The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Chapter 23 (1)
Chapter 19 (1)
Two or three days and nights have passed, I think it's better to say that two or three days and nights have drifted away, because the past few days and nights have passed peacefully, peacefully, and happily.Our daily schedule is well organized.Here the river was wide as hell, a mile and a half in places, and we sailed at night, and hid on the banks by day; Then we cut some willow branches and hid the rafts; next, we cast the fishing line into the water, and we also went into the water to swim, to cool off and refresh our spirits; On the beach, watching the dawn in the east.There was no sound around, everything was silent, as if the whole world had fallen asleep, only the big bullfrog clucked from time to time.Looking into the distance, the first thing I saw was a vague black line on the water, which was the woods on the river bank, and nothing else could be seen clearly.

Gradually, the sky became gray and white and became bigger and bigger, and the black line in the distance became softer and turned gray instead of pitch black.At this time, you can see some small black spots floating on the water, which are some flat-bottomed cargo boats; those long black lines are wooden rafts; Because the surroundings are so quiet, the sound can travel far and far.When the sky is a little brighter, you can see the ripples on the water surface, which are the ripples created by the dead trees at the bottom of the turbulent river.The mist on the water gradually parted, the east became red, and the river was shining golden, and now I could see the cabins on the river bank by the woods. The guys built it, and there were big holes everywhere a dog could get in.Soon there will be a breeze blowing towards one, so cool and fresh, and full of fragrance, for the banks are full of trees and flowers.But sometimes it's not like that, because people leave dead fish around, like eels and things, and it smells bad.After daybreak, everything under the sun seems to be smiling at people, and the birds are singing happily!
At this point, no one would notice a little smoke, so we plucked some fish off the line and had a hot breakfast.After eating, we looked at the calm river, rested lazily, and soon fell asleep.Falling asleep, falling asleep and waking up again, I opened my eyes and looked around, and sometimes I could see a steamship roaring with difficulty upstream, so far away that I could only make out whether the paddlewheels were on the sides or behind .For the next hour nothing was heard or seen, just silence.In the future, you may see a raft floating across the river, far away, and there may be a young sailor chopping wood on it. There was no sound, and it was only when the ax was raised to the height of the man's head again that there was a click.It took so long for the sound to come through.In this silence we lounged lazily and passed the day.One day, when the water was foggy, people on the rafts passing by in the river were banging pots and pans to prevent the ship from hitting them.When a flat-bottomed boat or a raft passed by, it was so close that we could clearly hear the jokes and curses of the people on it, but we couldn't even see a single person. It was really creepy, like a group of people. Like an invisible devil shouting in the air.Jim said he believed it must be a ghost, but I said, "No, a ghost wouldn't say, 'This ghost fog is a goddamn ghost.'"

After dark, we rowed out the raft, and rowed out to the middle of the river, and we let the raft go with the waves, and we lit our pipes, and put our legs in the water, and talked about everything.As long as the mosquitoes don't bite, we don't wear clothes day or night.The clothes the Bucks made for me were too fancy to be comfortable to wear, and besides, I really don't like to wear clothes.

Sometimes it's just the two of us in a whole big river and we don't see anyone else for a long time.In the distance of the vast river are banks and sandbars.Occasionally a star could be seen, which was a candle in the window of a log cabin, and sometimes a little light flickered on the water, which was the light of a raft or a flat-bottomed boat, and perhaps a sound from a raft could be heard. The music played by the violin or the singing of people.Life on the raft was so much fun.The night sky above our heads was full of stars, and we loved lying on our backs on the raft, looking at the stars and talking about whether they were made or were there.Jim said it was man-made, and I said it was originally there. In my opinion, it would take a long time to make so many stars.So Jim said there was some truth in the moon laying those stars like eggs, and I didn't object, because I've seen frogs lay that many eggs, and if the moon could lay stars, of course it could. produce so much.We also enjoy watching shooting stars, watching them fall with a bright tail.Jim said it must be a bad egg thrown out of the nest.

Every night we can see one or two steamships passing by in the dark, countless sparks spew out from the chimneys of the steamships from time to time, splashing down in the river like rain, which is very beautiful.After the ship turned a corner, the lights on the ship disappeared in the blink of an eye, and the noisy sound disappeared quickly, and the river was silent again.It was long after the ship had departed that the waves raised did not reach our raft, and shook it a little.After that, for an unknown period of time, there would be no sound at all, only the cries of things like frogs.

After midnight, the people on the bank went to bed, and then for two or three hours it was dark on the river bank, and the windows of the huts ceased to stream light.Those lights were our clocks, and the first light again told us that day was coming, so we set to work at once to find a place to hide the raft and fasten it.

One morning, just before daybreak, I found a small canoe, and paddled across a tributary some two hundred yards wide, and neared the big bank.Then I paddled a mile or so upstream along a small river with cypress trees on both sides, trying to pick some strawberries.I was rowing across a string of stone steps that seemed to be built for cattle to cross a river, when I saw two people running towards them stepping on those stone steps as if flying.That's the end of the game, I thought, because whenever anybody's after somebody, I just think it's either me or Jim.I hurriedly planned to run away, but they were already very close to me, calling for help loudly, saying that they had done nothing, but they were being chased innocently, and some people came after them with dogs.They wanted to jump in my boat right away.I hastened to say:
"Don't you do that. Before I hear the dogs barking and the hooves of the horses, you've got time to get into the bushes and run some way up the river, and from there to wade into my boat. That way the dogs won't hear you. It smells."

They do as I say.As soon as they boarded the boat, we immediately rowed down to our sandbar. Within a few minutes, we heard dogs barking and people screaming.We heard them running towards the creek, but we couldn't see them.They seemed to stop and look around there, and then we rowed farther and farther away, and could hardly hear anything.After we paddled out of the mile-long tree-lined creek and entered the big river, it was quiet all around us, and we paddled to the sandbank and hid in the poplar forest, and we were safe now.

One of the two men was seventy years old, possibly older, bald, with a full beard that was almost white.He wore an old, shapeless poncho, a greasy blue woolen sweater, and a pair of battered old blue trousers tucked into boots; The trouser belt had been woven himself, and only one remained; over his arm was a worn dungaree tailcoat with shiny brass buttons.Each of them carried a bulging felt bag.

The other person was probably in his 30s, and was dressed in the same shabby clothes as an old man.After breakfast, everyone stopped to chat, and we found out that the two of them didn't know each other.

"What's your trouble?" the bald man asked the other guy.

"Hey, I sell a medicine that removes tartar. It does remove tartar. The bad thing is that it takes off the enamel too. Met you this side of town. You said they were chasing you and begged me to help you escape. I had to tell you that I'm about to be unlucky myself and would rather run away with you. That's all. What did you do of?"

(End of this chapter)