The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, CHAPTER 24 (2023)

vonMark Twain

CHAPTER 24

Chapter twenty-four

The next day we encamped at night under a small willow tree in the middle where there was a village on either side of the river, and the duke and king began to work out a plan to work in these towns. Jim, he spoke to the duke and said he hoped it wouldn't be just a few hours because it was too heavy and tiring for him to be tied up in the tent all day with the rope tied up. You know, when we left him alone we had to tie him up because if someone walked over him alone and not tied up, it wouldn't look like a runaway black man, you know. Then the duke said it was pretty tough, den being tied up all day and he would find a way around it.

He was extraordinarily bright, the duke was, and it soon got on his nerves. He dressed Jim in King Lear's costume - it was a long draped calico dress and a white horsehair wig and whiskers; and then he took his theater paint and painted Jim's face and hands and ears and neck a rich dull blue, like a man who's been drowned nine days. Guilty if he didn't notice the most awful looking outrage I've ever seen. So the duke took it and wrote a tablet on a tile:

Arabic sick, but harmless if he's not in his right mind

And he nailed the tile to a batten and set the batten four or five feet in front of the tent. Jim was satisfied. He said it was a better sight than being attached to it for a few years every day and shaking every time he heard a sound. The duke told him to be free and quiet, and if anyone came to intrude he should jump out of the tent and walk on for a while, letting out a howl or two like a wild animal, and he reckoned they would disappear . and leave it alone. Which was good judgment; but you take the common man, and he wouldn't expect to cry. Not only did he look like he was dead, he looked like so much more.

These rascals wanted to try Nonesuch again because there was a lot of money in it, but they didn't think it was safe because the news might have run out by then. They couldn't exactly commit to a suitable project; So finally the duke said he thought he should stop and rack his brains for an hour or two and see if he could build something in the village of Arkansaw; and the king allowed him to go to the other village without any plan, just trusting Providence to guide him down the lucrative path - meaning the devil, I believe. We had all bought the clothes from the store we last stopped at; and now the king put on his, and commanded me to put on mine. Of course I did. The king's clothes were all black, and he looked very fat and starched. I never knew before how clothes can transform a body. Before he looked like the stubborn old man that ever lived; but now, as he pulled out his new white beaver, and bowed and smiled, he looked so tall and good and pious you might say he came out of the ark, and perhaps it was Leviticus himself. Jim cleaned the canoe and I got my paddle ready. On the beach, under the headland, about three miles above town, was parked a large steamer-it had been receiving cargo there for some hours. says the king:

"The way I'm dressed, I think it would be best to come down from St. Louis or Cincinnati or some other big place. Get on the steamer, Huckleberry; we drive it to the village.”

For a steamer trip I didn't have to be told twice. I reached the shore about a kilometer above the village and then ran along the edge of the cliff into the calm water. Soon we came to an innocent-looking young country bumpkin, sitting on a log, wiping the sweat from his face, as the weather was hot and strong; and he had some big bags with him.

"Put your nose on the beach," says the king. I did it. "Where are you going, young man?"

"To the steamboat; go to Orleans."

"Get in," says the king. "Wait a minute, my valet will help you with your luggage. Jump out and he'll be the gentleman, Adolphus" - referring to me I see.

I did, and then the three of us started over. The young man was very grateful; said it was hard work carrying his luggage in this weather. He asked the king where he was going and the king told him he went down the river this morning and ended up in the other village and is now driving up a few miles to visit an old friend up there on a farm. The young man says:

"When I first see you, I say to myself, 'It's definitely Mr. Wilks, and he almost got here in time.' But then I say again, 'No, I don't think it's him or I wouldn't be paddling upstream.' You're not him, are you?"

"No, my name is Blodgett-Elexander Blodgett-Reverend Elexander Blodgett, I suppose I should say, for I am one of the poor servants of the Lord. over time, even if he lost something as a result - which I hope he didn't.

"Well, he's not losing a fortune from it because he's going to get it; but he does miss seeing his brother Peter die - which he might not care about, nobody can tell about that - but his brother would have given anything in this world to to see him before he died; never spoke of anything else those three weeks; hadn't seen him since they were boys - and had never seen his brother William - that's the deaf mute - William isn't more than thirty or thirty-five. Peter and George were the only ones who came here; George was the married brother; he and his wife died last year. Harvey and William are the only ones left now; and like I said, they didn't come. Me don't get here in time."

"Did someone send a message?"

"Ah yes; a month or two ago when Peter was first taken; for Peter said at the time that his classifier felt he wasn't going to be any better this time. She was too young to be a mate for him except for Mary Jane the redhead. ; and so he was lonelier after George and his wife died, and didn't seem to care much about life. He was dying to see Harvey - and so was William - because he was one of those guys who can't take it. He left a letter for Harvey, saying he'd told him where his money was hidden and how he planned to divide up the rest of the estate , so that George's girl would be well - because George didn't leave anything for them to write to him.

"Why do you think Harvey isn't coming? Where does he live?"

"Oh, he lives in England... Sheffield... preaches there... never been to this country.

"Too bad, too bad he couldn't see his brothers anymore, poor man. You say you're going to Orleans?"

"Yes, but that's not just part of it. Next Wednesday I'm taking the ship to Ryo Janeero, where my uncle lives."

"It's quite a long journey. But it will be nice. i wish i would go Is Mary Jane the eldest? How old are the others?”

"Mary Jane is nineteen, Susan is fifteen, and Joanna is about fourteen—that's the one who's committed to good works and has the cleft lip."

"Poor people! To be left so alone in the cold world."

'Well, they could be worse off. Old Peter had friends and they won't let them hurt. There's Hobson the Babtis preacher, and Deacon Lot Hovey, and Ben Rucker, and Abner Shackleford, and Levi Bell the lawyer, and Dr written home so Harvey will know where to look for friends when he gets here.

Well, the old man kept asking questions until he emptied the young man completely. Guilty of not asking about anything and everything in this blessed city, and about the Wilks; and about Peter's business - who was a tanner; and about George's – who was a carpenter; and about Harvey, who was a dissident minister; and so on and so on. Then he says:

"Why did you want to go to the steamboat?"

“Because she's a big Orleans boat and I was afraid she wouldn't stop there. When they're down, they don't stop for a sleet. A Cincinnati boat holds up, but that's a St. Louis boat.”

"Was Peter Wilks wealthy?"

"Oh yes, very wealthy. He had houses and land, and it is believed he hid three or four thousand in cash somewhere.”

"When did you say he died?"

"I didn't say that, but it was last night."

"Funeral probably tomorrow?"

"Yes, around noon."

"Well, it's all very sad, but at some point we all have to go. So let's prepare for that;

"Yes sir, that's the best way. Ma always said that."

When we got to the boat it was about to be loaded and soon jumped off. The King never said anything about boarding, so I missed my ride after all. When the boat was gone, the king made me row another mile to a lonely place, and then he got out and said:

"Now go back quickly and get the duke up here and the new holdalls. And when he's gone the other way, go over there and get him.

I see what he did; but of course I never said anything. When I came back with the duke we hid the canoe and then they landed on a log and the king told him everything just as the young man had said - every last word. And all the time I tried to speak like an Englishman; and he did it pretty well, too, for a lout. I can't imitate him, so I won't try; but he did it really, really well. Then he says:

"How are you in the deaf-mute, Bilgewater?"

The duke said leave him alone; said he had played a deaf mute on the theater boards. So they waited for a steamboat.

Towards the afternoon a few small boats appeared, but they did not get far enough upstream; but at last there was a large one, and they greeted her. She sent her sailboat and we got in, and she came from Cincinnati; and when they found out we were only going to go four or five miles, they got angry and called us names and said they wouldn't get us off. But the king was ca'm. He says:

"If gentlemen can pay a dollar a mile to be loaded and loaded on a steamer, a steamer can carry them, can't it?"

Then they calmed down and said everything was fine; and when we got to the village they took us to the beach. About two dozen men huddled together when they saw the sailboat coming; and when the king says-

"Can one of you gentlemen tell me where Mr. Peter Wilks lives?" they looked at each other and nodded as if to say, "What am I telling you?" Then one of them says, kinda soft and gentle:

"I'm sorry sir, but the best we can do is tell you where he lived last night."

Suddenly like a wink, the stubborn old Cretur went all out to crush him and fell against the man, resting his chin on his shoulder and screaming into the back, saying:

"Oh, oh, our poor brother is gone, and we've never seen him; oh, it's very, very hard!"

He then turns away, crying, and makes some silly signs in his hands to the Duke, blaming him if he doesn't drop a bag and start crying. If they aren't the most defeated, these two scammers I've already slammed.

Well, the men got together and sympathized with them and said all sorts of nice things to them and carried their bags up the hill for them and let them lean on them and weep and told the king all about their last moments of death, brother, and the king , he counted everything again in the duke's hands, and the two took over the dead tanner as if they had lost the twelve disciples. If I ever meet something like this, I'm a nigger. It was enough to make a body feel ashamed of the human race.