The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

We tiptoed along a path among the trees toward the end of the widow's garden, stooping so our heads wouldn't get caught in the branches.When I passed the kitchen, a tree stump tripped me and made a noise, and we both got down on the ground quickly.The big Negro named Jim that Miss Watson had brought was locking the kitchen door, and we could see him very clearly because there was a light behind him.He stood up and craned his neck to look out the door, and after listening, he suddenly said:
"which one?"

He listened for a while longer, then tiptoed down the steps and stood right between us.We can literally touch him.After a while, there was no sound, we were so close, but we didn't move.Unfortunately, my ankle suddenly itched, but I didn't dare to scratch it.After a while the ears started to itch, and then the back, right between the two shoulders.If you don't scratch it, it will itch like hell.Alas, I have experienced this situation a thousand times.If you're around dignified people, or at funerals, or when you're sleepy and can't sleep—the kind you can't tickle, somehow you'll have a thousand spots all over your body. My brain itch.Then Jim was heard saying again:

"Hey, who's that? What's the matter? There's no sound. Well, look at us. We'll just sit here and listen."

So he sat down between me and Tom.He was leaning against a tree trunk with his legs spread apart, one of which was almost touching my leg.My nose started to itch, itching to the point of tears, but I couldn't resist scratching.But the inside of the nostrils itch again.Then my ass itch.I really don't know if I can stay still like this.It was like this for six or seven minutes, and it felt like years had passed.At this time, eleven places on my body were already itching, and I felt that if I stayed for another minute, I couldn't bear it anymore.But I still gritted my teeth and prepared to persevere.At this point, I could hear Jim's breathing getting heavier; after a while he was snoring, so I felt comfortable again right away.

Tom gave me a signal with a little noise in his mouth, and we scrambled away on hand and foot.When we had climbed about ten feet, Tom whispered to me that he wanted to play a joke and tie Jim to a tree.But I didn't agree, lest he wake up and yell, and then they'd find out I wasn't home.Tom said he didn't have enough candles, and he was going to sneak into the kitchen to get some.I wouldn't let him go, but said maybe Jim would wake up and go back to the kitchen.But Tom insisted on taking the risk, so I slipped into the kitchen with him and got three candles, and Tom put out a nickel and put it on the table, to show that he didn't take the candles in vain.Then we slipped out of the kitchen again, and I was sweating all over, but Tom wasn't afraid at all, and he was going to crawl up to Jim and tease him.I had to wait, it seemed that after a long time, the surrounding was very quiet, without any sound.

As soon as Tom came back, we both hurried along the path around the fence until we came to the top of the steep hill on the other side of the house.Tom said he took off Jim's hat and hung it on a branch over his head facing him.Jim moved a little, but didn't wake up.Later, Jim said that he was possessed by a demon, was in a trance, was driven by the possessed demon to run around the state, and was imprisoned under a tree, and his hat was hung on the branch, indicating that the demon did it.When talking about it again, Jim said that the demon possessed him and rode him to New Orleans.Afterwards, every time he talked about it, he would always exaggerate a little more, so he talked more and more magically, until the monster rode him all over the world, almost exhausted him, and his back was scarred by the saddle.Jim was so smug and pompous about it that he looked down on the other niggers.

Some blacks were willing to come all the way from other places to hear him tell this story, and he became the most arrogant black in the area.Negroes who didn't know him would open their mouths and look at him with admiration, as if looking at a mythical figure.The niggers talk about goblins all the time when they chat by the fireside at night, but if anybody talks about it anywhere, Jim happens to be there and says, "Well! about goblins, you know What?" The black man would be tongue-tied and shrink back, not daring to speak any more.Jim always had a five-cent coin hanging around his neck, saying that it was an amulet handed to him by the devil himself, and told him that using this amulet could heal people, and that he could attract demons by saying a word to the amulet, but he never Do not tell people what those words are.Negroes everywhere would come to this place and do whatever it takes to see this nickel, but never touch it, because the devil's hand has it.Jim was very proud of himself as a servant, for he would go on and on about how he had seen the devil, and how he was being ridden about by the monster.

Besides Tom and I came up on the hill, and looked down at the village, and saw lights going on here and there, and maybe somebody was sick in those few houses.Overhead, the bright stars twinkled.Beyond the village was the river, a full mile wide, very still and majestic.We went down the hill to the old tannery and found Joe hiding there?Harper and Ben?Rogers, and two or three other boys.We untied a small boat and rowed downriver two and a half miles to the rock on the side of the mountain, anchored the boat and landed.

As soon as we landed we got into a bush, and Tom swore everyone to secrecy, and led us all to the mouth of a cave, where the bushes were thickest.Then we lit a candle and climbed in.After climbing about [-] yards, the cave suddenly opened up.Tom groped for the wall of the cave, and suddenly lowered his head and got under a rock wall, where there was a small hole that he couldn't notice at all.We entered this opening, and through a narrow passage, came to a stone house, which was damp, damp, and cold.We stopped here, only to hear Tom say:
"Now we're going to form a gang. We'll call it the Tom Sawyer gang. Anyone who wants to join must take an oath and write his name in blood."

Everyone was willing, so Tom produced a piece of paper, on which was written an oath, and he read it over, that every man would pledge his loyalty to the gang to the death, and never tell the secret.If anyone in the gang bullies anyone, he must obey whoever orders anyone in the gang to kill that guy and his family; he must kill them and put a cross on their chest, or he will die. They were not allowed to eat or sleep.This cross is the symbol of the gang. Anyone outside the gang is not allowed to use this symbol. Anyone who violates it must be punished. Anyone who violates it twice must be killed.If anyone in the gang reveals the secret, his throat must be cut, his body burned, his ashes scattered on the ground, his name on the list wiped off with blood, and no one in the gang is allowed to mention his name again , can only curse him and forget him forever.

Everyone raved about the wonderful oath, and couldn't help asking Tom if he hadn't thought it up himself.He said partly, and the rest from pirate books and martial arts books, and that every noble gang must have its own oath.

Someone proposed that whoever revealed the secret should simply kill his whole family.Tom said that was a good idea, and took out a pencil and wrote this in.Next, ben?Rogers said:
"But Huck? Finn has no family, what if he commits a crime?"

"Look, doesn't he have a father?" Tom?Sawyer said.

"Yes, he has a father, but no one can find him now. He used to get drunk and sleep with the pigs in the tannery, and he hasn't been seen for more than a year now."

After talking about it, they wanted to exclude me, because they said that everyone who joins the gang must have a family or some kind of relatives, so that if they break the gang rules, they will be stabbed, otherwise it will be unfair to others.Alas, no one could think of a good way - everyone was stumped, and there was nothing to say for a while.I was on the verge of crying, but suddenly an idea occurred to me, and I proposed to them Miss Watson--if I broke the gang rules, they could kill her.Everyone said in unison:
"Well, that's her, that's her. That's all right. Huck's on board."

Then, one by one, they pricked their fingers with a needle and signed their names, and I also drew a sign on the paper.

"So," Ben?Rogers said, "What is the mission of our gang?"

"It's robbery and murder," said Tom.

"But what are we robbing? Houses and houses—cows and sheep—or—"

"Robbery! Stealing things like cattle and sheep isn't robbery, it's just theft," said Tom?Sawyer said. "We're not thieves. It's no fun being thieves. We're trail cutters. We wear masks and rob carriages on the highway, kill people in them, and take their watches and money."

"Is it necessary to kill every time?"

"Oh, of course, it's best to kill them. Some leaders don't think so, but most people still think it's best to kill them. But some people don't have to kill them, and they are escorted back to the cave, which is regarded as kidnapping."

"Kidnapping? How do you say this?"

"I don't know, but that's what they do, I've read about it, so we're going to do it too."

"But we don't even know what it is, so how can we do it?"

"Don't talk nonsense, let's just do it. Didn't I tell you that I saw it in a book? Do you want to break away from the book and do something else to screw things up?"

"Oh, that's easy to say, Tom? Sawyer, but how do we go about kidnapping when we don't even know how to do it? I've got to figure this out first. What do you think we should do?"

"Well, I don't know either. But maybe we'll keep them locked up until they're tied up, that is, until they die."

"Well, that's about the same. That's all right. Why didn't you say so sooner? We're going to keep them locked up until they're tied up and dead. But they're annoying too, wanting to eat and trying to run away .”

"You can't say that, Ben? Rogers. There are guards, can they run? Whoever dares to sneak a step, shoot him down."

"It's good to have a guard. It means someone stays up all night and keeps watch over them. I think that's kind of silly. Why can't you just get them back with a stick and execute the kidnapping?"

"Because it doesn't say that in the book, that's why. I said, Ben Rogers, don't you want to do things the way you want? Don't you think the people who wrote the book don't know what to do? Don't you think they should do what you want Do it? Absolutely not, sir. We'll tie up their tickets as usual."

"Well, I have no objection, but I always think it's a bit silly to do so. So, should women be killed too?"

"Look, Ben Rogers, we don't know anything about it, but I don't want to pretend I don't. As for killing women? No—it's never in the book. You get 'em in a cave and tell Be polite, be gentle and considerate, and they'll grow to love you and never want to go home."

"Hey, if that's the case, I agree, but I don't think so, otherwise the cave will soon be full of women and guys waiting to be kidnapped. Then we will have no place to live. But, just Do as you say, I have nothing to say."

At this time, little Tommy?Barnes fell asleep and was woken up crying, saying he was going home to his mother and never wanted to be a robber again.

So everyone teased him together and called him a crying child. He was furious when he heard this, and said that he would go and shake the secret right away.Tom hastened to give him a nickel to keep him steady, and said we'd all go home and see you next week, and set out to rob and kill.

Book?Rogers said that he could not come out usually, but only on Sunday, so he wanted to start next Sunday; but everyone objected, saying that it was too evil to do this on Sunday, and the proposal was rejected.Everyone agreed to meet again as soon as possible and set a date.We unanimously voted Tom?Sawyer boss, Joe?Harper is the second gang leader.Then we each went home.

Before daybreak I climbed onto the roof of the shed and through the window to my room.I was exhausted with grease stains all over my new clothes.

(End of this chapter)