CHAPTER X
After breakfast I wanted to talk about the dead man and guess out howhe come to be killed, but Jim didn't want to. He said it would fetchbad luck; and besides, he said, he might come and ha'nt us; he said aman that warn't buried was more likely to go a-ha'nting around thanone 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 andwishing I knowed who shot the man, and what they done it for.
We rummaged the clothes we'd got, and found eight dollars in silversewed up in the lining of an old blanket overcoat. Jim said hereckoned the people in that house stole the coat, because if they'd'a' knowed the money was there they wouldn't 'a' left it. I said Ireckoned 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 inthe snake-skin that I found on the top of the ridge day beforeyesterday? You said it was the worst bad luck in the world to touch asnake-skin with my hands. Well, here's your bad luck! We've raked inall this truck and eight dollars besides. I wish we could have somebad luck like this every day, Jim."
"Never you mind, honey, never you mind. Don't you git too peart. It'sa-comin'. Mind I tell you, it's a-comin'."
It did come, too. It was a Tuesday that we had that talk. Well, afterdinner Friday we was laying around in the grass at the upper end ofthe 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 onthe foot of Jim's blanket, ever so natural, thinking there'd be somefun when Jim found him there. Well, by night I forgot all about thesnake, and when Jim flung himself down on the blanket while I struck alight the snake's mate was there, and bit him.
He jumped up yelling, and the first thing the light showed was thevarmint curled up and ready for another spring. I laid him out in asecond with a stick, and Jim grabbed pap's whisky-jug and begun topour it down.
He was barefooted, and the snake bit him right on the heel. That allcomes of my being such a fool as to not remember that wherever youleave a dead snake its mate always comes there and curls around it.Jim told me to chop off the snake's head and throw it away, and thenskin the body and roast a piece of it. I done it, and he eat it andsaid it would help cure him. He made me take off the rattles and tiethem around his wrist, too. He said that that would help. Then I slidout quiet and throwed the snakes clear away amongst the bushes; for Iwarn't going to let Jim find out it was all my fault, not if I couldhelp it.
Jim sucked and sucked at the jug, and now and then he got out of hishead and pitched around and yelled; but every time he come to himselfhe went to sucking at the jug again. His foot swelled up pretty big,and so did his leg; but by and by the drunk begun to come, and so Ijudged he was all right; but I'd druther been bit with a snake thanpap's whisky.
Jim was laid up for four days and nights. Then the swelling was allgone and he was around again. I made up my mind I wouldn't ever takea-holt of a snake-skin again with my hands, now that I see what hadcome of it. Jim said he reckoned I would believe him next time. And hesaid that handling a snake-skin was such awful bad luck that maybe wehadn't got to the end of it yet. He said he druther see the new moonover his left shoulder as much as a thousand times than take up asnake-skin in his hand. Well, I was getting to feel that way myself,though I've always reckoned that looking at the new moon over yourleft shoulder is one of the carelessest and foolishest things a bodycan do. Old Hank Bunker done it once, and bragged about it; and inless than two years he got drunk and fell off of the shot-tower, andspread himself out so that he was just a kind of a layer, as you maysay; and they slid him edgeways between two barn doors for a coffin,and buried him so, so they say, but I didn't see it. Pap told me. Butanyway it all come of looking at the moon that way, like a fool.
Well, the days went along, and the river went down between its banksagain; and about the first thing we done was to bait one of the bighooks with a skinned rabbit and set it and catch a catfish that was asbig as a man, being six foot two inches long, and weighed over twohundred pounds. We couldn't handle him, of course; he would 'a' flungus into Illinois. We just set there and watched him rip and teararound till he drownded. We found a brass button in his stomach and around ball, and lots of rubbage. We split the ball open with thehatchet, and there was a spool in it. Jim said he'd had it there along time, to coat it over so and make a ball of it. It was as big afish as was ever catched in the Mississippi, I reckon. Jim said hehadn't ever seen a bigger one. He would 'a' been worth a good dealover at the village. They peddle out such a fish as that by the poundin the market-house there; everybody buys some of him; his meat's aswhite as snow and makes a good fry.
Next morning I said it was getting slow and dull, and I wanted to geta stirring-up some way. I said I reckoned I would slip over the riverand find out what was going on. Jim liked that notion; but he said Imust go in the dark and look 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 calicogowns, and I turned up my trouser-legs to my knees and got into it.Jim hitched it behind with the hooks, and it was a fair fit. I put onthe sun-bonnet and tied it under my chin, and then for a body to lookin and see my face was like looking down a joint of stove-pipe. Jimsaid nobody would know me, even in the daytime, hardly. I practisedaround all day to get the hang of the things, and by and by I could dopretty well in them, only Jim said I didn't walk like a girl; and hesaid I must quit pulling up my gown to get at my britches-pocket. Itook notice, and done better.
I started up the Illinois shore in the canoe just after dark.
I started across to the town from a little below the ferry-landing,and the drift of the current fetched me in at the bottom of the town.I tied up and started along the bank. There was a light burning in alittle shanty that hadn't been lived in for a long time, and Iwondered who had took up quarters there. I slipped up and peeped in atthe window. There was a woman about forty year old in there knittingby a candle that was on a pine table. I didn't know her face; she wasa stranger, for you couldn't start a face in that town that I didn'tknow. Now this was lucky, because I was weakening; I was gettingafraid I had come; people might know my voice and find me out. But ifthis woman had been in such a little town two days she could tell meall I wanted to know; so I knocked at the door, and made up my mind Iwouldn't forget I was a girl.