The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

PREFACE

Most of the adventures described in this book are taken from life: one or two were experienced by myself, the rest by boys who studied with me at school. Huck Finn is copied from life, Tom Sawyer too, but not from one original - he is a combination of features taken from three boys I knew, and therefore belongs to a mixed architectural order.
The wild superstitions described below were common among the children and Negroes of the West at that time, that is, thirty or forty years ago.
Although my book is intended primarily for the amusement of boys and girls, I hope that grown men and women will not disdain it either, for it was my design to remind them of what they themselves were once like, how they felt, how they thought, how they spoke, and how they what strange adventures they sometimes got involved in.
Hartford, 1876
Author

Persons who try to find a motive in this narrative will be brought to justice; persons who try to find morality in it will be exiled; persons who try to find a plot in it will be shot.
By order of the author,
Governor General
Head of Artillery Department

EXPLANATION

Several dialects are used in this book, namely: Missouri Negro, the most sharp form the backwater dialect of Pike County, as well as four somewhat softened varieties of the latter. The shades of speech were not chosen at random or at random, but, on the contrary, very carefully, under reliable guidance, supported by my personal acquaintance with all these forms of speech.
I give this explanation because without it, many readers would assume that all my characters are trying to imitate each other in their speech and they are not succeeding.
Author

CHAPTER I

You don’t know anything about me if you haven’t read a book called “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” but it doesn’t matter. This book was written by Mr. Mark Twain and, in general, he didn’t lie very much. He made up a few things, but overall he didn’t lie that much. This is nothing, I have never seen such people who did not lie at all, except for Aunt Polly and the widow, and perhaps Mary. About Aunt Polly - she is Tom Sawyer's aunt - about Mary and about the Widow Douglas are told in this very book, and almost everything there is true, only here and there it is lied - I have already spoken about this.
And the book ends with this: Tom and I found money buried by robbers in a cave, and got rich. We received six thousand dollars per brother - and all in gold. There was such a lot of money - it’s scary to look at! Well, Judge Thatcher took it all and put it in the bank, and every single day we started making a dollar in profit, and so on all year round - I don’t know who could spend that much. The Widow Douglas adopted me and promised to raise me; But life in her house didn’t matter to me: she really pestered me with all sorts of order and decorum, it was simply impossible to endure. In the end, I just ran away, put on my old rags again, climbed back into the same sugar barrel and sat, enjoying my free life. However, Tom Sawyer found me and told me that he was recruiting a gang of robbers. He will accept me too if I return to the widow and behave well. Well, I'm back.
The widow cried over me, called me a poor lost sheep and all sorts of other words; but, of course, there was nothing offensive on her mind. Again she dressed me in everything new, so all I knew was that I was sweating and walked around as if tied up all day. And again everything went as before. The widow rang the bell for dinner, and there was no way to be late - be sure to be on time. And once you sit down at the table, you can’t immediately start eating: you have to wait until the widow bends her head and mutters a little over the food, and the food, in general, was not bad; The only bad thing is that each item is cooked on its own. Either it’s a bunch of all sorts of bits and scraps! It happens that you mix them well, they are saturated with juice and slip through much easier.
On the very first day after dinner, the widow took out a thick book and began to read to me about Moses in the reeds, and I was simply bursting with curiosity - I so wanted to know how it would end; when suddenly she let slip that this same Moses had died a long time ago, and I immediately became uninterested - I didn’t care about the dead.
Soon I wanted to smoke, and I asked the widow for permission. But she didn’t allow it: she said it was bad habit and very sloppy and I need to wean myself off it. There are such people! They'll jump on something they have no idea about. Here is the widow too: she runs around with her Moses when he is not even related to her - and who needs him anyway, if he died a long time ago, you understand - and scolds me for the fact that I like to smoke. And she probably sniffs tobacco - that’s okay, she can do it.
Her sister, Miss Watson, a rather wizened old maid with glasses, just at that time moved in with her and immediately pestered me with an ABC book. She nagged me for a whole hour, but in the end the widow told her to leave me alone. Yes, I couldn’t stand it any longer. Then there was mortal boredom for a whole hour, and I kept spinning in my chair. And Miss Watson kept pestering: “Don’t put your feet on the chair, Huckleberry!”, “Don’t squeak like that, Huckleberry, sit still!”, “Don’t yawn or stretch, Huckleberry, behave properly!”. Then she began to preach about the underworld, and I went ahead and said that it would be nice to go there. She just got furious, and I didn’t think anything bad, just to run away somewhere, I was so tired of them, and where it didn’t matter. Miss Watson said it was very bad of me, that she would never have said that herself: she was trying not to sin in order to get to heaven. But I didn’t see anything good in getting to where she would end up, and I decided that I wouldn’t even try. But I didn’t say this - it wouldn’t do any good anyway, just trouble.
Then she started talking about heaven - and went on and on. As if you don’t need to do anything there - just walk around all day with a harp and sing, and so on until the end of time. There was something I didn't really like. But again I didn’t say this. - I just asked how she thinks Tom Sawyer will get there? And she says: “No, under no circumstances!” I was very happy because I wanted to be with him.
Miss Watson kept nagging at me, so that in the end I got tired and became very bored. Soon the blacks were called into the rooms and began to pray, and after that everyone went to bed. I went upstairs with a candle stub and put it on the table, sat down in front of the window and tried to think about something fun - but nothing came of it: such a melancholy came upon me, even if I die. The stars were shining and the leaves in the forest rustled so sadly; somewhere far away an eagle owl hooted - that means someone died; you could hear the nightjar screaming and the dog howling, which meant someone was going to die soon. And the wind kept whispering something, and I could not understand what it was whispering about, and it sent shivers down my spine. Then in the forest someone groaned, like the way a ghost groans when it wants to tell what is in its soul, and cannot make it understood, and it cannot lie peacefully in its grave: so it wanders at night and yearns. I felt so scared and sad, I really wanted someone to be with me... And then a spider landed on my shoulder. I knocked him right onto the candle and before I knew it, he had shrunk all over. I myself knew that this was not good, there is no worse omen, and I was really scared, my soul just went into overdrive. I jumped up, turned on my heels three times and crossed myself each time, then took a thread and tied a clump of hair to myself to ward off the witches - and still did not calm down: it helps when you find a horseshoe and, instead of nailing it over the door , you will lose her; Only I haven’t heard that in this way you can get rid of trouble when you kill a spider.
It made me shiver. I sat down again and took out the phone; the house was now as quiet as a tomb, and that meant the widow wouldn’t know anything. Quite a long time has passed; I heard a clock far away in the city start to strike: “Boom! boom!" - it struck twelve, and after that it became quiet again, quieter than before. Soon I heard a branch crack in the darkness under the trees - something was moving there. I sat motionless and listened. And suddenly someone meowed, barely audible: “Meow!” Meow!" That's great! I also meowed, barely audible: “Meow! Meow!" - and then he put out the candle and climbed out through the window onto the roof of the barn. From there I slid to the ground and crept under the trees. I see that it is: Tom Sawyer is waiting for me.

CHAPTER II

We walked on tiptoe along the path between the trees to the very end of the garden, bending down low so that the branches did not hit our heads. Walking past the kitchen, I tripped over a root and made a noise. We squatted down and became quiet. Miss Watson's big black man - his name was Jim - was sitting on the threshold of the kitchen; We saw him very well, because there was a candle behind him. He jumped up and listened for about a minute, craning his neck; then he says:
- Who's there?
He listened some more, then walked up on tiptoe and stopped right between us: you could touch him with your finger. Well, a fair amount of time must have passed without hearing anything, and we were all so close to each other. And suddenly one place on my ankle itched, and I was afraid to scratch it." Then my ear itched, then my back, right between the shoulder blades. I think, if I don’t itch, just die. I noticed this many times later: if you’re somewhere at a party, or at a funeral, or you want to fall asleep and just can’t - in general, when you can’t itch in any way - you will certainly itch in all places at once.
Here Jim says:
- Listen, who is it? Where are you? After all, I heard everything, what disgusting! Okay, I know what to do: I’ll sit down and sit until I hear something again.
And he sat down on the ground, just between me and Tom, leaned his back against the tree and stretched out his legs so that he almost touched my leg. My nose itched. I itched so much that tears came to my eyes, and I was afraid to scratch. Then my nose started to itch. Then it started to itch under my nose. I just didn't know how to sit still. This attack lasted for about six or seven minutes, but it seemed to me that it was much longer. Now I was itching in eleven places at once. I decided that I couldn’t stand it for more than a minute, but somehow I restrained myself: I thought I’d try. And just then Jim began to breathe loudly, then began to snore, and everything immediately went away for me.
Tom gave me a sign - he barely audibly smacked his lips - and we crawled away on all fours. As soon as we crawled ten steps away. Tom whispered to me that he wanted to tie Jim to a tree for fun. And I said: “It’s better not to, he’ll wake up and make a fuss, and then they’ll see that I’m not there.” Tom said that he didn’t have enough candles, he should sneak into the kitchen and get more. I stopped him and said that Jim might wake up and go into the kitchen. But Tom wanted to take the risk; we climbed in there, took three candles, and Tom left five cents on the table as payment. Then he and I went out; I couldn’t wait to get away as quickly as possible, and Tom decided to crawl on all fours to Jim and play some trick on him. I was waiting for him, and it seemed to me that I had to wait a very long time - it was so empty and silent all around.
As soon as Tom returned, he and I ran along the path around the garden and very soon found ourselves at the very top of the mountain on the other side of the house. Tom said he took Jim's hat off and hung it on a branch just above his head, and Jim stirred a little, but didn't wake up. The next day, Jim said that the witches had bewitched him, put him to sleep and rode him all over the state, and then they put him under a tree again and hung his hat on a branch so that you could immediately see whose business it was. And another time Jim said that they drove it to New Orleans; then each time he succeeded further and further, so that in the end he began to say that the witches rode him around the world, tortured him almost to death, and his back was completely worn out, as if under a saddle. Jim became so proud after that that he didn’t even want to look at other blacks. Negroes came from miles away to hear Jim talk about it, and he became more respected than any other Negro in our area. Having met Jim, other blacks stopped, mouths open, and looked at him as if at some miracle. As soon as it gets dark, the blacks always gather in the kitchen by the fire and talk about witches; but as soon as anyone starts talking about it, Jim will immediately intervene and say: “Hm! Well, what do you know about witches!” And this black man will immediately become quiet and silent. Jim put the five-cent coin on a string and always wore it around his neck; he said that the devil himself gave him this talisman and said that it could cure all diseases and summon witches whenever he wanted, just by whispering over a coin; but Jim never said what he was whispering. The blacks came from all over and gave Jim everything they had just to look at this coin; however, they would never have touched it for anything in the world, because the coin had been in the hands of the devil. He had now become a worthless worker - he was very proud that he had seen the devil and carried witches all over the world.
Well, when Tom and I approached the cliff and looked down at the town, there were only three or four lights shining there, probably in those houses where the sick lay; above us the stars shone so brightly, and below the city a river flowed a whole mile wide, so majestic and smooth. We went down the mountain and found Joe Harper with Ben Rogers and two or three other boys; they were hiding in an old tannery. We untied the skiff and went down the river about two and a half miles to a large landslide on the mountain side, and there we landed.
When we approached the bushes, Tom Sawyer made us all swear that we would not reveal the secret, and then showed the entrance to the cave - where the bushes grew thickest. Then we lit the candles and crawled on all fours into the passage. We must have crawled about two hundred paces, and then a cave opened up. Tom wandered along the passages and soon dived under the wall in one place - you would never have noticed that there was a passage there. Along this narrow passage we sort of crawled into a room, very damp, all foggy and cold, and then we stopped.
Tom said:
- Well, we’ll gather a gang of robbers and call it “Tom Sawyer’s Gang.” And whoever wants to commit robbery with us will have to take an oath and sign with his blood.
Everyone agreed. And so Tom took out a piece of paper where he had written an oath, and read it. She called on all the boys to stand together for the gang and not reveal its secrets to anyone; and if someone offends a boy from our gang, then the one who is ordered to kill the offender and all his relatives must not eat or sleep until he kills them all and carves a cross on their chest - the sign of our gang. And no outsider has the right to put up this sign, only those who belong to the gang; and if someone bets, the gang will sue him; if he bets again, they will kill him. And if anyone from the gang reveals our secret, they will cut his throat, and after that they will burn his corpse and scatter the ashes to the wind, they will cross his name off the list with blood and will no longer remember him, but will curse him and forget him forever.
Everyone said that the oath was wonderful, and asked Tom whether he had come up with it himself or not. It turned out that he came up with some of it himself, and took the rest from books about robbers and pirates - every decent gang has such an oath.
Some thought that it would be good to kill the relatives of those boys who would reveal the secret. Tom said that this was not a bad idea, and he took it and wrote it in with a pencil.
Here Ben Rogers says:
- But Huck Finn has no relatives; what to do with him?
- Well, so what, he has a father? - says Tom Sawyer.
- Yes, there is a father, but where will you find him now? He used to lie drunk at the tannery, along with the pigs, but for more than a year he hasn’t been seen in our area.
They consulted among themselves and were completely ready to cross me out, because, they say, every boy should have relatives or someone who can be killed, otherwise others will be offended. Well, no one could come up with anything, everyone became stumped and silent. At first I almost cried, and then I suddenly thought of a way out: I went ahead and offered them Miss Watson - let them kill her. Everyone agreed.
- Well, it's good. Now everything is all right. You can take Huck.
Then everyone started pricking their fingers with a pin and signing in blood, and I also put my badge on the paper.
- Well, what will this gang do? - asks Ben Rogers.
- Nothing, only robberies and murders.
- What are we going to rob? Houses, or livestock, or...
- Nonsense! This is not robbery, if you steal cattle and the like, this is theft, says Tom Sawyer. - We are not thieves. There is no glory in theft. We are robbers. We will put on masks and stop stagecoaches and carriages on the main road, kill passengers and take away their watches and money.
- And you definitely have to kill them?
- Of course! This is the best. Some authorities think differently, but in general it is considered better to kill - except for those whom we will bring here to the cave and hold until they give a ransom.
- Ransom? And what is it?
- Don't know. That's the only way it's supposed to be. I read about this in books, and we, of course, will also have to do this.
- How can we do it when we don’t know what it is?
- Well, it will have to be done somehow. They tell you, it’s like that in all the books, don’t you hear it, or what? Do you really want to do everything your own way, not like in the books, so that we get completely confused?
- Well, yes, it’s good for you to say, Tom Sawyer, but how will they go for a bath - so that they are empty! - if we don’t know how to do it? What do you think it is?
- Well, I don’t know. It is said: we must keep them until they are redeemed. Maybe that means holding them until they die.
- This looks like something else! This will suit us. Why didn't you say that before? We will hold them until they are ransomed to death. And you probably won't get away with fussing around with them - feed them and make sure they don't run away.
-What are you talking about, Ben Rogers? How can they escape when there is a sentry with them? He will shoot them as soon as they move.
- Sentry? This is clever! So, someone will have to sit and not sleep all night just because they need to be guarded? I think this is stupid. Why can’t you take a club and immediately ransom them with a club to the head?
- Because it’s not in the books - that’s why. Here's the thing, Ben Rogers: do you want to do the job properly or don't you want to? What do you think, people who write books don’t know how to really do it? Are you going to teach them, or what? And don't dream! No, sir, we will buy them back according to all the rules.
- Well, okay. What do I care? I’m just saying: it’s turning out stupid after all... Listen, are we going to kill women too?
- Well, Ben Rogers, if I were such an ignoramus, I would be more silent. Kill women! Why on earth is this possible when there is nothing like this in books? You bring them to the cave and treat them as politely as possible, and there they little by little fall in love with you and don’t want to go home anymore.
- Well, if so, then I agree, but I don’t see the point in it. Soon it will be impossible to walk through our cave: there will be so many women and other people waiting for ransom, and the robbers themselves will have nowhere to go. Well, go ahead, I'm not saying anything.
Little Tommy Barnes had already fallen asleep and, when they woke him up, he got scared, cried and began to ask to go home to his mother, saying that he no longer wanted to be a robber.
Everyone laughed at him and began to tease him as a crybaby, but he pouted and said that he would go right away and tell all our secrets. But Tom gave him five cents to keep quiet and said that we would all go home now, and next week we would get together and then we would rob and kill someone.
Ben Rogers said he couldn't go out often except on Sundays, and couldn't he start next Sunday; but all the boys decided that it was sinful to kill and rob on Sundays, so there was no question of this. We agreed to meet and set a date as soon as possible, then we chose Tom Sawyer as the chieftain of the gang, and Joe Harper as an assistant, and went home.
I climbed onto the roof of the barn, and from there through the window just before dawn. My new dress was all covered in candles and smeared in clay, and I myself was as tired as a dog.

CHAPTER III

Well, old Miss Watson snatched me this morning for my clothes! But the widow didn’t swear at all, she just cleaned off the candle fat and clay, and she was so sad that I decided to behave better this time, if I could. Then Miss Watson took me into the closet and began to pray, but nothing came of it. She told me to pray every day - and whatever I ask will be given to me. But it was not there! I tried. Once I begged for a fishing rod, only without hooks. Why did she give up to me, without hooks! Three or four times I tried to beg myself for hooks, but for some reason nothing came of it. The other day I asked Miss Watson to pray for me, and she called me a fool and didn’t even say why. So I couldn’t understand what was the matter.
Once I sat in the forest for a long time, and kept thinking about it. I say to myself: if a person can beg for anything, then why didn’t Deacon Winn beg for his money back when he bargained for pork? Why can't a widow beg for a silver snuff box that was stolen from her? Why doesn't Miss Watson pray for her to get fat? No, I think something is wrong here. I went and asked the widow, and she said: you can only pray for “spiritual blessings.” I couldn't understand this; Well, she explained it to me; this means: I must help others and do everything I can for them, take care of them constantly and not think about myself at all. And take care of Miss Watson too, as I understand it.
I went into the forest and for a long time I tossed my mind around this way and that and still couldn’t understand what benefit this would have, except for other people; and in the end I decided not to rack my brains over it, maybe it would work out somehow. Sometimes it happened that the widow herself would take hold of me and begin to talk about God’s providence, so much so that it brought tears to my eyes; and the next day, lo and behold, Sir Watson will again do his thing and again confuse me. I already figured that there are two gods: the unfortunate sinner will somehow get along with the god of the widow, and if Miss Watson falls into the clutches of God, then don’t expect any descent. I thought about all this and decided that it would be better for me to go under the command of the widow god if I was suitable for him, although I could not understand why he needed me and what profit could come from me when I know nothing at all and behave no matter, and the simplest kind.
My father has not been seen in our city for more than a year, and I have completely calmed down; I didn’t want to see him anymore. Sober, he used to beat me all the time, if only he got my hands on it; although I mostly ran away from him into the forest when I saw him hanging around. So, at that very time he was caught from the river, about twelve miles above the city - I heard this from people. In any case, they decided that it was he: the drowned man was just as tall as him, and in rags, and had long, very long hair; all this looked very much like his father, only the face could not be made out: he had been in the water for so long that it didn’t even look much like his face. They said that he swam to the river face up. He was caught from the water and buried on the shore. But I didn’t rejoice for long, because I remembered one thing. I knew very well that a drowned man should swim down the river not face up, but down. That’s why I guessed that it wasn’t my father at all, but some drowned woman in men’s clothing. And I began to worry again. I kept waiting for the old man to show up, but I didn’t want that at all.
We played robbers for almost a whole month, and then I quit. And all the boys too. We didn’t rob or kill anyone - we were just playing the fool. They ran out of the forest and rushed at pig drivers or women who were carrying greens and vegetables to the market, but never touched anyone. Tom Sawyer called pigs “ingots,” and turnips and greens “jewels,” and then, back in the cave, we boasted about what we had done and how many people we had killed and wounded. But I didn’t see how much profit we would get from this. Once Tom sent one boy to run around the whole city with a burning stick, which he called “password” (a sign for the whole gang to gather together), and then he told us that he had received a secret message from his spies that tomorrow a whole caravan of rich people would stop near the cave Arabs and Spanish merchants, with two hundred elephants, six hundred camels and a thousand pack mules loaded with diamonds, and guarded by only four hundred soldiers; so we'll set up an ambush, kill them all, and take the loot. He ordered to sharpen the swords, clean the guns and be ready. He couldn’t even attack a cart of rutabaga without sharpening his swords and polishing his guns, although what was the point of sharpening them when they were simple sticks and brush handles - no matter how much you sharpen them, they wouldn’t be a hair’s breadth better. Somehow I couldn’t believe that we could beat such a mass of Spaniards and Arabs, I just wanted to look at the camels and elephants, so the next day, Saturday, I was right there and sat with others in ambush; and as soon as the signal was given, we jumped out of the bushes and rolled down the mountain. But there were no Spaniards or Arabs there, nor camels or elephants. It turned out that this was just a Sunday school excursion, and only first grade. We attacked them and dispersed the guys throughout the valley. But we didn’t get any loot, except for gingerbread and jam, and Bon Rogers also picked up rag doll, and Joe Harper is a prayer book and a soul-saving little book; and then the teacher chased us, and we dropped it all and ran. I didn't see any diamonds, that's what I told Tom Sawyer. And he insisted that they were still there, whole mountains of diamonds, and Arabs, and elephants, and much more. I ask: “Why then didn’t we see anything?” And he says: “If you at least knew something, even read a book called Don Quixote, then you wouldn’t ask. Here, he says, it’s all about witchcraft.” But in fact there were hundreds of soldiers, and elephants, and treasures, and everything else, only we had enemies - sorcerers, as Tom called them - then they turned it all into a Sunday school to spite us. I say: “Okay, then we need to attack these very sorcerers.” Tom Sawyer called me a fool.

Explanation

Persons who try to find a motive in this narrative will be brought to justice; persons who try to find morality in it will be exiled; persons who try to find a plot in it will be shot.
By order of the author, Governor General Chief of Ordnance

Several dialects are used in this book, namely, the Missouri Negro dialect, the harshest form of the Pike County backwoods dialect, and four somewhat softened varieties of the latter. The shades of speech were not chosen at random or at random, but, on the contrary, very carefully, under reliable guidance, supported by my personal acquaintance with all these forms of speech.
I give this explanation because without it, many readers would assume that all my characters are trying to imitate each other in their speech and they are not succeeding.
Author

Chapter I

You don’t know anything about me if you haven’t read a book called “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” but it doesn’t matter. This book was written by Mr. Mark Twain and, in general, he didn’t lie very much. He made up a few things, but overall he didn’t lie that much. This is nothing, I have never seen such people who did not lie at all, except for Aunt Polly and the widow, and perhaps Mary. About Aunt Polly - she is Tom Sawyer's aunt - about Mary and about the Widow Douglas are told in this very book, and almost everything there is true, only here and there it is lied - I have already spoken about this.
And the book ends with this: Tom and I found money buried by robbers in a cave, and got rich. We received six thousand dollars per brother - all in gold. There was such a lot of money - it’s scary to look at! Well, Judge Thatcher took it all and put it in the bank, and every single day we started making a dollar in profit, and so on all year round - I don’t know who could spend that much. The Widow Douglas adopted me and promised to raise me; But life in her house didn’t matter to me: she really pestered me with all sorts of order and decorum, it was simply impossible to endure. In the end, I just ran away, put on my old rags again, climbed back into the same sugar barrel and sat, enjoying my free life. However, Tom Sawyer found me and told me that he was recruiting a gang of robbers. He will accept me too if I return to the widow and behave well. Well, I'm back.
The widow cried over me, called me a poor lost sheep and all sorts of other words; but, of course, there was nothing offensive on her mind. Again she dressed me in everything new, so all I knew was that I was sweating and walked around as if tied up all day. And again everything went as before. The widow rang the bell for dinner, and there was no way to be late - be sure to be on time. And once you sit down at the table, you can’t immediately start eating: you have to wait until the widow bends her head and mutters a little over the food, and the food, in general, was not bad; The only bad thing is that each item is cooked on its own. Either it’s a bunch of all sorts of bits and scraps! It happens that you mix them well, they are saturated with juice and slip through much easier.
On the very first day after dinner, the widow took out a thick book and began to read to me about Moses in the reeds, and I was simply bursting with curiosity - I so wanted to know how it would end; when suddenly she let slip that this same Moses had died a long time ago, and I immediately became uninterested - I didn’t care about the dead.
Soon I wanted to smoke, and I asked the widow for permission. But she didn’t allow me: she said that it was a bad habit and very sloppy and I needed to wean myself from it. There are such people! They'll jump on something they have no idea about. Here is the widow too: she runs around with her Moses when he is not even related to her - and who needs him anyway, if he died a long time ago, you understand - and scolds me for the fact that I like to smoke. And she probably sniffs tobacco - that’s okay, she can do that.
Her sister, Miss Watson, a rather wizened old maid with glasses, just at that time moved in with her and immediately pestered me with an ABC book. She nagged me for a whole hour, but in the end the widow told her to leave me alone. Yes, I couldn’t stand it any longer. Then there was mortal boredom for a whole hour, and I kept spinning in my chair. And Miss Watson kept pestering: “Don’t put your feet on the chair, Huckleberry! ", "Don't squeak like that, Huckleberry, sit still! ", "Don't yawn or stretch, Huckleberry, behave yourself! ". Then she began to preach about the underworld, and I went ahead and said that it would be nice to go there. She just got furious, and I didn’t think anything bad, just to run away somewhere, I was so tired of them, and where it didn’t matter. Miss Watson said it was very bad of me, that she would never have said that herself: she was trying not to sin in order to get to heaven. But I didn’t see anything good in getting to where she would end up, and I decided that I wouldn’t even try. But I didn’t say this - it wouldn’t do any good anyway, just trouble.
Then she started talking about heaven - and went on and on. As if you don’t need to do anything there - just walk around all day with a harp and sing, and so on until the end of time. There was something I didn't really like. But again I didn’t say this. I just asked if she thought Tom Sawyer would get there? And she says: “No, under no circumstances!” I was very happy because I wanted to be with him.
Miss Watson kept nagging at me, so that in the end I got tired and became very bored. Soon the blacks were called into the rooms and began to pray, and after that everyone went to bed. I went upstairs with a candle stub and put it on the table, sat down in front of the window and tried to think about something fun - but nothing came of it: I was so sad I could die. The stars were shining and the leaves in the forest rustled so sadly; somewhere far away an eagle owl hooted - that means someone died; you could hear the nightjar screaming and the dog howling, which meant someone was going to die soon. And the wind kept whispering something, and I could not understand what it was whispering about, and it sent shivers down my spine. Then in the forest someone groaned, like the way a ghost groans when it wants to tell what is in its soul, and cannot make it understood, and it cannot lie peacefully in its grave: so it wanders at night and yearns. I felt so scared and sad, I really wanted someone to be with me... And then a spider landed on my shoulder. I knocked him right onto the candle and before I knew it, he had shrunk all over. I myself knew that this was not good, there is no worse omen, and I was really scared, my soul just went into overdrive. I jumped up, turned on my heels three times and crossed myself each time, then took a thread and tied a clump of hair for myself to ward off the witches - and still did not calm down: it helps when you find a horseshoe and, instead of nailing it over the door , you will lose her; Only I haven’t heard that in this way you can get rid of trouble when you kill a spider.
It made me shiver. I sat down again and took out the phone; the house was now as quiet as a tomb, and that meant the widow wouldn’t know anything. Quite a long time has passed; I heard a clock far away in the city start to strike: “Boom! boom!" - it struck twelve, and after that it became quiet again, quieter than before. Soon I heard a branch crack in the darkness under the trees - something was moving there. I sat motionless and listened. And suddenly someone meowed, barely audible: “Meow!” Meow!" That's great! I also meowed, barely audible: “Meow! Meow!" - and then he put out the candle and climbed out through the window onto the roof of the barn. From there I slid to the ground and crept under the trees. I see that it is: Tom Sawyer is waiting for me.

Chapter II

We walked on tiptoe along the path between the trees to the very end of the garden, bending down low so that the branches did not hit our heads. Walking past the kitchen, I tripped over a root and made a noise. We squatted down and became quiet. Miss Watson's big black man - his name was Jim - was sitting on the threshold of the kitchen; We saw him very well, because there was a candle behind him. He jumped up and listened for about a minute, craning his neck; then he says:
- Who's there?
He listened some more, then walked up on tiptoe and stopped right between us: you could touch him with your finger. Well, a fair amount of time must have passed without hearing anything, and we were all so close to each other. And suddenly one place on my ankle itched, and I was afraid to scratch it,” then my ear itched, then my back, right between my shoulder blades. I think if I don’t itch, just die. I noticed this many times later: if you are visiting somewhere, or at a funeral, or want to fall asleep and just can’t - in general, when you can’t itch in any way - you will certainly itch in all places at once.
Here Jim says:
- Listen, who is it? Where are you? After all, I heard everything, what disgusting! Okay, I know what to do: I’ll sit down and sit until I hear something again.
And he sat down on the ground, just between me and Tom, leaned his back against the tree and stretched out his legs so that he almost touched my leg. My nose itched. I itched so much that tears came to my eyes, and I was afraid to scratch. Then my nose started to itch. Then it started to itch under my nose. I just didn't know how to sit still. This attack lasted for about six or seven minutes, but it seemed to me that it was much longer. Now I was itching in eleven places at once. I decided that I couldn’t stand it for more than a minute, but somehow I restrained myself: I thought I’d try. And just then Jim began to breathe loudly, then began to snore, and everything immediately went away for me.
Tom gave me a sign - he smacked his lips barely audibly - and we crawled away on all fours. As soon as we crawled ten steps away. Tom whispered to me that he wanted to tie Jim to a tree for fun. And I said: “It’s better not to, he’ll wake up and make a fuss, and then they’ll see that I’m not there.” Tom said that he didn’t have enough candles, he should sneak into the kitchen and get more. I stopped him and said that Jim might wake up and go into the kitchen. But Tom wanted to take the risk; we climbed in there, took three candles, and Tom left five cents on the table as payment. Then he and I went out; I couldn’t wait to get away as quickly as possible, and Tom decided to crawl on all fours to Jim and play some trick on him. I was waiting for him, and it seemed to me that I had to wait a very long time - it was so empty and silent all around.
As soon as Tom returned, he and I ran along the path around the garden and very soon found ourselves at the very top of the mountain on the other side of the house. Tom said he took Jim's hat off and hung it on a branch just above his head, and Jim stirred a little, but didn't wake up. The next day, Jim said that the witches had bewitched him, put him to sleep and rode him all over the state, and then they put him under a tree again and hung his hat on a branch so that you could immediately see whose business it was. And another time Jim said that they drove it to New Orleans; then each time he succeeded further and further, so that in the end he began to say that the witches rode him around the world, tortured him almost to death, and his back was completely worn out, as if under a saddle. Jim became so proud after that that he didn’t even want to look at other blacks. Negroes came from miles away to hear Jim talk about it, and he became more respected than any other Negro in our area. Having met Jim, other blacks stopped, mouths open, and looked at him as if at some miracle. As soon as it gets dark, the blacks always gather in the kitchen by the fire and talk about witches; but as soon as anyone brings it up, Jim will immediately intervene and say: “Hm! Well, what can you know about witches! “And this black man will immediately become quiet and silent. Jim put the five-cent coin on a string and always wore it around his neck; he said that the devil himself gave him this talisman and said that it could cure all diseases and summon witches whenever he wanted, just by whispering over a coin; but Jim never said what he was whispering. The blacks came from all over and gave Jim everything they had just to look at this coin; however, they would never have touched it for anything in the world, because the coin had been in the hands of the devil. He had now become a worthless worker - he was very proud that he had seen the devil and carried witches all over the world.
Well, when Tom and I came to the cliff and looked down at the town, there were only three or four lights shining there, probably in those houses where the sick lay; above us the stars shone so brightly, and below the city a river flowed a whole mile wide, so majestic and smooth. We went down the mountain and found Joe Harper with Ben Rogers and two or three other boys; they were hiding in an old tannery. We untied the skiff and went down the river about two and a half miles to a large landslide on the mountain side, and there we landed.
When we approached the bushes, Tom Sawyer made us all swear that we would not reveal the secret, and then showed the entrance to the cave - where the bushes grew thickest. Then we lit the candles and crawled on all fours into the passage. We must have crawled about two hundred paces, and then a cave opened up. Tom wandered along the passages and soon dived under the wall in one place - you would never have noticed that there was a passage there. Along this narrow passage we sort of crawled into a room, very damp, all foggy and cold, and then we stopped.
Tom said:
“Well, we’ll gather a gang of robbers and call it “Tom Sawyer’s Gang.” And whoever wants to commit robbery with us will have to take an oath and sign with his blood.
Everyone agreed. And so Tom took out a piece of paper where he had written an oath, and read it. She called on all the boys to stand together for the gang and not reveal its secrets to anyone; and if someone offends a boy from our gang, then the one who is ordered to kill the offender and all his relatives must not eat or sleep until he kills them all and carves a cross on their chest - the sign of our gang. And no outsider has the right to put up this sign, only those who belong to the gang; and if someone bets, the gang will sue him; if he bets again, they will kill him. And if anyone from the gang reveals our secret, they will cut his throat, and after that they will burn his corpse and scatter the ashes to the wind, they will cross his name off the list with blood and will no longer remember him, but will curse him and forget him forever.
Everyone said that the oath was wonderful, and asked Tom whether he had come up with it himself or not. It turned out that he came up with some of it himself, and took the rest from books about robbers and pirates - every decent gang has such an oath.
Some thought that it would be good to kill the relatives of those boys who would reveal the secret. Tom said that this was not a bad idea, and he took it and wrote it in with a pencil.
Here Ben Rogers says:
– But Huck Finn doesn’t have any relatives; what to do with him?
- Well, so what, he has a father? - says Tom Sawyer.
- Yes, there is a father, but where will you find him now? He used to lie drunk at the tannery, along with the pigs, but for more than a year he hasn’t been seen in our area.
They consulted among themselves and were completely ready to cross me out, because, they say, every boy should have relatives or someone who can be killed, otherwise others will be offended. Well, no one could come up with anything, everyone became stumped and silent. At first I almost cried, and then I suddenly came up with a way out: I went ahead and offered Miss Watson to them - let them kill her. Everyone agreed.
- Well, she's good. Now everything is all right. You can take Huck.
Then everyone started pricking their fingers with a pin and signing in blood, and I also put my badge on the paper.
- Well, what will this gang do? asks Ben Rogers.
- Nothing, only robberies and murders.
- What are we going to rob? Houses, or livestock, or...
- Nonsense! This is not robbery, if you steal cattle and the like, this is theft, says Tom Sawyer. - We are not thieves. There is no glory in theft. We are robbers. We will put on masks and stop stagecoaches and carriages on the main road, kill passengers and take away their watches and money.
– And you definitely have to kill them?
- Of course! This is the best. Some authorities think differently, but in general it is considered better to kill - except for those whom we will bring here to the cave and hold until they give a ransom.
- Ransom? And what is it?
- Don't know. That's the only way it's supposed to be. I read about this in books, and we, of course, will also have to do this.
- How can we, when we don’t know what it is?
- Well, it will have to be done somehow. They tell you, it’s like that in all the books, don’t you hear it, or what? Do you really want to do everything your own way, not like in the books, so that we get completely confused?
- Well, yes, it’s good for you to say, Tom Sawyer, but how will they go for a bath - so that they are empty! – if we don’t know how to do it? What do you think it is?
- Well, I don’t know. It is said: we must keep them until they are redeemed. Maybe that means holding them until they die.
- This looks like something else! This will suit us. Why didn't you say that before? We will hold them until they are ransomed to death. And you probably won’t get away with fussing around with them - feed them and make sure they don’t run away.
-What are you talking about, Ben Rogers? How can they escape when there is a sentry with them? He will shoot them as soon as they move.
- Sentinel? This is clever! So, someone will have to sit and not sleep all night just because they need to be guarded? I think this is stupid. Why can’t you take a club and immediately ransom them with a club to the head?
- Because it’s not in the books - that’s why. Here's the thing, Ben Rogers: do you want to do the job properly or don't you want to? What do you think, people who write books don’t know how to really do it? Are you going to teach them, or what? And don't dream! No, sir, we will buy them back according to all the rules.
- Well, okay. What do I care? I’m just saying: it’s turning out stupid after all... Listen, are we going to kill women too?
- Well, Ben Rogers, if I were such an ignoramus, I would be more silent. Kill women! Why on earth is this possible when there is nothing like this in books? You bring them to the cave and treat them as politely as possible, and there they little by little fall in love with you and don’t want to go home anymore.
- Well, if so, then I agree, but I don’t see the point in it. Soon it will be impossible to walk through our cave: there will be so many women and other people waiting for ransom, and the robbers themselves will have nowhere to go. Well, go ahead, I'm not saying anything.
Little Tommy Barnes had already fallen asleep and, when they woke him up, he got scared, cried and began to ask to go home to his mother, saying that he no longer wanted to be a robber.
Everyone laughed at him and began to tease him as a crybaby, but he pouted and said that he would go right away and tell all our secrets. But Tom gave him five cents to keep quiet and said that we would all go home now, and next week we would get together and then we would rob and kill someone.
Ben Rogers said he couldn't go out often except on Sundays, and couldn't he start next Sunday; but all the boys decided that it was sinful to kill and rob on Sundays, so there was no question of this. We agreed to meet and set a date as soon as possible, then we chose Tom Sawyer as the chieftain of the gang, and Joe Harper as an assistant, and went home.
I climbed onto the roof of the barn, and from there through the window just before dawn. My new dress was all covered in candles and smeared in clay, and I myself was as tired as a dog.

Chapter III

Well, old Miss Watson snatched me this morning for my clothes! But the widow didn’t swear at all, she just cleaned off the candle fat and clay, and she was so sad that I decided to behave better this time, if I could. Then Miss Watson took me into the closet and began to pray, but nothing came of it. She told me to pray every day - and whatever I ask will be given to me. But it was not there! I tried. Once I begged for a fishing rod, only without hooks. Why did she surrender to me, without a hook! Three or four times I tried to beg myself for hooks, but for some reason nothing came of it. The other day I asked Miss Watson to pray for me, and she called me a fool and didn’t even say why. So I couldn’t understand what was the matter.
Once I sat in the forest for a long time, and kept thinking about it. I say to myself: if a person can beg for anything, then why didn’t Deacon Winn beg for his money back when he bargained for pork? Why can't a widow beg for a silver snuff box that was stolen from her? Why doesn't Miss Watson pray for her to get fat? No, I think something is wrong here. I went and asked the widow, and she said: you can only pray for “spiritual blessings.” I couldn't understand this; Well, she explained it to me; this means: I must help others and do everything I can for them, take care of them constantly and not think about myself at all. And take care of Miss Watson too, as I understand.
I went into the forest and for a long time I tossed my mind around this way and that and still couldn’t understand what benefit this would have, except for other people; and in the end I decided not to rack my brains over it, maybe it would work out somehow. Sometimes it happened that the widow herself would take hold of me and begin to talk about God’s providence, so much so that it brought tears to my eyes; and the next day, lo and behold, Sir Watson will again do his thing and again confuse me. I already figured that there are two gods: the unfortunate sinner will somehow get along with the god of the widow, and if Miss Watson falls into the clutches of God, then don’t expect any descent. I thought about all this and decided that it would be better for me to go under the command of the widow god if I was suitable for him, although I could not understand why he needed me and what profit could come from me when I know nothing at all and behave no matter, and the simplest kind.
My father has not been seen in our city for more than a year, and I have completely calmed down; I didn’t want to see him anymore. Sober, he used to beat me all the time, if only he got my hands on it; although I mostly ran away from him into the forest when I saw him hanging around. So, at that very time he was caught from the river, about twelve miles above the city - I heard this from people. In any case, they decided that it was he: the drowned man was just as tall as him, and in rags, and had long, very long hair; all this looked very much like his father, only the face could not be made out: he had been in the water for so long that it didn’t even look much like his face. They said that he swam to the river face up. He was caught from the water and buried on the shore. But I didn’t rejoice for long, because I remembered one thing. I knew very well that a drowned man should swim down the river not face up, but down. That’s why I guessed that it wasn’t my father at all, but some drowned woman in men’s clothing. And I began to worry again. I kept waiting for the old man to show up, but I didn’t want that at all.
We played robbers for almost a whole month, and then I quit. And all the boys too. We didn’t rob or kill anyone – we were just playing the fool. They ran out of the forest and rushed at pig drivers or women who were carrying greens and vegetables to the market, but never touched anyone. Tom Sawyer called pigs “ingots” and turnips and greens “jewels,” and then, back in the cave, we boasted about what we had done and how many people we had killed and wounded. But I didn’t see how much profit we would get from this. Once Tom sent one boy to run around the whole city with a burning stick, which he called “password” (a sign for the whole gang to gather together), and then he told us that he had received a secret message from his spies that tomorrow a whole caravan of rich people would stop near the cave Arabs and Spanish merchants, with two hundred elephants, six hundred camels and a thousand pack mules loaded with diamonds, and guarded by only four hundred soldiers; so we'll set up an ambush, kill them all, and take the loot. He ordered to sharpen the swords, clean the guns and be ready. He couldn’t even attack a cart of rutabaga without sharpening his swords and polishing his guns, although what’s the point of sharpening them when they were just simple sticks and brush handles—no matter how much you sharpen them, they won’t be a hair’s breadth better. Somehow I couldn’t believe that we could beat such a mass of Spaniards and Arabs, I just wanted to look at the camels and elephants, so the next day, Saturday, I was right there and sat with others in ambush; and as soon as the signal was given, we jumped out of the bushes and rolled down the mountain. But there were no Spaniards or Arabs there, nor camels or elephants. It turned out that this was just a Sunday school excursion, and only first grade. We attacked them and dispersed the guys throughout the valley. But we didn’t get any loot except gingerbread and jam, and Bon Rogers also picked up a rag doll, and Joe Harper picked up a prayer book and a soul-saving book; and then the teacher chased us, and we dropped it all and ran. I didn't see any diamonds, that's what I told Tom Sawyer. And he insisted that they were still there, whole mountains of diamonds, and Arabs, and elephants, and much more. I ask: “Why didn’t we see anything then? “And he says: “If you knew anything, even read a book called Don Quixote, then you wouldn’t ask.” Here, he says, it’s all about witchcraft.” But in fact there were hundreds of soldiers, and elephants, and treasures, and everything else, only we had enemies - sorcerers, as Tom called them - then they turned it all into a Sunday school to spite us. I say: “Okay, then we need to attack these very sorcerers.” Tom Sawyer called me a fool.
- What are you talking about! - speaks. “After all, a sorcerer can summon a whole horde of spirits, and they will instantly chop you up, before you have time to say “mama.” After all, they are as tall as a tree and as thick as a church.
“Well,” I say, “and if we also call upon the spirits to help us, will we beat those others or not?”
- How are you going to call them?
- Don't know. And how do they call?
- How? They rub an old tin lamp or an iron ring, and then spirits flock from all sides, thunder rumbles, lightning flashes all around, smoke swirls, and whatever you tell the spirits, they do right away. It doesn't cost them anything to uproot a shot tower and hit the Sunday school principal or anyone else over the head with it.
– Who are they trying so hard for?
- Yes, for anyone who rubs a lamp or a ring. They obey the one who rubs the lamp or ring, and must do whatever he commands. If he orders to build a palace forty miles long from nothing but diamonds and fill it to the top with chewing gum or whatever you want and kidnap the daughter of the Chinese Emperor to be your wife, they must do it all, and in one night before the sun will rise. Not only that: they have to drag this palace all over the country, wherever you want, you know?
“Tell you what,” I say, “in my opinion, they are all just donkeys if they don’t keep this palace for themselves, instead of playing the fool and missing this opportunity.” Moreover, if I were a spirit, I would send this one with the lamp to hell. I will start to break away from work and fly to him because he will rub some rubbish there!
- I came up with it too, Huck Finn! But you must appear when he rubs the lamp, whether you like it or not.
- What? What if I'm as tall as a tree and as thick as a church? Well, okay, I’ll come to him; I just guarantee whatever you want - I will drive him up the tallest tree that can be found in those places.
- Come on, Huck Finn, what's the point of talking to you! You really don’t seem to understand anything at all—like a complete fool.
For two or three days I kept thinking about it, and then I decided to see for myself whether there was any truth to it or not. He took an old tin lamp and an iron ring, went into the forest and rubbed and rubbed until he sweated like an Indian. I think to myself: I’ll build a palace and sell it; But nothing came of it - no spirits appeared. So, in my opinion, Tom Sawyer made up all this nonsense, as he always makes up. He seemed to believe in both Arabs and elephants, but I was a different matter: from everything it looked like it was a Sunday school.

Chapter IV

Well, three or four months have passed, and winter has long arrived. I went to school almost every day, learned to add words, read and write a little, and learned the multiplication table by heart up to six seven - thirty-five, and then, I think, I won’t be able to overcome it, even if I study until I’m a hundred years old. And in general, I don’t really like mathematics.
At first I couldn’t stand this very school, but then nothing happened, I began to get used to it a little. When I got really bored, I would sneak out of class, and the next day the teacher would spank me; it did me good and encouraged me a lot. The longer I went to school, the easier it became for me. And little by little I also got used to all the rules of the widow’s house—somehow I got used to it. The hardest thing was getting used to living in a house and sleeping on a bed; Only before the onset of cold weather did I sometimes escape into freedom and sleep in the forest, and it was like a vacation. I liked the old life more, but I also began to get used to the new one, I even began to like it. The widow said that I was improving little by little and that I was not behaving so badly. She said that she didn’t have to blush for me.
One morning I managed to knock over a salt shaker at breakfast. I quickly grabbed a pinch of salt to throw it over my left shoulder and ward off trouble, but then Miss Watson arrived inopportunely and stopped me. He says, “Get your hands off, Huckleberry! You’re always making a mess all around!” The widow stood up for me, but it was too late; the trouble could not be averted anyway, I knew that very well. I left the house, feeling very unwell, and kept racking my brain about where this misfortune would happen to me and what it would be like. In some cases, you can avert trouble, but this was not such a case, so I didn’t try to do anything, but simply wandered around the city in the most depressing mood and waited for trouble.
I went out into the garden and climbed the steps over the high wooden fence. There was about an inch of freshly fallen snow on the ground, and I saw footprints in the snow: someone was walking from the quarry, stomped around the fence a little, then moved on. It was strange that he did not turn into the garden, having stood so long at the fence. I couldn't figure out what was going on. Something very strange... I wanted to follow the tracks, but first I bent down to look at them. At first I didn’t notice anything special, but then I noticed: on the left heel there was a cross made of large nails to divert evil spirits. In one minute I rolled head over heels down the mountain. From time to time I looked around, but there was no one in sight. I ran to Judge Thatcher. He said:
- Well, honey, you're completely out of breath. After all, you came for interest?
“No, sir,” I say. - Is there anything for me?
- Yes, last night I received more than one hundred and fifty dollars for six months. Whole capital for you. I'd better put it with the other six thousand, otherwise you'll spend it if you take it.
“No, sir,” I say, “I don’t want to waste it.” I don’t need them at all - not six thousand, nothing. I want you to take them for yourself - six thousand and everything else.
He was apparently surprised and could not understand what was the matter, because he asked:
- How? What do you mean by this?
– I say: don’t ask me anything, please. Better take my money... Surely you will?
He says:
- Really, I don’t know what to tell you... What happened?
“Please take them,” I say, “and don’t ask me - then I won’t have to lie.”
The judge thought for a moment and then said:
- Oh! I think I understand. You want to give me your capital, not give it as a gift. That's right.
Then he wrote something on a piece of paper, read it to himself and said:
“You see, it says here: “For a reward.” This means that I acquired your capital from you and paid for it. Here's a dollar for you. Sign now.
I signed and left.
Jim, Miss Watson's black man, had a large ball of hair the size of a fist; he took it out of the rennet and now told fortunes with it. Jim said that there seemed to be a spirit sitting in the ball and this spirit knew everything. So I went to Jim in the evening and told him that my father was here again, I saw his footprints in the snow. I needed to know what he was going to do and whether he would stay here or not. Jim took out the ball, whispered something over it, and then threw it up and dropped it on the floor. The ball dropped like a stone and rolled no further than an inch. Jim tried again and again; everything turned out the same. Jim knelt down, put his ear to the ball and listened. But there was still no sense; Jim said the ball doesn't want to talk. It sometimes happens that without money the ball will not speak at all. I found an old counterfeit quarter that was no good because the copper showed through the silver; but even without this it was impossible to get rid of it - it became so slippery, as if greasy to the touch: you could immediately see what was the matter. (I decided it was better not to talk about the dollar the judge gave me.) I said that the coin was bad, but maybe the ball would take it, who cares. Jim sniffed it, bit it, rubbed it and promised to make the ball mistake it for the real thing. You need to cut a raw potato in half, put a coin in it overnight, and in the morning the copper will no longer be noticeable and it will not be slippery to the touch, so anyone in the city will take it with pleasure, let alone a hairball. But I already knew that potatoes help in such cases, I just forgot about it.
Jim put the coin under the ball and lay down and listened again. This time everything turned out to be ok. He said that now the ball will predict my entire fate if I want. “Go ahead,” I say. So the ball began to whisper to Jim, and Jim retold it to me. He said:
“Your dad doesn’t know what to do yet.” One time he thinks he will leave, and another time he thinks he will stay. It’s best not to worry about anything, let the old man decide for himself what to do. There are two angels near him. One is all white and glows, and the other is all black. The white one will teach him good things, and then the black one will fly in and ruin the whole thing. It is still impossible to say which will prevail in the end. You will have a lot of sorrow in your life, and a fair amount of joy too. Sometimes you will get beaten, you will get sick, but everything will work out in the end. You will meet two women in your life. One is blonde and the other is brunette. One is rich and the other is poor. You first marry a poor woman, and then a rich one. Stay as far away from the water as possible so that something does not happen, because it is written in your birth that you will end your life on the gallows.
When I lit a candle in the evening and entered my room, it turned out that my parent himself was sitting there!

Chapter V

I closed the door behind me. Then I turned around and looked - there he was, dad! I was always afraid of him - he really beat me up. It seemed to me that I was scared even now, and then I realized that I was mistaken, that is, at first, of course, there was a decent shake-up, it even took my breath away - so he suddenly appeared, only I immediately came to my senses and saw that I'm not afraid, there's nothing to even talk about.
My father was about fifty years old, and looked no less. His hair is long, unkempt and dirty, hanging in clumps, and only his eyes shine through them, as if through bushes. Black hair, completely without gray, and long matted sideburns, also black. There is not a trace of blood in the face, although it is almost invisible because of the hair - it is completely pale; but not as pale as other people’s, but something that is scary and disgusting to look at, like a fish’s belly or a frog. And the clothes are complete rags, nothing to look at. He raised one leg over his knee; the boot on that foot had burst, two toes were sticking out, and he moved them from time to time. The hat was lying right there on the floor - old, black, with a wide brim and the top falling inward, like a saucepan with a lid.
I stood and looked at him, and he looked at me, swaying slightly in his chair. I put the candle on the floor. I noticed that the window was open: that means he climbed first onto the barn, and from there into the room. He looked me from head to toe, then said:
- Look how you dressed up - wow! You probably think that you’re an important bird now, or what?
“Maybe I think so, maybe not,” I say.
- Look, don’t be too rude! - speaks. “Got crazy while I was away!” I’ll deal with you quickly, I’ll knock your arrogance off you! You’ve also become educated; they say you can read and write. Do you think your father is no match for you now, since he is illiterate? I'll beat it all out of you. Who told you to gain stupid nobility? Tell me, who told you to do this?
- The widow ordered.
- Widow? That's how it is! And who allowed the widow to poke her nose into something that wasn’t her own business?
- Nobody allowed it.
- Okay, I’ll show her how to meddle where they don’t ask! And you, look, quit your school. Do you hear? I'll show them! They taught the boy to turn up his nose in front of his own father, he assumed such importance! Well, if I ever see you hanging around this very school, stick with me! Your mother could neither read nor write, so she died illiterate. And all your relatives died illiterate. I can’t read or write, but he, look at what a dandy he’s dressed up as! I'm not the kind of person to put up with this, do you hear? Come on, read it, I’ll listen.
I took the book and started reading something about General Washington and the war. Not even half a minute had passed before he grabbed the book with his fist and it flew across the room.
- Right. You know how to read. But I didn’t believe you. Look at me, stop wondering, I won’t tolerate this! I’ll keep an eye on you, such a dandy, and if I catch you near this very school, I’ll skin you all! I'll pour it into you - before you know it! Good son, nothing to say!
He picked up a blue and yellow picture of a boy with cows and asked:
- What is this?
“They gave it to me because I’m a good student.”
He tore the picture and said:
“I’ll give you something too: a good belt!”
He muttered and grumbled something under his breath for a long time, then said:
- Just think, what a sissy! And he has a bed, and sheets, and a mirror, and a carpet on the floor - and his own father should be lying in a tannery along with the pigs! Good son, nothing to say! Well, I’ll deal with you quickly, I’ll beat all the crap out of you! Look, you put on airs of importance and you get rich, they say! A? How is this possible?
– Everyone lies, that’s how it is.
- Listen, how are you talking to me? I have endured and endured, and I don’t intend to endure any more, so don’t be rude to me. I stayed in the city for two days and I only hear about your wealth. And down the river I also heard about it. That's why I came. Get me this money by tomorrow - I need it.
- I don’t have any money.
- You're lying! Judge Thatcher has them. Take them. I need them.
- They tell you that I don’t have any money! Ask Judge Thatcher yourself, he will tell you the same thing.
- Okay, I'll ask him; I'll make him say it! He'll fork out money from me, or I'll show him! Come on, how much do you have in your pocket? I need money.
- Just one dollar, and I need it myself...
“What do I care if you need him!” Come on, that's it.
He took the coin and bit it to see if it was counterfeit, then said that he needed to go to town to buy himself whiskey, otherwise he hadn’t had a drop in his mouth all day. He had already climbed out onto the roof of the barn, but then he stuck his head out the window again and began to scold me for the fact that I was full of all sorts of foolishness and did not want to know my own father. After that, I was already thinking that he had completely left, but he stuck his head out the window again and told me to quit school, otherwise he would lie in wait for me and screw me up properly.
The next day my father got drunk and went to Judge Thatcher, scolded him and demanded that he give me my money, but nothing came of it; then he threatened that he would force him to give up the money in court.
The widow and Judge Thatcher petitioned the court to have me taken away from my father and one of them to be appointed guardian; only the judge was new, he had recently arrived and did not yet know my old man. He said that the court should not unnecessarily interfere in family matters and separate parents from their children, and he also did not want to take away his only child. So the widow and Judge Thatcher had to back down.
The father was so happy that there was no way to calm him down. He promised to beat me half to death with a belt if I didn’t get him money. I borrowed three dollars from the judge, and the old man took it away and got drunk and staggered around the city in a drunken state, yelling, misbehaving, swearing and beating on the frying pan almost until midnight; he was caught and locked up, and the next morning he was taken to court and again jailed for a week. But he said that he was very pleased: he is now the master of his son and will show him where the crayfish spend the winter.
After he left prison, the new judge announced that he intended to make a man out of him. He brought the old man to his house, dressed him from head to toe in everything clean and decent, sat him down at the table with his family for breakfast, lunch, and dinner - one might say, he accepted him as his own. And after dinner he started talking about sobriety and other things, so much so that the old man was brought to tears and he admitted that he had been a fool for so many years, and now he wanted to start new life so that no one would be ashamed to make acquaintance with him, and hopes that the judge will help him with this and will not treat him with contempt. The judge said that he was simply ready to hug him for such words, and at the same time shed tears; and his wife also began to cry; and my father said that no one until now understood what kind of person he was; and the judge replied that he believed it. The old man said that a person who is unlucky in life needs sympathy; and the judge replied that this was absolutely true, and they both shed tears again. And before going to bed, the old man stood up and said, holding out his hand:
- Look at this hand, gentlemen and ladies! Take it and shake it. This hand used to be the hand of a dirty pig, but now it’s different: now it’s the hand of an honest man who is starting a new life and would rather die than take up the old one. Mark my words, don't forget that I said them! Now it's a clean hand. Shake it, don't be afraid!
And all of them, one after another, took turns, shook his hand and shed tears. And the judge’s wife even kissed his hand. After that, my father made a vow not to drink and put a cross instead of a signature. The judge said it was a historic, holy moment... something like that. The old man was taken to the best room, which was reserved for guests. And at night he suddenly wanted to drink to death; he climbed out onto the roof, went down the post to the porch, exchanged a new frock coat for a bottle of forty-degree alcohol, climbed back in and started feasting; and at dawn he climbed out the window again, drunk as a fool, fell off the roof, broke his left arm in two places and almost froze to death; someone picked him up at dawn. And when we went to see what was going on in the guests’ room, we had to measure the depth with a lot before swimming.
The judge was very angry. He said that the old man could probably be corrected with a good bullet from a gun, but he didn’t see any other way.

Chapter VI

Well, soon after that my old man got better and filed a complaint against Judge Thatcher so that he would give up my money, and then he started to take care of me too, because I never left school. Once or twice he caught me and beat me, but I still went to school, and all the time I hid from him or ran away somewhere. Previously, I didn’t really like studying, but now I decided that I would definitely go to school, to spite my father. The trial was postponed; it looked like they would never start, so from time to time I borrowed two or three dollars from Judge Thatcher for the old man to get rid of the flogging. Every time he received money, he got drunk; and every time he got drunk, he wandered around the city and became rowdy; and every time he misbehaved, he was sent to prison. He was very pleased: such a life was just to his liking.
He had gotten into the habit of hanging around the widow’s house, and finally she threatened him that if he didn’t give up this habit, he would have a bad time. Well, he got mad! He promised that he would show who Huck Finn's boss was.
And then one spring he tracked me down, caught me and took me in a boat three miles up the river, and then crossed to the other side in a place where the bank was wooded and there was no housing at all, except for an old log shack in the thicket of the forest , so it was impossible to find her unless you knew where she was.
He didn’t let me go for a minute, and there was no way to escape. We lived in this old shack, and he always locked the door at night and put the key under his head. He had a gun - he probably stole it somewhere - and we went hunting with him, fished; This is what they fed on. Often he would lock me up and go to a store about three miles away, to a transport shop, there he would exchange fish and game for whiskey, bring a bottle home, get drunk, sing songs, and then beat me. The widow finally found out where I was and sent a man to my rescue, but my father drove him away, threatening him with a gun. And soon I got used to living here myself, and I even liked it - everything except the belt.
Life was wow - at least do nothing all day, just smoke and fish; no books, no learning for you. So two months passed, or even more, and I was all torn apart, walked around dirty and no longer understood how much I liked living with a widow in a house where I had to wash my face and eat from a plate, and comb my hair, and go to bed and get up on time, and always poring over a book, and even old Miss Watson used to nag you all the time. I didn't want to go there anymore. I stopped cursing because the widow didn’t like it, but now I started again, since my old man had nothing against it. Generally speaking, our life in the forest was not bad at all.
But little by little the old man loosened up and started fighting with a stick, and I couldn’t stand it. I was covered in welts. And he could no longer sit at home: he would leave, sometimes, but I was forbidden. Once he locked me up, but he left and didn’t return for three days. It was so boring! I thought that he drowned and I would never get out of here. I felt scared, and I decided that after all, I would have to run away. I tried to get out of the house many times, but I couldn’t find any loopholes. The window was such that even a dog couldn’t get through it. I couldn’t climb up the pipe either: it turned out to be too narrow. The door was made of thick and durable oak boards. When my father left, he tried never to leave a knife or anything sharp in the hut; I must have searched everything around forty times and, one might say, almost all the time I was doing just that, because there was nothing else to do anyway. However, this time I did find something: an old, rusty saw without a handle, wedged between the rafters and roofing shingles. I lubricated it and got to work. In the far corner of the hut, behind the table, an old blanket was nailed to the wall so that the wind would not blow through the cracks and extinguish the candle. I crawled under the table, lifted the blanket and began to saw off a piece of the thick bottom log - such that I could crawl through. It took a fair amount of time, but the matter was already coming to an end when I heard my father’s gun in the forest. I quickly destroyed all traces of my work, lowered the blanket and hid the saw, and soon my father appeared.
He was very out of sorts - that is, the same as always. He said that he was in the city and that everything was going the hell there. The lawyer said he would win the case and get the money if they could bring the case to trial, but there were many ways to delay the trial, and Judge Thatcher would be able to arrange it. There are also rumors that a new trial is being started in order to take me away from my father and give me into the custody of the widow, and this time they hope to win it. I was very upset because I didn’t want to live with the widow anymore, to be oppressed again and educated, as they call it there. Then the old man went to swear, and scolded everyone and everyone he could come across, and then once again scolded everyone in a row just to be sure, so as not to miss anyone, and after that he scolded everyone in general, just to round things off, even those he didn’t know by name. name, called him the worst possible name and went on swearing at himself further.
He yelled that he would watch the widow take me away, that he would keep his eyes open, and if they tried to do such a dirty trick on him, then he knew one place where to hide me, about six or seven miles from here, and then let them look for me Even if there are a hundred children, they still won’t find it. This again upset me, but not for long. I think to myself: I won’t sit and wait for him to take me away!
The old man sent me to the skiff to carry the things he had brought: a bag corn flour fifty pounds worth, a large piece of smoked bacon, gunpowder and shot, a four-gallon bottle of whiskey, and also an old book and two newspapers for wads, and more tow. I carried it all ashore, and then returned and sat on the bow of the boat to rest. I thought it over thoroughly and decided that when I ran away from home, I would take my gun and fishing rods with me into the forest. I will not sit in one place, but will go wandering throughout the country - preferably at night; I will obtain food by hunting and fishing; and I will go so far that neither the old man nor the widow will ever find me again. I decided to cut the log and run away that very night if the old man gets drunk, and he will definitely get drunk! I was so lost in thought that I didn’t notice how much time had passed until the old man called out to me and asked if I was there – sleeping or drowned.
While I was dragging things into the shack, it became almost completely dark. I began to prepare dinner, and in the meantime the old man managed to take a sip or two from the bottle; His spirit increased, and he went wild again. He drank while still in town, lay in a ditch all night, and now it was scary to just look at him. Adam is nothing but clay. When he got carried away after drinking, he always began to scold the government. And this time too:
– And it’s also called the government! Well, just admire what it looks like! That's the law! They take away a man's son - own son, but the man raised him, took care of him, spent money on him! Yes! And as soon as you finally raised this son, you think: it’s time to rest, let the son work now, help his father with something - that’s his law! And this is called government! And not only that: the law helps Judge Thatcher to extract capital from me. This is how this law works: it takes a man with a capital of six thousand dollars, even more, shoves him into this old shack, like a trap, and makes him wear such rags that a pig would be ashamed. And it’s also called the government! A person cannot achieve his rights from such a government. Yes indeed! Sometimes you think: I’ll just take it and leave this country forever. Yes, I told them so, straight to old Thatcher’s eyes I said so! Many have heard and can repeat my words. I say: “Yes, I would leave this damned country for a penny and never even look into it again! - In these very words. - Look, I say, at my hat, if, in your opinion, this is a hat. The top lags behind, and everything else slides down below the chin, so that it doesn’t even look like a hat, the head sits like it’s in a chimney. Look, I say, this is the kind of hat I have to wear, and yet I’m one of the first rich people in the city, but I just can’t get my rights.”
Yes, our government is wonderful, simply wonderful! Just listen. There was one free black man from Ohio - a mulatto, almost as white as white people. His shirt is whiter than snow, his hat is so shiny, and he is dressed well, like no one else in the whole city: he has a gold watch with a chain, a stick with a silver knob - just wow, you, an important person! And what would you think? They say that he is a teacher in some college, he can speak different languages and knows everything in the world. And not only that. They say he has the right to vote in his homeland. Well, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I think, where are we going with this? It was just election day, I myself wanted to go vote, so as not to drink too much, and when I found out that we have a state in America where this black man will be allowed to vote, I just didn’t go, I said that I would never vote again I won't. That’s what I said directly, and everyone heard me. Let the whole country go to hell - anyway, I will never vote again in my life! And look how impudently this black man behaves: he wouldn’t have given way to me if I hadn’t pushed him aside. The question is, why isn't this black man sold at auction? That's what I would like to know! And how do you think they would answer me? “They say he can’t be sold until he’s lived in this state for six months, and he hasn’t lived that long yet.” Well, here's an example for you. What kind of government is this if you cannot sell a free Negro until he has lived in the state for six months? And they call themselves the government, and pretend to be the government, and imagine that it is the government, but for a whole six months they cannot budge to take away this swindler, this tramp, a free black man in a white shirt and...
Dad was so crazy that he didn’t notice where his feet were taking him, but they didn’t listen to him very well, so he flew upside down, bumped into a barrel of pork, skinned his knees and began swearing at the top of his lungs; The black man and the government got the worst of it, and the barrel, by the way, suffered a lot too. He jumped around the room for quite a long time, first on one leg, then on the other, grabbing first one knee, then the other, and then he would move his left foot with all his might on the barrel! But he did it in vain, because it was on this foot that his boot broke and two toes were sticking out; he howled so loudly that anyone’s hair would have stood on end, he fell down and began to roll on the dirty floor, holding his bruised fingers, and now he swore so much that the previous swearing simply didn’t count. Afterwards he said it himself. He had heard old Sowberry Hagan in his better days, as if he had surpassed him too; but, in my opinion, he went too far.
After dinner, my father took up the bottle and said that he had enough whiskey for two drinking bouts and one delirium tremens. This was his saying. I decided that in about an hour he would get completely drunk and fall asleep, and then I would steal the key or cut a piece of log and get out; either one or the other. He drank and drank, and then collapsed on his blanket. Only I was unlucky. He did not fall asleep soundly, but kept tossing and turning, moaning, mooing and rushing in all directions; and this went on for a very long time. In the end, I wanted to sleep so much that my eyes closed on their own, and before I knew it, I was fast asleep, and the candle remained burning.
I don’t know how long I slept, when suddenly a terrible scream was heard and I jumped to my feet. My father rushed around like crazy and shouted: “Snakes!” He complained that snakes were crawling on his legs, and then suddenly he jumped up and squealed, - he said that one had bitten him on the cheek, - but I didn’t see any snakes. He started running around the room, around and around, and he shouted: “Take her off! Take it off! She bites me on the neck! “I have never seen a person have such wild eyes. Soon he was exhausted, fell to the floor, and was suffocating; then he began to roll around on the floor very quickly, throwing things in all directions and beating the air with his fists, screaming and yelling that the devils had grabbed him. Little by little he calmed down and lay quietly for a while, just moaning, then he completely calmed down and never even made a sound. I heard an owl hooting and wolves howling far in the forest, and this made the silence even more terrible. The father was lying in the corner. Suddenly he raised himself up on his elbow, listened, tilted his head to the side, and said barely audible:
- Top-top-top - these are the dead... top-top-top... they are coming for me, but I won’t go with them... Oh, here they are! Don't touch me, don't touch me! Hands off - they are cold! Let me go... Oh, leave me, the unfortunate one, alone!..
Then he got down on all fours and crawled and kept asking the dead not to touch him; he wrapped himself in a blanket and crawled under the table, and he asked for everything, then he started crying! You could hear it even through the blanket.
Soon he threw off the blanket, jumped to his feet like crazy, saw me and started chasing me. He chased me around the room with a folding knife, called me the Angel of Death, shouted that he would kill me, and then I would no longer come for him. I asked him to calm down, said that it was me, Huck; and he just laughed, so scary! And he kept swearing, yelling and running after me. Once, when I dodged and dived under his arm, he grabbed me by the back of my jacket and... I already thought that I was done for, but I jumped out of the jacket with the speed of lightning and thereby saved myself. Soon the old man was completely exhausted: he sat down on the floor, leaning his back against the door, and said that he would rest for a minute, and then he would kill me. He slipped the knife under himself and said that he would sleep first, gain strength, and then he would see who was there.
He fell asleep very soon. Then I took an old chair with a sagging seat, climbed onto it as carefully as possible so as not to make noise, and took the gun off the wall. I stuck a ramrod into it to check whether it was loaded or not, then I placed the gun on a barrel of turnips, and I lay down behind the barrel, aimed at my dad and began to wait for him to wake up. And how slowly and drearily time dragged on!

Chapter VII

- Get up! What did you come up with?
I opened my eyes and looked around, trying to understand where I was. The sun has already risen, which means I slept for a long time. The father stood there; his face was rather gloomy and also swollen. He said:
-What are you doing with the gun?
I realized that he didn’t remember anything of what he did at night, and said:
“Someone was breaking in on us, so I lay in wait for him.”
- Why didn’t you wake me up?
“I tried, but it didn’t work: I couldn’t push you away.”
- Well, okay... Don’t stand here uselessly, there’s no point in scratching your tongue! Go and see if the fish have caught the fish for breakfast. And I'll be there in a minute.
He unlocked the door and I ran to the river. I noticed that fragments of branches, all sorts of rubbish and even pieces of bark were floating downstream, which meant that the river had begun to rise. I thought that I would live happily if I were in the city now. I was always lucky during the June flood, because as soon as it started, firewood and whole links of rafts floated down the river, sometimes twelve logs together: all I had to do was catch them and sell them to wood warehouses and a sawmill.
I walked along the shore and kept looking out for my father with one eye, and with the other I watched to see if the river would bring anything suitable. And suddenly, I look, a shuttle is floating, and what a miracle! - thirteen or fourteen feet in length; rushing with all his might, like a little darling. I threw myself into the water head down, like a frog, with my clothes on, and swam to the shuttle. I was just waiting for someone to lie in it - we often do this as a joke, and when you swim almost to the shuttle itself, they jump up and make the person laugh. But this time it turned out differently. The shuttle was indeed empty, I climbed into it and drove it to the shore. I think the old man will be happy when he sees that such a thing costs ten dollars! But when I got to the shore, my father was still not visible, I brought the canoe to the mouth of the river, overgrown with willows and wild grapes; and then something else came to my mind: I think I’ll hide it better, and then, instead of running away into the forest, I’ll go down the river about fifty miles and live longer in one place, otherwise why should I live in poverty, trudging around on foot?
It was very close to the hut, and it still seemed to me as if my old man was walking, but I still hid the canoe, and then I went and looked out from behind the bush; I saw my father had already gone down the path to the river and was aiming his gun at some bird. So he didn't see anything.
As he approached, I was hard at work pulling out the line. He scolded me a little for digging around like that; but I lied to him, saying that I had fallen into the water, which is why I took so long. I knew it - dad would notice that I was all wet and start asking questions. We took five catfish from the fishing rods and went home.
We both got tired and lay down to sleep after breakfast, and I began to think about how I could ward off the widow and father so that they would not look for me. This would be much safer than relying on luck. You won't have time to run far before they catch you - you never know what could happen! For a long time I couldn’t think of anything, and then my father stood up for a minute to drink water and said:
“If anyone is hanging around the house next time, wake me up, do you hear?” This man did not come here with good intentions. I'll shoot him. If he still comes, you wake me up, do you hear?
He collapsed and fell asleep again: but his words advised me what to do. Well, I think now I’ll arrange it in such a way that no one will even think of looking for me.
Around twelve o'clock we got up and went ashore. The river was rising quickly, and a lot of wood was floating along it. Soon a raft link appeared - nine logs tied together. We took a boat and pulled them to the shore. Then we had lunch. Anyone in dad's place would have sat on the river all day to catch more, but that was not his custom. Nine logs at one time was enough for him; he was inspired to go to the city to sell. He locked me up, took the boat and at about half past four towed the raft to the city. I realized that he would not return home that night, I waited until, according to my calculations, he would move further away, then I pulled out the saw and again began sawing that log. Before my father crossed to the other side, I had already gotten out into freedom; the boat and raft seemed just a speck on the water somewhere far, far away.
I took a bag of cornmeal and carried it to where the shuttle was hidden, parted the branches and lowered the flour into it: then I took the pork belly there, then the bottle of whiskey. I took all the sugar and coffee and how much gunpowder and shot I found; took the wads, took the bucket and gourd flask, took the ladle and tin mug, his old saw, two blankets, a pot and a coffee pot. I took away fishing rods, matches, and other things - everything that was worth even a cent. Took everything clean. I needed an axe, but there was no other axe, except the one lying on the firewood, and I already knew why it had to be left in place. I took out the gun, and now everything was ready.
I dug up the wall a lot when I crawled through the hole and pulled out so many things. I covered the tracks thoroughly with earth so that the sawdust would not be visible. Then he inserted the cut piece of log into the old place, placed two stones under it, and stuck one stone on the side, because in this place the log was curved and did not quite reach the ground. Five steps from the wall, if you didn’t know that a piece of log had been sawn, you would never have noticed it, and besides, it’s the back wall - it’s unlikely that anyone would hang around there and look.
I walked on the grass all the way to the shuttle so as not to leave any traces. I stood on the bank and looked at what was happening on the river. Everything is quiet. Then I took a gun and went deeper into the forest, I wanted to shoot some bird, and then I saw a wild pig: in these parts, pigs quickly run wild if they accidentally run here from some meadow farm. I killed this pig and carried it to the shack.
I took an ax and broke open the door, and tried to chop it up as hard as possible; He brought a pig, dragged it closer to the table, cut off its neck with an ax and laid it on the ground so that the blood flowed out (I say “on the ground” because there was no plank floor in the hut, but just ground - hard, heavily trampled). Well, then I took an old bag, put as many large stones in it as I could carry, and dragged it from the killed pig to the door, and then through the forest to the river and threw it into the water; he sank and disappeared from sight. It was immediately obvious that something was being dragged along the ground here. I really wanted Tom Sawyer to be here: I knew that he would be interested in such a thing and would be able to come up with something weirder. In this kind of matter, no one could have done a better job than Tom Sawyer.
Finally, I tore out a clump of hair from myself, thoroughly soaked the ax in blood, stuck the hair to the blade and threw the ax into the corner. Then he took the piglet and carried it, wrapping it in a jacket (so that the blood would not drip), and when he moved further away from the house, downstream of the river, he threw the piglet into the river. Then another thing occurred to me. I took a bag of flour and an old saw out of the shuttle and took them into the house. I put the bag in its old place and tore a hole in it from below with a saw, because we didn’t have knives and forks - when my father cooked, he used only a folding knife. Then he dragged the bag a hundred paces along the grass and through the willow bushes to the east of the house, where there was a shallow lake about five miles wide, all overgrown with reeds - there were also a lot of ducks there in the fall. On the other side of the lake flowed a swampy river or stream that stretched for many miles - I don’t know where, but it didn’t flow into the river. Flour was sown all the way, so that it turned out to be a thin white stitch all the way to the lake. I also threw dad’s whetstone there to make it look like it was an accident. Then he tied the hole in the bag with a string so that no more flour would fall out, and took the bag and the saw back to the shuttle.
When it was almost completely dark, I lowered the canoe down the river to a place where the willows overhung the water, and waited for the moon to rise. I tied him tightly to the willow tree, then had a small snack, and after that I lay down on the bottom to smoke a pipe and think over my plan. I think to myself: they will follow the trail of the bag of stones to the shore, and then begin to look for my body in the river. And there they will follow the flour trail to the lake and along the river flowing from it to look for the criminals who killed me and stole my things. They won't look for anything in the river except my dead body. They'll soon get tired of it and won't worry about me anymore. Well, great, and I can live where I want. Jackson Island is quite suitable for me, I know this island well, and no one is ever there. And at night I’ll be able to cross into the city: I’ll wander around there and find out what I need. Jackson Island is the best place for me.
I was very tired and before I knew it, I fell asleep. When I woke up, I didn’t immediately realize where I was. I sat down and looked around, even got a little scared. Then I remembered. The river seemed very wide, many miles wide. The moon shone so brightly that one could count all the logs that floated past, black and seemingly motionless, very far from the shore. There was dead silence all around, it was clear from everything that it was late, and it smelled like late. You understand what I want to say... I don’t know how to express it in words.
I stretched well, yawned, and was just about to untie the shuttle and set off further, when suddenly I heard a noise across the water. I listened and soon realized what was happening: it was that dull, even knock that you hear when the oars turn in the rowlocks on a quiet night. I looked through the willow foliage - and there it was: far away, near that shore, a boat was floating. I couldn't see how many people were in it. I think it might be my father, even though I wasn’t expecting him. He went downstream below me, and then rowed towards the shore in calm water, and swam so close to me that I could have touched him with the muzzle of a gun. Indeed, it was the father - and a sober one at that, judging by the way he worked the oars.
I didn't waste any time. The next minute I was already flying downstream, silently but quickly, keeping in the shadow of the bank. I walked about two and a half miles, then got out a quarter of a mile closer to the middle of the river, because soon the pier would appear and people from there could see and call to me. I tried to stay among the floating logs, and then I lay down on the bottom of the canoe and let it go with the flow. I lay there, resting and smoking a pipe, and looked at the sky - not a cloud in it. The sky seems so deep when you lie on your back on a moonlit night; I didn't know this before. And how far you can hear across the water on such a night! I heard people talking on the pier. I even heard everything they said - every single word. One said that now the days are getting longer and the nights are getting shorter. The other replied that this night, in his opinion, was not a short one - and then they laughed; he repeated his words - and they laughed again; then they woke up the third and told him the story with laughter; only he didn’t laugh—he muttered something abruptly and said to be left alone. The first one noticed that he would certainly tell his old woman this - she would probably like it very much; but these are mere trifles compared to the jokes he made in his time. I heard one of them say that it was now about three o'clock and he hoped that dawn would be delayed by no more than a week. After this, the voices began to get farther and farther away, and I could no longer make out the words, I heard only vague talking and from time to time laughter, and then it seemed from very far away.
Now I was much lower than the pier. I stood up and saw, about two and a half miles downstream, Jackson Island, all overgrown with forest, standing in the middle of the river, large, dark and massive, like a steamship without lights. Above the island, no traces of the shallows were visible - all of it was now under water.
I reached the island in no time. I rushed like an arrow past its upper part - the current was so fast - then higher, and into the still water and landed on the side closer to the Illinois shore. I directed the shuttle into a deep depression in the shore that I had known for a long time; I had to part the willow branches to get there; and when I tied the shuttle, no one would have noticed it from the outside.
I went ashore, sat on a log at the top of the island and began to look at the wide river, at the black floating logs and at the city three miles away, where three or four lights still flickered. A huge raft was floating along the river: now it was a mile above the island, and in the middle of the raft a lantern was burning. I watched him creep closer and closer, and when he caught up with the place where I was standing, someone there shouted: “Hey, at the stern! Take it right! “I heard it as clearly as if the person was standing next to me.
The sky began to gradually brighten; I went into the forest and lay down to sleep before breakfast.

Chapter VIII

When I woke up, the sun had risen so high that it must have been past eight o'clock. I lay on the grass, in the cool shade, thinking about different things, and felt quite pleasant because I had rested well. The sun could be seen through the gaps between the foliage, but in general there were increasingly tall trees growing here, and it was very gloomy under them. Where the sunlight filtered through the leaves, there were spots on the ground like freckles, and these spots moved slightly, which meant there was a breeze above. Two squirrels sat down on a branch and, looking at me, chattered very friendly.
I got lazy, I felt very good and didn’t want to get up and cook breakfast at all. I was about to doze off again, when suddenly I thought I heard a dull “boom!” echo somewhere higher up the river. ". I woke up, raised myself on my elbow and listened; after a while I hear the same thing again. I jumped up, ran to the shore and looked through the foliage; I see a cloud of smoke spreading across the water, quite far from me, almost level with the pier. And down the river there is a steamboat full of people. Now I understand what's going on! Boom! I saw a white puff of smoke come off the steamer. It was they, you know, who fired a cannon over the water so that my corpse would float to the top.
I was really hungry, but I couldn’t make a fire because they could see the smoke. I sat looking at the gunpowder smoke and listened to the shots. The river in this place is a mile wide, and on a summer morning it is always pleasant to look at, so I would have a very good time watching my corpse being fished out, if only I had something to eat. And then I suddenly remembered that in this case they always pour mercury into piles of bread and float it on the water, because the bread always floats straight to where the drowned man lies and stops above him. Well, I think I need to keep my eyes open so as not to miss it if some kind of fish swims closer to me. I moved to the Illinois end of the island; I think maybe I’ll be lucky. And I wasn’t mistaken: I saw a big fish swimming, and I was about to pick it up with a long stick, but I slipped and it swam past. Of course, I stood where the current comes closest to the shore - that’s how I understood it. After a while, another hog swims up, and this time I didn’t miss it. I pulled out the plug, shook out a small ball of mercury, and stuck my teeth into the rug. The bread was white, the kind only gentlemen eat, not like a simple corn cake.
I chose a nice place where the foliage was thicker, and sat down on a log, very happy, chewing bread and looking at the steamer. And suddenly it dawned on me. I tell myself: probably the widow, or the pastor, or someone else was praying for this bread to find me. And well, that’s how it happened. This means that it is correct: prayer reaches, that is, in the case when people such as a widow or a pastor pray; but my prayer will not work. And, in my opinion, it only works for the righteous.
I lit a pipe and sat for quite a long time - smoking and watching what was happening. The steamboat was going downstream, and I thought that when it came closer, it would be possible to see who was on board, and the steamer was supposed to come very close to the shore, in the place where the bread washed up.
As soon as the steamboat came closer, I knocked out the pipe and ran to where I caught the bread, and lay down behind a log on the shore, in an open place. The log had a fork, and I began to look into it.
Soon the steamer reached the shore; he walked so close to the island that it was possible to throw a gangplank and go ashore. Almost everyone I knew was on the ship: father, Judge Thatcher, Becky Thatcher, Joe Harper, Tom Sawyer with old Aunt Polly, Sid and Mary and many others. Everyone was talking about the murder. But then the captain intervened and said:
- Now take a good look! Here the current comes closest to the shore: maybe the body was thrown ashore and it got stuck somewhere in the bushes near the water. At least, let's hope so.
Well, I was hoping for something completely different. They all crowded on board and, leaning over the railing, tried with all their might - they looked almost into my face. I saw them perfectly well, but they couldn’t see me. Then the captain commanded: “Away!” - and the cannon fired right at me, so that I was deaf from the roar and almost blind from the smoke; I thought this is the end for me. If their cannon had been loaded with a cannonball, they would probably have gotten the same dead body they were chasing. Well, I came to my senses - I looked, nothing happened to me, I was safe, thank God. The steamer passed by and disappeared from sight, rounding the cape. From time to time I heard shots, but further and further away; and after about an hour passed, nothing was heard at all. The island was three miles long. I decided that they had reached the end of the island and gave up on this matter. It turned out, however, that not yet. They circled the island and steamed up the Missouri Arm, occasionally firing a cannon. I moved to the other side of the island and began to look at them. Having reached the upper end of the island, the steamboat stopped firing, turned towards the Missouri shore and went back to the city.
I realized that now I can calm down. No one will look for me anymore. I took my belongings out of the shuttle and made myself a cozy home in the thicket of the forest. I built something like a tent out of blankets to keep things from getting wet by the rain. I caught a somyanka, ripped open its belly with a saw, and at sunset made a fire and had dinner. Then he cast out his fishing rod to catch some fish for breakfast.
When it got dark, I sat down by the fire with a pipe and at first felt very good, and when I got bored, I went to the shore and listened to the river splash, counted the stars, logs and rafts that floated past, and then went to bed. No better way spend time when you're bored: you fall asleep, and then, you see, where the boredom has gone.
So three days and three nights passed. No variety - everything is the same. But on the fourth day I walked around the entire island, exploring it length and breadth. I was the boss here, the whole island belonged to me, so to speak, - I had to find out more about it, and most importantly, I had to kill time. I found a lot of strawberries, large, completely ripe, green grapes and green raspberries, and blackberries were just beginning to ripen. “All this will come in handy over time,” I thought.
Well, I went wandering through the forest and wandered into the very depths, probably to the lower end of the island. I had a gun with me, but I didn’t shoot anything: I took it for protection, and decided to get some game closer to home. And then I almost stepped on a huge snake, but it eluded me, wriggling among the grass and flowers, and I ran after it, trying to shoot it; he started running - and suddenly stepped right on the brands of the fire, which was still smoking.
My heart began to pound. I didn’t look too closely, carefully pulled the trigger, turned it around and, hiding, ran as fast as I could back. From time to time I stopped for a minute where the foliage was thicker and listened, but my breathing was so loud that I could not hear anything. I crept further away and listened again, and there again and again. If I saw a stump, I took it for a person; if a twig cracked under my foot, I felt as if someone had broken my breath in half and I was left with the short half.
When I got home, I felt very uneasy, my soul completely sank into my heels. “However, I don’t think now is the time to fool around.” I quickly collected my belongings and carried them into the canoe so that they would not be visible; He put out the fire and scattered the ashes around so that the fire looked like last year’s, and then climbed a tree.
I must have sat on this tree for two hours, but I didn’t see or hear anything - it only seemed to me that I heard and saw a lot of all sorts of things. Well, don’t sit there for a whole century! In the end, I got down and sat down in the thicket and kept my guard the whole time. I only managed to eat berries and what was left from breakfast.
By the time it got dark I was really hungry. And so, when it became completely dark, I slowly went down to the river and, before the moon rose, crossed to the Illinois shore - a quarter of a mile from the island. There I climbed into the forest, cooked myself dinner and was just about to stay the night, when suddenly I heard: “clack-clack, clink-clack,” and I thought: it’s the horses running, and then I heard voices. I quickly gathered everything back into the canoe, and I myself, stealthily, walked through the forest to see if I could recognize anything. I didn’t go that far and suddenly I heard a voice:
“We’d better stop here if we find a convenient place; the horses were completely exhausted. Let's get a look…
I didn’t wait, pushed off from the shore and quietly crossed back. I tied the canoe in the old place and decided that I would spend the night in it.
I didn’t sleep well: for some reason I couldn’t fall asleep, I kept thinking. And every time I woke up, it seemed to me as if someone had grabbed me by the collar. So the dream didn't do me any favors. In the end I say to myself: “No, that’s impossible! I need to find out who is on the island with me. Even if I crack it, I’ll find out!” And after that I immediately felt somehow better.
I took the oar, pushed off two steps and steered the canoe along the shore, staying in the shadows all the time. The moon has risen; where there was no shadow, it was light, almost like daytime. I rowed for almost an hour; everywhere was quiet and everything was asleep dead asleep. During this time I managed to reach the end of the island. A cool breeze blew, raising ripples, which meant the night was ending. I moved the oar and turned the canoe with its nose towards the shore, then got out and stealthily walked to the edge of the forest. There I sat down on a log and began to look through the foliage. I saw how the moon left its watch and the river began to be covered in darkness; then a light board began to turn white above the trees, and I realized that it would soon be dawn. Then I took the gun and, stopping and listening at every step, went to the place where I had stepped on the ashes from the fire. Only I was unlucky: I couldn’t find that place. Then, I look, it’s like that: a light flashes through the trees. I began to creep up, carefully and slowly. Came closer; I see a man lying on the ground. I almost died of fear. His head was wrapped in a blanket, and he buried his nose almost into the fire. I sat behind the bushes about six feet from the fire and did not take my eyes off it. It was now getting light before dawn. Soon the man yawned, stretched and threw off the blanket. I look - and it’s Jim, Miss Watson’s black man! Well, I was happy! I tell him:
- Hello, Jim! - and crawled out of the bushes.
He will jump up and stare at me. Then he threw himself on his knees, folded his hands and began to beg:
- Don't touch me, don't touch me! I have never offended the dead. I always loved them, I did everything I could for them. Go back to the river from where you came, leave old Jim alone, he was always your friend.
Well, it didn’t take long for me to explain to him that I’m not dead. I was very happy about Jim. Now I wasn't so sad. I wasn’t afraid that he would tell anyone where I was hiding - that’s what I told him. I spoke, and he sat and looked at me, but he himself remained silent. Finally I said:
“It’s already quite dawn now.” Let's have breakfast. Make a better fire.
“What’s the point of breeding it when there’s nothing to cook anyway except strawberries and all sorts of rubbish!” Why, you have a gun, right? This means you can get something better than strawberries.
“Strawberries and all sorts of rubbish...” I say. - Is this what you ate?
“I couldn’t get anything else,” he says.
- Since when have you been on the island, Jim?
- Ever since you were killed.
- Really all the time?
- Well, yes.
“And you ate nothing but this rubbish?”
- Yes, sir, nothing at all.
- Surely you are dying of hunger?
- I could just eat a horse! That's right, I would eat it! How long have you been on the island?
- Since the night I was killed.
- Yah! What did you eat? Oh yes, you have a gun! Yes, yes, you have a gun. This is good. Now you shoot something, and I’ll make a fire.
He and I went to where the canoe was hidden, and while he was making a fire in a clearing under the trees, I brought flour, bacon, coffee, a coffee pot, a frying pan, sugar and tin mugs, so that Jim was literally dumbfounded with amazement: he thought, that this is all witchcraft. And I caught a decent catfish, and Jim gutted it with his knife and fried it.
When breakfast was ready, we lounged on the grass and ate it piping hot. Jim ate so hard his ears were cracking, he was so hungry. We ate our fill and then went to rest.
After a while Jim began:
- Listen, Huck, who was killed in that shack, if not you?
Then I told him everything as it is, and he said:
- Cleverly! Even Tom Sawyer couldn't think of a better one.
I asked:
- How did you get here, Jim, why were you brought?
He hesitated and must have been silent for about a minute; then he said:
- Maybe it’s better not to say...
- Why, Jim?
– You never know why... Just don’t tell anyone about me. You won't tell me, Huck?
- I'll be lost if I tell you!
- Well, okay, I believe you, Huck. I... I ran away.
- Jim!
- Look, you promised not to give it away - you know what you promised, Huck!
- Okay. I promised not to give him away - and I won’t give him away! Honest Indian, I won’t give it away! Let everyone call me a vile abolitionist, let them despise me for it - I don’t care. I won't tell anyone, and in general I won't go back there again. So go ahead and tell me.
- So, you see how it was. The old mistress - this is Miss Watson - kept nagging me, she simply wouldn’t let me live, but still she promised that she would never sell me to Orleans. But I just noticed that Lately One slave trader kept hanging around the house and began to worry. Late in the evening I crept up to the door - and the door was not completely closed - and I heard: the old mistress told the widow that she was going to sell me to Orleans, to the South; She wouldn’t like it, but they’re only giving me eight hundred dollars for me, and how can one resist such a lot of money? The widow began to persuade her not to sell me, but I didn’t wait to see how they would end up, I just gave in.
I came down from the mountain; I think I’ll rent a boat somewhere on the river above the city. The people were still awake, so I hid in an old barrelhouse on the shore and waited for everyone to leave. So I sat there all night. There was always someone hanging around. Around six o'clock in the morning, boats began to float past, and at eight or nine in each boat the only thing they were saying was that your dad had come to town and was saying that you had been killed. Ladies and gentlemen were sitting in the boats, going to inspect the murder scene. Sometimes the boats landed on the shore to rest before crossing to the other side; It was from conversations that I learned about the murder. I was very sorry that you were killed, Huck... Well, now, of course, I don’t feel sorry.
I lay under the shavings all day. I really wanted to eat, but I wasn’t afraid: I knew that the widow and the old mistress would go to a prayer meeting immediately after breakfast and would stay there all day, and they would think about me that I left at dawn to graze the cows: they would miss me only in the evening, when it gets dark. The rest of the servants wouldn’t miss me either, I knew that: they all slipped away for a walk while the old women were not at home.
Well, okay... As soon as it got dark, I got out and walked along the bank against the current, must have walked two miles, or even more - there weren’t any houses there. Then I decided what to do. You see, if I had gone on foot, the dogs would have tracked me; but if I steal a boat and swim across to the other side, the boats will be missed, they will find out where I landed on the other side, and they will find my trail. No, I think the most suitable thing for me is a raft: it leaves no traces.
Soon, I see, a light appears from around the bend. I threw myself into the water and swam, while I pushed the log in front of me. I swam to the middle of the river, hid among the floating logs, and kept my head low and rowed against the current - waiting for the raft to come. Then he swam to the stern and grabbed onto it. Then we found clouds, it became completely dark, I got out and lay down on the raft. The people there gathered in the middle, closer to the lantern. The river kept rising, the current was strong, and I realized that by four o’clock I would swim twenty-five miles down the river with them, and then, before dawn, I would get into the water, swim to the shore and go into the forest on the Illinois side.
But I was unlucky, we were already level with the island; and suddenly, I see a man with a lantern coming to the stern. I see there is nothing to wait for, so I jumped overboard and swam to the island. I thought that I could get out anywhere, but how could you really get out here - the bank is very steep. I had to swim to the lower end of the island until I found a suitable place. I hid in the forest and decided not to board the rafts anymore, since they were walking back and forth with lanterns. I had a pipe, a pack of tobacco and matches in my hat, they did not get wet: everything turned out to be in order.
“So, all this time you haven’t eaten either bread or meat?” Why didn't you catch yourself a turtle?
- How can you catch her? You can’t rush at her and grab her, but can you really kill her with a stone? And how is it possible to catch them at night? And during the day I did not go ashore.
- Yes, it is true. Of course, you had to sit in the forest all the time. Did you hear the cannon fire?
- Still would! I knew it was you they were looking for. I saw them sailing past - I looked at them from behind the bushes.
Some chicks fluttered past - they will fly two steps and sit down. Jim said it was for the rain. There is such a sign: if chickens flutter from place to place, it means it will rain; Well, it’s probably the same with chicks. I wanted to catch a few, but Jim wouldn't let me. He said it was for death. His father was very ill; one of the children caught a bird, and the old grandmother said that the father would die - and so it happened.
And Jim also said that there is no need to count how much of what is being prepared for dinner, this is not good. The same thing applies to shaking out the tablecloth after sunset. And if a person has bees and this person dies, then the bees definitely need to be told about this the next morning, before the sun rises, otherwise they will weaken, stop working and take a breather. Jim said that bees don’t sting fools, but I don’t believe it: I tried it myself many times and they didn’t bite me.
I've heard some of this before, but not all of it. Jim knew a lot of signs and said himself that he knew almost everything. In my opinion, it turned out that all the omens were not good, and so I asked Jim if there were any lucky ones. He said:
- Very little, and even then they are of no use. Why do you need to know that happiness will soon come to you? To get rid of him?
And he also said:
– If you have hairy arms and a hairy chest, this is sure sign that you will get rich. Well, such a sign still has some use, because someday it will happen! You see, maybe you’ll be poor for a long time at first, and maybe you’ll hang yourself out of grief if you don’t know that you’ll get rich later.
– Do you have hairy arms and chest, Jim?
-What are you asking? Can't you see for yourself that they are hairy?
- So what, are you rich?
- No. But I was rich once and will be rich again someday. One time I had fourteen dollars, but I started trading and went broke.
-What were you selling, Jim?
- Yes, first with cattle.
- What kind of cattle?
- Well, we know how - alive. I bought a cow for ten dollars. But I won’t throw my money around like that again. Take the cow and die in my arms.
- So you lost ten dollars?
- No, I didn’t lose all ten, I lost about nine dollars - I sold the skin and lard for a dollar and ten cents.
“So you have five dollars and ten cents left.” So, did you put them into circulation again?
- Why not! Do you know the one-legged black man, whose owner is old Mr. Bradish? Well, he opened a bank and said that whoever deposits one dollar will receive another four dollars in a year. All the blacks contributed, but they didn’t have much money. I have a lot of. So I wanted to get more than four dollars, and I told him that if he didn’t give me that much, I’d open a bank myself. Well, this black man, of course, didn’t want me to start a bank either, two banks have nothing to do with us - he said that if I invested five dollars, then at the end of the year he would pay me thirty-five.
I invested it. I think: I’ll put these thirty-five dollars into circulation now, so that the money doesn’t go to waste. One black man, his name is Bob, caught a big punt, and his owner did not know about it; I bought it and said that I would give him thirty-five dollars at the end of the year; only the punt was stolen that same night, and the next day a one-legged black man told us that the bank had burst. So none of us received any money.
“Where did you put the ten cents, Jim?”
“At first I wanted to spend them, and then I had a dream, and in the dream a voice told me to give them to one black man, his name is Balaam, or simply put, Valaam’s donkey.” He really is a jerk, I have to tell you. But, they say, he is happy, but I see that something is still unlucky. The voice said: “Let Balaam let the ten cents grow and give the profit to you!” Well, Balaam took the money, and then in church he heard from the preacher that whoever gives to the poor gives to God, and he is rewarded a hundredfold for it. He took and gave the money to the beggar, and he himself began to wait to see what would come of it.
- Well, what happened, Jim?
- It didn’t work out. There was no way I could get the money back, and neither did Balaam. Now I won’t lend money to anyone, unless on bail. And the preacher also says that you will certainly receive a hundred times more! If only I could get my ten cents back, I would be glad, and that would be fine.
“Well, Jim, it doesn’t matter, since you’ll get rich someday anyway.”
- Yes, I’m rich even now, if you think about it. I am my own boss, and they give me eight hundred dollars for me. If I had this money, I wouldn’t ask for more.

Chapter IX

I wanted to go once again to look at one place that I noticed in the middle of the island when I was examining it; So Jim and I set off and soon got there, for the island was only three miles long and a quarter of a mile wide.
It was quite a long and steep hill, or slide, about forty feet high. We barely climbed to the top - there were such steep slopes and impassable bushes. We started and climbed all around and eventually found a good, spacious cave almost at the very top, on the side closer to Illinois. The cave was large, like two or three rooms together, and Jim could stand upright in it. It was cool inside. Jim decided to immediately move our things there, but I said there was no need to climb up and down all the time.
Jim thought that if we hid the canoe in a secluded place and dragged all our belongings into the cave, we could hide here when someone crossed to the island, and without dogs they would never find us. And besides, it was not for nothing that the chicks predicted rain, so do I really want everything to get wet?
We returned, took a shuttle, swam to the cave itself and dragged all our things there. Then they found a place nearby where they could hide the shuttle under thick willows. We took a few fish off the hooks, cast the fishing rods again and went to prepare dinner.
The entrance to the cave turned out to be wide enough to roll a barrel into it; on one side of the entrance the floor rose slightly, and there was a flat place there, very convenient for a fireplace. We lit a fire there and cooked dinner.
Having spread the blankets right on the floor, we sat down on them and had lunch. We placed all the other things in the depths of the cave so that they were at hand. Soon it got dark, and lightning began to flash, thunder roared; So the birds turned out to be right. Now it began to rain, as hard as buckets, and I had never seen such wind before. It was a real summer thunderstorm. It became so dark that everything around seemed black and blue and very beautiful; and the rain fell so hard and so often that the trees a little further away were visible vaguely and as if through a cobweb; otherwise a whirlwind will suddenly fly in, bend down the trees and turn the leaves inside out; and after that such a healthy wind will rise that the trees will wave their branches like mad; and when the darkness became blacker and thicker, suddenly - fss! - and it became as bright as day; it became visible a hundred steps further than before, it became visible how the tops of the trees were bending in the wind; and a second later it became dark again, as if in an abyss, and with terrible force thunder rumbled, and then rolled across the sky, lower, lower, like empty barrels on the stairs - you know, when the stairs are long, and the barrels jump up a lot.
- This is great, Jim! - I said. “I wouldn’t leave here anywhere.” Give me another piece of fish and a hot corn tortilla.
- Well, you see, without Jim you would have had a bad time. You'd be sitting in the forest without lunch, and you'd be wet to the bone. Yes, yes, son! The chickens already know when it will rain, and so do the birds in the forest.
For ten or twelve days in a row, the water in the river rose and rose and finally overflowed its banks. In the lowlands, the island was flooded with three or four feet of water, and so was the Illinois coast. On this side of the island the river became many miles wider, but the Missouri side remained half a mile wide, because the Missouri side is a continuous wall of cliffs.
During the day we traveled around the island by shuttle. Deep in the forest it was very cool and shady, even when the sun was hot. We somehow made our way between the trees, and in some places the wild grapes wove everything so thickly that we had to backtrack and look for another road. Well, on every fallen tree there were rabbits, snakes and other living creatures; and after the water had stood for a day or two, they became so docile from hunger that you can drive up and take them with your hands, if you want; only, of course, it wasn’t snakes or turtles that jumped into the water. On the mountain where our cave was, they swarmed with them. If we wanted, we could have as many tame animals as we wanted.
One evening we caught a small link from a raft - good pine boards. The link was twelve feet wide and fifteen to sixteen feet long, and a solid, level flooring protruded six or seven inches above the water. Sometimes during the day we saw logs floating past, but we didn’t catch them: in daylight we didn’t show our noses out of the cave.
Another time, just before dawn, we moored at the upper end of the island - and suddenly we saw a whole house floating towards us from the western side. The house was two stories high and tilted heavily. We drove up and climbed onto it - climbed into the window of the top floor. But it was still completely dark, nothing was visible; then we got out, tied the canoe and sat down to wait for dawn.
No sooner had we reached the lower end of the island than it began to get light. We looked out the window. We saw a bed, a table, two old chairs, and many other things were lying on the floor, and clothes were hanging on the wall. In the far corner lay what looked like a man. Jim called out:
- Hey, you!
But he didn’t move. Then I also called out to him. And then Jim said:
“He’s not sleeping—he’s dead.” Don't go, I'll go and have a look myself.
He climbed through the window, approached the lying man, bent down, looked and said:
- This is a dead man. And also naked. He was shot from behind. It must have been two or three days since he died. Come here, Huck, just don’t look him in the face - it’s very scary.
I didn't look at him at all. Jim covered it with some old rag, but it was of no use: I didn’t even want to look at it. Old, oily maps, empty whiskey bottles and two more masks made of black cloth lay on the floor, and all the walls were completely covered with the most vile words and painted with charcoal. On the wall hung two worn cotton dresses, a straw hat, some skirts and shirts, and men's clothing. We carried a lot of things into the shuttle - they might come in handy. On the floor lay an old straw hat, the kind boys wear; I grabbed her too. And there was also a milk bottle, stuffed with a rag, for the baby to suck on. We would have taken the bottle, but it was broken. There was also a shabby old chest and a suitcase with broken clasps, both of which stood open, but there was nothing worthwhile left in them. From the way things were scattered, it was clear that the owners had fled in a hurry and could not take all their belongings with them.
We got: an old tin lantern, a large knife without a handle, a brand new pocket knife from Barlow (you can’t buy such a knife in any store for less than half a dollar), a lot of tallow candles, a tin candlestick, a flask, a tin mug, a torn cotton blanket, a lady’s a bag with needles, pins, thread, a piece of wax, buttons and other nonsense, a hatchet and nails, a fishing rod thicker than my little finger, with huge hooks, a deerskin rolled into a tube, a dog collar, a horseshoe, medicine bottles, without labels; and when we were about to leave, I found a pretty decent comb, and Jim found an old violin bow and a wooden leg. The belts just came off, and that's it... good leg, except that it was long for me and short for Jim. But we never found the other leg, no matter how much we searched.
So, generally speaking, the catch was not bad. When we got ready to leave the house, it was already dawn. We were a quarter of a mile below the island; I told Jim to lie down on the bottom of the canoe and covered him with a cotton blanket, otherwise, if he was sitting, from a distance it would be clear that he was a black man. I began to steer towards the Illinois shore in such a way that we would be carried half a mile downstream, then stayed close to the shore, in a strip of standing water. We returned to the island without any incident, without meeting anyone.

Chapter X

After breakfast I felt the urge to talk about the dead man and how he was killed, but Jim didn’t want to. He said that this could invite trouble, and besides, lest the dead man get into the habit of wandering around to us at night - after all, a person who is not buried will sooner wander around everywhere than one who is settled and lies quietly in his place. This was probably true, so I didn’t argue, I just kept thinking about it: I was curious to know who shot him and why.
We took a good look at the clothes we had received and found eight dollars in silver sewn into the lining of an old blanket coat. Jim said that these people probably stole the coat: after all, if they knew about the money that was sewn up, they would not have left it here. I replied that it was true that they had killed the owner too, but Jim didn’t want to talk about it.
I told him:
- So you think that this is not good, but what did you say the day before yesterday, when I brought the snake skin that I found at the top of the mountain? You said that there was no worse sign than picking up snake skin. What bad happened? That's how much we collected, and eight dollars to boot! I wish we had trouble like this every day, Jim!
“It doesn’t mean anything, son, it doesn’t mean anything.” Don't disagree too much. Trouble is yet to come. Mark my words: there is more to come.
That's how it happened. We had this conversation on Tuesday, and on Friday afternoon we were lying on the grass by the cliff; We ran out of tobacco, and I went into the cave for tobacco and came across a rattlesnake there. I killed it, rolled it up and put it on Jim’s blanket: I think it will be fun when Jim finds a snake on his bed! But, of course, by evening I had completely forgotten about her. Jim threw himself on the blanket while I was making a fire, and there was a girlfriend there dead snake and bit Jim.
Jim jumped up and started screaming! And the first thing we saw in the light was this reptile: it curled up in a ring and was already preparing to rush at Jim again. I killed her with a stick in one minute, and Jim grabbed daddy’s bottle of whiskey and started whipping her.
He was barefoot and the snake bit him on the heel. And all because I, a fool, forgot: if you leave a dead snake somewhere, the girlfriend will definitely crawl there and wrap herself around it. Jim told me to cut off the snake's head and throw it away, then skin the snake and fry a piece of meat. That's exactly what I did. He ate it and said that it should cure him. And he also ordered me to take the rings off her and tie them to his hand. Then I slowly left the cave and threw both snakes further into the bushes: I didn’t want Jim to find out that all this happened because of me.
Jim kept sipping and sipping from the bottle, and from time to time something would come over him: he would suddenly start fidgeting and yelling like a madman, and then he would come to his senses and take up the bottle again.
His foot was very swollen, and his whole leg above the foot too; and then little by little the whiskey began to take effect. Well, I think things will get better now. Although, for me, it's better snake bite than daddy's bottle.
Jim lay there for four days and four nights. After that, the swelling subsided and he recovered. I decided that I would never touch snake skin again for any price, because that’s what comes out of it. Jim said that next time I would probably believe him: picking up snake skin is such a bad omen that it couldn’t get any worse; maybe this isn't the end yet. He said that it is a hundred times better to see the new moon over your left shoulder than to touch the skin of a snake. Well, I myself have now begun to think so, although before I always thought that there was nothing more stupid and careless than looking at the new moon over your left shoulder. Old Hank Bunker looked like that once and even boasted. And what? Less than two years had passed when he drunkenly fell from a shot-casting tower and, one might say, smashed himself into a piece of cake; they stuck him between two doors instead of a coffin and, they say, buried him that way; I didn’t see this myself, but heard it from my father. But, of course, this happened because he was looking at the month over his left shoulder like a fool.
So days passed after days, and the river again subsided and entered the banks. Then the first thing we did was put a skinned rabbit on a large hook, threw the line into the water and caught a catfish the size of a man; he was six feet two inches long and weighed two hundred pounds. Of course, we couldn’t even get him out: he would have thrown us into Illinois. We just sat and watched as he tore and thrashed until he died. In his stomach we found a copper button, a round ball and a lot of all sorts of rubbish. We cut the ball with an ax, and there was a coil in it. Jim said that it must have been in his stomach for a very long time if it managed to grow so large and turn into a ball. I don't think a fish bigger than this has ever been caught in Mississippi. Jim said he had never seen such a big catfish. In the city he would sell it for good money. Such fish are sold there at the market by the pound, and many people buy it: the meat of catfish is white as snow, it is good to fry.
The next morning I felt bored and wanted to have some fun. I told Jim that I thought I'd cross the river and find out what was going on there. Jim liked the idea; he only advised me to wait until dark and keep my eyes open in the city. After thinking a little more, he said, shouldn’t I take something from the old stuff and dress up as a girl? This was also Good idea. We shortened one cotton dress, I rolled up my pants to my knees and got into it. Jim fastened all the hooks at the back and it fit me just right. I put on a straw hood, tied ribbons under my chin, and then it became not so easy to look into my face - it was like looking into a chimney. Jim said that now hardly anyone would recognize me even during the day. I practiced all day to get used to the woman's dress, and little by little I began to feel quite comfortable in it. Only Jim said that girls walk differently; and he also told me to give up the habit of lifting up my dress and putting my hands in my pockets. I obeyed, and things went smoothly.
As soon as it got dark, I rode upstream in a canoe, keeping to the Illinois shore.
I crossed into the city a little below the pier, and the current carried me to the outskirts. Having tied the canoe, I walked along the shore. In the small hut, where no one had lived for a very long time, the light was now on, and I wanted to find out who had settled there. I crept closer and looked out the window. A woman of about forty sat at a simple pine table, knitting by candlelight. The face was unfamiliar; she must have arrived here recently, because I knew everyone in town. This time I was lucky, because I was already starting to become a coward: why, I think, did I go? After all, they can tell who I am by my voice. And if this woman lived at least two days in such a small town, she, of course, will be able to tell me everything I need. I knocked on the door, promising myself not to forget for a minute that I was a girl.

Chapter XI

“Come in,” said the woman; and I entered. - Sit on this chair.
I sat down. She looked me up and down with her small sparkling eyes and asked:
- What is your name?
– Sarah Williams.
- And where do you live? Is it somewhere nearby?
- No, in Hookerville, it's seven miles from here, down the river. I walked the whole way and was very tired.
“And I’m hungry too, I think.” I'll look for something now.
- No, don't. I was so hungry that I went to a farm two miles away and now I don’t feel like eating. That's why I'm so late. My mother is sick, we have no money and nothing; I went to my uncle, Abner Moore. Mother said: he lives on the other side of the city. I've never been here before. Do you know him?
- No, I don’t know everyone yet. We haven't even lived here for two weeks. It's not that close to that end of the city. Stay overnight with us. Yes, take off your hat.
“No, I’d better rest a little,” I said, “and then I’ll move on.” I'm not afraid of the dark.
She said that she wouldn’t let me go alone, but her husband would come in an hour and a half, then he would see me off. Then she began to talk about her husband, about those relatives who live up the river, and about those who live down the river, and that before she and her husband lived much better, and that it was in vain that they moved to our city, they should have just not pay attention to anything, and so on, and so on; I was beginning to think whether it was in vain that I hoped to find out from her what was going on in our city, but in the end the matter finally came to my father and before they killed me - at this point, I think, let her talk. She told me about how Tom Sawyer and I found twelve thousand (only according to her it was twenty), about my dad, and about the fact that he was a lost man, and that I was also lost, and finally got to the point where I was killed. I asked:
-Who did it? We heard about this murder in Hookerville, but we don’t know who killed Huck Finn.
“Well, in my opinion, we also have a lot of people here who would like to know who killed him.” Some thought that old Finn himself did the killing.
- Yes you?
“At first almost everyone thought so.” And he will never know that he was almost lynched. Only by nightfall they changed their minds and decided that a runaway black man named Jim had killed.
- Yes, he...
I stopped. I decided that it would be better to remain silent. And she kept talking and talking and didn’t even notice that I said anything.
“This black man fled that very night when Gek Finn was killed.” So they promise a reward for him - three hundred dollars. And there was also a reward for old Finn - two hundred dollars. He, you see, came to the city in the morning, told about the murder and, together with everyone else, went to look for the body, and after that he took off and disappeared. They were going to lynch him that same evening, but he, you see, ran away. Well, the next day it turned out that the black man had also escaped: no one saw him after ten o’clock in the evening on the night when the murder was committed, so they began to think about him. And the next day, when the whole city only talked about this, the old Finn suddenly returns, goes straight to Judge Thatcher and raises noise: he demands that he give money and arrange a raid for this black man throughout Illinois. The judge gave a little, and that same evening the old man was caught drunk and wandered the streets until midnight with some two suspicious characters, and then disappeared with them. Well, he hasn't returned since then, and we here think that he won't come back until all this settles down. Probably he killed himself, but arranged everything so that they thought he was bandits; and then, you see, he’ll grab Gek’s money for himself, and he won’t have to drag himself around the courts. People say: “Where can I kill him, he’s not even good for that!” And I think: oh, he’s cunning! If he doesn’t come back for another year, he won’t get anything for it. Of course, nothing can be proven; then everything will calm down, and he will take Gek’s money for himself without any hassle.
- I think, yes. Who will stop him!.. And now no one else thinks that it was the black man who killed?
- No, they’re still thinking. Many still believe that he killed. But now the Negro should be caught soon, so maybe they will get the truth from him.
- How, is he still being caught?
- You don’t understand how well I can see! After all, three hundred dollars are not lying around on the road. Some people think that the Negro is still somewhere nearby. I think so too, I’m just keeping my mouth shut. The other day I was talking to an old man and an old woman who live nearby in a log barn, and they said, among other things, that no one ever goes to that island over there called Jackson Island.
– Doesn’t anyone live there? - I ask.
- No, they say no one lives. I didn’t tell them anything else, I just thought about it. A day or two before, I seemed to see smoke there, at the upper end of the island; Well, I think for myself, this Negro is most likely hiding there; in any case, I think it would be worth searching the whole island. I haven't seen any more smoke since then, so maybe the black guy has already left there, if it was him. My husband will go and look along with one of his neighbors. He went up the river, and today he returned two hours ago, and I told him all this.

End of free trial.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Persons who try to find a motive in this narrative will be brought to justice; persons who try to find morality in it will be exiled; persons who try to find a plot in it will be shot.

Chapter first

Huck Finn returned to the Widow Douglas. Living like this is hard for Huck. He dreams of freedom.

The widow reads the parable about Moses to Huck, and the boy is simply bursting with curiosity. However, the widow “let slip that this same Moses died a long time ago.” Huck immediately becomes uninterested, because he perceives everything too directly, and does not like to hear about the dead.

The widow's sister, Miss Watson, “a rather shrunken old maid with glasses,” pesters Huck with an ABC book. He is learning to read and is desperately bored. Miss Watson constantly criticizes Huck's behavior and pulls him back. She tells the boy about heaven - “as if you don’t have to do anything there, just walk around all day with a harp and sing, and so on until the end of time.” Huck asks if Tom Sawyer will go to heaven. The old maid answers with a categorical “no.” Huck loses interest in heaven.

At night, a cat’s scream is heard under the widow’s windows. This is Tom Sawyer waiting for Huck. The boys go in search of nightly adventures.

Chapter two

Tom and Huck go down the mountain, looking for their friends - Joe Harper with Ven Rogers and two or three other boys. They are hiding in an old tannery.

Tom says that they will gather a gang of robbers and call it "Tom Sawyer's Gang." Whoever wants to rob them will have to take an oath and sign with his blood.

The oath calls on “all boys to stand together for the gang and not reveal its secrets to anyone; and if someone offends a boy from their gang, then the one who is ordered to kill the offender and all his relatives must not eat or sleep until he kills them all and carves a cross on their chest - the sign of the gang. And no outsider has the right to put up this sign. And if one of the gang reveals a secret, they will cut his throat, and after that they will burn his corpse and scatter the ashes to the wind, they will cross his name off the list with blood and will no longer remember him, but will curse him and forget him forever.”

The boys vying with each other repeat that the oath is wonderful, and ask Tom whether he came up with it himself or not. It turned out that he came up with some of it himself, and took the rest from books about robbers and pirates. Members of the gang are interested in how to take revenge on relatives. For example, Huck Finn has no relatives. Huck offers them Miss Watson for revenge. Everyone agrees. Then the boys prick their fingers with a pin and sign with blood, and Huck also puts his badge on the paper.

Ben Rogers asks what the gang will do. Tom has a ready answer - robberies and murders. Tom intends to keep the prisoners in the cave until they give a ransom. None of the guys understand the meaning of the word “ransom.” Tom also doesn’t know how the redemption process works, but, in his opinion, “that’s the way it’s supposed to be.” Tom read about this in books, and the members of his gang will also have to hold prisoners “until they are ransomed.” Tom forbids killing women, because there is nothing like that in the books. Women are supposed to be brought into the cave and treated as politely as possible, “and there they little by little fall in love with you and don’t want to go home anymore.”

One of the boys objects that with this approach, it will soon be impossible to pass through the cave: there will be so many women and other people waiting for ransom, and the robbers themselves will have nowhere to go.

Chapter Three

For almost a whole month, the boys play robbers, but then they get tired of it, because, contrary to the promises of the eloquent Tom, they do not rob or kill anyone. They just run out of the forest and rush at the pig drivers or women who were carrying greens and vegetables to the market. Tom Sawyer calls pigs "ingots" and turnips and greens "jewels." Back in the cave, the boys brag about how many people they have killed and wounded. But Huck doesn’t have such a wild imagination; he just can’t understand what the point is in a game where there is no real winning.

One day Tom declares that, according to his information, the next day a whole caravan of rich Arabs and Spanish merchants, with two hundred elephants, six hundred camels and a thousand pack mules loaded with diamonds, will stop near the cave, and only four hundred soldiers guard them. Tom suggests that the gang set up an ambush, kill everyone and capture the loot.

The boys follow the orders of their chieftain. But there are no Spaniards or Arabs near the cave. It turns out that this is just a Sunday school field trip. Young robbers disperse the kids throughout the valley. Huck, reasoning logically, tries to expose Tom's lies. Then he declares that their enemies, the sorcerers, are to blame for everything. They were the ones who turned the caravan into Sunday school students. Tom tells Huck about the almighty genies, languishing in bottles and performing miracles at the will of the ruler. Arguing with Tom is a thankless task, so Huck silently remains unconvinced. And his opinion is that if he were an all-powerful genie, he would never obey any ruler, but would live for his own pleasure and perform miracles for himself.

Chapter Four

Huck's father has not been seen in the city for more than a year, and the boy completely calms down. Huck doesn’t want to see him at all. Sober, his father constantly beat Huck.

While Huck lives with the widow Douglas, he goes to school almost every day, learning to read, write and count. Huck likes the old life more, but he also begins to get used to the new one.

One morning, Huck knocks over a salt shaker at breakfast. The boy quickly grabs a pinch of salt to throw it over his left shoulder and ward off trouble (he believes in many signs). However, Miss Watson stops him. The despondent Huck goes to wander around the city and wait for trouble. He sees footprints in the sand and decides that his father has returned to the city. Huck runs to Judge Thacher, who manages his capital (Tom and Huck found the treasure, and the judge put their money in the bank). Huck, frightened that his father will take all his money anyway, asks the judge to take his six thousand dollars. Realizing that it was not without reason that the boy addressed him with such a strange

request, the judge comes up with a witty move. He gives Huck a receipt that he bought capital from him “for a fee” (one dollar).

Huck goes to Jim, Miss Watson's black man. He has a large ball of hair the size of a fist; he took it out of the rennet and is now telling fortunes with it. Huck needs to know what old Finn is going to do in town. Jim answers for the ball very evasively. Thoughtful, Huck wanders home and finds his father there.

Chapter Five

Huck’s father “is about fifty years old, and looks no less than that. His hair is long, unkempt and dirty, hanging in clumps, and only his eyes shine through them, as if through bushes. There is not a trace of blood in the face, although it is almost invisible because of the hair; it is completely pale; such that it’s scary and disgusting to look at, like a fish’s belly or like a frog. And the clothes are just torn, there’s nothing to look at.”

The father begins to scold Huck for the fact that, at the insistence of the widow, the boy goes to school. There were no literate people in the Finn family, and the old man is not going to allow his son to “turn up his nose in front of his own father.” The father demands that Huck give him the money, but he produces a receipt and explains that he no longer has the money.

The next day, the father gets drunk, goes to Judge Thacher, swears and demands that he give Huck’s money. Nothing comes of it; then the old man threatens to force him to give up the money in court.

The widow and Thacher submit a request to the court so that Huck is taken away from his father and one of them is appointed as guardian. But the judge is new in the town, he has recently arrived and does not yet know old Finn. The judge states that one should not unnecessarily interfere in family matters and separate parents from their children.

The father rejoices and promises to beat Huck half to death with a belt if he doesn’t get him the money. Huck borrows three dollars from the judge, and the old man takes it away and gets drunk. Drunk, he staggers around the city, yelling, acting up, swearing and beating on a frying pan until almost midnight. He is locked up and taken to court the next morning.

After Huck's father is released from prison, the new judge announces that he intends to make a man out of him. He brings the old man to his house, dresses him from head to toe, and seats him at the table with his family. After dinner, he starts talking about sobriety. The old man insists that he wants to start a new life so that no one will be ashamed to get to know him, and he hopes that the judge will help him with this. The judge is ready to hug him for such words.

However, at night, old Finn is dying to drink. He climbs out onto the roof, goes down to the porch, and exchanges his new frock coat for a bottle of vodka. The next morning his nightly debauchery is discovered. The judge is offended and declares that the old man, perhaps, can only be corrected by a bullet from a gun.

Chapter Six

The father tracks down Huck, takes him up the river in a boat and settles him in an old log shack deep in the forest. He doesn't let go of Huck for a minute. Old Finn drinks heavily. From time to time he begins to have drunken delirium, everywhere

I see snakes. Huck comes up with an original way to escape from his father. He takes the gun, takes aim, then falls asleep.

Chapter Seven

In the morning, old Finn remembers nothing of what he did the day before. Huck tells him that at night someone broke in on them, so Huck lay in wait for him with a gun. The old man is very unhappy with this turn of events.

Huck goes fishing, discovers an empty boat on the shore, hides it, and then decides to go down the river and live there alone. Then Huck comes up with a way to deceive his father and widow so that they won’t look for him.

Father leaves for the city to buy groceries. He locks Huck up. Huck begins to saw a log under the wall of the hut, after which he gets out through a tunnel. The boy takes food, gunpowder and shot and other things - everything that cost even a cent. Huck carefully covers the traces of his escape (undermining under the wall) with earth on top so that the sawdust is not visible. Huck goes into the forest and shoots a wild pig. Then he returns, breaks open the door to the hut with an ax, and puts the pig on the ground so that the blood flows out. Huck takes a bag of stones, drags it from the dead pig to the door, and then through the forest to the river and throws it into the water. As a result, it is immediately obvious that something was being dragged along the ground here. Finally, Huck pulls out a clump of hair from himself and, having soaked the ax in blood, sticks the hair to the blade. Then he throws the pig into the river. It turns out to be a very reliable picture of a murder - the murder of Huck Finn himself.

Huck decides to go live on Jackson's Island. He knows this island well: no one is ever there.

Chapter Eight

Having settled on the island, Huck sees a steamboat sailing along the river. They are looking for him. Almost everyone Huck knew is on the ship: his father, Judge Thacher, Becky Thacher, Joe Harper, Tom Sawyer with the old woman Aunt Polly, Sid and Mary. Everyone is talking about murder. Huck understands that now he can calm down. No one will look for him anymore.

Huck arranges a cozy home for himself in the thicket of the forest. He builds something like a tent out of blankets so that things don’t get wet by the rain. Huck walks around the entire island and suddenly steps right on the brands of someone else's fire. He decides to find out who lives on the island besides him. It turns out to be Jim, Miss Watson's black man. The mistress was going to sell Jim, and he did not wait for the slave traders to forcibly take him away, and he ran away. Huck vows not to give Jim away.

Huck and Jim are having fun on the island. Jim knows a lot of signs. If a person has hairy arms and a hairy chest, he will become rich. The chicks fluttered - towards the rain. Counting how much you are preparing for dinner is not good. The same thing applies to shaking out the tablecloth after sunset. And if a person has bees and this person dies, then the bees definitely need to be told about this the next morning, before the sun rises, otherwise they will weaken, stop working and take a breather. Jim said that bees don’t sting fools, but Huck didn’t believe it: he tried it himself many times, and the bees didn’t bite Huck.

Chapter Nine

Jim and Huck find a nice, spacious cave on the island. In daylight they do not show their noses from there, but at night they swim in a canoe or on a raft along the river. One day, just before dawn, they moor at the upper end of the island and suddenly see a whole house floating down the river towards them. There's a dead man inside. Jim persuades Huck not to look the dead man in the face. Friends search the house, find a lot of useful things, and transport them to the island.

Chapter Ten

Jim and Huck examine the clothes they received and find eight silver dollars sewn into the lining of an old coat. Huck scolds Jim for lying. He said that there was no worse sign than picking up snake skin. What bad happened because Huck went into the cave the day before to buy tobacco and came across a rattlesnake there? She and Jim just got richer.

Huck killed that snake, rolled it up and put it on Jim’s blanket: he thought it would be fun when Jim found a snake on his bed. By evening, Huck completely forgets about her. Jim sits on the blanket while Huck makes a fire, and there is the girlfriend of the dead snake. She bites Jim. His foot is very swollen. Jim is treated with whiskey and gets better.

Huck decides to cross the river and find out what is happening in the town. Jim likes the idea; he only advises that Huck wait until dark, and in the city he should keep his eyes open. After thinking a little more, he recommends that Huck dress up as a girl.

Huck is transported to the city. In one house he is given shelter by a woman of about forty. She recently arrived in these places.

Chapter Eleven

Huck, dressed in a dress, introduces himself to the woman as Sarah Williams. The woman begins to tell how Huck was “killed.” Some in the city think that old Finn himself killed the boy. Others believe that a fugitive black man named Jim did it, so they offer a reward of three hundred dollars for him. The woman herself believes that old Finn is extremely cunning. He fled the city. If he doesn’t return for another year, then he won’t get anything for the murder. Nothing can be proven; then everything will calm down, and he will take Huck’s money for himself without any hassle.

Huck wants something to do with his hands. He takes a needle from the table and begins to thread it. Things aren't going well for him. The woman falls silent, looks at Huck strangely and smiles. She asks Huck again, clarifying his name. He forgets what he said at the beginning and calls himself Mary. As if nothing had happened, the woman begins to complain that the rats have become insolent and are walking all over the house, saying that she purposely keeps all sorts of things on hand to throw at the rats. She shows Huck a lead strip twisted into a knot, then asks Huck to throw it at the rat, while carefully watching him do it.

The woman throws Huck a piece of lead. Huck moves his knees and catches him.

The woman exposes Huck. He admits that he is a boy and tells another pitiful made-up story about himself and his hardships. The woman promises not to give him away, but advises more of a girl not to dress up: “You hold the thread motionless and put a needle on it, but you need to hold the needle motionless and put the thread into it. Women always do this, but men always do the opposite. And when you throw a stick at a rat or someone else, stand on tiptoes and raise your hand above your head, and try to make it as awkward as possible, and miss it by five or six steps. Throw with your arm extended to its full length, as if it were on a hinge, like all girls throw, and not with your hand and elbow, putting your left shoulder forward, like boys; and remember: when they throw something on a girl’s lap, she arranges them, and doesn’t push them together, like you did when you caught the lead.”

From the woman, Huck manages to learn that her husband and his comrade went to look for Jim on Jackson Island. Huck quickly returns to Jim. Without wasting a minute, the friends set sail from the island.

Chapter Twelve

Jim sets up a cozy hut on the raft to sit out in the heat and rain and to keep his things from getting wet. Then he attaches a short stick with a fork to the raft to hang a lantern on. Every night Huck and Jim sail past the cities. Huck is amazed by many lights. Huck and Jim notice a steamboat ahead that has crashed into a rock. They get to the ship and hear voices on it. Jim takes flight.

Huck, in search of adventure in the style of Tom Sawyer, crawls to the stern. He sees that in the cabin there is a man lying on the floor, tied hand and foot, and two people are standing over him; one of them holds a dim lantern in his hand, and the other a revolver. The latter aims at the head of the man on the floor. This is a gang of bandits, they want to take away the money and shoot the man on the floor, because they are afraid that he will inform on them. However, then they decide to do the job quietly - go to the cabins and pick up the things that are still left, and then sail in a boat to the shore and hide the goods. No more than two hours will pass before the ship breaks up and sinks.

Huck silently returns to his raft, tells Jim that there is a whole gang of murderers on the ship, and if he and Jim do not find where the boat is and send it down the river so that they cannot get off the ship, one of the gang will have a bad time. And if they find the boat, the sheriff will take the bandits away.

Chapter Thirteen

Huck cuts the rope on which the bandits' boat is tied, and together with Jim sets sail from the ship. The boat is half filled with goods that the thieves looted from the broken ship.

A couple of miles later, Huck sees a ferry and persuades the ferryman to go help people on the ship for a non-existent reward. By this time, the wrecked steamer had almost completely sunk. Huck even feels a little sorry for the bandits.

Chapter fourteen

Waking up, Huck goes through all the goods looted by the gang on the broken steamer. She and Jim had never been so rich in their lives. Until evening they lie in the forest and talk; Huck reads books and tells Jim about everything that happened on the ship and on the ferry. He tells him by the way that this is called an adventure, and Jim replies that he does not want any more adventures.

Huck reads to Jim for a long time about kings, about dukes and about counts, about how magnificently they dress, in what luxury they live and how they call each other “your majesty”, “your lordship”, etc. Huck claims that the king receives money, as much as he wants, and his whole job is “to sit on his throne, that’s all.” Friends discuss harem problems. Huck recalls that the wisest King Solomon also had a harem, and he had almost a million wives. But Jim has a peculiar opinion on this matter. Isn't it clever man will he live in such a mess as a harem? Was Solomon right when, in order to find out which woman was the real mother of the baby, he ordered the child to be cut in half (the one who was ready to give the child if only he would live turned out to be the real mother)? According to Jim, “It’s like cutting a dollar in half. Where is half a dollar good? After all, you can’t buy anything with it. What is half a child good for? In a word, Solomon never got it like this from any black man.”

Chapter Fifteen Huck fools Jim. They swim to the island in the fog and lose each other. Huck tries to play a prank on Jim. In the morning, having reached the raft on which Jim is sitting sleeping, Huck declares that he saw no fog, no islands, and there was no confusion at all. Jim just fell asleep. But Jim, who sincerely lamented all night that Huck was missing, says that “those people are rubbish who throw dirt on their friends’ heads and make them laugh.” He trudges into the hut, climbs in and doesn’t talk to Huck anymore. Huck feels like such a scoundrel that he is ready to kiss Jim’s feet if only he would take back his words. About fifteen minutes pass before Huck, having broken himself, goes to “humiliate himself before the black man.”

Chapter sixteen

Jim hopes to land in the city of Cairo, because, according to his information, all blacks in Cairo are free. But Huck and Jim can't get there. Jim says he feels hot and cold because he will be free so soon.

Huck feels guilty for helping the runaway black man. The boy tries to convince himself that he has nothing to do with it: after all, it was not he who took Jim away from his rightful owner. Conscience whispers to Huck that he did such a nasty thing to Miss Watson, who taught him to read and write, taught him how to behave, was kind to him as best she could. Huck decides to denounce Jim at the first opportunity. But the black man is so affectionate towards him, so sincerely grateful that Huck is helping him become free, that the boy gives up. In addition, Jim constantly insists that he has never had a friend like Huck.

Huck notices that a boat is rowing towards their raft, and there are two men in it. He understands that now they will grab Jim and put him in chains. Huck decides to use a trick. He himself floats to the men in a shuttle and presents the matter as if his father was on the raft, sick with smallpox. The frightened men instantly lose interest in the raft and even give Huck money so that he turns to someone else for help.

At night, a steamer sails directly onto the raft. Without noticing the signal light, he walks straight along the raft. Huck and Jim manage to jump off the raft and dive into the depths. Huck surfaces and calls out to Jim many times, but cannot get an answer. Huck grabs the board and swims to the shore, pushing the board in front of him. On the shore, in the darkness, he stumbles upon a large old log house. Huck is surrounded by dogs, and the boy is unable to escape.

Chapter Seventeen

The owners let Huck into the house. All men are armed. The inhabitants of the house, the Grangerfords, are interested in only one question - whether their night guest is familiar with certain Shepherdsons. When they are sure that it is not, they warmly welcome Huck, feed him, and dress him in clean clothes, which his peer, Buck, shares with Huck.

“The family was very good, and the house was also very good. Huck has never seen anything like this in the village. good home, with such decent surroundings... Books were laid out in even stacks on all four corners of the table. One of them was a large family Bible with pictures; another “The Pilgrim’s Path”... One of the daughters painted the pictures herself when she was fifteen years old; now she is already dead. One showed a woman in a tight black dress and a large black hat like a scoop with a black veil. She stood under a weeping willow, thoughtfully leaning her right elbow on a gravestone, and in her left hand she held a white scarf and a handbag, and under the picture it was written: “Oh, will I really not see you again?!” On another, a young girl was crying into a handkerchief, holding a dead bird in her palm, paws up, and under the picture was written: “Oh, I’ll never hear your cheerful chirping again!” There was also a picture where a young girl stood at the window, looking at the moon, and tears flowed down her cheeks; in one hand she held a printed envelope with a black seal, with the other hand she pressed a medallion on a chain to her lips, and under the picture it was written: “Oh, are you really no more?! Yes, alas, you are no more!”

When this girl was still alive, she kept herself a scrapbook and pasted funeral notices, notes about accidents and long-suffering sufferers from the Presbyterian Newspaper, and wrote poems about them herself. The poems were very good. She didn’t particularly understand and was happy to write poems about anything, as long as it was something sad. As soon as someone dies, be it a man, a woman or a child, the deceased will not even have time to cool down, and she will be right there with her poems. She called them “tributes to the deceased.” The neighbors said that the doctor came first, then Emmeline, and then the undertaker.”

Chapter Eighteen

“Colonel Grangerford was what they call a gentleman. As they say, the breed was visible in him. The colonel was very tall, thin, dark, but pale, without a single drop of blush; every morning he shaved his entire face clean; his lips were very thin, a thin nose with a hump and thick eyebrows, and his eyes were black, very black, and they sat so deep that they looked at you as if from a cave. His forehead was high, and his hair was gray and long, reaching to his shoulders. The hands are thin, with long fingers. And every single day he put on a clean shirt and a linen suit so white it was painful to look at. And on Sundays he dressed in a blue tailcoat with fashionable buttons. He carried a mahogany cane with a silver head. He didn't like to joke and always spoke quietly. And he was so kind that it is impossible to say, everyone immediately saw it and felt trust in him. He rarely smiled, and it was a pleasant smile. But if it happened that he straightened up and began to throw lightning bolts from under his thick eyebrows, then first he wanted to quickly climb the tree, and then find out what was the matter. He didn’t have to pull anyone back: everyone behaved properly in front of him. Everyone loved his company when he was in good spirits... Bob was the eldest son, and Tom the second, both tall, broad-shouldered fellows, tanned. They dressed all in white from head to toe. There was also Miss Charlotte (about twenty-five), tall, proud, majestic, but so kind that it was impossible to tell if she was not angry. Her sister, Miss Sophia, was a beauty: meek and quiet, like a dove; she was only twenty years old... The old man had many farms and about a hundred blacks. Sometimes a whole crowd of guests would arrive on horseback, stay for five or six days, feast, ride along the river, have picnics in the forest during the day, and dance in the house in the evening. For the most part they were all relatives. Men came to visit with guns.

Another aristocratic family lived in these places, five or six families; almost all of them were named Shepherdson. These were the same noble, well-mannered, rich and noble gentlemen as the Grangerfords.” However, the two respected families cannot live in peace. The reason for this is a blood feud that began about thirty years ago. According to Buck, who becomes Heku’s loyal comrade, “there was some kind of quarrel, and then they went to court because of it; and the one who lost the trial went and shot the one who won, and that’s how it should have been, of course. Anyone in his place would have done the same... There are no cowards among the Shepherdsons. And not among the Grangerfords either.”

On Sunday, the Grangerfords, taking Huck with them, go to church on horseback. Men take guns with them and hold them between their knees or put them against the wall so that they are at hand. The Shepherdsons do the same.

Returning back, Huck sees that quiet Sophia is standing on the threshold of her room. She calls Huck to her room, asks him to fulfill one of her requests and not tell anyone about it. Sofia says that she forgot the Gospel in the church. She asks Huck to run quietly and get this book. When Huck picks up the Gospel, the note “At half past three” falls out of it.

One of the Grangerford blacks calls Huck to the swamp under the pretext of showing water snakes. Having gone after him, Huck sees that a man is sleeping right on the ground. This is Jim. He almost cries - he’s so happy about Huck. Jim reports that he has repaired the raft and they can sail on again.

Huck returns to the Grangerfords. The house is unusually quiet. The blacks say that Sophia ran away to marry young Harney Shepherdson. The men grabbed their guns, jumped on their horses, and the women rushed to raise their relatives. As a result of the chase, the colonel and his three sons die. Huck is especially sorry for Buck, who was so kind to him. Huck and Jim set off on their further voyage.

Chapter nineteen

Huck and Jim pick up two men who are chased by dogs. “One of the tramps looks to be seventy years old, maybe older, he is bald and has gray sideburns. He is wearing an old, torn hat, a dirty blue woolen shirt, torn canvas trousers tucked into high boots, and home-knitted suspenders. Both of them were dragging heavy, overstuffed carpet bags. The other tramp was about thirty years old, and he was also poorly dressed.” The first one says that “he was selling a potion for removing tartar from teeth; let’s say it cleans it, but it just removes the enamel along with it.” Another “preached sobriety for about a week, and all the women could not praise him enough, and things were going better and better, when suddenly someone started a rumor that he himself was slowly taking to the bottle.”

In general, the first swindler admits that “by trade he is a typesetter; happens to sell patent medicines, perform on stage; on occasion, he engages in indoctrination, guesses character by hand, and gives singing and geography lessons for variety; sometimes he’ll give a lecture, but who knows what else! He takes on whatever comes his way, just so as not to work.” The second “at one time did a lot of healing. He healed paralysis, cancerous tumors, etc. by laying on of hands; I could have a good guess if I found out all the ins and outs from someone.”

Soon the first swindler, in order to impress others, declares that he is a duke by birth. Huck and Jim begin to serve him. The second, an old man, pouts and completely stops talking to them. In conclusion, he admits that he is the “late Dauphin,” that is, King Louis the Seventeenth. Huck and Jim begin to call him “Majesty.” This helps him a lot, he calms down completely. But the Duke is offended.

Huck quickly realizes that the tramps are not a duke or a king, but simply deceivers and swindlers of the very last sort. But Huck doesn’t say anything to them, doesn’t even show it, but prudently remains silent.

Chapter Twenty

Huck and Jim always sailed only at night so that they would not be noticed and Jim would not be caught. The Duke promises to come up with a way for them to sail during the day. Soon Huck becomes convinced that the Duke is indeed a master of various inventions. He takes out a pile of posters from his bag, where he performs in a variety of roles under the most incredible names: for example, he finds water and gold with the help of a walnut rod, removes spells, and so on.

The Duke tells the king who Romeo and Juliet are, pulls out two or three suits of curtain chintz and explains that this is medieval armor for Richard III and his enemy, and another long nightgown made of white calico and a cap with frills. The King and Duke rehearse a scene from Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet's soliloquy on a raft (apparently written by the Duke himself, because it consists of a nonsensical collection of quotes from Shakespeare).

In the nearest town, the Duke goes to the printing house, and Huck and the king go to a prayer meeting. The priest's sermon is a great success - the parishioners weep in ecstasy. “Because of the screams and sobs, it was no longer possible to make out what the preacher was saying. Here and there people rose from their seats and tried with all their might to make their way to the penitents’ bench, bursting into tears; and when all the penitents gathered to the front benches, they began to sing, call out and throw themselves flat on the straw, like crazy people. Before Huck had time to come to his senses, the king also joined the penitents and shouted louder than anyone else, and then climbed onto the platform. The preacher asked him to talk to the people, and the king agreed. He said that he had been a pirate for thirty years and sailed in the Indian Ocean, but this spring most of his gang were killed in a skirmish, so he came to his homeland to recruit new people, yes, thank God, he was robbed last night and thrown off the ship without a single a cent in his pocket, and he is very happy about it; Nothing could have happened to him better than this, because he was now a new man and happy for the first time in his life. No matter how poor he is, he will try to get to the Indian Ocean again and will devote his whole life to converting pirates to the path of truth. And then he burst into tears, and everyone else cried with him.” Finally, someone shouts that money must be collected for the repentant pirate. The king earns a lot of money in one day.

The Duke prints an announcement about Jim's capture in the printing house. Now, if necessary, they can swim during the day. As soon as they see someone approaching them, they should immediately tie Jim hand and foot with a rope, put him in a hut, show this advertisement and say that they have caught him and are now going to receive a reward.

Chapter twenty one

In a run-down town, the Duke rents a courtroom and puts up posters. Huck walks around the city, hears that old Boge has arrived (he always comes from the village once a month to get drunk properly, and then shout that he will kill Colonel Sherborne). Sherborne warns Bogs to stay within limits, but he continues to swear. Colonel Sherborne kills Bogs with a pistol. A crowd is gathering. Someone shouts that Sherborne should be lynched. The crowd rushes to Sherborne's house, roaring and screaming, breaking clotheslines along the way to hang the colonel on them.

Chapter twenty two

Sherborne, with a double-barreled shotgun in his hands, comes out in front of the crowd. He makes a speech in a contemptuous tone: “To think that you can lynch someone! This is for the chickens to laugh at. What makes you think you have the guts to lynch a man? Is it because you have the courage to throw some poor visiting tramp into the dust that you imagine that you can attack a man? Yes, a real man won’t be afraid of ten thousand people like you, as long as it’s light outside and you’re not hiding behind his back... Average person always a coward. He allows everyone to push him around, and then he goes home and prays to God to give him patience. Why don't your judges hang murderers? Because they are afraid that the convict’s friends will shoot them in the back, but that’s what happens. That's why they always acquit the murderer; and then the real man comes out at night, supported by hundreds of disguised cowards, and lynches the scoundrel. The average person does not like trouble and danger. The most pathetic thing in the world is a crowd; Here is an army of a crowd: they go into battle not because courage has flared up in them, what gives them courage is the knowledge that there are many of them and that they are commanded. But a crowd without a person at its head is worth nothing. Now all you have to do is put your tail between your legs, go home and hide in a corner.” The crowd actually disperses obediently.

Few people come to the presentation of the Duke and the King. Shakespeare's tragedy performed by fraudulent actors is not a success. The audience laughs, and the Duke gets angry. Finally, he decides that the local inhabitants have not grown up to Shakespeare, and they only need the most vulgar comedy. The Duke puts up new notices for the performance, to which women and children are not allowed.

Chapter twenty two

In the evening the hall is packed with men. The king runs out from behind the scenes on all fours, completely naked; it is all painted with multi-colored stripes. The audience laughs heartily. This is where the show ends. Those gathered decide that they have been fooled. Angry, they jump up from their seats, try to break the stage and beat the actors. However, one gentleman persuades those around him to leave quietly, praise the performance and deceive the whole city. The next day, all over the city there was only talk about the wonderful performance. In the evening, the hall turns out to be packed with spectators, and again the king and the duke deceive everyone and make good money. It’s not the newcomers who come to the third performance, but the same ones who were at the first two performances, with rotten eggs and rotten cabbage in their bulging pockets.

However, neither the king nor the duke are going to give a performance and safely fly away from the city.

Chapter twenty-four

The Duke dresses Jim in a King Lear costume - a long robe made of curtain chintz, a gray wig and a beard made of horsehair. He smears Jim's neck, face, hands with thick blue paint of such a dull and lifeless shade that the black man looks like a drowned man. Then the Duke writes on the tablet: “Mad Arab. When you’re in yourself, you don’t rush at people.” He nails this board to a stick, and places the stick in front of the hut on the raft.

The King and Huck come across a simple-looking village boy. The king asks him about local news and learns that a certain Peter Wilkes, a wealthy man, recently died in a nearby town, and now the whole city is waiting for the arrival of his brothers from England (one brother is deaf and dumb). The king soon manages to find out all the ins and outs about the town and the Wilkes.

The king and the duke go to the town and introduce themselves as the brothers of Peter Wilkes. Everyone sympathizes with them.

Chapter twenty-five

Three girls - daughters of the late Peter Wilkes - are waiting for impostors at the door. Huck especially likes Mary Jane. The girls throw themselves on the necks of their imaginary uncles, and they play their role very naturally, shed tears and kiss their “nieces.”

For authenticity, the king manages to ask “about everyone in the city, down to the last dog, calling everyone by name and mentioning various incidents that happened in the city, or in George’s family, or in Peter’s house. By the way, he always made it clear that Peter wrote all this to him in letters, only it was a lie: he extracted all this, to the last word, from the young fool whom they drove to the ship.”

Mary Jane brings a letter according to which the house and three thousand dollars in gold go to her and her sisters, and the tannery, which gives a good income, and other houses with land (seven thousand in total) and three thousand dollars in gold go to the brothers. The letter also said that these six thousand were buried in the cellar.

In public, imaginary uncles demonstratively give their “nieces” the entire capital of the deceased. Their plan is to quickly auction off the plant and houses with land, divide the money and escape. If they make a grand gesture by giving gold to orphans, then no one would think of suspecting them of fraud. However, this does not prevent the doctor who treated the late Peter from publicly declaring that these are impostors. Mary Jane does not believe the doctor, gives the bag of money to the king and, without requiring a receipt, asks to place it for her and her sisters anywhere. The king and duke take the money and hide it in a mattress.

Chapter twenty-six

Huck decides to steal this money for Mary Jane, hide it, and then, when he goes down the river, write a letter to the girl and tell her where he hid the bag. Huck searches the "uncles" rooms. They are in a hurry to get away with the money they already have. They will not take anything from the girls except money. According to American laws, the buyers of the plant will suffer: as soon as it turns out that the property does not belong to

impostors, the sale will be void and all property will revert to the rightful owners, i.e. Mary Jane and her sisters.

Huck pulls the bag of money out of the pallet where the scammers hid it and hides it in Peter Wilkes' open coffin.

Chapter twenty-seven

The king auctions off not only the plant, but also the blacks who lived in Wilkes's house, separating the family in the process. Mary Jane is very upset about this. The “uncles,” trying to make amends for their guilt, invite the girls to live “at home” in England. They calm down and begin to pack their bags.

Chapter twenty-eight

Huck admits to Mary Jane that the Duke and the King are swindlers, tells her the whole truth about their adventures, and refers to the residents of the town where they gave performances that could confirm his words. He persuades Mary Jane to go for a while to some acquaintances out of town. Huck informs the king and the duke that Mary Jane has gone to work for the auction.

The auction drags on, and “a couple more heirs of Peter Wilkes” appear.

Chapter twenty nine

Wilkes's real brothers immediately receive the doctor's active support. He starts an investigation in order to bring the king and the duke to clean water. “He forced the king to tell everything in his own way; and then the visiting old man told everything in his own way; and then everyone, except perhaps the most prejudiced fool, would see that the visiting old man was telling the truth, and the king was lying.” It turns out that all the cash that the king and the duke hid in the mattress has disappeared. The king and the duke blame it on the blacks.

The doctor and lawyer begin to compare the handwriting of those present with letters from the brothers that Peter Wilkes kept. But here the investigation comes to a dead end, because the deaf-mute William wrote the letters, and now he has broken his arm. Then the visiting old man tells what kind of tattoo Peter had on his chest. But those who dressed the deceased do not remember what kind of tattoo he had. To prove the old man right, everyone goes to the cemetery to dig up Wilkes. Huck manages to escape, but the king and the duke catch up with him and sail again with Huck and Jim on the raft.

Chapter Thirty

The king and the duke start a fight, as a result of which the king confesses that he stole the money from the mattress. Huck feels much better.

Chapter thirty one

Further attempts by the Duke and King to earn money lead nowhere, and for whole days they lie on the raft gloomy and angry. Soon, in Huck's absence, they sell Jim to the plantation of a certain Mr. Phelps for forty dollars. Huck decides to free Jim.

Chapter thirty two

Huck sneaks onto Phelps' plantation. He is greeted warmly. It turns out that Aunt Sally and her husband were expecting the arrival of their nephew, Tom Sawyer, from minute to minute, and mistook Huck for Tom. Huck willingly tells them about the Sawyer family. Being Tom Sawyer turns out to be easy and pleasant.

Chapter Thirty Three

Huck goes into town to intercept Tom. Having met an old friend, he tells him how he helped Jim escape. Tom volunteers to help Huck free him.

Tom pretends to be his brother Sid Sawyer and stays with Aunt Sally with Huck.

Jim tells the Phelps that the performance of the king and the duke they intend to give in the town is simply outrageous. The news instantly spreads throughout the town, and soon the inhabitants are dragging the king and the duke astride a pole, covered in tar and feathers. Huck hates to look at this and even feels sorry for the unfortunate swindlers.

Chapter thirty-four

Huck suggests that Tom free Jim as quickly as possible. But, according to Tom, liberation promises to be very simple, there is nothing special about it. What kind of plan is this, Tom thinks, if no fuss is required with it? A baby can handle it too. There will be no noise, no talking, just like after a theft at a soap factory.

Tom proposes a new plan, at first glance absolutely idiotic and with a lot of artificially created difficulties that promise to drag on for quite a long time. But the boys are happy - there will be much more chic, and maybe they’ll get shot.

Chapter thirty-five

Tom, who raves about adventures and robber novels, is somewhat annoyed that he himself has to invent all sorts of difficulties. Huck consoles his friend, saying that it is much more honorable to help Jim out of various difficulties and dangers, when no one has prepared these dangers for them and they themselves must come up with everything from their heads, although this is not their responsibility at all. For example, the chain on Jim's leg can be easily removed, you just need to lift the leg of the bed on which he sleeps. However, Tom assures “that the leg should be sawed in half and left like that, and the sawdust should be swallowed so that no one would notice, and the leg should be covered with dirt and grease, so that even the most eagle-eyed jailer could not see where they sawed, and would think that the leg was completely intact. Then, that night, when you are completely ready to escape, you kick it and it will fly away, and you will remove the chain. There is almost nothing more to do: you will throw a rope ladder onto a battlement, you will slide into the ditch, you will break your leg, because the ladder is short - a whole nineteen feet is not enough, and there the horses are waiting for you, and the faithful servants grab you, put you across the saddle and carry you away to your native Languedoc, or to Navarre, or somewhere else.

Many authorities did just that. They could not remove the chain, they cut off their own hand and then fled. And a leg would be even better. But we will have to do without it. There is no particular need, and besides, Jim is a black man and will not understand why this is needed; You can’t explain to him that this is the custom in Europe.” Tom suggests making a rope ladder by tearing up his sheets and sending it in a pie, since “that’s how they always do it.”

Tom forces Huck to steal not only Aunt Sally's sheets, but also a clean shirt. He explains that Jim will be writing a diary on the shirt. Tom is not embarrassed by the fact that Jim doesn’t even know how to write. Tom decides that the black man will be able to put some symbols instead of letters if he and Huck make him a feather from a tin spoon or from an old hoop from a barrel. In response to Huck’s remark that it’s easier to make a feather by simply picking up a goose feather from the ground, Tom reasonably notes that “prisoners don’t have geese running around their cell. They always make feathers from something very hard and unsuitable, like a piece of copper candlestick. And it takes them a lot of time - weeks, or even months, because they sharpen their pen against the wall. They would never write with a quill pen, even if it were at hand. This is not accepted."

Tom advises making ink from rust with tears or writing in blood.

Chapter thirty-six

Tom and Huck begin to dig under the wall of the barn. They dig with knives until almost midnight, get tired and rub their hands until they blister. Then Tom makes a difficult decision - to dig with hoes, but imagine that they are knives. In exactly the same way, Huck advises his friend to climb up the ladder to Jim, and imagine that it is a lightning rod. The cause of the liberation of the Negro is beginning to advance incomparably faster than before.

Tom proves to Jim that running away is easy and simply “will not be according to the rules,” tells what plans he and Huck have and how they will change all this in an instant if the alarm is raised, and that he has nothing to fear, they will definitely free him. Jim agrees to keep his eyes open and not be surprised by anything. Tom is very happy and says that he has never had such a fun game and such rich food for the mind. If he knew how to do this, he would play like this all his life, and then he would bequeath to his children to free Jim, because Jim, of course, will get used to it over time. Tom claims that the game can be stretched out for eighty years and set a record. And then everyone who participated in it will become famous.

Tom and Huck are baking an “enchanted pie” in the forest. He is bewitched because Tom manages to fool the black man who brings Jim food and pretend that there are witches flying around the house. It takes witchcraft to scare them away. The magic for Tom and Huck is that they bake a ladder from sheets into a pie.

Chapter thirty-seven

Meanwhile, Aunt Sally discovers that a shirt, a spoon, half a dozen candles and much more are missing. She intends to look for the missing things. To ward off suspicion, Tom and Huck slip Aunt Sally a spoon several times when she is counting the dishes, and hide it several times. She gets completely confused and even starts counting the basket along with the spoons. The boys then alternately hang the missing sheet on the line and take it off until Aunt Sally loses count and declares that she doesn't care how many sheets she has.

Chapter thirty-seven

Making feathers from a tin spoon turns out to be a real pain. While Huck and Jim are sharpening feathers on a brick, Tom comes up with a coat of arms for the prisoner. However, Tom cannot explain the meaning of the allegorical figures on it. But he offers a choice of several options for a farewell inscription on the wall, which, according to his plan, Jim must scratch into the stone before escaping.

1. Here the prisoner’s heart broke.

2. Here the poor prisoner, abandoned by the whole world and friends, eked out his sad existence.

3. Here a lonely heart was broken and a weary spirit went to rest after thirty-seven years of solitary confinement.

4. Here, without family and friends, after thirty-seven years of sorrowful imprisonment, a noble stranger, the natural son of Louis the Fourteenth, died.

Since the walls of the barn were made of wood and the inscription on them would soon be erased, Tom and Huck steal a millstone from the sawmill. Having dragged him halfway, they are exhausted and call Jim for help. He lifts his bed, removes the chain from the leg, wraps it around his neck, and leaves the barn. Huck and Jim lean on the millstone and roll it like a feather, and Tom gives orders. “He was a master at making decisions, compared to all the other boys!”

Chapter thirty-nine

Tom and Huck decide that Jim needs some kind of living creature in his captivity. They catch “about fifteen rats, as well as the most selected spiders, frogs, beetles, caterpillars and other living creatures; they wanted to take the wasp's nest with them, but then they changed their minds: the wasps were in the nest... they put about two dozen grass snakes and copperheads in a bag and put them in the room. And when they returned, not a single snake was in the bag: they somehow managed to get out and all crawled away. Only it didn’t matter, because they all stayed here, in the rooms. But for a long time after that there were as many snakes in the house as you wanted! Every now and then they fell from the ceiling or somewhere else and usually tried to get into the plate or by the collar, and always at the wrong time. They were so beautiful, striped and didn’t do anything bad, but Aunt Sally didn’t understand this: she couldn’t stand snakes of any breed and couldn’t get used to them at all, no matter how much they taught her... That’s when the fun began in Jim's shack, when he used to play the pipe, and they would all crawl towards him! Jim didn't like spiders, and spiders didn't like him either, so he had a hard time with them. And he said that he didn’t even have a place to sleep because of all these rats and snakes, and even the millstones right there in the bed; and even if there was a place, you still won’t sleep, what’s going on here; and it’s like this all the time, because all these creatures sleep in turns: when the snakes sleep, then the rats are on the deck;

and the rats fall asleep, so the snakes are on watch; and they are always at his side, preventing him from lying down properly, while others are jumping all over him, like in a circus; and if he gets up to look for another place, the spiders will take over him. He said that if he was ever released, he would never go to prison again, even for a large salary.”

Three weeks pass. Everything is ready to escape. Tom decides to stuff a woman's dress with straw and lay him on Jim's bed, as if it were his mother in disguise, and writes an anonymous letter with the following content: “A whole gang of the most desperate villains from Indian Territory are going to steal a runaway black man tonight.”

Chapter forty

At Aunt Sally's house, everyone is walking around scared and worried. Tom and Huck stock up on provisions for their escape. Suddenly, Tom discovers that Huck has forgotten the butter and sends him to the basement. Huck is caught by Aunt Sally and escorted into the living room, where fifteen farmers with guns are sitting at the ready. They came to protect their neighbors from Indian attacks. One of the farmers offers to sit in the barn. Huck gets feverish from fear. The butter hidden under the hat begins to melt and flow down Huck's forehead. Aunt Sally decides he has a brain infection.

Huck manages to sneak out of the living room. Together with Tom and Jim, they safely climb out into the tunnel. Tom catches a piece of wood with his pant leg. It breaks off and cracks. Farmers jump out of the house and rush in pursuit of unknown people.

Tom, Huck and Jim get to the raft. Huck congratulates Jim on his happy release. Tom is the most happy because he has a bullet lodged in his leg. When Huck and Jim hear this, they immediately stop having fun. Tom insists that they run without him, but Jim thinks that this is not the right thing to do. Huck goes for the doctor. Tom, white with pain, allows this to be done if Huck “locks the door, ties the doctor hand and foot, puts a blindfold on his eyes, and then puts a purse full of gold in his hand and leads him not straight, but in the dark, along backyards; will bring it in a shuttle; let him not forget to search him and take away the chalk, otherwise he will make crosses with chalk so that the raft can be found.”

Chapter forty-one

Huck brings the doctor to Tom, and he returns to Aunt Sally. Her house is full of neighbors. Everyone already knows under what incredible circumstances Jim fled. Everyone agrees that this black man is crazy. No one normal person I wouldn’t have done this: I would have arranged my flight magnificently, but on the contrary, I would have done everything unnoticed and quietly.

Aunt Sally grieves greatly for the missing Tom; (she still thinks Tom is Sid and Huck is Tom). She tenderly looks after Huck. He is very uncomfortable in front of her, but he restrains himself and does not run away from home to visit Tom on the raft.

Chapter forty two

The next morning, a procession headed by an old doctor moves along the street. Tom Sawyer is carried on mowers, and Jim, in a calico dress that the boys stole for him, is led with his hands tied behind his back. The farmers are terribly angry, and some even suggest "hanging Jim, in example to all the blacks here, so that they should not run around like Jim ran away, cause such a commotion and keep the whole family in fear day and night.” Jim is taken to the same barn, dressed in old clothes and chained again. But the doctor stands up for him, tells how touchingly Jim looked after the wounded Tom, how he did not leave the boy alone, although he could have run away.

Tom is put to bed. Aunt Sally doesn't leave his side. Tom is recovering quickly. Huck makes his way to him. Tom feels as if he is at home, with Aunt Polly in St. Petersburg. He tells out loud how he and Huck organized Jim's escape. Aunt Sally hears everything. She's beside herself. Tom realizes that he is in trouble, and now Jim will have to pay for his fantasies. The boy says that Miss Watson died, but in her will she freed Jim. Aunt Sally is completely incomprehensible why Tom, who knew that Jim was a free man, needed all this rigmarole with an incredible escape. Tom remarks in bewilderment: “That’s a question, it’s just like women! What about adventures?”

Aunt Polly arrives and tells who Huck is and where he came from. Huck has to explain that he didn't know how to get out of the situation when Mrs. Phelps mistook him for Tom Sawyer.

Chapter last

Tom and Huck call Jim into the sick room for a serious conversation. Tom gives him forty dollars because he was a prisoner, endured everything and behaved so well.

After this, Tom suggests going in search of adventures with the Indians, in Indian territory, for two or three weeks. Huck replies that he has no money for an Indian suit because his father must have already returned, taken all his funds from Judge Thacher and drank them away.

Jim solemnly announces that old Finn will never come back. He reminds Huck that they saw a house floating on the river. The dead man covered with a blanket was his father.

Tom has long since recovered, wears his bullet on a chain instead of a keychain, and every now and then pops in to see what time it is.



Mark Twain

USA, 11/30/1835 - 4/21/1910

TWAIN, MARK (Twain, Mark; pseudonym; present name - Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Samuel Langhorne Clemens) (1835–1910), American writer. Born November 30, 1835 in the village of Florida (Missouri). He spent his childhood in the town of Hannibal on the Mississippi. He was a typesetter's apprentice and later, together with his brother, published a newspaper in Hannibal, then in Mescatine and Keokuk (Iowa). In 1857 he became a pilot's apprentice, fulfilling his childhood dream of “exploring the river”; in April 1859 he received his pilot's license. In 1861 he moved to his brother in Nevada and worked as a prospector in the silver mines for almost a year. Having written several humorous pieces for the Territorial Enterprise newspaper in Virginia City, in August 1862 he received an invitation to become its employee. For the pseudonym, I took the expression of the boatmen on the Mississippi, who called out “Merka 2”, which meant sufficient depth for safe navigation.

In May 1864, Twain left for San Francisco, worked for two years in California newspapers, incl. correspondent for the California Union on Hawaiian Islands. On the crest of the success of his essays, he gave humorous lectures about Hawaii during a three-month tour of American cities. From the Alta California newspaper, he took part in a Mediterranean cruise on the Quaker City steamship, collected material for the book The Innocents Abroad, became friends with C. Langdon from Elmira (New York) and got married on February 2, 1870 on his sister Olivia. In 1871, Twain moved to Hartford (Connecticut), where he lived for 20 years, his happiest years. In 1884 he founded a publishing company, nominally headed by C. L. Webster, the husband of his niece. Among the company's first publications are The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) by Twain and the best-selling Memoirs (1885) of the eighteenth US President W. S. Grant. During economic crisis 1893–1894 the publishing house went bankrupt.

In order to save money and earn money, in 1891 Twain and his family moved to Europe. In four years the debts were paid, financial situation the family straightened out, in 1900 they returned to their homeland. Here in 1904 his wife died, and on the eve of Christmas 1909 in Redding (Connecticut) his daughter Jean died of an attack of epilepsy (back in 1896, his beloved daughter Susie died of meningitis). Mark Twain died in Redding on April 21, 1910.

Twain was proud of public recognition, especially appreciated the award of the degree of Doctor of Literature from Oxford University (1907), but he also knew the bitterness of life. His last, most caustic denunciation of the “damned human race” is Letters from the Earth, not published by his daughter Clara until 1962.

Twain came to literature late. At the age of 27 he became a professional journalist, and at the age of 34 he published his first book. His early publications (he began publishing at the age of 17) are interesting mainly as evidence of a good knowledge of the crude humor of the American outback. From the very beginning, his newspaper publications bore the features of an artistic essay. He quickly got tired of reporting if the material did not lend itself to humor. The transformation from a gifted amateur to a true professional occurred after a trip to Hawaii in 1866. Lecturing played an important role. He experimented, looked for new, more diverse forms of expression, calculated pauses, achieving an exact match between the idea and the result. The careful polishing of the spoken word remained in his work. The trip to Quaker City continued the Hawaiian school. In Innocents Abroad (1869), the book that made him famous in America, an extremely simple leitmotif of Twain's work was defined - travel in space. Justified in Simpletons by the travel route itself, it will also be preserved in the books Hardened (Roughing It, 1872, in Russian translation - Lightly, 1959), A Tramp Abroad on Foot (1880) and Following the Equator (1896). It is used most impressively in Huckleberry Finn.

The approach to literary prose was gradual and cautious. The first novel, The Gilded Age (1874), was co-written with C.D. Warner. The novel, conceived as a modern social satire, stumbles over poorly fitting pieces of standard Victorian plots. Despite its artistic imperfections, the novel gave its name to the period of Grant's presidency. At the same time, a meeting with a childhood friend reminded Twain of their childhood adventures in Hannibal. After two or three unsuccessful attempts, including a narrative in the form of a diary, he found the right approach and in 1874–1875, intermittently, wrote the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), which created his reputation as a master of character and intrigue and a wonderful humorist. Tom, in Twain's words, is "the embodiment of boyishness." The background of the story is autobiographical, St. Petersburg is Hannibal. However, the characters are by no means flat copies, but full-blooded characters born from the imagination of a master remembering his youth.

From January to July 1875, Old Times on the Mississipi was published in the Atlantic Monthly; in 1883, they were included in the book Life on the Mississipi, chapters IV–XVII. Almost immediately after the completion of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn was conceived. It was begun in 1876, delayed several times, and finally published in 1884. Huckleberry Finn, Twain's crowning achievement, is told in the first person through the mouth of a twelve-year-old boy. First colloquial The American outback, previously used only in farce and satire on the morals of the common people, became a means of artistic depiction of the vertical of pre-war southern society - from the aristocracy to the “bottom”.

Books that preceded Huck include The Prince and the Pauper (1881), the first attempt at historical storytelling. Limited by the era, place and historical circumstances, the author did not go astray and did not stray into burlesque, and the book still captivates young readers.

On the contrary, in A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court, 1889, Twain gave free rein to his satirical temperament. His most serious historical prose, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, 1896 ), failed. Twain also tried to revive the world of his masterpieces in Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894) and Tom Sawyer, Detective, 1896, but again failed.

Of the stories published in the last years of his life, the most notable are The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg (1898), as well as sharp, accusatory pamphlets. Treatise What is a person? (What Is Man, 1906) – an excursion into philosophy. Works recent years mostly unfinished. Large fragments of the autobiography (he dictated it in 1906–1908) were never united into a single whole. The last satirical work, the story The Mysterious Stranger, was published posthumously in 1916 from an unfinished manuscript. Fragments of the autobiography were published in 1925 and later.

The novel begins with the introduction of the hero and author to the readers. For those of them who have not read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the author, and Huck himself acts in this capacity, gives the opportunity to find out what the main characters are like, and also provides a summary of their adventures described in the previous book.

Of course, this thing needs to be read in its entirety, since the book “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” the summary of which we will try to present, is written so fascinatingly that it is simply a sin not to have it in your reading luggage. It’s not for nothing that the adventures of Tom and Huck are among the top most popular novels in the world, and these books are read with pleasure by both adults and children. And among the many novels, stories and feuilletons that Mark Twain wrote, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” occupies the highest place in the parade of popularity. Even Tom is a little inferior to his friend.

If you haven't read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn yet, the summary of the plot will probably encourage you to buy a volume of Mark Twain. And then the work will probably take pride of place on your bookshelf.

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", summary. First part

Huck Finn enters re-education with the widow Douglas, who is determined to turn the young pariah and tomboy into a useful and exemplary member of society. The boy is forced to dress “decently”, they try to instill in him high society manners and force him to go to school. Sincerely believing that he really needs all this, Huck tries his best, but he fails to overcome his freedom-loving nature and become “like everyone else.” And then it turns out that his father, a poor tramp and alcoholic, returned to the town, who, having heard that Huck had become rich, was inflamed with parental feelings for his son. You can read the story of young Finn's acquisition of fortune in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

His father kidnapped Huck from the widow's house and took him to a hut several miles from the town. The elder Finn decided to take possession of his son's fortune, and keeps him locked up as a guarantee of receiving the money. But Huck does not want to follow his parent’s wishes and escapes from the castle. Communication with Tom was not in vain for him, and he frames his escape as his own murder. It is not difficult to guess that this was done for the purpose of not looking for him later. Having escaped, he decides to settle on an island that is in direct sight of the town. It was here that he and Tom Joe Garland dreamed of becoming pirates.

But it turns out to be inhabited earlier. The black man Jim, who ran away from his owner, Mrs. Douglas, already lives on it. Two fugitives decide to go to the northern states, which do not have slavery. They decide to move along the river. And only at night, since Jim faces severe punishment for escaping.

And the further adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a summary of which you are now reading, take place on a raft. Our friends meet two swindlers who, with amazing dexterity and impudence, rob the simple-minded residents of small towns standing on the banks of the river. While the victims of the swindlers are adults, Huck and Jim resign themselves to the methods of the “Duke” and “King,” but when they decide to rob three orphaned sisters, the eldest of whom is only 16, young Finn decides to stop the injustice from happening. His intervention did not allow the scammers to realize their plans, and they, angry as hell, were forced to leave without a meal.

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", summary. Second part

Frustrated by their failure, the swindlers decide to improve their financial affairs by handing Jim over to the authorities. After all, there is a reward for the capture of a runaway slave. Having quietly concocted this vile business, they believe that the matter is in the bag. But Huck cannot accept the fact that Jim will be sold to the southern cotton plantations, and decides to arrange his escape. Having found out which farm his friend is being kept on, he goes there, not even knowing what he will do or say. Imagine his surprise when the owners greet the boy’s appearance with sincere delight, mistaking him for Mrs. Phelps’ nephew, who is just about to come to visit.

Upon learning that this nephew's name is Tom Sawyer, Huck almost goes crazy with relief. After all, his best friend will soon be here, and, knowing his friend’s love of adventure, Finn has no doubt at all that Jim’s escape will be carried out according to all the rules of an adventure novel. Tom, naturally, completely lives up to expectations, and makes a whole show out of the preparation for the escape. Unfortunately, at the very end, an accident prevented the triumph, and Sawyer even took a bullet in the leg.

But everything ends not just well, but even wonderfully, when Tom reveals his cards, and Aunt Polly, who has come to pick up her restless nephew, confirms his words. It turns out that Jim is not a slave at all, since his mistress died, and in her will she gave him his freedom.