哈克贝里.芬历险记(The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)三十一

WE dasn't stop again at any town for days and days; kept right along down the river. We was down south in the warm weather now, and a mighty long ways from home. We begun to come to trees with Spanish moss on them, hanging down from the limbs like long, gray beards. It was the first I ever see it growing, and it made the woods look solemn and dismal. So now the frauds reckoned they was out of danger, and they begun to work the villages again.

First they done a lecture on temperance; but they didn't make enough for them both to get drunk on. Then in another village they started a dancing-school; but they didn't know no more how to dance than a kangaroo does; so the first prance they made the general public jumped in and pranced them out of town. Another time they tried to go at yellocution; but they didn't yellocute long till the audience got up and give them a solid good cussing, and made them skip out. They tackled missionarying, and mesmerizing, and doctoring, and telling fortunes, and a little of everything; but they couldn't seem to have no luck. So at last they got just about dead broke, and laid around the raft as she floated along, thinking and thinking, and never saying nothing, by the half a day at a time, and dreadful blue and desperate.

And at last they took a change and begun to lay their heads together in the wigwam and talk low and confidential two or three hours at a time. Jim and me got uneasy. We didn't like the look of it. We judged they was studying up some kind of worse deviltry than ever. We turned it over and over, and at last we made up our minds they was going to break into somebody's house or store, or was going into the counterfeitmoney business, or something. So then we was pretty scared, and made up an agreement that we wouldn't have nothing in the world to do with such actions, and if we ever got the least show we would give them the cold shake and clear out and leave them behind. Well, early one morning we hid the raft in a good, safe place about two mile below a little bit of a shabby village named Pikesville, and the king he went ashore and told us all to stay hid whilst he went up to town and smelt around to see if anybody had got any wind of the Royal Nonesuch there yet. ("House to rob, you MEAN," says I to myself; "and when you get through robbing it you'll come back here and wonder what has become of me and Jim and the raft -- and you'll have to take it out in wondering.") And he said if he warn't back by midday the duke and me would know it was all right, and we was to come along.

So we stayed where we was. The duke he fretted and sweated around, and was in a mighty sour way. He scolded us for everything, and we couldn't seem to do nothing right; he found fault with every little thing. Something was a-brewing, sure. I was good and glad when midday come and no king; we could have a change, anyway -- and maybe a chance for THE chance on top of it. So me and the duke went up to the village, and hunted around there for the king, and by and by we found him in the back room of a little low doggery, very tight, and a lot of loafers bullyragging him for sport, and he a-cussing and a-threatening with all his might, and so tight he couldn't walk, and couldn't do nothing to them. The duke he begun to abuse him for an old fool, and the king begun to sass back, and the minute they was fairly at it I lit out and shook the reefs out of my hind legs, and spun down the river road like a deer, for I see our chance; and I made up my mind that it would be a long day before they ever see me and Jim again. I got down there all out of breath but loaded up with joy, and sung out:

"Set her loose, Jim! we're all right now!"

But there warn't no answer, and nobody come out of the wigwam. Jim was gone! I set up a shout -- and then another -- and then another one; and run this way and that in the woods, whooping and screeching; but it warn't no use -- old Jim was gone. Then I set down and cried; I couldn't help it. But I couldn't set still long. Pretty soon I went out on the road, trying to think what I better do, and I run across a boy walking, and asked him if he'd seen a strange nigger dressed so and so, and he says:

"Yes."

"Whereabouts?" says I.

"Down to Silas Phelps' place, two mile below here. He's a runaway nigger, and they've got him. Was you looking for him?"

"You bet I ain't! I run across him in the woods about an hour or two ago, and he said if I hollered he'd cut my livers out -- and told me to lay down and stay where I was; and I done it. Been there ever since; afeard to come out."

"Well," he says, "you needn't be afeard no more, becuz they've got him. He run off f'm down South, som'ers."

"It's a good job they got him."

"Well, I RECKON! There's two hunderd dollars reward on him. It's like picking up money out'n the road."

"Yes, it is -- and I could a had it if I'd been big enough; I see him FIRST. Who nailed him?"

"It was an old fellow -- a stranger -- and he sold out his chance in him for forty dollars, becuz he's got to go up the river and can't wait. Think o' that, now! You bet I'D wait, if it was seven year."

"That's me, every time," says I. "But maybe his chance ain't worth no more than that, if he'll sell it so cheap. Maybe there's something ain't straight about it."

"But it IS, though -- straight as a string. I see the handbill myself. It tells all about him, to a dot -- paints him like a picture, and tells the plantation he's frum, below NewrLEANS. No-sirree-BOB, they ain't no trouble 'bout THAT speculation, you bet you. Say, gimme a chaw tobacker, won't ye?"

I didn't have none, so he left. I went to the raft, and set down in the wigwam to think. But I couldn't come to nothing. I thought till I wore my head sore, but I couldn't see no way out of the trouble. After all this long journey, and after all we'd done for them scoundrels, here it was all come to nothing, everything all busted up and ruined, because they could have the heart to serve Jim such a trick as that, and make him a slave again all his life, and amongst strangers, too, for forty dirty dollars.

Once I said to myself it would be a thousand times better for Jim to be a slave at home where his family was, as long as he'd GOT to be a slave, and so I'd better write a letter to Tom Sawyer and tell him to tell Miss Watson where he was. But I soon give up that notion for two things: she'd be mad and disgusted at his rascality and ungratefulness for leaving her, and so she'd sell him straight down the river again; and if she didn't, everybody naturally despises an ungrateful nigger, and they'd make Jim feel it all the time, and so he'd feel ornery and disgraced. And then think of ME! It would get all around that Huck Finn helped a nigger to get his freedom; and if I was ever to see anybody from that town again I'd be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame. That's just the way: a person does a low-down thing, and then he don't want to take no consequences of it. Thinks as long as he can hide, it ain't no disgrace. That was my fix exactly. The more I studied about this the more my conscience went to grinding me, and the more wicked and low-down and ornery I got to feeling. And at last, when it hit me all of a sudden that here was the plain hand of Providence slapping me in the face and letting me know my wickedness was being watched all the time from up there in heaven,whilst I was stealing a poor old woman's nigger that hadn't ever done me no harm, and now was showing me there's One that's always on the lookout, and ain't agoing to allow no such miserable doings to go only just so fur and no further, I most dropped in my tracks I was so scared. Well, I tried the best I could to kinder soften it up somehow for myself by saying I was brung up wicked, and so I warn't so much to blame; but something inside of me kept saying, "There was the Sunday-school, you could a gone to it; and if you'd a done it they'd a learnt you there that people that acts as I'd been acting about that nigger goes to everlasting fire."

It made me shiver. And I about made up my mind to pray, and see if I couldn't try to quit being the kind of a boy I was and be better. So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn't come. Why wouldn't they? It warn't no use to try and hide it from Him. Nor from ME, neither. I knowed very well why they wouldn't come. It was because my heart warn't right; it was because I warn't square; it was because I was playing double. I was letting ON to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. I was trying to make my mouth SAY I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to that nigger's owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie -- I found that out.

So I was full of trouble, full as I could be; and didn't know what to do. At last I had an idea; and I says, I'll go and write the letter -- and then see if I can pray. Why, it was astonishing, the way I felt as light as a feather right straight off, and my troubles all gone. So I got a piece of paper and a pencil, all glad and excited, and set down and wrote:

Miss Watson, your runaway nigger Jim is down here two mile below Pikesville, and Mr. Phelps has got him and he will give him up for the reward if you send.

HUCK FINN.

I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now. But I didn't do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking -- thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. And went on thinking. And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me all the time: in the day and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a-floating along, talking and singing and laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind. I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, 'stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had small-pox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the ONLY one he's got now; and then I happened to look around and see that paper.

It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself:

"All right, then, I'll GO to hell" -- and tore it up.

It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming. I shoved the whole thing out of my head, and said I would take up wickedness again, which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other warn't. And for a starter I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog.

Then I set to thinking over how to get at it, and turned over some considerable many ways in my mind; and at last fixed up a plan that suited me. So then I took the bearings of a woody island that was down the river a piece, and as soon as it was fairly dark I crept out with my raft and went for it, and hid it there, and then turned in. I slept the night through, and got up before it was light, and had my breakfast, and put on my store clothes, and tied up some others and one thing or another in a bundle, and took the canoe and cleared for shore. I landed below where I judged was Phelps's place, and hid my bundle in the woods, and then filled up the canoe with water, and loaded rocks into her and sunk her where I could find her again when I wanted her, about a quarter of a mile below a little steam sawmill that was on the bank.

Then I struck up the road, and when I passed the mill I see a sign on it, "Phelps's Sawmill," and when I come to the farm-houses, two or three hundred yards further along, I kept my eyes peeled, but didn't see nobody around, though it was good daylight now. But I didn't mind, because I didn't want to see nobody just yet -- I only wanted to get the lay of the land. According to my plan, I was going to turn up there from the village, not from below. So I just took a look, and shoved along, straight for town. Well, the very first man I see when I got there was the duke. He was sticking up a bill for the Royal Nonesuch -- three-night performance -- like that other time. They had the cheek, them frauds! I was right on him before I could shirk. He looked astonished, and says:

"Hel-LO! Where'd YOU come from?" Then he says, kind of glad and eager, "Where's the raft? -- got her in a good place?"

I says:

"Why, that's just what I was going to ask your grace."

Then he didn't look so joyful, and says:

"What was your idea for asking ME?" he says.

"Well," I says, "when I see the king in that doggery yesterday I says to myself, we can't get him home for hours, till he's soberer; so I went a-loafing around town to put in the time and wait. A man up and offered me ten cents to help him pull a skiff over the river and back to fetch a sheep, and so I went along; but when we was dragging him to the boat, and the man left me a-holt of the rope and went behind him to shove him along, he was too strong for me and jerked loose and run, and we after him. We didn't have no dog, and so we had to chase him all over the country till we tired him out. We never got him till dark; then we fetched him over, and I started down for the raft. When I got there and see it was gone, I says to myself, 'They've got into trouble and had to leave; and they've took my nigger, which is the only nigger I've got in the world, and now I'm in a strange country, and ain't got no property no more, nor nothing, and no way to make my living;' so I set down and cried. I slept in the woods all night. But what DID become of the raft, then? -- and Jim -- poor Jim!"

"Blamed if I know -- that is, what's become of the raft. That old fool had made a trade and got forty dollars, and when we found him in the doggery the loafers had matched half-dollars with him and got every cent but what he'd spent for whisky; and when I got him home late last night and found the raft gone, we said, 'That little rascal has stole our raft and shook us, and run off down the river.'"

"I wouldn't shake my NIGGER, would I? -- the only nigger I had in the world, and the only property."

"We never thought of that. Fact is, I reckon we'd come to consider him OUR nigger; yes, we did consider him so -- goodness knows we had trouble enough for him. So when we see the raft was gone and we flat broke, there warn't anything for it but to try the Royal Nonesuch another shake. And I've pegged along ever since, dry as a powder-horn. Where's that ten cents? Give it here."

I had considerable money, so I give him ten cents, but begged him to spend it for something to eat, and give me some, because it was all the money I had, and I hadn't had nothing to eat since yesterday. He never said nothing. The next minute he whirls on me and says:

"Do you reckon that nigger would blow on us? We'd skin him if he done that!"

"How can he blow? Hain't he run off?"

"No! That old fool sold him, and never divided with me, and the money's gone."

"SOLD him?" I says, and begun to cry; "why, he was MY nigger, and that was my money. Where is he? -- I want my nigger."

"Well, you can't GET your nigger, that's all -- so dry up your blubbering. Looky here -- do you think YOU'D venture to blow on us? Blamed if I think I'd trust you. Why, if you WAS to blow on us --"

He stopped, but I never see the duke look so ugly out of his eyes before. I went on a-whimpering, and says:

"I don't want to blow on nobody; and I ain't got no time to blow, nohow. I got to turn out and find my nigger."

He looked kinder bothered, and stood there with his bills fluttering on his arm, thinking, and wrinkling up his forehead. At last he says:

"I'll tell you something. We got to be here three days. If you'll promise you won't blow, and won't let the nigger blow, I'll tell you where to find him."

So I promised, and he says:

"A farmer by the name of Silas Ph----" and then he stopped. You see, he started to tell me the truth; but when he stopped that way, and begun to study and think again, I reckoned he was changing his mind. And so he was. He wouldn't trust me; he wanted to make sure of having me out of the way the whole three days. So pretty soon he says:

"The man that bought him is named Abram Foster -- Abram G. Foster -- and he lives forty mile back here in the country, on the road to Lafayette."

"All right," I says, "I can walk it in three days. And I'll start this very afternoon."

"No you wont, you'll start NOW; and don't you lose any time about it, neither, nor do any gabbling by the way. Just keep a tight tongue in your head and move right along, and then you won't get into trouble with US, d'ye hear?"

That was the order I wanted, and that was the one I played for. I wanted to be left free to work my plans.

"So clear out," he says; "and you can tell Mr. Foster whatever you want to. Maybe you can get him to believe that Jim IS your nigger -- some idiots don't require documents -- leastways I've heard there's such down South here. And when you tell him the handbill and the reward's bogus, maybe he'll believe you when you explain to him what the idea was for getting 'em out. Go 'long now, and tell him anything you want to; but mind you don't work your jaw any BETWEEN here and there."

So I left, and struck for the back country. I didn't look around, but I kinder felt like he was watching me. But I knowed I could tire him out at that. I went straight out in the country as much as a mile before I stopped; then I doubled back through the woods towards Phelps'. I reckoned I better start in on my plan straight off without fooling around, because I wanted to stop Jim's mouth till these fellows could get away. I didn't want no trouble with their kind. I'd seen all I wanted to of them, and wanted to get entirely shut of them.

从这以后，我们没有在任何哪一个镇上停留过。一天又一天，一直往大河的下游漂去。
如今我们到了气候暖和的南方了，离家已经很远很远了。我们逐渐见到了生着长长藓苔的树
木，藓苔从树桠上垂下来，仿佛象长长的白胡子似的。我平生第一回见到这样生长的树木，
这样，树林子就带上了庄严、惨淡的色彩。这两个骗子以为他们如今已经摆脱了危险，又想
到了要到村子里去表现一番了。
    他们的第一下子就是搞了一次戒酒演讲。不过他们从中捞到的钱还不够他们醉一回的。
随后在另一个村落，他们办了一所跳舞学校，不过他们对舞蹈的知识并不比一只袋鼠更高
明。他们刚开始练舞步，公众便跳将进来，把他们轰出了镇子。还有一回，他们想教朗诵，
不过他们教了没有多久，听众便起来把他们痛骂了一顿，他们只好逃之夭夭。他们也曾干过
传教、讲道、治病、催眠、算命，样样都干了一下，可就是命运不济。所以最后不得不快要
穷死了，整天躺在木筏子上。木筏子一路往下漂去，他们一路想啊，想啊，有时候整整半
天，不则一声，神情暗淡而绝望。
    临了他们起了某种变化，两个家伙把脑袋凑在一起，在窝棚里交头接耳、谈机密的话，
有时一谈就是两三个钟头。杰姆和我开始不安起来。这样的一种光景，可不是我们所喜欢
的。我们断定，他们这是正在策划什么比往常更加恶毒的主意。我们猜来猜去，最后我们断
定他们是想闯进什么一个人家的家里，或者哪一家店铺里，或是想搞伪钞的生意经，或是别
的什么玩意儿。所以我们吓得不轻，我们商定了，走遍天下，也决不跟这样的胡作非为沾上
一点点儿的边。并且讲定，只要一有机会，我们就会给他们一个冷不防，马上溜开，把他们
甩掉。一天清早，我们在离一个又小又破，叫做比克斯维尔的村落两英里路的地方，找到了
隐藏木筏的安全去处。国王上了岸。临走时说，他到镇上去，去到处嗅嗅情况，看有没有人
得到过《王室异兽》的风声。还招呼我们在他走后躲起来，（我这时对自个儿说，“你是
说，去看有哪家人家好下手去抢吧。等到一抢完，你们转回来的那个时刻，可就不知道我和
杰姆、还有那木筏子哪里去啦——到那时候，你就只好干瞪眼，无计可施啦。”）他还说，
要是中午时分他还没有回来，那我和公爵就该知道，那就是一切平安无事，我们就可以前去
会合了。
    于是我们便在木筏上等着。公爵焦躁不安，脾气不好。他动不动就责怪我们，仿佛我们
一无是处，连一点点儿小事都要找岔儿。事情很明显，他们正在酝酿着什么玩意儿。到了中
午，还不见国王的影子，这叫我挺高兴的。我们的生活好歹能有点儿变化嘛。——也许是有
个机会搞点儿盼望着的变化吧。于是我和公爵往村子里去，四处寻觅国王的踪迹。后来在一
家下等酒馆的后边房间里找到了他。他已经喝得醉醺醺，一些游手好闲之徒正在拿他开玩
笑。他呢，正使劲一边骂人，一边唬人，醉得路也走不成，对人家更无还手之力。公爵呢，
就骂他是个老傻瓜，国王也马上还嘴，乘他们闹得不可开交的时刻，我便溜出了酒馆，撒开
腿就跑，活象一只小鹿沿着河边大路往前飞奔——因为我看到机会来啦，我下定了决心，从
此以后，他们要是想再见到我和杰姆，那就不知道是何年何月啦。我奔到了那里，几乎连气
都喘不应，可是心里是满心高兴的。我大声地叫：
    “放开木筏，杰姆，我们这回可好啦！”
    可是没有人应声。窝棚里也并没有人钻出来。杰姆已经不在啦！我再一次大叫一声——
又叫——再叫，又奔到林子里，一边使劲吆喝，一边尖声叫唤，可是一无用处，——老杰姆
已经不在啦。于是我坐了下来，一边哭喊。这是我由不得自己的。不过我不能老是坐等啊。
我立刻走到了大路上，一边思量该怎么办才好。我遇见一个男孩正在路上走，我问他有没有
见到一个外地来的黑奴，穿着得是如何如何的。他说：
    “见到的。”
    “在哪里？”我问。
    “在下面西拉斯·费尔贝斯那边，离这里两英里地。他是个逃亡的黑奴，人家把他给逮
住啦。你是要找他么？”
    “我才不是要寻找他呢！我是在一两个钟头以前在林子里遇见他的。他说，要是我叫喊
起来，他就开我的膛——还叫我躺着别动，耽在原地，我就照着他的话做。就这样，一直耽
在那一边，不敢出来。”
    “啊，”他说，“你不用再害怕啦，因为人家已经把他逮住了。他是从下边南方什么地
方逃出来的。”
    “人家把他逮住，这可是一笔好买卖啊。”
    “是啊，我看是这样！人家出两百元大洋的悬赏呢。这正是如同在大路上捡到的一笔钱
啊。”
    “是啊，真是这么一回事——我要是大人的话，这笔钱就归我的了，我是第一个看到他
的呢。到底是谁把他抓住的？”
    “是一个老家伙——一个外乡人——他才只要了四十块钱，就把得悬赏的机会卖给了人
家，说是因为他有事非得往上游去不可，不能多等了。你想想看吧！要是我的话，等七年我
也干啊。”
    “我也是这样，一点儿也不差，”我说。“不过，既然他以这么便宜的价钱便卖掉了，
可见他的这个机会也许不过值这个价罢了。也许其中有点儿什么曲折吧。”
    “可是这是实情——事情一清二楚。我亲眼看到了那张传单。传单上把他的所有情况都
说得详详细细——把他描绘得简直象给他画了一幅画，还讲了他是从哪一家庄园逃出来的，
是在新良斯①下游那边的。不，错不了，这笔投机买卖不会出差错，不用担心。喂，给我一
口烟叶子嚼嚼，行不行？”    ①密西西比河入海处的大城市，也是拍卖黑奴的中心。

①这几段是马克·吐温的名篇。百年多来，从来是研究与评论的焦点之一。从全书的构思谋篇论，也可说是高潮所在，其峰回路转，奔向高潮的高超技巧，也使后人得益良多。作品中有关哈克的内心矛盾、天人交战的心理描写，既生动地描写了哈克的高尚情操的胜利，也折射出了反黑奴制度的斗争在普普通通老百姓心中艰难曲折的胜利历程。