After breakfast I wanted to talk about the dead man and guess out how he come to be killed, but Jim didn’t want to. He said it would fetch bad luck; and besides, he said, he might come and ha’nt us; he said a man that warn’t buried was more likely to go a-ha’ntingⒶalteration in the MS around than one that was planted and comfortable. That sounded pretty reasonable, so I didn’t say no more; but I couldn’t keep from studying over it and wishing I knowed who shot the man, and whatⒶalteration in the MS they done it for.
We rummaged the clothes we’dⒶemendation got, and found eightⒶalteration in the MS dollars in silver sewed up in the lining of an old blanket overcoatⒶemendation. Jim said he reckoned the people in that house stole the coat, because if they’d a knowedⒶalteration in the MS Ⓐemendation the money was there they wouldn’t aⒶemendation left it. I said I reckoned they killed him, too; but Jim didn’t want to talk about that. I says:
“Now you think it’s bad luck; but what did you say when I fetched in the snake-skin that I found on the topⒶemendation of the ridge day before yesterday? You said it was the worst bad luck in the world to touch a snake-skinⒺexplanatory note with my hands. Well, here’s your bad luck! We’ve raked in all this truck and eight dollars besides. I wish we could have some bad luck like thisⒶemendation every day, Jim.”
“Never you mind, honey, never you mind. Don’t you git too peart. It’s a-comin’. Mind I tell you, it’s a-comin’.”
It did come, too. ItⒶemendation was a Tuesday that we had that talk. Well, [begin page 64] after dinner,Ⓐhistorical collation Friday, we was laying around in the grass at the upper end of the ridge, and got out of tobacco. I went to the cavern to get some, and found a rattlesnake in there. I killed him, and curled him up on the foot ofⒶalteration in the MS Jim’s blanket, ever so natural, thinking there’d be some fun when Jim found him there. Well, by night I forgot all about the snake, and when Jim flung himself down on the blanket while I struck a light, the snake’s mate was there, and bit him.
He jumped up yelling, and the first thing the light showed was the varmintⒶalteration in the MS curled up and ready for another springⒶalteration in the MS. I laid him out in a second with a stick, and Jim grabbed pap’sⒶemendation whisky jug and begun to pour it downⒺexplanatory note.
HeⒶalteration in the MS was barefooted, and the snake bit him right on the heel. That all comesⒶemendation of my being such a fool as to not remember that wherever you leave a dead snake its mate always comesⒺexplanatory note there and curls around [begin page 65] it. Jim told me to chop off the snake’s head and throw it away, and then skin the body and roast a piece of it. I done itⒶhistorical collation and he eat it and said it would help cureⒶalteration in the MS him. He made me take off the rattles and tie them around his wrist, too. He said that that would help.Ⓐalteration in the MS Then I slid out quiet and throwed the snakes clear away amongst the bushes; for I warn’t going to let Jim find out it was all my fault, not if I could help it.
Jim sucked and sucked at the jug, and now and then he got out of his head and pitched around and yelled; but every time he come to himself he went to sucking at the jug again. His foot swelled up pretty big, and so did his leg; but by and byⒶhistorical collation the drunk begun to come, and so I judged he was all right; but I’d druther been bit with a snake than pap’s whiskyⒶemendation.
Jim was laid up for four days and nights. Then the swelling was all gone and he was around again. I made up my mind I wouldn’t ever take aholtⒶemendation of a snake-skin again with my hands, now that I see what had come of it. Jim said he reckoned I would believe him,Ⓐhistorical collation next time. And he said that handling a snake-skin was such awful bad luck that maybe we hadn’t got to the end of it yet. He said he druther see the new moon over his left shoulderⒺexplanatory note as much as a thousand times than take up a snake-skin in his handⒶemendation. WellⒶhistorical collation I was getting to feel that way myself, though I’ve always reckoned that looking at the new moon over your left shoulder is one of the carelessest and foolishest things a body can do. Old Hank Bunker done it once, and bragged about it; and in less than two years he got drunk and fell off of the shot tower and spread himself out so thatⒶalteration in the MS he was just a kind of a layer, as you may say; and they slid him edgeways between two barn doors for a coffin, and buried him so,Ⓐalteration in the MS so they say, but I didn’t see it. Pap told me. But anyway, it all come ofⒶalteration in the MS looking at the moon that way, like a foolⒶalteration in the MS.
WellⒶemendation, the days went along, and the river went down between its banks again; and about the first thing we done was to bait one of the big hooks with a skinned rabbit and set itⒶalteration in the MS and catch a catfishⒶhistorical collation that was as big as a manⒶemendation, being six foot two inches long, and weighed over two hundred poundsⒺexplanatory note. We couldn’t handle him, of course; he would a flung us into Illinois. We justⒶalteration in the MS set there and watched him rip and tear around till he drownded. We found a brass button in his stomach, and a roundⒶemendation ball, and lots of rubbageⒶemendation. We split the ball open [begin page 66] with the hatchet, and there was a spool in it. Jim said he’dⒶemendation had it there a long time, to coat it over so and make a ball of it. It was as big a fish as was ever catched in the Mississippi, I reckon. Jim said he hadn’t ever seen a bigger one. He would a been worth a good dealⒶhistorical collation, over at the village. They peddle out such a fish as that by the pound in the market house there; everybody buys some of him; his meat’s as white as snow and makes a goodⒶemendation fry.
Next morning I said it was getting slowⒶalteration in the MS and dull, and I wanted to get a stirring up, some way. I said I reckonedⒶemendation I would slip over the river and find out what was going on. Jim liked that notion; but he said I must go in the dark and lookⒶalteration in the MS sharp. Then he studied it over and said, couldn’t I put on some of them old things and dress up like a girl? That was a good notion, too. So we shortened up one of the calico gowns and I turned upⒶalteration in the MS my trowser-legs toⒶalteration in the MS my knees and got into it. Jim hitched it behind with the hooks, and it was a fair fit. I put on the sun bonnetⒶhistorical collation and tied it under my chin, and then for a body [begin page 67] to look in and see my face was like looking down a joint of stovepipe. JimⒶemendation said nobody would know me, evenⒶalteration in the MS in the daytimeⒶemendation, hardly. I practiced around all day to get the hang of the things, and by and byⒶhistorical collation I could do pretty well in them, only Jim said I didn’t walk like a girl; and he said I must quit pulling up my gownⒶemendation to get at my britchesⒶemendation pocket. I took notice, and done better.
I started up the Illinois shore in the canoe just after dark.
IⒶemendation started across to the townⒶemendation Ⓐalteration in the MS from a little below the ferry landing, andⒶemendation the drift of the current fetchedⒶemendation me in at the bottom of the town. I tied up andⒶalteration in the MS started along the bank. There was a light burning in a little shanty that hadn’t been lived in for a long time, and I wondered whoⒶemendation had took up quarters there. I slipped up and peeped in at the window. There was a woman about forty year old,Ⓐhistorical collation in there, knitting by a candle that was on a pine table. I didn’t know her face; she was a stranger, for you couldn’tⒶemendation start a face in that townⒶemendation that I didn’t know. Now this was lucky, because I was weakeningⒶalteration in the MS; I was getting afraid I had come; people might know my voice and find me out. But if this woman had been in such a little town two days she could tell me all I wanted to know; so I knocked at the door, and made up my mind I wouldn’t forget I was a girl.
Jim grabbed pap’s whisky jug and begun to pour it down] For snakebite the 1867 Gunn’s New Family Physician prescribed the following remedy:
Internally, give the patient all the Whisky he can drink. From a quart to a gallon should be drunk in six or eight hours. No fears need be entertained of making the patient drunk. You may fill him with Whisky, then let him swim in it, and it will not make him drunk, so long as the poison of the snake remains in the system. . . . It is a complete antidote for Snakebite, if taken freely, and may be relied on in any and all cases. It should be drunk like water for a few hours, and continued, at short intervals, until the patient gives signs of intoxication, when the quantity should gradually be diminished, as the disease is beginning to recede. Keep him “under the influence of liquor,” however, until you are sure he is out of danger. (Gunn 1867, 515)
An 1861 newspaper story in the St. Louis Missouri Democrat, which Clemens could have read, told of a snakebite victim cured by “a full quart of whisky and ninety drops of hartshorn” given in three doses at five-minute intervals (“Remarkable Case of a Rattlesnake Bite,” 11 June 61, in Branch 1983, 578).