CHAPTER SUMMARIES WITH NOTES

CHAPTER 13: Honest Loot From Walter Scott

Summary

Huck and Jim are stuck on the grounded steamboat since their raft has been swept away. Huck is scared and tells Jim that they must find the menÂ’s boat and leave in it themselves without wasting any time. Just as they are about to get into the skiff, one of the men comes out. Huck and Jim are able to escape because two of the men realize that their partner still has with him a share of the loot, and they want to retrieve it. After they have traveled a little distance, Huck decides to go ashore at the first village and guide the authorities to the wreck so that they can catch the three men; however, he is prevented from doing so by the heavy rain. Instead, he and Jim continue to float down the river. Fortunately, they soon recover their lost raft, which Jim boards. Huck continues in the skiff.

When Huck sees some lights twinkling in the distance, he tells Jim that he is going ashore to tell the people about the wreck. He starts rowing towards the lights and soon realizes it is a ferryboat. He wakes up the sleeping watchman of the boat and makes up a story that his mother, father, and a rich lady are stuck on the wreck. He convinces him to go abroad and rescue the stranded people.

In a few minutes, the remains of the steamboat come floating by Huck. He calls out to see if anyone is still on board and alive. Hearing nothing, he paddles away to catch up with Jim. Since it is almost morning, they go ashore to sleep.

Notes

Huck shows his basic kindness in this chapter. He wants to notify the authorities quickly about the wreck, in hopes of saving Jim Turner from being murdered by the other two scoundrels. When he boards the ferryboat, he makes up a tale to insure that the watchman will go in search of the wrecked steamboat and find the three men before they all die. Even though Jim, Jake, and Bill are all scoundrels, Huck has sympathy for them being stranded on the boat. When he sees the remains of the wreck float by, he paddles around it and calls out to anyone still on board; he wants to make sure than no one still alive is trapped inside. He truly shows that he values all of humanity, in spite of their social class; this is the trait that allows Huck to totally accept Jim as his friend later in the novel.

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