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Edition:	Oxford University Press, USA (Paperback)
Author:	Mark Twain
Published:	August 2008
Pages:	352
ISBN 10:	0199536554
New:	$3.27 (56)
Used:	$1.05 (51)
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Summary

Life in St. Petersburg The novel begins in St. Petersburg (a fictional equivalent of Hannibal, Missouri) shortly after the events recounted in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Tom and Huckleberry have each come into a considerable sum of money as a result of their previous adventures, and Huck has been placed under the guardianship of the Widow Douglas, who, together with her sister, Miss Watson, is attempting to "civilize" him. Huck appreciates their efforts, but finds civilized life confining.

Huck's life is changed by the appearance of his shiftless father, Pap Finn. Although Huck is successful in preventing his father from acquiring his fortune, his father gains custody of Huck (by kidnapping him) and the two move to the back woods. Equally unsatisfied with uncivilized life, Huck escapes from his father's cabin, fakes his own death, and sets off down the Mississippi River.

The Journey Begins While in hiding, Huck meets Jim, Miss Watson's slave. Partly overhearing an argument between Widow Douglas and Miss Watson about whether to sell him or not (Miss Watson for it, but Widow Douglas against), Jim has run away rather than risk being further separated from his family. Huck visits a nearby town disguised as a girl and learns that the townspeople believe him to be dead and are hunting for his father and Jim, both of whom are suspects in his death. In order to prevent Jim's recapture and sale, Huck and Jim decide to flee downriver on a raft to Cairo, Illinois, where they will be able to take a steamboat north into the free states.

During their journey South, Huck and Jim are briefly separated in a fog. After Huck paddles his canoe back to the raft, he plays a trick on Jim, convincing Jim that Huck had never left the raft and that Jim only dreamed their separation. Jim's disappointment upon learning of the trick, and Huck's resulting shame, represents a turning point in their relationship, as Huck begins to think of Jim as a person and friend, rather than as a slave. Thereafter, Huck periodically reflects on the conflict between his "conscience", which tells him that by assisting a slave in escaping, he is stealing Miss Watson's property, and his "heart", which tells him that Jim deserves to be free. In each case, Huck's loyalty to Jim wins out.

Unfortunately, Huck and Jim overshoot Cairo, which places their raft firmly in slave country and heading further south. At that point, they have a series of adventures that satirize the Southern culture of the time and further underscores the distinction between the idyllic family structure of Jim and Huck on the raft compared to the various families they encounter on shore.

The Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons Shortly after missing Cairo, Huck and Jim's raft is swamped by a passing steamship, separating the two. Huck is given shelter by the Grangerfords, a prosperous local family. He becomes friends with Buck Grangerford, a boy about his age, and learns that the Grangerfords are engaged in a long-running 30-year vendetta against another family, the Shepherdsons.

The vendetta finally comes to a head when Buck's sister, Sophia Grangerford, elopes with Harney Shepherdson. In the resulting conflict, all of the remaining Grangerford men are killed, and Huck narrowly escapes, reuniting with Jim and the raft and continuing further south on the Mississippi River. As they flee south, they encounter two characters.

The Duke and the King Further down the river, Jim and Huck rescue two grifters, both of whom join the two fugitives on the raft. The younger of the two, a man of about thirty, introduces himself as a son of an English Duke and is thereafter known as "the Duke". The older con man, about seventy, then trumps the Duke's claim by alleging that he is actually the "Lost Dauphin", the son of Louis XVI and rightful King of France. The Duke and the Dauphin then force Jim and Huck to allow them to travel on the raft, committing a series of confidence schemes on their way south.

During the course of these schemes, Huck sees the attempted lynching of a southern gentleman, Colonel Sherburn, after Sherburn kills a harmless town drunk. Sherburn faces down the lynch mob with a loaded rifle and forces them to back down after an extended speech regarding what he believes to be the essential cowardice of "Southern justice" -- i.e., the lynch mob. This vignette, which stands out as essentially disconnected from the remaining plot, is thought to represent Twain's own contradictory and misanthropic impulses -- Huck, the outcast, essentially flees from Southern society, while Sherburn, the gentleman, confronts it, albeit in a brutal and destructive fashion.

One of the most detailed schemes is the "Nonesuch". After the Duke, who fancies himself a Shakespearean actor, is unable to interest the townspeople in a pastiche of various poorly remembered Shakespearean plays, he then creates a combination play/confidence scheme called the "Royal Nonesuch". Advertising for a spectacular performance, the con men actually put on a short, albeit slightly funny, show. Still, the townspeople aren't happy that the show was so short, but because they are upset at the possibility of losing face, the first night's crowd reports to their friends that the show was fantastic, resulting in an even larger crowd the second night. On the third night, the Nonesuch draws its largest crowd yet, as most of the previous two nights' attendees return, armed with vegetables and other items to throw at the performers in revenge. After selling tickets to the third night's crowd, the Duke and Dauphin flee, considerably enriched.

The Duke and the Dauphin's schemes reach their apotheosis when the two grifters impersonate the brothers of Peter Wilks, a recently deceased man of property. Using an absurd English accent, the Dauphin manages to convince most of the townspeople that he and the Duke are Wilks' brothers recently arrived from England, and proceed to liquidate Wilks' estate. Huck is quite upset at the men's plan to steal the inheritance from Wilks' daughters and true brothers, as well as their actions in selling Wilks' slaves and separating their families. In order to prevent their plans, Huck steals the money the two have acquired and hides it in Wilks' coffin. Shortly thereafter, the two con men are discovered when Wilks' true brothers arrive. However, when the money is found in Wilks' coffin, the Duke and Dauphin are able to escape in the confusion, rejoining Huck and Jim on the raft.

Jim's escape As the four fugitives flee further South on their raft, the Dauphin "captures" Jim and sells his interest in any reward. Outraged by this betrayal, Huck finally rejects the advice of his "conscience", which continues to tell him that by helping Jim escape to freedom, he is stealing Miss Watson's property. Telling himself "All right, then, I'll go to hell!", Huck resolves to free Jim.

Arriving at the home where Jim is being held, Huck discovers, improbably, that the Dauphin has for forty dollars sold his supposed interest in the slave Jim to Silas Phelps, Tom Sawyer's uncle. In a parallel to the con men's earlier scheme with the Wilks family, Silas's wife, Aunt Sally, mistakes Huck for Tom himself, and Huck plays along, hoping to find a way to free Jim. Shortly thereafter, Tom himself arrives for a visit, and agrees to join Huck's scheme, pretending to be his own brother, Sid Sawyer.

Either out of a desire to revenge himself on the grifters or out of charity for the townspeople, Jim reveals the secret of the “Royal Nonesuch” before the two rogues are able to set their confidence game into motion. That night, Tom and Huck see the Duke and Dauphin, who have been captured by the townspeople, tarred and feathered and being run out of town on a rail.

Rather than simply sneaking Jim out of the shed where he is being held, Tom develops an elaborate plan to free him, involving secret messages, hidden tunnels, and other elements from romantic novels, including a note to the Phelps warning them of the planned escape. Huck and Jim go along with the plan, but Tom is shot in the leg during the resulting chase. Rather than complete his escape, Jim insists that Huck return to town and find a doctor to treat Tom, Jim and Tom are then captured.

Conclusion After Jim's recapture, events quickly resolve themselves. Tom's Aunt Polly arrives, and reveals Huck and Tom's true identities. Tom announces that Jim is and has been free for months—Miss Watson died two months earlier and freed Jim in her will. Tom had chosen not to reveal Jim's freedom in order to proceed with his scheme to break Jim from captivity. Similarly, Jim tells Huck that Huck's father, the frightening drunkard, Pap, has been dead for some time and that Huck may therefore now return safely to St. Petersburg. (Jim had discovered this when he and Huck were on Jackson Island and had come upon part of a house drifting down stream. The dead body in the house, which Jim did not let Huck see, thinking it was bad luck for children to see dead bodies, was Huck's father). In the final narrative, Huck announces that he is quite glad to be done writing his story, and that although Tom's Aunt Sally plans to "civilize" him, Huck himself intends to flee West.

Chapter Summaries

Chapter 1 The chapter begins with the voice of Huckleberry Finn, explaining that the reader won’t know about him unless they have read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He states that, for the most part, that book, written by Mark Twain, is a true story with "some stretchers" of the truth. Huck mentions his friend Tom Sawyer, Tom’s Aunt Polly, her sister Mary, and the Widow Douglas. He further reveals that at the end of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom and Huck had found money hidden in a cave and had divided it equally--$6,000 each. He explains that Judge Thatcher invested the money and he and Tom were making $365. per year in interest. He tells us that Widow Douglas has taken him in and is trying to civilize him, but that he couldn’t stand it, and ran away to be free. However, Tom found him and persuaded him to return by promising Huck he could be in Tom’s band of robbers.

Huck describes having to wear new clothes and how he feels sweaty and cramped. He complains of having to be on time for meals and saying grace. One of his worst complaints is that he isn’t allowed to smoke even though the Widow takes snuff! Huckleberry tells the reader how he is chastised for fidgeting, putting his feet on the furniture, and stretching. The Widow Douglas tells Huck he’ll go to hell if he continues to misbehave and Huck replies that he wishes he were there!

Miss Watson is the Widow Douglas’ sister and she keeps on Huck about learning to spell and soon Huck feels lonely and unhappy. In his candlelit room, Huck hears an owl, "who-whooing about somebody that was dead," a dog, "crying about somebody that was going to die," and the wind, "trying to whisper something to me". He thinks he hears a ghost making sounds in the woods, grieving and unable to rest. When a spider crawls onto his shoulder, he flips it into the candle and knows that action will bring bad luck. Huck turns around three times, crosses himself, and ties up a lock of his hair to keep witches away, but he has no faith that this will stave off the bad luck.

When the town clock chimes midnight, he hears "meow, meow". He replies by meowing, climbs out the window, and makes his way down to the ground. In the nearby trees, Tom Sawyer is waiting for him.

Chapter 2 Tom and Huck crawl away and Tom suggests tying the slave, Jim, to a tree. Huck says no because he doesn’t want it to be discovered that he is gone. The boys steal some candles from the kitchen and Tom takes Jim’s hat and hangs it in a tree. Later, Jim uses the hat as proof that witches had bewitched him and ridden him all over the world! Jim becomes so proud and conceited telling this tale over and over that he is almost ruined as a slave. Tom and Huck join up with a group of boys and Tom takes them to a cave to swear an oath in blood that they will be true to Tom Sawyer’s Gang of Robbers. The oath Tom invents is taken from adventure books and the boys are highly impressed by it. Tom explains that they will rob people, kill them, or hold them for ransom, which the boys decide means that the victims will be killed anyway. Tom also explains that they will not kill the women, but will keep them until the women fall in love with them. Tom is elected captain of the Gang. Huck returns home at daybreak, dirty and tired.

Chapter 3 Miss Watson scolds Huck for leaving and the Widow Douglas cleans him up and looks very disappointed. Miss Watson tells Huck that if he prays, he will get whatever he asks for. After trying prayer, Huck decides that it doesn’t work. When he seeks advice from the Widow Douglas, she counsels him to care for and help others and never think about himself. Since Huck can see no advantage for himself in this, only for others, he decides to "just let it go."

Huck's father, Pap, had been gone for a year when a drowned body was found in the river. The townsfolk are convinced it is Pap and bury him. Huck wonders how a drowned man could float on his back, like the one found. He decides that the body was not his Pap, but a woman dressed as a man. He knows Pap will turn up eventually.

After a month, all the boys quit the robber Gang because they hadn’t actually robbed or killed anyone. Tom made up exciting scenarios such as the one about Arabs and their treasures coming to town but all proved to be only make believe.. When the Gang rushes the "Arab" camp, it turns out to be a Sunday school picnic. Tom claims the boys can’t see the Arabs and their treasure because they are enchanted. When Huck questions the logic of this, Tom calls him a "perfect saphead" and says he doesn’t know anything.

Chapter 4 A few months later, Huck has attended school and learned to spell, read, and write a little. He has learned some of the multiplication tables and has learned not to hate school. When it gets tiresome, he plays hooky and gets a "hiding". This cheers him up. Once in a while, he sleeps in the woods, but is slowly getting used to his new home. The widow tells him she’s not ashamed of him anymore.

When Huck goes outdoors in the snow, he sees tracks. The boot tracks show that the left boot heel has a cross made of nails in it. Huck realizes immediately that Pap has returned. He runs to Judge Thatcher’s house and begs the judge to take and keep his money. The Judge is confused, but decides that Huck wants to sell him the money, so he writes a contract and has Huck sign it. The agreement states that Huck can have his money back for a payment of one dollar at any time.

Huck goes to Jim and asks Jim to answer some questions for him, using a magic hair ball taken out of the stomach of an ox. Huck wants to know what Pap is going to do and where he will stay. The hair ball says (through Jim, of course), "Yo' ole father doan' know yit what he's a-gwyne to do. Sometimes he spec he'll go 'way, en den agin he spec he'll stay. De bes' way is to res' easy en let de ole man take his own way. Dey's two angels hoverin' roun' 'bout him. One uv 'em is white en shiny, en t'other one is black. De white one gits him to go right a little while, den de black one sail in en bust it all up. A body can't tell yit which one gwyne to fetch him at de las'. But you is all right..."

When Huck returns home, Pap shows up in his room.

Chapter 5 At first Huck is scared, but then he realizes that Pap is old, dirty, gray haired, and has no color in his face. He’s wearing rags. He accuses Huck of being too good for his Pap. Huck tells Pap about the Widow. Pap threatens to stop the Widow from meddling in Huck’s life. He says that no boy should "put on airs" over his own father and act better than the father. Then he tells Huck to read something. Huck reads something about General Washington and Pap knocks the book from his hand, shocked that Huck can actually read, when no one else in the family ever has. He threatens to beat Huck if he goes back to school or "gets religion."

Pap then tells Huck that he’s heard he is rich and he wants the money by the next day. Huck denies he has money, but Pap thinks he’s lying. He takes Huck’s dollar for a drink. The next day, Pap tries to make Judge Thatcher give him the money, but the Judge refuses. Pap takes the matter to court and a new judge refuses to separate a boy from his father so Pap gets Huck back. After a drunken spree, the new judge takes Pap home and attempts to clean and sober him up. The judge has Pap sign a pledge (i.e.; make his mark). The same night, Pap sneaks out to get drunk and breaks his arm falling off the porch trying to get back into the judge’s house. Disgusted, the judge gives up..

Chapter 6 Pap takes Judge Thatcher to court to get Huck’s money. He also beats Huck for going to school, and Huck determines to continue to go just to spite him. Occasionally, Huck borrows a few dollars to give to Pap to appease him and avoid the beatings. The Widow Douglas orders Pap to leave her property and Pap, in anger, catches Huck, takes him upriver, and locks both of them in an old cabin. Huck’s life consists of fishing, hunting, and beatings. The Widow hires a man to bring Huck back, but Pap drives him away with a gun. Soon Huck falls back into his old ways of fishing, smoking, and lazing around. He starts to enjoy not studying, cursing, and being dirty. After two months, Huck becomes tired of the beatings and being locked in the cabin for days at a time and he starts to saw a hole out of the cabin. Meanwhile, Pap is suffering from delirium tremens and tries to kill Huck with a knife. Luckily, he fails.

Chapter 7 Huck discovers a nice canoe drifting downriver and hides it for his upcoming getaway. When Pap goes to town to sell some drift logs, Huck finishes his escape hole and loads the canoe with food, whiskey, coffee, ammunition, a bucket and cup, a saw, coffeepot, fish lines, matches, and blankets. He covers his escape hole and takes Pap’s gun and kills a wild pig in the woods. He uses Pap’s axe to smash the door of the cabin and uses the pig’s blood to spread on the floor and around the cabin. He fills a sack with rocks and drags it to the river, where he sinks it. Huck then pulls out some of his hair and sticks it to the axe, which he throws into a corner. He carries the pig’s carcass to the river and leaves a trail of cornmeal to a lake in the opposite direction of the river.

As Huck waits for nightfall in the canoe, planning to go to Jackson Island. Huck falls asleep, and when he wakes, he sees Pap returning to the cabin in his skiff. Huck waits for Pap to land and then quickly takes off in the canoe. Soon he arrives at Jackson Island and hides the canoe in the reeds.

Chapter 8 The next morning, Huck hears some loud booms. He sees it’s a ferryboat firing a cannon over the water to make his body come to the surface. Huck knows that loaves of bread with quicksilver in them will be floated on the river to try to locate his body, so, being hungry, he grabs a long stick and spears one of the loaves to eat. Huck sees Pap, Judge Thatcher, Tom Sawyer, Aunt Polly, Sid, and Mary on the boat and hears them talking about his "murder". Later, Huck builds a camp for himself and catches a catfish for dinner. He also finds strawberries, grapes, and raspberries to eat.

Wandering over the island, Huck finds a campfire, still smoking. Being scared of whose campfire it might be, Huck dismantles his camp and hides. Later, he decides to find out who is staying in the campsite. He soon discovers it’s Jim, Miss Watson’s slave, and he reveals himself, scaring Jim to half to death. He convinces Jim he’s not a ghost and Jim tells Huck he has run away because Miss Watson plans to sell him "down to Orleans" and get 800 dollars for him.

Chapter 9 Huck and Jim find a cavern in which to keep their provisions. They stay near the cavern during twelve days of rain and start to collect pine boards that are floating downriver. They explore a house floating past and collect some knives, candles, and other useful items. They find a dead man as well. Jim examines the dead man and realizes he’s Pap, but doesn’t tell Huck. (The reader doesn't discover the dead man's identity until the end)

Chapter 10 Huck is curious about the dead man in the house, but Jim refuses to discuss him because he fears the bad luck it will bring. Huck and Jim find eight dollars sewed into the lining of an old coat they found in the house. Huck kills a rattlesnake and places him on Jim’s blanket for a joke. When Jim sits on the blanket, the snake’s mate bites him.

Jim has Huck chop off the snake’s head, skin the body, and roast part of it. Jim eats it and drinks whiskey. He has Huck tie the rattles around his wrist; Jim is very superstitious. Jim’s leg and foot swell up and for four days and nights, he experiences pain and is delirious. Miraculously, he recovers.

Huck and Jim decide that Huck should go to town and find out what is going on. Jim suggests that Huck dress up like a girl so that he won’t be recognized. Huck takes the canoe and heads off to town. In a shanty on the riverbank he sees a woman who is a stranger to him. He knocks on the door.

Chapter 11 The woman invites him in and asks him to sit down. Huck introduces himself as Sarah Williams. The woman says she has only lived in town for two weeks. She tells Huck all about her family and then tells him that some people in town think that "old Finn" (i.e.; Pap) killed his son. She tells Huck that Pap was nearly lynched, but that the townsfolk changed their minds and now believe that Jim murdered Huck. She says there’s a reward of $200 for Pap and $300 for Jim. She says that some townsfolk still think that Pap murdered Huck to get his money.

The woman tells Huck that she told her husband she had seen smoke on Jackson’s Island and that her husband was going over there to look for Pap and Jim. Huck gets very scared, and, in order to busy his hands, he attempts to thread a needle. The woman watches and gives him a curious look. Huck says that he wishes he could get the reward money to give to his mother and asks the woman when her husband will be going to the island. She says he will go later that night after borrowing a boat.

She then asks Huck for his name again and Huck replies, "M -- Mary Williams". Realizing he has made a mistake, he says that his full name is Sarah Mary Williams. The woman tosses Huck a hank of yarn and Huck closes his legs together and catches it. The woman immediately knows that he is a boy and not a girl because girls will catch things in their skirts by spreading their legs apart, whereas boys put them together to grasp an item.

Huck makes her promise not to tell and he spins a tale about running away from a mean man to whom he was apprenticed. He claims to be going to Goshen and the woman tells him he’s in St. Petersburg. She grills him on questions only a country boy could answer and he answers all correctly, telling her his name is George Peters. She sends him off with some food and advice on how to act like a girl. When Huck gets back to the island, he rouses Jim and they hurriedly pack their things onto the raft they built and take off.

Chapter 12 The next day, Huck and Jim tie up the raft on the Illinois side of the river and hide out. Huck tells Jim all about his visit to the shanty. Jim builds a wigwam for the raft and the two of them take off at dusk, drifting downriver, swimming, fishing, and talking. Five nights later they arrive in St. Louis. Huck uses a few cents to buy cornmeal or bacon and stealing a chicken whenever he can. He also steals watermelon, pumpkins, and corn from fields.

During a lightning storm, they come upon a beached steamboat that Huck wants to board. Jim is reluctant, but gives in. On board, they hear voices. Jim runs for the raft, but Huck crawls along until he can see three men. Two are threatening the third, who is tied up. The two men decide to rob the steamboat and leave the tied man to drown when she breaks up.

Huck finds Jim and suggests that they find the men’s boat and untie her, leaving all three stranded. Jim tells Huck that their raft has drifted away from its mooring and they are stranded on the steamboat.

Chapter 13 Huck controls his panic and he and Jim frantically start searching for the boat that belongs to the men. Finding it, they jump in, cast off, and float away. Some time later, they catch up with their raft and get back aboard. Seeing a watchman on a ferryboat, Huck creates a tale about his mom and pop and sister who are marooned on the wreck and convinces him to go "rescue" the family. Huck is sure that the Widow Douglas would be proud of him for getting the "rapscallions" rescued.

Chapter 14 Huck and Jim spend time discussing how kings and princes lived in other countries in times gone by and how people speak different languages. Jim can’t understand why people would speak a language different from English and Huck eventually decides that it’s impossible to argue with him since he doesn’t know how to argue!

Chapter 15 Huck and Jim decide that they will sell the raft once they reach Cairo, about three days away. They will get on a steamboat and journey to the free states in the north, where Jim will be free and no one can send him back into slavery. On a foggy night, they tie up to a sapling on the shore, but the rough water tears the raft loose and it takes off downriver with Jim on board, leaving Huck on shore. Huck jumps into the canoe and takes off after the raft, but soon realizes that, in the fog, he has no idea which way to go. He lets the canoe drift.

He starts to whoop and listen. Soon, he hears Jim whooping back and he starts paddling in the direction of Jim’s voice. As he paddles, he becomes confused as Jim’s voice seems to come first from ahead, then from behind, then disappears altogether. Huck decides they’ve been separated by a big island, so he relaxes and eventually falls asleep. When he wakes, the fog is gone and he’s in a "monstrous big river". He starts chasing specks ahead of him and eventually catches up with Jim, who’s asleep on the raft.

Huck jumps on board and when Jim wakes, he tries to convince him he’s been on board the whole time and that Jim has dreamed the fog and Huck’s absence. He manages to convince Jim and then he reverses his joke and convinces Jim of the truth. Jim is highly irate because Huck has made a fool of him. Huck feels low and "humbles" himself to ask Jim’s forgiveness. Huck decides to stop playing mean tricks.

Chapter 16 As the raft approaches Cairo, Jim gets "all trembly" knowing he’s going to be free soon and Huck starts to worry that he’ll be in trouble for "helpin’ a nigger" to freedom. Jim starts to tell Huck how he’s going to get a job and save his money and buy his wife and two children’s freedom. That makes Huck worry more because he’s helping Jim and he fears he’ll be the cause of more trouble if Jim tries to steal his children, which he says he will, if their owner won’t sell them. Huck privately decides he will paddle ashore at daybreak and tell someone about Jim being a runaway slave.

When Jim calls out that Cairo is approaching, Huck says he’ll take the canoe and go see. As Huck gets into the canoe, Jim goes on and on about how Huck is his only true friend and the only white man who never lied to him. Huck starts to regret his decision to rat on Jim. When two men in a boat ask Huck who is on the raft, he claims it’s his sick family. The men become convinced that there’s a family with smallpox on the raft and they send Huck downriver, claiming he will get help there. The two men feel guilty and each gives Huck a twenty dollar gold piece. When they leave, Huck feels tremendous guilt. But, he decides that he couldn’t be right no matter which choice he made -- to turn Jim in or not to -- so he gives up on worrying about it. Huck and Jim continue downriver and soon realize they must have passed Cairo the night of the fog. They decide to backtrack, using the canoe, but while they sleep, the canoe disappears! They decide to continue downriver until they can buy a canoe and blame their bad luck on the snakeskin. The next night, the raft is run over by a steamship. Both Huck and Jim dive for their lives. Huck pops up and swims for shore but he doesn’t see Jim. On shore, he is cornered by a pack of dogs near a log house.

Chapter 17 Someone calls out to Huck from the log cabin, asking his name and why he is prowling around. Huck claims to have fallen off a steamboat. The man tells Huck to enter, as long as he’s not a Shepherdson. When he enters, he sees three men and three ladies, the men all holding guns. A young man about Huck’s age, Buck, is called from a back room and brings dry clothes for Huck. Huck spins a tale about how all his family is dead and he’s on his own. The Grangerford family invites him to stay with them as long as he wants to. Huck gets to know and like the family.

Chapter 18 Colonel Grangerford is a gentleman and the family is well born. He is kind, but stern and everyone minds their manners when he’s around. Each family member has a slave to wait on them, including Huck! Huck learns that three sons and one daughter have died. The Colonel owns many farms and more than 100 slaves.

A nearby family, the Shepherdsons are also well born and rich and the two families use the same steamboat landing. One day, when Buck takes a shot at a member of the Shepherdsons, Huck learns that the two families have been involved in a feud for thirty years! Neither family can remember what started the feud, but both families are proud of their courage in facing down members of the other family. One of the young ladies, Sophia, sends Huck to get her prayer book that had been left in church one Sunday. In it, Huck finds a note arranging for a meeting. When he returns the book to Sophia, she cautions him not to tell anyone about it. The same day, Huck’s slave invites him down to the river to "show you a whole stack o’water-moccasins". The request seems odd, but Huck goes along. The slave takes Huck into the swamp and shows him where Jim is hiding. Jim had followed Huck to shore after the raft was run over, but was too afraid to call out and be captured. Jim tells Huck the slaves have been bringing him food and water and that he has been patching up the raft. The next morning Huck wakes to find that Sophia has run off to marry Henry Shepherdson. All the family has gone to bring her back and intend to kill Henry. Huck takes off to find the family and ends up in a tree watching Buck and his cousin shoot at some of the Shepherdsons. Buck and his cousin take refuge underneath Huck’s tree and tell him that Sophia and Henry made it across the river, but that the Shepherdsons had ambushed the Grangerfords and killed Buck’s father and two brothers. Several of the Shepherdsons were killed too. Suddenly, the Shepherdsons return and shoot and kill both Buck and his cousin. Huck is heartsick.

Huck finds Jim and they shove off downriver in the raft.

Chapter 19 Huck and Jim float downriver at night. They fish and swim, sleep and talk. They tie up during the day, hiding the raft in the cottonwoods. One day, Huck is hunting for berries, when two men come tearing along and beg him to save their live and he allows them onto the raft. One man is about 70, the other about 30 and claim they do not know each other. Each describes a scam he runs and how he almost was run out of town on a rail.

As the conversation progresses, the younger man claims to be a duke in disguise, the Duke of Bridgewater. Both Huck and Jim feel very sorry that he has been brought so low. The Duke requires that they call him "Your Grace" and wait on him. After awhile, the older man gets very quiet and then confesses that he, too, is in disguise. He claims to be the late Dauphin, Louis XVII, the rightful King of France. He wants to be called "Your Majesty" and be waited on also. Huck and Jim are so proud to be in his presence that they begin to wait on him, too. It doesn’t take Huck long to realize that these two are liars and not a King and a Duke, but he doesn’t say anything because Pap had taught him that the best way to get along with people is to let them have their own way.

Chapter 20 When the Duke and the King ask if Jim is a runaway slave, Huck spins a tale about how his family is all dead, but he and Jim, his slave, are going south to meet an uncle and live with him. The Duke and the King decide to work out some kind of plan so that the raft can run during the day. The King and Huck attend a camp meeting at the next town and the King grabs the heart of the crowd with a story about how he is a poor pirate. The crowd takes up a collection for him and he comes away with $87.75. Meanwhile, the Duke has used a printing office to create a reward poster for Jim, saying he is a runaway slave. He tells Huck that they can float downriver during the day and if anyone challenges them, they will say they are returning Jim for the reward.

Chapter 21 The Duke and the King begin to practice playacting in order to put on a show at the next town. They rehearse Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet’s soliloquy, and sword fighting. At the next town, they post playbills advertising their "Shaksperean Revivial". Admission is 25 cents for adults and 10 cents for children and "niggers". While they are setting up for the Revival, one of the townsmen shoots a drunk in the street. After a while, all the townspeople begin to call for his lynching.

Chapter 22 As the mob of townspeople reach the house of the murderer, he faces them down with a shotgun. After calling them cowards and daring them to come back in the dark, they break and run away. That night, the Duke and the King put on their show, but only a dozen people show up and they spend the evening laughing at the thespians. The Duke is royally angry and decides to get back at them. He paints large signs, advertising "The Royal Nonesuch. 3 Nights only! World-Renowned David Garrick and Edmund Kean! Admission - 50 cents. Ladies and children not admitted".

Chapter 23 That night, the playhouse is full of men. The Duke introduces the "tragedy" and onto the stage prances the King, stark naked. He cavorts and capers. When the audience is told that is the entire show, they are ready to lynch the Duke and the King, but decide it will be better to con the rest of the town into coming the following night, so that they all will be made fools. The next night, the same thing happens. On the third night, the audience is full of the same fools who attended the first two nights and this time they’re carrying rotten eggs, cabbages, and dead cats. The Duke advises Huck to run for the raft and he quickly follows. They cast off and Huck is feeling sorry for the King, when he crawls out of the wigwam and asks how it went. The Duke and King have made $465. from their scam. Jim tells Huck he can’t stand any more of the Duke and King and Huck agrees.

Chapter 24 As they float further downriver, they run across a young man who tells them of a family named Wilks who recently lost their father, Peter, a rich man with houses, land, and cash. He tells the Duke and the King that the family consists of three girls and two of Peter’s brothers, who live in England. The King grills the young man on all the details about the family and everyone in the town. Then the Duke, King, Huck, and Jim set off for the town, where they inquire about the home of Mr. Peter Wilks. The Duke and King, claim to be the English brothers of Mr. Peter Wilks.

Chapter 25 The three sisters, Mary Jane, Susan, and Joanna welcome the King and the Duke with open arms. The Duke and the King carry off their roles with aplomb, crying with grief, loving their "nieces", and giving speeches. The King gives his speeches in English with an English accent; the Duke pretends to be deaf and mute and gives his speeches in "sign language". When the will is read, the girls receive the house and $3,000 in gold. Peter’s brothers receive a business, houses and land, and $3,000 dollars in gold. The King and Duke offer to retrieve the $6,000 from the cellar. They count it and decide to give it all to the three girls to gain their trust. They know they can steal it back later.

They take the money upstairs and the King makes a speech about the gift. Everyone is overcome by their generosity, especially the three girls. Only the town doctor calls them frauds and is brutally criticized for it. When he asks Mary Jane to turn the frauds out, she responds by giving all $6,000 to the King and asks him to invest it for them, with no receipt required. After warning them one more time, the doctor washes his hands of the situation..

Chapter 26 A big dinner is held for all the townsfolk, except the doctor, and the King and Duke are asked to stay on. Joanna, the youngest girl, grills Huck about England and the church he attends and whether he’s ever seen the King. Joanna accuses Huck of telling some whoppers and her sisters chastise her and make her apologize. Huck feels very guilty for letting these three kind ladies be robbed by the King and the Duke and decides to get their money back for them.

Huck hides in the Duke’s room and sees him and the King hide the money in the mattress. As soon as they leave, Huck grabs the bag of gold and runs with it. Temporarily, he hides the gold in his own room.

Chapter 27 As soon as Huck ascertains that the Duke and King are asleep, he takes the gold and hides it in Peter’s coffin in the parlor. The day after the funeral, the Duke and King sell the slaves and set up an auction for the house and land. When they discover the gold is missing, Huck persuades them that one of the slaves must have stolen it. Since the slaves were sold, the Duke and King can do nothing to get it back.

Chapter 28 When Huck finds Mary Jane crying over the sale of the slaves and the separation of the mothers from their children, he blurts out that they’ll be home soon. He makes her promise to go away for four days and tells her that the King and Duke are frauds and that, when this is discovered, the sale will be held invalid and the slaves returned. He tells her to hide out until nine that evening and then return home. He says if he doesn’t turn up by eleven that night, she can turn in the Duke and King and have them jailed, because he’ll be gone and safe. He warns her that if he doesn’t get away, she must stand behind him and his story. Mary Jane agrees. Huck sends her away so that her innocent face doesn’t give away the fact that she knows the truth. He also tells her where to find the gold.

That afternoon, the house and other items are sold at auction. A bit later, two gentlemen alight from the steamboat, claiming to be the girls’ uncles from England. One of them is a young man with his arm in a sling, the same one who talked with the King for so long. The townspeople are anxious to see how this conundrum will be solved.

Chapter 29 The Duke and King don’t turn a hair upon seeing the real uncles. The King claims that the new uncles are frauds. A man from the steamboat claims to have seen the Duke, King, and Huck upriver before the funeral, not on a steamboat heading to the funeral. The doctor says that the King and the Duke must get the gold and let him keep it until they are proven innocent. The King informs everyone that the gold has been stolen by a slave.

For the next few hours, the uncles (all four) and Huck are questioned and must tell and retell their stories. Finally, one of the real uncles asks the King to tell what is tattooed on Peter Wilks’ breast. The King claims there’s a blue arrow tattooed on Peter’s chest. The real uncle claims there are initials tattooed on his chest. The men who laid Peter out say that they saw nothing on his chest. Then, someone suggests digging Peter up to look. Everyone takes off for the graveyard, dragging Huck, the King, and the Duke along. When the coffin is dug up, the bag of gold is discovered. Huck grabs that moment, amidst the chaos, to take off running, as do the Duke and the King. Huck gets to the raft and yells for Jim to cast off. A few minutes later, the King and Duke pull up alongside in a skiff, followed by the sounds of rifle shots.

Chapter 30 The King furiously grabs Huck by the collar and accuses him of abandoning them. Huck convinces him that the man who had him in tow had let him go so he wouldn’t be hanged. He says he ran because there wasn’t anything he could do to help the King and the Duke. The Duke points out to the King that he hadn’t stopped to look for Huck when they took off. The King and the Duke proceed to accuse each other of stealing the gold and hiding it. When they fall into a drunken sleep, Huck tells Jim the whole story.

Chapter 31 The raft floats downriver without stopping, day after day, further and further south. Soon the King and Duke decide they’re safe and begin to run their scams again -- temperance lectures, dancing schools, elocution lessons, doctoring, telling fortunes. They make nothing. So, they begin to "think up some devilment" as Huck says.

The raft stops at a town into which the King goes to observe. Later, Huck and the Duke follow him. Huck takes his chance to go back to the raft to escape from them and finds that Jim is gone. A boy tells Huck that Jim has been captured by Silas Phelps as a "runaway nigger". The boy also tells Huck that "an old man" turned Jim in and received a forty dollar reward for him. Huck can’t figure out what to do.

Huck thinks and thinks and finally comes up with a plan. He moves the raft and hides it. The next day he takes the canoe and goes back to town. He hides the canoe and heads for Phelps's Sawmill. In town he finds the Duke, putting up Royal Nonesuch flyers. Huck spins a tale about how he has lost the raft and believes a man has stolen Jim. The Duke tells Huck that the King has sold Jim and spent all the money. The Duke lies to Huck and tells him Jim is forty miles away and tells Huck he must go get him. Huck, of course, knows where Jim really is. He is determined to get rid of the King and the Duke.

Chapter 32 Huck arrives at the Phelps’ plantation and is quickly surrounded by dogs, barking and howling. A slave woman sends them packing and the lady of the house comes out and greets Huck by saying, "It’s you at last!" He has no idea who she thinks he is, but he tells her, "Yes’m." She introduces him to her little children as cousin Tom, and she introduces herself as Aunt Sally.

She asks Huck to give her all the news from home, but before he can, her husband comes home and she introduces Huck as Tom Sawyer! After that, Huck has no problem telling all the news from home. Huck decides to go to town and meet the steamboat in case the real Tom Sawyer shows up.

Chapter 33 On the way to town, Huck encounters Tom Sawyer on his way to Aunt Sally’s by wagon. Huck explains he wasn’t murdered and tells Tom the fix he’s in. Tom thinks and then tells Huck to take his trunk and go back and he’ll come along in a bit. Huck tells Tom he’s looking for Jim and Tom offers to help steal Jim. Huck goes back to Aunt Sally’s.

Soon, Tom arrives at Aunt Sally’s. He tells everyone he’s Sid Sawyer, Tom’s brother. They are delighted to see him. One of the cousins lets on that a couple of loafers will be putting on a show that evening. As soon as they are supposed to be in bed, Huck and Tom head for town. On the way, the boys fill each other in on what’s happened.

Soon, they run into a crowd of townspeople with torches, hollering and yelling. They have tarred and feathered the Duke and the King and are running them out of town on the rail.

Chapter 34 Tom tells Huck he knows where Jim is, saying Jim must be in the hut by the ash-hopper because he saw a "nigger" go into the hut with "vittles". Both boys come up with plans to rescue Jim. Huck’s plan is rejected for being too simple. Tom’s plan is approved because it has a lot of style, will free Jim, and "maybe get us all killed besides". Of course, Tom’s plan relies heavily on the romantic adventure stories he has read. Huck and Tom examine the hut and decide to use a small shed built against the hut as cover while they dig Jim out. The next day, one of the slaves shows them Jim in the hut. They manage to tell Jim that they’re going to dig him out and that he should pretend not to know them.

Chapter 35 Tom is very disappointed that freeing Jim out is going to be easy. He rejects getting Jim out through the window as too easy; working with a lantern as too easy; and wishes they could drug the slave who is sent, with a key, to feed Jim. He decides it wouldn’t be good, or necessary, to saw Jim’s leg off to get rid of his chains. He says they will get a rope ladder for Jim to hide in his bed, even though he’ll have no need for it. Tom decides the rope ladder will be a good clue for others to find when they’re gone. Tom also decides that Jim must use his own blood to write a journal, even though he can’t write and that he and Huck will use knives, instead of the nearby shovels and picks, to dig Jim out. Huck thinks it’s all foolish, but goes along with it.

Chapter 36 That night, they begin to dig. By midnight they’ve made no headway and their hands are blistered, Tom decides they’ll have to use the picks, softening the blow by calling the picks and shovels "case knives”. The next night, they finish the hole and crawl through it into Jim’s hut.

Chapter 37 Aunt Sally is highly irate that a shirt, sheet, and other things are missing. Huck and Tom use the shirt for Jim’s journal, the sheet for his ladder, and the other things to smuggle into the hut. To pacify her, the boys take and return sheets and spoons several times until Aunt Sally doesn’t know how many she has and doesn’t care anymore. Jim goes along with all Tom’s ideas, even though he can’t figure out why the boys are making him do all of this, when he could escape at any time.

Chapter 38 Tom and Huck create a coat of arms for Jim and invent an inscription for him to leave in the hut. They steal a grindstone, bring it to the hut, and write the inscription on it, using nails, chisels, a bolt, and a hammer. Meanwhile, Tom tries to figure out how to get spiders and a rattlesnake into the hut for Jim’s "pets", scaring Jim, who declares he will leave if Tom brings anything like that into the hut. Then Tom decides to get Jim a plant to "water with his tears”. Jim wants to know why he can’t use the spring water he’s given each day to water the plant. Tom lectures Jim for being so ungrateful and unwilling to be a prisoner who "follows the rules”. Jim promises to behave.

Chapter 39 Huck and Tom catch fifteen rats and hide them under Aunt Sally’s bed. One of the children finds the rats and lets them loose, causing Aunt Sally to "raise Cain”. She gives both Huck and Tom a "dusting" with a hickory stick and makes them catch all the rats. Huck and Tom then proceed to catch some snakes and put them in a bag in their room; when they return, the snakes are gone! Needless to say, Aunt Sally nearly loses her mind and gives them another beating. They put the rats, snakes, and spiders in the hut and nearly drive Jim out of his mind. Next, the boys write an anonymous note to the family: "Beware. Trouble is brewing. Keep a sharp lookout. UNKNOWN FRIEND."

They draw a skull and crossbones in blood on the front door and a coffin on the back door. The family is scared to death. The final note says:

"Don't betray me, I wish to be your friend. There is a desprate gang of cut-throats from over in the Indian Territory going to steal your runaway nigger to-night, and they have been trying to scare you so as you will stay in the house and not bother them. I am one of the gang, but have got religgion and wish to quit it and lead an honest life again, and will betray the helish design. They will sneak down from northards, along the fence, at midnight exact, with a false key, and go in the nigger's cabin to get him. I am to be off a piece and blow a tin horn if I see any danger; but stead of that I will BA like a sheep soon as they get in and not blow at all; then whilst they are getting his chains loose, you slip there and lock them in, and can kill them at your leasure. Don't do anything but just the way I am telling you; if you do they will suspicion something and raise whoop-jamboreehoo. I do not wish any reward but to know I have done the right thing. - UNKNOWN FRIEND."

Chapter 40 The next evening, Huck checks to make sure the raft is safe. At bedtime, he and Tom dress in Aunt Sally’s and a female slave’s clothes and get ready to release Jim. Aunt Sally catches Huck and wants to know what’s going on. She sends him into the parlor, where fifteen farmers are waiting with guns. Huck slips away to warn Tom and they both hear the farmers coming to catch the slave thieves.

Huck, Tom, and Jim slip out the hole, but Tom’s pants catch and make a noise. They start running as bullets whizz around them and the men and dogs chase them through the woods. Huck, Tom, and Jim hide and the dogs give them a quick sniff and tear off.

Huck, Tom, and Jim reach the canoe and cast off. As they board the raft and Tom discovers that he has a bullet in his leg—a fact that thrills him. Huck and Jim insist that Huck must go and fetch a doctor. Tom doesn’t want him to, but agrees as long as Huck blindfolds the doctor and keeps their location a secret.

Chapter 41 Huck finds the doctor and spins a tale about how during their hunting trip Tom was shot by accidently kicking his gun during a dream. The doctor refuses to travel in the canoe, so Huck is forced to tell him where the raft is. On Huck’s way back, he runs into Uncle Silas, who wants to know where he and "Sid" have been and Huck explains they’re looking for the runaway slave. Uncle Silas makes Huck return home and stay there. Both he and Aunt Sally are worried about where "Sid" has gone. Aunt Sally is so kind and so worried that Huck begins to feel very guilty. She makes him promise not to go out. He feels worse when he sees her crying and worrying in the parlor.

Chapter 42 The following morning, Uncle Silas shows Aunt Sally and Huck a letter from Tom’s mother, Aunt Sally’s sister. Before she can read it, the doctor shows up with Tom on a mattress and Jim with his hands tied. Tom is put to bed and Jim is chained up in the hut with armed guards outside. The doctor praises Jim for helping to treat Tom and risking his freedom to do so. Huck hides the letter.

The next morning Tom awakens and claims that he and Huck were the ones who set Jim free. Happily and proudly, he explains how they did everything to Aunt Sally. Aunt Sally is furious and she tells Tom that Jim is not free, he is chained in the hut. Tom informs her that Jim is actually a free man, having been freed months previous by Miss Watson in her will.

Just then, Aunt Polly appears. Of course, Aunt Polly immediately reveals who Huck and Tom really are and further supports Tom’s statement that Jim is a free man. She explains that she came to the plantation because of the letter Aunt Sally had sent her, telling her about Tom and "Sid" coming to visit, when Sid was at home.

Chapter 43 When Tom and Huck have a chance to talk privately, Tom explains that even though he knew Jim was a free man, he wanted the three of them to go downriver on the raft and have adventures, before telling Jim he was free. Then, he planned to send Jim back on a steamboat and have him met with a torchlight procession, as a hero.

Jim is freed from the hut and his chains, is given a good meal, and praised thoroughly. Tom gives Jim forty dollars for being so patient and Jim is happy that he is now a rich man. Jim tells Huck about Pap being dead and Tom tells Huck his six thousand dollars is still his.

Everyone returns home and Huck decides to "light out" for the "Injun territories" soon because Aunt Sally wants to adopt him and he can’t go through that again!

References

Wikipedia

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