Chapter 33

SO I started for town in the wagon¹, and when I was half-way I see a wagon coming, and sure enough it was Tom Sawyer, and I stopped and waited till he come along. I says "Hold on!" and it stopped alongside², and his mouth opened up like a trunk, and stayed so; and he swallowed two or three times like a person that's got a dry throat, and then says:

"I hain't ever done you no harm. You know that. So, then, what you want to come back and ha'nt ME for?"

I says:

"I hain't come back -- I hain't been GONE."

When he heard my voice it righted him up some, but he warn't quite satisfied yet. He says:

"Don't you play nothing on me, because I wouldn't on you. Honest injun, you ain't a ghost?"

"Honest injun, I ain't," I says.

"Well -- I -- I -- well, that ought to settle it, of course; but I can't somehow seem to understand it no way. Looky here, warn't you ever murdered AT ALL?"

"No. I warn't ever murdered at all -- I played it on them. You come in here and feel of me if you don't believe me."

So he done it; and it satisfied him; and he was that glad to see me again he didn't know what to do. And he wanted to know all about it right off, because it was a grand adventure, and mysterious, and so it hit him where he lived. But I said, leave it alone till by and by; and told his driver to wait, and we drove off a little piece, and I told him the kind of a fix I was in, and what did he reckon³ we better do? He said, let him alone a minute, and don't disturb him. So he thought and thought, and pretty soon he says:

"It's all right; I've got it. Take my trunk in your wagon, and let on it's your'n; and you turn back and fool along slow, so as to get to the house about the time you ought to; and I'll go towards town a piece, and take a fresh start, and get there a quarter or a half an hour after you; and you needn't let on to know me at first."

I says:

"All right; but wait a minute. There's one more thing -- a thing that NOBODY don't know but me. And that is, there's a nigger here that I'm a-trying to steal out of slavery, and his name is JIM -- old Miss Watson's Jim."

He says:

" What ! Why, Jim is --"

He stopped and went to studying. I says:

"I know what you'll say. You'll say it's dirty, lowdown business; but what if it is? I'm low down; and I'm a-going to steal him, and I want you keep mum and not let on. Will you?"

His eye lit up, and he says:

"I'll HELP you steal him!"

Well, I let go all holts then, like I was shot. It was the most astonishing speech I ever heard -- and I'm bound⁴ to say Tom Sawyer fell considerable⁵ in my estimation. Only I couldn't believe it. Tom Sawyer a NIGGER-STEALER!

"Oh, shucks!" I says; "you're joking."

"I ain't joking, either."

"Well, then," I says, "joking or no joking, if you hear anything said about a runaway⁶ nigger, don't forget to remember that YOU don't know nothing about him, and I don't know nothing about him."

Then we took the trunk and put it in my wagon, and he drove off his way and I drove mine. But of course I forgot all about driving slow on accounts of being glad and full of thinking; so I got home a heap⁷ too quick for that length of a trip. The old gentleman was at the door, and he says:

"Why, this is wonderful! Whoever would a thought it was in that mare⁸ to do it? I wish we'd a timed her. And she hain't sweated a hair -- not a hair. It's wonderful. Why, I wouldn't take a hundred dollars for that horse now -- I wouldn't, honest; and yet I'd a sold her for fifteen before, and thought 'twas all she was worth."

That's all he said. He was the innocentest, best old soul I ever see. But it warn't surprising; because he warn't only just a farmer, he was a preacher, too, and had a little one-horse log⁹ church down back of the plantation¹⁰, which he built it himself at his own expense, for a church and schoolhouse, and never charged nothing for his preaching¹¹, and it was worth it, too. There was plenty other farmer-preachers like that, and done the same way, down South.

In about half an hour Tom's wagon drove up to the front stile, and Aunt Sally she see it through the window, because it was only about fifty yards, and says:

"Why, there's somebody come! I wonder who 'tis? Why, I do believe it's a stranger. Jimmy " (that's one of the children)' "run and tell Lize to put on another plate for dinner."

Everybody made a rush for the front door, because, of course, a stranger don't come EVERY year, and so he lays over the yaller-fever, for interest, when he does come. Tom was over the stile and starting for the house; the wagon was spinning up the road for the village, and we was all bunched in the front door. Tom had his store clothes on, and an audience -- and that was always nuts for Tom Sawyer. In them circumstances it warn't no trouble to him to throw in an amount of style that was suitable. He warn't a boy to meeky along up that yard like a sheep; no, he come ca'm and important, like the ram¹². When he got a-front of us he lifts his hat ever so gracious¹³ and dainty, like it was the lid of a box that had butterflies asleep in it and he didn't want to disturb them, and says:

"Mr. Archibald Nichols, I presume¹⁴?"

"No, my boy," says the old gentleman, "I'm sorry to say 't your driver has deceived¹⁵ you; Nichols's place is down a matter of three mile more. Come in, come in."

Tom he took a look back over his shoulder, and says, "Too late -- he's out of !j:

1 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

2 alongside   

adv.在旁边；prep.和...在一起，在...旁边

参考例句：

• There was a butcher's shop alongside the theatre.剧院旁边有一家肉店。
• Alongside of him stood his uncle.他的身旁站着他叔叔。

3 reckon   

vt.计算，估计，认为；vi.计（算），判断，依靠

参考例句：

• Don't reckon upon your relatives to help you out of trouble.不要指望你的亲戚会帮助你摆脱困境。
• I reckon that he is rather too old to marry again.我认为他的年龄太大，不太适于再婚。

4 bound   

adj.一定的，必然的；受约束的，有义务的

参考例句：

• I feel honor bound to repay the money I borrowed.我觉得有责任归还我借的钱。
• If he signs that paper,he will be bound hand and foot.如果他签署那份文件，他就会受到束缚。

5 considerable   

a.相当多的，相当大的，相当重要的

参考例句：

• He saved the child at considerable risk to himself. 他冒着极大的生命危险救了那个孩子。
• The flood resulted in a considerable reduction in production. 这次水灾造成相当大的减产。

6 runaway   

n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的

参考例句：

• The police have not found the runaway to date.警察迄今没抓到逃犯。
• He was praised for bringing up the runaway horse.他勒住了脱缰之马受到了表扬。

7 heap   

n./vt.堆；一堆；堆积；许多，大量；装载

参考例句：

• The gardener began to heap up the fallen leaves.园丁开始把落叶堆起来。
• There was a big heap of stones in the road.路上有一大堆石头。

8 mare   

n.母马，母驴

参考例句：

• The mare has just thrown a foal in the stable.那匹母马刚刚在马厩里产下了一只小马驹。
• The mare foundered under the heavy load and collapsed in the road.那母马因负载过重而倒在路上。

9 log   

n.记录，圆木，日志；v.伐木，切，航行

参考例句：

• They log for a living.他们以伐木为生。
• And then what do you do with that log?然后你要拿那些记录做什么呢？

10 plantation   

n.种植园，大农场

参考例句：

• His father-in-law is a plantation manager.他岳父是个种植园经营者。
• The plantation owner has possessed himself of a vast piece of land.这个种植园主把大片土地占为己有。

11 preaching   

n.讲道，讲道法v.布道( preach的现在分词 )；劝诫；说教；宣传

参考例句：

• The man was preaching the Gospel. 此人在传布福音。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These misguided people go around preaching up violence. 这些误入歧途的人到处鼓吹暴力。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 ram   

(random access memory)随机存取存储器

参考例句：

• 512k RAM is recommended and 640k RAM is preferred.推荐配置为512K内存，640K内存则更佳。

13 gracious   

adj.亲切的，客气的，宽厚的，仁慈的

参考例句：

• She was a very gracious lady.她是一位非常和蔼可亲的女士。
• She was gracious enough to show us round her home.她彬彬有礼地领我们参观了她的家。

14 presume   

vt.姑且认定，假定，推测，认为是理所当然；vi.假设，越权行事

参考例句：

• We mustn't presume too much upon the reliability of such sources.我们不应过分指望这类消息来源的可靠性。
• You had better presume no such thing.你最好不要这样设想。

15 deceived   

v.欺骗，蒙骗( deceive的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was absolutely furious at having been deceived. 她受了骗，怒不可遏。
• He deceived people for years until the police got onto him. 多年来他欺骗人们一直到警察识破他。 来自《简明英汉词典》