Stead of going to Joe Harpers well climb right up the hill and stop at the Widow Douglass Shell have ice cream She has it most every day dead loads of it And shell be awful glad to have us O that will be fun Then Becky reflected a moment and said But what will mamma say Howll she ever know The girl turned the idea over in her mind and said reluctantly I reckon its wrong but But shucks Your mother wont know and so whats the harm All she wants is that youll be safe and I bet you shed a said go there if shed a thought of it I know she would The widow Douglass splendid hospitality was a tempting bait It and Toms persuasions presently carried the day So it was decided to say nothing to anybody about the nights programme Presently it occurred to Tom that maybe Huck might come this very night and give the signal The thought took a deal of the spirit out of his anticipations Still he could not bear to give up the fun at Widow Douglass And why should he give it up he reasoned the signal did not come the night before so why should it be any more likely to come to night The sure fun of the evening outweighed the uncertain treasure and boy like he determined to yield to the stronger inclination and not allow himself to think of the box of money another time that day Three miles below town the ferry boat stopped at the mouth of a woody hollow and tied up The crowd swarmed ashore and soon the forest distances and craggy heights echoed far and near with shoutings and laughter All the different ways of getting hot and tired were gone through with and by and by the rovers straggled back to camp fortified with responsible appetites and then the destruction of the good things began After the feast there was a refreshing season of rest and chat in the shade of spreading oaks By and by somebody shouted Whos ready for the cave Everybody was Bundles of candles were produced and straightway there was a general scamper up the hill The mouth of the cave was up the hillside an opening shaped like a letter A Its massive oaken door stood unbarred Within was a small chamber chilly as an ice house and walled by Nature with solid limestone that was dewy with a cold sweat It was romantic and mysterious to stand here in the deep gloom and look out upon the green valley shining in the sun But the impressiveness of the situation quickly wore off and the romping began again The moment a candle was lighted there was a general rush upon the owner of it a struggle and a gallant defense followed but the candle was soon knocked down or blown out and then there was a glad clamor of laughter and a new chase But all things have an end By and by the procession went filing down the steep descent of the main avenue the flickering rank of lights dimly revealing the lofty walls of rock almost to their point of junction sixty feet overhead This main avenue was not more than eight or ten feet wide Every few steps other lofty and still narrower crevices branched from it on either hand for McDougals cave was but a vast labyrinth of crooked aisles that ran into each other and out again and led nowhere It was said that one might wander days and nights together through its intricate tangle of rifts and chasms and never find the end of the cave and that he might go down and down and still down into the earth and it was just the same labyrinth underneath labyrinth and no end to any of them No man knew the cave That was an impossible thing Most of the young men knew a portion of it and it was not customary to venture much beyond this known portion Tom Sawyer knew as much of the cave as any one The procession moved along the main avenue some three quarters of a mile and then groups and couples began to slip aside into branch avenues fly along the dismal corridors and take each other by surprise at points where the corridors joined again Parties were able to elude each other for the space of half an hour without going beyond the known ground By and by one group after another came straggling back to the mouth of the cave panting hilarious smeared from head to foot with tallow drippings daubed with clay and entirely delighted with the success of the day Then they were astonished to find that they had been taking no note of time and that night was about at hand The clanging bell had been calling for half an hour However this sort of close to the days adventures was romantic and therefore satisfactory When the ferry boat with her wild freight pushed into the stream nobody cared sixpence for the wasted time but the captain of the craft Huck was already upon his watch when the ferry boats lights went glinting past the wharf He heard no noise on board for the young people were as subdued and still as people usually are who are nearly tired to death He wondered what boat it was and why she did not stop at the wharf and then he dropped her out of his mind and put his attention upon his business The night was growing cloudy and dark Ten oclock came and the noise of vehicles ceased scattered lights began to wink out all straggling foot passengers disappeared the village betook itself to its slumbers and left the small watcher alone with the silence and the ghosts Eleven oclock came and the tavern lights were put out darkness everywhere now Huck waited what seemed a weary long time but nothing happened His faith was weakening Was there any use Was there really any use Why not give it up and turn in A noise fell upon his ear He was all attention in an instant The alley door closed softly He sprang to the corner of the brick store The next moment two men brushed by him and one seemed to have something under his arm It must be that box So they were going to remove the treasure Why call Tom now It would be absurd the men would get away with the box and never be found again No he would stick to their wake and follow them he would trust to the darkness for security from discovery So communing with himself Huck stepped out and glided along behind the men cat like with bare feet allowing them to keep just far enough ahead not to be invisible They moved up the river street three blocks then turned to the left up a cross street They went straight ahead then until they came to the path that led up Cardiff Hill this they took They passed by the old Welchmans house half way up the hill without hesitating and still climbed upward Good thought Huck they will bury it in the old quarry But they never stopped at the quarry They passed on up the summit They plunged into the narrow path between the tall sumach bushes and were at once hidden in the gloom Huck closed up and shortened his distance now for they would never be able to see him He trotted along a while then slackened his pace fearing he was gaining too fast moved on a piece then stopped altogether listened no sound none save that he seemed to hear the beating of his own heart The hooting of an owl came from over the hill ominous sound But no footsteps Heavens was everything lost He was about to spring with winged feet when a man cleared his throat not four feet from him Hucks heart shot into his throat but he swallowed it again and then he stood there shaking as if a dozen agues had taken charge of him at once and so weak that he thought he must surely fall to the ground He knew where he was He knew he was within five steps of the stile leading into Widow Douglass grounds Very well he thought let them bury it there it wont be hard to find Now there was a voice a very low voice Injun Joes Damn her maybe shes got company theres lights late as it is I cant see any This was that strangers voice the stranger of the haunted house A deadly chill went to Hucks heart this then was the revenge job His thought was to fly Then he remembered that the Widow Douglas had been kind to him more than once and maybe these men were going to murder her He wished he dared venture to warn her but he knew he didnt dare they might come and catch him He thought all this and more in the moment that elapsed between the strangers remark and Injun Joes next which was Because the bush is in your way Now this way now you see dont you Yes Well there is company there I reckon Better give it up Give it up and I just leaving this country forever Give it up and maybe never have another chance I tell you again as Ive told you before I dont care for her swag you may have it But her husband was rough on me many times he was rough on me and mainly he was the justice of the peace that jugged me for a vagrant And that aint all It aint a millionth part of it He had me horsewhipped horsewhipped in front of the jail like a nigger with all the town looking on HORSEWHIPPED do you understand He took advantage of me and died But Ill take it out of her O dont kill her Dont do that Kill Who said anything about killing I would kill him if he was here but not her When you want to get revenge on a woman you dont kill her bosh you go for her looks You slit her nostrils you notch her ears like a sows By God thats Keep your opinion to yourself It will be safest for you Ill tie her to the bed If she bleeds to death is that my fault Ill not cry if she does My friend youll help in this thing for my sake thats why youre here I mightnt be able alone If you flinch Ill kill you Do you understand that And if I have to kill you Ill kill her and then I reckon nobodyll ever know much about who done this business Well if its got to be done lets get at it The quicker the better Im all in a shiver Do it now And company there Look here Ill get suspicious of you first thing you know No well wait till the lights are out theres no hurry Huck felt that a silence was going to ensue a thing still more awful than any amount of murderous talk so he held his breath and stepped gingerly back planted his foot carefully and firmly after balancing one legged in a precarious way and almost toppling over first on one side and then on the other He took another step back with the same elaboration and the same risks then another and another and a twig snapped under his foot His breath stopped and he listened There was no sound the stillness was perfect His gratitude was measureless Now he turned in his tracks between the walls of sumach bushes turned himself as carefully as if he were a ship and then stepped quickly but cautiously along When he emerged at the quarry he felt secure and so he picked up his nimble heels and flew Down down he sped till he reached the Welchmans He banged at the door and presently the heads of the old man and his two stalwart sons were thrust from windows Whats the row there Whos banging What do you want Let me in quick Ill tell everything Why who are you Huckleberry Finn quick let me in Huckleberry Finn indeed It aint a name to open many doors I judge But let him in lads and lets see whats the trouble Please dont ever tell I told you were Hucks first words when he got in Please dont Id be killed sure but the Widows been good friends to me sometimes and I want to tell I will tell if youll promise you wont ever say it was me By George he has got something to tell or he wouldnt act so exclaimed the old man out with it and nobody herell ever tell lad Three minutes later the old man and his sons well armed were up the hill and just entering the sumach path on tip toe their weapons in their hands Huck accompanied them no further He hid behind a great boulder and fell to listening There was a lagging anxious silence and then all of a sudden there was an explosion of firearms and a cry Huck waited for no particulars He sprang away and sped down the hill as fast as his legs could carry him Chapter Tom and Becky in the Cave THE EARLIEST SUSPICION of dawn appeared on Sunday morning Huck came groping up the hill and rapped gently at the old Welchmans door The inmates were asleep but it was a sleep that was set on a hair trigger on account of the exciting episode of the night A call came from a window Whos there Hucks scared voice answered in a low tone Please let me in Its only Huck Finn Its a name that can open this door night or day lad and welcome These were strange words to the vagabond boys ears and the pleasantest he had ever heard He could not recollect that the closing word had ever been applied in his case before The door was quickly locked and he entered Huck was given a seat and the old man and his brace of tall sons speedily dressed themselves Now my boy I hope youre good and hungry because breakfast will be ready as soon as the suns up and well have a piping hot one too make yourself easy about that I and the boys hoped youd turn up and stop here last night I was awful scared said Huck and I run I took out when the pistols went off and I didnt stop for three mile Ive come now becuz I wanted to know about it you know and I come before daylight becuz I didnt want to run acrost them devils even if they was dead Well poor chap you do look as if youd had a hard night of it but theres a bed here for you when youve had your breakfast No they aint dead lad we are sorry enough for that You see we knew right where to put our hands on them by your description so we crept along on tip toe till we got within fifteen feet of them dark as a cellar that sumach path was and just then I found I was going to sneeze It was the meanest kind of luck I tried to keep it back but no use twas bound to come and it did come I was in the lead with my pistol raised and when the sneeze started those scoundrels a rustling to get out of the path I sung out Fire boys and blazed away at the place where the rustling was So did the boys But they were off in a jiffy those villains and we after them down through the woods I judge we never touched them They fired a shot apiece as they started but their bullets whizzed by and didnt do us any harm As soon as we lost the sound of their feet we quit chasing and went down and stirred up the constables They got a posse together and went off to guard the river bank and as soon as it is light the sheriff and a gang are going to beat up the woods My boys will be with them presently I wish we had some sort of description of those rascals twould help a good deal But you couldnt see what they were like in the dark lad I suppose O yes I saw them down town and follered them Splendid Describe them describe them my boy Ones the old deaf and dumb Spaniard thats ben around here once or twice and tothers a mean looking ragged Thats enough lad we know the men Happened on them in the woods back of the widows one day and they slunk away Off with you boys and tell the sheriff get your breakfast to morrow morning The Welchmans sons departed at once As they were leaving the room Huck sprang up and exclaimed O please dont tell anybody it was me that blowed on them O please All right if you say it Huck but you ought to have the credit of what you did O no no Please dont tell When the young men were gone the old Welchman said They wont tell and I wont But why dont you want it known Huck would not explain further than to say that he already knew too much about one of those men and would not have the man know that he knew anything against him for the whole world he would be killed for knowing it sure The old man promised secrecy once more and said How did you come to follow these fellows lad Were they looking suspicious Huck was silent while he framed a duly cautious reply Then he said Well you see Im a kind of a hard lot least everybody says so and I dont see nothing agin it and sometimes I cant sleep much on accounts of thinking about it and sort of trying to strike out a new way of doing That was the way of it last night I couldnt sleep and so I come along up street bout midnight a turning it all over and when I got to that old shackly brick store by the Temperance Tavern I backed up agin the wall to have another think Well just then along comes these two chaps slipping along close by me with something under their arm and I reckoned theyd stole it One was a smoking and tother one wanted a light so they stopped right before me and the cigars lit up their faces and I see that the big one was the deaf and dumb Spaniard by his white whiskers and the patch on his eye and tother one was a rusty ragged looking devil Could you see the rags by the light of the cigars This staggered Huck for a moment Then he said Well I dont know but somehow it seems as if I did Then they went on and you Follered em yes That was it I wanted to see what was up they sneaked along so I dogged em to the widders stile and stood in the dark and heard the ragged one beg for the widder and the Spaniard swear hed spile her looks just as I told you and your two What The deaf and dumb man said all that Huck had made another terrible mistake He was trying his best to keep the old man from getting the faintest hint of who the Spaniard might be and yet his tongue seemed determined to get him into trouble in spite of all he could do He made several efforts to creep out of his scrape but the old mans eye was upon him and he made blunder after blunder Presently the Welchman said My boy dont be afraid of me I wouldnt hurt a hair of your head for all the world No Id protect you Id protect you This Spaniard is not deaf and dumb youve let that slip without intending it you cant cover that up now You know something about that Spaniard that you want to keep dark Now trust me tell me what it is and trust me I wont betray you Huck looked into the old mans honest eyes a moment then bent over and whispered in his ear Taint a Spaniard its Injun Joe The Welchman almost jumped out of his chair In a moment he said Its all plain enough now When you talked about notching ears and slitting noses I judged that that was your own embellishment because white men dont take that sort of revenge But an Injun Thats a different matter altogether During breakfast the talk went on and in the course of it the old man said that the last thing which he and his sons had done before going to bed was to get a lantern and examine the stile and its vicinity for marks of blood They found none but captured a bulky bundle of Of WHAT If the words had been lightning they could not have leaped with a more stunning suddenness from Hucks blanched lips His eyes were staring wide now and his breath suspended waiting for the answer The Welchman started stared in return three seconds five seconds ten then replied Of burglars tools Why whats the matter with you Huck sank back panting gently but deeply unutterably grateful The Welchman eyed him gravely curiously and presently said Yes burglars tools That appears to relieve you a good deal But what did give you that turn What were you expecting wed found Huck was in a close place the inquiring eye was upon him he would have given anything for material for a plausible answer nothing suggested itself the inquiring eye was boring deeper and deeper a senseless reply offered there was no time to weigh it so at a venture he uttered it feebly Sunday school books maybe Poor Huck was too distressed to smile but the old man laughed loud and joyously shook up the details of his anatomy from head to foot and ended by saying that such a laugh was money in a mans pocket because it cut down the doctors bills like everything Then he added Poor old chap youre white and jaded you aint well a bit no wonder youre a little flighty and off your balance But youll come out of it Rest and sleep will fetch you out all right I hope Huck was irritated to think he had been such a goose and betrayed such a suspicious excitement for he had dropped the idea that the parcel brought from the tavern was the treasure as soon as he had heard the talk at the widows stile He had only thought it was not the treasure however he had not known that it wasnt and so the suggestion of a captured bundle was too much for his self possession But on the whole he felt glad the little episode had happened for now he knew beyond all question that that bundle was not the bundle and so his mind was at rest and exceedingly comfortable In fact everything seemed to be drifting just in the right direction now the treasure must be still in No the men would be captured and jailed that day and he and Tom could seize the gold that night without any trouble or any fear of interruption Just as breakfast was completed there was a knock at the door Huck jumped for a hiding place for he had no mind to be connected even remotely with the late event The Welchman admitted several ladies and gentlemen among them the widow Douglas and noticed that groups of citizens were climbing up the hill to stare at the stile So the news had spread The Welchman had to tell the story of the night to the visitors The widows gratitude for her preservation was outspoken Dont say a word about it madam Theres another that youre more beholden to than you are to me and my boys maybe but he dont allow me to tell his name We wouldnt have been there but for him Of course this excited a curiosity so vast that it almost belittled the main matter but the Welchman allowed it to eat into the vitals of his visitors and through them be transmitted to the whole town for he refused to part with his secret When all else had been learned the widow said I went to sleep reading in bed and slept straight through all that noise Why didnt you come and wake me We judged it warnt worth while Those fellows warnt likely to come again they hadnt any tools left to work with and what was the use of waking you up and scaring you to death My three negro men stood guard at your house all the rest of the night Theyve just come back More visitors came and the story had to be told and re told for a couple of hours more There was no Sabbath school during day school vacation but everybody was early at church The stirring event was well canvassed News came that not a sign of the two villains had been yet discovered When the sermon was finished Judge Thatchers wife dropped alongside of Mrs Harper as she moved down the aisle with the crowd and said Is my Becky going to sleep all day I just expected she would be tired to death Your Becky Yes with a startled look didnt she stay with you last night Why no Mrs Thatcher turned pale and sank into a pew just as Aunt Polly talking briskly with a friend passed by Aunt Polly said Good morning Mrs Thatcher Good morning Mrs Harper Ive got a boy thats turned up missing I reckon my Tom staid at your house last night one of you And now hes afraid to come to church Ive got to settle with him Mrs Thatcher shook her head feebly and turned paler than ever He didnt stay with us said Mrs Harper beginning to look uneasy A marked anxiety came into Aunt Pollys face Joe Harper have you seen my Tom this morning Nom When did you see him last Joe tried to remember but was not sure he could say The people had stopped moving out of church Whispers passed along and a boding uneasiness took possession of every countenance Children were anxiously questioned and young teachers They all said they had not noticed whether Tom and Becky were on board the ferry boat on the homeward trip it was dark no one thought of inquiring if any one was missing One young man finally blurted out his fear that they were still in the cave Mrs Thatcher swooned away Aunt Polly fell to crying and wringing her hands The alarm swept from lip to lip from group to group from street to street and within five minutes the bells were wildly clanging and the whole town was up The Cardiff Hill episode sank into instant insignificance the burglars were forgotten horses were saddled skiffs were manned the ferry boat ordered out and before the horror was half an hour old two hundred men were pouring down high road and river toward the cave All the long afternoon the village seemed empty and dead Many women visited Aunt Polly and Mrs Thatcher and tried to comfort them They cried with them too and that was still better than words All the tedious night the town waited for news but when the morning dawned at last all the word that came was Send more candles and send food Mrs Thatcher was almost crazed and Aunt Polly also Judge Thatcher sent messages of hope and encouragement from the cave but they conveyed no real cheer The old Welchman came home toward daylight spattered with candle grease smeared with clay and almost worn out He found Huck still in the bed that had been provided for him and delirious with fever The physicians were all at the cave so the Widow Douglas came and took charge of the patient She said she would do her best by him because whether he was good bad or indifferent he was the Lords and nothing that was the Lords was a thing to be neglected The Welchman said Huck had good spots in him and the widow said You can depend on it Thats the Lords mark He dont leave it off He never does Puts it somewhere on every creature that comes from His hands Early in the forenoon parties of jaded men began to straggle into the village but the strongest of the citizens continued searching All the news that could be gained was that remotenesses of the cavern were being ransacked that had never been visited before that every corner and crevice was going to be thoroughly searched that wherever one wandered through the maze of passages lights were to be seen flitting hither and thither in the distance and shoutings and pistol shots sent their hollow reverberations to the ear down the somber aisles In one place far from the section usually traversed by tourists the names BECKY TOM had been found traced upon the rocky wall with candle smoke and near at hand a grease soiled bit of ribbon Mrs Thatcher recognized the ribbon and cried over it She said it was the last relic she should ever have of her child and that no other memorial of her could ever be so precious because this one parted latest from the living body before the awful death came Some said that now and then in the cave a far away speck of light would glimmer and then a glorious shout would burst forth and a score of men go trooping down the echoing aisle and then a sickening disappointment always followed the children were not there it was only a searchers light Three dreadful days and nights dragged their tedious hours along and the village sank into a hopeless stupor No one had heart for anything The accidental discovery just made that the proprietor of the Temperance Tavern kept liquor on his premises scarcely fluttered the public pulse tremendous as the fact was In a lucid interval Huck feebly led up to the subject of taverns and finally asked dimly dreading the worst if anything had been discovered at the Temperance Tavern since he had been ill Yes said the widow Huck started up in bed wild eyed What What was it Liquor and the place has been shut up Lie down child what a turn you did give me Only tell me just one thing only just one please Was it Tom Sawyer that found it The widow burst into tears Hush hush child hush Ive told you before you must not talk You are very very sick Then nothing but liquor had been found there would have been a great powwow if it had been the gold So the treasure was gone forever gone forever But what could she be crying about Curious that she should cry These thoughts worked their dim way through Hucks mind and under the weariness they gave him he fell asleep The widow said to herself There hes asleep poor wreck Tom Sawyer find it Pity but somebody could find Tom Sawyer Ah there aint many left now thats got hope enough or strength enough either to go on searching Chapter Found and Lost Again NOW TO RETURN to Tom and Beckys share in the picnic They tripped along the murky aisles with the rest of the company visiting the familiar wonders of the cave wonders dubbed with rather over descriptive names such as The Drawing Room The Cathedral Aladdins Palace and so on Presently the hide and seek frolicking began and Tom and Becky engaged in it with zeal until the exertion began to grow a trifle wearisome then they wandered down a sinuous avenue holding their candles aloft and reading the tangled web work of names dates post office addresses and mottoes with which the rocky walls had been frescoed in candle smoke Still drifting along and talking they scarcely noticed that they were now in a part of the cave whose walls were not frescoed They smoked their own names under an overhanging shelf and moved on Presently they came to a place where a little stream of water trickling over a ledge and carrying a limestone sediment with it had in the slow dragging ages formed a laced and ruffled Niagara in gleaming and imperishable stone Tom squeezed his small body behind it in order to illuminate it for Beckys gratification He found that it curtained a sort of steep natural stairway which was enclosed between narrow walls and at once the ambition to be a discoverer seized him Becky responded to his call and they made a smoke mark for future guidance and started upon their quest They wound this way and that far down into the secret depths of the cave made another mark and branched off in search of novelties to tell the upper world about In one place they found a spacious cavern from whose ceiling depended a multitude of shining stalactites of the length and circumference of a mans leg they walked all about it wondering and admiring and presently left it by one of the numerous passages that opened into it This shortly brought them to a bewitching spring whose basin was encrusted with a frost work of glittering crystals it was in the midst of a cavern whose walls were supported by many fantastic pillars which had been formed by the joining of great stalactites and stalagmites together the result of the ceaseless water drip of centuries Under the roof vast knots of bats had packed themselves together thousands in a bunch the lights disturbed the creatures and they came flocking down by hundreds squeaking and darting furiously at the candles Tom knew their ways and the danger of this sort of conduct He seized Beckys hand and hurried her into the first corridor that offered and none too soon for a bat struck Beckys light out with its wing while she was passing out of the cavern The bats chased the children a good distance but the fugitives plunged into every new passage that offered and at last got rid of the perilous things Tom found a subterranean lake shortly which stretched its dim length away until its shape was lost in the shadows He wanted to explore its borders but concluded that it would be best to sit down and rest a while first Now for the first time the deep stillness of the place laid a clammy hand upon the spirits of the children Becky said Why I didnt notice but it seems ever so long since I heard any of the others Come to think Becky we are away down below them and I dont know how far away north or south or east or whichever it is We couldnt hear them here Becky grew apprehensive I wonder how long weve been down here Tom We better start back Yes I reckon we better Praps we better Can you find the way Tom Its all a mixed up crookedness to me I reckon I could find it but then the bats If they put both our candles out it will be an awful fix Lets try some other way so as not to go through there Well But I hope we wont get lost It would be so awful and the girl shuddered at the thought of the dreadful possibilities They started through a corridor and traversed it in silence a long way glancing at each new opening to see if there was anything familiar about the look of it but they were all strange Every time Tom made an examination Becky would watch his face for an encouraging sign and he would say cheerily O its all right This aint the one but well come to it right away But he felt less and less hopeful with each failure and presently began to turn off into diverging avenues at sheer random in the desperate hope of finding the one that was wanted He still said it was all right but there was such a leaden dread at his heart that the words had lost their ring and sounded just as if he had said All is lost Becky clung to his side in an anguish of fear and tried hard to keep back the tears but they would come At last she said O Tom never mind the bats lets go back that way We seem to get worse and worse off all the time Tom stopped Listen said he Profound silence silence so deep that even their breathings were conspicuous in the hush Tom shouted The call went echoing down the empty aisles and died out in the distance in a faint sound that resembled a ripple of mocking laughter O dont do it again Tom it is too horrid said Becky It is horrid but I better Becky they might hear us you know and he shouted again The might was even a chillier horror than the ghostly laughter it so confessed a perishing hope The children stood still and listened but there was no result Tom turned upon the back track at once and hurried his steps It was but a little while before a certain indecision in his manner revealed another fearful fact to Becky he could not find his way back O Tom you didnt make any marks Becky I was such a fool Such a fool I never thought we might want to come back No I cant find the way Its all mixed up Tom Tom were lost were lost We never can get out of this awful place O why did we ever leave the others She sank to the ground and burst into such a frenzy of crying that Tom was appalled with the idea that she might die or lose her reason He sat down by her and put his arms around her she buried her face in his bosom she clung to him she poured out her terrors her unavailing regrets and the far echoes turned them all to jeering laughter Tom begged her to pluck up hope again and she said she could not He fell to blaming and abusing himself for getting her into this miserable situation this had a better effect She said she would try to hope again she would get up and follow wherever he might lead if only he would not talk like that any more For he was no more to blame than she she said So they moved on again aimlessly simply at random all they could do was to move keep moving For a little while hope made a show of reviving not with any reason to back it but only because it is its nature to revive when the spring has not been taken out of it by age and familiarity with failure By and by Tom took Beckys candle and blew it out This economy meant so much Words were not needed Becky understood and her hope died again She knew that Tom had a whole candle and three or four pieces in his pockets yet he must economize By and by fatigue began to assert its claims the children tried to pay no attention for it was dreadful to think of sitting down when time was grown to be so precious moving in some direction in any direction was at least progress and might bear fruit but to sit down was to invite death and shorten its pursuit At last Beckys frail limbs refused to carry her farther She sat down Tom rested with her and they talked of home and the friends there and the comfortable beds and above all the light Becky cried and Tom tried to think of some way of comforting her but all his encouragements were grown threadbare with use and sounded like sarcasms Fatigue bore so heavily upon Becky that she drowsed off to sleep Tom was grateful He sat looking into her drawn face and saw it grow smooth and natural under the influence of pleasant dreams and by and by a smile dawned and rested there The peaceful face reflected somewhat of peace and healing into his own spirit and his thoughts wandered away to bygone times and dreamy memories While he was deep in his musings Becky woke up with a breezy little laugh but it was stricken dead upon her lips and a groan followed it O how could I sleep I wish I never never had waked No No I dont Tom Dont look so I wont say it again Im glad youve slept Becky youll feel rested now and well find the way out We can try Tom but Ive seen such a beautiful country in my dream I reckon we are going there Maybe not maybe not Cheer up Becky and lets go on trying They rose up and wandered along hand in hand and hopeless They tried to estimate how long they had been in the cave but all they knew was that it seemed days and weeks and yet it was plain that this could not be for their candles were not gone yet A long time after this they could not tell how long Tom said they must go softly and listen for dripping water they must find a spring They found one presently and Tom said it was time to rest again Both were cruelly tired yet Becky said she thought she could go on a little farther She was surprised to hear Tom dissent She could not understand it They sat down and Tom fastened his candle to the wall in front of them with some clay Thought was soon busy nothing was said for some time Then Becky broke the silence Tom I am so hungry Tom took something out of his pocket Do you remember this said he Becky almost smiled Its our wedding cake Tom Yes I wish it was as big as a barrel for its all weve got I saved it from the picnic for us to dream on Tom the way grown up people do with wedding cake but itll be our She dropped the sentence where it was Tom divided the cake and Becky ate with good appetite while Tom nibbled at his moiety There was abundance of cold water to finish the feast with By and by Becky suggested that they move on again Tom was silent a moment Then he said Becky can you bear it if I tell you something Beckys face paled but she said she thought she could Well then Becky we must stay here where theres water to drink That little piece is our last candle Becky gave loose to tears and wailings Tom did what he could to comfort her but with little effect At length Becky said Tom Well Becky Theyll miss us and hunt for us Yes they will Certainly they will Maybe theyre hunting for us now Tom Why I reckon maybe they are I hope they are When would they miss us Tom When they get back to the boat reckon Tom it might be dark then would they notice we hadnt come I dont know But anyway your mother would miss you as soon as they got home A frightened look in Beckys face brought Tom to his senses and he saw that he had made a blunder Becky was not to have gone home that night The children became silent and thoughtful In a moment a new burst of grief from Becky showed Tom that the thing in his mind had struck hers also that the Sabbath morning might be half spent before Mrs Thatcher discovered that Becky was not at Mrs Harpers The children fastened their eyes upon their bit of candle and watched it melt slowly and pitilessly away saw the half inch of wick stand alone at last saw the feeble flame rise and fall climb the thin column of smoke linger at its top a moment and then the horror of utter darkness reigned How long afterward it was that Becky came to a slow consciousness that she was crying in Toms arms neither could tell All that they knew was that after what seemed a mighty stretch of time both awoke out of a dead stupor of sleep and resumed their miseries once more Tom said it might be Sunday now maybe Monday He tried to get Becky to talk but her sorrows were too oppressive all her hopes were gone Tom said that they must have been missed long ago and no doubt the search was going on He would shout and maybe some one would come He tried it but in the darkness the distant echoes sounded so hideously that he tried it no more The hours wasted away and hunger came to torment the captives again A portion of Toms half of the cake was left they divided and ate it But they seemed hungrier than before The poor morsel of food only whetted desire By and by Tom said Sh Did you hear that Both held their breath and listened There was a sound like the faintest far off shout Instantly Tom answered it and leading Becky by the hand started groping down the corridor in its direction Presently he listened again again the sound was heard and apparently a little nearer Its them said Tom theyre coming Come along Becky were all right now The joy of the prisoners was almost overwhelming Their speed was slow however because pitfalls were somewhat common and had to be guarded against They shortly came to one and had to stop It might be three feet deep it might be a hundred there was no passing it at any rate Tom got down on his breast and reached as far down as he could No bottom They must stay there and wait until the searchers came They listened evidently the distant shoutings were growing more distant a moment or two more and they had gone altogether The heartsinking misery of it Tom whooped until he was hoarse but it was of no use He talked hopefully to Becky but an age of anxious waiting passed and no sounds came again The children groped their way back to the spring The weary time dragged on they slept again and awoke famished and woe stricken Tom believed it must be Tuesday by this time Now an idea struck him There were some side passages near at hand It would be better to explore some of these than bear the weight of the heavy time in idleness He took a kite line from his pocket tied it to a projection and he and Becky started Tom in the lead unwinding the line as he groped along At the end of twenty steps the corridor ended in a jumping off place Tom got down on his knees and felt below and then as far around the corner as he could reach with his hands conveniently he made an effort to stretch yet a little further to the right and at that moment not twenty yards away a human hand holding a candle appeared from behind a rock Tom lifted up a glorious shout and instantly that hand was followed by the body it belonged to Injun Joes Tom was paralyzed he could not move He was vastly gratified the next moment to see the Spaniard take to his heels and get himself out of sight Tom wondered that Joe had not recognized his voice and come over and killed him for testifying in court But the echoes must have disguised the voice Without doubt that was it he reasoned Toms fright weakened every muscle in his body He said to himself that if he had strength enough to get back to the spring he would stay there and nothing should tempt him to run the risk of meeting Injun Joe again He was careful to keep from Becky what it was he had seen He told her he had only shouted for luck But hunger and wretchedness rise superior to fears in the long run Another tedious wait at the spring and another long sleep brought changes The children awoke tortured with a raging hunger Tom believed that it must be Wednesday or Thursday or even Friday or Saturday now and that the search had been given over He proposed to explore another passage He felt willing to risk Injun Joe and all other terrors But Becky was very weak She had sunk into a dreary apathy and would not be roused She said she would wait now where she was and die it would not be long She told Tom to go with the kite line and explore if he chose but she implored him to come back every little while and speak to her and she made him promise that when the awful time came he would stay by her and hold her hand until all was over Tom kissed her with a choking sensation in his throat and made a show of being confident of finding the searchers or an escape from the cave then he took the kite line in his hand and went groping down one of the passages on his hands and knees distressed with hunger and sick with bodings of coming doom Chapter Turn Out Theyre Found TUESDAY AFTERNOON CAME and waned to the twilight The village of St Petersburg still mourned The lost children had not been found Public prayers had been offered up for them and many and many a private prayer that had the petitioners whole heart in it but still no good news came from the cave The majority of the searchers had given up the quest and gone back to their daily avocations saying that it was plain the children could never be found Mrs Thatcher was very ill and a great part of the time delirious People said it was heart breaking to hear her call her child and raise her head and listen a whole minute at a time then lay it wearily down again with a moan Aunt Polly had drooped into a settled melancholy and her gray hair had grown almost white The village went to its rest on Tuesday night sad and forlorn Away in the middle of the night a wild peal burst from the village bells and in a moment the streets were swarming with frantic half clad people who shouted Turn out turn out theyre found theyre found Tin pans and horns were added to the din the population massed itself and moved toward the river met the children coming in an open carriage drawn by shouting citizens thronged around it joined its homeward march and swept magnificently up the main street roaring huzzah after huzzah The village was illuminated nobody went to bed again it was the greatest night the little town had ever seen During the first half hour a procession of villagers filed through Judge Thatchers house seized the saved ones and kissed them squeezed Mrs Thatchers hand tried to speak but couldnt and drifted out raining tears all over the place Aunt Pollys happiness was complete and Mrs Thatchers nearly so It would be complete however as soon as the messenger dispatched with the great news to the cave should get the word to her husband Tom lay upon a sofa with an eager auditory about him and told the history of the wonderful adventure putting in many striking additions to adorn it withal and closed with a description of how he left Becky and went on an exploring expedition how he followed two avenues as far as his kite line would reach how he followed a third to the fullest stretch of the kite line and was about to turn back when he glimpsed a far off speck that looked like daylight dropped the line and groped toward it pushed his head and shoulders through a small hole and saw the broad Mississippi rolling by And if it had only happened to be night he would not have seen that speck of daylight and would not have explored that passage any more He told how he went back for Becky and broke the good news and she told him not to fret her with such stuff for she was tired and knew she was going to die and wanted to He described how he labored with her and convinced her and how she almost died for joy when she had groped to where she actually saw the blue speck of daylight how he pushed his way out at the hole and then helped her out how they sat there and cried for gladness how some men came along in a skiff and Tom hailed them and told them their situation and their famished condition how the men didnt believe the wild tale at first because said they you are five miles down the river below the valley the cave is in then took them aboard rowed to a house gave them supper made them rest till two or three hours after dark and then brought them home Before day dawn Judge Thatcher and the handful of searchers with him were tracked out in the cave by the twine clues they had strung behind them and informed of the great news Three days and nights of toil and hunger in the cave were not to be shaken off at once as Tom and Becky soon discovered They were bedridden all of Wednesday and Thursday and seemed to grow more and more tired and worn all the time Tom got about a little on Thursday was downtown Friday and nearly as whole as ever Saturday but Becky did not leave her room until Sunday and then she looked as if she had passed through a wasting illness Tom learned of Hucks sickness and went to see him on Friday but could not be admitted to the bedroom neither could he on Saturday or Sunday He was admitted daily after that but was warned to keep still about his adventure and introduce no exciting topic The widow Douglas stayed by to see that he obeyed At home Tom learned of the Cardiff Hill event also that the ragged mans body had eventually been found in the river near the ferry landing he had been drowned while trying to escape perhaps About a fortnight after Toms rescue from the cave he started off to visit Huck who had grown plenty strong enough now to hear exciting talk and Tom had some that would interest him he thought Judge Thatchers house was on Toms way and he stopped to see Becky The Judge and some friends set Tom to talking and some one asked him ironically if he wouldnt like to go to the cave again Tom said yes he thought he wouldnt mind it The judge said Well there are others just like you Tom Ive not the least doubt But we have taken care of that Nobody will get lost in that cave any more Why Because I had its big door sheathed with boiler iron two weeks ago and triple locked and Ive got the keys Tom turned as white as a sheet Whats the matter boy Here run somebody Fetch a glass of water The water was brought and thrown into Toms face Ah now youre all right What was the matter with you Tom O judge Injun Joes in the cave Chapter The Fate of Injun Joe WITHIN A FEW MINUTES the news had spread and a dozen were on their way to McDougals cave at well filled with passengers soon followed Tom Sawyer was in the skiff that bore Judge Thatcher When the cave door was unlocked a sorrowful sight presented itself in the dim twilight of the place Injun Joe lay stretched upon the ground dead with his face close to the crack of the door as if his longing eyes had been fixed to the latest moment upon the light and the cheer of the free world outside Tom was touched for he knew by his own experience how this wretch had suffered His pity was moved but nevertheless he felt an abounding sense of relief and security now which revealed to him in a degree which he had not fully appreciated before how vast a weight of dread had been lying upon him since the day he lifted his voice against this bloody minded outcast Injun Joes bowie knife lay close by its blade broken in two The great foundation beam of the door had been chipped and hacked through with tedious labor useless labor too it was for the native rock formed a sill outside it and upon that stubborn material the knife had wrought no effect the only damage done was to the knife itself But if there had been no stony obstruction there the labor would have been useless still for if the beam had been wholly cut away Injun joe could not have squeezed his body under the door and he knew it So he had only hacked that place in order to be doing something in order to pass the weary time in order to employ his tortured faculties Ordinarily one could find half a dozen bits of candle stuck around in the crevices of this vestibule left there by tourists but there were none now The prisoner had searched them out and eaten them He had also contrived to catch a few bats and these also he had eaten leaving only their claws The poor unfortunate had starved to death In one place near at hand a stalagmite had been slowly growing up from the ground for ages builded by the water drip from a stalactite overhead The captive had broken off the stalagmite and upon the stump had placed a stone wherein he had scooped a shallow hollow to catch the precious drop that fell once in every three minutes with the dreary regularity of a clock tick a dessert spoonful once in four and twenty hours That drop was falling when the Pyramids were new when Troy fell when the foundations of Rome were laid when Christ was crucified when the Conqueror created the British empire when Columbus sailed when the massacre at Lexington was news It is falling now it will still be falling when all these things shall have sunk down the afternoon of history and the twilight of history and the twilight of tradition and been swallowed up in the thick night of oblivion Has everything a purpose and a mission Did this drop fall patiently during five thousand years to be ready for this flitting human insects need and has it another important object to accomplish ten thousand years to come No matter It is many and many a year since the hapless half breed scooped out the stone to catch the priceless drops but to this day the tourist stares longest at that pathetic stone and that slow dropping water when he comes to see the wonders of McDougals cave Injun Joes Cup stands first in the list of the caverns marvels even Aladdins Palace cannot rival it Injun Joe was buried near the mouth of the cave and people flocked there in boats and wagons from the towns and from all the farms and hamlets for seven miles around they brought their children and all sorts of provisions and confessed that they had had almost as satisfactory a time at the funeral as they could have had at the hanging This funeral stopped the further growth of one thing the petition to the Governor for Injun Joes pardon The petition had been largely signed many tearful and eloquent meetings had been held and a committee of sappy women been appointed to go in deep mourning and wail around the governor and implore him to be a merciful ass and trample his duty under foot Injun Joe was believed to have killed five citizens of the village but what of that If he had been Satan himself there would have been plenty of weaklings ready to scribble their names to a pardon petition and drip a tear on it from their permanently impaired and leaky water works The morning after the funeral Tom took Huck to a private place to have an important talk Huck had learned all about Toms adventure from the Welchman and the widow Douglas by this time but Tom said he reckoned there was one thing they had not told him that thing was what he wanted to talk about now Hucks face saddened He said I know what it is You got into No and never found anything but whisky Nobody told me it was you but I just knowed it must a ben you soon as I heard bout that whisky business and I knowed you hadnt got the money becuz youd a got at me some way or other and told me even if you was mum to everybody else Tom somethings always told me wed never get holt of that swag Why Huck I never told on that tavern keeper You know his You know his tavern was all right the Saturday I went to the picnic Dont you remember you was to watch there that night O yes Why it seems bout a year ago It was that very night that I follered Injun Joe to the widders You followed him Yes but you keep mum I reckon Injun Joes left friends behind him and I dont want souring on me and doing me mean tricks If it hadnt ben for me hed be down in Texas now all right Then Huck told his entire adventure in confidence to Tom who had only heard of the Welchmans part of it before Well said Huck presently coming back to the main question whoever nipped the whisky in No nipped the money too I reckon anyways its a goner for us Tom Huck that money wasnt ever in No What Huck searched his comrades face keenly Tom have you got on the track of that money again Huck its in the cave Hucks eyes blazed Say it again Tom The moneys in the cave Tom honest injun now is it fun or earnest Earnest Huck just as earnest as ever I was in my life Will you go in there with me and help get it out I bet I will I will if its where we can blaze our way to it and not get lost Huck we can do that without the least little bit of trouble in the world Good as wheat What makes you think the moneys Huck you just wait till we get in there If we dont find it Ill agree to give you my drum and everything Ive got in the world I will by jings All right its a whiz When do you say Right now if you say it Are you strong enough Is it far in the cave I ben on my pins a little three or four days now but I cant walk moren a mile Tom least I dont think I could Its about five mile into there the way anybody but me would go Huck but theres a mighty short cut that they dont anybody but me know about Huck Ill take you right to it in a skiff Ill float the skiff down there and Ill pull it back again all by myself You neednt ever turn your hand over Less start right off Tom All right We want some bread and meat and our pipes and a little bag or two and two or three kite strings and some of these newfangled things they call lucifer matches I tell you manys the time I wished I had some when I was in there before A trifle after noon the boys borrowed a small skiff from a citizen who was absent and got under way at once When they were several miles below Cave Hollow Tom said Now you see this bluff here looks all alike all the way down from the cave hollow no houses no wood yards bushes all alike But do you see that white place up yonder where theres been a landslide Well thats one of my marks Well get ashore now They landed Now Huck where were a standing you could touch that hole I got out of with a fishing pole See if you can find it Huck searched all the place about and found nothing Tom proudly marched into a thick clump of sumach bushes and said Here you are Look at it Huck its the snuggest hole in this country You just keep mum about it All along Ive been wanting to be a robber but I knew Id got to have a thing like this and where to run across it was the bother Weve got it now and well keep it quiet only well let Joe Harper and Ben Rogers in because of course theres got to be a Gang or else there wouldnt be any style about it Tom Sawyers Gang it sounds splendid dont it Huck Well it just does Tom And wholl we rob O most anybody Waylay people thats mostly the way And kill them No not always Hide them in the cave till they raise a ransom Whats a ransom Money You make them raise all they can offn their friends and after youve kept them a year if it aint raised then you kill them Thats the general way Only you dont kill the women You shut up the women but you dont kill them Theyre always beautiful and rich and awfully scared You take their watches and things but you always take your hat off and talk polite They aint anybody as polite as robbers youll see that in any book Well the women get to loving you and after theyve been in the cave a week or two weeks they stop crying and after that you couldnt get them to leave If you drove them out theyd turn right around and come back Its so in all the books Why its real bully Tom I blieve its bettern to be a pirate Yes its better in some ways because its close to home and circuses and all that By this time everything was ready and the boys entered the hole Tom in the lead They toiled their way to the farther end of the tunnel then made their spliced kite strings fast and moved on A few steps brought them to the spring and Tom felt a shudder quiver all through him He showed Huck the fragment of candle wick perched on a lump of clay against the wall and described how he and Becky had watched the flame struggle and expire The boys began to quiet down to whispers now for the stillness and gloom of the place oppressed their spirits They went on and presently entered and followed Toms other corridor until they reached the jumping off place The candles revealed the fact that it was not really a precipice but only a steep clay hill twenty or thirty feet high Tom whispered Now Ill show you something Huck He held his candle aloft and said Look as far around the corner as you can Do you see that There on the big rock over yonder done with candle smoke Tom its a cross Now wheres your Number Two Under the cross hey Right yonders where I saw Injun joe poke up his candle Huck Huck stared at the mystic sign a while and then said with a shaky voice Tom less git out of here What and leave the treasure Yes leave it Injun Joes ghost is round about there certain No it aint Huck no it aint It would hant the place where he died away out at the mouth of the cave five mile from here No Tom it wouldnt It would hang round the money I know the ways of ghosts and so do you Tom began to fear that Huck was right Misgivings gathered in his mind But presently an idea occurred to him Looky here Huck what fools were making of ourselves Injun Joes ghost aint a going to come around where theres a cross The point was well taken It had its effect Tom I didnt think of that But thats so Its luck for us that cross is I reckon well climb down there and have a hunt for that box Tom went first cutting rude steps in the clay hill as he descended Huck followed Four avenues opened out of the small cavern which the great rock stood in The boys examined three of them with no result They found a small recess in the one nearest the base of the rock with a pallet of blankets spread down in it also an old suspender some bacon rind and the well gnawed bones of two or three fowls But there was no money box The lads searched and re searched this place but in vain Tom said He said under the cross Well this comes nearest to being under the cross It cant be under the rock itself because that sets solid on the ground They searched everywhere once more and then sat down discouraged Huck could suggest nothing By and by Tom said Looky here Huck theres foot prints and some candle grease on the clay about one side of this rock but not on the other sides Now whats that for I bet you the money is under the rock Im going to dig in the clay That aint no bad notion Tom said Huck with animation Toms real Barlow was out at once and he had not dug four inches before he struck wood Hey Huck you hear that Huck began to dig and scratch now Some boards were soon uncovered and removed They had concealed a natural chasm which led under the rock Tom got into this and held his candle as far under the rock as he could but said he could not see to the end of the rift He proposed to explore He stooped and passed under the narrow way descended gradually He followed its winding course first to the right then to the left Huck at his heels Tom turned a short curve by and by and exclaimed My goodness Huck looky here It was the treasure box sure enough occupying a snug little cavern along with an empty powder keg a couple of guns in leather cases two or three pairs of old moccasins a leather belt and some other rubbish well soaked with the water drip Got it at last said Huck plowing among the tarnished coins with his hand My but were rich Tom Huck I always reckoned wed get it Its just too good to believe but we have got it sure Say lets not fool around here Lets snake it out Lemme see if I can lift the box It weighed about fifty pounds Tom could lift it after an awkward fashion but could not carry it conveniently I thought so he said they carried it like it was heavy that day at the hanted house I noticed that I reckon I was right to think of fetching the little bags along The money was soon in the bags and the boys took it up to the cross rock Now less fetch the guns and things said Huck No Huck leave them there Theyre just the tricks to have when we go to robbing Well keep them there all the time and well hold our orgies there too Its an awful snug place for orgies Whats orgies I dono But robbers always have orgies and of course weve got to have them too Come along Huck weve been in here a long time Its getting late I reckon Im hungry too Well eat and smoke when we get to the skiff They presently emerged into the clump of sumach bushes looked warily out found the coast clear and were soon lunching and smoking in the skiff As the sun dipped toward the horizon they pushed out and got under way Tom skimmed up the shore through the long twilight chatting cheerily with Huck and landed shortly after dark Now Huck said Tom well hide the money in the loft of the widows wood shed and Ill come up in the morning and well count it and divide and then well hunt up a place out in the woods for it where it will be safe Just you lay quiet here and watch the stuff till I run and hook Benny Taylors little wagon I wont be gone a minute He disappeared and presently returned with the wagon put the two small sacks into it threw some old rags on top of them and started off dragging his cargo behind him When the boys reached the Welchmans house they stopped to rest Just as they were about to move on the Welchman stepped out and said Hallo whos that Huck and Tom Sawyer Good Come along with me boys you keeping everybody waiting Here hurry up trot ahead Ill haul the wagon for you Why its not as light as it might be Got bricks in it or old metal Old metal said Tom I judged so the boys in this town will take more trouble and fool away more time hunting up six bits worth of old iron to sell to the foundry than they would to make twice the money at regular work But thats human nature hurry along hurry along The boys wanted to know what the hurry was about Never mind youll see when we get to the Widow Douglass Huck said with some apprehension for he was long used to being falsely accused Mr Jones we havent been doing nothing The Welchman laughed Well I dont know Huck my boy I dont know about that Aint you and the widow good friends Yes Well shes ben good friends to me any ways All right then What do you want to be afraid for This question was not entirely answered in Hucks slow mind before he found himself pushed along with Tom into Mrs Douglass drawing room Mr Jones left the wagon near the door and followed The place was grandly lighted and everybody that was of any consequence in the village was there The Thatchers were there the Harpers the Rogerses Aunt Polly Sid Mary the minister the editor and a great many more and all dressed in their best The widow received the boys as heartily as any one could well receive two such looking beings They were covered with clay and candle grease Aunt Polly blushed crimson with humiliation and frowned and shook her head at Tom Nobody suffered half as much as the two boys did however Mr Jones said Tom wasnt at home yet so I gave him up but I stumbled on him and Huck right at my door and so I just brought them along in a hurry And you did just right said the widow Come with me boys She took them to a bed chamber and said Now wash and dress yourselves Here are two new suits of clothes shirts socks everything complete Theyre Hucks no no thanks Huck Mr Jones bought one and I the other But theyll fit both of you Get into them Well wait come down when you are slicked up enough Then she left Chapter Floods of Gold HUCK SAID Tom we can slope if we can find a rope The window aint high from the ground Shucks what do you want to slope for Well I aint used to that kind of a crowd I cant stand it I aint going down there Tom O bother It aint anything I dont mind it a bit Ill take care of you Sid appeared Tom said he Auntie has been waiting for you all the afternoon Mary got your Sunday clothes ready and everybodys been fretting about you Say aint this grease and clay on your clothes Now Mr Siddy you just tend to your own business Whats all this blow out about anyway Its one of the widows parties that shes always having This time its for the Welchman and his sons on account of that scrape they helped her out of the other night And say I can tell you something if you want to know Well what Why old Mr Jones is going to try to spring something on the people here to night but I overheard him tell auntie to day about it as a secret but I reckon its not much of a secret now Everybody knows the widow too for all she tries to let on she dont Oh Mr Jones was bound Huck should be here couldnt get along with his grand secret without Huck you know Secret about what Sid About Huck tracking the robbers to the widows I reckon Mr Jones was going to make a grand time over his surprise but I bet you it will drop pretty flat Sid chuckled in a very contented and satisfied way Sid was it you that told O never mind who it was Somebody told thats enough Sid theres only one person in this town mean enough to do that and thats you If you had been in Hucks place youd a sneaked down the hill and never told anybody on the robbers You cant do any but mean things and you cant bear to see anybody praised for doing good ones There no thanks as the widow says and Tom cuffed Sids ears and helped him to the door with several kicks Now go and tell auntie if you dare and to morrow youll catch it Some minutes later the widows guests were at the supper table and a dozen children were propped up at little side tables in the same room after the fashion of that country and that day At the proper time Mr Jones made his little speech in which he thanked the widow for the honor she was doing himself and his sons but said that there was another person whose modesty And so forth and so on He sprung his secret about Hucks share in the adventure in the finest dramatic manner he was master of but the surprise it occasioned was largely counterfeit and not as clamorous and effusive as it might have been under happier circumstances However the widow made a pretty fair show of astonishment and heaped so many compliments and so much gratitude upon Huck that he almost forgot the nearly intolerable discomfort of his new clothes in the entirely intolerable discomfort of being set up as a target for everybodys gaze and everybodys laudations The widow said she meant to give Huck a home under her roof and have him educated and that when she could spare the money she would start him in business in a modest way Toms chance was come He said Huck dont need it Hucks rich Nothing but a heavy strain upon the good manners of the company kept back the due and proper complimentary laugh at this pleasant joke But the silence was a little awkward Tom broke it Hucks got money Maybe you dont believe it but hes got lots of it O you neednt smile I reckon I can show you You just wait a minute Tom ran out of doors The company looked at each other with a perplexed interest and inquiringly at Huck who was tongue tied Sid what ails Tom said Aunt Polly He well there aint ever any making of that boy out I never Tom entered struggling with the weight of his sacks and Aunt Polly did not finish her sentence Tom poured the mass of yellow coin upon the table and said There what did I tell you Half of its Hucks and half of its mine The spectacle took the general breath away All gazed nobody spoke for a moment Then there was a unanimous call for an explanation Tom said he could furnish it and he did The tale was long but brim full of interest There was scarcely an interruption from anyone to break the charm of its flow When he had finished Mr Jones said I thought I had fixed up a little surprise for this occasion but it dont amount to anything now This one makes it sing mighty small Im willing to allow The money was counted The sum amounted to a little over twelve thousand dollars It was more than any one present had ever seen at one time before though several persons were there who were worth considerably more than that in property Chapter Respectable Huck Joins the Gang THE READER MAY REST SATISFIED that Toms and Hucks windfall made a mighty stir in the poor little village of St Petersburg So vast a sum all in actual cash seemed next to incredible It was talked about gloated over glorified until the reason of many of the citizens tottered under the strain of the unhealthy excitement Every haunted house in St Petersburg and the neighboring villages was dissected plank by plank and its foundations dug up and ransacked for hidden treasure and not by boys but men pretty grave unromantic men too some of them Wherever Tom and Huck appeared they were courted admired stared at The boys were not able to remember that their remarks had possessed weight before but now their sayings were treasured and repeated everything they did seemed somehow to be regarded as remarkable they had evidently lost the power of doing and saying commonplace things moreover their past history was raked up and discovered to bear marks of conspicuous originality The village paper published biographical sketches of the boys The widow Douglas put Hucks money out at six per cent and Judge Thatcher did the same with Toms at Aunt Pollys request Each lad had an income now that was simply prodigious a dollar for every week day in the year and half of the Sundays It was just what the minister got no it was what he was promised he generally couldnt collect it A dollar and a quarter a week would board lodge and school a boy in those old simple days and clothe him and wash him too for that matter Judge Thatcher had conceived a great opinion of Tom He said that no commonplace boy would ever have got his daughter out of the cave When Becky told her father in strict confidence how Tom had taken her whipping at school the Judge was visibly moved and when she pleaded grace for the mighty lie which Tom had told in order to shift that whipping from her shoulders to his own the Judge said with a fine outburst that it was a noble a generous a magnanimous lie a lie that was worthy to hold up its head and march down through history breast to breast with George Washingtons lauded Truth about the hatchet Becky thought her father had never looked so tall and so superb as when he walked the floor and stamped his foot and said that She went straight off and told Tom about it Judge Thatcher hoped to see Tom a great lawyer or a great soldier some day He said he meant to look to it that Tom should be admitted to the National Military Academy and afterwards trained in the best law school in the country in order that he might be ready for either career or both Huck Finns wealth and the fact that he was now under the widow Douglass protection introduced him into society no dragged him into it hurled him into it and his sufferings were almost more then he could bear The widows servants kept him clean and neat combed and brushed and they bedded him nightly in unsympathetic sheets that had not one little spot or stain which he could press to his heart and know for a friend He had to eat with knife and fork he had to use napkin cup and plate he had to learn his book he had to go to church he had to talk so properly that speech was become insipid in his mouth whithersoever he turned the bars and shackles of civilization shut him in and bound him hand and foot He bravely bore his miseries three weeks and then one day turned up missing For forty eight hours the widow hunted for him everywhere in great distress The public were profoundly concerned they searched high and low they dragged the river for his body Early the third morning Tom Sawyer wisely went poking among some old empty hogsheads down behind the abandoned slaughter house and in one of them he found the refugee Huck had slept there he had just breakfasted upon some stolen odds and ends of food and was lying off now in comfort with his pipe He was unkempt uncombed and clad in the same old ruin of rags that had made him picturesque in the days when he was free and happy Tom routed him out told him the trouble he had been causing and urged him to go home Hucks face lost its tranquil content and took a melancholy cast He said Dont talk about it Tom Ive tried it and it dont work it dont work Tom It aint for me I aint used to it The widders good to me and friendly but I cant stand them ways She makes me git up just at the same time every morning she makes me wash they comb me all to thunder she wont let me sleep in the wood shed I got to wear them blamed clothes that just smothers me Tom they dont seem to any air git through em somehow and theyre so rotten nice that I cant set down nor lay down nor roll around anywhers I haint slid on a cellar door for well it pears to be years I got to go to church and sweat and sweat I hate them ornery sermons I cant ketch a fly in there I cant chaw I got to wear shoes all Sunday The widder eats by a bell she goes to bed by a bell she gits up by a bell everythings so awful reglar a body cant stand it Well everybody does that way Huck Tom it dont make no difference I aint everybody and I cant stand it Its awful to be tied up so And grub comes too easy I dont take no interest in vittles that way I got to ask to go a fishing I got to ask to go in a swimming dernd if I haint got to ask to do everything Well Id got to talk so nice it wasnt no comfort Id got to go up in the attic and rip out a while every day to git a taste in my mouth or Id a died Tom The widder wouldnt let me smoke she wouldnt let me yell she wouldnt let me gape nor stretch nor scratch before folks Then with a spasm of special irritation and injury And dad fetch it she prayed all the time I never see such a woman I had to shove Tom I just had to And besides that schools going to open and Id a had to go to it well I wouldnt stand that Tom Looky here Tom being rich aint what its cracked up to be Its just worry and worry and sweat and sweat and a wishing you was dead all the time Now these clothes suits me and this barl suits me and I aint ever going to shake em any more Tom I wouldnt ever got into all this trouble if it hadnt a ben for that money now you just take my sheer of it along with yourn and gimme a ten center sometimes not many times becuz I dont give a dem for a thing thout its tollable hard to git and you go and beg off for me with the widder O Huck you know I cant do that Taint fair and besides if youll try this thing just a while longer youll come to like it Like it Yes the way Id like a hot stove if I was to set on it long enough No Tom I wont be rich and I wont live in them cussed smothery houses I like the woods and the river and hogsheads and Ill stick to em too Blame it all just as wed got guns and a cave and all just fixed to rob here this dem foolishness has got to come up and spile it all Tom saw his opportunity Looky here Huck being rich aint going to keep me back from turning robber No O good licks are you in real dead wood earnest Tom Just as dead earnest as Im a sitting here But Huck we cant let you into the gang if you aint respectable you know Hucks joy was quenched Cant let me in Tom Didnt you let me go for a pirate Yes but thats different A robber is more high toned than what a pirate is as a general thing In most countries theyre awful high up in the nobility dukes and such Now Tom haint you always ben friendly to me You wouldnt shet me out would you Tom You wouldnt do that now would you Tom Huck I wouldnt want to and I dont want to but what would people say Why theyd say Mph Tom Sawyers Gang pretty low characters in it Theyd mean you Huck You wouldnt like that and I wouldnt Huck was silent for some time engaged in a mental struggle Finally he said Well Ill go back to the widder for a month and tackle it and see if I can come to stand it if youll let me blong to the gang Tom All right Huck its a whiz Come along old chap and Ill ask the widow to let up on you a little Huck Will you Tom now will you Thats good If shell let up on some of the roughest things Ill smoke private and cuss private and crowd through or bust When you going to start the gang and turn robbers O right off Well get the boys together and have the initiation to night maybe Have the which Have the initiation Whats that Its to swear to stand by one another and never tell the gangs secrets even if youre chopped all to flinders and kill anybody and all his family that hurts one of the gang Thats gay thats mighty gay Tom I tell you Well I bet it is And all that swearings got to be done at midnight in the lonesomest awfulest place you can find a hanted house is the best but theyre all ripped up now Well midnights good anyway Tom Yes so it is And youve got to swear on a coffin and sign it with blood Now thats something like Why its a million times bullier than pirating Ill stick to the widder till I rot Tom and if I git to be a reglar ripper of a robber and everybody talking bout it I reckon shell be proud she snaked me in out of the wet CONCLUSION Conclusion SO ENDETH THIS CHRONICLE It being strictly a history of a boy it must stop here the story could not go much further without becoming the history of a man When one writes a novel about grown people he knows exactly where to stop that is with a marriage but when he writes of juveniles he must stop where he best can Most of the characters that perform in this book still live and are prosperous and happy Some day it may seem worth while to take up the story of the younger ones again and see what sort of men and women they turned out to be therefore it will be wisest not to reveal any of that part of their lives at present THE END