Part 5 (1/2)
”And how'd they come to strike that idiot idea of going a-blackberrying in the night?”
”Well, m'm, they--er--they told us they had a lantern, and--”
”Oh, SHET up--do! Looky here; what was they going to do with a dog?--hunt blackberries with it?”
”I think, m'm, they--”
”Now, Tom Sawyer, what kind of a lie are you fixing YOUR mouth to contribit to this mess of rubbage? Speak out--and I warn you before you begin, that I don't believe a word of it. You and Huck's been up to something you no business to--I know it perfectly well; I know you, BOTH of you. Now you explain that dog, and them blackberries, and the lantern, and the rest of that rot--and mind you talk as straight as a string--do you hear?”
Tom he looked considerable hurt, and says, very dignified:
”It is a pity if Huck is to be talked to that way, just for making a little bit of a mistake that anybody could make.”
”What mistake has he made?”
”Why, only the mistake of saying blackberries when of course he meant strawberries.”
”Tom Sawyer, I lay if you aggravate me a little more, I'll--”
”Aunt Sally, without knowing it--and of course without intending it--you are in the wrong. If you'd 'a' studied natural history the way you ought, you would know that all over the world except just here in Arkansaw they ALWAYS hunt strawberries with a dog--and a lantern--”
But she busted in on him there and just piled into him and snowed him under. She was so mad she couldn't get the words out fast enough, and she gushed them out in one everlasting freshet. That was what Tom Sawyer was after. He allowed to work her up and get her started and then leave her alone and let her burn herself out. Then she would be so aggravated with that subject that she wouldn't say another word about it, nor let anybody else. Well, it happened just so. When she was tuckered out and had to hold up, he says, quite ca'm:
”And yet, all the same, Aunt Sally--”
”Shet up!” she says, ”I don't want to hear another word out of you.”
So we was perfectly safe, then, and didn't have no more trouble about that delay. Tom done it elegant.
CHAPTER VII. A NIGHT'S VIGIL
BENNY she was looking pretty sober, and she sighed some, now and then; but pretty soon she got to asking about Mary, and Sid, and Tom's aunt Polly, and then Aunt Sally's clouds cleared off and she got in a good humor and joined in on the questions and was her lovingest best self, and so the rest of the supper went along gay and pleasant. But the old man he didn't take any hand hardly, and was absent-minded and restless, and done a considerable amount of sighing; and it was kind of heart-breaking to see him so sad and troubled and worried.
By and by, a spell after supper, come a n.i.g.g.e.r and knocked on the door and put his head in with his old straw hat in his hand bowing and sc.r.a.ping, and said his Ma.r.s.e Brace was out at the stile and wanted his brother, and was getting tired waiting supper for him, and would Ma.r.s.e Silas please tell him where he was? I never see Uncle Silas speak up so sharp and fractious before. He says:
”Am I his brother's keeper?” And then he kind of wilted together, and looked like he wished he hadn't spoken so, and then he says, very gentle: ”But you needn't say that, Billy; I was took sudden and irritable, and I ain't very well these days, and not hardly responsible.
Tell him he ain't here.”
And when the n.i.g.g.e.r was gone he got up and walked the floor, backwards and forwards, mumbling and muttering to himself and plowing his hands through his hair. It was real pitiful to see him. Aunt Sally she whispered to us and told us not to take notice of him, it embarra.s.sed him. She said he was always thinking and thinking, since these troubles come on, and she allowed he didn't more'n about half know what he was about when the thinking spells was on him; and she said he walked in his sleep considerable more now than he used to, and sometimes wandered around over the house and even outdoors in his sleep, and if we catched him at it we must let him alone and not disturb him. She said she reckoned it didn't do him no harm, and may be it done him good. She said Benny was the only one that was much help to him these days. Said Benny appeared to know just when to try to soothe him and when to leave him alone.
So he kept on tramping up and down the floor and muttering, till by and by he begun to look pretty tired; then Benny she went and snuggled up to his side and put one hand in his and one arm around his waist and walked with him; and he smiled down on her, and reached down and kissed her; and so, little by little the trouble went out of his face and she persuaded him off to his room. They had very petting ways together, and it was uncommon pretty to see.
Aunt Sally she was busy getting the children ready for bed; so by and by it got dull and tedious, and me and Tom took a turn in the moonlight, and fetched up in the watermelon-patch and et one, and had a good deal of talk. And Tom said he'd bet the quarreling was all Jubiter's fault, and he was going to be on hand the first time he got a chance, and see; and if it was so, he was going to do his level best to get Uncle Silas to turn him off.
And so we talked and smoked and stuffed watermelons much as two hours, and then it was pretty late, and when we got back the house was quiet and dark, and everybody gone to bed.
Tom he always seen everything, and now he see that the old green baize work-gown was gone, and said it wasn't gone when he went out; so he allowed it was curious, and then we went up to bed.