登陆注册
5200800000016

第16章

Shortly Tom came upon the juvenile pariah of the village, Huckleberry Finn, son of the town drunkard.Huckleberry was cordially hated and dreaded by all the mothers of the town, because he was idle and lawless and vulgar and bad -- and because all their children admired him so, and delighted in his forbidden society, and wished they dared to be like him.Tom was like the rest of the respectable boys, in that he envied Huckleberry his gaudy outcast condition, and was under strict orders not to play with him.So he played with him every time he got a chance.Huckleberry was always dressed in the cast-off clothes of full-grown men, and they were in perennial bloom and fluttering with rags.His hat was a vast ruin with a wide crescent lopped out of its brim; his coat, when he wore one, hung nearly to his heels and had the rearward buttons far down the back; but one suspender supported his trousers; the seat of the trousers bagged low and contained nothing, the fringed legs dragged in the dirt when not rolled up.

Huckleberry came and went, at his own free will.He slept on doorsteps in fine weather and in empty hogsheads in wet; he did not have to go to school or to church, or call any being master or obey anybody; he could go fishing or swimming when and where he chose, and stay as long as it suited him; nobody forbade him to fight; he could sit up as late as he pleased; he was always the first boy that went barefoot in the spring and the last to resume leather in the fall; he never had to wash, nor put on clean clothes; he could swear wonderfully.In a word, everything that goes to make life precious that boy had.So thought every harassed, hampered, respectable boy in St.Petersburg.

Tom hailed the romantic outcast:

"Hello, Huckleberry!"

"Hello yourself, and see how you like it.""What's that you got?"

"Dead cat."

"Lemme see him, Huck.My, he's pretty stiff.Where'd you get him ?""Bought him off'n a boy."

"What did you give?"

"I give a blue ticket and a bladder that I got at the slaughter-house.""Where'd you get the blue ticket?"

"Bought it off'n Ben Rogers two weeks ago for a hoop-stick.""Say -- what is dead cats good for, Huck?""Good for? Cure warts with."

"No! Is that so? I know something that's better.""I bet you don't.What is it?"

"Why, spunk-water."

"Spunk-water! I wouldn't give a dern for spunk-water.""You wouldn't, wouldn't you? D'you ever try it?""No, I hain't.But Bob Tanner did."

"Who told you so!"

"Why, he told Jeff Thatcher, and Jeff told Johnny Baker, and Johnny told Jim Hollis, and Jim told Ben Rogers, and Ben told a nigger, and the nigger told me.There now!""Well, what of it? They'll all lie.Leastways all but the nigger.I don't know him.But I never see a nigger that wouldn't lie.Shucks! Now you tell me how Bob Tanner done it, Huck.""Why, he took and dipped his hand in a rotten stump where the rain-water was.""In the daytime?"

"Certainly."

"With his face to the stump?"

"Yes.Least I reckon so."

"Did he say anything?"

"I don't reckon he did.I don't know."

"Aha! Talk about trying to cure warts with spunk-water such a blame fool way as that! Why, that ain't a-going to do any good.You got to go all by yourself, to the middle of the woods, where you know there's a spunk-water stump, and just as it's midnight you back up against the stump and jam your hand in and say:

'Barley-corn, barley-corn, injun-meal shorts,Spunk-water, spunk-water, swaller these warts,'

and then walk away quick, eleven steps, with your eyes shut, and then turn around three times and walk home without speaking to anybody.Because if you speak the charm's busted.""Well, that sounds like a good way; but that ain't the way Bob Tanner done.""No, sir, you can bet he didn't, becuz he's the wartiest boy in this town; and he wouldn't have a wart on him if he'd knowed how to work spunk-water.I've took off thousands of warts off of my hands that way, Huck.I play with frogs so much that I've always got considerable many warts.Sometimes I take 'em off with a bean.""Yes, bean's good.I've done that."

"Have you? What's your way?"

"You take and split the bean, and cut the wart so as to get some blood, and then you put the blood on one piece of the bean and take and dig a hole and bury it 'bout midnight at the crossroads in the dark of the moon, and then you burn up the rest of the bean.You see that piece that's got the blood on it will keep drawing and drawing, trying to fetch the other piece to it, and so that helps the blood to draw the wart, and pretty soon off she comes.""Yes, that's it, Huck -- that's it; though when you're burying it if you say 'Down bean; off wart; come no more to bother me!' it's better.That's the way Joe Harper does, and he's been nearly to Coonville and most everywheres.But say -- how do you cure 'em with dead cats?""Why, you take your cat and go and get in the graveyard 'long about midnight when somebody that was wicked has been buried; and when it's midnight a devil will come, or maybe two or three, but you can't see 'em, you can only hear something like the wind, or maybe hear 'em talk; and when they're taking that feller away, you heave your cat after 'em and say, 'Devil follow corpse, cat follow devil, warts follow cat, I'm done with ye!' That'll fetch any wart.""Sounds right.D'you ever try it, Huck?"

"No, but old Mother Hopkins told me."

同类推荐
  • 佛说顶生王因缘经

    佛说顶生王因缘经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说佛名经续

    佛说佛名经续

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 澎湖台湾纪略

    澎湖台湾纪略

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 答吴殿书

    答吴殿书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 简·爱

    简·爱

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 氾胜之书

    氾胜之书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 林登州集

    林登州集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 纳尼亚传奇:凯斯宾王子

    纳尼亚传奇:凯斯宾王子

    篡位者弥勒兹想谋害纳尼亚的合法继承人凯斯宾王子,为躲避灾难,王子逃入深山老林。他在那里找到了隐居在深山中的会说话的动物和小矮人。弥勒兹率领大军围攻深山。危难之际凯斯宾吹晌了魔法号角,召来了彼得、苏姗、爱德蒙和露西四兄妹。就这样一场讨伐篡位者的正义之战开始了……
  • 奇闻怪谈:日本民间故事(套装共4册)

    奇闻怪谈:日本民间故事(套装共4册)

    日本本土流传着大量关于鬼灵精怪的传说故事,这些本土民众口耳相传的民间故事,既是日本文化的重要组成部分,也是日本文人学者创作中不可或缺的重要源泉。本系列丛书精选了日本文学大师小泉八云、田中贡太郎、芥川龙之介等文学大家的经典怪谈作品,如人面疮、狐仙报恩、山灵、蛤蟆神社、幽灵瀑布的传说等,几乎囊落了日本本土流传最广、最经典的民间故事。在大师们的笔下,这些故事或伤感,或诙谐,或警示,或讽喻,丰富多彩,形态多变,无不弥漫着强烈的日本传统文学的独特风味以及浓厚的扶桑国乡土汁味,对后世产生了深远且重大的影响,被后来者进行各种形式的改编和再创作,著名作家京极夏彦、梦枕貘、谷崎润一郎等,都深受这些作品的影响。这些民间故事,也是他人了解日本的重要窗口,为他人透视日本传统民俗文化作出了巨大的贡献。
  • 夏天过去了

    夏天过去了

    嫉妒着的朋友,喜欢过的男生,写不完的作业,各种各样的人,这是一个女生寡淡的青春。
  • 雇佣兵之北极狐

    雇佣兵之北极狐

    在你见过真实的战争嘛?你等待什么?这是你害怕的理由嘛?打开它,看着它。看完它。
  • 乞丐贵女

    乞丐贵女

    21世纪,出身豪门的北大研究生林紫叶,因为家族内部争夺财产的阴谋,死于自己的堂姐林佳木的算计,一朝穿越重生,变成了一个身世悲惨的连贱籍都写不上的小乞丐,随时面临着饿死病死被打死的危险,可她并不屈服,发誓要好好活着,摆脱贱如蝼蚁的命运,发誓一定要成为人上人:老天爷既然要给我一次重生的机会,我一定不能辜负他老人家的期望!……
  • 一夜成婚:总裁太缠人

    一夜成婚:总裁太缠人

    她,孤苦无依,不受疼爱的名门千金。他,运筹帷幄,嗜血无情的商界霸主。一场精心策划的计谋,将她错送到他的身边,引出多年前的血海深仇。
  • 死亡请柬

    死亡请柬

    江北大学美术系学生,牛欣欣再为海外贸易公司老总吴宇翔画壁画期间,屡次要款未果。然而有一天牛欣欣看到吴宇翔突然接到了一个神秘电话,接着收到了一个神秘的盒子。第二天牛欣欣接到吴宇翔的电话,令牛欣欣十分诧异的是,吴宇翔居然爽快的付清了所有款项。可在牛欣欣拿到钱的当天晚上,吴宇翔上吊自杀,盒子神秘失踪,并留下一张神秘的照片。同时江北大学第三校舍开放的当天下午,美术系方晓彤在画室用铅笔刺向自己的喉咙,诡异自杀。一连串诡异所思的事件,神秘的死亡请柬,牛欣欣发现,自己被卷入了一场凶杀风波,同时牵扯出了十几年前的两件无头公案。命运的天枰到底会偏向哪边?盒子里到底隐藏着什么秘密?第三校舍又有什么恐怖的过去?
  • 前生2

    前生2

    青年女作者王晓燕最新长篇小说《前生》,以其特有的视角与简练的文笔将一个故事向读者娓娓道来,把都市里职业男女的爱恨情仇描写的淋漓尽致。评论家称,在这样一个小说家已经被贬为毫无意义的故事复述者的年代里,王晓燕所坚持的叙述方向不是故事本身而是故事之外的寓意与叙述的技巧,其作品叙事诡秘,没有随传统或流行叙事的方式而自成格调。