The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Chapter 22 (2)
Chapter 18 (2)
I thought to myself that it's not normal for a girl to be in such a hurry for a Bible; so I shook the book, and out came a scrap of paper with pencil on it: 02:30 .I rummaged through the book and found nothing.I couldn't figure out what that meant, so I put the note back in the book.When I got home and went upstairs, I saw Miss Sophia waiting for me at the door of her house.She pulled me into the house and closed the door.Then, she opened the "Bible", found the note, saw the words on it, and immediately became happy.Before I had time to think about it, she threw her arms around me and hugged me tight, and said I was the best lad in the world, and told me not to tell anyone.For a while she blushed so badly, and her eyes shone so beautifully.I was really taken aback in my heart, and when I got my breath, I asked her what was written on the note.She asked me if I had seen it.I said I didn't read it.She asked me again if I could read the handwriting.I said, "I can only read printed characters." She said that there was nothing written on the note, but it was just a bookmark, allowing her to remember where she read it, and she let me go out to play after it was over.

I walked out the door toward the river, musing the matter over in my mind, and soon found my nigger following me.When we were out of sight of the house, he looked back, looked around, came up and said:

"Master George, if you go to the pond, I will show you a large group of water snakes."

I thought to myself, this is strange, he said this thing yesterday.He should know that people don't like water snakes, so there is no one looking for snakes.What kind of medicine is he selling in this gourd?So I said:

"Okay, you go ahead."

I followed him half a mile, and then he led me into the pond and waded another half mile in ankle-deep water.We came to a small piece of dry land covered with trees, grass and wild vines.He said:
"Master George, you go straight for a few steps. They are there. I have seen them before, and I don't want to see them."

He then splashed away and was soon hidden by the trees.I parted the branches and walked to an open space the size of a bedroom, surrounded by vines clinging to the trees.I found someone lying fast asleep on the ground - my goodness, it was my old buddy Jim!
I woke him up thinking he would be surprised to see me, but he wasn't.He almost yelled with joy, but he wasn't surprised.He said that he was swimming behind me that night, and when he heard me call him, he dared not answer, for fear that someone would fish him out of the water and take him as a slave again.He said:
"I was hurt a little, and I couldn't swim fast, so I fell quite far behind you. When you landed, I thought, I can catch you without shouting. But when I saw the house, I stopped Slowed down. I was too far away from you to hear what they were saying to you. Also, I was afraid of the dogs. Then there was no sound, and I knew you went into the house, and hid in the woods for daylight .The next morning, a few black people went down to the field. They passed me, and they brought me to this place. There is a piece of water here, and the dogs will not find me. They bring me something to eat every night. And tell me about your situation."

"Why didn't you tell me about that Jack and ask him to bring me?"

"Huck, it's no use bothering you when we can't help it, but now it's all right. I'll buy some pots and pans and utensils when I can, and fix our raft at night..."

"What raft, Jim?"

"Of course it's our raft."

"You mean our raft didn't break?"

"It's not broken. It's just that one end was hit badly, but it's not a big problem, but we lost most of our luggage. At that time, we were all terrified. We dived too deep in the water, swam too far, and It was too dark last night, otherwise you would have seen the raft. It doesn't matter if you didn't see it, anyway, it has been tidied up now, and it is almost new. We have many new things, and we have made up for what was lost up."

"Hey, Jim, how did you get the raft back? Did you haul it back?"

"How do I drag it in the woods? Some niggers saw it got caught on a dead tree at the bottom of the river, and they took it to a bend in the river, and hid it in a willow bush. Whoever kept arguing, let me hear them, and I quickly told them that this raft belongs to you and me, and neither of them can get it. After I said this, they quieted down. I asked them again, did they Want to rob a white man's property and have a good meal? Later, I gave them a dime each, and they were so happy, saying that they hoped that another raft would float over, so that they could make a fortune again. OK Man, those niggers are so nice to me, I don't have to tell them to do my job for me. That Jack's a nice black person, and he's smart.”

"He's really smart. He didn't tell me you were here at all, he asked me to come and show me a pack of water snakes. If something went wrong, he wouldn't be involved because he could say, I didn’t see us together, it’s really true.”

I don't want to talk about what happened the next day.Long story short.I woke up as soon as it was light, and was about to turn over and go back to sleep, when I realized that the surrounding area was very quiet, as if there was no one there.Not usually.Then I noticed that Buck was up and out.I felt strange in my heart, so I got up and went downstairs to have a look.There was no one, and it was so quiet that even a mouse could hear it.It was just as quiet outside the house.I thought to myself, what's the matter?I went to the woodpile, met my Jack, and asked:

"What happened?"

He said: "You don't know, Master George?"

"Yeah," I said, "I really don't know."

"Well, Miss Sophia ran away! Really. She ran in the night, nobody knew what time. She eloped with that boy Harney Shepardson, you know, or so they guessed. The family only found out half an hour ago, maybe a little earlier. They didn't delay for a moment, and immediately prepared their horses and guns, with such energy as you have never seen. The women of the family also ran to call relatives Master Sol and his young masters rode along the road by the river with their guns, intending to stop the boy and kill him before he crosses the river with Miss Sophia. I think there will be a big fuss field."

"Buck didn't wake me when he went away."

"I know he won't call you. They won't let you get involved. Master Buck loaded his gun and swore he'd rather die than get one of the Shepherdsons back. There's them There are quite a few people here, as long as there is a chance, he will surely catch one of them back."

I ran as hard as I could along the road by the river.Running and running, I heard gunshots in the distance.When I got to the lumberyard and the pile of logs where I could see the ship dock, I slipped carefully under the trees, and when I found a good spot, I climbed up the fork of a Canadian poplar and watched the battle from the tree. , the bullet cannot hit here.There was a four-foot stack of logs in front of the tree, and at first I was going to hide behind that, but luckily I didn't.

There were four or five men on horseback galloping left and right in the clearing of the lumberyard, cursing and shouting, trying to hit the two boys behind the pile of logs on the pier, but they couldn't.As soon as they showed up on the other side of the river, they were immediately shot.The two lads were concealed behind the wooden stack, back to back, and could be seen from both sides.

After a while, the men stopped running and shouting around the pile, and began to run toward the lumberyard; a lad got up from behind the pile, took steady aim from the pile, and shot a man out of the saddle. Lian fell to the ground.The others jumped off their horses to save the wounded man, and carried him to the lumber yard.The two young men took the opportunity to run towards the tree where I was. Halfway there, the men spotted them and jumped on their horses to chase after them.They ran faster than the lads, but it was useless, the two lads left them far behind, and when they reached the log pile in front of the tree where I was, they immediately hid behind, and now the lads had the upper hand .One of the two boys was Buck, and the other tall young man was about nineteen years old.

Those people rode their horses and dashed left and right, ran for a while, and then ran away.As soon as they were out of sight I yelled to Buck to let him know I was in the tree.At first, he didn't expect me to yell at him from the tree, and he was taken aback.He told me to keep an eye on it and tell him as soon as the gang showed up.He said those guys must be playing tricks and won't go far.I really don't want to stay in the tree, but I dare not climb down.Buck began to weep and curse, swearing that he and his cousin (that was another young man) would have revenge for the day.He said his father and his two older brothers were killed, and they also killed two or three of their enemies.He said the Shepardsons set up an ambush for them.His father and brothers should have waited for the relatives to arrive, because the Shepardsons were too numerous to be rivals.I asked him how Harney and Miss Sophia were doing.He said they had crossed the river without danger.I was very happy to hear that.But when Buck mentioned that boy Harney didn't kill that day, he was so pissed off, and I never heard his voice like that.

Suddenly, bang!boom!boom!Three or four guns fired simultaneously.The group of people didn't ride horses, and came up from behind the woods.Both boys were injured and jumped into the river in a hurry.When they swam down the river, the group of people chased after them on the bank, shouting: "Kill them! Kill them!" I was so uncomfortable that I almost fell from the tree.I don't want to talk about it anymore, it hurts me to mention it.I really regret that I shouldn't have gone to the river to watch that scene that day.I could never forget the scene afterwards, and I saw it many times in my dreams.

I stayed on the tree and dared not come down until it was dark.Once I heard gunfire far away in the woods, and twice I saw a little party galloping past the lumberyard on horseback with guns in hand.So I guess, the battle isn't over yet.I was so depressed that I decided to never go to that house again because I felt I was somehow involved.I take that piece of paper to mean that Miss Sophia is going to meet Harney somewhere at 02:30 and run away.I should have told her father about the piece of paper, and about her strange behavior, and he might have locked her in the house, and this terrible thing might have never happened.

I climbed down from the tree and walked quietly downstream along the river bank for a while, and found the bodies of the two young men lying in the river.I dragged them ashore, covered their faces, and hurried away.I cried when I covered Buck's face because he was so good to me.

It was just getting dark.I didn't go near the house, but walked through the woods toward the pond.Jim wasn't on the island, so I scrambled out of the willow bushes and ran to the bend, thinking I'd jump on the raft and get out of the damn place.The raft is gone!My goodness, it scares the hell out of me!For a while, I couldn't even catch my breath.Then I yelled.Not 25 feet from me, a voice said:
"My God! Is that you, my boy! Stop shouting."

It was Jim's voice.I've never heard such a beautiful voice in my life.I ran a few steps along the bank and jumped onto the raft.Jim put his arms around me and hugged me hard, and he was so glad to see me that he said excitedly:
"God bless you, boy, I thought you were dead just now. Jack came and said he thought you'd been shot because you didn't come home. So I was going to get the log out and go to the mouth of the creek Just wait till Jack comes and tells me you're dead, and I'll row the raft out and get out of this place. Good God, I'm so glad you're back again, my boy."

I said, "Very well, they can't find me, and they'll think I've been shot and floated down the river. There's something up there to make them think so, don't waste a moment, Jim, Swing the raft into the middle of the river, the sooner the better."

I didn't feel relieved until the raft had floated two miles downriver, into the middle of the Mississippi.Then we hung up the signal lights and felt free and safe again.I hadn't eaten anything since the day before, so Jim sent me tortillas, cheese, pork, cabbage, and greens.There is no more delicious meal in the world than this, and the meal that is carefully cooked is unpalatable.I had a great time chatting with Jim while eating dinner.I was so glad to be out of that vengeful shadow, and Jim was so glad to be out of that pool.We all say there's no better place to be than on a raft.Other places are suffocating, but not stuffy on the raft.Once on the raft, I feel extremely free and comfortable.

(End of this chapter)