The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Chapter 35 (1)
Chapter 28 (1)
After a while, when it was time to get up, I climbed down the ladder and went downstairs.As I was passing the girls' rooms, I saw Mary?Jane was sitting beside her mane-box, which was open, and she was packing--ready to go to England.But now she stopped, with a long folded skirt in her lap, her face in her hands, and she was crying.It pained me so badly to see her like that, and it would hurt anyone to see her like that.I went in and said:
"Mary? Miss Jane, it hurts you to see other people suffer, and so do I—I never see others suffer. Tell me what's on your mind."

She started talking to me.It's for the niggers - I guess it's for them.She said that the trip to England was a beautiful thing, but it took her interest away. She didn't know how to be happy there, and she knew that mother and son would never see each other again.As she spoke, she burst into tears, crying even more sadly than before, and raised her hands into the air, crying:

"Oh my God, my God, they'll never see each other again!"

"They'll meet—in two weeks—I'm sure!" I said.

God, I blurted it out without thinking!She suddenly put her arms around my neck and asked me to repeat that sentence again and again!

I know I've said it too boldly, and too bluntly and not tactfully.I asked her to let me think about it, and she sat there and waited patiently; looking excited and happy and reassured in that way, so pretty, like someone just had a bad tooth pulled out.I thought to myself that if a person encounters a dilemma, he must take a lot of risks if he wants to tell the truth. I have no such experience, and I have no idea, but I vaguely feel that it is so.Anyway, now I feel that telling the truth is much better and safer than telling a lie.I'll have to think about it, because I've never had anything like that happen to me.Finally, I thought, this time I'll go all out and tell the truth last time, but I feel like I'm sitting on a lighted powder keg trying to see where it goes.Later I said:
"Mary? Miss Jane, can you leave town and stay with an acquaintance a little further away for three or four days?"

"All right. Mr. Lothrop's. Why do you ask that?"

"Never mind why. If I prove that I know the niggers can come back to this house in a fortnight, would you like to come to Mr. Lothrop's for four days?"

"Four days!" she said, "or a year!"

"Well," I said, "that's all I want to hear from you—it's more reassuring than kissing the Bible." She smiled, and her cheeks flushed.Then I said, "If you don't mind, I'll close the door and bolt it."

After I bolted the door, I came back and sat down and said:

"Listen to me, and you mustn't shout. Sit still and be a man. I'll tell you the truth, you'll have to have some courage, Miss Mary, for it's not a good thing, It's hard to accept, but there is no other way. Your two uncles and uncles are not your uncles at all. They are two liars and two villains. Well, the worst is over, and the rest is Much better."

Of course she was taken aback when she heard this, but I was through the worst of it too, so I went on, and as I spoke, her eyes became brighter and brighter.From how I met the foolish boy who went to catch the steamer, to how she threw herself into the king's arms at the gate and kissed him sixteen or seventeen times--she heard it and blushed like a sunset Same time.She gritted her teeth and said:

"That bastard! Well, not a minute, not a second, we're going to smear them all over with stinky oil, stick them with chicken feathers, and throw them into the river!" So I said:

"Of course. But do you mean before you went to the Lothrops, or—"

"Oh," she said, "what am I thinking!" she said, sitting down again. "Don't blame me for saying that, please don't blame me, you won't blame me, right?" She put her thin and tender hand on mine gently, and I said that I wouldn't blame her if I died. "I said it without thinking, and I was going mad," she said; "well, go ahead, and I won't be mad anymore. I'll do what you want me to do."

"Well," I said, "these two swindlers are pretty badass. But I have to go with them for a while anyway. As for the reason, I'd better not tell. If you expose them Come out, and the townspeople can get me out of their hands, and I'll be all right, but there's another guy you don't know about. We gotta save him, don't we? Of course we do. Then let's not expose them." When I said this, I suddenly had a good idea in my head.I thought maybe Jim and I could get rid of these two crooks and put them in the prison here, and then we could go away.But I don't want to row the raft in broad daylight, because if anyone asks, no one but I can answer; so I'll wait till later in the evening to carry out that plan.I just say:

"Mary? Miss Jane, I'll tell you what we do—you won't have to stay long at Mr. Lothrop's. How far is it?"

"Not four miles away—in the country behind here."

"Okay, that's all right. You go up there now and hide until nine o'clock tonight, or 09:30, and then ask them to bring you home—you just tell them something happened to you Go back and do it. If you come back before eleven, light a candle in this window, and if I don't come, you wait until eleven, and if I don't come, I'm gone and safe. At that time, you will come out and spread the news everywhere, so that people can put these two liars in a cell."

"Okay," she said, "I'll do it."

"If it happens that I don't go away, and I'm caught with them, you've got to come out and tell the people I told you about it first, and you'll do your best to speak for me."

"Speak for you, of course it's all right. They won't hurt a hair on you!" she said.When I saw her say this, her nostrils dilated and her eyes blinked.

"If I go," said I, "I can't be here to prove that these two rascals aren't your uncles and uncles, but I can't tell if I'm here. I can only swear they are rascals." , It’s a liar, which is useful. There are other people who can testify, they are better than me, and no one will doubt their testimony. If I say it, people will doubt it immediately. I will tell you how to find them. Give me a piece of paper and a pen. You see, 'Royal Monsters'. Put it away and don't lose it. When the courts want to find out what happened to these two, let them find someone in Brixville , tell the folks there that they've got the 'Royal Beast' guy, and want them to bring some witnesses - just wait and see, Miss Mary, before you can blink, the whole town over there People will come here in a huff."

I think we've got everything sorted out by now.I just say:

"Don't worry about the auction, let them get on with it. Because everyone knows too late, the person who buys the item can only pay the next day after the auction, and those two guys won't leave until they get the money. Let's Set it up, the auction doesn't count, and they don't get the money. Like the black person deal, it doesn't count, and the niggers don't take long to come back. Does that matter? They haven't Get the black person's money. Now they're in trouble, Miss Mary."

"Well," said she, "I'm going down to breakfast now, and I'm going to Lothrop's right away when I'm done."

"Mary? Miss Jane, that's not going to happen," I said. "Not at all. You must go before breakfast."

"why?"

"Miss Mary, why on earth do you think I want you to go there?"

"Well, it never occurred to me at all—and now that I think about it, I don't know. Why?"

"Because you're not the thick-skinned kind. What your face shows is clearer to me than a book. One can sit down and read it as if it were printed in large letters." Same. You thought when your uncles and uncles kissed you good morning, you could hold your breath and..."

"Well, well, stop talking! I'll go before breakfast--I'd love to. May I keep my two sisters with them?"

"Okay, don't worry about them. They'll have to stay with them for a while. They'll be suspicious if all three of you go away. Don't you see them, don't see your sister, and don't see the town If the neighbors ask about your uncles and uncles, your face will show your concern. Can't see them, Mary? Miss Jane, you must go away and let me deal with everyone. I will tell Miss Susan, ask her to say good morning to your uncle for you, and say that you went out for a few hours to relax, or that you went to see a friend and came back tonight or tomorrow morning."

"It's okay to say that I'm going to see my friends, but I don't want to say good morning to them."

"Okay then, don't ask." There's nothing wrong with me telling him that--no harm done.It's just a little thing, and it's not a hassle at all.In the lower reaches of the river, doing such small things is the best way to get things done.Can Mary do this?Jane felt comfortable and effortless.Then I said, "One more thing—the bag of money."

(End of this chapter)