The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Chapter 40 (1)
Chapter 31 (1)
We drifted down the river day by day without stopping at any town.At this time, we arrived in the south, far away from home, and the weather was quite warm.We began to see trees covered with Spanish moss, the kind that dangled from the branches like long gray beards.This is the first time I have seen this kind of moss growing on the trees, and they make the trees look eerie.The two swindlers now felt that they were out of danger, and went ashore again to deceive the people of the village.

At first they gave temperance speeches to people, but they didn't make enough money to get them both drunk.In another village they opened a dancing school, but they themselves were not much better at dancing than the kangaroos, so as soon as they started to hop a few times, they were rushed over and kicked them out.Another time, they wanted to teach people to speak, but after they had just spoken a few words, they were scolded so badly by the audience that they ran away in fright.They also tried preaching and hypnotism, healing and fortune-telling, and all sorts of other tricks, but they didn't seem to have any luck with any of them.In the end, they were so poor that they had nothing left, so they had to lie on the raft and drift downstream, thinking and thinking, without saying a word for a long time, looking sad and helpless.

In the end, they changed their tricks again, and the two of them whispered and discussed quietly in the hut for two or three hours.Both Jim and I felt uneasy.We all hate the way they look.As far as we can judge, they must be playing tricks, and they are going to play even more ugly tricks.We guessed and guessed, and finally we decided that they were going to break into homes or shops, or they were trying to print fake money or something.We both were terrified, and made up our minds that we would never do anything like that with them again, and just get rid of them and drift away as soon as we got a chance.One morning, about two miles downriver from a shabby little town called Parksville, we hid our raft in a nice and safe place, and the king went ashore and told us to hide, saying he was going to Go around town to see if people have heard rumors of 'Royal Beasts'. ("You mean to grab a good house," I thought to myself, "Well, when you come back from the robbing, you won't be able to find me and Jim, and you won't be able to find the raft. It's all black.") He said that if he wasn't back by noon, it was all right, and the duke and I would go and find him.

So we just sit there and wait.The Duke, distraught with anxiety, walked up and down the raft.He kept scolding us for all kinds of little things, like we did something wrong and he could find fault with any little thing.It was obvious that he was having bad ideas in his mind.By noon the king was nowhere to be seen, and I was glad to have a change at last--perhaps a complete change when the chance came.The duke and I set out into town to find the king, and we found him in a room behind a dirty tavern.He was so drunk, and a bunch of bums were making fun of him, and he was cursing and frightening them like hell, but he was too drunk to walk, and there was nothing he could do about them.The duke called him an old fool, and the king called him back.As soon as they got into it, I slipped away and ran like a deer toward the river—and that's when I saw our chance.I made up my mind that they would never try to find me and Jim again.When I got there, I was out of breath, but I was so happy that I cried aloud:

"Jim, untie the raft, it's all right now!"

But no one agreed, and no one came out of the shack.Jim is gone!I yelled once, and yelled some more, and ran up and down the wood looking, yelling, and screaming, but it was no use—old Jim was gone.Then I couldn't bear it anymore and sat down and cried.But I can't just sit like this.After a while, I hit the road, wondering what to do.I met a kid who was walking on the road, and I asked him if he had ever seen a Negro, and what kind of clothes he was wearing.He said:
"I have seen."

"Where have you been?" I asked.

"Come up Silas? Phelps'. He's a runaway nigger and they've got him. You looking for him?"

"I'm not looking for him! I met him in the woods an hour or two ago, and he said if I yelled, I'd take my liver out--he told me to lie there, and I'd lie there. I’ve stayed there until now, not daring to come out.”

"Well," said he, "you needn't be afraid, for they've got him. He's come from the south somewhere."

"They did a good job of catching him."

"Of course! Someone offered a reward of 200 yuan to catch him. It's like finding money on the road."

"Isn't it? If I had been older I'd have got the money. I saw him first. Who caught it?"

"It was an old guy—a stranger—who sold this opportunity for 40 yuan because he said he was going up the river and had no time to wait. Hey, think about it, if it were me, even I am willing to wait for seven years."

"Of course, I'd rather wait," I said, "but he sold that opportunity so cheaply that maybe there wasn't such a high bounty at all. Maybe there's something in it."

"No, it's very clear. I saw the leaflet with my own eyes. It said him more clearly, and there was a portrait like a photograph, and it said which plantation he ran away from. New Orleans downriver. To tell you the truth, this business is all right. Hey, how about a bite?"

I had no tobacco leaves at all, and he had to go away.I went back to the raft, got into the shed, and sat down to think.But I can't think of an idea.I thought and thought, my head hurt from thinking, and I couldn't come up with a way to deal with this trouble.We've come all the way with those two rascals, and been so careful with them, that we've come to an end where they've ruined everything.Their hearts are so dark, they played such a vicious trick just for 40 yuan, so that Jim was exiled to a foreign country to be a slave for a lifetime.

When I thought it over, I decided that if Jim had to be a slave, he'd be a thousand times better at home with his own family than abroad, so I'll give Tom?Sawyer wrote to tell Miss Watson where Jim was.But I soon dismissed the idea, because Jim ran away from her, she would think him ungrateful, think of him with hatred, and sell him down the river later, and if she did, everyone would hate it, of course. Such an ungrateful black person, Jim will always be shamed and ashamed forever.Besides, I have to think for myself!Word will spread, say Huck?Finn helped a black slave fight for freedom. If I go back to that town one day, I won’t be ashamed to see the people there, and I’ll have to be a man with my tail between my legs.

When a person does something shameful, he can't face the consequences of it, that's all.There's no shame in just keeping it under wraps.The situation before me was exactly that.The more I thought about it, the more I felt bad and mean.Finally, I suddenly understood that this is God's punishment for my bad deeds. That poor woman did nothing wrong with me, but I stole her nigger. God has eyes. Staring at me all the time, this is to let me know that he has seen everything I did, and he won't allow me to do it anymore.Thinking of this, I was so scared that I almost fell to the ground.Later, I tried to comfort myself, thinking, I only learned to do bad things since I was a child, so I can't blame me for this.But there's always a voice inside of me that says, "You could have gone to Sunday school, and if you had gone to school you'd know that a nigger like you dies and burns forever in flames."

The thought made me tremble with horror.So I decided to pray to see if I could change my ways and become a good boy.I just knelt down.But I just can't think of a prayer.Why is that?You can't hide anything from God, and of course you can't hide it from yourself.I know why I can't think of a prayer, it's obviously because my heart is not right, because I'm not upright, because I'm playing double tricks.I'm trying to get right, but I can't let go of the worst thing.I wanted to say I was doing the right thing, the clean thing, and writing to that nigger's master and telling her where the nigger was, but I knew in my heart I was lying--God knew it.You can't pray with lies - I figured that out.

So I was very conflicted and uncomfortable, and I didn't know what to do.Finally I have an idea.I said to myself, let’s write that letter, and see if I have anything to pray after I finish writing it.Ha, how strange, I immediately felt as light as a feather, and all kinds of troubles were gone.So I got out a piece of paper and a pencil, and happily and excitedly wrote:

Miss Watson, your runaway nigger Jim has come down the river two miles below Pikesville, and Mr. Phelps has caught him, and if you send for a bounty, he'll Will hand over people to you.

(End of this chapter)