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Tom
stirred up the other pirates and they all clattered away with a shout, and
in a minute or two were stripped and chasing after and tumbling over each
other in the shallow limpid water of the white sandbar. They felt no
longing for the little village sleeping in the distance beyond the
majestic waste of water. A vagrant current or a slight rise in the river
had carried off their raft, but this only gratified them, since its going
was something like burning the bridge between them and civilization.
They
came back to camp wonderfully refreshed, glad-hearted, and ravenous; and
they soon had the camp-fire blazing up again. Huck found a spring of clear
cold water close by, and the boys made cups of broad oak or hickory
leaves, and felt that water, sweetened with such a wildwood charm as that,
would be a good enough substitute for coffee. While Joe was slicing bacon
for breakfast, Tom and Huck asked him to hold on a minute; they stepped to
a promising nook in the river-bank and threw in their lines; almost
immediately they had reward. Joe had not had time to get impatient before
they were back again with some handsome bass, a couple of sun-perch and a
small catfish -- provisions enough for quite a family. They fried the fish
with the bacon, and were astonished; for no fish had ever seemed so
delicious before. They did not know that the quicker a fresh-water fish is
on the fire after he is caught the better he is; and they reflected little
upon what a sauce open-air sleeping, open-air exercise, bathing, and a
large ingredient of hunger make, too.
They
lay around in the shade, after breakfast, while Huck had a smoke, and then
went off through the woods on an exploring expedition. They tramped gayly
along, over decaying logs, through tangled underbrush, among solemn
monarchs of the forest, hung from their crowns to the ground with a
drooping regalia of grape-vines. Now and then they came upon snug nooks
carpeted with grass and jeweled with flowers.
They
found plenty of things to be delighted with, but nothing to be astonished
at. They discovered that the island was about three miles long and a
quarter of a mile wide, and that the shore it lay closest to was only
separated from it by a narrow channel hardly two hundred yards wide. They
took a swim about every hour, so it was close upon the middle of the
afternoon when they got back to camp. They were too hungry to stop to
fish, but they fared sumptuously upon cold ham, and then threw themselves
down in the shade to talk. But the talk soon began to drag, and then died.
The stillness, the solemnity that brooded in the woods, and the sense of
loneliness, began to tell upon the spirits of the boys. They fell to
thinking. A sort of undefined longing crept upon them. This took dim
shape, presently -- it was budding homesickness. Even Finn the Red-Handed
was dreaming of his doorsteps and empty hogsheads. But they were all
ashamed of their weakness, and none was brave enough to speak his thought.
For
some time, now, the boys had been dully conscious of a peculiar sound in
the distance, just as one sometimes is of the ticking of a clock which he
takes no distinct note of. But now this mysterious sound became more
pronounced, and forced a recognition. The boys started, glanced at each
other, and then each assumed a listening attitude. There was a long
silence, profound and unbroken; then a deep, sullen boom came floating
down out of the distance.
"What
is it!" exclaimed Joe, under his breath.
"I
wonder," said Tom in a whisper.
"'Tain't
thunder," said Huckleberry, in an awed tone, "becuz thunder
--"
"Hark!"
said Tom. "Listen -- don't talk."
They
waited a time that seemed an age, and then the same muffled boom troubled
the solemn hush.
"Let's
go and see."
They
sprang to their feet and hurried to the shore toward the town. They parted
the bushes on the bank and peered out over the water. The little steam
ferryboat was about a mile below the village, drifting with the current.
Her broad deck seemed crowded with people. There were a great many skiffs
rowing about or floating with the stream in the neighborhood of the
ferryboat, but the boys could not determine what the men in them were
doing. Presently a great jet of white smoke burst from the ferryboat's
side, and as it expanded and rose in a lazy cloud, that same dull throb of
sound was borne to the listeners again.
"I
know now!" exclaimed Tom; "somebody's drownded!"
"That's
it!" said Huck; "they done that last summer, when Bill Turner
got drownded; they shoot a cannon over the water, and that makes him come
up to the top. Yes, and they take loaves of bread and put quicksilver in 'em
and set 'em afloat, and wherever there's anybody that's drownded, they'll
float right there and stop."
"Yes,
I've heard about that," said Joe. "I wonder what makes the bread
do that."
"Oh,
it ain't the bread, so much," said Tom; "I reckon it's mostly
what they SAY over it before they start it out."
"But
they don't say anything over it," said Huck. "I've seen 'em and
they don't."
"Well,
that's funny," said Tom. "But maybe they say it to themselves.
Of COURSE they do. Anybody might know that."
The
other boys agreed that there was reason in what Tom said, because an
ignorant lump of bread, uninstructed by an incantation, could not be
expected to act very intelligently when set upon an errand of such
gravity.
"By
jings, I wish I was over there, now," said Joe.
"I
do too" said Huck "I'd give heaps to know who it is."
The
boys still listened and watched. Presently a revealing thought flashed
through Tom's mind, and he exclaimed:
"Boys,
I know who's drownded -- it's us!"
They
felt like heroes in an instant. Here was a gorgeous triumph; they were
missed; they were mourned; hearts were breaking on their account; tears
were being shed; accusing memories of unkindness to these poor lost lads
were rising up, and unavailing regrets and remorse were being indulged;
and best of all, the departed were the talk of the whole town, and the
envy of all the boys, as far as this dazzling notoriety was concerned.
This was fine. It was worth while to be a pirate, after all.
As
twilight drew on, the ferryboat went back to her accustomed business and
the skiffs disappeared. The pirates returned to camp. They were jubilant
with vanity over their new grandeur and the illustrious trouble they were
making. They caught fish, cooked supper and ate it, and then fell to
guessing at what the village was thinking and saying about them; and the
pictures they drew of the public distress on their account were gratifying
to look upon -- from their point of view. But when the shadows of night
closed them in, they gradually ceased to talk, and sat gazing into the
fire, with their minds evidently wandering elsewhere. The excitement was
gone, now, and Tom and Joe could not keep back thoughts of certain persons
at home who were not enjoying this fine frolic as much as they were.
Misgivings came; they grew troubled and unhappy; a sigh or two escaped,
unawares. By and by Joe timidly ventured upon a roundabout
"feeler" as to how the others might look upon a return to
civilization -- not right now, but --
Tom
withered him with derision! Huck, being uncommitted as yet, joined in with
Tom, and the waverer quickly "explained," and was glad to get
out of the scrape with as little taint of chicken-hearted homesickness
clinging to his garments as he could. Mutiny was effectually laid to rest
for the moment.
As
the night deepened, Huck began to nod, and presently to snore. Joe
followed next. Tom lay upon his elbow motionless, for some time, watching
the two intently. At last he got up cautiously, on his knees, and went
searching among the grass and the flickering reflections flung by the
camp-fire. He picked up and inspected several large semi-cylinders of the
thin white bark of a sycamore, and finally chose two which seemed to suit
him. Then he knelt by the fire and painfully wrote something upon each of
these with his "red keel"; one he rolled up and put in his
jacket pocket, and the other he put in Joe's hat and removed it to a
little distance from the owner. And he also put into the hat certain
schoolboy treasures of almost inestimable value -- among them a lump of
chalk, an India-rubber ball, three fishhooks, and one of that kind of
marbles known as a "sure 'nough crystal." Then he tiptoed his
way cautiously among the trees till he felt that he was out of hearing,
and straightway broke into a keen run in the direction of the sandbar.
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