Chapter I — VII
Huckleberry Finn, on behalf of whom the story is being narrated, got rich and lives with the widow of Douglas. With the help of her sister, the old maid Miss Watson, the widow is doing her best to raise a cultured person out of him. Only the best friend Tom Sawyer rescues Huck from torment, able to come up with a bunch of different funs.
Gradually, Huck gets used to a civilized life, he even begins to like going to school.
It was harder to learn to live in a house and sleep on a bed; only before the onset of cold weather I still sometimes escaped into the wild and slept in the forest, and it was like relaxing.
Widow Douglas is about to adopt a boy. Huck's father, the drunkard Finn, did not appear in St. Petersburg for about a year, everyone believes that he drowned.
One day at breakfast, Huck sprinkles salt. A bad omen comes true - on the same day the boy sees a well-known mark on freshly fallen snow. Shoes, on the sole of which a cross of nails is stuffed, in the town wore only old Finn. Huck immediately rushes to judge Thatcher and gives him all his money so that his father does not drink it.
That same evening, Papa Finn declares himself. He claims the rights to his son and his money and forbids Huck to attend school, not wanting his son to be smarter than him.
Widow Douglas and Judge Thatcher decide to sue Huck from Dad Finn, but the new judge, who is not familiar with the old man, believes that it is not good to take his only son from his father, and he undertakes to re-educate the old drunkard. Nothing comes of this - dad Finn drinks and rowdy.
The judge was very offended. He said that the old man, perhaps, can be fixed with a good bullet from a gun, and he does not see another way.
Huck does not drop school to his father. Finally, the widow of Douglas runs out of patience, she threatens dad Finn with prison. Angry, the old man abducts Huck and locks him in a forest hut.
Huck returns to his former life. Everything suits him, except for frequent daddy binges, during which he chases his son with a knife in his hands. Realizing that someday his father will slaughter him, Huck fakes his own murder, escapes on a shuttle found off the coast of the Mississippi and hides on Jackson Island.
Chapter VIII — XI
Having slept and watching how his body is searched in the river, Huck examines the island and stumbles upon Jim, the Negro of Miss Watson. She decided to sell Jim to the South, and the Negro fled to the northern states to become free, earn money and buy his family back.
Huck finds the cave at the highest point on the island, and he and Jim get along pretty well. Soon a terrible thunderstorm begins with heavy rain, the Mississippi overflows and floods the island, but the water does not reach the cave. Huck and Jim catch in the river the link from the raft with a solid flooring. Then a whole house swims past their island. Huck and Jim search him, find a lot of useful things, money and the corpse of a man to whom the negro does not allow the boy.
So days passed by days, and the river again slept and entered the banks.
Huck decides to visit the city and find out the latest news. Having changed clothes in a woman’s dress, he knocks on a house on the outskirts where people who have recently moved to the town live. An unknown woman tells Huck that at first dad Finn was suspected of his murder, who disappeared nowhere. Now, they consider the runaway Negro Jim to be the killer and look for him throughout the district. The woman noticed smoke over the island and sent her husband there to see if the Negro was hiding there. She quickly realizes that Huck is not a girl, but lets him go, believing in a new lie.
Huck rushes to the island, he and Jim quickly pack up and hit the road.
Chapter XII — XV
Huck and Jim build a hut on a raft and head up the Mississippi north.They sail at night, feeding on the fact that Huck manages to buy or steal in coastal towns.
On the fifth night they fall into a severe thunderstorm. During the course of their demolition on a half-flooded ship, which crashed on a rock. Climbing the ship, Huck witnesses a showdown between bandits who cannot share the stolen gold. One of the bandits wants to convey to his accomplices, and the other two decide to kill the scammer - to tie and leave on a sinking ship.
Huck decides to run away as soon as possible, returns to Jim and discovers that the poorly attached raft has sailed away. Unnoticed by the bandits, Huck and Jim steal their boat with all the good. Bandits remain on a sinking ship.
I thought how scary it was, even for killers, to find themselves in such a hopeless situation. I think: how much to know, maybe I myself will someday be a gangster - I suppose I don’t like this thing either!
Having reached the nearest ferry, Huck sends people to the ship, but they do not find anyone. Huck and Jim are catching up with their raft, and during the day they discover among the good looted by bandits a lot of useful and expensive things.
Chapter XVI — XVIII
Huck and Jim continue on their way to the city of Cairo on the Illinois border, after which slavery-free lands begin. On the way, they get lost in the fog and find each other again. Hucka is tormented by conscience, because he took the black man away from his rightful mistress and helps him become free, but he cannot betray Jim.
It soon turns out that they sailed past Cairo. Without a boat that friends lost, it is impossible to sail upstream, and the raft turns south.
One very dark night, travelers do not have time to miss the steamer coming towards them, and the raft is sinking. Huck loses Jim, gets ashore and stumbles upon a large estate.
Huck invents a new name, history, and remains in the rich house of the Grangerford family. The head of the family, the colonel, his sons and daughters are very noble people. For a long time they have been at enmity with the Shepherdsons - a neighboring aristocratic clan. No one remembers how the feud began, but things went far, Grangerfords and Shepherdson kill dozens of each other.
Huck does not want to interfere in an enmity that does not concern him, but one day, without suspecting it, he hands over the youngest daughter of the colonel, Sophia, a letter from the young Shepherdson.
On the same day, one of the Blackford Blacks leads Huck to the swamp, where the boy meets the missing Jim. Local slaves hid him on a small island in the middle of a swamp. They found the raft and helped Jim fix it.
The next day, Sofia escapes with a blood enemy to marry him. The lovers manage to get away from the chase, and between Grangeford and Shepherdsonomy begins the massacre, as a result of which both genera are destroyed under the root. Huck can only regret that he did not tell the colonel about that damned note.
After waiting for the massacre on the tree, Huck makes his way to the swamp to Jim, and friends again go on a journey.
I was glad radonek to get away from blood feud, and Jim - from the swamp. We said that there is no better home than a raft.
Chapter XIX — XXIII
It takes several days. Friends swim again at night and enjoy life. One day, Huck finds an empty shuttle and crosses ashore to look for berries in the forest. There he meets two men who “didn’t do anything like this, and therefore they chase them with dogs.” Huck saves them and sends them to his raft.
Vagabonds turn out to be hardcore swindlers. One of them, a young man of about thirty, "reveals the secret of his origin" and is called a direct descendant of the Duke of Bridgewater. The second, bald old man of about seventy, does not remain in debt and appears to be the legitimate king of France Louis XVII, the unfortunate son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Huck understands that both are scammers, but he does not want to quarrel with them and Jim does not disobey.
There is nothing worse than quarreling on a raft; the most important thing when you are sailing on a raft is that everyone should be happy, not quarrel and not be angry with each other.
Huck hides the truth about himself and Jim from the scammers and comes up with another legend about a lonely orphan.
Fraudsters join Huck and Jim. Traveling down the Mississippi, they “collect tribute” from coastal towns. The duke teaches the king to play Shakespearean plays, and the king, at every opportunity, acts as a preacher and robs the gullible citizens. To travel freely during the day, scammers give Jim a runaway slave who was caught and taken to the owner. They do not suspect that it is so.
Noting that the performances based on Shakespeare’s plays are not successful, the Duke grinds the king with paints and makes him jump around the stage naked. The presentation is funny, but very short. The public understands that she was fooled, and the next performance comes with full pockets of rotten fruits, rotten eggs and dead cats.
The duke and king have to flee. After that, the naive Jim finally makes sure that all the kings are scammers.
What was the use of telling Jim that he was a fake king and duke? Nothing good could come of this, and besides, it was as I said: they were no different from the real ones.
Huck does not want to upset Jim also because the poor Negro is very homesick for his family, remaining in slavery.
Chapter XXIV — XXIX
In one of the towns, the king is going to introduce himself as a preacher again. He wants to pretend that he arrived from a large city, for which he should get on the ship. Arriving by shuttle to the ship, the king sits down a fellow traveler, from whom he learns that in the town a rich man, Peter Wilks, died. He left all the gold to his English brothers - William and deaf-mute Garvey - whom he had not seen since childhood. The king decides to impersonate Rev. William, and the duke - as Garvey.
Deception succeeds. The deceivers arrive at the town just before the funeral, and everyone sympathizes with them. The game of scammers is not convinced only by a local doctor.
The doctor did not relent and said that a person who pretends to be an Englishman, but cannot speak like an Englishman himself, is just a liar and a scammer.
The three daughters of Wilkes do not want to listen to him and, as a sign of confidence, give the deceivers a bag of six thousand dollars in gold. This is not enough for scammers. They promise to take the "nieces" to England and persuade them to sell the house and slaves.
Huck sympathizes with the kind and gentle girls. He decides to help them, steals gold from scammers and tries to take him out of the house to hide, and then give it to the Wilkes sisters. He does not succeed, and Huck hides the money in a coffin, which is soon boarded up.
Immediately after the funeral, the king begins to sell the property of the sisters. He is not afraid to leave girls without money - when the fraud is revealed, all transactions are declared invalid. Fraudsters discover the loss of gold, but Huck dumps everything on the slaves whom they just sold.
The Wilkes sisters are sorry for the blacks who have already become members of the family. Unable to look at their tears, Huck says to the elder sister Mary-Jane that the blacks will return to them soon. Then Huck has to lay out the rest.
Well, I think it wasn’t: I’ll take it and tell the truth this time, although it’s like sitting on a barrel of gunpowder - and blowing it out of curiosity - where will you fly?
Huck seems to Mary-Jane as an unfortunate victim of scammers and thinks of how to put them in jail, and to rush himself. He sends the girl to friends outside the city, agreeing that in the evening she will return and put a conditional sign on the window - a candle. If Huck doesn't show up after this, Mary Jane will tell the doctor everything. Finally, Huck gives the girl a note that says where the money is hidden.
In the afternoon, scammers begin the auction.They manage to sell everything when the real brothers of the late Wilkes are announced in the town, and then a witness appears who saw the king board the ship. Fraudsters, however, do not want to give up. Then the doctor asks all applicants for the inheritance to describe the tattoo on the deceased’s chest, and then unearth the grave and find out who told the truth.
On the way to the cemetery, Huck regrets that he sent Mary-Jane away from the city, which could save him.
They were digging and digging with frenzy, and in the meantime, fear became dark, the rain poured and the wind raged harder and harder, and lightning flashed more and more, and thunder rumbled.
Huck runs away at the moment when they find a bag of gold in the coffin. He rushes to the raft, and he and Jim quickly set sail. However, they cannot get rid of scammers - they also run away and catch up with the raft on the boat.
Chapter XXX-XXXIII
Having recovered a little, the scammers are taking for the old, but they are not lucky. Then they conspire, divert Huck's attention from the raft and surrender Jim as a runaway slave for a reward. Huck learns that Jim is on the Silas Phelps plantation. The boy again begins to torment remorse, because he "stole a black man from a poor old woman." He even writes a letter to the widow of Douglas, but then tears it: he cannot betray Jim either.
Huck decides to steal Jim from slavery, but in trouble again meets with the Duke. He reports that the king sold Jim and fled without sharing money. The fraudster again begins to push around Huck, but he no longer wants to have business with the duke and goes to the Phelps plantation.
The Phelps cotton plantation was one of those small, seedy plantations that all look alike.
Before Huck had time to enter the yard, he was surrounded by dogs, and the plantation's mistress, Aunt Sally, mistook the boy for her nephew, who was about to arrive. Huck is again in a quandary, but suddenly finds out that the Phelps' nephew is called Tom Sawyer.
Huck is saved, because he knows everything about the family of his best friend. He manages to sneak out of the house, as if behind things, meets with Tom himself and agrees on everything with him. Having arrived at the plantation, Tom pretends to be his elder brother Sid, because aunt Sally has never seen any of them.
That same evening, Tom and Huck flee to the city. On the way, they meet an angry mob that drags the king and duke astride a pole - they tried to give their crown performance in the nearest town.
I was unpleasant to look at it and even felt sorry for the unfortunate crooks; I thought: I will never remember their evil again. It was scary to look right. People are very cruel to each other.
Chapter XXXIV-XLII
Having settled in the aunt’s house, Tom zealously takes up the release of Jim, who is locked in the barn. Huck offers a simple and effective plan, but he does not like Tom. The boy wants everything to be "by the rules." Jim must escape through the digging, after cutting the shackles, he received a rope ladder baked in a pie, scribbled a compassionate inscription on the wall with a spoon and left a diary written on his shirt in the prison. Huck endorses Tom’s plan, but cannot figure out why a boy from a good family helps a runaway black man.
To implement such a complex plan, many things are needed. Strange and mysterious events begin to occur in the house - Uncle Silas' new shirt, sheets, spoons disappear. This scares Aunt Sally and puts her off balance. Along the way, Tom has new ideas, for example, to launch spiders, snakes and rats in Jim's prison, so that he tames them. Jim is very afraid of these creatures and almost does not sleep.
He said that being a prisoner was hard labor, the worst thing was that he still had to do, and he needed to be responsible for everything.
Caught by the boys, the snakes creep around the house, scaring Aunt Sally to death.
Just before the escape, Tom throws up a few threatening letters.Everyone believes that the terrible gang wants to free its accomplice Jim, and neighbors with guns come to the aid of the Phelps. Escape succeeds. Under the whistle of bullets, the fugitives reach the raft, and only there Huck discovers that Tom is wounded.
Huck leads Tom to the doctor, who takes him and Jim home. Tom suffers from severe fever for several days. Having regained consciousness, the boy thinks that Jim is safe, and spreads to Aunt Sally everything about his tricks. Upon learning that Jim is still locked, Tom demands that he be released. The boy reports that Miss Watson died, bequeathing her slave freedom. And Tom Negro freed just for the sake of adventure.
At this time, Aunt Polly arrives, worried about her sister's strange letter, and explains to Aunt Sally who is who.
Last chapter
Jim is freed from the chains, he helps Aunt Sally care for Tom, and the boy gives him forty dollars for his patience. Huck believes that dad Finn drank his money a long time ago, but Jim reports the death of an old drunkard - the Negro saw his body in a house floating around Jackson Island during a flood.
Tom is recovering and planning new adventures. Huck is about to flee to Indian territory, because Aunt Sally wants to adopt him and raise him, and this Huck certainly can not stand it, he tried.
