第 14 页

I got to feeling so mean and so miserable I most wished I was dead. I

fidgeted up and down the raft, abusing myself to myself, and Jim was

fidgeting up and down past me. We neither of us could keep still. Every

time he danced around and says, "Dah's Cairo!" it went through me like a

shot, and I thought if it WAS Cairo I reckoned I would die of

miserableness.

Jim talked out loud all the time while I was talking to myself. He was

saying how the first thing he would do when he got to a free State he

would go to saving up money and never spend a single cent, and when he

got enough he would buy his wife, which was owned on a farm close to

where Miss Watson lived; and then they would both work to buy the two

children, and if their master wouldn't sell them, they'd get an

Ab'litionist to go and steal them.

It most froze me to hear such talk. He wouldn't ever dared to talk such

talk in his life before. Just see what a difference it made in him the

minute he judged he was about free. It was according to the old saying,

"Give a nigger an inch and he'll take an ell." Thinks I, this is what

comes of my not thinking. Here was this nigger, which I had as good as

helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would

steal his children--children that belonged to a man I didn't even know; a

man that hadn't ever done me no harm.

I was sorry to hear Jim say that, it was such a lowering of him. My

conscience got to stirring me up hotter than ever, until at last I says

to it, "Let up on me--it ain't too late yet--I'll paddle ashore at the

first light and tell." I felt easy and happy and light as a feather

right off. All my troubles was gone. I went to looking out sharp for a

light, and sort of singing to myself. By and by one showed. Jim sings

out:

"We's safe, Huck, we's safe! Jump up and crack yo' heels! Dat's de good

ole Cairo at las', I jis knows it!"

I says:

"I'll take the canoe and go and see, Jim. It mightn't be, you know."

He jumped and got the canoe ready, and put his old coat in the bottom for

me to set on, and give me the paddle; and as I shoved off, he says:

"Pooty soon I'll be a-shout'n' for joy, en I'll say, it's all on accounts

o' Huck; I's a free man, en I couldn't ever ben free ef it hadn' ben for

Huck; Huck done it. Jim won't ever forgit you, Huck; you's de bes' fren'

Jim's ever had; en you's de ONLY fren' ole Jim's got now."

I was paddling off, all in a sweat to tell on him; but when he says this,

it seemed to kind of take the tuck all out of me. I went along slow

then, and I warn't right down certain whether I was glad I started or

whether I warn't. When I was fifty yards off, Jim says:

"Dah you goes, de ole true Huck; de on'y white genlman dat ever kep' his

promise to ole Jim."

Well, I just felt sick. But I says, I GOT to do it--I can't get OUT of

it. Right then along comes a skiff with two men in it with guns, and

they stopped and I stopped. One of them says:

"What's that yonder?"

"A piece of a raft," I says.

"Do you belong on it?"

"Yes, sir."

"Any men on it?"

"Only one, sir."

"Well, there's five niggers run off to-night up yonder, above the head of

the bend. Is your man white or black?"

I didn't answer up prompt. I tried to, but the words wouldn't come. I

tried for a second or two to brace up and out with it, but I warn't man

enough--hadn't the spunk of a rabbit. I see I was weakening; so I just

give up trying, and up and says:

"He's white."

"I reckon we'll go and see for ourselves."

"I wish you would," says I, "because it's pap that's there, and maybe

you'd help me tow the raft ashore where the light is. He's sick--and so

is mam and Mary Ann."

"Oh, the devil! we're in a hurry, boy. But I s'pose we've got to. Come,

buckle to your paddle, and let's get along."

I buckled to my paddle and they laid to their oars. When we had made a

stroke or two, I says:

"Pap'll be mighty much obleeged to you, I can tell you. Everybody goes

away when I want them to help me tow the raft ashore, and I can't do it

by myself."

"Well, that's infernal mean. Odd, too. Say, boy, what's the matter with

your father?"

"It's the--a--the--well, it ain't anything much."

They stopped pulling. It warn't but a mighty little ways to the raft

now. One says:

"Boy, that's a lie. What IS the matter with your pap? Answer up square

now, and it'll be the better for you."

"I will, sir, I will, honest--but don't leave us, please. It's the--the

--Gentlemen, if you'll only pull ahead, and let me heave you the

headline, you won't have to come a-near the raft--please do."

"Set her back, John, set her back!" says one. They backed water. "Keep

away, boy--keep to looard. Confound it, I just expect the wind has

blowed it to us. Your pap's got the small-pox, and you know it precious

well. Why didn't you come out and say so? Do you want to spread it all

over?"

"Well," says I, a-blubbering, "I've told everybody before, and they just

went away and left us."

"Poor devil, there's something in that. We are right down sorry for you,

but we--well, hang it, we don't want the small-pox, you see. Look here,

I'll tell you what to do. Don't you try to land by yourself, or you'll

smash everything to pieces. You float along down about twenty miles, and

you'll come to a town on the left-hand side of the river. It will be

long after sun-up then, and when you ask for help you tell them your

folks are all down with chills and fever. Don't be a fool again, and let

people guess what is the matter. Now we're trying to do you a kindness;

so you just put twenty miles between us, that's a good boy. It wouldn't

do any good to land yonder where the light is--it's only a wood-yard.

Say, I reckon your father's poor, and I'm bound to say he's in pretty

hard luck. Here, I'll put a twenty-dollar gold piece on this board, and

you get it when it floats by. I feel mighty mean to leave you; but my

kingdom! it won't do to fool with small-pox, don't you see?"

"Hold on, Parker," says the other man, "here's a twenty to put on the

board for me. Good-bye, boy; you do as Mr. Parker told you, and you'll

be all right."

"That's so, my boy--good-bye, good-bye. If you see any runaway niggers

you get help and nab them, and you can make some money by it."

"Good-bye, sir," says I; "I won't let no runaway niggers get by me if I

can help it."

They went off and I got aboard the raft, feeling bad and low, because I

knowed very well I had done wrong, and I see it warn't no use for me to

try to learn to do right; a body that don't get STARTED right when he's

little ain't got no show--when the pinch comes there ain't nothing to

back him up and keep him to his work, and so he gets beat. Then I

thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on; s'pose you'd a done right

and give Jim up, would you felt better than what you do now? No, says I,

I'd feel bad--I'd feel just the same way I do now. Well, then, says I,

what's the use you learning to do right when it's troublesome to do right

and ain't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same? I was

stuck. I couldn't answer that. So I reckoned I wouldn't bother no more

about it, but after this always do whichever come handiest at the time.

I went into the wigwam; Jim warn't there. I looked all around; he warn't

anywhere. I says:

"Jim!"

"Here I is, Huck. Is dey out o' sight yit? Don't talk loud."

He was in the river under the stern oar, with just his nose out. I told

him they were out of sight, so he come aboard. He says:

"I was a-listenin' to all de talk, en I slips into de river en was gwyne

to shove for sho' if dey come aboard. Den I was gwyne to swim to de raf'

agin when dey was gone. But lawsy, how you did fool 'em, Huck! Dat WUZ

de smartes' dodge! I tell you, chile, I'spec it save' ole Jim--ole Jim

ain't going to forgit you for dat, honey."

Then we talked about the money. It was a pretty good raise--twenty

dollars apiece. Jim said we could take deck passage on a steamboat now,

and the money would last us as far as we wanted to go in the free States.

He said twenty mile more warn't far for the raft to go, but he wished we

was already there.

Towards daybreak we tied up, and Jim was mighty particular about hiding

the raft good. Then he worked all day fixing things in bundles, and

getting all ready to quit rafting.

That night about ten we hove in sight of the lights of a town away down

in a left-hand bend.

I went off in the canoe to ask about it. Pretty soon I found a man out

in the river with a skiff, setting a trot-line. I ranged up and says:

"Mister, is that town Cairo?"

"Cairo? no. You must be a blame' fool."

"What town is it, mister?"

"If you want to know, go and find out. If you stay here botherin' around

me for about a half a minute longer you'll get something you won't want."

I paddled to the raft. Jim was awful disappointed, but I said never

mind, Cairo would be the next place, I reckoned.

We passed another town before daylight, and I was going out again; but it

was high ground, so I didn't go. No high ground about Cairo, Jim said.

I had forgot it. We laid up for the day on a towhead tolerable close to

the left-hand bank. I begun to suspicion something. So did Jim. I

says:

"Maybe we went by Cairo in the fog that night."

He says:

"Doan' le's talk about it, Huck. Po' niggers can't have no luck. I

awluz 'spected dat rattlesnake-skin warn't done wid its work."

"I wish I'd never seen that snake-skin, Jim--I do wish I'd never laid

eyes on it."

"It ain't yo' fault, Huck; you didn' know. Don't you blame yo'self 'bout

it."

When it was daylight, here was the clear Ohio water inshore, sure enough,

and outside was the old regular Muddy! So it was all up with Cairo.

We talked it all over. It wouldn't do to take to the shore; we couldn't

take the raft up the stream, of course. There warn't no way but to wait

for dark, and start back in the canoe and take the chances. So we slept

all day amongst the cottonwood thicket, so as to be fresh for the work,

and when we went back to the raft about dark the canoe was gone!

We didn't say a word for a good while. There warn't anything to say. We

both knowed well enough it was some more work of the rattlesnake-skin; so

what was the use to talk about it? It would only look like we was

finding fault, and that would be bound to fetch more bad luck--and keep

on fetching it, too, till we knowed enough to keep still.

By and by we talked about what we better do, and found there warn't no

way but just to go along down with the raft till we got a chance to buy a

canoe to go back in. We warn't going to borrow it when there warn't

anybody around, the way pap would do, for that might set people after us.

So we shoved out after dark on the raft.

Anybody that don't believe yet that it's foolishness to handle a

snake-skin, after all that that snake-skin done for us, will believe

it now if they read on and see what more it done for us.

The place to buy canoes is off of rafts laying up at shore. But we

didn't see no rafts laying up; so we went along during three hours and

more. Well, the night got gray and ruther thick, which is the next

meanest thing to fog. You can't tell the shape of the river, and you

can't see no distance. It got to be very late and still, and then along

comes a steamboat up the river. We lit the lantern, and judged she would

see it. Up-stream boats didn't generly come close to us; they go out and

follow the bars and hunt for easy water under the reefs; but nights like

this they bull right up the channel against the whole river.

We could hear her pounding along, but we didn't see her good till she was

close. She aimed right for us. Often they do that and try to see how

close they can come without touching; sometimes the wheel bites off a

sweep, and then the pilot sticks his head out and laughs, and thinks he's

mighty smart. Well, here she comes, and we said she was going to try and

shave us; but she didn't seem to be sheering off a bit. She was a big

one, and she was coming in a hurry, too, looking like a black cloud with

rows of glow-worms around it; but all of a sudden she bulged out, big and

scary, with a long row of wide-open furnace doors shining like red-hot

teeth, and her monstrous bows and guards hanging right over us. There

was a yell at us, and a jingling of bells to stop the engines, a powwow

of cussing, and whistling of steam--and as Jim went overboard on one side

and I on the other, she come smashing straight through the raft.

I dived--and I aimed to find the bottom, too, for a thirty-foot wheel had

got to go over me, and I wanted it to have plenty of room. I could

always stay under water a minute; this time I reckon I stayed under a

minute and a half. Then I bounced for the top in a hurry, for I was

nearly busting. I popped out to my armpits and blowed the water out of

my nose, and puffed a bit. Of course there was a booming current; and of