The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Chapter 21 (1)
Chapter 18 (1)
Colonel Grangerford was a gentleman.He was a gentleman all over; his family was like him.He had a good background, as the saying goes.A man's birth is as important as a horse's birth.No one would deny that Widow Douglas was the big man in town, she said so; even Papa, who was only a scumbag, said so.Colonel Grangerford was a very tall man, with a complexion of black and white, but not a little rosy; he shaved every morning from top to bottom of his thin face, and he had a very thin lip, a high nose, and long and narrow nostrils. , with thick eyebrows, and a pair of jet-black eyes sunken deep in the eye sockets, you will feel that they are peeping at you from a cave.He had a high forehead and black hair that fell to his shoulders without any curls.His hands are long and thin.

He had to wear a clean shirt every day of the year, and over that he wore a set of snow-white linen clothes from head to toe, so white that it hurts the eyes to look at it.On Sundays, he wore a blue tuxedo with brass buttons.He carried a mahogany cane with a silver tip.There was nothing frivolous in his demeanor, and he never spoke loudly.People can feel how kind he is to people, so people naturally get close to him.He's pretty nice when he smiles; but when he's straightened up like a flagpole, and lightning-like fury comes out from under his brows, you want to run up a tree and see what's going on again.He never had to tell people how to behave, and people were very polite when he was around.People like being around him, too; he's like a ray of sunshine, I mean with him, people think it's sunny.If he condensed into a black cloud, it would be dark in an instant, enough to keep people from messing around for a week.

Every morning when he and the old lady went downstairs, the whole family stood up to greet them, and no one dared to sit down unless they sat down.Then Tom and Bob went to the cupboard where the cutlery stood, made him a glass of bitters, and handed it to him.He held the drink in his hand and waited for Tom and Bob's to be mixed as well.Then they bowed and said, "Greetings, sir and madam." They also nodded slightly and said thank you, and then the three of them drank together.Bob and Tom put a spoonful of water into the little whiskey or apple brandy and sugar in the bottom of the glass, handed it to Buck and me, and we said hello to the old people, and drank the water wine.

Bob is the eldest and Tom is the second.They were all handsome, tall, broad-shouldered, with long black hair, bronze faces, and jet-black eyes.Like old gentlemen, they were dressed from head to toe in white linen, with Panama hats on their heads.

Now let's talk about Miss Charlotte.She's twenty-five, tall, well-mannered, and good-natured when she's not messed with; but when she's messed with, she's like her father, sure to scare the hell out of you.She is pretty.

Her sister is also pretty, but not her type.She is only 20 years old, and her temper is like a dove, gentle and sweet.

Each of them had his own nigger to serve him, even Buck had one.The nigger who waited on me was so comfortable, because I wasn't used to having people do my work.But Buck's black slave was busy every day without touching the ground.

There are only these people in this family now, and there may have been a few before: the three sons were beaten to death; that Emmeline also died.

The old man owns a large field and has more than 100 black slaves.Sometimes, many people come from a radius of more than ten miles on horseback, live for five or six days, play nearby and on the river, dance and have picnics in the woods during the day, and hold dance parties at home at night.Most of these people are relatives of the family.Men carry guns.Let me tell you, it was a very ostentatious scene.

There was also a gang of rich men in the neighborhood, half a dozen in all, most of them named Sheppardson.Like the Grangerfords, they were well-bred, stylish, and rich.The Shepardsons share the same wharf as the Grangerfords, and that wharf is about two miles upstream from our house; The Mori family rode good horses.

One day, Buck and I were hunting in the woods when we heard a horse come running.We were just crossing a road when Buck said:

"Quick! Hide in the woods!"

We ran and hid in the woods, watching the road through the leaves.Presently a horse came galloping by, and the young man on the horse was full of air, with his gun across the front of his saddle, like a soldier.I met him earlier, young Harney?Shepherdson.He only heard a gunshot from Buck, and Harney's hat fell to the ground.He grabbed his gun, turned around and ran towards our hiding place.We didn't wait for him to come, and we ran wildly through the woods.The woods weren't dense, so I kept turning my head to look over my shoulder, trying to avoid the bullets, and twice I saw Harney aiming his gun at Buck; Hat, but I can't see it.We didn't stop and ran home in one breath.There was a twinkle in the old gentleman's eyes, which I think was mainly due to joy, and then his face calmed down, and he said in a gentle tone:
"I don't like shooting people out of the woods like that. Why don't you go out onto the road, boy?"

"Dad, the Shepardsons don't do that. They always backstab."

As Barker spoke, Miss Charlotte held her head high and looked like a queen.Her nostrils flared, her eyes blinked.The two boys looked gloomy, but said nothing.Miss Sophia's face turned pale, but when she realized that the young man was not hurt, the color returned to her face.

Then I led Buck outside, to the hoarders under the tree, and no one was around, and I said:

"Buck, did you really intend to kill him just now?"

"you do not say."

"How did he bully you?"

"Him? He never bullied me."

"Then why do you want to kill him?"

"Do nothing, just avenge the family."

"What is a family feud?"

"What did you do? Where did you grow up? Don't you even know about family feuds?"

"Never heard of it. Just tell me."

"Well," said Buck, "there's a family feud that goes like this: One man quarrels with another, kills him, and that man's brother beats him to death, and then the brothers on both sides They took revenge on each other, and then cousins ​​joined in, and it wasn't until they were all killed that the family feud was finally settled. But it was very slow, and it took a long time."

"Has this feud been long, Buck?"

"I bet it started 30 years ago, like that long. Two families got into a fight over something and got into a lawsuit; the guy who lost the case shot the guy who won the case , of course he would. Who wouldn't?"

"What was the fight about in the first place, Buck? About land?"

"Maybe that's the case, I don't know."

"Then who fired the shot? The Grangerfords or the Shepardsons?"

"The devil knows, that was many years ago."

"No one knows?"

"Oh, yes, I think Papa knows it, and some old people know it too. But now people don't know how the quarrel started in the first place."

"Has a lot of people been killed already, Buck?"

"Yeah, funerals are a thing of the day. But they don't always kill. Dad's got a few big bullets left; but he doesn't care, he's underweight anyway." .Bob got the hunting knife a few times, and Tom once or twice."

"Has anyone been killed this year, Buck?"

"Yes. One of us died, and one of them died. About three months ago, my 14-year-old cousin Bud was riding through the woods on the other side of the river, and everyone said he was too stupid to have any weapons around. No. In a remote place, he heard the sound of horseshoes getting closer behind him, and saw old Boddy Shepherdson chasing after him with a gun in his hand, his white hair fluttering in the wind. Bud didn't jump off his horse and hide in In the woods, he thought his horse was running fast, so the two raced back and forth for five or six miles. The old man's horse was getting closer and closer, and Bud couldn't get away from it, so he turned around. Came to face the old man, trying to dodge his bullets. As a result, the old guy ran over and knocked him down with one shot. However, he was not happy for a few days, and within a week, our people put him down fall down."

"I think the old man's a coward, Buck."

"He's not a coward. Not a bit of a coward. There wasn't a coward in the Shepherdsons, not a single coward. Nor was there a coward in the Grangerfords. One day the old man and the Grangerfords There was a fight between the three of them, and the fellow held on for half an hour, and he won at last, when they were all on horses, and he jumped off his horse, and hid behind a pile of logs, and made the horse lie down, too, to take the bullet for him. None of the three of the Grangerfords got off their horses, and hung around the old man, and shot at him, and he hid there and fired at them. At last, coming home, he and his horse were covered in blood, limped, but the Grangerfords carried them back, and one of them died the next day. Man, it's no use trying to find a coward at the Shepherdsons, Their family doesn’t support that kind of person at all.”

The following Sunday we all went to church.It was about three miles to church, and everybody rode horses.Men carry guns, and Buck is no exception.At church, people either tuck their guns between their knees, or stand them up against the wall so they can grab them easily.The same goes for the Shepherdsons.The preaching was annoying, full of charitable nonsense; but people said it was good, and they kept chattering on the way home about piety, goodness, grace, retribution, and the like, which I couldn't understand Well, anyway, I've never had such an unlucky Sunday in my life.

About an hour after lunch, everyone dozed off, some reclined in their chairs, and some slept in their own rooms. It was really boring.Buck and a dog lay fast asleep in the sun on the grass.I went upstairs and wanted to sleep in our room.I found lovely Miss Sophia standing at the door of her house, which was next door to ours.She led me into her room, closed the door gently and asked me if I liked her.I said I like it.She asked again if I could do something for her without telling anyone.I said yes.So she told me she had left her Bible and two other books in the church pew, and she told me to sneak out and get them back without telling anybody.I said yes.So I slipped out quietly, and walked down the road to the church.There was no one in the church, only a pig or two.The church door is not locked, and in summer the pigs like to lie down on the rough wooden floor to cool off.If you're paying attention, you'll see that people go to church out of necessity, not pigs.

(End of this chapter)