Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapters 06 to 10 Read online

  CHAPTER X.

  AFTER breakfast I wanted to talk about the dead man and guess out how hecome to be killed, but Jim didn't want to. He said it would fetch badluck; and besides, he said, he might come and ha'nt us; he said a manthat warn't buried was more likely to go a-ha'nting around than one thatwas planted and comfortable. That sounded pretty reasonable, so I didn'tsay no more; but I couldn't keep from studying over it and wishing Iknowed who shot the man, and what they done it for.

  We rummaged the clothes we'd got, and found eight dollars in silver sewedup in the lining of an old blanket overcoat. Jim said he reckoned thepeople in that house stole the coat, because if they'd a knowed the moneywas there they wouldn't a left it. I said I reckoned they killed him,too; but Jim didn't want to talk about that. I says:

  "Now you think it's bad luck; but what did you say when I fetched in thesnake-skin that I found on the top of the ridge day before yesterday?You said it was the worst bad luck in the world to touch a snake-skinwith my hands. Well, here's your bad luck! We've raked in all thistruck and eight dollars besides. I wish we could have some bad luck likethis every day, Jim."

  "Never you mind, honey, never you mind. Don't you git too peart. It'sa-comin'. Mind I tell you, it's a-comin'."

  It did come, too. It was a Tuesday that we had that talk. Well, afterdinner Friday we was laying around in the grass at the upper end of theridge, and got out of tobacco. I went to the cavern to get some, andfound a rattlesnake in there. I killed him, and curled him up on thefoot of Jim's blanket, ever so natural, thinking there'd be some fun whenJim found him there. Well, by night I forgot all about the snake, andwhen Jim flung himself down on the blanket while I struck a light thesnake's mate was there, and bit him.

  He jumped up yelling, and the first thing the light showed was thevarmint curled up and ready for another spring. I laid him out in asecond with a stick, and Jim grabbed pap's whisky-jug and begun to pourit down.

  He was barefooted, and the snake bit him right on the heel. That allcomes of my being such a fool as to not remember that wherever you leavea dead snake its mate always comes there and curls around it. Jim toldme to chop off the snake's head and throw it away, and then skin the bodyand roast a piece of it. I done it, and he eat it and said it would helpcure him. He made me take off the rattles and tie them around his wrist,too. He said that that would help. Then I slid out quiet and throwedthe snakes clear away amongst the bushes; for I warn't going to let Jimfind out it was all my fault, not if I could help it.

  Jim sucked and sucked at the jug, and now and then he got out of his headand pitched around and yelled; but every time he come to himself he wentto sucking at the jug again. His foot swelled up pretty big, and so didhis leg; but by and by the drunk begun to come, and so I judged he wasall right; but I'd druther been bit with a snake than pap's whisky.

  Jim was laid up for four days and nights. Then the swelling was all goneand he was around again. I made up my mind I wouldn't ever take a-holtof a snake-skin again with my hands, now that I see what had come of it.Jim said he reckoned I would believe him next time. And he said thathandling a snake-skin was such awful bad luck that maybe we hadn't got tothe end of it yet. He said he druther see the new moon over his leftshoulder as much as a thousand times than take up a snake-skin in hishand. Well, I was getting to feel that way myself, though I've alwaysreckoned that looking at the new moon over your left shoulder is one ofthe carelessest and foolishest things a body can do. Old Hank Bunkerdone it once, and bragged about it; and in less than two years he gotdrunk and fell off of the shot-tower, and spread himself out so that hewas just a kind of a layer, as you may say; and they slid him edgewaysbetween two barn doors for a coffin, and buried him so, so they say, butI didn't see it. Pap told me. But anyway it all come of looking at themoon that way, like a fool.

  Well, the days went along, and the river went down between its banksagain; and about the first thing we done was to bait one of the big hookswith a skinned rabbit and set it and catch a catfish that was as big as aman, being six foot two inches long, and weighed over two hundred pounds.We couldn't handle him, of course; he would a flung us into Illinois. Wejust set there and watched him rip and tear around till he drownded. Wefound a brass button in his stomach and a round ball, and lots ofrubbage. We split the ball open with the hatchet, and there was a spoolin it. Jim said he'd had it there a long time, to coat it over so andmake a ball of it. It was as big a fish as was ever catched in theMississippi, I reckon. Jim said he hadn't ever seen a bigger one. Hewould a been worth a good deal over at the village. They peddle out sucha fish as that by the pound in the market-house there; everybody buyssome of him; his meat's as white as snow and makes a good fry.

  Next morning I said it was getting slow and dull, and I wanted to get astirring up some way. I said I reckoned I would slip over the river andfind out what was going on. Jim liked that notion; but he said I must goin the dark and look sharp. Then he studied it over and said, couldn't Iput on some of them old things and dress up like a girl? That was a goodnotion, too. So we shortened up one of the calico gowns, and I turned upmy trouser-legs to my knees and got into it. Jim hitched it behind withthe hooks, and it was a fair fit. I put on the sun-bonnet and tied itunder my chin, and then for a body to look in and see my face was likelooking down a joint of stove-pipe. Jim said nobody would know me, evenin the daytime, hardly. I practiced around all day to get the hang ofthe things, and by and by I could do pretty well in them, only Jim said Ididn't walk like a girl; and he said I must quit pulling up my gown toget at my britches-pocket. I took notice, and done better.

  I started up the Illinois shore in the canoe just after dark.

  I started across to the town from a little below the ferry-landing, andthe drift of the current fetched me in at the bottom of the town. I tiedup and started along the bank. There was a light burning in a littleshanty that hadn't been lived in for a long time, and I wondered who hadtook up quarters there. I slipped up and peeped in at the window. Therewas a woman about forty year old in there knitting by a candle that wason a pine table. I didn't know her face; she was a stranger, for youcouldn't start a face in that town that I didn't know. Now this waslucky, because I was weakening; I was getting afraid I had come; peoplemight know my voice and find me out. But if this woman had been in sucha little town two days she could tell me all I wanted to know; so Iknocked at the door, and made up my mind I wouldn't forget I was a girl.