Read Online Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim by Mark Twain, W. Bill Czolgosz - Free Book Online Page B

git nuffn else,” he says.
    "Why, how long you been on the island, Jim?"
    "I come heah de night arter you's killed."
    "What, all that time?"
    "Yes-indeedy."
    "And ain't you had nothing but that kind of rubbage to eat?"
    "No, sah-nuffn else."
    "Well, is you starved?"
    "I reck'n I could eat a hoss. I think I could. How long you ben on de islan'?"
    "Since the night I got killed."
    "No! W'y, what has you lived on? But you got a gun. Oh, yes, you got a gun. Dat's good. Now you kill sumfn en I'll make up de fire."
    I don’ figger to un'erstand how it all warks. Baggers don’ need to eat, but they thinks they do. It's what Tom's Aunt Polly called a pattern; how they remembers eatin’ so that's what they thinks they s'posed to be doing. Instink is another word for it. These baggers, these half baggers, th’ good ones, they still likes to pretend they alive like ever'one else. An’ so they eat and do the other thing too, except what comes out the bottom end idn't the same as what comes out of livin’ folk. It's just like reg'lar food, but all half-chewed and kinda dry; like their body never got a dang thing out of it.
    An’ Jim was just like that, too. He warn't hungry, only thinks he was hungry. Bein’ dead he don’ need to eat, but no matter how much I tells it to him he don't understand a lick.
    He says, “A hoss, Huck. I tells you I'd eat one."
    So we went over to where the canoe was, and while he built a fire in a grassy open place amongst the trees, I fetched meal and bacon and coffee, and coffee-pot and frying-pan, and sugar and tin cups, and the bagger was set back considerable, because he reckoned it was all done with witchcraft. I catched a good big catfish, too, and Jim cleaned him with his knife, and fried him.
    When breakfast was ready we lolled on the grass and eat it smoking hot. Jim laid it in with all his might, for he was most about starved. Then when we had got pretty well stuffed, we laid off and lazied. By and by Jim says:
    "But looky here, Huck, who wuz it dat ‘uz killed in dat shanty ef it warn't you?"
    Then I told him the whole thing, how it was a li'l bunderlug fella who was already mostly roont, and he said it was smart. He said Tom Sawyer couldn't get up no better plan than what I had. He said:
    "If he ‘uz already mostly roont, you did him a fava."
    "I reckon I did."
    "No good kickin’ ‘round like that wif parts missin'. You got no dignity left. If I ever got to be like dat, missin’ parts an’ wif a broken head, I'd a ask some'un to finish me off fo’ certain."
    Then I says:
    "How do you come to be here, Jim, and how'd you get here?"
    He looked pretty uneasy, and didn't say nothing for a minute. Then he says:
    "Maybe I better not tell."
    "Why, Jim?"
    "Well, dey's reasons. But you wouldn’ tell on me ef I uz to tell you, would you, Huck?"
    "Blamed if I would, Jim."
    "Well, I b'lieve you, Huck. I-I run off ."
    "Jim!"
    "But mind, you said you wouldn’ tell-you know you said you wouldn’ tell, Huck."
    "Well, I did. I said I wouldn't, and I'll stick to it. Honest injun , I will. People would call me a low-down ungrateful zomby-lover and despise me for it-but that don't make no difference. I ain't a-going to tell, and I ain't a-going back there, anyways. So, now, le's know all about it."
    "Well, you see, it ‘uz dis way. Ole missus-dat's Miss Watson-she pecks on me all de time, en treats me pooty rough, but she awluz said she wouldn’ sell me down to Orleans. But I noticed dey wuz a bagger trader roun’ de place considable lately, en I begin to git oneasy. Well, one night I creeps to de do’ pooty late, en de do’ warn't quite shet, en I hear old missus tell de widder she gwyne to sell me down to Orleans, but she didn’ want to, but she could git eight hund'd dollars for me, en it ‘uz sich a big stack o’ money she couldn’ resis'. De widder she try to git her to say she wouldn’ do it, but I never waited to hear de res'. I lit out mighty quick, I tell you.
    "I tuck out en shin