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Huck falls asleep, to be awakened by
his father 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 floor, 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 a
boat passes by with Pap, Judge and Becky Thatcher, Tom Sawyer,
his Aunt Polly and some of Huck's young friends, all discussing
the murder. They shoot a cannon over the water and float 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
that 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 feels he still has his hairy arms and chest, a portent of future wealth. He also now owns all eight hundred dollars' worth
of himself. |
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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 pours, with the two safely inside the cavern. The river floods severely. A washed-out
houseboat floats 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 horrid. 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.
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. The woman eyes Huckleberry somewhat suspiciously as she lets him in. Huck
introduces himself as Sarah Williams, from Hookerville. The woman chatters on eventually getting to Huck's murder. She reveals that Pap was suspected
and nearly hung, but people came to suspect Jim, since he ran away on 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
found 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 up for 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 true 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 leave 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. They spend a number of days drifting down river, passing the great lights of St. Louis on the fifth
night. One night they come upon a wreaked steamship. Over Jim's objections, Huck goes onto the wreck, to loot it. 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 raft has broken loose and floated
away.
Huck and Jim head for the robbers' boat .The robbers put some loot 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
and tell him the name of the wreck is 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.
Jim and Huck find a number of valuables among the robbers' booty, mostly
trinkets and cigars. Huck astonishes Jim with his stories of kings. Huck and Jim are nearing the Ohio River, which is their goal. But one densely foggy
night, Huck, in the canoe, gets separated from Jim and the raft. He tries to paddle back to it, but the fog is so thick he loses all sense of direction.
After a lonely time adrift, Huck is reunited with Jim, who is asleep on the raft. Jim is thrilled to see Huck alive. But Huck tries to trick Jim,
pretending he dreamed their entire separation. But soon Jim notices all the debris, dirt and tree branches, which had collected on the raft while it
was adrift. He gets mad at Huck for making a fool of him after he had worried about him so much. Huck
apologizes
and feels bad for having tried to
trick him.
Jim and Huck hope they don't miss Cairo, the town at the mouth of the Ohio River, which runs into the free states. Meanwhile, Huck's conscience
troubles him deeply about helping Jim escape from his rightful owner, Miss Watson, especially after her consideration for Huck. Jim can't stop talking
about going to the free states, especially about his plan to earn money to buy his wife and children's freedom. When they think they see Cairo, Jim
goes out on the canoe to check, secretly resolved to give Jim up. But his heart softens when he hears Jim call out that he is his only friend, the
only one to keep a promise to him. Huck comes upon some men in a boat who want to search his raft for escaped slaves. Huck pretends to be grateful,
saying no one else would help them. He leads them to believe his family, on board the raft, has smallpox. The men back away, telling Huck to go further
downstream and lie about his family's condition to get help. They leave forty dollars in gold out of pity. Huck feels bad for having done wrong by
not giving Jim up. But he realizes that he would have felt just as bad if he had given Jim up. Since good and bad seem to have the same results, Huck resolves to disregard morality in the future and do what's the most
convenient. Floating along, they pass several towns that are not Cairo, and worry that they passed it in the fog. They stop for the night, and resolve
to take the canoe upriver, but in the morning it is gone, further bad luck from the rattlesnake. Later, a steamboat drives right into the raft,
breaking it apart. Jim and Huck dive off in time, but are separated. Huck makes it ashore, but is caught by a pack of dogs.
Click here for part 3 of the summary
of Huckleberry Finn |
