| He put his hand on his jacket pocket, found his piece of bark safe, and then struck through the woods, following the shore, with streaming garments. | Сунув руку в карман куртки, он уверился, что кусок коры цел, и зашагал через лес, держась поближе к берегу. Вода стекала с него ручьями. | | Shortly before ten o'clock he came out into an open place opposite the village, and saw the ferryboat lying in the shadow of the trees and the high bank. | Еще не было десяти часов, когда он вышел из леса на открытое место, как раз напротив городка, и увидел, что пароходик стоит под высоким берегом в тени деревьев. | | Everything was quiet under the blinking stars. | Все было спокойно под мигающими звездами. | | He crept down the bank, watching with all his eyes, slipped into the water, swam three or four strokes and climbed into the skiff that did "yawl" duty at the boat's stern. He laid himself down under the thwarts and waited, panting. | Он спустился с обрыва, озираясь по сторонам, соскользнул в воду, подплыл к пароходику, влез в челнок, стоявший под кормой, и, забившись под лавку, отдышался и стал ждать. | | Presently the cracked bell tapped and a voice gave the order to "cast off." | Скоро звякнул надтреснутый колокол и чей-то голос скомандовал: "Отчаливай!" | | A minute or two later the skiffs head was standing high up, against the boat's swell, and the voyage was begun. | Через минуту или две нос челнока поднялся на волне, разведенной пароходиком, и путешествие началось. | | Tom felt happy in his success, for he knew it was the boat's last trip for the night. | Том порадовался своей удаче, зная, что это последний рейс пароходика. | | At the end of a long twelve or fifteen minutes the wheels stopped, and Tom slipped overboard and swam ashore in the dusk, landing fifty yards downstream, out of danger of possible stragglers. | Прошло долгих двенадцать или пятнадцать минут, колеса остановились, и Том, перевалившись через борт, поплыл в темноте к берегу. Он вылез из воды шагах в пятидесяти от пароходика чтобы не наткнуться на отставших пассажиров. | | He flew along unfrequented alleys, and shortly found himself at his aunt's back fence. | Том бежал по безлюдным переулкам и скоро очутился перед забором тети Полли, выходившим на зады. | | He climbed over, approached the "ell," and looked in at the sitting-room window, for a light was burning there. | Он перелез через забор, подошел к пристройке и заглянул в окно тетиной комнаты, потому что там горел свет. | | There sat Aunt Polly, Sid, Mary, and Joe Harper's mother, grouped together, talking. | Тетя Полли, Сид, Мэри и мать Джо Гарпера сидели и разговаривали. | | They were by the bed, and the bed was between them and the door. | Все они сидели около кровати, так что кровать была между ними и дверью. | | Tom went to the door and began to softly lift the latch; then he pressed gently and the door yielded a crack; he continued pushing cautiously, and quaking every time it creaked, till he judged he might squeeze through on his knees; so he put his head through and began, warily. | Том подкрался к двери и начал тихонько поднимать щеколду, потом осторожно нажал на нее, и дверь чуть-чуть приотворилась; он все толкал и толкал ее дальше, вздрагивая каждый раз, когда она скрипела, и наконец щель стала настолько широкой, что он мог проползти в комнату на четвереньках; тогда он просунул в щель голову и осторожно пополз. | | "What makes the candle blow so?" said Aunt Polly. | - Отчего это свечу задувает? - сказала тетя Полли. | | Tom hurried up. | Том пополз быстрее. | | "Why, that door's open, I believe. | - Должно быть, дверь открылась. | | Why, of course it is. | Ну да, так и есть. | | No end of strange things now. | Бог знает что у нас творится. | | Go 'long and shut it, Sid." | Поди, Сид, закрой дверь. | | Tom disappeared under the bed just in time. | Том как раз вовремя нырнул под кровать. | | He lay and "breathed" himself for a time, and then crept to where he could almost touch his aunt's foot. | Некоторое время он отлеживался, переводя дух, потом подполз совсем близко к тете Полли, так что мог бы дотронуться до ее ноги. | | "But as I was saying," said Aunt Polly, "he warn't BAD, so to say --only mischEEvous. | - Ведь я уже вам говорила, - продолжала тетя Полли, - ничего плохого в нем не было, -озорник, вот и все. | | Only just giddy, and harum-scarum, you know. | Ну, ветер в голове, рассеян немножко, знаете ли. | | He warn't any more responsible than a colt. HE never meant any harm, and he was the best-hearted boy that ever was"--and she began to cry. | С него и спрашивать-то нельзя, все равно что с жеребенка. Никому он зла не хотел, и сердце у него было золотое... - И тетя Полли заплакала. | | "It was just so with my Joe--always full of his devilment, and up to every kind of mischief, but he was just as unselfish and kind as he could be--and laws bless me, to think I went and whipped him for taking that cream, never once recollecting that I throwed it out myself because it was sour, and I never to see him again in this world, never, never, never, poor abused boy!" | - Вот и мой Джо такой же: вечно чего-нибудь натворит, и в голове одни проказы, зато добрый, ласковый; а я-то, господи прости, взяла да и выпорола его за эти сливки, а главное - из головы вон, что я сама же их выплеснула, потому что они прокисли! И никогда больше я его не увижу, бедного моего мальчика, никогда, никогда! | And Mrs. Harper sobbed as if her heart would break. "I hope Tom's better off where he is," said Sid, "but if he'd been better in some ways--" "SID!" Tom felt the glare of the old lady's eye, though he could not see it. "Not a word against my Tom, now that he's gone! God'll take care of HIM--never you trouble YOURself, sir! Oh, Mrs. Harper, I don't know how to give him up! I don't know how to give him up! He was such a comfort to me, although he tormented my old heart out of me, 'most." "The Lord giveth and the Lord hath taken away--Blessed be the name of the Lord! But it's so hard--Oh, it's so hard! Only last Saturday my Joe busted a firecracker right under my nose and I knocked him sprawling. Little did I know then, how soon--Oh, if it was to do over again I'd hug him and bless him for it." "Yes, yes, yes, I know just how you feel, Mrs. Harper, I know just exactly how you feel. No longer ago than yesterday noon, my Tom took and filled the cat full of Pain-killer, and I did think the cretur would tear the house down. And God forgive me, I cracked Tom's head with my thimble, poor boy, poor dead boy. But he's out of all his troubles now. And the last words I ever heard him say was to reproach-- " But this memory was too much for the old lady, and she broke entirely down. Tom was snuffling, now, himself--and more in pity of himself than anybody else. He could hear Mary crying, and putting in a kindly word for him from time to time. He began to have a nobler opinion of himself than ever before. Still, he was sufficiently touched by his aunt's grief to long to rush out from under the bed and overwhelm her with joy--and the theatrical gorgeousness of the thing appealed strongly to his nature, too, but he resisted and lay still. He went on listening, and gathered by odds and ends that it was conjectured at first that the boys had got drowned while taking a swim; then the small raft had been missed; next, certain boys said the missing lads had promised that the village should "hear something" soon; the wise-heads had "put this and that together" and decided that the lads had gone off on that raft and would turn up at the next town below, presently; but toward noon the raft had been found, lodged against the Missouri shore some five or six miles below the village --and then hope perished; they must be drowned, else hunger would have driven them home by nightfall if not sooner. It was believed that the search for the bodies had been a fruitless effort merely because the drowning must have occurred in mid-channel, since the boys, being good swimmers, would otherwise have escaped to shore. This was Wednesday night. If the bodies continued missing until Sunday, all hope would be given over, and the funerals would be preached on that morning. Tom shuddered.
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