The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Chapter 16

Chapter 15
We decided that in another three nights we would be at the bottom of Illinois, Cairo, where the Ohio joins the Mississippi, and we wanted to go there.When we got there, we'd sell the raft and take a steamboat up the Ohio River to the free states, where we wouldn't have to hide all day.

It was foggy the next night, and we paddled out onto a sandbar, intending to tie up the raft, because we couldn't walk in the fog.But when I paddled forward in a small boat and was about to tie the raft with a cable, I couldn't find a place to tie the cable, only some thin saplings could be tied to it.I wound the cable around a small tree on the steep bank, and unexpectedly, a torrent came, which rushed the raft far away, uprooted the small tree, and the torrent rushed straight to the raft. Walk.I saw that the fog was getting thicker and thicker, and I felt anxious and afraid, so I froze there for almost half a minute——when I looked again, the raft was gone.I couldn't see anything twenty yards away, so I jumped into the canoe and ran to the stern, and grabbed the oars and rowed, but it wouldn't budge.It turned out that I was so anxious that I forgot to untie the cable.I hurriedly stood up and untied the cable, but I was so flustered and my hands were shaking that I couldn't do anything.

As soon as I rowed out, I rushed down the sandbar, desperately chasing the raft.At the beginning, the walk was fairly smooth, but the sandbar was not yet sixty yards long. As soon as we crossed this section, we plunged into a thick white mist. direction to go.

I figured I couldn't paddle, or I'd hit the bank, or I'd hit the sandbar or something.I had to sit still and let the boat float by itself, but at this juncture, it was really irritating to put my hands down and not move.I called a few times and listened.Hearing a low cry from a distance, I cheered up all of a sudden, chased after it, and listened carefully.When the voice came again, I found that my direction was not facing it, but its right side.When I heard the call again, I leaned to its left again, and didn't get much closer, because I always moved left and right, but the sound went straight forward.

I hope that fool can think of finding an iron basin to knock and keep knocking, but he doesn't do it. He yells every once in a while, and as soon as the sound stops, I will be in trouble.Alas, I kept chasing like that, and suddenly I heard the cry behind me again.I was just confused, it was someone else's voice, or I turned the corner.

I threw the paddle aside and let the boat float by itself.At this time, I heard the voice again, still behind me, but the position changed again.The sound kept coming, but the place where the sound came out kept changing, and I kept agreeing to it. After a while, it ran in front of me again.I understand that in the rapids my canoe is headfirst.I'd be lucky if the man who shouted was none other than Jim.In the fog I can't make out the sound, because in the fog everything is changed, and the sound is also changed.

The shouts kept coming, and suddenly my small boat bumped into the steep bank, and the big trees on the bank seemed to be ghostly figures emerging from the smoke.The rapids rushed me to the left, and many tree trunks protruded from the bottom of the water, and the rapids rushed through the middle like an arrow.

In a blink of an eye, the surroundings became a vast expanse of whiteness, and there was no sound at all.I sat in the boat without moving, listening to my heart beating like a hundred times before I took a breath.

At this time, I have nothing to do.I knew what it was, the steep bank I hit wasn't a bank at all, it was an island, and Jim was washed over there.If it were a sandbar, it would take about ten minutes, but this island still has big trees that can only be found on the big island. This island may be five or six miles long and half a mile wide.

I closed my mouth tightly, pricked up my ears, and listened carefully for a quarter of an hour.Of course, I kept drifting down, four or five miles an hour.But you would never think that it will be so fast, no, because you will feel as if you are nailed to the water and cannot move.Even if a tree stump sticks out of the water, if you see it occasionally, you won't think that you are floating so fast, you will be so surprised that you can't even breathe, my God!That stump floats so fast.If you think that in such a foggy night, floating alone on the river in a boat is not so scary, and it is not necessarily boring, then you have a try—or you don’t understand .

In this way, another half an hour passed, and I called once or twice every once in a while.Later, I finally heard a voice of promise, and followed immediately, but I couldn't keep up.Later, I suddenly realized that I was washed into the middle of the sandbar, and I could vaguely see something like a sandbar on both sides.Sometimes the water in the middle is very narrow, and sometimes the sandbar is not even a shadow at all, but I know it is there, because I can hear the small trees bending over the bank and other miscellaneous things, making the rapids rush. ring.Alas, I was drifting among these sandbars, and it was not long before I heard the shouting.I don't want to keep following like this anymore. To be honest, the will-o'-the-wisps are not so difficult to chase.This voice is always playing hide-and-seek with people, hiding here and there, slipping so fast, I have never encountered such a thing.

Four or five times the canoe nearly hit the shore, and I pulled away as fast as I could, so as not to break the boat, and maybe the island with me, too, and be lost forever.It is estimated that the raft keeps bumping against the shore, or it would have gone far away, and I should have heard the sound from above—the raft was drifting a little faster than my boat.

After a while it seemed to me that I was floating back on the broad river again, but not a whit of the shouting could be heard.I figured Jim hit a stump, and it was over; and then I was so tired and paralyzed that I lay in the boat thinking, and there was no use in worrying, and I could do what I had to do.Of course I don't want to fall asleep at this time, but I'm so sleepy that I just want to take a nap.

But he fell asleep immediately, and when he woke up, the stars were bright and the fog had cleared away.The boat was drifting rapidly down a large bend of the river, head back and tail forward.When I woke up, I didn't realize where I was, I thought I was in a dream.After slowly remembering what happened just now, I feel that it doesn't seem like it happened just now, as if it happened a week ago, and I only remember a little bit of it.

Here the river was wide as hell, and on both sides of the river grew tall and dense trees, which looked like two high walls in the starlight.Looking downstream from a distance, I saw a small black spot on the water surface, and I hurried to catch up with it, but when I got close, it turned out to be nothing. It turned out to be two pieces of wood tied together.Later, I saw a small black dot, and hurried to catch up, but failed again.It was not until the next time I saw a black spot and chased after it that I was able to catch up correctly, and finally found the raft.

After chasing a closer look, Jim was sitting on it, with his head drooping between his knees, sleeping soundly, with his right hand still resting on the rudder oar, the other oar had been knocked out long ago, and the raft was covered with glue. A mess of leaves, twigs and mud.It seems that he has also gone through a lot of hardships.

I tied up the skiff, and got on the raft and lay down beside Jim, and yawned, and gave him a fist, and said:

"Hey, Jim, did I fall asleep? Why didn't you wake me up?"

"My God, is it really you, Huck? Are you still alive--didn't you drown--really come back? If it ain't a dream, it's pretty darn sweet, baby, if it's real But it's great. Let me see you, boy, let me touch you. Oh, for real, you're alive! Back again, as happy as ever, as strong as Huck was, a little No change. Alas, thank God, we meet again."

"What's the matter with you, Jim? Are you drunk?"

"Drunk? You mean I'm drunk? Do you think I have time to drink?"

"Very well, but how can you be so outrageous?"

"What kind of outrageous method?"

"Why are you still asking me outrageously? Bah, didn't you say that I'm back? And those strange nonsense, as if I've been somewhere."

"Huck--Huck? Finn, look me in the eye, look me in the eye. Don't you ever go away at all?"

"Go away? Hey, what are you kidding? I haven't been anywhere. Where do you think I could be?"

"Oh, look, sir, I'm afraid something has gone wrong, yes. Am I still me? If not who? Am I still here? Or where? It’s impossible to figure it out.”

"Oh, I see you're right here, but you're out of your mind, Jim."

"Me? I'm a fool? Well, I want to ask you, didn't you row the boat and take the cables from the raft to tie it to the sandbar?"

"No, nothing at all. I don't see any sandbars or no sandbars."

"Didn't see it? Why, the ropes you tied let go and the raft swept away, and you sat in the boat and couldn't see in the fog, isn't that what happened?"

"What fog?"

"Hey, the fog is the fog! It's the fog that lasted all night. Didn't you keep yelling? Didn't I keep yelling too? Then those islands confused us, and we followed One lost his way and couldn't figure out where he was. Isn't it? Didn't I hit a lot of small islands? I almost got into trouble and killed me. Do you think it's true, sir , can this still be false? Tell me quickly."

"Why, that's what's bugging me, Jim. Fog, and island, and disaster, and this, and that, and what you say, I don't even see. I sat here talking with you all night, until just now, you fell asleep, and I probably fell asleep too. You will never be drunk for such a short time, it can only be a dream. "

"Damn it, how can I dream of all these things in ten minutes?"

"Oh, don't be so stubborn, who can dream if you can't dream? Besides, none of the things you said are true."

"But, Huck, it's all so obvious, I see..."

"No matter how obvious it is, it's useless. Anyway, there is no such thing. Don't try to hide it from me. I've been staying here all the time."

Jim held back for five minutes, just sat there thinking.Later he said:
"Well, let me have a dream, Huck. But I've never had a dream so real in my life. I've never had a dream wear me out so much."

"Oh, come on, don't bother yourself, sometimes dreams are tiring, like anything else. But this dream is very unusual. Tell me all about it, Jim."

So Jim started talking, and told me the whole story, and made up a lot of nonsense.After the lecture, he said that he still needs to think about it carefully to make this dream come true, saying that this is the admonition given to us by God.He said that the first sandbar represented a person who did us good, and the rapids were another person who just kept us away from that good person.The cry represents the admonition we have heard so often, and no matter how hard we try to understand it, otherwise it will not solve our problems, but will make us trouble.The sandbars we encountered later refer to the troubles we will encounter, that is, all kinds of villains will make life difficult for us. However, as long as we are careful in everything, don't mind our own business, don't offend others, and don't stir up trouble, we can turn evil Ji, get out of the fog and return to the open river, that is to say, you can reach the free state where slavery was abolished, and you will not encounter any disasters in the future.

It was dark when I was on the raft, and now the clouds parted again.

"Oh, yes, you've had a pretty good dream, Jim," I said, "but what do all these bugs mean?"

I mean the leaves and the mess on the raft, and the broken oar, which are now plainly seen.

Jim glanced at the mess and then at me.Turn around to look at things again.His mind is full of that dream, and it seems that he can't get rid of it for a while, and he can't return to reality all at once, thinking of useful things.When he finally understood, he stared at me with wide eyes and said solemnly:
"Do you know what these things represent? Let me tell you. I rowed the raft desperately and called you loudly. I was so tired that I fell asleep. Wherever you drifted, you fell asleep in a drowsy state. When you woke up and saw that you had not hurt a single hair, and you came back alive, I thanked God. I was so happy that I shed tears. I wished I could kneel down, hug your feet and kiss your feet. .But you're making up bullshit old Jim. This mess is bullshit, put shit bowls on your friends, and anyone who makes a friend look bad is a jerk."

After he finished speaking, he slowly stood up and walked to the entrance of the small shack, and got in without saying a word.But this trick really made me suffer, and I suddenly felt that I was so wicked, I wished I could go and kiss his feet to make him take back those words.

I was alone for a quarter of an hour in despair before I finally got up the courage to apologize to a Negro - which I did, and I have never regretted it.I will never play tricks on him again. If I had known that making such a joke would make him so sad, I would never have been so rash.

(End of this chapter)