Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (good book club books .TXT) đ
- Author: Mark Twain
- Performer: 0142437174
Book online «Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (good book club books .TXT) đ». Author Mark Twain
âGood,â she says, âIâll do it.â
âAnd if it just happens so that I donât get away, but get took up along with them, you must up and say I told you the whole thing beforehand, and you must stand by me all you can.â
âStand by you! indeed I will. They shaânât touch a hair of your head!â she says, and I see her nostrils spread and her eyes snap when she said it, too.
âIf I get away I shaânât be here,â I says, âto prove these rapscallions ainât your uncles, and I couldnât do it if I was here. I could swear they was beats and bummers, thatâs all, though thatâs worth something. Well, thereâs others can do that better than what I can, and theyâre people that ainât going to be doubted as quick as Iâd be. Iâll tell you how to find them. Gimme a pencil and a piece of paper. ThereââRoyal Nonesuch, Bricksville.â Put it away, and donât lose it. When the court wants to find out something about these two, let them send up to Bricksville and say theyâve got the men that played the Royal Nonesuch, and ask for some witnessesâwhy, youâll have that entire town down here before you can hardly wink, Miss Mary. And theyâll come a-biling, too.â
I judged we had got everything fixed about right now. So I says:
âJust let the auction go right along, and donât worry. Nobody donât have to pay for the things they buy till a whole day after the auction on accounts of the short notice, and they ainât going out of this till they get that money; and the way weâve fixed it the sale ainât going to count, and they ainât going to get no money. Itâs just like the way it was with the niggersâit warnât no sale, and the niggers will be back before long. Why, they canât collect the money for the niggers yetâtheyâre in the worst kind of a fix, Miss Mary.â
âWell,â she says, âIâll run down to breakfast now, and then Iâll start straight for Mr. Lothropâs.â
ââDeed, that ainât the ticket, Miss Mary Jane,â I says, âby no manner of means; go before breakfast.â
âWhy?â
âWhat did you reckon I wanted you to go at all for, Miss Mary?â
âWell, I never thoughtâand come to think, I donât know. What was it?â
âWhy, itâs because you ainât one of these leather-face people. I donât want no better book than what your face is. A body can set down and read it off like coarse print. Do you reckon you can go and face your uncles when they come to kiss you good-morning, and neverââ
âThere, there, donât! Yes, Iâll go before breakfastâIâll be glad to. And leave my sisters with them?â
âYes; never mind about them. Theyâve got to stand it yet a while. They might suspicion something if all of you was to go. I donât want you to see them, nor your sisters, nor nobody in this town; if a neighbor was to ask how is your uncles this morning your face would tell something. No, you go right along, Miss Mary Jane, and Iâll fix it with all of them. Iâll tell Miss Susan to give your love to your uncles and say youâve went away for a few hours for to get a little rest and change, or to see a friend, and youâll be back to-night or early in the morning.â
âGone to see a friend is all right, but I wonât have my love given to them.â
âWell, then, it shaânât be.â It was well enough to tell her soâno harm in it. It was only a little thing to do, and no trouble; and itâs the little things that smooths peopleâs roads the most, down here below; it would make Mary Jane comfortable, and it wouldnât cost nothing. Then I says: "Thereâs one more thingâthat bag of money.â
âWell, theyâve got that; and it makes me feel pretty silly to think how they got it.â
âNo, youâre out, there. They hainât got it.â
âWhy, whoâs got it?â
âI wish I knowed, but I donât. I had it, because I stole it from them; and I stole it to give to you; and I know where I hid it, but Iâm afraid it ainât there no more. Iâm awful sorry, Miss Mary Jane, Iâm just as sorry as I can be; but I done the best I could; I did honest. I come nigh getting caught, and I had to shove it into the first place I come to, and runâand it warnât a good place.â
âOh, stop blaming yourselfâitâs too bad to do it, and I wonât allow itâyou couldnât help it; it wasnât your fault. Where did you hide it?â
I didnât want to set her to thinking about her troubles again; and I couldnât seem to get my mouth to tell her what would make her see that corpse laying in the coffin with that bag of money on his stomach. So for a minute I didnât say nothing; then I says:
âIâd ruther not tell you where I put it, Miss Mary Jane, if you donât mind letting me off; but Iâll write it for you on a piece of paper, and you can read it along the road to Mr. Lothropâs, if you want to. Do you reckon that âll do?â
âOh, yes.â
So I wrote: "I put it in the coffin. It was in there when you was crying there, away in the night. I was behind the door, and I was mighty sorry for you, Miss Mary Jane.â
It made my eyes water a little to remember her crying there all by herself in the night, and them devils laying there right under her own roof, shaming her and robbing her; and when I folded it up and give it to her I see the water come into her eyes, too; and she shook me by the hand, hard, and says:
âGood-bye. Iâm going to do everything just as youâve told me; and if I donât ever see you again, I shaânât ever forget you and Iâll think of you a many and a many a time, and Iâll pray for you, too!ââand she was gone.
Pray for me! I reckoned if she knowed me sheâd take a job that was more nearer her size. But I bet she done it, just the sameâshe was just that kind. She had the grit to pray for Judus if she took the notionâthere warnât no back-down to her, I judge. You may say what you want to, but in my opinion she had more sand in her than any girl I ever see; in my opinion she was just full of sand. It sounds like flattery, but it ainât no flattery. And when it comes to beautyâand goodness, tooâshe lays over them all. I hainât ever seen her since that time that I see her go out of that door; no, I hainât ever seen her since, but I reckon Iâve thought of her a many and a many a million times, and of her saying she would pray for me; and if ever Iâd a thought it would do any good for me to pray for her, blamed if I wouldnât a done it or bust.
Well, Mary Jane she lit out the back way, I reckon; because nobody see her go. When I struck Susan and the hare-lip, I says:
âWhatâs the name of them people over on tâother side of the river that you all goes to see sometimes?â
They says:
âThereâs several; but itâs the Proctors, mainly.â
âThatâs the name,â I says; âI most forgot it. Well, Miss Mary Jane she told me to tell you sheâs gone over there in a dreadful hurryâone of themâs sick.â
âWhich one?â
âI donât know; leastways, I kinder forget; but I thinks itâsââ
âSakes alive, I hope it ainât Hanner?â
âIâm sorry to say it,â I says, âbut Hannerâs the very one.â
âMy goodness, and she so well only last week! Is she took bad?â
âIt ainât no name for it. They set up with her all night, Miss Mary Jane said, and they donât think sheâll last many hours.â
âOnly think of that, now! Whatâs the matter with her?â
I couldnât think of anything reasonable, right off that way, so I says:
âMumps.â
âMumps your granny! They donât set up with people thatâs got the mumps.â
âThey donât, donât they? You better bet they do with these mumps. These mumps is different. Itâs a new kind, Miss Mary Jane said.â
âHowâs it a new kind?â
âBecause itâs mixed up with other things.â
âWhat other things?â
âWell, measles, and whooping-cough, and erysiplas, and consumption, and yaller janders, and brain-fever, and I donât know what all.â
âMy land! And they call it the mumps?â
âThatâs what Miss Mary Jane said.â
âWell, what in the nation do they call it the mumps for?â
âWhy, because it is the mumps. Thatâs what it starts with.â
âWell, therâ ainât no sense in it. A body might stump his toe, and take pison, and fall down the well, and break his neck, and bust his brains out, and somebody come along and ask what killed him, and some numskull up and say, âWhy, he stumped his toe.â Would therâ be any sense in that? No. And therâ ainât no sense in this, nuther. Is it ketching?â
âIs it ketching? Why, how you talk. Is a harrow catchingâin the dark? If you donât hitch on to one tooth, youâre bound to on another, ainât you? And you canât get away with that tooth without fetching the whole harrow along, can you? Well, these kind of mumps is a kind of a harrow, as you may sayâand it ainât no slouch of a harrow, nuther, you come to get it hitched on good.â
âWell, itâs awful, I think,â says the hare-lip. "Iâll go to Uncle Harvey andââ
âOh, yes,â I says, âI would. Of course I would. I wouldnât lose no time.â
âWell, why wouldnât you?â
âJust look at it a minute, and maybe you can see. Hainât your uncles obleegd to get along home to England as fast as they can? And do you reckon theyâd be mean enough to go off and leave you to go all that journey by yourselves? you know theyâll wait for you. So fur, so good. Your uncle Harveyâs a preacher, ainât he? Very well, then; is a preacher going to deceive a steamboat clerk? is he going to deceive a ship clerk?âso as to get them to let Miss Mary Jane go aboard? Now you know he ainât. What will he do, then? Why, heâll say, âItâs a great pity, but my church matters has got to get along the best way they can; for my niece has been exposed to the dreadful pluribus-unum mumps, and so itâs my bounden duty to set down here and wait the three months it takes to show on her if sheâs got it.â But never mind, if you think itâs best to tell your uncle Harveyââ
âShucks, and stay fooling around here when we could all be having good times in England whilst we was waiting to find out whether Mary Janeâs got it or not? Why, you talk like a muggins.â
âWell, anyway, maybe youâd better tell some of the neighbors.â
âListen at that, now. You do beat all for natural stupidness. Canât you see that theyâd go and tell? Therâ ainât no way but just to not tell anybody at all.â
âWell, maybe youâre rightâyes, I judge you are right.â
âBut I reckon we ought to tell Uncle Harvey sheâs gone out a while, anyway, so he wonât be uneasy
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