CHAPTER XVI
WE slept most all day, and started out at night, a
little ways behind a monstrous long raft that was as
long going by as a procession. She had four long
sweeps at each end, so we judged she carried as many
as thirty men, likely. She had five big wigwams
aboard, wide apart, and an open camp fire in the
middle, and a tall flag-pole at each end. There was
a power of style about her. It amounted to something
being a raftsman on such a craft as that.
We went drifting down into a big bend, and the night
clouded up and got hot. The river was very wide, and
was walled with solid timber on both sides; you
couldn't see a break in it hardly ever, or a light.
We talked about Cairo, and wondered whether we would
know it when we got to it. I said likely we
wouldn't, because I had heard say there warn't but
about a dozen houses there, and if they didn't
happen to have them lit up, how was we going to know
we was passing a town? Jim said if the two big
rivers joined together there, that would show. But I
said maybe we might think we was passing the foot of
an island and coming into the same old river again.
That disturbed Jim -- and me too. So the question
was, what to do? I said, paddle ashore the first
time a light showed, and tell them pap was behind,
coming along with a trading-scow, and was a green
hand at
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-1172-
the business, and wanted to know how far it was to
Cairo. Jim thought it was a good idea, so we took a
smoke on it and waited.
There warn't nothing to do now but to look out sharp
for the town, and not pass it without seeing it. He
said he'd be mighty sure to see it, because he'd be
a free man the minute he seen it, but if he missed
it he'd be in a slave country again and no more show
for freedom. Every little while he jumps up and
says:
"Dah she is?"
But it warn't. It was Jack-o'-lanterns, or lightning
bugs; so he set down again, and went to watching,
same as before. Jim said it made him all over
trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom.
Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and
feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get
it through my head that he was most free -- and who
was to blame for it? Why, me. I couldn't get that
out of my conscience, no how nor no way. It got to
troubling me so I couldn't rest; I couldn't stay
still in one place. It hadn't ever come home to me
before, what this thing was that I was doing. But
now it did; and it stayed with me, and scorched me
more and more. I tried to make out to myself that I
warn't to blame, because I didn't run Jim off from
his rightful owner; but it warn't no use, conscience
up and says, every time, "But you knowed he was
running for his freedom, and you could a paddled
ashore and told somebody." That was so -- I couldn't
get around that noway. That was where it pinched.
Conscience says to me, "What had poor Miss Watson
done to you that you could see her nigger go off
right under your
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-1182-
eyes and never say one single word? What did that
poor old woman do to you that you could treat her so
mean? Why, she tried to learn you your book, she
tried to learn you your manners, she tried to be
good to you every way she knowed how. That's what
she done."
I got to feeling so mean and so miserable I most
wished I was dead. I fidgeted up and down the raft,
abusing myself to myself, and Jim was fidgeting up
and down past me. We neither of us could keep still.
Every time he danced around and says, "Dah's Cairo!"
it went through me like a shot, and I thought if it
was Cairo I reckoned I would die of miserableness.
Jim talked out loud all the time while I was talking
to myself. He was saying how the first thing he
would do when he got to a free State he would go to
saving up money and never spend a single cent, and
when he got enough he would buy his wife, which was
owned on a farm close to where Miss Watson lived;
and then they would both work to buy the two
children, and if their master wouldn't sell them,
they'd get an Ab'litionist to go and steal them.
It most froze me to hear such talk. He wouldn't ever
dared to talk such talk in his life before. Just see
what a difference it made in him the minute he
judged he was about free. It was according to the
old saying, "Give a nigger an inch and he'll take an
ell." Thinks I, this is what comes of my not
thinking. Here was this nigger, which I had as good
as helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed
and saying he would steal his children -- children
that belonged to a man I didn't even know; a man
that hadn't ever done me no harm.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-119-
I was sorry to hear Jim say that, it was such a
lowering of him. My conscience got to stirring me up
hotter than ever, until at last I says to it, "Let
up on me -- it ain't too late yet -- I'll paddle
ashore at the first light and tell." I felt easy and
happy and light as a feather right off. All my
troubles was gone. I went to looking out sharp for a
light, and sort of singing to myself. By and by one
showed. Jim sings out:
"We's safe, Huck, we's safe! Jump up and crack yo'
heels! Dat's de good ole Cairo at las', I jis knows
it!"
I says:
"I'll take the canoe and go and see, Jim. It
mightn't be, you know."
He jumped and got the canoe ready, and put his old
coat in the bottom for me to set on, and give me the
paddle; and as I shoved off, he says:
"Pooty soon I'll be a-shout'n' for joy, en I'll say,
it's all on accounts o' Huck; I's a free man, en I
couldn't ever ben free ef it hadn' ben for Huck;
Huck done it. Jim won't ever forgit you, Huck; you's
de bes' fren' Jim's ever had; en you's de only fren'
ole Jim's got now."
I was paddling off, all in a sweat to tell on him;
but when he says this, it seemed to kind of take the
tuck all out of me. I went along slow then, and I
warn't right down certain whether I was glad I
started or whether I warn't. When I was fifty yards
off, Jim says:
"Dah you goes, de ole true Huck; de on'y white
genlman dat ever kep' his promise to ole Jim."
Well, I just felt sick. But I says, I got to do it
-- I
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-120-
can't get out of it. Right then along comes a skiff
with two men in it with guns, and they stopped and I
stopped. One of them says:
"What's that yonder?"
"A piece of a raft," I says.
"Do you belong on it?"
"Yes, sir."
"Any men on it?"
"Only one, sir."
"Well, there's five niggers run off to-night up
yonder, above the head of the bend. Is your man
white or black?"
I didn't answer up prompt. I tried to, but the words
wouldn't come. I tried for a second or two to brace
up and out with it, but I warn't man enough --
hadn't the spunk of a rabbit. I see I was weakening;
so I just give up trying, and up and says:
"He's white."
"I reckon we'll go and see for ourselves."
"I wish you would," says I, "because it's pap that's
there, and maybe you'd help me tow the raft ashore
where the light is. He's sick -- and so is mam and
Mary Ann."
"Oh, the devil! we're in a hurry, boy. But I s'pose
we've got to. Come, buckle to your paddle, and let's
get along."
I buckled to my paddle and they laid to their oars.
When we had made a stroke or two, I says:
"Pap'll be mighty much obleeged to you, I can tell
you. Everybody goes away when I want them to help me
tow the raft ashore, and I can't do it by myself."
"Well, that's infernal mean. Odd, too. Say, boy,
what's the matter with your father?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-121-
"It's the -- a -- the -- well, it ain't anything
much."
They stopped pulling. It warn't but a mighty little
ways to the raft now. One says:
"Boy, that's a lie. What IS the matter with your
pap? Answer up square now, and it'll be the better
for you."
"I will, sir, I will, honest -- but don't leave us,
please. It's the -- the -- Gentlemen, if you'll only
pull ahead, and let me heave you the headline, you
won't have to come a-near the raft -- please do."
"Set her back, John, set her back!" says one. They
backed water. "Keep away, boy -- keep to looard.
Confound it, I just expect the wind has blowed it to
us. Your pap's got the small-pox, and you know it
precious well. Why didn't you come out and say so?
Do you want to spread it all over?"
"Well," says I, a-blubbering, "I've told everybody
before, and they just went away and left us."
"Poor devil, there's something in that. We are right
down sorry for you, but we -- well, hang it, we
don't want the small-pox, you see. Look here, I'll
tell you what to do. Don't you try to land by
yourself, or you'll smash everything to pieces. You
float along down about twenty miles, and you'll come
to a town on the left-hand side of the river. It
will be long after sun-up then, and when you ask for
help you tell them your folks are all down with
chills and fever. Don't be a fool again, and let
people guess what is the matter. Now we're trying to
do you a kindness; so you just put twenty miles
between us, that's a good boy. It wouldn't do any
good to land yonder where the light is -- it's only
a wood-yard. Say, I reckon your father's poor, and
I'm bound to say he's in pret-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-122-
ty hard luck. Here, I'll put a twenty-dollar gold
piece on this board, and you get it when it floats
by. I feel mighty mean to leave you; but my kingdom!
it won't do to fool with small-pox, don't you see?"
"Hold on, Parker," says the other man, "here's a
twenty to put on the board for me. Good-bye, boy;
you do as Mr. Parker told you, and you'll be all
right."
"That's so, my boy -- good-bye, good-bye. If you see
any runaway niggers you get help and nab them, and
you can make some money by it."
"Good-bye, sir," says I; "I won't let no runaway
niggers get by me if I can help it."
They went off and I got aboard the raft, feeling bad
and low, because I knowed very well I had done
wrong, and I see it warn't no use for me to try to
learn to do right; a body that don't get started
right when he's little ain't got no show -- when the
pinch comes there ain't nothing to back him up and
keep him to his work, and so he gets beat. Then I
thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on;
s'pose you'd a done right and give Jim up, would you
felt better than what you do now? No, says I, I'd
feel bad -- I'd feel just the same way I do now.
Well, then, says I, what's the use you learning to
do right when it's troublesome to do right and ain't
no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the
same? I was stuck. I couldn't answer that. So I
reckoned I wouldn't bother no more about it, but
after this always do whichever come handiest at the
time.
I went into the wigwam; Jim warn't there. I looked
all around; he warn't anywhere. I says:
"Jim!"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-123-
"Here I is, Huck. Is dey out o' sight yit? Don't
talk loud."
He was in the river under the stern oar, with just
his nose out. I told him they were out of sight, so
he come aboard. He says:
"I was a-listenin' to all de talk, en I slips into
de river en was gwyne to shove for sho' if dey come
aboard. Den I was gwyne to swim to de raf' agin when
dey was gone. But lawsy, how you did fool 'em, Huck!
Dat wuz de smartes' dodge! I tell you, chile, I'spec
it save' ole Jim -- ole Jim ain't going to forgit
you for dat, honey."
Then we talked about the money. It was a pretty good
raise -- twenty dollars apiece. Jim said we could
take deck passage on a steamboat now, and the money
would last us as far as we wanted to go in the free
States. He said twenty mile more warn't far for the
raft to go, but he wished we was already there.
Towards daybreak we tied up, and Jim was mighty
particular about hiding the raft good. Then he
worked all day fixing things in bundles, and getting
all ready to quit rafting.
That night about ten we hove in sight of the lights
of a town away down in a left-hand bend.
I went off in the canoe to ask about it. Pretty soon
I found a man out in the river with a skiff, setting
a trot-line. I ranged up and says:
"Mister, is that town Cairo?"
"Cairo? no. You must be a blame' fool."
"What town is it, mister?"
"If you want to know, go and find out. If you stay
here botherin' around me for about a half a minute
longer you'll get something you won't want."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-124-
I paddled to the raft. Jim was awful disappointed,
but I said never mind, Cairo would be the next
place, I reckoned.
We passed another town before daylight, and I was
going out again; but it was high ground, so I didn't
go. No high ground about Cairo, Jim said. I had
forgot it. We laid up for the day on a towhead
tolerable close to the left-hand bank. I begun to
suspicion something. So did Jim. I says:
"Maybe we went by Cairo in the fog that night."
He says:
"Doan' le's talk about it, Huck. Po' niggers can't
have no luck. I awluz 'spected dat rattlesnake-skin
warn't done wid its work."
"I wish I'd never seen that snake-skin, Jim -- I do
wish I'd never laid eyes on it."
"It ain't yo' fault, Huck; you didn' know. Don't you
blame yo'self 'bout it."
When it was daylight, here was the clear Ohio water
inshore, sure enough, and outside was the old
regular Muddy! So it was all up with Cairo.
We talked it all over. It wouldn't do to take to the
shore; we couldn't take the raft up the stream, of
course. There warn't no way but to wait for dark,
and start back in the canoe and take the chances. So
we slept all day amongst the cottonwood thicket, so
as to be fresh for the work, and when we went back
to the raft about dark the canoe was gone!
We didn't say a word for a good while. There warn't
anything to say. We both knowed well enough it was
some more work of the rattlesnake-skin; so what was
the use to talk about it? It would only look like we
was finding fault, and that would be
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-125-
bound to fetch more bad luck -- and keep on fetching
it, too, till we knowed enough to keep still.
By and by we talked about what we better do, and
found there warn't no way but just to go along down
with the raft till we got a chance to buy a canoe to
go back in. We warn't going to borrow it when there
warn't anybody around, the way pap would do, for
that might set people after us.
So we shoved out after dark on the raft.
Anybody that don't believe yet that it's foolishness
to handle a snake-skin, after all that that
snake-skin done for us, will believe it now if they
read on and see what more it done for us.
The place to buy canoes is off of rafts laying up at
shore. But we didn't see no rafts laying up; so we
went along during three hours and more. Well, the
night got gray and ruther thick, which is the next
meanest thing to fog. You can't tell the shape of
the river, and you can't see no distance. It got to
be very late and still, and then along comes a
steamboat up the river. We lit the lantern, and
judged she would see it. Up-stream boats didn't
generly come close to us; they go out and follow the
bars and hunt for easy water under the reefs; but
nights like this they bull right up the channel
against the whole river.
We could hear her pounding along, but we didn't see
her good till she was close. She aimed right for us.
Often they do that and try to see how close they can
come without touching; sometimes the wheel bites off
a sweep, and then the pilot sticks his head out and
laughs, and thinks he's mighty smart. Well, here she
comes, and we said she was going to try and shave
us; but she didn't seem to be sheering off a
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-126-
bit. She was a big one, and she was coming in a
hurry, too, looking like a black cloud with rows of
glow-worms around it; but all of a sudden she bulged
out, big and scary, with a long row of wide-open
furnace doors shining like red-hot teeth, and her
monstrous bows and guards hanging right over us.
There was a yell at us, and a jingling of bells to
stop the engines, a powwow of cussing, and whistling
of steam -- and as Jim went overboard on one side
and I on the other, she come smashing straight
through the raft.
I dived -- and I aimed to find the bottom, too, for
a thirty-foot wheel had got to go over me, and I
wanted it to have plenty of room. I could always
stay under water a minute; this time I reckon I
stayed under a minute and a half. Then I bounced for
the top in a hurry, for I was nearly busting. I
popped out to my armpits and blowed the water out of
my nose, and puffed a bit. Of course there was a
booming current; and of course that boat started her
engines again ten seconds after she stopped them,
for they never cared much for raftsmen; so now she
was churning along up the river, out of sight in the
thick weather, though I could hear her.
I sung out for Jim about a dozen times, but I didn't
get any answer; so I grabbed a plank that touched me
while I was "treading water," and struck out for
shore, shoving it ahead of me. But I made out to see
that the drift of the current was towards the
left-hand shore, which meant that I was in a
crossing; so I changed off and went that way.
It was one of these long, slanting, two-mile
crossings; so I was a good long time in getting
over. I
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-127-
made a safe landing, and clumb up the bank. I
couldn't see but a little ways, but I went poking
along over rough ground for a quarter of a mile or
more, and then I run across a big old-fashioned
double log-house before I noticed it. I was going to
rush by and get away, but a lot of dogs jumped out
and went to howling and barking at me, and I knowed
better than to move another peg.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-128-
d walked to the wigwam, and went in there without
saying anything but that. But that was enough. It
made me feel so mean I could almost kissed his foot
to get him to take it back.
It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up
to go and humble myself to a nigger; but I done it,
and I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards, neither.
I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn't
done that one if I'd a knowed it would make him feel
that way.
|
|
