BY and by it was getting-up time. So I come down the ladder and started for down-stairs; but as I come to the girls' room the door was open, and I see Mary Jane setting by her old hair trunk, which was open and she'd been packing things in it -- getting ready to go to England. But she had stopped now with a folded gown in her lap, and had her face in her hands, crying. I felt awful bad to see it; of course anybody would. I went in there and says:
"Miss Mary Jane, you can't a-bear to see people in trouble, and I can't -- most always. Tell me about it."
So she done it. And it was the niggers -- I just expected it. She said the beautiful trip to England was most about spoiled for her; she didn't know HOW she was ever going to be happy there, knowing the mother and the children warn't ever going to see each other no more -- and then busted out bitterer than ever, and flung up her hands, and says:
"Oh, dear, dear, to think they ain't EVER going to see each other any more!"
"But they WILL -- and inside of two weeks -- and I KNOW it!" says I.
Laws, it was out before I could think! And before I could budge she throws her arms around my neck and told me to say it AGAIN, say it AGAIN, say it AGAIN!
I see I had spoke too sudden and said too much, and was in a close place. I asked her to let me think a minute; and she set there, very impatient and excited and handsome, but looking kind of happy and eased-up, like a person that's had a tooth pulled out. So I went to studying it out. I says to myself, I reckon a body that ups and tells the truth when he is in a tight place is taking considerable many resks, though I ain't had no experience, and can't say for certain; but it looks so to me, anyway; and yet here's a case where I'm blest if it don't look to me like the truth is better and actuly SAFER than a lie. I must lay it by in my mind, and think it over some time or other, it's so kind of strange and unregular. I never see nothing like it. Well, I says to myself at last, I'm a-going to chance it; I'll up and tell the truth this time, though it does seem most like setting down on a kag of powder and touching it off just to see where you'll go to. Then I says:
"Miss Mary Jane, is there any place out of town a little ways where you could go and stay three or four days?"
"Yes; Mr. Lothrop's. Why?"
"Never mind why yet. If I'll tell you how I know the niggers will see each other again inside of two weeks -- here in this house -- and PROVE how I know it -- will you go to Mr. Lothrop's and stay four days?"
"Four days!" she says; "I'll stay a year!"
"All right," I says, "I don't want nothing more out of YOU than just your word -- I druther have it than another man's kiss-the-Bible." She smiled and reddened up very sweet, and I says, "If you don't mind it, I'll shut the door -- and bolt it."
Then I come back and set down again, and says:
"Don't you holler. Just set still and take it like a man. I got to tell the truth, and you want to brace up, Miss Mary, because it's a bad kind, and going to be hard to take, but there ain't no help for it. These uncles of yourn ain't no uncles at all; they're a couple of frauds -- regular dead-beats. There, now we're over the worst of it, you can stand the rest middling easy."
It jolted her up like everything, of course; but I was over the shoal water now, so I went right along, her eyes a-blazing higher and higher all the time, and told her every blame thing, from where we first struck that young fool going up to the steamboat, clear through to where she flung herself on to the king's breast at the front door and he kissed her sixteen or seventeen times -- and then up she jumps, with her face afire like sunset, and says:
"The brute! Come, don't waste a minute -- not a SECOND -- we'll have them tarred and feathered, and flung in the river!"
Says I:
"Cert'nly. But do you mean BEFORE you go to Mr. Lothrop's, or --"
"Oh," she says, "what am I THINKING about!" she says, and set right down again. "Don't mind what I said -- please don't -- you WON'T, now, WILL you?" Laying her silky hand on mine in that kind of a way that I said I would die first. "I never thought, I was so stirred up," she says; "now go on, and I won't do so any more. You tell me what to do, and whatever you say I'll do it."
"Well," I says, "it's a rough gang, them two frauds, and I'm fixed so I got to travel with them a while longer, whether I want to or not -- I druther not tell you why; and if you was to blow on them this town would get me out of their claws, and I'd be all right; but there'd be another person that you don't know about who'd be in big trouble. Well, we got to save HIM, hain't we? Of course. Well, then, we won't blow on them."
Saying them words put a good idea in my head. I see how maybe I could get me and Jim rid of the frauds; get them jailed here, and then leave. But I didn't want to run the raft in the daytime without anybody aboard to answer questions but me; so I didn't want the plan to begin working till pretty late to-night. I says:
"Miss Mary Jane, I'll tell you what we'll do, and you won't have to stay at Mr. Lothrop's so long, nuther. How fur is it?"
"A little short of four miles -- right out in the country, back here."
"Well, that 'll answer. Now you go along out there, and lay low till nine or half-past to-night, and then get them to fetch you home again -- tell them you've thought of something. If you get here before eleven put a candle in this window, and if I don't turn up wait TILL eleven, and THEN if I don't turn up it means I'm gone, and out of the way, and safe. Then you come out and spread the news around, and get these beats jailed."
"Good," she says, "I'll do it."
"And if it just happens so that I don't get away, but get took up along with them, you must up and say I told you the whole thing beforehand, and you must stand by me all you can."
"Stand by you! indeed I will. They sha'n't touch a hair of your head!" she says, and I see her nostrils spread and her eyes snap when she said it, too.
"If I get away I sha'n't be here," I says, "to prove these rapscallions ain't your uncles, and I couldn't do it if I WAS here. I could swear they was beats and bummers, that's all, though that's worth something. Well, there's others can do that better than what I can, and they're people that ain't going to be doubted as quick as I'd be. I'll tell you how to find them. Gimme a pencil and a piece of paper. There -- 'Royal Nonesuch, Bricksville.' Put it away, and don't lose it. When the court wants to find out something about these two, let them send up to Bricksville and say they've got the men that played the Royal Nonesuch, and ask for some witnesses -- why, you'll have that entire town down here before you can hardly wink, Miss Mary. And they'll come a-biling, too."
I judged we had got everything fixed about right now. So I says:
"Just let the auction go right along, and don't worry. Nobody don't have to pay for the things they buy till a whole day after the auction on accounts of the short notice, and they ain't going out of this till they get that money; and the way we've fixed it the sale ain't going to count, and they ain't going to get no money. It's just like the way it was with the niggers -- it warn't no sale, and the niggers will be back before long. Why, they can't collect the money for the NIGGERS yet -- they're in the worst kind of a fix, Miss Mary."
"Well," she says, "I'll run down to breakfast now, and then I'll start straight for Mr. Lothrop's."
"'Deed, THAT ain't the ticket, Miss Mary Jane," I says, "by no manner of means; go BEFORE breakfast."
"Why?"
"What did you reckon I wanted you to go at all for, Miss Mary?"
"Well, I never thought -- and come to think, I don't know. What was it?"
"Why, it's because you ain't one of these leatherface people. I don't want no better book than what your face is. A body can set down and read it off like coarse print. Do you reckon you can go and face your uncles when they come to kiss you goodmorning, and never --"
"There, there, don't! Yes, I'll go before breakfast -- I'll be glad to. And leave my sisters with them?"
"Yes; never mind about them. They've got to stand it yet a while. They might suspicion something if all of you was to go. I don't want you to see them, nor your sisters, nor nobody in this town; if a neighbor was to ask how is your uncles this morning your face would tell something. No, you go right along, Miss Mary Jane, and I'll fix it with all of them. I'll tell Miss Susan to give your love to your uncles and say you've went away for a few hours for to get a little rest and change, or to see a friend, and you'll be back to-night or early in the morning."
"Gone to see a friend is all right, but I won't have my love given to them."
"Well, then, it sha'n't be." It was well enough to tell HER so -- no harm in it. It was only a little thing to do, and no trouble; and it's the little things that smooths people's roads the most, down here below; it would make Mary Jane comfortable, and it wouldn't cost nothing. Then I says: "There's one more thing -- that bag of money."
"Well, they've got that; and it makes me feel pretty silly to think HOW they got it."
"No, you're out, there. They hain't got it."
"Why, who's got it?"
"I wish I knowed, but I don't. I HAD it, because I stole it from them; and I stole it to give to you; and I know where I hid it, but I'm afraid it ain't there no more. I'm awful sorry, Miss Mary Jane, I'm just as sorry as I can be; but I done the best I could; I did honest. I come nigh getting caught, and I had to shove it into the first place I come to, and run -- and it warn't a good place."
"Oh, stop blaming yourself -- it's too bad to do it, and I won't allow it -- you couldn't help it; it wasn't your fault. Where did you hide it?"
I didn't want to set her to thinking about her troubles again; and I couldn't seem to get my mouth to tell her what would make her see that corpse laying in the coffin with that bag of money on his stomach. So for a minute I didn't say nothing; then I says:
"I'd ruther not TELL you where I put it, Miss Mary Jane, if you don't mind letting me off; but I'll write it for you on a piece of paper, and you can read it along the road to Mr. Lothrop's, if you want to. Do you reckon that 'll do?"
"Oh, yes."
So I wrote: "I put it in the coffin. It was in there when you was crying there, away in the night. I was behind the door, and I was mighty sorry for you, Miss Mary Jane."
It made my eyes water a little to remember her crying there all by herself in the night, and them devils laying there right under her own roof, shaming her and robbing her; and when I folded it up and give it to her I see the water come into her eyes, too; and she shook me by the hand, hard, and says:
"GOOD-bye. I'm going to do everything just as you've told me; and if I don't ever see you again, I sha'n't ever forget you. and I'll think of you a many and a many a time, and I'll PRAY for you, too!" -- and she was gone.
Pray for me! I reckoned if she knowed me she'd take a job that was more nearer her size. But I bet she done it, just the same -- she was just that kind. She had the grit to pray for Judus if she took the notion -- there warn't no back-down to her, I judge. You may say what you want to, but in my opinion she had more sand in her than any girl I ever see; in my opinion she was just full of sand. It sounds like flattery, but it ain't no flattery. And when it comes to beauty -- and goodness, too -- she lays over them all. I hain't ever seen her since that time that I see her go out of that door; no, I hain't ever seen her since, but I reckon I've thought of her a many and a many a million times, and of her saying she would pray for me; and if ever I'd a thought it would do any good for me to pray for HER, blamed if I wouldn't a done it or bust.
Well, Mary Jane she lit out the back way, I reckon; because nobody see her go. When I struck Susan and the hare-lip, I says:
"What's the name of them people over on t'other side of the river that you all goes to see sometimes?"
They says:
"There's several; but it's the Proctors, mainly."
"That's the name," I says; "I most forgot it. Well, Miss Mary Jane she told me to tell you she's gone over there in a dreadful hurry -- one of them's sick."
"Which one?"
"I don't know; leastways, I kinder forget; but I thinks it's --"
"Sakes alive, I hope it ain't HANNER?"
"I'm sorry to say it," I says, "but Hanner's the very one."
"My goodness, and she so well only last week! Is she took bad?"
"It ain't no name for it. They set up with her all night, Miss Mary Jane said, and they don't think she'll last many hours."
"Only think of that, now! What's the matter with her?"
I couldn't think of anything reasonable, right off that way, so I says:
"Mumps."
"Mumps your granny! They don't set up with people that's got the mumps."
"They don't, don't they? You better bet they do with THESE mumps. These mumps is different. It's a new kind, Miss Mary Jane said."
"How's it a new kind?"
"Because it's mixed up with other things."
"What other things?"
"Well, measles, and whooping-cough, and erysiplas, and consumption, and yaller janders, and brain-fever, and I don't know what all."
"My land! And they call it the MUMPS?"
"That's what Miss Mary Jane said."
"Well, what in the nation do they call it the MUMPS for?"
"Why, because it IS the mumps. That's what it starts with."
"Well, ther' ain't no sense in it. A body might stump his toe, and take pison, and fall down the well, and break his neck, and bust his brains out, and somebody come along and ask what killed him, and some numskull up and say, 'Why, he stumped his TOE.' Would ther' be any sense in that? NO. And ther' ain't no sense in THIS, nuther. Is it ketching?"
"Is it KETCHING? Why, how you talk. Is a HARROW catching -- in the dark? If you don't hitch on to one tooth, you're bound to on another, ain't you? And you can't get away with that tooth without fetching the whole harrow along, can you? Well, these kind of mumps is a kind of a harrow, as you may say -- and it ain't no slouch of a harrow, nuther, you come to get it hitched on good."
"Well, it's awful, I think," says the hare-lip. "I'll go to Uncle Harvey and --"
"Oh, yes," I says, "I WOULD. Of COURSE I would. I wouldn't lose no time."
"Well, why wouldn't you?"
"Just look at it a minute, and maybe you can see. Hain't your uncles obleegd to get along home to England as fast as they can? And do you reckon they'd be mean enough to go off and leave you to go all that journey by yourselves? YOU know they'll wait for you. So fur, so good. Your uncle Harvey's a preacher, ain't he? Very well, then; is a PREACHER going to deceive a steamboat clerk? is he going to deceive a SHIP CLERK? -- so as to get them to let Miss Mary Jane go aboard? Now YOU know he ain't. What WILL he do, then? Why, he'll say, 'It's a great pity, but my church matters has got to get along the best way they can; for my niece has been exposed to the dreadful pluribus-unum mumps, and so it's my bounden duty to set down here and wait the three months it takes to show on her if she's got it.' But never mind, if you think it's best to tell your uncle Harvey --"
"Shucks, and stay fooling around here when we could all be having good times in England whilst we was waiting to find out whether Mary Jane's got it or not? Why, you talk like a muggins."
"Well, anyway, maybe you'd better tell some of the neighbors."
"Listen at that, now. You do beat all for natural stupidness. Can't you SEE that THEY'D go and tell? Ther' ain't no way but just to not tell anybody at ALL."
"Well, maybe you're right -- yes, I judge you ARE right."
"But I reckon we ought to tell Uncle Harvey she's gone out a while, anyway, so he won't be uneasy about her?"
"Yes, Miss Mary Jane she wanted you to do that. She says, 'Tell them to give Uncle Harvey and William my love and a kiss, and say I've run over the river to see Mr.' -- Mr. -- what IS the name of that rich family your uncle Peter used to think so much of? -- I mean the one that --"
"Why, you must mean the Apthorps, ain't it?"
"Of course; bother them kind of names, a body can't ever seem to remember them, half the time, somehow. Yes, she said, say she has run over for to ask the Apthorps to be sure and come to the auction and buy this house, because she allowed her uncle Peter would ruther they had it than anybody else; and she's going to stick to them till they say they'll come, and then, if she ain't too tired, she's coming home; and if she is, she'll be home in the morning anyway. She said, don't say nothing about the Proctors, but only about the Apthorps -- which 'll be perfectly true, because she is going there to speak about their buying the house; I know it, because she told me so herself."
"All right," they said, and cleared out to lay for their uncles, and give them the love and the kisses, and tell them the message.
Everything was all right now. The girls wouldn't say nothing because they wanted to go to England; and the king and the duke would ruther Mary Jane was off working for the auction than around in reach of Doctor Robinson. I felt very good; I judged I had done it pretty neat -- I reckoned Tom Sawyer couldn't a done it no neater himself. Of course he would a throwed more style into it, but I can't do that very handy, not being brung up to it.
Well, they held the auction in the public square, along towards the end of the afternoon, and it strung along, and strung along, and the old man he was on hand and looking his level pisonest, up there longside of the auctioneer, and chipping in a little Scripture now and then, or a little goody-goody saying of some kind, and the duke he was around goo-gooing for sympathy all he knowed how, and just spreading himself generly.
But by and by the thing dragged through, and everything was sold -- everything but a little old trifling lot in the graveyard. So they'd got to work that off -- I never see such a girafft as the king was for wanting to swallow EVERYTHING. Well, whilst they was at it a steamboat landed, and in about two minutes up comes a crowd a-whooping and yelling and laughing and carrying on, and singing out:
"HERE'S your opposition line! here's your two sets o' heirs to old Peter Wilks -- and you pays your money and you takes your choice!"
我明白我说得太突然，话说得太过了，没什么回旋余地。我请她叫我想一分钟。她坐在那里等着，激动不安而又秀气，还有点喜悦和放心的神情，就像一个人刚拔了牙一般。于是，我认真琢磨了一遍。心想，我看一个人到了紧要关头挺身而出说实话，是要冒很大风险的，尽管我没有这些经验，也说不准，不过反正我觉着是这样。而眼下这种情况我看还是说实话比撒谎强一些，实际上还更安全一些。我得把这个放在心上，有时间了好好想想，这可是那种奇特的、不常遇到的情况。我还从没碰到过这种事儿。好了，我最后终于对自己说，我要碰碰运气看，这回我要挺身而出讲真话了，虽然看起来简直就像是坐在一桶火药上，偏要把它点着，看看自己到底会被崩到哪里去。因此我就说："玛丽·简小姐，离这镇不远，您有什么地方可以去住上三四天吗？""有啊--罗斯洛普先生家。为什么？""先别问为什么。如果我来告诉您我如何知道那些黑人还会再见面，不到两个星期，就在这所房子内，还能向您证明我是怎么知道的，您会到罗斯洛普先生家去住上四天吗？""四天！" 她说，" 我可以住一年！""那好，"我说，" 我相信您这话，超过别人吻着《圣经》发的誓言。" 她笑了笑，脸红起来，样子甜甜的。我又说："要是您不介意，我要把这门关上，还要闩上。"然后，我回来又一次坐下，接着说道："您别叫。就这么安安生生地坐着，像个男子汉一样听我说。我要讲实话，您得打起精神，玛丽小姐，因为这不是什么好消息，让人难以承受，但是，我又不能不说。您这两位叔伯根本不是什么叔伯，他们是一对骗子，是坏得没治的骗子。好了，现在我们已经把最坏的部分说过了，下面的事情您听起来就会容易承受了。"这话当然叫她大吃一惊，只是现在我已经涉过了险滩，于是，我就一直说下去。她眼睛里的怒火越闪越旺，我给她讲了每一件应该诅咒的事情，从我们最初碰上那个要搭轮船的年轻傻冒儿，原原本本地讲到她在大门口扑到国王怀里，他吻了她十六七回--听到这里，她猛地跳了起来，满脸绯红，就像是下山的太阳，她说道："畜生！走，一分钟也不能耽搁，不，一秒钟也不..我们要把他们浇上柏油粘上鸡毛，扔到河里去！"我说："当然。不过您是说，在您去罗斯洛普先生家之前，还是..""噢，"她说，" 我这在想什么呀！" 说着，她又重新坐下来。" 请别记恨我说的话，千万别，你眼下不怪我，对吧？"她把她那柔软光洁的手放在我的手上，那种感觉我都想说我宁愿先死掉也不会怪她。" 我一点儿也没有动脑子想，我是被气坏了，"她说，" 现在接着往下讲吧，我再也不发作了。你告诉我该干什么，你说什么我都可以照办。""那好，"我说，" 这两个骗子不好对付，我和他们搅在一起，不管是否愿意，我都得跟他们再往前走上一段--我还是不跟您说为什么吧！要是您要揭穿了他们，这镇上的人就会把我从他们的魔爪里解救出来，那我当然是好啦。但还有另外一个人，您不认识，他可就会有很大麻烦了。我们还必须救他，对不对？当然如此。那么，好，我们先不拆穿他们。"这样说着，我的脑子里有了一个好主意。我看到了如何才有可能让我和吉姆摆脱这两个骗子，叫他们在这里被关起来，然后我们就好走了。只是，我不愿意白天撑着木排赶路时，船上除了我没别人来应付人家的问话，因此，我不想动手太早，想等到今晚夜深之后再说。我接着讲："玛丽·简小姐，我要告诉您我们得怎么做，您用不着在罗斯洛普先生家住那么久了，那儿离此地有多远？""不到四里地，就在这镇子后边的村里。""好，那就可以了。现在您上那儿去，等到九点或九点半，就今天晚上，然后让他们送您回家，告诉他们说您想起了什么事情。要是您十一点以前来到，就在这窗口上放支蜡烛；如果我没露面，您就等到十一点；如果我还没露面，说明我走了，离这儿已很远了，安全脱险了。然后您就出来，传开消息，把这两个坏蛋给关起来。""好吧，"她说，" 我就这么做。""可是，要是事情碰巧发生了，我没走掉，而是和他们一起被抓住了，您应该站出来说，我早已把整个情况跟您都讲了，您得站在我一边尽力帮我。""站在你一边，我当然会这样。他们决不会来碰你一根头发！" 她说。我看到她说这话时，鼻孔张大，双眼也闪着光。我说："如果我走了，我就不可能在这里来证明这两个流氓不是您的叔伯；我就是在这里，也不允许我这么做。我可以发誓说他们是罪不可容恕的坏蛋无赖，我只能做到这一点，尽管这也有点用处。对了，有别的人，他们能做得比我强，他们作证还不像我这样马上叫人起疑心。我告诉您如何找到他们。递给我铅笔和一张纸。您看，'皇室奇物，博瑞克斯维尔。'收起来，别把它弄丢。当法院调查他俩干的事儿时，让他们派人到博瑞克斯维尔去，就说他们抓到那俩演皇室奇物的人了，邀一些人来作证。啊，那里全镇上的人都会赶到这里来，您都来不及眨巴眼，玛丽小姐。而且他们来时还会怒气冠云。"我估计到现在我们已经把一切都给安排妥当了，于是我说："让拍卖会还按老样子进行吧，别着急。因为告示贴出来的时间短，不管谁买了东西都得等到拍卖会完了之后一整天才可能来付钱，而他们不拿到手里钱是不会离开这儿的。照我们安排的情况看，买卖不生效，他们也拿不到钱。这就跟那些黑人的情形是一样的，买卖不成立，黑人们要不了多久就可以回来。啊，他们还拿不到卖黑人的钱呢，他们的处境最窘了，玛丽小姐。""就这样吧，"她说，" 我这就下楼去吃早饭，吃完饭我直接动身去罗斯洛普先生家。""老天，这可不是个好办法，玛丽·简小姐，"我说，"不是，您早饭（以前）就得走。""为什么？""照您看我到底干嘛想叫您走开呢，玛丽小姐？""啊，我一点儿也没想，现在回头想想吧，我还是不明白。这是为什么呢？""为什么，这是因为您根本不是那种厚脸皮的人。您有事都会露在脸上，比写在书本上还要清楚。只要坐下来一看，谁都可以看出来，就像读印着大字的书一样。您可以想象您面对您叔叔伯伯的情形吗？当他们走来吻您，表示早上好的时候，您决不会..""好啦，好啦，别再往下说啦！对，我要在早饭前走，我很乐意走。只是把我妹妹留给他们？""对，不用替她们操心。反正她们还得忍受一阵。如果你们全走了，他们或许会起疑心。我不想叫您看到他们，也别见您妹妹，别见这镇上的任何人，如果邻居问您今天早上您叔伯的情况，您的脸色会泄露出来的。不，您马上走，玛丽·简小姐，我来应付所有这些人。我会告诉苏珊小姐，让她代您向您的叔伯问好，说您要离开几个小时，休息休息换换气氛，或者说是去看一个朋友了，今晚或明早您就回来。。""说我去看朋友就可以了，我可不愿意代我向他们问好。""好吧，那就不问。" 对她这么说倒是很对，没一点儿害处。这只是些小事儿，毫不麻烦，在大河下游这地方，这是能让人心平气顺的小花招，它能叫玛丽·简心里舒服，还一点不费啥。接着，我说：" 还有一件事--就是那袋钱。""啊，他们已拿到了那袋钱。一想起他们是（怎样）得到钱的，我觉得自己傻到极点了。""不，这一点您想错了。他们没拿到钱。""那么，谁拿到了？""我要知道就好了，可我不知道。我是拿到过，因为我打他们那儿偷出来了，我偷出来是为了给您，我还知道我把它藏在哪儿了，不过我担心它已不在那个地方了。我很难过，玛丽·简小姐，我难过得很，但是我已经尽力了，我尽了力，说老实话。我险些被抓住，我就只好在当时手碰以的地方随手一塞，拔腿就跑--那可不是什么好地方。""噢，别责怪自己吧，这实在不应该啦，再说，我也不答应。你是没办法才那么做的，这可不是你的错儿。你把它藏在哪儿了？"我不想再勾起她想伤心事。我要告诉了她，她就会想起那个棺材里的尸体肚子上搁着那袋钱，这种话我好像张不开嘴对她讲。因此，过了一分钟，我什么也没讲，然后我才说："我不想向您当面说明我放钱的地方，玛丽·简小姐，如果您可以允许我暂时不说的话。不过，我会给您写到一张纸上，您可以在去罗斯洛普先生家的路上看，要是您想看的话。您觉得这样行吗？""噢，行。"因此，我写道：" 我将它放入了棺材。在那个晚上，您在那里哭的时候，我放进去的。我当时站在那扇门后面，我为您感到十分难过，玛丽·简小姐。"想起那天深夜，她一个人在那儿哭，而那两个鬼东西却在她家的屋檐下，骗她抢她，我的眼睛有些湿润了。当我把纸叠好递给她时，我看见泪水也从她的眼里夺眶欲出了，她用力摇着我的手说："再见吧，我全都照您给我说的那些做；如果我从此再见不到你了，我也永远不会忘记你，我会一千遍一万遍地想到你，我还会为你（祝福）！" 她就这样走了。
为我祝福！我看她要是了解我，她说话简直像个大人样儿。只是我敢肯定她还会照样那么做的，她就是那样的人。她要是拿定主意，她都有胆量为犹大祝福--在我眼中她是敢做敢当。你爱怎么说就怎么说，但是，照我看，她比我见过的哪个女孩子都有胆量，依我看，她几乎是浑身是胆。这听起来如同是恭维话一般，但是，一点儿都不是恭维。再说到美丽漂亮，还有心地善良，她比哪个都强。自从那一次我看见她走出那扇门，我就再也没看见过她。不过，我想她，想着有一百万回还要多得多，还想着她说她会替我祝福；要是我觉得我为（她）祝福能有什么好处的话，我就是豁出命也干。
好了，玛丽·简是打后门悄悄儿出去的，我看是这样，因为没有看到她走。碰上苏珊和豁嘴儿的时候，我说：" 你们偶尔过河到对岸去看的那些人叫什么名字？"她们说："有好几家。但是，主要是上普洛克特家。""那就这个名字，"我说道，" 我险些给忘了。噢，玛丽·简小姐叫我告诉你们她匆匆忙忙赶中那边去了，--他们家有生病了。""谁呀？""我不知道；至少是我给忘了，不过，我觉得，好像是...""天哪，我想不会是汉纳吧？""说起来可真让我难过，"我说，" 不过正是汉纳。""我的天哪，她上星期还好好的呢！她病得厉害吗？""没法子说有多重。他们整夜守在她身边，玛丽·简小姐说的，他们觉得她活不了几小时。".."可是，我看我们应该得跟哈维伯伯说一声，说她出门去了，这样也就不会替她担心了吧？""对，玛丽·简小姐想让你们这么做。她说，'告诉她们，代我朝哈维伯伯威廉叔叔问候，亲他们一下，说我过河去看--看- - '你们彼得伯伯过去很看重的那家富人是什么名字？我是说那家..""噢，你是说阿普索普斯家吧？""正是，他们这姓真麻烦，让人总也记不住，有时还真想不起来。是的，她说，她过去是要叫阿普索普斯家一定要到拍卖会上来买下这栋房子，因为她想她彼得伯伯准会觉得他们买去总比让别人给买去强，她要坚持说服他们，直到他们答应为止。到时候，要是她不太累，她就回来了；要是她累了，她第二天早上就会到家。她说了，不要提普洛克特家生病的事儿，只说阿普索普斯这买房子的事儿，这是真话，因为她确实是上那里劝他们买这所房子的，我明白这一点，因为她这么告诉我的，她亲口讲的。""好吧。" 她们说道，一块儿出去找她们的叔伯了，向他们问好，吻他们，并把这个消息告诉他们。
现在，各项事都妥当了。两个姑娘不会说什么，因为她们想上英国；国王和公爵倒宁愿玛丽·简走掉去为拍卖会找买主而不是留下来跟罗宾逊医生在一块儿。我感觉良好，我觉得自己干得有条不紊--我觉得汤姆·索亚也不会干得比我更漂亮，当然，他会多插些花样儿进来。我不会做得那么在行，因为打小没人教过我那一套。
那天下午后半晌，他们在广场上举办拍卖会，人们成群结队地涌来，那老家伙亲临现场，正经八百地站到拍卖人身侧，偶尔插进来引用一两句《圣经》，或者说几句假仁假义的话，全是那一套，公爵咕咕叫着来回转，用尽办法逗人同情，借机显示自己。
后来，拍卖进行完毕，所有的东西都卖出去了，只剩下坟地里的一小块地皮。他们连那个也得卖掉，我还没见过像国王如此贪婪的家伙，恨不得把所有的东西都一口吞下。好，他们正忙得热乎着，一条轮船靠岸了，大约不到两分钟，一群人跑了过来，叫着嚷着笑着闹着，高声喊道："你们的竞争对手来啦？这儿有了老彼得·威尔克斯的两对继承人--你们拿着钱，看好了对象再掏吧！"