Read free ebooks.: 2010

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

The Prince and the Pauper (CONCLUSION -- end)

Download whole book

                              CONCLUSION
                       Justice and Retribution
-
    WHEN the mysteries were all cleared up, it came out, by confession
of Hugh Hendon, that his wife had repudiated Miles by his command that
day at Hendon Hall- a command assisted and supported by the
perfectly trustworthy promise that if she did not deny that he was
Miles Hendon, and stand firmly to it, he would have her life;
whereupon she said take it, she did not value it- and she would not
repudiate Miles; then her husband said he would spare her life, but
have Miles assassinated! This was a different matter; so she gave
her word and kept it.
    Hugh was not prosecuted for his threats or for stealing his
brother's estates and title, because the wife and brother would not
testify against him- and the former would not have been allowed to
do it, even if she had wanted to. Hugh deserted his wife and went over
to the continent, where he presently died; and by and by the Earl of
Kent married his relict. There were grand times and rejoicings at
Hendon village when the couple paid their first visit to the Hall.

Download whole book

                             CHAPTER XXIX
                              To London
-
    WHEN Hendon's term of service in the stocks was finished, he was
released and ordered to quit the region and come back no more. His
sword was restored to him, and also his mule and his donkey. He
mounted and rode off, followed by the king, the crowd opening with
quiet respectfulness to let them pass, and then dispersing when they
were gone.
    Hendon was soon absorbed in thought. There were questions of
high import to be answered. What should he do? Whither should he go?
Powerful help must be found somewhere, or he must relinquish his
inheritance and remain under the imputation of being an impostor
besides. Where could he hope to find this powerful help? Where,
indeed! It was a knotty question. By and by a thought occurred to
him which pointed to a possibility- the slenderest of slender
possibilities, certainly, but still worth considering, for lack of any
other that promised anything at all. He remembered what old Andrews
had said about the young king's goodness and his generous championship
of the wronged and unfortunate. Why not go and try to get speech of
him and beg for justice? Ah, yes, but could so fantastic a pauper
get admission to the august presence of a monarch? Never mind- let
that matter take care of itself; it was a bridge that would not need
to be crossed till he should come to it. He was an old campaigner, and
used to inventing shifts and expedients; no doubt he would be able
to find a way. Yes, he would strike for the capital. Maybe his
father's old friend, Sir Humphrey Marlow, would help him- 'good old
Sir Humphrey, Head Lieutenant of the late king's kitchen, or
stables, or something'- Miles could not remember just what or which.

Download whole book

                             CHAPTER XXIV
                              The Escape
-
    THE short winter day was nearly ended. The streets were
deserted, save for a few random stragglers, and these hurried straight
along, with the intent look of people who were only anxious to
accomplish their errands as quickly as possible and then snugly
house themselves from the rising wind and the gathering twilight. They
looked neither to the right nor to the left; they paid no attention to
our party, they did not even seem to see them. Edward the Sixth
wondered if the spectacle of a king on his way to jail had ever
encountered such marvelous indifference before. By and by the
constable arrived at a deserted market-square and proceeded to cross
it. When he had reached the middle of it, Hendon laid his hand upon
his arm, and said in a low voice:
    'Bide a moment, good sir, there is none in hearing, and I would
say a word to thee.'
    'My duty forbids it, sir; prithee, hinder me not, the night
comes on.'
    'Stay, nevertheless, for the matter concerns thee nearly. Turn thy
back moment and seem not to see; let this poor lad escape.'
    'This to me, sir! I arrest thee in-'
    'Nay, be not too hasty. See thou be careful and commit no
foolish error'- then he shut his voice down to a whisper, and said
in the man's ear- 'the pig thou hast purchased for eightpence may cost
thee thy neck, man!'

Download whole book

CHAPTER XIX
                     The Prince with the Peasants
-
    WHEN the king awoke in the early morning, he found that a wet
but thoughtful rat had crept into the place during the night and
made a cozy bed for itself in his bosom. Being disturbed now, it
scampered away. The boy smiled, and said, 'Poor fool, why so
fearful? I am as forlorn as thou. 'Twould be a shame in me to hurt the
helpless, who am myself so helpless. Moreover, I owe you thanks for
a good omen; for when a king has fallen so low that the very rats do
make a bed of him, it surely meaneth that his fortunes be upon the
turn, since it is plain he can no lower go.'
    He got up and stepped out of the stall, and just then he heard the
sound of children's voices. The barn door opened and a couple of
little girls came in. As soon as they saw him their talking and
laughing ceased, and they stopped and stood still, gazing at him
with strong curiosity; they presently began to whisper together,
then they approached nearer, and stopped again to gaze and whisper. By
and by they gathered courage and began to discuss him aloud. One said:
    'He hath a comely face.'

Download whole book

    CHAPTER XIV
                   'Le Roi est Mort - Vive le Roi'
-
    TOWARD daylight of the same morning, Tom Canty stirred out of a
heavy sleep and opened his eyes in the dark. He lay silent a few
moments, trying to analyze his confused thoughts and impressions,
and get some sort of meaning out of them, then suddenly he burst out
in a rapturous but guarded voice:
    'I see it all, I see it all! Now God be thanked, I am, indeed,
awake at last! Come, joy! vanish, sorrow! Ho, Nan! Bet! kick off
your straw and hie ye hither to my side, till I do pour into your
unbelieving ears the wildest madcap dream that ever the spirits of
night did conjure up to astonish the soul of man withal!... Ho, Nan, I
say! Bet!'...

Download whole book

CHAPTER IX
                          The River Pageant
-
    AT nine in the evening the whole vast river-front of the palace
was blazing with light. The river itself, as far as the eye could
reach cityward, was so thickly covered with watermen's boats and
with pleasure barges, all fringed with colored lanterns, and gently
agitated by the waves, that it resembled a glowing and limitless
garden of flowers stirred to soft motion by summer winds. The grand
terrace of stone steps leading down to the water, spacious enough to
mass the army of a German principality upon, was a picture to see,
with its ranks of royal halberdiers in polished armor, and its
troops of brilliantly costumed servitors flitting up and down, and
to and fro, in the hurry of preparation.
    Presently a command was given, and immediately all living
creatures vanished from the steps. Now the air was heavy with the hush
of suspense and expectancy. As far as one's vision could carry, he
might see the myriads of people in the boats rise up, and shade
their eyes from the glare of lanterns and torches, and gaze toward the
palace.

Download whole book

CHAPTER IV
                     The Prince's Troubles Begin
-
    AFTER hours of persistent pursuit and persecution, the little
prince was at last deserted by the rabble and left to himself. As long
as he had been able to rage against the mob, and threaten it
royally, and royally utter commands that were good stuff to laugh
at, he was very entertaining; but when weariness finally forced him to
be silent, he was no longer of use to his tormentors, and they
sought amusement elsewhere. He looked about him now, but could not
recognize the locality. He was within the city of London- that was all
he knew. He moved on, aimlessly, and in a little while the houses
thinned, and the passers-by were infrequent. He bathed his bleeding
feet in the brook which flowed then where Farringdon Street now is;
rested a few moments, then passed on, and presently came upon a
great space with only a few scattered houses in it, and a prodigious
church. He recognized this church. Scaffoldings were about,
everywhere, and swarms of workmen; for it was undergoing elaborate
repairs. The prince took heart at once- he felt that his troubles were
at an end now. He said to himself, 'It is the ancient Grey Friars'
church, which the king my father hath taken from the monks and given
for a home forever for poor and forsaken children, and new-named it
Christ's church. Right gladly will they serve the son of him who
hath done so generously by them- and the more that that son is himself
as poor and as forlorn as any that be sheltered here this day, or ever
shall be.'

Download whole book

1881
                           THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER

                      A TALE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE OF ALL AGES

                                 by Mark Twain


                               PREFACE
-
    I will set down a tale as it was told to me by one who had it of
his father, which latter had it of his father, this last having in
like manner had it of his father- and so on, back and still back,
three hundred years and more, the fathers transmitting it to the
sons and so preserving it. It may be history, it may be only legend, a
tradition. It may have happened, it may not have happened: but it
could have happened. It may be that the wise and the learned
believed it in the old days; it may be that only the unlearned and the
simple loved it and credited it.

THE_PRINCE_AND_THE_PAUPER
-
    Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, to Lord Cromwell, on the
birth of the Prince of Wales (afterward Edward VI).
-
    [From the National Manuscripts preserved by the British
Government]
-
    Ryght honorable, Salutem in Christo Jesu, and Syr here ys no lesse
joynge and rejossynge in thes partees for the byrth of our prynce,
hoom we hungurde for so longe, then ther was (I trow), inter vicinos
att the byrth of S. I. Baptyste, as thys berer, Master Erance, can
telle you. Gode gyffe us alle grace, to yelde dew thankes to our Lorde
Gode, Gode of Inglonde, for verely He hathe shoyd Hym selff Gode of
Inglond, or rather an Inglyssh Gode, yf we consydyr and pondyr welle
alle Hys procedynges with us from tyme to tyme. He hath overcumme alle
our yllness with Hys excedynge goodnesse, so that we ar now moor
then compelled to serve Hym, seke Hys glory, promott Hys wurde, yf the
Devylle of alle Devylles be natt in us. We have now the stoppe of
vayne trustes ande the stey of vayne expectations; lett us alle pray
for hys preservation. And I for my partt wylle wyssh that hys Grace
allways have, and evyn now from the begynynge, Governares,
Instructores and offyceres of ryght jugmente, ne optimum ingenium
non optima educatione depravetur.

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (chapter 40 - END )

Download whole book

CH_40
CHAPTER FORTY
-
We was feeling pretty good, after breakfast, and took my canoe and
went over the river a fishing, with a lunch, and had a good time,
and took a look at the raft and found her all right, and got home late
to supper, and found them in such a sweat and worry they didn't know
which end they was standing on, and made us go right off to bed the
minute we was done supper, and wouldn't tell us what the trouble
was, and never let on a word about the new letter, but didn't need to,
because we knowed as much about it as anybody did, and as soon as we
was half up stairs and her back was turned, we slid for the cellar
cubboard and loaded up a good lunch and took it up to our room and
went to bed, and got up about half-past eleven, and Tom put on Aunt
Sally's dress that he stole and was going to start with the lunch, but
says:
"Where's the butter?"
"I laid out a hunk of it," I says, "on a piece of corn-pone."
"Well, you left it laid out, then- it ain't here."

Download whole book

CH_36
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
-
As soon as we reckoned everybody was asleep, that night, we went
down the lightning-rod, and shut ourselves up in the lean-to, and
got out our pile of fox-fire, and went to work. We cleared
everything out of the way, about four or five foot along the middle of
the bottom log. Tom said he was right behind Jim's bed now, and we'd
dig it under it, and when we got through there couldn't nobody in
the cabin ever know there was any hole there, because Jim's counterpin
hung down most to the ground, and you'd have to raise it up and look
under to see the hole. So we dug and dug, with the caseknives, till
most midnight; and then we was dog tired, and our hands was blistered,
and yet you couldn't see we'd done anything, hardly. At last I says:
"This ain't no thirty-seven year job, this is a thirty-eight year
job, Tom Sawyer."

Download whole book

CH_32
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
-
When I got there it was all still and Sunday-like, and hot and
sunshiny- the hands was gone to the fields; and there was them kind of
faint dronings of bugs and flies in the air that makes it seem so
lonesome and like everybody's dead and gone; and if a breeze fans
along and quivers the leaves, it makes you feel mournful, because
you feel like it's spirits whispering-spirits that's been dead ever so
many years- and you always think they're talking about you. As a
general thing it makes a body wish he was dead, too, and done with
it all.
Phelps's was one of these little one-horse cotton plantations; and
they all look alike. A rail fence round a two-acre yard; a stile, made
out of logs sawed off and up-ended, in steps, like barrels of a
different length, to climb over the fence with, and for the women to
stand on when they are going to jump onto a horse; some sickly
grass-patches in the big yard, but mostly it was bare and smooth, like
an old hat with the nap rubbed off; big double log house for the white
folks- hewed logs, with the chinks stopped up with mud or mortar,
and these mud-stripes been whitewashed some time or another; round-log
kitchen, with a big broad, open but roofed passage joining it to the
house; log smoke-house back of the kitchen; three little log
nigger-cabins in a row t'other side the smokehouse; one little hut all
by itself away down against the back fence, and some outbuildings down
a piece the other side; ash-hopper, and big kettle to bile soap in, by
the little hut; bench by the kitchen door, with bucket of water and
a gourd; hound asleep there, in the sun; more hounds asleep, round
about; about three shade-trees away off in a corner; some currant
bushes and gooseberry bushes in one place by the fence; outside of the
fence a garden and a water-melon patch; then the cotton fields begins;
and after the fields, the woods.

Download whole book

CH_29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
-
They was fetching a very nice looking old gentleman along, and a
nice looking younger one, with his right arm in a sling. And my souls,
how the people yelled, and laughed, and kept it up. But I didn't see
no joke about it, and I judged it would strain the duke and the king
some to see any. I reckoned they'd turn pale. But no, nary a pale
did they turn. The duke he never let on he suspicioned what was up,
but just went a goo-gooing around, happy and satisfied, like a jug
that's googling out buttermilk; and as for the king, he just gazed and
gazed down sorrowful on them newcomers like it give him the
stomach-ache in his very heart to think there could be such frauds and
rascals in the world. Oh, he done it admirable. Lots of the
principal people gethered around the king, to let him see they was
on his side. That old gentleman that had just come looked all
puzzled to death. Pretty soon he begun to speak, and I see, straight
off, he pronounced like an Englishman, not the king's way, though
the king's was pretty good, for an imitation. I can't give the old
gent's words, nor I can't imitate him; but he turned around to the
crowd, and says, about like this:

Download whole book

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
-
Next day, towards night, we laid up under a little willow tow-head
out in the middle, where there was a village on each side of the
river, and the duke and the king begun to lay out a plan for working
them towns. Jim he spoke to the duke, and said he hoped it wouldn't
take but a few hours, because it got mighty heavy and tiresome to
him when he had to lay all day in the wigwam tied with the rope. You
see, when we left him all alone we had to tie him, because if
anybody happened on him all by himself and not tied, it wouldn't
look much like he was a runaway nigger, you know. So the duke said
it was kind of hard to have to lay roped all day, and he'd cipher
out some way to get around it.

Download whole book
CHAPTER TWENTY
-
They asked us considerable many questions; wanted to know what we
covered up the raft that way for, and laid by in the day-time
instead of running- was Jim a runaway nigger? Says I-
"Goodness sakes, would a runaway nigger run south?"
   No, they allowed he wouldn't. I had to account for things some way,
so I says:
"My folks was living in Pike County, in Missouri, where I was
born, and they all died off but me and pa and my brother Ike. Pa, he
'lowed he'd break up and go down and live with Uncle Ben, who's got
a little one-horse place on the river, forty-four mile below
Orleans. Pa was pretty poor, and had some debts; so when he'd
squared up there warn't nothing left but sixteen dollars and our
nigger, Jim. That warn't enough to take us fourteen hundred mile, deck
passage nor no other way. Well, when the river rose, pa had a streak
of luck one day; he ketched this piece of a raft; so we reckoned
we'd go down to Orleans on it. Pa's luck didn't hold out; a
steamboat run over the forrard corner of the raft, one night, and we
all went overboard and dove under the wheel; Jim and me come up, all
right, but pa was drunk, and Ike was only four years old, so they
never come up no more. Well, for the next day or two we had
considerable trouble, because people was always coming out in skiffs
and trying to take Jim away from me, saying they believed he was a
runaway nigger. We don't run day-times no more, now; nights they don't
bother us."

Download whole book

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
-
We judged that three nights more would fetch us to Cairo, at the
bottom of Illinois, where the Ohio River comes in, and that was what
we was after. We would sell the raft and get on a steamboat and go way
up the Ohio amongst the free States, and then be out of trouble.
Well, the second night a fog begun to come on, and we made for a
tow-head to tie to, for it wouldn't do to try to run in fog; but
when I paddled ahead in the canoe, with the line, to make fast,
there warn't anything but little saplings to tie to. I passed the line
around one of them right on the edge of the cut bank, but there was
a stiff current, and the raft come booming down so lively she tore
it out by the roots and away she went. I see the fog closing down, and
it made me so sick and scared I couldn't budge for most a half a
minute it seemed to me- and then there warn't no raft in sight; you
couldn't see twenty yards. I jumped into the canoe and run back to the
stern and grabbed the paddle and set her back a stroke. But she didn't
come. I was in such a hurry I hadn't untied her. I got up and tried to
untie her, but I was so excited my hands shook so I couldn't hardly do
anything with them.

Download whole book

CHAPTER TEN
-
After breakfast I wanted to talk about the dead man and guess out
how he come to be killed, but Jim didn't want to. He said it would
fetch bad luck; and besides, he said, he might come and ha'nt us;
he said a man that warn't buried was more likely to go a-ha'nting
around than one that was planted and comfortable. That sounded
pretty reasonable, so I didn't say no more; but I couldn't keep from
studying over it and wishing I knowed who shot the man, and what
they done it for.
We rummaged the clothes we'd got, and found eight dollars in
silver sewed up in the lining of an old blanket overcoat. Jim said
he reckoned the people in that house stole the coat, because if they'd
a knowed the money was there they wouldn't a left it. I said I
reckoned they killed him, too; but Jim didn't want to talk about that.
I says:

Download whole book

CHAPTER FIVE
-
I had shut the door to. Then I turned around, and there he was. I
used to be scared of him all the time, he tanned me so much. I
reckoned I was scared now, too; but in a minute I see I was
mistaken. That is, after the first jolt, as you may say, when my
breath sort of hitched- he being so unexpected; but right away
after, I see I warn't scared of him worth bothering about.
He was most fifty, and he looked it. His hair was long and tangled
and greasy, and hung down, and you could see his eyes shining
through like he was behind vines. It was all black, no gray; so was
his long, mixed-up whiskers. There warn't no color in his face,
where his face showed; it was white; not like another man's white, but
a white to make a body sick, a white to make a body's flesh crawl- a
tree-toad white, a fish-belly white. As for his clothes- just rags,
that was all. He had one ankle resting on 'tother knee; the boot on
that foot was busted, and two of his toes stuck through, and he worked
them now and then. His hat was laying on the floor; an old black
slouch with the top caved in, like a lid.

Download whole book

1884


                       THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN


                                 by Mark Twain




                             NOTICE
-
Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be
prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished;
persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
-
                                       By Order of the Author
                                     Per G. G., Chief of Ordnance
-
-
-
-
                          EXPLANATORY
-
In this book a number of dialects are used, to wit: the Missouri
negro dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods South-Western
dialect; the ordinary "Pike-County" dialect; and four modified
varieties of this last. The shadings have not been done in a
hap-hazard fashion, or by guess-work; but painstakingly, and with
the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with
these several forms of speech.
I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers
would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike
and not succeeding.
-
                                                The Author
-

CH_1
CHAPTER ONE
-
You don't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of
"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," but that ain't no matter. That book
was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was
things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is
nothing. I never seen anybody but lied, one time or another, without
it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt Polly- Tom's Aunt
Polly, she is- and Mary, and the Widow Douglas, is all told about in
that book- which is mostly a true book; with some stretchers, as I
said before.

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (CHAPTER_32 - CHAPTER_35)

Download whole book
Chapter 32
                   "Turn Out! They're Found!"
-
TUESDAY AFTERNOON CAME, and waned to the twilight. The village of
St. Petersburg still mourned. The lost children had not been found.
Public prayers had been offered up for them, and many and many a
private prayer that had the petitioner's whole heart in it; but
still no good news came from the cave. The majority of the searchers
had given up the quest and gone back to their daily avocations, saying
that it was plain the children could never be found. Mrs. Thatcher was
very ill, and a great part of the time delirious. People said it was
heart-breaking to hear her call her child, and raise her head and
listen a whole minute at a time, then lay it wearily down again with a
moan. Aunt Polly had drooped into a settled melancholy, and her gray
hair had grown almost white. The village went to its rest on Tuesday
night, sad and forlorn.
Away in the middle of the night a wild peal burst from the village
bells, and in a moment the streets were swarming with frantic
half-clad people, who shouted, "Turn out! turn out! they're found!
they're found!" Tin pans and horns were added to the din, the
population massed itself and moved toward the river, met the
children coming in an open carriage drawn by shouting citizens,
thronged around it, joined its homeward march, and swept magnificently
up the main street roaring huzzah after huzzah!
The village was illuminated; nobody went to bed again; it was the
greatest night the little town had ever seen. During the first half
hour a procession of villagers filed through Judge Thatcher's house,
seized the saved ones and kissed them, squeezed Mrs. Thatcher's
hand, tried to speak but couldn't- and drifted out raining tears all
over the place.

Download whole book
Chapter 29
                      Huck Saves the Widow
-
THE FIRST THING Tom heard on Friday morning was a glad piece of
news- Judge Thatcher's family had come back to town the night
before. Both Injun Joe and the treasure sunk into secondary importance
for a moment, and Becky took the chief place in the boy's interest. He
saw her and they had an exhausting good time playing "hi-spy" and
"gully-keeper" with a crowd of their schoolmates. The day was
completed and crowned in a peculiarly satisfactory way: Becky teased
her mother to appoint the next day for the long-promised and
long-delayed picnic, and she consented. The child's delight was
boundless; and Tom's not more moderate. The invitations were sent
out before sunset, and straightway the young folks of the village were
thrown into a fever of preparation and pleasurable anticipation. Tom's
excitement enabled him to keep awake until a pretty late hour, and
he had good hopes of hearing Huck's "meow," and of having his treasure
to astonish Becky and the picnickers with, next day; but he was
disappointed. No signal came that night.
Morning came, eventually, and by ten or eleven o'clock a giddy and
rollicking company were gathered at Judge Thatcher's, and everything
was ready for a start. It was not the custom for elderly people to mar
picnics with their presence. The children were considered safe
enough under the wings of a few young ladies of eighteen and a few
young gentlemen of twenty-three or thereabouts. The old steam ferry
boat was chartered for the occasion; presently the gay throng filed up
the main street laden with provision baskets. Sid was sick and had
to miss the fun; Mary remained at home to entertain him. The last
thing Mrs. Thatcher said to Becky, was-
"You'll not get back till late. Perhaps you'd better stay all
night with some of the girls that live near the ferry landing, child."
"Then I'll stay with Susy Harper, mamma."

Download whole book
Chapter 25
                  Seeking the Buried Treasure
-
THERE COMES A TIME in every rightly constructed boy's life when he
has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.
This desire suddenly came upon Tom one day. He sallied out to find Joe
Harper, but failed of success. Next he sought Ben Rogers; he had
gone fishing. Presently he stumbled upon Huck Finn the Red-Handed.
Huck would answer. Tom took him to a private place and opened the
matter to him confidentially. Huck was willing. Huck was always
willing to take a hand in any enterprise that offered entertainment
and required no capital, for he had a troublesome superabundance of
that sort of time which is not money.
"Where'll we dig?" said Huck.
"O, most anywhere."
"Why, is it hid all around?"
"No indeed it ain't. It's hid in mighty particular places, Huck-
sometimes on islands, sometimes in rotten chests under the end of a
limb of an old dead tree, just where the shadow falls at midnight; but
mostly under the floor in ha'nted houses."
"Who hides it?"
"Why robbers, of course- who'd you reckon? Sunday-school
sup'rintendents?"
"I don't know. If 'twas mine I wouldn't hide it; I'd spend it and
have a good time."
"So would I. But robbers don't do that way. They always hide it
and leave it there."
"Don't they come after it any more?"
"No, they think they will, but they generally forget the marks, or
else they die. Anyway it lays there a long time and gets rusty; and by
and by somebody finds an old yellow paper that tells how to find the
marks- a paper that's got to be ciphered over about a week because
it's mostly signs and hy'rogliphics."
"Hyro- which?"
"Hy'rogliphics- pictures and things, you know, that don't seem to
mean anything."
"Have you got one of them papers, Tom?"
"No."
"Well then, how you going to find the marks?"
"I don't want any marks. They always bury it under a ha'nted house
or on an island, or under a dead tree that's got one limb sticking
out. Well, we've tried Jackson's Island a little, and we can try it
again some time; and there's the old ha'nted house up the
Still-House branch, and there's lots of dead-limb trees- dead loads of
'em."

Download whole book
Chapter 21
             Eloquence- and the Master's Gilded Dome
-
VACATION WAS APPROACHING. The schoolmaster, always sever, grew
severer and more exacting than ever, for he wanted the school to
make a good showing on "Examination" day. His rod and his ferule
were seldom idle now- at least among the smaller pupils. Only the
biggest boys, and young ladies of eighteen and twenty escaped lashing.
Mr. Dobbins's lashings were very vigorous ones, too; for although he
carried, under his wig, a perfectly bald and shiny head, he had only
reached middle age and there was no sign of feebleness in his
muscle. As the great day approached, all the tyranny that was in him
came to the surface; he seemed to take a vindictive pleasure in
punishing the least shortcomings. The consequence was, that the
smaller boys spent their days in terror and suffering and their nights
in plotting revenge. They threw away no opportunity to do the master a
mischief. But he kept ahead all the time. The retribution that
followed every vengeful success was so sweeping and majestic that
the boys always retired from the field badly worsted. At last they
conspired together and hit upon a plan that promised a dazzling
victory. They swore-in the sign-painter's boy, told him the scheme,
and asked his help. He had his own reasons for being delighted, for
the master boarded in his father's family and had given the boy
ample cause to hate him. The master's wife would go on a visit to
the country in a few days, and there would be nothing to interfere
with the plan; the master always prepared himself for great
occasions by getting pretty well fuddled, and the sign-painter's boy
said that when the dominie had reached the proper condition on
Examination Evening he would "manage the thing" while he napped in his
chair; then he would have him awakened at the right time and hurried
away to school.

Download whole book
Chapter 18
                  Tom Reveals His Dream Secret
-
THAT WAS TOM'S GREAT secret- the scheme to return home with his
brother pirates and attend their own funerals. They had paddled over
to the Missouri shore on a log, at dusk on Saturday, landing five or
six miles below the village; they had slept in the woods at the edge
of the town till nearly daylight, and had then crept through back
lanes and alleys and finished their sleep in the gallery of the church
among a chaos of invalided benches.
At breakfast Monday morning, Aunt Polly and Mary were very loving to
Tom, and very attentive to his wants. There was an unusual amount of
talk. In the course of it Aunt Polly said:
"Well, I don't say it wasn't a fine joke, Tom, to keep everybody
suffering 'most a week so you boys had a good time, but it is a pity
you could be so hard-hearted as to let me suffer so. If you could come
over on a log to go to your funeral, you could have come over and give
me a hint some way that you warn't dead, but only run off."
"Yes, you could have done that, Tom," said Mary; "and I believe
you would if you had thought of it."
"Would you Tom?" said Aunt Polly, her face lighting wistfully.
"Say, now, would you, if you'd thought of it?"
"I- well I don't know. 'Twould a spoiled everything."
"Tom, I hoped you loved me that much," said Aunt Polly, with a
grieved tone that discomforted the boy. "It would been something if
you'd cared enough to think of it, even if you didn't do it."
"Now auntie, that ain't any harm," pleaded Mary; "it's only Tom's
giddy way- he is always in such a rush that he never thinks of
anything."
"More's the pity. Sid would have thought. And Sid would have come
and done it, too. Tom, you'll look back, some day, when it's too late,
and wish you'd cared a little more for me when it would have cost
you so little."

Download whole book
Chapter 14
                 Happy Camp of the Freebooters
-
WHEN TOM AWOKE in the morning, he wondered where he was. He sat up
and rubbed his eyes and looked around. Then he comprehended. It was
the cool gray dawn, and there was a delicious sense of repose and
peace in the deep pervading calm and silence of the woods. Not a
leaf stirred; not a sound obtruded upon great Nature's meditation.
Beaded dew-drops stood upon the leaves and grasses. A white layer of
ashes covered the fire, and a thin blue breath of smoke rose
straight into the air. Joe and Huck still slept.
Now, far away in the woods a bird called; another answered;
presently the hammering of a woodpecker was heard. Gradually the
cool dim gray of the morning whitened, and as gradually sounds
multiplied and life manifested itself. The marvel of Nature shaking
off sleep and going to work unfolded itself to the musing boy. A
little green worm came crawling over a dewy leaf, lifting two-thirds
of his body into the air from time to time and "sniffing around," then
proceeding again- for he was measuring, Tom said; and when the worm
approached him, of its own accord, he sat as still as a stone, with
his hopes rising and falling, by turns, as the creature still came
toward him or seemed inclined to go elsewhere; and when at last it
considered a painful moment with its curved body in the air and then
came decisively down upon Tom's leg and began a journey over him,
his whole heart was glad- for that meant that he was going to have a
new suit of clothes- without the shadow of a doubt a gaudy piratical
uniform. Now a procession of ants appeared, from nowhere in
particular, and went about their labors; one struggled manfully by
with a dead spider five times as big as itself in its arms, and lugged
it straight up a tree-trunk. A brown spotted lady-bug climbed the
dizzy height of a grass-blade, and Tom bent down close to it and said,
"Lady-bug, lady-bug, fly away home, your house is on fire, your
children's alone," and she took wing and went off to see about it-
which did not surprise the boy, for he knew of old that this insect
was credulous about conflagrations and he had practiced upon its
simplicity more than once. A tumble-bug came next, heaving sturdily at
its ball, and Tom touched the creature, to see it shut its legs
against its body and pretend to be dead. The birds were fairly rioting
by this time. A cat-bird, the northern mocker, lit in a tree over
Tom's head, and trilled out her imitations of her neighbors in a
rapture of enjoyment; then a shrill jay swept down, a flash of blue
flame, and stopped on a twig almost within the boy's reach, cocked his
head to one side and eyed the strangers with a consuming curiosity;
a gray squirrel and a big fellow of the "fox" kind came kurrying
along, sitting up at intervals to inspect and chatter at the boys, for
the wild things had probably never seen a human being before and
scarcely knew whether to be afraid or not. All Nature was wide awake
and stirring, now; long lances of sunlight pierced down through the
dense foliage far and near, and a few butterflies came fluttering upon
the scene.

Download whole book
Chapter 11
                      Conscience Racks Torn
-
CLOSE UPON THE HOUR OF NOON the whole village was suddenly
electrified with the ghastly news. No need of the as yet
undreamed-of telegraph; the tale flew from man to man, from group to
group, from house to house, with little less than telegraphic speed.
Of course the schoolmaster gave holiday for that afternoon; the town
would have thought strangely of him if he had not.
A gory knife had been found close to the murdered man, and it had
been recognized by somebody as belonging to Muff Potter- so the
story ran. And it was said that a belated citizen had come upon Potter
washing himself in the "branch" about one or two o'clock in the
morning, and that Potter had at once sneaked off- suspicious
circumstances, especially the washing, which was not a habit with
Potter. It was also said that the town had been ransacked for this
"murderer" (the public are not slow in the matter of sifting
evidence and arriving at a verdict) but that he could not be found.
Horsemen had departed down all the roads in every direction, and the
Sheriff "was confident" that he would be captured before night.
All the town was drifting toward the graveyard. Tom's heart-break
vanished and he joined the procession, not because he would not a
thousand times rather go anywhere else, but because an awful,
unaccountable fascination drew him on. Arrived at the dreadful
place, he wormed his small body through the crowd and saw the dismal
spectacle. It seemed to him an age since he was there before. Somebody
pinched his arm. He turned, and his eyes met Huckleberry's. Then
both looked elsewhere at once, and wondered if anybody had noticed
anything in their mutual glance. But everybody was talking, and intent
upon the grisly spectacle before them.
"Poor fellow!" "Poor young fellow!" "This ought to be a lesson to
grave-robbers!" "Muff Potter'll hang for this if they catch him!" This
was the drift of remark; and the minister said, "It was a judgment;
His hand is here."

Download whole book
Chapter 8
                      A Pirate Bold To Be
-
TOM DODGED HITHER and thither through lanes until he was well out of
the track of returning scholars, and then fell into a moody jog. He
crossed a small "branch" two or three times, because of a prevailing
juvenile superstition that to cross water baffled pursuit. Half an
hour later he was disappearing behind the Douglas mansion on the
summit of Cardiff Hill, and the school-house was hardly
distinguishable away off in the valley behind him. He entered a
dense wood, picked his pathless way to the centre of it, and sat
down on a mossy spot under a spreading oak. There was not even a
zephyr stirring; the dead noonday heat had even stilled the songs of
the birds; nature lay in a trance that was broken by no sound but
the occasional far-off hammering of a woodpecker, and this seemed to
render the pervading silence and sense of loneliness the more
profound. The boy's soul was steeped in melancholy; his feelings
were in happy accord with his surroundings. He sat long with his
elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands, meditating. It seemed
to him that life was but a trouble, at best, and he more than half
envied Jimmy Hodges, so lately released; it must be very peaceful,
he thought, to lie and slumber and dream forever and ever, with the
wind whispering through the trees and caressing the grass and the
flowers over the grave, and nothing to bother and grieve about, ever
any more. If he only had a clean Sunday-school record he could be
willing to go, and be done with it all. Now as to this girl. What
had he done? Nothing. He had meant the best in the world, and been
treated like a dog- like a very dog. She would be sorry some day-
maybe when it was too late. Ah, if he could only die temporarily!

Download whole book
Chapter 4
                  Showing off in Sunday School
-
THE SUN ROSE upon a tranquil world, and beamed down upon the
peaceful village like a benediction. Breakfast over, Aunt Polly had
family worship; it began with a prayer built from the ground up of
solid courses of Scriptural quotations welded together with a thin
mortar of originality; and from the summit of this she delivered a
grim chapter of the Mosaic Law, as from Sinai.
Then Tom girded up his loins, so to speak, and went to work to
"get his verses." Sid had learned his lesson days before. Tom bent all
his energies to the memorizing of five verses, and he chose part of
the Sermon on the Mount, because he could find no verses that were
shorter. At the end of half an hour Tom had a vague general idea of
his lesson, but no more, for his mind was traversing the whole field
of human thought, and his hands were busy with distracting
recreations. Mary took his book to hear him recite, and he tried to
find his way through the fog:
"Blessed are the- a- a-"
"Poor"-
"Yes- poor; blessed are the poor- a- a-"
"In spirit-"
"In spirit; blessed are the poor in spirit, for they- they-"
"Theirs-"
"For theirs. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they- they-"
"Sh-"
"For they- a-"
"S, H, A-"
"For they S, H,- O I don't know what it is!"
"Shall!"
"O, shall! for they shall- for they shall- a- a- shall mourn- a-
a- blessed are they that shall- they that- a- they that shall mourn,
for they shall- a- shall what? Why don't you tell me Mary?- what do
you want to be so mean for?"

Download whole book

                          THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER

                                 by Mark Twain


                                   Dedication

                To my wife this book is affectionately dedicated

PREFACE
                           Preface
-
MOST OF THE ADVENTURES recorded in this book really occurred; one or
two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were
schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also,
but not from an individual- he is a combination of the characteristics
of three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite
order of architecture.
The odd superstitions touched upon were all prevalent among children
and slaves in the West at the period of this story- that is to say,
thirty or forty years ago.
Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys
and girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that
account, for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind
adults of what they once were themselves, and of how they felt and
thought and talked, and what queer enterprises they sometimes
engaged in.
                                                     THE AUTHOR.
                                                    HARTFORD, 1876.

CHAPTER_1
                           Chapter 1
                  Tom Plays, Fights, and Hides
-
"TOM!"
No answer.
"Tom!"
No answer.
"What's gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!"
No answer.
The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them,
about the room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She
seldom or never looked through them for so small a thing as a boy;
they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for
"style," not service;- she could have seen through a pair of stove
lids just as well. She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said,
not fiercely, but still loud enough for the furniture to hear:
"Well, I lay if I get hold of you I'll-"
She did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and
punching under the bed with the broom- and so she needed breath to
punctuate the punches with. She resurrected nothing but the cat.
"I never did see the beat of that boy!"

Read free ebooks.

Authors

Blog Archive

Followers

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

The Prince and the Pauper (CONCLUSION -- end)

The Prince and the Pauper (CHAPTER 29 - 33)

The Prince and the Pauper (CHAPTER 24 - 28)

The Prince and the Pauper (CHAPTER 19 - 23)

The Prince and the Pauper (CHAPTER 14 - 18)

The Prince and the Pauper (CHAPTER 9 - 13)

The Prince and the Pauper (CHAPTER 4 - 8)

The Prince and the Pauper (CHAPTER 1 - 3)

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (chapter 40 - END )

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (chapter 36 - chapter 39 )

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (chapter 32 - chapter 35 )

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (chapter 29 - chapter 31 )

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (chapter 24 - chapter 28 )

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (chapter 20 - chapter 23 )

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (chapter 15 - chapter 19 )

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (chapter 10 - chapter 14 )

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (chapter 5 - chapter 9 )

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (chapter 1 - chapter 4 )

Monday, May 31, 2010

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (CHAPTER_32 - CHAPTER_35)

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (CHAPTER_29 - CHAPTER_31)

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (CHAPTER_25 - CHAPTER_28)

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (CHAPTER_21 - CHAPTER_24)

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (CHAPTER_18 - CHAPTER_20)

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (CHAPTER_14 - CHAPTER_17)

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (CHAPTER_11 - CHAPTER_13)

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (CHAPTER_8 - CHAPTER_10)

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (CHAPTER_4 - CHAPTER_7)

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (CHAPTER_1 - CHAPTER_3)

analitycs