him picturesque in the days when he was free and happy. Tom routed him
out, told him the trouble he had been causing, and urged him to go home.
Huck s face lost its tranquil content, and took a melancholy cast. He
said:
Don t talk about it, Tom. I ve tried it, and it don t work; it don t
work, Tom. It ain t for me; I ain t used to it. The widder s good to me,
and friendly; but I can t stand them ways. She makes me get up just
at the same time every morning; she makes me wash, they comb me all
to thunder; she won t let me sleep in the woodshed; I got to wear them
blamed clothes that just smothers me, Tom; they don t seem to any air
git through em, somehow; and they re so rotten nice that I can t
set down, nor lay down, nor roll around anywher s; I hain t slid on a
cellar-door for well, it pears to be years; I got to go to church
and sweat and sweat I hate them ornery sermons! I can t ketch a fly in
there, I can t chaw. I got to wear shoes all Sunday. The widder eats by
a bell; she goes to bed by a bell; she gits up by a bell everything s so
awful reg lar a body can t stand it.
Well, everybody does that way, Huck.
Tom, it don t make no difference. I ain t everybody, and I can t
_stand_ it. It s awful to be tied up so. And grub comes too easy I don t
take no interest in vittles, that way. I got to ask to go a-fishing;
I got to ask to go in a-swimming dern d if I hain t got to ask to do
everything. Well, I d got to talk so nice it wasn t no comfort I d got
to go up in the attic and rip out awhile, every day, to git a taste
in my mouth, or I d a died, Tom. The widder wouldn t let me smoke;
she wouldn t let me yell, she wouldn t let me gape, nor stretch, nor
scratch, before folks [Then with a spasm of special irritation and
injury] And dad fetch it, she prayed all the time! I never see such a
woman! I _had_ to shove, Tom I just had to. And besides, that school s
going to open, and I d a had to go to it well, I wouldn t stand _that_,
Tom. Looky-here, Tom, being rich ain t what it s cracked up to be. It s
just worry and worry, and sweat and sweat, and a-wishing you was dead
all the time. Now these clothes suits me, and this bar l suits me, and
I ain t ever going to shake em any more. Tom, I wouldn t ever got into
all this trouble if it hadn t a been for that money; now you just take
my sheer of it along with your n, and gimme a ten-center sometimes not
many times, becuz I don t give a dern for a thing thout it s tollable
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