The Widow Douglas put Huck's money out at six per cent., and Judge Thatcher¹³ did the same with Tom's at Aunt Polly's request. Each lad had an income, now, that was simply prodigious¹⁴ -- a dollar for every week-day in the year and half of the Sundays. It was just what the minister got -- no, it was what he was promised -- he generally couldn't collect it. A dollar and a quarter a week would board, lodge¹⁵, and school a boy in those old simple days -- and clothe him and wash him, too, for that matter.

Judge Thatcher had conceived a great opinion of Tom. He said that no commonplace boy would ever have got his daughter out of the cave. When Becky told her father, in strict confidence, how Tom had taken her whipping at school, the Judge was visibly moved; and when she pleaded grace for the mighty lie which Tom had told in order to shift that whipping from her shoulders to his own, the Judge said with a fine outburst that it was a noble, a generous, a magnanimous lie -- a lie that was worthy¹⁶ to hold up its head and march down through history breast to breast with George Washington's lauded¹⁷ Truth about the hatchet¹⁸! Becky thought her father had never looked so tall and so superb as when he walked the floor and stamped his foot and said that. She went straight off and told Tom about it.

Judge Thatcher hoped to see Tom a great lawyer or a great soldier some day. He said he meant to look to it that Tom should be admitted to the National Military Academy and afterward¹⁹ trained in the best law school in the country, in order that he might be ready for either career or both.

Huck Finn's wealth and the fact that he was now under the Widow Douglas' protection introduced him into society -- no, dragged him into it, hurled²⁰ him into it -- and his sufferings were almost more than he could bear. The widow's servants kept him clean and neat, combed and brushed, and they bedded him nightly in unsympathetic sheets that had not one little spot or stain which he could press to his heart and know for a friend. He had to eat with a knife and fork; he had to use napkin, cup, and plate; he had to learn his book, he had to go to church; he had to talk so properly that speech was become insipid²¹ in his mouth; whithersoever he turned, the bars and shackles²² of civilization shut him in and bound him hand and foot.

He bravely bore his miseries²³ three weeks, and then one day turned up missing. For forty-eight hours the widow hunted for him everywhere in great distress²⁴. The public were profoundly concerned; they searched high and low, they dragged the river for his body. Early the third morning Tom Sawyer wisely went poking²⁵ among some old empty hogsheads down behind the abandoned slaughter-house, and in one of them he found the refugee. Huck had slept there; he had just breakfasted upon some stolen odds²⁶ and ends of food, and was lying off, now, in comfort, with his pipe. He was unkempt, uncombed, and clad in the same old ruin of rags that had made him picturesque²⁷ in the days when he was free and happy. Tom routed him out, told him the trouble he had been causing, and urged him to go home. Huck's face lost its tranquil²⁸ content, and took a melancholy²⁹ cast. He said:

"Don't talk about it, Tom. I've tried it, and it don't work; it don't work, Tom. It ain't for me; I ain't used to it. The widder's good to me, and friendly; but I can't stand them ways. She makes me get up just at the same time every morning; she makes me wash, they comb me all to thunder; she won't let me sleep in the woodshed; I got to wear them blamed clothes that just smothers³⁰ me, Tom; they don't seem to any air git through 'em, somehow; and they're so rotten nice that I can't set down, nor lay down, nor roll around anywher's; I hain't slid on a cellar-door for -- well, it 'pears to be years; I got to go to church and sweat and sweat -- I hate them ornery sermons! I can't ketch a fly in there, I can't chaw. I got to wear shoes all Sunday. The widder eats by a bell; she goes to bed by a bell; she gits up by a bell -- everything's so awful reg'lar a body can't stand it."

"Well, everybody does that way, Huck."

"Oh, Huck, you know I can't do that. 'Tain't fair; and besides if you'll try this thing just a while longer you'll come to like it."

"Like it! Yes -- the way I'd like a hot stove if I was to set on it long enough. No, Tom, I won't be rich, and I won't live in them cussed smothery houses. I like the woods, and the river, and hogsheads, and I'll stick to 'em, too. Blame it all! just as we'd got guns, and a cave, and all just fixed³⁵ to rob, here this dern foolishness has got to come up and spile it all!"

Tom saw his opportunity --

"Lookyhere, Huck, being rich ain't going to keep me back from turning robber."

"No! Oh, good-licks; are you in real dead-wood earnest, Tom?"

"Just as dead earnest as I'm sitting here. But Huck, we can't let you into the gang if you ain't respectable, you know."

Huck's joy was quenched³⁶.

"Can't let me in, Tom? Didn't you let me go for a pirate?"

"Yes, but that's different. A robber is more high-toned than what a pirate is -- as a general thing. In most countries they're awful high up in the nobility -- dukes and such."

"Now, Tom, hain't you always ben friendly to me? You wouldn't shet me out, would you, Tom? You wouldn't do that, now, would you, Tom?"

"Huck, I wouldn't want to, and I don't want to -- but what would people say? Why, they'd say, 'Mph! Tom Sawyer's Gang! Pretty low characters in it!' They'd mean you, Huck. You wouldn't like that, and I wouldn't."

Huck was silent for some time, engaged in a mental struggle. Finally he said:

"Well, I'll go back to the widder for a month and tackle it and see if I can come to stand it, if you'll let me b'long to the gang, Tom."

"All right, Huck, it's a whiz! Come along, old chap, and I'll ask the widow to let up on you a little, Huck."

"Will you, Tom -- now will you? That's good. If she'll let up on some of the roughest things, I'll smoke private and cuss private, and crowd through or bust³⁷. When you going to start the gang and turn robbers?"

"Oh, right off. We'll get the boys together and have the initiation³⁸ to-night, maybe."

"Have the which?"

"Have the initiation."

"What's that?"

"It's to swear to stand by one another, and never tell the gang's secrets, even if you're chopped all to flinders, and kill anybody and all his family that hurts one of the gang."

"That's gay -- that's mighty gay, Tom, I tell you."

"Well, I bet it is. And all that swearing's got to be done at midnight, in the lonesomest, awfulest place you can find -- a ha'nted house is the best, but they're all ripped up now."

"Well, midnight's good, anyway, Tom."

"Yes, so it is. And you've got to swear on a coffin³⁹, and sign it with blood."

"Now, that's something like! Why, it's a million times bullier than pirating. I'll stick to the widder till I rot, Tom; and if I git to be a reg'lar ripper of a robber, and everybody talking 'bout² it, I reckon she'll be proud she snaked me in out of the wet."

　　　 CONCLUSION

SO endeth this chronicle. It being strictly⁴⁰ a history of a boy, it must stop here; the story could not go much further without becoming the history of a man. When one writes a novel about grown people, he knows exactly where to stop -- that is, with a marriage; but when he writes of juveniles⁴¹, he must stop where he best can.

Most of the characters that perform in this book still live, and are prosperous and happy. Some day it may seem worth while to take up the story of the younger ones again and see what sort of men and women they turned out to be; therefore it will be wisest not to reveal any of that part of their lives at present

　　①据说华盛顿总统小时候用父亲给他的小斧子曾把一棵樱桃树砍掉，当父亲追问
时，他不怕受罚，诚实地承认了自己的过错。

    撒切尔法官希望汤姆以后成为一名大律师或是著名的军人。他说他打算安排汤姆进国家
军事学院，然后再到最好的法学院接受教育，这样将来随便当律师、做军人或是身兼两职都
行。
哈克·费恩有了钱，又归道格拉斯寡妇监护，这样他踏入了社交圈子——不对，他是被
拖进去，被扔进去的——于是他苦不堪言。寡妇的佣人帮他又梳又刷，把他收拾得干干净
净，每晚又为他换上冷冰冰的床单。哈克想在上面找个小黑点按在心口做朋友都找不到。他
吃饭得用刀叉，还要使餐巾、杯子和碟子；他又得念书，上教堂。说话枯燥无味没关系，但
谈吐要斯文，他无论走到那里，文明都束缚着他的手脚。
就这样，他硬着头皮忍受着，过了三个星期。突然有一天他不见了。寡妇急得要命，四
处去找他，找了整整有两天两夜。众人们也十分关注此事，他们到处搜索，有的还到河里去
打捞。第三天一大早，汤姆挺聪明，在破旧的屠宰场后面的几只旧空桶中找人，结果在一只
空桶中发现了哈克，他就在这过夜。哈克刚吃完早饭，吃的全是偷来的剩饭菜。他抽着烟
斗，正舒服地躺在那里休息。他邋遢不堪，蓬头垢面，穿着往日快快活活时那套有趣的烂衣
服。汤姆把他撵出来，告诉他已惹了麻烦，要他快回家。哈克脸上悠然自得的神情消失了，
马上呈现出一脸的愁相。他说：
“汤姆，别提那事了，我已经试过了，那没有用，没用，汤姆。那种生活不适合我过，
我不习惯。寡妇待我好，够处，可是我受不了那一套。她每天早晨叫我按时起床；她叫我洗
脸；他们还给我使劲地梳；她不让我在柴棚里睡觉。汤姆，我得穿那种倒霉的衣服，紧绷绷
的，有点不透气。衣服很漂亮，弄得我站也不是，坐也不行，更不能到处打滚。我已经很长
时间没有到过别人家的地窖里，也许有许多年了。我还得去做礼拜，弄得浑身是汗——我恨
那些一文不值的布道辞！在那里我既不能捉苍蝇，也不能嚼口香糖，星期日整天不能赤脚。
吃饭、上床睡觉、起床等寡妇都要按铃，总而言之，一切都井然有序，真让人受不了。”
“不过，哈克，大家都是这样的。”
“汤姆，你说得没错，不过我不是大家，我受不了，捆得那样紧真让人受不了。还有，
不费劲就能搞到吃的东西，我不喜欢这种吃法，就是要钓鱼也得先征求寡妇的同意，去游个
泳也得先问问她，真他妈的，干什么事都要先问她才行。说话也得斯文，真不习惯——我只
好跑到阁楼顶上胡乱放它一通，这样嘴里才有滋味，否则真不如死了算，汤姆。寡妇不让我
抽烟，不让我在人前大声讲话，或大喊大叫，还不许我伸懒腰，抓痒痒——”（接着他显得
十分烦躁和委屈的样子。）
“还有呢，她整天祈祷个没完！我从来也没见过她这样的女人。
我得溜走，汤姆——不溜不行呀，况且，学校快要开学了，不跑就得上学，那怎么能受
得了呢。汤姆？喂，汤姆，发了横财并不像人们说得那样是个非常愉快的事情。发财简直就
是发愁，受罪，最后弄得你真希望不如一死了之。这儿的衣服我穿合适，在桶里睡觉也不
错，我再不打算离开这儿。汤姆，要不是那些钱，我根本不会有这么多的麻烦事情，现在，
你把我那份钱也拿去，偶尔给我毛把钱用就行了，不要常给，因为我觉得容易得到的东西并
没有什么大价值。请你到寡妇那儿为我告辞吧。”
“噢，哈克，你知道，我不能这样做，这不太好。你如果稍微多试几天，就会喜欢那种
生活的。”
“喜欢那种生活——就像喜欢很长时间坐在热炉子上一样。我不干，汤姆，我不要当富
人，也不想住在那闷热倒霉的房子里。我喜欢森林、河流、那些大桶，我决不离开这些东
西。真是倒霉，刚弄了几条枪，找到了山洞，准备去当强盗，却偏偏碰上了这种事情，真让
人扫兴。”
汤姆瞅到了机会——
“喂，哈克，富了也能当强盗啊。”
“真的吗？你说话当真，汤姆？”
“当然当真，就像我人坐在这儿一样，千真万确。不过，我们不接受不体面的人入伙，
哈克。”
哈克的高兴劲被一下子打消了。
“不让我入伙，汤姆？你不是让我当过海盗吗？”
“是让你当过，不过这跟入伙没什么关系，总的说来，强盗比海盗格调要高。在许多国
家，强盗算是上流人当中的上流人，都是些公爵之类的人。”
“汤姆，你一直对我很好，不是吗？你不会不让我入伍，对吧，汤姆？不会不让我入伍
吧，汤姆，是不是？”
“哈克，我不愿不让你入伍，也不想那么干，不过要是让你进来，别人会怎么说呢？他
们会不屑一顾地说：瞧汤姆·索亚那帮乌合之众，全是些低贱的人。这是指你的，哈克。你
不会喜欢他们这么说你，我也不喜欢。”
哈克沉默了一会，思想上在作激烈的斗争。最后他开了腔：
“得，我再回到寡妇家里应付上一个月，看能不能适应那种生活，不过汤姆，你会让我
入伍，对吧？”
“好吧，哈克，一言为定！走，老伙计，我去跟寡妇讲，让她对你要求松一些。”
“你答应了，汤姆？你答应了，这太好了。在些难事上，她要是能宽容一些，我就可以
背地里抽烟、诅咒。要么挺过去，要么完蛋拉倒。你打算什么时候结伙当强盗？”
“噢，这就干。把孩子们集中起来，也许今晚就举行入伙仪式。”
“举行什么？”
“举行入伙仪式。”
“什么叫入伙仪式？”
“就是发誓互相帮忙，永不泄密。就是被剁成肉酱也不能泄密。如果有人伤害了你，就
把他和他全家统统干掉，一个不留。”
“这真好玩，真有意思，汤姆。”
“对，我想是好玩。发誓仪式得在半夜举行，要选在最偏僻、最恐怖的地方干。闹鬼的
房子最好，可现在全被拆了。”
“半夜时分干还是不错的，汤姆。”
“对。还要对棺材发誓，咬破指头签名呐。”
“这才真有点像样呢！这比当海盗要强一万倍。汤姆，我到死都跟着寡妇在一起了。我
要是始终能成为一名响当当的强盗，人人都会谈到我，那么，我想，她会为自己把我从困境
中解救出来而自豪。”
结束语
故事至此结束。因为这确实是个儿童的故事，所以写到这里必须搁笔，再写下去就得涉
及到成人时期。写成人的故事，作者很清楚写到结婚成家就算了事，但是写青少年则得见好
就收。
本书中的人物有许多仍然健在，过着富裕快乐的生活。有朝一日再来续写这个故事，看
看原来书中的小孩子们长大后做什么，这也许是件值得做的事情。正因为如此，明智的做法
就是现在不要越俎代庖