登陆注册
15489300000003

第3章 CHAPTER I. TOM SEEKS NEW ADVENTURES(3)

I thought he must be losing his mind. But no, he was in real earnest, and went right on, perfectly ca'm.

"A crusade is a war to recover the Holy Land from the paynim."

"Which Holy Land?"

"Why, the Holy Land -- there ain't but one."

"What do we want of it?"

"Why, can't you understand? It's in the hands of the paynim, and it's our duty to take it away from them."

"How did we come to let them git hold of it?"

"We didn't come to let them git hold of it. They always had it."

"Why, Tom, then it must belong to them, don't it?"

"Why of course it does. Who said it didn't?"

I studied over it, but couldn't seem to git at the right of it, no way. I says:

"It's too many for me, Tom Sawyer. If I had a farm and it was mine, and another person wanted it, would it be right for him to --"

"Oh, shucks! you don't know enough to come in when it rains, Huck Finn. It ain't a farm, it's entirely different. You see, it's like this. They own the land, just the mere land, and that's all they DO own; but it was our folks, our Jews and Christians, that made it holy, and so they haven't any business to be there defiling it. It's a shame, and we ought not to stand it a minute. We ought to march against them and take it away from them."

"Why, it does seem to me it's the most mixed-up thing I ever see! Now, if I had a farm and another person --"

"Don't I tell you it hasn't got anything to do with farming? Farming is business, just common low-down business: that's all it is, it's all you can say for it; but this is higher, this is religious, and totally different."

"Religious to go and take the land away from people that owns it?"

"Certainly; it's always been considered so."

Jim he shook his head, and says:

"Mars Tom, I reckon dey's a mistake about it somers -- dey mos' sholy is. I's religious myself, en I knows plenty religious people, but I hain't run across none dat acts like dat."

It made Tom hot, and he says:

"Well, it's enough to make a body sick, such mullet-headed ignorance! If either of you'd read any-thing about history, you'd know that Richard Cur de Loon, and the Pope, and Godfrey de Bulleyn, and lots more of the most noble-hearted and pious people in the world, hacked and hammered at the paynims for more than two hundred years trying to take their land away from them, and swum neck-deep in blood the whole time -- and yet here's a couple of sap-headed country yahoos out in the backwoods of Missouri set-ting themselves up to know more about the rights and wrongs of it than they did! Talk about cheek!"

Well, of course, that put a more different light on it, and me and Jim felt pretty cheap and ignorant, and wished we hadn't been quite so chipper. I couldn't say nothing, and Jim he couldn't for a while; then he says:

"Well, den, I reckon it's all right; beca'se ef dey didn't know, dey ain't no use for po' ignorant folks like us to be trying to know; en so, ef it's our duty, we got to go en tackle it en do de bes' we can. Same time, I feel as sorry for dem paynims as Mars Tom.

De hard part gwine to be to kill folks dat a body hain't been 'quainted wid and dat hain't done him no harm.

Dat's it, you see. Ef we wuz to go 'mongst 'em, jist we three, en say we's hungry, en ast 'em for a bite to eat, why, maybe dey's jist like yuther people. Don't you reckon dey is? Why, DEY'D give it, I know dey would, en den --"

"Then what?"

"Well, Mars Tom, my idea is like dis. It ain't no use, we CAN'T kill dem po' strangers dat ain't doin' us no harm, till we've had practice -- I knows it perfectly well, Mars Tom -- 'deed I knows it perfectly well. But ef we takes a' axe or two, jist you en me en Huck, en slips acrost de river to-night arter de moon's gone down, en kills dat sick fam'ly dat's over on the Sny, en burns dey house down, en --"

"Oh, you make me tired!" says Tom. "I don't want to argue any more with people like you and Huck Finn, that's always wandering from the subject, and ain't got any more sense than to try to reason out a thing that's pure theology by the laws that protect real estate!"

Now that's just where Tom Sawyer warn't fair. Jim didn't mean no harm, and I didn't mean no harm.

We knowed well enough that he was right and we was wrong, and all we was after was to get at the HOW of it, and that was all; and the only reason he couldn't explain it so we could understand it was because we was ignorant -- yes, and pretty dull, too, I ain't deny-ing that; but, land! that ain't no crime, I should think.

But he wouldn't hear no more about it -- just said if we had tackled the thing in the proper spirit, he would 'a' raised a couple of thousand knights and put them in steel armor from head to heel, and made me a lieu-tenant and Jim a sutler, and took the command himself and brushed the whole paynim outfit into the sea like flies and come back across the world in a glory like sunset. But he said we didn't know enough to take the chance when we had it, and he wouldn't ever offer it again. And he didn't. When he once got set, you couldn't budge him.

But I didn't care much. I am peaceable, and don't get up rows with people that ain't doing nothing to me. I allowed if the paynim was satisfied I was, and we would let it stand at that.

Now Tom he got all that notion out of Walter Scott's book, which he was always reading. And it WAS a wild notion, because in my opinion he never could've raised the men, and if he did, as like as not he would've got licked. I took the book and read all about it, and as near as I could make it out, most of the folks that shook farming to go crusading had a mighty rocky time of it.

同类推荐
  • 众妙集

    众妙集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 节士

    节士

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 佛说内身观章句经

    佛说内身观章句经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 蚍蜉传

    蚍蜉传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 上清六甲祈祷秘法

    上清六甲祈祷秘法

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 医擒故纵,总裁娇妻不二嫁!

    医擒故纵,总裁娇妻不二嫁!

    婚姻三年,她挡三无数,然,后来,她终于懂得,有种小三,是她没资格挡的。当他一巴掌将她打的耳膜生疼时;当他搂着另一个女人不顾她腿间鲜红时;当他冷声命令她上手术台为他心爱的女人配型时;当他将一纸离婚契约摆在她面前时,当血淋淋的真相终于瞒不住时,她才知道,原来他们婚姻的背后不止这么简单……
  • 诱你入局:左少情非得已

    诱你入局:左少情非得已

    左林肖宠我惯我容忍我,以保卫者的姿态强势闯入我的生活。我以为我们之间存在爱情,直到发现,他接近我竟是源于一场交易。剥开真相的外衣,方知所谓的甜蜜是穿肠毒药。这场猎心游戏,我,不玩了!
  • 总裁特宠:国民女神太高冷

    总裁特宠:国民女神太高冷

    他,永远都是一副冷酷无情的样子,对什么事情都漠不关心,直到遇见她。她,人们说她从未动过真心是因为她根本没有心,‘没有心’的她却一次次为他而动心。她想要的,他都能给,她却不领情,她想要靠自己的实力,让自己和他的名字出现在同一直线上,这,就是她爱他的方式。某女:都说长得帅又多金的男人都是高冷的大BOSS,可谁能告诉她现在抱着她的大腿死活不放的男人是谁啊!某男:都说长的漂亮又有背景的女人都是高冷的大美女,可谁能告诉他,现在像个泼妇一样让他跪榴莲的女人是谁啊!两人相爱,却被人多次阻碍,直到得知真相,才知两人是天生一对,就连身份,也只允许他们两个人在一起。
  • 逆天狂仙路

    逆天狂仙路

    听说人死后会变成鬼魂,进入地狱。但是也有些人会灵魂附体到别人身上。我们的主人公——封灵就是这样的一个幸运儿。在风玄大陆封灵会遇到什么稀奇古怪的事情呢?
  • 难驭腹黑小娇妻

    难驭腹黑小娇妻

    十八岁生日,她把自己装进礼盒,等着给那个每天说爱她的男人一个惊喜。等到的却是他搂着别的女人在床上疯狂翻滚。她在礼盒内掩面痛哭,他在礼盒外挥汗如雨。二十岁生日,他当着整个修阳名流的面,用血钻戒指向她求婚。她笑着拒绝:“我一直把你当成亲哥哥!”她深知,他所有的虛情假意只为得到她手里的股权。她以为,此生再不会动情!直到遇见他。他是闻名的纨绔少爷,吃喝玩乐样样在行;他是传闻中蛰伏着的恶狼,毒舌邪魅却独宠娇妻。当经历过满城风雨,背后的身份一重重地揭开,他拥她入怀,笑得妖孽邪魅:“老婆,我是行动派。爱这种事情,我不喜欢嘴上说,我喜欢做!”一见为你倾心,再见为你倾情。老婆,你不知道,我比他更早承诺过要娶你!
  • Ban and Arriere Ban

    Ban and Arriere Ban

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 楼兰秘传之战皇传奇

    楼兰秘传之战皇传奇

    有着死亡谷之称的新疆罗布泊沙漠深处,风干千年的古楼兰遗迹,神秘的葬尸湖底。一群一往无前的探险队员,一伙装备精炼的盗墓团队,然而,这所有的一切都在一场恐怖的沙崩中离奇的消失了.............在一个陌生的大陆,一个深受现代知识文化熏陶的年轻探险队员,凭借着随身携带的几件现代的武器,将如何谱写他的神奇穿越之旅
  • 快穿系统:女配来自地狱

    快穿系统:女配来自地狱

    本文重发至《快穿游戏:逆袭吧女配》,此乃大坑,勿入,勿跳!
  • 人妻神妻

    人妻神妻

    王家沟这个隐藏在大山褶皱里的小山村,默默无闻的进入公元二十世纪五十年代以后,渐渐的沸腾起来,其原因是这个村里有一个名叫王学奎的小男孩儿长大了。小男孩上学的时候又有一位好老师教过他,后来在他身上发生的一些事情,很多都是来自于这位老师的言传身教。再加上有两个痴情的小女孩儿,一个名叫陈玉梅,另一个名叫李春桃,她们二人好像是天造地设为帮助王学奎而准备的。本书旨在树立“好人”形象。作品中的人物,一个个都是有血有肉,抬头不见低头见的常人。作者从人、神、鬼三个层面立体化的告诉读者,要做好事,做善事。大家互帮互助,做有道德有良心的人。
  • 入众须知

    入众须知

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。