《哈克贝利•费恩历险记》，被评论家称赞为他最优秀的作品是吐温用近八年的心血写完的。这部作品无论从思想内容或艺术成就来衡量都很成熟。海明威是这样评价它的：“一切现代美国文学都来自一本吐温的著作《哈克贝利•费恩》⋯⋯这是我们所有书中最好的。一切美国文学都来自这本书。在它之前或之后都不曾有过能同它媲美的作品。” 《哈克•费恩》中用了第一人称叙述者，不仅词汇简单，口语化而且句子也简单、直接，具有口语的节奏。作者: 白鹤 时间: 2008-10-8 09:55
From ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN
Chapter 15
We judged that three nights more Would fetch us to Cairo, 1at
the bottom of Illinois, where the Ohio River comes in, andthat was
what we was after.We would sell the raft and get on a steamboat
and go way up the Ohio amongst the free States, and then be out of
trouble.2
Well, the second night a fog begun to come on, and we made for
a tow-head to tie to, for it wouldn't do to try to run in fog；
but when I paddled ahead i n the canoe, with the line, to make fast,
there warn't anything but little saplings totie to.I passed the
line around one of them right on the edge of the cut bank, but there
was a stiff current, and the raft come booming down so lively she
tore it out by the roots and away she went.I see the fog closing
down, and it made meso sick and scared I couldn't budge for most
a half a minuteit seemed to me—and then there warn't no raft in
sight；you couldn't see twenty yards.3 I jumped into the canoe
and runback to the stern and grabbed the paddle and set her back a
stroke.But she didn't come, I was in such a hurry Ihadn't untied
her.I got up and tried to untie her, but I was so excited my hands
shook so I couldn't hardly do anything with them.
As soon as I got started I took out after the raft, hot and heavy,
right down the tow-head.4 That was all right as far asit went,
but the tow-head warn't sixty yards long, and theminute I flew by
the foot of it I shot out into the solid whitefog, and hadn't no
more idea which way I was going than adead man.
Thinks I, it won't do to paddle；first I know I'll run intothe
bank or a tow-head or something；I got to set still andfloat, and
yet it's mighty fidgety business to have to hold yourhands still
at such a time.I whooped and listened.Away downthere, somewheres,
I hears a small whoop, and up comes myspirits.I went tearing after
it, listening sharp to hear it again.The next time it come, I see
I warn't heading for it but head-ing away to the right of it.And
the next time, I was head-ing away to the left of it—and not gaining
on it much, either, for I was flying around, this way and that and
'tother, 5but it was going straight ahead all the time.
I did wish the fool would think to beat a tin pan, and beatit
all the time, but he never did, and it was the still placesbetween
the whoops that was making the trouble for me.Well, I fought along,
and directly I hears the whoops behind me.Iwas tangled good,
now.That was somebody else's whoop.orelse I was turned around.
I throwed the paddle down.I heard the whoop again；itwas behind me yet, but in a different place；it kept coming,
and kept changing its place, and I kept answering, till by-and-by
it was in front of me again and I knowed the current hadswung the
canoe's head down stream and I was all right, ifthat was Jim and
not some other raftsman hollering.I could-n't tell nothing about
voices in a fog, for nothing don't looknatural nor sound natural
in a fog.
The whooping went on, and in about a minute I come a booming
down on a cut bank6 with smoky ghosts of big treeson it, and the
current throwed me off to the left and shot by, amongst a lot of
snags that fairly roared, the current was tear-ing by them so swift.
In another second or two it was solid white and still again.I
set perfectly still, then, listening to my heart thump, and Ireckon
I didn't draw a breath while it thumped a hundred.
I just give up, then.I knowed what the matter was.Thatcut
bank was an island, and Jim had gone down 'tother sideof it.It
warn't no tow-head, that you could float by in tenminutes.It had
the big timber of a regular island；it mightbe five or six mile
long and more than a half a mile wide.
I kept quiet, with my ears cocked, about fifteen minutes,
Ireckon.I was floating along, of course, four or five mile anhour；
but you don't ever think of that.No, you feel like youare laying
dead still on the water；and if a little glimpse of a snap slips
by, you don't think to yourself how fast you're go-ing, but you
catch your breath and think my！how that snag'stearing along.lf
you think it ain't dismal and lonesome outin a fog that way, by
yourself, in the night, you try it once— you'll see.
Next, for about a half an hour, I whoops now and then；atlast
I hears the answer a loog ways off, and tries to follow it, but
I couldn't do it, and directly I judged I'd got into a nestof
towheads, for I had little dim glimpses of them on bothsides of
me, sometimes just a narrow channel between；andsome that I couldn't
see, I knowed was there, because I'd hearthe wash of the current
against the old dead brush and trashthat hung over the banks.Well,
I warn't long losing thewhoops, down amongst the towheads；and I
only tried to chasethem a little while, anyway, because it was worse
than chas-ing a Jack-o-lantern.You never knowed a sound dodge
aroundso, and swap places so quick and so much.
I had to claw away from the bank pretty lively, four or
fivetimes, to keep from knocking the islands out of the river；
andso I judged the raft must be butting into the bank every nowand
then, or else it would get further ahead and clear out ofhearing—
it was floating a little faster than what I was.
Well, I seemed to be in the open river again, by-and-by, butouldn't hear no sign of a whoop nowheres.I reckonedJim had
fetched up on a snag, maybe, and it was all up withhim.I was good
and tired, so I laid down in the canoe andsaid I wouldn't bother
no more.I didn't want to go to sleep, of course；but I was so sleepy
I couldn't help it；so I thoughtI would take just one little cat-nap.
But I reckon it was more than a cat-nap, for when I wakedup
the stars was shining bright, the fog was all gone, and Iwas
spinning down a big bend stern first.First I didn't knowwhere I
was；I thought I was dreaming；and when things be-gun to come back
to me, they seemed to come up dim out oflast week.
It was a monstrous big river here, with the tallest and
thethickest kind of timber on both banks；just a solid wall, aswell
as I could see, by the stars.I looked away down stream, and seen
a blacK speck on the water.I took out after it；butwhen I got to
it it warn't nothing but a couple of saw-logsmade fast
together.Then I see another speck, and chasedthat；then another,
and this time I was right.It was the raft.
When I got to it Jim was setting there with his head downbetween
his knees, asleep, with his right arm hanging overthe steering
oar.The other oar was smashed off, and the raftwas littered up
with leaves and branches and dirt.So she'dhad a rough time.
I made fast and laid down under Jim's nose on the raft, and
begun to gap, 7 and stretch my fists out against Jim, andsays：
“Hello, Jim, have I been asleep？Why didn't you stir meup？”
“Goodness gracious, is dat you, Huck？En you ain'dead—you
ain'drowned—you's back agin？It's too good fortrue, honey, it's
too good for true.Lemme look at you, chile, lemme feel o'you.No,
you ain'dead？you's back agin, 'liveen soun', jis de same ole
Huck—de same ole Huck, thanksto goodness！”
“What's the matter with you, Jim？You been a drinking？”
“Drinkin'？Has I ben a drinkin'？Has I had a chance tobe a
drinkin'？”
“Well, then, what makes you talk so wild？”
“How does I talk wild？”
“How？why, haint you been talking about my coming back, and
all that stuff, as if I'd been gone away？”
“ Huck — Huck Finn, you look me in de eye ；look me inde
eye.Hain't you ben gone away？”
“Gone away？Why, what in the nation do you mean？Ihain't been