The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Chapter 10

Chapter 9

I wanted to see a place in the middle of the island, which I had discovered in my wanderings; so we set off, and arrived in a short time, for the island was only three miles long and a quarter of a mile wide. .

The place was a long, steep ridge, some forty feet high, and it was quite an effort to ascend it.We finally climbed to the top, the slope was extremely steep and the trees were extremely dense.We just walked and climbed on the top of this little ridge, and turned around, and then found a nice big rock cave, just near the top of the hill towards Illinois.The cave was as big as two or three rooms joined together, and Jim could stand upright in it.It's so cool in there.Jim insisted on moving our things in, and was about to do it, but I said we couldn't keep climbing up and down like that.

Jim said if we could hide the canoe in a good place and put everything in a rock hole, and if people came to the island, we could fly there, and if they didn't come with dogs, we wouldn't find it us.He also said that the birds said it was going to rain, do I want to get everything wet?
So we went back to the original place, rowed the small boat to face the cave, and carried all the things up.Then we found a good place to hide the boat among the dense willow thickets nearby.We plucked a few fish from the line and let the line in the water, and then we set about making supper.

The mouth of the cave is so big that even a big wooden barrel can be rolled in. One side of the mouth is a little higher, and the top is flat, making it a good place to light a fire.There we lit the fire and cooked the meal.

We spread our blankets in the hole as a rug, and sat on them for our meals.We put everything else in the back of the hole where it's easy to get to.Soon afterward, it was dark, followed by thunder and lightning; so the bird was right.Immediately afterwards it began to rain in torrents, with such violence as I never saw the wind blow.This is the kind of storm that is common in summer.The sky was frighteningly dark all of a sudden, and the outside seemed so dark and bluish, which was strangely beautiful; the rapid and dense raindrops slapped like a spider web, and even the nearby trees could not be seen clearly; Suddenly there was another gust of wind that bent the trees and turned the leaves over, revealing the white sides beneath; ; and then, just when the blue-black sky seemed to be at its thickest—swish!All of a sudden it's so bright, it's like the light of heaven, and all of a sudden, you can see the treetops whipping around in the storm, and you can see hundreds of yards farther than usual; all of a sudden, it's dark again, At this moment a loud noise was heard, followed by a long thunderclap, rolling from the sky to the ground, like an empty barrel rolling down a staircase-of course it must be a long staircase leading to the sky and a long staircase. Only the big wooden barrel that jumps the old high will become.

"Jim, that's great," I said, "I don't wanna go anywhere, but just stay here. Pass me a big piece of fish and some tortillas."

"Well, if it weren't for me, Jim, you wouldn't be here. You'd be out in the woods with no food, and drenched in the rain, and you'd be drowning, baby. Chicken knows God It's going to rain, and the birds know it, kid."

The river has been rising for eleven or twelve days, but it still reaches the bank.There were three or four feet of water in the low places on the island and in the flats on the beach towards Illinois.The river was miles wide over there, but toward the Missouri it was just as wide as ever--half a mile--because of the high cliffs all the way along the banks of the Missouri.

During the day, we took a small boat and went around the island.It is extremely cool in the dense woods, even if the sun outside is as poisonous as fire, it is still shady inside.We went round and round among the trees; sometimes the upside-down vines were so dense that we had to back out and paddle elsewhere.Well, hares and snakes, and other little creatures of this kind, were to be seen on every broken and fallen tree; They've become so docile that you can paddle over and put your hand on them if you like; but you can't do that with snakes and turtles—or they'll jump right into the water in a fright.These things are all over the ridge of the hill above our cave.If you want to raise them to play, you need as many as you want.

One night we fished out some good planks of pine, which had fallen from a broken raft.The plank was twelve feet wide by fifteen long, and floated six or seven inches above the water, making it a solid and level floor.Sometimes, we can see the sawn logs floating down from the water during the day, but we don’t fish them, let them float away, and we can’t show up during the day.

Another night, just before dawn, we were on the island when we saw a wooden house floating down from the west.It was a two-storey house, which was very crooked in the water.We paddled there and climbed up—through a window on the second floor.At that time, it was still too dark to see anything clearly, so we tied the small boat to it and sat on the boat to wait for dawn.Before reaching the end of the island, it was dawn.At this time we looked in through the window again, and we could see a bed, a table, two old chairs, and a lot of things lying around on the floor; clothes were still hanging on the wall.In the farthest corner there was something on the floor that looked like a person.Jim said:
"Hey you!"

But he didn't move at all.I yelled again, and Jim said:
"The man isn't sleeping—he's dead. You stay here—I'll go in and see."

He bent over and looked at it, and said to me:
"Dead man, all right; naked. Someone shot him in the back. Looks like he's been dead two or three days. Come in, Huck, but don't look at his face— — so scary."

I listened to what Jim said without looking at him.Jim covered him with some rags, but he didn't have to, I didn't want to look at him.There were stacks of old, greasy playing cards strewn about the floor, a few well-worn empty wine bottles, and two masks of black cloth; stupid words and pictures painted with charcoal on the walls. Son.On the wall hung two dirty rags, a woman's hat to keep out the sun, some women's blouses, and some men's clothes.We put all these things away and put them in the canoe; they might come in handy later.There was an old trick hat on the floor, the kind boys wear, and I picked that up too.There was also a bottle of milk with a teat made of cloth.We wanted to take the bottle too, but it was broken.There was an old battered wooden box, a mane box with broken leaves.Both boxes were open, and there was nothing of value in them.Things were all thrown around, and from the way they looked, we felt that those people ran away in a hurry, and most of the things didn't have time to take them away.

We found an old tin lamp, a butcher's knife without a handle, a brand new Barrow knife, which was worth twenty cents at any shop, some tallow candles, a tin a wax stand, a gourd ladle, a tin cup, an old tattered quilt that fell under the bed, a handbag containing needles, thread, clips, buttons, yellow wax and and some other needles and thread, and an ax and some nails, and a piece of fishing line as thick as my pinky finger, with a monstrously large hook attached to it, and a roll of buckskin, and a dog's neck tie. A leather ring, a horseshoe, some unmarked medicine bottles.Just as we were going to leave, I found a fair horse comb, and Jim found a battered fiddle bow, and a wooden leg.The straps on the prosthetic leg are broken, other than that, it's fine, but mine is too long, Jim's is too short, and I can't find the other one, I've searched all over the house, but I can't find it .

All in all, we really got enough.We were a quarter of a mile below the island, and it was broad daylight, by the time we packed up and started the canoe; so I had Jim lie down on the bottom of the canoe, and put the quilt over me, because if the When he sat, people could tell he was a black person from a long distance away.I paddled down to the shore on the Illinois side first, and that's about half a mile down the line.I paddled up that still water, close to the bank, and nothing went wrong, and no one was seen.We finally made it back to the island safe and sound.

(End of this chapter)