Chapter 17 Chapter Fifteen

In a few minutes Tom was in the shallow water of the sandbar, wading toward Illinois.When he reached the middle of the river, the water was up to his waist; when the current turned sharply and wading across was no longer possible, he decided confidently to swim the remaining hundred yards.He swam upriver, but the river kept pushing him downriver, much faster than he expected.In the end he swam to the bank, drifted along the water for some distance, and climbed onto the bank beside a lower embankment.He reached out and pressed his jacket pocket, and found that the bark was still there, so he got into the woods by the river, dripping water all the way.About ten o'clock he came out of the woods into an open field opposite the town, and saw the ferryboat moored in the shade under the trees beside the high embankment.The stars twinkled in the sky, and everything was silent on the earth.He quietly slipped down the embankment, looked around with his eyes wide open, then dived into the water, swam three or four times, and then climbed into the stern boat that was waiting for "Tug" and lay down under the seat, waiting panting. sail.

Soon, the broken bell on the ship rang, and someone gave the order to "start the ship".A minute or two later, the bows of the skiff were thrown upright by the swell from the ferryboat, and the boat set sail.Tom was glad he had caught this boat, knowing it was the last ferry of the night.After a long twelve or fifteen minutes the ferry came to a stop, and Tom slipped out of the boat and swam towards shore in the twilight, fifty yards downstream to avoid being seen. safely ashore.He quickly passed through the deserted alley, and in a blink of an eye he arrived at the back wall of his aunt's house.He climbed over the wall, approached the wing, and looked in at the light in the drawing-room window, where Aunt Polly, Sid, Mary, and Joe Harper's mother were sitting, talking.They sat on the edge of the bed, which was between them and the door.Tom went to the door, gently pushed the latch, and then pushed it slowly, and the door opened a crack.He opened the door cautiously.Every time the door rang, he trembled with fright. Later, when he estimated that he could squeeze in on his stomach, he put his head in first and began to crawl inside in fear.

"How does the candle flicker so badly?" asked Aunt Polly.Tom crawled in hastily. "Well, I thought the door must be open. Well, it was open, and there are so many strange things now, Endless.Sid, go and close the door. " Tom just now hid under the bed.He lay there, and after he "had recovered his breath", he crawled over and almost touched his aunt's feet. "But, as I said," said Aunt Polly, "he's not bad, so to speak—he's just naughty, and a little rash. He's only a boy. Not a bit mean, I've never met a kid with such a kind heart. Hey..." She started to cry.

"That's what my Joe is--a naughty one, and he takes advantage of all the naughtiness. But he's unselfish and good-natured. My God! It makes me sad to think of beating him up. I thought he stole Cheese, whipped him indiscriminately, never thought it was sour, I poured it out with my own hands. Well, now, I will never live to see him, never, never, never It's gone. The poor, abused child!" Then Mrs. Harper seemed choked with grief, choked up with sobs. "I hope Tom's happy now," Sid said, "but he's had some things he didn't do very well..."

"Sid!" Although Tom couldn't see clearly, he felt that the old lady was talking to Sid with her eyes wide open. "Tom's gone, don't let you say another bad word about him! Heaven takes care of him--you don't have to worry about it, my sir! Oh, Mrs. Harper, I just don't know how to forget him! I just don't know how." Forget him! Though he was a torment to my old heart, he was a great comfort to me." "God gave them to us, and took them back,--thank God! This is brutal - oh, it's unbearable! Just last Saturday my Joe put a firecracker in front of me and I beat him to the ground. Who knew so soon he'd... oh, If I could do it all over again, I would put my arms around him and praise him for a job well done."

"Yes, yes, yes, I understand how you feel, Mrs. Harper, I totally understand. Just yesterday at noon, my Tom caught the cat and gave him a lot of painkillers. Destroyed the house. I'm sorry to God, I hit Tom on the head with a thimble, poor boy, my poor short-lived boy. But now he's free from all his troubles. The last thing I heard him say Just blame me..." The old lady was talking, she was so sad that she couldn't go on, she burst into tears.At this time, Tom's nose was also sour - it was not that he was sympathizing with others, but he was pitying himself.He heard Mary cry too, and now and then he said a kind word or two for him.He had never felt so special about himself as he did now.Also, Tom was so moved by his aunt's grief that he wanted to rush out from under the bed and surprise her--and Tom was very fond of dramatic scenes, but this time he held his breath and didn't move.

He listened on and learned from bits and pieces of conversation that at first it was thought that some children had drowned in the swim; then they discovered that the little raft was missing; The boy had hinted that the townspeople would soon be "hearing great news"; and from the cobbled-together news the wise men concluded that the little fellows must have gone out on small rafts, and would soon be in the lower villages and towns. but about noon the raft was found lying on the bank of the Mississippi five or six miles below the town--but the children were not on it, and so hopes were dashed and shattered; When it gets dark, they will come home hungry.It was considered futile to salvage the bodies, because the children must have drowned in the river, or else, with their good water skills, they would have come ashore long ago.Today is Wednesday night.If the body was not found by Sunday, there was no hope, and the funeral would be held on Sunday morning.When Tom heard this, his whole body trembled.

Mrs. Harper said good night in a sobbing voice and was going away.The two bereaved women suddenly burst into excitement, hugged each other and cried heartily before breaking up.Aunt Polly was uncharacteristically gentle when she said goodbye to Sid and Mary.Sid sniffled a little, but Mary walked away crying. Aunt Polly knelt down and prayed for Tom.She prayed so much that it was touching.Tom saw her old man's voice trembling, and her words were full of infinite love, and before she finished speaking, he was in tears. A long time after Aunt Polly went to bed, because she was very sad, she sighed and sighed from time to time, and fell asleep, tossing and turning, and couldn't sleep for a long time.But in the end, she still fell asleep peacefully, except that one or two groans could be heard occasionally.So Tom got out from under the bed, stood up slowly, shaded the candlelight with his hand, and stood by the bed looking at her.My heart was full of pity for her.He pounded the sycamore bark out of his pocket and put it beside the candle.But he suddenly remembered something and hesitated.His face beamed at a happy decision; he put the bark hastily into his pocket.Then he stooped, kissed the withered lips, and went straight and quietly to the door, bolting it behind him.

He beat around the bush and returned to the ferry dock, finding no one moving there, and boldly boarded.He knew there was only one boatman and no one else on board, and he was always sleeping, like a statue.He untied the skiff at the stern, jumped aboard quietly, and was soon paddling cautiously upstream.When he was a mile from the village, he turned the bows and rowed straight across to the opposite bank with all his might.He came ashore very skillfully, which to him was just a trick.He really wanted to take this small boat as his own, reasoning that it could be regarded as a big boat, so it was reasonable for him to be captured by pirates.But he changed his mind, if he lost the boat, people would definitely search everywhere, which would expose the matter instead, so he abandoned the boat and went ashore, and went into the woods.

He sat down, rested for a while, trying to fight sleepiness, and walked cautiously toward the bend of the river where the campsite was.At this point the night will be over.It was broad daylight when he walked to the beach on the island.He took a rest again, until the sun was three poles high, the rays of light shone everywhere, and the golden waves leaped happily on the wide river, so he jumped into the river again.A little while later, standing dripping at the door of the camp, he heard Joe say: "No, Tom's the best of his word, Huck, and he'll come back. He won't desert us. He knows it's unseemly for a pirate, and a man with a face like Tom wouldn't do it." This kind of thing happened. He must have gone out on business. But what did he do?"

"Well, anyway, the stuff is ours, isn't it?" "Probably, but not sure, Huck. His note said if he didn't come back here by breakfast time, it'd be ours." "Say Cao Cao, Cao Cao is here!" Tom shouted, striding in with great strides, as if acting in a play. Soon, a rich breakfast of bacon and fresh fish was brought out, and the children sat around eating their breakfast, and Tom told the story of his return home, adding oil and vinegar.Tom said, and they became a bunch of vain, self-important heroes.Then Tom retired to a cool and quiet place to sleep, and slept till noon.The other two pirates were busy preparing for fishing and exploring.