Reading Help Adventures of Tom Sawyer Ch.XVI-XXXV
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she gits up by a bell--everything's so awful reg'lar a body can't stand it." `
` "Well, everybody does that way, Huck." "Tom, it don't make no difference. I `
` ain't everybody, and I can't STAND it. It's awful to be tied up so. And grub `
` comes too easy--I don't take no interest in vittles, that way. I got to ask to `
` go a-fishing; I got to ask to go in a-swimming--dern'd if I hain't got to ask `
` to do everything. Well, I'd got to talk so nice it wasn't no comfort--I'd got `
` to go up in the attic and rip out awhile, every day, to git a taste in my `
` mouth, or I'd a died, Tom. The widder wouldn't let me smoke; she wouldn't let `
` me yell, she wouldn't let me gape, nor stretch, nor scratch, before folks--" `
` [Then with a spasm of special irritation and injury]--"And dad fetch it, she `
` prayed all the time! I never see such a woman! I HAD to shove, Tom--I just had `
` to. And besides, that school's going to open, and I'd a had to go to it--well, `
` I wouldn't stand THAT, Tom. Looky here, Tom, being rich ain't what it's cracked `
` up to be. It's just worry and worry, and sweat and sweat, and a-wishing you was `
` dead all the time. Now these clothes suits me, and this bar'l suits me, and I `
` ain't ever going to shake 'em any more. Tom, I wouldn't ever got into all this `
` trouble if it hadn't 'a' ben for that money; now you just take my sheer of it `
` along with your'n, and gimme a ten-center sometimes--not many times, becuz I `
` don't give a dern for a thing 'thout it's tollable hard to git--and you go and `
` beg off for me with the widder." "Oh, Huck, you know I can't do that. 'Tain't `
` fair; and besides if you'll try this thing just a while longer you'll come to `
` like it." "Like it! Yes--the way I'd like a hot stove if I was to set on it `
` long enough. No, Tom, I won't be rich, and I won't live in them cussed smothery `
` houses. I like the woods, and the river, and hogsheads, and I'll stick to 'em, `
` too. Blame it all! just as we'd got guns, and a cave, and all just fixed to `
` rob, here this dern foolishness has got to come up and spile it all!" Tom saw `
` his opportunity-- "Lookyhere, Huck, being rich ain't going to keep me back from `
` turning robber." "No! Oh, good-licks; are you in real dead-wood earnest, Tom?" `
` "Just as dead earnest as I'm sitting here. But Huck, we can't let you into the `
` gang if you ain't respectable, you know." Huck's joy was quenched. "Can't let `
` me in, Tom? Didn't you let me go for a pirate?" "Yes, but that's different. A `
` robber is more high-toned than what a pirate is--as a general thing. In most `
` countries they're awful high up in the nobility--dukes and such." "Now, Tom, `
` hain't you always ben friendly to me? You wouldn't shet me out, would you, Tom? `
` You wouldn't do that, now, WOULD you, Tom?" "Huck, I wouldn't want to, and I `
` DON'T want to--but what would people say? Why, they'd say, 'Mph! Tom Sawyer's `
` Gang! pretty low characters in it!' They'd mean you, Huck. You wouldn't like `
` that, and I wouldn't." Huck was silent for some time, engaged in a mental `
` struggle. Finally he said: "Well, I'll go back to the widder for a month and `
` tackle it and see if I can come to stand it, if you'll let me b'long to the `
` gang, Tom." "All right, Huck, it's a whiz! Come along, old chap, and I'll ask `
` the widow to let up on you a little, Huck." "Will you, Tom--now will you? `
` That's good. If she'll let up on some of the roughest things, I'll smoke `
` private and cuss private, and crowd through or bust. When you going to start `
` the gang and turn robbers?" "Oh, right off. We'll get the boys together and `
` have the initiation to-night, maybe." "Have the which?" "Have the initiation." `
` "What's that?" "It's to swear to stand by one another, and never tell the `
` gang's secrets, even if you're chopped all to flinders, and kill anybody and `
` all his family that hurts one of the gang." "That's gay--that's mighty gay, `
` Tom, I tell you." "Well, I bet it is. And all that swearing's got to be done at `
` midnight, in the lonesomest, awfulest place you can find--a ha'nted house is `
` the best, but they're all ripped up now." "Well, midnight's good, anyway, Tom." `
` "Yes, so it is. And you've got to swear on a coffin, and sign it with blood." `
` "Now, that's something LIKE! Why, it's a million times bullier than pirating. `
` I'll stick to the widder till I rot, Tom; and if I git to be a reg'lar ripper `
` of a robber, and everybody talking 'bout it, I reckon she'll be proud she `
` snaked me in out of the wet." CONCLUSION SO endeth this chronicle. It being `
` strictly a history of a BOY, it must stop here; the story could not go much `
` further without becoming the history of a MAN. When one writes a novel about `
` grown people, he knows exactly where to stop--that is, with a marriage; but `
` when he writes of juveniles, he must stop where he best can. Most of the `
` characters that perform in this book still live, and are prosperous and happy. `
` Some day it may seem worth while to take up the story of the younger ones again `
` and see what sort of men and women they turned out to be; therefore it will be `
` wisest not to reveal any of that part of their lives at present. `
` `
`
` "Well, everybody does that way, Huck." "Tom, it don't make no difference. I `
` ain't everybody, and I can't STAND it. It's awful to be tied up so. And grub `
` comes too easy--I don't take no interest in vittles, that way. I got to ask to `
` go a-fishing; I got to ask to go in a-swimming--dern'd if I hain't got to ask `
` to do everything. Well, I'd got to talk so nice it wasn't no comfort--I'd got `
` to go up in the attic and rip out awhile, every day, to git a taste in my `
` mouth, or I'd a died, Tom. The widder wouldn't let me smoke; she wouldn't let `
` me yell, she wouldn't let me gape, nor stretch, nor scratch, before folks--" `
` [Then with a spasm of special irritation and injury]--"And dad fetch it, she `
` prayed all the time! I never see such a woman! I HAD to shove, Tom--I just had `
` to. And besides, that school's going to open, and I'd a had to go to it--well, `
` I wouldn't stand THAT, Tom. Looky here, Tom, being rich ain't what it's cracked `
` up to be. It's just worry and worry, and sweat and sweat, and a-wishing you was `
` dead all the time. Now these clothes suits me, and this bar'l suits me, and I `
` ain't ever going to shake 'em any more. Tom, I wouldn't ever got into all this `
` trouble if it hadn't 'a' ben for that money; now you just take my sheer of it `
` along with your'n, and gimme a ten-center sometimes--not many times, becuz I `
` don't give a dern for a thing 'thout it's tollable hard to git--and you go and `
` beg off for me with the widder." "Oh, Huck, you know I can't do that. 'Tain't `
` fair; and besides if you'll try this thing just a while longer you'll come to `
` like it." "Like it! Yes--the way I'd like a hot stove if I was to set on it `
` long enough. No, Tom, I won't be rich, and I won't live in them cussed smothery `
` houses. I like the woods, and the river, and hogsheads, and I'll stick to 'em, `
` too. Blame it all! just as we'd got guns, and a cave, and all just fixed to `
` rob, here this dern foolishness has got to come up and spile it all!" Tom saw `
` his opportunity-- "Lookyhere, Huck, being rich ain't going to keep me back from `
` turning robber." "No! Oh, good-licks; are you in real dead-wood earnest, Tom?" `
` "Just as dead earnest as I'm sitting here. But Huck, we can't let you into the `
` gang if you ain't respectable, you know." Huck's joy was quenched. "Can't let `
` me in, Tom? Didn't you let me go for a pirate?" "Yes, but that's different. A `
` robber is more high-toned than what a pirate is--as a general thing. In most `
` countries they're awful high up in the nobility--dukes and such." "Now, Tom, `
` hain't you always ben friendly to me? You wouldn't shet me out, would you, Tom? `
` You wouldn't do that, now, WOULD you, Tom?" "Huck, I wouldn't want to, and I `
` DON'T want to--but what would people say? Why, they'd say, 'Mph! Tom Sawyer's `
` Gang! pretty low characters in it!' They'd mean you, Huck. You wouldn't like `
` that, and I wouldn't." Huck was silent for some time, engaged in a mental `
` struggle. Finally he said: "Well, I'll go back to the widder for a month and `
` tackle it and see if I can come to stand it, if you'll let me b'long to the `
` gang, Tom." "All right, Huck, it's a whiz! Come along, old chap, and I'll ask `
` the widow to let up on you a little, Huck." "Will you, Tom--now will you? `
` That's good. If she'll let up on some of the roughest things, I'll smoke `
` private and cuss private, and crowd through or bust. When you going to start `
` the gang and turn robbers?" "Oh, right off. We'll get the boys together and `
` have the initiation to-night, maybe." "Have the which?" "Have the initiation." `
` "What's that?" "It's to swear to stand by one another, and never tell the `
` gang's secrets, even if you're chopped all to flinders, and kill anybody and `
` all his family that hurts one of the gang." "That's gay--that's mighty gay, `
` Tom, I tell you." "Well, I bet it is. And all that swearing's got to be done at `
` midnight, in the lonesomest, awfulest place you can find--a ha'nted house is `
` the best, but they're all ripped up now." "Well, midnight's good, anyway, Tom." `
` "Yes, so it is. And you've got to swear on a coffin, and sign it with blood." `
` "Now, that's something LIKE! Why, it's a million times bullier than pirating. `
` I'll stick to the widder till I rot, Tom; and if I git to be a reg'lar ripper `
` of a robber, and everybody talking 'bout it, I reckon she'll be proud she `
` snaked me in out of the wet." CONCLUSION SO endeth this chronicle. It being `
` strictly a history of a BOY, it must stop here; the story could not go much `
` further without becoming the history of a MAN. When one writes a novel about `
` grown people, he knows exactly where to stop--that is, with a marriage; but `
` when he writes of juveniles, he must stop where he best can. Most of the `
` characters that perform in this book still live, and are prosperous and happy. `
` Some day it may seem worth while to take up the story of the younger ones again `
` and see what sort of men and women they turned out to be; therefore it will be `
` wisest not to reveal any of that part of their lives at present. `
` `
`