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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 4.
+by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 4.
+
+Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
+
+Release Date: June 29, 2004 [EBook #7196]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM SAWYER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+                    THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
+                                BY
+                            MARK TWAIN
+                     (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
+
+                              Part 4
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+TOM'S mind was made up now. He was gloomy and desperate. He was a
+forsaken, friendless boy, he said; nobody loved him; when they found
+out what they had driven him to, perhaps they would be sorry; he had
+tried to do right and get along, but they would not let him; since
+nothing would do them but to be rid of him, let it be so; and let them
+blame HIM for the consequences--why shouldn't they? What right had the
+friendless to complain? Yes, they had forced him to it at last: he
+would lead a life of crime. There was no choice.
+
+By this time he was far down Meadow Lane, and the bell for school to
+"take up" tinkled faintly upon his ear. He sobbed, now, to think he
+should never, never hear that old familiar sound any more--it was very
+hard, but it was forced on him; since he was driven out into the cold
+world, he must submit--but he forgave them. Then the sobs came thick
+and fast.
+
+Just at this point he met his soul's sworn comrade, Joe Harper
+--hard-eyed, and with evidently a great and dismal purpose in his heart.
+Plainly here were "two souls with but a single thought." Tom, wiping
+his eyes with his sleeve, began to blubber out something about a
+resolution to escape from hard usage and lack of sympathy at home by
+roaming abroad into the great world never to return; and ended by
+hoping that Joe would not forget him.
+
+But it transpired that this was a request which Joe had just been
+going to make of Tom, and had come to hunt him up for that purpose. His
+mother had whipped him for drinking some cream which he had never
+tasted and knew nothing about; it was plain that she was tired of him
+and wished him to go; if she felt that way, there was nothing for him
+to do but succumb; he hoped she would be happy, and never regret having
+driven her poor boy out into the unfeeling world to suffer and die.
+
+As the two boys walked sorrowing along, they made a new compact to
+stand by each other and be brothers and never separate till death
+relieved them of their troubles. Then they began to lay their plans.
+Joe was for being a hermit, and living on crusts in a remote cave, and
+dying, some time, of cold and want and grief; but after listening to
+Tom, he conceded that there were some conspicuous advantages about a
+life of crime, and so he consented to be a pirate.
+
+Three miles below St. Petersburg, at a point where the Mississippi
+River was a trifle over a mile wide, there was a long, narrow, wooded
+island, with a shallow bar at the head of it, and this offered well as
+a rendezvous. It was not inhabited; it lay far over toward the further
+shore, abreast a dense and almost wholly unpeopled forest. So Jackson's
+Island was chosen. Who were to be the subjects of their piracies was a
+matter that did not occur to them. Then they hunted up Huckleberry
+Finn, and he joined them promptly, for all careers were one to him; he
+was indifferent. They presently separated to meet at a lonely spot on
+the river-bank two miles above the village at the favorite hour--which
+was midnight. There was a small log raft there which they meant to
+capture. Each would bring hooks and lines, and such provision as he
+could steal in the most dark and mysterious way--as became outlaws. And
+before the afternoon was done, they had all managed to enjoy the sweet
+glory of spreading the fact that pretty soon the town would "hear
+something." All who got this vague hint were cautioned to "be mum and
+wait."
+
+About midnight Tom arrived with a boiled ham and a few trifles,
+and stopped in a dense undergrowth on a small bluff overlooking the
+meeting-place. It was starlight, and very still. The mighty river lay
+like an ocean at rest. Tom listened a moment, but no sound disturbed the
+quiet. Then he gave a low, distinct whistle. It was answered from under
+the bluff. Tom whistled twice more; these signals were answered in the
+same way. Then a guarded voice said:
+
+"Who goes there?"
+
+"Tom Sawyer, the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main. Name your names."
+
+"Huck Finn the Red-Handed, and Joe Harper the Terror of the Seas." Tom
+had furnished these titles, from his favorite literature.
+
+"'Tis well. Give the countersign."
+
+Two hoarse whispers delivered the same awful word simultaneously to
+the brooding night:
+
+"BLOOD!"
+
+Then Tom tumbled his ham over the bluff and let himself down after it,
+tearing both skin and clothes to some extent in the effort. There was
+an easy, comfortable path along the shore under the bluff, but it
+lacked the advantages of difficulty and danger so valued by a pirate.
+
+The Terror of the Seas had brought a side of bacon, and had about worn
+himself out with getting it there. Finn the Red-Handed had stolen a
+skillet and a quantity of half-cured leaf tobacco, and had also brought
+a few corn-cobs to make pipes with. But none of the pirates smoked or
+"chewed" but himself. The Black Avenger of the Spanish Main said it
+would never do to start without some fire. That was a wise thought;
+matches were hardly known there in that day. They saw a fire
+smouldering upon a great raft a hundred yards above, and they went
+stealthily thither and helped themselves to a chunk. They made an
+imposing adventure of it, saying, "Hist!" every now and then, and
+suddenly halting with finger on lip; moving with hands on imaginary
+dagger-hilts; and giving orders in dismal whispers that if "the foe"
+stirred, to "let him have it to the hilt," because "dead men tell no
+tales." They knew well enough that the raftsmen were all down at the
+village laying in stores or having a spree, but still that was no
+excuse for their conducting this thing in an unpiratical way.
+
+They shoved off, presently, Tom in command, Huck at the after oar and
+Joe at the forward. Tom stood amidships, gloomy-browed, and with folded
+arms, and gave his orders in a low, stern whisper:
+
+"Luff, and bring her to the wind!"
+
+"Aye-aye, sir!"
+
+"Steady, steady-y-y-y!"
+
+"Steady it is, sir!"
+
+"Let her go off a point!"
+
+"Point it is, sir!"
+
+As the boys steadily and monotonously drove the raft toward mid-stream
+it was no doubt understood that these orders were given only for
+"style," and were not intended to mean anything in particular.
+
+"What sail's she carrying?"
+
+"Courses, tops'ls, and flying-jib, sir."
+
+"Send the r'yals up! Lay out aloft, there, half a dozen of ye
+--foretopmaststuns'l! Lively, now!"
+
+"Aye-aye, sir!"
+
+"Shake out that maintogalans'l! Sheets and braces! NOW my hearties!"
+
+"Aye-aye, sir!"
+
+"Hellum-a-lee--hard a port! Stand by to meet her when she comes! Port,
+port! NOW, men! With a will! Stead-y-y-y!"
+
+"Steady it is, sir!"
+
+The raft drew beyond the middle of the river; the boys pointed her
+head right, and then lay on their oars. The river was not high, so
+there was not more than a two or three mile current. Hardly a word was
+said during the next three-quarters of an hour. Now the raft was
+passing before the distant town. Two or three glimmering lights showed
+where it lay, peacefully sleeping, beyond the vague vast sweep of
+star-gemmed water, unconscious of the tremendous event that was happening.
+The Black Avenger stood still with folded arms, "looking his last" upon
+the scene of his former joys and his later sufferings, and wishing
+"she" could see him now, abroad on the wild sea, facing peril and death
+with dauntless heart, going to his doom with a grim smile on his lips.
+It was but a small strain on his imagination to remove Jackson's Island
+beyond eyeshot of the village, and so he "looked his last" with a
+broken and satisfied heart. The other pirates were looking their last,
+too; and they all looked so long that they came near letting the
+current drift them out of the range of the island. But they discovered
+the danger in time, and made shift to avert it. About two o'clock in
+the morning the raft grounded on the bar two hundred yards above the
+head of the island, and they waded back and forth until they had landed
+their freight. Part of the little raft's belongings consisted of an old
+sail, and this they spread over a nook in the bushes for a tent to
+shelter their provisions; but they themselves would sleep in the open
+air in good weather, as became outlaws.
+
+They built a fire against the side of a great log twenty or thirty
+steps within the sombre depths of the forest, and then cooked some
+bacon in the frying-pan for supper, and used up half of the corn "pone"
+stock they had brought. It seemed glorious sport to be feasting in that
+wild, free way in the virgin forest of an unexplored and uninhabited
+island, far from the haunts of men, and they said they never would
+return to civilization. The climbing fire lit up their faces and threw
+its ruddy glare upon the pillared tree-trunks of their forest temple,
+and upon the varnished foliage and festooning vines.
+
+When the last crisp slice of bacon was gone, and the last allowance of
+corn pone devoured, the boys stretched themselves out on the grass,
+filled with contentment. They could have found a cooler place, but they
+would not deny themselves such a romantic feature as the roasting
+camp-fire.
+
+"AIN'T it gay?" said Joe.
+
+"It's NUTS!" said Tom. "What would the boys say if they could see us?"
+
+"Say? Well, they'd just die to be here--hey, Hucky!"
+
+"I reckon so," said Huckleberry; "anyways, I'm suited. I don't want
+nothing better'n this. I don't ever get enough to eat, gen'ally--and
+here they can't come and pick at a feller and bullyrag him so."
+
+"It's just the life for me," said Tom. "You don't have to get up,
+mornings, and you don't have to go to school, and wash, and all that
+blame foolishness. You see a pirate don't have to do ANYTHING, Joe,
+when he's ashore, but a hermit HE has to be praying considerable, and
+then he don't have any fun, anyway, all by himself that way."
+
+"Oh yes, that's so," said Joe, "but I hadn't thought much about it,
+you know. I'd a good deal rather be a pirate, now that I've tried it."
+
+"You see," said Tom, "people don't go much on hermits, nowadays, like
+they used to in old times, but a pirate's always respected. And a
+hermit's got to sleep on the hardest place he can find, and put
+sackcloth and ashes on his head, and stand out in the rain, and--"
+
+"What does he put sackcloth and ashes on his head for?" inquired Huck.
+
+"I dono. But they've GOT to do it. Hermits always do. You'd have to do
+that if you was a hermit."
+
+"Dern'd if I would," said Huck.
+
+"Well, what would you do?"
+
+"I dono. But I wouldn't do that."
+
+"Why, Huck, you'd HAVE to. How'd you get around it?"
+
+"Why, I just wouldn't stand it. I'd run away."
+
+"Run away! Well, you WOULD be a nice old slouch of a hermit. You'd be
+a disgrace."
+
+The Red-Handed made no response, being better employed. He had
+finished gouging out a cob, and now he fitted a weed stem to it, loaded
+it with tobacco, and was pressing a coal to the charge and blowing a
+cloud of fragrant smoke--he was in the full bloom of luxurious
+contentment. The other pirates envied him this majestic vice, and
+secretly resolved to acquire it shortly. Presently Huck said:
+
+"What does pirates have to do?"
+
+Tom said:
+
+"Oh, they have just a bully time--take ships and burn them, and get
+the money and bury it in awful places in their island where there's
+ghosts and things to watch it, and kill everybody in the ships--make
+'em walk a plank."
+
+"And they carry the women to the island," said Joe; "they don't kill
+the women."
+
+"No," assented Tom, "they don't kill the women--they're too noble. And
+the women's always beautiful, too.
+
+"And don't they wear the bulliest clothes! Oh no! All gold and silver
+and di'monds," said Joe, with enthusiasm.
+
+"Who?" said Huck.
+
+"Why, the pirates."
+
+Huck scanned his own clothing forlornly.
+
+"I reckon I ain't dressed fitten for a pirate," said he, with a
+regretful pathos in his voice; "but I ain't got none but these."
+
+But the other boys told him the fine clothes would come fast enough,
+after they should have begun their adventures. They made him understand
+that his poor rags would do to begin with, though it was customary for
+wealthy pirates to start with a proper wardrobe.
+
+Gradually their talk died out and drowsiness began to steal upon the
+eyelids of the little waifs. The pipe dropped from the fingers of the
+Red-Handed, and he slept the sleep of the conscience-free and the
+weary. The Terror of the Seas and the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main
+had more difficulty in getting to sleep. They said their prayers
+inwardly, and lying down, since there was nobody there with authority
+to make them kneel and recite aloud; in truth, they had a mind not to
+say them at all, but they were afraid to proceed to such lengths as
+that, lest they might call down a sudden and special thunderbolt from
+heaven. Then at once they reached and hovered upon the imminent verge
+of sleep--but an intruder came, now, that would not "down." It was
+conscience. They began to feel a vague fear that they had been doing
+wrong to run away; and next they thought of the stolen meat, and then
+the real torture came. They tried to argue it away by reminding
+conscience that they had purloined sweetmeats and apples scores of
+times; but conscience was not to be appeased by such thin
+plausibilities; it seemed to them, in the end, that there was no
+getting around the stubborn fact that taking sweetmeats was only
+"hooking," while taking bacon and hams and such valuables was plain
+simple stealing--and there was a command against that in the Bible. So
+they inwardly resolved that so long as they remained in the business,
+their piracies should not again be sullied with the crime of stealing.
+Then conscience granted a truce, and these curiously inconsistent
+pirates fell peacefully to sleep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+WHEN Tom awoke in the morning, he wondered where he was. He sat up and
+rubbed his eyes and looked around. Then he comprehended. It was the
+cool gray dawn, and there was a delicious sense of repose and peace in
+the deep pervading calm and silence of the woods. Not a leaf stirred;
+not a sound obtruded upon great Nature's meditation. Beaded dewdrops
+stood upon the leaves and grasses. A white layer of ashes covered the
+fire, and a thin blue breath of smoke rose straight into the air. Joe
+and Huck still slept.
+
+Now, far away in the woods a bird called; another answered; presently
+the hammering of a woodpecker was heard. Gradually the cool dim gray of
+the morning whitened, and as gradually sounds multiplied and life
+manifested itself. The marvel of Nature shaking off sleep and going to
+work unfolded itself to the musing boy. A little green worm came
+crawling over a dewy leaf, lifting two-thirds of his body into the air
+from time to time and "sniffing around," then proceeding again--for he
+was measuring, Tom said; and when the worm approached him, of its own
+accord, he sat as still as a stone, with his hopes rising and falling,
+by turns, as the creature still came toward him or seemed inclined to
+go elsewhere; and when at last it considered a painful moment with its
+curved body in the air and then came decisively down upon Tom's leg and
+began a journey over him, his whole heart was glad--for that meant that
+he was going to have a new suit of clothes--without the shadow of a
+doubt a gaudy piratical uniform. Now a procession of ants appeared,
+from nowhere in particular, and went about their labors; one struggled
+manfully by with a dead spider five times as big as itself in its arms,
+and lugged it straight up a tree-trunk. A brown spotted lady-bug
+climbed the dizzy height of a grass blade, and Tom bent down close to
+it and said, "Lady-bug, lady-bug, fly away home, your house is on fire,
+your children's alone," and she took wing and went off to see about it
+--which did not surprise the boy, for he knew of old that this insect was
+credulous about conflagrations, and he had practised upon its
+simplicity more than once. A tumblebug came next, heaving sturdily at
+its ball, and Tom touched the creature, to see it shut its legs against
+its body and pretend to be dead. The birds were fairly rioting by this
+time. A catbird, the Northern mocker, lit in a tree over Tom's head,
+and trilled out her imitations of her neighbors in a rapture of
+enjoyment; then a shrill jay swept down, a flash of blue flame, and
+stopped on a twig almost within the boy's reach, cocked his head to one
+side and eyed the strangers with a consuming curiosity; a gray squirrel
+and a big fellow of the "fox" kind came skurrying along, sitting up at
+intervals to inspect and chatter at the boys, for the wild things had
+probably never seen a human being before and scarcely knew whether to
+be afraid or not. All Nature was wide awake and stirring, now; long
+lances of sunlight pierced down through the dense foliage far and near,
+and a few butterflies came fluttering upon the scene.
+
+Tom stirred up the other pirates and they all clattered away with a
+shout, and in a minute or two were stripped and chasing after and
+tumbling over each other in the shallow limpid water of the white
+sandbar. They felt no longing for the little village sleeping in the
+distance beyond the majestic waste of water. A vagrant current or a
+slight rise in the river had carried off their raft, but this only
+gratified them, since its going was something like burning the bridge
+between them and civilization.
+
+They came back to camp wonderfully refreshed, glad-hearted, and
+ravenous; and they soon had the camp-fire blazing up again. Huck found
+a spring of clear cold water close by, and the boys made cups of broad
+oak or hickory leaves, and felt that water, sweetened with such a
+wildwood charm as that, would be a good enough substitute for coffee.
+While Joe was slicing bacon for breakfast, Tom and Huck asked him to
+hold on a minute; they stepped to a promising nook in the river-bank
+and threw in their lines; almost immediately they had reward. Joe had
+not had time to get impatient before they were back again with some
+handsome bass, a couple of sun-perch and a small catfish--provisions
+enough for quite a family. They fried the fish with the bacon, and were
+astonished; for no fish had ever seemed so delicious before. They did
+not know that the quicker a fresh-water fish is on the fire after he is
+caught the better he is; and they reflected little upon what a sauce
+open-air sleeping, open-air exercise, bathing, and a large ingredient
+of hunger make, too.
+
+They lay around in the shade, after breakfast, while Huck had a smoke,
+and then went off through the woods on an exploring expedition. They
+tramped gayly along, over decaying logs, through tangled underbrush,
+among solemn monarchs of the forest, hung from their crowns to the
+ground with a drooping regalia of grape-vines. Now and then they came
+upon snug nooks carpeted with grass and jeweled with flowers.
+
+They found plenty of things to be delighted with, but nothing to be
+astonished at. They discovered that the island was about three miles
+long and a quarter of a mile wide, and that the shore it lay closest to
+was only separated from it by a narrow channel hardly two hundred yards
+wide. They took a swim about every hour, so it was close upon the
+middle of the afternoon when they got back to camp. They were too
+hungry to stop to fish, but they fared sumptuously upon cold ham, and
+then threw themselves down in the shade to talk. But the talk soon
+began to drag, and then died. The stillness, the solemnity that brooded
+in the woods, and the sense of loneliness, began to tell upon the
+spirits of the boys. They fell to thinking. A sort of undefined longing
+crept upon them. This took dim shape, presently--it was budding
+homesickness. Even Finn the Red-Handed was dreaming of his doorsteps
+and empty hogsheads. But they were all ashamed of their weakness, and
+none was brave enough to speak his thought.
+
+For some time, now, the boys had been dully conscious of a peculiar
+sound in the distance, just as one sometimes is of the ticking of a
+clock which he takes no distinct note of. But now this mysterious sound
+became more pronounced, and forced a recognition. The boys started,
+glanced at each other, and then each assumed a listening attitude.
+There was a long silence, profound and unbroken; then a deep, sullen
+boom came floating down out of the distance.
+
+"What is it!" exclaimed Joe, under his breath.
+
+"I wonder," said Tom in a whisper.
+
+"'Tain't thunder," said Huckleberry, in an awed tone, "becuz thunder--"
+
+"Hark!" said Tom. "Listen--don't talk."
+
+They waited a time that seemed an age, and then the same muffled boom
+troubled the solemn hush.
+
+"Let's go and see."
+
+They sprang to their feet and hurried to the shore toward the town.
+They parted the bushes on the bank and peered out over the water. The
+little steam ferryboat was about a mile below the village, drifting
+with the current. Her broad deck seemed crowded with people. There were
+a great many skiffs rowing about or floating with the stream in the
+neighborhood of the ferryboat, but the boys could not determine what
+the men in them were doing. Presently a great jet of white smoke burst
+from the ferryboat's side, and as it expanded and rose in a lazy cloud,
+that same dull throb of sound was borne to the listeners again.
+
+"I know now!" exclaimed Tom; "somebody's drownded!"
+
+"That's it!" said Huck; "they done that last summer, when Bill Turner
+got drownded; they shoot a cannon over the water, and that makes him
+come up to the top. Yes, and they take loaves of bread and put
+quicksilver in 'em and set 'em afloat, and wherever there's anybody
+that's drownded, they'll float right there and stop."
+
+"Yes, I've heard about that," said Joe. "I wonder what makes the bread
+do that."
+
+"Oh, it ain't the bread, so much," said Tom; "I reckon it's mostly
+what they SAY over it before they start it out."
+
+"But they don't say anything over it," said Huck. "I've seen 'em and
+they don't."
+
+"Well, that's funny," said Tom. "But maybe they say it to themselves.
+Of COURSE they do. Anybody might know that."
+
+The other boys agreed that there was reason in what Tom said, because
+an ignorant lump of bread, uninstructed by an incantation, could not be
+expected to act very intelligently when set upon an errand of such
+gravity.
+
+"By jings, I wish I was over there, now," said Joe.
+
+"I do too" said Huck "I'd give heaps to know who it is."
+
+The boys still listened and watched. Presently a revealing thought
+flashed through Tom's mind, and he exclaimed:
+
+"Boys, I know who's drownded--it's us!"
+
+They felt like heroes in an instant. Here was a gorgeous triumph; they
+were missed; they were mourned; hearts were breaking on their account;
+tears were being shed; accusing memories of unkindness to these poor
+lost lads were rising up, and unavailing regrets and remorse were being
+indulged; and best of all, the departed were the talk of the whole
+town, and the envy of all the boys, as far as this dazzling notoriety
+was concerned. This was fine. It was worth while to be a pirate, after
+all.
+
+As twilight drew on, the ferryboat went back to her accustomed
+business and the skiffs disappeared. The pirates returned to camp. They
+were jubilant with vanity over their new grandeur and the illustrious
+trouble they were making. They caught fish, cooked supper and ate it,
+and then fell to guessing at what the village was thinking and saying
+about them; and the pictures they drew of the public distress on their
+account were gratifying to look upon--from their point of view. But
+when the shadows of night closed them in, they gradually ceased to
+talk, and sat gazing into the fire, with their minds evidently
+wandering elsewhere. The excitement was gone, now, and Tom and Joe
+could not keep back thoughts of certain persons at home who were not
+enjoying this fine frolic as much as they were. Misgivings came; they
+grew troubled and unhappy; a sigh or two escaped, unawares. By and by
+Joe timidly ventured upon a roundabout "feeler" as to how the others
+might look upon a return to civilization--not right now, but--
+
+Tom withered him with derision! Huck, being uncommitted as yet, joined
+in with Tom, and the waverer quickly "explained," and was glad to get
+out of the scrape with as little taint of chicken-hearted homesickness
+clinging to his garments as he could. Mutiny was effectually laid to
+rest for the moment.
+
+As the night deepened, Huck began to nod, and presently to snore. Joe
+followed next. Tom lay upon his elbow motionless, for some time,
+watching the two intently. At last he got up cautiously, on his knees,
+and went searching among the grass and the flickering reflections flung
+by the camp-fire. He picked up and inspected several large
+semi-cylinders of the thin white bark of a sycamore, and finally chose
+two which seemed to suit him. Then he knelt by the fire and painfully
+wrote something upon each of these with his "red keel"; one he rolled up
+and put in his jacket pocket, and the other he put in Joe's hat and
+removed it to a little distance from the owner. And he also put into the
+hat certain schoolboy treasures of almost inestimable value--among them
+a lump of chalk, an India-rubber ball, three fishhooks, and one of that
+kind of marbles known as a "sure 'nough crystal." Then he tiptoed his
+way cautiously among the trees till he felt that he was out of hearing,
+and straightway broke into a keen run in the direction of the sandbar.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A FEW minutes later Tom was in the shoal water of the bar, wading
+toward the Illinois shore. Before the depth reached his middle he was
+half-way over; the current would permit no more wading, now, so he
+struck out confidently to swim the remaining hundred yards. He swam
+quartering upstream, but still was swept downward rather faster than he
+had expected. However, he reached the shore finally, and drifted along
+till he found a low place and drew himself out. He put his hand on his
+jacket pocket, found his piece of bark safe, and then struck through
+the woods, following the shore, with streaming garments. Shortly before
+ten o'clock he came out into an open place opposite the village, and
+saw the ferryboat lying in the shadow of the trees and the high bank.
+Everything was quiet under the blinking stars. He crept down the bank,
+watching with all his eyes, slipped into the water, swam three or four
+strokes and climbed into the skiff that did "yawl" duty at the boat's
+stern. He laid himself down under the thwarts and waited, panting.
+
+Presently the cracked bell tapped and a voice gave the order to "cast
+off." A minute or two later the skiff's head was standing high up,
+against the boat's swell, and the voyage was begun. Tom felt happy in
+his success, for he knew it was the boat's last trip for the night. At
+the end of a long twelve or fifteen minutes the wheels stopped, and Tom
+slipped overboard and swam ashore in the dusk, landing fifty yards
+downstream, out of danger of possible stragglers.
+
+He flew along unfrequented alleys, and shortly found himself at his
+aunt's back fence. He climbed over, approached the "ell," and looked in
+at the sitting-room window, for a light was burning there. There sat
+Aunt Polly, Sid, Mary, and Joe Harper's mother, grouped together,
+talking. They were by the bed, and the bed was between them and the
+door. Tom went to the door and began to softly lift the latch; then he
+pressed gently and the door yielded a crack; he continued pushing
+cautiously, and quaking every time it creaked, till he judged he might
+squeeze through on his knees; so he put his head through and began,
+warily.
+
+"What makes the candle blow so?" said Aunt Polly. Tom hurried up.
+"Why, that door's open, I believe. Why, of course it is. No end of
+strange things now. Go 'long and shut it, Sid."
+
+Tom disappeared under the bed just in time. He lay and "breathed"
+himself for a time, and then crept to where he could almost touch his
+aunt's foot.
+
+"But as I was saying," said Aunt Polly, "he warn't BAD, so to say
+--only mischEEvous. Only just giddy, and harum-scarum, you know. He
+warn't any more responsible than a colt. HE never meant any harm, and
+he was the best-hearted boy that ever was"--and she began to cry.
+
+"It was just so with my Joe--always full of his devilment, and up to
+every kind of mischief, but he was just as unselfish and kind as he
+could be--and laws bless me, to think I went and whipped him for taking
+that cream, never once recollecting that I throwed it out myself
+because it was sour, and I never to see him again in this world, never,
+never, never, poor abused boy!" And Mrs. Harper sobbed as if her heart
+would break.
+
+"I hope Tom's better off where he is," said Sid, "but if he'd been
+better in some ways--"
+
+"SID!" Tom felt the glare of the old lady's eye, though he could not
+see it. "Not a word against my Tom, now that he's gone! God'll take
+care of HIM--never you trouble YOURself, sir! Oh, Mrs. Harper, I don't
+know how to give him up! I don't know how to give him up! He was such a
+comfort to me, although he tormented my old heart out of me, 'most."
+
+"The Lord giveth and the Lord hath taken away--Blessed be the name of
+the Lord! But it's so hard--Oh, it's so hard! Only last Saturday my
+Joe busted a firecracker right under my nose and I knocked him
+sprawling. Little did I know then, how soon--Oh, if it was to do over
+again I'd hug him and bless him for it."
+
+"Yes, yes, yes, I know just how you feel, Mrs. Harper, I know just
+exactly how you feel. No longer ago than yesterday noon, my Tom took
+and filled the cat full of Pain-killer, and I did think the cretur
+would tear the house down. And God forgive me, I cracked Tom's head
+with my thimble, poor boy, poor dead boy. But he's out of all his
+troubles now. And the last words I ever heard him say was to reproach--"
+
+But this memory was too much for the old lady, and she broke entirely
+down. Tom was snuffling, now, himself--and more in pity of himself than
+anybody else. He could hear Mary crying, and putting in a kindly word
+for him from time to time. He began to have a nobler opinion of himself
+than ever before. Still, he was sufficiently touched by his aunt's
+grief to long to rush out from under the bed and overwhelm her with
+joy--and the theatrical gorgeousness of the thing appealed strongly to
+his nature, too, but he resisted and lay still.
+
+He went on listening, and gathered by odds and ends that it was
+conjectured at first that the boys had got drowned while taking a swim;
+then the small raft had been missed; next, certain boys said the
+missing lads had promised that the village should "hear something"
+soon; the wise-heads had "put this and that together" and decided that
+the lads had gone off on that raft and would turn up at the next town
+below, presently; but toward noon the raft had been found, lodged
+against the Missouri shore some five or six miles below the village
+--and then hope perished; they must be drowned, else hunger would have
+driven them home by nightfall if not sooner. It was believed that the
+search for the bodies had been a fruitless effort merely because the
+drowning must have occurred in mid-channel, since the boys, being good
+swimmers, would otherwise have escaped to shore. This was Wednesday
+night. If the bodies continued missing until Sunday, all hope would be
+given over, and the funerals would be preached on that morning. Tom
+shuddered.
+
+Mrs. Harper gave a sobbing good-night and turned to go. Then with a
+mutual impulse the two bereaved women flung themselves into each
+other's arms and had a good, consoling cry, and then parted. Aunt Polly
+was tender far beyond her wont, in her good-night to Sid and Mary. Sid
+snuffled a bit and Mary went off crying with all her heart.
+
+Aunt Polly knelt down and prayed for Tom so touchingly, so
+appealingly, and with such measureless love in her words and her old
+trembling voice, that he was weltering in tears again, long before she
+was through.
+
+He had to keep still long after she went to bed, for she kept making
+broken-hearted ejaculations from time to time, tossing unrestfully, and
+turning over. But at last she was still, only moaning a little in her
+sleep. Now the boy stole out, rose gradually by the bedside, shaded the
+candle-light with his hand, and stood regarding her. His heart was full
+of pity for her. He took out his sycamore scroll and placed it by the
+candle. But something occurred to him, and he lingered considering. His
+face lighted with a happy solution of his thought; he put the bark
+hastily in his pocket. Then he bent over and kissed the faded lips, and
+straightway made his stealthy exit, latching the door behind him.
+
+He threaded his way back to the ferry landing, found nobody at large
+there, and walked boldly on board the boat, for he knew she was
+tenantless except that there was a watchman, who always turned in and
+slept like a graven image. He untied the skiff at the stern, slipped
+into it, and was soon rowing cautiously upstream. When he had pulled a
+mile above the village, he started quartering across and bent himself
+stoutly to his work. He hit the landing on the other side neatly, for
+this was a familiar bit of work to him. He was moved to capture the
+skiff, arguing that it might be considered a ship and therefore
+legitimate prey for a pirate, but he knew a thorough search would be
+made for it and that might end in revelations. So he stepped ashore and
+entered the woods.
+
+He sat down and took a long rest, torturing himself meanwhile to keep
+awake, and then started warily down the home-stretch. The night was far
+spent. It was broad daylight before he found himself fairly abreast the
+island bar. He rested again until the sun was well up and gilding the
+great river with its splendor, and then he plunged into the stream. A
+little later he paused, dripping, upon the threshold of the camp, and
+heard Joe say:
+
+"No, Tom's true-blue, Huck, and he'll come back. He won't desert. He
+knows that would be a disgrace to a pirate, and Tom's too proud for
+that sort of thing. He's up to something or other. Now I wonder what?"
+
+"Well, the things is ours, anyway, ain't they?"
+
+Pretty near, but not yet, Huck. The writing says they are if he ain't
+back here to breakfast."
+
+"Which he is!" exclaimed Tom, with fine dramatic effect, stepping
+grandly into camp.
+
+A sumptuous breakfast of bacon and fish was shortly provided, and as
+the boys set to work upon it, Tom recounted (and adorned) his
+adventures. They were a vain and boastful company of heroes when the
+tale was done. Then Tom hid himself away in a shady nook to sleep till
+noon, and the other pirates got ready to fish and explore.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+AFTER dinner all the gang turned out to hunt for turtle eggs on the
+bar. They went about poking sticks into the sand, and when they found a
+soft place they went down on their knees and dug with their hands.
+Sometimes they would take fifty or sixty eggs out of one hole. They
+were perfectly round white things a trifle smaller than an English
+walnut. They had a famous fried-egg feast that night, and another on
+Friday morning.
+
+After breakfast they went whooping and prancing out on the bar, and
+chased each other round and round, shedding clothes as they went, until
+they were naked, and then continued the frolic far away up the shoal
+water of the bar, against the stiff current, which latter tripped their
+legs from under them from time to time and greatly increased the fun.
+And now and then they stooped in a group and splashed water in each
+other's faces with their palms, gradually approaching each other, with
+averted faces to avoid the strangling sprays, and finally gripping and
+struggling till the best man ducked his neighbor, and then they all
+went under in a tangle of white legs and arms and came up blowing,
+sputtering, laughing, and gasping for breath at one and the same time.
+
+When they were well exhausted, they would run out and sprawl on the
+dry, hot sand, and lie there and cover themselves up with it, and by
+and by break for the water again and go through the original
+performance once more. Finally it occurred to them that their naked
+skin represented flesh-colored "tights" very fairly; so they drew a
+ring in the sand and had a circus--with three clowns in it, for none
+would yield this proudest post to his neighbor.
+
+Next they got their marbles and played "knucks" and "ring-taw" and
+"keeps" till that amusement grew stale. Then Joe and Huck had another
+swim, but Tom would not venture, because he found that in kicking off
+his trousers he had kicked his string of rattlesnake rattles off his
+ankle, and he wondered how he had escaped cramp so long without the
+protection of this mysterious charm. He did not venture again until he
+had found it, and by that time the other boys were tired and ready to
+rest. They gradually wandered apart, dropped into the "dumps," and fell
+to gazing longingly across the wide river to where the village lay
+drowsing in the sun. Tom found himself writing "BECKY" in the sand with
+his big toe; he scratched it out, and was angry with himself for his
+weakness. But he wrote it again, nevertheless; he could not help it. He
+erased it once more and then took himself out of temptation by driving
+the other boys together and joining them.
+
+But Joe's spirits had gone down almost beyond resurrection. He was so
+homesick that he could hardly endure the misery of it. The tears lay
+very near the surface. Huck was melancholy, too. Tom was downhearted,
+but tried hard not to show it. He had a secret which he was not ready
+to tell, yet, but if this mutinous depression was not broken up soon,
+he would have to bring it out. He said, with a great show of
+cheerfulness:
+
+"I bet there's been pirates on this island before, boys. We'll explore
+it again. They've hid treasures here somewhere. How'd you feel to light
+on a rotten chest full of gold and silver--hey?"
+
+But it roused only faint enthusiasm, which faded out, with no reply.
+Tom tried one or two other seductions; but they failed, too. It was
+discouraging work. Joe sat poking up the sand with a stick and looking
+very gloomy. Finally he said:
+
+"Oh, boys, let's give it up. I want to go home. It's so lonesome."
+
+"Oh no, Joe, you'll feel better by and by," said Tom. "Just think of
+the fishing that's here."
+
+"I don't care for fishing. I want to go home."
+
+"But, Joe, there ain't such another swimming-place anywhere."
+
+"Swimming's no good. I don't seem to care for it, somehow, when there
+ain't anybody to say I sha'n't go in. I mean to go home."
+
+"Oh, shucks! Baby! You want to see your mother, I reckon."
+
+"Yes, I DO want to see my mother--and you would, too, if you had one.
+I ain't any more baby than you are." And Joe snuffled a little.
+
+"Well, we'll let the cry-baby go home to his mother, won't we, Huck?
+Poor thing--does it want to see its mother? And so it shall. You like
+it here, don't you, Huck? We'll stay, won't we?"
+
+Huck said, "Y-e-s"--without any heart in it.
+
+"I'll never speak to you again as long as I live," said Joe, rising.
+"There now!" And he moved moodily away and began to dress himself.
+
+"Who cares!" said Tom. "Nobody wants you to. Go 'long home and get
+laughed at. Oh, you're a nice pirate. Huck and me ain't cry-babies.
+We'll stay, won't we, Huck? Let him go if he wants to. I reckon we can
+get along without him, per'aps."
+
+But Tom was uneasy, nevertheless, and was alarmed to see Joe go
+sullenly on with his dressing. And then it was discomforting to see
+Huck eying Joe's preparations so wistfully, and keeping up such an
+ominous silence. Presently, without a parting word, Joe began to wade
+off toward the Illinois shore. Tom's heart began to sink. He glanced at
+Huck. Huck could not bear the look, and dropped his eyes. Then he said:
+
+"I want to go, too, Tom. It was getting so lonesome anyway, and now
+it'll be worse. Let's us go, too, Tom."
+
+"I won't! You can all go, if you want to. I mean to stay."
+
+"Tom, I better go."
+
+"Well, go 'long--who's hendering you."
+
+Huck began to pick up his scattered clothes. He said:
+
+"Tom, I wisht you'd come, too. Now you think it over. We'll wait for
+you when we get to shore."
+
+"Well, you'll wait a blame long time, that's all."
+
+Huck started sorrowfully away, and Tom stood looking after him, with a
+strong desire tugging at his heart to yield his pride and go along too.
+He hoped the boys would stop, but they still waded slowly on. It
+suddenly dawned on Tom that it was become very lonely and still. He
+made one final struggle with his pride, and then darted after his
+comrades, yelling:
+
+"Wait! Wait! I want to tell you something!"
+
+They presently stopped and turned around. When he got to where they
+were, he began unfolding his secret, and they listened moodily till at
+last they saw the "point" he was driving at, and then they set up a
+war-whoop of applause and said it was "splendid!" and said if he had
+told them at first, they wouldn't have started away. He made a plausible
+excuse; but his real reason had been the fear that not even the secret
+would keep them with him any very great length of time, and so he had
+meant to hold it in reserve as a last seduction.
+
+The lads came gayly back and went at their sports again with a will,
+chattering all the time about Tom's stupendous plan and admiring the
+genius of it. After a dainty egg and fish dinner, Tom said he wanted to
+learn to smoke, now. Joe caught at the idea and said he would like to
+try, too. So Huck made pipes and filled them. These novices had never
+smoked anything before but cigars made of grape-vine, and they "bit"
+the tongue, and were not considered manly anyway.
+
+Now they stretched themselves out on their elbows and began to puff,
+charily, and with slender confidence. The smoke had an unpleasant
+taste, and they gagged a little, but Tom said:
+
+"Why, it's just as easy! If I'd a knowed this was all, I'd a learnt
+long ago."
+
+"So would I," said Joe. "It's just nothing."
+
+"Why, many a time I've looked at people smoking, and thought well I
+wish I could do that; but I never thought I could," said Tom.
+
+"That's just the way with me, hain't it, Huck? You've heard me talk
+just that way--haven't you, Huck? I'll leave it to Huck if I haven't."
+
+"Yes--heaps of times," said Huck.
+
+"Well, I have too," said Tom; "oh, hundreds of times. Once down by the
+slaughter-house. Don't you remember, Huck? Bob Tanner was there, and
+Johnny Miller, and Jeff Thatcher, when I said it. Don't you remember,
+Huck, 'bout me saying that?"
+
+"Yes, that's so," said Huck. "That was the day after I lost a white
+alley. No, 'twas the day before."
+
+"There--I told you so," said Tom. "Huck recollects it."
+
+"I bleeve I could smoke this pipe all day," said Joe. "I don't feel
+sick."
+
+"Neither do I," said Tom. "I could smoke it all day. But I bet you
+Jeff Thatcher couldn't."
+
+"Jeff Thatcher! Why, he'd keel over just with two draws. Just let him
+try it once. HE'D see!"
+
+"I bet he would. And Johnny Miller--I wish could see Johnny Miller
+tackle it once."
+
+"Oh, don't I!" said Joe. "Why, I bet you Johnny Miller couldn't any
+more do this than nothing. Just one little snifter would fetch HIM."
+
+"'Deed it would, Joe. Say--I wish the boys could see us now."
+
+"So do I."
+
+"Say--boys, don't say anything about it, and some time when they're
+around, I'll come up to you and say, 'Joe, got a pipe? I want a smoke.'
+And you'll say, kind of careless like, as if it warn't anything, you'll
+say, 'Yes, I got my OLD pipe, and another one, but my tobacker ain't
+very good.' And I'll say, 'Oh, that's all right, if it's STRONG
+enough.' And then you'll out with the pipes, and we'll light up just as
+ca'm, and then just see 'em look!"
+
+"By jings, that'll be gay, Tom! I wish it was NOW!"
+
+"So do I! And when we tell 'em we learned when we was off pirating,
+won't they wish they'd been along?"
+
+"Oh, I reckon not! I'll just BET they will!"
+
+So the talk ran on. But presently it began to flag a trifle, and grow
+disjointed. The silences widened; the expectoration marvellously
+increased. Every pore inside the boys' cheeks became a spouting
+fountain; they could scarcely bail out the cellars under their tongues
+fast enough to prevent an inundation; little overflowings down their
+throats occurred in spite of all they could do, and sudden retchings
+followed every time. Both boys were looking very pale and miserable,
+now. Joe's pipe dropped from his nerveless fingers. Tom's followed.
+Both fountains were going furiously and both pumps bailing with might
+and main. Joe said feebly:
+
+"I've lost my knife. I reckon I better go and find it."
+
+Tom said, with quivering lips and halting utterance:
+
+"I'll help you. You go over that way and I'll hunt around by the
+spring. No, you needn't come, Huck--we can find it."
+
+So Huck sat down again, and waited an hour. Then he found it lonesome,
+and went to find his comrades. They were wide apart in the woods, both
+very pale, both fast asleep. But something informed him that if they
+had had any trouble they had got rid of it.
+
+They were not talkative at supper that night. They had a humble look,
+and when Huck prepared his pipe after the meal and was going to prepare
+theirs, they said no, they were not feeling very well--something they
+ate at dinner had disagreed with them.
+
+About midnight Joe awoke, and called the boys. There was a brooding
+oppressiveness in the air that seemed to bode something. The boys
+huddled themselves together and sought the friendly companionship of
+the fire, though the dull dead heat of the breathless atmosphere was
+stifling. They sat still, intent and waiting. The solemn hush
+continued. Beyond the light of the fire everything was swallowed up in
+the blackness of darkness. Presently there came a quivering glow that
+vaguely revealed the foliage for a moment and then vanished. By and by
+another came, a little stronger. Then another. Then a faint moan came
+sighing through the branches of the forest and the boys felt a fleeting
+breath upon their cheeks, and shuddered with the fancy that the Spirit
+of the Night had gone by. There was a pause. Now a weird flash turned
+night into day and showed every little grass-blade, separate and
+distinct, that grew about their feet. And it showed three white,
+startled faces, too. A deep peal of thunder went rolling and tumbling
+down the heavens and lost itself in sullen rumblings in the distance. A
+sweep of chilly air passed by, rustling all the leaves and snowing the
+flaky ashes broadcast about the fire. Another fierce glare lit up the
+forest and an instant crash followed that seemed to rend the tree-tops
+right over the boys' heads. They clung together in terror, in the thick
+gloom that followed. A few big rain-drops fell pattering upon the
+leaves.
+
+"Quick! boys, go for the tent!" exclaimed Tom.
+
+They sprang away, stumbling over roots and among vines in the dark, no
+two plunging in the same direction. A furious blast roared through the
+trees, making everything sing as it went. One blinding flash after
+another came, and peal on peal of deafening thunder. And now a
+drenching rain poured down and the rising hurricane drove it in sheets
+along the ground. The boys cried out to each other, but the roaring
+wind and the booming thunder-blasts drowned their voices utterly.
+However, one by one they straggled in at last and took shelter under
+the tent, cold, scared, and streaming with water; but to have company
+in misery seemed something to be grateful for. They could not talk, the
+old sail flapped so furiously, even if the other noises would have
+allowed them. The tempest rose higher and higher, and presently the
+sail tore loose from its fastenings and went winging away on the blast.
+The boys seized each others' hands and fled, with many tumblings and
+bruises, to the shelter of a great oak that stood upon the river-bank.
+Now the battle was at its highest. Under the ceaseless conflagration of
+lightning that flamed in the skies, everything below stood out in
+clean-cut and shadowless distinctness: the bending trees, the billowy
+river, white with foam, the driving spray of spume-flakes, the dim
+outlines of the high bluffs on the other side, glimpsed through the
+drifting cloud-rack and the slanting veil of rain. Every little while
+some giant tree yielded the fight and fell crashing through the younger
+growth; and the unflagging thunder-peals came now in ear-splitting
+explosive bursts, keen and sharp, and unspeakably appalling. The storm
+culminated in one matchless effort that seemed likely to tear the island
+to pieces, burn it up, drown it to the tree-tops, blow it away, and
+deafen every creature in it, all at one and the same moment. It was a
+wild night for homeless young heads to be out in.
+
+But at last the battle was done, and the forces retired with weaker
+and weaker threatenings and grumblings, and peace resumed her sway. The
+boys went back to camp, a good deal awed; but they found there was
+still something to be thankful for, because the great sycamore, the
+shelter of their beds, was a ruin, now, blasted by the lightnings, and
+they were not under it when the catastrophe happened.
+
+Everything in camp was drenched, the camp-fire as well; for they were
+but heedless lads, like their generation, and had made no provision
+against rain. Here was matter for dismay, for they were soaked through
+and chilled. They were eloquent in their distress; but they presently
+discovered that the fire had eaten so far up under the great log it had
+been built against (where it curved upward and separated itself from
+the ground), that a handbreadth or so of it had escaped wetting; so
+they patiently wrought until, with shreds and bark gathered from the
+under sides of sheltered logs, they coaxed the fire to burn again. Then
+they piled on great dead boughs till they had a roaring furnace, and
+were glad-hearted once more. They dried their boiled ham and had a
+feast, and after that they sat by the fire and expanded and glorified
+their midnight adventure until morning, for there was not a dry spot to
+sleep on, anywhere around.
+
+As the sun began to steal in upon the boys, drowsiness came over them,
+and they went out on the sandbar and lay down to sleep. They got
+scorched out by and by, and drearily set about getting breakfast. After
+the meal they felt rusty, and stiff-jointed, and a little homesick once
+more. Tom saw the signs, and fell to cheering up the pirates as well as
+he could. But they cared nothing for marbles, or circus, or swimming,
+or anything. He reminded them of the imposing secret, and raised a ray
+of cheer. While it lasted, he got them interested in a new device. This
+was to knock off being pirates, for a while, and be Indians for a
+change. They were attracted by this idea; so it was not long before
+they were stripped, and striped from head to heel with black mud, like
+so many zebras--all of them chiefs, of course--and then they went
+tearing through the woods to attack an English settlement.
+
+By and by they separated into three hostile tribes, and darted upon
+each other from ambush with dreadful war-whoops, and killed and scalped
+each other by thousands. It was a gory day. Consequently it was an
+extremely satisfactory one.
+
+They assembled in camp toward supper-time, hungry and happy; but now a
+difficulty arose--hostile Indians could not break the bread of
+hospitality together without first making peace, and this was a simple
+impossibility without smoking a pipe of peace. There was no other
+process that ever they had heard of. Two of the savages almost wished
+they had remained pirates. However, there was no other way; so with
+such show of cheerfulness as they could muster they called for the pipe
+and took their whiff as it passed, in due form.
+
+And behold, they were glad they had gone into savagery, for they had
+gained something; they found that they could now smoke a little without
+having to go and hunt for a lost knife; they did not get sick enough to
+be seriously uncomfortable. They were not likely to fool away this high
+promise for lack of effort. No, they practised cautiously, after
+supper, with right fair success, and so they spent a jubilant evening.
+They were prouder and happier in their new acquirement than they would
+have been in the scalping and skinning of the Six Nations. We will
+leave them to smoke and chatter and brag, since we have no further use
+for them at present.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+BUT there was no hilarity in the little town that same tranquil
+Saturday afternoon. The Harpers, and Aunt Polly's family, were being
+put into mourning, with great grief and many tears. An unusual quiet
+possessed the village, although it was ordinarily quiet enough, in all
+conscience. The villagers conducted their concerns with an absent air,
+and talked little; but they sighed often. The Saturday holiday seemed a
+burden to the children. They had no heart in their sports, and
+gradually gave them up.
+
+In the afternoon Becky Thatcher found herself moping about the
+deserted schoolhouse yard, and feeling very melancholy. But she found
+nothing there to comfort her. She soliloquized:
+
+"Oh, if I only had a brass andiron-knob again! But I haven't got
+anything now to remember him by." And she choked back a little sob.
+
+Presently she stopped, and said to herself:
+
+"It was right here. Oh, if it was to do over again, I wouldn't say
+that--I wouldn't say it for the whole world. But he's gone now; I'll
+never, never, never see him any more."
+
+This thought broke her down, and she wandered away, with tears rolling
+down her cheeks. Then quite a group of boys and girls--playmates of
+Tom's and Joe's--came by, and stood looking over the paling fence and
+talking in reverent tones of how Tom did so-and-so the last time they
+saw him, and how Joe said this and that small trifle (pregnant with
+awful prophecy, as they could easily see now!)--and each speaker
+pointed out the exact spot where the lost lads stood at the time, and
+then added something like "and I was a-standing just so--just as I am
+now, and as if you was him--I was as close as that--and he smiled, just
+this way--and then something seemed to go all over me, like--awful, you
+know--and I never thought what it meant, of course, but I can see now!"
+
+Then there was a dispute about who saw the dead boys last in life, and
+many claimed that dismal distinction, and offered evidences, more or
+less tampered with by the witness; and when it was ultimately decided
+who DID see the departed last, and exchanged the last words with them,
+the lucky parties took upon themselves a sort of sacred importance, and
+were gaped at and envied by all the rest. One poor chap, who had no
+other grandeur to offer, said with tolerably manifest pride in the
+remembrance:
+
+"Well, Tom Sawyer he licked me once."
+
+But that bid for glory was a failure. Most of the boys could say that,
+and so that cheapened the distinction too much. The group loitered
+away, still recalling memories of the lost heroes, in awed voices.
+
+When the Sunday-school hour was finished, the next morning, the bell
+began to toll, instead of ringing in the usual way. It was a very still
+Sabbath, and the mournful sound seemed in keeping with the musing hush
+that lay upon nature. The villagers began to gather, loitering a moment
+in the vestibule to converse in whispers about the sad event. But there
+was no whispering in the house; only the funereal rustling of dresses
+as the women gathered to their seats disturbed the silence there. None
+could remember when the little church had been so full before. There
+was finally a waiting pause, an expectant dumbness, and then Aunt Polly
+entered, followed by Sid and Mary, and they by the Harper family, all
+in deep black, and the whole congregation, the old minister as well,
+rose reverently and stood until the mourners were seated in the front
+pew. There was another communing silence, broken at intervals by
+muffled sobs, and then the minister spread his hands abroad and prayed.
+A moving hymn was sung, and the text followed: "I am the Resurrection
+and the Life."
+
+As the service proceeded, the clergyman drew such pictures of the
+graces, the winning ways, and the rare promise of the lost lads that
+every soul there, thinking he recognized these pictures, felt a pang in
+remembering that he had persistently blinded himself to them always
+before, and had as persistently seen only faults and flaws in the poor
+boys. The minister related many a touching incident in the lives of the
+departed, too, which illustrated their sweet, generous natures, and the
+people could easily see, now, how noble and beautiful those episodes
+were, and remembered with grief that at the time they occurred they had
+seemed rank rascalities, well deserving of the cowhide. The
+congregation became more and more moved, as the pathetic tale went on,
+till at last the whole company broke down and joined the weeping
+mourners in a chorus of anguished sobs, the preacher himself giving way
+to his feelings, and crying in the pulpit.
+
+There was a rustle in the gallery, which nobody noticed; a moment
+later the church door creaked; the minister raised his streaming eyes
+above his handkerchief, and stood transfixed! First one and then
+another pair of eyes followed the minister's, and then almost with one
+impulse the congregation rose and stared while the three dead boys came
+marching up the aisle, Tom in the lead, Joe next, and Huck, a ruin of
+drooping rags, sneaking sheepishly in the rear! They had been hid in
+the unused gallery listening to their own funeral sermon!
+
+Aunt Polly, Mary, and the Harpers threw themselves upon their restored
+ones, smothered them with kisses and poured out thanksgivings, while
+poor Huck stood abashed and uncomfortable, not knowing exactly what to
+do or where to hide from so many unwelcoming eyes. He wavered, and
+started to slink away, but Tom seized him and said:
+
+"Aunt Polly, it ain't fair. Somebody's got to be glad to see Huck."
+
+"And so they shall. I'm glad to see him, poor motherless thing!" And
+the loving attentions Aunt Polly lavished upon him were the one thing
+capable of making him more uncomfortable than he was before.
+
+Suddenly the minister shouted at the top of his voice: "Praise God
+from whom all blessings flow--SING!--and put your hearts in it!"
+
+And they did. Old Hundred swelled up with a triumphant burst, and
+while it shook the rafters Tom Sawyer the Pirate looked around upon the
+envying juveniles about him and confessed in his heart that this was
+the proudest moment of his life.
+
+As the "sold" congregation trooped out they said they would almost be
+willing to be made ridiculous again to hear Old Hundred sung like that
+once more.
+
+Tom got more cuffs and kisses that day--according to Aunt Polly's
+varying moods--than he had earned before in a year; and he hardly knew
+which expressed the most gratefulness to God and affection for himself.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 4.
+by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM SAWYER ***
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