哈克贝里·芬历险记（The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn）第五

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 bothring 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 t'other 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.

I stood a-looking at him; he set there a-looking at me, with his chair tilted back a little. I set the candle down. I noticed the window was up; so he had clumb in by the shed. He kept a-looking me all over. By and by he says:

"Starchy clothes -- very. You think you're a good deal of a big-bug, DON'T you?"

"Maybe I am, maybe I ain't," I says.

"Don't you give me none o' your lip," says he. "You've put on considerable many frills since I been away. I'll take you down a peg before I get done with you. You're educated, too, they say -- can read and write. You think you're better'n your father, now, don't you, because he can't? I'LL take it out of you. Who told you you might meddle with such hifalut'n foolishness, hey? -- who told you you could?"

"The widow. She told me."

"The widow, hey? -- and who told the widow she could put in her shovel about a thing that ain't none of her business?"

"Nobody never told her."

"Well, I'll learn her how to meddle. And looky here -- you drop that school, you hear? I'll learn people to bring up a boy to put on airs over his own father and let on to be better'n what HE is. You lemme catch you fooling around that school again, you hear? Your mother couldn't read, and she couldn't write, nuther, before she died. None of the family couldn't before THEY died. I can't; and here you're a-swelling yourself up like this. I ain't the man to stand it -- you hear? Say, lemme hear you read."

I took up a book and begun something about General Washington and the wars. When I'd read about a half a minute, he fetched the book a whack with his hand and knocked it across the house. He says:

"It's so. You can do it. I had my doubts when you told me. Now looky here; you stop that putting on frills. I won't have it. I'll lay for you, my smarty; and if I catch you about that school I'll tan you good. First you know you'll get religion, too. I never see such a son.

He took up a little blue and yaller picture of some cows and a boy, and says:

"What's this?"

"It's something they give me for learning my lessons good."

He tore it up, and says:

"I'll give you something better -- I'll give you a cowhide.

He set there a-mumbling and a-growling a minute, and then he says:

"AIN'T you a sweet-scented dandy, though? A bed; and bedclothes; and a look'n'-glass; and a piece of carpet on the floor -- and your own father got to sleep with the hogs in the tanyard. I never see such a son. I bet I'll take some o' these frills out o' you before I'm done with you. Why, there ain't no end to your airs -- they say you're rich. Hey? -- how's that?"

"They lie -- that's how."

"Looky here -- mind how you talk to me; I'm astanding about all I can stand now -- so don't gimme no sass. I've been in town two days, and I hain't heard nothing but about you bein' rich. I heard about it away down the river, too. That's why I come. You git me that money to-morrow -- I want it."

"I hain't got no money."

"It's a lie. Judge Thatcher's got it. You git it. I want it."

"I hain't got no money, I tell you. You ask Judge Thatcher; he'll tell you the same."

"All right. I'll ask him; and I'll make him pungle, too, or I'll know the reason why. Say, how much you got in your pocket? I want it."

"I hain't got only a dollar, and I want that to --"

"It don't make no difference what you want it for -- you just shell it out."

He took it and bit it to see if it was good, and then he said he was going down town to get some whisky; said he hadn't had a drink all day. When he had got out on the shed he put his head in again, and cussed me for putting on frills and trying to be better than him; and when I reckoned he was gone he come back and put his head in again, and told me to mind about that school, because he was going to lay for me and lick me if I didn't drop that.

Next day he was drunk, and he went to Judge Thatcher's and bullyragged him, and tried to make him give up the money; but he couldn't, and then he swore he'd make the law force him.

The judge and the widow went to law to get the court to take me away from him and let one of them be my guardian; but it was a new judge that had just come, and he didn't know the old man; so he said courts mustn't interfere and separate families if they could help it; said he'd druther not take a child away from its father. So Judge Thatcher and the widow had to quit on the business.

That pleased the old man till he couldn't rest. He said he'd cowhide me till I was black and blue if I didn't raise some money for him. I borrowed three dollars from Judge Thatcher, and pap took it and got drunk, and went a-blowing around and cussing and whooping and carrying on; and he kept it up all over town, with a tin pan, till most midnight; then they jailed him, and next day they had him before court, and jailed him again for a week. But he said HE was satisfied; said he was boss of his son, and he'd make it warm for HIM.

When he got out the new judge said he was a-going to make a man of him. So he took him to his own house, and dressed him up clean and nice, and had him to breakfast and dinner and supper with the family, and was just old pie to him, so to speak. And after supper he talked to him about temperance and such things till the old man cried, and said he'd been a fool, and fooled away his life; but now he was a-going to turn over a new leaf and be a man nobody wouldn't be ashamed of, and he hoped the judge would help him and not look down on him. The judge said he could hug him for them words; so he cried, and his wife she cried again; pap said he'd been a man that had always been misunderstood before, and the judge said he believed it. The old man said that what a man wanted that was down was sympathy, and the judge said it was so; so they cried again. And when it was bedtime the old man rose up and held out his hand, and says:

"Look at it, gentlemen and ladies all; take a-hold of it; shake it. There's a hand that was the hand of a hog; but it ain't so no more; it's the hand of a man that's started in on a new life, and'll die before he'll go back. You mark them words -- don't forget I said them. It's a clean hand now; shake it -- don't be afeard."

So they shook it, one after the other, all around, and cried. The judge's wife she kissed it. Then the old man he signed a pledge -- made his mark. The judge said it was the holiest time on record, or something like that. Then they tucked the old man into a beautiful room, which was the spare room, and in the night some time he got powerful thirsty and clumb out on to the porch-roof and slid down a stanchion and traded his new coat for a jug of forty-rod, and clumb back again and had a good old time; and towards daylight he crawled out again, drunk as a fiddler, and rolled off the porch and broke his left arm in two places, and was most froze to death when somebody found him after sun-up. And when they come to look at that spare room they had to take soundings before they could navigate it.

The judge he felt kind of sore. He said he reckoned a body could reform the old man with a shotgun, maybe, but he didn't know no other way.

我把房门关上。一转身，就见到了他。我往常总是害怕他。他揍得我可凶啊。我心想，
这回我也会害怕了。不过，顷刻之间，我知道我可错了。就是说，开头吓了一跳，真可说是
连气都喘不赢，——他来得太突然了，不过一会儿以后，我知道我用不着怕他什么。
    他差不多五十了，论样子也象这么个年纪。头发长长的，乱糟糟，油腻腻，往下披。你
只见他的眼光一闪一闪，就象他正躲在青藤后面。只见一片黑色，不是灰色的。他那长长的
乱糟糟的胡子也这样。他脸上则尽是一片白色。从脸上露出的部分看尽是白色。不是一般人
的白色，是叫人见了十分难受的那种白色，叫人浑身起鸡皮疙瘩的那种白色——象树蛙的那
种白色，象鱼肚白那种白色。衣服呢——穿得破破烂烂，那就不用说了。他一条腿搁在另一
只膝盖上，那只脚上的靴子张开了口，两只脚趾露了出来，他还把两只脚趾不时动几下子。
他的帽子给扔在地下，是顶黑色的旧垂边帽子，帽顶陷了进去。
    我这边站着，看着他，他那边看着我。他坐的那张椅子往后翘着点儿。我把蜡烛放好。
我发现窗子往上开着。这么说来，他是从搁子上爬进来的。他始终盯着我看。后来他说：
    “浆得挺挺的衣服——挺挺的。你以为自己是个大人物了，是吧？”
    “也许是，也许不是，”我说。
    “别跟我顶嘴，”他说，“自从我走以后，你可越来越神气了吧。我非得刹一刹你的威
风，不然我和你就没个完。人家说，你还受了教育，能读会写。你以为你如今比你老子强
了，因为他不会，是吧？看我揍你。谁教你干这样的蠢事，嗯？——谁告诉你可以这么干的？
    “是寡妇，是她告诉我的。”
    “嘿，那寡妇？——可又是谁告诉寡妇，有权插手根本与她不相干的事？”
    “没有人对她讲过。”
    “好，让我来教训教训她，瞎管闹事，会有什么下场。听我说——不准你上学去了，听
到了吧？一个小孩子，装得比他老子还神气，装得比他老子还强，教他这么干的人，我可要
好好教训他。不准你跟着学校转了，给我发现了可不依你，听到了没有？你妈她生前也不会
读，不会写。一家人在他们生前谁也不会。我也不会。可如今，你倒神气起来了。我可不是
容得下这一套的人，听到了吧？——让我听听你是怎样读的。”
    我拿起一本书来，从讲到华盛顿将军和独立战争的地方读起。我才读了半分钟，他一伸
手把书抢过去，摔到了屋子那一头去。他说：
    “这么说，你还真行。你对我说的时候，我还有点疑疑惑惑的，现在你听好，不准你再
这么装腔作势，我不答应。你这自作聪明的家伙，我会守候着的，要是你给我在学校附近逮
住了，会够你受的。首先，你要知道，一上学，你就会信教。我可从没有见过象你这样的一
个儿子。”
    他拿起了一幅小小的画片，上面画着几头牛和一个小孩子。他说：
    “这是什么？”
    “这是人家奖我学习好发的。”
    他一把撕了，说：
    “我会给你比这更强的——给你一根皮鞭子。”
    他坐在那儿，气狠狠地唠叨了一会儿，又说：
    “难道你还够不上一个香喷喷的花花公子了么？一张床，又是床单被褥，又是一面镜
子，地板上还铺着地毯，——可你的老子只能在旧皮革厂里和猪睡在一起。我可从来没有见
过这样一个儿子。我非得刹刹你的威风，不然我跟你没有完。哼，你那个神气可算得上派头
十足啦——人家说，你发了财，啊——这怎么回事？”
    “人家撒谎——就是这么回事。”
    “听我说——该怎么样跟我说话，这可得留点儿神。我什么都经受过了——所以不许你
瞎讲。我回镇上两天了，我听到的，都说你发财了。我在下面河上的时候就听说了，我就是
为了这个才回来的。明天你把钱给我——我要这笔钱。”
    “我可没有什么钱。”
    “撒谎。撒切尔法官收着。在你名下。我要这笔钱。”
    “我跟你说了，我没有什么钱。你不妨去找法官撒切尔，他也会对你这么说的。”
    “好吧，我会问他的。我会叫他交出来的①，再不然，我要他把理由讲讲清楚。再说—
—你口袋里有多少钱？我有用。”    ①诺顿版注：哈克的父亲认为自己对儿子的财产，依法有所有权。也因为这个缘故，第四章写哈克一发现他父亲的脚印，便急忙设法把自己的钱在名义上归撒切尔法官所有。

①诺顿版注：指烈性威士忌酒。