CHAPTER VIII. TALKING WITH THE GHOST
IT warn't very cheerful at breakfast. Aunt Sally she looked old andtired and let the children snarl and fuss at one another and didn't seemto notice it was going on, which wasn't her usual style; me and Tomhad a plenty to think about without talking; Benny she looked like shehadn't had much sleep, and whenever she'd lift her head a little andsteal a look towards her father you could see there was tears in hereyes; and as for the old man, his things stayed on his plate and gotcold without him knowing they was there, I reckon, for he was thinkingand thinking all the time, and never said a word and never et a bite.
By and by when it was stillest, that nigger's head was poked in at thedoor again, and he said his Marse Brace was getting powerful uneasyabout Marse Jubiter, which hadn't come home yet, and would Marse Silasplease--He was looking at Uncle Silas, and he stopped there, like therest of his words was froze; for Uncle Silas he rose up shaky andsteadied himself leaning his fingers on the table, and he was panting,and his eyes was set on the nigger, and he kept swallowing, and put hisother hand up to his throat a couple of times, and at last he got hiswords started, and says:
"Does he--does he--think--WHAT does he think! Tell him--tell him--" Then hesunk down in his chair limp and weak, and says, so as you could hardlyhear him: "Go away--go away!"
The nigger looked scared and cleared out, and we all felt--well, I don'tknow how we felt, but it was awful, with the old man panting there, andhis eyes set and looking like a person that was dying. None of us couldbudge; but Benny she slid around soft, with her tears running down,and stood by his side, and nestled his old gray head up against her andbegun to stroke it and pet it with her hands, and nodded to us to goaway, and we done it, going out very quiet, like the dead was there.
Me and Tom struck out for the woods mighty solemn, and saying howdifferent it was now to what it was last summer when we was here andeverything was so peaceful and happy and everybody thought so much ofUncle Silas, and he was so cheerful and simple-hearted and pudd'n-headedand good--and now look at him. If he hadn't lost his mind he wasn't muchshort of it. That was what we allowed.
It was a most lovely day now, and bright and sunshiny; and the furtherand further we went over the hills towards the prairie the lovelier andlovelier the trees and flowers got to be and the more it seemed strangeand somehow wrong that there had to be trouble in such a world as this.And then all of a sudden I catched my breath and grabbed Tom's arm, andall my livers and lungs and things fell down into my legs.
"There it is!" I says. We jumped back behind a bush shivering, and Tomsays:
"'Sh!--don't make a noise."
It was setting on a log right in the edge of a little prairie, thinking.I tried to get Tom to come away, but he wouldn't, and I dasn't budge bymyself. He said we mightn't ever get another chance to see one, and hewas going to look his fill at this one if he died for it. So I lookedtoo, though it give me the fan-tods to do it. Tom he HAD to talk, but hetalked low. He says:
"Poor Jakey, it's got all its things on, just as he said he would. NOWyou see what we wasn't certain about--its hair. It's not long now the wayit was: it's got it cropped close to its head, the way he said he would.Huck, I never see anything look any more naturaler than what It does."
"Nor I neither," I says; "I'd recognize it anywheres."
"So would I. It looks perfectly solid and genuwyne, just the way it donebefore it died."
So we kept a-gazing. Pretty soon Tom says:
"Huck, there's something mighty curious about this one, don't you know?IT oughtn't to be going around in the daytime."
"That's so, Tom--I never heard the like of it before."
"No, sir, they don't ever come out only at night--and then not till aftertwelve. There's something wrong about this one, now you mark my words. Idon't believe it's got any right to be around in the daytime. But don'tit look natural! Jake was going to play deef and dumb here, so theneighbors wouldn't know his voice. Do you reckon it would do that if wewas to holler at it?"
"Lordy, Tom, don't talk so! If you was to holler at it I'd die in mytracks."
"Don't you worry, I ain't going to holler at it. Look, Huck, it'sa-scratching its head--don't you see?"
"Well, what of it?"
"Why, this. What's the sense of it scratching its head? There ain'tanything there to itch; its head is made out of fog or something likethat, and can't itch. A fog can't itch; any fool knows that."
"Well, then, if it don't itch and can't itch, what in the nation is itscratching it for? Ain't it just habit, don't you reckon?"
"No, sir, I don't. I ain't a bit satisfied about the way this oneacts. I've a blame good notion it's a bogus one--I have, as sure as I'ma-sitting here. Because, if it--Huck!"
"Well, what's the matter now?"
"YOU CAN'T SEE THE BUSHES THROUGH IT!"
"Why, Tom, it's so, sure! It's as solid as a cow. I sort of begin to think--"
"Huck, it's biting off a chaw of tobacker! By George, THEY don'tchaw--they hain't got anything to chaw WITH. Huck!"
"I'm a-listening."
"It ain't a ghost at all. It's Jake Dunlap his own self!"
"Oh your granny!" I says.
"Huck Finn, did we find any corpse in the sycamores?"
"No."
"Or any sign of one?"
"No."
"Mighty good reason. Hadn't ever been any corpse there."
"Why, Tom, you know we heard--"
"Yes, we did--heard a howl or two. Does that prove anybody was killed?Course it don't. And we seen four men run, then this one come walkingout and we took it for a ghost. No more ghost than you are. It was JakeDunlap his own self, and it's Jake Dunlap now. He's been and got hishair cropped, the way he said he would, and he's playing himself for astranger, just the same as he said he would. Ghost? Hum!--he's as soundas a nut."
Then I see it all, and how we had took too much for granted. I waspowerful glad he didn't get killed, and so was Tom, and we wonderedwhich he would like the best--for us to never let on to know him, or how?Tom reckoned the best way would be to go and ask him. So he started; butI kept a little behind, because I didn't know but it might be a ghost,after all. When Tom got to where he was, he says:
"Me and Huck's mighty glad to see you again, and you needn't be afearedwe'll tell. And if you think it'll be safer for you if we don't let onto know you when we run across you, say the word and you'll see you candepend on us, and would ruther cut our hands off than get you into theleast little bit of danger."
First off he looked surprised to see us, and not very glad, either; butas Tom went on he looked pleasanter, and when he was done he smiled, andnodded his head several times, and made signs with his hands, and says:
"Goo-goo--goo-goo," the way deef and dummies does.
Just then we see some of Steve Nickerson's people coming that livedt'other side of the prairie, so Tom says:
"You do it elegant; I never see anybody do it better. You're right;play it on us, too; play it on us same as the others; it'll keep you inpractice and prevent you making blunders. We'll keep away from you andlet on we don't know you, but any time we can be any help, you just letus know."
Then we loafed along past the Nickersons, and of course they asked ifthat was the new stranger yonder, and where'd he come from, and what washis name, and which communion was he, Babtis' or Methodis', and whichpolitics, Whig or Democrat, and how long is he staying, and all themother questions that humans always asks when a stranger comes, andanimals does, too. But Tom said he warn't able to make anything out ofdeef and dumb signs, and the same with goo-gooing. Then we watched themgo and bullyrag Jake; because we was pretty uneasy for him. Tom said itwould take him days to get so he wouldn't forget he was a deef and dummysometimes, and speak out before he thought. When we had watched longenough to see that Jake was getting along all right and workinghis signs very good, we loafed along again, allowing to strike theschoolhouse about recess time, which was a three-mile tramp.
I was so dis
appointed not to hear Jake tell about the row in thesycamores, and how near he come to getting killed, that I couldn't seemto get over it, and Tom he felt the same, but said if we was in Jake'sfix we would want to go careful and keep still and not take any chances.
The boys and girls was all glad to see us again, and we had a real goodtime all through recess. Coming to school the Henderson boys had comeacross the new deef and dummy and told the rest; so all the scholars waschuck full of him and couldn't talk about anything else, and was in asweat to get a sight of him because they hadn't ever seen a deef anddummy in their lives, and it made a powerful excitement.
Tom said it was tough to have to keep mum now; said we would be heroesif we could come out and tell all we knowed; but after all, it was stillmore heroic to keep mum, there warn't two boys in a million could do it.That was Tom Sawyer's idea about it, and I reckoned there warn't anybodycould better it.