Chapter 16 Chapter 14 "Pirates" Happy in the Wild

In the morning, when Tom woke up, he didn't know where he was.He sat up, rubbed his eyes, and looked around.Soon he remembered.It was the cool, gray hour of dawn, and there was a hush in the woods, haunted by an air of sweet repose and peace.Not a leaf stirred, and not a sound disturbed Nature's sound sleep.The dewdrops still lingered on the leaves and grass blades.A white layer of ash covered the fire, and a thin plume of smoke rose straight into the sky.But Joe and Huck were still sound asleep. At this time, a bird in the depths of the woods called, and another one responded.Then I heard a woodpecker pecking at a tree.The light morning light gradually turned white, and all kinds of sounds became denser, and everything on the earth was full of vitality.Nature awoke from her slumber, and refreshed herself, and unfolded before the amazed child a spectacle.A small caterpillar crawled up a dewy leaf, and every now and then it would throw up most of its body in the air, "sniff" here and there, and then crawl forward--probing, Tom said.He stood still as a stone as the worm approached him of its own accord, hoping that it would come closer.The little bug continued to crawl towards him for a while, and then seemed to have changed its mind and planned to go elsewhere.His hopes rose and fell with it.Then the little bug, who cocked himself up in the air, and after much deliberation, climbed up on Tom's lap, and roamed about him, filled him with joy—for it meant that he was going to get a new dress—and there was no doubt about it. It's a glorious pirate uniform.At this time, a large group of ants came from nowhere and were busy carrying things; one of them was grabbing a dead spider five times its own body with its two forelimbs, and dragging it forward with all its strength. Climb up the trunk.A lady flower with a brown spot on its back was lying on the tip of a blade of grass. Tom bent down and said to it, "Miss flower, lady flower, come home, your house is on fire, and your baby is looking for its mother." ’” So it flapped its wings and flew away, and went home to see what was the matter—Tom was not surprised by this at all, because he had long known that such little insects tended to believe in fire, and their minds were simple. Been teased more than once.Presently another beetle came flying by, carrying a ball of dung inexorably; Tom touched the little thing, to see it draw its legs into its body and pretend to be dead.At this time, many birds chirped and made more fun.A catmagpie--a northern parrot--had alighted from a great tree above Tom's head, and imitated the calls of other birds near it, and sang happily.Then another jay flew down screeching, like a flash of blue flame, and landed on a twig where Tom could almost reach it.It tilted its head and looked at these uninvited guests very curiously; there was also a gray squirrel and a big fox-like thing running over in a hurry, sitting and observing these children for a while, and barking at them a few times for a while.These wild animals may have never seen humans before, so they have no idea whether to be afraid or not.At this time, all things in nature are awakened and full of vitality.Here and there, rays of sunlight pierced down from the dense leaves like spears, and a few butterflies flapped their wings and danced lightly.

Tom woke the other two robbers, and they ran away with a cry and laugh; and in two minutes they were naked, jumping into the crystal clear water on the white-sand beach, chasing and cuddling each other.Across the wide river, far away, was that village, and they didn't miss it.Either a turbulent current or a rising tide carried their little raft away.They are thankful for it.Because without the raft, it would be like burning their bridges to civilization, cutting off their desire to return. They came back to the campsite refreshed, cheerful, and hungry; and before long they stoked the fire again.Huck found a clear spring nearby, and the children made cups out of broad oak and walnut leaves. They felt that the spring water had a forest fragrance and could completely replace coffee.Joe was cutting bacon for breakfast, and Tom and Huck told him to wait a while; they came to the river, found a secluded spot, cast down their hooks, and soon had a catch.Before Joe got impatient with the wait, they brought back some handsome totoaba, a couple of perch, and a small catfish--enough fish for a big family meal.They boiled the fish and bacon together, and the result was astonishing: the fish tasted so delicious.They don't know that the freshwater fish tastes better the more they are cooked while they are alive; in addition, they don't think that sleeping in the open air, exercising outdoors, bathing and being hungry will greatly increase their appetite.They do not understand the truth of the mouth of the hungry.

After breakfast they drank casually in the shade of the tree, and Huck smoked a pipe; then they all went into the woods and explored.They wandered on, over rotten logs, through weeds, through tall trees with vines hanging like tassels from a crown.Now and then they came across solitary places, where the ground was covered with grass and flowers, like green carpets studded with precious stones. They saw many exciting things, but nothing out of the ordinary.They found that the island was about three miles long and a quarter of a mile wide, separated at its nearest point from the bank by a narrow channel, not two hundred yards wide.They swam about once every hour, so by the time they got back to camp, half the afternoon had passed.They were so hungry that they didn't bother to stop to catch fish to eat. They just wolfed down the cold ham and lay down in the shade to talk after eating.They talked intermittently, and finally they stopped talking.The silence around, the solemnity of the forest and the sense of loneliness slowly affected the emotions of these children.They began to meditate.An inexplicable longing gradually climbed into their hearts-it was an increasingly strong homesickness.Even Finn the Red-Handed is nostalgic for the steps he used to sleep on and the big empty barrels.But they were ashamed of this weakness, and none of them had the courage to speak their minds to the public.

For a while, the children faintly heard a strange sound in the distance, like the ticking of a pendulum that you hear when you are not paying special attention.But then the mysterious noise got louder and they had to figure it out.The children froze for a moment, looked at each other, and then seemed to be listening carefully.For a long time there was no sound, only deathly silence; then a dull rumbling sound rolled from a distance. "What a noise!" exclaimed Joe in a low voice. "I don't know," Tom whispered. "That's not thunder," said Huckleberry, with horror in his voice, "because thunder—"

"Listen!" said Tom, "listen—keep quiet." They had waited what seemed years, when there was another dull rumble piercing the silence. "Go, go and have a look." They jumped up all at once and hurried towards the shore towards the town.They parted the bushes by the river and peeked at the water.The little steamboat for the ferry was about a mile downriver from the town, downriver.The large deck seems to be full of people.In addition, there were many small boats paddling and floating around the ferry, but the children couldn't tell what the people on board were doing.Later, a large puff of white smoke suddenly rose from the side of the ferry, and it spread like a cloud.At the same time, the dull sound filled their eardrums again.

"I know!" cried Tom. "Someone's drowned!" "That's the way it is!" said Huck. "That's what they did when Bill Turner fell in the water last summer; , They also use a large loaf of bread, fill it with mercury, and float it on the surface of the water. No matter where someone falls, the loaf will go straight to the place where the accident happened." "Yes, I've heard that too," said Jo. "I don't know what makes bread so good." "Well, maybe it's not the bread itself that's so good," said Tom. "I guess people put a spell on it beforehand."

"They don't say any spells," said Huck. "I've seen them say no spells." "Well, that's strange," said Tom, "but maybe they just said it to themselves. They must have said it, that's obvious." In addition, the two children thought that the bread was ignorant, and that it would never have done such a good job in such an important job if no one had cast a spell on it.So they agree that Tom has a point. "Why, if only I were there now," said Jo. "I thought so too," Huck said. "I'd give a lot of things for someone to tell me who was drowned."

The children were still there listening and watching.Suddenly a thought flashed through Tom's mind, and he exclaimed suddenly: "Guys, I know who's drowned—it's us!" They immediately felt like heroes.This is a gratifying victory.It can be seen that there are still people who miss them, some people mourn for them, some people are heartbroken for them, and some people cry bitterly for them.When those people think of how bad they have been to these poor children who have disappeared, they will be condemned in their conscience and feel guilty, but it is too late to regret.The most important thing was that all the men, women and children in the town must be talking about the drowned men, and the other children envied and envied their fame.That's not bad.In a word, pirates deserve it!

It was getting late, the ferry boat went back to the town, and the rest of the boats disappeared.The pirates also returned to their camp.They thought of their new glory, and of the notorious trouble they had caused the townsfolk, with a feeling of satisfaction and joy.After they had caught fish and cooked their supper, they wondered what the townspeople would think of them and what they would say; they imagined how anxious people were about them, and they were satisfied--their own feelings, of course.But when night fell over the land, they gradually stopped talking and sat looking at the fire, absent-minded.Now the excitement was over, and Tom and Jo could not help thinking that some members of the family would never take so much pleasure in such a wild joke as they did.A wave of fear came over me.They were disturbed, their hearts were heavy, and they could not help sighing once or twice.Afterwards Jo timidly rubbed her hands to sound out the other two pirates, wondering how they would feel about going back to civilization--not right away, though--

Tom taunted him and poured cold water on him.Huck, who has not yet joined, is now on Tom's side.So the wavering element immediately "defended" himself and tried his best to excuse himself, not wanting to be damaged by his timidity and homesickness.The rebellion was finally put down temporarily. As the night wore on, Huck dozed, and soon snored loudly.Joe also fell asleep.Tom, resting his head on his elbow, stared at them both for a long moment without moving.At last he stood up gingerly on his knees, and searched the grass and the gleam of the fire.He picked up several pieces of thin white bark of semicircular sycamore trees, looked at them carefully, and finally chose two pieces that he liked.Then he knelt by the fire, and painstakingly wrote some words on the bark with his red inkstone; he rolled up one, put it in his coat pocket, and put the other in Joe's hat, He moved the hat a little farther away and put in it some things that schoolchildren considered invaluable—a piece of chalk; a rubber ball; three fishing hooks and a stone called a "pure crystal ball."Then he slipped out of the wood very cautiously on tiptoe, till at last he thought he was no longer heard, and ran straight across to the sand.