登陆注册
5270100000019

第19章 CHAPTER VIII. THE DISAPPEARING LAKE(2)

"I tell you you DIDN'T see it either -- because it warn't there to see."

It astonished Jim to hear him talk so, and he broke in and says, kind of pleading and distressed:

"Mars Tom, PLEASE don't say sich things in sich an awful time as dis. You ain't only reskin' yo' own self, but you's reskin' us -- same way like Anna Nias en Siffra. De lake WUZ dah -- I seen it jis' as plain as I sees you en Huck dis minute."

I says:

"Why, he seen it himself! He was the very one that seen it first. NOW, then!"

"Yes, Mars Tom, hit's so -- you can't deny it. We all seen it, en dat PROVE it was dah."

"Proves it! How does it prove it?"

"Same way it does in de courts en everywheres, Mars Tom. One pusson might be drunk, or dreamy or suthin', en he could be mistaken; en two might, maybe; but I tell you, sah, when three sees a thing, drunk er sober, it's SO. Dey ain't no gittin' aroun' dat, en you knows it, Mars Tom."

"I don't know nothing of the kind. There used to be forty thousand million people that seen the sun move from one side of the sky to the other every day.

Did that prove that the sun DONE it?"

"Course it did. En besides, dey warn't no 'casion to prove it. A body 'at's got any sense ain't gwine to doubt it. Dah she is now -- a sailin' thoo de sky, like she allays done."

Tom turned on me, then, and says:

"What do YOU say -- is the sun standing still?"

"Tom Sawyer, what's the use to ask such a jackass question? Anybody that ain't blind can see it don't stand still."

"Well," he says, "I'm lost in the sky with no company but a passel of low-down animals that don't know no more than the head boss of a university did three or four hundred years ago."

It warn't fair play, and I let him know it. I says:

"Throwin' mud ain't arguin', Tom Sawyer."

"Oh, my goodness, oh, my goodness gracious, dah's de lake agi'n!" yelled Jim, just then. "NOW, Mars Tom, what you gwine to say?"

Yes, sir, there was the lake again, away yonder across the desert, perfectly plain, trees and all, just the same as it was before. I says:

"I reckon you're satisfied now, Tom Sawyer."

But he says, perfectly ca'm:

"Yes, satisfied there ain't no lake there."

Jim says:

"DON'T talk so, Mars Tom -- it sk'yers me to hear you. It's so hot, en you's so thirsty, dat you ain't in yo' right mine, Mars Tom. Oh, but don't she look good! 'clah I doan' know how I's gwine to wait tell we gits dah, I's SO thirsty."

"Well, you'll have to wait; and it won't do you no good, either, because there ain't no lake there, I tell you."

I says:

"Jim, don't you take your eye off of it, and I won't, either."

"'Deed I won't; en bless you, honey, I couldn't ef I wanted to."

We went a-tearing along toward it, piling the miles behind us like nothing, but never gaining an inch on it -- and all of a sudden it was gone again! Jim stag-gered, and 'most fell down. When he got his breath he says, gasping like a fish:

"Mars Tom, hit's a GHOS', dat's what it is, en I hopes to goodness we ain't gwine to see it no mo'.

Dey's BEEN a lake, en suthin's happened, en de lake's dead, en we's seen its ghos'; we's seen it twiste, en dat's proof. De desert's ha'nted, it's ha'nted, sho; oh, Mars Tom, le''s git outen it; I'd ruther die den have de night ketch us in it ag'in en de ghos' er dat lake come a-mournin' aroun' us en we asleep en doan' know de danger we's in."

"Ghost, you gander! It ain't anything but air and heat and thirstiness pasted together by a person's imagination. If I -- gimme the glass!"

He grabbed it and begun to gaze off to the right.

"It's a flock of birds," he says. "It's getting toward sundown, and they're making a bee-line across our track for somewheres. They mean business -- maybe they're going for food or water, or both. Let her go to starboard! -- Port your hellum! Hard down!

There -- ease up -- steady, as you go."

We shut down some of the power, so as not to out-speed them, and took out after them. We went skim-ming along a quarter of a mile behind them, and when we had followed them an hour and a half and was get-ting pretty discouraged, and was thirsty clean to unendurableness, Tom says:

"Take the glass, one of you, and see what that is, away ahead of the birds."

Jim got the first glimpse, and slumped down on the locker sick. He was most crying, and says:

"She's dah ag'in, Mars Tom, she's dah ag'in, en I knows I's gwine to die, 'case when a body sees a ghos' de third time, dat's what it means. I wisht I'd never come in dis balloon, dat I does."

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 青少年植物常识必读(青少年必读常识)

    青少年植物常识必读(青少年必读常识)

    每一朵花,都是一个春天,盛开馥郁芬芳;每一粒沙,都是一个世界,搭建小小天堂;每一颗心,都是一盏灯光,把地球村点亮!借助图书为你的生活添一丝色彩。这是一套包罗生活万象的、有趣的书,向读者介绍了不可不知的中的常识。包括文学常识、地理常识、历史常识、安全常识、文化常识、动物常识、植物常识、科技常识、天文常识、生活常识等。这些都是一些生活常识性的问题,说大不大,说小不小,因为零散,平时想了解又难以查找,我们将这些你们可能感兴趣的、富有趣味的日常生活中日积月累的宝贵经验搜集并编辑成册,以便您在遇到问题时随时查询,轻松解决生活中的问题。
  • 谜语故事(语文新课标必读书目)

    谜语故事(语文新课标必读书目)

    国家教育部颁布了最新《语文课程标准》,统称新课标,对中、小学语文教学指定了阅读书目,对阅读的数量、内容、质量以及速度都提出了明确的要求,这对于提高学生的阅读能力,培养语文素养,陶冶情操,促进学生终身学习和终身可持续发展,对于提高广大人民的文学素养具有极大的意义。
  • 种族崛起之生存

    种族崛起之生存

    当世界悄然发生改变时,是毁灭还是新生;当人类失去高端热武器时,是绝望还是挣扎;当人类成为高智慧生物中一员时,是逃避还是崛起;丧尸横行,异兽突起,机械暴动,海兽肆虐,人类将何去何存:我们不是救世主,我们只是想活下去!
  • God the Known and God the Unknown

    God the Known and God the Unknown

    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。
  • The Real Thing

    The Real Thing

    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。
  • 隐婚小甜妻

    隐婚小甜妻

    “韩少,结婚吗?”“结。”“韩少,你爱我吗?”“不爱。”过了几年。“韩少,离婚吗?”“不离。”“韩少,你爱我吗?”“爱。”洛初双被迫嫁给韩霁深,没想到差点被迫被宠成了不分五谷的小笨蛋。“韩少,少夫人在公司被欺负了。”“把欺负我老婆的人马上解雇。”“韩少,少夫人看中一条项链不舍得买。”“怎么只看中了一条,你们怎么观察的?把我老婆扫过眼的都买了。”“韩少,少夫人的前男友出现了。”“三个字,灭、了、他!”【双洁1V1甜宠文】喜欢请加群:721499348
  • 萌宝家教:误惹酷律师

    萌宝家教:误惹酷律师

    都说女儿是爸爸上一辈子的情人。在何梦洁看来,文听雨和文轩岂止上一辈子是情人,大概好几辈子都是情人。同样的优质容貌,同样的冷酷举止,甚至连说话都是同样的毒舌讨厌。当家教第一天,被喷胡椒粉,被泼水,被滑倒,甚至最后,还被弄得裙衫俱裂!老虎不发威当我是病猫吗?她何梦洁可是从小到大只有作弄别人,没有被别人捉弄的主!且看欢脱幼教如何巧斗毒舌爸,智收小萝莉,在家教的路上披荆斩棘,最后抱得男神归!此文姐妹篇《逃爱手册:权少夺心太凶猛》正在火热连载,欢迎围观哦!
  • 思考成才(中华民族传统美德教育读本)

    思考成才(中华民族传统美德教育读本)

    本丛书筛选内容主要遵循以下原则要求:(1)坚持批判继承思想,取其精华、去其糟粕。既不全盘肯定,也不全盘否定。坚持抽象继承、演绎发展、立足当代、为我所用。(2)坚持系统整体的原则。注意各历史时期分布;注意各民族的进步人物;注意各层面人物;注意人物各侧面。做到:竖看历史五千年,纵向成条线;横看美德重实践,横向不漏面。(3)坚持古为今用,为我所用原则。在发掘美德资源时,特别挖掘古代人物故事、言论,注重寻找挖掘各阶层、各民族的传统公德、通德、同德;注重人民性、民主性、进步性、发展性、普遍性、抽象性,不求全古代,不求全个体。
  • 随身空间:带着包子去修仙

    随身空间:带着包子去修仙

    莫名穿越到修真界,她,一个现代穷学生,居然踏上了修仙之路!步入天云门,遇上个贪吃师傅,最关键的是,还有好多帅哥师兄!下山历练,她夺法宝,抢美男,不亦乐乎!纳尼?有人要争夺天云门?哼,毁我家园者,死!
  • 天种

    天种

    天启四千一百零七年。三宗避世不出,淡眼俯瞰赤芒。为的就是等到这人。因天而生之种,荡起大陆的逐鹿之战,就此拉开。启明之时,有人应运而生,最后却众叛亲离,人所不容,他又该如何选择,或者,这还是一个阴谋?...轻轻淡雾乱神楚楚青天人寒,幽幽白发乱世,茫茫尸海不尽。