| 1 |
There was which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. |
| 2 |
That is nothing. |
| 3 |
We got six thousand dollars apiece - all gold. |
| 4 |
It was an awful sight of money when it was piled up. |
| 5 |
I lit out. |
| 6 |
So I went back. |
| 7 |
Well, then, the old thing commenced again. |
| 8 |
The widow rung a bell for supper, and you had to come to time. |
| 9 |
That is, nothing only everything was cooked by itself. |
| 10 |
Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me. |
| 11 |
But she wouldn't. |
| 12 |
That is just the way with some people. |
| 13 |
They get down on the thing when they don't know nothing about it. |
| 14 |
She worked me middling hard for about an hour, and then the widow made her ease up. |
| 15 |
I couldn't stood it much longer. |
| 16 |
Then for an hour it was deadly dull, and I was fidgety. |
| 17 |
Then she told me all about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there. |
| 18 |
She got mad, then, but I didn't mean no harm. |
| 19 |
But I never said so, because it would only make trouble, and wouldn't do no good. |
| 20 |
Now she had got a start, and she went on and told me all about the good place. |
| 21 |
So I didn't think much of it. |
| 22 |
But I never said so. |
| 23 |
I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together. |
| 24 |
By-and-by they fetched the niggers in and had prayers, and then everybody was off to bed. |
| 25 |
I went up to my room with a piece of candle and put it on the table. |
| 26 |
Then I set down in a chair by the window and tried to think of something cheerful, but it warn't no use. |
| 27 |
I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead. |
| 28 |
I was scared and most shook the clothes off of me. |
| 29 |
When we was passing by the kitchen I fell over a root and made a noise. |
| 30 |
Well, likely it was minutes and minutes that there warn't a sound, and we all there so close together. |
| 31 |
Well, I've noticed that thing plenty of times since. |
| 32 |
So he set down on the ground betwixt me and Tom. |
| 33 |
My nose begun to itch. |
| 34 |
It itched till the tears come into my eyes. |
| 35 |
Then Tom said he hadn't got candles enough, and he would slip in the kitchen and get some more. |
| 36 |
Then we lit the candles and crawled in on our hands and knees. |
| 37 |
We went about two hundred yards, and then the cave opened up. |
| 38 |
Everybody was willing. |
| 39 |
Everybody said it was a real beautiful oath, and asked Tom if he got it out of his own head. |
| 40 |
Some thought it would be good to kill the families of boys that told the secrets. |
| 41 |
Then they all stuck a pin in their fingers to get blood to sign with, and I made my mark on the paper. |
| 42 |
So they all made fun of him, and called him cry-baby, and that made him mad, and he said he would go straight and tell all the secrets. |
| 43 |
She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get it. |
| 44 |
I tried it. |
| 45 |
Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks. |
| 46 |
She never told me why, and I couldn't make it out no way. |
| 47 |
I set down, one time, back in the woods, and had a long think about it. |
| 48 |
Well, about this time he was found in the river drowned, about twelve miles above town, so people said. |
| 49 |
They said he was floating on his back in the water. |
| 50 |
They took him and buried him on the bank. |
| 51 |
Pap he hadn't been seen for more than a year, and that was comfortable for me; I didn't want to see him no more. |
| 52 |
We played robber now and then about a month, and then I resigned. |
| 53 |
But I couldn't see no profit in it. |
| 54 |
He said we must slick up our swords and guns, and get ready. |
| 55 |
I said, why couldn't we see them, then? |
| 56 |
Well, three or four months run along, and it was well into the winter, now. |
| 57 |
I don't take no stock in mathematics, anyway. |
| 58 |
So the longer I went to school the easier it got to be. |
| 59 |
The widow said I was coming along slow but sure, and doing very satisfactory. |
| 60 |
One morning I happened to turn over the salt-cellar at breakfast. |
| 61 |
There was an inch of new snow on the ground, and I seen somebody's tracks. |
| 62 |
It was funny they hadn't come in, after standing around so. |
| 63 |
I couldn't make it out. |
| 64 |
It was very curious, somehow. |
| 65 |
I was going to follow around, but I stooped down to look at the tracks first. |
| 66 |
I didn't notice anything at first, but next I did. |
| 67 |
There was a cross in the left boot-heel made with big nails, to keep off the devil. |
| 68 |
I was up in a second and shinning down the hill. |
| 69 |
I looked over my shoulder every now and then, but I didn't see nobody. |
| 70 |
So I signed it, and left. |
| 71 |
He said there was a spirit inside of it, and it knowed everything. |
| 72 |
It fell pretty solid, and only rolled about an inch. |
| 73 |
Well, I knowed a potato would do that, but I had forgot it. |
| 74 |
This time he said the hair-ball was all right. |
| 75 |
He said it would tell my whole fortune if I wanted it to. |
| 76 |
I says, go on. |
| 77 |
I had shut the door to. |
| 78 |
Then I turned around, and there he was. |
| 79 |
I reckoned I was scared now, too; but in a minute I see I was mistaken. |
| 80 |
It was all black, no gray; so was his long, mixed-up whiskers. |
| 81 |
I set the candle down. |
| 82 |
I took up a book and begun something about General Washington and the wars. |
| 83 |
That pleased the old man till he couldn't rest. |
| 84 |
When he got out the new judge said he was agoing to make a man of him. |
| 85 |
So they shook it, one after the other, all around, and cried. |
| 86 |
He kept me with him all the time, and I never got a chance to run off. |
| 87 |
He had a gun which he had stole, I reckon, and we fished and hunted, and that was what we lived on. |
| 88 |
It was kind of lazy and jolly, laying off comfortable all day, smoking and fishing, and no books nor study. |
| 89 |
I didn't want to go back no more. |
| 90 |
It was pretty good times up in the woods there take it all around. |
| 91 |
He said he would like to see the widow get me. |
| 92 |
I got the things all up to the cabin, and then it was about dark. |
| 93 |
That was always his word. |
| 94 |
I don't know how long I was asleep, but all of a sudden there was an awful scream and I was up. |
| 95 |
He was laying over by the corner. |
| 96 |
I could hear him through the blanket. |
| 97 |
Pretty soon he was all tired out, and dropped down with his back against the door, and said he would rest a minute and then kill me. |
| 98 |
He put his knife under him, and said he would sleep and get strong, and then he would see who was who. |
| 99 |
And how slow and still the time did drag along. |
| 100 |
I opened my eyes and looked around, trying to make out where I was. |
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