Passage:
"Everybody was willing. So Tom got out a sheet of paper that he had wrote the oath on, and read it. It swore that every boy to stick to the band, and never tell any of the secrets; and if anybody done anything to any boy in the band, whichever boy was ordered to kill that person and hos family must do it, and he mustn't eat and he mustn't sleep till he had killed the and hacked a cross in their breasts, which was the sign of the band. And nobody that didn't belong to the band could use that mark, and if he did he must be sued; and if he done it again he must be killed. And if anybody that belonged to the band told the secrets, he must have his throat cut, and then have his carcass burnt up and the ashes scattered all around, and his name blotted off the list with blood and never mentioned again by the gang, but have a curse put on it and be forgot forever.
Everybody said it was a beautiful oath..."
Page:
10
Comments and Response:
As I read this quote the only thing that was going through my mind was this was a pretty violent oath for some youngsters. It surprised me that people that young would make a oath that violent even though I am pretty sure that they won't carry through with those threats if someone were to break the oath. Also in the midst of all that craziness they add some humor. The humor being that they would sue a person on the first offense of using their sign and kill them if the same person did it again.
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