Chapter 2 A Bad Sign, As the boys had said.
My pap hadn't been seen for more than a year, and that was fine by me.
I didn't want to see him ever again.
He used to get angry with me and cuff me with the back of his hand, though I used to hide in the woods most of the time when he was around.
Some people even said he'd died, but I didn't believe them.
I believed the old man would turn up again, but I wish he wouldn't.
The boys and I played robbers now and then for about a month, and then I quit.
All the boys did.
We hadn't robbed anybody, only pretended.
We used to hop out of the woods and go charging down on people in carts who were taking plants and animals to market.
But we never robbed any of them.
Tom called the hogs gold treasure and he called the turnips and stuff jewelry and we would go to the cave and talk about what we had done.
I just couldn't see any profit in it.
Three or four months passed, and it was well into the winter now.
I'd been to school.
I could spell and read and write a little and could say the multiplication table up to six times seven is thirty-five.
I didn't think I could get higher than that if I lived forever.
At first I hated the school, but by and by I found I could stand it.
Whenever I got too tired of it, I played hooky.
The trouble that would bring the next day cheered me up.
I was getting sort of used to the widow's ways too, and they weren't so hard on me.
Living in a house and sleeping in a bed were still a little uncomfortable.
Before the cold weather came, I would slip out and sleep in the woods sometimes, and that was restful for me.
I liked the old ways best, but I was beginning to like the new ones a little bit too.
The widow said I was coming along and doing well.
She said she wasn't ashamed of me.
One morning I happened to knock over the salt shaker at breakfast, which was bad luck.
It made me terribly nervous and worried.
I felt so bad that I had to go for a walk to try to figure out how to keep off the bad luck.
I knew something would happen.
I went down the front garden and climbed over a fence.
There was an inch of new snow on the ground and I saw somebody's footprints.
This person had come up from the quarry and stood around for a while.
Then he He went back around the garden fence.
It was strange he hadn't come in or knocked on the door after standing around like that.
I was curious.
I was going to follow the tracks, but then I bent down to look at them closer.
There was a cross in the left boot heel, made with big nails, a sign to keep off the devil.
It was something I recognized from my pap's shoes.
I started running as fast as I could.
I looked over my shoulder every now and then, but I didn't see anybody.
I was at Judge Thatcher's as quickly as I could get there.
He asked if I'd come for some of the money he was keeping for me.
No, sir, I said.
I don't want it at all.
I want you to take it.
I want to give it to you, the $6,000 and everything else.
He looked surprised and couldn't seem to figure it out.
Please, take it, I said.
Don't ask me anything.
Then I won't have to tell any lies. took some convincing.
At last he made me sign a piece of paper.
He said it would mean I had given him all of my money and property.
Then I left to find Miss Watson's slave Jim, who had some magic items that were supposed to be able to tell the future.
He knew all about good and bad luck.
I told Jim that my pap was here again and that I had found his tracks in the snow.
I wanted to know what he was going to do and how long he was going to stay.
Jim took an old hairball that had come from a bowl, which he said was supposed to be magic.
It was as big as a fist.
Jim said it had a spirit inside.
He shook it, listened to it, and dropped it on the floor.
He did this again and again, and then he put his ear against it to listen.
He said it wouldn't talk without money.
I had an old fake quarter and asked if the hairball could tell the difference.
Jim said it probably couldn't, so we cleaned up my quarter and put it underneath the hairball.
He listened to it one more time and said it was ready to tell my fortune.
Your old father doesn't know yet what he's going to do, Jim said.
Sometimes he thinks he'll go away, and then he thinks he'll stay.
The best is to rest easy and let the old man make his own way. but you're all right.
You're going to have some great trouble in your life and great joy.
Sometimes you're going to get hurt and sometimes you're going to get sick, but every time you're going to get well again.
You should keep away from water as much as you can and don't take any risks.
I left feeling a little better, but still mighty nervous.
Well, I didn't have to wait too long.
When I lit my candle and went up to my room that night, there sat my pap.
I shut the door, and when I turned around, there he was.
I used to be scared of him all the time because of how badly he treated me.
I guess I was a little scared right then too.
But after I got over the surprise of seeing him so suddenly I realized I wasn't scared of him very much at all.
He was almost 50.
He looked it.
His hair was long, tangled, and greasy.
It hung down and you could see his eyes shining through like he was behind some vines.
It was all black, no gray.
So was his long, shaggy beard.
There was no color in his face.
Where his face showed, it was white, but not like a person.
It was kind of white that would make a person sick to see.
Tree-toed white or fish-belly white.
As for his clothes, they were just rags.
He sat with one ankle resting on the other knee.
The boot on that foot was broken and two of his toes stuck through.
He moved them now and then as he talked.
His hat was on the floor, an old black slouch hat with the top caved in like a lid.
I stood looking at him, and he sat there looking at me.
His chair was tilted back just a little.
I set the candle down and noticed the window was up.
He must have climbed in by the shed.
He kept looking me over.
Finally, he said, nice clothes.
You think you're pretty special now, don't you?
Maybe I am, maybe I'm not, I said.
Don't give me none of your lip, he said.
You've put on great frills since I've been away.
You're educated too, they say.
You can read and write.
You think you're better than your father now, don't you?
"'Just because he can't?
"'Who told you to mess around with such foolishness, hey?
"'Who said you could?'
"'The widow.
She told me.
"'The widow, hey.
"'Who told her she could stick her nose in someone else's business?'
"'Nobody ever told her,' I said.
"'Well, I'll teach her how to meddle.
"'Look here, you dropped that school, you hear?
"'I'll teach those people to bring up a boy "'to think he's better than his own father.'
Let me catch you fooling around at that school again.
Your mother couldn't read or write before she died.
None of her family could read before they died.
I can't hear you acting up like this.
I'm not going to stand it.
Say, let me hear you read.
I took up a book and started something about a war.
After about a half a minute, he knocked the book out of my hand.
It's true, he said.
You can do it.
I had my doubts.
Look here, you stop putting on those frills, acting like you're better than me.
I won't have it.
He sat there mumbling and grumbling for a minute, and then he said, Aren't you fancy?
A bed, big clothes piece of carpet on the floor and your own father has to sleep outside with the hawks.
I've been in town two days, and all I hear about is how you're rich now.
I heard about it all the way down the river.
That's why I came back.
You get that money for me tomorrow.
I want it.
I don't have any money, I said.
You're lying.
Judge Thacker's got it.
You get it.
I want it.
I don't have any money.
You can ask Judge Thacker.
He'll tell you the same.
All right.
I'll ask him.
I'll make him talk, too.
How much do you have in your pockets?
Give it to me.
I only have about a dollar and I want that to.
It doesn't make a difference why you want it, he said.
Hand it over.
He took the money and bit down on the coins to check if they were real.
Then he said he was going to town to have some fun and get in trouble.
Finally he climbed out of the window.
Then he stuck his head back in and had more bad words for me about my new life and how I was trying to be better than him.
Just when I thought he was really gone, he stuck his head back in again and told me to stay away from the school.
He said he'd be watching out for me there.
