The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapter 29
The boys watch the target tavern for a few days, but never see someone looking like a Spaniard enter or leave the place. There is also no activity at the alley. The nights are also clear, so the boys can't break into the place.
Finally, a storm starts coming, making a dark night. Tom grabs an old latern (sp?) and a towel to mask it, and heads off to join Huck. Tom goes into the alley, and Huck waits. Tom takes a long time, and Huck becomes more and more afraid. Tom suddenly comes out and yells for Huck to run, and the boys take off.
Once they have taken shelter in a shed near an abandoned slaughterhouse, Tom then tells Huck that two of the keys didn't work, but made so much noise that he was afraid. Then Tom tried just turning the knob, and the door opened! And Injun Joe was sleeping right there! Tom grabbed his latern (sp?) and towel and ran away as fast as he could.
The boys then make a new plan. This time, Huck would watch the taverns at night until Injun Joe left. Then he would go get Tom, and the two would search the room while he was gone.
There was not a better opportunity to get Injun Joe caught than right in this chapter!!! The boys should have told the local authorities where Injun Joe was, and that he was drunk! Then the authorities would have caught Injun Joe, and the boys would never have had to worry about Injun Joe, or him trying to kill them (or just Tom), ever again!
This book showed something that I feel is very human indeed. Huck mentions a slave that he knows that likes Huck. Why? Because Huck doesn't act like this slave is lower than he is! That is a very natural thing.
But I don't like Huck's attitude. He doesn't want this fact getting out, because he does it only because he's hungry, and would not care to do it otherwise. I get that this was the memo back in the old days, but I still don't like it.
Wild West Central
More On Pregnancy and Childbirth
Pregnancy could be a very scary thing. But things were extremely worse because of the lack of knowledge in those days. There were plenty of times when the symptoms of pregnancy hit... but the women wouldn't know that it was due to pregnancy! And they weren't always so eager to talk to other women about their problems, so they didn't always find out right away that their problems were due to pregnancy.
Pregnancy hit women in different ways back in those days. Some women were hit hard, and had a lot of trouble. Some women were not hit so hard, and were able to go along their daily lives.
The attitudes going right up to delivery were different too. Some women dreaded the moment of childbirth, and were sure that they were going to die. But some women were able to have some fun right before their child was born.
Childbirth happened in many different places. In fact, it happened in most of the places in the Wild West, including crowded, cold, and not-so-nice places! This is not because of cleanliness or preference at all... childbirth just happened, and it just happened wherever the pregnant woman happened to be at the time.
Midwives were important back in those days. But midwives often came to their trade by accident, and there were quite a few unofficial midwives in those days. And the midwives often didn't want to get paid for their services.
With the lack of doctors, help was grabbed whenever it could. And help came from many different sources... neighbors would often come to help the women, and not just in childbirth! The children would be cleaned, and all the women's duties would be covered by the neighbors.
The story is similar with medicines. Real medicines didn't really get out into the Wild West in those days. So the people living there used other stuff.
Childbirth and pregnancy were a big source of gossip, especially in small towns. Every day, every detail of the pregnancy was shared. When the child was born, every detail was shared among the folks of the town. When the women was actually delivering, sometimes the neighbors and folks went over to the house and made a big feast!
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