WELL, three or four months run along, and it was well into the winter
Now. I had been to school most all the time and could spell and read and
Write just a little, and could say the multiplication table up to six
Times seven is thirty-five, and I don’t reckon I could ever get any
Further than that if I was to live forever. I don’t take no stock in
Mathematics, anyway.
At first I hated the school, but by and by I got so I could stand it.
Whenever I got uncommon tired I played hookey, and the hiding I got next
Day done me good and cheered me up. So the longer I went to school the
Easier it got to be. I was getting sort of used to the widow’s ways,
Too, and they warn’t so raspy on me. Living in a house and sleeping in a
Bed pulled on me pretty tight mostly, but before the cold weather I used
To slide out and sleep in the woods sometimes, and so that was a rest to
Me. I liked the old ways best, but I was getting so I liked the new
Ones, too, a little bit. The widow said I was coming along slow but sure,
And doing very satisfactory. She said she warn’t ashamed of me.
One morning I happened to turn over the salt-cellar at breakfast. I
Reached for some of it as quick as I could to throw over my left shoulder
And keep off the bad luck, but Miss Watson was in ahead of me, and
Crossed me off. She says, “Take your hands away, Huckleberry; what a mess
You are always making!” The widow put in a good word for me, but that
Warn’t going to keep off the bad luck, I knowed that well enough. I
Started out, after breakfast, feeling worried and shaky, and wondering
Where it was going to fall on me, and what it was going to be. There is
Ways to keep off some kinds of bad luck, but this wasn’t one of them
Kind; so I never tried to do anything, but just poked along low-spirited
And
on the watch-out.
I went down to the front garden and clumb over the stile where you go
Through the high board fence. There was an inch of new snow on the
Ground, and I seen somebody’s tracks. They had come up from the quarry
And stood around the stile a while, and then went on around the garden
Fence. It was funny they hadn’t come in, after standing around so. I
Couldn’t make it out. It was very curious, somehow. I was going to
Follow around, but I stooped down to look at the tracks first. I didn’t
Notice anything at first, but next I did. There was a cross in the left
Boot-heel made with big nails, to keep off the devil.
I was up in a second and shinning down the hill. I looked over my
Shoulder every now and then, but I didn’t see nobody. I was at Judge
Thatcher’s as quick as I could get there. He said:
“Why, my boy, you are all out of breath. Did you come for your
Interest?”
“No, sir,” I says; “is there some for me?”
“Oh, yes, a half-yearly is in last night – over a hundred and fifty
Dollars. Quite a fortune for you. You had better let me invest it along
With your six thousand, because if you take it you’ll spend it.”
“No, sir,” I says, “I don’t want to spend it. I don’t want it at all
– nor the six thousand, nuther. I want you to take it; I want to give it
To you – the six thousand and all.”
He looked surprised. He couldn’t seem to make it out. He says:
“Why, what can you mean, my boy?”
I says, “Don’t you ask me no questions about it, please. You’ll take it
– won’t you?”
He says:
“Well, I’m puzzled. Is something the matter?”
“Please take it,” says I, “and don’t ask me nothing – then I won’t have to
Tell no lies.”
He studied a while, and then he says:
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