Well, I got a good going-over in the morning, from old Miss Watson, on account of my clothes; but the widow she didn’t scold, but only cleaned off the grease and clay and looked so sorry that I thought I would behave a while if I could. Then Miss Watson she took me in the closetⒶalteration in the MS and prayedⒺexplanatory note, but nothing come of it. She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get itⒺexplanatory note. But it warn’t soⒶalteration in the MS. I tried it. Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks. It warn’t any good to me withoutⒶalteration in the MS hooks. I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn’t make it work.Ⓐalteration in the MS By and byⒶhistorical collation, one day, I asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never told me why, and I couldn’t make it out no way.
IⒶemendation set down, one time, back in the woods, and had a long think about it. I says to myself, if a body canⒶalteration in the MS get anything they pray for, why don’t deaconⒶhistorical collation Winn get back the moneyⒶemendation he lost on pork? whyⒶhistorical collation can’t the widow get back her silver snuff boxⒶhistorical collation that was stole? whyⒶhistorical collation can’t Miss Watson fat up? No, says I to myself, there ain’t nothing in it. It stands to reason there ain’t nothing in it.Ⓐtextual note Ⓐhistorical collation I went and told the widow about it, and she saidⒶalteration in the MS Ⓐemendation the thing aⒶalteration in the MS body could get by praying for it was “spiritualⒶalteration in the MS gifts.” This was too many for me, but she toldⒶalteration in the MS me what she meant—I must helpⒶalteration in the MS other people, and do everything I could for other people, and look out for them all the time, and never think about myself. This was including Miss Watson, as I took it. I went out in the woods and turned it over in my mind a long time, but I couldn’t see no advantage about it—except for the other [begin page 14] people—so at last I reckoned I wouldn’t worry about it anyⒶemendation more, but just let it go.Ⓐalteration in the MS Sometimes the widow would takeⒶalteration in the MS me one sideⒶalteration in the MS and talk about Providence in a way to make a body’s mouth water; but maybe next day Miss Watson would take hold and knock it all down again. I judged I could see thatⒶalteration in the MS there was two Providences, and a poor chap would stand considerable show with the widow’s Providence,Ⓐalteration in the MS but if Miss Watson’s got him there warn’t no help for him any more.Ⓐalteration in the MS I thought it all out, and reckoned I would belong to the widow’s, if he wantedⒶalteration in the MS me, though I couldn’t make out how heⒶalteration in the MS Ⓐemendation was agoingⒶemendation Ⓐtextual note to be any better off thenⒶemendation than what heⒶemendation was before, seeing I was so ignorant and so kind of low-down and ornery.
Pap he hadn’t beenⒶalteration in the MS seen for more thanⒶalteration in the MS a year, and that was comfortable for me; I didn’t want to see him no more. He used to always whale me when he was sober and could get his hands on me; though I used to take to the woods most of the time when he was around. Well, about this time he was found in the river drowndedⒶhistorical collation, about twelve mile above town, so people said. They judged it was him, anyway; said this drowndedⒶalteration in the MS Ⓐhistorical collation man was just his size, and was ragged,Ⓐalteration in the MS and had uncommonⒶalteration in the MS long hair—which was all like papⒶemendation Ⓐtextual note—but they couldn’t make nothing out of the face, because it had been in the water so long it warn’t much like a face at all. They said he was floatingⒶalteration in the MS on his back in the water. They took him and buried him on the bank. But I warn’t comfortable long, because I happened to think of something. I knowed mighty well that a drownded man don’t floatⒶemendation on his back, butⒶemendation on his faceⒺexplanatory note. SoⒶemendation I knowed, then, that this warn’t papⒶemendation, but a woman dressed up in a man’s clothes. So I was uncomfortableⒶalteration in the MS again. I judged the old man would turn up again by and byⒶhistorical collation, though I wished he wouldn’t.
We played robber now and then about a month, and then I resigned.Ⓐalteration in the MS All the boys did. We hadn’t robbed nobody, we hadn’t killed any people, but only just pretended. We used to hop out of the woods and go chargingⒶalteration in the MS down on hog-drovers and womenⒶalteration in the MS in carts taking garden stuff to market, but we never hived any of them. Tom Sawyer called the hogs “ingots,” and he called the turnips and stuff “julery,Ⓐhistorical collation” and we would go to the cave and pow-wow over what we hadⒶalteration in the MS done and how many people we had killed and marked. But I couldn’t see no profit in it. One time Tom sent a boy to run about town with a blazing stick, which he called a sloganⒶemendation Ⓔexplanatory note (which was the sign for the [begin page 15] Gang to get together)Ⓐhistorical collation and then he said he had got secret news by his spies that next day a whole parcel of Spanish merchants and rich A-rabs was going to camp in Cave HollowⒺexplanatory note with two hundred elephants, and six hundred camels, and over a thousand “sumter” mulesⒺexplanatory note, all loaded down with di’monds, and they didn’t have only a guard of four hundred soldiers, and so we would lay in ambuscadeⒶemendation, as he called it, and kill the lot and scoop the things. He said we must slickⒶalteration in the MS up our swords and guns, and get ready. He never could go afterⒶalteration in the MS even a turnip cartⒶhistorical collation but he must have theⒶalteration in the MS swords and guns all scouredⒶalteration in the MS up for it; though they was only lathⒶemendation and broomsticksⒶhistorical collation, and you might scourⒶalteration in the MS at them till you rotted and then they warn’t worth a mouthful of ashes more thanⒶalteration in the MS what they was before. I didn’t believe we could lick such a crowd ofⒶalteration in the MS Spaniards and A-rabs, but I wanted to see the camels and elephantsⒶemendation, so I was on hand nextⒶalteration in the MS day, Saturday,Ⓐalteration in the MS in the ambuscade; and when we got the word, we rushed out of the woods and down the hill. But there warn’t noⒶalteration in the MS Spaniards and A-rabs, and there warn’t no camels norⒶalteration in the MS no elephants. It warn’t anything but a Sunday SchoolⒶhistorical collation picnicⒶemendation,Ⓐalteration in the MS and only a primer-class at that. We busted it up, and chased the children up the HollowⒶhistorical collation; but we never got anything but some doughnuts and jam, though Ben Rogers got a ragⒶalteration in the MS doll, and JoⒶalteration in the MS Harper got a hymn-book and a tract; and then the teacher charged in andⒶalteration in the MS made us drop everything and cut. I didn’t see no dimondsⒶhistorical collation, and I told Tom Sawyer so. He said there was loadsⒶalteration in the MS of them there, anyway; and he said there was A-rabs there, too, and elephants and things. I said, why couldn’t we see them, then? He said if I warn’t so ignorant, but had read a book called “Don Quixote,”Ⓐemendation I would know without asking. He said it was all done by enchantment. He said there was [begin page 16] hundreds of soldiers there, and elephants,Ⓐhistorical collation and treasure, and so on, but we had enemies which he called magicians, and they had turned the whole thingⒶalteration in the MS into an infant Sunday School—Ⓐhistorical collationjust out of spiteⒶalteration in the MS Ⓔexplanatory note. I said, all right,Ⓐemendation then the thing forⒶalteration in the MS us to do was to go for the magicians.Ⓐtextual note Tom Sawyer said I was a numscullⒶhistorical collation.Ⓐalteration in the MS
“Why,” saysⒶemendation he, “a magician could call up a lot of genies, and they would hash you up like nothing,Ⓐalteration in the MS Ⓐhistorical collation before you could say Jack RobinsonⒺexplanatory note.Ⓐalteration in the MS They are as tall as a tree and as big around as a church.”
“Well,” I saysⒶemendation, “s’poseⒶemendation we gotⒶemendation some genies to help us—can’t we lickⒶalteration in the MS Ⓐemendation the other crowd then?”
“How you going to get them?”
“I don’t know. How do they get them?”
“Why they rub an old tin lampⒺexplanatory note or an iron ring, and then the genies come tearingⒶalteration in the MS in, with the thunder and lightning a-ripping around and the smoke a-rolling, and everything they’re told to do they up andⒶalteration in the MS do it. TheyⒶemendation don’t think nothing of pulling a shot tower up by the rootsⒶhistorical collation and belting a Sunday SchoolⒶhistorical collation superintendentⒶtextual note over the head with it—or any other man.”
“Who makes them tear around so?”
“Why, whoever rubs the lamp or the ring. They belong to whoever rubs the lamp or the ring, and they’ve got to do whatever he says. If he tells them to build a palace forty miles long, out of dimondsⒶhistorical collation, and fill it full of chewing gumⒺexplanatory note, or whatever you want, and fetch an emperor’s daughter from China for you to marry, they’ve got to do it—and they’ve got to do it before sun-up next morning, too. And more—they’ve got to waltz that palace around over the country wherever you want it, you understand.”
“Well,” says I, “I think they are a pack of flatheadsⒶalteration in the MS for not keeping the palaceⒶemendation themselves ’stead of fooling them away like that. And what’s more—if I was one of themⒶalteration in the MS I would see a man in Jericho before I would dropⒶalteration in the MS my business and come to him for the rubbing of an old tin lamp.”
“How you talk, Huck Finn. Why, you’d have to come when he rubbed it, whether you wanted to or not.”
“What, and I as high as a tree and as big as a church? All right, then; I would come; but I lay I’d make that man climb the highest tree there was in the countryⒶtextual note.”
[begin page 17] “Shucks, it ain’t no use to talk to you, Huck Finn. You don’t seem to know anything, somehow—perfect sap-head.”
I thought all this over for two or three days, and then I reckonedⒶemendation I would see if there was anything in it. I got an old tin lamp and an iron ring and went out in the woods and rubbed and rubbed till I sweat like an InjunⒺexplanatory note,Ⓐalteration in the MS calculating to build a palace and sell it; but it warn’t no use, none of the genies come.Ⓐalteration in the MS So then I judgedⒶalteration in the MS that all that stuff was only just one of Tom Sawyer’s lies. I reckoned he believed in the A-rabs and the elephants, but as for me I think different. ItⒶemendation had all the marks of a Sunday school.
a drownded man don’t float on his back, but on his face] Folklore held that one would “always find the body of a drowned woman floating face up; the body of a drowned man, face down. Although these positions are occasionally reversed in some sayings, this is the general belief—they are the normal positions in coitus” (Hyatt, item 15134). Mark Twain may well have encountered a variant of this belief in one of his favorite books, W. E. H. Lecky’s History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne. Lecky quotes the Roman historian Pliny: [begin page 388] “It was said that drowned men floated on their backs, and drowned women on their faces; and this, in the opinion of Roman naturalists, was due to the superior purity of the latter” (Lecky, 2:318). Dr. Alvin Tarlov of the University of Chicago Medical School has compared reports by police in Norwalk and Westport, Connecticut, the New York City Harbor Squad, and the Marine Unit of the Chicago Police Department. All agreed with the findings of a veteran of the last unit: “I have been fishing bodies out of Lake Michigan for nine years running, about forty-four a year. . . . Men, women, boys and girls—they all float face down.”