LumberChunker/GutenQA_Paragraphs · Datasets at Hugging Face

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Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	600	CHAPTER XVI.	“Well, that’s infernal mean. Odd, too. Say, boy, what’s the matter with your father?”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	601	CHAPTER XVI.	“It’s the—a—the—well, it ain’t anything much.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	602	CHAPTER XVI.	They stopped pulling. It warn’t but a mighty little ways to the raft now. One says:
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	603	CHAPTER XVI.	“Boy, that’s a lie. What is the matter with your pap? Answer up square now, and it’ll be the better for you.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	604	CHAPTER XVI.	“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.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	605	CHAPTER XVI.	“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?”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	606	CHAPTER XVI.	“Well,” says I, a-blubbering, “I’ve told everybody before, and they just went away and left us.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	607	CHAPTER XVI.	“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?”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	608	CHAPTER XVI.	“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.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	609	CHAPTER XVI.	“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.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	610	CHAPTER XVI.	“Good-bye, sir,” says I; “I won’t let no runaway niggers get by me if I can help it.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	611	CHAPTER XVI.	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.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	612	CHAPTER XVI.	I went into the wigwam; Jim warn’t there. I looked all around; he warn’t anywhere. I says:
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	613	CHAPTER XVI.	“Jim!”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	614	CHAPTER XVI.	“Here I is, Huck. Is dey out o’ sight yit? Don’t talk loud.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	615	CHAPTER XVI.	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:
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	616	CHAPTER XVI.	“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 ’speck it save’ ole Jim—ole Jim ain’t going to forgit you for dat, honey.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	617	CHAPTER XVI.	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.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	618	CHAPTER XVI.	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.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	619	CHAPTER XVI.	That night about ten we hove in sight of the lights of a town away down in a left-hand bend.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	620	CHAPTER XVI.	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:
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	621	CHAPTER XVI.	“Mister, is that town Cairo?”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	622	CHAPTER XVI.	“Cairo? no. You must be a blame’ fool.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	623	CHAPTER XVI.	“What town is it, mister?”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	624	CHAPTER XVI.	“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.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	625	CHAPTER XVI.	I paddled to the raft. Jim was awful disappointed, but I said never mind, Cairo would be the next place, I reckoned.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	626	CHAPTER XVI.	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 tow-head tolerable close to the left-hand bank. I begun to suspicion something. So did Jim. I says:
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	627	CHAPTER XVI.	“Maybe we went by Cairo in the fog that night.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	628	CHAPTER XVI.	He says:
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	629	CHAPTER XVI.	“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.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	630	CHAPTER XVI.	“I wish I’d never seen that snake-skin, Jim—I do wish I’d never laid eyes on it.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	631	CHAPTER XVI.	“It ain’t yo’ fault, Huck; you didn’ know. Don’t you blame yo’self ’bout it.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	632	CHAPTER XVI.	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.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	633	CHAPTER XVI.	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!
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	634	CHAPTER XVI.	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.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	635	CHAPTER XVI.	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.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	636	CHAPTER XVI.	So we shoved out after dark on the raft.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	637	CHAPTER XVI.	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.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	638	CHAPTER XVI.	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.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	639	CHAPTER XVI.	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.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	640	CHAPTER XVI.	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 course that boat started her engines again ten seconds after she stopped them, for they never cared much for raftsmen; so now she was churning along up the river, out of sight in the thick weather, though I could hear her.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	641	CHAPTER XVI.	I sung out for Jim about a dozen times, but I didn’t get any answer; so I grabbed a plank that touched me while I was “treading water,” and struck out for shore, shoving it ahead of me. But I made out to see that the drift of the current was towards the left-hand shore, which meant that I was in a crossing; so I changed off and went that way.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	642	CHAPTER XVI.	It was one of these long, slanting, two-mile crossings; so I was a good long time in getting over. I made a safe landing, and clumb up the bank. I couldn’t see but a little ways, but I went poking along over rough ground for a quarter of a mile or more, and then I run across a big old-fashioned double log-house before I noticed it. I was going to rush by and get away, but a lot of dogs jumped out and went to howling and barking at me, and I knowed better than to move another peg.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	643	CHAPTER XVII.	In about a minute somebody spoke out of a window without putting his head out, and says:
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	644	CHAPTER XVII.	“Be done, boys! Who’s there?”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	645	CHAPTER XVII.	I says:
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	646	CHAPTER XVII.	“It’s me.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	647	CHAPTER XVII.	“Who’s me?”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	648	CHAPTER XVII.	“George Jackson, sir.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	649	CHAPTER XVII.	“What do you want?”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	650	CHAPTER XVII.	“I don’t want nothing, sir. I only want to go along by, but the dogs won’t let me.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	651	CHAPTER XVII.	“What are you prowling around here this time of night for—hey?”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	652	CHAPTER XVII.	“I warn’t prowling around, sir, I fell overboard off of the steamboat.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	653	CHAPTER XVII.	“Oh, you did, did you? Strike a light there, somebody. What did you say your name was?”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	654	CHAPTER XVII.	“George Jackson, sir. I’m only a boy.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	655	CHAPTER XVII.	“Look here, if you’re telling the truth you needn’t be afraid—nobody’ll hurt you. But don’t try to budge; stand right where you are. Rouse out Bob and Tom, some of you, and fetch the guns. George Jackson, is there anybody with you?”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	656	CHAPTER XVII.	“No, sir, nobody.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	657	CHAPTER XVII.	I heard the people stirring around in the house now, and see a light. The man sung out:
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	658	CHAPTER XVII.	“Snatch that light away, Betsy, you old fool—ain’t you got any sense? Put it on the floor behind the front door. Bob, if you and Tom are ready, take your places.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	659	CHAPTER XVII.	“All ready.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	660	CHAPTER XVII.	“Now, George Jackson, do you know the Shepherdsons?”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	661	CHAPTER XVII.	“No, sir; I never heard of them.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	662	CHAPTER XVII.	“Well, that may be so, and it mayn’t. Now, all ready. Step forward, George Jackson. And mind, don’t you hurry—come mighty slow. If there’s anybody with you, let him keep back—if he shows himself he’ll be shot. Come along now. Come slow; push the door open yourself—just enough to squeeze in, d’ you hear?”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	663	CHAPTER XVII.	I didn’t hurry; I couldn’t if I’d a wanted to. I took one slow step at a time and there warn’t a sound, only I thought I could hear my heart. The dogs were as still as the humans, but they followed a little behind me. When I got to the three log doorsteps I heard them unlocking and unbarring and unbolting. I put my hand on the door and pushed it a little and a little more till somebody said, “There, that’s enough—put your head in.” I done it, but I judged they would take it off.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	664	CHAPTER XVII.	The candle was on the floor, and there they all was, looking at me, and me at them, for about a quarter of a minute: Three big men with guns pointed at me, which made me wince, I tell you; the oldest, gray and about sixty, the other two thirty or more—all of them fine and handsome—and the sweetest old gray-headed lady, and back of her two young women which I couldn’t see right well. The old gentleman says:
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	665	CHAPTER XVII.	“There; I reckon it’s all right. Come in.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	666	CHAPTER XVII.	As soon as I was in the old gentleman he locked the door and barred it and bolted it, and told the young men to come in with their guns, and they all went in a big parlor that had a new rag carpet on the floor, and got together in a corner that was out of the range of the front windows—there warn’t none on the side. They held the candle, and took a good look at me, and all said, “Why, he ain’t a Shepherdson—no, there ain’t any Shepherdson about him.” Then the old man said he hoped I wouldn’t mind being searched for arms, because he didn’t mean no harm by it—it was only to make sure. So he didn’t pry into my pockets, but only felt outside with his hands, and said it was all right. He told me to make myself easy and at home, and tell all about myself; but the old lady says:
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	667	CHAPTER XVII.	“Why, bless you, Saul, the poor thing’s as wet as he can be; and don’t you reckon it may be he’s hungry?”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	668	CHAPTER XVII.	“True for you, Rachel—I forgot.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	669	CHAPTER XVII.	So the old lady says:
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	670	CHAPTER XVII.	“Betsy” (this was a nigger woman), “you fly around and get him something to eat as quick as you can, poor thing; and one of you girls go and wake up Buck and tell him—oh, here he is himself. Buck, take this little stranger and get the wet clothes off from him and dress him up in some of yours that’s dry.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	671	CHAPTER XVII.	Buck looked about as old as me—thirteen or fourteen or along there, though he was a little bigger than me. He hadn’t on anything but a shirt, and he was very frowzy-headed. He came in gaping and digging one fist into his eyes, and he was dragging a gun along with the other one. He says:
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	672	CHAPTER XVII.	“Ain’t they no Shepherdsons around?”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	673	CHAPTER XVII.	They said, no, ’twas a false alarm.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	674	CHAPTER XVII.	“Well,” he says, “if they’d a ben some, I reckon I’d a got one.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	675	CHAPTER XVII.	They all laughed, and Bob says:
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	676	CHAPTER XVII.	“Why, Buck, they might have scalped us all, you’ve been so slow in coming.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	677	CHAPTER XVII.	“Well, nobody come after me, and it ain’t right I’m always kept down; I don’t get no show.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	678	CHAPTER XVII.	“Never mind, Buck, my boy,” says the old man, “you’ll have show enough, all in good time, don’t you fret about that. Go ’long with you now, and do as your mother told you.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	679	CHAPTER XVII.	When we got up-stairs to his room he got me a coarse shirt and a roundabout and pants of his, and I put them on. While I was at it he asked me what my name was, but before I could tell him he started to tell me about a bluejay and a young rabbit he had catched in the woods day before yesterday, and he asked me where Moses was when the candle went out. I said I didn’t know; I hadn’t heard about it before, no way.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	680	CHAPTER XVII.	“Well, guess,” he says.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	681	CHAPTER XVII.	“How’m I going to guess,” says I, “when I never heard tell of it before?”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	682	CHAPTER XVII.	“But you can guess, can’t you? It’s just as easy.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	683	CHAPTER XVII.	“Which candle?” I says.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	684	CHAPTER XVII.	“Why, any candle,” he says.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	685	CHAPTER XVII.	“I don’t know where he was,” says I; “where was he?”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	686	CHAPTER XVII.	“Why, he was in the dark! That’s where he was!”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	687	CHAPTER XVII.	“Well, if you knowed where he was, what did you ask me for?”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	688	CHAPTER XVII.	“Why, blame it, it’s a riddle, don’t you see? Say, how long are you going to stay here? You got to stay always. We can just have booming times—they don’t have no school now. Do you own a dog? I’ve got a dog—and he’ll go in the river and bring out chips that you throw in. Do you like to comb up Sundays, and all that kind of foolishness? You bet I don’t, but ma she makes me. Confound these ole britches! I reckon I’d better put ’em on, but I’d ruther not, it’s so warm. Are you all ready? All right. Come along, old hoss.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	689	CHAPTER XVII.	Cold corn-pone, cold corn-beef, butter and buttermilk—that is what they had for me down there, and there ain’t nothing better that ever I’ve come across yet. Buck and his ma and all of them smoked cob pipes, except the nigger woman, which was gone, and the two young women. They all smoked and talked, and I eat and talked. The young women had quilts around them, and their hair down their backs. They all asked me questions, and I told them how pap and me and all the family was living on a little farm down at the bottom of Arkansaw, and my sister Mary Ann run off and got married and never was heard of no more, and Bill went to hunt them and he warn’t heard of no more, and Tom and Mort died, and then there warn’t nobody but just me and pap left, and he was just trimmed down to nothing, on account of his troubles; so when he died I took what there was left, because the farm didn’t belong to us, and started up the river, deck passage, and fell overboard; and that was how I come to be here. So they said I could have a home there as long as I wanted it. Then it was most daylight and everybody went to bed, and I went to bed with Buck, and when I waked up in the morning, drat it all, I had forgot what my name was. So I laid there about an hour trying to think, and when Buck waked up I says:
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	690	CHAPTER XVII.	“Can you spell, Buck?”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	691	CHAPTER XVII.	“Yes,” he says.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	692	CHAPTER XVII.	“I bet you can’t spell my name,” says I.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	693	CHAPTER XVII.	“I bet you what you dare I can,” says he.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	694	CHAPTER XVII.	“All right,” says I, “go ahead.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	695	CHAPTER XVII.	“G-e-o-r-g-e J-a-x-o-n—there now,” he says.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	696	CHAPTER XVII.	“Well,” says I, “you done it, but I didn’t think you could. It ain’t no slouch of a name to spell—right off without studying.”
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	697	CHAPTER XVII.	I set it down, private, because somebody might want me to spell it next, and so I wanted to be handy with it and rattle it off like I was used to it.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	698	CHAPTER XVII.	It was a mighty nice family, and a mighty nice house, too. I hadn’t seen no house out in the country before that was so nice and had so much style. It didn’t have an iron latch on the front door, nor a wooden one with a buckskin string, but a brass knob to turn, the same as houses in town. There warn’t no bed in the parlor, nor a sign of a bed; but heaps of parlors in towns has beds in them. There was a big fireplace that was bricked on the bottom, and the bricks was kept clean and red by pouring water on them and scrubbing them with another brick; sometimes they wash them over with red water-paint that they call Spanish-brown, same as they do in town. They had big brass dog-irons that could hold up a saw-log. There was a clock on the middle of the mantelpiece, with a picture of a town painted on the bottom half of the glass front, and a round place in the middle of it for the sun, and you could see the pendulum swinging behind it. It was beautiful to hear that clock tick; and sometimes when one of these peddlers had been along and scoured her up and got her in good shape, she would start in and strike a hundred and fifty before she got tuckered out. They wouldn’t took any money for her.
Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_-_Mark_Twain	699	CHAPTER XVII.	Well, there was a big outlandish parrot on each side of the clock, made out of something like chalk, and painted up gaudy. By one of the parrots was a cat made of crockery, and a crockery dog by the other; and when you pressed down on them they squeaked, but didn’t open their mouths nor look different nor interested. They squeaked through underneath. There was a couple of big wild-turkey-wing fans spread out behind those things. On the table in the middle of the room was a kind of a lovely crockery basket that had apples and oranges and peaches and grapes piled up in it, which was much redder and yellower and prettier than real ones is, but they warn’t real because you could see where pieces had got chipped off and showed the white chalk, or whatever it was, underneath.

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CHAPTER XVI.

“Well, that’s infernal mean. Odd, too. Say, boy, what’s the matter with your father?”

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CHAPTER XVI.

“It’s the—a—the—well, it ain’t anything much.”

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CHAPTER XVI.

They stopped pulling. It warn’t but a mighty little ways to the raft now. One says:

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CHAPTER XVI.

“Boy, that’s a lie. What is the matter with your pap? Answer up square now, and it’ll be the better for you.”

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CHAPTER XVI.

“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.”

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CHAPTER XVI.

“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?”

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CHAPTER XVI.

“Well,” says I, a-blubbering, “I’ve told everybody before, and they just went away and left us.”

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CHAPTER XVI.

“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?”

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CHAPTER XVI.

“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.”

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CHAPTER XVI.

“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.”

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CHAPTER XVI.

“Good-bye, sir,” says I; “I won’t let no runaway niggers get by me if I can help it.”

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CHAPTER XVI.

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.

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CHAPTER XVI.

I went into the wigwam; Jim warn’t there. I looked all around; he warn’t anywhere. I says:

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CHAPTER XVI.

“Jim!”

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CHAPTER XVI.

“Here I is, Huck. Is dey out o’ sight yit? Don’t talk loud.”

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CHAPTER XVI.

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:

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CHAPTER XVI.

“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 ’speck it save’ ole Jim—ole Jim ain’t going to forgit you for dat, honey.”

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CHAPTER XVI.

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.

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CHAPTER XVI.

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.

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CHAPTER XVI.

That night about ten we hove in sight of the lights of a town away down in a left-hand bend.

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CHAPTER XVI.

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:

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CHAPTER XVI.

“Mister, is that town Cairo?”

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CHAPTER XVI.

“Cairo? no. You must be a blame’ fool.”

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CHAPTER XVI.

“What town is it, mister?”

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CHAPTER XVI.

“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.”

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CHAPTER XVI.

I paddled to the raft. Jim was awful disappointed, but I said never mind, Cairo would be the next place, I reckoned.

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CHAPTER XVI.

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 tow-head tolerable close to the left-hand bank. I begun to suspicion something. So did Jim. I says:

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CHAPTER XVI.

“Maybe we went by Cairo in the fog that night.”

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CHAPTER XVI.

He says:

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CHAPTER XVI.

“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.”

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CHAPTER XVI.

“I wish I’d never seen that snake-skin, Jim—I do wish I’d never laid eyes on it.”

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CHAPTER XVI.

“It ain’t yo’ fault, Huck; you didn’ know. Don’t you blame yo’self ’bout it.”

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CHAPTER XVI.

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.

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CHAPTER XVI.

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!

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CHAPTER XVI.

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.

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CHAPTER XVI.

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.

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CHAPTER XVI.

So we shoved out after dark on the raft.

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CHAPTER XVI.

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.

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CHAPTER XVI.

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.

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CHAPTER XVI.

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.

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CHAPTER XVI.

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 course that boat started her engines again ten seconds after she stopped them, for they never cared much for raftsmen; so now she was churning along up the river, out of sight in the thick weather, though I could hear her.

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CHAPTER XVI.

I sung out for Jim about a dozen times, but I didn’t get any answer; so I grabbed a plank that touched me while I was “treading water,” and struck out for shore, shoving it ahead of me. But I made out to see that the drift of the current was towards the left-hand shore, which meant that I was in a crossing; so I changed off and went that way.

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CHAPTER XVI.

It was one of these long, slanting, two-mile crossings; so I was a good long time in getting over. I made a safe landing, and clumb up the bank. I couldn’t see but a little ways, but I went poking along over rough ground for a quarter of a mile or more, and then I run across a big old-fashioned double log-house before I noticed it. I was going to rush by and get away, but a lot of dogs jumped out and went to howling and barking at me, and I knowed better than to move another peg.

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CHAPTER XVII.

In about a minute somebody spoke out of a window without putting his head out, and says:

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Be done, boys! Who’s there?”

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CHAPTER XVII.

I says:

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CHAPTER XVII.

“It’s me.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Who’s me?”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“George Jackson, sir.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“What do you want?”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“I don’t want nothing, sir. I only want to go along by, but the dogs won’t let me.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“What are you prowling around here this time of night for—hey?”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“I warn’t prowling around, sir, I fell overboard off of the steamboat.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Oh, you did, did you? Strike a light there, somebody. What did you say your name was?”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“George Jackson, sir. I’m only a boy.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Look here, if you’re telling the truth you needn’t be afraid—nobody’ll hurt you. But don’t try to budge; stand right where you are. Rouse out Bob and Tom, some of you, and fetch the guns. George Jackson, is there anybody with you?”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“No, sir, nobody.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

I heard the people stirring around in the house now, and see a light. The man sung out:

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Snatch that light away, Betsy, you old fool—ain’t you got any sense? Put it on the floor behind the front door. Bob, if you and Tom are ready, take your places.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“All ready.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Now, George Jackson, do you know the Shepherdsons?”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“No, sir; I never heard of them.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Well, that may be so, and it mayn’t. Now, all ready. Step forward, George Jackson. And mind, don’t you hurry—come mighty slow. If there’s anybody with you, let him keep back—if he shows himself he’ll be shot. Come along now. Come slow; push the door open yourself—just enough to squeeze in, d’ you hear?”

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CHAPTER XVII.

I didn’t hurry; I couldn’t if I’d a wanted to. I took one slow step at a time and there warn’t a sound, only I thought I could hear my heart. The dogs were as still as the humans, but they followed a little behind me. When I got to the three log doorsteps I heard them unlocking and unbarring and unbolting. I put my hand on the door and pushed it a little and a little more till somebody said, “There, that’s enough—put your head in.” I done it, but I judged they would take it off.

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CHAPTER XVII.

The candle was on the floor, and there they all was, looking at me, and me at them, for about a quarter of a minute: Three big men with guns pointed at me, which made me wince, I tell you; the oldest, gray and about sixty, the other two thirty or more—all of them fine and handsome—and the sweetest old gray-headed lady, and back of her two young women which I couldn’t see right well. The old gentleman says:

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CHAPTER XVII.

“There; I reckon it’s all right. Come in.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

As soon as I was in the old gentleman he locked the door and barred it and bolted it, and told the young men to come in with their guns, and they all went in a big parlor that had a new rag carpet on the floor, and got together in a corner that was out of the range of the front windows—there warn’t none on the side. They held the candle, and took a good look at me, and all said, “Why, he ain’t a Shepherdson—no, there ain’t any Shepherdson about him.” Then the old man said he hoped I wouldn’t mind being searched for arms, because he didn’t mean no harm by it—it was only to make sure. So he didn’t pry into my pockets, but only felt outside with his hands, and said it was all right. He told me to make myself easy and at home, and tell all about myself; but the old lady says:

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Why, bless you, Saul, the poor thing’s as wet as he can be; and don’t you reckon it may be he’s hungry?”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“True for you, Rachel—I forgot.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

So the old lady says:

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Betsy” (this was a nigger woman), “you fly around and get him something to eat as quick as you can, poor thing; and one of you girls go and wake up Buck and tell him—oh, here he is himself. Buck, take this little stranger and get the wet clothes off from him and dress him up in some of yours that’s dry.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

Buck looked about as old as me—thirteen or fourteen or along there, though he was a little bigger than me. He hadn’t on anything but a shirt, and he was very frowzy-headed. He came in gaping and digging one fist into his eyes, and he was dragging a gun along with the other one. He says:

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Ain’t they no Shepherdsons around?”

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CHAPTER XVII.

They said, no, ’twas a false alarm.

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Well,” he says, “if they’d a ben some, I reckon I’d a got one.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

They all laughed, and Bob says:

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Why, Buck, they might have scalped us all, you’ve been so slow in coming.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Well, nobody come after me, and it ain’t right I’m always kept down; I don’t get no show.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Never mind, Buck, my boy,” says the old man, “you’ll have show enough, all in good time, don’t you fret about that. Go ’long with you now, and do as your mother told you.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

When we got up-stairs to his room he got me a coarse shirt and a roundabout and pants of his, and I put them on. While I was at it he asked me what my name was, but before I could tell him he started to tell me about a bluejay and a young rabbit he had catched in the woods day before yesterday, and he asked me where Moses was when the candle went out. I said I didn’t know; I hadn’t heard about it before, no way.

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Well, guess,” he says.

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CHAPTER XVII.

“How’m I going to guess,” says I, “when I never heard tell of it before?”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“But you can guess, can’t you? It’s just as easy.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Which candle?” I says.

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Why, any candle,” he says.

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CHAPTER XVII.

“I don’t know where he was,” says I; “where was he?”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Why, he was in the dark! That’s where he was!”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Well, if you knowed where he was, what did you ask me for?”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Why, blame it, it’s a riddle, don’t you see? Say, how long are you going to stay here? You got to stay always. We can just have booming times—they don’t have no school now. Do you own a dog? I’ve got a dog—and he’ll go in the river and bring out chips that you throw in. Do you like to comb up Sundays, and all that kind of foolishness? You bet I don’t, but ma she makes me. Confound these ole britches! I reckon I’d better put ’em on, but I’d ruther not, it’s so warm. Are you all ready? All right. Come along, old hoss.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

Cold corn-pone, cold corn-beef, butter and buttermilk—that is what they had for me down there, and there ain’t nothing better that ever I’ve come across yet. Buck and his ma and all of them smoked cob pipes, except the nigger woman, which was gone, and the two young women. They all smoked and talked, and I eat and talked. The young women had quilts around them, and their hair down their backs. They all asked me questions, and I told them how pap and me and all the family was living on a little farm down at the bottom of Arkansaw, and my sister Mary Ann run off and got married and never was heard of no more, and Bill went to hunt them and he warn’t heard of no more, and Tom and Mort died, and then there warn’t nobody but just me and pap left, and he was just trimmed down to nothing, on account of his troubles; so when he died I took what there was left, because the farm didn’t belong to us, and started up the river, deck passage, and fell overboard; and that was how I come to be here. So they said I could have a home there as long as I wanted it. Then it was most daylight and everybody went to bed, and I went to bed with Buck, and when I waked up in the morning, drat it all, I had forgot what my name was. So I laid there about an hour trying to think, and when Buck waked up I says:

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Can you spell, Buck?”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Yes,” he says.

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CHAPTER XVII.

“I bet you can’t spell my name,” says I.

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CHAPTER XVII.

“I bet you what you dare I can,” says he.

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CHAPTER XVII.

“All right,” says I, “go ahead.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

“G-e-o-r-g-e J-a-x-o-n—there now,” he says.

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CHAPTER XVII.

“Well,” says I, “you done it, but I didn’t think you could. It ain’t no slouch of a name to spell—right off without studying.”

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CHAPTER XVII.

I set it down, private, because somebody might want me to spell it next, and so I wanted to be handy with it and rattle it off like I was used to it.

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CHAPTER XVII.

It was a mighty nice family, and a mighty nice house, too. I hadn’t seen no house out in the country before that was so nice and had so much style. It didn’t have an iron latch on the front door, nor a wooden one with a buckskin string, but a brass knob to turn, the same as houses in town. There warn’t no bed in the parlor, nor a sign of a bed; but heaps of parlors in towns has beds in them. There was a big fireplace that was bricked on the bottom, and the bricks was kept clean and red by pouring water on them and scrubbing them with another brick; sometimes they wash them over with red water-paint that they call Spanish-brown, same as they do in town. They had big brass dog-irons that could hold up a saw-log. There was a clock on the middle of the mantelpiece, with a picture of a town painted on the bottom half of the glass front, and a round place in the middle of it for the sun, and you could see the pendulum swinging behind it. It was beautiful to hear that clock tick; and sometimes when one of these peddlers had been along and scoured her up and got her in good shape, she would start in and strike a hundred and fifty before she got tuckered out. They wouldn’t took any money for her.

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CHAPTER XVII.

Well, there was a big outlandish parrot on each side of the clock, made out of something like chalk, and painted up gaudy. By one of the parrots was a cat made of crockery, and a crockery dog by the other; and when you pressed down on them they squeaked, but didn’t open their mouths nor look different nor interested. They squeaked through underneath. There was a couple of big wild-turkey-wing fans spread out behind those things. On the table in the middle of the room was a kind of a lovely crockery basket that had apples and oranges and peaches and grapes piled up in it, which was much redder and yellower and prettier than real ones is, but they warn’t real because you could see where pieces had got chipped off and showed the white chalk, or whatever it was, underneath.