would end up in Heaven. Huck was glad "because I wanted him and me to be

together." One night, after Miss Watson's prayer session with him and the

slaves, Huck goes to bed feeling "so lonesome I wished I was dead." He gets

shivers hearing the sounds of nature through his window. Huck accidentally

icks a spider into a candle, and is frightened by the bad omen. Just after

midnight, Huck hears movement below the window, and a "me-yow" sound, that

he responds to with another "me-yow." Climbing out the window onto the

shed, Huck finds Tom Sawyer waiting for him.

Chapters 2-3 Summary

Huck and Tom tiptoe through the garden. Huck trips on a root as he

passes the kitchen. Jim, a "big" slave, hears him from inside. Tom and Huck

crouch down, trying to stay still. But Huck is struck by an uncontrollable

itch, as always happens when he is in a situation, like when he's "with the

quality," where it is bad to scratch. Jim says aloud that he will stay put

until he discovers the source of the sound, but after several minutes falls

asleep. Tom plays a trick on Jim{putting his hat on a tree branch over his

head{and takes candles from the kitchen, over Huck's objections that they

will risk getting caught. Later, Jim will say that some witches ew him

around the state and put the hat above his head as a calling card. He

expands the tale further, becoming a local celebrity among the slaves, who

enjoy witch stories. He wears around his neck the five-cent piece Tom left

for the candles, calling it a charm from the devil with the power to cure

sickness. Jim nearly becomes so stuck-up from his newfound celebrity that

he is unfit to be a servant.

Meanwhile, Tom and Huck meet up with a few other boys, and take a boat

to a large cave. There, Tom declares his new band of robbers, "Tom Sawyer's

Gang." All must sign in blood an oath vowing, among other things, to kill

the family of any member who reveals the gang's secrets. The boys think it

"a real beautiful oath." Tom admits he got part of it from books. The boys

nearly disqualify Huck, who has no family but a drunken father who can

never be found, until Huck offers Miss Watson. Tom says the gang must

capture and ransom people, though nobody knows what "ransom" means.

Tom assumes it means to kill them. But anyway, it must be done since

all the books say so. When one boy cries to go home and threatens to tell

the group's secrets, Tom bribes him with five cents. They agree to meet

again someday, just not Sunday, which would be blasphemous. Huckleberry

makes it back into bed just before dawn.

Miss Watson tries to explain prayer to Huckleberry in Chapter Three.

Huckleberry gives up on it after not getting what he prays for. Miss Watson

calls him a fool, and explains prayer bestows spiritual gifts like sel

essness to help others. Huck cannot see any advantage in this, except for

the others one helps. So he resolves to forget it. Widow Douglas describes

a wonderful God, while Miss Watson's is terrible. Huck concludes there are

two Gods. He would like to belong to Widow Douglas's, if He would take him

– unlikely because of Huck's bad qualities.

Meanwhile, a rumor circulates that Huck's Pap, who has not been seen in

a year, is dead. A corpse was found in the river, thought to be Pap because

of its "ragged" appearance, though the face is unrecognizable. At first

Huck is relieved. His father had been a drunk who beat him when he was

sober, though Huck stayed hidden from him most of the time. Soon, however,

Huck doubts his father's death, and expects to see him again.

After a month in Tom's gang, Huck quit along with the rest of the boys.

There was no point to it, without any robbery or killing, their activities

being all pretend. Once, Tom pretended a caravan of Arabs and Spaniards

were going to encamp nearby with hundreds of camels and elephants. It

turned out to be a Sunday school picnic. Tom explained it really was a

caravan of Arabs and Spaniards - only they were enchanted, like in Don

Quixote. Huckleberry judged Tom's stories of genies to be lies, after

rubbing old lamps and rings with no result.

Chapters 4-6 Summary

In Chapter Four, Huckleberry is gradually adjusting to his new life,

and even making small progress in school. One winter morning, Huck notices

boot tracks in the snow near the house. Within one heel print is the shape

of two nails crossed to ward off the devil. Huck runs to Judge Thatcher,

looking over his shoulder as he does. He sells his fortune to the surprised

Judge for a dollar. That night Huck goes to Jim, who has a magical giant

hairball from an ox's stomach. Huck tells Jim he found Pap's tracks in the

snow and wants to know what his father wants. Jim says the hairball needs

money to talk, and so Huck gives a counterfeit quarter. Jim puts his ear to

the hairball, and relates that Huck's father has two angels, one black and

one white, one bad, one good. It is uncertain which will win out. But Huck

is safe for now. He will have much happiness and much sorrow in his life,

will marry a poor and then a rich woman, and should stay clear of the

water, since that is where he will die. That night, Huck finds Pap waiting

in his bedroom!

Pap's long, greasy, black hair hangs over his face. The nearly fifty-

year-old man's skin is a ghastly, disgusting white. Noticing Huck's

"starchy" clothes, Pap wonders aloud if he thinks himself better than his

father, promising to take him "down a peg." Pap promises to teach Widow

Douglas not to "meddle" and make a boy "put on airs over his own father."

Pap is outraged that Huck has become the first person in his family to

learn to read. He threatens Huck not to go near the school again. He asks

Huck if he is really rich, as he has heard, and calls him a liar when he

says he has no more money.

He takes the dollar Huck got from Judge Thatcher. He leaves to get

whiskey, and the next day, drunk, demands Huck's money from Judge Thatcher.

The Judge and Widow Douglas try to get custody of Huck, but give up after

the new judge in town refuses to separate a father from his son. Pap lands

in jail after a drunken spree. The new judge takes Pap into his home and

tries to reform him. Pap tearfully repents his ways but soon gets drunk

again. The new judge decides Pap cannot be reformed except with a shotgun.

Pap sues Judge Thatcher for Huck's fortune. He also continues to

threaten Huck about attending school, which Huck does partly to spite his

father. Pap goes on one drunken binge after another. One day he kidnaps

Huck and takes him deep into the woods, to a secluded cabin on the Illinois

shore. He locks Huck inside all day while he goes out. Huck enjoys being

away from civilization again, though he does not like his father's beatings

and his drinking. Eventually, Huck finds an old saw hidden away. He slowly

makes a hole in the wall while his father is away, resolved to escape from

both Pap and the Widow Douglas. But Pap returns as Huck is about to finish.

He complains about the "govment," saying Judge Thatcher has delayed the

trial to prevent Pap from getting Huck's wealth. He has heard his chances

are good, though he will probably lose the fight for custody of Huck. He

further rails against a biracial black visitor to the town. The visitor is

well dressed, university- educated, and not at all deferential. Pap is

disgusted that the visitor can vote in his home state, and that legally he

cannot be sold into slavery until he has been in the state six months.

Later, Pap wakes from a drunken sleep and chases after Huck with a knife,

calling him the "Angel of Death," stopping when he collapses in sleep. Huck

holds the ri e against his sleeping father and waits.

Chapters 7-10 Summary

Huck falls asleep, to be awakened by Pap, who is unaware of the night's

events. Pap sends Huck out to check for fish. Huck finds a canoe drifting

in the river and hides it in the woods. When Pap leaves for the day, Huck

finishes sawing his way out of the cabin. He puts food, cookware,

everything of value in the cabin, into the canoe. He covers up the hole in

the wall and then shoots a wild pig. He hacks down the cabin door, hacks

the pig to bleed onto the cabin's dirt oor, and makes other preparations so

that it seems robbers came and killed him. Huck goes to the canoe and waits

for the moon to rise, resolving to canoe to Jackson's Island, but falls

asleep. When he wakes he sees Pap row by. Once he has passed, Huck quietly

sets out down river. He pulls into Jackson's Island, careful not to be

seen.

The next morning in Chapter Eight, a boat passes by with Pap, Judge and

Becky Thatcher, Tom Sawyer, his Aunt Polly, some of Huck's young friends,

and "plenty more" on board, all discussing the murder. They shoot cannon

over the water and oat loaves of bread with mercury inside, in hopes of

locating Huck's corpse. Huck, careful not to be seen, catches a loaf and

eats it.

Exploring the island, Huck is delighted to find Jim, who at first

thinks Huck is a ghost. Now Huck won't be lonely anymore. Huck is shocked

when Jim explains he ran away. Jim overheard Miss Watson discussing selling

him for eight hundred dollars, to a slave trader who would take him to New

Orleans. He left before she had a chance to decide. Jim displays a great

knowledge of superstition. He tells Huck how he once "speculated" ten

dollars in (live)stock, but lost most of it when the steer died. He then

lost five dollars in a failed slave start-up bank. He gave his last ten

cents to a slave, who gave it away after a preacher told him that charity

repays itself one-hundred-fold. It didn't. But Jim still has his hairy arms

and chest, a portent of future wealth. He also now owns all eight-hundred-

dollars' worth of himself.

In Chapter Nine, Jim and Huck take the canoe and provisions into the

large cavern in the middle of the island, to have a hiding place in case of

visitors, and to protect their things. Jim predicted it would rain, and

soon it downpours, with the two safely inside the cavern. The river oods

severely.

A washed-out houseboat oats down the river past the island. Jim and

Huck find a man's body inside, shot in the back. Jim prevents Huck from

looking at the face; it's too "ghastly." They make off with some odds and

ends. Huck has Jim hide in the bottom of the canoe so he won't be seen.

They make it back safely to the cave.

In Chapter Ten, Huck wonders about the dead man, though Jim warns it's

bad luck. Sure enough, bad luck comes: as a joke, Huck puts a dead

rattlesnake near Jim's sleeping place, and its mate comes and bites Jim.

Jim's leg swells, but after four days it goes down. A while later, Huck

decides to go ashore and to find out what's new. Jim agrees, but has Huck

disguise himself as a girl, with one of the dresses they took from the

houseboat.

Huck practices his girl impersonation, then sets out for the Illinois

shore. In a formerly abandoned shack, he finds a woman who looks forty, and

also appears a newcomer. Huck is relieved she is a newcomer, since she will

not be able to recognize him.

Chapters 11-13 Summary

The woman eyes Huckleberry somewhat suspiciously as she lets him in.

Huck introduces himself as "Sarah Williams," from Hookerville. The woman

"clatters on," eventually getting to Huck's murder. She reveals that Pap

was suspected and nearly lynched, but people came to suspect Jim, since he

ran away the same day Huck was killed. There is a three- hundred-dollar

price on Jim's head. But soon, suspicions turned again to Pap, after he

blew money the judge gave him to find Jim on drink. But he left town before

he could be lynched, and now there is two hundred dollars on his head. The

woman has noticed smoke over on Jackson's Island, and, suspecting that Jim

might be hiding there, told her husband to look. He will go there tonight

with another man and a gun. The woman looks at Huck suspiciously and asks

his name.

He replies, "Mary Williams." When the woman asks about the change, he

covers himself, saying his full name is "Sarah Mary Williams." She has him

try to kill a rat by pitching a lump of lead at it, and he nearly hits.

Finally, she asks him to reveal his (male) identity, saying she understands

that he is a runaway apprentice and will not turn him in. He says his name

is George Peters, and he was indeed apprenticed to a mean farmer. She lets

him go after quizzing him on farm subjects, to make sure he's telling the

truth. She tells him to send for her, Mrs. Judith Loftus, if he has

trouble. Back at the island, Huck tells Jim they must shove off, and they

hurriedly pack their things and slowly ride out on a raft they had found.

Huck and Jim build a wigwam on the raft in Chapter Twelve. They spend a

number of days drifting down river, passing the great lights of St. Louis

on the fifth night. They "lived pretty high," buying, "borrowing", or

hunting food as they need it. One night they come upon a wreaked steamship.

Over Jim's objections, Huck goes onto the wreck, to loot it and have an

"adventure," the way Tom Sawyer would. On the wreck, Huck overhears two

robbers threatening to kill a third so that he won't "talk."

One of the two manages to convince the other to let their victim be

drowned with the wreck. They leave. Huck finds Jim and says they have to

cut the robbers' boat loose so they can't escape. Jim says that their own

raft has broken loose and oated away. Huck and Jim head for the robbers'

boat in Chapter Thirteen. The robbers put some booty in the boat, but leave

to get some more money off the man on the steamboat. Jim and Huck jump

right into the boat and head off as quietly as possible. A few hundred

yards safely away, Huck feels bad for the robbers left stranded on the

wreck since, who knows, he may end up a robber himself someday. They find

their raft just before they stop for Huck to go ashore for help. Ashore,

Huck finds a ferry watchman, and tells him his family is stranded on the

steamboat wreck. The watchman tell him the wreck is of the Walter Scott.

Huck invents an elaborate story as to how his family got on the wreck,

including the niece of a local big shot among them, so that the man is more

than happy to take his ferry to help. Huck feels good about his good deed,

and thinks Widow Douglas would have been proud of him. Jim and Huck turn

into an island, and sink the robbers' boat before going to bed.

Chapters 14-16 Summary

Jim and Huck find a number of valuables among the robbers' booty in

Chapter Fourteen, mostly trinkets and cigars. Jim says he doesn't enjoy

Huck's "adventures," since they risk his getting caught. Huck recognizes

that Jim is intelligent, at least for what Huck thinks of a black person.

Huck astonishes Jim with his stories of kings. Jim had only heard of King

Solomon, whom he considers a fool for wanting to chop a baby in half. Huck

cannot convince Jim otherwise. Huck also tells Jim about the "dolphin," son

of the executed King Louis XVI of France, rumored to be wandering America.

Jim is incredulous when Huck explains that the French do not speak English,

but another language. Huck tries to argue the point with Jim, but gives up

in defeat.

Huck and Jim are nearing the Ohio River, their goal, in Chapter

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