Tom,
It’s been awhile since my “death” so I thought I should write to ya and tell ya what’s really been going on. Firstly, I finally escaped Pap and hid out on Jackson’s Island. To get away from him was the whole reason I had to fake my death. Anyway, I hadn’t been there long when whatd’ya know, I run into Miss Watson’s slave, Jim (41). But you caint tell nobody about me being with him Tom, otherwise they’ll label me as a damn abolitionist. He told me he was runnin’ away! That he was headin’ for Cairo. I dressed up a a girl and went into town. I met a nice lady and she told me that they was huntin’ fer Jim(57-58).So I hurried and got back to him and we got on our raft. It hadn’t been long when we came upon a steamboat that had crashed. Jim and I decided that we should climb aboard and see what goods we could find. When we got to the side of the boat, we saw these two men and another guy was tied up on the ground! One man had a pistol and kept pointin’ it at the third guy. Jim and I had to be very quiet and we went to find the skiff. Just as I was about to board it, a door on the wreck opened and out came those guys I told you about before. As soon as that door closed again, Jim and I was on the skiff glidin’ down the river silently (71). We were living life on a raft for few days when the fog suddenly got real bad. Jim and I ended up getting separated close to this island’s bank. We ‘whooped’ for each other, but had no luck. Eventually I decided to just take a nap. When I had woke up, I looked around and by god, here comes the raft! That’s when I decide that I’m gonna fool Jim. I made it seem like all of it had been a dream (84). But by the end of it I felt mighty bad ‘bout scaring him, Tom. After I apologized, we drifted down the river more and more thinking we was closer and closer to Cairo. Suddenly a skiff came along and Jim was hidden on our raft while I was in our skiff that we had got from the wreck. There were men on the boat lookin’ for runaway slaves. They wanted to know who was on the raft so I lied and said it was my Pap and he was sick with the small pox (90). After we got away from them, Jim and I learned that we had passed Cairo on the foggy day. So we was gonna have to paddle back up the river until we got back to it. We drifted on the river into the night. It was hard to see and all of a sudden a steamboat came and was heading right for us! Jim and I both flew overboard on either side of the skiff. I had to go deep under the water to make sure I didn’t get hit by that big wheel thing on the back. Eventually I climbed up on the shore, separated from Jim once again and started walking. This is when I met a nice family, the Grangerfords. They took me in and I learned that they had a bad family feud with another family called the Shepardsons. One day a big battle broke out because Miss Sophia Grangerford ran away to marry Harney Shepardson (113). I saw all the Grangerfords get shot and oh, Tom, it was a mighty awful sight. Just the night before a slave that had sent for me led me straight to Jim! So after the fight, I ran to where Jim was and we set back out on the river (116). We met a man who says he’s the Duke of Bilgewater and another man who says he’s the rightful king of France. They’ve helped us come up with new ideas to get money quick and easy. In one town we put on a show. It was dumb really. The king went up on stage naked and was dancin’ around and almost got us all attacked. In the end we did get $465 out of em so I guess I can’t complain (153). Tom, I don’t know what more is waitin’ in the future, but I hope it’s fun. Your Friend, Huck Finn |