Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the sixteenth chapter of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

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Today we'll be continuing Adventures of Huckleberry.

Finn by Mark Twain.

Chapter 16 we slept most all day and started out at night, a little ways behind a monstrous long raft that was as long going by as a procession.

She had four long sweeps at each end, so we judged she carried as many as 30 men likely.

She had five big wigwams aboard, wide apart, and an open campfire in the middle and a tall flagpole at each end.

There was a power of style about her.

It amounted to something being a raftsman on such a craft as that.

We went drifting down into a big bend and the night clouded up and got hot.

The river was very wide and was walled with solid timber on both sides.

You couldn't see a break in it hardly ever, or a light.

We talked about Cairo and wondered whether we would know it when we got to it.

I said likely we wouldn't, because I had heard say there weren't but a dozen houses there, and if they didn't happen to have them lit up, how was we going to know we was passing a town?

Jim said if the two big rivers joined together there, that would show, but I said maybe we might think we was passing the foot of an island and coming into the same old river again.

That disturbed Jim and me too.

So the question was, what to do.

I said paddle ashore the first time a light showed and tell them PAP was behind, coming along with a trading scowl and was a green hand at the business and wanted to know how far it was to Cairo.

Jim thought it was a good idea, so he took a smoke on it and waited.

There weren't nothing to do now but to look out sharp for the town and not pass it without seeing it.

He said he'd be mighty sure to see it because he'd be a free man the minute he'd seen it.

But if he missed it, he'd be in a slave country again and no more show for freedom.

Every little while he jumps up and says, Dashi is.

But it weren't.

It was jackal lanterns or lightning bugs.

So he sat down again and went to watching, same as before.

Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom.

Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish too, to hear him because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free and who was to blame for it?

Why, me.

I couldn't get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way.

It got to troubling me so I couldn't rest.

I couldn't stay still in one place.

It hadn't ever come home to me before what this thing was that I was doing.

But now it did.

And it stayed with me and scorched me.

More and more.

I tried to make out to myself that I weren't to blame because I didn't run Jim off from his rightful owner.

But it weren't no use.

Conscience up and says every time.

But you know, he was running for his freedom and you could have paddled ashore and told somebody I was so I couldn't get around that.

No way.

That was where it pinched.

Conscience says to me what did poor Miss Watson done to you that you could see her servant go right off under your eyes and never say one single word?

What did that poor old woman do to you that you could treat her so mean?

Why, she tried to learn you your book.

She tried to learn you your manners.

She tried to be good to you every way she knowed how.

That's what she done.

I got to feeling so mean and so miserable, I most wished I was dead.

I fidgeted up and down the raft, abusing myself to myself.

And Jim was fidgeting up and down past me.

We neither of us could keep still.

Every time he danced around and says, That's Cairo.

It went through me like a shot.

And I thought if it was Cairo, I reckoned I would die of miserableness.

Jim talked out loud all the time.

While I was talking to myself he was saying how the first thing he would do when he got to a free state, he would go to saving up money and never spend a single cent.

And when he got enough, he would buy his wife which was owned on a farm close to where Miss Watson lived.

And then they would both work to buy the two children.

And if their master wouldn't sell them, they'd get an abolitionist to go and steal them.

It most froze me to hear such talk.

He wouldn't ever dare to talk such talk in his life before.

Just see what a difference it made in him the minute he judged he was about free.

It was according to the old saying give a servant an inch and he'll take an l think sigh.

This is what comes of my not thinking.

Here was this servant which I had as good as helped to run away coming right out flat footed and saying he would steal his children.

Children that belonged to a man I didn't even know.

A man that hadn't ever done me no harm.

I was sorry to hear Jim say that.

It was such a lowering of him.

My conscience got to stirring me up hotter than ever until at last I says to it, Let up on me.

It ain't too late yet.

I'll paddle ashore at the first light and tell it felt easy and happy and light as a feather.

Right off, all my troubles was gone.

I went looking out sharp for a light and sort of singing to myself by and by.

One showed Jim sings out we safe, Huck.

We safe.

Jump up and crack your heels.

That's the good old Cairo at last.

I just know it.

I says, I'll take the canoe and go and see Jim.

It mightn't be, you know.

He jumped up and got the canoe ready and put his old coat in the bottom for me to set on and give me the paddle.

And as I shoved off, he says, hootie.

Soon I'll be a shouting for joy.

And I'll say it's all on accounts of Huck.

I's a free man, and I couldn't ever been free if it hadn't been for Huck.

Huck done it.

Jim's won't ever forget you.

Huck used the best friend Jim's ever had and used the only friend old Jim's got.

Now, I was paddling off all in a sweat to tell on him but when he says this, it seemed to kind of take the tuck all out of me.

I went along slow then, and I weren't right down certain whether I was glad I started or whether I weren't.

When I was 50 yards off, Jim says, dad, you goes to old true Huck the only white gentleman that ever kept his promise to old Jim.

Well, I just felt sick.

But I says, I got to do it.

I can't get out of it right.

Then along comes a skiff with two men in it with guns.

And they stopped, and I stopped.

One of them says, what's that yonder?

A piece of a raft, I says.

Do you belong on it?

Yes, sir.

Any men on it?

Only one, sir.

Well, there's five servants run off tonight up yonder above the head of the bend.

Is your man white or black?

I didn't answer up prompt.

I tried to, but the words wouldn't come.

I tried for a second or two to brace up and out with it, but I weren't man enough.

Hadn't the spunk of a rabbit.

I see.

I was weakening, so I just give up trying and up and says, he's white.

I reckon we'll go and see for ourselves.

I wish you would, says I, because it's Paps that's there and maybe you'd help me tow the raft ashore where the light is.

He's sick, and so is Ma'am and Marianne.

Oh, the devil.

We're in a hurry, boy, but I suppose we've got to come.

Buckle to your paddle and let's get along.

I buckled to my paddle, and they laid to their oars when we'd made a stroke or two, I says, Habble be mighty obliged to you, I can tell you.

Everybody goes away when I want them to help me tow the raft ashore.

And I can't do it by myself.

Well, that's infernal mean odd too.

Say, boy, what's the matter with your father?

It's the well, it ain't anything much.

They stopped pulling.

It weren't but a mighty little waste of the raft.

Now one says boy, that's a lie.

What is the matter with your PAP?

Answer up square now, and it'll be the better for you.

I will, sir.

I will, honest.

But don't leave us, please.

It's the gentleman.

If you'll only pull ahead and let me heave you to the headline, you won't have to come in near the raft.

Please do.

Set her back, John.

Set her back, says one.

They backed water.

Keep away, boy.

Keep to the Lord confounded.

I just expect the wind has blowed it to us.

Your paps got the smallpox, and you know it precious well.

Why didn't you come out and say so?

Do you want to spread it all over?

Well, says IA Blubbering, I've told everybody before, and they just went away and left us, poor devil.

There's something in that.

We are right down sorry for you, but we well, hang it.

We don't want the smallpox.

You see.

Look here, I'll tell you what to do.

Don't you try to land by yourself or smash everything to pieces.

You float along down about 20 miles and you'll come to a town on the left hand side of the river.

It'll be long after sunup then, and when you ask for help, you tell them your folks are all down with chills and fever.

Don't be a fool again and let people guess what is the matter.

Now.

We're trying to do you a kindness.

So you just put 20 miles between us.

That's a good, boy.

It wouldn't do any good to land yonder where the light is.

It's only a wood yard.

Say, I reckon your father's poor and I'm bound to say he's in pretty hard luck.

Here.

I'll put a $20 gold piece on this board and you get it when it floats by.

I feel mighty mean to leave you, but my kingdom it won't do to fool with smallpox.

Don't you see?

Hold on, Parker, says the other man.

Here's a 20 to put on the board for me.

Goodbye, boy.

You do as Mr.

Parker told you when you'll be all right.

That's so, my boy.

Goodbye.

Goodbye.

If you see any runaway servants you could help and NAB them and you can make some money by it.

Goodbye, sir, says I.

I won't let no runaway servants get by me if I can help it.

They went off, and I got aboard the raft feeling bad and low because I knowed very well I had done wrong.

And I see it weren't no use for me to try to learn to do right.

A body that don't get started right when he's little ain't got no show when the pinch comes.

There ain't nothing to back him up and keep him to his work.

And so he gets beat.

Then I thought a minute and says to myself, Hold on.

Suppose you'd done a right and give Jim up.

Would you felt better than what you do now?

No, says I, I'd feel bad.

I'd feel just the same way I do now.

Well, then, says I, what's the use?

You learning to do right when it's troublesome to do right and ain't no trouble to do wrong and the wages is just the same.

I was stuck.

I couldn't answer that, so I reckoned I wouldn't bother know more about it.

But after this, always do whichever come handiest.

At the time I went into the Wigwam, Jim weren't there.

I looked all around.

He weren't anywhere.

I says, Jim, here is I huck.

Is it out of sight yet?

Don't talk loud.

He was in the river under the stern ore with just his nose out.

I told him they were out of sight, so he come aboard.

He says I was a listening to all to talk and I slips into the river and was going to shove for show if they come aboard.

Then I was going to swim to the Raff again when they was gone.

But loezy how you did, Fulham.

Huck.

That was the smartest dodge.

I tell you, child, I speck it save Old Jim.

Old Jim ain't going to forget you for that, honey.

And we talked about the money.

It was a pretty good raise, $20 apiece.

Jim said we could take deck passage on a steamboat now and the money would last us as far as we wanted to go in the Free States.

He said 20 miles more weren't far for the raft to go.

But he wished we was already there.

Towards daybreak we tied up and Jim was mighty particular about hiding the raft good.

Then he worked all day fixing things in bundles and getting all ready to quit rafting.

That night, about ten, we hove inside of the lights of a town away down in a left hand bend.

I went off in the canoe to ask about it.

Pretty soon I found a man out in the river with a skiff setting a trot line.

I ranged up and says mr, is that town Cairo?

Cairo?

No.

You must be a blame fool.

What town is it, Mr?

If you want to know, go and find out.

If you stay here bothering around me for about half a minute longer, you'll get something you won't want.

I paddled to the raft.

Jim was awful disappointed, but I said never mind.

Cairo would be the next place.

I reckoned.

We passed another town before daylight and I was going out again.

But it was high ground, so I didn't go.

No high ground about Cairo, Jim said I'd forgot it.

We laid up for the day on a Toehead tolerable close to the left hand bank.

I'd begun to suspicion something.

So did Jim.

I says.

Maybe we went by Cairo in the fog that night.

He says no one.

Let's talk about it, Huck.

Post servants can have no luck.

I always expected that rattlesnake skin weren't done with its work.

I wish I'd never seen that snake skin, Jim.

I do wish I'd never laid eyes on it.

It ain't your fault, Huck.

You didn't know.

Don't you blame yourself about it.

When it was daylight, here was the clear Ohio water in shore, sure enough and outside was the old regular muddy.

So it was all up with Cairo.

We talked it all over.

It wouldn't do to take to the shore.

We couldn't take the raft up the stream.

Of course there weren't no way but to wait for dark and start back in the canoe and take the chances.

So we slept all day amongst the cottonwood thicket so as to be fresh for the work.

And when we went back to the raft about dark, the canoe was gone.

We didn't say a word for a good while.

There weren't anything to say.

We both knowed well enough it was some more work of the rattlesnake skin, so it was the use to talk about it.

It would only look like we was finding fault and that would be bound to fetch more bad luck and keep on fetching it too, till we knowed enough to keep still.

By and by we talked about what we better do and found there weren't no way but just to go along down with the raft till we got a chance to buy a canoe to go back in.

We weren't going to borrow it when there weren't anybody around, the way PAP would do for that might set people after us, so we shoved out after dark on the raft.

Anybody that don't believe yet that it's foolishness to handle a snakeskin after all that that snakeskin done for us will believe it now if they read on and see what more it done for us.

A place to buy canoes is off of rafts laying up on shore, but we didn't see no rafts laying up, so we went along during 3 hours and more.

Well, the night got gray and rather thick, which is the next meanest thing to fog.

You can't tell the shape of the river and you can't see no distance.

It got to be very late and still and then along comes a steamboat up the river.

We lit the lantern and judge she would see it upstream.

Boats didn't generally come close to us.

They go out and follow the bars and hunt for easy water under the reefs.

But nights like this they bowl right up the channel against the whole river.

We could hear her pounding along, but we didn't see her good till she was close.

She aimed right for us.

Often they do that and try to see how close they can come without touching.

Sometimes the wheel bites off a sweep and then the pilot sticks his head out and laughs and thinks he's mighty smart.

Well, here she comes.

And we said she was going to try and shave us, but she didn't seem to be shearing off a bit.

She was a big one and she was coming in a hurry too, looking like a black cloud with rows of gold worms around it.

But all of a sudden she bulged out big and scary with a long row of wide open furnace doors shining like red hot teeth and her monstrous boughs and guards hanging right over us.

There was a yell at us and a jingling of bells to stop the engines, a PoWoW of cussing and whistling of steam, and as Jim went overboard on one side and I on the other, she comes smashing straight through the raft.

I dived and I aimed to find the bottom too, for a 30 foot wheel had got to go over me and I wanted it to have plenty of room.

I could always stay underwater a minute.

This time I reckon I stayed under a minute and a half.

Then I bounced for the top in a hurry, for I was nearly busting.

I popped out to my armpits and blowed the water out of my nose and puffed a bit.

Of course there was a booming current and of course that boat started her engines again 10 seconds after she stopped them, for they never cared much for raftsmen.

So now she was churning along up the river out of sight in the thick weather, though I could hear her.

I sung out for Jim about a dozen times, but I didn't get any answer.

So I grabbed a plank that touched me while I was treading water and struck out for shore, shoving it ahead of me.

But I made out to see that the drift of the current was towards the left hand shore, which meant that I was in a crossing, so I changed off and went that way.

It was one of these long, slanting two mile crossings, so I was a good long time in getting over.

I made a safe landing and clum up the bank.

I couldn't see but a little waves, but I went poking along over the rough ground for a quarter of a mile or more and then I run across a big old fashioned double log house.

Before I noticed it, I was going to rush by and get away, but a lot of dogs jumped out and went to howling and barking at me, and I knowed better than to move another peg.

Thank you for joining Bite at a Time books today while we read a.

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