Brother Cartwright was fur getting a ladder and letting him climb out right away. But Elmira, she says:
"Don"t you do it, Brother Cartwright; don"t you do it. You don"t know Hank Walters like I does. If he oncet gets out o" there before he"s signed that pledge, he won"t never sign it."
So they fixed it up that Brother Cartwright was to write out a pledge on the inside leaf of the Bible, and tie the Bible onto a string, and a lead pencil onto another string, and let the strings down to Hank, and he was to make his mark, fur he couldn"t write, and they was to be pulled up agin. Hank, he says all right, and they done it. But jest as Hank was making his mark on the leaf of the book, that preacher done what I has always thought was a mean trick. He was lying on the floor with his head and shoulders into that hole as fur as he could, holding a lantern way down into it, so as Hank could see. And jest as Hank made that mark he spoke some words over him, and then he says:
"Now, Henry Walters, I have baptized you, and you are a member of the church."
You"d a thought Hank would of broke out cussing agin at being took unexpected that-a-way, fur he hadn"t really agreed to nothing but signing the pledge. But nary a cuss. He jest says: "Now, you get that ladder."
They got it, and he clumb up into the kitchen, dripping and shivering.
"You went and baptized me in that water?" he asts the preacher. The preacher says he has.
"Then," says Hank, "you done a low-down trick on me. You knowed I has made my brags I never jined no church nor never would jine. You knowed I was proud of that. You knowed that it was my glory to tell of it, and that I set a heap of store by it in every way. And now you"ve went and took it away from me! You never fought it out fair and square, neither, man playing to outlast man, like you done with this here pledge, but you sneaked it in on me when I wasn"t looking."
They was a lot of men in that crowd that thought the preacher had went too far, and sympathized with Hank. The way he done about that hurt Brother Cartwright in our town, and they was a split in the church, because some said it wasn"t reg"lar and wasn"t binding. He lost his job after a while and become an evangelist. Which it don"t make no difference what one of them does, nohow.
But Hank, he always thought he had been baptized reg"lar. And he never was the same afterward. He had made his life-long brags, and his pride was broke in that there one pertic"ler spot. And he sorrered and grieved over it a good "eal, and got grouchier and grouchier and meaner and meaner, and lickered oftener, if anything. Signing the pledge couldn"t hold Hank. He was worse in every way after that night in the cistern, and took to lamming me harder and harder.
CHAPTER III
Well, all the lammings Hank laid on never done me any good. It seemed like I was jest natcherally cut out to have no success in life, and no amount of whaling could change it, though Hank, he was faithful. Before I was twelve years old the hull town had seen it, and they wasn"t nothing else expected of me except not to be any good.
That had its handy sides to it, too. They was lots of kids there that had to go to school, but Hank, he never would of let me done that if I had ast him, and I never asted. And they was lots of kids considerably bothered all the time with their parents and relations. They made "em go to Sunday School, and wash up reg"lar all over on Sat.u.r.day nights, and put on shoes and stockings part of the time, even in the summer, and some of "em had to ast to go in swimming, and the hull thing was a continuous trouble and privation to "em. But they wasn"t nothing perdicted of me, and I done like it was perdicted. Everybody "lowed from the start that Hank would of made trash out"n me, even if I hadn"t showed all the signs of being trash anyhow. And if they was devilment anywhere about that town they all says, "Danny, he done it." And like as not I has. So I gets to be what you might call an outcast. All the kids whose folks ain"t trash, their mothers tells "em not to run with me no more. Which they done it all the more fur that reason, on the sly, and it makes me more important with them.
But when I gets a little bigger, all that makes me feel kind o" bad sometimes. It ain"t so handy then. Fur folks gets to saying, when I would come around:
"Danny, what do YOU want?"
And if I says, "Nothing," they would say:
"Well, then, you get out o" here!"
Which they needn"t of been suspicioning nothing like they pertended they did, fur I never stole nothing more"n worter millions and mush millions and such truck, and mebby now and then a chicken us kids use to roast in the woods on Sundays, and jest as like as not it was one of Hank"s hens then, which I figgered I"d earnt it.
Fur Hank, he had streaks when he"d work me considerable hard. He never give me any money fur it. He loafed a lot too, and when he"d loaf I"d loaf. But I did pick up right smart of handiness with tools around that there shop of his"n, and if he"d ever of used me right I might of turned into a purty fair blacksmith. But it wasn"t no use trying to work fur Hank. When I was about fifteen, times is right bad around the house fur a spell, and Elmira is working purty hard, and I thinks to myself:
"Well, these folks has kind o" brung you up, and you ain"t never done more"n Hank made you do. Mebby you orter stick to work a little more when they"s a job in the shop, even if Hank don"t."
Which I tried it fur about two or three years, doing as much work around the shop as Hank done and mebby more. But it wasn"t no use. One day when I"m about eighteen, I seen awful plain I"ll have to light out from there. They was a circus come to town that day. I says to Hank:
"Hank, they is a circus this afternoon and agin to-night."
"So I has hearn," says Hank.
"Are you going to it?" says I.
"I mout," says Hank, "and then agin I moutn"t. I don"t see as it"s no consarns of yourn, nohow." I knowed he was going, though. Hank, he never missed a circus.
"Well," I says, "they wasn"t no harm to ast, was they?"
"Well, you"ve asted, ain"t you?" says Hank.
"Well, then," says I, "I"d like to go to that there circus myself."
"They ain"t no use in me saying fur you not to go," says Hank, "fur you would go anyhow. You always does go off when you is needed."
"But I ain"t got no money," I says, "and I was going to ast you could you spare me half a dollar?"
"Great Jehosephat!" says Hank, "but ain"t you getting stuck up! What"s the matter of you crawling in under the tent like you always done? First thing I know you"ll be wanting a pair of these here yaller shoes and a stove-pipe hat."
"No," says I, "I ain"t no dude, Hank, and you know it. But they is always things about a circus to spend money on besides jest the circus herself. They is the side show, fur instance, and they is the grand concert afterward. I calkelated I"d take "em all in this year--the hull dern thing, jest fur oncet."
Hank, he looks at me like I"d asted fur a house "n" lot, or a million dollars, or something like that. But he don"t say nothing. He jest snorts.
"Hank," I says, "I been doing right smart work around the shop fur two, three years now. If you wasn"t loafing so much you"d a noticed it more.
And I ain"t never ast fur a cent of pay fur it, nor--"
"You ain"t wuth no pay," says Hank. "You ain"t wuth nothing but to eat vittles and wear out clothes."
"Well," I says, "I figger I earn my vittles and a good "eal more. And as fur as clothes goes, I never had none but what Elmira made out"n yourn."
"Who brung you up?" asts Hank.
"You done it," says I, "and by your own say-so you done a dern poor job at it."
"You go to that there circus," says Hank, a-flaring up, "and I"ll lambaste you up to a inch of your life. So fur as handing out money fur you to sling it to the dogs, I ain"t no bank, and if I was I ain"t no ijut. But you jest let me hear of you even going nigh that circus lot and all the lammings you has ever got, rolled into one, won"t be a measly little sarc.u.mstance to what you WILL get. They ain"t no leather-faced young upstart with weepin"-willow hail going to throw up to me how I brung him up. That"s grat.i.tood fur you, that is!" says Hank.
"If it hadn"t of been fur me giving you a home when I found you first, where would you of been now?"
"Well," I says, "I might of been a good "eal better off. If you hadn"t of took me in the Alexanderses would of, and then I wouldn"t of been kep" out of school and growed up a ignoramus like you is."
"I never had no trouble keeping you away from school, I notice," says Hank, with a snort. "This is the first I ever hearn of you wanting to go there."
Which was true in one way, and a lie in another. I hadn"t never wanted to go till lately, but he"d of lammed me if I had of wanted to. He always said he would. And now I was too big and knowed it.
Well, Hank, he never give me no money, so I watches my chancet that afternoon and slips in under the tent the same as always. And I lays low under them green benches and wiggled through when I seen a good chancet.
The first person I seen was Hank. Of course he seen me, and he shook his fist at me in a promising kind of way, and they wasn"t no trouble figgering out what he meant. Fur a while I didn"t enjoy that circus to no extent. Fur I was thinking that if Hank tries to lick me fur it I"ll fight him back this time, which I hadn"t never fit him back much yet fur fear he"d pick up something iron around the shop and jest natcherally lay me cold with it.
I got home before Hank did. It was nigh sundown, and I was waiting in the door of the shop fur Elmira to holler vittles is ready, and Hank come along. He didn"t waste no time. He steps inside the shop and he takes down a strap and he says:
"You come here and take off your shirt."
But I jest moves away. Hank, he runs in on me, and he swings his strap.
I throwed up my arm, and it cut me acrost the knuckles. I run in on him, and he dropped the strap and fetched me an openhanded smack plumb on the mouth that jarred my head back and like to of busted it loose. Then I got right mad, and I run in on him agin, and this time I got to him, and wrastled with him.