by Mark Twain
CHAPTER X.
AFTER breakfast I wanted to talk about the dead man and guess out how hecome to be killed, but Jim didn't want to. ?He said it would fetch badluck; and besides, he said, he might come and ha'nt us; he said a manthat warn't buried was more likely to go a-ha'nting around than onethat was planted and comfortable. ?That sounded pretty reasonable, soI 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 he reckonedthe people in that house stole the coat, because if they'd a knowed themoney was there they wouldn't a left it. ?I said I reckoned they killedhim, 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 in thesnake-skin that I found on the top of the ridge day before yesterday?You said it was the worst bad luck in the world to touch a snake-skinwith my hands. ?Well, here's your bad luck! ?We've raked in all thistruck and eight dollars besides. ?I wish we could have some bad lucklike 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 of theridge, and got out of tobacco. ?I went to the cavern to get some, andfound a rattlesnake in there. ?I killed him, and curled him up on thefoot of Jim's blanket, ever so natural, thinking there'd be some funwhen Jim found him there. ?Well, by night I forgot all about the snake,and when Jim flung himself down on the blanket while I struck a lightthe 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 to pourit 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 you leavea dead snake its mate always comes there and curls around it. ?Jim toldme to chop off the snake's head and throw it away, and then skin thebody and roast a piece of it. ?I done it, and he eat it and said itwould help cure him. He made me take off the rattles and tie them aroundhis wrist, too. ?He said that that would help. ?Then I slid out quietand throwed the snakes clear away amongst the bushes; for I warn't goingto let Jim find out it was all my fault, not if I could help 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 himself hewent to sucking at the jug again. ?His foot swelled up pretty big, andso did his leg; but by and by the drunk begun to come, and so I judgedhe was all right; but I'd druther been bit with a snake than pap'swhisky.
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 had comeof it. Jim said he reckoned I would believe him next time. ?And he saidthat handling a snake-skin was such awful bad luck that maybe we hadn'tgot to the end of it yet. ?He said he druther see the new moon over hisleft shoulder as much as a thousand times than take up a snake-skinin his hand. ?Well, I was getting to feel that way myself, though I'vealways reckoned that looking at the new moon over your left shoulder isone of the carelessest and foolishest things a body can do. ?Old HankBunker done it once, and bragged about it; and in less than two years hegot drunk and fell off of the shot-tower, and spread himself out sothat he was just a kind of a layer, as you may say; and they slid himedgeways between two barn doors for a coffin, and buried him so, sothey say, but I didn't see it. ?Pap told me. ?But anyway it all come oflooking 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 wasas big as a man, being six foot two inches long, and weighed over twohundred pounds. We couldn't handle him, of course; he would a flung usinto Illinois. ?We just set there and watched him rip and tear aroundtill he drownded. ?We found a brass button in his stomach and a roundball, and lots of rubbage. ?We split the ball open with the hatchet,and there was a spool in it. ?Jim said he'd had it there a long time, tocoat it over so and make a ball of it. ?It was as big a fish as was evercatched in the Mississippi, I reckon. ?Jim said he hadn't ever seena bigger one. ?He would a been worth a good deal over at the village.?They peddle out such a fish as that by the pound in the market-housethere; everybody buys some of him; his meat's as white as snow and makesa good fry.
Next morning I said it was getting slow and dull, and I wanted to get astirring up some way. ?I said I reckoned I would slip over the river andfind 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. ?Jimhitched it behind with the hooks, and it was a fair fit. ?I put on thesun-bonnet and tied it under my chin, and then for a body to look inand see my face was like looking down a joint of stove-pipe. ?Jim saidnobody would know me, even in the daytime, hardly. ?I practiced aroundall day to get the hang of the things, and by and by I could do prettywell in them, only Jim said I didn't walk like a girl; and he saidI must quit pulling up my gown to get at my britches-pocket. ?I tooknotice, 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, andthe drift of the current fetched me in at the bottom of the town. ?Itied 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 I wonderedwho had took up quarters there. ?I slipped up and peeped in at thewindow. ?There was a woman about forty year old in there knitting bya candle that was on a pine table. ?I didn't know her face; she was astranger, for you couldn't start a face in that town that I didn't know.?Now this was lucky, because I was weakening; I was getting afraid I hadcome; people might know my voice and find me out. ?But if this woman hadbeen in such a little town two days she could tell me all I wanted toknow; so I knocked at the door, and made up my mind I wouldn't forget Iwas a girl.