第 39 页

"Come to think, the logs ain't a-going to do; they don't have log walls

in a dungeon: we got to dig the inscriptions into a rock. We'll fetch a

rock."

Jim said the rock was worse than the logs; he said it would take him such

a pison long time to dig them into a rock he wouldn't ever get out. But

Tom said he would let me help him do it. Then he took a look to see how

me and Jim was getting along with the pens. It was most pesky tedious

hard work and slow, and didn't give my hands no show to get well of the

sores, and we didn't seem to make no headway, hardly; so Tom says:

"I know how to fix it. We got to have a rock for the coat of arms and

mournful inscriptions, and we can kill two birds with that same rock.

There's a gaudy big grindstone down at the mill, and we'll smouch it, and

carve the things on it, and file out the pens and the saw on it, too."

It warn't no slouch of an idea; and it warn't no slouch of a grindstone

nuther; but we allowed we'd tackle it. It warn't quite midnight yet, so

we cleared out for the mill, leaving Jim at work. We smouched the

grindstone, and set out to roll her home, but it was a most nation tough

job. Sometimes, do what we could, we couldn't keep her from falling over,

and she come mighty near mashing us every time. Tom said she was going

to get one of us, sure, before we got through. We got her half way; and

then we was plumb played out, and most drownded with sweat. We see it

warn't no use; we got to go and fetch Jim So he raised up his bed and

slid the chain off of the bed-leg, and wrapt it round and round his neck,

and we crawled out through our hole and down there, and Jim and me laid

into that grindstone and walked her along like nothing; and Tom

superintended. He could out-superintend any boy I ever see. He knowed

how to do everything.

Our hole was pretty big, but it warn't big enough to get the grindstone

through; but Jim he took the pick and soon made it big enough. Then Tom

marked out them things on it with the nail, and set Jim to work on them,

with the nail for a chisel and an iron bolt from the rubbage in the

lean-to for a hammer, and told him to work till the rest of his candle

quit on him, and then he could go to bed, and hide the grindstone under

his straw tick and sleep on it. Then we helped him fix his chain back on

the bed-leg, and was ready for bed ourselves. But Tom thought of

something, and says:

"You got any spiders in here, Jim?"

"No, sah, thanks to goodness I hain't, Mars Tom."

"All right, we'll get you some."

"But bless you, honey, I doan' WANT none. I's afeard un um. I jis' 's

soon have rattlesnakes aroun'."

Tom thought a minute or two, and says:

"It's a good idea. And I reckon it's been done. It MUST a been done; it

stands to reason. Yes, it's a prime good idea. Where could you keep

it?"

"Keep what, Mars Tom?"

"Why, a rattlesnake."

"De goodness gracious alive, Mars Tom! Why, if dey was a rattlesnake to

come in heah I'd take en bust right out thoo dat log wall, I would, wid

my head."

Why, Jim, you wouldn't be afraid of it after a little. You could tame

it."

"TAME it!"

"Yes--easy enough. Every animal is grateful for kindness and petting,

and they wouldn't THINK of hurting a person that pets them. Any book

will tell you that. You try--that's all I ask; just try for two or three

days. Why, you can get him so in a little while that he'll love you; and

sleep with you; and won't stay away from you a minute; and will let you

wrap him round your neck and put his head in your mouth."

"PLEASE, Mars Tom--DOAN' talk so! I can't STAN' it! He'd LET me shove

his head in my mouf--fer a favor, hain't it? I lay he'd wait a pow'ful

long time 'fo' I AST him. En mo' en dat, I doan' WANT him to sleep wid

me."

"Jim, don't act so foolish. A prisoner's GOT to have some kind of a dumb

pet, and if a rattlesnake hain't ever been tried, why, there's more glory

to be gained in your being the first to ever try it than any other way

you could ever think of to save your life."

"Why, Mars Tom, I doan' WANT no sich glory. Snake take 'n bite Jim's

chin off, den WHAH is de glory? No, sah, I doan' want no sich doin's."

"Blame it, can't you TRY? I only WANT you to try--you needn't keep it up

if it don't work."

"But de trouble all DONE ef de snake bite me while I's a tryin' him.

Mars Tom, I's willin' to tackle mos' anything 'at ain't onreasonable, but

ef you en Huck fetches a rattlesnake in heah for me to tame, I's gwyne to

LEAVE, dat's SHORE."

"Well, then, let it go, let it go, if you're so bull-headed about it. We

can get you some garter-snakes, and you can tie some buttons on their

tails, and let on they're rattlesnakes, and I reckon that 'll have to

do."

"I k'n stan' DEM, Mars Tom, but blame' 'f I couldn' get along widout um,

I tell you dat. I never knowed b'fo' 't was so much bother and trouble

to be a prisoner."

"Well, it ALWAYS is when it's done right. You got any rats around here?"

"No, sah, I hain't seed none."

"Well, we'll get you some rats."

"Why, Mars Tom, I doan' WANT no rats. Dey's de dadblamedest creturs to

'sturb a body, en rustle roun' over 'im, en bite his feet, when he's

tryin' to sleep, I ever see. No, sah, gimme g'yarter-snakes, 'f I's got

to have 'm, but doan' gimme no rats; I hain' got no use f'r um, skasely."

"But, Jim, you GOT to have 'em--they all do. So don't make no more fuss

about it. Prisoners ain't ever without rats. There ain't no instance of

it. And they train them, and pet them, and learn them tricks, and they

get to be as sociable as flies. But you got to play music to them. You

got anything to play music on?"

"I ain' got nuffn but a coase comb en a piece o' paper, en a juice-harp;

but I reck'n dey wouldn' take no stock in a juice-harp."

"Yes they would. THEY don't care what kind of music 'tis. A jews-harp's

plenty good enough for a rat. All animals like music--in a prison they

dote on it. Specially, painful music; and you can't get no other kind

out of a jews-harp. It always interests them; they come out to see

what's the matter with you. Yes, you're all right; you're fixed very

well. You want to set on your bed nights before you go to sleep, and

early in the mornings, and play your jews-harp; play 'The Last Link is

Broken'--that's the thing that 'll scoop a rat quicker 'n anything else;

and when you've played about two minutes you'll see all the rats, and the

snakes, and spiders, and things begin to feel worried about you, and

come. And they'll just fairly swarm over you, and have a noble good

time."

"Yes, DEY will, I reck'n, Mars Tom, but what kine er time is JIM havin'?

Blest if I kin see de pint. But I'll do it ef I got to. I reck'n I

better keep de animals satisfied, en not have no trouble in de house."

Tom waited to think it over, and see if there wasn't nothing else; and

pretty soon he says:

"Oh, there's one thing I forgot. Could you raise a flower here, do you

reckon?"

"I doan know but maybe I could, Mars Tom; but it's tolable dark in heah,

en I ain' got no use f'r no flower, nohow, en she'd be a pow'ful sight o'

trouble."

"Well, you try it, anyway. Some other prisoners has done it."

"One er dem big cat-tail-lookin' mullen-stalks would grow in heah, Mars

Tom, I reck'n, but she wouldn't be wuth half de trouble she'd coss."

"Don't you believe it. We'll fetch you a little one and you plant it in

the corner over there, and raise it. And don't call it mullen, call it

Pitchiola--that's its right name when it's in a prison. And you want to

water it with your tears."

"Why, I got plenty spring water, Mars Tom."

"You don't WANT spring water; you want to water it with your tears. It's

the way they always do."

"Why, Mars Tom, I lay I kin raise one er dem mullen-stalks twyste wid

spring water whiles another man's a START'N one wid tears."

"That ain't the idea. You GOT to do it with tears."

"She'll die on my han's, Mars Tom, she sholy will; kase I doan' skasely

ever cry."

So Tom was stumped. But he studied it over, and then said Jim would have

to worry along the best he could with an onion. He promised he would go

to the nigger cabins and drop one, private, in Jim's coffee-pot, in the

morning. Jim said he would "jis' 's soon have tobacker in his coffee;"

and found so much fault with it, and with the work and bother of raising

the mullen, and jews-harping the rats, and petting and flattering up the

snakes and spiders and things, on top of all the other work he had to do

on pens, and inscriptions, and journals, and things, which made it more

trouble and worry and responsibility to be a prisoner than anything he

ever undertook, that Tom most lost all patience with him; and said he was

just loadened down with more gaudier chances than a prisoner ever had in

the world to make a name for himself, and yet he didn't know enough to

appreciate them, and they was just about wasted on him. So Jim he was

sorry, and said he wouldn't behave so no more, and then me and Tom shoved

for bed.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

IN the morning we went up to the village and bought a wire rat-trap and

fetched it down, and unstopped the best rat-hole, and in about an hour we

had fifteen of the bulliest kind of ones; and then we took it and put it

in a safe place under Aunt Sally's bed. But while we was gone for

spiders little Thomas Franklin Benjamin Jefferson Elexander Phelps found

it there, and opened the door of it to see if the rats would come out,

and they did; and Aunt Sally she come in, and when we got back she was

a-standing on top of the bed raising Cain, and the rats was doing what

they could to keep off the dull times for her. So she took and dusted us

both with the hickry, and we was as much as two hours catching another

fifteen or sixteen, drat that meddlesome cub, and they warn't the

likeliest, nuther, because the first haul was the pick of the flock.

I never see a likelier lot of rats than what that first haul was.

We got a splendid stock of sorted spiders, and bugs, and frogs, and

caterpillars, and one thing or another; and we like to got a hornet's

nest, but we didn't. The family was at home. We didn't give it right

up, but stayed with them as long as we could; because we allowed we'd

tire them out or they'd got to tire us out, and they done it. Then we

got allycumpain and rubbed on the places, and was pretty near all right

again, but couldn't set down convenient. And so we went for the snakes,

and grabbed a couple of dozen garters and house-snakes, and put them in a

bag, and put it in our room, and by that time it was supper-time, and a

rattling good honest day's work: and hungry?--oh, no, I reckon not! And

there warn't a blessed snake up there when we went back--we didn't half

tie the sack, and they worked out somehow, and left. But it didn't

matter much, because they was still on the premises somewheres. So we

judged we could get some of them again. No, there warn't no real

scarcity of snakes about the house for a considerable spell. You'd see

them dripping from the rafters and places every now and then; and they

generly landed in your plate, or down the back of your neck, and most of

the time where you didn't want them. Well, they was handsome and

striped, and there warn't no harm in a million of them; but that never

made no difference to Aunt Sally; she despised snakes, be the breed what

they might, and she couldn't stand them no way you could fix it; and

every time one of them flopped down on her, it didn't make no difference

what she was doing, she would just lay that work down and light out. I

never see such a woman. And you could hear her whoop to Jericho. You

couldn't get her to take a-holt of one of them with the tongs. And if

she turned over and found one in bed she would scramble out and lift a

howl that you would think the house was afire. She disturbed the old man

so that he said he could most wish there hadn't ever been no snakes

created. Why, after every last snake had been gone clear out of the

house for as much as a week Aunt Sally warn't over it yet; she warn't

near over it; when she was setting thinking about something you could

touch her on the back of her neck with a feather and she would jump right

out of her stockings. It was very curious. But Tom said all women was

just so. He said they was made that way for some reason or other.

We got a licking every time one of our snakes come in her way, and she

allowed these lickings warn't nothing to what she would do if we ever

loaded up the place again with them. I didn't mind the lickings, because

they didn't amount to nothing; but I minded the trouble we had to lay in

another lot. But we got them laid in, and all the other things; and you

never see a cabin as blithesome as Jim's was when they'd all swarm out

for music and go for him. Jim didn't like the spiders, and the spiders

didn't like Jim; and so they'd lay for him, and make it mighty warm for