ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN

(Tom Sawyer's Comrade)

By Mark Twain

CONTENTS

Chapter I. Civilizing Huck—Miss Watson—Tom Sawyer Waits.

Chapter II. The Boys Escape Jim—Tom Sawyer's Gang—Deep-laid Plans.

Chapter III. A Good Going-over—Grace Triumphant—"One of Tom Sawyer's Lies."

Chapter IV. Huck and the Judge—Superstition.

Chapter V. Huck's Father—The Fond Parent—Reform.

Chapter VI. He Went for Judge Thatcher—Huck Decides to Leave—Political Economy—Thrashing Around.

Chapter VII. Laying for Him—Locked in the Cabin—Sinking the Body—Resting.

Chapter VIII. Sleeping in the Woods—Raising the Dead—Exploring the Island—Finding Jim—Jim's Escape—Signs—Balum.

Chapter IX. The Cave—The Floating House.

Chapter X. The Find—Old Hank Bunker—In Disguise.

Chapter XI. Huck and the Woman—The Search—Prevarication—Going to Goshen.

Chapter XII. Slow Navigation—Borrowing Things—Boarding the Wreck—The Plotters—Hunting for the Boat.

Chapter XIII. Escaping from the Wreck—The Watchman—Sinking.

Chapter XIV. A General Good Time—The Harem—French.

Chapter XV. Huck Loses the Raft—In the Fog—Huck Finds the Raft—Trash.

Chapter XVI. Expectation—A White Lie—Floating Currency—Running by Cairo—Swimming Ashore.

Chapter XVII. An Evening Call—The Farm in Arkansas—Interior Decorations—Stephen Dowling Bots—Poetical Effusions.

Chapter XVIII. Col. Grangerford—Aristocracy—Feuds—The Testament—Recovering the Raft—The Wood-pile—Pork and Cabbage.

Chapter XIX. Tying Up Daytimes—An Astronomical Theory—Running a Temperance Revival—The Duke of Bridgewater—The Troubles of Royalty.

Chapter XX. Huck Explains—Laying Out a Campaign—Working the Camp-meeting—A Pirate at the Camp-meeting—The Duke as a Printer.

Chapter XXI. Sword Exercise—Hamlet's Soliloquy—They Loafed Around Town—A Lazy Town—Old Boggs—Dead.

Chapter XXII. Sherburn—Attending the Circus—Intoxication in the Ring—The Thrilling Tragedy.

Chapter XXIII. Sold—Royal Comparisons—Jim Gets Homesick.

Chapter XXIV. Jim in Royal Robes—They Take a Passenger—Getting Information—Family Grief.

Chapter XXV. Is It Them?—Singing the "Doxology"—A Very Formal Funeral—A Bad Investment.

Chapter XXVI. A Pious King—The King's Clergy—She Asked His Pardon—Hiding in the Room—Huck Takes the Money.

Chapter XXVII. The Funeral—Satisfying Curiosity—Suspicious of Huck—Quick Sales and Small.

Chapter XXVIII. The Trip to England—"The Brute!"—Mary Jane Decides to Leave—Huck Parting with Mary Jane—Mumps—The Opposition Line.

Chapter XXIX. Contested Relationship—The King Explains the Loss—A Question of Handwriting—Digging Up the Corpse—Huck Escapes.

Chapter XXX. The King Went for Him—A Royal Row—Powerfully Drunk.

Chapter XXXI. Ominous Plans—News from Jim—Old Recollections—A Sheep Story—Valuable Information.

Chapter XXXII. Still and Sunday-like—Mistaken Identity—Up a Stump—In a Dilemma.

Chapter XXXIII. A Slave Stealer—Southern Hospitality—A Pretty Long Blessing—Tar and Feathers.

Chapter XXXIV. The Hut by the Ash Hopper—Outrageous—Climbing the Lightning Rod—Troubled with Witches.

Chapter XXXV. Escaping Properly—Dark Schemes—Discrimination in Stealing—A Deep Hole.

Chapter XXXVI. The Lightning Rod—His Level Best—A Bequest to Posterity—A High Figure.

Chapter XXXVII. The Last Shirt—Mooning Around—Sailing Orders—The Witch Pie.

Chapter XXXVIII. The Coat of Arms—A Skilled Superintendent—Unpleasant Glory—A Tearful Subject.

Chapter XXXIX. Rats—Lively Bedfellows—The Straw Dummy.

Chapter XL. Fishing—The Vigilance Committee—A Lively Run—Jim Advises a Doctor.

Chapter XLI. The Doctor—Uncle Silas—Sister Hotchkiss—Aunt Sally in Trouble.

Chapter XLII. Tom Sawyer Wounded—The Doctor's Story—Tom Confesses—Aunt Polly Arrives—Hand Out Them Letters.

Chapter the Last. Out of Bondage—Paying the Captive—Yours Truly, Huck Finn.

ILLUSTRATIONS

(A long list of illustration captions follows in the original, matching scenes from each chapter — for example: The Widow, Moses and the "Bulrushers," Miss Watson, Huck Stealing Away, Tom Sawyer's Band of Robbers, Jim and the Snake, The Wreck, The Death of Boggs, Aunt Sally in Trouble, and dozens more, each naming a moment pictured in the book.)

NOTICE

Anyone who tries to find a motive—a hidden reason or purpose—in this story will be prosecuted. Anyone who tries to find a moral—a lesson it's supposed to teach—will be banished. Anyone who tries to find a plot in it will be shot.

BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR
PER G. G., CHIEF OF ORDNANCE

EXPLANATORY

This book uses several different dialects, meaning distinct regional and social varieties of English speech: the Missouri Black dialect; the most extreme form of backwoods Southwestern speech; the ordinary "Pike County" dialect (a rough rural Missouri way of talking); and four milder variations of that last one. These differences in speech were not thrown in carelessly or guessed at. They were worked out carefully, based on real, firsthand knowledge of how people in these regions actually talked.

I explain this so that readers won't assume all the characters are simply trying to sound the same and failing.

THE AUTHOR

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HUCKLEBERRY FINN

Scene: The Mississippi Valley. Time: Forty to fifty years ago.

CHAPTER I

You won't know who I am unless you've read a book called The Adventures of Tom Sawyer — but that doesn't really matter. That book was written by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth in it, for the most part. There were parts he stretched, but mostly he told the truth. That's nothing unusual. I've never known anybody who didn't lie once in a while, except maybe Aunt Polly, or the widow, or Mary. Aunt Polly — that's Tom's aunt — and Mary, and the Widow Douglas are all in that earlier book, which is mostly true, with some exaggerations, like I said.

Here's how that book ends: Tom and I found the money some robbers had hidden in a cave, and it made us rich. We got six thousand dollars apiece, all in gold. It was an amazing sight, piled up like that. Judge Thatcher took the money and invested it, so it earned us a dollar a day apiece, all year round — more than anyone would know what to do with. The Widow Douglas took me in as her adopted son and set out to "civilize" me. But it was hard living in her house all the time, given how strict and proper she was in everything. So when I couldn't take it anymore, I ran off. I put my old rags back on, climbed back into my old sugar barrel, which I used for a bed, and felt free and satisfied again. But Tom Sawyer tracked me down and said he was starting a gang of robbers, and I could join if I went back to the widow and behaved myself. So I went back.

The widow cried over me and called me a poor lost lamb, along with a bunch of other names — but she never meant any harm by it. She put me back in those new clothes, and all I could do was sweat and feel completely cramped up. Then the same old routine started again. The widow rang a bell for supper, and you had to show up on time. Once you got to the table, you couldn't just dig in — you had to wait while she bowed her head and murmured something about being thankful for the food, even though there was nothing really wrong with it, except that everything was cooked separately. When you cook things together in a mixed pot, the flavors blend and things taste better. Cooked separately, it's just not the same.

After supper, she brought out her Bible and taught me about Moses and the bulrushers — the story of baby Moses hidden among the reeds by a river. I was eager to learn more about him, but eventually she let it slip that he'd been dead a long time. After that I lost interest, because I don't care much about people who are already dead.

Before long I wanted to smoke, and I asked the widow if I could. She said no — she said it was a filthy habit and I ought to give it up. That's how some people are: they get worked up over things they don't understand at all. Here she was, worrying about Moses, a man she had no connection to and who couldn't do anybody any good since he was long gone, yet she made a huge fuss over something of mine that actually did me some good. And she took snuff herself — but of course that was fine, since she was the one doing it.

Her sister, Miss Watson, a rather