Part 25 (1/2)
The dreadful secret of the murder was a chronic misery It was a very cancer for per two long weeks Tos He was very ill, he was interested in nothing When he got upon his feet at last and e had co and every creature There had been a ”revival,” and everybody had ”got religion,” not only the adults, but even the boys and girls Toht of one blessed sinful face, but disappoint a Testa spectacle He sought Ben Rogers, and found hi the poor with a basket of tracts He hunted up Ji of his lateEvery boy he encountered added another ton to his depression; and when, in desperation, he flew for refuge at last to the bosom of Huckleberry Finn and was received with a Scriptural quotation, his heart broke and he crept ho that he alone of all the toas lost, forever and forever
And that night there ca rain, awful claps of thunder and blinding sheets of lightning He covered his head with the bedclothes and waited in a horror of suspense for his doom; for he had not the shadow of a doubt that all this hubbub was about him
He believed he had taxed the forbearance of the powers above to the extreht have see with a battery of artillery, but there see up such an expensive thunderstorm as this to knock the turf from under an insect like himself
By and by the te its object The boy's first irateful, and reforht not be any more storms
The next day the doctors were back; Tom had relapsed The three weeks he spent on his back this tiot abroad at last he was hardly grateful that he had been spared, re how lonely was his estate, how companionless and forlorn he was He drifted listlessly down the street and found Ji a cat for murder, in the presence of her victim, a bird He found Joe Harper and Huck Finn up an alley eating a stolen melon Poor lads! they--like Tom--had suffered a relapse
CHAPTER XXIII
AT last the sleepy atorously: thetopic of village talk iet away from it Every reference to the murder sent a shudder to his heart, for his troubled conscience and fears almost persuaded hi as ”feelers”; he did not see how he could be suspected of knowing anything about the murder, but still he could not be coossip It kept him in a cold shi+ver all the time
He took Huck to a lonely place to have a talk with hiue for a little while; to divide his burden of distress with another sufferer Moreover, he wanted to assure himself that Huck had remained discreet
”Huck, have you ever told anybody about--that?”
”'Bout what?”
”You knohat”
”Oh--'course I haven't”
”Never a word?”
”Never a solitary word, so help me What makes you ask?”
”Well, I was afeard”
”Why, Toot found out
_You_ know that”
Tom felt more comfortable After a pause:
”Huck, they couldn't anybody get you to tell, could they?”
”Get me to tell? Why, if I wanted that halfbreed devil to drownd et me to tell They ain't no different way”
”Well, that's all right, then I reckon we're safe as long as we keep ain, anyway It's ain with dread solemnities
”What is the talk around, Huck? I've heard a power of it”