Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (good book club books .TXT) đ
- Author: Mark Twain
- Performer: 0142437174
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âYes, Miss Mary Jane she wanted you to do that. She says, âTell them to give Uncle Harvey and William my love and a kiss, and say Iâve run over the river to see Mr.ââMr.âwhat is the name of that rich family your uncle Peter used to think so much of?âI mean the one thatââ
âWhy, you must mean the Apthorps, ainât it?â
âOf course; bother them kind of names, a body canât ever seem to remember them, half the time, somehow. Yes, she said, say she has run over for to ask the Apthorps to be sure and come to the auction and buy this house, because she allowed her uncle Peter would ruther they had it than anybody else; and sheâs going to stick to them till they say theyâll come, and then, if she ainât too tired, sheâs coming home; and if she is, sheâll be home in the morning anyway. She said, donât say nothing about the Proctors, but only about the Apthorpsâwhich âll be perfectly true, because she is going there to speak about their buying the house; I know it, because she told me so herself.â
âAll right,â they said, and cleared out to lay for their uncles, and give them the love and the kisses, and tell them the message.
Everything was all right now. The girls wouldnât say nothing because they wanted to go to England; and the king and the duke would ruther Mary Jane was off working for the auction than around in reach of Doctor Robinson. I felt very good; I judged I had done it pretty neatâI reckoned Tom Sawyer couldnât a done it no neater himself. Of course he would a throwed more style into it, but I canât do that very handy, not being brung up to it.
Well, they held the auction in the public square, along towards the end of the afternoon, and it strung along, and strung along, and the old man he was on hand and looking his level pisonest, up there longside of the auctioneer, and chipping in a little Scripture now and then, or a little goody-goody saying of some kind, and the duke he was around goo-gooing for sympathy all he knowed how, and just spreading himself generly.
But by and by the thing dragged through, and everything was soldâeverything but a little old trifling lot in the graveyard. So theyâd got to work that offâI never see such a girafft as the king was for wanting to swallow everything. Well, whilst they was at it a steamboat landed, and in about two minutes up comes a crowd a-whooping and yelling and laughing and carrying on, and singing out:
âHereâs your opposition line! hereâs your two sets oâ heirs to old Peter Wilksâand you pays your money and you takes your choice!â
CHAPTER XXIX.
THEY was fetching a very nice-looking old gentleman along, and a nice-looking younger one, with his right arm in a sling. And, my souls, how the people yelled and laughed, and kept it up. But I didnât see no joke about it, and I judged it would strain the duke and the king some to see any. I reckoned theyâd turn pale. But no, nary a pale did they turn. The duke he never let on he suspicioned what was up, but just went a goo-gooing around, happy and satisfied, like a jug thatâs googling out buttermilk; and as for the king, he just gazed and gazed down sorrowful on them new-comers like it give him the stomach-ache in his very heart to think there could be such frauds and rascals in the world. Oh, he done it admirable. Lots of the principal people gethered around the king, to let him see they was on his side. That old gentleman that had just come looked all puzzled to death. Pretty soon he begun to speak, and I see straight off he pronounced like an Englishmanânot the kingâs way, though the kingâs was pretty good for an imitation. I canât give the old gentâs words, nor I canât imitate him; but he turned around to the crowd, and says, about like this:
âThis is a surprise to me which I wasnât looking for; and Iâll acknowledge, candid and frank, I ainât very well fixed to meet it and answer it; for my brother and me has had misfortunes; heâs broke his arm, and our baggage got put off at a town above here last night in the night by a mistake. I am Peter Wilksâ brother Harvey, and this is his brother William, which canât hear nor speakâand canât even make signs to amount to much, nowât heâs only got one hand to work them with. We are who we say we are; and in a day or two, when I get the baggage, I can prove it. But up till then I wonât say nothing more, but go to the hotel and wait.â
So him and the new dummy started off; and the king he laughs, and blethers out:
âBroke his armâvery likely, ainât it?âand very convenient, too, for a fraud thatâs got to make signs, and ainât learnt how. Lost their baggage! Thatâs mighty good!âand mighty ingeniousâunder the circumstances!â
So he laughed again; and so did everybody else, except three or four, or maybe half a dozen. One of these was that doctor; another one was a sharp-looking gentleman, with a carpet-bag of the old-fashioned kind made out of carpet-stuff, that had just come off of the steamboat and was talking to him in a low voice, and glancing towards the king now and then and nodding their headsâit was Levi Bell, the lawyer that was gone up to Louisville; and another one was a big rough husky that come along and listened to all the old gentleman said, and was listening to the king now. And when the king got done this husky up and says:
âSay, looky here; if you are Harvey Wilks, whenâd you come to this town?â
âThe day before the funeral, friend,â says the king.
âBut what time oâ day?â
âIn the eveninâââbout an hour er two before sundown.â
âHowâd you come?â
âI come down on the Susan Powell from Cincinnati.â
âWell, then, howâd you come to be up at the Pint in the morninââin a canoe?â
âI warnât up at the Pint in the morninâ.â
âItâs a lie.â
Several of them jumped for him and begged him not to talk that way to an old man and a preacher.
âPreacher be hanged, heâs a fraud and a liar. He was up at the Pint that morninâ. I live up there, donât I? Well, I was up there, and he was up there. I see him there. He come in a canoe, along with Tim Collins and a boy.â
The doctor he up and says:
âWould you know the boy again if you was to see him, Hines?â
âI reckon I would, but I donât know. Why, yonder he is, now. I know him perfectly easy.â
It was me he pointed at. The doctor says:
âNeighbors, I donât know whether the new couple is frauds or not; but if these two ainât frauds, I am an idiot, thatâs all. I think itâs our duty to see that they donât get away from here till weâve looked into this thing. Come along, Hines; come along, the rest of you. Weâll take these fellows to the tavern and affront them with tâother couple, and I reckon weâll find out something before we get through.â
It was nuts for the crowd, though maybe not for the kingâs friends; so we all started. It was about sundown. The doctor he led me along by the hand, and was plenty kind enough, but he never let go my hand.
We all got in a big room in the hotel, and lit up some candles, and fetched in the new couple. First, the doctor says:
âI donât wish to be too hard on these two men, but I think theyâre frauds, and they may have complices that we donât know nothing about. If they have, wonât the complices get away with that bag of gold Peter Wilks left? It ainât unlikely. If these men ainât frauds, they wonât object to sending for that money and letting us keep it till they prove theyâre all rightâainât that so?â
Everybody agreed to that. So I judged they had our gang in a pretty tight place right at the outstart. But the king he only looked sorrowful, and says:
âGentlemen, I wish the money was there, for I ainât got no disposition to throw anything in the way of a fair, open, out-and-out investigation oâ this misable business; but, alas, the money ainât there; you kân send and see, if you want to.â
âWhere is it, then?â
âWell, when my niece give it to me to keep for her I took and hid it inside oâ the straw tick oâ my bed, not wishinâ to bank it for the few days weâd be here, and considerinâ the bed a safe place, we not beinâ used to niggers, and supposânâ âem honest, like servants in England. The niggers stole it the very next morninâ after I had went down stairs; and when I sold âem I hadnât missed the money yit, so they got clean away with it. My servant here kân tell you âbout it, gentlemen.â
The doctor and several said âShucks!â and I see nobody didnât altogether believe him. One man asked me if I see the niggers steal it. I said no, but I see them sneaking out of the room and hustling away, and I never thought nothing, only I reckoned they was afraid they had waked up my master and was trying to get away before he made trouble with them. That was all they asked me. Then the doctor whirls on me and says:
âAre you English, too?â
I says yes; and him and some others laughed, and said, âStuff!â
Well, then they sailed in on the general investigation, and there we had it, up and down, hour in, hour out, and nobody never said a word about supper, nor ever seemed to think about itâand so they kept it up, and kept it up; and it was the worst mixed-up thing you ever see. They made the king tell his yarn, and they made the old gentleman tell hisân; and anybody but a lot of prejudiced chuckleheads would a seen that the old gentleman was spinning truth and tâother one lies. And by and by they had me up to tell what I knowed. The king he give me a left-handed look out of the corner of his eye, and so I knowed enough to talk on the right side. I begun to tell about Sheffield, and how we lived there, and all about the English Wilkses, and so on; but I didnât get pretty fur till the doctor begun to laugh; and Levi Bell, the lawyer, says:
âSet down, my boy; I wouldnât strain myself if I was you. I reckon you ainât used to lying, it donât seem to come handy; what you want is practice. You do it pretty awkward.â
I didnât care nothing for the compliment, but I was glad to be let off, anyway.
The doctor he started to say something, and turns and says:
âIf youâd been in town at first, Levi Bellââ The king broke in and reached out his hand, and says:
âWhy, is this my poor dead brotherâs old friend that heâs wrote so often about?â
The lawyer and him shook hands, and the lawyer smiled and looked pleased, and they talked right along awhile, and then got to one side and talked low; and at last the lawyer speaks up and says:
âThat âll fix it. Iâll take the order and send it, along with your brotherâs, and then theyâll know itâs all right.â
So they got some paper and a pen, and the king he set down and twisted his head to one side, and chawed his tongue, and scrawled off something; and then they
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